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

[StrangePuppet]

Why is it so hard for you people to add a fucking basic summary to these things? What is this about? What's happening and why? Have you ever read a real book in your life? All these and more... never!

 

[Quenster06]

Why is it so hard for you people to add a fucking basic summary to these things? What is this about? What's happening and why? Have you ever read a real book in your life? All these and more... never!

Click to shrink...

I mean, it's not like this is the full book. It's more like a public draft to stir up interest. You're really expecting a lot for something that's published for free.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We ended up back in Common City before too long. We didn't run all the way there, obviously, but we did hurry back because we had some research to do. As soon as we were somewhere private (we ended up having the meeting in my Domain, in the meeting chamber behind my throne room), I called Dantalion out, along with Wisdom of Solomon, and even Nine Phoenix himself, and consulted them about the feasibility of Callie's idea.

I was pretty sure it would work, to be honest, but then, I didn't have the theoretical foundation that Dan did. Even during our incarnations, I was only absorbing relevant memories when they came up. Dan was constantly intaking so much information that a full download every time I incarnated him would have gridlocked my brain every time I'd tried. He knew everything I knew, and plenty more, and he was the first person to ask about a project like this.

Of course, I DID have some ideas, especially given my research, but I wanted a second opinion, and sure enough, he gave it to me directly. "It might work," he agreed after a moment's conferral with the other two. "In fact, I believe it can. But there's a problem, and I think you know what it is."

I sighed. "Structure," I said grimly. "Brad's technique isn't designed to function as a full support. This would be a comprehensive upgrade for Genesis Burst. I take it you came up with the same solution as I did?"

"You need to use Mythcrafting build a support structure," he confirmed. "Something that has an opening where you can slot the device. Brad can open pits in anything, and if you leave a space for it to occupy, it should allow the timepiece to act as a foundation. Personally, I would advise putting it off until a later date, once you have more practice."

"No," I said immediately, voice firm. "No waiting. It needs to happen now. I can just…feel it. It's important."

Callie perked up. "Important as in 'I'm paranoid my wife will lose her ugly new shield' important or 'tomorrow afternoon we're all going to be on fire' important. Because one of those is going to pull a thread." Her tone was joking, but I could tell through the bond she wasn't happy with what she was feeling from me.

I just shrugged. "No idea. Just…important."

"Why did you have to be a Fatewalker," she moaned. "Why couldn't you have been a 'detailed hand written manual-walker' or a 'good news about cake-walker'?"

"Aesthetics, probably," I grinned. "But I'll pass the suggestions along to the DS developers if I ever end up meeting them. Anyway, I can come up with something for a timepiece, I have the experience. I'll need to study the lantern shield after you invert it. Are you sure it won't like…hurt you to have it permanently removed?"

She waved me off. "It's fine. I've been working on my Domain a ton. I can remove things permanently under certain conditions. The only real drawback is that the lantern shield itself won't be able to leave the vault. In order for the inversion to remain permanently active I need to sacrifice the original. It's called Enshrinement, and it's a new trick I've been working on. I was going to surprise you with the ability to make powerful permanent items we could sell."

"That's amazing," I told her, my voice filled with awe. "Your vault has so much potential already, but permanently making inversions is…that's a game changer."

No wonder she'd been putting so much work finding new artifacts to test out. Crafting wasn't so easy that just anyone could do it, and the canyon made it clear that it was apparently a lot easier to make things that cause harm than things that help. With access to the local supply of cursed items and the ability to make permanent stuff, Callie could potentially supply our whole faction with high quality, powerful gear.

Honestly, I had kind of taken for granted how overpowered my Domain was, and that was still true, but this kind of proved that I shouldn't underestimate the Domains of other powerful people my age. Not just Callie, the midterms had shown that Domains could have strange and complicated effects that surpassed my expectations.

"Alright," she said excitedly. "So, we're really doing this. Creating a new phoenix template. I love this kind of stuff. Speaking of love, what should we call this stuff? The opposite of Hatefire is…what, Lovefire?"

"We're NOT calling it that," I said firmly. "I'm not telling people that I'm a love phoenix. Besides, Hatefire is just a catchy name Harper used. It's more resentment than hate, remember. We're supposed to be pacifying them. That's why I picked Genesis Burst. It's a healing flame for souls. I'm imagining us helping the Void Children pass on, releasing them from their suffering. So how about something like…Peaceflame."

She reached out and took my hand, smiling at me softly. "I like that," she said in a warm voice. "I like that a lot. And I like that you think of it that way even more. This is a special template. I'm glad we're not making it with animus in mind. That feels right."

I squeezed back. "This is like Life Nova," I assured her. "Its purpose is healing. It's just a different kind of patient."

"Actually," she said slowly. "Maybe we can fine tune it with a bit of tweaking. How do you feel about some test subjects? Remember we wanted to try to help Bethy's siblings? Their behavior certainly sounds a lot like the resentment Harper told us about. In fact, some people consider Vampirism a curse. I bet your Peaceflame could purify their bloodlines."

"Huh," I said as I thought it through. "Maybe some of us will be on fire tomorrow afternoon. Though probably not that soon. But yeah, if that works…we could help Bethy. Fully help her. Purify all the malice from both bloodlines maybe. Or at the very least purify the bloodlust from the vampire." The more I hashed it out in my head, the more excited I got. Bethy had been asking for help for so long, and I'd been working in stages, but it was easy to get wrapped up in my own stuff, and she was always so good at keeping things bottled up."

Callie brought my hand up to her lips and kissed it with an adoring smile. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled. But are you sure you can do it?"

"Bethy is still peak C-rank," I informed her excitedly. "With the Pillar, I can bump myself up to A-rank. Her bloodline is strong, but direct exposure to a specialized purification phoenix that's two ranks higher? If it's feasible on her siblings, I can make it work. In fact, I can alter my timepiece design to MAKE it more feasible. I'll need to talk to Professor Hawkins about this. Lucky we got those contribution points. Harper said you can use those to commission research projects."

Professor Hawkins had been planning to continue my education, but not the same way he had when he'd been working with me on our project. That was actual interference, and I got the impression he hadn't really been SUPPOSED to do it, and had used my interesting concept as an excuse to help.

Now though, he had no excuse. The contribution points would provide a way for me to pay him, and for him to help more directly with my development like he had before. I was hoping with his help, we'd be able to create something that could help not only the Void Children, but my friend and her siblings too. I knew Lark was worried enough about them to pawn them off on us, which said some fairly alarming things about their states of mind given the kind of things he did casually.

She nodded excitedly. "I might approach one of the crafting professors if I can find and in. I bet they would have some amazing ideas for how to apply my Domain, and I can't imagine it's a common mechanism. I bet a crafter would be fascinated to study how it works. Or deeply offended that I'm essentially phoning in their whole profession…maybe I shouldn't talk to a professor."

I waved her off. "I get the impression most people kind of count Domain stuff as part of your bag of tricks. You're a crafter now, they'll consider you one. Also, realistically, no matter how cheap your ability is, it has limits. I doubt you're a threat to literal crafting gods, much less a whole faculty of them. Like there's only so much one person can damage the market, especially if you can only do one for one swaps with permanent items." I could see her point, but it didn't seem likely that her power was going to seriously disturb the crafting ecosystem here of all places.

She coughed in embarrassment. "Oh. Right. Guess I got a bit carried away thinking about how cool my new power is."

"Nah, I get that," I assured her energetically. "My new Arch-Demon form is fantastic. There's something so fun about iterating and working on new applications for your abilities. Honestly, I've been feeling a bit aimless since I completed my Domain. The thrill of discovery is something I always loved. Hence the whole…seventy two demons thing."

She snorted. "I've been deceived. You're supposed to be a big reckless meathead. Turns out I married a huge nerd. Oh the humanity."

"Hey, watch it," I said dramatically. "You're going to ruin my reputation." Pulling my mask up, I leaned down to give her a peck on the lips. "And I love you too. Fellow nerd. Don't worry. It'll be our secret. Just between you and me. And me. And me. And a fourth version of me." I shot a glance at my demons. "Keep this one in the box, boys."

"Wasn't listening, don't care," Dan called as he looked over his shoulder briefly and returned to his powwow.

I shook my head despairingly. "No respect," I whined. "I remember when he used to call me 'my lord' all the time. I've clearly been spending far too much time with him working on my research. The shine is off the apple."

Of course, Dan was ALWAYS respectful. He was teasing, something he DID only get comfortable enough to do once we'd worked together for a while.

Callie just nodded. "I too have trouble maintaining respect for you after prolonged exposure. You're best enjoyed in short bursts. Like a puppy." She winked, blowing me a kiss as she hopped out of her chair. "Whoops gotta go love you, bye!" She vanished in a burst of blue black flames.

I rolled my eyes fondly. She could travel to her Domain from mine through the Angelic bond, though she only used like that it when she was being playful.

Chuckling, I turned to Dan. "So, any notes?" I asked my information demon. "I know you WERE listening. I was always planning to ask for your feedback. I think the Professor should be able to help, even if this isn't his exact field of study."

"Outside his bailiwick as this may be," Dan said wryly. "The man is a god, and an experienced Mythcrafter. He should be more than up to the task of aiding us, even in such an obscure endeavor. Though the involvement of the lantern shield does worry me a bit. Even if it has degraded, are we really sure putting such a thing into a timepiece is wise?"

"I considered that," I admitted. "But since Callie is making the copy, it won't be the original. No chance of a freak recovery because the inversion won't be a degraded ancient artifact, just a normal one she made."

He hummed in acknowledgement. "Well then, I suppose I have no further concerns. I take it you plan to approach him soon?"

I nodded solemnly. "Yup. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll try to start this research project. Like I said, I have the feeling this needs to happen soon." I had no idea why, but my instincts were screaming at me that getting this done was important. I was happy to work on the project, I just really wished I could do it without the knot in my stomach. I had a feeling my instinctive drive to hurry meant nothing good.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"I can't help you with that," my teacher told me bluntly after I explained my problem to him. I froze. I hadn't expected that. I'd figured he would be excited by the challenge, especially with the contribution points to smooth things over.

"If this is about payment," I started, scrounging for an alternative. Did I have anything else the professor wanted? I was a decent Mythcrafter by this point, and getting better by the day, but I didn't have the theoretical foundation to manage something this complicated. The interaction between the two Domains, the ancient drained artifact, and the Nine Phoenix Template needed to be machined to a nearly infinitesimal precision. I had zero hope of doing it alone.

He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't mean I WON'T help you, kid. I mean I CAN'T. Your proposal is fascinating, don't get me wrong. But it's got no theoretical grounding. I wouldn't even know where to start. Your demon's unique attribute, the inverted object, the anchoring mechanism, not to mention the unique nature of the totem you're attempting to make. It's like trying to stitch together a masterwork painting from scraps of other canvases. It's MUCH harder than painting it yourself."

"So…it's not possible," I said, slumping back onto the couch. "If you can't do it…"

"I didn't say that," he snapped. "There's just too many variables. Hell, I could probably manage if I had a bit of experience with even half those factors. Though I'm guessing you don't have and drained remnants of ancient deities perfectly attuned to phoenixes lying around for me to experiment with."

I froze. Because…I did have one of those. In fact, I hadn't really found a USE for it since I had finished using it to craft my Cosmic Phoenix bloodline. "Would something like a sword made from a phoenix feather formerly imbued with hostile worldforce that I cleansed work?"

He turned to stare at me. "Explain," he said slowly.

So I did. I told him about Drexel, about cleansing the feather with Atlas's ritual, about using the Cosmic Phoenix flame to create a template and then refine my bloodline, and how I still had it just kind of…lying around.

Because of the suppression in the chasm for who knew how long, mixed with the purification, the Cosmic Phoenix feather sword was about peak C-rank or low B-rank at this point. It used to be much more powerful, but a large portion of that power had been worldforce I'd wiped out, and it hadn't been able to recover more than a bit of its former strength.

"What is your life?" he complained. "I'm a literal god and I don't run into so many good things. A Cosmic Phoenix feather? One that perfectly complements your body tempering technique? Do you know how RARE those are? People LITERALLY compare rare things to phoenix feathers as a godsdamned idiom!"

I shrugged. "I mean, there are a lot of universes out there, I'm sure they're not that rare."

"And you think ALL universes have spatial phoenixes as their creation event?" he asked dryly. "Kid, you literally have a Domain. You know that gods evolve them into realms, which can evolve into planes. How many gods do you know whose Domain is founded on something like phoenix fire? And how many of those do you think make it to Overgod or Worldgod? Beyond that, phoenixes are adaptive. A space attribute phoenix needs to be exposed to an extremely overbearing spatial terrain, and those aren't common in almost ANY universe."

I thought about the chasm, but I realized by now that my universe wasn't exactly standard. It wasn't some super special unique snowflake world, but there were quite a few rarities tucked under the hood of my little corner of the sky.

Deciding it would be faster, I just withdrew the feather, setting it down on the table with a clank. The item was still in the shape of a sword, having been forged into that form by Drexel presumably. I didn't really use those, and I'd been considering giving it to Callie to see what the Vault might do to it, but this seemed like a more urgent use, sadly.

He reached down, picking it up gingerly. "And you said you already have a matching template and bloodline?"

"Yeah, I deduced it myself," I said proudly. "You think that'll help?"

"I do," he said with a thoughtful nod. "I can use it to map the interaction between the artifact, your bloodline, and the timepiece. It should allow me to model a projected design outcome for the new template. You'll need to curate it carefully to make sure it fits the mechanism. We need to ensure that object, timepiece, and template are all perfectly aligned. Especially if you plant to build in an anchor point for other mechanisms like last time."

Grinning sheepishly, I shrugged. "I mean…I kind of was. I'd have three of them now. Or at least, Life Nova basically counts. I might need to anchor the template there when I design my timepiece for that one. But that leaves me with a need for a matching demon to use as a baseline. Mephistopheles fit the ruin phoenix well enough for us to brute force it, but this seems like it'll be more delicate."

"Your Waltz should do," he said with a shrug. "It has flame and space attributes. That should be plenty to work from." He nodded as if he was solidifying his idea. "Yes. With a stable template to reverse engineer, a similar object to map the trajectories, and a trial run with all the necessary attributes, I believe I can come up with something."

"Will the one hundred contribution points be enough?" I asked worriedly. "Wouldn't this be two research projects?"

He waved his hand dismissively. "Prototyping is a part of development. Upgrading your Waltz should be within bounds, considering we won't need to apply for too many materials for the work. Not NONE, mind you, but the ones I need will be reusable. I suspect a quantum state multiplier would be helpful here. Temporal resonance stabilizers for the chronoflow inducers…" he trailed off, clearly noting my blank look even through my mask.

"There are tools that can aid in Mythcrafting," he said dryly. "Shortcuts and analysis devices that can streamline the creation process. I didn't apply for any of them last time, because quite frankly your other projects didn't warrant the expense. Contribution points don't go on trees. But with an actual project budget, we can afford to be a bit extravagant, and especially if we're planning to complete two such fascinating constructions before the finals, we will most likely need it. You DO want them done by the finals, I assume?"

I consulted my instincts, knowing they wouldn't steer me wrong. "Yes," I said after a brief consideration. "By the finals is important."

He wrinkled his nose. "Must you rely on base instinctive divination in my presence? You could at least pretend to think critically. Allegra is a terrible influence. But no matter. You've stated the projected timeline, and we shall simply soldier on." He picked up the feather sword. "I assume you won't mind me holding onto this? I need to take some readings. I'll also need to examine YOU to establish baseline parameters related to your cosmic bloodline."

I nodded dazedly, but in my head, I was already all but blazing with excitement. Mephisto's Waltz was one of my earlier creations, but its use had somewhat waned over time. It was based on one of my mother's techniques, actually, and had been the first one I'd created when she explained technique creation to me years ago.

Sadly, over time, I had sort of left it in the dust. Teleportation through flame became more difficult as I arrived in more weighty places with higher Impact. The Waltz used Mephistopheles's destructive flames to essentially destroy the space between the start and end of my movement. It was powerful, but also inelegant, and it got harder the further I went.

But this…this could be a game changer. The Cosmic Phoenix bloodline was one of my most powerful and mysterious. It had strange interactions with space that even the Dean considered interesting. Imagining what a….a Cosmic Waltz would be capable of left me almost shivering with anticipation. Not to mention possible combinations with my other phoenix template demons, because this would mark several of them.

Professor Hawkins was looking at me with an amused smirk, but he didn't make any comments about my obvious enthusiasm. I supposed he was used to seeing this from students. "Sure," I told him as I passed the blade over. "I'll leave it with you tonight and head back over tomorrow for the testing. How do I transfer you the contribution points?"

"You don't," he said bluntly. "You're not a postgraduate student or a faculty member. You can't HAVE contribution points. Dean Harper will be holding them in trust, and I'll contact him to retrieve them. It's functionally the same process as you transferring them yourself, but there's no real mechanism for students to accrue contribution points. The instances of it happening are rare enough we've never seen the need to formalize it, and when it does the student in question mostly redeems them on the project in question."

I shrugged. "Fair enough, I trust you to make it happen."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "I suspect you don't realize the value of what you've offered, or you wouldn't be quite so cavalier. But in this case your trust is not misplaced. In fact, allowing me to fund the project will have benefits. My faculty access is far greater than most. If you had to put a title on it, you would probably call me an advanced professor. I get preferential deals on certain project assets and have access to locations and devices other faculty do not. Ones you would be unable to avail yourself of had you a way to directly fund this project."

"Well, I appreciate it," I told him respectfully. "I appreciate all the help you've given me."

"It is in my own best interest," he shrugged dismissively. "You present several unique research opportunities. Assisting you is simply the most efficient way to gain further access to those potential benefits in a timely manner."

"Timely manner," I said with a chuckle. "Was that a joke?"

He glowered at me. "It was not. I do not make puns. They're the lowest form of humor. Regardless, you may leave. I have an artifact to study and preliminary plans to make. My designs will no doubt require revision once we've completed the tests, but having a baseline will help me prioritize the most necessary tests and minimize waste. We only have so many contribution points to spend, and two iterations to complete with them. Best to maximize resources."

He's already seen my process up close, so he had more than enough knowledge of how my designs worked to begin the process on his own. I nodded gratefully and turned to leave, ready to head off and tell Callie the project was go.

"Oh, and make sure to bring your wife with you for the testing," he said lazily without looking up. "I'll sign off on an entrance pass. If she's going to be constructing the anchor material for the second iteration, I'll need to analyze her ability and how it works on similar objects. It would behoove us to start the process early."

Huh, apparently I was going to get to see the inversion of the feather after all. I couldn't wait to see what that ended up being. Maybe Callie could use it for her research while she still had access. It should be an interesting application of space, and might help her draw the attention of some of her department's professors. I couldn't wait to tell her all about this. My next few months were going to be both busy and exciting.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day, Callie arrived early in the morning. I was beaming as I met her at the platform with a cup of coffee. After stocking up on my scrolls, we headed for the address Professor Hawkins had given me, both excited about the experiments to come.

"I can't believe I didn't even THINK of inverting the feather!" Callie gushed as we hurried down the street. "It's PERFECT. I can't wait to see what we end up with. I could learn so MUCH. The cosmic phoenix flame was instrumental in creating my Domain, and I just know that learning its inverse will help me take a step forward in my application of the Adherent Fire!"

I had to stifle a laugh at her enthusiasm. She'd been in mid search for an advisor to work with her on the Vault when I'd contacted her, and she was more than happy to put that search on hold to come do some research with my mentor. The two of them had never met, but she'd heard a ton about Professor Hawkins from me, and she was excited to see the real thing. Not to mention she was, despite her namecalling, as much of a nerd as I was about these things.

We arrived at the spot in question pretty early on, but I was more than a little surprised to see a familiar face waiting for us. "Elonwy?" I asked in surprise.

My friend turned to arch an eyebrow at me. "What? You thought I was growing out of the back of that counter or something? I CAN leave the exchange. And no way in hell was I going to miss a new research project. Your little independent study with Prof Hawkins was one thing, but this is a real funded project. The amount I can learn from this is immeasurable. Plus I might be able to sneak a few turns on the equipment when the Prof is busy with your tests."

"And the truth comes out," I said dramatically, raising the back of my wrist to my forehead. "Our friendship was a lie. You were just using me to farm benefits."

"Obviously," she said haughtily. "Dance for my contribution points, monkey."

I snorted at her. "Are we talking animals now?" I asked her snarkily, putting a hand over mine like I was pulling away a cloth and revealing my middle finger. "Look, a bird."

"Shane, do not openly mock S-rankers," my wife said tiredly. Elonwyn grinned smugly at me…until Callie continued. "You should be more subtle about it. They can't do anything to you if they don't have proof. And sometimes they don't even notice."

Elonwy let out a snort of laughter. "Oh I LIKE her. Now come along, children. We have a lot of ground to cover, and not much time. We'll be taking my car. It's parked right over here."

I blinked. I hadn't really SEEN any cars around here, and had just kind of assumed that parallel development had led them to take their transportation in a different way. Instead, she led us around the corner to…well…a car. It was an old looking beast too. Big heavy wheels in the back and a pair of fins coming off the body. The paint was a sort of shifting hue of winter colors, starting at the hood in matte black and then flowing through that to blue, then green, then purple at the tips.

"Get in," Elonwy said as she popped open the drivers side. I grimaced as a small tidal wave of papers flowed out from the seat, and she quickly shoveled them back inside with an embarrassed cough. "Watch my research," she said apologetically.

We did our best, but the whole car was buried in almost an avalanche of what appeared to be scrap paper with ideas written all over it. I picked up a few of them, and some of the ideas weren't even related to time. "Orange parka fashion statement?" I read aloud. "Blue snakes are sneakier. Invest in wombats."

"Shit, I forgot about that," Elonwy said with a wince. "Car, remind me to call my broker," she announced loudly.

Callie reached down to pick up another torn scrap with a message written across it. "Remember to install voice activation system in car," she read aloud, before flipping it over. "Remember to buy voice activation system, and pay extra for installation at purchase."

Elonwy's eyes widened. "Is that where that went? I thought I put that one in the visor. Wait, what DID I put in the visor then?" She reached up and opened it, drawing out yet another scrap of paper. This one was covered in huge bright red letters that red "DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR IN THE BASEMENT!" She paused, reading over it worriedly. "I…do not remember writing this. I DO remember leaving that door open when I left home this morning. That's concerning." She stared for a second then shrugged. "Oh well, I'll deal with that later."

"That seems like it might be important," I said weakly, trying not to flinch at the feeling of utter doom wafting off that note.

She waved me off. "It might not be from now. I leave myself notes from other timelines sometimes, I might be talking about opening it later on. I'll just close it when I get home. I can take care of anything in my house…probably. Nothing in those notes is almost ever serious. I mean, there was the plague of Second eating Scarabs that got out of the box I found in the Heartbeat Temple, but I don't have any mysterious containers lying around right now. I'm almost positive."

"How are you this disorganized?" I asked worriedly. "You run the exchange, we should all be dead."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm living at least eleven different timelines right now, Shane. Some of them are moving at different speeds. One of them is yesterday. Two others are happening next year. It gets hectic, ok?"

"Wait, is that your ability?" I prodded with interest. "Some kind of temporal omnipresence?"

"No, temporal folding is a technique," she said dismissively. "It's an advanced discipline."

I remembered that teacher who taught it, and how I'd thought it might be relevant to Limbo. Sadly, I didn't think I'd be able to take it. I still hadn't had my first class with the Dean yet, actually, I needed to make sure to go to that. Professor Hawkins would probably try to get me out of it, but Dean Gibbons was one of the most knowledgeable temporal engineers in existence. Even a minute of his time was priceless. Or rather, pricey, because I'd already paid and it wasn't cheap.

Elonwy put the car in gear as we fumbled around for seatbelts. Wearing them seemed pointless given our strength and gear, but she insisted, so we buckled up. Within seconds, we were peeling out, and I had to slam my eyes shut as the world outside the car…bent. It was a strange and deeply unsettling thing to witness, as the images splintered into a million stop motion captures of overlapping time, and it was burned into my brain.

I groaned and gripped my head, and Elonwy hissed in sympathy. "Ah, sorry. I forgot to warn you. Four dimensional travel can be a bit rough on the uninitiated."

"Wait, this car travels in time?" I asked in confusion.

"Well, it travels in time as a dimension in space," she corrected. "The fourth dimension is still a spatial construct, there's just temporal overlap. There are spatial ramifications to its access that I can't really explain without getting extremely theoretical, but yes, this car is my thesis project. It's ALSO the only way we're going to get to the lab in any reasonable amount of time. It's not close." I kept my eyes closed, and covered Callie's face despite knowing she REALLY wanted to look. Finally, after what seemed like a few moments, the car jerked. "Alright, we're here," she said casually. "You can look now."

I uncovered my eyes with a light wince, but nothing happened. We were no longer moving. Now we were parked…in a neighborhood.

Specifically, along a street lined with nearly identical houses, each one of which had a nearly identical mailbox out front of it. Nearly because they each had a slightly different number on them, and the one we were currently parked at was listed as number ten thousand four hundred and seventy six.

"Where are we?" I asked cautiously as we climbed out.

"The Nested Continuum," she said grimly. "This is technically one house. It's been put through an infinite potential loop by the Dean. It's one of his experimental labs. He abandoned it a few centuries ago once he finished gathering data, but he ran so many different experiments here that the houses ended up as storage for most of the high end equipment in the department."

I looked up at the house. "Interesting," I said as I fought the urge to trigger Kronos and look at the timescape here. Considering what had happened when I boosted that form, I was pretty sure I should NOT do that. Instead I followed Elonwy around the house to what appeared to be a large, flat grey pair of doors set diagonally into the ground at the base of the house. She knelt down, fishing out a key, and jammed it into the metal without having an actual lock present.

The doors swung open soundlessly, revealing a set of stone steps leading down into darkness. Without saying a word, Elonwy strode off into the hole in the ground.

"Come and meet us in this creepy dungeon," I muttered. "Where nobody can hear you scream."

Callie snorted, knowing I wasn't really worried, but she threaded her fingers through mine anyway. We descended the stairs together, and as soon as we entered the darkness, it sort of…consumed us. Like it was some kind of straw sucking us up and spitting us out the other side, but it all happened in a few steps.

We arrived in a large open room full of strange devices. The walls were lined with shelves, some containing glass jars or boxes with unusual things in them. Organs that acted like working parts, energy that shifted along a spectrum as if it was dying and being reborn, flames that weren't moving at all, frozen in time before our eyes. Professor Hawkins was standing at one of the machines checking some readings I couldn't parse.

When we entered, he looked up and caught our eyes. "Oh, you're here," he said absently. "Excellent. Here, take this," he flicked his hand and my cosmic phoenix blade shot out and thumped into the wall a few inches from my face. I swallowed and grabbed it, trying to pull it free and being forced to genuinely strain to do so.

I passed it to Callie, who deposited it immediately in her Domain before turning to take in the sight of my advisor doing what appeared to be mad science. "So…" she said lightly. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," he said without looking up. "The boy never shuts up about you. I'm certain you're a lovely person. Apologies for my current state of distraction."

"Not at all," she assured him. "I was expecting it. So, you want to see what my Domain does?"

He nodded. "I do, it certainly seems novel enough. If the functions are complete enough, we can attempt to use your method as a foundation for the form in question. Which means you'll need to present me with a copied artifact to analyze."

