I woke up with my head killing me. Which was pretty nostalgic, because I'd managed to avoid knocking myself out from overexertion for quite some time. "Did anyone get the number of that planet sized truck that hit me?" I groaned without opening my eyes.

"Pretty sure that was just the feeling of being blindsided by your own stupidity." Drawled a familiar voice that I hadn't heard in what felt like forever.

I shot bolt upright in bed, eyes flying open as I twisted to find my uncle draped across a couch, quaffing a relatively large bottle of liquor. "Zeke!" I said with delight. "You're here! That must mean..."

"The distortion is gone? Definitely. It collapsed when the moon cracked. You missed quite a show." He scanned me over, obviously checking for damage. "Though you put a pretty decent one on yourself. That was pretty shocking. I was almost impressed."

My grin was smug. "Because I killed a god? I bet you've never done that. Well...Callie killed a god actually. Is she ok? She must be worried sick, I tried to keep the damage isolated from her."

"I'm impressed." He said with a smirk. "That you managed to accidentally stumble upon the stupidest and most dangerous possible way to get yourself out of that situation. Did it not occur to you that there might be a REASON people don't Path Stack?"

"I...thought we invented it?" I said with a wince. "Plus it was so damned useful. We never could have beat her without it."

He pinched his nose. "You may have homebrewed your Skill and stumbled on a Path early, but you're a ways off from reinventing the wheel, kid. Path Stacking is a known phenomena, it's just considered reckless and dangerous and no one does it. Dying is the BEST of the possible bad outcomes. I've heard of path stackers fracturing their souls in such a way that they all mix. Becoming a distorted mashup soul with qualities from all three and no sense of self."

"Oh." I said faintly. "I...was not aware that was a possibility." Note to self, no more Path Stacking.

That got me an eye roll. "The things you don't know could fill a planet of libraries. But it worked out. Smart using a wish as a buffer. They can pull off some crazy shit. Speaking of crazy shit, how's your soul doing? Bet you got quite a bump off a stunt like that."

Closing my eyes, I focused inward, blinking in surprise. "Thirty three percent of the way through Orange. That's a ten percent bump." The shield had given me a decent boost, but not THAT decent, and the further you refined a soul the harder it was to effect it, at least based on my observations.

"Very nice." He said appreciatively. "Bet you got plenty of stats incoming too. This mess isn't quite sorted, so the points are delayed, but you made a big difference in that fight. Of course, you didn't FINISH it, so you won't be getting most of the credit. Your girl is in for a hell of a boost."

I grinned at that. "I'm glad. She saved our asses out there. I thought Suvaya was going to kill us for a second." It also might help Callie pull further ahead and let her feel like more of an asset to the team. I was more worried about her downtrodden mood lately than getting credit for godslaying. I could always get the points through wishes later. Besides, she deserved to be treated like a hero, she really had come through in a big way. Even on the verge of death Suvaya was a massive threat. No one else had the guts to take the final shot. I was proud of her.

Zeke, who knew me better than anyone, just rolled his eyes. "Anyway. With all this over several VERY powerful people are on the way. Luckily the contract you all signed will act as a template for this interaction. Smart move getting them all locked into an agreement in those circumstances. Given their positions they all had emergency powers that make that kind of thing feasible."

That actually reminded me. "What about Satala?" I was worried they might decide to just ignore the contract and kill her just in case.

"You're concerned they might just ignore the terms and do whatever they want?" He asked archly. At my nod, his expression became a grin. "As well you should be. If one of the gods showed up any agreement you made would have fallen apart. In the end, power is the only real currency in our universe. Luckily for your tinsel topped project, the baby vampire got attached. Lark is on his way apparently, and no one is going to tangle with his baby girl over a crippled former A-ranker."

"The Vampire is coming HERE?" I said in shock. "Are we going to meet him?"

"What are you, stupid?" Asked my uncle in horror. "No we aren't going to MEET him. We're fucking leaving. He's not the only S-ranker coming, and we aren't going to be here when they all arrive. This planet is their problem now. Though it would be a good idea to pick up as much Dew as we can before we leave. With Suvaya dead the mechanism to condense it is gone, but Impact doesn't just vanish. All the Dew already on the planet is still here and after a quick once over has been confirmed to be safe."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Nat should be able to pick some up for us." I said in relief. "Part of the terms of the contract when we wished for the document we all signed."

"I saw." He said with a smirk. "You did a decent job on that thing. Eli would be proud. However much Dew you can get, I would do so. It's a nonrenewable resource. Still, don't spend too much time on haggling or searching. Like I said, I want to be gone when all those terrifying geezers hit the atmosphere. Shouldn't be more than a day or two, so do with that what you will. Once this is done we'll head for the Ruined Soul Temple."

