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

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Malcolm Tent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She pouted at me. "You have no heart for science."

"You don't DO science," I protested. "You just do random stuff over and over and see what works. And even if you DID do science, I wouldn't let you run experiments on the tree growing into my fucking SOUL!"

"She gets it," Callie snickered. "Calm down. Just Bethy being Bethy. It's vampire stuff."

"It is most certainly NOT 'vampire stuff'," Alara said primly from nearby. "Vampires do not drink wine."

Bethy glared at the older woman. "Don't YOU start. You're just a big fake. You're not a REAL vampire, and you don't get to tell me what to do. I'll totally kick your ass if you don't start being nicer to me!"

Callie sighed. "Bethy, my sister is S-rank, and at least a demigod. You can't beat her in a fight. I don't think your DAD could beat her in a fight." She must have seen Bethy's eyes narrow because she hastily added. "NOT that we want to see him try, so please don't mention that to him!"

"Alright," I said with a laugh, cutting them off. "We're all friends here. Bethy, you should get to know Alara better. She's Callie's sister and she knows a lot of stuff. She could probably teach you tons about being a vampire."

"Daddy taught me everything I need to know, thank you," she said primly. "I don't need advice from a fake old lady who stole my friend's face."

"It was MY face first," snapped Alara waspishly. "And I am NOT old. I was dead for most of the time after I reached S-rank. Chronologically I'm only a century or two old, if that. But fine," she stepped down from the stands gracefully, and as I watched, her Impact diminished in real time. I'd seen that before, Zeke had done it when I was starting out. This seemed more…real, though. Like she was actually becoming weaker. It must be some kind of advanced self suppression technique. "Let us see exactly how much your 'daddy' taught you about your powers, little girl."

My face drained of color. "Um, Alara, Bethy is our friend, we don't want her-"

"Peace, little brother," she said soothingly. "I shan't hurt the brat. Fledglings are unruly things, regardless of species. Sometimes they require correction. I'll maintain my power at the C-rank ceiling for the duration of this battle, and any unsealing of my abilities will be considered my loss."

Bethy's eyes began to glow. "You know what, fine. I don't believe some fake old lady can take me down at the same level. Even daddy wasn't as strong as me at C-rank. You've had your pointy nose in the air since you got here and I'm sick of it. Let's see what you can do. No Domains, obviously."

Smiling serenely, Alara nodded. "Of course. Should I win, I shall have you as my handmaid. I lack a proper attendant since arrival, and you would be…acceptable."

"And WHEN I kick your ass," Bethy hissed in annoyance. "You have to apologize and declare to the ENTIRE warfront that you're inferior to my dad and are an incompetent vampire. And then you have to do a dance. About rabbits. I'll write out the steps for you."

"I really don't think this is wise," I tried to interject feebly, but they both turned gleaming red eyes on me and I sighed, raising my hands in surrender. "Nevermind. Do you need a judge?"

The two of them flickered, appearing on the floor about twenty feet apart in the middle of the training room we'd been using. I sighed, sitting down next to Callie on the stands where they'd been watching. I turned to Chelsea with a raised eyebrow. "You couldn't have stopped this?" I asked dryly.

"She's just feeling insecure," my sister sighed. "Alara is old and strong. That's a hot button thing for vampires. Bethy has always been kind of…arrogant. Not in a mean way, but just in the way that she knows she's the best. Alara being here makes her doubt herself. She's experienced self doubt before, but never about THIS. Her power is the one thing she's always been sure of. And it doesn't help that Alara and Callie are sisters. She considers you two family, and she's feeling like she's been replaced."

"No one is REPLACING her," I protested. "She's our friend. Hell, she's a member of my cabinet. She's part of my damned ADMINISTRATION, what part of that makes her seem disposable?"

Chelsea shrugged. "I didn't say it was rational, I just said that's what she feels. Also, I think there's something else there. She seems more hostile to Alara than I expected, like there's some kind of natural instinct to defend her territory. It's possible Lark didn't JUST kill all the other vampires to make a name for himself. I think different lines of descent aggravate each other."

"Alara might not even be aware of it," I winced. "She hasn't had much practice at being a vampire. At least not around OTHER vampires. The individual mechanics she has a handle on, but interpersonal stuff…shit. Do you think she'll go overboard?"

Callie shook her head. "She's not the type. I don't think she's actually mad about Bethy's sniping. I think she just knows Bethy needs an outlet to get past all this drama. But if she offered her an olive branch, it would hurt her pride, and she still wouldn't be convinced. Alara wants to ease the tension by just ripping off the bandage. Besides, there's no world where Bethy is able to put enough pressure on my sister to force her to get serious, even at the same rank. She's not…even without the Impact, you know the differences in control and precision that come from understanding your abilities that deeply."

I conceded the point. Bethy was strong, but she was strong for a C-ranker. I wasn't sure I could take her in a straight fight with only a small gap between our stats, even at the next rank. But Alara? Alara was strong for an S-ranker. I didn't know if she could actually take Lark in a fight, but I did know that she had KILLED a god. Lark was universally recognized as the next best thing to invincible for having fought one to a draw, and Alara was a legitimate godslayer.

Of course, I knew better than anyone how easy it was for those stories to get out of hand. Technically CALLIE was a godslayer, so I wouldn't assume that Alara was untouchable, but I had to at least figure that she was competent. Her ability to shred through an army of Asura solo even when out of her mind with bloodlust made that point clear.

"It's fine," a casual voice said as my grandfather sat down beside me. "Moon and I are here if it gets out of hand. She might be dangerous, but we're strong enough to break things up if necessary."

I wasn't entirely sure that was true, but I knew bringing it up would just be pointlessly antagonistic. If Alara was stronger than Lark and went crazy here, no one besides one of the six was going to be able to stop her. At that point, I might as well just discount it as a possibility. It was like worrying about being in a crash when you were riding in a car. Thinking about it wasn't going to change anything.


"Alright," I called down to the two combatants. "I want a clean fight. No Domains, at least not projected. And no one is allowed to breach the threshold of C-rank. That means neither total stats nor Impact can exceed the limit. Similarly, if anyone surrenders, the fight will immediately cease, and anyone who continues will be considered to have automatically forfeited the match, even if they would otherwise have won. Is that understood?"

Both of them nodded, red eyes locked on each other with obvious intent to battle. I took one last look at my friend and sister in law and let out a long sigh. "Fine. Let the fight…begin." Both of them vanished, and the battle was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It had been quite a while since I had seen Bethy fight. The last time had been a duel against Abel, if I remembered correctly, and it had been months ago. I knew she had reached the peak of C-rank, though she obviously hadn't ranked up. Still, given the relatively small gap between peak C and B-rank (aside from Impact), I had assumed she wouldn't be TOO much more powerful than I was in a straight fight.

I was wrong.

Bethy had clearly been refining her techniques during my trip to the Void. As my Master of Challenge, I knew that she'd had plenty of fights, but I hadn't realized how SERIOUSLY she was taking them. The way she moved, stepped, breathed, it was all different now. Smoother. More refined.

In my memory, Bethy was graceful and dangerous, but it was a natural grace. Like a deadly panther, she moved like liquid smoke and struck like a viper, but it was all predatory instinct and deadly talent.

As someone who had trained extensively in combat, both as myself and as multiple demons at this point, I could see through the flaws in that approach. For normal people, reflex fighting made you predictable and easy to counter. That was why martial arts and fighting styles existed. To overcome the limitations of human instinct.

Bethy, however, was NOT human, and neither were her instincts. Her natural gift for violence was beyond what I'd seen in almost anyone except maybe Dayna, and her absurd physical parameters made up for even that slight lack. Beyond that, Bethy was exceptionally gifted at mental manipulation and hypnotism, to the extent that even in her family, where such powers were an inborn part of their trait, she was considered to be a prodigy.

All this was to say that Bethy had been dangerous and terrifying in a fight before, but that danger and terror stemmed from prodigious natural gifts.

Now though, her style had changed. She still fought in a graceful, sort of formless dance of instinctive violence, but there was…polish on it. Her combat abilities hadn't been improved so much as they'd been honed, and I knew exactly how. Combat. This was what happened when you took someone with absurd natural talent and seasoned that talent with EXPERIENCE.

Bethy the last time I'd seen her fight was a panther, a deadly, graceful beast, but now she fought more like a ballerina. Her movements were light and graceful and deceptively flowing. I had thought before that even at B-rank I wasn't sure I could take her, and now I knew without a doubt that I absolutely couldn't. The way she moved, the intensity of her attacks, they were beyond what I thought possible for a C-ranker.

And they were doing absolutely NOTHING.

Claws struck, kicks scythed, fangs snapped, she was a tornado of terror, a symphony of slaughter, and she unleashed every ounce of latent ferocity and rage on her opponent. Bethy freed the beast inside her, but for the first time, she reigned it in enough that she could think. Reason. She was at her peak, fighting with both the power and technique that she could usually only use interchangeably, and she was getting fucking DEMOLISHED.

It wasn't like Alara was beating her. There were no punishing blows or brutal slashes. Instead, the other vampire seemed to engage her in her deadly dance as a partner. Spinning and flowing and swirling around the younger vampire in a macabre foxtrot, Alara was so overwhelmingly skilled that she wasn't just beating Bethy. She was LEADING her.

I couldn't imagine it. Being so far ahead of someone like Bethy that you could turn their most explosive attacks into a choreographed dance.

But that was what she was doing. Every slash, every step, every kick, it all looked harmless. Wherever Bethy was, Alara wasn't, and vice versa. It wasn't mocking, or derisive, it wasn't even malicious. Alara wasn't even paying ATTENTION to her. Bethy was set dressing. Background. She was the lighting on the stage, and it was so much worse than any insult or curse I could have imagined.

My friend began to lose her composure. Her eyes started to glint, her lips peeled back, and her movements became faster and sharper. I could see it in real time, the bloodlust overtaking her, and I started to stand up, calling for Zagan as I prepared to intervene.

An arm blocked my way, and I looked down to see my Grandfather barring me from approaching. "Not unless she surrenders," he said quietly.

"She's losing it," I snapped. "I need to go help her. She'll never forgive herself if something happens!"

He shook his head sadly. "It's not your place. Not yet. But don't worry. Even with the bloodlust fueling her, she has no chance at seriously harming Alara. In fact, I suspect she was looking for this exact outcome. She wouldn't have baited Bethany into that state if she didn't have some kind of countermeasure prepared."

Gritting my teeth, I sat back down, my eyes fixed on my friend as she continued her descent into madness. It was infuriating. Bethy HATED being like this. She wouldn't want us to leave her in this state, no matter how much she disliked Alara, not to mention it wasn't working.

Alara danced around her almost lazily, but as Bethy became more aggressive, her focus sharpened. Not in the sense that she seemed to need more effort, but in the sense that she was clearly invested in the fight now. "Shameful," she said casually as they blurred back and forth. "Is this the vampirism your father taught you? Rabid blood madness? You had so much promise a moment ago. Now you're just an animal. A warrior vampire may have given me pause, but I need no special effort to outthink a beast."

Bethy's eyes brightened, the glow becoming a more intense red as she snarled and redoubled her attack. Alara just sighed, and for the first time in the entire fight, went on the offensive. Her hands blurred, claws flickering, and a few thin lines of blood appeared on Bethy's pale skin. The scent of her own blood seemed to drive her even deeper into frenzy, and she got even faster, screaming in wordless hate and rage as her body became a blur.

I expected more taunting, but to my surprise, Alara didn't look smug. She looked sad. "Look what you've done to yourself, girl," she said in a voice that all but dripped compassion. "So afraid of your own nature you'd rather drive yourself to death like a monster than face that it's a part of you."

As she spoke, she continued to attack, claws laying open Bethy's flesh in a hundred places. As Bethy lost herself more, her wounds began to close at a faster rate, the bloodlust somehow increasing her regeneration, but no matter how she attacked or how angry she got, she couldn't touch the older woman at all.

"Stop it!" I heard from beside me. I turned to see Chelsea on her feet, tears in her eyes and fists clenched so hard blood dripped down her fingers. As the drops splattered to the ground beneath her though, Bethy just…stopped. Her eyes, still red and unblinking, never left Alara, but she didn't move another inch. "Please stop," Chelsea said softly. "You're killing yourself."

Bethy blinked. Then again. And each blink was like hitting the dimmer switch on a light. The red faded from her eyes. Slowly. Gradually. She was left swaying on her feet. "You wanted me to come out the other side?" she asked Alara in confusion, her voice hoarse.

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself," the older vampire said kindly. "It's not a monster, Bethany. It's part of you. It's only a beast because you treat it like one."

"Maybe yours is," Bethy said sadly. "But I'm different. I'm not just a vampire."

"I know," Alara nodded. "But you were still almost through it, weren't you? You were almost at the bottom. Do you think it was enough?"

My friend shook her head. "I don't. I don't think it would have been either way. But…thank you. For trying. That isn't a solution for me. But it might be part of one. Maybe given how much progress I've made, I can learn to embrace it."

"If you don't, you can always count on others to pull you back," Alara smiled. "Love is a powerful force. In all its many forms. Friends. Soulmates. Family. You're a powerful woman, Bethany."

I knew from the way she said that she wasn't talking about physical strength or technique. Bethy just beamed at her, face lighting up with a billion megawatt smile so blinding it almost left spots on the back of my eyelids. "I know," she said warmly. "I'm pretty lucky, too." She winked at the ancient vampire with luck powers, and Alara tipped back her head and laughed boisterously at the younger girl.

"Agreed," she said as she approached. Reaching down, she cut her finger as her Impact came flooding back. The energy that flowed into her returned to all of her at once, but it seemed to drain partly into the blood drop on her thumb. She flicked the ruby droplet off her thumb and it shot into Bethy's mouth. The energy infused Bethy, seeming to almost reinflate her body from where it had started to flag under the blood loss.

Bethy was so thrown she barely had time to catch my sister and Gabe as the two of them tackled her from either side, clinging to her in fear. Gabe hadn't yelled for the fight to stop, but I knew he never would. My sister was more concerned about Bethy's safety than anything, but Gabe was an adamant. He knew what a loss could cost.

"I don't know what you just did," my sister hissed. "But if you hurt her in any way that doesn't heal, I'm going to carve out your tongue and nail it to your forehead. I don't care how long it takes me to reach your rank."

Bethy giggled. "It's FINE babe," she assured my sister. "She was helping me. It was…I needed that. I didn't even know how much." She nodded to Alara. "I'll be your handmaid or whatever, it's cool. I owe you one."

Alara grinned wickedly. "Apologies, but I'm afraid this was a draw. I used my full power to infuse that drop of blood before the battle had been officially declared. Given your state, I can't in good conscience consider that a victory, but I definitely didn't win. We'll have to call it a tie I'm afraid, and schedule another fight some other time to decide the victor."

Everyone just blinked, staring at her in complete disbelief as we considered everything that had just happened. Bethy stared at her in shock for a few seconds, then all but doubled over laughing, relying on Gabe and Chelsea to hold her up. "Th-thats…" she gasped as she tried to regain her breath. "Oh my gods, that's brilliant." She beamed up at Alara. "I changed my mind. You're pretty damned awesome. I'm super jealous of Callie now. I wish I had a sister like you."

Alara smiled warmly, then brought a claw to her mouth and licked it daintily. "You've tasted my blood and I yours. In a way, that makes us blood sisters, no?"

Bethy squealed excitedly, bouncing up and down a bit. "Oh my gods we totally ARE!" She darted forward, grabbing the older girl by an arm and dragging her towards the stands. "Callie, we're totally sisters now! Come on! We can go out to celebrate, we just have to stop at my place to pick you guys outfits!"

My wife's face, which had been fixed in a soft smile, froze, blood draining from her cheeks, but Bethy was already there and grabbing her. She shot me a pleading look as our friend dragged her off to play dress up doll, but I looked away, deliberately not seeing anything. It helped hide the huge grin on my face too.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day started just like any other. Another run through the obstacle course, this time with the difficulty turned up even higher. Every time I'd get used to it my parents would increase the difficulty. Speed up the swinging blades, destabilize the balance points, remove handholds from the climbing walls. It seemed like they could tell exactly how far to push me to take the difficulty JUST beyond what I could comfortably achieve.

After my fifteenth run of the day, I collapsed onto my side, gasping for breath. No matter how often I went through it, the course never ceased to make me feel like I was dying. "You look rough," Zeke said as he lounged nearby, sipping a colorful drink from a wide bottomed glass. He was sitting on a long chair like you see on beaches, and had, for some reason, chosen to wear a woven straw hat, sunglasses, and a smidge of sunscreen on his nose.

"I hate you," I wheezed. "So much."

"It's not my fault you're out of shape," he said far too gleefully. He took a long, loud slurp of his drink as he grinned down at me.

I glared up at him pointlessly. "I am wearing FULL plate armor," I hissed. "Speaking of which, have the materials for my upgrade come in yet?" Despite access to more than a few powerful Wish users, I unfortunately lacked the means to PAY for the materials to craft my upgraded armor. I'd decided to buy them with the points left over from the succession war, but I couldn't use them as direct payment for the wish because no one who was powerful enough to get me those materials NEEDED the damned things.

Still, they were currency, and I was able to redeem them for the metals that I required, I just had to wait until the damned things showed up.

Zeke smirked. "Nope. You just have to be patient. You're still waiting on Bethany to finish that new wine recipe anyway, right? Personally, I think her first offer was pretty neat, vampire trees sound awesome."

"You do NOT think that," I snapped. "Nobody thinks that except Bethy, because it's ridiculous. And don't say it in front of her, because she'll probably try to get Alyssa to help her make a bunch to keep in her Domain, and those poor animals have suffered enough." I slumped onto my back with a groan. "Gods I'm sore." I whimpered. "I'm just glad nobody has used this method on me in combat." I paused for a moment. "Actually why DON'T people use Impact suppression in combat?"

He shrugged. "It doesn't work. Impact is the manifestation of reality. Reality itself is the only reasonable way of suppressing it for long. Basically, the reason some planets suppress Impact is a natural phenomena. It's been studied, and replicated, but never actually reproduced. Suppression like that isn't REAL suppression, it's just simulated pressure. In the same way you can suppress your own Impact voluntarily to look weaker, you can project it outward too, and even a brief flare of that breaks the suppression."

I hadn't noticed that, actually, but it made sense. Sadly, it wouldn't be of much use to me since I was willingly participating in this madness, but it was nice to know how it worked at least.

After a minute or two, I was recovered enough to stand. Once I was out of the course, my life nova regeneration and triple Vitality kicked in nicely, and my flagging energy and sore muscles melted away like ice cream in the hot sun. It was like getting a good night's sleep in the span of two minutes, and honestly felt so nice it ALMOST made the training worth it on its own. Almost.

Popping to my feet, I felt almost ready to take on the world, but my nascent plans of global domination were interrupted by a pulse through the bond. I blinked and looked up and across the room, eyes fixed on a point on the wall through which my wife was waiting. "Something's happening," I said to Zeke immediately. "Let's go." I bolted for the door, aiming for where Callie was waiting for me at what felt like the front entrance of the palace.

Zeke kept pace effortlessly, easily matching my steps without any sign of hurry or rush. We arrived at the palace entrance in about ten minutes, and I found Callie there waiting. I stopped next to her, threading my fingers through hers as I took up position on her left side. Callie was right handed, so I made sure to leave that one open for her to summon her blade if needed.

"What's going on?" I asked as I stared out into the blackness of space. The building was sat atop a huge chunk of black stone, and past the edge was just the endless expanse of the gaps between the stars. I tried not to look down.

The most terrifying thing about outer space, and the one that no one ever mentions to you when describing it, is that space is not a SHEET. It's a sphere, and that means the endless expanse of darkness doesn't just expand outwards, it also expands DOWN, and even with no gravity to enforce the drop, there's something viscerally terrifying about looking over a cliff to see a drop that goes on for eternity.

Luckily, I wasn't doing that now, because my attention was being drawn in the exact opposite direction. I'd asked what was happening, but that question turned out to be unnecessary to answer, because one look up at the sky made it obvious.

Above our heads, cracks were forming. Like the starry sky was a sheet of glass struck with a mallet, lines of blazing light were expanding from a single point, radiating out from a spot that looked like the center of a shattered vase. Through the cracks, I could see a strange multicolored riot of cascading strangeness. A familiar multicolored riot. It reminded me vaguely of the Chaos Chasm.

Then, with a piercing howl, the air shook, and the cracks widened as a massive shape punched right through, burst out into the lower world in a shower of radiant spatial shards, all of which dissolved into soap bubbles of strange energy as soon as they got far enough from the opening they spawned from.

"What the hell is THAT?" I asked in awe. The object was…immense. Not the physical size, more like the power, I could feel a tremendous Impact from it, far beyond what I'd sensed from my grandmother's ship, the Acheron. Which could only mean-

"It's a Divine warship," came the disgusted voice of Alara from behind us. "And one I recognize. That's the Bloodraven."

I blinked, then spun to stare at her. "What? But you said they wouldn't send gods!"

"I doubt they did," she said with a sigh. "No reason to bother dispatching a ship that powerful if you have a god onboard. I'd imagine he gave it to his heirs as protection. He always was annoyingly cautious."

"He who?" I asked slowly. "It's been a long time since you were alive, I assume whoever this person is was a god when you knew them?"

She nodded. "A contemporary of my father's, a thief god named Selwyn. They were on passingly good terms. Selwyn was slippery and hard to pin down, and he did his best to stay out of everyone's way. Not surprising he survived this long. I suppose he Ascended personally. Seems he's done well for himself up there."

"So I take it Divine materials don't count towards the limits of the Universe in terms of Ascension?" I asked worriedly. I was still stuck on the fact that someone had built a fucking SHIP out of god ranked mats. The Acheron was one of the few S-ranked vessels I was aware of, and it was unspeakably valuable. I didn't even know divine materials existed. Was it forged from melted down artifacts or something?

Alara shook her head. "It doesn't. Materials are…complicated. Divine ranked artifacts aren't really godly. They're just naturally occurring items that have passed the thousand point threshold. They don't possess inherent world connection like a god does. Without an imbued Domain seed, their power is pretty much hollow. They have god bark but not god bite, so to speak."

"So it can't hurt us?" I asked hopefully, knowing the answer before I said it.

"Oh it can DEFINITELY hurt us," she warned. "I told you, it's got a thousand Impact. A heavy ball rolling off a table and landing on an insect might not have the same force or intention as a human foot stomping on one, but it'll be just as dead either way."

I winced, staring up at the massive ship in trepidation. But it wasn't over. The destroyed space behind the ship had started to mend, but it was once again forced open as something else shoved its way through. This one was only S-ranked, and it wasn't a ship, but a flying city made of red glass. From behind that emerged a colossal wooden horse, and then a floating spinning wheel the size of a small moon.

It took me a moment to really process the scope of what I was seeing, given the distance, but the size of every single entrant was bigger than most cities I'd visited. "Don't suppose those are ALSO old friends of yours?" I asked hopefully.

She shook her head. "No idea. Selwyn's presence is already quite a coincidence, though hopefully a lucky one. I was never a fan, but he and my father had a rapport. Bloodraven being the only Divine ranked vehicle is also a potential benefit for us. Assuming it wasn't taken from him by force and is now filled with his enemies, of course."

"Of course," I said dryly. "But maybe let's not borrow trouble when we already have so much. If they're enemies we'll find out soon enough. Doesn't hurt to have a little hope."

"It can actually hurt quite a bit to have hope, little or otherwise," my sister in law said dryly. "But I find it refreshing that you have such a positive outlook. It speaks well of your character. You are an adequate husband for my little sister."

Callie sighed. "Ali, sweetheart, do you remember that talk we had about the way you phrase things? You said you wanted to be more accessible, right?"

"Yes," she agreed. "And you said that my demeanor is often condescending or patronizing. You said it is poor form to act like I know better than everyone. But I DO know better than everyone, and they often ask me to share my wisdom, so I'm not sure what I should do about it."

"Yeah," my wife sighed. "We'll work on it. As of right now though, we have bigger problems than you being a little aloof. We have no clue what the protocols are for interacting with forces like this. If you know the people on the Bloodraven can you act as a point of contact?" her eyes flicked to me. "Unless you were planning to send a diplomat?"

I shook my head. "I mean, Harrison might be an effective negotiator, but he has no leverage here. Even a tangential connection to one of the factions is better than nothing. Are you willing to make contact for us, Alara?"

"I would be happy to do so," she nodded gracefully. "I am fascinated to learn more of these higher beings. The forces they come from may represent Overgods or even Worldgods. It might even make up for my disappointment at missing the legacy trial. Now, how are we to get their attention?"

She stared out across the vast distance consideringly, but finally decided to just go for it. Closing her eyes, she focused on…something, and there was a ripple in the space. Above us, a massive manifestation of Alara appeared in space, staring across the void. "I seek a meeting with the captain of the Bloodraven," she intoned in a voice composed of intent rather than sound. There was a brief pause, and then the ship began to move. Apparently they'd heard her, and now they were coming. Here's hoping they were friendly.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It didn't take long for the ambassador from the ship to show up. I assumed, based on Alara's request, the S-ranker who showed up was the captain, though I had no way to be sure. He came like the wind, stepping on starlight, and arrived in the time it took me to blink twice. Alara dissolved her manifestation, stepping forward to meet him calmly, clearly not even remotely worried about any violence, despite the super weapon behind him.

"Greetings," said the man warily. "I am Seth, captain of the Bloodraven. I confess, we were led to believe that none in the lower world remembered our father or his legend. How is it that you recognize his personal vessel on sight?"

"Who wouldn't know the story of the Bloodraven," Alara said politely. "A great warship built from the stolen wealth of a thousand divine kingdoms. A magnificent vessel that vanished among the stars one day, never to be seen again. Of course, I've seen it before in person, those many eons ago when it was still new."

Seth's eyes narrowed warily. "You claim to be as ancient as a Divine vessel? Are you a devolved god of some kind? Perhaps you've undergone a sundering?"

"Nothing so pedestrian," grinned Alara wolfishly. "I simply died."

That seemed to intrigue the man. "An S-rank resurrection. Fascinating. They're so rare. While many S-rankers have Mirror Souls, I'm sure you're aware that before passing the Divine watershed, the soul is fragile. It can be done, of course, especially with expedience, but shattering a soul at S-rank is dangerous indeed. May I ask your esteemed name, lady? I can feel your power even from here, I doubt one such as yourself was unknown even in those ancient days where gods outnumbered stars. My father has told me quite a few stories of his youth, perhaps I know of you."

Alara gave an elegant curtsy. "I am Alara Atlas, daughter of the Heretic God. In my day, they called me many things. The Star of Misfortune, the Skyripper, and the Heretic Princess."

His face went pale. "The Skyripper? The S-ranker who murdered the sky god Deltora?"

"Even so," my sister in law said with her most charming smile. "It's lovely to hear that my reputation precedes me. I always did like Selwyn. He used to tell me such wonderful stories as a child. He and my father were fast friends, you see. I consider myself quite lucky you decided to grace us with your presence."

The way she said that implied heavily that it was HER fault it had happened. Which, come to think of it, it might have been. I wasn't sure about the limits of Alara's luck power, but it was significant enough that Atlas thought it was noteworthy, and it had already created several nearly impossible situations to allow her to navigate danger. Exactly how much any of us were affected by it was anyone's guess, but taking credit for it was a good way to inflate her reputation either way.

"I heard many stories of my father's friendship with Adam Atlas," Seth said respectfully. "He was a mighty god, and my father was greatly saddened to hear of his passing."

"Then he'll be overjoyed to hear of his return," Alara said brightly.

The man froze. "A-Adam Atlas is alive?" he all but squeaked. "That's…wonderful news. I'm so happy."

Based on the terrified crack in his voice, he definitely wasn't, but it was kind of funny watching an S-ranker try not to piss himself in fear. "Of course," purred Alara, her red eyes gleaming in a predatory way that had nothing to do with drinking blood and everything to do with smelling it in the metaphorical water. "I'm sure he would be thrilled to make your acquaintance as well, Seth. I just know our families strong alliance will weather the sands of time and extend into the present generation. I believe we will be great friends."

That, to my surprise, didn't seem to terrify him as much as the Atlas talk. In fact, he looked a little intrigued. I very decidedly did not choose to think about my sister in law's romantic life, focusing instead on the moment. I cleared my throat, and Alara glanced at me for a moment before putting a hand on my shoulder and pushing me forward. "Ah, how rude of me. Seth, this is my new little brother, Solomon. He married my sister not long ago, and they're very happy together, so treat him well for me, won't you?"

Seth straightened, looking me over. "A strapping young man," he said approvingly. "And already B-rank at such a young age. Such talent is rare." He held out his hand. "Greetings, Solomon, I am Seth, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. As a visitor to your lands, I'll be relying on you to help me get the lay of the land."

"Of course," I said enthusiastically. "You'll be our guests during your stay!"

He froze. "O-our?" he said quickly, having just realized something was off. His eyes flicked to Alara, who was smiling beatifically.

"Oh yes," my sister in law said in a saccharine voice. "My little brother is quite the up and comer in these parts. He's the current head of one of the six major divine factions that are currently extant in realspace."

He flinched. "Ah," he said as he released my hand. "How wonderful." His voice sounded more annoyed than anything else, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. I was a B-ranker, and therefore, a nobody. As a random footsoldier, a request to be a tour guide was a favor to Alara, taking care of her kid brother when it was convenient.

However, I was the Wishmaster, and I represented a Divine faction. As the current leader of HIS faction on this plane, Seth presumably had decision making power in regards to the formation of alliances and treaties. Guest rights were an old concept, but still very much honored among those of political power. By offering to let me host and being claimed by me as a guest, Seth had essentially agreed to an alliance with the WCP.

It was clear he hadn't intended to do that, though he didn't seem upset enough to imply he had bad intentions. He was just obviously unhappy that he'd been tricked so cleanly and quickly. I could see his mind trying to pick apart the interaction and figure out how much of it was Alara's ability influencing things in her favor and how much was her just outsmarting him. Hell, I was trying to pick that apart.

I could see now why Atlas was so impressed with Alara's abilities. They were so…insidious. Luck was such a nebulous concept, and it was possible to make your own, in a way. Alara was clearly a master as manipulating situations to her advantage, and capitalizing on not only her ability but her own innate skills and intelligence to expand her reputation. I could see why they'd called her The Star of Misfortune.

Seth was a professional, of course. He looked annoyed for a moment but quickly moved past it. "Well, I suppose I should take advantage of your hospitality if it's offered," he said smoothly. "Is this your base of operations?" His eyes flicked up to the palace, though he seemed mostly underwhelmed by the display.

"It is," I said cheerfully. "I welcome yourself and your traveling companions to my home. Please, enjoy your stay. I'm afraid we don't have anywhere you can park your ship. I suspect our hangars have neither the size nor the Impact to withstand an entry from such a powerful machine."

"Of course," he said proudly. "The Bloodraven nests wherever she might lie. None can threaten her."

I made the correct noises of awe and appreciation, but gestured to the other arrivals. "And the others? If we're to be allies, I would love to hear more about our new arrivals. I'm sure you're well informed about any number of powerful forces. You're all here for the legacy trial, yes?"

