Wish upon the Stars chapter 1015

I was panicking. Liquid Lamentation. I had some bad memories regarding that stuff. Hatescream had used it to corrupt the ruined soul temple to gain access to the ruins of Aetherbright Academy, and even a small amount of it (and not very high ranked either) had enabled his people to hijack a trial that was considered sacrosanct by most of the known universe.

Of course, I’d said none of this out loud, but my distress was obvious, so my mom immediately asked what was wrong. I filled them all in, and my grandfather’s lip curled in outrage. “Disgusting,” he spat. “No wonder it smells so toxic. But this isn’t the stuff you ran into before. It couldn’t be. You’d have been dead the instant you got within a mile of that.” He jerked his chin in a direction I assumed was indicative of where the sensation was coming from.

“Well, I assume they used higher grade stuff,” I said with a shrug. “It’s made from tortured souls, so they must have just used…bigger ones. How strong is it?”

The stuff I’d seen at the temple had been so toxic it defied logic. If they were injecting an even stronger mixture… My grandfather grit his teeth. “Strong. Here, come with me.” He grabbed me, and there was a brief sensation of displacement, and suddenly I was standing outside the Back Palace, floating in the air beside him. The rest of my family appeared next to me, or at least my parents, grandmother, and uncle.

Off in the distance I could see cracks forming in the air, space itself fractured. Through the cracks, disgusting writhing muck seeped into the space, dripping down to glop onto the meadows below. Where it touched, earth cracked and hissed, blackening and rotting away.

“How much more powerful is that than you remember?” He asked urgently.

“A LOT,” I responded instantly. It honestly didn’t even look like the same substance. This stuff was more…alive. Like sentient darkness made of hate and hunger. Flickers of red light danced inside the blackness like ruinous stars twinkling in a sick and horrible parody of a sky.

Above us, the sky darkened, and I breathed a sigh of relief as purple lightning gathered. Sadly, I seemed to be the only one relieved. As the lightning rained down on the muck, I glanced at my family. “Ok, that must be the old man, right?” I asked slowly. “Why is that bad? Because you all look like that’s bad.”

“This is the Wishworld,” my dad said. “Inside the Wishworld, the old man’s will is manifest. He can alter reality. The fact that he had to manifest a physical force to grind away at that stuff…it’s not a good sign. It means it’s so corrosive that it’s rotting the foundation of his Domain. That’s DIVINE corruption. It’s taking a substantial amount of time for him to counter it, which means it’s taking a substantial amount of focus. And with a second god most likely around…he’s going to be fully engaged.”

“But we have the Moonlight Pope with us,” I frowned. “Barring Lark himself showing up, we should be safe, right?”

The man himself wasn’t looking at us. Or at the corruption being combatted by the purple lightning. “Wrong,” he said quietly. “Because they didn’t just bring the gods. They brought S-rank backup. Laplace.”

He nodded to the side of the corruption, where yet another huge hole had been in the empty air. Through it, I saw several dozen figures pour in. Multiple S-rankers easily distinguishable among them.

Hanging back, lazily stepping inside, a tall, dapper man in a black and white suit with a monochrome checkered top hat and a mask of the same two colors strolled unhurriedly through the air. The mask was odd, half white comedy mask, half black tragedy mask, and between his fingers he twirled a swirl patterned black and white cane.

“Who is Laplace?” I asked quietly, worried he might notice us. It seemed like he was distracted by the curtain of cascading purple lightning for now, but who knew what S-rankers could do when pressed?

“One of Hatescream’s closest subordinate’s,” the Pope said grimly. “A monster who glories slaughter. He’s a demigod himself, and a strong one. He’s not LARK, but he’s strong enough to give me trouble.” His eyes flicked to my grandparents. “Nicholas, Celia, I’ll need your assistance with the others. They only brought a dozen, if it was just them I could have pinned most down, but Laplace is a genuine threat. I won’t be able to protect any of you.” His eyes flicked back to Laplace. “Shane, I’m sending you back. We’ll keep them from penetrating too deeply, stay with your cabinet.”

He flicked his sword and I was just…gone. Or rather, I was somewhere else, standing next to my friends. Callie’s eyes widened. “What happened?” she asked urgently. “What’s going on? Why are they attacking?”

I opened my mouth to answer…and then I froze. Why WERE they attacking? It made no sense. This was one of the most well defended events the WCP held. There were S-rankers from all over here. There was literally NO worse time to do this. Which meant that was the POINT. “This is a fucking distraction,” I spat. “The main force of the attack is drawing our attention to the back palace.”

I tried to call for Zeke. My dad. My mom. Anyone. No one came. It didn’t matter. “Fade,” I told my bodyguard. “You’re taking point. We’re headed for the terminal. We need to get back.”

Something was wrong. I didn’t know WHAT or what I even planned to do, but I could FEEL that I needed to get back to the main palace. The timing of this attack was too coincidental. Something was happening while everyone was distracted. Did that mean the Vanished Gods were behind the trial? Or were they cooperating with the Void. It didn’t matter. We’d find out soon enough.

