Wish upon the Stars chapter 1199 (Patreon)

Elonwy and I made our way through the halls of the library with purpose. I wasn’t taking any chances, making sure to wield my strongest combat power that wasn’t likely to burn me out. Sammael, at tier nine, incarnated with a boost from the staff, had me at a fairly stable S-rank for this little incident, and I made sure to prepare for anything as we walked through the halls of flashing light.

Beyond Sammael, I had manifested Mephistopheles, the Ruin fire mixing with Sammael’s black flame and enhanced by the boosting nature of the demon’s power. Sammael had been my strongest combat form for a long time, and while he definitely wasn’t anymore, he was still easily my most adaptable.

Elonwy watched my wings spread behind me with casual interest, I couldn’t remember if she’d seen them before, but given my bloodline, if she hadn’t seen these she’d definitely seen at least one set.

“They’ll be fine,” she assured me as we walked. “Your grandparents are unusually strong, even for S-rankers.”

I shook my head. “It’s not that,” I hedged. “It’s this ‘Bitter Conflagration’. I had a bad feeling about her. Like this is going to lead somewhere bad. We need to make sure she doesn’t get out. I’m not sure why, but I can feel that her release would be terrible for us.”

My fate sense was screaming at me. Something was wrong. Something I didn’t understand and something far more consequential than yet another attempt by the Void to swing things their way. I was so caught up my doomsaying that I nearly missed the swipe of congealed flame that flashed towards my neck as I stepped around the corner. Nearly.

The Pillar of Goetia flashed up, slamming into the flashing edge and neatly deflecting it before whirling back up from behind to strike at the creature who had swung at me. Even as I struck, my eyes focused on the being I was attacking, revealing a floating red robe or cloak full of condensed fire. Free floating red gloves held a long halberd made of glowing red metal with a flameshaped blade at the end.

Despite being A-rank, the creature managed to actively put pressure on me with its attack, and it took me a moment to figure out why. “Shit,” spat as I looked around. “This fucking thing is a fire spirit. It’s getting powered up by all the fire attribute energy in here, isn’t it?”

Elonwy, unfortunately, was already engaging another four combatants, but she had time to shout back a confirmation. I grimaced, preparing to counter it…and realized I COULDN’T. Cursing, I triggered Mornax as I considered my options.

Fire. Every ability I had was fire based at this point, or close enough. I needed a way to suppress fire. Or at least…bind it.

I was familiar with fire. In fact, I might be more familiar with fire than anyone. So many flames I had, so many ways to burn. But because of that, I understood the heat, could predict and control it. And because of the power I’d gotten from devouring Deveskane, that meant I could BIND it.

Dropping Sammael and Mornax, I stood exposed, calling for Dantalion as I closed my eyes, trusting Elonwy to protect me as I arranged my counter to the threat.

Dan was all about perception and processing. Understanding the composition of what surrounded me. I didn’t boost him to S-rank, because I didn’t need to. I just focused my mind entirely on the flame. On all flame. I shut out the unnecessary and pointless distractions, reaching only for the core, the singular fire that bound all varieties of flame together, just like Terry was searching for.

Obviously, I couldn’t find that. But I found a few fairly core attributes to the fires that all of them seemed to possess. Then I reached out with the power of sealing inside me and locked. Slamming it shut and throwing the key away.

There was a ripple around us, and the heat just…ceased. My eyes opened slowly. Nearby, I could see frost forming on the walls and floor, see the fire spirits attacking beginning to slow as the heat was drained from their bodies. A-rankers like me, which meant even without the boost, they were well within my strike zone. And strike I did.

A pair of quick slams with my staff shattered one of the frozen fire spirits and then another into pieces, shattered remnants of frozen flame tinkling to the floor. I felt the power burning through me, and I felt the world respond to my domination, if only for a moment. For a few seconds, it felt like the world held its breath…and then it ended, and the heat and motion came rushing back as I stumbled to the side, catching my nearly boneless body against the wall.

“Woah there,” El said as she caught my elbow. Blinking, I glanced to find hers down too. She’d taken the opportunity to take out the three I hadn’t gotten while they were frozen. I was relieved. “Impressive moves there, kid. That’s a scary Domain you’ve got there. I didn’t know you could suppress attributes.”

“Neither did I,” I admitted. “It was spur of the moment. I’m not sure I could do it with anything but fire, but with so many phoenix bloodlines in me I’d have to be idiot not to have picked up a talent for the stuff.” Every bloodline I’d developed gave me a deep and intrinsic understanding of the relevant type of fire, and since all of them had fire as a base…combined with my various flames and Dan’s analysis, I’d managed something cheap on the fly.

That said, I was interested in exploring possible future uses for that ability, especially here where we were ass deep in every conceivable kind of fire. Whatever I chose to do though, it would need to wait a bit, because I was wiped from that little party trick.

