Wish upon the Stars chapter 966

Down, down, down into the deeps. The ritual, to no one’s surprise, was taking place on a much lower level, one much closer to the center of the planet. Not TOO close, mind. Our B-rankers and those of us with Chronicles were able to withstand the pressure, and Zeke had lent a few masks to the others to offset the strain for them, but it was much deeper than we’d been so far.

Which I supposed made sense. The Void Ladder was using the entire length of this stairway as a focus. In fact, it was probable there was another group of Void Vessels coming down (or I guess up?) from the other side to plant the anchors.

I’d completely blanked on the fact that this planet was dual sided and that there was probably a similar invasion (albeit most likely missing the key actor in the form of Wise himself) taking place opposite us. Luckily, I wasn’t the only person on this planet, nor was I actually in charge of the WCP (yet), so I assumed that other people were dealing with that whole mess, and I was free to focus on the impossible task I already had to worry about, namely, disrupting the apparently ongoing ritual Wise was performing before he got too strong and dealt with US.

Part of me was hoping we’d taken out his entire force, that we would have a free shot at Wise as we approached, but unfortunately, that was proven demonstrably false.

“Shit,” Zeke said as my entire group of thirty plus stopped at level above our target. He’d set one of his masks on the floor, manifesting some kind of technique, and the thing had…become him. Or at least his face. That I’d seen before, but I had NOT seen that face sprout spider legs and scurry off into the dark. Apparently he could see through its eyes too, because he was currently reporting the view to us directly. “There’s a bunch of them.”

I cursed. “How many is a bunch?” I asked anxiously. “We’ve got six A-rankers, not to mention Fade who might be able to fight up a rank. Do they have more?” Aside from the five I’d brought, we’d ended up meeting up with Davis, my cousin Derran’s dad, and several more B-rankers besides. They’d finished their anchor sweep, so we’d recruited them to help us with the raid. They were more than happy to join up once we let them in on the stakes for this particular outing.

“Ten,” he said grimly. “And…that’s bad. I’m pretty sure they have a Void tainted DRAGON there. It might be a Vessel, I can’t tell. And there’s not just them either. There’s a LOT of Void spawn down there.”

I sucked in a breath. “You sure it’s not a Wyvern?” I asked weakly. “Or a Wyrm or something?” I’d never seen an actual dragon before, but I knew they were SCARY. Apex predators, the least of which were born at D-rank. If he considered it a threat it must be A or B-rank minimum, and that was…unsettling.

“I mean, it could just be dragon shaped Void spawn, I guess,” he said slowly. “I don’t know where those come from, so I can’t say. But I’ve SEEN dragons before, and that definitely fucking looks like one.”

I grimaced. “So…ten,” I looked at the others. “Can we do ten? If we assume Wise is still at C-rank, and I’m not sure he is, I’m willing to take him on. But we have to be able to GET to him.” I glanced at Callie. “I assume we have some kind of PLAN here? Like you know what’s supposed to happen to stop all this?”

She flicked her wrist, and Gossamer appeared, the blue black gem pulsing eerily in the hilt. “I can shut it down. If you can get us close. Adam made sure I’d have a way. I think that was the whole reason he gave me the sword.”

“Alright,” I said with a sigh. “Then we’ve got our plan. Callie, you’re with me. We’re going to use Murmur to sneak in while the others distract the defenders.” I looked around at my friends. “This is going to be VERY dangerous. If anyone wants to back out, there’s no shame. This is going to be a mess.” To my complete lack of surprise, not a single one of my people stepped forward. Whether out of loyalty, self-preservation, or good old fashioned greed, everyone was onboard.

We stepped out of the level we were on (the nineteenth) and headed down once more, remounting the stairs. We’d stopped on the floor above where the ritual was going on to do recon, and now…now it was time for battle.

Murmur washed over me, and Callie beside me. Not JUST Murmur either. I boosted it to B-rank with my staff. My stealth domain was powerful enough to affect even high ranked opponents, so the boosted version should enable us to get past any of the enemies in question. “Ok, everyone stick to the formations my dad lays out,” I said, letting my voice roll out of the field. “Be safe, and be careful.”

I grabbed Callie’s hand and squeezed, and the two of us made our way around the bend in the staircase. I stopped when the forces ahead came into sight because…damn, that actually was a dragon.

It was funny. I’d never seen a dragon. I hadn’t even really seen any decent PICTURES of a dragon. But looking at this thing, all I could think was that this was what a dragon looked like. I’d mistaken things for dragons before, like the Bone Wyvern, but looking at this creature, I was absolutely blown away by how I could make that mistake, because nothing I’d ever seen before looked like THIS and this was so obviously a dragon.

