Gabriel's lance punched right through the weakened conduit, carrying him off into the distance and pinning him on the wall. As soon as he was still, Mel unleashed a torrent of golden fire at the thing, and the combination of all the attacks finally did it in. The stake had been amplified, and given its usefulness against undead and Bethy's blood on it which seemed to synergize somehow, it had weakened the bastard quite a bit.

The other hounds had collapsed into their respective elements, and we were alone in this place now. Callie stepped up next to me. She looked relieved more than upset, seemingly not caring about me just teleporting away after seeing me fried like that. "You ok?" She said tentatively. "Everything still hurt?"

"Only when I breathe." I grunted out with a chuckle. "I'm getting better though. I burned three Afterburner slots on heal bursts at the end there. Plus I already had two active. It's helping a lot." The heal bursts weren't instant heal abilities, Jessie's power was strong and useful, but it took time. With so many active though, it was doing a damned good job of repairing the damage, and the energy was combating the weakness from using Afterburner, so I felt...shaky, but ok.

"That was the right call." She admitted unhappily. "I was panicking. That lightning bypassed your armor and I felt the pain. I could literally smell you cooking. We needed to drop the conduit, and it worked out. I've got to get better with my daggers. We were supposed to be a team out there, but we got split up and I wasn't able to support you when you got jumped from behind."

I could feel the guilt through the bond. She hadn't been watching my back. I didn't blame her for being distracted in that shitshow, but I knew saying so wouldn't do any good, so I just put my arms around her and pulled her close. Honestly I'd been freaked out myself. Sometimes you just needed a hug from someone who loved you. It certainly helped me focus enough to clear my head.

Half expecting Benny to be there to tease me about being too affectionate, it was almost a surprise when I let Callie go without anyone noticing. Part of me was a little bit sad not to have the chance to rankle my buddy a bit, and when she felt that through the bond, Callie snorted and rolled her eyes. "We should check in with the others, make sure they're all right."

"Good point." I said as I looked around, trying to find where all our team members were. Mel and Abel were over by the corpse, and Bethy was nearby. I headed over to check on the Vampire, who looked winded and a shaken now that she'd returned to a more normal state. "Hey there, how are you feeling?"

She gave us a brittle smile. "I'm fine. Sorry. I don't like going all vampy like that. It does weird stuff to my head. Makes people look like food." Her smile faltered, her eyes growing melancholy. "It makes me sad to see the world like that. People don't matter, they're just bags of blood. Some of my siblings are like that all the time, but I don't do it unless I have to."

It occurred to me that the rapid shifting between scary bloodthirsty and ditzy airhead might not be entirely a factor of blending in. Some of her mood changes were probably part of her nature. Hell, given how recursion worked, it was possible the cheerful flighty version of her was a purposeful impression she tried to give to offset the other side of herself.

"So you can turn that on and off? Or is more like a dimmer switch?" I realized if I looked close there was always SOME element of unrealness to the way Bethy moved. I think that was part of what threw me about her at our first meeting. My subconscious picking up a predator. It was just a shadow though, nothing genuinely frightening.

"Daddy calls it the rising blood." She said miserably. "I can push it down, but it's always there. Vampires are legendary predators. In a literal sense. Not just as in we feed and are legends, but we feed ON legends. Its how we drain away stats. The process of preparing ourselves to ingest that sort of thing changes our souls, makes them...different. It's hard to explain. It doesn't help that daddy likes to be all vague and poetic about it."

"Is that just you though?" I asked cautiously. "I met a Wendigo once, and it was...very distinct from a person. Fae are like that too. Any racial trait alters what humans are at their core, it's how we get new races. Those can be passed on to children too, so it's a fundamental change. But part of what makes being an Ascendant so amazing is that we can change. That's what you're doing right? Trying to change your nature in a foundational way through recursion?"

She nodded. "I want to do it this way. I might be able to mess around with synergizing Skills to try to fix my nature, but that could go wrong as easy as right, and then I'm stuck that way until D-rank. Working with recursion and trying to stack my stats in a specific direction is a subtler but more stable way to change." She chuckled ruefully. "I even considered asking you for a wish, but what would I wish for, to be a friendlier vampire?"

I shrugged. "I don't know if that would work, but if you want help, we can try to help you. Doesn't have to be one big wish. There are subtler ways to change. I bet Nat would be happy to help you too. I take it your dad knows about what you're trying to do and doesn't mind?" I'd rather not piss of the strongest S-ranker in the universe if at all possible. I'd help her either way, but if he didn't care I could be more overt about it.