I spent a few moments letting myself recover, calling on an old friend to help. From my Domain, a shriek of challenge erupted, and then Archimedes, my Life Nova Phoenix, emerged. He glared down at me in irritation, taking in my condition, then reached up with his wing and slapped me in the face with a green flaming wing.

Coughing, I jerked back as the Life Nova Flame flooded my body, igniting the nine drops of Life Nova Bloodline in my heart and flooding me with energy. Archie wasn’t A-rank, he hadn’t been able to keep up with my insane pace recently, but he WAS B-rank, and we had the same bloodline. Much like a single spark could light a bonfire, his burst of life nova flame could ignite my bloodline…only: “Why the hell did you HIT me?” I demanded as I spat out a few flaming feathers.

He let out a shriek of defiant annoyance and I grimaced. “Ok, yeah, it’s been a while, but it’s not like I left you alone. There’s been a lot going on.” I ignored the disdainful snort. Or tried to. “Hey you benefitted from all this nonsense too. Not as much, but you're pretty deep into B-rank now.”

Elonwy snickered at us. “Are you two done? I think we need to go.”

“Yeah,” I said sheepishly. “Sorry. I'm good.” I turned to Archie. “Here, one second.” Reaching for Asmodeus, I called forth the demon of enhancement. He laid himself over Archie, and my Phoenix let out a screech of triumph, wings flaring as the feathers changed and horns erupted from his head. I scoffed. “So dramatic. No idea where he gets that.”

Archie, now rocking an A-rank power level himself, screeched challengingly and swept away in a blaze of green-black fire. Chuckling, I followed behind him, waiting to see where he would lead us. With his A-rank power, he was faster than I was, and smaller, and had wings, so he was the natural pick for a scout, and he knew it.

He swept out ahead, ranging down the corridors and circling back. I held up an arm and he landed on it, trilling excitedly. “He found something,” I told Elonwy. “Apparently it’s a…wait, what? What the hell do you mean you found a lakeside villa?”

Frowning, El raised an eyebrow at me. I ignored her, aiming that same question internally at my wife, who passed it on to Terry. I expected to play a game of telephone, but to my surprise, Terry himself appeared around the corner moments later, dressed in a bright red three piece suit. I got a seriously scary vibe from that suit, and I assumed it was some form of armor, S-rank for sure.

Raising an eyebrow at him, I gestured down the hall. “What’s up with the lake? You guys have one of those here?”

“No,” he said grimly. “Which means it’s PROBABLY a Domain projection. We’re inside an S-rank formation with suppression elements designed to ensure space and energy stability. Which means if there IS a Domain being projected here, the Domain itself has to be stronger than the formation. One of the god fragments is awake.”

“See,” I sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say something like that. Just out of random curiosity, which direction is the place where the Bitter Conflagration is imprisoned? You know, the place my grandparents probably went first?”

He smiled tightly, raising his hand and pointing the way Archie had just come.

“That checks out,” I sighed. “Alright, let’s go then. Everyone stick close.” I triggered Mornax and boosted it again, hoping my S-rank defenses would be enough against a fragment of a god that had been described as being on the same level as Atlas. Mornax was supposed to be invincible at the same level, and a fragment wasn’t a real god…but there were degrees to everything.

We made our way down the hallway, slowly, and I kept my staff ready in case of combat. We turned the corner and sure enough, as soon as we passed the edge of the wall, there was a subtle shift in space, and suddenly we were standing at the edge of a huge lake. I froze, looking around worriedly. “Ok…this is really big,” I said warily. Staring off into the distance, I saw the lake was surrounded by an endless sea of evergreen trees.

Size and Domain strength weren’t DIRECTLY correlated, at least not one to one, but larger Domains tended to be capable of bearing more pressure, which could easily translate into power. I knew that from personal experience.

“This is a realm,” said Terry in a tight voice. “An actual fragment of a world manifested by a deity. It’s basically a hanging land.” In front of us, a towering wooden villa climbed into the sky, set at the edge of the lake with a long dock leading out onto the water. Despite the danger though, we all knew what we had to do. We advanced, moving forward slowly toward the villa.

There were no defenses, no guards, no traps or hidden dangers. We were able to just walk across the yard unaccosted. When we reached the door, we knocked, and it opened on its own, letting us inside.

Glancing at each other warily, we all nodded firmly, and then we stepped inside. We could hear speaking off in the distance, and I recognized my grandfather’s voice. Without any hesitation, I headed in that direction, following the sound to a large open concept dining room where several people sat having tea.

Dayna, Abel, my grandparents…and a woman I’d never met before. A woman who I didn’t know at all…but whose face was incredibly familiar. She looked almost exactly like my wife. Or rather, more accurately, like my wife’s older adopted sister and ancestor, Alara. The red haired, slightly older version of my wife turned to lock eyes with us and smiled warmly. “Oh, guests! Please, come in and have some tea.” Damn it. Not another one.