Wish upon the Stars chapter 1217 (Patreon)

Entering the Moonfiend Grotto was definitely an experience. One moment we were in the spiraling hallways of the labyrinthine hospital, and the next we were emerging onto a small, dark sanded beach.

The grotto, or at least the part of it we’d stepped into wasn’t exactly what I’d expected. I’d pictured a big open shoal like the ones back where I’d met Crell, but the beach we stood on was a relatively cramped affair, just ten feet or so of curved shore wrapped around a tiny cove that was pushing inward.

“It’s this way,” Stanley said, gesturing inland. “The woods are in that direction.”

“How do you know all this, anyway?” I asked as I glanced around. “And why did my dad specifically come to you to be our guide? I admit, it seems weird that you decided to tag along given your position.”

Stanley chuckled as he led us away from the shore. “He came to me BECAUSE of my position. I’ve currently all but accepted leadership of Ralkyne, but back in the day, I was still just the heir. I used my clout to fund and enable my hobby of exploration, and I’ve been through more of the gates of Bloodcrest and explored more deeply than anyone else in the city.”

“He means he used to be a lazy good for nothing who spends all his time running away from home,” my dad added wryly. “Though he DID manage to make it sound really impressive.”

“If I was good for nothing,” Stanley replied loftily. “You wouldn’t have hired me.”

My dad shrugged. “True, but ‘good for only one specific thing and mostly ass at everything else’ doesn’t really roll off the tongue the same way.” He grinned at the other man, clearly teasing, and Stanley just rolled his eyes.

The walk to the forest was surprisingly pretty uneventful. We didn’t get attacked or stopped by anything, which kind of shocked me. When we arrived at the treeline, I had everyone step back and I reached out for Yama. To my delight, the chain from my chest did NOT lead back the way we came. It led off into the distance, heading mostly northwest. “What’s that way?” I asked, pointing toward the spot in question.

He grimaced. “A nest,” he said slowly. “And one that I really would have preferred to avoid if possible. That’s where we need to go?”

I didn’t love the sound of that, honestly. “A nest?” I prodded. “Of what, exactly?”

“They’re called Alakriyas,” he winced. “Imagine a hyena mixed with a scorpion, with the jaws of an alligator and the talons of an eagle. They’re highly territorial, so most people just avoid them, but they’re VERY dangerous. They nest in large groups, kind of like colonies. They build their nests on veins of infinity crystal and similar items, weaving the spatial energy into complicated constructions. They also EAT the stuff, and it makes their armor freakishly hard to pierce.”

I groaned. Of course there were space eating monsters nesting on top of the spot where Callie was. Or rather, the spot that could get me there. Because while it WAS possible that my chain was just leading far past the nest, his introduction made it clear there was another, more likely possibility. There was another gate deeper into the Webworld, and the Alakriyas had built their nest on it.

“How many of these things are there?” I asked grimly. “And what rank?”

“The queens are S-rank,” he grimaced. “The soldiers are A-rank, and the workers are B-rank. The nest has been there for a while. People don’t go down there much, the Alakriyas mostly eat spatial energy, but Domain capable Ascendants are FULL of that, so they’ve been known to grab and immobilize travelers and drag them down into the nest. To my knowledge, no one has ever come back.”

“Well now,” Lark said excitedly. “What an interesting species. I’d love to capture a few. I’m something of a taming hobbyist, you know.”

I had not known that, but I DID know his daughter, so it didn’t surprise me at all. “How many queens are there?” I asked worriedly. Lark was a monster, and I was sure he could take care of himself against almost any number of those things, but I was less sure he could hold them all back at once if there were too many. If they went around him and got to us we’d all be screwed.

“About a dozen,” Stanley grimaced. “There’s a reason no one has cleaned the nest out after all these years. It’s not worth the cost.”

I glanced at Lark, and he nodded casually. “Well, maybe we can help with that,” I said slyly. “If we can, would you be willing to make an arrangement with us to take over this place. I have a feeling the Doctor won’t fight us too much on gate ownership. And if he does…well, my dad is always looking to make a deal. Leaving him alive doesn’t mean leaving him active.”

He blinked at me. “Wait…you’re proposing you CLEAR the nest and hand it over to Ralkyne as an asset?”

I shrugged. “I mean, I’m not planning to use it for anything, and I try to make good use of effort when possible. If we have to clear the place anyway, I don’t see why I wouldn’t want to make some money on it. Assuming you have assets you want from them and things you’re willing to trade. Crell can take care of the details, he IS my master of contracts.”

Of course, this assumed that the nest was our actual destination, but given the way my life worked, I kind of figured it would be. Lark didn’t seem to care one way or the other, and my dad looked pleased, so I guessed he was happy I’d considered it.

