The explosion of purple lightning that erupted from me was unlike anything I’d seen from my power before. Specifically, it was VISIBLE to everyone. I could feel through the bond that Callie was witnessing the lightshow in a way she never had, and she was blown away by the dazzling display.

The lightning arced up into the air, smashing into Magister Weston, wrapping around him like a living thing as it bit into his flesh. Roaring in outrage, he began to struggle as the lightning condensed into purple shimmering chains. Even as I watched though, I could see some of the tiny flowing symbols shatter as he struggled.

Not that they looked likely to give immediately, but they were fading alarmingly fast. Callen cursed. “Damn. Those things are stacked with Might and Impact, but it's passive. It’ll only last for a minute or two.” Snapping his fingers, a bag appeared, and he tossed it to me. Opening it, I found ten E-ranked chits inside. “I wish the restraint was extended. Six times. I’ll pay that same amount for each wish.”

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I sighed in relief as I confirmed. There was another burst of lightning, and he tossed me another five bags, each one extending the restraint slightly longer. I’d been studying the chains as we worked, and when the last wish finished, the first one was maybe ten percent gone. “Ok, we’ve got maybe five minutes.” I said with a grimace. “Let’s make them count.”

Triggering Mephistopheles and Belial at the same time, I stacked Mercy Kill, Afterburner, Marked for Death, and every other possible enhancer I could think of on the attack, then triggered Ripple Running and stepped off the air, flashing up toward the Magister like an inverted comet.

My staff hit him right between the eyes, and I unleashed every ounce of death energy stored inside it as the but of the staff hit the bridge of his nose. His whole head was swallowed by a black explosion of flames shot through with toxic green, and I grinned as I watched him fly backwards, smashing into the dust below us.

I cheered at the solid hit, knowing he must at least be hurting from an attack that, even with relatively low Might, had been stacked so high with modifiers it HAD to do something.

To my shock, when he sat up from the dust…he was fine. His face was soot stained and scorched, but he looked more like he’d gotten a bad sunburn than taking any real damage. I just gaped at the lack of effect from what had probably been one of the strongest attacks I’d ever seen.

Callen stepped up next to me with a sigh. “I told you.” He said sadly. “There’s a qualitative difference. You can’t hurt him.”

“You…TRASH!” Howled the Magister as he staggered to his feet. “How dare you? How DARE you? Low ranked garbage attacking me, attacking a Master of magic on my own planet? I know what you are boy, and I know what it means. Your guardian can’t protect you, not from me. I’ll butcher you! I’ll tear your limbs from your worthless corpses and beat your loved ones to death with them as you watch! I’ll-”

A blob of shadow slammed into his face, wrapping around his head and muffling his words. “Sorry.” Said Callie lazily. “So we can’t hurt him at all? I can’t believe with five minutes we won’t be able to manage SOMETHING.” She cursed. “I really wish one of us had a D-ranked weapon. Why are they so damned expensive?”

“Because of this.” I said bluntly. “Like…this exact situation. But at least he can’t-” My eyes went wide and I hurled myself at Callie, slamming her aside as a cone of fucking blue FIRE erupted from the face of the trapped Magister, burning away the shadow mask.

I blinked in horror as I noticed the chains flicker, one of them draining faster. Apparently physical struggle didn’t drain them as quick as the magical stuff. “What the fuck” Yelped Callie as we scrambled up. “I wished for that asshole to be restrained! Why is he still attacking? Damn it, I should have just wished him dead.”

“You can’t.” I responded automatically. “Death involves the soul. Wishes can’t kill sentient beings. It’s one of the big rules. But we need to hurry this shit up, because he-” Cursing again I jumped aside. Without his face blocked the Magister was starting to mount an offense. It looked weakened, like he was trying to fight underwater, but he was still doing it.

I conjured Moonlit Night, condensing the fog to a ten foot area around him, hopefully making it harder to aim.

Callie lashed out with a hand, a torrent of shadow blades erupting from the dust and smashing into the Magister, only to shatter on impact. The same purple flaming bird burst forth, rocketing toward us, and I cursed, getting ready to tank it with Mornax, but to my shock it was smashed aside by a silver comet, bursting apart as Gabe came to a stop, lance lowered.

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“Well this isn’t going great.” He said casually. “You guys figure out how to kill him yet? Because our people could use a hand with all those lions.” He pointed behind us, to where the lions had encircled the massive turtle formation all the remaining soldiers (we’re lost a LOT of them so far, like maybe half) were clustered up tanking the hits.

I could see a few E-ranked beasts smashing into the solid dome, and the shields were protecting them, but the constant need to overlap them for the formation meant no one was getting attacks OUT of the dome.

“Cal.” i said, glancing at her knowingly. She sighed and nodded, reaching out a hand. A bunch of shadows dove into the dust, coming out with the spears of dead soldiers. She turned and glared at Gabe and Callen. “If you two idiots get him killed, your boss won’t have time to butcher you for it, I’ll kill you both myself. I’ve slain a god before, and a pair of jumped up holy rollers won’t pose a problem. You get me?”

