Wish upon the Stars chapter 881

We finished a charge and I trumpeted my victory into the blazing sky. Beside me, Bethy cackled maniacally. “Good! Show them our fury Muffins!”

I stopped and turned to glared at her, letting the parallel take charge temporarily. “Bethy, this Mammoth is ME. I am not a pet, and you can NOT keep it. It’s a wild animal with no sense of self and the second I release it it will try to harm us. Do not NAME our siege weapon.”

“What?” she sputtered. “But he’s been so helpful. And he’s so cool. Like a walking fortress! I’m going to try to use my Domain to construct my castle around him and give him armor. Muffins the Murder Mammoth, scourge of the seven seas!” She clutched at my armor, eyes wide and shimmering as she painted her word picture.

“Sounds neat,” I said mercilessly as I pried her hands off me. “Still no. In fact, based on the nearby skyline, I think we’re about done. We should finish this one off and bail before the others realize the Mammoth population is thin and decide to gang up on us.”

Bethy actually teared up, and Chelsea patted her shoulder comfortingly as she pulled her away.

“So, how many did we get total?” Callie asked as the Mammoth started its walk towards the forest. “I wasn’t able to keep track so well from in here. Pouring my power into the invocation was taking up all my attention.”

I beamed at her. “Fifteen. It was a good day. I don’t know how the others did, but I doubt many of them managed as well as we did. Hell, we chased more than a few groups off. Part of why I was saying we should bail.” I patted the black and green glowing brain fondly. “Sadly this old boy has served his purpose. Like I told Bethy. Too dangerous to keep a wild animal with no sense of self around.”

“That confuses me,” Jessie said grimly. “I tried to flood the brain with my own energy, hoping we could subvert it, but I’m not getting a proper response. Every time I try to connect with its consciousness I get this feeling of…nothingness.”

I frowned. “Honestly, I’ve been wondering about it myself. D-rank is when beasts are supposed to develop a sense of self. These things aren’t coherent at all. Combined with the rocky makeup of their outsides and I’m wondering if they actually ARE beasts. Between the stone construction and the mental gaps, they remind me more of golems almost. Living golems, since they can die, but I wonder if they were created instead of born.”

“The placement is suspicious too,” Abel piped in. “A ring of “hills” around the direct center of the planet, separating the hemispheres? That can’t be natural.”

“So you think it’s…what?” I asked worriedly. “Some kind of security system? Separate the poles? But then why have us kill them? Is it specifically designed to be used up during the succession war?”

My sister shook her head. “No use guessing. We don’t know enough about this place to glean anything solid. You almost ready to abandon ship?”

I sighed, but nodded eventually. “Yeah. We’re going out the trunk. I’m going to try to use to fire us in the direction of the nearest city. I was able to get a heading through the Mammoth’s eyes. Only issue is how to make sure to finish it off on the way out.”

Abel cracked his neck. “I can do it. Just make sure I’m facing the brain as we leave.”

My focus was only half on them, I was picking up some possible trouble incoming. I turned the Mammoth around to aim us at the city in question. I was sure we wouldn’t make it all the way, but we had wings, so it wasn’t like that was a problem.

“Alright, pack it up people,” I said distractedly. “Bethy, you’re going to be transporting. Callie and I will carry Abel out.” The vampire nodded chipperly and started collecting people back into her Domain. It really was absurd how convenient that thing was. Once they were all packed up, I sent her ahead to the entrance of the trunk, which I had aimed up and pointed in the right direction.

Callie and I each grabbed ahold of Abel’s coat, walking with him to the exit ourselves, and we made sure to keep clear of his arms. “Alright, now wait until I count to three to let loose. We need to time this carefully.”

If he killed it before it expelled us through the trunk it would drop and we’d have to handle our own exit, which defeated the purpose. He nodded solemnly, and I saw the air around him shift as the space turned blood red. I expected to be cut off from the coat we were holding but luckily it seemed to be fine. “Alright,” I said slowly. “Ready?” I glanced out through the eyes of the Mammoth and saw a colossal copper form loping toward us. I grimaced.

“Get ready!” I called loudly. “Three. Two. One!” I triggered the trumpeting of the Mammoth once again, going so far as to channel Afterburner to amplify the blast, and at the same time, Abel hauled back and PUNCHED.

The last thing I saw as we were hurled up the trunk towards the light above was a massive bloody fist vaporizing the brain as we were sent hurtling out of the Mammoth at a speed beyond almost anything I’d ever experienced.

Might was definitely their highest stat, and Afterburner combined with the sheer size and power turned the trunk into the barrel of a high velocity cannon.

As we emerged, Callie and I folded our wings against out bodies, carrying Abel as we shot up and out. The air pressure was fierce as we rose through the air, shooting up into the sky like bullets. At the apex of our arc, I spread my wings, Callie doing the same, and we just…hung there.