He immediately latched onto the last question, obviously pleased to be on expected ground. "Very much so. This particular inheritance belongs to an exceptionally well traveled Overgod who called himself The Hourglass Bodach." At our obvious disappointment, he laughed. "You suspected a Worldgod inheritance? I can understand the error, but don't be disappointed too fast. While the Bodach wasn't a Worldgod, he traveled for many years through many planes. Overgods, Worldgods, he visited legacies and ruins from any number of great powers, collecting techniques and materials unseen in the modern world."

His eyes locked on the clocktower in the distance, shining with fanatical avarice. "The secrets to Overgod and even Worldgod reside in that tower." His gaze flicked to Alara and I. "As fellow natives of this plane, I'm not against working together, if you have that ability. I would need proof of your capability before I could commit to anything indepth, you understand."

I nodded. An alliance like the one we made before was mostly a non-agression pact. He'd essentially been tricked into agreeing to play nice, but that didn't mean he was actually willing to work with us in the legacy. Now though, he was open to hearing us out. I wasn't sure why, honestly. Maybe he saw something in me like he said, or more likely, maybe Alara was so scary the rest of us became monsters by association. Whatever the case, I wouldn't waste the opportunity.

Diplomacy wasn't a natural game for me, but I had people for that. And more importantly, I didn't believe anyone would be unmoved by the wish power. My family had depended on the power of the wish to maintain a monopoly in this universe for millennia. These people might not know what wishes were capable of, but when they saw the manifestation of the ultimate support power there was no way they'd be unmoved.

Seth made a hand gesture, and the ship behind him flickered. There was a sudden curtain of darkness falling over us, and when I looked up, I was unsurprised to see the Bloodraven hovering above the palace. Behind it, the other arrival vessels appeared to retreat slightly, taking up a holding pattern as they no doubt attempted to figure out what was happening on this plane. I imagined the other factions would be attempting to make contact, but without a ringer like Alara to smooth things over, I suspected it would be a drawn out and complicated process of bribery and courtship.

"If you wouldn't mind," Seth said politely. "I'd like to bring some of my juniors down off the ship. Just the ones who will be entering the legacy with you. You ARE going to be attending in person, aren't you?"

"We wouldn't mind at all," I said. "And yes, we will be attempting the trial. Wouldn't miss it for a world. Or two. Maybe for three, but we'd need to haggle on rank."

He laughed, making another gesture. There was a shift and suddenly, a small crowd of people appeared behind Seth. They all wore dark cloaks with hoods (Ascendants LOVED hoods, they were very dramatic and made people curious about your face) and there was about twelve of them. I nodded to them politely, then gestured for everyone to follow me inside.

Callie squeezed my hand as we headed into the base. I squeezed back. She hadn't wanted to intrude on the negotiations aloud, though I'd received a few bursts of emotion through the body giving her opinion on the proceedings. My wife wasn't the type to just keep quiet and let other people do her talking, but she didn't feel the need to make her contribution known either. She was happy to advise in the background, even if I didn't always take that advice.

I glanced back over my shoulder surreptitiously. Seth and the others being here was a good sign, and we owed Alara and Atlas for it, but we still had to stick the landing. We had information to get out of them, and if we wanted an active alliance with their trial takers, we needed to fight for one. I hoped Crell had his negotiating pants on, because this was going to be a doozy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I sat in silence. Or almost. Drips of water, the tick of the clock, slight brushes on the ground. There was sound, but it wasn't exclusive of quietude. It was more…encompassed. The sound was part of the silence. Like seasoning in food. It added depth. Flavor. It made the silence more complete.

Outside, people bustled, politics raged, treaties were negotiated, but I was just here, alone with the quiet. I had excused myself while my cabinet dealt with Seth and company. I had things to consider.

Power. I had ruminated on its nature so many times, and so many times I came to new conclusions, new realizations. Power was like the proverbial elephant, and I was the blind men feeling along its surface. A snake, a rope, a tree. Power was all of these things and none of them. Power encompassed the entirety of creation, but was simultaneously missing from all things.

I felt it now. That lack. I had climbed so high, reached a goal that should have been unattainable, and yet, here I was back at the bottom. Once again I numbered among the weak.

And it was…exhilirating. It felt so freeing, being unburdened of the great destiny. My responsibility was still there, but at the same time I felt so weightless. Knowing there were so many above me, that even the old man was just an ant in the grand scheme of things was a breath of fresh air.

I had become so complacent with my goals. After reaching Wishmaster status, I needed to reach godhood. And then…I'd be done. I'd have completed everything I set out to do and…what? I'd just live out forever bored. That was what happened to the old man. To Black Sorrow. I could see it clearer and clearer as I climbed. Nothing mattered to them anymore because there was nowhere else to go. They stopped dreaming. Stopped caring. Stopped living.

All this time I assumed it was the power that made them so inhuman. It wasn't. It was its ABSENCE. They dedicated their whole lives to progress, to growth, and then, suddenly, it was gone. Like being on an endless staircase and getting to the top only to realize there's no next floor, just a bottomless chasm and no further to climb.

It had been happening to me too. Not quickly, or even severely. But it had been happening. With my whole path mapped out and my big milestone achieved, everything seemed so monotonous. I had achieved my dream, and now all that was left was living it, and how much did THAT suck?

But now I could see further. Beyond the old man, beyond godhood. Overgod, Worldgod, maybe further, who knew?

The fire in my gut was back, ignited again by the spark of humility, and it was roaring up for nourishment. It cried out for me to swallow down adventure and danger so it could refine a destiny fit for a god. I found myself standing, moving, and I realized before long that I was practicing the Cosmic Phoenix chapter of the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art. The movements were almost instinctive, building off the epiphany I'd just had. Nothing spurs growth like seeing the immensity of the universe. Nothing makes you want to push yourself like seeing the gap between you and the strong,.

I withdrew the ember from my ring, not wielding it, just inserting it into the ground as I moved, letting the fire spit forth and envelop me as the pattern of the skill wound its way through my body.

Pain washed through me, but it wasn't limiting. It was invigorating. The burn of a good workout, only very literal. As I moved, I considered my path forward. My destiny had been written before this. It wasn't complete, but I had seen the horizon, glimpsed the shore, whatever metaphor you liked for viewing my final destination, and it had robbed me. I'd lost my drive, my need to grow. Somewhere along the way, my advancement had become an inevitability instead of a vague possibility, and I had lost my motivation to fight.

My movements became sharper. Fiercer. This template was different than the last one. The Life Nova was easy because of Archie. I could tap into his nature, and life wasn't a tough thing to envision anyway. I had been Zagan a thousand times, I'd even incarnated him. And more than that, all things lived. The template was just kind of…neutral.

This one though, this one was different. The Cosmic Phoenix Template had a mind of its own. It had a nature, and I had stumbled ass backwards into the right mindset to pour on the gas. Fire blazed through me, consuming and expanding as it poured out of the ember. It had formed a sort of connection with my template, and the rotation was acting like a vortex, siphoning fire from the glowing blade and pulling it into my body faster and faster.

The deeper I got, the more I saw. I was glimpsing the universe through the eyes of the phoenix. I saw a million worlds like grains of sand in a vast desert, like drops of water in an endless ocean of shining stars. Cosmic waves too vast to even be perceived by the mortal mind whipped and raged across the face of reality, unseen tides that steered us all without us even knowing.

And above it all, a phoenix. A noble, majestic bird born from the first spark of creation when the universe was formed. A guardian beast that stood atop the plane and looked down on the forming universe like a proud mother.

Behind the bird, I saw another form, too vast and grand too even contemplate. All I could make out was a human shape, but I knew, knew in my BONES who it was. The Worldgod who had created this universe. The Cosmic Phoenix had been his. Not THIS Cosmic Phoenix, obviously. The one from my vision had a wingspan that stretched over galaxies. Its smallest feather would be bigger than this star system. But A Cosmic Phoenix. The first. The founder of the bloodline.

And then the vision ended, and I collapsed. I was on the ground, wheezing, blood leaking from my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. I coughed wetly, and I was pretty sure my lungs had collapsed. My bones felt broken, my brain scoured nearly clean. My soul was strained, though not too severely. My Domain was covered in cracks that I hadn't even felt happening.

But my lips were peeled back in a triumphant smile. I needed to keep that. Needed to nurture it. That experience was foundational to my path forward. And I knew an easy way to do that. I closed my eyes and focused into my Domain, into the castle and into my throne room where my Chronicle sat on a pedestal.

Focusing on the experience I just had, I started to inscribe it. Binding the visions to a page would keep them accessible and fresh, and HAVING them was a huge and earthshaking achievement in itself. It was the perfect solution. I described it all, pouring not just words but images and sounds and emotion into the binding. One page. Two. They kept filling, and I was starting to get worried about whether I could actually DO this. If I tried to bind too many at once it could backlash and hurt me.

Finally, it stopped at eight. Eight pages bound into my Chronicle, all of them anchored to the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art.

Beyond that, I saw that the art itself was up to EIGHT drops. I was only one away from completing the template. I grinned weakly. That was a staggering amount of progress for one training session. And I knew it wasn't over. I could refer back to my Chronicle and read those pages for inspiration. The last drop wouldn't be EASY, but it wouldn't take months like they had been.

Next came the rough part. I pushed my consciousness into my Domain, manifesting inside to check on my demons and assess the damage. The palace was fine. Still in one piece if a little banged up. Cracks covered the ground across the plains and the walls of the building. Deep inside them though, I could see something new when I knelt down to check. Fire. A very special and familiar type of fire.

The vision had deeply injured my body and soul, but it also carried little bits of Cosmic Phoenix fire deeper within me. I realized that this was a test. Destruction preceded creation. The advancement of my skill and the power seeping into my Domain wouldn't be possible without the damage that had happened. The phoenix was a creature of rebirth, and that carried certain meaning, especially for someone like me who had already condensed one of the nine templates.

I checked on my demons, and they all seemed perfectly fine, if somewhat disgruntled. Apparently there had been an earthquake in the Domain, and since there was no EARTH in here to quake, they hadn't been prepared for that. Which was fair.

As I emerged from the Domain, I reached out to pull myself up, forcing my body upright to a sitting position. I had just made it when the door to my room burst open and a terrified Callie blurred inside, eyes raking over the room to find me. "SHANE!" she screamed when she saw me.

I realized a bit late that I was leaning tiredly against a wall in a sitting position in my room, covered in blood that had been pouring out of my head. "Hey Cal," I croaked sheepishly. "I did a thing."

She hit me like a bulldozer, shoulder crashing into me as she wrapped her arms tight around my body. "You absolute moron!" she sobbed. "I felt like you were dying. It was like something…ate you. The other end of the bond went completely dead. What the hell were you thinking? I'm so glad you're ok."

"Alright, this one wasn't my fault," I argued. "It was an epiphany. Like the one you had about the abyss back in the day. I was training and I just…saw. I can't explain it. Even if I could I probably wouldn't because I'm afraid your brain might leak out your ears. Still, I'm fine, and the results were great." I tried to give her a reassuring smile, and realized that my mask was in the way. I took it off so she could see, but I'd forgotten all the blood on my face, and that kind of just made it worse.

I didn't try to explain further, or talk her out of her panic. I understood how upset she was, and I knew it wouldn't go away just because I said so. I just held her and let her cling to me like I might vanish if she let go. I just lay there and let her feel my presence. I knew that was what she needed most right then, and honestly, it wasn't exactly hurting my state of mind either.

Once she was feeling centered we got up and walked to the bed. My triple Vitality and regeneration fixed up the physical injuries easy enough, even if the soul damage would probably take all night. I pulled off my armor and slumped into my bed, and she covered me with a blanket. As I fell asleep, I saw her between my fluttering eyelids, sitting in a chair beside the bed, watching over me, and I couldn't help but smile.

I drifted off, and my dreams were full of huge majestic birds and a sea of endless planets. It was funny, seeing that unceasing horizon would have terrified me before, back when I had no dreams left to push me onwards. Now though, all I could see in the neverending universe was an endless expanse of possibility. It was one of the best dreams I'd ever had.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning I awoke with a long, slow stretch. I felt…transcendent. The eight hours of sleep had been more than enough to heal the cracks in my soul and Domain apparently. That wasn't exactly normal, but neither had the damage been, and considering Genesis Burst lived in the Domain, I suspected I'd had some help from my court with the cleanup.

Either way, I felt like I could take on the whole universe with one hand behind my back. Ten more scrolls joined my count, and I felt almost smug about the round number thirty on my stat sheet. The constantly shifting uneven numbers there before had been far more annoying than I had let myself dwell on, and seeing multiples of ten constantly was weirdly soothing. Hopping out of bed, I stepped into my armor, slipped on my mask, and prepared to head out to talk to my uncle.

The materials for my armor and the wine to grow my staff should be here, or at least there should be some progress. I was excited to see exactly what my gear would look like once it took the next step.

I ran my fingers over the armor, examining the smooth lines. Solomon's Seal was a unique set of gear hand forged by Donovan Redfellow, founder of the Hall of Steel and Fade's martial uncle. He was technically at B-rank, but he was a Mythical blacksmith, and he was MUCH deeper into the rank than I was. In terms of crafting seniority, he was probably the most skilled craftsman I had ever met.

He hadn't come with us this time, but considering the legacy trial, I had sent for him not long ago. He was traveling with my materials, and I was sure he'd have plenty of fascinating options for what to do with my armor when he arrived.

"Must you make so much noise in the morning," groaned my rumpled wife from where she lay curled up in the chair next to the bed. She looked…well, flawless, as always, but tired. I frowned and leaned down, lifting her easily and carrying her to the bed, she pouted but didn't resist as I tucked her in.

"You look tired," I said gently. "Thank you for staying up to watch over me. Get some rest, ok? I'll make sure no one disturbs you."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't need you to baby m-" her sentence was cut off by an expansive yawn. "Also shut up. But fine. I'll sleep. But I expect breakfast when I wake up. No matter how late it is. I want fritatas. And hashbrowns. And fresh squeezed orange juice."

I leaned down, pulling off my mask to brush her forehead with a quick kiss. "As my lady desires. Now rest."

She snorted, but her lips quirked up in a smile as she snuggled under the covers. I turned and stepped out of the room, careful to close the door carefully so as not to disturb her. I was surprised to find Benny outside, leaning against the wall. "If these rooms weren't soundproofed that would be super creepy," I informed him bluntly.

He rolled his eyes. "Sure, because I'm positive you two were getting busy after she ran in there panicked like you were being murdered. I just wanted to check in, make sure you weren't dead. You're going to be my best man, and I expect a bachelor party as great as the one I threw you. Your death would deeply inconvenience me. And I guess it would be a little sad."

"Someday, someone will give you what you deserve," I told him acidly. "And on that day, I will laugh, and point, and call you mean names while it happens."

He sniffed loftily. "Sounds like you, always letting everyone else do all the work."

"Die in a hole," I said with an eye roll. "I have no idea why I put up with you, dick. And thanks for checking on me, I appreciate it."

I set off at a brisk walk down a random hallway. It took me about ten minutes to realize I had no destination, and another five for Benny to notice the same thing. He stopped where he'd been trailing behind me. "You have no idea where you're going, do you?"

"All within the palace belongs to the Wishmaster," I said pompously. "Any destination would be acceptable."

"That's not what I asked," he snickered. "You got a place in mind?"

I sighed. "Looking for Zeke, and then Bethy, in that order. Planning to get my gear upgraded while the politicos handle the politicking. I am SO glad I have a Master of Treaties, because negotiating with those overworlders sounds exhausting. Now, where the hell is my uncle, I need to check in about my armor?"

"He was in the loading bay last I saw." He sighed. "Some kind of shipment came in, and NO I don't know what kind or if it was your stuff. What did you get anyway?"

I shrugged. "I let Donovan pick. He knows what kind of upgrades would work best for my armor better than I do. I made sure to fill him in on the details of Gehenna, but other than that it's out of my hands. If there's one thing being Wishmaster has taught me it's not to micromanage talented subordinates. I only have to ride herd on incompetent idiots…and friends, like you."

My comment was as blithe and neutral as possible, but Benny knew me well enough to catch the dig and rolled his eyes. He led me off to one side and down a hallway. We took a few turns before arriving at a pair of small doors set into a pair of much bigger doors. We pushed them open, heading inside to find Zeke poring over some kind of clipboard. "No, no, no," he snapped. "I asked for twenty pounds of Astrellan Star Wood and TEN pounds of Daryan Bog Pine. You CHARGED me for those values, despite bringing me the inverse. Bog Pine is worth a fifth what Star Wood is. I'm not paying for this. And why the hell are my Cave Demon Blood Paints all in abyssal black? I'm an artist not a calligrapher, you don't think I'd like some variance? I told them I'd accept black as a substitute but I didn't want ALL black paint."

The poor guy standing opposite him appeared to be getting smaller and smaller as my uncle talked, and I was starting to worry he might melt into a terrified puddle if it went on much longer. "I think he gets it," I said as I ambled up. "I'm sure this nice gentleman will be happy to make note of all your grievances and contact his employers for a refund. Won't you?"

"Of course," the terrified man squeaked. "Right away sir," and then he scurried off into the loading bay.

"Must you ruin my fun," Zeke sighed in annoyance. "That little twit isn't as innocent as he looks. I KNOW they sent at least a bottle of blue ink, and it's not listed. I'm positive the little troll stole it. I'd have beaten it out of him, but his uncle is relatively high up in the merchant's guild."

The Merchant's Guild was one of the major economic bodies in the universe. They possessed the ability to mint chits, coins of concentrated Creation that were useful for crafters and businessmen alike. They basically propped up the economy for the entire plane, which meant they had an inordinate amount of control over it.

Luckily, the WCP had access to methods of duplication that meant we were capable of eating into their market if they pushed it. As such, we were given priority treatment on shipping and first purchase rights on many unique goods in exchange for refusing any wishes that involved pure chit manifestation. We had a LOT of deals like that in place. The WCP was an economic powerhouse, and I was still scratching the surface of what that meant.

"Talk to Peter," I shrugged. "He can use it to leverage them into something juicy I'm sure. I have a Master of Banking for a reason."

He blinked. "I…could do that. I keep forgetting you're in charge. Being able to just…go talk to someone who can fix my problems is so weird. And I don't even need to schedule a meeting. Your cabinet members are all eager to get in my good books. Huh."

"Yes, congratulations on your newly discovered ability to abuse your power," I said dryly. "Now, does the clipboard have a certain bitter old smith on it?" I felt a twinge of Danger Sense and snapped quickly. "Donovan if you hit me with that fucking vegetable I'm going to have you assigned to the most remote outpost I can find, where you'll spend the next two hundred years making pipe fittings you will PERSONALLY install in every broken toilet in my territories."

A dry voice chuckled as I turned around to see the old smith, wire framed glasses over golden eyes, grinning at me. "No more idle threats for you, eh boy?"

Zeke raised an eyebrow. "Been a while since I saw an employee call the Wishmaster BOY. Last time someone did it was the first week of Aiden's rule. I think they've almost found the last piece of him."

Donovan snorted. "Don't mind me, sir. Just an old fool too long from his forge. If you want to kill this old man over an ill chosen phrase you just go ahead, won't bother me none. I'm sure you have other Mythic Blacksmiths on hand who can perfectly redesign the Lord's armor for him. We grow on trees, after all."

My uncle stared at the old red haired smith for a moment before barking out a laugh. "Oh I LIKE him. Fair enough, old man. If my nephew doesn't mind the mouthing off I won't bother with it either."

"Lovely, now that no one is going to be murdered, can we focus on my gear," I said impatiently. "Donovan, you picked out the materials, right? Show me what we're working with."

He nodded amiably. "Of course, brought some lovely specimens. I'll need to borrow a forge, but I'm sure someone here has a functional one." He led me across the dock to a contained loaded with a series of small boxes on plinths with plenty of room between them. There were a LOT of boxes.

"Seventy two main materials," he grinned. "Most of them not too expensive or rare, mostly there for the synergy. But if we're going to make what I plan to make we'll need them."

Zeke's eyes widened. "You're going to make him a Domain Anchor?" he gaped. "At B-rank?"

"It's not like it's that difficult," Donovan shrugged. "If you recognize what I'm doing I'm guessing you can make them too."

Zeke shook his head. "Not for a manifested Domain. I made him a proto Domain Anchor a few ranks ago to stabilize his soul from consistent pseudo Domain abuse, but that's not the same as a long term anchoring construct. Especially not for a Domain like his. It's completely unique. Stabilizing something like that would be…ambitious."

I finally caught up. I remembered the mask Zeke gave me ages ago that could act as a sort of stabilizer for my soul when I used my pseudo Domains. This was before I had a Chronicle and it had been dangerous to use them at all. The mask had helped me offset the strain.

Donovan looked smug. "Well, then it's a good thing I won't be working alone on this, isn't it. I hear you're a crafter of some repute yourself. How about it. Want to make something… ambitious?" He held out his hand to shake, eyes blazing with confidence and excitement. He was clearly looking forward to the effort.

Zeke stared down at the hand with interest, before finally nodding with a low chuckle. "Alright, fine. Let's make something earthshaking." And I could already tell they would.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The first thing they had me do when we reached the forge was strip. I was wearing boxers, obviously, but it still wasn't a pleasant feeling being almost literally naked on an actual battlefront. At the very least, I wasn't cold or anything, because the heat from the forge was perfectly suitable for keeping me warm.

"Alright, so, you have seventy two materials here," I said slowly. "But how are these supposed to represent my demons exactly? I assume that's the goal. But you don't have a list of my demons and their abilities, so how were you able to choose materials to represent them?"

He walked over and opened a box. "I didn't," he clarified. "I got a few stable elements based on the obvious demons you've shown in public, but for the most part, these are unstable mutagenic reflectors." At my uncomprehending silence, he sighed. "It means they're reactive elements that reconfigure themselves to reflect the energetic properties of whatever they're exposed to."

I blinked. "Oh. That explains how you got so many of them with only a thousand points. I take it the actual materials would have been more expensive?"

"Depends on the material," he shrugged. "But for the most part. I trust you remember how this process goes?" His voice was sly and amused, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. He didn't have to enjoy the impending pain so much.

"I do, but I'm not sure that we should do this here," I looked around, measuring the space mentally as I tried to figure out the best way to do this. "If I can bring this forge into my Domain, would you be able to do the crafting in there? I'm just getting this feeling that it would work better that way."

He blinked. "I…well yes, that would probably work perfectly. Assuming your Domain can withstand such a crafting at B-rank."

"Don't worry about that," I told him with a chuckle. "My Domain is sturdy as hell."

Zeke nodded. "He's right. It'll hold. He's not supporting it alone. And forging a Domain Anchor inside the Domain itself will strengthen the connection. Projecting it isn't a problem, but he's been running into problems with secondary manifestation. Trying to incarnate more than a few of those demons causes undue strain. Not to mention the reactive materials require reactions. Channeling them one by one is inefficient, if we bring him inside to work he can have the demons react with their materials internally."

"I take it you're a prop based crafter?" Donovan asked with interest.

Zeke waggled a hand, "I can do a fair bit with hand tools. But at higher levels, ritual is just more convenient, especially for larger projects." At my curious head tilt he explained. "At a certain level of proficiency, different crafting disciplines tend to bleed together. I've mentioned this to you before. My Voltomancy includes several subdisciplines, and one of those is formations. Working with souls is tricky and dangerous, and formation crafting is all about precision and setup. It minimizes risk."

"I'm guessing this is recent?" I asked curiously. "I remember you working on masks by hand when I was a kid."

"A-rank was when I started making changes," he acknowledged. "Mythic crafting skills are…complicated. Regardless, I think I can help improve this suit of armor. And more than that, I'm planning to create a new mask for you to complement and stabilize it."

I blinked at that. "Really? I thought this one would continue to upgrade as I did? You built it sealed right?"

"You haven't noticed yet?" he chuckled. "I guess I should be glad you don't get hit in the face much. I made that mask at B-rank, the same rank you're at now. It's long since reached the limitations of its growth. I never expected you to improve at such a staggering pace. Even for an Ascendant it's unbelievable."

I felt a rush of pride at that. It felt good to be acknowledged by someone as impressive as Zeke. "Alright, well then I'll bring this all inside. Give me a minute to get this setup."

Closing my eyes, I reached out for the forge and all the tools in the room and pulled them with me and the two crafters into Gehenna. We appeared in the throne room, in an empty space in the center, and I glanced around at my court as they watched from their places surrounding us, all clearly excited by the visitors.

Donovan looked around with interest. "Fascinating," he said slowly. "This place feels far more solid than it should. I've been in plenty of Domains, though I haven't condensed my own yet. This doesn't feel like the Domain of a B-ranker."

"He cheats," Zeke shrugged. "First of all, he formed the damned thing at C-rank, which means his B-rank Impact reinforced it when he ranked up. He also did something else I can't put my finger on. It's new. Besides, he has a soul weapon that helps prop the place up, that's it over there." He gestured toward the tree manifestation of my staff.

Donovan stared at it for a moment. "Some kind of hybrid reincarnation tree? Those are rare as hens teeth. The more time I spend around you the less sense you make, boy. I'm even more convinced you need an anchor for this now."

"It'll stabilize it exponentially better than the current setup, even after the tree ranks up," Zeke agreed excitedly. "Three points of stability will be more solid. I can't wait to see what you're capable of after both upgrades. Now, this armor is your creation, so why don't you take the lead. My mask crafting needs to be interwoven through your process, which means I'll need to piggyback on your session."

"Understood," Donovan said pensively. "In that case, line up the most powerful of the demons and have the rest set out the boxes of material at these points," he scribbled down a quick diagram and passed it to me, and I immediately passed it on to Dom.

The lesser demons started to spread out, carrying the boxes to specific places. Meanwhile, Donovan took out his blue leek and began smacking demons one by one, feeling out their energy as he had done to me all those months ago when he made the seal.

He got through them relatively fast, and as he finished checking each one he sent them to a specific box. Apparently the adaptive materials worked best for specific constitutions, because he was very exacting in their placement. Once that was done, he approached me and smacked me several times with the leek. I was pretty sure he didn't need to do it so much but, I wasn't going to complain if it got me a new set of gear.

As he was working, I saw Zeke kneel down and take out a bag I'd seen before. It was the black canvas bag he kept his masks in. He started digging around inside, pulling out bottles and pieces of wood and metal and glass. Finally, he stood up and walked briskly to a few of the boxes, setting thirteen materials on top of the thirteen boxes near the most powerful demons. When he was done, he nodded at Donovan, who walked over to the forge in the middle of the room and began to stoke it. He added my armor into it as he worked, piece by piece, and I couldn't see what happened to it as he did.

It took about fifteen minutes to bring it to temperature, though I wasn't sure if that was because it was a great forge or because of Donovan himself. Once it began, he walked over to the nearest demon, placed his hand on top of the box…and then stabbed him through the hand.

The demon, namely Dantalion, hissed as the knife punched through his palm and into the box. Donovan withdrew the knife, carried the box over to the forge, and then threw the whole thing inside. He tossed the knife to Dan. "Take this around the room and stab each of them the same way I stabbed you. Then have them step back."

Dan looked at me, and I nodded, so he hastened to obey. As he did, the forge flared ominously, black smoke billowing from the mouth of it. Donovan turned and tapped his leek on the side of it and then began conducting with it like he was directing an orchestra. As he moved, the black smoke swirled and funneled down, condensing into an image of me. As I watched, black metal flowed out of the forge to begin to cover the smoky figure.

Donovan tapped again, and a line of smoke shot out of the figure, spearing into the bloody hole in the top of the nearest box. The smoke glowed orange as a blaze of heat poured down it, and another stream of smoke shot out. One by one, they connected, until seventy one streams of smoke connected every box in the room. Donovan swung the leek at the smoke, and with a blaze of blue electricity it was gone, replaced by that same long handled ballpeen hammer. He hauled back and struck the figure. Once. Twice. Three times. On the third strike the first box exploded, and a cloud of molten metal flowed down the smoke tendril to join the stuff beginning to coat the figure.

Before it could go much further, I heard Zeke begin to mutter. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but the light in the room flickered. Shadows danced and spun along the walls as all thirteen mask ingredients caught fire at the same time, the light from them exploding towards the head of the smoke mannequin.

Donovan sped up, striking faster, and the room became a blur of shadows and flames and smoke as the two crafters intertwined their process, blending and melding the ritual crafting to create something more than the sum of its parts.

My demons had fallen to their knees, faces pale, not from the stabbing but from whatever the materials had absorbed from them through the blood connection. Whatever it was, it wasn't something easily shrugged off.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, Donovan whirled his hammer one last time and smashed it into the back of the smoke figure. It exploded forward into a cloud of rushing smoke. The smoke consumed me, covering my body and face, wrapping me in a suffocating cocoon of stifling heat, and then, as quickly as it had started, it was over. I was fine. I couldn't even feel the mask on my face, though I could see the new armor adorning my body.

I triggered Double Trouble, turning to face the illusory copy of me, and froze. I looked…terrifying. A midnight black suit of intricately articulated plate armor gleamed across my body, traceries of gold, silver, and bronze worked through the plates in complicated traceries that reminded me of a cross between enchanting symbols and circuitry. Flickers of the various powers of my demons danced through the shining filigree like sparks over exposed wire, there one moment and gone the next.

The mask was a shining porcelain facial construct with no eyes or mouth, inscribed with almost microscopic black symbols that had been filled in with some kind of black resin. The designs were more artistic than magical from what I could tell (which wasn't much), but they looked fierce.

"It's done," my uncle said tiredly as he walked up to clap a hand on my shoulder. "Now we just need to see how it works. But before we put it through its paces, I think we should shore up the third leg of this tripod. I think it's time that we contact your Master of Challenge and ask her about the progress of that wine." I stared at my image for a few more seconds and then nodded. I couldn't wait to see exactly what my staff was going to become after its rank up. Only one more piece of the puzzle and then I would be ready. I couldn't wait to take that entrance trial. I would be ready for anything.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Bethy, as it turned out, had been busy. After I gave her the assignment, she had wandered off, and I hadn't really heard anything from her. I had expected her to sort out her plants, maybe have a pot or two stashed away that she could hybridize for some results.

It turned out, she thought a LOT bigger than that. My jaw dropped as I stepped into the large open room where her orchard was planted. A huge, full sized orchard. That appeared to have been grown here. "Um…wow," I said slowly as I looked around. "Was this here a week ago? Because I feel like someone would have mentioned it."

"Shane!" Bethy shouted excitedly as she appeared in front of me. "You came to see me! I mean…greetings boss." She gave a sloppy salute, her face taking on a stoic, imperious expression before melting back into her usual exuberant grin. "You're here for the wine, right?"

I nodded as I looked around. That chamber was huge, and more importantly, it LOOKED even bigger. The walls were painted with scenes of endless sprawling fields and rolling hills from the countryside. There was a sun peeking over one of the hilltops, and whatever paint had been used for it was emitting actual sunlight that fell on the carefully curated vines dotting the field beside what looked like some kind of villa. "This is…a lot. How did you get all this here?"

