The whole plan was falling apart. The walls were supposed to be pretty much impossible for the F-rank lions to pass. With the fog up I could see if any of them jumped and swat them back down. The massive difference in power made that trivial.

Now though, the fog was gone, the walls were crumbling, and with the breaking of the Skill I'd officially lost the corrosion effect that had been weakening the things for my troops.

The Magister, meanwhile, stood impassively on a corner of the walls away from myself and Callie, watching with interest as our whole operation fell apart.

A new form landed next to me, barely noticeable as I tried to corral the lions with the no longer enchanted but still highly durable stone. I’d let Belial drop, which had taken some of the burden off my soul, but it was still difficult and complicated. “Shane.” Said a semi-familiar voice. Callen.

“Little busy.” I grunted. “But good timing. Any ideas how we can take care of the Magister? Because while he might not be directly attacking us, there’s no chance he isn’t going to screw us over in the end. We’ve got to take him out.” I wasn’t sure the wall would be able to put a dent in him though, I was only barely E-rank.

Callen shook his head. “We can’t.” He said bluntly. “We’ve got no chance of injuring someone like that.”

I was so shocked I almost froze, barely keeping up my onslaught as my people tried their best to group up into one of the backup formations we’d briefly drilled. I was suddenly glad I’d listened to Demia and insisted they learn that turtle formation, despite preferring to put my eggs all in one basket. “What do you MEAN, we can’t?” I spat. “He’s just one rank above us. I’m sure we could throw together an invocation that would hurt him.”

“Do you know why D-rank is considered a watershed?” He asked me as his sword licked out and disembowled an E-rank lion that had managed to sneak up on me, before kicking its corpse into the face of another one trying to climb the wall. I suddenly realized why he was up here, and was grateful to both him and presumably my sister, who had definitely made these arrangements.

Drawing my own weapon, I smashed another in the face, using Piece of Mind to run the assault so I could protect myself and hear him out. “Yeah, you need to form a path before becoming a Master.”

He grunted, sidestepping a leaping lion and separating its head from its shoulders as it flew by. “Yes, but do you know WHY that’s the case?” I shook my head, and he paused for a moment to kill another pair of the E-ranked beasts. More of them had come up out of the ground, clearly herded by the Magister, but luckily they seemed intent on killing me to drop the walls.

I called for Mephistopheles, offloading the strain to my armor, and blasted a pair of cats away in a pair of black flame bursts. “Look, I really dig the whole learn it yourself thing you’re doing here, but it MIGHT not be the time for a pop quiz. How about you just tell me the answer?”

Callen’s sword flashed up to kill one of the lions, only to get caught in its jaws. His off hand drew a long knife and jammed it up into the stone, separating it like butter as he gutted the monster and kicked it off his blade. “Point taken.” He said with a small laugh. “Master rank is important because it’s a milestone. Specifically, it’s when you pass a hundred points of Impact.”

“Gods damn it.” I swore. “Why the hell does everything happen in multiples of ten? It’s some kind of qualitative change, I take it?”

The swordsman barked out a much louder laugh this time. “A question for the ages, but yes. Fighting up ranks is possible, but fighting E to D can only be done under VERY specific circumstances. Even a ranged controller like the Magister is going to be impossible for us to harm.”

Grimacing, I reached out to Callie mentally. I had a whisper of a plan “Hey, you doing alright? I can’t see you too well in all the chaos.” I got a surge of affirmation over the bond, but no words. I supposed she was probably busy. With that in mind, I went ahead and told her the idea I’d just had. I got another feeling of agreement, and sighed in relief, turning to Callen. “I think we might be able to work something out, but we need to hold them off for a few minutes. Any ideas on how to turn this mess around?”

He grinned. “You need to make a hole. Luckily, we’ve got just the man for the job.” Gesturing behind me, I glanced back to see a tall, regal form on a glimmering silver charger, massive lance propped up on a shoulder as he surveyed the battle.

Switching hands with my staff, I triggered my scan ring, firing off a quick message. I saw Gabe receive it and then nod as he skirted around the palisade to the spot I’d directed him.

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“Alright.” I said to Callen. “Get ready, because as soon as he hits them, we’re going to be changing things up. I have a plan, but it’s going to be a bit nuts.” I fired off another group message from my scan ring as I prepared, because this was going to get crazy. The second Gabe was in position I signalled for him to charge.

