Wish upon the Stars chapter 1022

I found myself alone. No connection to Callie, no friends around to bounce ideas off of, none of my normal distractions. This was, of course, by design. This was an important step. I felt like this was a tipping point, like I was being guided to do this by my Fatewalker Path. Like I had always been being guided. This was my destination, my final step, and also the very first step in a brand new way forward.

Which just left me with the unfortunate issue of not knowing what exactly I was supposed to DO here. I mean, I knew what I wanted for my last pseudo-Domain in the abstract, of course. But I also knew that this was going to be the foundation of something bigger. My final expression of a course I’d set all those years ago when I’d first embarked on this journey.

So it had to be big. Couldn’t be something simple like an augmented Leviathan, that would be pointless. But I had covered MOST possible outcomes.

I needed to take the concept of rejecting Apostate and make it…more. Turn it into something valuable. Something new. I had combat, utility, creation, information gathering. Everything you could imagine. But it wasn’t enough. I was missing something. Some key ingredient. Some final piece of the puzzle.

But I couldn’t come up with anything. It was choice paralysis all the way down. What should I pick? Why not something else? What would be most useful? I was double and triple guessing. My fate sense was just letting me down. It was so vague. I just wished I could talk to it directly, then maybe…and then I stopped. Why DIDN’T I just do that? Why didn’t I ask my fate sense. Why not manifest the power of the Fatewalker directly. I’d done it with so many of my other abilities.

I closed my eyes, focusing my energy inward. I thought about Apostate. About the trial, about my future. I searched for that spark of insight, that understanding. And I felt it. That slight tug, that brief flare of instinct. I triggered Dantalion, pouring my senses into myself, and when I couldn’t catch it, I triggered Limbo, selecting the future I needed, eliminating the possibilities of me missing the trail and then-

Then I wasn’t alone. I was sitting at a table, inside the library, and across the table was…me.

“Really?” I asked myself acidically. “A goatee?”

The other me, who indeed had a small black goatee and red horns barely visible under his hairline, shrugged. “It seemed thematically appropriate. After all, this is your deal with the devil, isn’t it?”

I frowned. “In what sense?” I asked suspiciously.

He tisked at me. “Come now, don’t play dumb. It’s embarrassing. We both know you aren’t stupid. You had a lot of different directions you could have taken this. You could have combined Beelzebub with Asmodeus and created your own Imperial Guard. They would have been powerful, too. Or you could have doubled down on soul defense, taken the safe route. But you didn’t do that. Because you want something more than just another bandage on a gaping wound. You don’t want to put another card on the table. You want to flip the damned thing over.”

“I need more,” I said bluntly. “Need to understand, to learn how to access your foresight. I need…clarity.”

“Knowledge is power,” the other me nodded. “And power comes at a price. You know that. And you know what the price for this will be. Don’t you? What it will cost you to manifest me completely in this form. This isn’t a committed pseudo-Domain yet. You could consider this…an exit interview. Or an entrance interview, depending on your perspective. You can choose to back out.”

I sighed. “I know. If I use you as the final piece of my pseudo-Domain, I’ll break the last remnant of my Doom Sovereign Skill. You’re the foundation of that whole ability. My Path won’t break, of course, but the Skill will change. Will become something else.”

“Change is inevitable,” he said gently. “You know THAT too. It’s coming for us whether we want it or not. The question is, can you keep up with the changes forced upon you? Are you willing to make the hard choices? The answer seems to be uncertain, or we wouldn’t be having this meeting.”

Shrugging, I just grinned at him. “What can I say, I wanted a second opinion, and you’re kind of the only game in town. Should I call you something, by the way?”

“You already know my name,” he said enigmatically. “But there’s no need to rush. You haven’t finished working up to it. This is a big decision, and you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t need to talk it out. So…talk.”

I glared at him. “Please tell me I’m not normally this much of a smug asshole. You could be nicer about this.”

“Nope,” he said, raising a finger. “Wrong direction there, boss. I’m not you. I’m PART of you, but I’m a different entity. That’s important. It’s KEY to this whole thing, actually. Because if you decide to stick with me, that’s not going away. Might even get worse. You’re at a crossroads here, even moreso than you might be aware of. This choice is going to shape you whole future. You’ve been taking steps, ones you haven’t even been aware of. Some were my influence, some not so much. But this is the last step. This is where you decide if you continue forward, veer off the road, or turn back altogether. Now. Tell me the downsides.”

Grimacing, I nodded and collected my thoughts. “No more free upgrades. With the Skill disconnected and turned into something else, I won’t rank it up automatically anymore.”

“True,” he acknowledged. “But since you hit your capstones that's less of a concern now. You don’t really need it anymore at this point. It’s convenient, but not necessary, and besides that, it comes with an obvious perk.”