"Hm?" she asked with interest. "Oh, I carry most of my vines around with me in my Domain. But you wanted me to do some tinkering so I just ordered a bunch of A-rankers to bring me the stuff I needed. Since I'm on your cabinet everybody has to do whatever I say, even if it doesn't make sense." She paused, her brow furrowing before she yelled over her shoulder. "Chelsea! Can you send someone to hallway sixty four to tell that guy to stop doing jumping jacks? I forgot!"

There was a weary sigh from the villa before my sister called back. "I already did! Please stop ordering people to do punitive workouts and forgetting about them. People have started avoiding us!"

"Well, good to see you're not abusing your power," I said wryly. "But since I'm here, why don't you show me around?"

She perked up. "Oh, that sounds amazing, come on!" she grabbed my arm, dragging me out towards the fields where rows of trellises held up winding vines covered with multi colored grapes. "So, I've been working on so many different varieties of wine," she confided as she pulled me towards the closest trellis. "Ever since I started working on my grapes I've realized how soothing it is. I love it so much. And I have this natural gift for it from my mom that just makes it so easy to find good combinations."

I stepped forward to squint at a vine nearby, reaching up to touch the silvery blue grapes hanging from it. "Ok, so…what are these?"

"Sword grapes," she said immediately. I blinked at her, and she smiled. "The iron in the soil comes from ground up sword shards imbued with sword power. I used the broken swords your Uncle Moon made training with Callie. He couldn't exactly spar with her using S-rank blades, and the C-ranked weapons he was using tended to…well, disintegrate."

"Sword energy?" I asked with interest as I sniffed a grape. "I didn't know you could harvest energy like that." Then I paused, my eyes widening. "Vampirism. You can siphon off mythology, not just stats."

She beamed and nodded. "Yup! Pretty cool, huh? It was a pain to learn how to do it, and I needed Alyssa's help to figure out how to get it into the plants. Usually I use my blood, but I've been experimenting with alternative methods, like the sword dust. I'm trying to bottle sword mythology for Callie, but so far it just tastes kind of sharp."

"Mind if I try one?" I asked, and she gestured for me to go ahead. I popped one in my mouth and winced. "That's…interesting," I said with a grimace. "Sharp is a good term. It's like sourness without the sour. The muscles in my face are buzzing."

Bethy giggled. "Yup, it's not done yet. But I have a bunch of different varietals cooking. I've been getting mythology from all over the place. For your grapes, I repurposed some I got from Nat and crossbred it with one I made from Killian's shadows. The ones he uses for soul stitching. I think they turned out well, but I wasn't able to REALLY nail the mixture until I mixed some dust from a use wish scroll into the soil."

"How did you make them GROW so fast?" I asked, impressed at her work ethic. "When you said you were planning to make a new strain of grapes for me I didn't realize quite how involved it all was."

"My vines are a part of me," she shrugged. "The vampiric vines I told you about internalized it the most, but they can all grow from absorbing my blood. Most of them just don't actually incorporate it into the fruit. I promise, no blood taste in the wine I make for your tree. It'll be the most delicious fertilizer ever."

I snorted at that. "When you say it that way I feel kind of stupid for being so weird about that. But also I don't, so let's continue the tour."

"Sure thing boss man," she saluted, skipping to the next trellis. "These are pretty cool. They're life grapes. Jessie helped me make them. Her lifestorm ursa powers are SUPER compatible with plants, as you might imagine. These are actually AMAZING. Try one."

I plucked a grape, shocked at how light and airy it was to hold, I popped it in my mouth and hummed in pleasure as I bit down. Grapes had always been a favorite food of mine, especially green grapes. There were very few things as delicious as a crisp, fresh grape. When they were at their peak it felt almost like cracking glass when you bit into them, minus the pain or discomfort. Just a rush of cold sweet flesh and delicious juice.

This particular grape was infused with life force that poured into my body when I swallowed, resonating with my Life Nova blood drops and filling me with a pleasant, happy warmth.

"Can I get some of these to bring back to Callie?" I asked brightly. "She'll love this. And I guess I want to reserve a bottle when you finally…wine it? Vint it? I have no idea whatsoever what the verb form of making wine is."

She shrugged. "I don't know. I have people for all that boring sciencey stuff. I just do grapes until it gets boozy."

Benny groaned from behind us, and I turned to raise an eyebrow. "What, you want a grape?"

"I mean…yes, but I was groaning because you two are weirdly similar sometimes, even if you don't want to admit it. You both have the subtlety of a ten ton hammer."

"Hey, I'm as subtle as a much smaller hammer than that," I protested. "One ton. Tops."

I turned back to my Master of Challenge. "So, where are the grapes we're using for the ritual? And do you need time to make the wine? I know it usually has to ferment and stuff, but you didn't seem to need to last time."

"Oh, nothing like that," she shrugged. "I just need to stomp on the grapes and then the wine happens. It's actually super fun."

I only vaguely remembered her process from last time but that sounded about right. Not to mention that was several ranks ago. Bethy had probably refined the whole thing since then, in her own Bethy way.

"So, do you want to get this out of the way now?" she chirped. "I can mix up the wine and we can get started on feeding your tree buddy." She looked down at my stomach, poking my armor with a finger. "Whose a hungry little plant being, you are, yes you are!" I stared down at her in complete perplexity.

"Bethy, why are you talking to my stomach? You know that isn't how Domains work." My voice was exasperated, but I couldn't help but be a bit amused.

She shrugged. "Your tree wasn't in your Domain to start with right? Anyway, come on, let's get started! I love catering parties. Oooh, maybe I can make your tree a hat. Do you think you could put a hat on that spiritual tree avatar in your Domain?"

"I do not, no," I sighed with a rueful chuckle. "But yes, we can get it out of the way, do you have everything ready?"

I had to admit I was excited. Not as excited as when I reached B-rank, but I knew the utility my staff could bring to bear. Having it at A-rank was going to be damned useful. Not least because it would restore my ability to rank up my skills temporarily, which I hadn't been able to use since I hit B-rank and achieved parity with the ten demons tree.

More than that though, the tree was a pillar of my fighting style and Domain, its silent support gave me the confidence to fight above my level and to face anything that came my way. It ALSO kept me from feeling the pinch from my demons ranking up, which while not a problem yet, I was worried about.

In fact, I suspected several of my lesser demon court members had been sandbagging so as not to unduly strain my Domain. Well, that and I was pretty sure some of them were hoping to get reincarnated. After Brad had joined the court, a lot of the weaker members seemed to find lots of reasons to express their openness to change, it was amusing, but a tad obvious. Regardless, with the tree at A-rank I could support a bunch of tier 9 demons if it became necessary, and any number of tier 8s would be child's play.

I followed Bethy along the rows until we reached a trellis that stood out from the others, mainly because it looked so new and unsullied. The vine wrapped around it was fresh and bright green and looked much more vital than the other, steadier plants. Bethy picked up a wooden bucket, passed it to me, then passed another to Benny. After grabbing a third she quickly and expertly plucked MANY more grapes than I had expected to be on the vine, filling the buckets with a pile of juicy looking black fruits that I had to resist the urge to try for myself.

Once we had them all collected, she gestured for us to follow and carried the buckets to a back room of the villa where another, larger wooden tub waited. She had us pour them all out before gesturing for me to take out the Ten Demons Tree and drive it into the pile in the center of the tub.

She slipped on a pair of shoes that looked like they were specially made, cleaned them off, and then jumped in and started stomping, holding up the staff as she did. The movements were…alien, almost painful to watch. I knew that it wasn't just normal steps. It was a dance. The dance of the maenad. With each crash of her foot the tides of dark juice changed slightly. I could smell the scent of ozone filling the room, like a storm was brewing.

Finally, after about twenty minutes, she lifted the staff and slammed it down again, driving it through the bottom of the tub and into the floor. As she stepped out of the tub she stumbled, my sister appearing to catch her, and we all watched as the staff began to absorb the wine directly, like tree roots drinking up fresh rain. But that was just the beginning, because inside my Domain, changes had already begun.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I didn't bother with subtlety or asking permission. I projected my Domain immediately once I felt the alterations begin. In the blink of an eye we found ourselves standing in my throne room, at the base of the steps, staring up at my staff and the tree that represented it.

It looked…weird. The trunk was warping and bowing in odd ways, seemingly trying to tear itself open, and in the few places it succeeded I saw strange snapping mouths full of fangs. I was briefly concerned that vampirism had carried through the wine somehow, but between one moment and the next the mouths snapped shut, blinking back open as eyes that stared out around the room.

Seventy two eyes. I studied them intently, clearly picking out familiar irises, like the glowing green of Zagan and the black of Mephistopheles. I was briefly confused as to what was happening, but after thinking it through, I finally figured it out.

My soul. My Domain was part of me, as was the tree. As my soul weapon the tree grew as I grew, and that was how it had created Gehenna for me, but as I was changed by the tree so too must the tree have been changed by me. It had spent the last year or two internalizing my mythology, but moreso, internalizing the demons. Simulating their lives, living them. Becoming them.

All that growth was important. It was vital nutrients the plant had used to get stronger. Bethy's wine could help accelerate that growth, but it couldn't REPLACE it. The tree needed something to burn to fuel its growth, and what it had was the lives and experiences of seventy two powerful demons.

Azazel appeared at my side, looking tense. "My lord, I bid you welcome to your court. A small question, was this, perhaps, your doing?"

"Of course," I nodded confidently. "No need to worry, everything is fine."

"That's lovely," he said dryly. "But perhaps in the future it might behoove you to WARN us when you're planning multiple fundamental shifts in the foundation of the realm from which we draw our very existence?"

I paused. "Ok, so I would have done that…" I said slowly. "But I didn't think of it."

He chuckled. "I assumed as much. But it would be nice of you to remember that we are PEOPLE as well as demons. I realize this is your Domain, and I have no right to instruct you in its care, but it is also our home. We need no consideration beyond acknowledgement, my lord, and I hesitate-"

"No," I cut him off. "Don't hesitate. You're right. This involved you and I took that for granted. I needed to do this, but I could have spaced it out, let you in on things. Instead I just ran amok without letting you in the loop. I get so used to us acting as a single unit I forget that some measure of communication is necessary. It won't happen again."

He nodded, relieved. "Now, as you have no doubt surmised, the ten demons tree has begun a qualitative evolution. Beyond what would be represented by a rank up, I mean. It is becoming an entirely different tree. This is important because of exactly where the tree is ROOTED." He gestured at the writhing tree image, the roots of which squirmed deeper and deeper into…the ten demons TOME. My chronicle and the tree were deeply intertwined, hence their shared name.

My eyes widened. "Is that…will that be safe? I've never heard that Chronicles can do that."

"They can," Bethy chirped from nearby. I turned to find her sitting up on one of the stands, legs swinging in a carefree back and forth rhythm. "I mean, Chronicles are condensed from Solid Skills and Solid Skills can upgrade on a rank up, so why wouldn't a Chronicle. I mean I've never heard of it happening either, but it makes sense huh?"

Put that way it actually did. I mean, Path of the Demonbinder was intricately connected to my Chronicle and my ability, and it was going to rank up when I did. I was honestly kind of curious. I'd seen skills before and after rank up, and I'd FELT skills rank up, but I'd never SEEN it happen before. I wasn't sure anyone had, at least not in this specific way. I turned to stare at the changing tree. It would rank up, and change my Chronicle when it did. Obviously it wouldn't drag ME to A-rank, but I was fascinated to see what my ten demons tome would become, not to mention the staff itself.

A pulse rocked the room. I frowned up at the tree. That was…not ideal. Azazel noticed my face. "What's wrong?" he asked immediately.

"It's not enough," I grimaced. "It needs more. The tree is too far from A-rank, the wine didn't bridge the gap. It's been growing, but it's still a little short. The advancement is going to fail." And something was going to happen to my staff when it did. The tree COULD communicate with me. Had done so before. But not like this. This was sharp and urgent, very much not its style. It was afraid.

The only reason things weren't worse was because of the armor. I could feel it like a lodestone, anchoring the whole Domain with the sheer weight of its presence. This armor was a genuine A-ranked artifact and it was designed to hold this place together, which was taking a ton of pressure off the tree so it could work.

Closing my eyes, I ran through my options. I needed power. Immediately. Wine wouldn't work, it had started things off but it wouldn't carry us over. I needed something more substantial something weighty…something like stats.

I blinked up at the tree, sending it a question. The response was a jumble of enthusiasm and acceptance. I nodded. "Alright, I have a plan. It's been a few weeks since my last influx of stats, not to mention there was that whole big scene with me greeting the higher dimensional visitors in the middle of the war front. The tree needs to grow, which means it needs power, and the easiest way for me to get that is to process my stat points."

Benny nodded along. "Right, the mythology should act as nutrients right? I mean the thing is growing out of your Chronicle, which is a condensation of one of your abilities."

"That's the hope," I said wryly. "Not sure if it'll work but it's all we've got. Might as well give it a shot. Here's hoping it's enough to bridge the gap." I wasn't sure how many points I had coming. It hadn't been that long since my last update, and while I HAD done some impressive shit, I wasn't sure how well word had gotten out yet.

Either way, Benny was right. It was a viable plan. The tree had grown to this point on my mythology and used it to form Gehenna. So I closed my eyes and accepted the influx of stats.

I had never actually DONE this inside of my Domain before. Every time I processed stats I did it in a private out of the way place where I wouldn't be disturbed. As soon as I relaxed my soul, I felt the stats descend into me, washing over the domain. A foiling curtain of energy. Green, red, blue, gold, black, a myriad of shades each representing something different. I hadn't ever seen raw stats like this before. Not…physically? They didn't stick around, and honestly I couldn't tell if the colors were real or just my mind trying to process something unintelligible.

As each one hit, the tree shook, shedding the old leaves, and new ones grew in its place. Leaves of rainbow and shadow and fog. Seventy two branches of leaves, each one dedicated to a different demon. Some only had a single leaf, some had eight. But the leaves were all important, I could tell.

The ground shook as the power flooded in, and I felt it settle over me. It wasn't painful. It was a few million points, but it wasn't even thirty percent of the total. As it was absorbed by the tree, the flames and fog and all the forces represented roiled down through the roots and into my Chronicle, and the book…caught fire. I felt a flash of incredible force surge through me that drove me to my knees. Benny and Bethy caught me, helping me keep from falling over.

And then it was done, and I was looking at my stat screen. I ignored the majority of it, not needing to check on my demons, and focused specifically on my stats and the entries for my soul weapon.

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

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

Might-3,125,421

Impact-215

Fantasy-2,433,568

Vitality-2,221,871 ()

Focus-2,124,853

Perception-1,641,640

Creation-1,981,143

Progress to next rank:13,528,711/100,000,000

Soul strength- Obsidian Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 17/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 8/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:13- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 8 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 30 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Pillar of Goetia

The shuddering stopped, and I felt a flood of Impact pour through the tree and into the Domain, strengthening it further in a way I'd only experienced one other time. Apparently the shared connection meant that the tree's rank up enhanced my Domain the same way mine did. I thought back to the Dryad homeworld, where I'd first found it, and the prediction that it could carry me to godhood. It was looking more likely by the day.

I checked my stats, happy to see the enhancement was decent. I wasn't even close to the end of B-rank, obviously, but a few million regularly dropping in was going to make the process faster than I had hoped. Sure enough, becoming the Wishmaster had its perks.

"Thirteen million points," murmured Azazel when I told him about my status. "What an auspicious number. What are the effects on your Chronicle?"

"Unknown," I admitted. "It feels…different. Not sure how different. My pages are intact and it's a stable core for this place again. The armor and the tree are working in perfect sync now, with only my lower rank dragging them down. Combined with the enhancement from its rank up, this place can support far more power being utilized in realspace. Not to mention it'll be MUCH less vulnerable during projection. I don't think anything short of an S-ranker is going to damage it the way Roland did."

Combined with all my recent training, my combat style was going to be just as flexible and even more precise. I wouldn't need to hamstring myself in fights like so many others did for fear of soul injury.

Finally, it was time for the last step. I reached out a hand and called to my staff. I thumped solidly into my palm, almost vibrating with power. Life and strength flooded into my from where I gripped it, and I could see seventy two sigils twisting themselves along the wood as I watched the grain. Like an optical illusion, there one moment, gone the next.

With a grin, I allowed my Domain to recede, and I was standing in the winery with Benny, Bethy, and Azazel. "I can't wait to find out what I can do now," I said with an eager smile. "And I know just how to do it, too. What better way to assess progress than a test. Put the word out. Tomorrow night, we enter the Legacy Trial. I want to see what kind of assessment that old Overgod left in his house." Because I didn't believe anything my level could stop me now.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We stood at the base of the tower, staring up the building, and I was kind of blown away. I wasn't the only one either. "Ok…so I've seen some ridiculous places. Castles, sky cities, palaces. But this…this is nuts. I bet this building wouldn't even be STANDING if we weren't in space. Also, how is there grass here? I'm guessing the plains around this place have some kind of life support domain or something? It's fascinating," Benny gushed as he examined the colossal tower.

Which was fair, because holy shit was it big. It was so big that standing in front of it, I couldn't see the edges if I looked in either direction. I chuckled at my friend's enthusiasm. "Alright, everyone remembers the plan?" I asked as I looked around to check with my companions. Dayna's brother Marius, Ellie, Fade, Alanna, Rosaline from Mourne Kayze, Crell, and any number of new faces from nearby forces that were allied with us were all grouped up around me. The C-rankers, including most of my cabinet and friends, were all standing not far away, orbiting my wife as we all prepared for entry.

"We know," Callie said reassuringly. "Don't worry, Bethy and I will keep an eye on them. Just stay safe until we can meet back up, ok?"

Through a variety of very specific wishes, the WCP had confirmed a few VERY basic facts about the tower. It had taken them quite some time, because apparently the place was mostly shielded, but my grandfather had contacted the Judgement Pope for advice, and with a little karmic bullshit, they'd found a workaround with the wishes that got them SOME info.

Firstly, the trials would separate not just by combat and support but by rank, as expected, but the different ranks would end up in the same place, simply in different areas. We WOULD be able to reunite after accomplishing some tasks, though what tasks exactly were unclear.

"Alright," I said slowly. "Keep your wits about you. These trials aren't lethal, if you can't handle it, just leave. The Legacy might be important, but it's not worth your life. No matter WHAT your god might have told you." I raised an eyebrow at my cabinet members. "Which goes double for you. I know the old man met with all of you to reiterate how important this is. Ignore him. If you can't make it through, give up. You dying in the test isn't a gain for us in any way."

They nodded solemnly, and I turned towards the door nearest me. It was a large empty archway full of black so deep it looked like mud. "See you on the other side," I muttered, then stepped forward into the darkness.

The first thing I felt when I entered the tower was cold. The second thing was heat. The third thing was spiders, and I MIGHT have screamed a little, but they went away in a few seconds and I was left standing alone in the center of a huge lavish room. I looked around, trying to find some sign of my next steps, and I found a man sitting at a small table nearby.

I HAD been alone, and now I wasn't, so I was understandably suspicious. I approached the man, and he looked up, his eyes metallic orbs with no iris or pupil. "Greetings applicant," he said in a neutral tone. "State your specialty."

"Combat," I said after a moment.

He nodded, writing down my name, age, and a bunch of other information I definitely hadn't given him on the paper in front of him. "The test will begin in ten minutes. Should you require food or beverage please imbibe immediately."

I blinked, expecting more information. Apparently it wasn't to be, because the man just went silent, staring ahead blankly like I wasn't there. I waited for further instructions, but none were forthcoming. Finally, after ten minutes, a door opened behind the man and I stepped through into a large empty chamber.

Across from me, a single figure stood. It looked like…well, a clock. But in the shape of a person. Gears and machinery was densely packed together inside of a clear glass shell, with the only deviation being the clock face in place of an actual expression. It wore a loose fitting pair of pants and stood completely still as if waiting.

When I stepped forward, it mirrored the motion, and when I stopped it did the same. I considered destroying it with my Domain or incarnations, but honestly…I wanted to see what I could do now. I called my staff to my hand, whirling it around my body in a figure eight.

Stepping forward, I waited for the clock golem to approach. It did so, and when it got close enough, it lunged for me. Even without my demons, I still had access to my passively accumulated skills. Danger Sense and Azazel warned me of an attack, and I effortlessly stepped under a swipe and slammed the staff into the back of its knees, dumping it to the floor. A quick smash into the face plate saw the automaton go still, and I grinned, cracking my neck. "Easy," I bragged aloud.

My smug grin lasted about ten seconds. Because after I finished saying it, the body of the robot vanished, replaced by…ten more robots. I raised an eyebrow at them, noting a slight difference in these ten, or at least eight of them. Aside from the normal robots, there were five that were wearing a robe and a pointy hat, and three that had helmets and swords.

"Ah," I said slowly. "That…makes sense, yeah."

The robots surged forward. Or five of them did. The caster-bots fell back and started gesturing at me dramatically, throwing huge blasts of fire across the chamber. Meanwhile, the two normal bots hurled themselves at me and tried to hang off my body while the three warriors encircled me, drawing their swords.

Snorting, I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind one of the mages, and spun to smash my staff into the back of its head. My Pillar of Goetia was A-rank now, and the butt cap smashed clean through the head just as easily as it had the last one. The head burst, exploding outward and scattering broken clock face and gears across the chamber in a shower, but I was already moving. A burst of flames and I was at the next one, Mephisto's Waltz moving me to my target instantly.

To my shock, when I arrived, I was intercepted directly by the two blank faced robots, both of which were now wearing fucking MASKS and twirling staves suspiciously similar to my own. Their attacks pincered me, forcing me to deflect them in quick succession with either side of my weapon, and my Danger Sense blared as I did, causing me to trigger Double Trouble a second time, using the reflection of the furthest mage in the reflective glass of the one I had attacked to appear further away.

"Oh hey, you learn," I said acidly to no one in particular. "That's fan-fucking-tastic. Fine. You two are first." I called on Sammael, my wings unfurling as I blurred forward into another waltz, disarming the two staff wielders and smashing them apart like cheap toys, though I was forced to waltz away to avoid the barrage of fireballs from the casters.

I started to relax as I landed, but my Danger Sense blared out a warning and I waltzed again, appearing ten feet ahead as a trio of razor sharp blades sang through the air where I'd been standing. The three warrior robots streaked towards me like a bronze wind, and I grimaced as I triggered Mephistopheles. The waltz was a subskill under Mephistopheles himself, and he would enhance the speed, especially combined with Sammael, whose power already did that.

Roaring in outrage, I blurred towards the sworsmen, my staff whirling. I danced between them, leveraging the blows away from me and deflecting all their attacks as precisely as possible. I remained in motion, using them to block the fire blasts, and the mages actually took one of them out by accident. Taking advantage of the gap, I rushed the next closest, but had to dodge away to avoid the rain of fireballs from the mages, who seemed to be learning my damned patterns.

Growling in annoyance, I incarnated my fourth demon (still doing fine with the strain), Limbo. All around me, I caught glimpses of possible futures, attacks the mages could make, formations the warriors could take. I started lashing out at high speed, destroying them to narrow down the possibilities.

My staff flowed through the motions, deflecting blades as I slid between fireblasts. I couldn't react fast enough to destroy every harmful timeline, but I was able to avoid the last few well enough not to get tagged more than once or twice by the fireballs. Soon enough, I had completely destroyed each and every one of the robots, and I was watching for the next batch. Nothing happened for a moment, then a calm, clear voice announced "Congratulations, you've completed the Frozen Moment Academy outer student trial. Would you like to proceed to the academy, or continue with the assessment?"

I blinked up at the ceiling. "I…passed?"

"Congratulations," repeated the voice. "You've completed the Frozen Moment Academy outer student trial. Would you like to proceed to the academy, or continue with the assessment?"

That was annoying. It could only say that one thing? Wait, no I had asked it to confirm I had passed. Maybe it said other stuff. "What do I get for continuing?" I asked suspiciously.

"If you complete the next trial," the voice informed stoically. "Your outer student status will be upgraded to the inner school, and you will be granted one credit point! Would you like to proceed to the academy, or continue with the assessment?"

I continued asking questions, trying to gauge more about the school, the credit situation, what exactly those points could do, what was the NEXT level of the assessment, etc. Unfortunately, while the current level was apparently one of the preprogrammed responses, none of the rest of it was, and every single question past that was met with "Would you like to proceed to the academy, or continue with the assessment?"

Finally, I decided to move on. I could have just advanced, but since I didn't know what credit points did, it seemed stupid to give up on getting one. My only question was how many would I have to fight next round. It could be twenty, or even nineteen, if it increased by nine every time, or it could be thirty if it increased the same way Impact did. Of course, there was another possibility, but I was trying hard not to think about it too much.

Whatever the case, I decided to rest up a bit before I started. The voice hadn't mentioned a timer, and when it didn't react to me sitting down and taking a drink, I decided that this was a hidden benefit of the trial. I could rest between each round, which would definitely be helpful if I kept at it.

Finally, I stood and called. "I'd like to continue with the assessment."

There was no confirmation, I just felt a slight shift in the air behind me. I turned to look at the robots who had appeared…and paled. Of all the potential configurations of enemies for the next round, this had been the most likely, and also the one I LEAST wanted to see. The trial didn't ADD ten enemies. It MULTIPLIED the enemy count by ten. I stared across the room at the one hundred robots of various types and took a long, slow breath.

I spun my staff up, then called several of my demons out of my Domain to physical form beside me. "Alright boys," I said coldly. "Why don't you help me even up the score a little?" And then the battle was on.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I groaned and slumped to my knees, my whole body felt like a bruise. Around me, my demons all knelt in various states of exhaustion, dozens of them out and helping as I muscled my way through two more trials. The hundred robot trial had been rough until I got the hang of it, and the thousand trial had been only marginally easier after we developed strategies for each of the robot types.

The TEN thousand robot trial had been borderline impossible. I had almost quit a dozen times. The only reason I'd made it at all was by incarnating Zagan and leveraging my staff and Chronicle upgrades to literally COVER my people with Vitality fire, amplified by my triple Vitality and phoenix template. It took hours. At the end of it, that same voice repeated its infuriating message with only a slight alteration. "Congratulations," it said smoothly. "You've completed the Frozen Moment Academy intermediate student trial. You have been awarded one hundred credit points. Would you like to proceed to the academy, or continue with the assessment?"

I didn't want to continue. I was positive I couldn't complete it if I did, but a part of me couldn't resist hearing the details. "What's the next level?"

"The next level of the assessment is the advanced student trial, victory awards one thousand credit points, as well as guaranteed enrollment in the major of your choice." It might have been my imagination, but that had sounded more…well, just more than the previous responses. More inflection. More understanding.

I decided to push it. "What are majors?"

"The Frozen Moment Academy possesses a variety of powerful legacies and schools of development. Each school of development is a complete system for advancement, and a major must be chosen to access related sublegacies." Yeah. That hadn't been a stock answer. I sat down to rest. It wasn't rushing me, and I had more questions. Apparently my identity as an intermediate student entitled me to some real responses. Yay.

"What are the majors," I asked. "How do you register for one? And how were they developed?"

The voice responded casually. "Each major was presided over by a Dean at the Overgod rank. There are twelve majors, each a complete system of advancement, and requirements for each major vary."

I was blown away. That was…a lot. Overgods weren't the peak of the food chain, but they were definitely important. Twelve Overgods joining together for the purpose of creating the academy was pretty impressive. "What about The Hourglass Bodach? Was he one of the Deans? What major was he in charge of?"

"Samuel P. Gibbons, also known as The Hourglass Bodach, founder of the Frozen Moment Academy, head of the department of temporal studies." I admit I was a little excited. "What are the other majors?"

There was a slight pause. "Insufficient access."

That made me frown. "What? Why am I allowed to know about the department of temporal studies but not the others? Wait. Are there any other departments I'm allowed to hear about?"

"Department of applied biology, Dean: Theodora Newman, also known as the Sister of the World Tree. Department of spatial anomalies, Dean: Simon Desmond, also known as the Worldwalker." The voice responded immediately, but then fell silent.

It took me a second to put it all together. Space and Life. My bloodlines. As for time…Limbo? Apparently the requirements for that major were less strict. Or maybe just so rare they took what they could get. I was pretty sure I got the gist of it though. "Those are departments I already qualify to join, aren't they?"

I couldn't help but grimace even before the voice confirmed. That meant I could theoretically have earned my way into some other department if I had focused harder on those abilities. But sadly the only way to change that would be to do another trial, and I knew I couldn't possibly win against a hundred thousand robots. Ten thousand had taken everything I had. No wonder they just directly gave access to all the majors to advanced students.

"Correct. Would you like to proceed to the academy, or continue with the assessment?" There wasn't any of the earlier life or inflection in the question. This part was just rote programming.

"How do the majors work?" I asked, trying to get it back into question and answer mode. "Like who teaches the classes? Are there classes? How do I earn more credits? How do I spend my credits?"

There was a slight pause. "Credit points can be earned by attending classes, undertaking practical projects pertaining to your major, or accomplishing tasks for the faculty related to the expansion or upkeep of the academy. Credit points may only be spent on general studies requirements or major related materials, techniques, or enhancements."

"And the teachers?' I asked again. "Who teaches the classes? Are the Deans still around?"

I was betting they weren't. If there were whole Overgods in here the place most likely wouldn't have been sealed in the Chasm to begin with. But I knew of at least one way that portions of their attention could have been allowed to remain, and I was betting-

"Classes and discipline are overseen by divine fragments of the staff," the voice responded.

There it was. Divine fragments. This place was similar to Atlas's graveyard. I was betting the fragments were a lot more comfortable and functional, especially the Overgod fragments, but still, it explained a lot about the way it operated. I considered what I was supposed to do from here. I had one option, in terms of my next move. Enter the academy. But when I DID that I was going to have to make a choice, most likely. I had to pick a major.

I asked the voice more questions, trying to weasel out more information about the various majors, but I hit a wall. It wouldn't tell me about the others, and wouldn't tell me more about the three I qualified for. Space. Time. Life. Those were my options.

It was a hard call. Life was the safe choice, given my Nine Phoenix Art. I was sure I could learn a ton and get a lot of powerful materials. Probably a lot of phoenix related ones that would enhance my ability to grow. The Cosmic Phoenix ember had allowed me to tap into a primordial power, but it had also taken MONTHS compared to the weeks Life Nova had taken. Doubling down on life related templates would presumably help me advance faster.

On the other hand, Space would almost definitely help me improve my Domain in both size and application. It would also help me help Callie, and was most likely where my wife was going to end up, even if I suspected the majors were subdivided by rank.

But the last one…Time. Time was a biggie. I couldn't learn about that anywhere else. Limbo was one of my most dangerous techniques, and the Dean of that major was the original founder of the tower. I could learn more about this place from him, not to mention it would enable me to improve in ways I couldn't get anywhere else. Which…kind of answered the question for itself, didn't it?

"I want to enter the academy," I finally said.

"Confirmed," the voice acknowledged. Please choose your course of study. Options: Department of temporal studies, Department of applied biology, Department of spatial anomalies."

I took a deep breath. Time to take a risk. "Department of temporal studies."

"Confirmed," it said again. "Welcome, Intermediate Student Shane Wyndham, to the Frozen Moment Academy. Generating student identification. Credit point balance: 100. Course of study: Department of temporal studies. Student identification number: 5510.5H. Four thousand nine hundred and fifty eighth academy intake ranking: 32. A student advisor will be assigned based on your rank and privileges. Please wait for the inner door to open fully before passing through."

