Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 645
🕑 Added 2024-06-11 23:39:49 +0000 UTCWe continued on our trek, getting through seven more temples in record time. On the upside we’d sailed through the fights pretty easily, perfectly utilizing our abilities…and on the downside, I was now out of clones. I’d only had eight left (though two in reserve from Callie that I’d never ended up collecting since I had the full ten) and we’d had to use an extra on the sixth temple because one got eaten before I could see what the guardian was (it was a giant carnivorous plant).
Now we were at the eleventh temple, and we had no way of looking inside. I’d tried to use the bond to make a clone, but they were blocking it somehow, which made sense, because these games were at the universal faction level, so they were bound to have countermeasures for things like that.
My only real relief was that I could still feel Callie in my head. I knew if the emotional aspect of the bond got severed she’d have panicked, since neither of us had any warning.
“So…” My sister said lamely as we watched the temple. “You have no way to look inside? Because that’s been working really well for us.”
I shrugged. “Nope. I mean, Callie made those clones with Shadow Manipulation, it’s not like I have…” I trailed off, my eyes widening. “One second, let me try something.” I looked around for a nearby patch of ground, then triggered Pit of Despair. Focusing hard, I employed Dust Construction, condensing a version of my own body out of dust.
The process only took a second…and then there was a statue of me sitting in a hole. I cursed, trying it again. I went through about five variation before I figured out I needed a Piece of Mind parallel active and constantly using Dust Construction to prevent it from setting, on top of creating one to actually direct the clone.
I grinned triumphantly as the other me hopped energetically out of the hole, shooting the rest of us a thumbs up before he loped off towards the temple. In fact, this was much better, because this clone could actually open the door himself. As he approached, the others turned to glare at me.
“What?” I said innocently. “I didn’t realize I could do that. My power is complicated, ok? It does a lot of stuff.”
In fact, learning I could make dust clones was actually very interesting. It was exhausting to do, but there were ways to mitigate that. Specifically, if I made a form for Dust Construction and clone creation. The idea of an army of statues running around was VERY intriguing, especially given my Mornax form’s resemblance to the clone I’d just made.
Along with a possible stealth form, that was two new form ideas I’d have to look into when I had some free time.
As I watched, from both up close and afar (it was a weird sensation, no matter how many times I did it) the clone approached and levered open the door. I noted how easy it was to keep the Dust Construction up, despite the widening distance, with a smile. The parallel inside the clone was operating the Skill, and since it was ME and had access to my Skills, there was no delay or strain from the gap.
The clone was able to get the large doors open easily enough, it was made from E-ranked materials, but I knew I couldn’t count on that being the case every time. Something to consider for the future.
Because the clone was so much better, my Perception was able to shine, and the combination with my Eye of Revelation worked much more effectively. As I poked my stone head in, I practically felt like I was there in person, and I scanned the temple carefully looking for any sign of an opponent.
I found one, though not in the way I expected. “There’s a cat in there.” I said bluntly, staring through stone eyes at the seemingly perfectly normal feline.
Well, normal for a given definition of that word. Cats are sadistic and bloodthirsty beasts, even if occasionally cute ones. This one was grooming itself lazily, sitting on top of a glass box with the key in it.
Its fur was a burnished gold, and it had tufted ears and a surprisingly long tail with a little ball of fuzz on the end. I described the scene to my twin and the two angel sisters, and discovered that Chelsea and Serah were glaring at me dangerously. I cocked my head, showing I was confused about what they wanted.
“We’re not going to murder a kitty cat.” My sister said acidly. “We’ll go to a different temple.”
I rolled my eyes. “We can’t, we’re too far up the mountain. It’s a miracle this one isn’t crawling with other contestants. I don’t want to hurt the cat either, but it’s a guardian. There’s no way it’s just a normal cat. Here, watch, I’ll show you.” I focused on my clone as the parallel controlling it moved it closer to the cat.
It made no attempt to be stealthy, just strolled up to it nonchalantly. “Hey there bud.” The other me said cheerfully. “That’s a neat looking box you’ve got there.” The stone hand reached for it. “Mind if I take a lo-” And then my clone died.
Or rather, my clone was smashed into dust, because you can’t kill a statue, mobile or otherwise. In fact, I could even still see, since Eye of Revelation was present before the statue was destroyed. Which turned out to be a suboptimal situation, because the cat casually hopped down and strolled over to the pile of dust that used to be me. I dismissed the parallel before I had to suffer the indignity of being used as a litter box.