I shifted the walls around me all into dust, keeping just enough tension that we could stand on them as my friend charged through the hole I made. The charge this time was different than the last. It wasn’t meeting the sturdy bodies of a pair of E-ranked cats…no, Gabriel Brightlaw, Adamant of the Church of the Red Revenant, hit the horde of monstrous cats like a hot knife through butter,

“RUBRUM GLORIA!” He bellowed as he smashed into the morass of felines like the fist of an angry god. Instead of just using his lance though, I saw his Path itself manifest around him, an aura similar to what Abel did sometimes. Gabriel didn’t spear the lions, he hit them like a glowing silver comet, smashing clean through them and leaving a five foot swathe of carnage behind him as he sped out the other side, having split the whole army in half….which was exactly what I’d needed.

I needed the cats out of the way so I could see the ground, and I was so ecstatic about the success, I didn’t even subverbally trigger the Skill like usual. I threw back my head and howled. “PIT OF DESPAIR!”

The bottom dropped out of the world. The huge swathe of dirt and stone in the center of the square defensive encampment turned to dust under the force of my soul, and all of it plummeted right down into the massive tunnels beneath like waves of water being sucked down a drain.

Using Piece of Mind to spawn two more parallels, I set one to work shoving my own people out of the dust funnel as I collapsed the walls around the plants and POURED an ocean of dust into the tunnels after the lions as the were sucked in, triggering Moonlit Night to try to mix the stealth factors into the dust. I dove into the vortex, staff out in front of me, and sped off into the sinkhole after them, Song of the Soil telling me exactly where everything was.

Callie, having access to my Skills through the bond, dove in after me, and the two of us flowed through the sand like sharks through the sea. I didn’t know where the Magister was, since he’d avoid being submerged, but with my Danger Sense and the massive sea of dust I could both sense and control, we handily dodged all the plants he seemed to be using to comb through the sinkhole.

I felt like a god as I blurred forward through the dust, my staff slamming into lions left and right, destroying them in blasts of black fire. Even the E-rankers couldn’t see where I was coming from, and with all that power behind my attacks, not to mention the fog I’d mixed into the dust that gave me a boost to attack power when I landed an unseen hit.

Lion after lion died, heads bursting under my assault or stabbed to death with the spears Callie had picked up before she jumped in. I felt their numbers begin to deplete, and I was grinning under my mask.

Sadly, my easy victory (in the abstract, my brain felt like it was melting keeping all these fucking parallels going and using all the Skills) wasn’t to be. I heard a colossal roar of “ENOUGH!” And a pulse of power slammed into the earth, sending me, Callie, and all the lions exploding up and out of the dust.

Whatever had been done severed my connection with the material, though not Pit of Despair itself luckily, and we slammed down into a pile of super fine dust, safe from and harm, if somewhat disoriented.

I climbed up and out of the dust and glanced over to see the Magister, in all his glory, glaring down at my from where he hovered in the sky. “Boy, you test my patience.” Snarled the magic user. “You think I won’t dare to kill you? Forces beyond your comprehension arranged for this event. Do you know the kind of enemies you’re making?”

Standing up, I hardened the dust under my feet once I was able to reform the connection. All my parallels dropped. My head still hurt, but I could function now, and I stared impassively up at the magic user. He was standing on a whirling vortex of air, leaves whipped around in the current.

“Do you?” I asked disdainfully. “Because I feel like you’re taking some big risks here, all for…what? Some pissant Tolbert scion? You think Spencer gives a fuck what happens to you and your Earl when his cousin is dead?”

I saw a slight flinch. He wasn’t sure about that. Spencer must have promised them SOMETHING, but he wasn’t exactly a trustworthy guy. He hadn’t attacked me directly, because he clearly knew who I was at least in the abstract so he still had a chance to back out. But…he’d come too far. And the threat of Zeke was being revealed as more of a bluff by the second.

“You’re nobody.” He said arrogantly. “If the B-ranker you brought along was going to intervene he would have done so by now. And that D-ranked sneak thief who liberated those bandits won’t stop me from putting you down.” He raised a hand, and a massive fiery bird of prey manifested over his head. “Any last words?”

Callie, who had finally climbed out of the dust next to me, just grinned. “Oh, I do!” She said excitedly.” He turned to her, sneering down dismissively but clearly waiting for her to speak her piece.

“Let it not be said that I can't be merciful.” He said coldly. “Speak.”

Smirking defiantly, Callie said. “Gladly. In exchange for every chit I have, I wish that this asshole was as heavily suppressed as your power will allow, Shane.” I saw his eyes widen at the same time as I felt the power well up within me, static building up as purple lightning flickered over my skin.

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I grinned as my wish power built within me, every last ounce of power I had in me gathering as a storm of energy rose, crackling across my body. Like lightning building in the clouds to smash down on the unsuspecting earth. The Magister’s expression was changing, clearly about to unleash his attack, but it almost seemed like everything was happening in slow motion as the requirements for the wish were listed out. I didn’t waste time even reading them past checking if it was enough. I confirmed.