They both nodded slowly, and Gabe waited until she left to ask. “When exactly did she get so…scary?”

“Probably the godslayer thing.” I said with a shrug. “But you heard her. Don’t get me killed. We’ve got like four more minutes. Gabe, do you think your charge can do better than the all out attack I used?” I hesitated to ask, not knowing if failing that one strike would be enough to break his Path.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you looked at it) that didn’t seem to be the case. “I don’t believe so. He’s a Master. Those of us still below the hundred point threshold just CAN’T defeat them. Or at least, I’ve never seen it done.”

Callen sighed. “There’s one way.” He reached up behind him, hand gripping the massive wrapped blade on his back.

“No!” Said Gabe in horror. “If you draw it you’ll waste all your progress. I’d rather break my Path than see you throw away decades of cultivation before even reaching Mastery. At the very least you should wait until D-rank, ideally you should save it until A to catapult yourself directly into the S-ranks.”

I knew what they meant. Callen was a sword nurturer. His entire life he’d been pouring stats into that blade, a special linked sword that was considered a part of him. The longer he waited, the greater the effect of drawing it would be.

It was more than just a cultivation aid though, it was also a single use attack. The one draw he got would allow him to unleash a truly legendary blow, a single strike with the momentum of an entire life behind it. If he wasted it, he wouldn’t be able to benefit from that attack the same way as if he’d saved it for a more impactful battle.

“I won’t let you die here.” He said to me with a soft smile. “Not just because the lady commanded it, but because of your mother, and your grandfather. They love you, even if it might not seem like it, and they’ve given me so much in my life. I’d be nothing without the Radiant Pope, nothing without the Star Queen and her kindness. I can and will do this for you, and for them. But I’ll need help.”

I was uneasy. “I don’t want you to give up so much for me, but even if you do, how could I help. He’s already heavily restrained. I can’t do much more than that.”

He shook his head. “My attack will partially sever the chains. There’s a chance he’ll break through them at the last second, and if he dodges my blow, I’ll be too busy undergoing ascension to survive his retaliation. I need you to restrain him. Even with the chains he can still move, but with them on he’s greatly diminished in all ways except for his Impact. I only need him held in place for a second. Can you do it?”

I glanced down at the sand, thinking, and then nodded. “I have an idea, but I’ll need help.” I turned to the side, bellowing towards where Callie was pincushioning lions. She was being aided by the turtle formation, who were dropping guard and stabbing every time the damned cats focused on her. “Callie!” I bellowed. “I need you to teleport Benny over here? Can you get in there?”

I FELT her eye roll as much as saw it, and she dropped into her shadow. Seconds later, there was a yelp as my best friend came flying out of a shadow, landing head first in a pile of dust, legs kicking the air as he scrambled out, glaring around like Callie was going to follow him.

“A little WARNING would have been nice!” He bellowed back towards the formation, but then just waved it off and turned back to me. “What?” I filled him in on the situation, told him we only had three more minutes, and then told him my plan. “Well.” He said slowly. “It’s nice to know your plans are still terrible. That’s going to suck, but I can do it.”

I winced. “Trust me. I know.” My head was pounding and my mouth was dry. I’d been pushing my soul hard. No cracks yet, and Benny’s involvement would help, but I didn’t know if I could pull this off. No time for doubt though. I nodded to Gabe and Callen, then Benny and I circled around behind the Magister, whose attacks had stopped as he tried to disperse the mist from inside WITHOUT massively overpowering me.

When I stopped at his back, I took a long, deep breath. Then I called out to the dust. Pit of Despair had turned nearly everything inside the walls and most of the walls themselves into dust. I called it all to me. Benny stood at my back, putting his hands on my shoulders as he got ready.

All the dust poured in, and just as we had before, we CONDENSED it. Packing it in as tight as possible, all around us, in the form of a colossal stone effigy of me. So colossal in fact, that its feet were planted on the ground of the tunnel below. Benny was tripling the density of the statue as I formed it, and when we finished, we towered over the Magister.

I dismissed the fog, and he whirled, ready to attack. I didn’t give him the chance. The massive hands of the stone version of me grabbed an arm each, and, through my solid connection to the earth, I trigger my Mornax form.

Hyper dense powerful stone was further reinforced by even more density and by my Mountain Stance. The Magister’s eyes went wide. “What is this?” He howled. “Release me, trash! I’ll kill you when I get out…of…this.” His eyes went wide as he finally noticed the immense surge of power behind him.

He turned slowly, looking over his shoulder as a giant sword swung down at his neck like an executioners axe. The chains ruptured, and he started to pull. I felt the hands crack and start to give as his full D-ranked Might came to bare, but he hadn’t gotten it back fast enough. The sword met his neck and scythed through the flesh, his head rolling from his shoulders…and then Callen all but exploded with power.