Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 692
🕑 Added 2024-08-15 20:39:27 +0000 UTCThe descent into the dark wasn’t as stressful as I imagined. Climbing down into nothingness had seemed like something that would seriously freak me out, but honestly it was almost cathartic. Of course, it was hard to be worried with Bethy gleefully chattering in my ear.
“I really liked the dresses. Like the color wasn’t the best, but it worked better than I thought, right? And Gabe and Chelsea looked super cute, and Jessie too of course. And I guess Benny looked ok and you were super handsome and Callie looked beautiful and Randall was so adorable in his little suit.”
Chuckling at the fact that she seemed to not need to breathe and then reminding myself she was a vampire, I couldn’t help but get sucked in. “Well I’m glad you liked it. Was that your first wedding?”
She shook her head quickly, hair whipping me in the face. “Oh not at all. But I’m usually not really part of them. Some of my siblings have gotten married, but I was just in the audience and the color palate was always too much black. I liked that Callie decided to break things up with a pop of color, because too much black is all sad and dour and weddings should be happy times you know?”
When I reached the ground, I dropped onto hard packed soil, setting off down a tunnel carved into the dirt and rock. “Well it sounds like you had fun. Shame we didn’t get to have the reception. Callie was really excited about that cake.”
Before she could respond, I came to a stop. We’d reached the entrance to the dark district. Bethy gave me a puzzled look from over my shoulder. “What’s up? You see something?”
“Nope.” I said as I set her down. “Just need to drop my stealth for this part. Some setup for the plan.” Closing my eyes, I reached for my new form, ready to trigger it and begin the operation, though I hadn’t tested it TOO thoroughly.
When considering my needs, I’d come across a few inescapable facts. First up, I needed a way to counter Travis, which, barring the ability to teleport consistently (and I didn’t really have the foundation to build that since my one and only teleport was reactive for the most part) I needed to be able to be in more than one place at the same time.
That fed into my other need, exposed by the extreme damage of keeping three forms at once, the need to have greater access to my now decent sized arsenal of abilities without burning myself out.
Thus, I’d begun a grueling month of heavy research and methodical testing using what I had to create something that I could genuinely count on to fill those roles. It had taken a lot, considering the biggest factor was the ability to use forms without or with greatly reduced soul weight. I’d had to make a lot of trades, and rework the patterns about a hundred times, researching heavily in my skill construction book before I stumbled on the answer.
First off, I hadn’t been able to use Afterburner this time. While a staple, it was actually TOO powerful, and had unbalanced the form. Secondly, I’d needed to use four skills as a base, and I’d needed them to produce more power than the sum of their parts, which meant I’d had to stack the stats again. This time I’d managed to incorporate two stats in the stacking, Perception and Might, something I’d only managed thanks to the book, Piece of Mind assisted research, and Callie helping out during the construction process.
I’d finally completed my new form only a few days ago. Shadow Clone, Piece of Mind, Stone Limb, and Dust Construction. It had taken some reworking to get it stable, with Stone Limb needing to be heavily retooled specifically to work with Dust Construction, but after weeks of trial and error I had finally finished it.
The sixth form of the Goetia staff art: Beelzebub. Based on the proverbial lord of the flies, it allowed me to manifest twelve copies of myself (thirteen of me total) and dispatch them to function totally independently. There was no range limit, and I could communicate remotely with them.
There WERE a few tradeoffs. They could only use a single form at a time, and I couldn’t control or inhabit that many bodies at once. The parallels in those bodies were independent, even if they could check in and talk to me.
Structuring that had been hellishly difficult, and I’d only managed it by studying the Expert version of Paired Dueling and figuring out how the telepathic link worked for Callie and I. THe upsides to it were that the parallels seemed to possess either a soul of their own or at the very least some kind of amplifier, because I’d stumbled onto a way to use soul straining techniques like forms without straining my main soul.
Beelzebub itself was SLIGHTLY more strenuous than a normal form, but not enough to prevent me from using a second form at the same time. It was my crowning achievement in Skill construction to date, and without heavily abusing Piece of Mind to work at enhanced efficiency and help from Callie through the bond, I’d never have managed it.
Of course, the other me’s didn’t need to be told the plan. They were me. Using Bael to remain hidden, they all set off to their proper places immediately, ready to do the job.
“Wow, that was amazing.” Bethy said, wide eyed. “Those all felt like real people. How did you do that? Wait…can I do that?” I was about to respond when she raised a hand and waved it, an identical Bethy appearing next to her. She put her hands on her hips and laughed cockily. “Hah! See, that’s not so tough. Now there are two of me!”
Other Bethy looked at her in confusion. “Meow?” She said. She didn’t actually meow, just said the word. Bethy, coughed in embarrassment and waved her hand, the clone dispersing. “Well, now that we’ve seen I can do it there's no need to keep another me around. One Bethy is already the perfect amount.”