"Sure," she said excitedly. "I can do that. And I'm excited to get your analysis on this one in particular. I don't suppose you'd be willing to share your findings?"

"By all means," he shrugged. "I'm not certain the data will be legible without an understanding of the machine, but I assume Shane can parse it for you over a long enough time period." He tapped a few more things. "Now," he said as he turned around. "It is time to begin. Present the inversion, and we will commence the experiment." Somehow, that was WAY more ominous than the creepy dark hole in the ground. Go figure.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Despite how ominous the Professor made the experiment sound, the first thing he wanted to do was, obviously, test the sword. He had us square up in a cleared area of the basement, and I triggered my staff and Mornax, making sure my defenses FAR outstripped the bounds of what even the cheapest artifact could do in the hands of a peak C-ranker.

The new sword was…weird. It looked very similar, except it was reddish purple. It burned with a weird kind of destabilizing light. Looking at it made me uncomfortable in a way I couldn't pin down.

Honestly, it kind of reminded me of the lantern shield in a way. Not in terms of attribute, but more the general malice of the thing. This might be a better comparison than I had expected, actually.

"You ready for this?" my wife asked gleefully as she whirled the absurdly powerful artifact. "I'm not going to go easy on you just because your mentor is here. Despite her words being for me, her eyes weren't leaving the blade, fixed on the flickering red of the glowing sword and its almost unnatural pulsing.

I just chuckled. "Professor? Elonwy? We good to start?"

The Professor held up a finger, then reached up to smack the side of the machine he'd been fiddling with. It whined and spat out a puff of smoke and he nodded. "Now we are. You may begin." Before we started work, I called Dantalion from Gehenna, sending him over to study the machine and the results that the Professor was working on as we tested. I even triggered my staff's boost a second time, making sure Dan was pushed up to tier nine for his study session, just in case.

Callie surged forward, wings fluttering, body flowing from one movement to the next. She looked…ghostly. Almost surreal. I could see that she'd been working on applying her spatial manipulation to her sword work. I hadn't seen this little trick before, so it must have been new. What was DEFINITELY new, however, was the strange sensation I felt as I moved to avoid the blow.

I felt like I was trying to dodge gravity. Not in the sense that it was heavy, but in the sense that her strike was EVERYWHERE. It closed in from all angles, seemingly taking up way more space than it was supposed to and I grimaced as the blade clashed against my rocky flesh with no possible means of avoidance.

"What the fuck was THAT?" I asked in disbelief. "That was…were you attacking me from a hundred angles at once?"

"Not exactly," said Elonwy as she approached to examine the blade where it pulsed eerily in my wife's hand. "If I don't miss my guess, that's some sort of spatial singularity effect." She glanced at Professor Hawkins. "Am I close?"

He looked up from his position studying the device. "Yes and no. It's not a singularity, but it is a sort of…collapse. The original form of that attribute expands space in a stable manner. This one seems to CONDENSE space in an unstable one. Imagine the space surrounding a person was crumpled up in a ball and hurled at them. Everything collapses inward, using the blade as a vector. All directions become the strike as it closes in around you."

Callie looked almost apoplectic with joy. "That's AMAZING! Shane, hold still and let me do it again!"

And so she did. Again. And again. And again. She moved like a ghost, slashing at me from blind spots and weak points in my perception, not that it mattered because as soon as she started to attack all I could perceive was the sword. After a few more tests, she started trying to infuse her Adherent Fire, which worked surprisingly well, but the more she tried to wean herself off depending on the inverted phoenix sword, the less it worked.

"Damn it," she snapped. "I don't need an attribute for this. I CAN recreate it with the one I have, just watch."

She flicked her fingers and the sword vanished, replaced by Oblique, the inverted form of her soul weapon. Without missing a beat, Elonwy appeared, holding out a hand, and Callie dropped the original phoenix blade into her hand. Elonwy nodded. "We've still got the monitoring equipment up and running, so I can give you the readings of your attempts as you work. Do you want to study the results we already have?'

"No need," I said with a grin. "I've already had someone on it." I glanced at Dan. "You get enough to distill some of that for her?"

My information demon nodded. "I did. At least some of it. I'm lucky I was operating at peak efficiency, or I might not have managed even this much." He glanced at Callie. "How should we do this?"

"I have an idea," I said excitedly. "Hold on." I reached into Gehenna again, withdrawing Owen and calling out Angelic Bond. "Alright, do you three think you could make something work here?" I asked them in an eager tone. "If Dan could download the info he's got into the Overlay and then Angelic Bond could transfer it directly to Callie? Like a training program."

"It IS information," Dan said slowly. "Owen himself contains an information attribute, as you're aware. My own capabilities are almost entirely based around that attribute, from what I can surmise. You've seen the things I can accomplish within that purview."

I had. Dan could do more than just analyze data. He could INTERFACE with information. Back during the succession war, he'd actually manipulated a computer using his abilities with data. I hadn't had much use for it since, because I didn't interact much with machines, but it was a clear demonstration of exactly how much potential he had with the information attribute, if nothing else.

"I just wish I had timepieces done for all of you," I groused. "I could create and Arch Demon for this exact purpose."

"Do NOT do that," Callie snapped from where she was standing. "That would be a huge waste of time and effort. If they can't help me as is, I'll just deal with it on my own. Don't waste one of what I imagine are limited slots on this. I assume they're limited?"

I frowned, thinking about it. "I don't know," I said slowly. "My powers usually work better with significant numbers. I don't think there's a limit on Arch Demons, but I do think I shouldn't make too many. Either nine or thirteen. Either way, you do have a point." I glanced at Dan. "See what you can do, and if it doesn't work you can just upload the info directly to Callie."

Dan nodded, and then got to work. It didn't actually end up being too hard, and he was able to connect to Owen's information attribute and use him and Angelic Bond as a medium to upload the processed information he'd gotten from the machine.

Then we were back to training. Callie raised Oblique in the same stance as earlier, and then flowed forward again in that same ghostly way. As she attacked, her blade swept up and I braced for the attack. My forearm snapped up out of reflex, and I deflected the strike with a clang.

Callie backed off, watching me carefully, eyes gliding over inputs I couldn't see. She tried again, and this time I felt the blade close in on my hand specifically as it got close. The next strike closed in on my whole arm, then my side. Finally, after about twenty minutes, she lashed out with Oblique and the space around me all collapsed, narrowing my field of vision to the blade in a way that made it inescapable.

The slash sparked off my armor without even striking my stone flesh, but it was still impressive. We turned to the Professor. "Did those readings help at all?"

"They did," he acknowledged. "You are the originator of the inversion process, so tracking how you adapt your attacks manually to the new application gives me insight into the necessary energy patterns you'll use when inverting the new artifact. I'm somewhat surprised you managed to recreate it so easily, I admit."

"Attributes make things easier, but they aren't necessary," Callie shrugged. "You can use a general destruction attribute to destroy a table just as easily as a specialized table destroying one, right? Shane managed teleportation with destruction when he made the Waltz. That proves you can reach the same conclusion via a different route, and there are a lot of similarities between the Adherent Fire and this new attribute. I just had to bridge the gap."

The professor nodded. "Exactly right. Mythcrafting is a specialized means of achieving goals, but not the only means. Shane's ancestor's Wish skill proves that extreme precision of application can accomplish as much as dedicated Mythcrafting under the right circumstances.

"Of course, that's not ultimately a useful route in the long term," he cautioned. "Remember that Mythcrafting is ultimately an expression of knowledge to prepare for the construction of your Worldforce. Skills or techniques, they're all just starter methods to learn to construct your eventual divinity. Taking another route to replicate a technique without having the attribute is a clever workaround when you need to use it in combat, but it ultimately fails to produce the same benefits."

Callie nodded solemnly. "Understood. I won't make it a habit. Still this technique is going to be damned useful combined with my swordplay. I'm going to call it Certitude."

"So," I asked my mentor as he picked up and examined the sword again. "Is that enough? You have the readings from the duplicate, the readings from the original, the readings from Callie adjusting her technique. Will you be able to help design the timepiece?"

"Not yet," he cautioned. "There's still one more factor that needs to be accounted for. The body tempering manual. Part of the process we need to recreate is the connection between the bloodline, the object, and the timepiece. It's vital that you be able to create a template and use the object as a focus. Luckily, you already have a template made for this one. If we can deduce the signature of the energy of your bloodline, we can reverse engineer the linking process, and we'll be able to create a timepiece that can use the object as an anchor while still maintaining the ability to create a viable template."

I groaned. I'd forgotten about this part. "Right, the bloodline analysis," I said grimly. "I don't suppose that's going to involve a quick scan with a painless light scanner that will easily get all the information you need in moments?"

"We have one of those," he said with a shrug. "You can use it if you want. But it's not going to be as through as a proper bloodline sequencer. Those are a bit more…invasive. But they work. And it still won't take too long. Just a few minutes. Of course, those minutes will be excruciatingly painful, but that's the price you pay for progress."

Sighing, I glared at him. "Why did I know you were going to say something like that? Ok, where is this bloodline sequencer? I'd like to see whatever torture device you're about to subject me to."

"It is NOT a torture device," he said with dignity. "And it's over there." He pointed across the room and my jaw dropped as I followed his finger.

"Is that an IRON MAIDEN?" I ground out, pointing at the coffin like machine with long needles dotting the interior. "How exactly is that NOT a torture device. Iron maidens are LITERALLY designed for torture."

He shrugged. "It's not an iron maiden, though I admit there are similarities in the design philosophies. You'll be fine. It won't last too long, and you'll barely feel it." He walked over and pulled the coffinlike device open further, and I winced at the bloodcurdling screech it emitted as it slowly opened. He ignored my further intensified glare, turning to prepare the device. I was not looking forward to this.

 

[Vongrak]

"It's not an iron maiden, though I admit there are similarities in the design philosophies. You'll be fine. It won't last too long, and you'll barely feel it."

Click to shrink...

As a true Disciple of the Goddess of Pain not feeling anything would likely be a much, much worse sign.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I had to strip off my armor before climbing into the bloodline sequencer, unfortunately. Surprisingly, the needles actually didn't hurt that badly going in. They were freakishly sharp and the actual piercing action was pretty quick. I was relieved it wasn't as bad as advertised…until the sequencer turned on.

After that, things got murky. There was a lot of screaming, some begging, I think somebody cried. It might have been me, but it was really high pitched, so I was secretly pretending in my head that someone had let their baby crawl into the cellar.

It really didn't last that long though, and when I was finished, Callie helped me out of the sequencer and back into my armor. By the time I was redressed, the pinpricks were all healed by my enhanced regeneration. I was still sore, and I grimaced as I dropped down on the bench at the edge of the room. "Well, that sucked," I groaned to my mentor. "That better have been worth it."

"It was," he assured me. "With the last parameters ready, I can enter all the data into the Quantum State Multiplier. It'll use The Nested Continuum as a brute force analytical tool, dispersing the calculations over a countably infinite number of potential variations of this reality to help us refine the design. I'll be doing the design work on the final iteration myself, but having the multiplier hash out all the boilerplate design elements will allow me to cross reference with my work to identify problem spots ahead of time."

Nodding vaguely, I tried to look like I was paying attention and not about to pass out. Luckily, I don't think the professor cared much. He snagged a chip from the side of the iron maiden-like sequencer, carrying it over to a new device that looked like nothing so much as a microwave.

Popping the chip in, he snagged a chord from the machine he'd been using to analyze the swords and plugged it into the back, then gestured me over to stand next to him. Popping the door of the microwave thing open, he stuck the sword inside, then slammed the door and hit a bunch of buttons.

There was a low thump and a groan as the lights around us began to flicker. Inside the microwave, a spark of blue light started to glimmer, then surge. As we watched, the power was sucked out of the whole place and into the Quantum State Multiplier. Right before our eyes, the sword lifted off the bed of the microwave, floating up into the air, and sort of…warped. A million shattered timelines overlapped the image, not just of the blade, but of the space around it.

While the sword shrank, the nearby space was filled with theoretical parts and mechanical devices, clashing into each other in a sea of light and sound as they warred for supremacy, like they were battling it out to see which part was best.

It only took about fifteen minutes for all the parts to combine themselves in the optimum fashion around the sword. The blade itself remained outside the watch, with just a hole in the center for it to be inserted with Brad's ability. "You, come over and examine this," the Professor said as he snapped his fingers toward Dan.

My information demon didn't need to be told twice, he hurried over to begin scanning the timepiece. Meanwhile, I just stared at it as he studied, trying my best to memorize it myself for the process of creation.

"So what do you think?" Callie asked from beside me. "Can you do it today? After that mess earlier I wouldn't blame you for waiting. We can try tomorrow."

That actually had been my plan up to now, but after some time thinking it over I'd decided against it. "This is the easy part," I said with a shake of my head. "Don't forget we have a limited amount of time in the Continuum. My contribution points can only do so much. He needs to study the process of me creating the timepiece here so he can reverse engineer it and compare as he adjusts the next iteration."

"It won't be as difficult as you might think," called Professor Hawkins as he approached. "I was already planning to suggest it. Not because of the hurry, mind, but because there are several devices here that can interface with your Domain to act as a guide for the creation process and enable me to not only take more detailed measurements, but aid you in production more completely. It should make the process much smoother, and I can step in to make alterations if necessary."

"I thought the Quantum State Multiplier would just make it perfect?" I asked with a raised brow.

He shook his head. "Mythcrafting is based on imagery and intention. Mythology is a matter of human perception, so it can't really be calculated to exactitude. No matter how high quality your equipment, there will always be a difference between a technologically designed blueprint and one that came from a real mind. Humans have instinct and creativity. That's why this design is aligned with your other timepieces at only thirteen movements. It gives you the chance to refine it yourself over time."

"And that's why you're doing the second iteration yourself," I realized. "Because the Quantum State Multiplier can't make the necessary adaptations."

"Of course," he snorted. "The QSM does the brute force calculations to get them out of the way. It gives me a starting point, but how to apply those data sets will be up to me. The only reason we can use it for this part is because you've already done all the groundwork. You have the template completed, have the bloodline, and you're using the original artifact as the foundation. All the variables have been removed."

That made sense, if they had a machine that could do this kind of thing easily there would be no reason to teach it at all. "Alright," I said as I stood and stretched. I was feeling better after a bit of rest. My absurd Vitality and my regeneration made it easy for me to shrug off most things that weren't a serious life threatening danger. "So where is this device?"

He led me across the lab to a small futuristic looking table. It was dark blue with strips of glowing white crystal inlaid into it in strange circuitous patterns. He slapped a palm on it. "You'll take this into your Domain to begin the process. I'll access it from out here and communicate through the device. It's designed to interface with Mythcrafting constructs, and is especially well suited to the style I've been teaching you."

"Got it," I said as I leaned down to pick the thing up. "I can just enter my Domain here, right?"

"Of course," he snorted. "There isn't anywhere in this academy that might be destabilized by accessing a Domain. Spatial irregularity of that level is usually reserved for things like traps or defenses meant to keep out high rankers."

I'd actually seen that done a few times back at the beginning of my journey, though it wasn't aimed at Domains. Still, it was interesting to see the similarities.

Stepping back, I entered my Domain. Stepping inside with the table rather than projecting it was easier, and I appeared inside the throne room, making my way into the conference room behind it where I was planning to do my work.

Nine Phoenix and Brad were waiting for me there, and Dan arrived not long after. "Alright, so everyone knows what we're doing here?"

After getting the nod, I set up the crafting table next to the larger conference table that was already there. "Ok Shane, now you'll need to synchronize with the harmonic crystal relays," said Professor Hawkins voice through the table. "Those shiny strips are made to absorb your attributes. Once you've completed that step, I want you to slip one of your mental parallels in there. Remote control skills like that are an excellent substitute for more dedicated Mythcrafting methods."

Nodding along, I followed his instructions. First was the attributes. The plans had identified the attribute compositions we would get the best use out of in this case, though only generally. Like he'd said, he'd fine tune it as we went. Still, it meant I knew what we needed for the most part. The cosmic phoenix attribute, a general spatial attribute, speed, motion, momentum, there were a lot of minor attributes that could be used to create strengthened alloys (so to speak) of attributes that would make for better parts.

For normal projects, we would try to keep the number of attributes small, but since we were using a real artifact as the core, we wanted to synergize the design as much as possible. Real objects were more complicated than most Mythcrafted constructs, which meant more attributes were necessary to create a proper facsimile.

Once I had loaded all the attributes in, I split off a parallel with Piece of Mind and slipped it inside as well. From there, it was time to begin. I focused on the Mythcrafting process, beginning to construct my elements, and…I was blown away.

Normally, I needed serious focus throughout my entire construction process to maintain the integrity of my parts, but with this thing, even a brief flicker of attention would create the foundation and then I could just add to it. My elements were held in perfect stasis, without any need for input once I'd established them, but were responsive when I needed them.

The Professor watched and weighed in, adding notes on what I was doing and micromanaging my designs at some points, while going silent and allowing me complete creative freedom at others. I could see what he'd meant earlier, about the machine not having instincts. Certain design choices just felt…wrong, and I changed them almost instinctively, with no pushback from Professor Hawkins.

We breezed through the design, and it felt so much smoother and more natural than my last attempts. Mephisto's Waltz had arrived during the process, and he also weighed in when asked. The Professor consulted him on several design choices as we went, making alterations to more accurately capture the essence of the demon in question.

Finally, we reached a critical point. "Brad," I called to the young demon. "Open the pit," he stepped forward, raising his hands, and a dark void formed in the air in front of the timepiece. With no hesitation, I snagged the cosmic phoenix feather blade and just shoved it into the hole in the air. After that, we went back to work, altering and adjusting the device to make sure it was holding up like we needed before the final step.

"Alright, Wally," I asked Mephisto's Waltz (because Wally was a better name, it just sounded fast). "You ready for this?"

He confirmed, and I nodded to Brad, who began the process again. Once more, a pit opened, but this one opened in the air in front of Wally himself rather than in front of the timepiece. Reaching out, I gently lifted the timepiece off the table and set it into the hole, then pulled back to let Brad close it.

As before, there was a sort of…shift. I could tell it was adjusting internally, and I watched worriedly as he twitched and shuddered, before it finally ended. Mephisto's Waltz…no, Cosmic Waltz, had officially completed his transformation. He'd even been boosted a tier to tier seven, putting him almost up to date with my other top performers.

Having finished, I felt a wave of weakness overtake me, and I dropped into a nearby chair. I heard a wild laugh through the table, and the Professor's voice erupted forth like a trumpet of salvation. "It WORKED!" he cackled madly. "It worked perfectly. I have all the data I need. It'll take me a month to complete the preliminary designs, and then we'll need to dial it in. Now, return that crafting table and you can go. I have work to do."

AN:// Early chapter happy friday lol.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We left the Nested Continuum immediately after the experiment. Despite knowing what was going on there, the whole place gave me a sort of creepy, mysterious vibe. I was glad to be out of there, and as soon as Elonwy dropped us off outside my residence and vanished, I headed inside to show Callie around my place, glad to be back in my own territory where nothing was waiting to infringe on my normalcy.

Which, obviously, was why when I arrived at my door, I found a pair of strange boxes waiting for me that I'd never seen before.

I froze in my tracks as I approached. "Huh," I said, staring down at the two boxes with interest. "Never seen those before. How about you?" I kept my tone nonchalant, but I had a weird feeling. My instincts weren't telling me I was in danger, but they weren't telling me I wasn't. It was a strange sense of almost deja vu for my danger sense.

Callie shook her head. "Nope, but then, this isn't my major. They probably aren't aimed at m-" she stopped as the boxes changed. Before our eyes, a series of silvery letters scrawled themselves gracefully across the dark surface of the box. Shane Wyndham. Calliope Wyndham. "Oh," she said suspiciously. "Nevermind."

Which was very dark. The wood it was made of (if it was wood at all, it was hard to tell), was so dark it drank the light, seeming to almost highlight the tracery of decorative silver flourish behind it like the void of space emphasized the stars. Originally it was a smooth black surface with a frame along the edges of the top and side panels made of inlaid silver, but once Callie had noted the absence of a reference to her, the names had just written themselves on the boxes.

The thing that bothered me about them took me a second to pin down. I'd seen lots of magic and artifacts, and they'd done a lot of things. These boxes, by all rights, should just be more of the same. So it took me a second to identify what was throwing me off.

I triggered Dantalion, scanning the artifacts, and it clicked into place without much trouble. Black boxes.

The term "black box" was ubiquitous. I had no idea where it came from, or where I'd even heard it. But at some point, someone had started using that phrase as a euphemism for inscrutable technology, and it had stuck. But despite having heard it plenty of times, I had never seen ACTUAL black boxes that defied analysis.

These things were LITERAL black boxes. Even Dantalion couldn't see any information about them. They were just fancy, creepy looking boxes that had seemingly come from nowhere.

I glanced at my wife. "These aren't your other two artifacts, are they?"

She shook her head. "Definitely not. I already got those. Besides which, why would one be addressed to you? No, these are new. And a mystery. Do you think we should open them? I don't get a dangerous feeling, but my instincts aren't as sharp as yours."

"MY instincts aren't as sharp as mine," I said dryly. "Not in this case. I'm getting conflicting impressions here, but if I had to guess, whatever was doing to the boxes to scrub them of information is interfering. I'll open mine. My armor should protect me, and I'll use Mornax just to be safe. A-rank and everything. Give me some space."

Callie didn't look happy, but she knew that if anything could get through my armor and Mornax at A-rank, there was little to no chance that either of us could do anything about it. She backed away to make some room.

Once she was backed up a bit, I triggered Mornax and boosted it with my staff, then inched forwards cautiously and knelt down to open the box with my name on it.

I blinked as I stared down at something I hadn't expected to see. A mask. An intricate masquerade mask carved from that same black wood with the same silver tracework. Leaning against the mask was a black envelope with my name on it in silver lettering. I opened it carefully, wary of traps, but the inside was just a pressed, embossed paper card with that same flowing script.

Dear Mr. Wyndham,

Through meritorious acts of service or daring feats of intrigue, you have caught the attention of a select group of students and faculty dedicated to the identification and enrichment of talented seeds of potential.

Attached is a mask that acts as an entrance pass to a small gathering being held in Common City tonight at the stroke of midnight. Please arrive on time, properly attired, and in possession of both your mask and this invitation. We look forward to making your acquaintance.

Sincerely, The Lazarus Club

I reached up and handed the card to Callie, who took it and read over it, eyebrow going up. "Ok…well I can't tell if that's flattering, condescending, or worrying."

"Yes," I replied bluntly.

She laughed. "Fair enough. Seems like they're some kind of talent scout secret society. I'm guessing they reached out because of your mid term grades. Though the timing is a little weird. Maybe they were waiting to get us both together here? What do you think they actually…do? And should we even bother going?"

"If I had to guess," I said with a sigh. "They're investors. Based on what they didn't say, they do favors for up and comers and probably expect them to be returned later."

"Makes sense," she grimaced. "The boxes are a demonstration, I take it?"

I nodded. "The fact that they knew you were here, when, and could arrange these at exactly the right time is interesting. The boxes themselves even moreso. They must have someone from the crafting faculty. I don't think a mortal ascendant could have made these. Dan isn't a normal analysis skill, and he got NOTHING from these."

She grimaced. "More than that, if we got these, chances are good some of the others did too. We don't have a way to get in touch with all of them in short order, so it's not like we can call a meeting about it. There's no way Bethy isn't going to show up," she sighed. "And she'll probably bring her siblings, and maybe the butterfly girl."

"I'm more worried about Benny," I frowned. "If the faculty involved are from the crafting departments, the chances of him getting tapped will be higher. He hasn't told me much about his situation, but I think he's been making a splash. The science he learned from Sebastian is odd and probably unusual even for this place. Not to mention he has that dragon with him. Though I still don't know where he's keeping it."

Benny had confided that he'd brought Toast with him on this trip last time we'd talked, but since Toast was a whole ass dragon and I hadn't seen him, I wasn't sure what mechanism he'd used to transport the dracolich here.

"The point is, we have to go," she said with a grimace. "But should we like…tell someone? Elonwy and Hawkins are at the Continuum, but we might be able to get in touch. They may know more about this organisation than we do. In fact, I can almost promise they do. Going in blind seems reckless."

I nodded. She was right. We had to go, simply because after getting this project running, I'd finally realized how many resources we could have been using to make our advancement faster here. Even a hundred contribution points had been enough to streamline MONTHS of work to help me create Cosmic Waltz and prep for my next upgrade. If this organization was faculty inclusive like they said, it could be the key to getting more contribution points.

Those points would allow us to not only help our friends get access to all the various ascension thesis versions, but massively speed up our progress to the next rank, something I highly suspected I was going to need soon, though I couldn't put my finger on why.

I walked over to my bed, pulling open a drawer in the end table and taking out a small bronze device the size of my palm. It was covered in dials and knobs, and I started turning them, flicking through settings until I found the one I wanted. Then I pushed down, depressing a trio of buttons that caused the gears inside the device to whir. Along the outside edges, tiny bulbs flickered and there was a hiss of static. Finally a voice crackled out from the device. "What do you WANT, Shane? I told you to leave me alone to work, that doesn't mean go somewhere else and call me from a distance."

"What do you know about the Lazarus Club?" I asked bluntly, knowing he wasn't in the mood for pleasantries when he got like this.

There was a pause. "Did you get tapped?" he asked suspiciously. "That seems…fast. They usually don't bother with first years. I suppose you did make a splash at the mid terms. Very well, what do you want to know?"

"Who and what are they?" I asked. "And should I trust them?"

"Of course not," he snorted. "Never trust anyone. Terrible habit. But the Lazarus Club are MOSTLY benevolent. They are a sort of favor trading circle. Get their hooks into impressionable students and make them dependent so they can call in favors later. Their membership is…extensive. Most of the professors were Lazarus."

I nodded. That was pretty close to what I'd expected, at least the basics. Though I was curious about one thing. "So does that mean they'll make us stay or kick us out if they find out we're not sticking around? None of my people are planning to do the full four years here, as you know."

"I know," he said with a laugh. "But it doesn't matter. The Lazarus Club is more interested in sowing karma than anything else. Personally I disdain karmic manipulation, messy stuff, but I can't claim it isn't effective. Joining creates a karmic connection with the other members. If you run into one out in the world you'll be compelled to help them."

I grimaced. Karma. The Judgement Pope, one of my grandfather's fellow disciples, was a karmic manipulator. I didn't like it much either. Messy was a good way to describe karma. Luckily, back home at least it was a rare attribute. Judgement was the only person I'd really heard of who toyed with karma, and he was on good terms with the family, so I hadn't had any trouble with it personally, but I was wary of the ability all the same.

"What do you think I should do?" I asked my mentor. Honestly, I really did think having access to a powerful backer here before leaving would help us make the most of our time. We were planning to dip out after the first year, and I doubted we'd have time to really mine the academy for all the benefits it could give us at the current rate.

Even with help from the Lazarus Club, it seemed unlikely we'd get everything we could before leaving, but maximizing our gains should be a priority. But then again, forming karmic entanglements was dangerous, especially to people who had access to karmic abilities.

"I say go for it," he said, in a voice so uncaring I could HEAR the shrug. "Karma is an esoteric discipline, but something most karmic manipulation specialists don't like to admit is that it works less concretely on people who don't fear it. Karma is, even more than most abilities, highly subjective, and the amount of respect you place upon the karmic ties in question has a great deal to do with how much influence they have over you."

