The first thing I did after Abel's crazy rampage was call Callie and the others. My girlfriend was frantic when she picked up the line, her face appearing on the floating screen over my scan ring. I saw her almost melt with relief. "Sh-" She started to say my name but cut herself off when she realized we were in costume. "Solomon, thank the gods. Are you alright? Is it safe to talk? What happened? Our....emergency exit, took us miles away. We started making our way back over but we weren't sure we had any chance of arriving in time. Are you hurt?"

I checked myself over mentally, even feeling around to make sure I was alright by hand. I shook my head when I felt nothing. "No. I'm fine." That last heal burst had patched me up, hell I wasn't even tired. "How about all of you? Were you injured? I know your exit was supposed to prevent serious injury, but I was worried those last hits might have messed you all up?" Seeing Callie already gone had terrified me. I hadn't had time to focus on it in the heat of battle, but just seeing her face and hearing her voice was helping me calm down a lot.

Granted, seeing Abel murder several people who couldn't fight back was pretty jarring still, and even without the worry I was shaken, but knowing Callie and the others were safe was definitely a big weight off my shoulders. As for Abel...well, this was the WCP. I had to remember that the Wish Curse Palace wasn't the Unity. The people here might use the conventions of the locals, but they weren't heroes. Nothing drove home Zeke's warnings about the realities of cultivation like seeing people brutally killed in front of me.

I briefly wondered if I should have tried to help them, but then I considered how easily Abel had demolished that F rank who had been beating Alden, and I shuddered a bit. The image of a bug trying to throw itself in front of a speeding car came to mind. Plus they WERE going to kill us first. Down here, self defense wasn't just legal, it was downright encouraged. Not that there wouldn't be trouble, but Abel would deal with that, not me. I was alive and so were my friends. Trying to reach for anything else would be overboard.

"Solomon?" Callie's voice jerked me back to reality and I saw her give me a worried frown. "Are you ok? You went quiet there for a bit." Her frown turned disapproving. Or are you spacing out again? That isn't safe, especially in the middle of hostile territory. You need to be careful ok? We're on the way." I could hear the fear and relief in her voice and smiled behind my mask. It was nice seeing how much she cared, even if the circumstances could be better. I knew she loved me, but still, it felt good for someone to actually SHOW that emotion. Of all my loved ones Callie was the one who was most honest with me about her feelings. It was something I cherished about her.

I cleared my throat, mostly just to show that I was focused again. "Yeah, sorry, big night. Just meet us back at the Pavilion, we're headed there now. We have a mutual friend with us, though he sadly didn't bring any sausages." I figured that would be as overt as I could be without just saying his name, and I wasn't sure where they ended up. They might be being watched and not know it. It was unlikely given Callie's Perception, but still completely possible. While they were high, there WERE people in G-rank with higher stats than her. Plus we'd already seen tonight that F-rankers were a possibility, even if I didn't expect many of them.

"Alright." She said after a brief pause. Then she said in a quiet voice. "Please be careful ok? I know what we do is dangerous, but we still usually face it together. I never want to be whisked away to safety and leave you behind to deal with potentially dying again. It was awful. Stay safe and I love you." She hung up before I could respond, probably a bit embarrassed at being quite THAT emotionally honest. I watched the screen fade with a soft smile, even if no one there could see it.

It was Abel who cleared his throat this time. "That was certainly very sweet, and I'm happy for you. But can we perhaps leave? I don't like sitting around here with all these bodies. Someone might send backup." He grinned at me. "Also, to answer your last comment about me, you are incorrect. I ALWAYS have sausages." He looked around shiftily, as if making sure no one would see, and opened the coat he was wearing, showing tubes of meat strapped to the inside of the fabric, thankfully sealed in plastic individually so they weren't touching any cloth. "Get a load of these. Premium stock you know."

I stared at him blankly. I thought back to Alden and his insistence on giving people drinks, and suddenly Abel's weirdness seemed to make more sense. I shook my head, not hungry right now anyway. Besides, despite the wackiness, I was pretty sure I recognized a stalling tactic when I saw one. Making sure my smirk was in my voice I asked. "Are you sure you aren't just nervous about going back to the Pavilion, or hell, the Cavalcade in general?"

He gave a violent shudder. "What? No, I'm not even remotely sure of that. I'm terrified of going back. Mel is going to strangle me with my own guts for being gone so long. But if forces like this are moving I'm needed. Not sure what my idiot brother did this time though. I thought not having me around to inflate his ego would keep him cautious. I guess I underestimated how ambitious he could be." I noted that despite asking what Mel had done jokingly earlier, he immediately assumed Cicero was responsible for this mess.