I had to shove down a laugh, because she wasn’t wrong. “Alright, with them dispatched, we’re ready to get going.” I looked down past the edge of the tunnel out into the dark district, and winced. “Man this is going to suck. I can see a ton of E-rankers down there…and a lot of bodies. Attacks are dropping left and right. Even in stealth we’ll need to be careful.”
My Danger Sense would hopefully come in handy. I was also going to try to engage Eye of Revelation through the armor upgrade and my overlay at the same time. Combined with my early warning system I would hopefully be able to get us through unscathed.
“We’re going to be moving as fast as I can without fucking up my stealth.” I informed Bethy as I readied myself to run. “You ready for that?”
I’d have to keep my speed manageable to avoid the sonic booms screwing up my stealth, but as long as I didn’t go over seven hundred and fifty miles per hour I would still be within tolerance. Mephisto’s Waltz would have added to my movement abilities as it was made to, but sadly I was already using Beelzebub and Bael so running would have to do. Making sure we were still hidden, I breathed deeply, readying myself for the run, and then…I moved.
It felt shockingly good to just…run. State of Grace let me move more freely without the drag one would normally face at those speeds, though that was more for comfort than any real need, and my overlay combined with Eye of Revelation and Danger Sense…the three abilities kind of blurred together in one huge gestalt of movement.
My feet hit the ground like raindrops, barely touching down before the next step, and my body shifted through the line of free space like I was dancing. Sliding under blasts of energy, leaping over beasts, slipping between blades and hammers and bullets.
My Danger Sense played its warnings like a symphony, background music to the blurred lightshow of arrows and paths and attacks as I flitted through the madness, ignoring all of it, unstained by the reality of the world as I rode the music. Somewhere in my mind, I felt a click as I understood Mephisto’s Waltz on a far deeper level, though the exact effects of that realization were a mystery to me at the moment.
And then…it was done. I was standing perfectly unscathed at the entrance to E-district. THe elevators were clearly out as a means of transport, but the dark districts were connected to E-district at certain spots. They were the unranked battlefields and the place where the E-rankers sent their best to win them honor and wealth.
Bethy hopped down excitedly. “Wow! That was awesome! You were like ‘whoosh, whiz, fwip’. Sliding right between all those attacks!”
I raised an eyebrow. “Fwip?”
She shrugged. “When you avoided that ballista bolt covered in aquamarine acid jelly?”
That brought me up short. “Actually, that kind of was a fwip. Fair enough. Now we just have to get through this last barrier into E-district and you can let everyone out. How are you feeling by the way? Is keeping so many people in your Domain tough?”
“Not really.” She said cheerfully. “It’s kind of a strain, but a VERY small one for each person. Added together, less than seventy or so people is only a little tough. I’m good for a while still.”
Grinning, I nodded. “Well lets not strain you more than necessary anyway. Come on, lets go.”
We walked into a small, nondescript building, a bar called the ‘Break of Don’ and headed for the back. Abel had mentioned this place, since he’d been here before. It was old and creaky, but well cared for. It didn’t take long to find the device Abel had mentioned.
The thing we were looking for was a strange multicolored music player. The top was a glass enclosure full of discs with music recorded on them (somehow, I had no idea how someone would go about engraving music on a physical medium like that, I didn’t see any runes). We were supposed to press a letter and number, then another, then a third. Each one would play a song, and the three songs together were a password.
I tapped in the three that I’d been given, and the boxy device slid smoothly away from the wall, revealing yet ANOTHER ladder well. We climbed in, Bethy first and then me, and the machine slid back into place as the darkness swallowed us.
At the bottom was another tunnel, and we walked for maybe ten minutes before reaching a big metal door with a wheel release. We turned it slowly, and it opened out onto a hill in a forest.
Above us, I saw a familiar sky and grinned. E-district. It had been more than a year since I’d set eyes on this place, and it was oddly nostalgic. Bethy looked around calmly, having been much more interesting places than this.
“Alright.” I said as I finished surveying the place. “I need to head to the temple all the way in the back. The Moravian lives down here apparently. He’s the oldest E-ranker on the planet, and most likely the one with the most pull. If anyone can swing the others down here to our side it’ll be him. Sadly I can’t just take control of the WCP branch, and I really don’t want to pay them all. Release the others and have them try to approach anyone they think they can sway. More motivation can’t hurt.”
This was technically part of the war, so chances were good convincing them would be easier than I thought, but having a representative with clout wouldn’t hurt. The Moravian himself was apparently a friend of Zeke’s and even knew my mom, and would be willing to hear me out for their sakes. As Bethy started releasing our people, I set off. Now it was time to go meet the oldest man in the world.
Comments
CringeWorthyStudios
Shane: *spends months making a super complicated and powerful technique* Bethy: “Wow, that looks cool lemme just copy that real quick!” … somehow not surprised.
Malcolm Tent
Bael just makes him invisible and Beelzebub makes the copies so not external changes.
Kevin McGuire
Do Beelzebub and Bael change how Shane looks?
