Wish upon the Stars chapter 1187 (Patreon)

The next two weeks were…intense. Even though it was only one hour a day, exploring my past this way was incredibly difficult. It took a mental toll that just hadn’t been apparent to me that first day. I tried to space it out, took breaks every few days, but just the daily hour was already almost more than I could bear.

By the time my friends had completed (and happily passed) their finals, I had made it through all fifty six of my moments. Today had been the last round, and I was trying my best to reorient as I lay, twitching, on the dock beside the Strange Aeon’s Ship.

“Shane!” Callie shouted as I collapsed, running over to catch me and lower  me to the ground. She turned to shoot a panicked look at Elonwy. “What’s wrong with him? I thought this thing was safe?” I felt a surge of desperate worry through the bond, and I forced myself to smile as I reached up to put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m fine, Cal,” I told her breathlessly. “Just…I saved the best for last. Some of those final pages were biggies. Godslaying, fighting S-rankers, all the craziest stuff. I set the foundation with my important moments, but I only had so much legend to work from. Eventually I had to get to the really crazy stuff. Doing so many of them at once was tiring. But I’m fine now, and it’s all finished.”

Grinning weakly, I reached into my ring, withdrawing a piece of paper, and quickly scribbled out an abbreviated synopsis of my current status.

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:88- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 1 Beelzebub, 9 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, 3 Limbo, 3 Overlay, 9 Mephistopheles, 1 Song of Arcadia, 1 Cosmic Waltz, 7 Life Nova, 9 Angelic Bond, 1 Wisdom of Solomon, 12 Dantalion, 2 Sammael, 1 Cosmic Collapse, 1 Cooking, 1 Double Trouble, 13 Doom Sovereign, 9 Azazel)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 170 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Domain size: 72 miles

Soul supported stat number: 10,000

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Pillar of Goetia 

Stored: 10 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)

Frozen Moment Academy Credit points: 0

Frozen Moment Academy Contribution points: 0

Archdemons: Kronos- Archdemon of Time- Tier 8 (Limbo, Overlay, Mephistopheles)

She read over it, looking impressed. “You didn’t waste any time there, huh love?” she asked fondly. “And I can see a clear bias here. Doom Sovereign makes sense, given how many of the moments you picked at first were early defining events, and I get Dantalion too, you prioritize him a lot. Surprised Mephistopheles warranted so much focus though.”

I grimaced. There was just so much. So many small fights, little moments where I’d made crucial decisions that hadn’t seemed important in the moment. I felt…condensed. Sublimated. Like the core of who I was had gone through some kind of crucible, hammering away the impurities and just leaving a perfect, thousand forged self in place of the man I’d been before. It felt good. Freeing.

More than that, it felt like I was more solid. I hadn’t seen so clearly in a long time. My willpower, the core of who I was beyond the soul, the mind, or the stats, had undergone a drastic change. I felt more resistant, more centered. I was pretty sure this was similar to what my cousin Felicity had undergone when she was growing up, only not actively harmful. Unless it was. That comparison unsettled me. I frowned at Elonwy. “She has a point though, I thought you said this was safe?”

“I mean, it IS safe,” she said wryly. “For use one or two times. I can’t tell if it’s safe for use FIFTY times because no one has ever done that. I mean, I told you how expensive it is. You paid for it. The people who have used it before didn’t use it like this.”

“Damn,” I said as I realized how reckless I had been. I wasn’t sure if that clarity came from the sublimation or if I would always have noticed, but it was clear as day now. “You didn’t think to mention that?”

She snorted. “Mention what? The complete lack of evidence we have for whether something is or isn’t safe? I mean, you were determined to do it. I didn’t think telling you hypothetical risks was a good idea. You know as well as I do that your mental state was key in there. Do you think you’d have survived the doubt?”

That…was a very good point, actually. I closed my eyes, blowing out a long breath. “No,” I admitted. “No I wouldn’t have. Shit, I’m sorry El. This was my call, not yours. I’m just a little raw.”

“No, it’s fine,” she sighed. “I considered warning you, really. I just…I was worried that unbalancing you before you went in would cause problems. Especially after you did so well your first time in. I thought your Domain was giving you a resistance to the process. Most B-rankers who go in there don’t have one.”

I laughed at that. “It didn’t,” I informed her. “It had zero impact on the process. My soul either. No, that place is…it’s beyond body or soul. That tests the self, the core, the concept of who you are. The heart that lives inside the core of your renown. My mom talked to me about heart, but I’d never realized how literal she was being, and how metaphorical at the same time. Still, I appreciate all your help here. I know you’ve been putting your thumb on the scale, with some of the other purchases. Buying up all those elixirs. It means a lot.”

