Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 841
🕑 Added 2025-03-13 00:57:19 +0000 UTCThe square was divided up into a grid pattern. I wasn’t able to see the specifics until I got closer, but one I did, I grimaced. A series of squares, each one with a different spirit in it. The squares each had a rule on it, written in the center in gold. Callie knelt down, grimacing at the nearest square. “Single use. One square, one rule, changes when moving.”
I sighed. “It looks like the exit is on the other side,” I pointed across the square at the colossal stone building. It was strange and hard to look at, the shape seemingly weathered from the stone instead of carved, and something about the patterns was disturbing.
“It’s not going to be straightforward,” Callie warned. “Each square will be different, needing different skills. We can’t fight through.”
“I assumed,” I said with a sigh. “But with all of us close enough to make contact it should be doable. We can help each other as we go.”
Holding up a hand, I released everything but Mornax, then strolled down the line of squares until I found one with a rule I didn’t mind.
Rule 1: Use only your left hand.
Making sure to step in with my left foot as per the earlier rule. I walked into the square, coming face to face with a spectral being. “Fool! Thou enters my sacred ground? Ist thou prepared to die?”
I glanced at the man, noted he had no eyes, and then ignored him as I moved across the square, checking each side to identify the next one I would pick. There were three, of course. Two of the rules seemed almost impossible to follow, but the last one was plausible, so I stepped with my left foot, moving one square to the left instead of progressing onward.
The rule in this one was to move backwards, so I turned around, then realized I couldn’t read behind my back. I ended up walking to the edge, turning a full one eighty, and then taking one small step back so I could read.
This time I actually managed to move a step forward, one closer to crossing. But when I arrived in this one, I ran into another problem. The spirit in this one was a big burly guy with a manic look in his eyes. He roared and rushed me as soon as I crossed in, but I was able to read the rule before entering, so I knew what not to do. Namely, no defense was allowed in this square.
Snarling, I pivoted on my foot, launching a punch infused with an Extinction Event. I’d been working on the move in my spare time after losing my old staff. I had been helpless without a weapon, and I wanted to be prepared if it happened again. In this case, my staff was too long to be functional within the five by five square.
The spirit snarled, swinging his own fists, and I triggered Double Trouble. His fist sailed through my illusion, and I spun as he did, hammering my fist into his ribs in an explosion of dark energy. He staggered to one side, and I stomp kicked him into the next square over, sending him sprawling…and then something happened.
In an explosion of howling darkness, a small pinhole opened up in front of the prone spirit, and he was instantly sucked into it with a terrified scream. I stared at the spot where he had been before walking over to look at the rule.
Rule 1: Both feet must remain on the ground.
“Callie!” I called over my shoulder. “Be careful! I just saw what happens when someone breaks a rule. It was NOT nice to watch!”
“We saw one too!” she shouted back. “What square was it? Is the rule impossible? We’re making a list. So far we know to stay away from D5 and C7. We’re using chess notations to keep track.”
I glanced down at it. “It’s keep both feet on the ground, which isn’t IMPOSSIBLE, but it’s not ideal. I think this is…B4? I stepped in on A2 I believe. One left, one forward, then this one is another left. The next forward step is onto C3. Which will put me…” I looked up, noticing a familiar face. “One diagonal over from Chelsea who is now on D4, hi sis!”
She noticed me waving and rolled her eyes, waving back. “Hi Shane,” she said in amused tone. “I was the one who found D5, I passed the info on to Callie when we met up at C5. The D5 rule is all walking must be hand walking.”
“I can see how that might be difficult to deal with,” I laughed, stepping onto the diagonal after checking the rule, which was that I had to snap my fingers before every step. Some of these were just weird. There was no spirit in this particular square. Behind me, I saw some of my friends following my path, though they were taking it slow. “Alright, what are the squares in front?”
Not being able to use the word “you” was REALLY starting to irritate me. I’d caught myself slipping about ten times so far. You, my, anyone, all words I used frequently. I couldn’t even USE the word frequently, because it had a fucking Y in it! I missed adverbs so much.
She glanced around. “Hop on one foot, sing all words, that one just reads ‘don’t start screaming’. Hard pass.”
“Do some of them have background effects? Torturing for example?” I couldn’t imagine that one would be as easy as it sounded. And if there were auxiliary issues pushing us to break the rules this was going to get a LOT harder. Chelsea looked like she was considering stepping on the screaming square to check, but I held up a hand. “Don’t. Let me. I’m trained.” No one was better at enduring pain than I was. Unless it was literally impassable, I wouldn’t scream at anything that happened.
I crossed into my sister’s square, then took a deep breath. We could skip this one, sure, but then we wouldn’t have the answer about the auxiliary effects. We might need to factor that in later as we crossed to make it through, so I wanted an answer in a controllable situation.
