Wish upon the Stars chapter 995

We didn’t head down to the fighting pits until the next day. In the morning, I stockpiled my scrolls (which counting yesterday’s had reached thirty six, not counting the five reserve I always had my friends keep on hand) Once that was done, we headed down to the pits in the underground layers of the Palace.

“So…how does this place have underground layers?” I asked as we descended a long staircase. “Because from what I saw outside it’s basically just a floating building.”

“The Ancestor wanted it to have underground layers,” said Vicky dryly. “So it did.”

I chuckled at that. This was the Wishworld, the personal Domain of the old man, and it made sense that things worked a little differently if he wanted them to. Especially considering what I’d seen when he granted my wish. It seemed like his power worked on a whole different level here, at least compared to anything I’d seen.

I let VIcky drift forward to talk to my wife and sister as I hung back, drawing even with Abel. “You sure you want to do this?” I asked him quietly. “I know you haven’t been able to do as much lately but-”

My mentor held up a hand. “I need to. My Path of the Infinite Blood Sea is solid, but I’ve run into a dead end trying to condense my Chronicle. Now that I’m C-rank, it should be more than possible, but it’s not…I’m doing it wrong. I’ve become complacent. Weak. I’m too comfortable acting as part of a team. Which is fine, mostly, but I let it overshadow who and what I am.”

“Is that really worth risking your life like this?” I asked with a frown. “These people are veteran C-rankers who grew up in a god faction.”

“And I’m a genius who was trained by the strongest S-ranker in the universe,” he said coldly. “This is what I’m talking about, Shane. You’ve gotten so used to dealing with people like Bethy that even you forget who I am.” His hand drifted up to touch his mask. “I’m Appolyon, the destroyer. I was unmatched in the fighting pits of Doomtown for decades. These people might not take me seriously when I get down there, but you can bet your ass they’ll take me seriously by the time I leave.”

I frowned at him. “That’s…I take you seriously. I know what you’re capable of, Abel. You make it sound like I think you’re a joke.”

“I know you don’t think that,” he assured me. “But you also don’t have that same awe that you used to have when you look at me. Which is fair. It’s been too long since I showed my fangs. Not just to you. To me. I could die down here. Could have my head pulped by some peak C-ranker. But that’s why I have to do this. It’s why I need to fight. Because the old me, the real me, he wouldn’t have even hesitated.”

His voice was implacable and unrelenting, like an oncoming tide. I knew I couldn’t talk him out of this, no matter what I said.

We continued down the steps, reaching the bottom after about twenty minutes, and then turned into a dizzying warren of tunnels. The tunnels were the same dark stone as the rest of the Palace, but they were much smaller and more cramped. Add to that being lit by torches, they gave the impression that we were in a dungeon. When we finally reached the right spot, Vicky raised a hand and knocked on the wall.

I expected her knuckles to tap the stone, but to my surprise, they passed right through, echoing off what sounded like thick wood. Almost immediately after, the illusion hiding the door dissolved in a puff of black mist, and the door opened to reveal a huge, beefy looking man with a handlebar mustache.

“Whatcha want?” he grunted, eyes narrowing at us.

Vicky rolled hers. “We’re selling vacuum cleaners. What do you think we want? We’re here for the fights.”

He snorted. “You got a token?”

My cousin frowned. “Token? Since when do I need a token to get into a pit fight? I’ve been here a dozen times.”

The big man shrugged. “Lots of tourists in, security’s up.”

“Is Preston in there?” she asked after a moment. “Tell him Victoria is in with guests, he’ll vouch for me.”

From his expression, that probably wasn’t going to be enough, but to my surprise, he grumbled and slammed the door in our faces. I was about to leave, but Vicky held up a hand. “He’s coming back. The illusion would have reset.” Sure enough, after about five minutes the door opened.

“You can come in,” he grunted, stepping back.

I raised an eyebrow at Vicky as we passed. “Who exactly is Preston?” I asked with interest as she led us into a large open chamber with a dirt floor. In the center of the chamber, a huge pit had been dug and lined with torches, and a pair of people were brawling inside of it, beating each other senseless.

“He’s a disciple under one of the branch heads,” she shrugged. “Don’t remember which one. He had a bit of a thing for me, but I wasn’t interested. He got bored and went away, but he still tries to ingratiate himself when I see him.”

I shrugged, and we headed over to the edge of the pits. Vicky shaded her face, squinting to see better under the overwhelmingly bright lights shining down into the pit from above. She nodded over to a tall man with long blonde hair. “There’s Dante. You ready for this?” I guess she was talking to me, but I glanced over at Abel, who nodded.

With that out of the way, I walked over to where the big man was standing, meeting his eyes since we were about the same height. “You Dante?” I asked rhetorically. He nodded. “Wanted to talk to you about a job.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Might be interested,” he said slowly. “Depends on the job. And on the talking. I’m not much of a fan of running my mouth. Prefer to let my hands talk.”

