Wish upon the Stars chapter 465

Creating my own staff art had been on my mind for a while, but I'd  never been sure how to go about it. I needed a way to connect my path  with my combat style. After watching Zeke fight though, I realized there  was other connections I could make. Zeke's dual mask thing was a way to  invoke the legend of Janus. I'd done some research on the two faced  god, and I could see why he'd be aiming for that, it was a source of  power and fear added onto his already massive reputation.

It  also gave me ideas for what I should do with my own combat style. Being  a fatewalker and connecting that to my fighting style was fine, but if I  could connect that to the actual legends of Solomon, that would give me  that extra little bit of buzz. So I'd sat down and dug into every story  about Solomon the Demon Binder. I'd scoured every possible source,  looked through every obscure book.

No one was sure where  those stories came from, they were just part of the public  consciousness, the massive trove of legends and myths from who knew  where that floated around space. But my research had clarified some of  what the stories were about, how they worked, and how I could use them.

"Goetia  staff art." I said levelly. "First form: Belial." I'd built the staff  art around DS Mastery, so my Path would be inextricably linked, but  using my path, and especially the strength of my soul, I'd been able to  do things that I never could have before.

My body changed.  Blackened stone covered every inch of me, crackling with toxic fire as I  became a demonic avatar of poisonous flame. Rather than depend entirely  on skills like Touch of Tears or Stone Limb, the first form of my staff  are made me and my weapon both creatures of pure destruction,  sharpening and refining multiple skills that I'd usually have to use in  succession into a stable whole I could use for much longer than five or  ten minutes.

My enemy whistled. "Well...that's new." He  said in appreciation. "Never seen anyone do...whatever the hell that is.  Don't think it'll save you though."

He blurred forward,  sword cutting the air like a thousand arrows as he lashed out with  dozens of stabs to try to poke me full of holes. His blade pierced me,  but I felt no pain. Belial wasn't coated in poison magma. He WAS poison  magma. This was the first step on my Path, and it was strong. I  triggered my overlay, letting fate guide me. A wall of arrows showed me  where I was being attacked.

I turned my body slightly, not  enough to dodge, but enough to avoid getting hit in any vital areas. I  had no idea if I'd heal completely when I resumed my human form, and I'd  rather not bleed out. My staff came up, made of the same material as I  was, and spun, knocking aside countless blows so that only a few of them  actually landed. As soon as I saw an opening I drove my staff forward  like a striking snake, my Path and my staff art combining to create a  vicious piercing attack.

The man in the mask, shoved off  with a foot, sending himself backwards with the force of my blow, but  was forced to strip off the jacket over his armor with a curse as my  ability infected it. "Shit." He said, waving his sword to clear off the  corrosive liquid magma that should have been blood. "That's unpleasant. I  don-" His eyes widened and he hurled himself to the side as Callie  emerged from the shadows again, daggers aimed at his throat.

My  staff came down hard on the spot he was heading for, and he barely  managed to block with his rapier in time to avoid taking a direct hit.  Callie and I were perfectly in sync, and he was in danger from either of  us. Looking around, he cursed, and without a second of hesitation  hurled himself over the side of the island, plummeting down into the  mist below.

I blinked. "I...didn't know he could do that." I looked at Callie. "Did you know he could do that?"

She  snickered. "Never change, honey. And speaking of change, can you turn  off...that." She pointed at me. I let Belial retreat, wincing at the  pain of a few almost closed stab wounds. I also exhaled in relief as the  soul damage from using my new ability was repaired. Belial was  powerful, but it put a lot of stress on my soul. Not enough to be  unusuable or distracting, but it let me milk a bit of extra energy out  of the island.

We rested up for a minute while I filled  her in on my new staff are. She was intrigued, but I told her I'd only  managed one form so far, and I didn't want to talk about any of my other  ideas in case I jinxed it. After our break, we got back to it, not  wanting to get intercepted again. Finding out there was more than one  entrance to each island made it much less safe to lounge around.

Mounting  the rainbow bridge, we continued on our way, slowly scaling towards the  heights of the shaft. I hadn't seen what was at the top very clearly,  since we'd started falling partway down, but I was pretty curious.

More  than that though...I was having fun. No risk of death for me or the  others, no excessively political nonsense, no dead gods trying to murder  us. Just a game that I was having a blast with, and one that I thought I  had a real shot to win. Callie seemed to be enjoying things too. We  took our time walking, looking down at the scores of people making their  way up.

We'd headed into a more central portion of the  ascent, so we could see the multitude of other islands better now. It  let us keep an eye on our competition and make sure no one was sneaking  up on us. I spotted Benny and Celine fairly low down, making their way  slowly but surely. Abel was several islands up, and despite being under  much more pressure than we were because of how strong his soul was, he  was absolutely crushing it.