I laughed at that. "So your advice is to take their money and then not worry about it?"

"Basically," he confirmed. "In any case, be careful about making further agreements there. Much like any other society, the Lazarus Club is not a monolith. Side deals happen all the time, and THOSE can be problematic." With that final warning, he hung up, leaving me sitting there holding the bronze device pensively. Well…that hadn't been ominous or anything.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"You look ridiculous," my wife said bluntly as we got dressed for the event. "I can't believe you're going to go to a party dressed like that."

I put a hand on my chest in faux shock. "Me? But I look magnificent. I have all this fancy armor. And I'm wearing the mask they gave me specifically for the event. I can't imagine why I wouldn't be cutting the most dashing of figures."

"Because you're wearing their mask on TOP of the one you already had on," she said with an exasperated attempt at hiding a smirk. "They're supposed to conceal things about who we are. YOU are a six and a half foot tall behemoth in A-rank armor wearing two masks stacked on top of each other. You might as well wear a name tag." I brightened, a piece of paper appearing in my hand with a pen, which Callie slapped out of my grip. "NO NAME TAGS!"

I laughed as I retrieved the pen and paper, stashing them back in my ring. "You never let me have any fun," I complained dramatically. "But fine, I'll be good. Besides, Bethy will be there, so there's a ninety percent chance something will be on fire before the night ends even if I'm on my best behavior."

We headed out to the platform, making our way to Common City directly. We'd been assured in a note under the masks that the Lazarus Club would handle travel arrangements. We wouldn't be required to spend days off or get permissions. Sure enough, they let us right through. We continued our discussion as we walked, with me tapping into Murmur just in case.

"I wish that wasn't true," she grimaced. "But at least TRY to play nice. These people are dangerous. I know you're used to clashing head on with anyone who starts trouble, but not everyone here is going to respond to that. You always let me do the political stuff, so can I handle our introduction?" Through the bond, I could tell she was mostly terrified I'd be informal to some scary Overgod and get us swatted like flies. Which…was probably fair given my recent interaction with Harper.

I wasn't rude or hostile, really, but I didn't like to bow and scrape. I could also tell that she was picking up my own worries on that subject, and that we were kind of feeding into each other in an anxiety loop. I grimaced and clamped down on the bond, just enough to break the spiral.

She blinked at me. "Huh…" she said slowly. "I didn't know it could do that."

"Neither did I," I admitted. "I think it might be a side effect of Angelic Bond hitting tier eight. He's been growing consistently, getting lots of use. It makes sense that we're discovering new tricks and even a few traps. We'll need to watch out for that." The path to our destination wasn't complicated, and I remembered it easily enough.

"Fantastic," she drawled. "Because downsides to skill growth was exactly what I wanted to hear about tonight."

Chuckling, I stopped as we turned a corner, arriving in front of a large flowing building with a domed roof. "Alright, this is the place. Is everyone else here yet?"

Behind us, I heard a loud electric sting of organ music, and the sky flickered with lightning as thunder shook the street nearby. I turned as a voice boomed. "I'M BACK BITCHES!" in a sensational explosion of sound that was all too familiar to me.

"You've never been here before," I responded mildly as Bethy melted from the shadows.

She pouted at me. "Well I can't say 'I have arrived, bitches'," she complained. "That sounds stupid." She whirled to glare at a corner. "And did I say you could stop hitting the thunder sheet. You're totally ruining my entrance."

A girl stepped from the dark, red eyes blazing with barely suppressed hatred. "This is STUPID!" the delicately featured blonde snapped. "You're the worst!"

"Daddy said you have to listen to me," Bethy said imperiously. "Otherwise I can beat you up a bunch. Or have Shane do it. A proper vampire is always mindful of their surroundings, and they know that a good entrance is the key to success. This is why I'm Daddy's favorite and you and Will got sent here to be my gofers."

"We are NOT your gofers," the girl, who must be Tamsin, hissed in outrage. "We're your bodyguards."

Bethy snorted. "You guys aren't even as tough as me. I could totally kick your ass even though you're B-rank. You're the worst vampire ever. And I'm gonna break through soon too. Once I'm B-rank you guys will have to be nice to my friends all the time, not just when I'm watching. Otherwise I'll just eat you both."

I wasn't sure what being B-rank had to do with that, but I grimaced and tried to interject. This wasn't the place for the current discussion. "Bethy, maybe you guys can settle this another time. Like any other time. Literally. We're about to walk into the lions den here."

"There's gonna be LIONS?" she squealed excitedly.

"Turn of phrase, sweetie," Callie chimed in fondly. "There won't be actual lions. Probably. I don't see why there would be, though I guess no one definitely shot it down so it IS possible…"

I groaned. "Do NOT fall into her rhythm. This is how we ended up with that cult. No Bethy, no lions. But there WILL be potential enemies. And I could use you on our side against them. Especially when the others show up. Do you know if Chelsea is coming?"

"She got an invite," she confirmed. "And she should be on her way. Applesauce and Mel are coming too."

I tried not to choke at this most recent outrageous name. He wasn't even here this time…or so I thought, until I heard an outraged choking sound from behind me. I rolled my eyes, turning to find Abel stepping into the streetlights with Mel, Benny, and Jessie. "That's not even a NAME," he accused Bethy passionately.

I nodded to Benny. "So, they're inviting anybody to this thing, huh?"

"Well sure," he said lazily. "How else would you have ended up here. I assume they need someone unnecessarily tall to use as a hat rack. Speaking of your ridiculous head, are you aware you're wearing two masks right now?"

"Of course," I said imperiously. "This is the new fashion. I wouldn't expect a philistine like you to recognize good taste."

"Nope," Bethy said, popping her lips. "Definitely not. You look super dumb, boss."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, or at least the approximate area of it. "Thank you Bethy," I said tiredly. "I'll keep it in mind. Now, are we waiting for anyone else?"

"I think a few of us are already inside," Benin volunteered. "We waited for you because I assured everyone you would definitely be late. Like you are to literally every important thing you have to do."

Scowling, I raised a finger at him. "I was NOT late," I snapped at him. "I'm exactly on time. YOU just have a weird thing about always being early because your mom brainwashed you."

"It's called manners," he said acidly. "But I could see how you might think of that as brainwashing." Despite the tone, I knew he was messing with me. Benny categorically disdained any of his mother's etiquette lessons. His punctuality was the only trait he'd inherited from her, and even that was sporadic.

"You're stalling," Jessie cut in with an eyeroll. "And my girlfriend is inside, so I don't really feel like sitting through it. So slap each other in the face to psych yourselves up or whatever nonsense ritual you need to do, but we're going in."

I frowned. "Well you don't have to be mean about it. We can go in if you want. Everyone have their masks?"

Most were wearing them, but not all, and when I brought it up, they slid them on their faces, each mask fitting perfectly over their features as if made for them. I kind of wanted to take one of these back for Zeke to study, he'd probably be fascinated.

Once we were all prepared, I stepped up to the door, banging on it sharply as I waited for someone to answer. Sure enough, it only took a second before it opened a crack revealing a black and silver mask ringed eye. "Password?" The voice was gruff and obviously exaggerated, clearly trying to sound menacing.

The head jarred as something smacked into it, and the door guard yelped in outrage. "Shup up Frank," snapped another, much more reasonable voice. "There's no password, they're wearing the masks, which means they were invited. Do you want to tell Clarissa her guests didn't arrive because you wanted to feel like a badass?"

Opening the door, the short, red haired man grimaced. "Sorry Bobby," he muttered. "I was just kidding around."

Bobby, who was blonde and a fair bit taller than the broad shouldered Frank, shot us an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Frank doesn't usually pull guard duty. Clarissa found out that he was stealing her breakfast rolls and he's being punished."

"I don't know who that is," I informed him cheerfully.

He balked. "Oh…right. Anonymous. With the masks," he winced. "I probably shouldn't have used our real names. Or Clarissa's. Shit."

"It's fine," I assured him. "I don't even remember your names."

"Oh, I'm Frank," Frank said brightly. "And he's Bobby." Bobby turned to glare at him, and Frank grinned maliciously. In the end, they both just rolled their eyes and turned away from each other.

Clearing my throat, I offered a hand. "I'm Shane," I said deliberately. "So now we're even."

We weren't, because my identity would be obvious to anyone with a brain. But it was a nice gesture, and I could tell they appreciated it. "Right," said Bobby. "Well, come on in then. Everyone is already inside. Just follow the hallway straight back. And don't listen to anything calling your name. Someone decided to get wisps for the decorations and they got loose in the corridors. They're not dangerous if you ignore the whispers."

I held back a snort at the comment, because it was the most Ascendant thing I'd ever heard. "Noted," I said with a grin.

Bethy bounced forward, to slip in between us. "Oh, do you guys let people perform? I'm a really good singer. I'm famous back home." She put her hands on her hips, taking a strong pose as she shared her past as an idol.

He raised a brow. "I mean…I guess? There's no rule against it. I don't think." He glanced at Frank who shook his head. "I'll put the request through channels. I suppose. Someone will be in touch."

Grinning at seeing a complete stranger put through something we had all experienced a thousand times, we stepped past him into the hallways. Bobby nodded us through, clearly distracted but still doing his job as welcoming committee to at least a nominal degree. Once we were through, the two of them stepped out of the door we'd come in through, slamming it behind them and leaving us alone in the halls with only one last look back.

Waving our goodbyes before they vanished from sight (and why they'd chosen to do that I had no idea other than just to be dramatic), we made our way deeper into the building. The hallways were carpeted with actual grass, painted so black they looked nonexistent, with tombstones built at intervals demarcating the walls so we didn't bump into them.

Around the corners, balls of white ghostly mist floated, zipping out of sight as soon as we noticed them. Glancing at my wife, I took her hand as I stepped to the front of the group to lead. Then without another word, we headed into the dark. I guess someone wanted this party to be to die for.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The inside of the building where the Lazarus Club held their event was huge. Obviously. I gritted my teeth as we took yet another turn. "WHY are Ascendant buildings all so BIG? What does anyone need this much space for? Do we just do it because we can? This can't be cheap to furnish."

"It's all about reputation," Abel shrugged. "Making things bigger is a status symbol. And it shows off power. Spatial manipulation at this level isn't cheap."

Callie nodded. "This is actually technically spatial condensation. It's the second level of spatial manipulation, and one that a lot of people never get to. It's a nonstandard usage, mind, because instead of packing all the space from the building into a small area, they're packing more space into the building itself. Infinity crystals make it a lot easier, but the work in here is seamless. This was done by a professional, it's very stable."

"Well spotted," came a cheerful voice from around the corner. "We had one of the professors from the spatial department whip this up a few centuries ago. Or so I'm told, I wasn't around for that." A girl stepped around the corner, waving brightly. "Hello! I'm Clarissa. Sorry, I noticed you hadn't arrived and assumed you might have gotten lost. The layout in here is a mess."

I grimaced. "I thought we would be fine if we avoided the wisps. They said it was straight ahead."

The girl was about our age, at least physically, maybe a bit younger. She had long, curly blonde hair and bright green eyes behind the same black and silver mask all of us were wearing. But the eyes in question were…off. They were bright and approachable, but also unfocused, like she was looking THROUGH us instead of at us, and her happy smile was just a little too wide. Something about it combined with the lighting to give her an eerie, sinister vibe that clashed with her friendly demeanor.

"It WAS straight ahead," she said apologetically. "And you did not avoid the wisps. One of them was mimicking the hallway about halfway down. You stepped into a perception vortex and turned without noticing. You've been walking down a hallway that doesn't exist for almost an hour."

"Wait, what?" I blanched. "Don't these things eat people?"

Bethy chimed in happily. "Oh they've been trying. The hallway has tried to digest us like four times. I keep scaring it off though. I assumed that was just a feature of the party venue. Is it not supposed to do that?"

"It is not," Clarissa said slowly. "But fear not, I came to get you. Although I guess fear isn't really on your list of reactions. I was expecting you to be a bit more shaken up. Not that I'm not glad you're ok!" She looked a bit flustered, which was a normal reaction to Bethy's weirdness. "Anyway, please, follow me to the actual party."

Callie shot me an uncertain look. She was clearly getting the same weird vibe from this girl I was, but while I WAS unsettled my Danger Sense and Azazel were both pretty silent, so I didn't think she was an immediate threat, like, say, the hallway that had apparently been trying to EAT us for the last hour. I made a mental note to remind Bethy to let us know any time something tried to consume us for sustenance.

It didn't take long for us to arrive at the party proper. Sure enough, it was very on theme. A huge open graveyard full of tombstones and mausoleums. Everyone at the party was dressed in complicated black and white outfits with leather and lace trim. Honestly they were dressed a lot like Callie and Bethy, but where my wife and friend looked ethereal and otherworldly in the ball gowns, most of these people just looked pretentious, though admittedly I might have been biased.

"Welcome to the Lazarus Club!" Clarissa said cheerfully. "I hope you enjoy the party. Please feel free to mingle among the guests, we encourage all potential members to form lasting life long friendships with other initiates. Anonymously. Obviously you should tell no one your identities."

"But didn't you tell us your name immediately after meeting us?" I asked uncertainly.

She beamed at me. "Well spotted!" she said again. Then turned and walked away without another word.

"Wow," said Bethy immediately after she left. "What a deeply weird person. And that's coming from ME. Still, seems like she knows how to throw a great party. I've never been to one where the hallways tried to eat me."

"Again, not a feature," I reminded her. "And in the future, if you notice an incorporeal entity trying to digest us, please let someone know." I trailed off as I looked around, noting the mist creeping around the tombstones. "Hey…does that mist feel familiar to anyone else?" I wasn't sure what about it drew my attention, but something contained in the vapor was calling to me like a beacon, and not in a nice way.

Callie squinted at it. "Yes…" she said slowly. "But I don't know how. Like I don't think I've felt anything like it before. It reminds me of something though. I get a weird feeling from it."

"Creepy," I nodded. "Like…explicitly. Like someone bottled the uneasiness you feel when watching horror movies. It's kind of a neat touch for a party like this, actually. I wonder where they got it."

Shrugging, I decided to talk to some people. I wasn't expecting to form any strong lifelong friendships with anonymous people, but I could be friendly. I tried to at least avoid any gods I noticed, since I knew Callie was worried about my informal manner of addressing them, so I found a random guy nearby who was sipping a drink from a silver chalice and approached him.

"Interesting drink," I said with a wave. "Bright green and steaming. How's it taste?"

He took a long sip, looking pensive. "Brisk," he said eventually. "But with a lack of immediacy. The sense of ennui is palpable." I blinked at him, not sure how to respond to that. He stared at me carelessly for a few more seconds before his face split into a grin. "I'm SCREWING with you, man. It tastes like raspberry. It's fruit juice. The cup is enchanted to make it do weird shit." He held out his non cup holding hand. "I'm Ian, nice to meet you."

"Aren't we not supposed to give away our identities?" I asked mildly.

"Yeah…no one is really sure why they say that," he said with a shrug. "Because no one listens. I know the name of every person here. Except you. You seem new. Hence the teasing."

I laughed at that, returning the shrug. "Fair enough. I'm Shane, nice to meet you too. What major are you in? Am I allowed to ask that? This is my first real cross major function outside of my immediate friend group."

"Alchemy," he said modestly. "And nah, it's fine to ask. Some people get annoyed, but you can't be responsible for everyone's weird hangups. Honestly, you never know who is gonna come back anyway. Usually at least someone disappears after one of these." He said that like it wasn't even remotely unsettling, and I raised an eyebrow.

"That doesn't…bother you?" I said slowly.

He shrugged again. "Not really. They always show back up eventually. There's a lot of theories about what causes it. My personal favorite is the time slip that pops up randomly nearby. Though my best friend insists that they're being replaced by evil clones, and my girlfriend thinks they're being possessed. We have a betting pool on it, so whenever someone figures it out we're sure to get some answers, if only so they can collect."

I frowned at that, but I had to admit it wasn't exactly unusual. Ascendants went through a lot of weird stuff, and we honestly tended to normalize a lot of the crazy because if we didn't we'd never stop reacting. Something occurred to me. "So…Clarissa. Is she one of the ones who went missing?"

"What, the vacant stare and creepy smile?" he asked brightly. "No, she's just weird as far as I know. I mean, maybe she was one of the missing, but if so it happened before I got here." He paused. "Although…" he trailed off, looking around. "Well, everyone who comes here gets an invite. You usually don't get to know who sent yours. But I know at least one or two of the missing were invited by Clarissa. Might just be a coincidence, given the numbers, but it bears thinking about."

As someone who was probably invited by Clarissa, I definitely agreed with that last part. "What else have you heard?" I asked him quietly. "It might be important for me to know…in case I want to get in on the pool."

He nodded knowingly. "Of course, remember, the timeslip theory is the most reasonable. After that, the most popular are possession, and for some reason, a lot of people have money riding on facestealing spiders. That one seems far fetched to me, but one of the enchanting wonks has this whole complicated thesis on why it's the most likely option. He's very convincing. Personally, I don't believe he's right, but I think he might be trying to breed a species of spider that he can pin it on to win the prize money. So…you know, probably watch out for that."

"Right," I said flatly. "Face stealing spiders. Fantastic. It's fine, I didn't need to sleep anytime soon. Or ever again."

"Don't worry," he said cheerfully. "They can still get you while you're awake. According to the specs in that guy's thesis they have paralytic bites. Seriously, he laid out the specifications in EXCRUCIATING detail. It reads like a game plan. Though some of it is probably nonsense. There's no legitimate reason a creature could only lay eggs in living human brains."

I flinched at that, deeply appalled by the whole idea, but given his earlier joke, I couldn't tell if he was messing with me again. I was ninety percent sure he had to be, and I was still formulating my response when something around us changed. Out of nowhere, the slight, ambient light around us, so dim I barely noticed it was there…went out.

"Shit," Ian said in annoyance. "What fresh hell is this?"

The darkness persisted for only a few moments before the light came back (still emanating from somewhere too subtle to track). I glanced around worriedly, wondering what had happened. Which appeared to be nothing. Like I had expected a murder or an attack or even a kidnapping. But there wasn't anyone missing or dead. In fact…

My blood went cold. A slight effort of will and Dan was running in the back of my head, doing a quick headcount. He was almost always able to mine information from my memories. Which was why he'd been able to clarify exactly what was wrong in this graveyard.

Namely, the issue was the number of people. Not a LACK of people, mind. A surplus. When the lights had gone out there were a hundred and thirty seven people at this party. And now there were exactly a hundred and fifty. Thirteen more people were in this room than before the lights went out, and because of the masks, I had no earthly idea which ones weren't supposed to be here.

I sent a quick mental message to Callie, begging off my conversation with Ian as I headed to find my friends. I wasn't sure why these people had shown up here, but I was mostly positive they wouldn't have bothered with the theatrics if they'd been invited themselves. Something was wrong, and we needed to figure out what. I was halfway to Benny's position when exactly WHAT was wrong decided to make itself clear in the worst way possible. A random masked partygoer turned, their head opening like some fanged flower, and bit the face off another attendee. That, of course, is when the screaming started.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

As soon as the first person got eaten (started getting eaten? I wasn't sure if they were going to be ok, but Ascendants were tough), I immediately took off at top speed. Previously, 'top speed' for me might have been flying or a combination of my wings and Mephisto's Waltz. Now though, things were different. Top speed for me now was my newest form. Cosmic Waltz.

Tapping into my newest demon was an interesting experience. I hadn't had a chance to test it yet, but once I triggered the incarnation, I felt everything around me shift subtly. Things slowed down, though not by much, and not in a way that felt like it had anything to do with time. Rather, the space around me had been altered. Now it felt like it was heaving and thicker, like I was underwater.

I would have thought the sensation would have made me slower, but rather than weigh me down, the heaviness seemed to provide purchase for me to kind of…swim through space. All around me, I could see strange flows and currents I couldn't see before, albeit very faint ones, and I could see places where they crossed and overlapped, changing directions or speed as they passed.

My eyes scanned the currents, looking for any spot near one of my people, and I found one. Stepping into the current in the heavy space, I felt myself whisked away into a torrent of spatial energy, torn through the distance between myself and my friends.

I recognized the effect, because I had experienced it before. This was spatial lubrication. Rather than actually condensing the distance, this was an overlaying pathway of turbulent space that acted kind of like a spatial waterslide. I stepped in at one spot, then appeared again at another, pulled through the spatial riptide by my new power.

Cosmic Waltz was a REAL spatial traversal power. Mephisto's Waltz had been more like short range fudging of the space. It was slightly more streamlined because I didn't have to worry about how it worked, but in terms of distance or accessibility it couldn't compare.

I emerged from the stream of space already spinning my staff, calling out for the explosive power of Mephistopheles as I smashed down on the monster's head as it struck down at my best friend. "Get LOST!" I snapped as the creature shot backwards with a scream as the ruin infused flame ate into its skin.

Landing gracefully, I flicked my staff stylishly to clear off the burned skin and chambered it behind my back. Benny just rolled his eyes. "Most dramatic thing I've ever seen in my life," he said dryly.

"You're welcome, dick," I snorted. "See if I don't just let you get eaten next time. Come on," I grabbed his shoulder and yanked, sending him flying off his feet as I tossed him into my Domain. Without waiting, I took off back into the currents, emerging behind Jessie, then Abel, then Bethy. I didn't grab Bethy's siblings, because I didn't trust them in my Domain, but they seemed to have retreated pretty fast anyway.

I arrived next to Callie after a few jumps, and I was relieved to see that my wife was fine. Her blades were out, and she'd taken one of the monsters apart into pieces, even through a rank difference. I couldn't help but beam at how strong she was. She whirled on me as I landed, and I held up my staff to block, just in case. Luckily she noticed it was me and stopped her swing. "You're ok," she said in relief. "Where are the others?"

"Domain," I said shortly. "Where the hell did these things come from? How did they sneak up on us like that? Lights or not, someone should have seen them coming."

She snarled wordlessly, pointing at the mist. "Through THAT. It's not a creep mist, it's fucking Void miasma. That despair mist from the shoals? Same stuff, just much weaker. They used it to prime the space for an assault. The spatial nature of this building means they were able to corrupt it into a partial shallowing. The tower isn't connected to the Void, but there are still realspace adjacent positions here. Especially in weak spots like the ones formed by work like this. They piggy backed on the spatial distortions behind the building to slip through."

"Wait, what?" I snapped as my staff lashed out and caved in the skull of a nearby monster. "These are Void spawn? How the hell are these HERE. You just said we're not connected…to the Void."

She saw it click as the thought settled in my head. "Shit," I said darkly. "Harper let someone into that godsdamned chamber and they got infected with Void corruption."

"Probably more likely they volunteered to be a vessel," she said in a tired voice.

"How the hell have they not been CAUGHT yet?" I demanded as I glared around for any clues. "I know the Void is slippery, but there are Overgods here."

Callie grit her teeth. "There's more than just the Deans though," she hissed. "That Void Overgod isn't as harmless and tame as Harper thinks. It's protecting them. We have to…I don't know, tell someone."

"We have to get out first," I said grimly. "And more importantly, we need to figure out what this was about. Ian was telling me about Clarissa and these people going missing, and assuming that's a coincidence would be insane. Which means she's probably a vessel herself, and if so, why the hell did she invite us here?"

I wasn't seeing a point to this whole thing. I mean, even if I assumed that the monsters had been their whole plan, what was the point? Why would they come here just to-

There was a shift in the air, not spatial, or temporal, but…fate. Something changed in the destiny of the world. I felt terror flood my body, something so deep and primal I couldn't even process it for a moment as it slammed into my lizard brain and sent me panic spiraling into what I could only describe as a stun lock.

Luckily, I wasn't alone. Cosmic Waltz, Azazel, my demons were still with me, and they pushed me to react to the source of the fear. I stepped into a spatial current, pulling Mornax around me like a cloak as I pushed him up to A-rank and appeared behind my wife, staff raised in front of me to protect her.

The unnatural scream that preceded the explosion of chest pain was so loud it hit me like a physical blow. Which did nothing to prepare me for the ACTUAL physical blow that followed the huge, serrated antler that punched through my chest and out my back.

I gaped, staring down at the injury in disbelief. Mornax. My armor. The staff had barely managed to halt the attack as it caught on the tines of the antlers, but it was too little, too late.

"SHANE!" I heard Callie's scream of rage as my knees went out from under me. My vision was going blurry, but not so blurry I couldn't think. I jerked back off the antlers, kicking the monster away, and I reached for my Domain, pulling out all of my tier eight demons. As I did, I pulled on my staff. Upgrade. Upgrade. Upgrade. I got through three of them before my brain filled with pain and noise and I had to stop.

Azazel, Dom, and Sam hit the horned monstrosity head on, while Life Nova dropped to his knees beside me and started flooding me with power. I groaned as my bloodline ignited, feeding a bonfire into my chest as it knitted me back together. "Shane!" Callie said, kneeling next to me frantically as she started pulling out inverted objects with healing properties. "Stay with me baby, it's gonna be ok."

I coughed roughly, hacking up a piece of what I was pretty sure was spine. "I'm fine," I rasped. "I'm healing, but you need to get in the Domain. They're here for the lantern shield. I figured it out right before that thing attacked."

She cursed. "The resentment," her eyes narrowed. "Harper played us."

"I don't think so," I shook my head. "There would have been no point doing it that way. We know why they're here at least. Now the problem is what the hell we're going to do about it?"

Because I was in bad shape. My armor would recover, it was designed to do that, and my wounds were already healing. But the thing had punched through me like wet tissue paper. It was A-rank, I was sure of that, but it was strong for A-rank. I could hear my demons ganging up on it, and the numbers were enough for now, but it wouldn't last.

I was about to try to stand up when I felt another shift in the air. A long, world wear sigh echoed through the graveyard. "Enough," said a lazy, familiar voice.

Then everything just stopped. Literally. I heard the sound of clocks ticking, the echoing click slowing until it finally stopped. I sat up, groaning, to find Professor Hawkins standing in front of…an abomination.

Standing fifteen feet tall, crouched on overly long spindly legs so tall the knees stuck up past its shoulders, the monster was terrifying. I could see my blood glittering on its horn as it loomed over the frozen demons below it. Which was less than expected. Several of them had been crushed, apparently. I winced at that.

Professor Hawkins was holding a stop watch, looking down at the face with a frown. He glanced up at the monster coldly. "Do you know how far you've set my work back?" he said levelly. "My rendering tools are still connected to the timepiece that idiot is using right now. I'm gathering realtime feedback. Feedback he wasn't SUPPOSED to be aware of so I could get untainted data. And now you went and tried to infect it with your Void nonsense."

The monster glared down at him, blue flame eyes I associated with the Void set in a shiny onyx skull that sat over its face, braced by its horns. He raised an eyebrow, and the thing let out an inhuman scream that started in its chest and burst free of its oversized fanged maw as it lunger at the professor.

It turned to ash on the wind before it reached him, dissolving under the wasting of centuries or millennia as it was destroyed in an instant. I gaped as time resumed across the graveyard, blinking in shock as I realized my pain was gone, and that my armor was now completely repaired. It had a self repair function, but not at that speed. He'd somehow managed to completely revert the damage to my body without even seeming to notice me.

Grimacing, he turned to frown down at me as I climbed to my feet. "Do you HAVE to make a mess every time you do anything, or is it just personal preference?"

Coughing lightly, I climbed to my feet, marveling at the feeling of not having an antler through my lung and spine. "This one wasn't my fault. "We have to talk. Immediately. We learned some things about Dean Harper that might be relevant to the academy. Can we talk somewhere private?"