“What a coincidence,” Abel said, stepping past me. “I’m the same. How about we have a nice long conversation and then you and my boss can sort out the finer details later.” My mentor’s eyes were burning with fervor, his hands hanging at his sides ready to be used, open but poised. 

Dante’s eyes lit up with a matching intensity. “Well, that sounds like a good time. You smell like oceans of blood.”

I blinked, because that was…weirdly accurate. Abel didn’t seem surprised, just nodding. “And you smell like a giant waiting among the stars.” That made no sense to me, but considering what Dante had just said, I had to assume he was somehow scenting the other man’s Path, which…I hadn’t known was possible.

Apparently I wasn’t the only person picking up weird abilities and techniques. The two of them nodded to each other solemnly, and then headed for the pit without a word to anyone else. They took up position on either side, waiting for the fight to end. Once it did, the two of them hopped down into the hole, feet squelching through mud that I suspected was wet with blood and not water.

Seeing them there like that was interesting. Abel was much smaller than me, and therefore much smaller than Dante, but he looked…solid. He’d taken off his shirt and shoes, though he left the mask, and he’d sunk his feet into the mud for purchase, bending his knees slightly.

The announcer, having been informed of the particulars by someone, announced Abel’s name as Appolyon and did a brief overview for Dante. And once that was done…it began.

I expected it to start with spatial lubrication, or maybe the blood sea. But Abel didn’t bother with either. He blurred forward, fist snapping out to hammer into Dante’s gut. The bigger man was clearly surprised by the force, his breath whooshing out slightly as he leaned forward, not doubling over but hunching into the blow.

In a strange flowing bit of footwork I could barely track, Abel whirled down around and under, coming back up and smashing his elbow down into the back of Dante’s neck from above.

There was a low bang, not like damage, but like someone had punched a metal pillar, and Dante sank down to one knee, but then planted his hands and snapped his feet up to lock around Abel’s neck.

But as his legs tried to lock into the triangle choke I saw him aiming for, the space warped, and Abel flowed out of the grab, his body shifting to that blurry red that indicated he’d condensed his Ragam Blood Body. The timing was good too, because as I watched, Dante roared in defiance, surging back to his feet as his skin shifted to a cosmic starscape, his hair blazing into blue light and his eyes becoming exploding stars.

“Path of the Star Titan,” Vicky whispered. “That’s his dad’s Path. It’s how Franklin married into the family.”

A lot of the family members who didn’t have the bloodline inherited some ability from their other parent. It had happened to Chelsea. But if Vicky KNEW this Path well enough to recognize it, I was betting Franklin was not someone to be trifled with.

And sure enough, neither was his son. Dante roared, and his fists fired like crashing meteors, raining down on Abel with terrifying destructive force.

It had been a long time since I’d seen my mentor get serious, and I’d forgotten just how terrifying it was. Those plummeting star fists slipped past Abel’s blood body seamless, missing by microns, and as the attacks rained down, Abel slipped right back.

The Infinite Blood Sea was undisturbed by the meteoric punches, but the Star Titan was incapable of keeping the raging tides of blood at bay. 

It wasn’t just the skill. It was the complete domination of the battlefield. Abel didn’t just pummel him. He made Dante HELP. Every dodge, every fretful escape attempt, just drove him deeper into the blood sea, pulling him into the depths.

Knuckles crashed on his starry skin like waves breaking on a mountain, and admittedly they didn’t seem to be doing as much as I’d have liked. But they just kept coming. A blow to the kidney, the ribs, the spine, the eyes, the jaw. More and more hits piling up, wearing away at the Titan like stone being eroded by water.

Abel’s leg snapped up, knee smashing into the bottom of Dante’s chin, then swept out and around, hooking the back of his ankle and flipping him into a full rotation.

Dante left the ground, and I saw Abel’s Path…shift. The Infinite Blood Sea morphed, going from a mostly peaceful ocean of red to a choppy ferocious typhoon as Abel landed a blow that seemed to contain all the force from all those earlier punches, channeled through his elbow as he brought it down on Dante’s spine mid air.

The ground shook as Dante was smashed into the dirt so hard the air shattered, and Abel stopped, stepping back, a bloodthirsty grin of triumph on his face.

He waited for Dante to climb to his feet, then offered his hand, which the other man shook with a nod of respect, and then the two of them hopped out of the pit to head back over to where we were waiting.

“NOW you can make him a job offer,” Abel said smugly. “And he’ll definitely accept it.” Oddly, I could see a sort of spark behind his eyes that I hadn’t in a long time. My mentor was back. He’d just needed the motivation to reignite that old spark. I couldn’t have been happier for him. After all, I’d be leaving soon on my mission, and I had a feeling Abel would be just fine when I was going.