Making sure to move left foot first, I stepped over the line into the square she indicated. E4. As soon as I did, my teeth snapped together and I strangled a low moan. There was this…force. A vibration mixed with an electric shock. It shook the air inside the square, and at a closer glance I could see faintly scratched symbols along the edges. This thing was fucking enchanted, though not with an enchantment language I’d seen before. It was jagged and harsh and hurt to look at.
I hadn’t even noticed it before, because the lines were so discordant it just looked like scratches on the stone. I studied the next few squares, finding an innocuous looking rule with no visible edge scratching, and then stepped off the one I was on, exhaling in relief as I crossed my fingers, following the rule.
“Ok, there are alternate effects,” I called to Chelsea, and then again to my wife. “Check the squares for scratching at the edges! Enchantments or something.”
Callie cursed. “I see some!” she called. “I’m not sure all of them will be obvious. I think I passed some of the squares and didn’t notice.” In my head, she filled me in on the details, since our bond wasn’t subject to the verbal limitations. I couldn’t see where the effects might have influenced her. Maybe some of them were broken? Or maybe the pushes were just too subtle to affect us.
Then I considered another factor. Focusing hard on my Promethean Fire Soul Body, I triggered something I hadn’t tried yet. Afterburner synergized perfectly with the soul defense skill. I felt a burst of powerful flame inside me and then…nothing. Cautiously, I stepped back onto the torture square. I felt a small buzzing, but nothing as bad as last time. I grinned, stepping back onto the finger crossing square.
“Callie!” I yelled happily. “Their enchantments are all soul based! The Promethean Fire helps! Use it!” They all had it active, but since I didn’t need it, I hadn’t bothered. I’d resisted the mental influence before so I’d been sure I wouldn’t need it. Frowning down at the squares, I considered my situation, then decided to go all in. I triggered Leviathan. Then I started crossing.
One square had a rule about vowels, one had a rule about keeping your eyes closed. They were annoying, but without any secondary effects able to effect me, I was able to stroll through mostly unharmed, with only the occasional fist fight with spirits before reaching the other end. Once I crossed into the area in front of the stone building, I relaxed, turning back to see my friends.
“It’s fine!” I called to them. “Just take the ones I did!” I gave them a list of safe squares, and between me and the others, we’d been able to map a route for each of us. There were a limited number of squares, and a lot of us, so it took a while to get everyone across, but eventually we were all safely on the other side.
“That,” said Abel in frustration. “Fucking SUCKED! I couldn’t do much at all! I just had to take it one step at a time. How frustrating.”
I sighed. “Agreed, but this is the exit, I think. So we can get out of here. Granted, we’re getting out into the middle of an evil ocean, but it’s progress.” We all laughed, heading to the giant double doors. Abel and Bethy each took one, levering the door open to reveal the inside of the building.
The first thing I noticed was that it wasn’t spatially expanded. Which made sense, because we were in the void in a reverse spatially expanded area. Could you expand space inside expanded space? I was pretty sure, because our rings worked inside buildings, but maybe that didn’t count, because they worked here too.
We pushed the doors shut, then headed into the interior, following the single long hallway until we emerged into a room full of sand and rocks that looked like it was on the ocean floor, minus the water. It was a huge cavern, the edges seemingly worn from natural sea rock, with coral and seaweed strewn across the area.
In the center, floating in the air, was a single green slash, energy sizzling off it in snaps and pops. It was like a wound in the world, and it was very obviously the exit to this Void Shallow. Which would have been fantastic…if there weren’t a bunch of people standing in front of it.
Godchildren. Three C-rankers and a dozen powerful D-rankers, all posted up and waiting for us to try to walk through the exit. They saw us enter, but didn’t seem to be in a hurry. The lead C-ranker, a tall man in a long black cloak, smiled sharply as he spotted me. “See!” He said cheerfully. “I told you they would make it in the first few days. You don’t steal from a god without being competent at least. Come out now, no need to be shy. We’ve been waiting for you for quite a while!”
I grimaced, looking back to check on my friends. They were all tensed, ready for battle. Dezcarta and Carmichael were prepared too, luckily, but there were THREE C-rankers. I didn’t know how tough Carmichael was, but these were godchildren. The only silver lining was that they had to be recent breakthroughs, at least the one in the cloak, since he could only have broken through after arriving here.
Stepping forward, I put myself between the group and my friends, my eyes locked on the leader. “Apologies, we ran into traffic,” I said acidly. “We took care of that though. It was a mess. I don’t much like obstacles.” I had a feeling this next part was going to be bad. I sent Callie a message to get her started preparing as best she could. We were getting out of here no matter what it took.