Rolling his eyes, he raised a hand and clicked his fingers, and suddenly we were standing in his living room. Not just Callie and I either. Will and Tamsin, Bethy's siblings, were here with us, looking confused and kind of irritated (Will was missing an arm and a portion of his torso from the flesh flower monsters). "Now," the professor said as he flopped down on the couch. "Tell me everything you know about Dean Harper." Judging by the glint in his eye when he said that, I had a feeling we were going to be here a while. Lovely.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So…what the hell is going on?" I asked Professor Hawkins grimly after I finished filling him in on Harper's chamber and the mess with Clarissa. "Why do they want the lantern shield? He didn't seem like he expected it to cause problems when he removed it."

He rolled his eyes. "Harper doesn't EXPECT problems, he precipitates them. I knew about his little pet project. Everyone does. But if that thing is aware and has breached containment, we have a huge problem."

"Can't you just…kill it?" I asked hesitantly. "Like it's pinned down and weakened, right?"

He snarled silently. "No. It has vessels. High level Void Children are monstrously hard to properly dispose of. That's the point of the research. With vessels in play, that means it has vectors. If we destroy the main body, its soul will fragment and scatter into the tainted. It'll burrow in, lie dormant until they leave, and then consume them once they're returned to realspace."

I swallowed hard. "That…sounds bad. Does that mean we can't do anything? Because I feel like we should do something."

"We ARE doing something," he said bluntly. "We're completing our prototype. Your new demon will be the perfect counter to this infestation. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason they tried to steal the lantern shield was to prevent it. If we can complete our research in time, we can use it to cleanse the Void taint from the students."

Gritting my teeth, I glared at him. "I don't care what they want, I care that they tried to MURDER my wife. If I find out who ordered that, the only cleansing I'm going to be doing is wiping their brain matter off the butt of my staff."

"Agreed," Callie said darkly. "I did not appreciate watching you almost die. In fact…I think it's high time that I finished what I started before entering. No more stalling. I'm breaking through to B-rank tonight." Despite her steady voice, I could feel the shaking, almost uncontrollable rage flooding the bond at the idea of losing me. I realized after a moment that I was flooding it right back, and we'd gotten into another panic spiral.

Closing my eyes, I took a long, slow breath. "Alright," I said slowly. "Let's calm down. Both of us are a little keyed up. I'm ok. You're ok. Everything is alright. You were waiting to break through for a reason, remember? You wanted to hit Advanced status?"

"I don't care," she said bluntly. "Honestly, my priorities have changed. With all this, not to mention the work on the new timepiece…I need to be B-rank. If I had been, I might have been able to help at least a bit against that monster, at least by relying on my Heretic Fire. As it is, I'm useless."

"It's your call, Cal," I shrugged. "With your Domain established already you're more than prepared for B-rank." She nodded fiercely, leaning up to peck me on the cheek before she turned and ran out of the room. "Wait, that's not-" I yelled after her in a panic. "Damn it, she's gone. I didn't mean right NOW." Turning my glare on the vampires, I said, "Follow her!"

Tamsin glared at me. "We don't work for you. We-"

"Do you like the ground?" I interrupted her. She blinked, clearly confused. "The ground. Solid earth on which to stand."

"I…yes?" she said slowly.

I nodded cheerfully. "Cool, well unless you want me to drop you into a bottomless pit where you can spend the rest of eternity falling into endless darkness where your feet will never again find purchase, you'll follow my damned wife and keep her safe. And if something happens to her because you're making me take time out of my day to threaten you, I'm going to stomp your faces in and wear your heads like shoes."

The psychotic vampire siblings were deeply unpleasant people, and I was completely fine with threatening them with violence to keep my wife safe. Once they ran out of the house, of course, I called up Cosmic Waltz. "Do me a favor, find the Asura and let them know Callie needs a guard. Or ten."

"She'll be fine for tonight," my mentor assured me. "I'll put Elonwy on protection detail until your people are in place. Once she's B-rank I assume she'll be quite a bit more durable. Her racial trait seems well crafted. Shockingly so for a lower realm."

"Her dad made it," I nodded. "He's a fairly influential god back where we're from."

He hummed without interest. "Fascinating," he said with zero actual enthusiasm. "In any case, now that you're here, I'll need your help testing a couple of thoughts I had about the project. I wasn't planning to bring you in this early, but since you discovered the monitoring, my plan to have you running around independently to get pure data is pretty much shot."

"Sounds fine," I told him with a shrug. "But before that, do you have like…a place I can put my friends? I left them in my Domain after the attack, but I don't want to keep them in there all night. They all have their own majors. I don't want to send them back immediately though."

He raised a brow at me. "No, I don't have a place to keep C-rankers. I'm surprised you bothered to ask. I'll write them notes for their classes. I AM a professor. Now, why don't we focus on these tests? Follow me." He gestured for me to trail behind him, and I did. He led me down a hallway and to a small, wooden door.

Pushing it open we walked down a flight of creaky wooden stairs, arriving at a basement workshop I hadn't seen up to this point. "So, we don't have quite as many tools as we would have in the Continuum, but I'm spacing out my hours there to maximize point value, so we'll need to make due."

I nodded, walking into the lab slowly, taking my time and trying to puzzle out what everything did. There was a lot of stuff. Boxes of spare parts, machines humming with strange energies, an odd piece of machinery that didn't appear to actually DO anything aside from moving in interesting ways like a piece of modern art. In the center of the room, there was a particularly odd device.

"What the hell is that?" I asked, pointing to the raised platform covered in large runes. Or rather, tiles with runes on them. The platform was about five by five feet, with each square foot taken up by a single rune that I didn't recognize. The runes all glowed in slightly different colors, and the back of the platform had a large arched bar that acted as a single guardrail.

He snorted. "That is the dimensional resonance frequency oscillation platform."

"What does it do?" I asked him suspiciously. "Because you only give those long complicated device name answers when they do something you're embarrassed to admit."

"I'm not embarrassed," he frowned. "It's just a complicated piece of machinery that would require highly technical scientific jargon to explain to you, and I don't have the time. But you don't need to know what it does. Just how to use it. Follow my instructions and the tests will go quickly enough."

It occurred to me that this whole exercise might not really be about testing at all. Thinking about it, I owed him, so I would do it. And I knew he wanted to finish this project, sure, but I also suspected the professor was using this as an excuse to distract me from spiraling about the Void vessels. He knew what I was like, and he knew that if I didn't have something to focus on I would spin out and drive myself crazy.

"Now, what you need to do is climb onto the platform," he said carefully. "By matching your harmonic frequency to the shifting gradient patterns underlaying the rune schema, you can synchronize your dimensional resonance with the platform, allowing for an enhanced examination of your temperospatial substructure."

I frowned at his pompous tone, annoyed that I didn't actually understand…at first. Then Dan chimed in from the back of my brain and I narrowed my eyes. "Wait,are you saying you just need me to step on the runes as they light up?"

"I didn't say that," he corrected me. "It may be true. But I didn't say it. Now get on the platform and put your feet on whichever color I tell you to."

Grumbling, I climbed onto the platform, getting ready to apply my boots to whichever rune he mentioned. "Alright," I told him when I was in position. "All you have to do is give me the color, and I'll hit it immediately."

"Chartreuse," he said after a few seconds. "Mauve, Cerulean, Periwinkle." He continued calling out colors and I continued not hitting all of them because the names were only somewhat familiar. After a few seconds, he called me to a halt. "Stop, stop!" he snapped. "What are you doing? I told you the colors."

"I don't know what color Mauve is," I told him bluntly. "Or chartreuse. I DO know cerulean and periwinkle, but that's only two out of four."

We kept at it like that for the next two hours. Finally, after an unnecessarily long series of footwork drills, we finally completed the testing to his satisfaction. Once I was finished, I said my goodbyes, retrieved the notes that each of my friends had been offered, and headed back to my residence.

When I arrived, I decided to check in on the others, entering my Domain directly to maintain their security. When I got there, I was all but mobbed by my closest confidantes. Well, mostly my closest confidants. I was also surprised to see one less familiar but still known face among them. Ian.

"You came with us?" I asked him as everyone else scattered. "Shows a lot of trust."

He was B-rank, but not a vampire of anything, so I wasn't too worried about him being in my Domain. Still, I was surprised to see him. He didn't seem to share that sentiment, because he just gave me a tired smile. "I didn't have much choice," he said ruefully. "One of your subordinates grabbed me during the fight. I'd have been dead if he hadn't."

I assumed he was talking about a demon, though I didn't know which one. "Well, you're welcome," I said with a laugh. "Make yourself at home for now, we'll get everyone settled tomorrow and you can get back. I suspect Professor Hawkins gave me a not for you too."

"Thanks," he said gratefully. "I'll take you up on that." He looked like he wanted to leave it at that, but to my surprise, he felt compelled to add one more bit of information. "You helped me out, so I have one other bit of information. If you want it."

"Of course I do," I assured him. "Something about the missing students?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. Something I heard Clarissa talking about with one of her recommendations. Didn't make much sense at the time, but after this mess tonight I'd have to be stupid not to know she was suspicious. This was before that though. Ages back. I heard her talking to one of her suggested entrants. She mentioned a red door."

I froze. Because I had heard that phrase before. Or rather, I'd seen it. On a piece of paper tucked into the visor of a cluttered car that belonged to my friend. Elonwy had a note about not opening a door in her basement. She'd mentioned forgetting it and leaving it open. What was it? What did it have to do with the Void, if anything? I had no idea, but I knew this was at least a place to start. I guessed tomorrow I'd need to get in touch with a friend.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Finding Elonwy's house was harder than I expected. Which, reasonably, should not have been the case. Not that it shouldn't have been hard, but that I expected it not to be. Randomly figuring out where someone lives without asking them SHOULD be difficult, but for some reason I had just assumed it would be a piece of cake.

It wasn't. After getting my friends home safely (with the help of the Asura), and getting some rest, I woke up the next morning and stockpiled my scrolls ready to take on the day. I wasn't sure what the red door was, how it was connected to the Void, or what exactly Elonwy had to do with it, but I wasn't afraid to find out. I was ready and motivated, and I was going to get the answers I needed by hook or by crook.

That motivation lasted me through about lunch time. At that point, I ended up at a cafe where I ordered a huge coffee and a big piece of tiramisu and decided to try to eat my feelings while I came up with a different game plan.

After that, I called the professor, and after a bit of pleading, he told me where to go after I explained my concerns. Finally, I ended up in the front yard of an innocuous looking house in Common City with an overgrown front lawn. Since Elonwy was nominally a staff member, she was technically entitled to live in Moment City, but most of the people she knew were staying in the A-rank residences, and Common City made it easier for her to commute back and forth.

Oddly, the thing that shocked me most about this was the car. Based on the setup as communicated, there was a decent chance Elonwy could actually DRIVE between cities. That was kind of amazing.

My awe stopped at the car, however. When I arrived at her place, I found myself pretty disappointed with the aesthetic. It looked old and run down. Not just an overgrown yard, the wooden boards on the house were uneven and bowed, some places had been inexpertly patched with cheap pieces of poorly matching wood or plastic.

I frowned, because this didn't really seem like Elonwy. Sure, her car was a mess, but that was research stuff. She was always pretty well put together in terms of organization from what I'd seen. I climbed the creaky porch stairs, careful not to make too much noise, then I knocked on the door.

There was a brief paused, then the door was yanked open and a spiky haired woman with dark purple eyes the same color as her mane glared out at me. "What?" she snapped angrily. I blinked, not expecting a stranger. She appeared to be A-rank, and not low into it, but something about her was…off. She was thin, almost unnaturally so. Not 'I work out a lot' thin, more like 'I forgot to eat this month and also have a tapeworm' thin. Almost skeletal.

Her nose was pieced with a dark iron hoop and she was wearing a lot of eyeshadow. I cleared my throat to stop myself from dwelling on the alarm bells she was setting off. She felt familiar, and not in a good way. It wasn't the Void though. It was something else. Someone else.

"Hello," I said pleasantly. "I'm looking for Elonwy."

"Why?" she demanded hostilely. "I don't know you. What do you want with El? She didn't tell me anyone was coming over."

I chuckled sheepishly. "Ah, sorry, the Professor asked me to come get her. He had some research tasks he needed her for and he's too busy to come himself. You know how he gets when he's working."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Yeah," she said after a moment. "I guess. I'm Janet, her roommate. If you came here for the professor… fine, come inside." She didn't seem particularly enthused about that. I got the impression she was more worried about getting Professor Hawkins attention than me coming in though, probably because I was a B-ranker.

I stepped into the house, and was almost immediately hit in the face by a wall of scent and offensive sights. Trash, cobwebs, books and papers, all strewn about on the floor, haphazardly pushed against the walls to make little walkways through the filth. This wasn't disorganized, this was…wrong. No one should be living like this.

My mask covered the disgust, thankfully, and the woman didn't seem to notice. "She's busy right now. Working. I have to go downstairs and get her." She gave me a nasty smile. "You know how she gets. Stay here and don't TOUCH anything."

"Yeah," I said blandly as I pushed a blackened banana peel away from my foot. "Wouldn't want to make a mess."

She ignored me, turning to stalk off down the hall. I waited for about ten seconds, then triggered Murmur along with my staff and followed her. With my stealth form at A-rank I was sure I would be impossible to detect, especially in this mess, but I still went slow, making sure I gave the form time to bake the stealth into itself.

Creeping slowly down the hall after the woman. I followed as carefully as I could, trying my best to avoid stepping on anything that might give me away.

Following her trail wasn't hard, especially not in Murmur. I made my way to the end of the hall she'd gone down, and I came to a halt right at the end. Where I found a door. A red door leading into a basement. It was closed, and I waited a minute to open it so I could have the most information for stealth and prevent detection.

Pushing it open, I stepped onto a set of rickety wooden stairs bolted into the wall, slowly creeping down to peer into the basement.

Janet was on her knees next to a figure sitting in a chair. "Shit, shit, shit," she was muttering. "Why didn't you tell me you were having people over? Why did I latch this thing so tight? And will you STOP CRYING YOU STUPID BITCH!" She screamed the last part hysterically as she fumbled at a large dark device wrapped around Elonwy's neck.

My friend was sitting in a chair, staring straight ahead. Her face was completely blank, but tears were leaking from her empty, unfocused eyes, and she was making faint whimpering sounds. My knuckles cracked as I stared down at the scene. I didn't know what that collar was, but I was doubting it was anything good. Clearly, it was only usable here while she was home, probably to prevent the Professor from noticing.

I was already walking down the stairs, staff coming to my hands as I prowled forward. I got closer, taking my time, slowly closing the distance. When I got close enough, I called for Mephistopheles, my most dangerous form, and triggered the staff to push him to tier 9.

Stepping forward, I lashed out with my staff, focusing all of the ruin flame into the butt as I slammed it violently toward the base of Janet's skull.

Janet, however, was not a pushover. A-rank or not, she was on a level far above where I was. I might be swinging A-rank right now, but this was an A-rank who had subdued Elonwy, even if I was pretty sure she cheated. Even from perfect stealth, with an A-rank staff infused with A-rank ruin phoenix fire…I missed.

Well, I partly missed. Something alerted Janet, and she turned in time to notice and backpedal, but the densely packed sphere of ruin fire grazed her eye as she did, and she clutched her head screaming, stumbling back as my staff sailed on and smashed into the black metal of the collar she'd been undoing.

Of course, I was already triggering Mornax alongside my staff, and it turned out to be just in time to prevent myself from being eviscerated by a literal SCORPION tail that shot out from behind Janet, slamming into my gut hard enough to send me flying.

"Godsdamnit!" she screamed, clutching her ruined eye. "You stupid little shit! Now I'm going to have to kill you, and then her, and then go underground, and the Lord is going to be furious."

I coughed, climbing to my feet. Mornax and the Seal had protected me, but that had still hurt. She was STRONG. Whatever her racial trait was, it was clearly high tier. "The Lord?" I asked wryly. "You realize that Void Child probably cares less about you than a dog cares about a literal flea, right?"

She sneered. "Moron. You think you understand anything? We were CHOSEN. He called for us and we came. That forms a bond."

"Yeah, I'm sure the trip from two towns over was filled with hardship," I sniped.

"You think his reach is limited to just this?" she giggled madly. "You think the call only went out to students? To faculty? He's been SCREAMING for millennia. The rest of the idiots have just been too blind to hear it. But we heard. Across so many planes and realms. We heard and we came to his aid. We are his faithful, and we will free him."

Just like that, something I had put out of my head finally clicked. And my blood turned to ice. Deveskane. The god who had manipulated us into helping him summon the tower. I had been wondering how he'd known. Been wondering what he hoped to accomplish here. Was it just about the thesis? But now I had another idea about why he might be here. A horrible, terrible, gutwrenching idea.

Deveskane was a god of sealing. But he'd proven that with the proper preparations he could also UNSEAL. Unseal trapped things that had been contained by forces much greater than himself. Things like Void Child Overgods that had apparently been talking to people in several realms.

Janet seemed to take my silence as surrender, and her gaunt face drew up into a cruel smile. "Now you see how futile it is. How we've prepared. There's nothing you can do to stop what's coming, and you will die knowing everyone you love will follow soon after."

I blinked. "Wait…what? No, I was thinking about something else. I'm not worried about you anymore."

She sneered. "Bravado or idiocy? I wonder. Do you want to die with dignity, or do you truly think you can destroy me because your little sucker punch earlier did some damage. Even with one eye and all your little tricks I could swat you like an insect. My eye is already healing. Your flame is terrible, but I have my own countermeasures to such things."

"Oh that?" I asked as I pointed to her face. "Yeah that isn't optimized for use on people. Like sure, it will do some damage. But that's not what it's FOR. The Ruin attribute was grafted onto the black armor piercing flames, which means it's more properly meant to work on objects."

Smiling sadistically, she stepped forward, raising her tail as if to strike me down. "Ah, so bravado then. You've accepted your death and plan to be put down gracefully?"

"No," I said patiently. "That's not what I meant at all. Though I do appreciate you letting me monologue. I was trying to come up with a way to stall that didn't involve getting my ribs played like a xylophone, and your condescension really helped."

"A fool after all," she said, scorn dripping from her words. "What good would stalling do in this situation? Charging another attack to use against me after the first one missed?"

I grinned beneath my mask, eyes sliding past her at the figure slowly standing from the chair, hands clutching the shattered remnants of a black iron collar. "Nope," I said cheerfully. "I don't need another attack. Because I didn't actually miss the first time. I just wasn't really aiming for you."

 

[Vongrak]

Ah what a shame. Void child corruption seems to inflate your ego at the cost of your actual intelligence. Poor Janet, now you're going to be an idiot forever.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Elonwy looked PISSED. Which was understandable, and also very bad for Janet. She seemed to know it too, because she whirled on her heel and tried to bolt for the stairs, and Elonwy didn't even blink. My friend flicked her fingers, and the other woman froze in place. Janet squirmed and jerked, and rather than stick her in place, the effect let her slowly pull free…and then snapped her immediately back to her starting point.

Each attempt left a sort of echo stuck in the air where she'd snapped back. Elonwy walked over to the nearest one, extended the nail on her pinky…and slashed its throat.

The echo exploded into golden motes of sand, all of them flowing along the distorted space Janet had traveled to reach that point, and when it slammed into the scorpion woman, her eyes went wide and she let out a choked scream. Blood fountained from her mouth, and she hung there in the air for a moment, choking on it.

Eventually the effect stopped. But Elonwy just moved on. One by one she executed the images of her roommate, and one by one Janet suffered a sort of diluted version of those deaths while suffering seemingly no damage.

I swallowed. "Remind me never to piss you off," I said shakily.

"Oh?" she asked mildly. "Do you think you're likely to need a reminder after watching all that?" She smiled sweetly and I tried to suppress a shudder. "I didn't think so."

"Right…" I said slowly. "Anyway, are you ok? That looked…rough."

She groaned, rolling her neck. "I don't even know where she GOT a Drayven Subjugation Collar. Those are banned almost everywhere I've ever even heard of. You can't even use them on animals. Little asshole cozied up to me until I thought we were friends and got me in my sleep. She was conditioning me whenever I was home and letting me out during the day. She suppressed my memories with the collar."

"That's awful," I grimaced. "Did she…was she involved in the mess with the party?"

"She was," she winced. "And it was my fault. She learned about the lantern shield from me. Must have told her bosses about it. As for who those are, we'll have to see. I assume you don't mind if I take her to the Prof for questioning. If you think THAT was unpleasant, you don't want to know what he's going to do. She'll tell him things she didn't even know she remembered. Literally, I've seen him pull confessions from parallel timelines beyond the knowledge of the subject."

I nodded. "Of course, but do you mind if I ask her a few things first? I need to know something and I think she can tell me."

"Well, you saved my life, so I can probably swing that," she said dryly. "And thanks for that, by the way. Seriously. I owe you in a big way. If you need anything I can accomplish all you have to do is ask." At my obvious delight, she cautioned me. "That's a much smaller list than you might think. I'm still a student and employee. I can't bypass school rules or spot you credits beyond what I already have. Speaking of, don't you have a class with the Dean today?"

I cursed, checking the time on my ring. "I do. In an hour. I spent most of my day looking for your house. Can you give me a ride back to Moment City when you're dropping her off?"

"No problem, now, you have questions for her, you said?" her eyes hardened as she turned back to her roommate, and Janet wilted under her glare. "Questions she's going to answer in detail, isn't she?" The other woman nodded frantically.

Janet's previous bravado was gone. Her pale, thin face, previously cast in a sort of hungry malevolence, was twisted in an oddly fragile expression of naked fear. Having seen what she was doing earlier, I remained unmoved. " You said you were all called by the Void Child. How many of the others have you met?"

She might have been scared, but she wasn't sorry. Her eyes flickered with seething hatred, but cowardice won out. "Only a few," she said slowly. "The Lord keeps us separate. He knows the faculty have many tricks. Compartmentalizing limits our exposure."

"A few isn't none," I said bluntly. "Have you met a man named Deveskane?"

Deveskane was a god. Emphasis on WAS. The limitations of this place, namely that one must lack a complete Chronicle, meant a fully fledged god wouldn't be able to come in. The only possibility was that he'd used the Chasm to seal himself so he wouldn't recover.

How long had he been planning this? What had that Void Child shown him? Thinking about all the things that had lined up for events to turn out this way…but no, that was a trap. He didn't need ME to free him. He needed SOMEONE to free him. The Hermetic Hall was built to unseal the tower, and had been operating for who knew how long. Atlas and I got pulled into the breakthrough, but that didn't mean we'd stepped into his trap. He just needed a push over the finish line.

If it hadn't been us it would have been someone else. The Chasm was a trap set for Deveskane's enemies. There were multiple outcomes that would favor him. Still, he'd known some things about the Chasm the rest of us hadn't clearly. How much was up for debate, but whatever he'd been taught he'd used to infiltrate this place.

Janet's face went pale. "What? No! I don't know who that is! I've never heard of him!"

"Wow," I said dryly. "You're a REALLY bad liar. I expected more from a sleeper agent. So you know him then? Good, then you ca-"

My speech cut off as Janet threw her head back and SCREAMED, her mouth erupting with an eerie blue flame reminiscent of the eyes of Void spawn. She went up like an oil soaked rag, immolating to ash in seconds, and the flame even burned through Elonwy's restraints.

"No!" shouted my friend, darting forward to try to save her roommate. By the time she arrived all she could do was scoop up handfuls of cooling ash. "Damn it!" she snapped, ash covered hands tightening into fists. "I wasn't DONE with you!" She screamed, smashing her hands into the concrete floor of her basement, sending clouds of ash into the hair as she pummeled the rock into dust.

I cursed. "Damn it," I said as I knelt next to her. "Sorry. Can you…can your power undo that?"

"No," she said grimly. "Her soul was consumed. Not just her soul, her potentiality. That flame consumed her existence. That was temporal fire."

"Wait, that wasn't the Void Child?" I asked as I stared at the pile of ash. The color had me convinced it had been the Overgod that killed her, but it wouldn't use temporal energy. That implied someone from our major. Worse, if they burned through Elonwy's restraints that easily, it implied a god.

Elonwy nodded at my worried silence. "Yeah, I think this was probably a faculty member. They turned one of ours."

Which was bad. Because it meant we couldn't trust the faculty. I was pretty sure it wasn't the Professor, because I'd be dead if he thought I was a threat, and Janet had needed to work around him to subdue Elonwy. The Dean was obviously out too, but other than him…who knew? Which meant we couldn't afford to run our mouths about this.

Actually, thinking back, maybe the Professor had even known. He hadn't mentioned talking to other faculty about it. I was pretty sure he told the Dean, but that seemed like a safe choice. If he was keeping quiet, I kind of wish he'd shared that with us, but I guessed that wasn't really his style.

I reached down and offered Elonwy my hand, pulling her to her feet. "I'm sorry," I told her sincerely. "This was on me. If I hadn't questioned her, whatever killed her might not have triggered. The Professor probably could have gotten more."

"Not your fault," she said with a sad smile. "Mortals are all helpless before the whims of gods. Even S-rankers aren't an exception."

I knew at least one who was, but it didn't seem like a good time to nitpick. "So…what do we do?" I said worriedly. "I mean, I came here to investigate the red door, but does it even have any significance? Or was it just some kind of code they used to denote places where they conducted experiments?"

Frowning, she turned and headed up the steps to the door frame at the top. Kneeling, she touched the base of the red door. "I think…it's a cloaking device of some kind? Maybe Void infused. This must be how they were able to try to subvert me without the Professor noticing. Doing it here and hiding the traces are one thing, but blocking the perception of a powerful god isn't that easy."

"That tracks," I grimaced. "The Void excels at stealth and isolation." I frowned at the frame. "Does this mean there could be a bunch more of these in people's houses, with captives behind them being brainwashed?"

Elonwy's eyes hardened. "There may be. I don't…" she shuddered. "I can't describe what it was like. I don't remember it all. I don't want to. But even the flashes that crawl through my brain, the little flickers that dance behind my eyes when I close them. It was awful. Thank you, Shane. Really. Thank you so very much for saving me."

"I think your memory might still be on the fritz," I said dryly. "Because I seem to remember YOU saving ME. My ass was grass if you hadn't woken up. All I did was jam up the collar. It was your will that let you force it the rest of the way open and break out."

She smiled warmly at me. I could tell she was amused by my insistence on downplaying my role in things. "You know, most people would just agree if a powerful S-ranker said she owed them a favor."

"Favors are nice," I said gently. "Friends are better. I don't have so many of the latter that I'm willing to trade one for the other."

That surprised a laugh out of her. "How are you a B-ranker with that kind of idealism?"

"I married up," I said with a grin. "My wife keeps me honest." And it was true. Callie was a true hero, and always had been. I was always more light grey than anything, but she'd been keeping me on a brighter path since we'd met. Without her, I wasn't sure who I would be, but it definitely wouldn't be anything like I was now.

"That's so cute," she cooed. "And I'm almost positive it's going to get SO annoying after a pretty short time. You two really are sickeningly in love."

I laughed, the familiar banter (even with someone a bit less familiar), washing away some of my unease. It wasn't gone, but talking about Callie warmed me enough that I could put things out of my head, at least.