I stepped back, turning to my demons. "Alright, everyone ok? I'm sending you all back into my Domain before I enter, just in case. But if anyone is hurt I can patch them up with Zagan while I'm still incarnating him."

Azazel popped up, eyes almost fanatically wide. "No one is hurt, you can go!"

I raised a brow at him. "I take it you approve of my choice of major?" I said wryly. "Hoping to pick up some tricks?"

"I'm hoping to pick up ALL the tricks," he grinned. "I'm going to receive training from a TIME GOD. Or you are. But that's close enough. I'm going to have so much fun with this. I should check with Limbo and try to come up with a game plan once we know more about the situation."

I chuckled at the enthusiasm, but was distracted by a slight hiss. I turned to find the door opening, the gap slowly expanding as it revealed more and more of what was on the other side. I frowned, trying to figure out what was happening. I knew I'd been in some kind of temporal stasis before, just like everyone else who entered the tower, but I wasn't sure exactly how it worked.

In fact, the name of the academy made me wonder if we had been unfrozen at all. Was it possible the whole tower was taking place inside one collective shared moment of frozen time? Or was it just a name? I didn't understand enough about time to know how any of this worked, so I supposed I'd have to wait and see.

Turning, I stared through the door and into the tower. On the other side of the slowly widening portal I could see…well, a world. I should have assumed, they had a spatial god on the faculty and the tower was already huge. If there was a forest in the lodge why not a world in the tower?

It was gorgeous, too. A sunny blue sky hanging over an endless plain of rolling green hills. Off in the distance, on top of a towering mountain, a brilliant white castle with blue turrets pierced the clouds like the upthrust blade of an inspiring titan. I had the urge to head for it immediately, but the voice had warned me not to go through the door until it finished opening. I didn't know what kind of time warping was going on, but I'd be an idiot to jump through a spatial portal after being warned not to.

Pulling the demons back inside, I prepared to set off. Except I didn't end up needing to. At least not how I'd thought. As the door approached being fully open, the view of the portal began to shift, it drifted closer to the castle, then sped up, then the sights in front of me blurred as it flashed across the countryside. It was dizzying, and more than that, it revealed exactly how far away I'd been. No wonder the voice said to wait, based on the speed of movement, I had MASSIVELY underestimated even my grandiose estimates of the size of that mountain and the castle on top of it.

Finally, the door shot through a window, letting out inside an upper floor of the castle, where a whole city appeared to be sitting inside a huge chamber. I waited for it to stop, and then confirmed the door was fully open before stepping through.

When I arrived on the other side, I looked for anyone else. I wasn't sure where everyone was, and for a moment I thought I was alone, but eventually I found one other person. Someone from the crew of B-rankers that had come with the Bloodraven, a tall aqua haired girl with lavender eyes and pointed ears. She spotted me and lit up with enthusiasm. "Oh! Another student from my major. You're that Wishmaster, right? The leader from the lower realm faction?"

"Solomon," I said bluntly. "Nice to meet you."

She bowed formally. "Sorwen, at your service. I doubt we're the only ones in this major, but perhaps the others have already gone ahead. I'm not sure where we're supposed to go, are you?" As soon as she finished speaking, the road beneath us lit up, a small section of cobblestones forming a subpath that led off into the city below. "Oh, I suppose that answers that then." She said cheerfully. "Shall we?" I nodded, and we headed down the cobbled hill towards the city, and towards answers to questions I had never even imagined.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I stuck close to Sorwen as we headed into the city. I didn't know her, but I knew everyone else even LESS. Of the few dozen people I could see, only she was a member of the forces I'd already observed up to this point. The others were most likely selected from among the nine thousand plus applicants who had been frozen in the rooms of the tower we'd observed from outside, though I admit none of them looked especially strange or alien to me.

"So, what was your trick?" I asked her as we walked. "Or what is your ability? Whatever gave you the opportunity to enter this major?"

Based on my experience, I assumed you needed some kind of time related power. It was strange, because I had created mine easily enough, so it was curious more people didn't do the same. Then again, techniques had always come easy to me, so maybe time powers were too difficult for most people. My ability to create the Great Book Heavenly Library alone outstripped the technique abilities shown by most people I'd met.

She raised an eyebrow at me suspiciously, but eventually shrugged. "I have kind of a precognition power. I can predict attacks before they happen. Plus I got to intermediate. That was a pain."

"Me too," I said with a chuckle. "It's possible that having a time related ability might not be enough. Maybe you have to reach at least intermediate to qualify. Still, it doesn't seem like many people made the cut. There were, based on the windows outside, nearly ten thousand applicants, and I only see maybe thirty people nearby."

She nodded. "Yeah, seems slim. A third of a percent isn't much. Although clearly we're not the only group. These are all B-rankers."

"Yeah, the majors are subdivided," I confirmed. "At least as far as I saw. But I'm not sure there'll be as many C-rankers if you need to hit intermediate to qualify. I can't imagine many people that rank being able to take on ten thousand robots."

Even if the robots themselves were C-rank, it was unlikely. Most C-rankers didn't have a Domain like I did. Without Gehenna's particular brand of bullshit, I was doubting I would be capable of taking on an army that size. Then again, that was the combat assessment. Who knew what the support assessment would be like. Not to mention I had no idea if the supporters even had the same majors as us. Were there twelve others? Were six of the twelve support? Three? Honestly I was blown away by the scale of this whole place.

Which wasn't helped by arriving at a massive amphitheater that everyone seemed to be guided towards. The lighted cobblestones led us right to the door, and a quick glance at Sorwen to confirm saw us entering cautiously, ready for some kind of trap.

Of course, there was no trap. They didn't need to trap us if they wanted us dead. We were entirely at the mercy of the faculty of this place, assuming what the voice had said was true. Outside the chasm, without the suppression of the vortex, I doubted anyone here could stand up to even a fragment of a god.

When we entered the amphitheater, I was surprised to find that the intimidating show of force I had expected was nowhere to be seen. Based on the city outside and the fancy stone path, I had expected some grand opera hall or something where someone would lord their power over us. To my surprise, the inside of the theater was almost cozy. Plush red carpet, comfortable built in seating, and a relatively short stage with thick curtains around it that made it feel more confined, but in a comfortable, homey way.

Sorwen and I headed down the gently sloping aisle to grab seats near the stage and sat down to wait as everyone else filed in and found chairs. Eventually, when all the movement had stopped, the dark stage lit up. A single beam of brilliant light illuminated the form of a calm, reassuring man with salt and pepper hair sitting on a tall stool.

He smiled blandly at us. "Welcome, children of time," he boomed. His voice was deep and resonant, but also cold. That declaration should have sounded cocky or condescending, but he mostly just came off like an executioner reading off our death order. "My name is Samuel P. Gibbons. My official title outside these walls is "The Hourglass Bodach", but in Frozen Moment, we don't much hold with fancy designations. We prefer to base our internal reputations on skill and intellect. You may simply call me Dean Gibbons."

His eyes were an intense swirling silver, shot with flecks of obsidian that danced around his pupils like leaves in a storm. They scanned the amphitheater slowly as he spoke, taking in every detail of his audience. "You have all been invited to attend classes under my department, and while that is an honor, it is also a privilege. The department of temporal studies is the most select and exclusive major at Frozen Moment Academy. You can learn things studying here that you can't learn anywhere else. Each of you are elites among this group of applicants, and you have earned a place here through luck and skill…but that place is not a right.

"You can and will lose your access to this major should I believe you are not worthy of my consideration. Do not allow yourselves to fall behind, or you will be ejected from this major." His eyes narrowed coldly, the approachable demeanor being shrugged off like a cloak, showing just a flash of something darker beneath, like the shadow of a monster swimming beneath a ship on calm waters. "Should that happen, you may be allowed to select a new course of study, or you may be expelled. Circumstances will dictate. Now. I will be accepting three questions."

One of the seated students raised a hand, Dean Gibbons gestured to him calmly. "Yes, hello, Dellos Veck, I was wondering if you'll be teaching any of the classes personally? I heard there were instructors that did most of the hands on stuff."

"A good question," the Dean nodded. "No, I will not be personally instructing you for the majority of your courses. There are some advanced classes and lectures I conduct myself, but those cost credit points rather than awarding them. Similarly, you can spend credit points directly to arrange a sit down meeting with me. This is a one time opportunity granted to new arrivals, and will only be available for the first month. It will cost one hundred credit points, and will last one hour. I make no promises about the effectiveness or contents of these meetings, I only offer them as they are. Whether to avail yourself of this service is your own decision."

Another hand went up and he gestured to a smaller girl with hair that looked like actual seaweed. "Alverra Delnock," she said, announcing her name like the last one had. "Can credit points be traded directly between students? Is there some kind of marketplace where we can sell things for credits? Can students post missions like the ones mentioned in the assessment, or is it only teachers who have that ability?"

Dean Gibbons narrowed his eyes and her mouth snapped shut instantly. Sighing, he leaned back. "That was more than one question, but they were thematically similar, so I shall allow it just this once. Don't do it again. Credit points are awarded for completing courses, winning competitions, attending lectures, or accomplishing tasks set by the faculty. Tasks CAN be set by students, but credit points will be required to post them, and task payments must be covered by the poster in addition to payment for the service.

"Credit points can be SPENT on advanced courses and lectures, material goods, special events and competitions, and the entry to special environments and beneficial locations that can aid in comprehension and advancement." his expression softened back to the approachable mentor. "So no, I'm afraid there's no direct trading of credits, though you CAN use the task postings as a point of sale if you can get enough credits in exchange for whatever you're selling to offset the service fee. One more question, and then we move on. You." He pointed at Sorwen, who had raised her hand without me noticing.

"Sorwen Ard," she said cheerfully. "Will our residences cost credit points?"

He grinned at her. "There was an implied secondary question in there, but since you didn't technically break my rule I'll answer both. No, they will not. You will be given residences as befits your status as intermediate students. There are three residence halls. Once for B-rankers, one for C-rankers, and one for A-rankers. Due to the academy's focus on mythcrafting, those who have completed their Chronicle and reached S-rank need not apply."

I frowned at that term, wanting to raise my hand to ask what mythcrafting was. It clearly had something to do with authoring pages, but it wasn't a term I'd heard before from any of my family. The idea that I might be learning something GODS didn't know was somewhat intoxicating, so I could only wait for someone to explain it to me.

"Now, with that out of the way, we can move onto the information you'll need to make best use of your time here," he gestured out the door. "This is Moment City. It is the residence hall allocated to B-rankers of this major. Moment City is NOT unoccupied, and should you anger the residents, we will not be responsible for what happens to you. Learn more about this place on your own time.

"Should you wish to associated with other majors, you can purchase transportation to Common City, a shared space accessible to all majors." his voice was casual as he filled us in. "As intermediate students, you are only eligible for two days of common time per week, regardless of credit points. Beginner students have one day. Outer students and below measure their common time in HOURS."

He looked around the room. "At any time, any student may apply for the advancement trial to advanced student. Should you succeed, you will be granted an audience with me directly, free of charge. The one hour limitation will still apply.

"That should be almost everything you need. Your identification numbers can be used to look up your residence in the city in the book behind me on the stage." he gestured behind him into the dark. "There will be an introductory course offered as a one time benefit for newcomers later tonight in this amphitheater. It rewards no credits. I highly suggest you attend. Welcome to the department of temporal studies. Good luck." The light went out, thensmaller lamps illuminated the whole theater, revealing Dean Gibbons was gone.

"Well, that was dramatic," Sorwen said brightly. "I have to admit, this place isn't what I thought it would be. I was expecting challenges and death battles, not classes and worksheets."

I snorted. "This is an ascendant academy. There will be challenges and death battles. I'm more interested in what he said about mythcrafting. I've never heard that term before. Do you know what it is? I take it that's something to do with authoring a chronicle."

Sorwen raised an eyebrow at me. "I knew your plane was underdeveloped in some respects, but that's just absurd. Yes. Mythcrafting has to do with-" she stopped, looking around warily. "Look, let's go find out where our residences are and we can talk while we walk. Maybe they'll be close together, and if not we can find a park or something, this won't be a quick conversation."

She stood and headed up to the stage and I followed after her. I didn't mind her taking the lead, she clearly knew more about what was going on than me. Still, I reached out through the bond to check on Callie as I walked, happy to receive a warm pulse of reassurance from my wife. Knowing she was ok and presumably hadn't seen any evidence of the others having trouble, I sped up my walk towards the book. I had a feeling this conversation would be an important one.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Sorwen and I were not staying close together, so we decided to stop at a local park to have our conversation after getting our room assignments. I was almost vibrating with the need to ask question, but I knew that seeming too eager was likely to backfire. Sorwen didn't know me, and if she thought she had leverage she could decide to use it. So I just forced myself to look relaxed as we walked together.

Finally, we arrived at the park and I sat down on the edge of a fountain, glancing at the higher dimensional woman without saying anything until she took a seat herself and shot me an amused smile. "So, you have questions."

Apparently my attempts to play it cool weren't going to work, but I decided it didn't matter at this point. I got straight to the heart of the matter. "Mythcrafting," I said simply. "Dean Gibbons said the school is based on it. I've never heard the term before. Is it something we don't have access to here?"

She shook her head. "No, you have it. You have to. It's an integral part of the Ascension process. It's just hard to…how to explain this? It's like someone asking you what air is. You can TELL them it's an invisible substance that sustains the body, but without knowing how it works they won't really understand. Mythcrafting is something everyone learns, though how much you understand varies. I suppose it's easier to start at the beginning. Or maybe the end. Do you know what Worldforce is?"

"I do," I nodded. "It's the substance gods use to fill their realms. It can be infused into divine artifacts and gives them their power."

"That's…technically accurate," she allowed. "But it's not really relevant to the question. I asked if you know what it IS, not what it does. Based on your response, I suspect you do not. But it is important in this case. You know what Mythology is, of course."

"Obviously," I nodded. "It's the force that composes stats. The finer and more detailed power that makes up everything about an Ascendant."

She beamed. "Much more accurate, yes. This is important because the path of Worldforce begins with Mythology. Or rather with stats. As you know, from the very beginning of an Ascendant's journey, they need to learn to use stats. That's what skills are. You can combine them and reshape them but you need the stats to make them work. At higher levels you learn to more delicately craft skills, rearranging stats to form complex mechanisms."

I nodded, because that was all obvious, and she continued. "But you probably noticed that the higher you climb, the less useful skills actually are. Techniques become the bread and butter of higher level Ascendants, and the mechanism for utilizing those is very different."

"It's more intuitive," I acknowledged. "Emotions and imagery are important to techniques, as opposed to delicate structural engineering."

"That is incorrect," she denied. "It is more accurate to say that you aren't CAPABLE of delicate structural engineering. The creation of techniques is the manipulation of Mythology in its purest form. Or, in the common parlance of the higher planes: Mythcrafting."

I frowned at that. "That's…wait, that doesn't make sense. I do that already, and I do it all the time. I mean, sure it's useful, but my ancestor based his whole empire on a skill, so it's not like mythology is just qualitatively better. Learning to make better techniques would be great, but I don't see how it's like…linear. They're just different approaches."

"They aren't," she assured me. "And I can tell you that for sure. Do you remember where I started this explanation?"

"Worldforce," I said immediately. "How are they related?"

She grinned at me. "Qualitatively. See, the process of Ascension isn't just random and pointless. It's delicate and complicated, but at the end of the day, it's an evolution. It's a growth mechanism. Start with an ability to get you used to stats, introduce skills that let you alter said ability, learn to condense and refine those skills moving into Paths, and then step from those Paths into techniques.

"Stats are the largest and most cumbersome delineation of force for an Ascendant," she lectured. "Mythology makes up those stats, so learning to manipulate stats is learning to manipulate mythology. Eventually, the training wheels come off, and you learn to make techniques using mythology in a more basic form, and THAT transitions into authoring pages in a Chronicle, which teaches you how to more delicately craft with Mythology by letting you rewrite pieces of your own legend. Something you can FEEL on a visceral level."

That made sense. It was a lot more cohesive than it had felt when I was DOING it, but I hadn't exactly taken the traditional road to get here. "And Worldforce?"

"Worldforce is the next step," she clarified. "Mythology is created by the thoughts and opinions of others. You can weave it together however you like, but techniques are still heavily informed by recursion. Contrary to the way it sounds, Worldforce isn't spatial. Not inherently. Worldforce is a unique force that you create from different mythologies. A special crafted energy that belongs only to you. Mythology is the legend of a person. Worldforce is the legend of a WORLD."

I frowned at that. "Wait…so it's just like…a technique but stronger?"

"Worldforce is…you could consider it a template," she clarified. "Once you form your Worldforce, which can be done at Demigod, recursion ceases to be an issue. All the renown that pours into you homogenizes with your Worldforce and becomes a part of the story YOU want to tell. It seeps into your realm, watering it and helping it grow. In order to MAKE Worldforce, however, Mythcrafting is essential."

"So all the gods have to be doing it?" I asked angrily. "And they just never mentioned it?"

She shrugged. "They're probably doing it the same way you are. Instinctively. You'll notice that there are far FEWER gods than there used to be in this plane? Less than a dozen over the span of millennia is a vanishingly small amount. That's easily explained if there's just a much higher talent requirement to get there."

But that didn't explain how Atlas hadn't mentioned it. I was sure he had to know, being from a time when there were so many gods. Why hadn't he…and then it hit me. Because he thought we already KNEW. These gods and overgods were talking about Mythcrafting like it was some basic knowledge everyone had. Atlas had seen me use complicated forms and techniques. He probably just assumed I knew what I was doing. It was like Sorwen's oxygen metaphor earlier. There was no reason to just start telling someone how to breathe when you could see them inhaling right in front of you.

"Alright," I said slowly, wrapping my head around all this. "So…Mythcrafting is about techniques." That meant my talent was Mythcrafting. Had always been Mythcrafting. It was kind of frustrating to think about, but at least I had some idea what I'd been doing now. Hell, knowing THIS might be enough of a leg up for the WCP from the whole damned legacy. Not to mention learning how to do it. "How does this work then? Because techniques are like…easy? Anyone can do a technique for anything, right?"

She snorted. "Spoken like a natural. No. Techniques can't just "do anything". Mythcrafting works on Mythology. Mythology has certain attributes. I'm sure you've noticed that all your techniques have some kind of BASIS. You make them from skills, abilities, things you can observe. In order to create a technique, you need a combination of attributes that fit the effect.

"Of course, not all types of mythology work well together," she clarified. "That depends on the myths that make it up. Certain stories are more deeply entrenched in certain cultures, and the mythology of those attributes takes to certain forms more smoothly. Fire is often associated with rebirth across multiple planes, and that makes things like phoenixes a good element to tie together flame and healing attributes. You can fudge it a little by creating your own story, of course, the more detailed it is the more compelling to the attributes involved, but ultimately, some combinations are just more effective. That's what Mythcrafting is all about."

I blinked at that. "That's why we got the invite to this major," I said with dawning realization. "People need certain kinds of Mythology to Mythcraft certain things. We have time attributes in our skills, which means we have access to time related techniques and, eventually, time related Worldforce."

"That's overstating it a bit," she warned. "We have the POTENTIAL for time related Worldforce. But it's a rare attribute, yes. Time related skills are uncommon. Collecting attributes is hard to steer or control. They're based on your Mythology, which tends to take on a mind of its own, so unless you're born with a time related ability, getting the attribute introduced into your stats is exceptionally difficult. Speaking of, where did yours come from, if you don't mind me asking. Your ability is complicated, but I don't think it has an inherent time attribute to it."

I didn't have any idea, not at first, but then I realized what it had been with a start and I couldn't help but start laughing. She raised an eyebrow at me. "Diviner," I chuckled. "I have a skill that lets me access powers from a videogame I grew up playing. My class was Fatewalker. It's a hybrid of Monk, Rogue, and Diviner. One of the first Diviner abilities I got was an attack prediction overlay."

It had been the earliest subskill DS Mastery had granted me, and one of my most useful in the early levels, but it had sort of fallen by the wayside. I'd gotten others, of course, and much more powerful ones, but something about knowing that my overlay had brought me here, had unlocked this path for me…it made me smile. Like a part of that old power was still with me, even after all this time.

I made a mental note to track down the demon for the Overlay and talk to him about all this. I was betting that his involvement with this whole thing would be deeper going forward than any of us would have expected. He was only tier 4, which meant reincarnation would be easier. I couldn't help but wonder if the fate adjacent demon had picked up something important without noticing it.

Sorwen was grinning too. "Video games," she said in exasperation. "I don't know whether to be horrified or impressed. Remind me to introduce you to my brother Winston. You would get along."

I laughed at that, but my face quickly smoothed into seriousness. "Not that I don't appreciate the help, and this has taught me a lot, but…why are you helping me?"

"This is going to be a complicated and difficult journey," she admitted. "Having a friendly face around to help can't hurt anything. Besides, your sister-in-law is an old friend of my ancestor. Us local factions need to stick together if we want to make it through this."

I stared into her eyes for a moment, trying to see any deception, but Scent of Truth caught nothing. She actually meant that. I laughed and held out a hand for her to shake. "Alright then, guess we can look out for each other while we're here. You know my name already, but it's polite to introduce yourself to new friends. Shane Wyndham, at your service."

"Sorwen Ard," she grinned. "Though I'm not much into the servant thing. Nice to meet you, though."

Laughing, we both stood up. The conversation was over, and I had learned quite a bit. Now it was time to head back to my room and figure out where the hell I wanted to GO with all this. I had a lot to think about, and I got the impression the decisions I made in the coming days would decide the upper limit of what I could accomplish in this life. I couldn't wait to get started.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

My mind was whirling with all the new information as I let myself into my residence. Without much preamble, I flopped into my bed and descended into Gehenna to consult with my court. I might not be able to work through all the angles all at once, but I wasn't alone. This information concerned everything that had happened to me since I had started my journey, and I wasn't planning to ignore the implications of everything I'd learned.

Sure enough, Oz, Dom, and Sam, my three ministers, were waiting for me on arrival. Alongside them was another figure, and it took me a moment to realize exactly why it was, because I was so unfamiliar with the features after all this time.

"Overlay," I said after a moment of searching the face. "Yeah, you should probably be involved in this chat."

Overlay looked…like me. Honestly, most of my demons KIND of looked like me. Some were bigger, or mutated, or older, because they had been changed by living full lives of their own, but they still looked a little like I did in some way. Overlay though, Overlay looked like ME. Like the me I used to be.

He was a little shorter than me, not having traded for the extra inch of height, and his features were softer. He didn't have the same air of command or combat experience either. He just looked like an eighteen year old kid who grew up in an apartment in Valen.

It was honestly kind of jarring. Looking at him like this I almost couldn't see myself. I hadn't thought I'd changed that much in just a few years. Sure I was stronger, and more ruthless, and maybe more confident. But we looked more like siblings or cousins than the same person. Comparing the two of us was like comparing night and day, and I wasn't sure which was which.

Of course, he was more than I had been. Overlay (Owen for short, it always felt impersonal referring to them by skill names) was a tier four demon. He hadn't grown much, which went to show how little he'd been training. Gehenna made advancement easy at low levels, and the only demons that remained stuck there were the ones who were angling for reincarnation to become something more effective.

"Walk with me," I told the others as I headed into the chamber behind my throne room. "Now, I assume you all heard all that? I'm not sure exactly how much you perceive from in here, but I think Azazel has access to my senses unless I block it."

Oz nodded. "I do. And a general sense of when it's appropriate to access them. This meeting was portentous, so yes, I was listening. I filled the others in as well."

Sam hummed with interest. "Yeah, it was definitely fascinating to listen to, but I'm not sure how applicable it is to me specifically. You DID design me based on a powerful racial trait. Speaking of, how does that work? She said skills are just like…a lesser tier of power, right? What about the old men, and other bloodlines?"

"I've been thinking about that," Oz said cautiously. "I believe this is a matter of pure instinct. Powerful skillcrafters like the ancestor have an innate understanding of the mythology of their skills. I believe, and this is pure speculation, that the powerful bloodline meta skills of people like the Wishmaster serve as a sort of proto Worldforce. An accidental template that steers the power into the form that the ascendant wishes. There are other complications to the theory, such as Domain seeds, but all in all it does hold water."

"Assuming the old man and the other gods aren't keeping their mouths shut about Mythcrafting to prevent the proliferation of more gods, which is a possibility, there has to be some way to brute force the creation of your own Worldforce." I mused. "Not that I have any interest in DOING that. Now that we're here, we can learn to Mythcraft properly. Considering that Mythcrafting is how you author pages from your Chronicle, I have a feeling we want to make sure each of them is as well constructed as possible. Speaking of which, Oz, did you finish that project I set you?"

My first minister nodded excitedly. "Thirty miles," he said confidently. "Almost exactly. Sadly we weren't able to measure before the rank ups. My best estimate is that entry to B-rank pushed you to twenty, and the other ten were from a combination of cosmic phoenix strengthening and the rank up from the Pillar of Goetia. I don't have many other Domains to compare it to, so my math is somewhat half baked, but I would probably assume based on Callie's Vault that your Domain is unusually large for your rank."

"I figured," I said with a wry smile. "And denser too. Having an A-ranked pillar supporting it, not to mention whatever benefits the Myriad Demons Manual gives now, makes it safer to use my Domain in battle, and that'll only continue to be the case as it expands. Were you able to get any definitive information on the benefits of that?"

"Nothing specific," he grimaced. "Best I can tell it aids the creation of a Domain Seed somehow. My only source for the knowledge would be Dantalion, and only what he managed to pick up passively during our travels. He's been working with Pride to construct and ACTUAL library in the castle, though I've been asked to invite you down to peruse the royal collection. Apparently all seventy two of us are still linked to the library, and each of us still has a book."

I blinked in surprise. "I…kind of assumed the library was gone after the Domain condensed," I said blankly. "That could be incredibly useful though. The old man's library was a skill crafting technique, but mine was aimed more at Mythcrafting, even if I didn't know it. I bet I can learn more about attributes by studying the books, and I'm sure the Mythcrafting techniques I'm going to learn will help me improve the foundations of the various demons manually."

One of the first things I'd learned about my Domain was that the demons could still be altered just as easily as they could grow. I didn't do that, because the staff's simulation made stronger and more lifelike constructs. Knowing what I did about Mythcrafting, that was probably to do with the well worn intent behind them and the firm foundation of the story, but even if that was true, the staff and I were connected. Learning Mythcrafting would help optimize ITS abilities as well as my own.

That was a matter for another time, though. Once I'd actually LEARNED some Mythcrafting. Speaking of, I turned to Doom Sovereign. "What are the chances we can get a complete list of all the attributes I have access to?"

Dom, ever the taciturn member of my council, just shrugged. "Not great. There's a lot we don't understand. So far the only real confirmation we have is time, and it's only really our assumption it comes from Overlay. We have a few strong guesses, like Destruction for Mephistopheles, and we know at least a couple for sure, like Purification from your grandfather. But all in all, there are seventy two of us, and not all of us were even formed exclusively from your own skills. You mixed in a bunch of stored techniques during creation."

I sighed deeply. "Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that. It's fine, this is a Mythcrafting school, there almost HAS to be some kind of identification method for attributes. We know I have Space and Life because of the major invites at least. Maybe more if you need more than a single attribute to be invited. Which I have to assume you do, because time can't be THAT rare."

"Speaking of," I turned to look at Owen. "Are you sure you want to be involved in this? There are other options. Limbo could take your place, I'm almost positive. I figured it was fair to give you first shot at being my go to demon for this course, given you've been stuck at tier four and clearly want an upgrade. Plus I like the symmetry. But you don't HAVE to do anything. This is entirely up to you."

Most of the people here were working with a totally different system than I was. They all had abilities and skills with time attributes, and were going to be using that to make techniques. For me, the better call was to incarnate one of my demons with time attributes and treat them like a form, learning to manipulate time more directly and maybe even baking that into the demon as I went. It had advantages and disadvantages, but I suspected it would allow me to wield my time attribute with less training.

Owen, for his part, didn't even flinch. His eyes locked with mine, and I saw a stubborn set to his jaw that I recognized from the mirror AND from seeing it on my mother and sister. "I want to be stronger," he said firmly. "I want to be more. You don't need me, not the way I am. Haven't for a long time. But now I can DO something. Be important. Be honest, do you really think I'll ever achieve godhood at this rate?"

I thought it through. He was right. Theoretically, all my demons could be gods, and they could grow passively so they would mostly get there eventually…but realistically, tiers became exponentially harder to get through as you went up. It had taken me months to push my top demons to tier eight. And that was with direct intervention. That was why so many of the lesser demons were keeping their ranks low in hopes of reincarnating. They could all be gods eventually…but eventually was longer for some than others.

"No," I admitted. "Not anytime soon. Even if you started training as hard as you could, you'd hit a wall at rank seven or so. The Pillar only has so much processing power, even at A-rank, and it gets prioritized by utility. The demons that I work with the most need that processing power to keep up with the demands I put on them."

"I know," he shrugged. "That's why me and the others have been waiting. We all want to find a purpose, something unique and powerful that will make us necessary. Will push us to grow. This is mine, I can feel it. So, how does this work? You just…reincarnate me?"

I shook my head. "Nah. No catalyst. I need to learn some Mythcrafting, and then we can consult your book in the library. We'll take it slow. You don't have to have a qualitative upgrade like Brad or the Nine Phoenix Art. My talent in Mythcrafting is immense. It's the deal my dad made with me in exchange for eighteen years of my power. He didn't even know what he was doing, but I'll be damned if I'm going to waste that kind of ability.

"I have faith that a gradual iteration process with intent and knowledge will eventually push you to heights well past where a freak accident or a powerful material could get you," I assured him as his shoulders drooped. "Mythcrafting is going to be integral to my progress to godhood, and you and I are gonna go on that journey together, ok?"

I held out a hand, and I saw the look of determination kindle in his eye as he reached out to shake. It was hard not to admire the kid, and then it was hard not to wonder if that was egotistical because he was kind of me, but I decided I'd never been shy about my ego anyway. "Alright," I said with a laugh. "Now, I need to head out and check in with Callie, I want to hear all about her trial." I was pretty sure I knew what major she had picked, at least.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Callie, naturally, had way more information about the academy than I did (though the Mythcrafting stuff WAS new to her, fortunately, so I contributed something). She'd made friends immediately, with more than just one person, and her first order of business had been to figure out what all twelve of the majors were. She'd managed to gather a shocking amount of information over the short time we'd been here, and I was once again both in awe of and deeply grateful she'd been willing to marry a schmuck like me.

"So, do we know where the others ended up?" I asked first thing. "I assume Jessie ended up in the Biology department, given I got offered the choice based on my Life attribute."

"A few of them," she confirmed. "Benny probably ended up in the Department of Peculiar Mechanisms. It's the catch all for crafters, with the exception of Alchemy and Enchanting which seem to each have their own departments. Fade and Alanna probably ended up in the Department of Martial Excellence under Dean Corey Dowd, also called the Unrelenting Edge. That one is for weapon masters I think, because it was one of the three I was offered."

