Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 808
🕑 Added 2025-01-24 21:38:02 +0000 UTCBethy looked bad. Not just devastated (though that too) but tired and slightly thinner. She wilted a bit at my question, but shook it off quick. “I’m SO sorry,” she said emphatically. “That was…I’ve never had that happen before. My bloodlust usually doesn’t surge like that, and you’ve been helping me wear away at it.” She subconsciously toyed with her bracelet, seemingly unaware of her own actions.
“It’s fine,” I assured her. “I’m not dead, which means you weren’t really trying to hurt me. I’m under no illusion that I won that fight. I subdued your bloodlust and you decided not to fight me any more. You were kicking my ass.”
“I think that was what did it,” she said worriedly. “Not me kicking your ass. I think my instincts detected a genuine threat. I’ve never felt THREATENED before. But I could feel something nearby waiting to attack. It wasn’t you though. Or, I guess it was you, but in stealth. I could sense you but couldn’t pin you down and my blood lust went crazy.”
That was…frankly terrifying. The idea that Bethy was so much more powerful than other people her rank that she’d never felt threatened enough to realize she had a trigger like that only emphasized how fucking strong she was.
Because I knew for a fact that based on the beginning of that fight, I had no shot against her in my current form. Granted, I wasn’t anywhere near the peak of my rank, but then neither was she. I reached out a hand, putting it on her head and channeling Zagan into her, hoping to restore some of the lost energy.
“So what happened to you just now?” I asked as I worked on her. “Bloodlust I get, and from what I can tell we just purified at least part of your bloodline, like…permanently. Which is great. But if that’s the case why are you so weakened?”
“I was supercharged,” she explained weakly. “The life essence I harvested from your clones…it’s like spiritual blood. I don’t usually mess with it, daddy says it can get out of hand fast. But it’s basically like rocket fuel for me. I pumped myself up super big and strong, and when you washed all of it out I was left with just a skeleton of my normal power.”
Chelsea, who had come running as soon as Bethy went down, glared at the other girl. She seemed like she wanted to yell at her, but couldn’t think of a reason to do so. I felt an amused flash from Callie, who clearly also recognized the sentiment and empathized, I shot her a quick pulse of…well, it was basically the emotional equivalent of sticking out my tongue at her.
My sister, after thinking over the situation, just hugged the small vampire. “I’m glad you’re ok. Don’t scare me like that. Gabe was about to charge in here to try to help.”
Gabe nodded resolutely, and we all winced at the possible disaster we’d averted. Gabe was an Adamant, whose path only worked if he maintained victory. After reaching D-rank he had a BIT more flexibility, in that he wouldn’t just lose all his power if he was defeated, but it would still be really bad for him. Bethy, specifically, was a person Gabe NEVER engaged in combat with. Not just because of his very obvious crush on her, but because she was someone he couldn’t beat.
Bethy looked abashed. “I didn’t do it on purpose,” she protested weakly. “But if it helps I don’t think this will happen again. Not just because I’m not going to spar with Shane again but because I feel…different. Whatever you did, it wasn’t just cleansing my bloodlust. I feel like I’ve CHANGED somehow.”
“I didn’t cleanse your bloodlust,” I told her bluntly. “I cleansed your bloodLINE. Or a bit of it. Related to some new tricks I picked up. But I don’t have near enough power for a permanent fix. At the very least it should help though.”
I didn’t think it would be possible to purify all the bloodlust. As a vampire, Bethy’s predatory instincts weren’t a corruption, they were a natural part of her racial trait. That said, SOME parts of her heritage could be mitigated. Her mother’s maenad power had mixed with her father’s vampirism in a very alarming way. She had a lot of power, but at the high end little control. Part of that was because maenads had a sort of wine madness that was heavily mixed up in bloodlust.
The madness I could purify, at least partly. Without the combination she would have much more control over her vampiric nature, but it would take more than a few attempts to get rid of it all. Not to mention I got the feeling the only reason I’d succeeded at this first attempt was because I’d only just gotten started. Based on the suppression of Bethy’s bloodlust we’d tried to do with wishes, this kind of thing got progressively harder the further you went.
For now, everyone was safe and alive and that was all that mattered. We helped Bethy up and Archie offered to carry her back up to the platform. Once we got her up there Chelsea and Gabe took her back to the room she was staying in to get some rest.
Gabe, based on what I could see, wanted her to feed on him, but she’d gotten enraged last time he suggested it. Bethy’s bite was agonizingly painful because it literally ripped stats out of her victims. The idea of subjecting Gabe to that kind of agony horrified her. I considered offering myself, sure I could take the pain after my ordeals, but I realized Zagan would probably be just as useful and WOULDN’T inflict mind numbing agony on me.
My wife, who I’d mentioned this too, seemed ecstatic I’d come to a sane and rational decision about the problem, and the attitude made me seriously rethink some of my decisions over the past few months. Most of them I would stand by, but a quick recap of my choices made it clear exactly how much recursion had been affecting me.
