Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 1049
🕑 Added 2025-12-30 04:04:01 +0000 UTCAfter reincarnating Brad, we descended into the pit with no issue. The spikes had all vanished, and the whole place just felt…empty. Which was an odd thought to have about a hole in the ground, but even more than most holes, Brad’s former pit felt like an absence of a thing more than the presence of an absence.
I summoned Brad himself, or rather, Pit of Despair, and gestured down to the empty hole. “Alright, so where exactly IS the arrowhead? Because I’m not sure where you hid it based on the limited space in the pit. I could find it, I’m sure, but I figured it’ll be easier to ask.”
Also, I was deeply wary of trying to examining a broken divine artifact with Dantalion. Especially one tainted by ANOTHER god. He snorted, then hopped down into the pit casually. Kneeling down, he drove his hand into the dirt, coming out with a large, ornate looking glass box with gilded edges. “Behold!” he cried, holding it up.
“You just buried it?” I asked him flatly.
He looked at me like I was an idiot. “I was a PIT. Where did you think I was going to put it?” I opened my mouth to retort…but had no response to that, so I just held out my hands. He tossed it up to me without hesitation, and as I caught it, I felt a low buzz of power roll over my skin.
Divinity. I’d felt divine artifacts before, the scythe back during the trials, but this felt different. More…raw. Like being broken was baring its edge for anyone to see. I went to drop it into my ring…and nothing happened. I frowned, looking over at Dayna. “I can’t put it away,” I said slowly. “Any ideas?”
She rolled her eyes. “Obviously you can’t put it in a spatial ring,” she explained condescendingly. “It’s a divine artifact. And a broken one at that. You might be able to put a complete arrow into a ring, but that’s because they’re CONTAINED. Put it in your Domain.” Which was a reasonable plan since I needed to let the prisoners out anyway. We weren’t going to take them with us, after all. Sure enough, as soon as they were released they all took off in random directions, a few of them shooting us poisonous looks.
Sighing, I pushed the item into the back area in my throne room where I’d met with Azazel and the other ministers before my trial back at the Wish Curse Palace. Once it was gone, I turned to Brad. “Ok, now that we have that finished, we need an exit. I have a strange feeling that you might be the way to do that. Or at least know how. We need to open a hole to the Void Road, preferably somewhere in Verdyn’s territory where Dayne might be able to give us a heading. Do you know of any weak spots we could use?”
He blinked at me. “You’re asking me where to find…a hole?” He glanced down meaningfully. “Because I feel like you might not need much help there.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said with a groan. “I need…” then I paused. Because…WAS that what I meant? Could I use the former location of Brad’s pit to connect to an area of the Void where Verdyn’s power was ascendant? Because thinking about it, that actually sounded like it might work.
I summoned Dantalion. “What are the chances you would be able to see through the barrier between this space and the Void?” I asked urgently. “And if not, what would you need to make that possible?”
He hummed, staring down into the pit with fascination. “I believe I might manage with a rank up. I’ve been exposed to quite a bit of Void influence, and learned more than a few tricks.”
Nodding, I triggered the Ten Demons Tree, elevating him to tier 8. He closed his eyes, letting his power spill out, and we sat and waited as he soaked the area in influence, drilling down into and through the core nature of the place to gather information. Luckily, he’d already mapped the area most of the way before we engaged, so he was able to start much further along than would normally have been possible.
It only took about an hour and a half for him to penetrate the barrier. “I can see the Void Roads. I don’t know enough about them to hazard a guess as to our location, but the path seems to be ringed with trees, if that matters.”
Dayna perked up. “Void Roads near powerful territories sometimes change to reflect them. If there are trees along the path we should be close to Lord Verdyn’s world. How close is anyone’s guess, but much closer from a relative perspective.” Nodding, I reached for the stored Adherent Fire, and, with a quick sweep of the power, dragged us back into the Void through the gap where the pit had been.
It was surprisingly simple, actually. Once we had landed on the Void Road, I let Brad wander around nearby, enjoying the sensation of being physical. Dan went with him, both curious about the environment and hoping to keep our newest court member out of trouble.
Meanwhile, Dayna was looking around, clearly trying to map…something. When I asked about it, she pointed up at the twisting loops of Void Road crisscrossing the Void. “The Roadsky can be used as a map to navigate. The patterns of the crisscrossing paths and the distribution across the Void can be used to map certain vectors. Of course, it only works in places you recognize, so the location we ended up before was pretty much a mystery to me. THIS one though…”
I perked up at that. “Wait…are you saying you know where we ARE? Like you can get us to Mourne Kayze from here?”
“No,” she said bluntly. “But I can get us to the lodge. And I can get us directions to Mourne Kayze from THERE. It’s not THAT close, however. We’ll need to pass through at least three Hanging Lands to get there. The closest of those isn’t far though, I would estimate somewhere in the neighborhood of five or six hours, given the lack of suppression on the Roads.”