I nodded along. "Ok, what was the third?"

"Department of Atypical Phsicality," she said with a shrug. We were inside her vault at the moment, having decided a face to face would make things easier and was just more enjoyable. "Bethy is almost definitely in that one. As far as I can tell it's some kind of catch all for students with traits. The Dean's name is Wallace Harper, and apparently his divine soubriquet is "The Monstrosity", which admittedly made me a bit less inclined to pick it, but will probably make him sound like a favorite uncle to Bethy."

I snorted at that mostly accurate assessment. "So that's eight down, then? What about the last four?"

"Department of Business Engagement, Department of Stellar Studies, Department of the Lost, and Department of Cryodynamics," she listed off immediately. At my strange look she smirked. "Yeah the last one threw me off too. Apparently the Dean of Cryodynamics and the Dean of Temporal Studies founded the academy together. Frozen Moment. Dean Sela Windermere, also known as the Permafrost Priestess. Apparently she and Gibbons are married. Apart from them, the other Deans are mostly unrelated, except Alchemy and Runes, who are ACTUALLY related, as far as I can tell Preston and Alvira Willow are twins. The Concoction King and the Polyglot are the respective heads of the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Language Studies."

I blinked at her in opermouthed shock. "How could you POSSIBLY have learned that much information in just a couple of hours," I demanded. "You're some kind of gossip savant! It's not fair that I'm a LITERAL politician getting tons of politics related recursion and you're still so much better at this."

"You're an intergalactic despot," she giggled. "I don't think anyone expects the Wishmaster to do actual politics. You've become a much more confident leader and much more charismatic dealing with dignitaries, if it helps. Anyway, I didn't do anything special. I just caught a few people alone and leveraged the information I had that they didn't to trade for knowledge. I MIGHT have used Murmur to make sure I wasn't overheard so I could trade the same info more than once, but that was just common sense."

"I'm surprised you didn't get invited to the business major," I snarked. "Speaking of, I wonder what they learn there? Like do they just spend all their time trading credits and buying stuff?"

She shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. I know the names and the deans, but they didn't offer much extra information. The two pieces of data I had was enough to roughly figure out what each major does, but the in depth mechanisms are probably only known to the students themselves."

"Did you get to Intermediate by the way?" I asked with interest. "I don't know about your department but our time in Common City is dependent on rank. Intermediates get a weekend, Beginners a day, and any lower…well, I can't imagine you got lower than Beginner. I'd be shocked if you didn't get as far as me."

"I got to Intermediate," she laughed. "I passed on trying the Advanced trial. A hundred thousand robots was WAY too much. I only barely managed the ten thousand. I'm betting Abel is Advanced if he didn't get bounced. Possibly Bethy too, but it's hard to say with her. She might just have not cared enough to try."

I snorted at that. "I'm guessing she did. I'm curious where my sister ended up. My cousin probably went with Benny to the crafting department, but Chelsea's abilities are more esoteric than most. Department of the Lost, maybe? Assuming that's what it sounds like."

"Assuming is basically ALL we can do," she acknowledged. "But yeah, I came to the same conclusion. That Department is probably for Miscellaneous applicants who don't fit in the other boxes. The Dean, Kell Drave, is also called the Silent Seeker, which is both mysterious and supremely unhelpful when it comes to giving us any information."

I huffed out a laugh. "Fair. Anyway, I think we have enough information to make assumptions about everyone, but we'll need to wait for our Common City visit to confirm. I take it you were ALSO told that you had to wait three days?"

"Yup," she agreed. "I think they pushed it back so that all of us would end up there at the same time when we first went. When some people only have hours and some people have days, if they let people just pick at random with no method of contact they're going to miss each other. Speaking of, methods of contact can be purchased with credits, but I think we could do a bit better."

That got a grin from me. "Just a bit. Not sure Wishcrafted gear would be able to outdo some of the high end shit the real artisans here can make, but in terms of custom work I don't see anyone beating me for utility. I wonder if the Wish scrolls can bypass the limitation in direct credit transfer? It would be pretty fantastic if they could, though if not I bet we can still make some money through the postings, just at a markup."

"Now who should have been in the business major," she teased with a laugh. "But there's definitely some room to look around. Have you checked in at the credit exchange yet? Everything is done through there, including signing up for classes. Speaking of, are you going to take any of those? Or just use the time to gather resources. I think the competitions were the potential boost to binding our pages that someone mentioned."

"Agreed," I nodded. "But I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. Honestly, given the Mythcrafting angle, I'm leaning towards possibly doing the one hour counseling session with the Dean. The way he phrased it made it seem like a hidden benefit that will pay huge dividends. Azazel is pushing me in the same direction. How about you, did you get the same offer?"

"Dean Desmond did offer," she confirmed. "I'm not sure about it though. I can take classes for spatial knowledge, and I'm already kind of naturally suited for it. Not to mention my whole thing is kind of off brand for spatial manipulation. I'm not sure how much help he would be. I think I'm better off spending my credits on a few high end lectures and maybe some of the unique environments they mentioned. If I'm parsing that right, they're like…special places that have special kinds of power and insight and can help with getting new attributes and refining concepts."

I snorted at that. "More attributes isn't something I'm worried about at the moment. I do get your point though. I considered trying some of them out, but I think passing up the chance to understand my time attribute would kind of fuck me over. Limbo is one of my most effective abilities, and that moment chop from the lemur king on the dryad planet made a big impact. Time is fascinating and deadly."

"So we do different things," she giggled. "I'll check out some of the special locations and let you know how they turn out. If I run out of credits though, I'll have to borrow some. As your wife, I AM entitled to half of everything you own."

"I knew you married me for my money," I teased. "The truth finally comes out."

She rolled her eyes. "You don't HAVE any money. You're the brokest intergalactic crime boss I've ever heard of."

"Well, I didn't say you were a genius," I shrugged, my eyes sparkling with mischief.

That got another eye roll, but I could tell from the way her lips twitched she was suppressing a laugh. "You're an idiot," she said fondly. "Try to be on your toes, ok? This place is fascinating, but it's not HOME. We don't know how safe we are here."

"I'm good," I said confidently. "Besides, I did make at least one friend. Sorwen said she has my back and my scent of truth didn't pick up any deception."

"Ah yes," she said archly. "The pretty elf girl with the blue hair. Not super thrilled you've been SMELLING her, but it's nice to know you aren't out there alone. I can't wait to meet her, we have so much to talk about, I'm sure."

I raised a brow at her steely tone. "Is this really something that bothers you?" I asked slowly. "Because you know I'd never-"

"Of course I know that," she said immediately. "You're not my dad, and my issues with him don't impact the way I see our marriage. I'm not JEALOUS. Well, I'm not VERY jealous. I'm concerned she might be using you. Your powers are…unique. We're all pretty used to the wish thing, but for the higher dimensional crowd it's probably pretty novel. I just want to make sure she doesn't have bad intentions. You have a blind spot for people you consider friends. It's something I love about you, but I worry."

I grimaced, but she wasn't wrong. It had gotten me into trouble before, with Travis, and again with Roland. I tried not to let bad experiences color the way I interacted with new people, but I had to admit I was somewhat wary of my own judgement.

She must have caught that over the bond, because she grabbed my hands tightly. "Hey, that's not what I meant," she said sternly. "You have AMAZING judgement. You've put together a group of some of the most wonderful people I've ever met, and I'm so proud of your taste in friends. I'm just being paranoid because we're in a new place and this is a chance to slip in under your radar. If it's a big deal, I don't need to meet her. I trust you. Completely."

"No, you're right," I said immediately. "Having a second opinion never hurt anything, and besides, I'm always happy to show you off," I winked. "I clearly married up."

She beamed, buffing her nails on her dress after blowing on them. "It's true, I am VERY impressive. You're ok too I guess. I'll have to introduce you to all my new friends at the spatial department. Did you know I met a SPACE elf?"

"What even IS that?" I asked in confusion. "All elves are from space, right? That's where the planets are."

I managed to hold my face in a mask of confusion for a few seconds before it cracked and we both burst out laughing. Then Callie told me all about her new friends, including the space elf. We didn't end up going out to check the credit exchange, just spent the evening together in her vault. I couldn't have thought of a better first night at a new place.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next morning I went through my usual ritual. Wake up, make scrolls, make breakfast, check in with Callie. Once I was done with that I was surprised to hear a knock at my door, and opened it to find Sorwen waiting with a bright smile and a cup of…"Is that coffee?" I asked with interest as I took it from her.

"There's a cafe not far from here," she chirped excitedly. "It's amazing! Their coffee is amazing! This city is amazing!"

I squinted at her, deciding that was too much pep for just a morning person. "How many cups of this have you had?" I asked warily as I noted her hands shaking so fast that they were almost vibrating.

"Psh, not many, just one, plus nine, so ten, but not counting this one, or the other twelve." She babbled excitedly. "They opened so early and they had so many flavors and I tried them all and some of them twice an- hey!"

I snatched the cup from her remaining hand as I turned around to keep it out of her reach. "Nope. You don't need any more, and you would be of no use to me if you spontaneously combusted yourself from twitching too fast. Hold still." I triggered Zagan, setting down the coffee and putting a hand on her shoulder and flooding her body with green flame. Not too much, just enough to cleanse her system and put a bit of extra pep in her step.

"Oh WOW," she gasped in surprise. "That's…wow, that's way better. That's fantastic. You should bottle that." She paused, eyes cutting to my hand. "Speaking of things that go in bottles, would you mind…"

I rolled my eyes, passing the cup back. "Fine, but last one. You're clean now, so another shouldn't hurt anything, but this stuff is clearly strong. How did you pay or these, anyway? Did they charge credits?" I hadn't really considered how the payment system would work in the city, since not everything would be inside the credit exchange.

She nodded as she took the cup and sipped it happily. "Yeah, but just the one. Most of the businesses in town take credits from what I can tell. Also, I met some of the locals the Dean mentioned."

"I assume you didn't provoke them?" I asked wryly.

"They're S-ranker fragments," she said with a grimace. "I'm tough for a B-ranker, but even a shard of mirror soul isn't something I want to mess with."

I whistled at that. I had considered that possibility, but the sheer scale of it was kind of intimidating. Having access to enough S-rankers to fill thirty seven ENTIRE cities was…staggering. That was more S-rankers than we had in the entire plane, and by a large margin.

I supposed that given wherever these people came from could support Overgods in multitude, reaching S-rank or even god rank wasn't too impressive. Still, given there were twelve different majors and multiple teachers in each one, I wouldn't be surprised if this place had a few dozen gods. It was sobering to see the difference between my own realm and the place the academy had originated, wherever that was.

"So, you interested in checking out the credit exchange?" I asked as I sipped my own coffee. She'd been right, it was excellent. Coffee wasn't my favorite drink, but I liked it well enough with cream and sugar, and this was fantastic.

We headed out into the city at a brisk walk, taking in the sights and sounds. Moment City was…idyllic. The ceiling above us reflected the sky outside, which wasn't a real sky because this whole thing was in a giant tower but I didn't want to think about that right now. Still, it was pleasant. Dappled sunlight, tinkling fountains, wind through the unnaturally green trees. I could even smell fresh bread on the air as we passed the picturesque buildings.

That impression lasted right up until we reached the steps of the exchange, where it immediately cut off like someone was flipping a switch. Between one step and the next, the air chilled, the dappled sunlight faded to a cold blue glare, and the wind became biting and carried only the scent of dead leaves/.

I raised a brow, looking around. "Really?' I asked sourly. "Is that necessary?"

A man appeared beside us, tall and gaunt with a stovepipe hat and a monocle, and smiled at me winningly. "Quite so, I'm afraid. We've found that students have a tendency to loiter around the exchange. As such we've imbued the area with a bit of a trial. It's nothing serious, simply an aura of temporal ennui that drains motivation. You'll wander off after a while, bored and confused as to what you were doing. A bit of focus on your task can offset the effect easily enough, it simply prevents unnecessary lingering."

I considered that for a moment, then focused on one of my demons, calling out for aid as I triggered Leviathan. A surge of warm protection rolled through me, chasing off the cold easily. I just grinned at the man as he raised a brow at me. "Fascinating," he said dryly. "Not many have spiritual protections for such specific effects. Remarkable foresight, young man."

"I take it you're one of the teachers?" I asked the fragment of a god I had never met.

He doffed his stovepipe hat, fluttering it cheekily as he bowed over it. "Chester T. Pettigrew, at your most humble and efficacious service, master and madam. I am the instructor of record in matters of temporal fold resonance." At my blank stare he chuckled. "Stacking time echoes, my boy. It's a somewhat esoteric field, but a surprisingly popular method of empowerment within the major."

I blinked at that. It took me a second to puzzle out what he meant. "Wait…you mean like overlaying potential futures into yourself to empower you?"

"Precisely," he beamed. "A difficult and complex application of temporal dynamics, but a central bit of Mythcrafting for any temporal enhancement technique. You sound like you have some experience?"

"Nothing like that," I said with a headshake. "I have a similar skill that isn't involved in with my time attribute, and one that does basically the opposite. Destroys potential futures to force my opponent to do certain things."

His already mobile eyebrows climbed up into his hairline. "Timeline pruning," he said in an impressed voice. "The Dean instructs that course, and it's usually an advanced lecture series. You've never had formal instruction in temporal mechanics?" I shook my head and he let out a huff of laughter. "A natural then. Pruning timelines is technically an aspect of temporal divination, but there's some overlap with combat mechanics. I would be careful, however, pruning is an exceptionally dangerous principle."

I wasn't sure what he meant by that, I'd never had any problems with it, but I was sure he knew what he was talking about. I hadn't even known it had a name before now, so clearly I was out of my depth.

"Anyway," Sorwen cut in cheerfully. "It was nice to meet you, Professor Pettigrew. We need to head inside before all our motivation is wicked away. Or mine at least. Solomon may be protected from the aura around here but I'm not so lucky."

"Of course," he nodded cordially. "I hope to see you in one of my courses. Perhaps we might find a way to combine your disparate techniques into a powerful temporal resonance ability."

I nodded along, not really convinced I needed that given my current skillset, and then we headed into the large empty hall where the merit exchange was situated. As we entered, I took in the empty expanse of cold marble surrounding a large circular counter. Behind the counter stood several employees, and above them hung signs covered with words written in lightly pulsing red light.

Meadow of Lost Moments- 1hr -62,000 credits

Timekeeper Treasure Tome- 1st chapter- 40,000 credits

Horus Hourglass- 25,000 credits

Scythe of Aeons- 21,000 credits

Temporal Lockdown Lecture- 10,000 credits

I gaped at the values. They were all so expensive. Considering the payout for an advanced student designation was a thousand credits, that meant taking on presumably a MILLION robots was the equivalent of that ONE lecture. If there was even a trial past advanced.

"That's just…ridiculous," I said in an appalled tone.

"You're on the wrong screen," Sorwen said dryly. "Try the next one over, maybe? It's a bit more our speed."

I shifted my gaze as she suggested, and I felt my climbing blood pressure even out a bit.

Timeslip Identification and Preparedness Lecture- 20 credits

Lost Moment Lantern -single use- 10 credits

Overlapping Temporal Fluctuation Tracker- 5 credits

Second Sand- one gram- 1 credit

That was definitely better. Below that, to my surprise, I caught sight of another sign, this one glowing with green light.

Mobius Mechanisms Lecture- rewards 10 credits

Minute Sparrow Migration tracking- rewards 50 credits

1 year of time- rewards 100 credits

"Wait…is that last one literal?" I asked. "People just…buy a year of your time? Like you work for them or they actually TAKE time from you?"

I addressed the question to the calm looking girl with aquamarine eyes behind the counter. She smiled placidly. "The latter. Time transplants is a service offered by the faculty. You can have the transplanted time directly added to your lifespan or stored in a dedicated device that can be used to accrue and pass on temporal stockpiles. It's the most valuable mission available to new students."

That was both interesting and unsettling. I knew my wishes could extend lifespan, though it was an inefficient use of the ability. Still, this seemed like a much larger scale operation. Clearing my throat, I glanced back up at the boards. "I was hoping to exchange for the Dean meeting? I was told it was an option for me."

"Your identification number?" she asked politely. I rattled it off and she started tapping on a smooth pane of glass that I hadn't noticed set into the counter in front of her. "Ah, here we are. Shane Wyndham. I see that you ARE eligible, though it will wipe out your entire credit stockpile. Are you sure you want to commit to such a course of action?"

"I do," I assured her. "And thank you for the help by the way miss…" after talking to Callie I'd decided that I should try to make some friends of my own here. It didn't hurt to be nice to the staff either.

She gave a small but surprised smile. "Elonwy," she informed me with a graceful bow. "One of the proud and noble clerks of the temporal sciences department. You have to say the whole thing every time, or else we consider it a deadly insult." Her face was solemn, but her eyes were twinkling.

Since I was a good sport, I played along. "Really?" I asked her innocently.

"No, but it's sweet that you considered it," she chuckled. After tapping her screen a few times, she reached under the desk and removed a long, thin strip of red silk with a golden hourglass stitched into it. "Now, this marker will lead you to your meeting with the Dean. Please be aware that it functions in time as well as space, and as such the journey will not begin until the appointed time."

I took it and tucked it into the belt of my armor. "Noted, and appreciated. It was nice to meet you Elonwy, I'll be sure to check in when I come back in here. I plan to post a few things on the boards myself. Sadly, I'm flat broke now, so that'll have to wait until next time. Sorwen, want me to stay while you pick?" She did, and so I settled back to watch her scan the lists, interested in what she would pick. Once we finished, we headed out to find some food before my appointment with the Dean. I had a feeling I'd want to go in well fed.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The bookmark caught fire a few hours later. It happened out of nowhere, but it floated up into the air before lighting up, so I supposed they had at least thought it through. After that it blew away, though not fast enough to actually escape, and I followed behind it casually, being led down one alley and up the next until I came to a small, charming little house. I stopped, waiting for it to continue on, but the bookmark just flew over and hovered in front of the door.

Approaching, I looked around the area. The house was…cozy. Smallish and perfectlycube shaped, it gave the impression of profound solidity. In fact, it felt TOO solid. I frowned a bit, trying to figure out what I was sensing. I caught a flash of…something. Narrowing my eyes, I triggered Dantalion and-

I blinked. I was staring up into the sky above, the unusually blue stretch of space gazing back at me peacefully. I groaned and sat up. My head was pounding.

"What the fuck?" I muttered, staring up at the house worriedly. "What just happened?"

"You stuck your nose where it didn't belong," came an amused voice. "And almost lost it. Impressive that you have a temporal component to that information scanning ability, but deeply unfortunate in this instance."

I looked up, and up, and up, to find a man leaning casually out the window on the second story of the house. The Dean. "Why is your house…this?"

He snorted. "I am the Dean of an entire department. I preside over three different cities, as does my wife. As such, it behooves us to be accessible FROM each of those cities, and to that effect, we constructed our house to exacting specifications. I can explain it if you'd lik-"

"No," I cut him off, holding up a hand. I was parsing the information I'd gotten from Dantalion still. It had been THERE all along, it had just been way too dense for me to understand. Luckily, I had a lot of heads to bang against the problem, and Dan had been hard at work with several of my other demons trying to make sense of what we'd gotten.

I furrowed my brow, going over what little I could understand. "Eight," I said slowly. "Cubes. Why does that sound familiar?" It hit me and I perked up. "Tesseract! Your house is a tesseract. A hypercube made of cubes built in four dimensions. One of which, I assume, is time."

He looked surprised. "It is," he admitted slowly. "That's remarkably insightful of you. Most assume that my temporal specialization means I am lacking in spatial ability."

"That's stupid," I said bluntly. "Space and time are incredibly intertwined, right? How would you be good at one without at least a basic understanding of the other?" I groaned as I got to my feet. "Sorry, can I come in? As nice as your front yard is, I think I've gotten enough of a view of it during my impromptu nap."

He raised a brow at that. "That was almost coherent. Better than most beginners. Very well, come inside then. I suppose you paid for it. Though I wasn't expecting much when I noticed the only student to pay for the consultation didn't attend the introductory lecture."

I winced. "Ah, sorry. I learned some interesting things about Mythcrafting and needed to share them with my wife. Got a bit caught up with our discussion and by the time I remembered it had already ended." I approached the door carefully, worried something might happen again, but it just swung open, admitting me to a large entry chamber far too big for the cube shaped home I'd entered.

To my surprise, I wasn't alone. The Dean hadn't arrived, but there was someone else sitting in a stately chair near the entrance to a foyer off to the side of the huge double staircase. A woman with silver hair and crystal blue eyes, sipping a cold glass of some kind of juice. She gave me a serene nod. Based on Callie's comments and the Dean's mention of his wife, I was pretty sure I knew who this was.

I bowed politely. "Dean Windermere, I presume?"

She grinned. "Polite and well informed. I like you already. I'm glad to see at least one of you understood the underlying meaning of the consultation offer. There's usually one, but some crops don't have anyone who bothers."

"I mean…isn't it kind of obvious?" I asked in surprise. "You're Overgods, right? You must know a ton."

"Knowledge is hard to quantify, that's why it isn't a stat" she shrugged. "I think you will find that it, in fact, quite difficult to measure out a ton of knowledge. It is, however, incredibly EASY to measure out a ton of, say, mythical metals that can be used to build a temporal ship. Most students have a limited number of credits, and they can be used for an endless number of things. Giving up so much potential tangible benefit for an unknown possible gain isn't in the nature of most Ascendants."

That made a lot of sense, actually. As a Wishmaster, I had always been a bit unconcerned with things like money and material wealth. If I needed something I could just get it as payment or trade a scroll for it. I guess that was why I hadn't really considered wasting my credits on stuff without actually needing it.

"Anyway, you can head up," she said casually. "Samuel's office is the first door on the right up the left staircase. Usually. It moves sometimes. But that room is almost always safe. Except on the third friday of the month. Then it eats people."

"It's Tuesday," I said after a moment of thought. I didn't usually keep track.

She shrugged. "Probably. It's not always consistent in here. I'm sure you'll be fine. Mind the steps."

I frowned but took her word for it, heading up the left side of the steps and knocking on the door in question. I very specifically did not enter until the Dean's voice called for me to enter. I noted as I did that the room position was nowhere near the window the Dean had used to talk to me earlier.

Samuel P. Gibbons, the Hourglass Bodach, sat at his desk reading. He closed the book as I entered, examining me as I stepped inside. "So," he said slowly. "Shane Wyndham. You're certainly…interesting. Your Domain is…"

"Unique?" I grinned ruefully, hoping he was going to say something complimentary.

"A mess," he finished. "How many attributes do you even HAVE? You realize you need to learn how they actually work in order to weave Worldforce? You can't just slap things together and hope they function. Not if you want your Worldforce to be WORTH anything. Trial and error is possible but exponentially more difficult than a solid Mythcrafting foundation."

"I did not realize that," I admitted. "Mostly because I had no idea Mythcrafting existed until last night. That was the information I was sharing with my wife. And I don't know how many attributes I have, honestly. I was hoping you had a way to check."

He leaned back in his chair. "Well you have a few interesting ones, at least. Not sure how the hell you got a cosmic flame attribute, I haven't seen one of those in millennia. Time, obviously, space, information. All useful starting points. But that's the problem, isn't it? Starting points. You have far too many. What are you hoping to accomplish here?"

I stepped forward, and at his nod sat in the chair across from him. "I've always been talented at Mythcrafting," I told him slowly. "Even before I knew what it was. It just…works. I put together techniques and forms and abilities, and it's just easy. I just get it. But I actually don't. I have all these tools at my disposal and no idea how to wield them. I can learn to use fire from other people. Learn to use ice, or space, or darkness, or destruction. But I can't learn to manipulate the time attribute anywhere else. I can get knowledge here no one else can give me, knowledge that I hope will carry over into other Mythcrafting attributes."

"Well, you're not stupid, at least," he acknowledged. "And that body refinement technique is an excellent shortcut. Burning an attribute into your physical form is an excellent way to achieve a deeper level of resonance."

My head jerked up at that. "I wasn't aware of that," I said hopefully. "Is that something that could help me HERE?" I had one more drop left on the cosmic phoenix template. Once that was done, I could pick another one. I informed him of the details, hoping he had some idea of a time based technique I could use for my next template.

"We might have something," he mused. "And IF you managed to acquire it, you could hypothetically be worth teaching. Talent or no, the level of familiarity you would require to properly harness your temporal attribute is not something you can achieve in a short amount of time. This might be a method."

"You have a phoenix material that could help?" I asked hopefully.

He nodded. "I do. Attributes are complex, and not all of them are individualized. Like your cosmic flame. It's a unique mixture of space, flame, creation, and a few more esoteric attributes I won't bother going into right now. Phoenixes, as a rule, do not traditionally bother with temporal attribute affinities. They are eternal creatures, and their rebirth is more based in life than time. However, not all phoenixes are creative. Some are destructive. The Ruin Phoenix is one such beast."

"Ruin, I'm guessing that's time and…darkness maybe?" I said, trying to puzzle that out.

"Destruction," he corrected. "Ruin Phoenixes are something of an antithesis to their more life aligned cousins. A dark mirror. Ruin is a mixture of time and destruction, for ruin comes to all things eventually, and it is pervasive and deadly."

I nodded slowly. "Wouldn't that be like…entropy?"

"Entropy is atemporal," he corrected without thinking, then stopped and shook his head. "Forget I said that. It's not important and you shouldn't be worrying about it right now. You will most likely never meet a being with an entropy attribute affinity. If you do, you should run away, assuming you survive long enough to do so. Attributes are, for the most part, neutral forces, but there are a few that can twist their users. Entropy is one of those."

I could see he didn't want to talk about this, so I moved on. "Ok, Ruin Phoenix. I need a sample of the flame. Preferably a source, actually. Do you happen to have a feather?"

"A candle," he corrected. "But it should work fine for your purposes."

"Excellent," I grinned. "Thank you so much, I really appreciate this. Now where should I pick it up?" He just stared at me, and my shoulders slumped. "It's in the credit exchange, isn't it?" I asked dully.

"It is," he nodded. "Fortunately for you, it isn't particularly useful to most people. It's only nine thousand credits."

I choked. "Nine thousand?" I coughed. "That's…I'd have to hit advanced nine different times."

"That particular reward only applies once, I'm afraid," he said cheerfully. "But I'm sure you'll find some method of meeting your goal. If you don't acquire and integrate the flame within the year, you will be asked to change majors." He looked at his empty wrist. "Oh, look at the time. It seems your hour is at an end. Perhaps next time don't knock yourself unconscious and spend forty minutes passed out in my yard."

I tried to protest, but from one blink to the next, the world changed, and suddenly I was standing outside, pointedly fact the path OUT of the yard, the door to my back. I considered trying to get back in, but decided I had gotten all I needed from him. As for the rest…I'd better find Sorwen and ask her about the introduction lecture. I just hope she'd bothered to go.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I spent the rest of the day considering my options and making preparations, eventually settling on my next course of action about the time I headed to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, after stockpiling my scrolls, I was ready for step one of my master plan. Which was…finish condensing my template.

Since my next template would need an empty spot to take up, which meant that I needed to complete the current one. Not to mention that now that I'd measured my Domain, I could finally attempt to expand it and see exactly how effective my new completed template would be.

So, down I went into my Domain to meet with the demons about my final push and unlocking my next template.

This one, I was a little worried about. It was a long time coming, having taken more effort than the previous by several folds, and now that I knew more about Mythcrafting, I wanted to try to do this one with more…intention. I had my goals for this bloodline solidification, and I wanted to try to funnel as much of the changes in the direction I needed them, rather than just letting them follow their own charted path like the Life Nova template had.

Of course, I couldn't just decide that. While I knew Mythcrafting existed, I didn't know how it was done, or what I was doing myself, or even really what result I wanted. I knew what I'd like to happen and what might happen, and I had to work backwards from there.

And to do that, I needed help. So I called together my best and brightest. Dantalion, Beelzebub Piece of Mind, my ministers, and I sat them all down with one specific goal.

"I want to make this place bigger," I informed them directly. "With the Life Nova bloodline establishment, I got not just regeneration enhancement, but a three times boost to Vitality. That's probably on the table again, only instead of Vitality it'll be Might or something."

"What about an Impact boost?" Owen (as I'd taken to calling Overlay) asked excitedly. "Considering how important Impact is, a multiplier for that could be game changing."

I grimaced. "It could," I allowed. "But I think it's TOO game changing. There's no chance at all that we're getting a three times Impact modifier. Or even a two times. You have to remember that Mythcrafting might be something new, but it still follows the rules of reality. Recursion MATTERS, and Impact is too notorious as a difficult to raise stat."

Oz nodded. "He's right. We'd get MAYBE a twenty percent boost out of that. Not enough to count as even another rank. The fact that the Dean went out of his way to comment on the cosmic flame attribute tells us that it's rare and powerful, and if we want to get the most out of it we need to make sure it's aimed where it needs to go. The cosmic flame creates worlds, that was the point of the vision that we got, and a blueprint for the function we want from it."

"The issue isn't the concern that it won't do what we want," I clarified to the others. "It's that it'll do too much. Life Nova was fine, we got what we needed from that. It was an open ended pick to achieve a long term result and that worked. But the cosmic flame is special. I picked it with a vision, and now that I know there's a way to try to curve that vision more in the direction I wanted, that's what we're here to do. I'm sure that the cosmic flame template is bound to have positive results on expanding the limits of my Domain either way, I just want to make sure that we don't waste some of those results on some nonsense secondary boost we don't care about."

We all glanced at the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, who sat thoughtfully sipping a cup of tea he'd gotten from Cooking. At our glances, he took one more sip and sighed, placing the cup down. "If you're asking me to come up with a plan to try to shape the next upgrade, it would take me months of trial and error."

"It would take YOU months," I said bluntly. "That's why all of us are here. Wisdom of Solomon, the Pillar of Goetia itself, Angelic Bond. We have so many resources to draw from in order to crunch the numbers here. And more than that, I have a theory. One that Azazel agrees with."

Oz nodded. "We think the key is the Domain itself," he said excitedly. "The Domain is a manifestation of the story of an Ascendant. It's the concrete realization of the path we've taken to get here. Mythcrafting, Worldforce, it all makes perfect sense, but the Domain is almost an afterthought based on what we know. But we don't think that's true. We think that its impact is minimized when they're teaching people at this rank because the Domain is not usually condensed until later."

"It can't be a coincidence that Worldforce is a physical manifestation of a legend that features heavily in the creation of a realm," I clarified. "If the Worldforce can effect the world, than the world should be able to affect the Worldforce. And since Mythcrafting is just an earlier form of Worldforce…"

"So, what are we supposed to do with that?" Sam asked thoughtfully. "Because if accomplishing any task was as easy as redecorating your Domain, everyone would do it. Maybe Mythcrafting is symbolic and making changes here would be useful, but how do we know what changes to make?"

I pointed to Wisdom of Solomon. "Same way as always. Trial and error. In order to get the best bang for our buck, we need the demons to incarnate. Wisdom of Solomon, Piece of Mind, Beelzebub, Angelic Bond, Dantalion. Five demons at once, with the Pillar of Goetia and the Seal helping me bear the load. Wisdom can crunch the numbers, Piece helps me distribute the task, Beel gives me other bodies to work through, Dan gives me feedback, and Angelic Bond lets me bring in Callie for help, and her Adeherent Flame is the closest to this cosmic flame attribute that we've seen."