“Fucking cats.” I spat spitefully. “It killed the clone. I think it’s bigger than it looks, in the split second before it got me I saw the paw enlarge. So yes, it’s dangerous, and it wants to hurt us. And I’m not letting myself get disemboweled because you think cats are cute.” I glared at her. “You’ve been spending too much time with Bethy.”
She huffed. “Well I’m not attacking a kitty. Even if I hadn’t been spending time with Bethy, that just feels wrong. Would you want to attack a puppy if it was guarding that key? I know you aren’t a cat person, but it’s the same thing.”
Holly shrugged. “I’m not one for cats either. So I’m good either way. But Serah loves them, and if you try to hurt it you might have to fight HER. She even has a pair of fake cat ears that she wears around the ho-” Her voice was cut off by the formerly stoic copper haired angel’s hand as she blushingly glared at her sister.
“That’s personal!” She hissed dangerously. “And yes, if you try to hurt that kitty I won’t just stand idly by. So you’d better think of another way to deal with it.” Her face closed off again, going back to her normal stoic demeanor. “I am sure you will manage flawlessly. You’ve proven yourself quite capable up to this point.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I saw that little tone shift. But fine, I just so happen to have another plan. What is that cats hate more than anything?” I activated Moonlit Night in a small area around us, since I couldn’t use Stealth without the bond.
“The happiness of others?” Holly asked dryly.
I didn’t bother to hide my snicker at that as Serah turned to glare at her sister. “Close, but no, I was talking about something a bit less abstract.”
“Oh!” Chelsea said excitedly. “Baths! Cats hate baths!” Holly turned to look at her, and she shrugged helplessly. “It’s a Bethy thing. You start coming up with weird answers to questions more easily when you’re around her long enough. You’ll get it when you meet her.”
Nodding, I acknowledged the point. “Accurate, and also what I was thinking. Yes, cats hate baths. So what if I used Pit of Despair to turn the entire floor of that temple into dust. The cat would be so panicked by the change it wouldn’t notice me manually using the dust to push the box with the key out the door.”
“That’s a great idea!” She said excitedly. “But…can you even DO that?” She glanced toward the temple. “That’s a lot of floor. And isn’t doing a ton of work with that stuff really hard for you?”
It actually was. I grimaced, referencing the distances I’d been seeing from the clone before it died. “Maybe not.” I admitted. “But it doesn’t need to be the whole floor. I can just do a big area around the cat and then a canal leading to the door. The distraction should still work. I can even use the dust to harry and restrain the cat while I work.”
Admittedly that would be much more feasible. I could use Piece of Mind to micromanage a bunch of smaller patches of dust. Overpowering Pit of Despair would be tough, but I had a really solid amount of Might now, so it should be doable.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly made my way toward the temple, gesturing for the others to stay back. Holly shook her head, following me, and when I hissed at her to get back, she shook it again. “Once this is done you’ll be exhausted.” She whispered. “I’ll need to get you out of there.”
That was a good point, so I let her follow. When I reached the door, I planted a hand on the stone of the temple, and then triggered Pit of Despair and Piece of Mind both multiple times. The strain hit me like a runaway shuttle, but I ignored it, focusing on the cat and the key.
Beneath the lazy feline, the ground suddenly shifted to dust. It let out an alarmed yowl as it dropped into the dust, and I saw the substance shift as something much bigger took its place. But I’d planned for that, and there was still plenty of room. Three of my parallels operated Dust Construction, using the massive dust pool to try to restrain the beast, as a fourth carefully pulled the box along a subtle current of dust toward us.
As I’d hoped, the cat was FAR too distracted and pissed off to bother keeping track of the box. It felt like an hour keeping everything going, but eventually, the box with the key pushed up out of the dust. I shoved hard with my parallels, pushing the cats head above the dust before I let it all drop and the ground hardened again.
The massive head of a terrifying feline beast erupted, whipping around until it saw me, but it didn’t matter. As soon as I grabbed the box, Holly grabbed ME under the arms and beat her wings. I heard the explosion of stone as the cat ripped free, but I was already gone when its oversized paw darted out of the opening to slap down where I’d been standing like it would have caught the tail of a mouse.
I laughed uproariously as it yowled and swatted, but it didn’t seem to be able to actually leave the temple (probably to prevent the monsters from getting out and butchering all the contestants.
When we landed, I tossed the box to my sister before sitting down to catch my breath, letting the extreme soul strain fade. Still, I was pretty damned proud of myself. Only one more key to go and then we’d be at the peak. I was just worried someone might beat us there. Then again, maybe I had other problems, after all, I needed to win and only one person could. I knew Chelsea would let me use the keys, but what about the angels? Only time would tell.
