Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 468
🕑 Added 2023-10-09 19:15:30 +0000 UTCWhen the golden light faded, I was standing alone in a dark stone hall. The room expanded out in every direction, and along the walls I could see portraits and furniture and sconces with candles. The floor of the hall had a long strip of red carpet running down it, and upon turning around I found myself standing in front of a throne. The golden chair had a single white cushion each on the base and the back, lined with golden leaves.
Figuring this had to do with the trial, I tried to approach, but as I walked toward it the space between the throne and me seemed to elongate. The red carpet gave the illusion of an endless path, and that illusion was definitely fulfilled when I tried to get closer. So I turned and walked the other way, and managed to make my way to the door out of the hall with ease. When I pushed it open, I saw the hallway was heavily shadowed, lacking the light from the crystal chandelier I hadn't noticed in the chamber.
Once I stepped out, the door slammed shut behind me of its own accord, and I glanced around carefully, just to make sure I wasn't about to get eaten or something.
I wasn't too worried right now. After my recent soul tempering experience I just didn't have the emotional capacity to feel fear in this situation. I'd already been through worse recently, and all my fear would have been just another aspect of my fear of loneliness. I was perfectly comfortable walking these halls by myself. Possibly too comfortable, not that there was much I could do about that.
The knowledge that I SHOULD be afraid was at least enough to motivate me to be extra vigilant. As I strolled down the stone corridor, I kept an eye out for anything that might be a threat. I passed a few slit windows letting cold moonlight into the hallway, but I didn't see any objects or people until I reached the first large room in the hallway. When I did, I stumbled on a strange sight.
A lone suit of armor standing in the middle of the room, facing the entrance I'd just used. The armor was pitch black plate mail, and it held a huge halberd. I could see orange fire rolling behind the visor, like eldritch eyes watching me, and as I entered the room, the head very slightly shifted to focus on me.
My cheerful fearlessness was somewhat muted under an understandable bit of caution. The last time I'd seen an orange glowing thing here it had been a jellyfish that wanted to eat my soul. Still, the slam of the door behind me made it clear the only way out was through. Through an ominous suit of armor. Joy.
I spun up my staff, and figured this was a good chance to train up Belial a bit. I shifted into my first stance, my view filling with arrows as my body shifted into toxic magma stone.
Rather than just attack all out though, I took the time to really feel out my situation. There were lots of arrows that showed me possible attacks, even the gold ones that guided me down the path of the Fatewalker were numerous, but more than that, they weren't specific. They showed me where to attack but not how, and I'd been thinking over the first form and how I could improve it.
Activating state of grace and ripple running, I glided forward, staff slowly rotating as I came. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. I repeated something I'd heard at the pavilion in my head. I'd been so excited to bust out my new move last time I'd completely ignored how to best use it. I'd been too focused on the form part of the staff form and ignored the staff part.
Each of my Goetia forms should and would function as an independent style. Because they had different abilities (or would eventually). Belial was toxic and destructive, but it showed its usefulness in lots of little attacks rather than a single large one. I stepped off the air, surprised to see the Ripple Running platform beging to crackle as I left a toxic stain in the air under my foot.
Pushing off the platform my staff licked out, deceptively lazy in its arc, and without any particular force behind it. The attack only grazed the armor before I stepped again on the air, bouncing off a spot on the opposite side and repeating. I leapt casually and lightly around the armor, tapping and grazing it as I went, enjoying the sight of my demonic corruption (what I'd decided to call Belial's toxic energy) slowly covering the dark metal.
As a Path attack, Belial was much more destructive than the normal toxic fire I used, and much harder to get rid of. Granted, the armor was pretty much a solid hunk of metal, so it didn't show too much obvious sign of wear, but it was still being damaged.
By never committing too much to any one attack and staying mobile, I was able to move quickly and easily. The armor tried to spear me on the pike head of his halberd and when he missed he switched to wide swings, but he couldn't lay a hand on me.
As the fight progressed, I could hear the groans and creaks begin to issue from the armor as my corrosion slowly chewed through the metal. My Fatewalker Path guided me towards the most deadly striking areas, and I learned more about my staff form as I worked, dismantling the armor and sending it to its final fate.
I saw the change in the arrows as things ended, before the armor even gave out, and landed lightly behind it, dismissing Belial without even looking as the plate of the armor finally gave out and the whole suit collapsed to the ground in a noisy heap.
