The codification of the terms of the Pact of the Fist (Benny named it, and he'd been so helpful with all of this no one argued) took about a full day. We were short on time, but no one was willing to move forward with the missions until we'd hammered everything out. With the entire group of nearly a thousand outsiders gathered, there were too many interests represented for any of us to feel at ease leaving things to chance. Because of all the information wishes, Annalise helped immensely, allowing us to swing some of the terms in our favor we might otherwise not have managed.

The numerous bindings on betrayal (ostensibly for everyone) that were thrown in to make sure Satala didn't screw us took the longest. Templeton and his goons had to make them vague enough to be technically applicable to all of us but also not restrictive enough to box in anyone but her. Still, there were several provisions for protections from family and factions for all involved parties that would be useful to us as well as them.

Finally, at about noon the next day we finished writing it all out, and everyone got in line to sign the agreement. One by one, we put our names down, and I felt the temporary draw of Impact in the same way I did when Enchanting. It wasn't just me either, everyone gave some up from the look of it.

The paper that the geas was written on collected power as we went until finally the last signature was put down and the thing burst into purple flame. The electric current I associated a with shot out from the blaze and slammed into us all, tightly binding us to the agreement we'd just signed, and I for one felt both much better and a bit worried at the same time to have it over with.

The geas fell heavy on us all too. Nearly a thousand F-rankers, most of whom had gotten ahold of the Dew, contributed to the binding, and the damned thing was pretty sturdy for all the help. Once it was done, we all gathered around Yvette and Satala, both whom were, while signatories, NOT involved in the crafting of the accord and had plenty of time to work on the calculations for the ritual shutdown.

In fact, Satala was familiar enough with her mother's abilities and personality that she was able to streamline the alteration process, cutting down on the time the temples needed to be active during the changes, and making it much easier for us to manage them in the allotted time.

It was incredibly useful, considering that based on that and her own understanding of the conduits, they were able to set up a plan for us to evenly distribute our forces and complete the alterations within one more round of missions. Satala in particular seemed pleased about this, filling us in on her reasoning without any hesitation.

"Basically, the sooner we trigger the ritual, the less prepared my mother's spirit will be." Said the silver haired girl. "Theoretically, doing it the day before is fine, but if we can manifest her soul body weeks in advance, she'll be much less coherent and much less dangerous to all of you."

Yvette nodded. "That isn't in doubt." She gestured to the ground, where she'd sketched a complicated diagram. "I've been able to refine my process considerably, and along with the information Satala has shared about the conduits and their names and traits, I've been able to work up guides similar to the one we used at her temple for each of them."

"Which means we can dispatch teams to each of the conduit temples directly." I nodded. "All at once. With so many of us here, we can even assemble the teams best suited for each fight. But will that trigger her descent immediately? Because somehow I feel like that would be a mistake." Suvaya was a goddess, fallen or not, weakened or not, deprived of her body or not, she was a threat that not a single one of us would survive alone. We needed to fight her as a group.

"Of course." Said the construct. "We've arranged things to account for that. It'll take a day for the ritual to cycle once it's been activated. The last conduit will complete the script and trigger the reroute, but we've built in buffers to slow down the process. Once you've completed your assignment you'll regroup with the rest of us outside the main temple to prepare for the final battle."

I sighed with relief, then held out a hand for the little booklet she'd prepared for my team specifically. Honestly moving the timetable up like this was better. I hadn't been excited about spending a month sitting around picking off scary targets while checking in constantly back here. This place freaked me out, and if it wasn't the only landmark that would work from a distance I'd have been happy to avoid it.

Which reminded me. "How did we get everyone back here for the meeting?" I asked Benny. "I get Templeton pushed for it, but did he have some method of contacting them we didn't?"

"Alistair." Said my friend in distaste. "He doesn't seem to have the same problems with Templeton as everyone else. I'd have assumed he would be more...I don't know, loyal to the team? Isn't he like your second cousin or something? He's a relative at least."

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"Nothing that close." I said, shaking my head. "He's from another branch, which means literally the closest relative we probably share is a great-grandparent. My grandfather is branch elder for ours, and I know for a fact that there's competition. Family politics means that siding with us earlier is probably about the most support we can expect from the guy."

Benny whistled. "I'm SO glad I'm not related to you. No offense. Your family is seriously dysfunctional. And I thought Maria's bad taste in boyfriends was family drama."

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of all the backstabbing either." I paused. "Though I guess with the whole competition thing it's more frontstabbing. At least they're direct about it."