"What about the rest of us?" asked Owen. "You didn't call us here to watch."

"That's exactly why I called you here," I said bluntly. "I don't know what I don't know. Wisdom will let us brute force the problem, but who knows what form that takes. I need you on standby and ready to react to whatever the hell we're supposed to be doing here. Nine Phoenix, I need one thing from you before we start though. I need to know exactly what you remember about what happened in here when the Life Nova bloodline condensed. I was a bit preoccupied at the time."

We went over the details, Dantalion helping as best he could with recollection. It took quite a bit of study and backtracking to figure out the likely path the energy had taken in here. Then it was time to begin our trial and error. Incarnating the five demons, I headed out to the throne room to grasp the Pillar of Goetia, triggering its boosting ability on Wisdom of Solomon for best results.

It was like a whole new world. I was glad I had thought to arrange for redundancies, because the sheer amount of information I could process with Wisdom at A-rank and backed by the pillar was beyond anything I could have used by myself. Twelve copies of me manifested, twelve new minds slotting into place, each of them manifesting Dantalion as strongly as possible, and we began the process of testing.

Outside, my body, or at least a parallel with help from Callie through Angelic Bond, began the process of funneling the cosmic phoenix fire through us. Using the vision we'd had as a guide, and the processing power of Wisdom as for calculation, we began to trace possible outcomes.

That was when we hit the first snag. I didn't have a method of controlling which outcomes we would get the most use out of. Luckily I'd summoned more than just the few demons I'd needed. Limbo stepped in, one of my parallels incarnating him directly like I would have, and using his powers we began to cull timelines that weren't useful. There were a LOT of them.

One by one, we pared them back, cutting away at the unnecessary bloat. I started giving orders, sending demons like Brad to certain places. Destroy a piece of landscape, carve a channel and have Agares fill in another, we reshaped the very plains of Gehenna to prepare and focus the energy in exactly the way we needed it. Finally, we reached the last stages. "Alright people, let's do this!" I called as we all headed outside. "Is everyone ready?"

Angelic Bond manifested in all his power, preparing to direct the strength that was incoming in just the way we needed. His wings spread as he soared up over Gehenna. Finally, I sent a thought to the parallel controlling my body and he pushed that last little bit over the edge.

In the sky above us, and explosion of world creating fire erupted in reverse, like a big bag happening backwards, collecting into a fucking PILLAR of creation fire that plummeted towards Gehenna. It was one of many possible internal manifestations, and one we needed to manage very carefully.

As it struck, Angelic Bond flexed his power, and through it, my wife's. As the fire hit, it poured through him into her vault and then back out the other side, its essential nature changing subtly in ways we'd only managed to get right because of brute forcing repetition with the Pillar's processing.

As it came back out, it hit the palace and rolled down the walls, sticking in an unusual way that I recognized from Belial's corruption mechanism as it streaked along the whole domain like an endless tide, following the prepared routes and slamming into the walls of the Domain itself, bound to the specific formation we'd needed by the change in nature.

The flames hit the walls of my Domain, the very edges of my soul, and I dropped to my knees with a groan as I felt something within me shake and tremble. My Domain began to expand, slowly, painfully. Like a stretch that goes too far but doesn't stop. I felt like I was being torn apart, but I ignored it, gritting my teeth and focusing.

This was the only way it worked. Through thousands of iterations and potential failures, this was the one that gave the result I wanted. No modifier, just pure expansion, the complete integration of this power into the bedrock of my Domain itself, preparing the way for my to continue to expand indefinitely. This template would do one thing and do it well. This. Exactly what I was experiencing now.

It went on for what felt like hours, and by the time it ended, I was curled up on the ground panting, but I was alive. It was done, safely and carefully (for me) and I sent the others to check the results.

Thirty three miles. A ten percent increase. Naturally, it wouldn't be that simple every time, but I could continue to expand it slowly by practicing the Body Refining Technique. It was a unique advantage no one else had, and one that I had envisioned a thousand times as I worked tirelessly to get here.

Lying there on my back inside my Domain, head pounding from the effort and soul burning from the strain, I threw my head back and started to laugh hysterically. This was the kind of shit I lived for. I just hoped that learning what I was actually DOING wouldn't take all the fun out of my crazy experiments. Either way, today had been a big step. Tomorrow would be another, as I figured out how the hell to get the credits I needed for the next step in this insane plan.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

When I returned to the real world, it took me a minute to process what was happening. Despite not having any special modifiers on my stats now, the sensations of being changed by the template were VERY noticeable.

I felt…heavy. Not in a restrictive way, but in a useful way. There was a sort of heft to my Impact now, not like there was more of it, but like…it was like I had the same amount of metaphysical mass but I had suddenly learned to use it better. Like I had an intuitive grasp of how to leverage my weight and control my center of gravity, but spiritually.

The sensation made me almost positive I would be able to wield most of my powers more skillfully, bring my path to bear more reliably, and expand my Domain when I projected almost exponentially more quickly.

Honestly, it was kind of frustrating. For someone like me, who had all their stats laid out in hard numbers, this unusual enhancement was like an itch in the back of my brain. I was different, but it wasn't quantifiable to me. I had no idea where to learn more about this, or even to find out what it WAS so I could learn to enhance it.

Still, it was kind of nice to know there had been tangible results to my gamble beyond what I'd expected, especially the kind that didn't take away from my original goals. I bounced a bit, enjoying the paradoxical lightness the extra weight conveyed, somehow putting more intention behind my movements than normal to balance out the heft. Fascinating. Sadly, it wasn't a priority to explore it right this moment. I had other things to worry about. Namely, credits.

I had one more day before the meeting in Common City, and I wanted to use it wisely, so I needed to figure out a way to gather a lot of credits fast.

Part of me wanted to immediately try using my scrolls as bartering chips, but I didn't know enough about how posting or sales worked to trust I would get the best value there. Which meant I needed to take on a mission or do a competition.

So I decided to head back to the exchange and take a look at what was available. Elonwy was happy to see me again and welcome me politely as I arrived at the desk. "So, I'm interested in taking on a couple of jobs or possibly participating in a competition, but I don't know what's useful or worthwhile to do. I don't want to take some job to retrieve a grain of magic sand from an evil hate oyster at the bottom of an acid sea for one credit and accidentally pass over picking a single flower that grows outside the door for fifty."

"Oh, the traps," she grinned. "Those DO usually get a few of the newcomers. Pro tip, under no circumstances take any job involving Time Minks. They sound cute and cuddly, but they are among the most vicious animals I've ever had the misfortune to learn about. They tag you with a scent pheromone that NEVER washes off, and you'll be harassed and attacked for the rest of your life."

I grinned back. "Good to know. I do have some more specific questions though, let's talk about the elephant in the room." I got the impression she was pleased to see me. I imagined boredom was a real problem in her line of work. Her response kind of threw me though.

"You can see that?" she asked in surprise. "The cloaking spell usually keeps people from noticing."

I frowned, looking around the large chamber. "I…what? No, It's a saying, I wasn't-" I caught her slight smirk and narrowed my eyes at her. "You're fucking with me, aren't you?" I asked accusingly.

"Me?" she said. "I would never do such a thing."

"Right," I said skeptically. "Anyway, I was talking, in this case, about the whole, one year of lifespan for one credit thing. Is it worth doing?"

It FELT like it might be. I needed nine thousand credits to get the candle, which would be nine hundred years. That wasn't anything to sneeze at, but at my current rank my lifespan was over twenty thousand years.

Her face became serious. "I would advise against it," she warned. "I realize it may seem simple, but losing lifespan…you can regain it through certain means, but almost every method of gaining lifespan directly causes instability. It's like gaining stats directly, it creates weaknesses and unstable points that can be fatal on rank up. You'd be sacrificing your future potential for short term gains.

"More than that," she continued. "Taking those kinds of shortcuts is habit forming. A year or two or even a century might not matter, but I assume you're saving for something specific. Once you've got it, who's to say you don't need something else. And then a third thing. It gets easier and easier to justify giving up years until suddenly you're fresh out of time."

I frowned, but she wasn't wrong. I knew myself well enough to know that my self control could be a slippery slope. Avoiding temptation was a better route to take than resisting it. Can't miss what you never had. So I sighed, turning back to the green board.

"Alright, so no Time Minks and no years," I said slowly, studying the list. "What about tracking the migrations of the minute sparrow? That seems easy enough."

"Minute sparrows fly between instants, their wingbeats span a hundred years," she said dryly. "It takes a millennia to completely map a migration. There are advanced temporal applications that can condense the time needed, but they're mostly not worth the effort they take. That's why that particular task is still there, despite having been posted since long before I began this task."

I frowned at that. "I'd have assumed you'd been with the tower since it was created. Did you join later?"

"Indeed," she confirmed. "I was a student myself. Many of the locals joined with later crops of students. It is not unusual for those of us who reach S-rank to sunder ourselves and travel to further our studies. You could consider it a type of…postgraduate course. The mechanisms are complex, and I won't bore you, but it's a fascinating experience."

I blinked at that. I kind of…hadn't noticed her rank. Like yes, she was a fragment of S-ranker like the rest of the locals, but I hadn't really equated her presence with an actual S-ranker, because she was just a fragment, and she didn't have that sense of overwhelming pressure. Since she said that though…"I did have a question, about something that happened to me. Are you allowed to answer questions? Or do I need to pay credits for that?"

"I can do whatever I want," she snickered. "But I usually wouldn't give a response for free. I suppose, since you actually bothered to try to get to know the help while CLEARLY being ignorant of any benefits, I can indulge you. Ask away."

So I told her an abridged version of what had happened to me. I told her all about the feeling I'd been experiencing since the template condensed, and asked her what it was.

"Oh, you increased your momentum," she said when I finished. "That's uncommon at lower ranks. Mostly you only get more of that from forming Domain seeds. It's one of the major reasons to make them. Don't worry about it too much. It'll improve your Mythcrafting and just general energy usage, but it's not really applicable to your current situation."

I frowned, but I didn't push for more info. It was clear she was being nice even giving me that much, and I could ask around about momentum later. For now, I needed some kind of task, just to get a feel for how this all worked. Speaking of which…"So, where do I GO for all this stuff?" I asked, pointing up at the board. "Do we just have bird habitats for time birds?"

She shrugged. "Something like that. You see the mention of special places, right? The Meadow of Lost Moments, for instance?" I nodded. "Well, those are special collection points of specific attributed mythology. I'm sure you've seen people experience epiphanies in certain special places before? Well, there's ways to improve the odds of that. But in order to do it, ecosystems of energy are necessary.

"Bird habitats, temporal meadows, time deserts, all of these things are intertwined," she explained. "The tower is a fully functioning self-contained ecosystem, with attributes overlapping and feeding into each other, creating materials, specialized training locations, and even animals that the students harvest and take care of to maintain the balance."

"So the time birds flap their wings and generate time wind that carries time pollen to the time meadow, and we need to pick the flowers that germinate the pollen to feed to the birds to keep it all running?" I asked, positing a hypothetical that seemed like it covered everything.

She chuckled at that. "Not quite that simple, but yes, essentially. You're the caretakers of this place. The mechanisms that govern the passage of time are, of course, far more complicated than you can imagine, so I wouldn't say it's anything as straightforward as us getting new crops of students just for the upkeep, but we usually try to keep at least some of them around. Not that we'd stop you from leaving, of course, but some do choose to stay here indefinitely and pass of old age. In fact, those years they purchase are mostly for such people."

I nodded along as she explained, knowing this was information most people probably didn't have access to. I wondered how many even bothered to ask. Everyone here seemed so obsessed with getting the absolute most out of the offered benefits, it was almost sad that no one wanted to…well, learn.

But ultimately, I was here for the benefits too. So I brought the subject back to the matter at hand. "So, knowing all that, what do I need to know about the missions? What to avoid, what to focus on? I'm sure you know."

"Well, I did say I would help," she laughed. "Fine. If, and I do mean if, I were to pick one of these missions, I might start with some of the utility tasks. They pay less, but you can take several of them at once, and they add up." She gestured for me to follow her around the counter to stand below another sign.

The green text on the sign was simple and direct. Purification, healing, crafting, preparation, just mostly simple jobs that seemed like they needed doing repeatedly for very low amounts of credits. They were, of course, time sinks, one and all. I was sure that doing them would be a huge waste of energy for most people. But I wasn't most people. I was, essentially, seventy three people. And while some of those people were weak enough to make them useless here, at least fifty of them were not.

I had a brief vision of my court flooding the city, sweeping up hordes of credits doing menial jobs and raking in hundreds per day…but I cooled my jets. Like I had JUST been thinking, I needed to get a feel for how all this worked before instituting any crazy plans. Walk before I run and all that.

Zeroing in on one of the jobs, I pointed to it. "That one. Twenty credits for cleaning out the filtration system at the water treatment plant. Can I take that one?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I mean, you can. It's disgusting and time consuming, but if you can get it done it's a steady bit of income. You sure?" I nodded, and she sighed, asking for my identification number. Once that was done, she smiled wryly. "I'll have one of the couriers run you over and give you the details. Good luck."

Despite the rueful words, I thought I saw a shimmer of approval in her eye at my actions, and it felt good to know someone who had any idea what was going on approved of my plans even if I didn't know them. Now, I just needed to go clean out those filters. I wasn't too worried though, after all, Zagan was perfect for this. Once that was done, I could start making credits on a larger scale, and I'd hit my goal in no time.


AN:// Early chapter because I prewrote to take a 3 day weekend. This is friday's chapter btw, in case you're in a different timezome. Enjoy.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The water treatment plant wasn't too far away, and the courier ran me over there pretty quickly. Once I arrived he filled me in on exactly what I needed to do, and once that was done, he turned and immediately left, abandoning me to face the large, grim looking building that housed the water filtration mechanisms for Moment City.

Despite wanting to assess what these tasks were like before committing to a large scale operation, I wasn't stupid enough to insist on doing this on my own when I had help. I reached out for a few demons, namely Zagan, Azazel, Brad, and Sammael.

Sam glowered at me. "Really?" said my prideful angelic form. "Cleaning water filters? You couldn't have picked something more…interesting?"

"I'll be sure to find you something exciting when we're done," I said mildly. "Now come on, I want to see what the water treatment here is actually like. I admit I'm pretty curious. Do fragments even NEED treated water? I mean it probably helps with the taste. But I kind of figured they'd use like purification enchantments or something, not filters."

Azazel chimed in with interest. "It's certainly a fascinating bit of infrastructure. I imagine the trace elements in water at this rank would be…unique."

"Speaking of unique elements," I said as I turned to Brad. "Its come to my attention that there are in fact, unique attributes, somewhat like elements themselves, present in some unusual abilities, skills, or items. Things like my Cosmic Flame. I figured you must have one to explain how you were able to make a pit in the Void road, but I can't think of what it is. Any ideas?"

"An element I specialize in?" Brad said casually. "If I specialized in one element, I suppose I would have to say it's the element of SURPRISE!" He whirled and lashed out at Sam with a punch, the angelic demon rolling his eyes and ducking the blow before punching him in the throat. Brad went down gagging, clutching his windpipe, and the rest of us had to hold back our snickers.

"Nope, don't think that's it," I said dryly. "But I'm glad to see you're taking your training seriously. That punch was almost competent."

Sam snorted at me. "Like you're much better. You can barely throw a proper punch. And even that's only because you've incarnated so many of us and we've all spent our lives in combat. Plus Heavy Hands boosts you a little bit passively."

"I don't need to punch people," I sniffed loftily. "I'm a man of sophistication. I hit them with my big stick."

That got a collective eyeroll from the others as we arrived at the door to the treatment plant. "So, everyone remember the plan?" I said grimly. "We find the filters, cleanse them, and most importantly, don't die."

Oz snorted at that. "I still can't believe that the filtered refuse condenses into actual monsters."

"Muck Ghouls," I said with a grin. "They apparently bite, and they're extremely venomous. So watch your asses. I'll be fine inside the seal, but all of you are much more exposed. Zagan can heal you but it'll still HURT, so watch out."

Grinning, I stepped through the door, staff up and at the ready. The inside of the building was large and empty. It was also creepy. Unlike most Ascendant buildings though, the treatment plant wasn't INTENTIONALLY creepy. The disturbing vibe I was getting wasn't because of macabre furniture or special design choices. Instead, it was more…intrinsic. This was a dank, rotting place, and it FELT like one.

It was like we were talking through the hollowed out corpse of some great beast, long since rotted away to hard bone and tough leathery hide. "Zagan," I said quietly as I looked around for threats. "I think maybe you should start early."

With a slight flex of will I imbued the skill boost ability from my staff into the purifying demon, watching him climb into A-rank smoothly from one breath to the next. His flickering green hair cast eerie shadows across the wall as he grinned fiercely, raising his hands and sending bursts of emerald fire shooting out like geysers at the nearest wall.

Rather than catch fire, or at least physical fire, the flames hit the wall like water in a pan full of hot oil. There was a loud hiss, somewhere between steam and scream, and the strange sensation seemed to attempt to pull away from us.

Unfortunately for it, that wasn't really possible, and Zagan didn't give it time to try to adapt. He hosed down the walls and floors with purifying flame, burning away grime both spiritual and physical and leaving nothing but sparkly clean stone behind. "Well, we know it works on the walls at least. Sam, Oz, if you could guard Zagan as he scours this place, Brad and I have our own business to attend to here. I want to test his abilities a bit."

They all nodded, and Brad and I split off to head in the opposite direction from where they were making their way deeper into the building. "So, what is this test you want to do?" he asked as he jogged to keep pace. "Because this doesn't seem like the kind of place where I'd come in handy."

"You'd be surprised," I grinned. "While this has been an active task for a long time, purification powers are pretty rare. For the most part, the people who take this job muck the filters by hand and transport the filth to specially prepared holes dug in the back. Apparently THOSE are a totally separate task, and one that hasn't been done in centuries. There's a standing bounty for anyone who manages to clear the impacted sediment, which at this point is basically stone. A-rank stone. Very DENSE A-rank stone."

His eyes lit up. "So you're hoping I can use my powers to clean out the pits? Did you take the bounty?"

"I didn't," I said easily. "I considered it, but I don't know how easy this will be for you. Might not even be possible. Plus its been available for hundreds of years. I'm sure it'll still be on the table when we're done."

I'd actually only had the idea as the courier was leaving. I hadn't known about the deposits when I originally took the task, because I'd specifically asked for ones that were accomplishable, and that one wasn't supposed to be. Luckily, Brad was a cheating cheater who cheated, and I was PRETTY sure he would be able to cleanse the sediment, even if it might take him a while. At the very least, he should be able to open it up a bit to give Zagan some leverage on the problem when he finished with the others.

When we reached the smaller tunnel leading out into the outbuilding where the sediment pits were stored, I winced a bit as we entered. The grimy aura from inside was MUCH stronger here. I glanced around cautiously, trying to spot any Muck Ghouls, but it appeared even they didn't like being back here. I wasn't shocked, this place was unpleasant even for me. I activated Leviathan just to be safe, because the rot here was affecting me on a spiritual level.

Surprisingly, Brad seemed fine. He didn't look like he even noticed. In fact, he seemed to be drawing in the aura subconsciously, the dark energy flowing into him like…well, like a pit.

A pit like the ones we came here for. Though pit was something of a misnomer in this case. Rather, they looked like huge stone pools for swimming, only deeper and full of dark material. The top layer was liquid, though thick and disgusting, but I could see beneath it as the shifting grey black substance allowed light to pass through, and beneath it was just…rock. Dark rock that seemed to almost suck up the light.

"Alright Brad," I said as I accessed my staff and pushed him up a tier. Sadly, Brad was only at tier 7, having ranked up fairly recently from his training, so I could only push him to B-rank. Still, given his unusual effectiveness, B-rank Brad vs A-rank pit was a bet I was willing to take. "See what you can do. Make a hole."

He frowned down at the nearest pool. "I don't think that's necessary," He said slowly. "Let me try something." He focused hard, eyes narrowing, and there was a sort of…shimmer along the top of the pool. The liquid vanished, and I knelt down to get a closer look at the dark stone. I had to do a little calculation but sure enough. "An inch," I said with a grin. "You took an inch off the top. I take it you used the current pool as a frame or something?"

He nodded eagerly. "I did. It was less that I created a pit and more that I sort of…imbued this one with my nature. Pits are empty and consume, and so this one does the same. An inch isn't much, but I bet I can do more next time. I just need to practice."

I was fascinated, and gestured back to the pool. "Alright, give it a shot. See what you can do."

Closing his eyes, he furrowed his brow, looking more serious than I think I'd ever seen him. Gritting his teeth, he spat out a breath like he was lifting something indescribably heavy, and that same ripple came over the pool again. This time, without the liquid, I was able to actually observe the stone being consumed, sinking into the depths of the pool…from the bottom.

"Huh," I said slowly. "When the liquid vanished I assumed you were taking it off the top. I wonder where it went if it's sinking in?"

"I skimmed a bit off the top to start," he said with a shrug. "But having it sink in is more natural. That's why there's more like four or five inches missing this time. It's more in tune with what a pit actually is. Hold on, I think I can do better. Let me just…"

With a groan that ripped from his throat like a wounded water buffalo, he shoved all his will against the pit, and I watched in shock as the dark stone sank another FOOT, exposing the clean sides of the pool. Gasping, Brad staggered, only remaining upright because I had caught him before he fell. "Whoa there, you ok?" He nodded tiredly, and I decided to help, calling on my Life Nova. Burning the life nova bloodline to increase the power, I flooded him with energizing fire. He gasped as the power filled him back up, his eyes blazing green.

"I'm good," he answered my question. "I'm amazing! I feel like I could punch out the sun."

I raised an eyebrow. "I mean…you shouldn't. Even if you could. We use that. Don't say shit like that, it makes me not want to help you get stronger."

He pouted at me childishly. "Its a figure of speech. I wouldn't do that."

I just laughed at his sulky expression before gesturing back to the pit. "Ok, so how many more of those do you have in you before you need another refill? Because at this rate we might manage to finish all the pools in an hour or two."

Cracking his neck, he glared down at the pool below us, a steely look on his face. "I can do it another three or four times. I know I can. There's about fifteen feet left in the pool, so I'll need five refills at this rate…but I won't stay at this rate. I can get better at this. I know I can. I just need more practice."

"Then get to it," I told him with a laugh. "We have plenty here for you to practice on. Let's see how good you can get at this." Based on his wolfish grin, he was just as excited to see that as I was. The kid was really coming along.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We finished the job in the next few hours, as expected. On top of the twenty credits for the original task, we'd earned an extra hundred once we turned in the bounty. In one afternoon I had gone from out of credits to twenty percent richer than I had been when I first started, and it made it clear that my Domain had SERIOUS potential in terms of credit gain.

Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to double down on some good old fashioned moneymaking, I had other things to worry about at the moment. After a good night's sleep (and stockpiling my scrolls in the morning), I realized that I had reached the third day of my stay, which meant it was finally time for me to head out to Common City and meet up with everyone.

It was honestly…nice. Leaving my friends and family before to go to the Chasm had been kind of depressing after a while. I was able to handle it, of course, but I'd missed them. I kind of assumed the same thing would happen here, but I'd barely had TIME to miss anyone, and more than that, I'd been kept so intellectually engaged by this place in the time I did have I wasn't even thinking about them.

This was what I imagine being at an actual academy would have been like back on Callus, if we hadn't completely blown off all the academic portions of the experience.

To my complete lack of surprise, I wasn't alone on this little trip. Sorwen had arrived in the morning with coffee and a spring in her step, excited to follow along to common city to meet with all my friends. She was so cheerful and upbeat about it I couldn't bring myself to say no, so after an awkward conversation, I just agreed and headed off in the direction everyone was going to find the exit.

It wasn't too hard to find, since apparently they'd decided to label the place. At the end of the city cavern there was a small chamber with a vaulted ceiling. Set into the cavern floor was some kind of ivory mosaic set with gemstone portraits of people I mostly didn't recognize, but who were probably the deans based on the two that I did.

When we stepped onto the platform, a cage of lightning leapt up to surround it, sealing us in, and the mosaic lifted off the ground, revealing itself to be a sort of elevator, albeit not one on any sort of cable.

We drifted through the air, the outside of the cage mostly obscured by the lightning, for about ten minutes. Eventually, there was a slight shudder and the cage dissolved into sparks, leaving us standing on a flat hilltop overlooking a small walled off town. From the base of the platform, a path led off toward the city. One of the teachers I didn't know stepped out. "This platform will remain open for three days. Should you go past your allotted time, a penalty will be applied to future visitations. Should you go past the three allotted days, you will no longer have access to Moment City. This is a one time courtesy, any lateness in the future will not be tolerated."

Everyone nodded. Given the strict terms we were informed of at the beginning, I wasn't surprised that we'd be left behind if we waited too long. I was more surprised by the grace period, honestly. This place struck me as more of a sink or swim kind of school.

Once he dismissed us, we headed down the path towards town, and I couldn't help a bubbling excitement. Common City…didn't look like much. It was a large rounded city on a cliff made of yellow stones. It could have come out of any generic fantasy movie, but despite the relatively innocuous appearance, I could tell this place was a treasure trove.

All the majors dealing with artifacts and enchantments were based on their own cities, but this place was where all that melted together. Common City was the land of opportunity where we could best exploit the resources of this academy.

Sadly, my ability to actually DO that was pretty limited. I was stuck at a hundred and twenty credits. Nothing to sneeze at, but not enough to be considered a sizable windfall. I thought about Callie's excitement at so many new artifacts to potentially add to her vault and couldn't stop a wince. There was no way I would have enough.

Given she was still at C-rank I was worried about my wife, and there was nothing I'd like more than to help her arm herself. Of course she'd never ask, but I felt bad I couldn't help her prepare before her rank up.

I was so lost in thought I almost missed the slight twinge of Danger Sense. Luckily almost was still enough to step aside and avoid the dark haired blur screaming "Surprise ATTACK!" at the top of her lungs. UNluckily, I was so distracted by the obvious bait that was Bethy that I missed the secondary and tertiary assaults.

Chelsea hit me in the chest like a cannonball, knocking me backwards a step, shaking my footing JUST enough for Gabe's absurdly low charge to slam into the back of my legs and dump me on my ass. My sister stood atop my chest, fist in the air, triumphantly screaming "VICTORY!"...right up until I triggered a combination of Double Trouble and Pit of Despair.

My twin yelped as she plummeted into the frictionless dust, Gabe diving to catch her hand as I cackled madly. "Fools!" I crowed in smug satisfaction. "You thought your pathetic attempts at subterfuge coul- oh shit!" I sensed a razor sharp wave of energy coming towards me, barely activating Mornax in time to tank the slash from Fade. Gritting my teeth, I turned to glare at my bodyguard, preparing to engage him too when a familiar voice cut off my momentum.

"Will you idiots quit it," my wife demanded archly as she arrived, standing nearby with arms crossed. "We are in PUBLIC you know? And we're representing our whole plane of existence." Despite her acidic tone, I could tell she was amused, but she really did think it was a bad idea to fool around here, so I sighed and put away my staff.

"Sorry, hon," I said sheepishly. "But they started it."

Benny stalked up to glare at everyone. "They started it EARLY," he snarled. "You said you would wait for me!"

"Bethy got bored," Chelsea said with a shrug. "She gets bored easily."

Bethy hung her head in shame. "It's true. I've recently been informed that my attention span is- oooh butterfly!" she trailed off, turning to sprint away from the clearing, and Benny rolled his eyes at her obvious attempt to use the new trick she'd learned from Chloe to dodge his ire. I rolled my eyes, turning to Sorwen with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about them, they're really very nice when you get to know them." Then I paused. "Ok, only some of them. Sometimes. When they feel like it."

Callie arched an eyebrow at me expectantly and I chuckled. "Except Callie, of course," I corrected immediately, gesturing to her grandly. "My beautiful wife is perfect in every way and could never fail to be the life of any party."

"Overdoing it there a bit, kid," Abel snorted derisively.

I just smirked at him from behind my mask. "And this is my old mentor, Alex. Or is it Amber? Or maybe Aardvark today?"

"I will snap your neck like dry kindling!" he hissed menacingly, stepping forward to loom as best he could. Which wasn't very well since I was much taller and a rank above him. When he saw my lack of fear he deflated, pouting sulkily. "What is this nonsense? I can't even bully my own student anymore? What is this world coming to." He turned to Sorwen, bowing with a flourish. "My NAME, dear lady, is Abel Castleton, also known as Appolyon, Spruce Bunny, and to my closest friends 'hey you'."

"Now who's overcompensating," I snickered. "You hoping if you give her enough names she might slip and use the right one by accident?"

He pointed at me threateningly. "Don't YOU start. It's bad enough when Bethy does it. I won't have you ruin the opinions of total strangers and turn me into some kind of laughinstock! I demand respect damn it! Or at least fear. Even pity would be fine, just please don't show everyone how to bully me."

I chuckled at the feigned despair in his tone, but I could tell he was a little bothered for real, so I changed the subject. "Anyway, everyone this is Sorwen. She's in the Department of Temporal Studies with me. Sorwen, these are my friends."

As I spoke, the others started to show up. All my cabinet members, my guards, Jessie and her girlfriend, the other teams from the Lady and the lodge. We drew a crowd pretty quickly.

Sorwen, for her part, looked…a bit shell shocked. "There are…certainly a lot of you," she said weakly. "I feel like I didn't see this many of you before when we were negotiating. Where did they all come from?"

I just laughed. "I ask myself the same thing pretty much every day, things are getting pretty crowded, but everyone here has earned my trust." Well, most of them. The newcomers not so much, but I wasn't going to bring down the mood by backpedaling. Everyone seemed touched so the speech had done its job anyway.

"Now, I believe we have a city to explore?" I said with a grin. "I figure we should find out who didn't make it to Beginner and let them pick what we do first. The rest of us can figure out what's happening around here once they're gone, since we have so much more time here."

A few of the faces looked relieved, clearly having been worried about the ticking clock. Once we had that simple plan though, I turned to my wife and opened my arms. She all but tackled me, kissing me fiercely (possibly a little TOO fiercely, I was starting to doubt her claim about not being just a LITTLE jealous). I laughed as I pulled back. "Love you too Cal, and I missed you."

Benny groaned as he arrived next to us. "Still? How are you STILL this stupidly in love with each other. I hope Celine and I are this nauseatingly happy after we get married."

Laughing, Jessie joined us. "You will be. And we'll all mock you for it mercilessly. Just you though. We actually like Celine. Besides, having to be married to you is already a thousand times worse than any mockery we could devise. The poor girl will have been through enough suffering."

Benny flipped her off sourly and we all laughed. I grinned and started filling them in on my time in the department, and enjoyed their own stories as they told me all about the other majors and what they were like. Sorwen, to my surprise, fit in shockingly well, quickly adapting to the tempo of shit talking and genuine fondness that my friends and I tended to use when talking (at least my closer ones).

