After the ceremony, we had a meeting set up with the elders, but since Daysia and I were some of the first back, we had some time to kill before things actually ended. Hours if not days, depending, so I decided to take my new staff for a test drive.

First though, I wanted to show it off. I gathered all my friends together, and once they’d all arrived, I gestured dramatically. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I said portentously. “My weapon woes are over. I’ve found the perfect support weapon, a C-ranked staff, and one that can grow with me. I have to figure out how to feed it, but it can rank up even ahead of when I can, though there are limits.” I summoned my staff, letting it smack into my palms as I called it from my soul.

The ability to enter and exit the library was a fairly rare feature of the Ten Demons Tree, and one that most weapons didn’t have. Soul storage was coveted because it meant weapons could be taken anywhere, regardless of rules or restrictions.

Even an S-ranker couldn’t see into my soul, which meant I would never be unarmed again if I didn’t want to be. That alone would be priceless, but the unique ability of the staff to refine my forms was unimaginably powerful. The more refined my forms, the more powerful their effects. This, in turn, could allow me to reinforce the Ten Demons Tome. In order to create the super Domain that would let me condense three objects of power, I needed an absurdly sturdy foundation. Both my Chronicle and the forms the pseudo domains are based on needed to be absolutely perfect.

Not to mention the life experience of living as nine different demons would be invaluable for technique creation, and the will of the Ten Demons Tree itself acted as a filter to help me resist any mental pollution.

I was sure my new weapon had even more versatile and powerful functions, but I’d need to discover them over time. For the moment, though, just the abilities it had now were enough to fill me with a sense of confidence and fighting spirit. As long as my forces for the succession war reached the right level, I was positive I could at least stand out.

After going over the abilities inherent to my staff excitedly, I waited for everyone’s reaction. Benny seemed excited, as any decent inventor would be when faced with a unique item, and Callie looked happy for me, but Bethy seemed confused. “So…it’s another stick?” She asked innocently.

I grimaced. “It’s a powerful unique staff perfectly suited to help me improve my powers.”

“So it’s not a stick,” she said in dawning understanding. “Because it kind of looks like a stick. So I was confused.”

That derailed me. “I mean…technically it’s a stick?” I said helplessly. “But it’s not JUST a stick. It’s a useful and powerful weapon. Look, forget about the stick part, the important thing is that it helps me refine my forms which will improve my pseudo Domains.”

“That does sound neat,” she said brightly. “Maybe I can help you test it out! Want to spar?”

I hesitated. I was strong. Really strong. And Bethy was most likely close to where I was stat wise. As Lark’s daughter she had a more consistent stat income, but I’d had some very big bursts of renown lately, not to mention my wishes. But even at the same level, I wasn’t sure I could take Bethy.

For one thing, she had a complete Domain. Lark had used a domain seed to help her condense hers early in a way that didn’t put pressure on her soul. I didn’t know how it worked, just that the process USUALLY cut off the advancement potential of the recipient.

When someone used a domain seed as a base to establish a Domain, like Black Sorrow had, it integrated into their personal Domain, becoming part of them. I hadn’t known that was possible until BS told me, but from what I gathered it was much different than integrating a domain seed before you were ready to establish a Domain of your own.

My mom had told me that using a Domain seed was considered a huge waste for a normal Ascendant. It basically locked you out of forming your own. Bethy’s Domain was special, something to do with her bloodline, and Lark had managed to integrate it without the usual drawbacks. It made her absurdly powerful for her rank even aside from her ability to drink stats from people, and she would still be able to form a Domain of her own later on.

Not to mention Bethy’s racial trait wasn’t just vampirism, she’d inherited her mother’s maenad nature as well. I’d been helping her control it slowly, but the combination of the early Domain and the powerful racial trait made her nearly invincible.

Even Abel, who was one of the most naturally gifted combatants I’d ever met, was afraid to fight Bethy.

Which was why I had to do it. I needed to see how my progress stacked up to the most brilliant D-rankers in the universe. Bethy might not be the undisputed queen of D-rank the way her dad was for S, but she was definitely the top one percent among everyone in our generation.

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I saw Callie shoot a worried glance between us, and that solidified my resolve. Not only did I need to know, but I realized that I’d started to fixate on victory. Winning was great, but I didn’t need to win every spar. Growing and honing my edge was more important than a temporary success. Sure, Bethy might beat me, but honestly that might not be such a bad thing.

“Sure,” I told her after a moment of thinking. “I’d love to spar. I take it you know a place where we can go all out without being disturbed? If not we can just fly down and find a clearing. I’d prefer to do this at ground level.”