I wasn't sure how long it would be until the trials, I didn't remember getting an exact date, but Zeke was the expert so I'd leave the travel arrangements to him if I could get away with it. As I had that thought, the door opened and Callie came blurring in, tackling me onto the bed. "Ow. Ow. Ribs!" I croaked as she squeezed me.

"Oh my gods." She said in dismay. "Did your ribs get injured in the battle?"

"No." I said with a chuckle. "Just when you squeezed me like an old tube of toothpaste. You're a godslayer now, honey, you'll need to be careful with all that muscle."

She rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked into a smile. "Oh please, I haven't even gotten my points yet. Seems like it'll be delayed a bit until the meeting. We're doing the ceremony thing again. Still not sure how that works, but Bethy knows how to delay the stats until they can hit all at once."

"Still." I said happily. "You're going to be famous for sure. No way it isn't going to get out. The first godslayer in...what? Centuries?"

Zeke nodded. "At least. Probably longer. Closest we got recently was the Vampire's fight with Unity. I hear that was a hell of a dust up. Still, even then it didn't actually devolve too close to a deathmatch. There's a big difference between a mortal and a god." He grinned at Callie. "You're going places, kid. I'd start preparing for the stat drop, because it's going to be ROUGH."

Her face went slack. "Oh gods, I forgot about the pain from bulk stat gains. It's percentage based right? What do you think I'll be getting? A few hundred? Like a fifty percent bump tops probably right?"

We both gave her a pitying look, and she slumped against me. I smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I'll try to offset some of the pain with the bond. I played a big part but I didn't finish her off. Plus my stats are crazy evenly distributed so chances are good I won't have too much in one spot."

"Alright, enough of your cuddling." Said my uncle with a laugh. "You can gaze lovingly into each other's eyes later. None of the rest of us have time for that. Besides which, you have visitors, Shane."

Raising an eyebrow, I looked up to see Cass barrel into the room and throw herself bodily at Callie and I. We caught the little girl easily enough, and she dissolved into giggles as we did. Cark stepped in with a laugh. "Cass, you're supposed to be gentle with sick people, not smash into them at terminal velocity."

"She's fine." I said with a wave. "It's good to see you guys. Hope your time up there wasn't too boring? Was Zeke able to teach you anything?"

Cass completely ignored where I was looking, chirping. "Tony got beat up a whole bunch! It was really funny. I did all my froms just like Master taught me before he left. Why are you so sick, Shane? Didn't you eat something bad? You don't look like you got hurt so I think that must be it."

Zeke groaned. "It's FORMS Cassidy, and I told you not to call that brat Master. He isn't even close."

"Hey!" Said Abel from the door, where he was leaning against the frame looking nearly dead. "I'm definitively close. I'm an Expert. Don't be a snob you washed up theater kid."

Zeke rolled his eyes. "I'm being mocked by babies now. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Shouldn't you be in bed like he is?"

Mel, who was standing behind her boyfriend anxiously, nodded. "Yes, he SHOULD. Unfortunately along with common sense and taste in music, he completely lacks any self preservation instincts. Exhibit A." She gestured between the two of them and then smiled at Callie and I as Cass jumped down and ran over to tackle hug Abel, who apparently she hadn't gotten to see yet. "Good to see you two up and awake. Plenty of people have been hoping to talk to you."

"Me?" I said with a laugh. "I think you mean HER? I was just riding shotgun with Abel and Gabe. I didn't put Suvaya down for good."

"You LITERALLY staked her out for me to kill." Callie said in annoyance. "I refused to talk to anyone until you woke up. Still pretty sure it'll trigger the stat gains. Zeke said not to do it before you woke up. The soul strain this time was bad. He was worried dumping stats on it might kill you."

I nodded in understanding. "Good call. I'm firmly against my own death. I'm surprised you aren't berating me for the risk to be honest."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not insane. We all would have died if it wasn't for you three. I'm against you taking stupid risks when you don't think them through. This wasn't a stupid risk, it was a necessary one, so I'm not going to complain." She buried her head in my chest. "I'm just...so glad you're ok."

I squeezed her tight. "Only thanks to you, Cal. She'd have killed us for sure. In any case, I'm awake now, so lets get the meeting shit out of the way. I want to get the stats and get to collecting as much Dew as possible before we have to leave. We have to be gone before all the S-rankers show up." I was just glad they were taking their time getting here. Then again, this whole mess was still a bit below their level. Callie grinned and hopped off the bed, pulling me to my feet and throwing my arm over her shoulder. I wondered how many of the others were waiting. I hoped it wasn't all of them.