Flipping open the booklet, I flipped through it. "Oh hey, nice. We've got Gabriel, Abel, and Bethy again, plus a bunch of backup. Willow is coming along, she can definitely help." The girl scared me more than Abel did, so having her on our team was pretty cool. "Twenty man team. That makes me feel a lot better about this next..." I trailed off, closing my eyes with a sigh.

"What?" Said Benny, raising his eyebrow. "Twenty people seems...shit." He stared at the page on the booklet. S-rank. We were going after Pallax, a former high priest of Suvaya, or in the parlance of current religious organizations, a Pope. Sure, he was stripped of most of his power, but based on the serious danger we'd faced fighting the last guy...

"Hey." I said consolingly. "At least we aren't going in blind. We don't just have a general idea of his abilities, Satala put together a whole package on him. Skills, techniques, habits, if we have to fight a complete monster at least we get to do it prepared. And with twenty people we can do a LOT of preparing. Imagine the invocations we can manage, especially with someone like Yvette acting as a focus. She's got so much Impact."

He nodded slowly. "I could actually see that working. I mean, we have to talk to the others and get a list of their tricks, but a huge invocation would be a great way to level the playing field."

I wasn't sure it would be QUITE that easy, but it was definitely a direction to work toward. "Hey, Abel! Bethy! Gabe!" I called three strongest members of my team verbally and reached out for Callie through our bond. She noticed immediately and headed over, plucking the booklet from Benny's hands without bothering to ask for it.

My snicker at that might not have been the most diplomatic response, but his expression was funny. Celine also stepped up, followed by Jessie, and both of them were with us, so that worked out for the best. Callie whistled as she read the booklet. "We have a good lineup, but they sent us after a tough son of a bitch."

"Guess that's what we get for being the best." Abel said with a shrug. "What do we have." He grabbed the booklet and flipped through it. "Gold manipulation? Transmutation too. That doesn't seem so..." He trailed off as he started reading some of the technique descriptions. "Oh. Nevermind. Well, that just seems excessive."

He passed it to Mel, who scanned it with a visible wince, and then started passing it around. We all had pretty high Focus, so it wasn't like we needed to read it more than once. "We were talking about possible invocations to deal with the conduit. With so many people, plus Yvette coming along, we can really cut loose. She has so much Impact she should be able to leverage that much power easily."

Gabriel nodded. "Maybe. The conduit himself will have plenty of Impact, and don't forget there are other options for dealing with attacks than just tanking them. We have to land the hit in order for it to be effective. Still, it's a good strategy for dealing with a powerful enemy."

"I don't think we should attack." Said Callie thoughtfully. "We have functional attack methods already. His Impact is the same as the others, it's his capabilities that are a problem. We should find out if anyone on the team has binding abilities. A powerful binding would probably serve us well in this instance. If we can pin him down Gabriel, Shane, and Bethy can lay into him with their respective weapons."

"Nasha can do that." Said a voice off to one side. I wasn't surprised to see Markoth approach. He was listed among our allies, though I didn't know how strong he was. Since the devils seemed to be considered fairly impressive on a large scale, I was hoping he'd have some useful abilities to contribute. Racial traits could be pretty scary as I'd seen with Bethy.

The demon girl waved cheerfully, offering us a bright smile. "My main Skill is Unholy Binding. Not only should it be pretty helpful for pinning him down, it counters divine energy to an extent. Is that going to be a problem for you, Crusader?"

Gabriel shook his head. "Unlikely, I just need to avoid being bound myself. As for the other aspects of it, while I know some members of my faith dislike your people, the devils aren't considered proscribed by our Lord. I'm happy to have you working alongside us." He offered his hand, and Markoth and Nasha shook it in turn.

"For sure." Chirped Bethy. "Devils can be super strong. You guys work for Prince Drama right? Daddy says he has a fine understanding of the importance of presentation."

Both of the devils flinched when she said that, and I had to hold back a laugh. Only Bethy would reference an S-ranker by the embarrassing nickname her father used for him. I doubted Adramalech was going to start a war with the Vampire over something so mundane, so I guessed she would get away with it.

"Well then, seems like it's time for us to get started planning." I flipped back through the booklet. "Alright, I've got a list of everyone we need, you guys want to have a meeting before we go? Or we can talk while we walk. I really want to get off this fucking mountain forever as soon as possible."

That got a laugh and a round of agreements from my friends, so we rounded up our group so we could head out. It would be a bit of a trip this time, Pallax's sub temple wasn't close, but this would be the last one. Once we finished this, we could group up and prepare for the descent of Suvaya. After that...well, I couldn't wait to get off this fucking planet.