Callie stopped me after we split from my sister, Gabe, and Bethy. Benny and Jessie had gone ahead so it was just us. “You alright? I felt…something.”
“The staff,” I told her. “It’s kind of intense. Surprised you didn’t sense it last time. I think I might have blocked you from picking it up with Murmur. Subconsciously worried about it affecting you, maybe.”
She nodded with interest. “Well I have to admit the results are impressive. I can’t wait to see what you can accomplish with that thing after some time to work with it.” She stopped, stepping forward to wrap her arms around me and rest her head on my chest. “It feels so good to have you back with me, Shane. Talking through the bond just isn’t the same.”
I hugged her tightly. “I know. And I still owe you a honeymoon. But with the succession war coming up…”
She just shook her head. “I’m not in a rush. We’re going to spend the rest of our lives together. You being safe is way more important than a honeymoon.” She smirked at me. “Besides, imagine where you can take me if you become the Wishmaster. I’m thinking a planet entirely covered in delicious food. Maybe a giant fruit orchard.”
I laughed but shook my head. “I figured you’d want to hit something like Strega Thirty Seven. It’s a giant ocean of random loot. Half of it is worthless, but there’s a whole society dedicated to mining that place for treasure. It’s at the junction of a bunch of portals leading to destroyed battlefields and objects fall to earth there every day. It’s been going on for centuries now, and some of the biggest up and comers in the universe got their start there.”
Her head snapped up, eyes intense. I’d been researching possible honeymoon locations on my downtime for a while now. I knew Callie had to wait because of everything going on, but I refused to let her down beyond that.
I knew my wife though, and the loot goblin in her was strong. Forget paradise planets or fruit orchards, the massive interstellar junk yard full of mysterious loot was pretty much her dream destination. Feeling how smug I was, she cleared her throat, looking away. “Sure,” she said with faux nonchalance. “That sounds like fun.”
“Never change, honey,” I said with a laugh. “Anyway, we can worry about that after the succession war. We’ve got more than a few of our A-rankers, but B-rank recruiting is going to be a pain. As for C-rank and below…well, I wanted to see if we could get a few Dryads onboard. I bet Daysia would help if I asked. Tree Singing would be a huge advantage in almost any survival situation. I still don’t know the details of the succession competition but given the WCP in general and my personal experiences in specific, I somehow doubt it’s going to be a puppy shampooing contest.”
She cackled at the image. “You say that, but dogs hate getting baths. Imagine Bethy trying to shampoo Luggage.”
“CAN you shampoo Luggage?” I asked with genuine interest. “Because I still don’t know what hellhounds are made of. Hell, I don’t even know if they have actual fur. I’d kind of like to see that now.”
“Do NOT suggest that to her,” she said firmly. “That hound might be docile around her, but he’s way stronger than most of us. With our luck he’d burn the tree down or something and then we’d have no chance of working with the Dryads. I know you well enough to know what you find amusing, but that would be way too much trouble.”
I had to admit to that one, so I just nodded. It sounded hilarious to me. I wasn’t sure if this was an example of recursion influencing me or just me being an idiot, but I decided to give myself the benefit of the doubt.
“So, we have this big banquet and then we’re heading out,” I said with enthusiasm. “Where’s the next stop on the recruitment tour? I figure since you’ve been training with my grandmother you might have heard.” My grandpa had planned this whole thing, but I hadn’t asked him too much about it, having been so excited to see my friends and family.
“One of the imperial clans I think,” she said with a grin. “More than that though, while you were out on your nature hike Bethy got a message from her dad. Apparently Abel has successfully completed the first leg of his training, and Lark is sending him out to gain experience.”
I perked up. “Wait, he’s finished? Did he succeed? Did he learn anything impressive from Lark?”
“I asked that too,” Callie snickered. “Bethy said he must have, since he’s still alive. I thought she might be joking, but really it’s hard to tell with her sometimes.”
That was true, but still I was excited. While apparently Bethy was someone I was completely incapable of matching, I wanted to spar with Abel. My mentor had given me a lot of…personal guidance, over the time I’d known him. It was my duty as his student to show him exactly how much I’d improved.
I briefly worried that Bella might come to a similar conclusion later in life once she had trained more…and then I dismissed it. No way she’d be able to keep up. I was safe. Though I decided to maybe be a little less enthusiastic about recreating my mentor’s methods.
Callie and I kept talking as we walked back to our place, enjoying the crisp evening air and the alone time. The breeze carried a faint scent of apples and flowers, and the silvery light of the leaf canopy above (it apparently had a moonlight setting) illuminated the world around us in beautiful relief. It was a good night.
Comments
thaughton2
Zagan's sun seems intense. I wonder if studying whatever internal logic it runs on will help with refining his racial trait form.
CringeWorthyStudios
Huh, I was right. I figured the bloodmadness triggered because Shane was a legitimate threat but wow that was still a lot. Thanks for the chapter!