We approached it slowly, almost ploddingly so. I felt the need to move slow to allow Murmur to work to its fullest, because I didn’t want the dragon to spot me. I needn’t have worried. As I passed into range, there was a rumble and the stairs beneath us shook aggressively. Looking over my shoulder, I spotted my mother standing further up the steps, her body made of living fire. The dragon's eyes, and the eyes of the other A-rankers, were all on her, leaving us free to slip by.

The approach was nerve wracking. Even under stealth, the crowd of Ascendants and Void spawn arrayed on the stairs, blockading the level in question, was truly staggering. I kept expecting them to notice something out of place, but the further I got, the less concerned I became for myself…and the more I became for my friends.

Because my family and my retainers had engaged as soon as they were in range. My mom hit the dragon like a speeding train, my dad deployed a full seventy two souls (many of which were mercury and three of which were mirror), and Zeke had deployed more masks than I thought he even had access to. A small army of swordmasters, marsh elves, and every other local we’d recruited since out arrival rushed out, with Bethy, Abel, and all my friends trailing after them.

And we just…left them. It made me sick, turning my back on my friends in battle. But if we didn’t take out that ritual then this planet would get torn apart, even assuming the Void Child behind it didn’t become an S-ranker and slip through to murder us all ahead of time.

The level the ritual was taking place on was confusing. Mirrors lined the walls, ceiling, and floor. Once we entered, I had to slow us down, because there were so many fucking reflections for me to erase as me moved that I was barely able to keep up even walking at a crawl. Callie clutched my hand tight. “We’re close,” she whispered. “I can feel the call of the Void from ahead of us.”

I decided not to read into her still being able to hear that despite her elimination of the Void Path. As as Heretic Archangel, my wife was tied to Atlas, and Atlas was a former Void Vessel whose whole power was based on being their bane.

It took us about twenty minutes to penetrate deep enough into the level to start to find evidence of the ritual itself. Anchors floated in the air, empty stones suspended below black tears in the fabric of reality. Through the tears was just…nothing. Not the Void, not an abyss, just the complete absence of creation.

Callie stared at the holes in sick dread. “It started,” she whispered. “He’s already eaten several sections of the Void. Because it’s not a stable or solid place, when a Void Child takes a territory, they consume it and integrate it into themselves. They literally ARE what they eat, and they eat the Void. They embody their territory, so as they expand so does their power.”

That explained a bit of how the Vessel thing worked. It didn’t make sense to artificially inflate the soul like they did, but the Void was the opposite of space. Like…the spirit to reality’s flesh. Whatever part of the soul they took from their Vessels must be enough to connect them directly to the Void in a way similar to how normal gods connect to their worlds. I blinked at that thought. I didn’t…that wasn’t obvious. At all. Where had that come from?

I felt a pulse in my chest and realized it was the bond. Callie and I were connected soul deep. What she knew I knew, at least sometimes.

We stepped past another dozen tears, ignoring them as we approached a circle of blackened crystals jammed into the ground, energy leaping between them as they conducted spatial power unlike anything I’d seen.

And in the center…was me. Wise was still wearing my face, for some reason, and seeing it look so cold and smug was tough for me. I expected Callie to have trouble too, but oddly she didn’t seem fazed. She knew that wasn’t me, she could feel me. She was clearer than anyone that this was all bullshit.

There was a rumble underfoot again, and I heard a rattle as the mirrors shook. The me in the center of the circle frowned, then looked up and…stared. His eyes, blue glowing Void irises rather than my own green, fixed on me. “Well hello there,” he said, grinning widely.

I froze, but after a long sigh, I dropped Murmur. It wouldn’t do much good anyway. Because now that I was closer, I could see that Wise wasn’t a C-ranker anymore. He wasn’t even a B-ranker. Wise had clearly eaten more territory than we had expected in such a short time. He was firmly in the S-rank now.

Despite that, I didn’t panic. When I folded my domain, I didn’t drop it completely. I just condensed it to cover Callie more thoroughly. Sure enough, his vision didn’t seem to twitch. Whatever his eyes were doing to pierce my stealth so easily, it wasn’t something that affected my wife. Callie was a Heretic Archangel, and was the natural enemy of the Void. Wise had some tricks with stealth, which I knew from The Empty Room, but those tricks didn’t extend to her.

So I took all of his attention on myself, focusing Murmur as hard as I could on Callie as she started to slowly edge around the circle. I didn’t know what her target was, but it didn’t matter. It was my job to make sure she reached it. She knew how to take this apart and I needed to give her the time. So I did what I did best. I decided to bullshit.

Grinning at the Vessel, I spread my arms welcomingly. “What? You weren’t expecting me? I’ve decided to take you up on your offer of an alliance. I even brought an army here to surrender to you. What do you say?” Wise had opened his mouth to reply, but when he heard that, he froze, clearly not sure what the hell was going on. Callie continued to inch across the room, and I tried desperately to come up with a plausible story to explain all this. Given I could sense the others approaching b behind me, it would have to be a doozie.