Which...was actually fair in a roundabout way. If he wasn't such a dick then Mel wouldn't have made a deal with Sanctuary Hall. I grimaced internally as I considered having to deal with the Peace Lord. Not directly, thankfully, given the protection from Zeke, but that would be gone soon. I'd have to move up my plans to talk to Melinda about my abilities. It was still a bit early, but I was protected from her too, and if I waited I might have to have that meeting when I hit F rank, which would leave me vulnerable.

We started our walk back. We'd ridden the wolves out here to meet Alden, and I was annoyed at the massive difference in trip quality. The wolves were faster than me. They were also four footed and used energy that wasn't mine. It was a smooth ride, even when they'd been holding back, and walking on my own two feet couldn't compare with the convenience, even if my Might stat could have allowed me to sprint there faster than most cars. We were also escorting Alden, who while healed was still very weak, and Abel and I each slipped under a shoulder to help him along as Marc trailed sulkily behind, half ashamed and half in awe of Abel.

As we walked, I glanced over to the rabbit masked man. "So, how much of what's going on do you know? I'm sure it's not all of it, but I'm equally sure someone like you wasn't stupid enough to just barrel into a fight without scouting out the enemy. You have to be aware of some of the undercurrents here right?" Even I wasn't reckless enough to just jump into a battle with a higher ranked enemy just because I was pissed off. Well...maybe I was. But Abel was supposed to be some combat genius, I doubted he was as dumb as I was.

Abel cleared his throat and looked away as Alden burst out laughing. The older, bearded man guffawed so hard we had to hold him up as he sagged under the effort of the cackling. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself. "Sorry lad, that wasn't aimed at you. I've been telling this brute for years he needs to think things through, and he never bothers. He just smashed himself against any powerful enemy he finds until he wins or they kick his ass and he needs rescuing. I had to save his scrawny ass more than a few times as a boy when he picked fights with G-rankers while still at H-rank himself." He paused, his expression growing serious. "Though I suppose that's more or less what happened here isn't it?"

Abel clicked his tongue. "Don't be stupid. You got pulled into that. I showed up last minute and even I saw it. That absolute moron with the expansion power following behind us was at fault if I don't miss my guess. You really should train your kids better Alden, if they're that stupid you must be slipping."

"That's rich coming from you." Snorted Alden. "You're decent enough at strategy in the heat of battle, but you prepare for combat more carelessly than any student I've ever had. I don't need tips on how to teach people to think things through from a human wrecking ball." He grimaced, flicking his eyes over his shoulder. "Though I admit, I've clearly been too hands off with the young ones. Mel's stirred up too much trouble this time, I'm going to have to step in. And so are YOU, no matter how scared of her you are."

Abel scoffed. "Don't bait me you old busybody. Mel is terrifying when she's angry. I'm not going to agree to intercede on your behalf just to prove I'm not scared. I'm not a five year old. I'm coming back to find out what's going on and help everyone get out of it. Once that's done I'm going back to my stand. I won't be Cicero's excuse on his mad quest for power, no matter how much I love that twisted sneaky fuck."

I blinked at that. It was probably the best description of his brother I'd heard from anyone, and it told me that Abel knew perfectly well who Cicero was, flaws and all. Just because he loved his brother didn't make him oblivious, and that made me just a little more hopeful we could work this all out. We could use every ally we could get, if Abel could keep Cicero and Mel both in line and pointed in the same direction that would be an even better solution than just getting Mel on our side.

We made it back to the circus pretty quickly, even tired and carrying Alden. We were Ascendants, and we were damn strong and fast. We didn't run with him between us, but even a brisk walk ate up ground when you had bodies like ours. Hell, I was at the lower end of that spectrum physically, and I probably could have carried him alone in only a few tens of minutes without hitting a run. When we made it through, I saw Emery watching us enter and then slipping off, so I knew Cicero would be aware of our presence soon.

We made it back to the Pavilion, setting Alden down to sit on the nearby seats and I dropped down to sit next to him. I heard a slight noise and turned my head to feel Callie slam into my side like a missile, clinging desperately to my much larger frame as she squeezed me hard enough that I think it might have killed an H-ranker. I was about to greet her when a piercing scream ripped through the air. "YOU RAT BASTARD!" I looked up to see Abel standing off to one side, seemingly about to slip away and looking like a deer in headlights as a wave of coruscating golden fire plummeted down to land on top of him. I winced. Looked like Mel was here already.