"You ok?" Asked my girlfriend as she slipped into the room. My mom had calmed down and left, not for good, she wanted to have dinner with Chelsea and I before she headed back to the Holy Dominion. Callie was invited, and anyone else I wanted to bring, so I'd agreed. I wasn't going to see her for a while, and one meal wasn't going to kill me.

I shrugged. "Not especially. But I will be. A lot to process. How much of that did you get? Emotion wise? I didn't close the bond so I'm sure you picked up something."

"Frustration. Anger. Grudging understanding. More anger." She listed casually. "About what I expected. Though less of it than I anticipated, so that's good. I figured I'd come in and check on you. If you don't want to talk about it we can always check in about the stat gains." At my blank look she giggled. "You forgot we would be gaining a big chunk of stats after surviving that mess didn't you. I mean, this was a huge incident. Not that many of us came back."

I shrugged. "Fair. I guess I was distracted. I'm surprised it didn't all hit anyway. Doesn't it usually slam into you after the end of the incident?"

"Soul strength." She said with a smile. "Lets us control our stats better, in basically every way. We're going to need to relearn how to fight basically, but it comes with some perks. Still, it'll hit us eventually. With the extra soul power though, it shouldn't be nearly as painful, even if it is a big bump."

That made sense actually. Part of the reason for stat limits was soul weight. Yet another benefit of my Azure Soul Body. Now that I was paying attention, I did feel a kind of...buzz in the back of my head. I reminded me of stat gain, at least a bit. The connection between the soul and stat gain was something I really needed to look into. There was so much about it that I didn't understand. Maybe souls shit was how the bigwigs delayed things like the scavenger hunt. Though how would that even work?

Deciding I officially needed to get to this, I gave her a worried grin. "Alright. Well, I guess there's no use putting it off. At the very least it should take my mind off things." Closing my eyes, I focused on the buzz, a completely new sensation that my new and improved soul allowed me to experience, and just kind of...let it in.

I could feel how muted it had become compared to last time. Sure it was a smaller percentage, but still, it was a BIG boost, and while it certainly wasn't pleasant, it wasn't crazy either. The familiar purple flames rolled across my vision as I took it in.

Wishmaster candidate status. F-rank.

Ability: Intermediate Wish- Six times a day grant an Intermediate wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Intermediate Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.

Might 1475 Impact 35 Fantasy 900 Vitality 720 Focus 1120 Perception 1204 Creation 554 Progress to next rank: 6008/10000 Soul strength: Azure Soul Body Stored: 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 triple strength density shifted attacks (ten in reserve). 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 10 heal bursts (10 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 10 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 19 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more) Pet Wolf named Jin Skills: Intermediate Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Lesser Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery,Beginner Paired Dueling DS Subskills:

Monk: Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running, State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain Stance.

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rythym of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense

Goetia Staff Art:

First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames

Second Form- Mephistopheles- Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.

I let out a long whistle at the bump. "I think I'm still riding the god slayer wave, what little of it I caught. You'll probably be seeing a big bump too. Five hundred Might, four hundred Fantasy, four hundred Focus, and five hundred Perception. A big bump to mental stats for figuring things out and a big bump to Might from my fights with Adrian and the others. I wonder what the Fantasy is for? Maybe because of the weird immaterial nature of the place?"

Callie shrugged. Who knows with these things." She grinned at me, and I beamed back because she was happy, and smiling, and not devastated, though I expected that to hit when she had a chance to get her mind off all this. "Now, want to see what I got?" She sounded like a kid unwrapping a present, and I knew that this was almost as fun as loot for her. I laughed and nodded, and she showed me her stats.

Calliope Reynolds. Ability: F-rank Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call, moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses through the shadows to spy on your enemies. Might 2350 Impact 35 Vitality 342 Fantasy 1605 Focus 908 Perception 2375 Creation 485 Progress to next rank: 8100/10000 Soul strength

Green-50% Pet Wolf named Rellia Skills:

Minor Tracking, Minor Dual Dagger Mastery, Beginner Stealth, Beginner Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Intermediate Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Beginner Paired Dueling. Path of the Abyss Illusory

I blinked at her in shock. "Sweet Revenant Cal, that's insane. Twenty nine hundred points? I know you're still getting god slayer rep, but that's crazy. You got over a thousand points of Might straight up. And eight hundred Focus. Which to be fair, you really needed." I winked at her. "I was getting tired of being the brains of the operation."

She snorted, rolling her eyes. "Please don't joke about something so horrifying. Imagine if it was true. You'd run us off a cliff or something."