Catching ourselves during the hangtime between rise and fall, there was a moment of weightlessness before gravity asserted itself. The landscape of the heirworld spread out before us, a vast expanse of shifting landscape of various shades and hues. I looked back to see the copper titan hitting the Mammoth at speed, but he wasn’t getting any points from that. It was already dead as could be. I smiled, then turned back towards the city in the near distance.

“WHOOO!” Bethy squealed as she reformed from bats. “This is so COOL!” She was dancing along the clouds, hopping from one to the next.

Our wings caught and we started to slowly glide forward and down, all of our momentum stolen by gravity. Abel hung between us limply, looking sullenly at Bethy as she kept pace beside us. “Can we do that again? Piggy blast!”

“Mammoths are not pigs,” I called to her testily. “And how are you doing that? You’re walking on clouds.”

She shrugged. “Clouds are made of mist, and so am I sometimes, so I can walk on them. Duh.”

“That is NOT a duh, moment,” I said in exasperation as we drifted forward. “Callie tell her she’s being ridiculous.”

My wife nodded, calling over the surprisingly loud wind at our slow speed “He’s right, they’re definitely not pigs. Some kind of elephant I think. Maybe an aardvark or like an ant eater or something. Pigs don’t even have trunks.”

“Ok, no more of this,” I groaned. “Time to dive.” And we did. We pitched forward, steepening our angle, and we barreled downward, picking up velocity as we gathered momentum. I could see the city in the distance, and we aimed right at it. I felt something shatter in the air, and laughed breathlessly as the explosion of the shattered sound barrier burst out behind us. A torrent of cats with wings followed us down, Bethy somehow keeping pace.

We pulled out of the dive about three hundred feet in the air, letting our wings drag like parachutes extending behind us, spread to catch as much air as we could as we came in at a a slowly flattening angle.

I let go of Abel when we were about a hundred feet up, and he squawked in surprise, but managed to catch himself anyway. The two of us hit the ground and a casual run, and despite a bit of force on the legs, came to an easy stop in the clearing we’d chosen about a mile outside the city. Abel caught up at a jog, looking annoyed. “You guys are assholes,” he spar in annoyance.”

“Oh get over it,” I shrugged. “It was only a hundred feet. You didn’t even fall over.”

Bethy appeared in midair, floating gently down on what appeared to be a parasol she’d pulled from nowhere. She landed giddily. “That was so cool. I’m sad I lost the race though.”

I raised an eyebrow. “There was no race. We were just falling. Also why did you turn into cats again? I haven’t seen that in a while. You usually just do bats nowadays, don’t you?” It had seemed out of place even for her, so I was curious about the logic.

She gave me a baffled look. “Um, duh, to get to the ground faster. Cats fall quicker than bats, so they can land on their feet.”

“That’s…what?” I sputtered. “That’s not how ANYTHING works.”

I was almost POSITIVE she was fucking with us, but as usual her face was the picture of innocence and sincerity. I shook off the bewilderment. “Anyway, we found our first D-rank city. Now we can get the lay of the land, and hopefully find a place to stay before the others show up. I have to assume we beat the crowd with that little stunt.”

Bethy nodded. “Of course, we’re going to get so many points for that landing.”

“No, Bethy, we aren’t being graded on the fall,” Callie said with a laugh. “The points were only for killing the Mammoths. But we can get some food and let the others out. It’ll be easier to explore with a few hundred people than with just four. Our first job will be to find out more about this town. Name, size, that kind of thing.”

“It’s called Schvitz,” Bethy said bluntly.

“Wait, really?” I asked suspiciously. “How do you know that?”

“Because it’s on that sign over there,” she said, pointing through the trees to the wooden sign plunked into the ground next to the dirt road into the city. We all froze, then looked at each other in embarrassment.

I sighed, then turned to Bethy. “Alright, well, lets start letting everyone out. I’m pretty sure it’ll be less suspicious entering all at once than it would be if a few hundred people randomly showed up inside a town. Don’t want to tip our hand too early that we can transport people so easy.”

“Alright, just give me a bit,” she chirped. Then turned and headed into the clearing to start releasing our friends out onto the surface of the planet, most of them for the first time.

I turned to my wife. “So, I think we’re going to need a plan of attack for this next part. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be doing but-” I could have sworn the damned elders were WAITING for me to say things like that, because a new scroll appeared in front of us.

“Announcement: The next task begins. Part 1: the first dozen contestants to enter the city of Schvitz within the next hour will gain points. The fewer contestants who enter, the more points gained.”

That brought me up short. WERE they watching? I mean, I guessed they were obviously, but were they tailoring these tasks to us individually? Or were there enough of us nearby for this to be viable. I imagined it was a bit fo both. I turned to look at the others with a sigh. “I’m assuming you all got that? Well get ready, because this shit is probably going to get rough.”