I was pretty sure that was partly because we were a fairly eclectic grouping and were used to adding new people, but even so, it was impressive. We continued down the path together, eventually reaching the city gates and being admitted directly. Once we stepped inside though, we all went silent, staring at the bustling metropolis inside the tower with awe and fascination.

It was…beautiful. So many kinds of people doing so many things. I didn't think I'd ever seen such a bizarre grouping of Ascendants in my life, and the fact that so many were gods and S-rankers didn't make it any better. Putting an arm over Callie's shoulder, I looked back at my friends. "Alright, like I said, anyone who is below Beginner picks first. So…what are we doing?"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We sat down to eat together first thing. Apparently, everyone was hungry above everything else, and I couldn't fault them. Common City had some amazing smelling food stalls and restaurants, and well wanted a taste. Inevitably, we decided to pool our funds to pay for a big banquet. I dropped twenty as leader, and several of my friends and cabinet members put up ten, scraping together enough for a hundred point dinner.

Once we were all seated and eating, the real talk began. "So," I said looking around at the others. "Anyone bother to check how expensive the actual legacy information is? Like the path to Overgod? Because I think we all know that's what we're here for."

"It's called an advancement thesis," said Callie with a sigh. "And it's a hundred thousand credits."

I hissed in shock. I mean, I'd seen a few things around that price, and it was a big deal, so I shouldn't be too surprised, but having seen exactly how hard it was to GET those credits, I knew what a monumental task that was. "Can we pool our credits to buy it?" I asked hopefully. "There doesn't seem to be a rule against that even if we can't transfer them directly."

"Only within the same major," she said with a grimace. "Which means we need a LOT of points. There are a few we can cross off. I don't think there are any crafting gods around, so that's three gone off the bat. And trade is obviously not going to be a big one. So that leaves us with eight that we need to get. There's no way to know how they're different or which ones our gods need, so we kind of have to get most of them."

I sucked my teeth. "I don't know if that'll be POSSIBLE for us, Cal. Sorwen and I are the only ones in temporal studies, so even if she agrees to help with the cost we would need fifty thousand credit points each. Maybe we have a few C-rankers in the lower levels of the major, but even then… I need to get a new material to even get started on learning time manipulation, and that'll cost me nine thousand."

"So we just place high in the midterms and finals," Jessie chirped happily. "The incentives for the top rankers are huge. If a few of us place well we should be able to cover it easily." We all just stared at her blankly. She rolled her eyes. "Was I the ONLY one who went to the introductory seminar?"

"Probably," Benny shrugged. "I was going to, but I got distracted by all the cool stuff."

I shrugged apologetically. "Same. Well, not the cool stuff part because I'm a responsible adult, but Callie and I were catching up on some important information I learned. The mythcrafting thing."

My best friend rolled his eyes. "Responsible adult my ass, you were just flirting with your wife. That doesn't make you better than me."

"No, my height makes me better than you," I said smugly. "Shorty."

Callie slammed a hand down on the table. "Do NOT," she said menacingly. "Ruin my dinner with your height sniping. You've had this argument five hundred times. You'll probably have it five hundred more, but this will not be one of those times."

"Yes dear," I said quickly. Benny snickered, but then I heard a thump and saw him wince as Celine kicked him in the shin, so I felt a little better.

"Seriously though," I said, bringing us back to the matter at hand. "How are we doing this? What's this about midterms and finals? Because if it'll help us gather credits, it'll definitely be worth doing, but how do they actually measure that?"

Jessie rolled her eyes. "Skill in your major, obviously. They have a basic skills assessment for the various elements of working with your attributes. They didn't give us a lot of details, but we should find out more during midterms. Anyway, each assessment has rankings, and ranking high or surpassing certain milestones means you're eligible for incentives. I think it's a reward for those of us who actually bother to go to classes instead of treating this place like a marketplace and social networking hub."

I nodded slowly. "I can swing that, I think," I said slowly. "When are midterms?"

"A few months," she said immediately. "Probably three or four. They didn't give us an exact date, why?"

"Just doing some math," I said slowly. I needed to get that Ruin Phoenix candle to create a template, then condense my next bloodline. I suspected something would happen with my third, given that nine was three sets of three, but I had no way to be sure. Regardless, if I pushed I was convinced I could manage that within a month. Once I had the candle I was planning to use it to upgrade one of my demons. That would help with condensing a template ahead of time like I had with Life Nova through Archie.

A month was cutting it close for that, but once I had a time attribute integrated with my body my learning speed would massively increase. The following three months I could use my demons to continue doing tasks, and then spend the credits I earned on classes to hone my abilities. With Wisdom of Solomon, the Pillar, and all my other advantages, I refused to believe I wouldn't be able to master those skills faster than the other students.

But all of that would require me to buckle down and get this done. I needed those credits as fast as possible so I could integrate the candle and hopefully convert one of my demons. I was thinking of using Mephistopheles for this one. I would need to talk to him, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't need a full reincarnation. His destruction flame was already pretty close to the right attribute, we just needed to find a way to nudge it a bit.

"Well you'll have to keep us updated," Callie said with a nod. "But there are more than a few of us in some of the majors who can pool their credits. Jessie, how many of us are in the applied biology department?"

"Twenty," my friend said happily. "Alyssa and I have a bunch of Lodge members with us, and a few representatives from the church. Not as many as I'd have expected though."

"My grandmother sent a big chunk of her people," I explained. "She's all about stars, so a lot of the church faction are in that major." I glanced around at the packed room full of people. Our forces were pretty diverse, but it was still kind of jarring just how many people were here, between all six of the realspace gods, our three Void allies, and the new friends from the higher realm, we had a seriously impressive crowd.

Of course, not all of them were really under my command. The WCP and Church crews, the vampires, the Asura, and the Lady's delegation were willing to listen to me. The others were mostly playing along for the sake of the alliance, not that I minded.

More than that, we had some new friends too. Bethy had brought along a new buddy of hers from the trait major, Casiina Flutterheart, a sort of butterfly elf who used some kind of strange butterfly based origami ability I didn't really get. She seemed unusually strong though, and her wings were kind of cool. It figured Bethy would be the one to find someone like that. The girl seemed as overwhelmed by Bethy as everyone else was, sitting with my friend and her two siblings as Bethy talked animatedly.

Speaking of the siblings, I grimaced as I looked them over. William and Tamsin Lark were…not ideal companions. Bethy had been keeping them under control, in the sense that they hadn't EATEN anyone, but the pair were deeply unsettling, and they watched all of us with hungry eyes that gleamed with malice.

I trusted Bethy to ride herd on them, but I worried they might get up to something behind her back. At the very least, the three of them were all in the trait based major, and there weren't many of our people there. It was just them, Dayna, and the Asura. I trusted the multi armed war machines to keep themselves safe, and Bethy would look out for Dayna. It would have to be enough for now.

Speaking of the Asura, they had proven surprisingly amicable. Abel had been getting along well with them, to literally no one's surprise. They were very straightforward and often brutal people, but they respected strength and tenacity, and my mentor had that in spades. It was nice to have them here representing Atlas's interests, since he was the only god aside from the old man we could REALLY confirm was on our side.

I trusted my grandparents, and through them the revenant, and I trusted the Lady well enough, but when it came down to it, their interests were similar but not the same as ours. Atlas was our real backing here, and having the Asura on hand to help out was certainly useful.

Unfortunately they were almost all in the weapon major. Martial Excellence apparently included unarmed combat styles, and Abel and the Asura were all shoe ins for that one. Fade was obviously there with them as well, as was Alanna. Crell, to my surprise, had chosen the trade department, which seemed like an interesting potential learning opportunity for my Master of Contracts.

We had someone in basically every major, though not all from my direct faction. The only ones missing were the rune and alchemy departments. Benny was in the crafting major, so we had someone there, and I made a note to see if I could help him gather the credits to pay for the thesis. While we might not have a crafting god around, that didn't mean we never would. Having a method for my best friend to reach Overgod seemed useful for future endeavors.

Unfortunately, this whole thing only brought home how little time I had. I wanted to spend time with Callie, and I would before I left, but I doubted I'd bother staying for the full two days. The sooner I got back, the sooner I could begin grinding out those tasks to stockpile my credit points.

I glanced over at my wife guiltily, but I found her smiling back at me fondly. "What?" I asked defensively.

"Just cute you think I don't know you well enough to see that you're already climbing the walls to get back," she said dryly. "I know you won't be staying the whole weekend. It's fine. Just promise me you'll come back next time. I want you to spend at LEAST one day a week here with me. You need rest too, and I don't trust that you'll take it without me. Just because you CAN ignore pain and stress doesn't mean you SHOULD."

I opened my mouth to argue, but…she was right. I sighed, leaning over to put an arm around her. "I promise," I told her softly. "And thank you. Both for knowing I need to do this and not letting me take it too far."

"Well, it's kind of my job," she grinned. "Keeping you from being stupid is a full time commitment, but one I made knowingly and feel compelled to honor. At the very least, you always make it a challenge." Her teasing smirk softened at the edges as she leaned up, letting my mask retreat at the bottom so she could kiss me. "Just…remember that we have the rest of our lives together. I need you intact and SANE. Pace yourself, love. There will be time for everything later if we need it." I nodded, and she smiled, resting her head on my shoulder as I dug into the nearest dinner dishes with more gusto. I wanted to enjoy this time while I had it. Tomorrow it would be back to the grind.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next two weeks passed in a blur of activity. So much activity. Like…more activity than I had ever experienced before. Micromanaging fifty or so demons (only the ones strong enough to be useful need apply) for fourteen days was a feat of organization not even Piece of Mind could make easy. I had so many tasks to attend to, some of them repeating because I was taking all the lowest paying jobs.

I was averaging about six or seven hundred credits a day, with a few extra here and there for higher paying tasks. Cleaning gutters, hunting giant rats, getting rid of some kind of fungus infected wolf creature that had been trying to claim one of the teachers gardens as its territory, the list went on and on.

Combined with what I had, and the two days off I'd taken to keep my promise to Callie (counting today), I was sitting at a cool eight thousand credits, with only two more days of work or so until I could finally get my hands on that candle. There was only one problem.

"I'm dead," I groaned, forehead plastered to the table. "Leave me, find a new leader. Tell him my tale of woe."

Callie giggled. "Am I supposed to find a new husband, too?"

"Sorry, no," I told her with a cheesy grin. "Til death do us part. You're stuck with me. The rest of them are the only ones who have a way out."

"It's like prison," Benny said brightly. "But stupider."

I shot him a glare. "You're stupider than prison," I said childishly. "And you hair looks like an ocelot."

"I…don't know what that means," he said slowly. "I can't tell if I should be offended."

"Shut up, I'm tired," I snapped. "You have no idea what kind of strain I've been under. But I'm SO close."

Sorwen chuckled at my pain. "You aren't," she informed me. "You're there. I talked to Callie while you were passed out. I'm going to go in on the candle with you so you can get it immediately."

I perked up. "Wait, seriously? You're not screwing with me right now? I'm done?"

"Not quite," my wife said with a wolfish grin. "There's a catch. She'll spot you for it…but you have to take your second day off this weekend. No training, no learning, no tasks. Just rest and relaxation and possibly spoiling your amazing wife if you're feeling up to it."

Rolling my eyes, I gave her an adoring smile. "Fine. I can take a break. I was going to be off today anyway, and taking off tomorrow to save two days of hard work is a good deal." I raised an eyebrow at Sorwen. "What did she give YOU to agree to this, anyway? I know how hard it must have been to gather those credits."

"Less than you'd think," she snickered. "Since I wasn't taking the lowest paying jobs. I could only do one or two a day, but I was netting more per task. Still, it WAS pretty tight. I barely made it in time. In exchange, your wife promised to help me out designing a commission for a weapon I'm having made."

That was interesting. "What does Callie know about designing weapons?"

"Literally nothing," my wife said cheerfully. "But she happens to have a weapon on hand that is exactly the OPPOSITE of what she's looking for so-"

"The Vault, got it," I said in understanding. "Clever use of your Domain, hon."

She puffed up proudly, before shifting her attention back to me. "Speaking of Domains, how is yours going? And how are your stats coming along. You've been stockpiling scrolls for a few weeks right?"

"Yeah, I'm at two hundred but I haven't used them," I shrugged. "I probably have another million or two points coming when I finally check them, but I've been swamped. As for my Domain though…here, I'll just show you."

Court of Gehenna:

1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 8

2.Valtek- Tier 2

3.Cooking- Tier 8

4.Inventing- Tier 2

5.Balam- Tier 3

6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 4

7.Piano- Tier 1

8.Guitar- Tier 1

9.First Aid- Tier 1

10.Angelic Bond- Tier 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 7

19.Pit of Despair/ Brad- Tier 8

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 6

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

42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6

43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6

44.Mephisto's Waltz- Tier 6

45.Mornax- Tier 7

46.Zagan- Tier 7

47.Life Nova- Tier 8

48.Genesis Burst- Tier 6

49.Bael- Tier 8

50.Beelzebub- Tier 8

51.Agares- Tier 7

52.Dantalion- Tier 7

53.Sammael- Tier 8

54.Limbo- Tier 8

55.Gluttony- Tier 7

56.Wrath- Tier 7

57.Pride- Tier 7

58.Retribution- Tier 7

59.Murmur- Tier 7

60.Leviathan- Tier 7

61.Behemoth- Tier 7

62.Glory- Tier 7

63.Abaddon -Tier 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 7

72. Azazel- Tier 8

The list was long and comprehensive, of course, as always. Callie, though, knew what it had looked like before. I'd gotten ten or fifteen demons up to tier eight now, and another ten or so up to tier seven. I'd even gotten a few of them to tier six who had been much lower. Overlay (aka Owen), was up two tiers to six, having officially reached the Master rank after half a month of training.

After we'd learned more about Mythcrafting and I had started considering potential ways to upgrade Mephistopheles without reincarnation, I'd realized that letting so many of my demons waste away at the same rank was NOT cost effective.

While I did let a few keep up their waiting, I had started pushing the mid range demons to accept tasks along with the higher rankers. Constant practice and use of their abilities had allowed them to start growing, bringing forth the true utility of my Domain for the first time since I'd unlocked it.

It was kind of surreal, honestly. That was what had drained me so much. While the Pillar offset the processing, it still needed to happen. Their growth was an invisible pressure on me, and the more I summoned them out the more they grew. When they were inside the Domain training it was one thing, but once they emerged, when they came back they brought all those experiences and all that growth with them.

Basically I was dumping huge amounts of new data into the Pillar every time the demons returned, and I was dispatching fifty plus per day. The higher ranks were less extreme, because they were just on the edge of tier eight and getting pushed over, but the earlier ones, paradoxically, despite having so much less to gain to rank up, were leveling quickly and the cumulative tax was wearing me down.

Which was part of the reason I'd agreed to the extra day off. The cost of my recent training was cumulative, and now that I didn't have to keep it up, I was excited to just relax a bit.

"So," I said slowly, glancing around. "Anyone seen Bethy? Did she just not come this time? I know after the first week we can take our downtime whenever, but she usually meets us here on our days off."

Chelsea grinned wolfishly. "I talked to her this morning. She's recovering. Apparently she decided to attempt the challenge for advanced C-rank. A hundred thousand C-rank automatons. She barely passed, but she's been promoted. Got a fresh thousand points to play with. THere's been a huge boom in attempts in the trait major, but no one else has managed it."

I let out a low whistle. "Damn, that is impressive. I think I might be up to trying it for B-rank, but a failure would seriously derail my plans, and a thousand credits just isn't worth the downtime. What does she get for pulling it off?"

"They tried to promote her to the B-rank city," she laughed. "But she just told them no. She didn't want to leave Dayna alone with her siblings."

I grimaced. "Yeah, I don't blame her. They're really creepy. Why exactly are they even HERE? Like I know what Harrison said, but I absolutely do not believe those two are considered impressive enough to protect Bethy. Are they just Lark hedging his bets to make sure he gets his hands on the advancement thesis?"

I couldn't remember if Harrison had mentioned what rank those two were supposed to be, but if he had assumed it was B-rank, he was wrong. They were both peak C just like Bethy, and there were probably less than a hundred people in the UNIVERSE I would be on against Bethy at the same rank. They weren't actual guards, which meant they were here for something else, but other than killing the mood whenever they walked into a room I couldn't fathom what.

"He's hoping she can fix them," Chelsea explained sadly. "Lark…he's not a great parent. He knows that. Bethy has told me he's admitted it to her more than once. That's why she's his favorite. She's the one he didn't manage to mess up too bad. Most of his kids are maladjusted psychos. Some of the older ones have grown out of that, but for the most part, Bethy is the most normal child Lark has." She saw me literally flinch and grinned. "Yeah, that's a terrifying thought, right?

"Anyway, she's gotten a lot better since she started traveling with us," she sounded proud and grateful all at the same time. "I know you might not be able to see it because you're not around her as much, but she's shed a lot of guilt and grief because of you. Lark noticed, and he's hoping Tamsin and Will can see similar results."

I blinked at her. "Then why didn't he just ASK for that?"

"Because then he would owe us a FAVOR," she said like it was obvious. "Instead he just made them our problem so we'd have to solve it ourselves and it wouldn't have anything to do with him. Obviously."

"This is why I hate politics," I seethed. "So we just…what? Suppress their bloodlust like we tried to do for Bethy? Purify them with Zagan? What does he expect us to do?"

She shrugged. "If he knew that he would probably have done it himself. I guess we're just supposed to do our best and see what happens. I'd say offer them a wish, but I doubt they'd use it for anything that benevolent."

I glanced at Callie. "What are the chances we could convince your sister to kick the shit out of Lark a little bit. Not BAD, but just like…a black eye and a broken nose." At her arch look, I just sighed. "Yeah, I know, bad idea. Well, I guess that's a project to add to my list. But in two days. For now, I'm going to enjoy my downtime, and I think I'll start by showing off my new LEGENDARY cooking skill. Now, where is the kitchen?"

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I spent the weekend with my wife, relaxing and enjoying our time together. It was wonderful to take a break, especially after two weeks of going so hard. Nothing puts a nice vacation into perspective like weeks of exhausting busywork. My demons seemed pretty relieved as well, and it was a pleasant time had by all. And then it was over.

Which was why I was now back in Moment City, waiting at the desk for Elonwy to be available so I could redeem my credit points for the Ruin Phoenix Candle.

I hadn't been training over the weekend, but I HAD put in some time considering what I needed. I had a basic plan of attack for the upgrade, I just needed to GET the thing. Hence why I was now standing in front of my upperclassman friend, calmly announcing my student number so she could access my account. Sorwen was with me, and she gave hers next, and Elonwy processed the order with barely a raised eyebrow before reaching under the desk and withdrawing a small box made of what looked like literal sun bleached bone.

"Item 4683297," Elonwy said blandly. "Ruin Fragment Black Flame Candle. Nine thousand credit points. Surprising you redeemed this one, it's been in the archives for a LONG time. It's both way too expensive and way too cheap to be worth buying, if you know what I mean."

I did. Without access to my nonsense bag of tricks, the candle wouldn't be able to show its true worth. Phoenix related techniques didn't grow on trees, and the ones that were around were mostly life and Vitality adjacent. The Ruin Phoenix was a very niche entity to need access to, not to mention even if YOU did need access, the candle wouldn't give most people that access, and would therefore be way overpriced. Useless and priceless at the same time, no wonder the thing was still around.

"Do I want to know what this box is made of?" I asked as I carefully lifted it from her hands.

"It's chocolate," Elonwy said sincerely. "You have to leave it out to thaw before you eat it, but once it's ready it's supposed to taste fantastic."

Sorwen lit up with excitement. "Really?" she asked enthusiastically.

"No," Elonwy said gently. "It's old bones." She glanced at me questioningly. "I understand she's paying for this, but is it really worth the cost?"

"Hey!" the elf protested in a hurt voice. "That's mean, you were the one who said it!"

I chuckled. "Elonwy, she doesn't know you, so she's not familiar with your brand of sarcasm, tone it down, Sorwen, she didn't mean anything by it, that's just how her sense of humor is. You're both my friends, I'd appreciate it if you could at least be civil. You're not exactly going to be lunching together, so it'll only be for a few minutes now and then."

"It was a joke," Elonwyn said apologetically, holding her hands up. "I swear, I wasn't trying to be hostile. I've gotten used to bantering with this one, and he tends toward the more acerbic side of humor. I apologize. For real."

Sorwen chuckled, shaking her head. "No, it's my fault. You were just teasing. I'm not used to that kind of interaction, but I've seen Shane and his friends engaging in banter like that and it seems fun. I'd like to have a friend like that." She pointed at Elonwy dramatically. "You have only one brain cell and your nose is shaped like a hatchet."

Elonwy raised an eyebrow, an amused smirk pulling at her lips. "You got me, that's a good one." She nodded for me to go. "Why don't you go do whatever you need to do, I'll teach the princess here about bantering with friends."

Laughing, I nodded and headed out, carrying my ill gotten gains (or whatever the opposite of that is) back to my residence where I could begin the upgrade and the preparation for the template. Once we arrived. I took the whole thing, box and all, into my Domain, carrying it to the room behind my throne where Mephistopheles and a few of the others were waiting.

"Did you get it?" Mephistopheles (also known as Phil and definitely NOT Fist) said eagerly. I raised an eyebrow at my second demon. Phil was one of my oldest in terms of skill development, but my use of his form had fallen by the wayside. Technically he had primacy over several of my other demons, even Sammael, but realistically I didn't spend much time with the normally taciturn warrior.

Now though, he seemed to be almost vibrating with energy. I could tell the idea of changing, of growing like this was important to him. He'd seen what it could mean. Speaking of which, I spotted my helper for this little endeavor with a grin, waving him over. "I did, but now we need to consult the expert. Hey Brad, get over here!"

My youngest demon ran over excitedly. "Is it time? Did you get it?"

I laughed, holding up the box. "Why does everyone keep asking that? Would I be here if I hadn't? Where's Nine? I want him here for this. I trust you to help us get this done, but he's the one who's going to be working with Phil on the template. Well, him and Wisdom."

"I'm here," Nine Phoenix said as he arrived out of breath. "I didn't realize it was happening already, I was contemplating my previous templates and trying to identify commonalities. I figured that might help me refine the process of…well, refining the process, so to speak. I made some preliminary strides."

"Good man," I nodded. "Now, let's quit flapping our gums and light this candle. Literally." I ignored their dramatic and totally unnecessary groans as I set the box on the table, popping the tiny ivory latch and opening it. I was surprised as I did to find minute carvings across the sun bleached bone, micro runes so faint and dense they felt like normal bone texture at first glance, even to MY Perception. When I opened the lid, I was expecting…something. A burst of energy, ominous fog, maybe the cackling of departed souls, instead I just got, well, a candle.

"It looks…waxy," Brad said optimistically.

I rolled my eyes. "It's a candle, it doesn't do anything until we light it. But I have a feeling we should use the right kind of fire for best effect. Phil, if you would do the honors?"

Mephistopheles nodded, extending one finger. The tip of his index flickered to life, a black flame fluttering into existence. Reaching down, he pressed it against the wick of the candle, and we all watched with bated breath, waiting for it to catch.

It was obvious, really, the moment the wick lit. The flame went from fire to FIRE. Where before, the black flame had looked a little ominous and maybe had an aura of danger, now it just looked…terrible. In the old sense of that word. As in it inspired terror. I felt like the light from the flame was trying to destroy my eyes, age them into infirmity. My Impact made it easy enough to shake off, but if anyone under D-rank had been here I was pretty sure the literal light of this candle would have turned them to dust.

Phil, meanwhile, was hypnotized. I saw him staring into the fire like his soul was being drawn in, and I made the executive decision to snap the lid shut, cutting off the effect. Suddenly the shadows in the room, which I hadn't even noticed lengthening, receded to normal levels. We all took deep breaths.

"That," I said with a shaky laugh. "Was not what I was expecting." I looked up at Brad. "What do you think? Can you help?"

He hummed with interest. "I THINK so. It's not the same, obviously. But it's also not as hard."

At Phil's confused look, I decided to finally break down my plan. "Alright, so here's the deal. Brad here used to be Brad the Pit. Brad the Pit was a pit trap that consumed a shard of divine artifact and evolved into a higher form. Then that form was bonded with Pit of Despair, and the combination became Brad, following me so far?"

"I think so," he said slowly. "Keep going."

"Basically, I want to try to recreate the circumstances that let Brad evolve into a sentient pit, only in reverse kind of," I gestured to the box. "Since you're already sentient, I want to try to combine you with the candle the same way he managed it, thereby upgrading you without needing to reincarnate. The candle isn't sentient, so you shouldn't change at all, you'll just become…more. You get me?"

Nine Phoenix frowned. "But what mechanism are you going to use for that? He's a physical entity and so is the candle? Are you going to have him eat it or something?"

I grinned. "Nope. We're going to use the SAME mechanism. Brad has been practicing, and we think it'll work. Brad's power is pits. His original form was able to consume the artifact because he WAS a pit. So we just need him to open a pit in Phil, but not a physical pit. A spiritual pit. A metaphysical hole we can fill with the candle."

In order to accomplish that, I reached for the Pillar of Goetia, triggering the rank up skill. Over the last two weeks of hard work, Brad had reached tier eight, which meant he was at Legendary, and my staff could officially upgrade him to Mythic. He let out a low gasp, eyes fluttering as he felt the power push him higher and higher, reaching a level that only a few of my demons had been at. This wasn't an easy trick, even for the staff, and I tried not to overuse it.

Opening the box again, I nodded to Phil, who relit the candle, and then to Brad. He held out a hand, closing his eyes. "I need you to focus. Feel the candle. Feel its pull. Feel your desire for it. Your need. Your hunger." There was a pulse in the Domain, a sort of…resonance. Like Brad's power was asking permission to alter Mephistopheles. "Feel the hole inside that only the candle can fill. The void. The emptiness."

I acknowledged the attempt, pushing with my Domain, flexing the power granted to me by my armor and weapon to try to push it closer. It was like trying to force together two poles of a magnet. They didn't want to touch. But I was stronger. I could make this work. I grit my teeth and shoved with everything I had. Phil groaned, stumbling forward, catching himself on the table, and in front of him, a hole appeared.

It looked strange, almost wrong. Like someone had torn out a piece of the world. Without hesitating, I took the candle, box and all, and shoved it into the hole. It snapped shut instantly, and Phil dropped to his knees with a strangled scream. The black flame of his hair leapt and sparked, slowly beginning to change, to resemble the candle flame we'd seen earlier.

Sighing, Nine Phoenix knelt down and picked up the bigger demon. "I have a feeling this won't be over soon. Or am I wrong?"

I shook my head. "The Domain can feel him changing. It'll be a while. Look after him for me?"

"Of course," he said with a nod. "Once he's done, we can get started on the template, and you can get started on your body tempering." I thanked him, and once he left I dropped into the chair with a shaky breath.

Azazel stepped into the room, looking us all over, and I noticed a spark of enjoyment in his eyes. "You felt that huh?" I asked him wryly.

"I did," he said with a slowly growing smile. "I did indeed. The winds of fate have been altered by your actions today. You've upset the balance, or perhaps just done something unexpected. Many things just changed. I suspect this is going to be GOOD." I grinned right back. I had a feeling he was going to be right. One more step on my path to the top, and I had no idea where I was going to put my feet next. Honestly, that was probably the best part.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took another week. A week of constant work and experimentation between Wisdom of Solomon, Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, Life Nova, and Mephistopheles to FINALLY create a working template to use as a guide. Intellectually I knew that it wasn't that long. A week was actually pretty amazing, considering how much time it would save in the long run. I'd managed my first bloodline in maybe a week or two, vs the months it had taken for my second, so a week to lock down that kind of speed was hardly anything to sneeze at.

But it felt slow. I had everything I needed to start, I should be able to get to work on my body tempering, but I couldn't. I was just stuck sitting on my thumbs waiting for them to finish, and when they finally did, I was chomping at the bit to begin.

I STILL hadn't used all my stockpiled scrolls, numbering two hundred seventy at this point, but I knew that even a slight boost to my body tempering would increase the per scroll cap, and multiplied by so many scrolls it would mean a legitimate difference in gains, so I held off.

Since I had nothing better to do, I spent the week hammering out a bunch of tasks, albeit at a much more reasonable pace. I netted myself five credit points to use on daily necessities or potentially on places of power once I condensed my bloodline. I knew that some of the places could increase understanding of attributed energy for Mythcrafting, and that would be on top of the natural affinity I'd get once I condensed my Ruin Phoenix template, it should make the learning process much faster.

Still, when they came to get me to tell me the good news and so we could get started on my body refinement, I had to admit I was actively excited to begin. I'd been waiting for this for a while, and having a third Bloodline (I was curious about what the enhanced attribute would be since I didn't have a specific direction in mind to steer this one), would be a qualitative advantage going forward, even without the affinity.

"So, how does this work?" I asked them as I sat down across the table in the conference room behind my throne. We'd been meeting there semi-regularly for this whole business, given its out of the way location and relative privacy. "Nine probably has the template memorized, so all I need to do is incarnate him, right?"

"Phil and I both," he clarified. "But just the two of us. Zagan and Life Nova should also be on hand. Ruin is…well, ruinously destructive. Your natural regeneration can keep up with short bursts, but given Zagan's synergy with your Life Nova bloodline, you'll be able to dedicate exponentially more time to refinement per session with those two assisting with your recovery. That should speed up your bloodline condensation quite a bit." Despite the relatively formal tone it was clear Nine was excited as the rest of us for this.

I looked around. It wasn't just the innovators here. Owen and Limbo had made their own appearance. My other two time attributed demons were as excited as I was. While I'd be learning the fundamentals of Mythcrafting in general, my main focus in the department was time. I'd be learning to utilize time attributed Mythology more directly in combat, and between Limbo's utility, Phil's destructive potential, and Owen's Perception, I had all three of the major pillars of combat covered with which to express them. With my bloodline granting me extra affinity I was expecting my combat abilities to soar when working with any or all of the three. Once I had learned that, the Pillar and Wisdom would be able to reverse engineer the Mythcrafting to refine all my demons, so I was expecting a power bump across the board, but it seemed likely those three would be my go-to combat options in the near future.

"It's important to note that this template isn't like the others," Nine warned intently. "This is a purely destructive energy. Life Nova and Cosmic Phoenix are both beneficial energies, but Ruin is just…breaking things. And that includes you. Luckily, body refinement is ABOUT breaking things, just in a controlled way. But you need to take it slow to start, work up to it. You can't just go full blast out the gate or you're going to do serious damage and we'll have to stop and wait for you to recover."

That was unfortunate. Honestly, pain had been the main boost to refining speed in my first two templates. Hardship and difficulty seemed to act as fuel to the fire of the phoenix. If I had to guess it was because of the symbolism of rebirth through a crucible, but regardless, I'd been counting on that to help here.

It made sense that there would be different rules for a purely offensive template though. And it wasn't just a subversion. The Ruin Phoenix WAS a phoenix, and its mythology was pretty much the opposite of the ones I'd had access to before. In fact, that was the point. Its whole mechanism was to be the opposite of rebirth, the inevitable end of all things, worn down through the destruction of the ages.