She flushed, clearing her throat. “Don’t worry about that,” she said lightly. “I was just being helpful. It’s my job.”

“But what if it wasn’t?” I asked bluntly.

She blinked at that. “I…what?” She looked confused. “What do you mean? I’m a teaching assistant. A doctoral student.”

“That’s true,” I agreed. “But you’re also a friend. I saw how interested you were in studying Double Trouble. That temporal event was fascinating to you. You kept it to a few questions, but I know there’s a lot more you want to know. Meanwhile, I’m from a backwater with almost no Mythcrafting knowledge, and you’re a powerful, experienced S-ranker. You’re the Prof’s teaching assistant, like you said.”

“Are you asking me to come work for you?” she asked in disbelief. “Abandon my posting here and just run off to a lower realm to teach beginner Mythcrafting to your minions? I mean, I know you’ll miss me, but that seems pretty one sidedly in your favor, kid.”

I shook my head. “Not abandon it. The Professor and the Dean both seemed interested in what happened. You mentioned wanting to write a paper about the phenomena, but you won’t be able to study it properly in such a short time. I can give you unlimited access to Double Trouble, let you see the actual place where the incident occurred. I looked into it, and this place does have work study options. You could come with us and still get class credits for it.”

Callie was unsurprised, of course. I wouldn’t have made the offer without checking with my wife. Elonwy was a friend, but she was also an S-ranker, and potentially dangerous. Recruiting someone like that wasn’t just my call.

I suspected that had been part of why Callie had challenged her earlier. I knew it had been part of why I had. I wanted to hear her logic for keeping the potential ramifications of the Ship from me. Realistically, I probably should have assumed, and if she’d said that instead I’d have been fine with it, but knowing that she’d considered things from my point of view helped solidify my resolve to offer her the job.

Elonwy had been through a lot with me in the time I’d been here. It had only been a bit less than a year, but I had grown to consider her a close friend, and I trusted her more than most. Honestly, despite having thirteen S-rankers in the WCP, I didn’t know or trust any of the ones from the main lineage. I considered myself on good terms with Lark and Callie’s sister, but in terms of actual S-rank power in the family, my paternal grandfather was probably the closest to dependable.

But she wasn’t just strong. She was also smart and skilled. More than being able to act in a defensive capacity, Elonwy could help my other A-ranked friends and family hit S-rank more smoothly, not to mention prepare for godhood. We hadn’t been here long enough to learn everything they had to teach, and bringing a TA back would do a lot to ameliorate that.

“I don’t know,” she said, poleaxed. “I mean, I guess you’re not wrong. Work study exists, and there are methods to arrange transport back into the academy. The Professor would definitely be interested in a deeper analysis of the temporal incident. I could gather so much data. Think of what I could do to my car with those readings. The Ship itself is basically blackboxed, but I could reverse engineer the travel method through studying your illusion. A temporal vessel designed by the Dean I would otherwise NEVER get permission to explore.”

Getting onto research projects required applications, tests, or just buying in with contribution points. She was right that she had no chance of getting unfettered access to the Strange Aeons ship. 

I could see her weighing the pros and cons. Admittedly, I didn’t know everything about her life here, but I knew she was closer to us than anyone else in the tower. She’d been rooming with a murderous psycho she barely knew, and you didn’t do that if you had a lot of close friends to choose from.

Finally, she blew out a breath. “Alright,” she said after a moment. “I’ll come. If the Professor signs off, I’ll come work for you. But you’d better make sure I don’t want for anything down there. I want food and lodging covered in the contract.”

Laughing, I held out my hand for her. She took it and we shook once. “I think I can handle that.”

Still laughing and chatting, we headed off towards the residences in moment city. I had some last minute checks to do tonight, but tomorrow we would all be getting ready to say goodbye. With the year ending, our time at Frozen Moment Academy had come to a close.

I thought back to everything that had happened, to the monsters and gods and tests, and I had to admit, this had been more exciting than I’d expected. I’d learned a lot, met some interesting people, and I would be pretty sad to go. I kept in mind Elonwy’s earlier comment about methods to return though.

Maybe I could take some kind of return pass back with me. After we finished the war, after the kids had grown up, maybe Callie and I could take a trip back to finish our education. I shot her an inquisitive look, and I saw the same interest in her eyes.

We got back to the residence and said goodnight to Elonwy, promising to meet back up in the morning. I stopped in the check with Winnie about when we’d be leaving, and make sure she knew to be ready, and sent a few messages to the others double checking that they were all ready. After that, Callie and I headed to bed, falling blissfully asleep within moments. I was glad I didn’t have any trouble drifting off. After all, tomorrow was a big day.