Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 851
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 00:15:58 +0000 UTC“So, you can make wine that makes people stronger?” Chelsea asked Bethy with interest. “How come we haven’t heard about this before?” Due to her purification powers, my sister had decided to join in the winemaking, along with me, Daysia, Dayna, Bethy, and Archie.
Behty shook her head. “Because it’s not good for people to drink. Maenad wine is famously dangerous. My mom taught me how to brew it on one of my visits, but it drives people crazy. Turns them into cannibals, and MAKING it wakes up my Maenad blood, which is categorically bad. But since Shane helped calm down my bloodline, I should be able to manage a small batch without TOO many side effects.”
“And trees don’t go crazy,” I pointed out with interest.
She shook her head. “No, the tree would absolutely go crazy. That’s why you need to purify the wine. It’ll take MORE of it to drive a tree crazy, but Maenad wine is conceptual madness. Anything that ingests it will go bat shit insane.”
I’d rarely seen Bethy quite this serious. She had a solemn look on her face as she gestured to one side. “Did you get the grapes I asked for? Red grapes only, the darker the better. And seeds are fine.” I nodded, and had Daysia deposit the grapes in the giant wooden tub we’d found. It was made of dark wood slats and was about ten feet around and two feet tall. Once we deposited it, Bethy made a pleased sound. “Excellent, now we smash the grapes. LUGGAGE! Hammer mode!”
She flicked her wrist and a stick appeared in her hand. With a flicker of her Domain, Luggage leapt from behind her hopping up and locking his teeth on the stick before curling his body around.
And…that was it. “Um…what is he doing?” I asked cautiously.
She beamed. “This is Lugagge’s hammer mode! I invented it after you got your staff. Having a living weapon is super cool. Luggage is a hellhound, and he’s super durable. He’s the BEST hammer, aren’t you good boy?”
The dog on the stick rumbled, and she cooed happily at him. “Bethy, that’s not a hammer. He’s just clinging to it.”
“Nuh-uh!” she argued waspishly. “Watch.” She raised the stick and slammed the dog down into the middle of the tub. Grapes splattered everywhere. Bethy cheered, swinging he “hammer” over and over again, faster and faster, with red juice and pulp flying everywhere.
Finally, after about five minutes, she set the dog down and he dropped the stick, shaking himself out violently, flinging juice all over the rest of the room.
We all glared at her, covered in grape, but before we could react, Bethy opened her mouth, exposing her fangs, and there was a ripple in the air. Much like the eyes that had manifested back when she hypnotized Dayna, a large MOUTH manifested in the air, delicate fangs exposed. Then the lips pursed, and there was a slurping sound, and all the grapes juice and pulp was sucked up into the illusory mouth, which then spit it all back into the tub.
Bethy ignored the odd looks, then walked over to the tub and bit her wrist deeply. I winced as I heard the teeth tear flesh, then she held out her wrist over the grape juice and blood began to drip in.
Where the blood made contact, the dark purple juice began to shift into a glowing ruby pool. The smell of grapes became overpowering, then started to shift, turning more alcoholic and dense. Almost like a vapor was flooding the room. I started feeling lightheaded, swaying a bit as a burning need to RAGE bubbled in my stomach.
I felt like my blood was on fire, like I was about to explode out of my skin and tear the walls down as my bones gave way under the sheer power of my shredding muscles.
Which…wasn’t exactly a sane thought. I triggered Leviathan, the flames of my purification power and soul body washing away the impression. I sighed in relief as my blood stopped boiling. The others eyes all began to glow as they triggered their own Soul Bodies, reinforcing their consciousness to resist the fog of bloody wine.
Bethy took a deep sniff, then frowned. “It’s too deep,” she turned to Archie. “Birdy! Light the wine on fire!”
Archie trilled in excitement, then flung out his wings and cawed, exploding in a nova of green flame as he flapped once, sending a torrent of fire hurtling into the wine tub. There was an explosion of purple light as the red energy mixed with the flames. “Chelsea, you’re up!” Bethy cheered, and my sister joined in, sending her own blast of purifying power.
As the power of the flames imbued the wine, red vapor exploded up above the tub like a cloud of smoke off a volcano. In the mist, crimson figures danced and leaped before falling on each other and tearing flesh with razor sharp teeth. In the background, I could hear the wine SCREAMING.
Finally, it was my turn. Extra energy from Archie, purification from Chelsea, and now I was going to be putting down a double helping of both with Leviathan. Stepping up, I triggered a burst of green flame in the form of an Extinction Event and infused it into the wine.
The previously red liquid began to shift again, taking on a brilliant swirling purple color, infused with flecks of green and white shimmer from the fire being mixed in. I kept that up until it had all swirled together into one big soup of complicated colors.
