Wish upon the Stars chapter 492

"Hello me." Said the me in the chair. "It's so nice to see you again.  You could be a bit more polite you know. Our mama didn't raise us to be  rude." He paused. "Although, I guess she didn't raise us at all, so  maybe bad manners were inevitable." He grinned at me, face unadorned  with the mask I wore constantly.

I sighed. This was the  version of me from the end of the maze. The one I'd spoken to before  breaking my mind shackle. "How are you here?" I asked in annoyance. "The  maze was before we became real. Now we are and this isn't an illusion  anymore. That's why the whole second ability thing is even possible. You  don't exist, so how is it possible for you to be in a real place?"

"Real-ish."  He said, waggling his hand. "We're still not fully in the physical  world. Sort of an in between. Like that big squirrel you met was a real  being interfacing with this place, just like you are. Well not JUST like  you are, he's been here much longer."

I blinked.  "Interfacing from WHERE, exactly?" I said hesitantly. "What IS this  place? What is the stove? What's the point of all this."

He  rolled his eyes. "It's a trial, moron. What do you think it's for. It's  to pick candidates." At my shocked look he huffed out a laugh. "Not  candidates like you. This place far predates the Wishmaster. THIS is the  stove." He said gesturing around us. "The Soul Simmering Stove. The  last of a hundred such locations where people came from all over the  Aetherbright Empire to compete to enter the Royal Academy."

"Ok..."  I said suspiciously. "And I feel like if it was this easy to figure  that out someone would know it by now. So why the hell are you telling  me this?"

"Because the stove is in danger." He said  grimly. "That bottle the Bloodspawn brought in here can damage it. He's  hoping to use it to trigger the matriculation function of the trial. One  of the reasons for the transfer of consciousness to reality is a  partial step to mass transport. If he triggers the matriculation you'll  all be sent to the Academy directly. That isn't supposed to happen, but  the Liquid Lamentation will corrupt the stove and force the transfer."

That  explained Billy's plan. I was still confused though. If the temple  could transport people to the Empire, why did the Imperials take part.  Why didn't the other factions know about it? "Why is he trying to  teleport us all to the Empire? What does that have to with the Blood  Murder Palace?"

The other me sighed. "Not THE Empire. I  told you most of these are gone. The Soul Simmering Stove is a relic  from a time before the current factions. The Aetherbright Empire has  fallen, the capital and the rest of the cities have fallen, they're all  lost. But the Royal Academy is still accessible. There are things there  that shouldn't fall into mortal hands. Especially not murderous hands  like those."

"So don't let him through." I said in  exasperation. "You've got me here and you're talking to me. You clearly  have some sort of influence. Also what even are you?"

He  shrugged. "You could call me a fragment of the stove's consciousness. Or  yours. Or both. The point is that I'm talking to you because I CAN'T  stop him. The purpose of the stove is to test. He passed, which means  he's eligible to move on. Most people who come here have no idea the  stove exists, so they never continue to the final room. If they DO know  however, they're free to enter."

"So you need me to take  care of him. Stop him from dumping that stuff into the stove?" I looked  around worriedly. "What if he's already there? What if Callie is? I have  to get going!"

He waved me down. "There are final tests  and opportunities in each temple. Yours was the most straightforward,  seeing as this is the prime temple. The other two will take some time.  Enough for me to offer you your reward. You'll need to be as strong as  possible to beat him. If you force his hand he might use  that...abominable substance."

I'd been so sucked in by all this craziness that I'd almost forgotten the reward. "Ah, right. So...I have options I take it?"

"A  few." He said with a nod. "The trials were meant to prepare students of  the Academy for acceptance. The victors were given powerful gifts to  help them excel in their studies. Weapons, medicines, armor. These are  all available to you as the champion of the trial."

"I  heard I can get a second ability?" I asked eagerly. Aiden, the current  Wishmaster, had crushed my dad and taken the WCP by storm with his  second ability. My sister had one as well, and it was so powerful it had  split my family in two. My mother had one, and she was the strongest  A-ranker in service to one of the popes of the Red Revenant Church. A  second ability meant an unassailable advantage.

"The Dual  Soul Talent." Said the other me. "That is one of the options. I see you  have a Solid Path already. A Dual Soul Talent would indeed prepare you  for the next step in advance. In order to prepare to advance to B-rank  you need your Path fully attuned to your soul. Under normal  circumstances that would require you to relinquish your Wish ability and  synergize it with you Doom Sovereign Path."

That was the  next step? But he said prepare to break through to B-rank, not actually  do it. It seemed like this was just a half step. It was fine though, he  was right. If I did that I'd lose my Wish ability, it would become  something new and I'd have my candidacy stripped. "But if I get a second  ability I can have both unaltered right? That's what I want!"

