Wish upon the Stars chapter 1030

I groaned in relief as the last of the incredibly dense soul restoration energy was burned off. It felt familiar, like a much denser version of the belt of spiritual calming Benny had made all those years ago. Of course, even the wish wouldn’t have been enough to quickly repair all the soul damage on its own. But luckily, it didn’t need to.

My Ten Demons Tree had originally been a reincarnation tree, a special tree of the soul attribute. Combined with the abilities of Genesis Burst and Life Nova, it was able to quickly absorb and then distribute the power throughout my Domain. The phantom tree above my throne wasn’t just an illusion, its roots were the connecting fibers that had helped my Domain condense, and they spread throughout its entirety.

“How are you feeling?” Callie asked worriedly as I stood and stretched. “Is there any permanent damage?”

I shook my head. “Nope. As expected of an A-rank wish. I have to thank you for charging it though. I hadn’t expected to need it so soon, and given my condition I was absolutely not going to be able to do it myself.” I looked at my back with a grimace. “I just wish it was able to fix my armor, too. I don’t like walking around with it cracked like this. Makes me feel exposed.”

She nodded, looking around worriedly. “I don’t think that’s just the armor. We should really go. Roland will be looking for us, and if he finds us before we run into Devon, he might delay us too long to save him.”

“Agreed,” I said as we set off in a seemingly random direction. Once the repairs were done, I’d consulted Azazel and had him do some divination. While he couldn’t exactly divine Devon’s whereabouts here, he COULD divine which direction was most likely to lead to us running into him. This kind of yes or no query was one of the most effective types of divining, so even in a place like The Quiet Room it wasn’t hindered much.

The spot we’d landed was secluded and remote, but once we set off, we lost all semblance of cover. Within about ten minutes we’d shifted terrains, arriving in a series of flat plains dotted with strange purple flowers. The faces of the plans had strange evil smiles on them, and their eyes were sharp and mocking. It was really disconcerting. Especially since they started to whisper as we entered the area, releasing clouds of incredibly thin powder that made my head a little fuzzy.

A quick burst of Zagan and tapping into Leviathan erased the effects, and Callie’s Heretic Fire had enough purification energy to wipe her clean, so we weren’t in DANGER, the environment was just really creepy.

“Hoo!” came a menacing cry. I spun, jerking back with a yelp as an owl appeared right in my face, talons extended. I dodged easily, but as soon as I lost sight of it…it vanished. I stood back up, looking around suspiciously. Nothing. No birds, no animals at all, actually. The flowers were the most sentient thing we’d seen since we arrived in this place.

I squinted around, turning to look for the- “Oh fuck!” I shouted, stumbling back as the owl once again appeared from nowhere with a screech, razor sharp talons heading for my face.

“What is the deal with this OWL?” I snapped, spinning to look for it after it once again vanished. Then I paused. “Actually…what IS the deal with this owl?” I glanced at Callie. “Have you seen any other living creatures here? Not plants, but actually thinking animals? Because we’ve been walking for a while and I didn’t notice any.”

She frowned. “I…no, I haven’t seen any. Why is there an owl here then?”

A shriek echoed over the plain, and I turned to see the owl flapping its wings lazily above the flowers. “Hoo!” it chanted mockingly.

I took a step forward, and it tilted gracefully, falling backwards and flapping once, coasting backwards away from us. “Oh come on!” I snapped. “That’s not even how WINGS work! You can’t glide on your back like that!”

“Hoo!” it repeated. I had no idea how it was managing to pack so much scorn into such a short, clipped syllable, but it was doing a great job.

“I think it wants us to follow it,” Callie said, her eyes wide and excited as she stared at the animal. Callie liked birds, and while I was predisposed to MY bird, I knew enough about owls to know that this one was probably a huge dick. Still, she wasn’t wrong, so I suppressed a sigh and  trailed after it.

While it led us on a mostly parallel path at first, the owl turned and headed off in a slightly different direction several times, adjusting our course. I frowned as I followed it. Nothing was supposed to be able to get in here, especially not an animal, so what was this thing? It seemed to be leading us towards my cousin, but could we trust it?

The answer, apparently, was yes. Within thirty minutes we arrive at a cliff, looking down on a familiar trio of people. Devon was in bad shape. He’d been beaten mercilessly, carved up enough that there wasn’t much clothing left unstained, and was currently trapped inside of some kind of shimmering glass bear trap.

“Why are you DOING this?” he asked desperately. “We’re on the same side! You want to bring my cousin to justice as much as I do! I know it!”

Callisted burst out laughing. “Justice? You’re talking to US about justice? Do you even know why my business went under? Do you really think a B-rank crafter was SO incompetent that he accidentally shipped out goods so defective they were DANGEROUS?”

Devon frowned. “I…assumed it was an experimental formulation. You said it took a few months for it to settle.”

