Wish upon the Stars chapter 507

"What the actual fuck does THAT mean?" I snapped, staring at the  other man with hostility. "First of all, HOW would you do that? Second  of all WHY would you do that? Hatescream I get, he's your boss, but most  of the vanished gods have been gone for ages. Why would you want them  back hogging your boss's spotlight? Hell, how do you know you could even  get them to play nice."

Felix shrugged. "We naturally have our own methods of ensuring such things. As for the how...I assume you have a basic idea."

I  grimaced. "The shit in that cup. The weird ritual liquid leaking off  the skull. What IS that skull anyway. If you're here for the liquid I  assume you know?" I felt deeply uncomfortable being around that thing  earlier. Sure it was enchanted, but it was more than just enchantment.  Something was WRONG with it. My Danger Sense was going off like crazy  when we were near it, though that might have been the poison muck.

He  shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Lord Hatescream knew of this place,  and left record for accessing it. This particular plan has been in  motion for many years."

"So why now?" I asked. "Why wait all this time and do it at this exact moment. I refuse to believe my luck is that bad."

Another  smile graced his lips, this one more mocking. "Do you know what 'the  shit in that cup' is, Shane? What it's capable of doing?"

"It's  spiritually reactive biomass." Said Chelsea grimly from behind us. "Of  some kind. It eats material and then uses the fuel to create physical  mass matching the attributes of the last spiritual influence it came  into contact with." She held up the book. "But that's just the end goal  of the experiment. It was on the first page. WHY would you need  something like that? What would you even do with it?"

"Why,  feed it, of course." Said Felix with a laugh. "It's why we waited. See,  the Sanctophage material, the name of that substance, requires physical  mass of a similar type to be useful. It has to eat something similar to  the spiritual input to create the matter." My blood ran cold, and he  grinned at me, shedding his aloof pretense, eyes shining with fanatical  glee. "I see you figured it out."

"Suvaya." I said hoarsely. "You needed the flesh of a god to use this stuff. The guy who bought that mountain was one of you."

He  nodded eagerly. "Of course. Lord Hatescream was a power in his own  right. His adherents do not simply belong to dregs and niche  organizations. We needed the biomass to fuel the conversion. Once we had  that, all we had to do was recover the Sanctophage and not only would  our lord return to us, but he would bring along all his friends.  Vanished gods whose fragments and spiritual essence he secretly  collected over all those years."

"That's not how it  works!" Snapped Benny. "I studied that ritual. Mass only helps. The  physical body is the least important part. Those spiritual fragments  need STATS. Impact. Without the ritual how would you feed one, much less  a half dozen?"

I thought back to the description Callen  gave me of the substance Billy was carrying. "Lamentation liquid." I  said in horror. "You've been ritually sacrificing people to gather that  disgusting muck and using it to nurture the spirit shards. You feed it  the remains of tortured souls to grow stronger, then feed the biomass to  the Sanctophage and let each fragment inhabit the thing so they can  make a suitable body."

"The conversion rate is admittedly  less than ideal." He said with a shrug. "We require an absurd number of  materials. Luckily, there are always places to acquire scraps. The Black  Sorrow Cult does a brisk trade in heretics and blasphemers. It's taken  use centuries to collect them all, but we had patience. Just as our lord  did. He foresaw this day. From the moment he realized how strong the  others were growing, he knew he would never be able to achieve his  goals."

I tried to follow what he was saying. "So you're  saying that since he couldn't beat them, he ENGINEERED his own death to  throw off suspicion while he gathered his resources? That's...that's  fucking insane."

"SILENCE!" Roared the catlike man. "How  dare you question him! The patience, the cunning, the sheer  determination required to concoct such a scheme. They're beyond what  your petty mortal mind can comprehend. But still. Your willpower and  improvisation are impressive. We could allow you and yours to live.  Simply hand us the Sanctophage. With it, my lord and his brothers and  sisters will rise, they will take back the universe from the six, and we  will know paradise in the mortal world."

I stared at him,  taking in his peaceful, fanatical expression. "Wow, you are like,  completely, bugfuckeringly insane. He's a MURDER god. Or did I get that  wrong? Who the hell wants to live in a universe ruled by a guy who  thinks 'Blood Murder Palace' is a catchy name for his crew?" I looked at  the others. "Is this just me here? Like if you guys think we should do  it I guess we can discuss."

Callie rolled her eyes. "I'm  pretty firmly in the no column on this on hon'." The others all piped  up, nodding and agreeing with her statement.

"You heard  the lady." I said, jerking my thumb at my girlfriend. "We're going to  opt out of your crazy murder society, thanks so much."

"Fools."  He spat, hackles rising like an actual fucking cat. "To spit on HIS  generosity. Very well. Then I see no need for your nonsense. Kill them.  Kill them all and take the Sanctophage. Kill them if you have to die in  the process. We must complete our mission."

With that, the  wave of cloaked figures blurred forward, and we were all lost in a sea  of violence. My staff flicked up, lashing out to begin deflecting the  attacks of the hooded figures into each other, but my eyes went wide as  the closest one fucking WRAPPED himself around my staff.