Honestly in some ways this could be a trial run for my intentions to change my own family once I was in charge. Helping someone become something different. If I could help Bethy in her quest to change her nature I'd be a lot more confident about overhauling the system of a massive deity level clan.

Callie nodded from next to me. "Shane can't really coach you on wishes, but I'm sure I could help. We'll need to do some research on vampirism and what elements of it interact with your personality. Do you think you could get us some books? I have to imagine your family has a decent selection."

Bethy shrugged casually. "Oh sure, Aida is a huge nerd about stuff like that. She's always reading, so I bet she has some books that could help. You really think we can figure out how to change me? How do you think we should do it? I've been working on recursion for a while, and it really helps most of the time, but it's not really a change exactly."

"Yeah, I think we'll need to be more direct." Callie said cheerfully. "Synergizing with racial traits is a bit tricky, but with the right Skill and proper research it should be safe enough if we take it step by step. If nothing else we can use wishes to map out your potential options to make sure you pick something viable. I don't know much about racial traits though, so I'm not sure if you'll need a catalyst when changing yours."

Despite the uncertainty, I could see genuine joy on the face of the Vampire girl. I could tell this was something she'd been worried about for a long time. Some of the things she'd said implied her siblings didn't think anything of their bloodthirsty nature, so she probably didn't get a lot of sympathy for her point of view.

Leaving them to chat, I headed over to check on Gabriel, and with him, the corpse of the undead he'd killed. "Damn." I said as I approached. "I'm impressed. That lance is pretty scary. What's it made of?" I hadn't paid much attention to his lance, not with his crazy starlight charger ability, but the thing was clearly extremely powerful, and looking close I could tell it was E-ranked like my staff.

"Sunfury Platinum." He said with a chuckle. He was cleaning the weapon carefully with a well worn but soft looking rag. "It's highly compatible with my combat style and with my charger. The weapon, the ability, and my path form a harmonious system that allows me to put forth my most powerful strength with every charge. In some ways, the lance is the ultimate expression of the Adamant. No retreat, no hesitation, only forward momentum. Unstoppable."

I nodded thoughtfully. "I could see that, yeah." That actually made me curious about something. "Can you tell me more about Paths? You mentioned them, and I know Abel is on one. I have a Path but I don't really know how it works or how to improve it."

He sighed. "Sadly, I can't tell you much. Not because I'm being secretive, but because Paths are deeply personal and unique things. Even people on the same Path can manifest it differently and access it in different ways. I can tell you that a Path is something every Ascendant needs to gain eventually, but that getting one early isn't necessarily a benefit. If your Path isn't suitable for you, it's often better to try to find another one, or just to wait."

"What is a Path? Something to do with recursion?" The vague commentary wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped. I needed a straight answer, but it didn't seem like he could give me one.

Gabriel paused for a moment. "In some ways. Paths can provide some protection from recursion if used properly. If you think of your legend as a mountain you build with stats, a Path is literally the road you travel to reach the top. Lower down the mountain it isn't important, you can just walk anywhere, but as it becomes steeper and you climb higher, you need to follow a trail."

"So how do I access it? I've felt some small aspect of it in battle before, but I don't use it like you or Abel do." It sounded like this was something I wanted to gain a better understanding of. Something that could make me stronger and help me stand out from other people the same level as me. "And is a Path a Skill? An ability?"

"It can be either. Both. Neither." He said with a shrug. "It's complicated. The most reasonable way I can describe it is probably that a Path is the way you navigate your own legend. Recursion and renown may draw the map, but a Path is how you walk it. What form that takes varies from person to person."

I nodded slowly, thinking over what he'd said and the experience I had before. Fatewalker. My Path of the Doom Sovereign was paved with my fatewalker class in the game. Following that particular track seemed to be a way to progress down my Path. Or resonate with it? Whatever the case, it gave me an idea how to move forward.

"I'll keep all that in mind. Now, why don't we go and check in with Yvette." I said, gesturing to the construct who was currently investigating the ruby coffin. "She might have an idea what we should do next. Or if we need to do anything. Worst case we can just move on to the next target." I wasn't sure how we rerouted the ritual, but Yvette would know if there was anything we needed to do. He finished cleaning his weapon and stowed it away, standing with a nod, and we both headed over to talk to the closest thing to an expert on this ritual that we had.