“No rank cap,” I allowed. “All my subskills can continue growing beyond C-rank. I can hit Mythic with any of my forms or pseudo Domains. Even you.”

He nodded approvingly. “It’s a biggie. Of course, even that has downsides.”

“It essentially erases the sole advantage of my current skillset,” I sighed. “I’m only able to keep up my absurd levels of utility and skill diversity because it’s all part of my build. It grows as I do. If I break that equilibrium I’ll have to find a way to grind all my skills individually to keep up with them.”

To my surprise, he waggled a hand. “Well…maybe not. I can’t go into details, but that might not be as big of a problem as you expect. What's more important is how this will affect your Domain. Because you know that’s coming.”

I did. My fate sense had been warning me constantly something big was approaching, and my Domain was the next big step in my evolution. I wasn’t B-rank, but I DID have a formed Chronicle, which would alleviate the downsides, and I needed to get stronger fast. The only issue was that I had absolutely NO idea what my Domain was going to be. I could feel it…forming. Preparing. That was why I’d needed this meeting. Because this was going to be the big next step that decided what form my Domain would take.

“You can’t give me some kind of hint here?” I asked waspishly. “Tell me how this choice will affect the outcome? Hell, shouldn’t I be forming it myself anyway? Why the autopilot bullshit?”

“The staff,” he said bluntly. “The Ten Demons Tree has been learning from you. Internalizing your patterns, growing alongside you. Every time you use it, every time you create or reference an ability, it shaped the staff a little more. It’s a fulcrum on which your Chronicle tilts. You knew when you accepted it that it was going to change things. That it would be an integral part of your Path. When the Ten Demons Tree bears fruit, your Domain will emerge. Not on autopilot, but watered with the choices you’ve made up to this point. Or did you think using it for all that calculating wasn’t going to have an effect? You taught it that it should simulate skills and abilities to their natural conclusions. What do you call it? The Wisdom of Solomon?”

“Suddenly feeling a lot less wise,” I said wryly.

He snorted. “Gosh, it’s almost like you can see the future.” His tone was a little mocking, but mostly just amused. “But in all seriousness it's not as predetermined as it seems. In fact, that's why you're here. This is your last chance to back out. I'm the last bit of nutrients the tree needs. Reforge me into this form, and the conditions are met.”

“Or take a step back,” I finished. “Take control and assert my dominance over the process…and never find out what this could have been.”

He smiled gently. “The tyranny of choice. You can't escape it. You can go left. You can go right. Or you can turn around and go back. But even if you go nowhere, you're still deciding where to go.”

“Just tell me one thing,” I said after a brief silence. “If I take this path, if I risk everything I’ve built, invest it all in this…possibility. If it works. Will it change things? Will it make me stronger?”

His gentle smile became a wide, wolfish grin. “It’ll be a revolution. And I’m not just saying that because it’s the only way I get to exist. The Path you and the tree have set your feet on is truly unique. If you follow through, you have the potential to become something no one has ever seen before.”

That brought me up short. That was…way more than I’d expected. What was this Domain that I’d unwittingly created? What had I made in my endless pursuit of constant experimentation? I was wracking my brain and I couldn’t think of anything. Whatever the tree was doing, whatever it had learned from me, it had taken it so much further than I was able to.

It was a risk. But also, it really wasn’t. I’d made the choices that led here. This wasn’t some ineffable force contriving to give me a destiny. This was MY Domain. I’d made it myself. With my actions. With my heart. And looking back, those were things I would NEVER doubt. Every step of my journey, I’d walked forward with my head high. I’d had doubts, sure, and fears. But I didn’t have regrets. Not anymore.

I trusted myself. Trusted the path I’d taken. Trusted my love for my friends to have pushed me in the right directions even when recursion might have pushed me another way. When it came down to it, this wasn’t a matter of choice. It was a matter of faith. And if I couldn’t have faith in the person I was, who could? How could I become a god when I didn’t even believe?

“I’m ready,” I told him calmly. “I appreciate the sit down, by the way. I know this could have gone a very different way for you. It means a lot that you were willing to break it down for me completely, given what you had to lose.”

He shrugged. “What do I have to lose? I don’t even exist yet. I’m just a possibility. Until you decide to manifest me, decide to take this Path, I’ll only be a shadow, a flicker of potential. Besides, you know who I am, right? This is kind of my whole deal. Bearer of forbidden knowledge, ‘to him ascribe all sin’, any of that ring a bell?”

I knew what he wanted. He’d said it earlier. It wasn’t time yet. Or it hadn’t been. It was now. All I needed to do to finish this was make him real. Select this possibility, choose this Path. All I needed to do…was say his name. “I know,” I chuckled. “I figured it out before I even got here. Thanks for the assist Azazel. Be seeing you soon.” And then I opened my eyes, and the changes began.