He  nodded. "I understand. But in order to remold your soul to accommodate a  second ability you've got to reshape it during sublimation. Not a  partial sublimation either. You've broken both shackles, so you're  close, but I'll need to forcibly push your soul refinement to the level  of the Azure Soul Body to receive your final sublimation. The process  will be agonizing, indescribably painful. There are some who go insane  from the pain. Death may be a preferable alternative."

I'd  been in pain before. Horrible pain, but I knew that pain of the soul  was something different. Every soul related pain I'd felt was  exponentially worse than their physical counterparts. The soul wasn't  restrained by things like nerves and neurons. It wasn't physical. Pain  could far surpass the limits the brain could endure and keep going, and  there was no passing out to escape it.

Swallowing  hard, I tried to focus on something other than the literal  soulshattering agony I was about to go through. "How does the Azure Soul  Body work anyway? Someone told me that you need to be in here to reach  it? Does that mean the rest of my friends are going to be stuck at the  peak of green when they get there, even after breaking both shackles?"

Obviously  knowing what I was doing, the other me shook his head. "No. A heritage  is required to prepare for the final sublimation, but you don't need to  be inside to achieve it. The biggest requirement is spirit cleansing.  You've all been absorbing Sanctified Soul Matter since you got here. It  was considered something of a hidden benefit for attempting the trials."

The  trials weren't an everyday thing, so I supposed it was possible no one  had noticed, but I figured it was more likely the few people who had  broken both shackles here just hadn't mentioned it to anyone. Knowledge  was power after all. Still, it was nice to know that everyone would be  able to reach that point.

"Of  course." Continued the other me. "Sanctified Soul Matter is a bit  more...forceful than completing the transition here in a semi spiritual  state. It's part of how I'm going to rush you through. I'm going to pour  more inside until you approach the peak of green and then combust it.  It'll purify and sublimate your soul, and I'll reforge it while it's in a  malleable state. The others won't go through quite as much pain, since  the Matter will combust on its own when they reach the peak, but it WILL  be painful all the same."

I glared at other me. "And how exactly was telling me that fucking helpful, you unbearable sadist?"

He  shrugged. "You needed to know so you weren't blindsided. Plus, this way  you know you won't suffer alone?" He cocked his head at that, as if  curious, and when I didn't respond he shrugged. "Oh well, this was  already much closer to human than I can usually pull off. I was bound to  lose it at some point. Now take off that mask or this wont work."

I  did, and he turned, walking into the hut, and came out with a basin.  "Alright, anything else to ask before I do this? Once your reward has  been granted I'll be gone. You'll have to exit either the way you came,  or into the central manifestation chamber of the stove, the door on the  other side of the hut." I opened my mouth to respond, and he grabbed my  head and shoved it down into the basin of bright golden liquid. The last  thing I heard from him was. "That was rhetorical."

When  my face hit the liquid I expected it to be hot. It wasn't, just sort of  warm and pleasant, at least against my face. When I inhaled, it poured  into my nose, eyes and ears. I started to struggle, but the other me  held me down, and as the Sanctified Soul Matter made its way into my  body, I felt it ignite.

Explosion.  Combustion. Cataclysm. Every single one of these terms implied some  sort of earthshattering blast, and every one of them fell short of the  sensation. It was like a billion stars going supernova, and every single  one of them was a part of me. I was burned, battered, shattered,  crushed, put back together and melted down. Every single sensation was  pain, indescribable pain.

And  it kept getting BIGGER. More agony, more suffering, more than I could  imagine or conceive or withstand. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I  wanted to go crazy just to get away from it, but I couldn't even do  that. It was never ending, all encompassing, it was the beginning and  the end of my existence, all I'd ever been or ever would be.

Memories,  truths, secrets, everything about me was scoured clean, ripped away and  burned to ash. And then it got WORSE. After the scouring was a second  blast, another sensation stacked on top and I couldn't think or  experience anything but pain pain pain. Something reached into me and  started to twist, tear, warp everything that I was, everything that was  left in the torment was being changed.

Then  the stars started to go out. One by one they extinguished, and I  realized each one had been pain. A billion unbearable agonies stacked on  top of each other, and it was completely outside of my ability to even  go mad from the pain. As they went out, I regained my senses, regained  my mind and hopes and dreams and senses.

I  realized that nothing was holding my head anymore, that the basing was  empty, and I stumbled back, toppling into the sand, screaming still as I  tried to remember what it felt like not to hurt.

Finally  it faded away, and I was alone, lying on the beach, gasping and panting  as I stared unseeingly up into the ceiling of the room, which I now  realized had become a tapestry of black dotted with lights. Night.  Reaching down into myself, I touched my now Azure soul. It stung to the  touch, but when I did, I could feel it. In the same place where my Wish  usually resided. My Path of the Doom Sovereign. And despite the pain,  despite the urgency, despite everything...I started to laugh.