Wish upon the Stars chapter 911

We arranged for the incoming backup to meet us at the club. I’d wanted to send them to the top of the lift, but without access to the winery, there wasn’t an easy way to find that spot in the caves, and them entering the way we had might tip off the Filthsmith.

Honestly, it was way more people than we needed for the raid on the Void tainted base. But it definitely wasn't more than we needed for the depot…which made me wonder, had we missed some of the Filthsmith's assets? Did he have a secret army up his sleeve? Our scan had been thorough, but I hadn't detected anything that would let him contend with such a huge force. I was missing something. 

The incoming D-rankers weren't as many as expected. Only a hundred had been called from the surrounding spoke cities, but they were all peak D-rank, and all with a Solid Path as far as I could tell.

“So, you're expecting us to…what?” Demanded a tall red haired man with wild spikes. “Attack a random Void outpost for no reason?”

Devlan sneered at him. “No, Clement, we expect you to follow orders. The boss sent you here to back us up, and as such, you're intended to actually ACT as backup. You'll do as instructed, and let us worry about the Void. We have experts on hand to take care of it.”

That seemed to shut him up, to my amazement, and we all filed into Bethy’s Domain, preparing to set off. Sure enough, Bethy was able to get down through the winery and into the caves without trouble, infiltrating as mist, and within about an hour we were back down in the cavern, stationed behind that same rock. Bethy only let a few of us out, since if we brought everyone it would be way too obvious someone was there, but with just a few I was able to use Murmur to protect us.

Once we’d scoped everything out, we started slowly releasing people, letting me cover them with Murmur little bits at a time. As we did, we gameplanned.

We made a rough outline of what we should do, and when everyone was out and prepared (I was BARELY able to hold on with five hundred people inside my domain), I proceeded with the first part of the plan. Wrath.

Specifically, I created a massive lake of burning ash infused with the heretic fire surrounding the house, using Chelsea’s diagram to merge together the various powers closest to me to let me REALLY pour in the fire. Before our eyes, the ground began to dissolve, disintegrating into dust, and the air around it began to heat up as the heretic fire infused it alongside the destructive flames of Mephistopheles.

As we did this, I dropped Murmur, both out of necessity and because I didn’t need it anymore. All five hundred of my people blitzed forward. The ring of ash surrounding the house was maybe one or two hundred feet, and they all knew about it in advance, so they were more than up to just jumping it.

The reason I’d used the attack, aside from environmental advantage, was because Murmur had finally picked up on some of the defenses I’d missed last time. Knowing they had to be there, I knew there were only so many places that I hadn’t examined. Sure enough, I’d found that there were more of those Void monsters. Hundreds of them. All sleeping under the ground in stasis.

Wrath tore through their ranks, burning a majority of them alive. I winced at the necessity, since I had no idea if they could be saved from the Void, but I suspected they were a lost cause at this point, and we didn’t exactly have the time to experiment.

It was a good thing I’d done that though, because it quickly became clear that underground wasn’t the only place there were hiding. There was an inhuman screech from above us, and I looked up to see stalactites crumbling away, hunched hairy forms emerging from above, these ones with wings that they spread as they dropped down on us, gliding toward my advancing forces.

To my shock, several burning hands also erupted from the ash, and at least a dozen of the monsters ACTUALLY managed to climb out of the mire.

Callie grimaced from beside me. “My heretic fire isn’t dense enough. It needs to be refined. Just like normal flame, there are levels of intensity. Mine is fine for ethereal stuff and basic Void spawn, but these things have been BAKED in Void taint. Seemingly for years. There’s almost no human left, but there’s also not…anything else. It’s just like layers of Void.”

I grimaced. Elder Voidspawn, swell. Sighing, I spun up my staff, ready to attack, and moved to head out to meet them.

This time though, I didn't merge my power with the others. I’d been noticing lately that my combat strategy had become almost exclusively group based. That was good, because it let me utilize my people to the largest extent, taking advantage of my biggest advantage as a candidate…but I was still an Ascendant. Not being able to actively contribute to combat was starting to bother me a lot.

Which was why I was about to debut something I’d been working on for quite a while. A new form specialized in single combat. Or rather, a new pseudo Domain.

I started with Sammael, obviously, added a dash of Mephistopheles, then Mornax and Agares, added some heretic fire, threw in Afterburner to make it spicy, and then, I started to SHAPE. Instead of just throwing it all into a blender, I decided to craft my narrative for this form as I went. A blink had me inside the library, and I cleared the table, grabbing a bunch of different volumes.

Writing out the details didn’t take long, I’d been considering this for ages. Being able to do it so quickly was entirely a factor of the library and the staff, which I used to process all the information that I needed.

My eyes, opened, and my staff flashed as I took to the air, and I blurred through space, appearing behind a pair of monsters, grinning like a lunatic as they literally fell to pieces.