We climbed the rest of the steps, emerging out into the hallway. Elonwy's face twisted in horror. "Dear gods," she wailed. "What did that lunatic do to my HOUSE? It looks like a pig sty in here."

"Don't be silly," I told her sympathetically. "Pigs live in much better conditions than this."

"Just because I owe you doesn't mean I won't smack you if you deserve it," she threatened in what I was pretty sure was a joking tone. "Anyway, it doesn't matter for now. I promised you a ride. Don't want you late for your first class with the Dean. Let's get going." My eyes widened and I bolted for the door. I really hoped we would make it in time.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I arrived at the door to the classroom with moments to spare. Probably. I wasn't actually sure how the Dean's class worked. The temporal mechanics were vague and far above my level, but I was pretty sure I was right on time. Or early. Or late. Or possibly all three at the same time somehow. Time manipulation made my brain hurt sometimes.

Either way, I knocked on the door and then pushed it open, shooting Elonwy one last glance as I stepped inside.

"Ah, Mr. Wyndham," came the Dean's cold, implacable voice. "I was wondering if we would see you. You DID pay to attend this class, yes?" I looked up to find him standing at the base of the steps leading into the room, eyes pinning me like a butterfly to a board.

Swallowing, I looked around. "I…thought I was on time."

"Were you?" he raised an eyebrow. His eyes pierced me like daggers for what felt like an eternity but couldn't have been more than ten seconds, then he shrugged. "Fair enough. I haven't actually left this instance since class started. I've been running this course nonstop for the last ten hours from my perspective, bridged across several weeks. I don't like doing these, so I try to just get them out of the way."

Frowning, I nodded and grabbed a random seat, sitting down to observe. The Dean walked back into the center of the cone shaped amphitheater, hopping up to sit on the table in the middle. "So, newcomers means a bit of rehashing. Which I suppose calls for cooperation. Show of hands, how many of you know what time is?"

Several hands went up and he snorted. "Trick question. None of you knows what time is. I don't even know what time is. Why is that?"

This time, far fewer people raised their hands. The Dean pointed to a delicate looking girl with short dark hair. "Ms. Lehayne? You suspect you have some keen insight into a problem even I can't find an answer to?"

"No, sir," she said immediately. "I believe there is no problem at all. You don't know what time is because time doesn't exist."

He grinned, the first sign of genuine enthusiasm I had seen from him. "Excellent. That is excellently put. Time does not exist. And yet, we study it, manipulate it, base our lives around it. Time, as they say, is the fire in which we burn. You claim this fire to be a falsehood?"

"I don't," she contradicted. "I said it doesn't exist, not that it's not real. The two statements are not synonymous."

"Precisely," he said with a satisfied nod. "There is, and this is completely true, no such thing as time. It is not a law of reality. It is a concept that we, as humans, coined to allow for the tracking of the progression of the world. As Ms. Lehayne stated, that does not make it fictional, any more than any other attribute or Ascendant construct is fictional. But the key to utilizing time properly is to grasp that simple fact. Time is a thing of our own devising. We created it. We control it.

"I am sure you have heard many explanations for what time is since coming here," he said, hopping down and strolling over to begin scribbling on a board. "Time is four dimensional, time is a river, time is an omnipresent energy field, time is a mirror, an airplane, a cat with five eyes. Time is sentient, it's autonomous, it's jealous of women with curly hair, and men with hobnailed boots."

I raised an eyebrow at those, but he just pushed on. "These things are all true. And they are not true. They are lies, and also incontrovertible facts. Time is what we make it. It is, above all other things, OURS. Time obeys. It capitulates. And the second you forget that is the second you cease to study or manipulate time and become swept up in its current. Time is fickle, if nothing else, and it will control that which does not exert control in turn. Time is OURS, ladies and gentlemen, and never forget it.

"This, more than anything, is the reason that this class is not offered for free, or at the beginning of the year," he said wryly. "In order to understand what something is, you must understand what it is NOT. You must learn the rules before you can rewrite them. Each of you has been taught some form of temporal mechanics. You have learned a form of time manipulation, have learned to see or interact with the temporal flows in some way."

"And those are, what?" I demanded. "Lies? Made up?"

He rolled his eyes. "Everything is 'made up' Mr. Wyndham. Family is made up. Love is made up. Language, mathematics, art, music. These things are all 'made up'. Do you deny they exist? Do you consider them fictions?"

"I mean, no," I said slowly. "But that's not really the same thing."

"Is it not?" he asked with an arched brow. "Time is the first of man's great deceptions. Not against one another, though perhaps it is that as well, but against the universe. At the beginning of creation, before we understood what an Ascendant was, before recursion was defined, man looked up at the stars, watched their passage and decided to lie to reality. And guess what? Reality believed us."

A hand went up. "Are you saying that time is the first attribute?" someone asked excitedly.

"Sure," he said with a shrug. "Or the second. Or the billionth. I have no way of knowing nor would I care to pursue such knowledge. Regardless, the concept of time has shaped reality as we perceive it, as have all human concepts. Though most to a lesser degree. These things, however, are irrelevant. Can anyone tell me WHY I decided to tell you all this?"

I was amused to note that everyone was watching with rapt attention. Not the kind of attention you paid when you'd heard something before. Which meant either the Dean had lied about covering the old material again, or he was doing things out of order, which Elonwy had warned me might do. In either case, no one seemed to know for sure, though the short haired girl from earlier, an A-ranker, raised her hand again. He pointed to her imperiously.

"Is it because you want us to challenge our preconceptions?" she asked tentatively.

"Precisely!" he said energetically. "That is precisely why! Time is nothing. It has no meaning. We teach you the 'rules' that work best for us, ones that follow the warp and weft of the byzantine web of human perception as we recognize it, but ultimately, these are just guidelines. As I said, time is OURS. The time we teach is not YOUR time, only a first step to discovering your truth. Do not be bound to the outdated norms you consider 'facts' nor treat the teachings of your elders as gospel. There are as many types of time as stars in the sky."

He stared us all down like a hungry wolf, and I felt a shiver go down my spine. "Now, you may be thinking, with that being said, 'why bother listening?' 'why bother learning from you at all?' Or any number of other absurd questions. Are any of you thinking that?'

Credit where it was due. The tanned, blue haired guy who raised his hand was brave, even if he was also obviously an idiot. "I mean…yeah," he said sourly. "We paid ten thousand points for you to tell us everything we've been learning is bullshit?" He glared right back at the Overgod leading the class. "Doesn't that seem kind of like a scam?"

"Maybe," said the Dean with a shrug. "Tell you what. I'll refund your credits. You can get up and leave right now, get a full refund, and there will be no penalties levied against you. Of course, just as you resent time wastage, I feel the same, so you will never be permitted to take this course again. But then, it's just a scam, right? So I'm sure you aren't worried about coming back here after this."

"I…um," the guy said shakily. "I don't want that. I was just asking."

"Well you know what they say," the Dean said warmly. "There are no stupid questions. Only stupid people. Which would be you, in case you missed that. Now shut up until the course ends. I find your voice grating." He looked around at the rest of us. "Anyone else? Remember, no stupid questions."

He waited a few moments. "No one?" he asked in faux shock. "Astonishing. Now, those of you with sense the universe gave a toaster probably assumed I had an answer prepared for that rhetorical question. You were correct." He slapped the board, where he'd been writing down some of the models people used to represent time. "These models work. All of them. Some well, some poorly, but they function. You can LEARN from each of them. Find what works well, find out if it works well for you, if it doesn't toss it and find something else.

"These constructs are prototypes for your process," he stressed. "They are examples of solutions your predecessors have come up with to problems you will face. You are not here to learn about time. You are here to learn HOW to learn about time. How to understand it yourself. You're here to learn underlying elements that compose all concepts of time, and to find some strange ones that never occurred to you but sound good when you say them out loud.

He wrote out a sentence, smacking his chalk against the board when he finalized the exclamation point. "Questions make answers," he said bluntly. "You cannot give a response to a query that has not been posed. Our job is to tell you the questions so you don't need to discover them for yourselves. Your job is to find your own answers."

I hadn't been expecting this. Any of it. And honestly…I was glad. I loved the whole concept. The freedom, the innovation, they were…intoxicating. Sure, it was intimidating, and I planned to continue using the timepiece constructs because they fit my whole meta incredibly well. But now I knew that I wasn't bound by what Professor Hawkins thought was true. I could rearrange things a bit, play with my results. And I did my best work when I was experimenting.

The class went on like that for a few hours. The Dean outlined the most common constructs people used for the understanding of time, then poked holes in them mercilessly. Then he poked holes in the holes.

Despite having told us there was no REAL definition of temporal mechanics, he gave us so much information on the subject my brain was starting to hurt. While time wasn't a solid, factual thing, in the way some people assumed it was, it WAS a concept defined by humans, so there were common elements, just like the Dean had said, and he steered us through all of them.

Some he admitted were strong conceptual underpinnings. Clocks were a popular symbology, for instance. Mechanical precision was a logical and easy to conceptualize construct to work with, and it was a favorite for beginners with the time attribute.

Some people went with more esoteric constructs, like the river or even more abstruse ideas like time as a drop of water. Liquid seemed to be a popular medium for illustration, ironically for the exact OPPOSITE reason to clockwork. He talked and talked and talked, and bb the time the class ended, my brain was so full of information I felt like my skull was creaking.

Finally, the lesson ended. "Well, that's all," he said with a smile. "For you at least. Leave and come back at your next appointed class time. It will seem instantaneous for me, but that's not your problem is it?" I staggered to my feet, heading for the door, but once I was out I didn't head home. I took out the device my teacher gave me and asked him to send Elonwy to pick me up and bring me to him. My brain was firing on all cylinders, and I wanted to use it. I wanted to be part of the development team for my next demon.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I spent the next month working. Studying various constructs, refining my clockwork, and having my demons do tasks to grind up the last few thousand I needed to afford the ascension thesis. Once I had enough, I redeemed it immediately, then stashed it in my paired ring where Callie would be able to access it if she needed it.

After that, I got back to work. Studying, grinding, and refining. Aside from helping with the plans for my new phoenix demon, I completed work on a timepiece for Life Nova, tying in one of Archie's feathers to cement the phoenix template, and then began the process of altering the designs for Cosmic Waltz and Life Nova to compatibly anchor with Mephistopheles and Genesis Burst when we completed work on the latter.

With the example of Mephistopheles already having been adapted for the anchoring process, creating another archdemon mechanism was much easier, though I still had to rely heavily on Dantalion and the Pillar. At tier 9 my information demon could process information exponentially faster, and combined with my already substantial Focus, he was tearing through iterations.

Which led us to today. It was finally time. "Alright," I said as I looked around at the others. "Everyone knows what to do?"

All my demons nodded. Callie was standing nearby, equally prepared. "I've got it," she assured me. "The new shield is done. It's…I think it turned out really well. I made all the tweaks the Prof suggested, and this is what we ended up with." She held up a large box, opening it up to reveal a new item I'd never seen before.

It was certainly striking. The previous lantern shield had been a terrible, sadistic thing. All angles and dark jagged edges. The new shield looked substantially more like protection than the old. White metal with gold filigree, and from inside, what we had decided to call Peaceflame flickered warmly, a strong and reassuring presence. Just looking at the shield made me feel safer, more protected. I liked it.

My wife knew how I felt about her. Not just the love, but the…pride. Callie was the better of the two of us. She was the real deal, the hero of our story. She was my guiding star that showed me true north. I wasn't a bad person, I didn't think, or I tried not to be, but Callie was the one who showed me what that meant. I BELIEVED in her, truly and completely. But it had never really occurred to me that she might feel the same way. Not because she didn't love me, I knew that she did, but because I couldn't imagine seeing that goodness I saw in her in myself.

Callie could feel my response, and she smiled at me tenderly. "This is how I see you," she said quietly, stepping forward to put a hand on my face. "You make the world a better place by being in it. Make it safer. You're kind and strong and good and I know you forget that, but now any time you do, you can reach for this feeling and hold it close, and you'll remember that no matter how many criminal organizations you take over, you'll always be my hero."

I swallowed hard. I didn't know why this was so important to me. I had the occasional thought about following her lead, but I hadn't realized it bothered me that I felt like I wasn't living up to her example. I knew she didn't feel that way, and somehow that made it worse. Part of it might have been the WCP, but part of it was just…awe. I spent every day connected to her heart. I knew her in a way I had never known anyone else and never would. And no matter how long we were together, I would never stop feeling blown away by how truly kind and strong and decent my wife was.

It wasn't about demeanor, or the things she said. I loved those things, yes, but it was deeper than that. The things she felt. The love, the concern, even the outrage when it flared up. She proved how amazing she was every day, and knowing someone like that felt like…THIS about me was humbling.

Clearing my throat, I shook off the reverie. "I love you," I told her quietly, leaning down to kiss her hand before I pulled back. I didn't have my mask on, because we were inside my Domain and it wasn't necessary in here.

"I know," she winked. "Now go make a demon."

Nodding, I turned back to the device that I was using to communicate with the Professor. His voice echoed out from it in annoyance. "Are you done? Because this is delicate and expensive equipment and we have limited access. Perhaps you could enjoy your wedded bliss at a time when we aren't spending obscene amounts of resources to ensure the best chance of success in this endeavor."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm coming, calm down. Just adjusting my mental state. Gotta make sure we nail this first try, right?"

"Fine," he sighed. "Consult the diagram again. You've got it memorized?"

I glanced over at the table. A stack of paper rested on the dark stone, each page complete with a dozen strange outlines and concepts. I'd adapted several of them to my personal style after the Dean's class, but the Professor had crafted the overall structure, and it showed. I studied the design a few more times, making sure I had everything committed to memory.

Despite the freeform nature of time as a construct, the fact remained that the Professor's system was a mature and developed meta for interacting with the timestream. He'd been working on it for millennia, trial and error and not a small amount of talent making a coherent system to work from. If we were both inventing our own fictional type of math then his had already made it to advanced calculus and mine was still multiplication.


"Alright," I said slowly. "It's time. And you're sure that locking in the template during the process is the best way to do this?"

"Just follow the plan," he said solemnly. "Your demon said it would work, yes?" I glanced over to where Nine Phoenix was waiting, receiving a nod. I let him know. "Then yes, we continue with the plan as is. This will also allow us to construct the timepiece in such a way as to allow the three others to socket. Up to this point you were only able to connect three demons, this will stably allow for a four part connection."

Nodding, I got into position. I had the demons required for the process collected in a loose semi circle around the device, and when I gave the signal, we began. We started with fire. Genesis Burst stepped forward, pouring out his flame onto the device, and we collected and condensed it into a single point. This was where my exercises with my parents came in handy. Binding. I was Solomon, and I followed the path of the Demonbinder. Beyond my Mythcrafting talent, this was the CORRECT use of my Path.

I reached out for the fire and bound it to my will, shaping it into the necessary constructs as the others slowly fed in the other attributes. "Callie," I said without looking up. Stepping forward, she raised the shield, tipping it over, and some of the Peaceflame poured from the lantern and into the mixture. "Nine," I said next.

Stepping forward, Nine Phoenix pulled a strand of the flame out and inhaled it. He waited for a moment, then exhaled it again, though slightly smaller. I began work on the rest of the mechanisms. One, two, three. I kept going. I needed help for this. Multiple demons working on multiple aspects of the build, parallels assisting, Callie helping, Dan composing, a detailed map of what to build.

Finally, after about four hours, I finished it. Twenty three movements, or complications as had taken to calling them. Either worked but I liked the sound of the latter better, it seemed more grounded. Each individual element socketed together in a perfectly engineered construct designed to link several delicate concepts. "Alright, Brad," I said slowly. "Time to embed the lantern shield."

He stepped forward, raising his hands, and a hole opened in the air above the timepiece. Slowly, I lowered the shield into it, and he withdrew. Then I lifted the piece. "Finally, Genesis Burst. It's time." My demon stepped forward, eyes locked on mine. "Are you sure about this?" I asked him gently. "This will change you. More than you can imagine. This is more alterations than we've ever done before, and all the elements being used are stronger than your current state."

As a technique, Genesis Burst (Gene for short) was important for what it represented, but it was mostly just a very focused application of Zagan aimed at the soul. In his defense, Gene didn't seem remotely worried about the changes. "I am ready," he said confidently.

Nodding to Brad, I lifted the timepiece. It felt…heavy. Different. The golden gears flickered and danced with a strange, peaceful light. They were still gold, but it was a warmer, kinder gold, like they were being lit from within. Holding the timepiece felt like I was being warmed by a cup of hot cocoa made by my mom.

Stepping forward, I placed the timepiece into the hole over Gene's heart. The demon accepted the construct gracefully, closing his eyes as Brad let the pit in the air vanish. Then he started to…change.

His hair blazed up a shimmering white gold, wings extended from his back of the same color, and an aura of peace and tranquility erupted out, blanketing the chamber. Genesis Burst opened his eyes. Only they weren't Genesis Burst's eyes anymore. They belonged to someone new. Someone different. The burning golden irises that reflected the hopes and dreams of everyone who looked into them had changed. This wasn't Gene.

"Song of Arcadia," I murmured, almost spellbound. He smiled at me warmly, nodding as he internalized the changes. He wasn't as, I had expected, different. Not really. He was just…more.

It was finished. The timepiece had changed him. I could feel the excess power, too. He'd been pushed up to tier eight by the process, not only advancing but leapfrogging tier 7 entirety. All because of that timepiece. It could, of course, be removed at any time. It was a part of him, but the physical construct was a uniquely versatile object I could extract to connect with the others to form an arch demon. Naturally, I wouldn't be doing that right now. It wasn't the time, but still.

Exhaling, I turned back to the device. "How are the readings?" I asked the professor. "Everything performing as expected?"

"Flawless," he agreed. "Construction was well within tolerance, and any small imperfections were smoothed over in the conversion. The connection points are stable, and your so called arch demon form should be easily accessible. Of course, in order to reach optimal output you'll need to complete your next bloodline condensation. The synergy between the bloodline and the templates is extraordinary."

I knew that. I nodded along. "I get that, but do we have the time?" I was, at the moment, halfway to A-rank, give or take. Of course, I couldn't reasonably bridge the gap in a short amount of time, but the closer I got before the final, the better things would go.

"You should," he confirmed. "You have another month before it begins. How much you can accomplish in that time is up to you."

He was right. We had all these resources to use, and I was sure we could apply some of them to our current problems. I could push myself further and faster in several ways, but I needed resources for that. Luckily, I had ways to get them. Access to all my demons, many of whom were now much stronger. But before that, I wasn't the only person who needed to take a step forward. I glanced over at Callie. "Alright, then we start our training blitz as soon as possible. Cal…it's time for you to hit B-rank."

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"What do you mean you don't want to use the scrolls?" I protested as I followed my wife back to my residence. She'd gotten a pass to stay the night in Moment City from the prof, and we were planning her rank-up here tonight after we settled in.

She smiled beatifically. "I mean what I said," she clarified. "I have enough. My reputation and the months of holding back have more than pushed me over the threshold. I've been polishing my skills for the Advanced trial, but since I'm not holding on for that anymore, it's time for me to take the next step."

"Which I'm fine with," I protested. "But why not accept the extra points? Crossing B-rank is going to take you ages."

"It might," she acknowledged. "But we can cross that bridge when we come to it. This is about my breakthrough, and I don't want the help." She put her hand on my cheek. "I love you, and I appreciate the concern, but this…it feels like something I need to do on my own. Helping create that lantern shield showed me exactly what I need for this."

I frowned, but I couldn't argue.

She smiled warmly. "Don't be such a downer. I've been working on this for a while. With my new reputation and my own scores on the mid-terms, I shouldn't be TOO far behind you. Better not drag your feet, or I might beat you to B-rank," she winked to let me know she was teasing, and it warmed my heart to see her so unruffled by the current gap.

"Alright," I sighed, flopping down on my bed. "With your Domain active, you should be fine to absorb the Impact. It'll enhance the power of the Vault directly. Speaking of which, we should check to see if there's some way for you to tap into Cosmic Waltz now that he's been upgraded. Using his abilities to enhance your Domain should be easy enough with so much control."

Speaking of, I wondered how big the Vault would be after the rank up. I doubted she'd be hitting the same radius as I had, given all the enhancements and opportunities I'd had. I didn't know what a normal Domain size for a B-ranker was. Her Vault was currently a little small, but it had been partially forged with the cosmic fire, so I was pretty sure the flood of Impact would have some interesting results.

"You ready?" I asked her anxiously. She just squeezed my hand tightly to let me know she was alright, then closed her eyes and…let it all in.

Callie had been only about a hundred thousand points from B-rank for months now. Constant attention, constant renown. From her dad, from the asura, from our relationship, from her scores. Callie had been accruing renown at an absurd rate, even without the scrolls to bump her up.

Now that she was letting it in, the step from one rank to the next wasn't so much a threshold as a soap bubble. Just a little pressure and…pop. She punched right though, and I watched with relief and not a little bit of awe as the Impact overflowed her soul and poured into her Domain, reinforcing it and expanding her power.

From the outside it took far less time, and before I could even process, it was over. She beamed at me as she took out a pen and paper, scrawling out her stats before handing them over to me proudly so I could see how much she'd accomplished.

Calliope Wyndham. B-rank.

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

Weapon:Gossamer (inverted form is Oblique)

Domain: Shadowvault. A special space of quantum uncertainty that stores items. Any item inside can be summoned in duplicate, once in its original form and once in an inverted shadow form.

Domain Size: 13 Miles

Sword technique based on inverted cosmic phoenix attribute: Certitude- collapses space in an unstable ball around the target so the attack is unavoidable

Chronicle:Book of the Final Flame

Pages bound:7- 1 (purification of apostate), 2 sword mastery, 3 creation of Peaceflame and Lantern Shield, 1 assist in creation of Song of Arcadia

Might-6,337,012 ( modifier for heretic angel trait)

Impact-215

Vitality-4,634,236 ( modifier for heretic angel trait)

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

Focus-1,529,412

Perception- 2,743,186

Creation-3,616,043

Progress to next rank: 22,506,645/100,000,000

Soul Strength: Obsidian Soul Body.

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

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

I gaped. It wasn't unbelievable, exactly, not after so long, but it wasn't exactly EXPECTED. I was blown away by the jump. She was at almost a quarter of the way to A-rank right after the breakthrough. Maybe those jokes about catching up weren't so amusing after all. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised to see it.

Beyond that, I spotted a few other things. "Seven pages?" I asked her in surprise. "Looks like you bound a few during my recent upgrade, that's amazing, Cal. Of course, we both need to get a few more before leaving. Don't forget to look into some of the special locations here, they'll make binding pages a lot easier.

Her skills had improved as well, and there was a new one, seemingly connected to the Angelic Bond between us. She'd had that the whole time, but it hadn't been visible before now. I wondered what had changed to make it more visible. Was it just the upgrade from Angelic Bond's recent bump to tier 9? Beyond that, her stats were all pretty well filled out, and she'd even patched some strong weaknesses in her build.

Focus had been at five hundred thousand or so last I checked. The lowest stats got easier to raise the higher up you went, and a new environment had almost definitely helped. But I noticed something missing. "You mentioned the Lantern Shield helped you figure out a new direction for your breakthrough?"

"More of a supplement," she clarified. "But I did have an idea. Do you remember my new technique? Certitude? I based it on the Hatefire from the original lantern shield, it collapses space around a target making attacks inevitable and basically unblockable."

I had a distinct memory of her sword falling from every angle around me, an omnipresent threat like the sky itself was falling on my head in the form of a sword. "I remember," I chuckled. "I'm guessing you came up with another technique? What does that have to do with your Domain, though? Or your breakthrough?"

"Balance," she said serenely. "It's all about balance. The Vault requires balance, when in balance, both of the items involved in the process can be removed, but if balance is disturbed I have to enshrine one forever to make the other usable. My Adherent Fire is a balance to my Heretic Fire, my Oblique is a balance to Gossamer. Certitude is a technique I created myself, but even in that there should be balance. After all, I have two swords. Only when my technique is in balance can I show the true capability of my Domain."

Her voice was energetic, almost frantic, and I recognized the touch of epiphany. I'd felt that more than once in my own research and development headspace, so I knew better than to disrupt. I gestured for her to open the Vault though, knowing that she could practice even better inside, and that doing sword work in my room would be reckless.

When we entered, the first thing I noticed was the size of the place. After the breakthrough, Callie's Domain had expanded, clocking thirteen miles, but I hadn't really recognized what that MEANT. The Vault was a cube, which meant that as it expanded, it also got taller, and at this point, it towered so high that staring up at the ceiling was like staring into a bottomless pit. "I wonder what the opposite of an Abyss is?" I asked casually.

"A home," Callie said with a bit of melancholy. I was surprised, and cocked my head at her, but she just shook it off. "Sorry, just feeling a bit introspective. Come on, I'll pick up Oblique and I can start on the new technique."

I followed her deep into her Domain, where she retrieved her sword. I suspected she didn't need the walk, and had just wanted to show me around in here, but I didn't mind. It was nice.

When she finally got the sword, she took me to a new area I hadn't seen before, and took up position with her blade. "I'll need your help with this," she told me determinedly. "Would you mind lending a hand again?"

"Not at all, but what do I actually do?" I asked warily. "Do you need to attack me again?"

Now that she was B-rank, the gap between us wasn't nearly as wide. I should still be ahead, but I couldn't just assume I was untouchable. To my surprise though, she just shook her head. "Nope, the opposite. This one is defensive. I need you to attack. I want you to use Mephistopheles for this one. He's got your strongest offensive power, right?"

I grinned. "Alright, but now that you're at the same rank as me I'm not going to hold back. I hope this new technique is as impressive as you say."

Of course, I wouldn't actually hurt her, but I trusted Callie to be strong enough to take a head on blow. I called my staff from my Domain, enjoying the reassuring thump of the wood dropping into my palms. Callie got into a stance I hadn't seen before. "The complete form of this style will involve both swords and use both techniques at the same time. But I'll focus on the defense technique for now. Go ahead and attack."

Nodding, I let my whole body relax. Tension drained from my muscles, I let myself begin to sway, it felt like I was floating, like nothing was holding me up…then I struck.

My muscles snapped taught in succession, rolling up from the ground and through my body as my staff flashed out, blazing with the black flame of ruin. It was my most powerful blow without augmentation from a bunch of other demons, and a show of the respect I had for Callie's abilities.

Callie stood still. Her face was placid, her eyes serene. She only began to move at the last possible second, but by the time she did, things began to change. A bright golden light blazed up inside the sword, the light driving back the darkness of my flame, and she flicked her blade.

Her sword cut through my attack. Not through my staff, or through my stance itself. It was like she'd dissected the concept of my offensive and scattered the pieces. My blow was diverted in every direction, bleeding off into a million possible variables until it was dissolved into nothingness, diffused into empty air.

It was…transcendent. I swallowed hard. Trying to imagine her using that with one hand and Certitude with the other was terrifying. Balance. I got it now. "That was certainly something. What's it called?"

"The opposite of certainty," she said as she put away her blade. "Could be indecision, or fear, or even faith. But I don't think it is. I think the opposite of certitude is trust. Giving up your sense of surety and putting your belief in something else." She beamed at me happily. "I think this is it, Shane. This is what I needed. Even after ranking up this should be enough." She leaned forward to peck me on the masked cheek. "Go ahead and get back to your training. I've decided. I'll continue to challenge the Advanced Student trial at my new rank. I know I can pass." And so, our last month of training began.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next month was a whirlwind of activity for me. Firstly, I spent most of it improving my timepieces. I got them all finished and adapted to the new Archdemon form, though I hadn't had a chance to actually TEST the thing yet. I'd also expanded my Domain to 42 miles, completed my fourth phoenix reincarnation (a triple enhancement to Creation as a bonus), and through the body refinement, pushed my soul supported stat number to five thousand per scroll.