Of course, it was possible I was about to get murdered by some scary A-rank infiltrator, but I didn’t FEEL like that would happen. My instincts were telling me I could make a difference, and all I could do was trust them.

When we reached The Terminal entrance, there was a bit of a struggle to get in. Lots of the weaker members of the visiting parties and even the WCP were trying to get out of the Back Palace. I didn’t know where they were GOING, but they seemed very determined to get there, wherever it was.

After a few minutes, we broke through, entering the formerly peaceful terminal, and what I saw chilled my blood.

Slaughter. The entire place was crawling with hungry eyed monsters made of pure darkness, an eerie blue glow shining from their eyes. Mantises, werewolves, birds, manticores. Void Spawn of every size, shape, and description were surging in through the holes in the Void that we’d been assured were all one way.

Grimacing, I flicked my hand out, manifesting my staff. “Alright people, circle up.”

Callie spread her wings, Heretic Fire washing over her as Gossamer appeared in her hands, catching fire from within. Fade drew his sword, and as we strode forward, the blade parted crowds of the Void Spawn with brutal efficiency. Even with his constant strikes though, he wasn’t killing enough of them. They poured past him, reaching us in staggered groups. I called for Glory, my staff becoming a spear of black flame infused with Heretic Fire.

No matter how many I killed though, it wasn’t enough. I triggered Beelzebub, a dozen other me’s appearing, and I had several of them shift into Asmodeus. Abel, Bethy, Mel, Chelsea, Gabe, Vicky, Wulf, Dante, and all the others within reach were imbued with the absurd power of Asmodeus, horns growing from their heads as wings exploded from their backs.

We ran through the crowds, Fade drifting in and out as he vanished to deal with some of the B-rank Void Spawn getting in our way.

My staff sang, slicing through dark forms like a knife through butter. We fought through the hordes unendingly, until, finally, we reached the end of the rubber walkway. “Callie!” I yelled as we hit the base of the stairs, only to be stopped by a crowd of Void Spawn. “I need something big!’

She nodded. Raising one hand, I saw her grimace with strain, and her left hand glowed the inverted blue of her Adherent Fire. Lashing out, she shattered the air in the same move I’d seen before, then, with the Heretic Flame still burning on her sword, drove it into the spatial crack. Fragments of space erupted around the crowd, and Callie’s blade swept through them, cleaving the horde like a meat grinder as they swept through the group.

With unearthly howls of hate and rage they all burst into flames, dissolving into piles of ash. Callie staggered, and I caught her, passing her back to Chelsea as soon as I could. Fade appeared, stalking up the steps, and a giant Void Spider fell on him from above.

His eyes never even moved to the creature, his arm just flickered and it fell to pieces around him, parting around his body seamlessly. When he reached the top of the steps, he kicked the double doors open, glancing around the hallway carefully before looking back to give us the all clear. “We’re good,” he assured me. “Now where the hell are we GOING?”

I paused. I didn’t actually know that. I knew we were needed here, but not where to go. Except I actually did. I didn’t know why, it made no sense to me at all but…”Devon,” I said with certainty. “We need to find my cousin, he’s in danger.”

“Your cousin who accused you of treason?” Callie sputtered. “The one whose FAULT all this probably is?”

“He’s an idiot," I agreed. “But that doesn’t mean he deserves to die. Besides, if they want him gone, we don’t. Something weird is happening here. I have no clue why they want him dead when he’s working for them, but I have a feeling preventing it is the only way we get to the bottom of this.”

She groaned. “Of course it is. We never should have gone to the Seraphim Tower. Clearly you’ve picked up all sorts of bad habits.”

I grinned at her wildly, but I knew she would follow me wherever I went. I turned to Fade, pointing down a hall. “That way,” I said firmly. “Clear us a path, and try to make sure it’s a quick one. I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

He nodded, turning towards the hall. Raising his sword, he took up an odd fencing stance, and above his head, a massive avatar of his sword manifested. A stomp and a thrust and the manifestation tore through the hall. Literally THROUGH the hall, walls, floor, and ceiling. He twisted as he withdrew, and the rotating blade bored a hole through the underground space, creating a long open tunnel. 

Everything that had been INSIDE that tunnel just…ceased. The construct was made of pure sword energy, so even the flat of the blade could cut. That one twist wiped away all the physical matter occupying these halls, including the Void Spawn.

I slapped him on the back. “Thanks man, that was just what we needed. Let’s go.” We took off down the empty tunnel in the direction I felt my gut pulling.

We ran for about twenty minutes, and when we emerged from the tunnel, it was into a huge stone room resembling a buried cathedral. Like someone had sunk a church into the earth. When we came out though, we were forced to stop in our tracks.

Devon was surrounded. Not just by enemies, but by bodies. His guards were all dead, but Devon himself had a nasty looking pair of hooked daggers he was using to rip apart the Void Spawn. Even as we watched though, one of the monsters, a minotaur of some kind, drove its horns through his back into his gut. With a sigh, I spun my staff and charged. No rest for the wicked.