I grinned. “Alright then, sounds like a plan. We just need to-” I froze, head whipping around as I whirled to look behind us. I’d just gotten a VERY bad feeling. The kind the prefaced a huge fight with a very strong enemy.
“What is it?” Dayna asked urgently. “Is something coming?”
I gestured behind us at the empty Road, where the entrance to the shallowing was. Or the exit, depending on your point of view. As we watched, the air began to warp. Not in a stable, subtle way like my flames caused. It looked like someone was digging a claw into the skin of the world and gouging out the space itself.
The line of damage tore itself across the air of the path, then another did the same from the opposite side, forming an X shape. A large, masked form stepped through the hole, staring at us coldly. “Return the object,” said the incredibly menacing B-ranker. “And you may live.”
I was just gaping at him. He looked…savage. A tall, muscular man without a shirt, long hair dragging his shoulders and his face covered by a thick iron mask with a pair of ragged eye holes punched in it. His eyes were steel grey, and sharp in a way that would have told me he was a swordmaster even if I couldn’t see his clearly drawn blade dripping a substance that looked like molten glass.
It took me a second to piece together that the substance was some kind of…blood. Like he had INJURED reality and it was leaking fluid. I’d never seen it before, but I had also never seen someone cut their way into the Void with brute force. Sure, a shallowing would be the place to do that, but still, it was a scary level of combat power.
I let out a breath, reaching for my Domain and pushing it out into the world around us, covering the area nearby with the projection of Gehenna. The man looked around, clearly unimpressed, despite the literal horde of demons surrounding us. “Are you offering me your surrender, or are you resisting. I have no time for foolish games. Surrender the object or die. My followers were ignorant of its existence, but the course of events was clear from their reports.”
I tapped my staff, calling for Mornax mentally as I pushed his rank up to B. The horned bruiser stepped forward, taking up a position between me and the masked man. “Where I’m from, we introduce ourselves before making demands. I’m Solomon, what should I call you.”
“Clarent,” he said shortly. “Baron of the Blade. Pleasantries are at an end, I will ask you only once more, do you intend to surrender the artifact or not?”
“Not,” I admitted, snapping my fingers. A second horned form erupted from the crowd, slamming into Mornax as Asmodeus melded with the defensive colossus and imbued him with a frightening amount of power. Another form stepped up beside him, the towering bulk of Abaddon taking his place beside the defensive bulwark. Behind them Belial’s eyes lit with an eerie green black light, and he reached out to touch their shadows surreptitiously, pushing his corruptive influence into the darkness and through it into their bodies.
Into my body I called Sammael, Azazel, and Glory, my staff extending into a sharp edged flame spear. I stepped up next to the line of demons, taking position next to them. “However you are expecting this to go, I can promise you it won’t,” I told him bluntly. “I don’t know you, and have nothing against you, so I have no reason to want to hurt you. Turn around and walk away, and neither of us needs to do something we’ll regret.”
“I do not know regret,” said the implacable man. “But your choice has been lost. Your blood will festoon the dirt beneath my boots.”
I felt it coming. Azazel told me, Danger Sense told me, my FATE SENSE told me. His attack wasn’t subtle, it wasn’t measured, and it wasn’t hesitant. Overwhelming force unleashed with pinpoint accuracy poured chrome his blade as it cleaved the Void itself, heading right for me.
And cut right through the illusionary double I left when triggering Double Trouble. My staff lashed out, the black flame blade aimed at the hollow at the base of his skull.
I couldn’t afford to hold back against someone this strong. I would feel bad about killing him, but not nearly as bad as I’d feel about him killing me. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to be an issue anyway, because my blow never landed. With a movement so graceful it almost looked liquid, Clarent shifted slightly to one side, turning his head, and the flames skittered off his dark metal mask, raising a cloud of sparks.
Cursing, I triggered Double Trouble again, preparing for a second attack, when a familiar voice boomed across the path. “Hey! Don’t attack my boss, you jerk!”
There was a flicker of power, and Clarent just…vanished. Or rather, a hole appeared where he had been. I stared in shock. The Void Roads were powerful constructs that spanned the length and breadth of the Void itself. Damaging them was prohibitively difficult, and punching a HOLE in one should be almost impossible.
But there I was, staring at a big gap in the Road where Clarent had been standing. Brad ran over, glaring down at the hole venomously, before turning to me with a smug grin. “See?” he said happily. “I TOLD you I would be useful.” We all just stared at him, then back at the hole where the swordmaster had been. Yeah. That WAS pretty damned useful.
Comments
Drake_Azathoth
It's funny but also an easy name to remember which with so many demons is important.
Malcolm Tent
Fell through the Road and into the Void. He's not dead but hes going to be busy for a while.
Redeyes Eclipse
Did he get yeeted into a pit that goes beyond the void or into a pit trap and how long until he cut himself out
michael stitcher
Thanks... Brad.
Cyrus McEnnis
If Brad can manifest a pit anywhere, at any scale... yeah, that's not borken AT ALL.
