Wish upon the Stars chapter 948

The Seal was…impressive. Slipping into it was deceptively easy, for one thing. It looked bulky and imposing, and it was, but it was also fluid and surprisingly mobile. I was able to open it up and slip inside with no trouble. More than that, my wings slid free of the metal like there was a custom made slot for them, and once they did, I was able to move and walk with almost no resistance at all.

“The articulation on this is insane,” I said as I moved back and forth, bending and stretching to check my range of motion. Examining the spots, I was able to identify why that was the case too. The bronze that was the connection between individual iron pieces had sort of grafted to both sides, but in a strange way that made it seem almost like actual joints. “I really don’t know if I have enough to cover this. Two hundred seventy five B-ranked chits and some change. Can’t possibly be enough.”

I emptied my pockets, so to speak. Honestly, I wasn’t lying though. What felt like a literal fortune at the auction suddenly seemed woefully short of what was deserved.

Up to this point, I had always focused on utility for my gear. What it could do, how it did it, and how it could enhance my powers. And that was a feature of The Seal, for sure. It could channel my forms perfectly, I could already feel that.

But beyond that, it was also just…good armor. Utility was important and impressive, but I already HAD almost every kind of utility. The Seal of Solomon wasn’t some amplifier that I carried around at all times. It was…art. It was pure unrestrained defensive power combined with flawless mobility.

There was value in specificity. Ascendants had been proving that for years, and this was a clear example of why. Rather than go with some super special trick ability, I just got REALLY good armor. And honestly? It was better.

He waved me off. “Fool,” he said lazily. I flinched on reflex, expecting to get smacked, but nothing hit me. He just chuckled. “You’re covered. I’m looking forward to leaving this place. I’ve spent most of my life on this planet. Not all, but most. I’m ready to move on to another adventure. Which begs the question. Are you willing to take me with you?”

“I mean, I would prefer you learn to use a measuring tape instead of slapping the shit out of people with a blue vegetable,” I admitted. “But…after this? Hell yes. This is…mindblowing. It’s also less weight on my soul than expected.” Part of that might have been my first bound page making my Chronicle sturdier, but it was still impressive. “In any case, yes, you’re in. Obviously. When we go to the A-rank zone, you can come along.” 

Which brought up another point. “Speaking of which,” I said leadingly. “I never did find out how to actually GET there. I know the A-rank zone is small, and polar. I know there’s only one A-rank city on either side of the planet. But I don’t know how much of the zone it takes up.”

“All of it,” he said with a laugh. “The twin cities on the poles of this planet are connected through the core. An endless staircase from one to the other. But apart from those stairs, there’s only four gates by which you can enter them. Arcadia and Albion, the shining jewels of the frozen heights. Not just the polar limits of the planet, but the highest point. A massive plateau of glacial ice on either end, surrounded by an impenetrable wall.”

I could tell from his hushed tones that he’d seen them but never been inside. “Entry to Arcadia, the closest city is…” he shook his head. “Either be an A-ranker or be the personal retinue of one. There are less than one hundred thousand people in the whole city. Obviously, they’re not ALL A-rank, but the B-ranks that make it inside are either terrifyingly wealthy or powerful. Or both.”

“Well, that’s not ideal,” I sighed. “But it’s not like we’re going in blind. Our own A-rankers are in there. And my parents aren’t the type to sit on their hands while the rest of us play around.”

Not to mention Zeke. Anything Crell could do, Zeke could do better. I’d be shocked if my Uncle didn’t already have an apparatus in place for intelligence inside Arcadia. Donovan shook his head. “That isn’t the issue,” he said grimly. “The issue is the intake. Those four gates are impregnable. The city is a fortress. The gates are the only weak spots, and only barely. And they only open once a week.”

“Ok, so we wait a few days,” I shrugged. I glanced at Fade, who had entered behind us and was waiting silently nearby. “What am I missing here?”

“Fatal funnel,” he said bluntly. “The platforms to enter the gates are killboxes. Normally there are a few people heading up, and no one bothers starting anything. In this case, you’re all competitors.”

I grimaced. Despite my cousins realizing that this was an emergency and doing their best to deconstruct the Void influence on this planet, I had no illusions that the majority of them would pass up a chance to shoot some fish in a barrel. The faction behind Delia and Roland might be all about togetherness and family unity, but it was clear they weren’t ascendant at the moment. Whoever ran the faction in opposition clearly enjoyed the bloodsport that embodied the worst of the succession war. Whoever their representatives were would almost definitely take a shot at whoever was nearby.

More importantly, Arcadia had four entrances, and there were eight cities in the B-rank zone. That meant I wouldn’t just be interacting with the relatives I was familiar with, but another crop of dangerous unknown cousins who might be just as strong if not stronger then the ones on my side.