My demons had been hard at work during the last month or two, taking on tasks and at least seven or eight of them had ranked up to tier 8, giving me a much larger work force. After redeeming the ascension thesis, I'd poured all those points into advancement, redeeming them to access special locations to help me with body tempering, improving my Domain, and even got my hands on the elixirs for B-rank.

Beyond that, I'd stockpiled another three hundred and ten scrolls (six hundred and fifty total) and just today had finished getting them all redeemed, bringing me a solid three point two five million in just wish stats, not to mention the two months of income from my Wishmaster position and my still growing reputation.

All in, all, the changes had been earthshattering, and combined with the qualitative jump from the timepieces, I was closer to A-rank than ever and ready to take on the world at these damned final exams.

There had been no word on the Void vessels or Deveskane. He was keeping a low profile, apparently, and while you could buy most things at the academy, you couldn't buy student info. Since we had no proof he'd done anything, Frozen Moment wasn't willing to just toss him out. I was sure he had something planned for the finals, but the Professor insisted his hands were tied, so all I could do was prepare as best I could.

I took in my stats as I considered my progress, unable to fight back a swell of pride at the sheer growth I'd managed with the last of my time here.

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

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

Might-19,432,112()

Impact-215

Fantasy-10,325,743

Vitality-17,118,871 ()

Focus-14,264,853

Perception-13,471,640

Creation-17,029,143 ()

Progress to next rank: 91,669,577/100,000,000

Soul strength- Obsidian Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 36/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 9/9, (Ruin Phoenix) 9/9, Arcadian Phoenix 9/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:25- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 9 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, 1 Limbo, 1 Overlay, 1 Mephistopheles, 1 Song of Arcadia, 1 Cosmic Waltz, 1 Life Nova, 1 Angelic Bond, 1 Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Dantalion, 1 Azazel, 1 Sammael)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 0 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Domain size: 42 miles

Soul supported stat number: 5000

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Pillar of Goetia

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

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

Frozen Moment Academy Credit points: 0

Frozen Moment Academy Contribution points: 0

Archdemons: Kronos- Archdemon of Time- Tier 8 (Limbo, Overlay, Mephistopheles)

Court of Gehenna:

1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 8

2.Goetia Staff Art- Tier 6

3.Cooking- Tier 8

4.Inventing- Tier 2

5.Balam- Tier 3

6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 6

7.Piano- Tier 1

8.Guitar- Tier 1

9.First Aid- Tier 1

10.Angelic Bond- Tier 8

11.Dust Construction- Tier 6

12. Stone Limb- Tier 7

13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4

14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 7

15.Ripple Running- Tier 3

16.State of Grace- Tier 4

17.Steam Arrow- Tier 4

18.Afterburner- Tier 8

19.Pit of Despair/ Brad- Tier 8- Timepiece:13 complications

20.Mountain Stance- Tier 7

21.Heart over Body- Tier 8

22.Mercy Kill- Tier 6

23.Double Trouble- Tier 7

24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5

25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3

26.Heavy Hands- Tier 2

27.Marked for Death- Tier 4

28.False Fatality- Tier 3

29.Blood Curse- Tier 4

30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2

31.Final Strike- Tier 7

32.Overlay- Tier 7- Timepiece- 13 complications

33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3

34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2

35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 6

36.Danger Sense- Tier 6

37.Piece of Mind- Tier 6

38.Empty Spirit- Tier 6

39.Belial- Tier 8

40.Abomination Engine- Tier 7

41.Mephistopheles- Tier 8- Timepiece: 13 complications

42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6

43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6

44.Cosmic Waltz- Tier 7- Timepiece: 23 complications

45.Mornax- Tier 8

46.Zagan- Tier 8

47.Life Nova- Tier 8- Timepiece: 13 complications

48.Song of Arcadia- Tier 8- Timepiece- 27 complications

49.Bael- Tier 8

50.Beelzebub- Tier 8

51.Agares- Tier 8

52.Dantalion- Tier 8

53.Sammael- Tier 8

54.Limbo- Tier 8- Timepiece: 13 complications

55.Gluttony- Tier 8

56.Wrath- Tier 8

57.Pride- Tier 8

58.Retribution- Tier 8

59.Murmur- Tier 8

60.Leviathan- Tier 8

61.Behemoth- Tier 8

62.Glory- Tier 8

63.Abaddon -Tier 8

64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 8

65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6

66.Fate Sense- Tier 7

67.Scent of Truth- Tier 7

68.Damnatio Memoriae- Tier 6

69.Dark Reflection- Tier 6

70. Asmodeus- Tier 8

71. Astaroth- Tier 8

72. Azazel- Tier 8

The sheer volume of stat increase was staggering. I'd put most of my scrolls and elixirs into Creation, because improving it had a noticeable effect on my ability to make timepieces. I'd managed twenty seven complications on Song of Arcadia and twenty three on Cosmic Waltz relying on that boost.

Beyond that, the biggest improvement was definitely my Myriad Demons Manual. Over the last month I'd been binding pages using my various achievements (timepieces for most of my phoenix demons and two particularly tough tasks for Azazel and Sammael), and had now officially reached twenty five pages, a quarter of the way done with my binding before even reaching A-rank.

With only a single night left before the big exam, my teeth almost ACHED to be so close to A-rank but so far away. I'd squeezed every drop of potential and opportunity from this place in my mad dash for the finish line, but I was still almost nine million points short of my goal.

Of course, when I mentioned this to my wife and friends as we sat at dinner together preparing for the finals, I received nothing but boos and mockery (good natured as it was).

"Oh, poor me," Benny lamented in a saccharine voice. "I'm Shane, and I'm only moving through B-rank ten or twenty times faster than everyone else instead of thirty times like I wanted. Truly, there is no one in creation as unfortunate as me."

I rolled my eyes. "Like you have room to talk, don't think I can't tell you hit B-rank recently. You and Jessie both. I take it you've been availing yourself of the special environments around here. I haven't seen Toast anywhere. Where did you put him anyway?" I shot him a suspicious look, unable to resist pushing.

"I sent him to boarding school," he said blithely. "The Nunya Business academy. You'll see where he is when it's time. But yeah, I hit B-rank, and no I won't tell you how or what my stats are." He grinned. "You're not the only one putting work in here. Now that I can contribute again I'm going to savor it. After all, we all know you're going to hit A-rank right after we leave and I'll be lagging behind again."

"Granted," I allowed. "But I can help get you through it faster than you'd expect. My point cap on wishes has been exploding with the body tempering, and it'll go up a ton in A-rank too. Once I break through I can focus all my Wishes on pushing you guys up with me. You should focus on getting enough resources to pay for them while you're here."

He nodded contemplatively. "Noted. Anyway, I noticed Will and Tamsin are here, and they don't look like they want to murder anyone. Don't tell me you cured their crazy already?"

"He didn't," Bethy said cheerfully as she turned from her siblings. "At least not long term. They need regular infusions of that lame Peacefire stuff. It does help for a while though, and after we leave he wants to begin testing for a long term cure. I got a dose of the stuff myself and it was super chill, made me feel all warm and happy inside."

I snorted. "She neglects to mention how MUCH of the flame we need to have even a small effect. And that's at A-rank. I have to boost it with my staff to make any progress against their traits. They seem to trend back to resentment if there's any left. Once I hit A-rank, I'm planning to try to boost myself to S and see what I can do then. But I have to be careful not to like…annhilate them."

"It's ok, you can annihilate them if you want," Bethy said encouragingly. "I won't tell."

"Hey!" snapped Tamsin, who was currently in a reasonably good mood but still didn't appreciate the comment. "I thought we were getting along?"

Bethy shrugged. "I'm a fickle person. Beware my whims."

"She's joking," Chelsea said with a sigh. "I promise. She was just telling me the other day how happy she is that you two are doing better. She's really enjoying her time getting to know you."

"Don't TELL them that!" Bethy wailed despairingly. "They'll get ideas. They should fear me."

My sister patted her girlfriend's cheek. "Of course love, you're the scariest vampire princess in the whole world. Now eat your vegetables. Don't think I didn't notice you hiding your broccoli under the mashed potatoes."

"But I HATE broccoli," Bethy moaned. "This is the worst party ever. You wouldn't even let me bring any wine!"

"That was me, actually," I cut in. "No more wine until you can get the grapes under control. That D-ranker almost got eaten last time. And I don't care if he was ok with it. I draw a hard line at cannibalism at my social events."

She sniffed loftily. "That was ONE time. And I totally fixed it."

"Where's Gabe anyway?" I asked, looking around for the Adamant paladin. "I figured you would have brought him to this. Actually we're missing a bunch of people. Abel, Mel, Fade, Alanna, Crell. This is supposed to be our big sendoff."

"They're working on some last minute prep for the finals," Callie said with a chuckle. "Everyone knows something big is going down, so no one is willing to let it rest. I'm shocked I got YOU to take a break. If you weren't at a wall I would have probably had to drag you out tonight. Just let them do their thing."

I sighed. "I get it. I'm worried too. But we can only trust the work we've done. I believe we can pull this off. Whatever comes, we can get through it together." I reached out and took my wife's hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "Just like always." And when I saw the radiant smile she gave me in return, I knew that I was right. Because there was nothing in creation that I wouldn't destroy to make sure I got to see that smile every morning. Void Overgod, Deveskane, whoever came I'd crush them if it would keep her safe. Honestly, at this point, I almost felt sorry for the bastards. They had no idea what was coming for them.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

And so the big day arrived. The final exams. I arrived at the testing grounds early, stopping only to stock my scroll supply back to ten and then heading out. Winnie was already gone, but I hadn't really expected her to be on my team for this. The limitations on team size apparently varied year to year, but it was usually around ten, and this year was no different.

I arrived where my group was meeting about twenty minutes before the start, double checking that everyone I needed had arrived.

Benny, Abel, Dayna, Bethy, Jessie, Fade, Alanna, and Crell. Plus Callie and I that was ten. I studied everyone, impressed at the advancement. B-rank across the board, except Fade and Crell, who had actually made the jump to A-rank.

I raised an eyebrow at my best friend. "You sure you want to do this?" I asked him bluntly. "You're welcome, obviously, but you know shit always goes extra wrong for me. You JUST hit B-rank, there's no way you're ready for this fight." I let a note of pleading slip into my voice. I wouldn't forbid him from coming with us, I couldn't do that to him, but I didn't want him there either.

"Bite me," he said, in as gentle a tone as he could manage. "And trust me. I'm ready for this. Ask Dayna if you don't believe me."

I raised an eyebrow at my elf friend. "You're party to this insanity? I guess that makes me feel a little better. You have better judgement than this idiot. Tell me, what's going on? How did he get so strong so fast? Where is his companion, and what role did you play in all this?"

She turned to look at Benny, who sighed. "Alright, fine, tell him. Shane, put Murmur up at least, and give it a bump."

Shrugging, I reached for my strongest stealth demon, pushing him up to A-rank. And not JUST A-rank. Peak A-rank. Any god paying attention would be able to hear, but given our current company I didn't think there would be any who had the time. Other groups were flooding in still, and things were getting hectic. Once we were protected, I nodded to my friend, and he glanced around surreptitiously.

"Alright, fine," he said again. "The reason I hit B-rank so quickly is because I've been developing a new ability. Or rather, I've been expanding one I had. You asked where Toast is, have been asking, and the answer is simple." He tapped his chest. "Right here. Toast is here with me. At all times."

"Some kind of fusion technique?" I asked with interest. I hadn't really considered that.

He shook his head. "Wouldn't have worked. My body wouldn't have been able to handle it. Not as it was. Which is why I contacted Dayna. She was over at the weapon department, but she's been studying magic tattoos, I'm not sure if you know."

"I'm aware," I said dryly. "We DID go on a quest together. What does that have to do with Toast?"

"Do you know what a Phylactery is?" he asked excitedly.

I searched my memory. "Soul container?" I said uncertainly. "Like some undead use to contain their spirits. I think the lich we met back on Callus had one. Or something like it."

He nodded. "Exactly. Well, I'd been doing some extensive research while I was away. Toast is a necromantic construct, and I can integrate necromantic constructs permanently into my body. But I obviously couldn't put a whole dragon inside my physical form. For one, my slots don't work like that, and splitting him up would be impossible. So I talked to Killian. I considered soul stitching as a potential solution, but it wasn't compatible with my ability."

"Which is why he approached me," Dayne said. He had the idea to combine his necromantic engineering with my tattoos and soul stitching, to make a linked series of soul vessels. He would tattoo magical receptacles across his body in places where he could integrate the parts, and-"

Benny glared at her. "Do you want to tell this, or should I?" He said sarcastically. "It's only the single greatest achievement of my entire life." She gave him a chagrin shrug and he continued. "Anyway, like she was saying, I designed a series of soul receptacles that could be integrated with my slots like an adapter and then stitched them all together. I needed to consult several professors, take a few classes, and spend quite a bit of time in the lab, but eventually…I finished."

I gaped at him. "Is THAT how you ranked up so fast? The reputation from pulling that off?" No wonder he hadn't been worried about anyone powerful overhearing. I was betting if he got that much renown most of his teachers knew already. "How did you even MANAGE it? I'm guessing you used that as the basis for your Chronicle, too?"

He grinned. "Yeah. I've developed a bit of a reputation. Especially since I broke through. Toast and I combined are a nasty combination. Not invincible at our rank or anything, but we won't slow you down, that's for damned sure."

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, cough it up then. I need to see all these changes for myself."

He snickered, but quickly fished out a piece of paper and filled it out for me, passing it over and grinning smugly as he waited for my reaction.

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

Bonded Companion: Toast (Dracolich)

Might-4,615,044

Impact-215

Fantasy-623,486

Vitality-726,441

Focus-2,720,141

Perception-343,582

Creation-1,263,471

Progress to next rank: 10,292,380/ 100,000,000

Chronicle: Death Dragon Dissertation

Soul strength: Obsidian Soul Body

Current integrated tech. 30/40.

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

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

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

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

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

Left Foot: momentum neutralization to allow stopping instantly.

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

Back: ability to grow a shell to tank damage.

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

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

13 slot soul construct: Dracolich embodiment matrix

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

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

I was impressed. Not because of the changes, those were decent but I'd grown a lot myself, so the raw numbers didn't do much to sway me, rather, I was impressed by the fact that he'd earned them himself. Whereas I had coasted on my reputation and a series of big dramatic feats, Benny had struggled his way through B-rank with nothing but his own wits. Being a Dragon host made the Might an obvious acquisition, but he'd made such a huge impression on his fellow crafters that he'd netted almost a quarter of his total in Focus, with a whopping one million in Creation.

Passing back the paper, I nodded solemnly. "Impressive, man," I told him earnestly. "Seriously, that's amazing." The academy had given him a springboard for all that gain, but he was the one who made the leap.

Jessie cleared her throat. "You know," she said loftily. "I'm impressive TOO. You didn't even ask about MY Chronicle." She winked at me. "I won't stand for this kind of blatant favoritism. I demand you praise me immediately. It's not fair Benny gets all the love." She raised her chin arrogantly, clearly demonstrating that she was joking, but I WAS curious. Not to mention it made sense to get as much information about my teammates as possible going into this. I hadn't asked for stats before because it was rude to most people, but Benny and Jessie were open to sharing and I wasn't saying no.

"I figured that went without saying," I told her wryly. "But sure, I'd love to see what you've accomplished, Jessie. But be warned, my expectations for Benny were VERY low. You'll have to do a lot better than that." I jerked my thumb at my best friend.

Callie snorted. "Don't listen to him. We're proud of you no matter what, B-rank so fast is a big accomplishment, you must have been a hit in the healing department."

Jessie flushed. "I did ok," she admitted. "They really liked my powers. Luckily the teachers were all really nice and willing to take me under their wings. I learned so much about healing, and my Vitality went up a ton." She fished out a piece of paper and followed Benny's lead, writing out her stats quickly and passing them over.

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

Might-3,355,625 (x2 effective multiplier from racial trait)

Impact-215

Fantasy-522,758

Vitality-5,409,587 ( effective multiplier from racial trait)

Focus-819,755

Perception-625,765

Creation-423,958

Progress to next rank: 11,157,663/100,000,000

Chronicle: Blazing Restoration Folio

Pathath of the Green Sun- Solid

Lifebound partner: Undying Lifestorm Ursa- Randall

Soul strength: Obsidian Soul Body

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

Pretty similar, though I noticed Jessie had managed to push herself up another million past her rank up. Given what she could do, how high her Vitality was, and what her major was, I wasn't really surprised, but I was definitely still impressed. "That's AMAZING, Jess," Callie said excitedly, wrapping our friend in a tight hug. "I'm so proud of you. And I don't feel the need to mock you at the end of that statement to save face like SOME people," she stuck her tongue out at me.

"I didn't even SAY anything," I complained. "How am I getting shit for comments I never even made?"

Snorting, I turned to my other teammates. "No requirements, but if anyone else wants to share now is the time?" They all just looked at me, and I shrugged cheerfully. "Yeah I kind of figured, but it can't hurt to ask. Now, before this thing kicks off, we should-"

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to share my brilliant plan, because a loud voice cut through both the nearby din AND my Murmur domain. "Attention students," came the clear, ringing baritone of a figure I instantly knew was one of the Deans, even without knowing who. "It is time for all teams to gather in the field inside the arena. Please follow me."

The man, a tall, slim scarecrow of a person with pale skin and long dark hair, gestured for us to follow and then turned and walked away without another word.

I turned to frown at my friends, but since this is what we were here for, we had no real choice. With a shrug, we joined the milling crowd of other teams in a mass exodus as everyone filed through the open gates of the arena.

Once we were inside, everyone was gathered into a large group and told to wait as the man vanished. We stood there for a minute or two until, finally, a ripple passed over the sky. In the distance, twelve figures appeared, standing on platforms along the interior of the arena, towering over all of us. Swallowing, I settled in to wait for them to address us directly. I had a feeling this next part was going to be…intense.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The twelve deans of the frozen moment academy towered over us. I recognized a few of them. Dean Gibbons, Dean Harper, Dean Windermere, but most of them were complete mysteries to me beyond their names and titles. Still, I could FEEL the power radiating off them. Like the whole world was holding its breath, waiting for a storm to descend. Dean Gibbons was the first to speak.

"Welcome, students," he said coldly. "To the final exams. As I'm sure you're aware, this event is one we hold every year, and one that involves every major. Your teams are your own to select, by whichever criteria you choose, but graduation will be decided based on individual performance WITHIN the team paradigm, rather than by collective victory."

Dean Harper snorted. "He means that you can still fail if your team passes, so bust your asses or get left behind." Dean Gibbons glared at the other man, and he shrugged. "What? You beat around the bush too much."

"Enough bickering," came a quiet, almost whispered reproach. The figure who spoke was a shadow against the bright morning light, somehow completely impossible to make out despite being fully exposed to the sky. "For those of you who don't know, my name is Dean Kell Drave. I represent the Department of the Lost. The two previous speakers were Dean Samuel Gibbons of the Department of Temporal Dynamics and Dean Wallace Harper of the Department of Atypical Physicality."

"Right," Harper muttered. "Introductions. I always forget that not all of them know us yet. Yeah, I'm Wallace Harper, they call me the Monstrosity. Kell is the Silent Seeker and Sammy over there goes by The Hourglass Bodach."

The other Deans introduced themselves, most of them briefly and with very little enthusiasm. When Dean Windermere finished the roster, she gestured to the field around us. "Now, some of you may be wondering what exactly this exam entails. It's different every year, but is usually fairly consistent. Challenges span the gamut of what Ascendants are capable of. There are five of them, each worth two points, with bonus points available for meeting certain goals.

"Today's challenge is called 'Castles in the Sky'," she gestured up above us. "If you look up, you may notice that the sky is mostly empty. But, if you look more closely, you will see that high above us, there is a layer of illusory clouds. On those clouds are a series of illusory outlines of simple buildings. Your mission is to ascend to the cloud layer, find an outline, and create a building that matches it. You have twenty four hours. Begin."

Her voice cut out, and after it did, the Deans all just…vanished. There was a pause, like the universe itself had stopped to buffer, and then all hell broke loose, everyone surging forward and scattering to try to find a spot under a castle to begin their climb.

"We need to BUILD something?" sputtered Abel. "How is that a finals category?"

"Well, considering we have like three different crafting majors," I said dryly. "It makes some sense to me. The tasks need to be a good spread across all the specialties, otherwise crafter heavy teams are going to be at a disadvantage. Combat heavy teams might fail this one, if they manage to pass all the others they can still get as high as eighty percent as a unit. Not to mention the best teams can get extra credit on this, so the crafters can pad their score to prepare for less suitable tests."

"Can we focus, guys?" Benny said grimly. "The why is nice to know, but the HOW concerns me more. Forget the building itself, we've got some tricks for that, what we need to worry about is getting the hell UP there."

I glanced at Abel. "I figured we'd ask our resident travel agent. Or Callie. Or hell, I can give you all WINGS and let you fly up there if you really need it."

"Yeah, that might work," Benny said with a wince. "Except you apparently missed where she said it's an ILLUSORY cloud layer. The test isn't just building a castle. It's building a castle in the SKY. And the thing about castles, in case you've forgotten, is that they require foundations."

I shook my head. "Well, most of the people here have Domains. Not all of them will be suitable or large enough to use as a base, but mine and Bethy's would have the room. Not to mention the rest of Gehenna would be around to help." I paused. "But the projections will leave us vulnerable. Which means the teams building on Domains will need to assign guards."

"Some of them aren't going to bother," Callie said grimly. "Like that guy," she pointed to one of the closer teams, led by one of my classmates, and one I specifically recognized from the midterms. Desrick Flint, the guy who could condense time into amber, was currently doing so, snatching blocks of temporal energy from the air around him and tossing them to his teammates. Because of the nature of the material itself, their actions were faster than they should have been, warping time around them.

Desrick's team was laying the bricks down in a square pattern, building out a solid staircase heading up towards the cloud layer.

He wasn't the only one, either. Several other teams had taken that tactic, deciding to begin their foundations from the ground and build up, leaving all Domain users open to apply their Domains more fluidly. Some had on solid pad of foundation, some had built multiple pillars based on varying abilities to act as footers of a kind.

I grimaced. They might not have known this was coming, but apparently we weren't the only ones who saw the logic in having a crafting segment. Most of the teams anticipated something like this, at the very least, that was the only way to explain the distribution of Ascendants with material manipulation specialties across teams.

Luckily, I had one of those too. Grinning, I reached into Gehenna, Calling out an old friend, and pushing him up a rank with my staff as I did. Agares appeared beside us, power radiating from the demon as he was pushed to A-rank. He grinned at me as he appeared. "Hey boss," he said cheerfully. "You rang?"

"We need some help," I told him, gesturing to the various spread out teams building towers into the sky. I explained the details, filling him in on the basics even as I called him some help. Beelzebub emerged, also pushed to A-rank, allowing his twelve clones to manifest Agares's powers themselves, as they had so many times in the past. They weren't as powerful as Agares himself at A-rank, given they were only tapping into his abilities secondhand, but they made a fantastic work crew.

Dantalion appeared next. I couldn't bump him up a rank, but his environmental analysis and data management made him an ideal foreman for our budding construction efforts. "Huh," Benny said as he watched my demons spread out. "I kind of forgot hot bullshit you actually are. Man, being on the other side of that must be REALLY frustrating. Hell, being on the SAME side of it is frustrating sometimes, but at least you're not trying to kill me."

"Give it time," I said dryly. "Now, I don't suppose there's anything you can add to the proceedings? You ARE a crafter." As we watched, Agares got to work dissolving the ground around us into dust, to condense into blocks. Rather than take it all from one spot, he took a huge layer off the field in every direction for about a mile. The field itself was huge, and due to the size of the castle outlines above, the groups had spread out quite a bit, so we had more than enough room to spread out.

He nodded. "My necromantic engineering has some potential applications here. I can use shadow stitching to put together some of those soul containers. Dayna could use them to tattoo the blocks like living beings, reinforcing them as we go. What about the rest of you? Do you have ways to help with construction?"

I shook my head. "Not this time. Domain based castles will be dealing with attacks during the construction itself once they get up there, but they also have a headstart. The rest of us will be dealing with attempted sabotage on the way up."

Callie nodded grimly. "You and I can fly up ahead of the build and stand guard. The others can just climb alongside the tower itself, since the top will be the most vulnerable spot."

"Fade, I want you and Alanna on offense," I instructed. "Sandbag our closest neighbors, it'll be harder for them to take shots if they're trying to rebuild. Crell, try to slow them down without direct intervention. Bethy, you're on air support with us. Jessie, you'll be keeping everyone going. I want life force boosts whenever any of the demons or defenders starts to flag. Finally, Abel, you're protecting Jessie. Someone is going to take a shot at our healer, guaranteed."

Everyone nodded, and I called up Sammael, pushing myself just that little bit extra to boost him to A-rank as my wings burst from my back. This exam was only freshman, but several of the first years had been A-rankers themselves, so we were far from in the clear, even with the boost. Still, given my current stats, a push to A-rank from Sammael would keep me on the cutting edge of combat power near here, even if it wouldn't exactly make me invincible.

We took off, speeding up into the air to take position above our friends as they began construction. Without a direct attack, we began to circle slowly. Reaching out through the bond, I contacted Callie. "Be careful," I told her worriedly. "I'm positive we're going to get attacked during these finals. I doubt they'll try anything this early, but the Void spawn won't let this chance go. Deveskane is around here, even if he's probably disguised."

"I know, love," she said soothingly. "You've said. I'm on my guard, so don't worry so much. Did you warn the others? Chelsea and your cabinet are all in a different group. Are they in danger?"

I shook my head before realizing we were talking mentally and verbalizing my response. "I don't think so. Deveskane isn't local, and I don't think our people are on his radar. Hell, I don't think WE'RE on his radar. I'm not sure he cares about us as individuals. He came after you to get the lantern shield, not as a vendetta. At least I think so. Not that it makes up for it," I gritted my teeth. "I'm going to tear that bastard apart when I get my hands on him."

Entering this place meant he had to be below S-rank. You couldn't get in with a completed Chronicle, which meant A-rank was the limit. That was part of my reasoning for striving so hard to get stronger. I might not be A-rank yet, but between all the preparations I made, I was confident that I could hang in a fight with anyone below S.

"Don't borrow trouble," she said worriedly. "If we can get through this without fighting him, do it. Report to the deans and let them handle it if you can. Your safety is more important than some petty revenge."

"Of course," I reassured her. "I won't pick any fights I don't have to." Left unsaid was the fact that I was sure I'd have to fight Deveskane. This whole thing was coming to a head, and there was no way he didn't have measures in place he at least THOUGHT would assure his victory. In the end though, only time would tell. Maybe I would walk out of this without a fight. It was a sign of my growing maturity that I didn't physically burst out laughing at the idea. The fight was coming, and I was ready.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The attacks came from the clear blue sky. I'd expected it, honestly, so I wasn't unprepared, but they came faster than I had anticipated. Cosmic Waltz rippled and I crossed a wide expense of empty air to arrive in front of the streak of darkness that was heading for the highest current clone setting a block. My staff lashed out like striking lightning, and I felt a concussive shock rumble through my hands as the arrow was deflected.