We headed off in the direction of the chain, moving through the forest quietly so as not to arouse the Alakriya before we arrived. Finally, we came to a cliff overlooking a large rocky valley. I grimaced at the site. Where the surrounding area was full of trees and greenery, the valley was the polar opposite. Barren and desolate, even the rocks it was made of looked dead, crumbling away into dust the blew desolately over the flat expanse of nothing at the bottom.

“This is where the nest is?” I asked, eyes scanning the valley. I didn’t see any nests. Or animals. Or anything except dust.

“Beneath this place,” he corrected. “The destruction is from the constant microquakes that accompany their construction. They reinforce the substructure but the ground around it gets quaked into powder. Careful with it. If you fall in you’ll pass through the dust like air. At first. Once you sink a bit it covers you up and suffocates you.”

Frowning, I slipped into Yama, checking on my connection to Callie and the twins. Sure enough, the chains led right down into the valley. I eyeballed the exact spot, checking the angles. Using Dantalion and some clever motion to triangulate based on the changes in the chains, I was able to estimate how far down the gate was. “Alright, give me a minute. I need to check some things before we start this off.”

Dantalion, boosted to S-rank, allowed me to slowly map the nest, discovering exactly where the majority of the Alakriya were. “He was right about there being twelve of the queens,” I noted. “And…damn, about a thousand soldiers. I can’t even count the workers, but they’re B-rank so it basically doesn’t matter.”

“So how do we draw them out?” Stanley said, scanning the deceptively smooth floor of the valley. “If we drop in we’ll be vulnerable. They can move through the dust like its water, and see in it too.”

I smirked, reaching into myself for access to Brad’s power. My staff surged with strength, pushing the demon a tier higher, and I held a hand out dramatically. “What dust?”

There was a SURGE of energy as Brad’s power slammed down on the valley like an orbital strike. All the others could see was a cylinder of bare space driven into the dust like some angry god pounded it in with a mallet. Between one breath and the next, a huge open hole was exposing the interior of the valley.

It looked weird. Loops of twisted space reinforced with crystalling fractures of infinity crystal and hard packed dirt spiralled in shapes that defied explanation. I followed the chain down to the bottom of the pit, where the twisting tunnels got denser until the condensed into a sphere of pulsing spatial energy, crystal, and rock. From the empty space, screams echoed out. Deep within the pit I could see the strange skittering forms of the Alakriya emerging. I grimaced. Stanley hadn’t been wrong about the description, but he’d undersold how weird they looked.

“Lark,” I told Morgan casually as a series of the monsters exploded up toward us. Grinning, the vampire exploded into a TORRENT of bats, the creatures wrapping around the S-rank monsters and whisking them away to another battlefield. The rest of them were still coming toward us, but rather than wait for my say so, Abel took it upon himself to act.

A blood red ocean burst out to cover the space in front of us, intercepting the beasts, and I heard their screams as they were subsumed. To my shock, even as I watched they started to decompose, dissolving into even more blood to feed Abel’s Infinite Blood Sea.

“Domain,” I said as I stared. “You created your Domain. Why didn’t you mention it?”

He shrugged. “Just more of the same. No reason to brag. It’ll hold them for a bit. I assume we’re heading for that rock orb?”

“We are,” I nodded. “But I’ll get us there. Keep them off me.” He agreed, and I focused on the paths between us and the entrance to the gate. Cosmic Waltz emerged, and I pushed myself a little by elevating it to S-rank. I was able to handle the strain a bit better because of the powerful strength of my igniting blood as I tapped into the Cosmic bloodline.

Rather than focus only on that though, I also called up Yama. I’d had an idea I wanted to test for a possible Archdemon. Sure enough, as I watched the threads of karma manifest, I was pleased to see the paths of space followed them surprisingly closely.

“I’ve got us a path,” I said absently. “I’ll open it up.” Cosmic Waltz wasn’t really meant for this, but I was hoping the combination would enable me to create a stable way to connect two points so my friends could move safely. I raised a hand, focusing, and grabbed hold of the connection between me and the gate (my target). With a heave of effort, I flooded the strand with Cosmic Fire.

The link caught ablaze, coating it with the spatial flame, and I gritted my teeth and HAULED on the fire. Slowly, like a line expanding into a straw, the flame began to open, tearing a tunnel through the world. I clamped down on the groan of effort with a heroic burst of willpower as I tore the tunnel open wide enough to fit a person. “Go,” I spat, gesturing to the now open portal in front of us. Through the circle, I could see another door, sitting in the middle of a stone chamber waiting for us.

The others nodded, beginning to file through. I held it as long as I could, but eventually the strain was too much. “LARK!” I bellowed up into the sky. “Let’s GO, we’re leaving!”

A maniacal cackle rose over the valley as a swarm of bats funneled into the gap in reality. I watched until the last bat was through, and then, without pausing, I hurled myself into the gap, not letting up until I fell out the other side of the spatial pathway, hitting the ground with a loud grunt. I groaned as I lay there, head swimming. I was NOT doing that again without an Archdemon form. Still, proof of concept. I couldn’t wait to tell Callie.