The sallow faced youth sneered. “Of course I did. After all, accusing a bloodline descendant of malfeasance without proof is a punishable offense. The palace is Wyndham territory. How dare any of us lowly hangers on aspire to better ourselves? I was politely informed that my business plan was interfering with the aspirations of one of the branch head’s grandchildren. When I wouldn’t back down, my product was sabotaged, and that same grandchild arranged to buy my company for pennies. I don’t even remember his name. Little moron got bored and abandoned the business within a month.”

My cousin flinched. “That’s…I didn’t know that. If you’d told me I’d have helped you seek restitution.” His eyes flickered to Franklin, tone pleading. “And what about you? With your reputation I’m sure you don’t have any grievance against the family? We’ve treated you well, yes? You even proved yourself against a legendary figure.”

“Proved myself,” the big man said bitterly. “I didn’t prove anything. That old man took a dive. His employer didn’t like the idea of one of his tools achieving success he hadn’t achieved himself. He made Craven offer his life up as payment for his…sponsorship of me. Of course, he was kind enough to let me do the deed myself. Who doesn’t want to kill their own grandfather, right?” His tone was cold and sarcastic, but I could see real anger in his eyes. And I didn’t blame him.

Devon just looked…devestated. “That’s not right,” he said weakly. “There are so many opportunities for those outside the bloodline. Even some of the branch heads aren’t relatives.”

My stomach was churning. Roland. Callister. Franklin. It was easy to be angry at them for participating in this. To hate them for trying to hurt someone I loved. But it was also easy to understand why they were doing this. Roland had lost his wife, Callister had his life ruined, Franklin had to murder his own grandfather. And all of it was because of us. Because of my family.

Even if I assumed that it hadn’t been family leadership behind those decisions, it still stemmed from the same general lack of responsibility and care that characterized the Wishmaster position. Aiden had no interest in the day to day running of the family, the elders were concerned with games and one upmanship over everything else, and the old man couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the life or death of his own descendants.

I’d always known what kind of place the WCP was. Always known it was cold, and brutal, but I also knew that it was a place where people could climb higher. Could find opportunity if they were willing to risk.

At its core, my impression of the family and our faction had been…fair. Not nice. But fair. The kind of brutal fairness of a hungry lion stalking a gazelle, maybe. But not this. Not casual cruelty and pointless spite. Not nepotism and incompetence and childish greed destroying people’s lives.

And the worst part was that in the end…it didn’t matter. I was going to stop them. Maybe kill them. Because what they were doing, no matter how justified, was wrong. Killing Derran, trying to kill Callie, trying to kill all of us really. They were in pain, but I couldn’t let them inflict that same agony on the rest of us.

Callie took my hand, and I felt her voice in my mind. “It’s not right,” she agreed with my strong emotions, without even needing to ask. “But you knew that things weren’t right. This doesn’t change anything for you. Your responsibility was always to make things better. Now you know more about where to start.”

I nodded solemnly. She was right. I sighed. “Get ready to intervene,” I told her after a moment. “We need to hit Franklin hard. He’s out of our weight class, at least without prep, but he’s not expecting an attack. If we hit him hard enough we can scare him off. Priority is extracting Devon and healing him up.”

When I got her ok, I turned to stare down at the bigger man. I reached for my Domain, extending it out over the pair as I called for my demons to dwell within my body. Sammael, Abaddon.

Wings expanded behind me as power flooded my body. Inside the palace off in the distance, Zagan, Mephistopheles, and several other high energy demons poured their strength into Abaddon, empowering my physical body. I triggered my staff, boosting the strength based demon to Tier 8, and used Double Trouble as I called my weapon to my hand.

I didn’t do anything fancy. Didn’t, twirl or wind up. I hauled back, my grip choked up on the staff, and swung it like a club at the back of Franklin’s head with every ounce of power in my body.

Despite my perfect timing, the use of my Domain, and the overwhelming force in my body, Franklin somehow sensed it coming. He shifted slightly, tilting his head and bending a knee, turning the solid full force blow into a glancing shot, which he rolled with to escape my range.

Unfortunately for him, my staff was no club, no matter how I used it, and I had only been swinging from about half length. I loosened my grip, letting the haft of the weapon slide up to extend my reach as I swung again, my staff tearing the air as I let out a blurring combination of attacks.

Franklin dodged calmly, but his eyes widened and he tried to turn last second. Too slow. A black shimmering sword, filled with blue black flames, drove itself through his shoulder, and he roared with discomfort, swinging a fist and driving Callie back. She withdrew the blade as she retreated.

“Frankie!” Callister shouted in panic. His hands flew up and a torrent of paper cranes erupted from his sleeves. I stepped back, swatting them away, but they swirled around us, interrupting my sight line. By the time they cleared, the pair was gone, and I was scowling over at an injured Devon. With a sigh, I dismissed the incarnations, called up Zagan, and headed over to help him. I hoped he was at least grateful this time.