Unfortunately, it seemed like another of my fellow time majors had made an appearance. Orion, the archer from the mid terms with causal arrows, was somewhere nearby, and I confirmed it easily after realizing the arrow I'd just deflected had TURNED and was currently flying around me toward the clone.

Snarling, I triggered Mephistopheles, unleashing ruin on the arrow, burning away the causality with the flames of passing eons, then spun to deflect another with the same dark fire. Sammael, of course, was built to wield the black flame, so the A-rank angelic form bolstered the ruin flame. Not up to the same level as the demon himself, but bridging the gap from late B to A-rank was more than doable.

My staff warped in the air, almost seeming to bend as I blurred forward, deflecting a rain of arrows before they could land. Orion was B-rank, fortunately, so I managed to stop them all easily enough.

Slightly LESS simple to deal with was the literal HARPY that swept down while I was distracted, A-rank talons slashing towards my throat. He had a vicious grin on his avian face, and I prepared to block him, but didn't end up needing to. His eyes widened in panic at the last second, and he juked sideways, only for a nearly imperceptible line of severed sky to bisect his wing and send him plummeting from the sky.

Glancing down, I saw Fade sheathing his sword and turning back to the nearest tower. I called out a thank you, then Waltzed across the intervening space to deflect a small meteor coming from above. "Shane!" Callie called when she saw me intercept it. "This isn't working! There's too many coming for us. We need to thin them out!"

I nodded slowly. "True," I called back. "And I think I know how! One second."

Reaching into Gehenna, I called out an old friend. Brad appeared nearby, Asmodeus alongside him. The enhancement demon wrapped around Brad, granting him wings and a boost in power. "What's up, boss?" he called over the wind as he caught himself and flew the few feet he'd dropped to return to speaking range.

"There, there, there, and there," I called, pointing to the nearest four towers. "I want you to tip them over. Preferably on each other. Make a pit under them, compromise the foundation. Use that crazy power of yours."

He grinned at me, snapping off a salute and flying off toward the nearest tower. I called him back, sending him to the one Fade was working on. Having an A-ranker to protect him might keep him in play a bit longer.

And so began literal hours of keepaway. Deflecting, attacking, constantly changing tactics. Jessie was working herself to the bone recharging everyone, Brad took down three pillars (one of them with another) and the clones just…worked. Agares was building, Benny and Dayne were reinforcing, and the few attacks that DID make it through mostly sloughed off the stone allowing us to make good time.

Finally, we reached the cloud layer. Once we were high enough, Agares and his crew of clones started to expand out, building a huge platform using the tower as a base. I was a little worried it wouldn't hold, given how high up we were, but he created a sort of bowl shape that used the top mile or so as a base, and the result was shockingly strong.

Dantalion landed next to me as I stood at the edge, watching for attackers. "We good?" I asked him as I stared into the distance.

"We are," he said confidently. "The four corners of the square tower were hollow. As we built up, we had four of the clones at the bottom tunneling down. They filled the corners and extended the pillars down into one huge sphere under the base."

"Where did you get enough DIRT for that?" I asked in confusion. "I mean, Agares needs materials, right? It had to come from some-"

My words were cut off by a colossal boom. Namely, from one of the nearby towers. Which had been rebuilt and had almost reached the cloud layer, only to topple over again. "Brad," I said with a laugh. "He's transporting the dirt from under their towers through his pits. I'm surprised they managed the rebuilds at all."

"They've got tricks of their own," he admitted. "That tower of time amber seems not to need a foundation. It's pinned in spacetime. Fade has been trying to take it down for a while, but even his cuts aren't doing much. They seem to be hampering the growth a bit, at least, but nothing besides. Anyway, we're all up here now, and the work on the castle has begun. Luckily, the attacks on the base aren't very dense anymore, because aside from offense everyone needs to be up here to actually build."

I frowned, looking out over the cloud layer. "The base should be mostly safe," I said slowly. "But now that so many are up here…we might need to look for attacks from the cloud layer itself. Did you notice anything odd about it?"

He nodded. "It's getting more solid. The more construction is done, the more the clouds become real. It's like the illusory castles are bringing the clouds with them as they come into existence. I can see several being built in the distance, and progress is being made at a pretty steady rate. Which might be a problem."

"How so?" I asked him curiously.

"If the cloud layer becomes solid enough, then the building can be done on the clouds themselves. No one will need a Domain or a foundation."

I waggled a hand. "Maybe, but I'm not so sure. If anyone waits for it to be strong enough to support a castle, they're going to be WAY behind. Waiting is an option, but not a good one. I suspect it's a fighting chance for people who don't have a proper crafter on their team. One last chance for the others to eke out some points."

"Probably," he allowed. "But that doesn't make it good for us. Especially the condensing clouds. It's already dense enough to support a person, which means parties are going to start ranging out further to attack the cloud layer. I mean, it's good for us too, because the condensing clouds surrounding the tower will help keep it up, but we're all in danger."

"You don't say," came a dry voice as Fade stepped up off the stairs leading through the tower. They'd built a thin staircase around the edge as they'd climbed, to enable more stable construction and to make sure our people could climb. "Then I guess it's a good thing we came back to help." Dayna and Benny both nodded, my elf friend drawing her bow and Benny flexing his hands, revealing razor sharp claws of white bone extending from his fingers.

Abel, Callie, Bethy, Alanna, and Jessie lined up behind them. "So we're going all in on the topside, huh?" I asked worriedly. "Are you sure someone isn't going to come knock this thing over?"

Callie grinned. "I'd like to see them try. I've spent the last hour or so coating this thing with Adherent fire. I shifted it partially out of phase with this reality. It won't hold forever, but it'll buy us a few hours. By the time anyone manages to mess with it, the cloud layer should be stable enough to keep us in place. That's why Dantalion made this bowl shaped platform."

"Smart," I told my demon of information. "No wonder you said it helps us. Anyway, I won't say it's not a welcome bit of news, or that I don't appreciate the backup, but I think leaving the whole thing unguarded is still a bit premature. Luckily, I can help with that." I flexed my will, and Mornax, Doom Sovereign, Azazel, and several other tier eights emerged. "You know what to do," I told them shortly.

"I've got it," Oz said with a wry smile. My first minister knew how to take charge, after all. "Come on you lot. Let's go."

Callie smiled indulgently as I sent my demons off to do guard duty below, and I felt a thrill of amused smugness from the bond. I rolled my eyes. She'd known I would do that. She just thought I could use an excuse to feel effective after hours of pointless deflection and annoyance. I glared at her playfully and she blew me a kiss, which I caught and pressed to my heart, earning a giggle from my wife.

"Oh stop it, you two," Benny said sourly. "We're standing on top of a partially illusory tower over a several mile drop building a castle on illusory clouds. Do you really think this is the time for flirting?"

"He's just jealous his fiance is on another team," I told Callie sympathetically. "It must be hard to be a lonely loser."

I dodged sideways as a burst of cold fire erupted from Benny's mouth, blazing through the air where my head was. I'd have been fine even if it hit me, but still, I was kind of impressed. "Oh shit, you have dragonfire now?" I asked him excitedly.

He puffed up a bit. "Of course. I AM the embodiment of a dracolich. Dragons are famous for their fire, and dracoliches are still dragons."

That was pretty cool, and I was about to say so before I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye. I turned on my heel to stare out across the cloud cover. As we'd climbed, the sun had been sinking. By this point, it was below the clouds, and while not fully DOWN, it was much dimmer up here. Not so dim, however, as to obscure the figures surging over the sea of clouds toward us.

"Incoming," I said grimly, bringing everyone's attention to the approaching army. Well, army might have been overstating it. There were at least a hundred, or ten teams heading this way, but they weren't really cohesive. They were coming from several directions, and a few of the teams seemed to be running into each other and conflicting, drawn into small skirmishes as they approached. "We've got company."

Abel stepped forward, cracking his neck. "I can help with this. They're on the way, but they don't need to get here too quickly." Closing his eyes, he raised his hands, then he made a sort of throwing motion and…an ocean appeared.

The Infinite Blood Sea had grown since I last saw it. Or maybe he was applying spatial lubrication to the sea itself. Whatever the case, it covered the area around the platform in a ring, creating a zone of denial. I called for Asmodeus, sending him forth to imbue Abel with the power that he could. Brad was back, and he didn't need the assist anymore, but Abel did.

Bethy stepped forward, patting his shoulder. "Good job Andy," she said, almost kindly. "Just hold that there. I'll go in and help."

Stepping forward, she dissolved into a cloud of bats, each of the creatures swooping unimpeded into the blood sea. I knew Abel had worked with Lark to make the thing, and Bethy was clearly comfortable working with it. I couldn't see what she was doing, but from the sound I could hear, she wasn't making it easy on the ones who were entering, at least not the ones she could stop. Sadly, she was only a B-ranker, strong or not. There were others coming for us now. Stronger enemies. Soon enough, forms began to emerge from the blood sea, barely slowed by the Domain. The A-rankers had arrived.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The A-rankers emerged from the blood sea in drips and drabs. They appeared to be spaced out among the teams, as far as I could tell there were no teams of JUST A-rankers, at least not near me. Which made sense. While there had been ten thousand entrants to the tower, and were therefore a thousand teams, A-rankers were a minority among them from what I'd seen.

Still, a minority among ten thousand people was still more than a few. Abel and Bethy were keeping the weaker ones off, but Fade and I were alone in here in terms of ability to hang with A-rankers. At least, we were for now. I glanced back to where the building crew was working. "Beelzebub," I called to the active clones. I'd pushed him to A-rank to help with the build, but he wasn't limited to Agares. "We need Asmodeus."

He nodded, and nine of the thirteen clones shifted away from Agares into Asmodeous. My enhancement demon spread out, overlaying my teammates, pushing them all up to A-rank directly. "Team up and be careful," I warned them. "This is temporary. And very limited."

Asmodeous was damned useful, but he wasn't the same as the pillar boosting someone. There were inherent limits to the demon's ability, and I didn't want them cropping up during this fight. Best to warn them ahead of time. With that established, I turned to face the nearest A-ranker, my staff spinning up as I strode forward.

I didn't recognize the man, but I assumed he was from Harper's department. He was clue with gills, and he surged forward with not just speed, but a kind of unnatural flexibility that I didn't enjoy dealing with at all.

Still, I was prepared. My staff snapped out and down. One constant for humanoids was that they needed support to stand. No matter how flexible their bodies were, in order to stay standing, you need your feet on the ground, and you need ankles to hold them there. The butt of my staff smashed down on the bone spur of the ankle like a hammer, and the blue man snarled, stumbling back.

My staff swept up, smashing into the bottom of his jaw, snapping shut his teeth on his tongue (they were very sharp, from what I could see), and he snarled in pain as he recoiled, stumbling back from me.

I snorted, following behind him, my staff striking the parts of the body he needed to brace himself or hold himself up. Finally, I landed a solid blow to his temple and he dropped, crumpling loose paper. Of course, I didn't have time to relax, I had to rush to meet the next one entering. Fade was already fighting four of them by himself.

My friends joined in, two at a time, rushing to swarm the incoming A-rankers. I was actually kind of impressed. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to focus on that, I was forced to change mental gears as I found myself face to face with the glowing blue eyes of a Void spawn.

"Void," I said dismissively. "Man, you guys will just work for anyone, huh? Still, I have to hand it to you, you're pretty stubborn. I wouldn't have the guts to start trouble in an exam like this."

The A-ranker stepped forward, prepared to fight, but froze. "You forget what to say here?" I asked sarcastically. "Monster, butcher, destroyer of Void beings. Meet your end at the hands of…whatever you name is. Those are the lines, right?"

He stared at me. "Outsider," he said in a voice like a million rioting beetles screaming for salvation. "We need not be enemies."

I winced. "Shit. You're the Overgod. The Void Child."

"You call me such," he shrugged. "I am simply I. I would parlay with you. You have proven competent. I would avoid such an enemy at a time of upheaval."

"You're scared of me?" I said sarcastically.

He shook his head. "It is not fear. Simply caution. My plans are delicate, they may be unbalanced easily. I wish to avoid this fate, and as such, I offer a truce. We have no need to be enemies."

"You say that," I said grimly. "But your horned monster gored me."

"That was your fault," he assured me. "Its target was simply your wife. Had you remained out of the way, you would not have been harmed."

My eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry," I said in a voice like an arctic wind. "Do you think trying to kill my wife makes me LESS angry? Do you think Callie is less important to me than my own continued existence? Because she very much is not. You will not hurt her, and your previous attempts to do so were unacceptable. I won't ever allow you to hurt her."

"Sentiment," he said coldly. "Is replaceable. You prefer the female. She can be substituted. We have many females. You can choo-"

He didn't finish talking. Mostly because his head was exploding in a corona of white flame. He screamed, falling back, clearly unable to understand the Peaceflame. I snarled at him. "Don't EVER," I said with a venomous snarl. "Call my wife replaceable again."

I stepped over the twitching body, eyes hard as I called for Mephistopheles, meshing the black flame with Sammel's power. I was pissed, and this was a good opportunity to let off some steam. My staff cracked the air like striking thunder as I engaged with the nearest three A-rankers. I didn't care. I was too pissed to be wary of the threat.

The first one to come in was from the weapon department, I suspected. He used a long spear, and he wielded it expertly. The other two, a summoner who called different types of crow and an armored warrior whose plate seemed to grow out of his skin, flanked him, preparing to take advantage of any openings in my defenses that he might leave. I didn't give him the chance. I went on the attack, rushing the main bastard head on.

His spear licked out toward me, seeking. I deflected, but it pulled back, adjusting before launching another flurry of stabs. Cursing, I whirled my staff around me protectively. One of the main benefits of a staff, I'd found in my years wielding one, was the reach. Staves are long and sturdy, and the end caps are brutal. This makes them excellent defensive tools because they can cover a large portion of the body at once, and excellent attacking tools because the end caps land from VERY far away and have time to build up momentum.

However, there is one other weapon that works even better for that particular purpose. The spear. Now I'd seen too much to call the spear 'the king of weapons', or anything pretentious like that. But the saying 'another inch longer is another inch stronger' wasn't just talk. Reach was a very real advantage, and a well prepared spear used could capitalize on that to devastating effect.

Especially with a blade on the end, it opened up thrusting attacks as a method far more devastating than I could manage with my staff. I spent the next few minutes on the defensive, countering the spear while a parallel dealt with keeping track of the other two.

I didn't rush. I didn't need to. I was in contact with Dantalion, who was nearby, and he was analyzing the fight. The longer they fought, the more clearly he could dissect their combat style. Combined with tapping into the Overlay, I was slowly overtaking the tempo of the fight.

Keeping track of the arrows as they dipped and wove around me required another parallel, the summoner was flooding the area with crows and the plate warrior was doing his best to block off one direction without interfering with the spearman's range. These three had fought together before, and without my advantages I'd have been hard pressed to keep them back.

But I HAD my advantages, and that meant I eventually found my breakthrough. In minute five, the spearman got agitated after missing a thrust and lashed out, turning with his upper body to unleash a sweeping slash toward my throat. It was the first time he'd done that, but he'd STARTED to do it three separate times and changed his mind midway. Dan had noted the pattern despite the attempts to backpedal and had steered me toward baiting out the blow.

Meanwhile, the back end of my staff had been deflecting and maneuvering the plate warrior, and I'd been controlling the space to herd the harrying crows. I dropped under the slash, my staff tapping just under the spear head as it flew, gently redirecting the fore from a sideways arc to a diagonal.

The plate warrior screamed as the razor sharp blade of his companion's spear passe through his visor, and along with it, his eyes. He stumbled back, clutching his face, unable to see my staff slip behind his ankles for a trip. As he went down, I reached out with Cosmic Waltz, pushing the demon to A-rank with my staff and ignoring the pain in my skull from pushing the pillar so far. I warped the space behind him, bringing it up and around as I pushed him into a current and sent him blurring out past his teammates and back in like I was hurling a shotput.

Armor guy boomeranged out and back, building up speed, and hit the spearman at speeds he could barely process, his whole body turning into a projective as he rode the spatial stream into the back of his ally, landing with a crash and driving the first one into the second.

The plan had been cooking for a few minutes now, so there was no suspense as I drove the bastards off the edge of the platform in a tangle…and right toward where Brad was waiting.

My demon had a strange ability, he could make a pit in anything. That included Void Roads, and it DEFINITELY included illusory cloud covers. The three A-rankers went through the hole in the clouds, still trying to react to the sudden assault, and Brad let it close behind them as they plummeted.

I was sure they'd be fine. The crow guy could summon birds, and he was the least injured. But it would take them time to get back to their tower and return to the top. Azazel could handle things at the bottom if they rushed ours, but since my people were hiding inside the tower which was out of phase with this reality courtesy of Callie's Adherent fire, I doubted they'd be an issue again in the short term.

Wheeling, I took in the nearby fights. My people had managed to overwhelm the A-rankers who had come, and not a single B-ranker had emerged from the blood sea. Bethy was good at what she did. For now, it seemed like we were in a lull.

Groaning, I limped over to the platform nearby and slumped down. "Jessie," I called for my healer. She appeared immediately, pouring her amplified life energy into me, and I sighed with relief. "Everyone ok?" I asked after a moment. "Does anyone else need healing? I can wait if it's necessary."

"Bit late for that," she snorted. "And no, I was keeping up with the fights. A few people sustained injuries but we were mostly dealing with them two to one. Fade was the only one fighting multiple enemies besides you, and he didn't get a scratch."

Snorting, I looked over to my bodyguard, who was looking fairly smug. Abel, who had only tangentially pitched in for fighting, looked a bit worse for wear. "Can you top Abel up?" I asked Jessie. "I think keeping up the Blood Sea is getting to him. We don't want that thing coming down anytime soon."

Pulling back her hands, she nodded as she turned to help relieve some of the pressure on my friend, and I checked on the progress of the castle. When I saw how early we were in the development, I cringed. "Dan," I called for my information demon. "I'm bringing out some help, direct them as needed." I released fifty or so demons with a high enough tier to be useful. Dan just grinned as he gestured them over, putting them to work. I hoped we got this done fast. The sinking feeling in my gut had never gone away. Something was still coming for us, I just didn't know when.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first trial ended after a few hours. Guarding the palace as Agares built it was annoying, but despite my feeling of impending doom, I didn't actually run into any of the Void's agents. In fact, by the time we reached the ground again after the end of the task, I was surprised to find Elonwy waiting for us.

"Aww, look at you," she cooed as we filed out of the tower. "I remember my first final exam. The crafting section is always a pain, but you all did so well." She eeped, covering her mouth. "Whoops, spoilers. I'm not allowed to tell you your score."

"So you're just here to mock us?" I asked wryly.

She snickered. "Obviously," she said proudly. Then the smile dropped from her face. "But mostly I'm here to warn you. We've been catching Void cultists trying to infiltrate the exams. The others are going on nearby, the ones for the other years, and we've snatched up about a dozen agents. We even had a few professors try to intervene. They were all apprehended, but no one here has been caught yet. So be careful."

I paused at that. "Wait…they got CAUGHT?" I asked quickly. "All of them?"

"I mean, presumably?" she said hesitantly. "We can't exactly claim to know what happened to the ones we didn't catch, maybe there were a bunch of them. But we caught a lot of them. Our security department is excellent."

That was wrong. Too easy. My instincts were screaming that there was something wrong. But was I overreacting? This was the Frozen Moment Academy. There were Overgods in charge. Maybe they were just that good. "Can I…" I asked, trailing off as I tried to consider how to as the next part. "Can I talk to security? To warn them?"

She raised an eyebrow at that. "That's not really how things are done," she hedged. "But I guess it couldn't hurt. Fine, come with me. There's a day off between rounds to recover, so we have the time."

I nodded, relieved. "Thanks," I turned to Callie. "Can you get in touch with the other teams? Just check on our people and make sure none of them ran into problems with the Void cultists."

Rolling her eyes, she leaned up and pecked me on the cheek. "Ok Mr. Worrier. I'll check in. Your cabinet members are all plenty strong though, I wouldn't worry. Just be safe, ok?" She frowned uncertainly. "This feels…off. Something is going on, and I don't like it."

Putting my arms around her, I gave her a tight squeeze. "I'll be fine," I told her warmly.

Stepping away, I nodded to the others before following Elonwy off the field and out to where her car was parked. "Look, I get where you're coming from here," she said as we walked. "After what happened to me, I'm as pissed about all this as anyone. But this is what security DOES. And they're not taking any chances either. They're using the same Drayven Subjugation Collars Janet used on me to contain the prisoners."

"They're WHAT?" I sputtered. "Aren't those things banned?"

"For civilian use," she corrected. "Security has permits. They're not NICE, but they can even hold S-rankers. As you saw. Trust me, the cultists aren't going anywhere."

We climbed into the car and she pulled out. I closed my eyes to avoid my head getting scrambled by the drive, checking in with her as we rode. "Speaking of, how are you doing with all that? I mean I'm sure it's been rough to deal with. Are you staying somewhere other than your place?"

"Yeah," she said with a warm smile. "I'm staying with a friend. Thanks, Shane. It was…it was a rough thing to go through. I didn't exactly LIKE Janet, but I trusted her. Enough that I never expected to need to keep my guard up." She gritted her teeth. "I'm still so pissed I fell for it."

"Hey, enough of that," I said firmly. "You got taken advantage of by a friend. Or whatever you called her."

She snorted at that. "I guess. But getting suckered is never fun."

"What's the alternative," I asked with a shrug. "Never trust anyone again? Most people aren't going to screw you. Taking that risk makes all the people you CAN trust all the more valuable. Trust me. I've been backstabbed before. Literally. A guy I trust stabbed me in the actual back with a knife."

She chuckled. "And let me guess, you turned around and forgave him, then the two of you became good friends."

"What?" I said in confusion. "No, I beat that son of a bitch to death with my bare hands. Then I made a holiday out of the day I killed him on my home planet. People dress up in embarrassing costumes. It was brutal. I said you should keep trusting people, not that you should be a SAINT. Do I strike you as that kind of person?"

She laughed, a silvery, relaxed sound that meant more to me than a hundred A-ranked chits. "No, you don't," she assured me. "I was just expecting something more…heroic. You have that kind of vibe."

"Gods no," I said emphatically. "I'm not a hero. I just married one. Trust me. Callie is the hero in our relationship. If you find the people who did this to you, take them out. Trusting people isn't the same as forgiving the ones who screw you over. You absolutely should not do that. Screw them."

We were both still laughing when the car pulled up outside the large, square concrete building. "Alright, we're here. Follow me and try not to be too…you. Sander is kind of a stickler for protocol."

I saluted as we climbed out of the car, heading towards the building with a churning pit in my stomach. I didn't know why, but I was sure this was important. Maybe not bad, but big.

We arrived at the door and Elonwy pulled it open, letting me into the cooled security station. She led me to a desk in the back where a large man was seated in front of a computer, tapping away on a keyboard. He noticed her approaching and raised an eyebrow. "Elonwy," he said stoically. "You're back. I told you we had no new leads. That hasn't changed in the last twenty minutes."

"Not here for that," she said with a tight smile. "Here for this," she jerked a thumb at me. "My junior here has some question, we were hoping you might answer a few. He was the one who saved my ass from those Void bastards. He's also dealt with them a bunch before."

He glared at me. "I don't care what he's dealt with, this is a security matter. It's not for students to interfere in."

"Don't you have students helping?" she said archly, gesturing around the room. "Your interns even got excused from the exams for this. You can't spare some time to answer a few questions? He's not asking to be put to work, he just wants to know what the hell is going on."

I was surprised to hear about the other students, but looking around, I realized several people in the room were B or C-rankers. My eyes lingered on one absurdly tall man with long hair. He looked grimly implacable and was sharpening a sword with deadly precision. I hadn't seen a lot of people that intimidating. He was even bigger than I was.

Briefly, I considered how familiar he seemed, but I shook it off as Sander finally gave in with a sigh. "Fine. Ask your questions."

I turned back to the security officer, a literal god, and sighed with relief. I let my instincts guide me to the questions I needed. "Ok, you captured a bunch of them during the exams, right? Where are they being kept?"

He raised an eyebrow at me, his gaze suspicious. "Why would you want to know that?"

"Because if getting caught was their plan then maybe they planned WHERE they got caught," I said bluntly. "Maybe the whole point was to get locked up together."

"We're not idiots," he said coldly. "I didn't start doing this yesterday. They've been dispersed throughout the Academy. We had one of our formation masters specifically distribute them to avoid any potential collaboration, not to mention the inhibitor collars. We've taken every precaution."

I opened my mouth to continue, and he scowled. "In case you missed the subtext there, I am NOT telling you where they're being held. So drop it. What else do you want to know?"

"I want to know about the prisoners," I said bluntly. "One of them is…special. A former god from a lower realm who was ground down by exposure to lower dimensions. He got in suppressed and I haven't been able to find him. He's probably with the prisoners."

He sighed. "We would have noticed something like that. All the prisoners were thoroughly inspected. You'll just have to trust that we know what we're doing. Look, I don't have time for this. I appreciate what you did for El," he shot my friend a surprisingly tender look for such a dour man. "Really, I do. But these questions aren't going anywhere. I need to get back to work, and you need to go. If you think of anything important get in touch."

With that, I was dismissed. I grimaced at the brush off, but at least he'd heard me out. I didn't know if this had done anything but at least I'd tried. Elonwy and I headed back outside, climbing into the car. "Well, that was a total waste of time," I grimaced. "On my part, I mean, sorry. I appreciate the help on your end."

She shrugged. "Like I said, I get it. I owe you anyway. I'll keep on Sander about this. I don't know what's going on but you're right, it seems…weird. Too easy."

I grinned at her. "NOW you're thinking like a paranoid lunatic. Welcome to the club."

Laughing, she pulled out of the parking spot. I closed my eyes again, blowing out a long breath. "So…any advice on what to do in the next trial?" I asked her hopefully. "Any tips you could give would be appreciated."

"Don't make me laugh," she snorted. "I'd sooner peel off my own skin. The Prof would kill me if I gave away trade secrets. They'll tell you what to do when you get there, until then just stay ready. Now, where am I dropping you off? This didn't take as long as expected, so I can get you home fast and still have time to get back to the lab to check the results on one of my projects."

I just laughed. Even after everything, Elonwy was still just as dedicated to her work. "Just drop me at home," I said wryly. "I'll head back to Common City tomorrow, but with Callie out checking on the others and under guard, I might as well sleep in my own bed."

"I feel that," she sighed. "Staying with my friend is great for my nerves but there's something special about sleeping in your own space. I really miss it."

Putting a hand on her shoulder, I smiled sympathetically. "Hey, you're good. She's gone, you're working on things, and if you need someone to talk to I'm always around. I owe you too, you know. I would have died down there without you."

"You do not OWE me for helping you save my own life," she snorted. "But it's a nice offer. I'll keep it in mind."

Arriving back at my residence, I climbed out, thanking her as I headed inside. I knew I would have trouble sleeping, but I was bone tired from all the work during the task, so I was pretty sure I could fake it til I made it. To my surprise though, my eyes slammed shut the moment my head hit the pillow. I'd have to remember that exhaustion was a good cure for insomnia. Not that I was likely to forget. I had a feeling I'd be using it again all too soon.