The  green corrosion of Belial crept over him, but he just ignored it,  weighing down my staff as he slowly died. I was so thrown off by it that  I didn't have a chance to dodge the second one as he hit me head on,  with two more piling atop us. I panicked, but still had options. I used a  shadow jump, sliding into the dark and then stepping out a few feet  aeay to take in the scene of the rest of my people.

Chaos.  We were all used to fighting rational, sane humans. Even cultists CARED  if they died. Sure, the brainwashed sleepers would tank hits like that,  but they were also dull and kind of slow in terms of reactions. These  guys were living thinking humans who gave no fucks if they survived as  long as they could accomplish their goals.

Bethy  was under attack from all sides, ten of them having circled her and  holding her down. My sister and Callen were penned in the same way, and  Abel was on the ground, several of them on top of him until he slipped  out with lubricated space and pulped a head, looking genuinely pissed. I  looked around for Felix as I saw Nat and her friends grouped around a  now full sized Randall who barely fit in the large office, batting away  the others.

I  caught a flash of yellow heading for the cup and dashed after him...and  then I wasn't. I was across the room, throwing myself aside to avoid a  punch from Abel that might have actually killed me. He blinked,  confused, as did as. Looking around, I saw a hooded figure where I'd  been throw itself in front of an attack from Mel that was aimed at  Felix, before she vanished, appearing behind Chelsea and barely avoiding  getting bisected by Callen.

"Fuck."  I snapped. "Everybody careful! They have a translocator!" I'd heard of  the ability, like teleportation but it worked on other things instead.

Spatial  abilities were a bitch to deal with. I saw a few binding powers at  work, starting to slow down Randall, a couple of poison users Chelsea  was offsetting, and various elemental and energy based tricks, but the  translocator wasn't obvious. I couldn't figure out which one was doing  it. The fucking hoods made them impossible to tell apart even with my  Perception and Eye of Revelation. Something about the cloaks was  blocking it. Like the one Nat had when I met her.

"Back  off." Snarled Callie as she stepped from the shadows, swinging an  attack at Felix. Nat and the others had managed to slip Perit through  their encirclement and she was winding around the pedestal to line up a  shot. Felix ignored Callie, shifting into a cat and blurring forward as  she sprang at him to attack.

I  saw what was going to happen before it did. Pattern recognition, fate  sense, or maybe a lucky guess, but I knew. Felix's paw touched the cup  on the pedestal, and he was gone. Callie landed a second later, both her  black daggers thudding home. One in Perit's back, and one in her  throat. She stared up at Callie in shock as my girlfriend looked on in  horror. Felix had appeared on the other side of the pedestal, retaking  human form to catch the falling cup, then stashing it in a ring.

The  pedestal began to glow, red lines pulsing as they emanated from the  center. Felix bolted out the open door as it slammed shut, having  already been moving before the defenses activated.

The  floor started to glow, and I felt heat begin to build. My eyes wide, I  blurred forward, grabbing Callie and yelling for the others. She  wouldn't let go of Perit's body, even Vitality wouldn't fix that, and  she was definitely dead, but Callie just clung to her in panicked  desperation.

I  didn't have time to fight her on it. I had my Eye of Revelation active,  looking for any space that didn't have the sewer system below it. The  thing was spatially expanded, so it didn't cover the whole floor, just  most of it. I found a section of now glowing stone that didn't have  anything under it and I dragged Callie over to it.

Jessie  shrank down the bear again, and the others helped fend off the figures  so they could all make a retreat after she did it. They were still  attacking, desperate to slow us down. I was almost hyperventilating, but  I forced myself to calm down. Perit was dead, that was bad, but I was  in charge, and if we didn't live no one would mourn her. I had to keep  it together.

When  the rest of them arrived, I triggered Pit of Despair. And nothing  happened. I stared at the ground in rage. We needed out of here, but the  floors of this office weren't random hallway floors. They were clearly  warded against things like this. Smart call but REALLY unfortunate for  us since my feet were starting to burn.

Wait...burn,  defenses. I shifted into Mephistopheles. Nat was beside me, shaking her  friend, crying as she cradled the body, and I tried so fucking hard not  to look. Not to imagine that was me holding Benny, or Jessie, or  Callie. Not to let my heart break for my cousin.

I  raised my staff, which had absorbed a shocking amount of life force  from that crazy fucking initiate who decided to play pencil topper. Then  I focused Pit of Despair into it, shoving in as much of my super  destructive armor breaking black flame as I could while I did. I slammed  the staff down, releasing the attack, the death energy stored, and the  flames all at once.

The  floor beneath us flashed black, and I felt like it became a bit less  stable. I slammed it down again. Pit of Despiar. Pit of Despair. Pit of  Despair. The ground collapsed under us, the black flame mixing with  whatever flame enchantment apparently destabilizing the structure enough  for the attack to finally work. All I could see as we plummeted into  darkness was hooded figures bursting into flames as the floors finally  got hot enough, and all I heard was my cousin sobbing for her friend.