While victory wasn’t all the mattered, these trees were extremely durable and highly ranked. The platform would resist Agares and Wrath both, which would cut out a significant tool in my arsenal. I wanted to put my best foot forward.

Lucky for me, a minor crisis of recursive identity wasn’t a big deal when you share your soul with someone. One of the reasons Callie and I worked was that she always noticed when I slipped over the line in terms of recursion, being able to sense when my thoughts changed too much. It was why I didn’t mind when she chewed me out about doing dumb shit. Because I trusted her to monitor my recursion more than I did myself. Harder to see changes in your own mental state.

Reaching out, I asked her about it as we flew down to the ground. Her response was pretty much immediate. “Yeah, you’ve definitely been getting a little arrogant. It’s a common thing with powerful Ascendants though. People see you as this invincible figure, and it starts to warp your self image. It hadn’t gotten bad enough to bring up yet, but noticing it early is a good sign.” My wife’s tone was enthusiastic in my head.

"Your grandmother put me through some training to try to curb that particular bit of recursion. Fighting Bethy should definitely help.” A chuckle rang through the bond. “Even if you win, which lets face it, you probably won’t, it’s not going to be easy. Remember D-rank is a watershed. For someone like Bethy who was already much stronger than most…that effect is compounded.”

I knew that. Bethy’s racial trait was one of the best in the universe, and while Sammael was effective, it wasn’t close to the level of something like Lark’s bloodline. Not to mention she had her Domain on top of it.

But the thought had settled into my brain. Even knowing I’d probably lose I couldn’t resist the urge to try it out. Without the recursion warning me off a losing fight, I found myself all the more eager to test my mettle. It was a stark warning about the effects of recursion on my mental state. The rapid switch from excitement to reluctance and back implied that I wasn’t stable enough.

I glanced at my staff, specifically the end caps. It occurred to me that I had TEN forms bound to this thing, not nine. Could I use the staff to experience my own life over again and grind off possible recursive corruption?

That was a use I hadn’t considered. If it could filter out mental influence from experiencing life as a demon, maybe it could do the same for recursive influence on my human self. I could re-experience my life without recursion shaping my perception and hopefully use that to stabilize my mental state. It was a unique advantage that I didn’t think any other Ascendant had.

Of course, I didn’t want to take it too far. Recursion was a protection as much as a poison. If I wore away all the recursion in my mind, I’d probably collapse from trauma. The experiences I’d been through up to now weren’t ones a normal person could withstand.

By the time we reached the clearing, I had a general plan for how to handle it. I still had to test the human reincarnation, but if it worked, I’d most likely only use it after using all of the other eight. It should help balance my mindset so I didn’t regress too far.

“Hey, are you listening to me?” demanded Bethy waspishly. I jerked, looking up to find that we were down in the forest, having found a clearing. I’d let a parallel take control of my body while I thought about the implications, but it hadn’t been doing anything but steering.

I shrugged. “Sorry, got distracted. What did you say?”

She rolled her eyes. “I SAID, we’ll just fight normal, no pets or anything. Between Luggage and my kitties I have way too big of an advantage.” She flashed her fangs at me in a too wide grin. “You sure you want to do this? I’m not gonna hold back. You’ve been getting way stronger and I’ve been itching for a decent fight for ages. No offense to Mel or Albus, but none of you guys are really on my level.”

Her voice was smooth and dark, her eyes more focused than usual, and her irises glowed with an eerie crimson light. This was vampire Bethy, the version of her that took over in a serious fight. My already slim odds of winning dropped substantially, but it only made me more excited to do this.

Sammael was already active. I triggered Gluttony and Abomination Engine too, just to be safe, and I felt a thrum in my hands from the staff. The aura of the weapon shifted slightly, matching my fallen angel form. The resonance between the two flooded me with strange insights and odd half memories, showing me the past of a being that had never existed, but only in an auxiliary sense.

The passive reinforcement was nice, but done like this it would take decades to improve what was already my strongest form. Still, it was enough to show me that the staff was with me, and would help how it could.

“I’m ready,” I told her as our friends backed off. “Hope you are too, because I’m not making this easy on you.” I spun my new staff, reveling in the perfect balance and the weight, and Bethy watched me, eyes lazy but alert, like a half asleep leopard still waiting to pounce at the slightest move.

There was a sort of suspension of energy, like the world was holding its breath, and then I triggered my waltz, Double Trouble, and Beelzebub all at once. In a flash of black flame, the clearing filled with twenty four versions of me, half of them illusionary and half of them appearing around Bethy to launch all out attacks. I, meanwhile, triggered Murmur while she was distracted, fading into invisibility, and the fight was on.