“Plant the tree!” Bethy announced portentously. I chuckled, then slammed the butt of the staff into the ground, punching it in and leaving it there. “Now, Daysia, begin the watering!”
Our Dryad friend, looking excited, scurried forward and lifted the tub easily. Being a D-ranker, that kind of weight was nothing to her. She stepped closer to the staff, and then tipped it, letting some of the swirling liquid spill out over the surface of the wood.
There was a hum of excitement and the traceries of metal on the staff began to blaze. The wood pulsed, color shifting to a darker hue as it drank down the wine. And drank. And drank. Daysia began to sing, her voice warping the air, and the sound and light of the wine was captured, wrapping itself around the staff like a blanket as it was woven into complex patterns.
I could feel it through my connection to the Ten Demons Tree. Feel the flex and groan. Inside my soul, I could see the staff floating above the tome despite seeing it right in front of me. As I watched, the illusory staff over the Chronicle began to sprout, growing branches and leaves as it grew.
This wasn’t the physical tree. It was its SOUL, the same way my soul was inside the library. The more it grew, the heavier it became. I felt it pressing down on me, as if I was suffocating, but I ignored it. The majority of the weight was slowly offset by the Chronicle as it shifted into a position to bear the strain.
I knew why I’d never seen a D-ranker using a B-ranked weapon. Because without my Chronicle to bear the weight, this would have almost definitely killed me. More than that, I could feel the tree itself adjusting, changing to suit the tome better so it could soak up even more of the strain. My weapon was a living being, an organism and a partner, and it was actively helping me acclimate to the strain, or even with a Chronicle this would have been ROUGH.
Finally, it finished growing. The phantasm of a colossal tree loomed across my library, shading the tome and the rest of the shelves, and I could see the leaves glowing with a pulsing light that reminded me of the wine, the vessels carrying energy throughout the circulatory system of the tree itself.
From the branches, a shimmering mist drifted, and I recognized it as the energy that I’d been using for the Wisdom of Solomon. There was a lot more of it now, which was good, because I was going to need it.
Before I could start exploring that though, I felt something shift. My eyes flew open wide as I retreated to the real world, and I watched in awe as my staff started to change. The pulsing increased in tempo, becoming a rapid shaking. The surface began to shine as the wine started glowing, and steam poured off as half of it evaporated and half was absorbed.
Then there was a loud cracking as fractures began, running down the staff as the surface between the sapsteel started to flake and drop off, revealing white new tree heart underneath, all inscribed with symbols.
All the writing on the staff body glowed the sapsteel tracery tightened, biting into the flesh of the tree as it solidified again, the caps doing the same thing. There was a brief pause, a sort of lull in the air like the world was holding its breath, and then an explosion of force rippled over us, driving us all to our knees.
Impact. Pure and simple. B-ranked Impact driving the breath from our bodies as the staff was elevated, pushed up a rank to stand among the giants near the peak. I could feel the power inside, like my soul was a balloon stretched around a giant lead weight. But as I let it sink in, the excess weight slowly lessened, and that feeling receded as my Chronicle acclimated to its final state.
I let the staff blink back to my soul and then called it to my hand, grinning at the feel of the thing as I whirled it between mm palms. It felt…natural. Right.
There was no way I could just smite a C-ranker with this thing, obviously. There was still a sizable gap between us. But if I stockpiled enough power to put behind a blow, this would hold up under the strain and could POTENTIALLY do real damage. Combined with the utility for helping me complete Callie’s project this staff was the only thing that could seriously turn the tables in the current situation for me.
I turned to Bethy, my smile fading when I saw how pale she looked. I glanced at Dayna, who nodded and stepped up next to Bethy, offering up a wrist. As a thrall, Dayne could feed Bethy without agonizing physical pain. Despite her obvious hunger, Bethy refused to eat in front of us, and Chelsea had to grab both of them and drag them away to find a private place for Bethy to get a bite.
After waving off my calls of thanks, they vanished down the hall, and I called Archie to my side. He swooped down, landing on my shoulder, and I scritched him on the back of his neck, which he loved.
Then I headed out to find my wife. I wanted to show her the new weapon, but more importantly, I wanted to get her help. It was time to finally complete her racial trait.
After that, I’d double down on gathering more C-rankers, and we’d spend a week or two preparing before finally making our trip to the capital. Skartaris the Weeper had the key to leaving this place, and it was about time we got a copy.
With my new B-rank staff, all the new stats, and a slew of powerful allies, I felt more prepared for what was to come than I had in a long time. This was just a pit stop on the road to the succession war. Once I got there, the real obstacles would appear. Whatever happened, we would get through it the same way we always had. Together. My friends and I would come out on top, and this time next year, I would be the Wishmaster of the Wish Curse Palace.