"Should  have known that monster would breeze through this." I muttered. "You  see Gabriel and Bethy anywhere? I can't pick them out."

We  were still walking across the most recent rainbow, but talking helped  take my mind off how grueling this was. People are not designed to be  tortured and then healed ad infinitum. Callie grunted, shaking her head  as she wobbled, and I grabbed her elbow to steady her. "Nope. They're  probably behind us or something. The layout here is nuts. We'll se the-  what the hell is that?"

I  turned my head where she was looking and spotted what she was talking  about. A jellyfish. Just floating through the air. It was orange, and it  flopped harmlessly through the air, coming slowly toward us.

"So...what  are the odds the mysterious floating sea creature approaching us is a  good thing?" She didn't respond and I sighed. "Yeah, that's what I was  afraid of. Can you hit it from here with shadows?" I didn't want that  thing getting close to me. I was sure whatever it was going to do would  hurt.

Callie  scoffed. "How? We're standing on a rainbow. Even if I could find a  shadow here there isn't one out there, and my constructs will be under  the same strain as me. I'd basically be increasing the surface area of  my soul and artificially inflating the resistance. Can you reach it with  your staff?"

I  flicked my hand out, my staff shooting to full extension before I  caught the end in a firm grip. It extended out over the abyss, but  didn't even come close to the jellyfish yet. As I did that though, it  started to drift sideways, like it was circling around. I blinked. "Well  that's convenient. Apparently it's scared of...Callie walk faster."

Able  to sense my distress, her head snapped around to where my gaze had  followed the jellyfish. A swarm of orange gelatinous creatures swarmed  toward us, and as they drifted over the island, their tentacles dragged  over the grass. Energy sparked and played as they began to very slowly  pale, going from orange towards yellow.

"Shit."  I snarled as we sped up. "Soul eating jellyfish? This is bullshit!" If I  had to guess it was some kind of balancing mechanic for the people  pulling ahead. Whoever had designed this fucking trial was a grad A  asshole. We made it to the next island, stumbling forward to collapse to  our knees, and looked back at the last island. The jellyfish were still  there, soaking up the soul energy as they became more and more yellow.

"Once  they're done there they'll come here." I said anxiously. "I don't  suspect that them touching us would be beneficial, since we're fucking  MADE of soul right now. Death by soul eating jellyfish isn't a death  I've considered before, but it's low on my list even so."

I  let the power flow into me, breathing deeply as I tried to suck up as  much as I could. Sadly, I could only take in as much as I needed, and I  quickly hit capacity. Pulling Callie up by her hand I yanked her with me  across the island to the next bridge. We immediately mounted the next  rainbow.

"Which  way should we go?" She asked worriedly as she looked back at them. "I  think we're in the lead, but that's not exactly a good thing right now.  We need to get up to the top, right?"

I  nodded. "Unless this is a giant fuck you to everyone the test has to be  passable. Maybe the jellyfish are a reaction to me using my Path to  bull ahead, or maybe they're there for another reason. That masked guy  was up here too, so it's not just us. Chances are good some of the  ringers have run into them, or will. But yeah, the top is probably a  safe zone. I don't want to fight those things, especially not after they  hit yellow."

Speaking  of soul strength, mine was slowing down as we went. The higher it got  the more energy was needed, and the less the damage I was receiving  meant in terms of percentage. It was the same difficulty, but  progressing was getting harder and harder. Nonlinear improvement, swell.

When  we hit the next island, we stopped again, turning back to watch the  jellyfish swarm the one we'd just left. The one before it, the one we'd  last seen them on, was dead and blackened, every single plant a  desiccated husk. Further reinforcing my idea that I didn't want to get  caught by those things. Before we could move on another person stepped  onto the island.

It  wasn't anyone I recognized, just a short, green haired guy, but I  didn't wait for him to react to our presence. I hit him while he was  recovering and I wasn't, smashing his head with my staff as Callie tied  him up. Then I carried him to the other side of the island and threw him  bodily off toward where the jellyfish were just leaving the last  island, hoping he'd keep them occupied.

When  he hit the cloud of jellyfish, his body went rigid, and he started  screaming as they consumed all the power in his spirit. We didn't stay  to watch, heading for the other bridge, but we saw enough. I was just  glad no one actually died in here. He'd be ok on the outside, if a  little pissed off. Callie grabbed my hand and squeezed it, letting me  know she understood and was on my side, and we resumed the climb. I  didn't know how much time we'd bought, but we needed to make the most of  it.