“What about the A-rankers?” I asked slowly. “Will they be aware of the incoming crop? I can’t imagine entry is common, and especially not large amounts of people like will be incoming with us. Won’t they step out to help?”

My parents were both monsters. Not morally (though you could make a solid case for my dad) but in terms of combat potential. My mother was intergalactically famous, and had two different abilities, one of which was inherited directly from a sitting pope. My father was a former candidate so feared that even the current Wishmaster, a man who essentially did whatever the hell he wanted by sheer force of arms even inside the WCP, considered him a peer.

Not to mention they had been married for decades and knew each other inside and out, and I had heard it implied several times that Zeke contributed to their group combat dynamic heavily. The three of them together would be the kind of threat that basically no other group of A-rankers would be able to touch.

Which, of course, meant next to nothing if they were outnumbered twenty to one. The simple truth of it was, I had no clue how many A-rankers were on this planet.

While the common axiom that there were one hundred S-rankers (an estimate I had been informed by Zeke) was well known, the actual number of A-rank Ascendants in the universe was…difficult to quantify. S-rank was a staggering leap in difficulty from A, that wasn’t in doubt, and I was fairly certain the number was at least in the five digits, if not six.

It was hard to conceptualize, really, given how rare they seemed to me, but I had spent most of my time on lower tier planets and in special environments that specifically catered to lower ranked Ascendants. Beyond that, I wasn’t entirely sure ANY of the numbers I’d been given for the numbers of Ascendants took into account god worlds, since they didn’t seem to be common knowledge at certain levels of Ascendant society.

All this was to say that I had no idea how many enemies my parents would be up against, how many locals lived in the city at their rank, or how many of the candidates even brought A-rankers. I didn’t believe that the thousands of candidates all had five A-rankers each. It wasn’t feasible. There were like ten thousand candidates on this planet, and even if there were fifty thousand A-rankers in the universe, which there very well could be, I highly doubted my family had access to whatever percentage of the A-rank population that represented, regardless of how much money or influence we had.

Donovan seemed to sense my worry, and waved me off. “The A-rankers won’t get involved. THe political situation inside the shining cities is complicated but mostly balanced. Even with newcomers, given the weeks you’ve been on world, there’s no way some equilibrium hasn’t been reached. No one faction will move lest they disturb the others and kick over the proverbial beehive.”

Sighing, I headed out of the Hall. My new armor flexed comfortingly around me, almost propelling me it was so smooth. Crell, Carmichael, and Alanna had been waiting outside, and when they saw me, Crell let out a long whistle of awe. “Damn, boss. You look scary. And expensive. I’m kind of worried someone will try to kidnap you for your armor.”

I paused, then turned to Donovan. “Is that…is that something that might happen?”

He shrugged. “Hypothetically possible, but unlikely. That suit is custom designed. It fits you like a second skin, and you’re a bigger than average man. It wouldn’t fit most people, and honestly, a B-rank suit of armor wouldn’t be enough to piss off your collective forces here. Not to mention the suit is monogrammed. It has your symbol right on the front, and trust me, nobody is going to be melting down or reworking that armor. All in all, not worth the trouble to steal it.”

Fade nodded. “He’s right. They would just kill you and chop it up into scrap if they had the resources to unload it in the first place. Sure it would lose some value, but it would be much easier to sell in pieces. Most people don’t have the resources to buy a full suit like that. You definitely didn’t.”

I glared at both of them. “You are the least comforting people I know. Now, is there a path down this damned mountain that doesn’t require me to drag my aching carcass down the path? Because I don’t even want to consider the possible power interaction between that trial and the weight of this armor.”

“That…is a good point,” admitted Donovan. “I suppose we can take the elevator.”

I froze, then turned to glare at Fade. “There’s…an ELEVATOR?” I asked him in a tone of barely constrained fury. “I knew there might be a non enchanted path, but you walked us past an ELEVATOR?”

“The elevator is for cargo,” he explained sincerely. “Not people.”

Now even Donovan was staring at him. Alanna pinched the bridge of her nose. “How are you any good with a sword? Your brain is made of rocks. Or possibly chunks of steel. The fact that you beat me in a fight is the most humiliating thing that’s ever happened to me.”

We all laughed, except Fade who looked mildly perturbed, which I took to be his version of pouting. We followed Donovan across the courtyard to a small fountain. He pressed a few of the rocks, and there was a low rumble as the water drained away. We all climbed in, and then the floor of the fountain began to slowly lower into the darkness.

We all chattered as we descended, but I started to tune it out. With the Void incursion temporarily taken care of and my armor acquired, not to mention my new blacksmith, I was now officially ready to head for the A-rank zone. I would be seeing my parents soon enough, provided I didn’t die first. Hopefully it went better than my last family reunion.