Wish upon the Stars chapter 1142 (Patreon)

After finishing the timepiece for Owen, I spent the day with my wife, enjoying my time as Dantalion studied the design to try to figure out where we went wrong. Eventually though, I started getting antsy, and I decided that in order to best grasp the nuances of what had been done, a test was in order.

I considered another duel with Callie, but truth be told she wasn’t at a level where she could push me yet, even with her new tricks. Luckily, I had someone who definitely was. So I reached out through a messenger service offered by one of the other temporal studies majors to get in touch with the most deadly single combatant at my rank I knew of. Namely, my bodyguard, Fade Genix.

Formerly a major crime boss (for some value of crime) on the Heirworld where my succession war was held, Fade was a swordmaster who ruled over the “Hall of Steel”, a weapon focused gathering of combat geniuses who had risen to the top of that absolute mess of a planet.

The Hall of Steel was ALSO the faction partially founded by Donovan Redfellow, the smith who had crafted my armor, and Fade’s sword Devlos on top of that. Even among other B-rankers Fade was one of the most deadly, and if anyone would be able to help me test the new and improved Overlay, it would be him.

Since I had the option to take my Common City time whenever I wanted, I arranged to meet him there for one of my two days the following morning and (after stockpiling my scrolls, bringing my total up to one hundred seventy), I headed into town to find a place to spar with my guard.

As I made my way through Common City alone, I couldn’t help but reflect on the coming fight. Fade was, without a doubt, the best possible opponent to train the Overlay. He was a technical master of swordplay who far outstripped Callie and had been training for most of his life. His entire combat style relied on pure martial ability, with just a hint of some metal nonsense to add effectiveness. 

This would be a perfect chance to polish my Goetia Staff Art some more. Which, come to think of it, was still not represented by a demon. Studying my Domain, I realized that particular skill hadn’t been represented, mostly because while I had passed it on to my apprentice, it had been folded into my pseudo Domains until now. I made a note to look into reincarnating Valtek into the Goetia Staff Art, especially given the synergy with the Pillar of Goetia. I wanted to make sure I had boosted that one up to at least Legendary next time I met with my disciple.

I arrived at our arranged meeting spot, paying a few credit points to rent out the space and then headed back to limber up, calling out the Pillar as I prepared for combat. It felt…nice. I was actually going to have a relatively fair fight here.

Well, no, I wasn’t. Fade was a master of battle on a level it would be hard for me to even touch, but as long as he didn’t dip into his Chronicle or potential Domain, I was actually on the way to being able to keep up with him. Despite being only a quarter of the way into B-rank to his peak, my Might was over six million with a three times modifier. Assuming he wasn’t singularly focused on that stat like Jessie did with her Vitality, chances were good he was probably only at around that level, and that wasn’t even counting my Vitality, sitting at an effective fifteen thousand plus the regeneration effect from my bloodline.

With Overlay to help bridge the skill gap, I was hopeful I could at least put up a fight, and it should be more than enough to test out my newest demon upgrade. It was exciting, knowing I might be able to keep up with someone at Fade’s level, even if he would probably be holding back a bit. He was not only MUCH stronger than me in terms of overall stats, he had a lot more experience. 

Fade arrived not too long after I did, looking energized and just us contained as usual. Fade had this sort of…manner about him. When he was in combat, his whole aura was like a drawn sword, but when he wasn’t, he had a way of hiding his edge. It was an embodiment of his Path in a way I hadn’t seen from many other people manage. He grinned as he took in my attention. “Always be aware of your surroundings,” he said with a nod of acknowledgement. “Good man. Are you ready for this?”

I nodded, spinning up my staff, and he whistled at the object. “A-rank,” he said in an impressed tone. “Devlos got a bump from Donovan last time he was around, but he didn’t make that staff. Surprised you managed to improve it.”

“Metaphysical shit,” I shrugged. “Hard to explain. He DID upgrade my armor though.” I rapped my knuckles on the Seal of Solomon. “So you don’t need to worry about cutting me up by accident.”

Fade just chuckled darkly. “I promise you, Shane. I never needed to worry about that. When I cut people, it’s because I MEAN to.”

Nodding slowly, I closed my eyes, reaching into myself for Owen. The Overlay had made the jump from tier 6 to tier 7 when the timepiece upgraded, putting it firmly in Grandmaster territory, and I couldn’t wait to see what it could do. Especially since Owen himself had been training with the ability his whole life, and incarnating him would give me full access to those tricks of the trade.