"You actually DID run us off a cliff." I reminded her. "Granted, you made sure we had a hang glider, but still, you definitely did it. But it's ok. You're just the muscle. You punch what needs punching and leave the brain using to us intellectual types." I winked at her, and I could feel her joy and comfort at the teasing, getting back to our usual rapport. I felt the same way honestly.

The lack of teethcracking pain was really nice. I'd expected to be down and out for a while after the points dump, but honestly I kind of felt energized. I turned to Callie, who looked slightly less well off. "You doing ok?" I said, picking up some pain from the bond. "Your soul isn't as sublimated as mine, and you got more points. I know it's been a while, but are you still feeling any pain?"

Chuckling, she laid a head on my shoulder. "Brag, brag, brag. Do you have to show off so much? And no. I'm fine." Her face fell. "Well, I'm fine about that. Shane-"

"Perit was not your fault." I said, feeling her guilt surge again. "We've been over this. You're helping me get stronger so we can help Nat wish her back. Focus on that instead of on what happened. Unless you think self-flaggellation is more important than fixing your mistakes?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "You know I don't. Ass. And don't think I don't know you're making me angry on purpose to make me feel better." Her smile was soft as she leaned up to give me a quick kiss. "And don't think I don't appreciate it. But let's quit talking about my horrible guilt. Instead let's talk about what to do next. Because...we're kind of done here, right?"

That...was a good point. What DID we do next? I had ideas, but nothing that seemed like it would be rational or important. We needed points, and for the first time since we started our journey we didn't really have a destination. We were just floating in space. Both metaphorically and literally.

"There's a war coming." I said, after thinking for a bit. "I'd like to be in the conclave, and we have an invite from what my mom said, but they scheduled it a year out. I assume they'll be doing SOMETHING about Hatescream before that, but nothing we can get involved in."

She nodded slowly. "I agree with all that." She said slowly. "But it doesn't really tell me much. Like I can feel that you have an idea, but for once I'm not really following."

"Simple." I said with a shrug. "We need to learn war. We've been in fights. In raids. But we've never been in war. Not to mention we all grew massively and could use some polishing. The Empire is full of noble houses and cultivators fighting over land. I think we should head out there and sign up with someone. Get some experience in the battlefield. Because given Travis's personal experience with us, I'm betting once things really kick off we're not going to have much choice but to be in the thick of it."

Callie bit her lip. "That's a pretty heavy direction to take." She said finally. "I'm with you, because you're right, we need to get stronger, but the others might not all be onboard. I assume you'll be asking them?"

"Of course." I said with a sigh. "I won't force anyone. Mel and Abel will be onboard I'm sure. Probably Bethy if she's sticking with us. Nat will want training and Valk follows her lead. Jessie...I actually think she might be interesting in learning battlefield medicine, but I'll ask. Benny will probably be in, if I know him he wants to put some of his training to work. Our only real maybe is Celine."

My girlfriend shook her head. "She'll go. She loves Benny. She won't let him run off and get killed. Not given all the guilt she still feels about betraying him. She might even be happy they have some training they can finally do together. Can we just...join an army though? And how does that work?"

"Not sure." I said. "But I'm happy to look into it. We can talk to Vinnie too. Maybe Zeke if we approach it right. Plus as mid to high F-rankers we can actually get into high ranking planets now. It'll be a good place to build up a reputation for the pavilion and recruit new allies. Maybe we can start a mercenary company or something." The more I talked about it the more excited I got.

She laughed. "Let's get all our ducks in a row before we start on details. Chances are good we'll be cannon fodder if we end up in the wrong spot. I want to do some research before we decide where to go. Plus we have to actually GET there. Though it's possible we could get Killian to give us a ride. Speaking of hitching a ride, do you think your sister will come with us?"

"Couldn't say." I said with a shrug. "I hope she does. I'd love to get to know her better. Mom made it sound like she usually gets locked up in the Holy Dominion, but given what's going on the higher ups in all the factions will be busy. If we're going somewhere out of the way she might be able to come." Getting to know my twin sounded amazing, at least if it was possible.

Callie laughed at my clear enthusiasm for the idea. But given all the baggage, she seemed like she just wanted to calm down and distract herself. I saw an idea pop into her head. "Alright. Well I think I could use a workout. How about you and I do some training and then head to bed." I raised an eyebrow and she winked, flicking me in the forehead before melting into the shadows. "Tag." Said her voice from everywhere and nowhere at once. "You're it." I triggered Eye of Revelation. One distraction coming up.