Wish upon the Stars chapter 1133 (Patreon)

I spent the weekend with my wife, relaxing and enjoying our time together. It was wonderful to take a break, especially after two weeks of going so hard. Nothing puts a nice vacation into perspective like weeks of exhausting busywork. My demons seemed pretty relieved as well, and it was a pleasant time had by all. And then it was over.

Which was why I was now back in Moment City, waiting at the desk for Elonwy to be available so I could redeem my credit points for the Ruin Phoenix Candle.

I hadn’t been training over the weekend, but I HAD put in some time considering what I needed. I had a basic plan of attack for the upgrade, I just needed to GET the thing. Hence why I was now standing in front of my upperclassman friend, calmly announcing my student number so she could access my account. Sorwen was with me, and she gave hers next, and Elonwy processed the order with barely a raised eyebrow before reaching under the desk and withdrawing a small box made of what looked like literal sun bleached bone.

“Item 4683297,” Elonwy said blandly. “Ruin Fragment Black Flame Candle. Nine thousand credit points. Surprising you redeemed this one, it’s been in the archives for a LONG time. It’s both way too expensive and way too cheap to be worth buying, if you know what I mean.”

I did. Without access to my nonsense bag of tricks, the candle wouldn’t be able to show its true worth. Phoenix related techniques didn’t grow on trees, and the ones that were around were mostly life and Vitality adjacent. The Ruin Phoenix was a very niche entity to need access to, not to mention even if YOU did need access, the candle wouldn’t give most people that access, and would therefore be way overpriced. Useless and priceless at the same time, no wonder the thing was still around.

“Do I want to know what this box is made of?” I asked as I carefully lifted it from her hands.

“It’s chocolate,” Elonwy said sincerely. “You have to leave it out to thaw before you eat it, but once it's ready it’s supposed to taste fantastic.”

Sorwen lit up with excitement. “Really?” she asked enthusiastically.

“No,” Elonwy said gently. “It's old bones.” She glanced at me questioningly. “I understand she’s paying for this, but is it really worth the cost?”

“Hey!” the elf protested in a hurt voice. “That’s mean, you were the one who said it!”

I chuckled. “Elonwy, she doesn’t know you, so she’s not familiar with your brand of sarcasm, tone it down, Sorwen, she didn’t mean anything by it, that’s just how her sense of humor is. You’re both my friends, I’d appreciate it if you could at least be civil. You’re not exactly going to be lunching together, so it’ll only be for a few minutes now and then.”

“It was a joke,” Elonwyn said apologetically, holding her hands up. “I swear, I wasn’t trying to be hostile. I’ve gotten used to bantering with this one, and he tends toward the more acerbic side of humor. I apologize. For real.”

Sorwen chuckled, shaking her head. “No, it’s my fault. You were just teasing. I’m not used to that kind of interaction, but I’ve seen Shane and his friends engaging in banter like that and it seems fun. I’d like to have a friend like that.” She pointed at Elonwy dramatically. “You have only one brain cell and your nose is shaped like a hatchet.”

Elonwy raised an eyebrow, an amused smirk pulling at her lips. “You got me, that’s a good one.” She nodded for me to go. “Why don’t you go do whatever you need to do, I’ll teach the princess here about bantering with friends.”

Laughing, I nodded and headed out, carrying my ill gotten gains (or whatever the opposite of that is) back to my residence where I could begin the upgrade and the preparation for the template. Once we arrived. I took the whole thing, box and all, into my Domain, carrying it to the room behind my throne where Mephistopheles and a few of the others were waiting.

“Did you get it?” Mephistopheles (also known as Phil and definitely NOT Fist) said eagerly. I raised an eyebrow at my second demon. Phil was one of my oldest in terms of skill development, but my use of his form had fallen by the wayside. Technically he had primacy over several of my other demons, even Sammael, but realistically I didn’t spend much time with the normally taciturn warrior.

Now though, he seemed to be almost vibrating with energy. I could tell the idea of changing, of growing like this was important to him. He’d seen what it could mean. Speaking of which, I spotted my helper for this little endeavor with a grin, waving him over. “I did, but now we need to consult the expert. Hey Brad, get over here!”

My youngest demon ran over excitedly. “Is it time? Did you get it?”

I laughed, holding up the box. “Why does everyone keep asking that? Would I be here if I hadn’t? Where’s Nine? I want him here for this. I trust you to help us get this done, but he’s the one who’s going to be working with Phil on the template. Well, him and Wisdom.”

“I’m here,” Nine Phoenix said as he arrived out of breath. “I didn’t realize it was happening already, I was contemplating my previous templates and trying to identify commonalities. I figured that might help me refine the process of…well, refining the process, so to speak. I made some preliminary strides.”

“Good man,” I nodded. “Now, let’s quit flapping our gums and light this candle. Literally.” I ignored their dramatic and totally unnecessary groans as I set the box on the table, popping the tiny ivory latch and opening it. I was surprised as I did to find minute carvings across the sun bleached bone, micro runes so faint and dense they felt like normal bone texture at first glance, even to MY Perception. When I opened the lid, I was expecting…something. A burst of energy, ominous fog, maybe the cackling of departed souls, instead I just got, well, a candle.