Taking up a purely defensive stance I associated with Mornax, I prepared for the fight. When I opened my eyes, the world seemed…different. Arrows sat atop my field of vision, shifting back and forth consistently with his movement. Every step, every shift, a dozen more were illuminated, showing me exactly what attacks he was going to make.

It was kind of fascinating, because the Overlay KNEW what he would do, but what that was exactly could change depending on the moment of input. I remained calm and still, prepared and waiting for his attack.

When it came, it was almost confusing. It wasn’t just speed, that could be offset by Might or Perception. There was an element of…almost inevitability to the attack. He went from standing completely still not moving to just…BEING there, mid strike. The only reason I was able to intercept it at all was the Overlay telling me EXACTLY where he was going to attack, and even with the warning, I almost missed when it actually happened.

The force of the strike when it landed was monstrous too. I was sure he wasn’t totally specced into Might, and that he must have had plenty of stats in things like Perception and Focus, but the blow from his sword was every bit as heavy as the one I might have dealt, if not heavier. My knees buckled slightly at the impact, and I felt the ground literally give slightly under my boots.

Then he was just gone, appearing back in his previous spot. I glowered at him, watching for the Overlay to tell me about a followup. “What the hell was THAT?” I demanded. “What is your Might?”

He shrugged. “Twenty million or so. Why?”

“Because mine is basically twenty five,” I said waspishly. “And I was barely able to keep up with that attack. I mean, my Perception isn’t exactly fantastic in comparison, but I’m not even talking speed, you almost knocked me flying.” I paused, thinking back to lessons I’d had when I was just starting out. “Shit,” I said with a sigh. “That was utilization. You were able to exert more force because of the amount of control you have over your body.”

He tapped his nose with a grin. “Good catch. Yes, although also no. I WAS exerting more force because of my control, but not just of my body. You’re a genius, boss, I’ll admit it. Being able to grow this far this fast is monstrous, and your Domain is crazy. But you’re missing the foundation that a normal Ascendant would have. Your immediate jump to Chronicle and then Domain means you didn’t learn to use your Path well enough.”

Lifting a boot, he tapped a toe on the stone floor. Except it didn’t make the thump I’d have expected, it made a clang. I blinked, staring down at the floor in confusion for a second before it hit. “You’re stabilizing your footing with your Path?” I asked him in disbelief.

“Among other things,” he agreed. “I’m also reinforcing the ground when I move so I can express my motion more directly. Even appropriately leveled material has some amount of give, and while it might seem like a meaningless fraction of a second, enough of those start to add up. Of course, there’s the more meta aspects of stabilizing my balance, like firming my stance and reinforcing my steps, not to mention amplifying my muscles one by one as my attacks travel through them.”

I gaped at him. “You’re doing all that for a simple sword swing? And you want me to learn it?”

“No,” he said bluntly. “I don’t. I realize it might be tempting, but the fact is that learning the interplay of Path mechanics with individual abilities is time consuming and difficult. For someone like me, whose whole tool kit is based around my sword, it’s a worthwhile cost. I have one trick, so I learn to do it as well as possible. You however, have lots of tricks. I can teach you to polish this particular ability a bit, but you’ll never master it to the extent you would need to. No, in my estimation, you shouldn’t even try. What are you testing here, exactly? That prediction ability?”

I nodded. “Overlay is one of my demons. I’m learning to rework them more uniformly so I can improve them more.” I described the process, the way it was sort of a capstone to my concept of demons, making them more perfect to grow stronger over time. He nodded along, but eventually pointed out something I hadn’t considered.

“It seems to me that you’re missing that next step you always had before,” he told me bluntly. “Always another form, another pseudo Domain, that was a big part of your strength. Now that your Domain has manifested them, you can stack your demons together, but you can’t COMBINE them like you used to to make better demons. Except now that you’re standardizing their internal design, couldn’t you…do that? Not permanently, I know they’re unique beings with minds and souls. But like, couldn’t you make some mechanism with the watches that would let them merge together to make more powerful forms.”

I stared at him. Because I…had genuinely not considered that. I mean, I loved my Domain, but my demons had kind of taken over my growth. I couldn’t innovate like I used to, and that had always been some of my most interesting power expression. But he was right. The watches were mechanisms, I could definitely create a way to temporarily merge them together to create more complicated demons.

My hands started to twitch, visions flooding my mind of new combinations and abilities I could make with all the evolving demons I had improved since my Domain was created. I grinned wolfishly. This was it. This was what I needed. My next step. But before I could test it, I’d need to finish the timepieces for Limbo and Mephistopheles. I had to create the base for this new entity I was going to become, this new form I was going to access. First, the creation of the timepieces…then, the creation of my very first Archdemon.