 

[Quenster06]

So... that guy sharpening his sword was totally Devaskane, right? Since he seems to be in the security department that means he's probably directing the Formation Master to his own ends and putting the Void Children exactly where he wants them. That's nuts.

Thank you for the chapter!

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Waking up the next morning, I felt rested and ready to go. After stocking up on scrolls, I popped to my feet, moving through some stretches to wring out any soreness. Despite the boosts from the staff and my demons, fighting so many A-rankers yesterday had taxed my body. Apparently there were limits even to my body. At least for now.

Part of the reason I had started on the path of body refining was to correct that exact issue. I'd never pushed myself quite as hard as I had last night, and it had taken a major toll, but I was pretty sure the pre-nine phoenix me would be dead. It was nice to see my improved physique visible as more than numbers on a scroll.

It had been a long time since I had pushed hard enough to have aches and pains in my physical body. I honestly hadn't realized I could still DO that. I suspected it had to do with pushing the limits of my staff upgrade.

Closing my eyes, I appeared in my Domain, and then in front of a door in the back of my palace. Stepping through, I arrived in Callie's vault. Angelic bond connected us directly, and I had long since gotten her permission to come and go here whenever I wanted. Not long after I stepped inside, my wife appeared, looking as rumpled as I expected from her in the morning. She glared at me cutely. "And exactly what time do you call this?"

"Noon," I said brightly. "It's that thing that comes after morning. You know, just because we have the day off doesn't mean you have to sleep through it."

"Just because your mouth makes noise doesn't mean you have to not shut up," she said acidly. "I'm tired, can I go back to sleep now?" Despite the bite to her words, she was more pouty than upset, and I had trouble not grinning at how cute she was in the morning. Unfortunately she could FEEL that I felt that way, which made the pouting worse, and was quickly spiralling into annoyance.

Laughing I put my hands up defensively. "I promise I didn't wake you up for no reason. I have plans for today, I was hoping you wanted to come along. It's going to be a lot of fun."

She glared suspiciously. "Do you actually have something interesting planned or are you trying to save yourself. Because it'll be way worse if you're making this up to distract me. You'll be cooking me every meal for the next month. Plus snacks."

"I have a plan, I swear," I grinned. "I'm going out to look for Void cultists, and I want you to come with me. In fact, you're the only person who CAN, because I'm going to make use of my most underutilized demon to do it, and only you and I can access his powers. Angelic bond has grown, and I should be able to give you access through that vector."

She frowned for a second, then her eyes widened. "Astaroth?" she said excitedly. "I forgot about that one. Your perfect disguise demon, right?"

"Yup, the one I designed for my trip through the Void," I said confidently. "Even way back then I could hide from someone a rank or two up with Astaroth, and now, at the peak of B-rank, my staff will boost his powers to peak of A-rank, anyone short of an Overgod should fail to notice anything unless they look close."

Or anyone here at least, these weren't actual gods after all, just fragments. While I was sure that their true forms could more easily pierce my disguise, Astaroth was a seriously well designed form, and I had a lot of faith in it.

"I assume you have some kind of lead on where to go?" she asked mildly.

"Not even one," I chirped happily. "But I DO have access to someone who will. Namely, my divination teacher. She can definitely point us in the right direction. From there we'll just work with Dan to do a thorough investigation."

She let out a long suffering sigh. "Alright, FINE," she grumped. "But you're bringing me breakfast. Coffee from that place Winnie mentioned, and pastries. So many pastries."

I grinned. "Alright, I can do that. What are you in the mood for today?"

Tapping her pursed lips, she started her brain, getting it revved up to start it working. "Guava," she said after a pause. "And…dragonfruit. Oooh and loganberry. Do they have loganberry? I love those."

"They do," I laughed. Loganberries were a favorite of mine too, a hybrid fruit made of a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. "Pretty good selection I know you love guava, so that one isn't a surprise. Dragonfruit isn't normally your thing though." I winked at her. "Guess you still know how to keep me on my toes, even after a few years of marriage."

Rolling her eyes, she waved off my comment. "We're going to be together for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, Shane. But yeah, the dragonfruit thing is unexpected. I was just in the mood for it today, I don't know."

"As the wishmistress commands," I intoned with an over the top bow.

She giggled, then waved me off. "Alright, enough flirting, I'll meet you in town. Can you set up Astaroth's disguise long distance?"

"Of course," I nodded solemnly. "Just let me figure out who we're using as a template. Needs to be someone who can wander around undisturbed but who won't be questioned. Do you have anyone in mind? Preferably someone A-rank."

She frowned, thinking it over. "There's a teacher's assistant I know. Natalia. She would probably be a good pick for this. She has a lot of influence. I didn't even know A-rankers could get TA positions, so she must be connected. Plus she's currently at her final, and she doesn't leave the spatial departments much. I only know her through classes."

"I'll need an image, and preferably a voice to go off," I said after some thought. She nodded, closing her eyes, and called on the shadows that were much less a part of her powerset these days. After a bit of tweaking, she was able to construct a model for me to use, complete with colors. After that, I called up Astaroth and used the staff to push him to tier nine before funneling the power through the Angelic Bond.

As I watched, Callie rippled, stepping back and out of space as Astaroth created a simulacrum to take her place, perfectly simulating the person she'd shown me. I could still see her, but after a moment, there was a ripple and she completely vanished from even my sight. "What the hell?" I yelped.

"Relax," her voice rang through the vault. "I used my Adherent Fire to alter the imaginary space I'm standing in. I can do the same for you, it should make it even harder to crack this form. Think of it as stepping a layer deeper into a theoretical void I created."

I grinned, excited to try it out, then reached for Astaroth myself, boosting it with my staff. Once I had it, I pulled up an imagine of one of the interns from the security bureau, stepping back and into my alternate space. After I manifested the copy, a surge of power flooded through the bond, blue black fire consuming the world around me. It faded after a moment, and then the air nearby took on a slightly greyish tint.

"Oh wow," I marveled. "This is…weird." My voice echoed strangely inside the space, but I could feel a layer of separation between this and even my previous hidden stat. "That's crazy, Cal. You've been learning a lot in the space major, huh?"

She beamed at me. "Of course. Finding new ways to apply my flames has been my main focus, and I've been getting so many ideas. This is just the beginning. I've got big plans."

"Can't wait to see where they go," I assured her. "But we should head out to meet up. I want to check with my professor as soon as possible." I paused. "Maybe I should have waited to apply the disguises. It should be fine though, she's a divination professor, if any god can see through this it'll be her."

I gave Callie a peck on the lips and then headed out. Exiting my Domain, I made my way to the nearby shop we'd spoken about, spending a few points to pick myself up some pastries (I got a guava of my own along with a cream cheese and a strawberry chocolate I hadn't seen last time I was there). After that I took the platform back to Common City and met up with my wife, who was practically vibrating with excitement and all but tore the coffee from my hands, gulping it down in long, heavy pulls before scarfing down her pastries.

Mine, meanwhile, were eaten relatively slowly so I could savor them. Also, y'know, TASTE them. Once we were done, I made my way to Professor Saunders classroom. To my complete lack of surprise, she was already waiting for us when we arrived. "Mr. Wyndham," she said cheerfully. "
Please, come inside."

Nodding to Callie, I entered, giving the professor a stiff greeting. "How did you know we were coming?"

"You told me, dear," she beamed. "In about five minutes. Or possibly tomorrow. You're here for help with tracking down the locations of the Void cultists." She paused. "Unless it was about the other thing…no, that doesn't seem likely. You'd be much more flustered. Oh well, spoilers I suppose. In any case, I'd be happy to help."

"You…would?" I asked in disbelief. "You're not going to charge us?"

She blinked at me. "Why, do you have something to pay me with? I didn't get the impression you had anything I might want, but I've been wrong before."

"I…" I trailed off. "No," I said, slumping. "No probably not. So what do I need to do?"

"Why, only read," she said with a laugh, reaching under a stack of books nearby to withdraw a piece of paper. She handed it to me, and I unfolded it to find…a map. "This will lead you to where you need to be," she said kindly. "Though perhaps not where you WANT to be. It's hard to say. Oh, and you might want to hurry. If you dally too long you may miss them."

I nodded. "Alright," I said slowly. "I'll keep that in mind. Do you have any…other advice for us?"

She paused for a moment, thinking about the request. "Don't turn left on streets ending in the letter M." She said decisively. "Or only turn left. It's probably one of those. But definitely not both."

I thanked her, grabbing Callie's hand and pulling her out of the empty classroom. "Well," my wife said sheepishly. "That was weird."

"Yup," I agreed. "But not exactly unexpected. She's always like that. But still, this map is going to be huge for us. I just need to find the nearest spot where one of the cultists was picked up and we can head over."

Callie turned to stare at me. She looked at me for a moment or two before reaching out to take my hand. "Hey," she said warmly. "Are you ok? What's up, you seem off."

I smiled at her. "Sorry," I said as I tried to shake off the nonstop feeling of foreboding I'd been feeling. "It's nothing. I've been feeling like something bad is coming. I'm trying not to let it get to me. No point worrying over what I can't change."

"Who says you can't change it?" she said imperiously. "Whatever is coming, we'll discover it early and expose it to everyone. Everything is going to be ok." She squeezed my hand again, and I felt my heart warm and then loosen, the everpresent knot in my stomach relaxing just a fraction. When she said it like that, I could almost believe her.

 

[Verdthandi]

Ah, Callie is pregnant. That will be exciting for everyone! Congrats to the happy couple, and I'm sure Atlas is thrilled to be a grandfather again.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, this was the first place on the map," I said as we sat at a shaded table across from our target location. "I have Dan going at A-rank, and he's analyzing the locale. He should be able to dig into the temporal resonance of the place and get us some clues. If not, we move onto the next place. What about the map, you dig up anything interesting?"

Callie shook her head. She was sitting in front of the spread out map Professor Saunders gave us, studying the distribution of incidents. "Not so far," she frowned. "As far as I can tell, this is entirely random. Then again, I'm not Dan, and collating data isn't my strong suit. I can calculate spatial density on the fly to the eighteenth integer at this point, but barring some kind of space related formation I don't see what I'm going to be able to find here."

"Well keep looking," I shrugged. "We need to look busy. I doubt anyone is looking for lurkers, especially not after the change in our appearance, but we still need to keep up the pretense."

She sighed, holding up a hand to stop a waitress. "Excuse me, can I get another iced tea. And a plate of those cucumber finger sandwiches." At my chuckle, she just shrugged. "What, I get snacky when I'm hungry."

"Me too," I admitted. "So you better share. I love those cucumber finger sandwiches."

She winked at me. "Why do you think I got them? Anyway, what do you have so far? Dan's been at it for a while, did he pick up anything useful yet?" Dan's ability to mine locations for embedded data was one of my more useful tricks, and I hadn't busted it out for a while. I was looking forward to applying my brain to a problem again instead of just hitting it with a stick. Hitting things with a stuck was much more satisfying when I had a detailed reason in mind for why I was doing it.

So far though, he hadn't gotten much. "I don't know a lot. At about ten fifteen yesterday morning, a pair of men entered that bar over there." I gestured to the dive bar we were surveilling, a place called "The Rat Hole" (the bar's owner had really been leaning into the dive bar meta with that one). "Once inside, they took up a position in the corner and made conversation for exactly two hours and fifteen minutes, then one of them smashed a bottle and stabbed the other through the eye."

"Oh," Callie winced. "That's…what? How did the security department connect that to the cult?"

"Because after he killed his friend, the remaining cultist got down on his knees and informed the bar's inhabitants of who he was. He remained entirely calm and reasonable through the whole arrest, and even waited quietly for security to arrive to get him without restraints."

She blinked at me. "And…nobody thought that was weird?"

"Several people thought it was weird," I confirmed. "Up to and including the arresting officers. I'm guessing they looked into it and didn't see any issues with it. In fact, I'd be surprised if they didn't compare the incidents looking for correlations, I guess they just didn't find any."

"I guess that makes sense," she hedged. "I mean, there's no way there's just one security office for the whole city. These incidents were probably in totally different jurisdictions. I doubt they even have a full map of all of them, since a bunch probably didn't even seem like cult related issues." She studied the map more deeply. "Actually…what time did you say the guy killed his friend?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Twelve thirty, why?"

"One second," she said quickly, taking out her scan ring. She pulled up a site, flipping through to a list, then started circling spots on the map. "Oh," she said quietly. "Oh shit. Hold on." She started circling spots faster and faster, and then she drew out a shape by connecting them. "What does that look like to you?"

I glanced at it. "I mean…a blob?" I said slowly. "Why, what does it look like to you?"

"Well, when you structure it like that, nothing. Especially not if you use the incident locations, but if you pull up a list of the security stations where they're being HELD," she said, taking out a piece of paper. She drew a shape, then another, and then connected them together. "And line them up like THIS…"

I studied her sketch and paled. "Shit. This is a formation. It's in four dimensions. They staggered the timing to make sure the construct would form. But I don't recognize the shape. Does this mean anything to you?"

"It's kind of generic," she grimaced. "If I had to describe it, I'd say some kind of booster maybe? Especially with the murder. If this wasn't the only place where someone died, I would say that they're using sacrifices to create formation nodes. But there's no way the security department doesn't have SOMEONE who would notice this. We're B-rankers, and neither of us is even that good at formations."

I frowned. "I mean, yeah, it's weird they haven't…" my stomach tightened. "Unless they have. And they didn't say anything. Because they're PART of it."

"You think they turned the whole security force?" she asked skeptically.

"I don't think they needed to," I challenged, my mind racing. "Shit. I knew I recognized that damned intern. He wasn't wearing his mask, and we didn't meet for long, but I think that was Clarent. Think about it. They only need someone who can switch up assignments, and they clearly have that. They were able to reassign the interns so they could skip the finals. So they could have placed people at any of the stations."

The more I spoke, the more sure I was that I was right. Bindings. That was Deveskane's whole thing. Binding's like the collars, like the cells they were used in. Chelsea's yin yang path had a concept. Extreme yin gives birth to yang, and vice versa. That was what the little dots in the black and white sides of the circles represented. It meant that if you pushed something to a high enough extreme it would become the opposite.

In fact, Deveskane had DONE that before. Back at the Chasm. He'd used the unbinding energy from Atlas being unsealed to unbind the tower itself. If we assumed the Void Overgod had been in contact, it was possible, even likely, that the whole thing had been a dry run. He'd been experimenting with his Domain to learn how it worked.

Going around the Deans should have been impossible, but the Void Overgod had been trapped for a long time. If it could get free enough to send signals, it could presumably think well enough to study its prison. And Void Children were all about subversion and escape. The Void was ethereal and hard to pin down, it was why their stealth was so good. Deveskane's boss had dissected the defenses and hand fed him a plan.


The more I looked, the more similar the two situations seemed. I'd tried to warn the Deans, but they hadn't listened. Probably because I was a twenty year old from a lower realm who didn't even know how to mythcraft, or possibly because Harper just didn't believe the Void Overgod could pretend to be nonfunctional for so long. Whatever the reason, we needed to get to SOMEONE and tell them what was happening. Before it was too late-

The sky exploded. Literally. A colossal wave of red force SHATTERED the air above us. From distant locations, columns of red light erupted into the air. One, two, twenty, I counted one hundred and eight of them. The pattern was hard to track, but I was able to compare the locations mentally to the ones I'd seen on the map. I stared in horror as the beams of light began to twist and deform, creating a complex shape in the air, a circle of angry, painful geometric patterns that eroded the very world around them.

I was on the ground, I realized, staring up in horror at what was happening above us. I'd been knocked from my seat and was so stunned I hadn't noticed. I climbed to my feet, reaching down to pull Callie up. "We need to go. We need to go now! We have to find someone. Anyone." I fumbled for the bronze watch, but despite mashing the buttons I couldn't get a connection. There must be interference.

As we watched, the amorphous mass of shifting power in the sky began to move, sliding away from the city proper towards the direction where the curse canyon was.

"Where the hell are the DEANS?" I hissed as Callie and I took off for the nearest platform back to Moment City. "And why the hell didn't Saunders see this coming?" She had warned us to hurry, but we HAD. At least we hadn't dragged our feet.

But I knew divination didn't work like that. There were too many possibilities. She probably HAD seen it coming, she'd just seen it along with a million OTHER possible futures so it had gotten lost in the shuffle. Besides which the Void had its ways of camouflaging itself. Maybe the Overgod Void Child had prevented her from noticing. She was only a god. Not even a full one here either, just a fragment.

The platform was packed, and we had to fight our way through to get to the access point. As we arrived and waited to leave, I turned to Callie. "Ok, the Deans aren't here to stop this, which means they've probably been drawn away. That's a problem. But if the Deans aren't HERE they're most likely back at their own campuses."

She saw where I was going with that. "You want me to head back to the spatial campus," she said with a sigh. "Try to find my Dean and get him here. Are you sure?"

"No," I admitted. "The idea of you leaving my sight is terrifying. I'd rather peel off my own skin than send you anywhere. But the more of them we can involve before that formation breaks open the Void containment, the better our chances. Harper should be there at least, or on the way. I just worry that he won't be able to do much. It took him over a century to beat that thing last time."

She leaned forward to put her arms around me, hugging tightly. Then she tipped up my mask and mashed her lips to mine. "Be safe," she said quietly. "If anything happened to you…"

"Right back at you," I whispered into her hair as I clung to her. "I love you, Cal."

"I love you too, Shane," she breathed. "Don't you fucking die on me." Then she turned and she was gone, vanished into the crowd as she headed for her own major. I forced my rampaging heart to calm as I turned back to step onto the platform. I needed to stay calm. Think this through.

They'd used us. I could see that now. Our warning hadn't been ignored, it had been mistimed. Despite not implementing all the measures we might have liked, the Deans DID take things seriously. All of them being at the finals to oversee was clearly significant. But the Void had never intended to attack the finals. They'd baited us into thinking that. Or maybe I had just assumed.

Whatever the case, this was happening NOW. I needed to find the Dean, then my friends, in that order. This was going to get way worse before it got better, and I needed to make sure everyone was safe. My sister, Benny, Jessie, Bethy, they were all in danger. Callie was in danger. I smothered that horrible thought before it could form. Callie would be fine. She was strong. For now, I had to trust that she could take care of herself. I just hoped I could say the same of me. I had a feeling my self preservation skills were about to be pushed to the limit.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I emerged from the platform at a dead sprint. I didn't have time for things like subtlety or tact, I didn't have time for politeness or excuse me's. I needed to find someone. Anyone. I headed for the Professor's house because he was the closest to the platform, and the Dean was probably being distracted as we spoke.

My mad dash wasn't made easier by the fact that none of these people seemed aware anything was going on. A few people had come off the platform as I had, and the news was starting to trickle out, but the muttering hadn't really penetrated the consciousness of the crowd yet. I was fighting back against a sea of people that thought it was a normal afternoon, and it was really slowing me down.

I dropped Astaroth's seeming, since it wasn't helping much here and hurried down the road toward the run down house where Professor Hawkins both lived and worked. When I arrived, I started pounding on the door, desperately trying to get the attention of anyone inside.

That lasted about ten seconds, before the door was flung open and my Professor glared up at me in annoyance. "Shane? What the hell are you doing at my house? Why didn't you just call?"

"No connection," I panted. I was more exhausted from the mental effort and the worry than the physical toll of the run, admittedly. "Bad news." I filled him in on our search, what we'd found, and the fact that we'd been too late.

He grit his teeth. "Shit," he spat. "I TOLD Harper it was stupid to keep that thing. But no, big bad Overgod always knows better. "He even claimed to have tightened security after we mentioned your concerns." His eyes narrowed. "Damn it. That made it worse. It's an unsealing not a jailbreak, the sealing energy is part of the ritual. Increasing the pressure would feedback into the counterforce and ramp up the power."

"That was my guess," I admitted. "I figure the Overgod was counting on resistance to its escape. I'm glad to know we weren't ignored though, I thought you guys just wrote us off."

"We're not idiots," he scoffed. "When warned of a potential issue, we don't just hope for it to go away. You just didn't need to be involved in the security modifications. We were trying to keep as many people as possible out of the loop."

I grimaced. "Well it didn't work. Someone with the authority to redirect security was involved. Someone who was able to sandbag the Deans, who knew their schedules and how to distract them. At least I assume, since when I left they hadn't arrived to stop the ritual. Though now that I think about it-"

"Trying to stop or slow it is the worst possible response," he confirmed. "If its a feedback loop like I suspect, derailing it will only empower it. Our best bet is to arrange for the Deans to surround it and launch an ambush as it emerges. Unfortunately, we have an even bigger problem."

"Which is?" I asked, following him as he gestured me inside and stalked down the hall to throw open a closet. He knelt down and pulled out a large duffel bag, pulling things off the closet shelves and shoving them into the bag one by one.

"Security isn't departmental," he spat. "It's a free floating independent collective that only answers to two command structures. The internal leadership, and the Deans. The internal leadership runs the place by committee, which means that unless there are MULTIPLE traitors in the organization…"

My eyes widened in horror. "It turned one of the Deans," I whispered. "But WHY? What possible reason would an Overgod have to work with a monster like that? The Void uses power as a lure, but what could it offer someone that powerful?"

He shook his head. "Not all Overgods are created equal," he said sadly. "Nothing about Ascension is fair. Look at you, or your vampire friend. Some people are just stronger at every rank. And those advantages compound. People like my teacher are monsters that can fight other Overgods ten to one."

"Does that mean he can beat the Void Child?" I said hopefully.

Another head shake. "Unlikely. You need to understand that the kind of monster my teacher is? Harper is that same kind of beast. He's called the Monstrosity for a reason. Harper tells the story about beating that Void Child like it's a cute little anecdote, but he neglects to mention that his particular forte is durability and regeneration. Harper is a physical apocalypse. An unrelenting storm of horror made flesh. He basically CAN'T die."

"So you're saying that the fact that it took a hundred years was because he was barely strong enough to keep up with it?" I asked in horror.

"I'm saying it took a hundred years for the damned thing to exhaust itself butchering him on repeat a hundred times a day," he said bluntly. "Harper didn't BEAT that Void Child. He SURVIVED it. That's why he's so obsessed with that damned project. He'll never admit it but he considers that fight a loss. He wants to take everything special about the Void Child and make it a part of himself."

I swallowed. "So…all of the other Deans together-"

"Might not be enough," he admitted. "At least not alone. Harper isn't just the most durable, he's the STRONGEST. He does more damage than any of the others. If he couldn't hurt it, most of them can't either. But they do have tricks he can't match. My teacher and his wife are an incredible duo. More than that, this is a research university. The Deans all have their pet projects, not just Harper. Even I don't know what most of them are."

Taking a deep breath, I forced my heart to calm. "What about Dean Desmons?" I asked, trying to keep my tone calm. "I sent Callie to find him…"

"Simon Desmond is the most irritating Overgod in all creation, according to my teacher," he reassured me. "While Harper might be the most unkillable, Desmond is the most elusive. Harper won't stay down, Desmond won't stay STILL. Next to him is about the safest place a person could be in a crisis like this. He is ALSO able to come and go throughout the academy at will. He can collect the other Deans instantly if need be."

I nodded, because…that hadn't occurred to me. I knew the Deans were powerful, and I had assumed that meant they could travel vast distances instantly. But that wasn't how it worked. I mean yes, they were probably stupid fast physically, but who knew how far apart the different campuses were.

Some ascendants had travel based powers, some didn't. Like back during our military training, I'd been attacked by an A-ranked Duke of the empire. Because his powers involved long distance travel, he'd shown up when I was undefended, and only Zeke's desperate gambit of forcing himself to break through to A-rank had saved me. This was the same thing at a higher level. Despite them having MORE powers, they still had specific KINDS of power.

"But what if Desmond is the traitor?" I asked in a horrified moment of realization. "He'd be perfectly placed to-"

"To break that damned thing out himself," he said with a snort. "Trust me, it's not Desmond. I'd believe it was HARPER before I believed it was Desmond." He saw me tense and rolled his eyes. "And it's not Harper. Aside from the fact that he would gut himself before freeing that monster, he also wouldn't have needed to go through all the trouble. He could have just sabotaged the restraints himself. He did design them."

I chuckled in relief. "Well, at least that's two down," I said wryly. "I'm guessing Dean Gibbons is out because trying to stop him from freeing it would be basically impossible."

He nodded. "And Dean Windermere. As scary as Harper and my teacher are, Sela Windermere is infinitely more terrifying. If she wanted that thing free, she could have just broken it out by force. No, it must be one of the weaker Deans. Not the crafters, they're too busy to bother. They have everything they need." He continued shoving things into the bag, which was obviously spatially expanded because it should have been full five minutes ago.

"So who do you think it is?" I asked anxiously as I waited for him to finish packing and DO something.

"My guess would be Clara Temple, the Stargazer, Wendy Keller, the Merchant of Mirrors, or Kell Drave, the Silent Seeker." He said absently. "Temple is a little off, always listening to celestial voices, Keller will do almost anything for a profit, and Drave…well, his department isn't exactly the biggest resource focus. Where the hell is that Ralfjun Compressor? I swear I left it right…oh, there it is." He snagged a strange inverted looping crystalline construct, shoving it in the bag. "Alright, that's all of it. I needed a few things just in case we run into problems. Those cultists are embedded deeper than expected if they turned a Dean. Any given department head has unfettered access to their professors. No telling which ones might have been subverted."

He slipped the bag over a shoulder, adjusting the strap. "For now, we need to head to my teacher's house. I wouldn't be surprised if they cut the lines of communication temporarily to delay their response. Desmond will be able to help if your wife can get to him quickly, but with one of the Deans compromised, we need as many angles of attack as possible."

There was a bang at the door, and he strode over, opening it up to reveal…"Elonwy?" I asked in surprise. "How did you know to come here?"

"Your communicator might be out of synch," Hawkins said dryly. "But I have my own methods for reaching my TA. I contacted her when you arrived, she's going to be out transport to my teacher's place. That ridiculous car of hers is the perfect vehicle to shuttle us between the different majors. After we pick up the Dean, we'll swing by the spatial department and get your wife and Desmond."

"My car is not ridiculous," she said acidly. "You're just salty about the fact that it's a dual major thesis." She shot me a smug grin. "He can't stand the fact that I consulted the spatial department when I was developing the mechanism."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "That's a funny way to say 'please professor, make me administer the practical lab makeup exams next month' but if that's what you really want."

"NO!" she almost screamed. "Please don't, I'll do anything. Only idiots and lunatics fail those practicals, people DIE hosting those exams." They were still bickering as we headed out and climbed into the car. As I buckled in she held up a warning finger. "Don't wrinkle any of my notes. I'm pretty sure some of them are important."

We pulled out, and I closed my eyes, knowing what was coming. There was a slight lurch and then BAM, we were pulling to a stop. I opened my eyes to find the car rolling to a stop outside the Dean's house. I whistled. "Ok, yeah, that IS really cool. Let's go get him, I'm worried about Callie and the others."

We climbed out, hurrying to the door of the house. This time it was Hawkins that was banging on the door, but it didn't take even a minute for it to open. In fact, his knuckles had barely brushed the wood when the door flung open to reveal Deans Windermere and GIbbons, standing in their front hall wearing jackets and gloves, clearly having just finished getting ready to go out. Dean Gibbons raised an imperious brow. "You certainly took your time, didn't you? Come along then, we need to go." I wasn't sure if the fact that he knew we were coming inspired confidence or annoyance, but either way, it was definitely comforting.