"Anything else I need to know?" I asked them as I prepared. I had considered using the Pillar for this, but it wouldn't help. The Pillar allowed for simulation and multiple attempts to perfect the art, but body refining wasn't mental. I had to ACTUALLY carve the template into my body with the flame, so I might as well get to it.

When they all confirmed there wasn't, I nodded to Mephistopheles and Nine Phoenix, incarnating them both with a long, slow breath. With all my reinforcement, it was easy to hold two, even two who had recently grown quite a bit. My mind was flooded with information from Nine Phoenix, symbolism and imagery of a pitch black bird that heralded the apocalypse, the death of all things, and the winking out of all the stars in the sky. Ruin. The final end of every living being.

Time is the fire in which we burn. A phrase and a concept that I had never really pondered. In some ways, it was very true. Old age blazed away, refining and destroying us. At first it melted away the weakness, purifying and strengthening, but eventually once the growth ended, the descent began. The fires of creation banked and the flames of ruin ravaged our flesh, devoured our minds, and eventually consumed us utterly, leaving nothing but dust, the ashes of history.

My vision was complex and layered, and I was shocked at how detailed they'd gotten it in just this one week. It wasn't as impressive as the Cosmic Phoenix revelation, but that had come from an ACTUAL cosmic phoenix feather. Doing this much with just the candle was impressive.

I began the process. First came the pattern. I knew it well by now, the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art was a complicated and powerful construct that carried the energy through my body, refining and improving it. With more knowledge of attributes I was able to mostly work out what I was doing now. Rebirth. The inherent power of the phoenix was baked into the art. It was a process, slow and steady, one step at a time as I forged out the impurities of my body, reforging myself in the crucible of the nine flames.

Mephistopheles had been training as well. Learning to control the power he'd gained when he integrated the Ruin. And those lessons served me well, allowing me to call forth just a trickle of that strength to roll through the channels the art had made. It was slow and almost gentle. Like a trickle of water flowing down a dry riverbed, most of it seeping into the cracked, broken dirt. My instinct was to flood it, but I knew that was the wrong move. I continued as I'd been told, slow and steady.

It didn't make it any less painful. It felt like my veins were full of battery acid, but only a very small amount of it. I honestly wished that I had more of the stuff in my system, because the very finite amount of pain surrounded by the pop and flicker of splattering corrosion along the length of the channels was actually WORSE than just being flooded with the shit.

Ruin SUCKED. It wasn't just painful. I could deal with painful. Ruin felt like death. Like I was approaching my end, and there was nothing I could do about it. The finite approach of mortality heralding the twilight of my life.

I was so engrossed in it that I barely noticed the flood of life energy as Zagan and Life Nova poured it into me. It washed away the pain, but that just meant I needed more, so I couldn't find it in myself to be grateful. I just focused, increasing the flow of Ruin through my body. Inside me, the nine drops of Life Nova ignited one by one, and for each new wave of power I had to increase the flow to offset the regeneration.

By the time all nine were lit, I was pouring a pretty steady stream of Ruin into the art, and I could feel it beginning to change me. Slowly. Inexorably. Ruin wore down all things, and here it was wearing down the resistance to change. Of course, it was also wearing ME down alongside it, but with my regeneration, my helpers, and my bloodline, I was barely keeping up, and I'd managed to find a perfect balance between creation and destruction.

Unfortunately, while balance sounded nice and peaceful, it really wasn't. I was in agony. Not my usual agony either. Ruin seemed to carry some sort of conceptual fear of death that added an almost corrosive sting to the mental toll it took as it hurt you. It was the mental version of poison, and it was building up. The regeneration was healing the physical wounds, but the mental toll was mounting, and I could see why Nine had mentioned a limit to how much of this I could take per session.

But I wasn't there. I was a chosen of a goddess of torment, a descendant of the lady of the Enshrining Darkness, and the master of the Wish Curse Palace. Pain wasn't just an old friend, it was my BROTHER. My companion and constant faithful hound. Pain served me in all things. It drove me. Broke me. Made me.

And that was when I realized why this particular art had called to me so heavily back in the library. Not for the fire, or for the ease of incorporating the skill.

Because I WAS the phoenix. I always had been. I was a creature forged in flames, reborn in pain, again and again I rebuilt myself stronger than I had been before. I stood in the center of a mental inferno, and as I had that realization, I just…let go. I let it take me. Consume me utterly. My mind went blank as the agony ate away my vision from the edges, darkness taking my sight from me even with my eyes wide open.

I felt a shift inside me, a riotous spark kindling to life, and my blood caught fire, the Ruin riding my veins across every surface of my flesh, tearing at my sanity with maddeningly welcome claws as it shredded every thought in my head, devouring my sense of self as fuel for my evolution.

And then it was done. It ended, and I dropped to my hands and knees, panting, throat hoarse from screaming. But I wasn't upset. Not even close, because deep inside me, in a place that had previously only been occupied by the two sets of nine blood drops of my existing bloodlines, blazed something new. A single drop of blood the black of an endless abyss. I looked inside, the ravaged tatters of my mind fluttering in the breeze of victory…and I started to laugh. One down, eight to go.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took another three weeks (and two days) to complete the template. Considering the very different nature of the power source and the work I'd put in to get it done, I wasn't too unhappy with that timeline, even if it was beyond the rather optimistic projections I'd made when we came up with the plan. Six weeks total, or half of my lead time up to the midterm, but I knew for a fact it would be worth it.

Beyond that, I had gotten a new modifier, times three to might, and I had officially hit five hundred stockpiled scrolls. With the new template filled out, I had officially hit a third of the way through the nine phoenix art, and I could feel a qualitative shift in the capabilities of my body, even beyond what I'd been expecting or what showed on my sheet. I'd even bound another page in for the Nine Demons Reincarnation Art, bringing that total up to nine with the achievement of finishing my third template. I was excited to see exactly what I could do with a single scroll, so the extra two days had been a wait to meet everyone at Common City and officially get the ball rolling on my next influx of points, for which I had high hopes.

When I arrived at the inn where we were all meeting, I was in a good mood. I was all but bouncing on the soles of my feet as I dumped the pile of scrolls on the table for all my friends to see.

"Alright people, here's the deal," I told my followers. "These are wish scrolls. They grant wishes. Some of you know this, some of you don't. For the ones that don't, there are rules. I can't tell you what to wish for mostly, though I can ask for a specific payment. Payment is required to be fair and balanced, at least from both our perspectives. As such, the one exception to the "can't suggest wishes" rule is that I CAN suggest a one for one stat trade, as it is inherently balanced."

Sorwen, who had been sitting nearby, stared at the scrolls with interest. "But if those scrolls can do anything, why would we wish for stats, especially with stats as payment?"

"Because the scrolls are limited by my power and your ability to pay," I explained. "And because contrary to what anyone else will tell you, the most beneficial thing you can wish for is more power of your own. Now a one for one stat trade may not sound like a big deal, but that's because you're not considering the possibilities. Jessie, tell them what they've won."

My friend grinned, popping to her feet energetically. "Yes boss," she said, snapping off a sloppy salute. I rolled my eyes but let her have her jokes, and she huffed a bit at the lack of reaction. Bethy was a terrible influence on everyone around her. Turning to the others, she gestured to herself. "Now, you all know about my racial trait, mostly because I've got bear ears and I don't hide them. But I was powerful long before that, and it's mostly because of wishes.

"Not because I wished for MORE power, though I did that too once in a while, but because of what kind of power I wished for when I did." Her eyes were bright and emphatic as she spoke. "Ascendants are creatures of reputation," she said bluntly. "We're all about showing off. And nothing makes more an impression than being able to do something that someone at your rank shouldn't be able to. I funnelled all of my points into Vitality, and I have a three times Vitality modifier from my trait. I technically have more effective Vitality than the cap of my entire rank, and while I am Vitality heavy, I still have plenty of points in other stats."

Sorwen got it first. "Your Vitality abilities, your healing and other tricks, they work like you're a B-ranker."

Jessie waggled a hand. "Depends on the situation, but they can. The point is they work WAY better than a C-ranker should be able to manage. And that gets me noticed. Gets me attention. You want to know why you would pay for stats with stats? Because you can drain your most useless stat and dump it all into your best. You can focus your whole build in a way that's completely impossible naturally."

"But there's no pressure," I informed them easily. "There's only five hundred of these, and all of you have a LOT of stats. Even just a few of you interested in a large overhaul could manage to use them all. So take your time, figure out who want-" I didn't even finish talking, the crowd mobbed the table, snatching up scrolls and scattering, and I just laughed wryly as they vanished from the room, off to find a private place to make wishes.

Callie clicked her tongue. "Animals," she said loftily.

"You sure you don't want any?" I asked her worriedly. "I know you're worried about pushing past B-rank, but you could still rearrange stats like they are."

She shook her head. "No. I spiked up too high too fast. Between my time on the war front and your help I went through C-rank much too quickly. I've been working on stabilizing, but I set myself a goal and I'm sticking to it. I'm going to do the C-rank advanced student trial, just like Bethy did. I'd never be able to pull off the B-rank trial at the bottom of the rank. Better to perfect my abilities now where I have an advantage."

I nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, yeah, fair. Just be careful not to let any stats in."

"I know," she sighed. "I liked it better when we thought the inside of this place was time locked. Though I'm guessing you feel differently."

As it turned out the Frozen Moment Academy wasn't really outside of time. The stasis chambers were just a party trick to keep students fresh until they were needed, but time WAS still passing outside, and we knew this because people were still getting renown from external sources.

"I do," I admitted. "Based on my guesses, I should be able to do about twenty five hundred points per scroll now. One point two five million is an INSANE amount of stats for a C-ranker, but for me? It's barely a drop in the bucket. I need to ride the Wishmaster wave alongside the rest of my training if I have any shot at hitting A-rank anytime soon."

She snorted. "If you hit A-rank before I hit B I'm going to be SO pissed. I feel like I'll never catch up at this rate."

"Atlas will be finished recovering not too long from now," I said with a laugh. "And the Asura are making waves here already. Soon everyone is going to know who the heretic god is, as well as BOTH his daughters. Sharing your face with a powerful murder goddess doesn't hurt either. I wouldn't be surprised if Alara is still terrorizing the battle front just to muddy the waters and build your rep while we're in here."

That seemed to cheer her up a bit, but I wasn't able to focus on that too much, because I felt a huge influx of points of my own coming. I couldn't help but grin. It had been a few MONTHS since my last boost, and that was after I'd both managed an alliance with a higher dimensional force and led my people into the tower. I was expecting quite the haul. Sure enough, as I closed my eyes and relaxed my soul, both the influx of wish stats and pure renown from my office rolled over me like a tidal wave.

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-6,125,421()

Impact-215

Fantasy-3,433,568

Vitality-5,221,871 ()

Focus-2,624,853

Perception-3,641,640

Creation-4,343,143

Progress to next rank: 25,390,711/100,000,000

Soul strength- Obsidian Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 27/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 9/9, (Ruin Phoenix) 9/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:6- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 9 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art)

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

Domain size: 34 miles

I was glad I was sitting down for this. It was…a lot. More than I'd gotten at once relative to my stat pool possibly ever. I'd gotten more stats in this one sitting than I had in total, and I fucking FELT it.

Granted, my body and soul were qualitatively different, and my Domain helped, but it still kicked my teeth in. I breathed through the pain, more than used to it after three weeks of grueling template training, and then focused in on my gains. It was the result of months of effort and buildup, on top of years of striving to reach this point in terms of reputation and resources, and I had never been so fully convinced I'd made the right choice.

Twenty five million. A quarter of the way through B-rank. Granted, I knew a bit chunk of that probably came from the renown I'd gained among the faculty here. Renown was qualitatively weighted, and if an S-ranker could bump me up, I imagined an Overgod could do even more. Not to mention the gods outside and their impressions of my capabilities getting this whole alliance together.

Still, even if I had burned through quite a bit of my renown potential within the academy, I was sure I still had plenty coming from outside, and the more powerful my body got, the more wishes became an actual practical choice to rank up again.

At my current level, I could hit A-rank with just a few years of focused income. It was intoxicating, knowing I was growing so much faster than any other Wishmaster before me and that it was by virtue of my own effort. Not to mention I'd gained another mile of Domain space from the constant grinding of the Cosmic Phoenix, which I'd had a parallel running for me through Beelzebub clones even while Nine was working on the template.

I looked over my stats again with pride. Might and Vitality had EXPLODED, but that was no surprise. With my recent modifiers to the latter it was bound to be attention grabbing, and Might was always one of the easier stats to raise, since any sufficiently impressive attack was attributed to the stat. Creation and Fantasy were rising fast, presumably because of the demons, which was interesting, and I'd dropped that one point two five mil into Focus to try to keep it as even as possible with the others.

My biggest gain though, was the ability to pump out more stats because of the nine phoenix reincarnation art. That was going to let me not only hit A-rank relatively fast, but continue bringing my friends with me as I went, and that alone was priceless to me.

I shared everything with Callie as I processed, writing out my stats, and I could feel the genuine joy through the bond as she hugged me tightly. I'd expected some kind of lingering annoyance at me for outpacing her, but I was ashamed that even now, after so long together, I could still misjudge her. All I felt was happiness and relief. The stronger I got the safer I'd be, and she was all for that.

Settling in to enjoy my day off now that business was taken care of, I prepared for my next big adventure, at least as well as I could. With the template condensed and my stats raised, I was officially ready to begin my education in temporal mechanics. This time tomorrow, I'd be in class, learning how to Mythcraft properly for the first time. I really couldn't wait.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day (after stockpiling my scrolls), I headed to talk to Elonwy about classes. I had been doing tasks (well, the demons had) during my training, but the efficiency had been low. I was up to about seven thousand credits total, which I figured would be enough for most classes I would need soon, not to mention the ones I would actually ACCRUE credits taking, which should be most of the earliest.

To my surprise, when I arrived she seemed to immediately sense…something about me. Her lips peeled back in a wolfish smile. "Well, look who went and grew up overnight. I can feel your temporal affinity. It's strong now. Some kind of physique?"

"I ate my vegetables," I said wryly. "But I'm impressed you could tell."

She snorted at that. "I'm a postgraduate student in the department of temporal studies. If I couldn't tell some B-ranker's affinity I might as well transfer to the business department." The way she said that made it clear that she found the idea ridiculous and offensive, and I decided not to ask about it.

"Fair enough," I chuckled. "Well, since you can see that, oh all knowing clerk. Can you tell what I'm going to ask you next?"

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Obviously. You're going to ask me what classes to take."

"Am I?" I said archly. "You don't know. I could be here to ask you what terrifying time based technique book to buy."

"Are you here to ask me that?" she said mildly.

I sighed. "No, I'm here to ask you what classes to take. I'm pretty torn on whether I should take the ones that reward a bunch of credits or the ones that COST a bunch of credits. I feel like the former should be necessary but will be too basic. But then I remember that I NEED basic, so I don't know what to do."

Blowing out a long breath, I took out a tattered list. It had a series of courses written on it, all the ones that looked useful or interesting. Some, like Professor Pettigrew's 'Temporal Fold Resonance' class cost credits out the wazoo, and some, like 'Fundamentals of Temporal Duality' with Professor Dana Fleming, rewarded twenty plus credits just for attending. I'd written down every possible class I had access to with my current credit balance, but I'd had no luck narrowing it down.

She read over the list, nodding with interest, making low humming noises as she ticked them off in her head. "Ok, well, my advice is…take none of these."

I blinked at her. "What do you mean take none of them? Those are the classes that are-"

"The most expensive," she finished. "And the ones that have the biggest rewards. Two radically different approaches that should have covered your bases, but ultimately, you fell for the same trap every student does. The first class you take should be THIS." She scrawled a title on the list, pushing it back to me.

Principles of Time with Professor A.D Hawkins- rewards 1 credit.

I blinked. "That's…why that one? It only rewards one credit, and it doesn't cost anything either. Plus it sounds…I'll be honest it sounds boring."

"Are you here to learn or are you hoping to attend sweet rave parties?" she asked acidly. "It only rewards a credit for the exact reason you assumed it was worthless. Professor Hawkins doesn't want attention seekers and credit chasers in his class. He's a serious academic, and one of the most brilliant theoretical minds on the staff. He was the Dean's personal disciple in his youth, and in terms of pure theoretical knowledge is considered to have surpassed his mentor. You will learn more in that class than a hundred higher level lectures about the mechanics of the timestream. It is, without a doubt, the single best foundational course in the catalog."

I blinked at her in surprise. That was a lot of enthusiasm. She coughed, looking away with an embarrassed wince. "He might also be my academic advisor. But I promise I'm not just being biased. If you trust anything I've ever said it should be this. Take the class."

Nodding, I gave her my identification number. She didn't need it, I was sure, I'd been here enough and talked with her enough that she must have memorized it. Hell, even if she hadn't been an S-ranker (or a piece of one I guess) she would have remembered it by now. But she insisted I give it every time. Elonwy took her job very seriously, and she had a lot of respect for the academy and its principles, despite being open to a bit of light bantering during working hours.

She got me registered for the class quickly and efficiently, then glanced down at the counter. Biting her lip uncertainly, she hesitated for a moment, then scribbled down something and passed it to me.

Introduction to Divination Principles- 10,000 credits

"I can't afford-" I started, but she waved me off.

"It's covered," she said quickly. "Just…consider it an investment. That class taught me quite a bit. If Professor Hawkins is the most brilliant theoretical mind in the department, Professor Saunders is the most talented teacher. She has a way of making the material come alive in a way that's truly rare among instructors. Between the two of them, you should have a solid foundation to take the class you ACTUALLY need. Which is this." She scrawled another note on my list.

Quantum Resonance Dynamics and Temporal Diffusion Substrates with Professor Samuel P. Gibbons-25,000 credits

I knew what literally none of these meant, but I trusted Elonwy to know her business. "I appreciate the help," I told her. "I guess I'll be seeing you plenty, because I'm going to need to make some serious credits to afford that one. Here's hoping the stuff I learn in those two courses is enough to take on some bigger tasks, because I want at least a month in that one before the midterms, which means I only have two weeks."

"Your timeline isn't bad," she allowed. "Though I will say that it might be a little ambitious. Not that you shouldn't try to pack in as much as you can before the exam, but you're underestimating the classes you picked. You'll have more than enough foundation to attempt the midterms just taking those two. FINALS, however, you'll need that third class for. No need to rush too much, but you'll definitely want to keep up a decent pace. Luckily the midterms themselves will help with that, assuming you do well."

"And what if I'm planning to buy the ascension thesis?" I asked bluntly.

She shrugged. "Then you buy it. There's more ways to accrue credits than tasks and exams. Once you've gotten a class ranking some of the more difficult competitions will open up. They've usually got pretty impressive prizes if you can place."

"I thought the competitions were all already on the board?" I asked in surprise.

"There are prerequisites for everything here," she clarified. "The stuff on the board is the stuff you're eligible for. It looks different to everyone. You're intermediate B-rank, so you have a decent selection. Advanced would open up more, and having a high class ranking will do the same. Ideally you'd want to do both, but passing the advancement trial for that phase at only a quarter of the way into B-rank will be…challenging."

That didn't bode well for me. Elonwy was S-rank, and based on her work here at the academy I was pretty sure she was a strong one. This place was run by Overgods, there was no way their S-rank standards weren't exacting. I was betting people like Lark and Alara were elites at best here, maybe even middle of the pack, though I had enough pride in my hometown to stubbornly insist to myself that they would be top tier, even in this place, especially considering how well Bethy was doing.

"Any advice about that?" I asked with a grimace. "Because as I am right now, I really don't think I can manage it. But especially knowing that advanced unlocks more tasks and competitions I'll probably need to do it at some point. Is there a trick to it or something?"

She just shook her head. "No trick, just…power. But it's not as insurmountable a goal as you'd think. This is a combat specialization. You'll be doing academic research to learn your foundations, but the point of this place is to learn to apply temporal mechanics to a fight. They can do more for you than you might expect. Not saying it'll be enough, I don't know much about your capabilities in battle, but you might be surprised what you can accomplish with a bit of training from an expert."

That…was a good point. I mean, academically I knew I would be getting stronger would let me fight better, but I had kind of fallen into the trap of thinking about my advancement here as being for the PURPOSE of advancing here. Not that I didn't plan to use my abilities in the real world, but I'd just kind of gotten into the mindset of considering all of this to be a long term investment without any real short term applications.

It was something to think about, but I was getting ahead of myself. For now, my most important job was to check out these classes and learn more about how to use my abilities. I gave Elonwy a grateful smile. "Thank you," I told her sincerely. "I know you have your own reasons for helping me. Boredom, friendship, altruism, extra credit, maybe all of the above, but whatever your reasons I appreciate it more than I can say. I would have been lost without your help and I definitely owe you one."

"Hardly," she said with a casual wave. "It's my duty as an upperclassman to help lost little freshmen lambs. I just couldn't bear to watch you stumble around, helpless and stupid-"

"I was doing fine!" I protested in an offended tone, but she just talked right over me.

Her grin was positively vulpine as she continued to expound at length about my helplessness and idiocy. "Ultimately, mercy and compassion are my two best qualities, so I had to step in and save you from your dumb little brain." She winked, and I knew that she was deflecting because she didn't like taking compliments. I'd been around people like that before, and I had the good sense to stop trying and let her have her way.

Waving my goodbyes I turned and headed out of the exchange. It was still rare for me to see many people there, because without Leviathan's defensive abilities sticking around was tough for students, so despite it being relatively early in the day it wasn't too busy.

I headed back to my room, deciding to stop in and tell Sorwen what I had learned about the classes and which ones were useful. I figured my ally would appreciate the chance to learn something real instead of falling victim to some kind of psychological test aimed at people who like to take shortcuts. Sadly she wasn't there, so I scrawled a quick note and slid it under her door before returning to my own residence.

Once I was there, I dug out a map I'd been working on of the local area. I had a lot of demons running around here and it had become something of a pet project to make one that was functional. I could have bought one for credits, but this had seemed more fun, and I was doing pretty well filling it in. Comparing the buildings to the classroom designation on the page that Elonwy had given me, I found the place I needed to go and checked the time. There was a bit more info on the back of the sheet (I hadn't even noticed her adding it) and I had some time left before class started. I supposed I might as well check this place out today. Guess it was time for my first day of class.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Principles of Time with Professor A.D Hawkins was, to put not too fine a point on it, located in a shithole. It was strange, because I hadn't known Moment City HAD shitholes, everything looked so nice and well maintained, but Hawkins managed it. His lawn was overgrown, his house had boards hanging off of it, there was a rusty sign hanging above his door that squeaked annoyingly every time a strong gust of wind came by.

Which is to say, it LOOKED like every abandoned house I'd ever seen…but without any actual damage. The boards were askew, but a tap made it clear they were solidly anchored, the lawn was overgrown, but it appeared to be JUST overgrown enough to look bad, and the sign…well, it was just a really annoying sign that someone had installed badly, but it was also obviously intentional. It made everything Elonwy had hinted at about tests for finding real knowledge seem a lot more reasonable, not that I'd doubted her before.

So when I knocked on the door and it swung open a crack to reveal a bloodshot eye behind a scratched glasses lens, I was less than surprised. "What?" barked the voice.

"Elonwy sent me," I said bluntly, not wanting to do the song and dance. "I'm signed up for the class. It hasn't started yet, right?" I shoved against the door, and the figure backed up, letting me pass as I bulldozed through the conversation. Elonwy had been very clear that this was the best way to get his attention in her instructions. "And how does that work? I'm sure I missed sessions, will I need to be caught up? Is there a textbook? Will you do a recap? And if so how often are those necessary?"

I entered the room at the end of the hall, assuming if the god behind me wanted me to stop he'd stop me, and then…froze. "Um…did I come at the wrong time?"

"No," he said with a sigh as he followed behind me. "You came at the perfect time. It's always the perfect time. Because no one ever takes this class. The ones who decide to give it a try usually see the outside of the house and turn back. It's not really worth the effort for just one credit." He grimaced. "Elonwy. That girl never could mind her business. Always picking up strays."

I chuckled, not that he seemed amused. "Well I'm registered to be here so…I'm ready to learn. Also I have a friend who signed up but she won't show up until tomorrow."

He grumbled. "Interrupting my damned research. Lousy kids. Fine. If you're signed up I guess I'm obligated." Walking over, he flopped onto the couch. "So. What exactly do you know about time?" I opened my mouth to answer but was cut off by a wooden duck the professor had snatched from a table and hurled at my skull. It bounced off my mask harmlessly, but it stunned me into silence. "Wrong," he snapped.

I blinked. "But I didn't say anything?"

"You were about to," he told me bluntly. "Which is wrong. The correct answer was silence, because you know NOTHING about time. Its warps, its wefts, its ups and downs. Time is complex, variable, unusual thing. I've been studying it for longer than the CONCEPT of your family has existed, and I've barely scratched its surface."
I held up both hands. "Noted, I don't know shit about time. That's why I'm here. So…educate me."

He rolled his eyes. "Educate me, he says. Like that's so easy. Fine, I'll try to dumb this down for you, brat. Telling you what I know about time would take centuries, so I find it is easier to begin not with what time is, but with what it is not, and more importantly, what it does not do. First lesson. Time doesn't pass."

"I'm…not sure what you mean by that," I said slowly. "Can you clarify?"

Contrary to my expectation, that seemed to please him rather than annoy him. "Good," he complimented. "Admitting ignorance is a sign of wisdom. What I just said is simple in concept, but difficult to grasp in scope. It is, however, exactly as I said. Time does not pass. Moments are not moving by, there is no STREAM of time, despite the use of that term in certain treatises. Rather, time is a stationary construct, through which we, as beings, journey."

I took a moment to digest that, considering the idea. "Alright," I said slowly. "What are the ramifications of that? For us, I mean."

"Manifold," he replied instantly. "Literally too many to count, but for the purposes of this discussion, the most impactful is the concept of compound energy drain and directionality. Most people who work with time will tell you that altering the flow of temporal energy gets more difficult the more you do it, the further you go. It does not. At least, not if you do it properly. Time is, in fact, a dimension of space, and movement through it is the traversal of imaginary distance."

"Wait, but time attribute energy and space attribute energy are totally different," I said in confusion. "I have an affinity for the latter and had to develop one for the former. The Dean said I'd need it."

He waved a hand dismissively. "Yes and no. Perception is reality for Ascendants. Time and space are treated as different disciplines, so the attributes are separate. The mechanics are…disparate. Time as a dimension of space is less structured at a physical level. It's in a complicated theoretical state. Regardless, many spatial manipulation techniques can have impressive effects when applied to temporal mechanisms."

I nodded along. "Ok. But mostly I'm here because I need to know how to use time attribute energy. Mythcrafting isn't a thing here, so I have no foundational basis for creating techniques or effects."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "You must have SOME temporal abilities, otherwise you wouldn't have been admitted. What can you do?"
"My Domain is…complicated, but I've manifested some of my techniques and abilities as entities," I did my best to explain. "I can access the powers of these demons at will, and they're all able to grow on their own. I have three with temporal capabilities."

I listed off the abilities of Mephistopheles, Overlay, and Limbo, and he listened patiently.

"Well," he said with interest. "I can see why my teacher admitted you. You certainly are an anomaly. What you've done is…quite frankly astonishing. It's a miracle-" he began, looking at me intently. My chest puffed out before he finished. "That you haven't killed yourself by accident."

I blinked at that. "What? I mean…my demons are stable. I've never had a problem with techniques or forms backfiring on me."

"Which would be the miracle I mentioned," he said dryly. "I assume you're some kind of natural Mythcrafting savant. But like most savants, that makes you a complete idiot. People with natural talent are the WORST students. They can't systematically describe their process in any way, they just do what FEELS right, and none of it is repeatable. They develop deplorable habits that take years to correct. I imagine my teacher arranged for you to end up here where I would need to repair the shattered remnants of your nonexistent foundation so he didn't have to."

"But, the Dean didn't send me here," I said weakly. "Elonwy did. You think she did it on his orders?"

He rolled his eyes. "My teacher is a temporal Overgod. He does not TELL people to do things. He simply arranges causality in such a way as to encourage them to do them of their own will. You should be more than aware of such a technique, given your own abilities."

It took me a second to make the connection, just because of the sheer scale of what he was talking about. "Wait…you mean he's using an ability like Limbo? Pruning potential futures until he finds one where she decides to direct me to you?"

"Possibly," he shrugged. "Or possibly it was more subtle. Perhaps he arranged for her to get a glimpse of a syllabus with my name on it before going to work, or perhaps the light caught your eyes in a specific way that reminded her of a fellow student who she cared for. There are as many potential futures as there are stars in the sky."

I swallowed hard. "But that's so much to sort through. The amount of power and effort it would take to prune those. Destroying what must be trillions of timelines."

Another duck hit me in the head. "What did I JUST finish telling you?" he demanded. "Think."

I did, and it came to me pretty quickly. "Space," I said after a moment. "Time is a dimension in space, so you traverse it rather than forcing it to bend. So he isn't destroying the timelines to select for the one he wants, he's…what, wandering through them? How does he anchor the specific timeline without getting rid of the others? It IS called pruning, so he must be culling some."

"An assumption," he said disdainfully. "Timelines branch. Culling a specific line in a specific way can move up a whole branch of temporal possibilities. But there are other ways. Anchoring is a skill you won't need for quite some time."

I nodded along, but I was actually getting excited. I knew what he was talking about now, understood the dynamics on a fundamental level. Limbo worked on the exact principle he'd mentioned. I physically moved through space and destroyed possible futures. This concept could potentially help me massively improve my demon.

"So…what do I need to learn?" I asked eagerly. "Tell me what kind of techniques or skills I need and I'll get them. I can do this."

He rolled his eyes, reaching into a pocket and tossing me something. I caught it on reflex, opening my hand to reveal a gold timepiece. A pocket watch with no chain, and a winding crown at the top. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he grinned. "Oh no," he told me maliciously. "You have no foundation at all. Working with Mythcrafting attributes requires some kind of strong mental construct. Since you don't have an existing one, I get to build yours from scratch."

I held up the watch in confusion. "I don't…get it," I said slowly. "You want me to use this to what? Keep time?"

His wicked smile got wider. "Not at all. I want you to take it apart. Nothing teaches you more about time than understanding the devices that keep it, and watch construction is a fantastic mechanism for Mythcrafting visualization when it comes to time."

I went pale, staring down at the complicated device. "I'm not…but I already have a visualization right? I use books."

He shrugged. "You can still use books. Just draw the designs into the pages. It's the best of both worlds. Regardless, this will be exponentially less complicated if we build your mental construct to fit temporal mechanics before you start actually applying them. I assure you, this will aid you in your quest to learn to Mythcraft better than any other method I could convey. Or you could simply leave me to my research. I don't have any particular preference one way or the other."

Unfortunately, I could tell he meant that. It didn't matter to him if I stayed or went. In fact, I suspect he'd have preferred the latter. Which of course meant I HAD to say. Because I wasn't giving him the satisfaction.

Grimacing, I set the watch on the table and glanced up at him. "So what am I supposed to do?"

He grinned and passed me a small case with a series of VERY tiny tools in it. "First, you need to take this watch apart entirely…and then put it back together. One hundred times." I closed my eyes, taking a long, deep breath to shore up my inner strength. Then I got to work.