“It looks…waxy,” Brad said optimistically.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s a candle, it doesn’t do anything until we light it. But I have a feeling we should use the right kind of fire for best effect. Phil, if you would do the honors?”

Mephistopheles nodded, extending one finger. The tip of his index flickered to life, a black flame fluttering into existence. Reaching down, he pressed it against the wick of the candle, and we all watched with bated breath, waiting for it to catch.

It was obvious, really, the moment the wick lit. The flame went from fire to FIRE. Where before, the black flame had looked a little ominous and maybe had an aura of danger, now it just looked…terrible. In the old sense of that word. As in it inspired terror. I felt like the light from the flame was trying to destroy my eyes, age them into infirmity. My Impact made it easy enough to shake off, but if anyone under D-rank had been here I was pretty sure the literal light of this candle would have turned them to dust.

Phil, meanwhile, was hypnotized. I saw him staring into the fire like his soul was being drawn in, and I made the executive decision to snap the lid shut, cutting off the effect. Suddenly the shadows in the room, which I hadn’t even noticed lengthening, receded to normal levels. We all took deep breaths.

“That,” I said with a shaky laugh. “Was not what I was expecting.” I looked up at Brad. “What do you think? Can you help?”

He hummed with interest. “I THINK so. It’s not the same, obviously. But it’s also not as hard.”

At Phil’s confused look, I decided to finally break down my plan. “Alright, so here’s the deal. Brad here used to be Brad the Pit. Brad the Pit was a pit trap that consumed a shard of divine artifact and evolved into a higher form. Then that form was bonded with Pit of Despair, and the combination became Brad, following me so far?” 

“I think so,” he said slowly. “Keep going.”

“Basically, I want to try to recreate the circumstances that let Brad evolve into a sentient pit, only in reverse kind of,” I gestured to the box. “Since you’re already sentient, I want to try to combine you with the candle the same way he managed it, thereby upgrading you without needing to reincarnate. The candle isn’t sentient, so you shouldn’t change at all, you’ll just become…more. You get me?”

Nine Phoenix frowned. “But what mechanism are you going to use for that? He’s a physical entity and so is the candle? Are you going to have him eat it or something?”

I grinned. “Nope. We’re going to use the SAME mechanism. Brad has been practicing, and we think it’ll work. Brad’s power is pits. His original form was able to consume the artifact because he WAS a pit. So we just need him to open a pit in Phil, but not a physical pit. A spiritual pit. A  metaphysical hole we can fill with the candle.”

In order to accomplish that, I reached for the Pillar of Goetia, triggering the rank up skill. Over the last two weeks of hard work, Brad had reached tier eight, which meant he was at Legendary, and my staff could officially upgrade him to Mythic. He let out a low gasp, eyes fluttering as he felt the power push him higher and higher, reaching a level that only a few of my demons had been at. This wasn’t an easy trick, even for the staff, and I tried not to overuse it.

Opening the box again, I nodded to Phil, who relit the candle, and then to Brad. He held out a hand, closing his eyes. “I need you to focus. Feel the candle. Feel its pull. Feel your desire for it. Your need. Your hunger.” There was a pulse in the Domain, a sort of…resonance. Like Brad’s power was asking permission to alter Mephistopheles. “Feel the hole inside that only the candle can fill. The void. The emptiness.”

I acknowledged the attempt, pushing with my Domain, flexing the power granted to me by my armor and weapon to try to push it closer. It was like trying to force together two poles of a magnet. They didn’t want to touch. But I was stronger. I could make this work. I grit my teeth and shoved with everything I had. Phil groaned, stumbling forward, catching himself on the table, and in front of him, a hole appeared.

It looked strange, almost wrong. Like someone had torn out a piece of the world. Without hesitating, I took the candle, box and all, and shoved it into the hole. It snapped shut instantly, and Phil dropped to his knees with a strangled scream. The black flame of his hair leapt and sparked, slowly beginning to change, to resemble the candle flame we’d seen earlier.

Sighing, Nine Phoenix knelt down and picked up the bigger demon. “I have a feeling this won’t be over soon. Or am I wrong?”

I shook my head. “The Domain can feel him changing. It’ll be a while. Look after him for me?”

“Of course,” he said with a nod. “Once he’s done, we can get started on the template, and you can get started on your body tempering.” I thanked him, and once he left I dropped into the chair with a shaky breath.

Azazel stepped into the room, looking us all over, and I noticed a spark of enjoyment in his eyes. “You felt that huh?” I asked him wryly.

“I did,” he said with a slowly growing smile. “I did indeed. The winds of fate have been altered by your actions today. You’ve upset the balance, or perhaps just done something unexpected. Many things just changed. I suspect this is going to be GOOD.” I grinned right back. I had a feeling he was going to be right. One more step on my path to the top, and I had no idea where I was going to put my feet next. Honestly, that was probably the best part.