To my surprise, once it dropped, the fire inside didn't go out, it swirled through the air above me and then dove into my soul body. I felt myself become stronger, my soul purifying and reaching further along the path to yellow. Of course, this far in it was only a slight bump, only a percent, but I understood what was going on.
If my guess was right, the trials were set up in such a way that they alternated between pure power gain and soul refinement. The first trial let us gain power as we went, then the second forced us to face complete solitude. The third trial was clearly more in the vein of the first. An opportunity to grow more powerful.
Once the armor was destroyed, the archway behind it lit up on either side, clearly welcoming me to move on. I left my staff out just in case, wishing it was the actual E-rank Stygian Branch instead of a shoddy F-ranked knock off. When I reached the next room, I stopped inside and winced at what I saw.
Armors. Plural. Two of them. Beating one hadn't been too difficult, but beating two meant turning my back on one at any given time. Still, this would be a great opportunity to train Belial more, and it wasn't like I could just ignore the chance to improve my soul.
Triggering Belial again, I studied the arrows in front of me. Based on what happened last time, the armors wouldn't attack until I did. The mess off arrows was complicated and difficult to sort through. Not because I was short on option but because I had too many. Same as last time, I needed to find a road through this that both corresponded to Belial's form and allowed me to walk further in my Path.
I studied a few different moves I could make, and once I picked the best one, I triggered State of Grace and Ripple Running again. Light and subtle. I also internalized more of what Willow taught me. Her use of leverage was perfect for Belial. Dashing forward, I stepped off the air, once and then twice.
The first step took me toward the armor on the right, the second took me clear of the blow from the left armor that it aimed at me as I came in. I sailed gently over the attack as it slammed into and shattered the corruption hanging in the air where I'd stepped, then pushed off a third time. As the right hand armor swung it's halberd around, my staff licked out and smacked gently into a spot about three quarters of the way up the haft.
My attack hit the halberd at a balance point, diverting it away, and slid down the length of the weapon as it was deflected down into the left hand armor. There was a crash as the right armor's corrupted weapon split the shoulder plate on the left armor, spreading my attack through the metal.
The left armor gave an impression of fury as it began raining down attacks on me, and the right hand armor pulled its weapon free and resumed the attack as well.
I moved like a dancer, following the arrows I felt lined up best with my Path. I felt my soul almost glow as the Path took me forward. I wasn't just walking the road of fate, I was guiding it. This was the exact link between my form and Path that I needed to maximize my growth.
Between the Ripple Running platforms, my staff, and the overlay, I moved through the attacks like a fight through water. My staff flicked out lazily a dozen times, not enough to do serious damage even with the corruption, but it didn't need to be. By hitting the exact right spots, I could change the fate of a blow, redirecting it from myself towards another enemy. The corruption built in their weapons as they tore each other apart from the inside, all while trying to kill me.
This was what Belial was for. Crowds. Tearing an enemy unit apart with its own attacks. I landed my last blow and the two armors finally collapsed. The two waves of orange flame consumed me, both of them stronger this time because I was still on my Path. Another five percent soul progress total filled my body, and I exhaled with relish.
I didn't bother dismissing Belial this time, just kept it active as I walked to the next room, and when I found the expected three suits of armor, I just attacked them directly. Three was harder, and I deduced that I was starting to reach my limit with Belial for the moment. I needed to train.
In order to take full advantage, I slowed down a bit, getting a better handle on my timing and speed as I worked on my newest form. The Ripple Running steps were added in, used as land mines in the air to corrupt weapons. Every move became a step in the Path, ever little twitch shifted the tides of fate, and I felt almost invincible under the effects of Belial.
Not that I was. I knew that the feeling was just a side effect of being in ideal conditions. Multiple slightly weaker enemies was pretty much heaven for me right now. Belial made me an army buster if I was willing to put in the time. Sadly, it wouldn't be nearly as useful against single opponents. Sure, a bunch of light taps would add up, but anyone sufficiently powerful would just muscle me.
After I finished the three and got ANOTHER five percent progress toward my soul. I moved on, but the next room wasn't just some random hall filled with armor. This one was a more open space with multiple doors. Through all but one of the four passageways came a person, myself and two others. When I saw them, I sighed deeply. I'd been hoping for more armors, but these weren't them, or even people I knew. Well, time to see what the others had to say.