I swung my staff, flicking sizzling blood off the new addition at the end. A blade of amplified and condensed destructive fire, mixed with heretic flame and amplified by Afterburner. It was shaped from burning ash, sharpened to a razors edge, and blazing with the most deadly power I could bring to bear. Around me, dust armor was condensed in a suit of midnight armor, even bigger than my normal plate, elevating me to a legitimate seven feet, my now armored wings stretched behind me, every feather a weapon.

Mephisto’s Waltz fired, and I vanished in bursts of black flame, tearing through the sky as I did. Mornax, through Sammael, extended its roots into the sky around me, giving me the defensive prowess of my Mountain Stance without needing to plant my feet, and Mephistopheles granted me explosive power even as it created an almost unblockable blade, converting my staff temporarily to a halberd.

A roar echoed through the chamber, a dozen of the monsters focusing on me and diving to attack. I didn’t even blink. I brought my halberd to bear, defending flawlessly, batting them away as they rushed me. One or two got through, but they broke on my armor.

“Eighth circle of hell,” I intoned devilishly. “Glory.” I felt AMAZING. The power thundering through me was beyond what I could have imagined in a single combat ability. I’d lucked into that effect, by making Glory a body amplification ability through Mephistopheles and Sammael, but more than that, through iterating with the staff. Wisdom of Solomon hadn’t just combined the abilities, it had combined them PERFECTLY.

Mornax didn’t just strengthen my shell, it had infused my bones, amplifying the upper limits of what my body could handle, even as Sammael, Afterburner, and Mephistopheles POURED physical power into me to fill that reservoir.

Most of my abilities had tricks to them, unique twists, but Glory wasn’t like that at all. It was just overwhelming physical domination. Raw strength exploding inside every cell like a miniature sun of black destructive fire. I roared in exultation, flickering across the battlefield, tearing through any monsters I found. The heretic fire made it SO simple, just a flick of my weapon would turn them to mincemeat.

I spun, raising my weapon, and stopped cold. Callie was hovering nearby, wings beating and a concerned look on her face. I grimaced, shaking my head a bit and forcing down that bit of recursion. I hadn’t meant to do that. Using the Wisdom of Solomon to iterate a form I had already started assembling had overwhelmed me for a second. All that mythology filling up the design so quickly had kind of swept me away.

“Sorry,” I chuckled as I let myself drift to the ground.

She shrugged. “You’re good, had me worried for a second but you brought it back.” She grinned wickedly. “Not to mention how BADASS that was, you tore through those things like a sledgehammer through wet paper.” She gestured around us at the shredded remains of the monsters. “But we need you to fix that lake of fire so we can get to the base. We could jump it, but there’s not enough room to land five hundred people.”

I laughed, scratching my head with embarrassment as I turned and dismissed Wrath. I kept Glory active as I touched down and approached the house. Abel whistled as he caught up to us, covered in blood and grinning like a maniac. “Wow, that was bracing. We should do this more often. Bitchin’ form by the way, Shane. I want to fight it.”

“Maybe some other time,” I said dryly. “Kind of busy right now. Mel, can you put a leash on him?”

The red masked fire mistress had been hanging back with Chelsea for their combo attack, but once we’d taken out most of the monsters, she’d quickly approached. She snorted helplessly. “Don’t I wish. But sadly no. It’s like owning a particularly absentminded cat. He does whatever he wants, but luckily he often forgets what that IS, so I can usually steer him. During combat though, he’s laser focused, even if I wish he wasn’t.”

“What a hurtful thing to say!” He hasped in faux outrage. “I have NEVER been so…sorry this is boring me can I punch something yet?”

We all laughed. The sole exception, Callie, sighed as she stepped closer to the small house. She reached up to run her hand over the area ahead of us, and it ignited with blue black flame as it got close. She pulled it back with an annoyed hiss. “Nope. Because we can’t get in. This place is surrounded with a sphere of hyperdense Void taint. I can burn it off, but it’ll take ages. Classic Filthsmith.” She turned to my sister with a vindictive grin. “You ready?”

Chelsea snorted. “I was born ready. Get everyone prepared. How many fire users do we have down here?”

“Plenty,” my wife said gleefully. “As many as you can handle.”

We put out the call, and a hundred or so people approached, grouping up near my sister. She raised her arms, manifesting her diagram, and I felt power being pulled out of me. I gave freely, pouring both heretic fire and Afterburner into the working.

Mel stepped forward, crafting a giant spike in the air above us from flame. Heretic fire, flames of purification, every possible flame poured into the spike, slightly strengthening it without actually robbing it of its inherent nature. Finally, Mel shifted the giant construct over the top of the house, aiming the point of the spike down at it on an angle.

My wife turned to Abel, beaming smugly as she gestured to the angled spike, a big flat area at the top clearly made for striking. “Now,” she said vindictively as her eyes pierced the base, staring at the FIlthsmith through his defenses. “NOW, you can punch something.”