I didn't flinch. Brightlaw was scary. I could feel a pressure off him that reminded me of the bloodlust that came off Abel when he was angry, but it was...cleaner. Like I was standing in front of a force of nature. Smelling the storm on the air before it hit. That didn't mean I was going to let him screw me over. "Why exactly would we do that? That's a pretty confrontational attitude. Can't we all just get along?"

My voice was slightly mocking, but not enough to start a fight. I knew we couldn't win a fight with this guy, and I didn't want one anyway.

The horseman to the left of him, a tall, athletic, pale guy with floppy dark hair, snorted. "You think anyone wants to get along with the WCP? You're parasites. Leeches sucking the blood from the entire universe. You don't care who you do business with as long as you get paid."

"Wow." I drawled sarcastically. "You sure know me pretty well. You're telling me shit about myself even I wasn't aware of. It's amazing. Got any more insight for me? Maybe you can tell me what I'll have for lunch? Or what kind of socks I should pick up next time I go shopping. Knowing a guy with all the answers seems convenient."

"Riley." Said Brightlaw flatly. The dark haired guy fell silent, but kept up his glare. "As distasteful as his attitude is, I can't say I disagree with my friend. The Wish Curse Palace might not be a plague on the order of the Black Sorrow Cult, but you're still intergalactic spies and assassins. I can't see much issue with relieving you of your ill gotten gains."

Nat snorted. "What a surprise, the Red Revenant Church has a high opinion of itself that justifies robbing us blind. Must be nice to always have the moral high ground."

Before he could respond, I held up a hand. "Stop." I said firmly. "This is...well, to say a misunderstanding might be inaccurate, but it's certainly not what you think. I'd been hoping to run into you actually. My mother is a member of your faction, and I was hoping you might be able to give me more information about her."

Brightlaw raised a single dark eyebrow. "Truly? I'm afraid you've got the wrong idea. I'm not involved in personnel. I'm unlikely to have any knowledge of your average church member."

It was Benny's turn to snort. "Well good thing his mom is a Saintess. I guess you guys call her the Star Queen?"

The ice blue eyes that had been pinned on me snapped to Benny. "That is a very stupid and dangerous claim to make. Her excellency is the daughter of his holiness, the Radiant Pope. Her name, even her title, is not something shady individuals like yourselves have the right to invoke."

"Don't know what to tell you." I said bluntly, doing my best to take his attention off my best friend. "My mom's name is Sasha and she's an A-ranker. We were told the Star Queen was the only Saintess the church had who fit the bill. Regardless of what you might think about it, barring some gross miscommunication, she IS my mother, and I'd very much like to know where she is."

"If." He said flatly. "And that's a big if, I had any idea where I might find someone of the Star Queen's level. I would never tell a person I've never met from a faction that brings the universe nothing but pain and destruction. You're lucky this isn't a more confrontational situation, or I'd end you just for making that claim."

I shrugged. "I'm not taking it back. It's true. What are you gonna do about it? Fight me?" I really hoped he wasn't going to fight me. There was absolutely no chance I could win, hell, Abel probably couldn't win.

He shook his head. "If I fight you, I'll have to win. You might die, and while I find your organization distasteful, I'm not so foolish as to end the life of a Wish Curse Palace representative. No. You have a choice. We can attack as a group, wage war upon your friends here, or I can select one of my number for you to battle. Think of it as a punishment. If you win, I'll allow you to move along unimpeded. If you lose...I'll take what you retrieved personally if necessary."

I felt that same pressure again, but stronger. I didn't mind though. He wasn't engaging me directly, and I had a vague idea why. I'd done a bit of looking into Adamant cultivators during our time at the Inn back at the bazaar. While being undefeated was an impressive feat, there were obviously limits. No D-ranker was going to beat a B-ranker, regardless of their path or momentum.

People like Brightlaw often traveled with powerful protectors, who could intercept threats that far outstripped their level before they had a chance to lose. Unfortunately for him, the dungeon capped out at F-rank. His protector almost definitely couldn't come in, same with my own guardian. Which meant he had to be selective about who he fought.

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"Fine." I said calmly. "Pick your champion, and I'll fight them myself. But I don't go in for gambles where only one side wins. If I beat your champion I want whatever answers you can give about my mother. I know you don't have a location for her, but I want any information you deem...acceptable to part with."

He hesitated, which was good, because it meant he was considering consequences. People don't hesitate when making false promises, there's no stakes so nothing is holding them back. Finally, he nodded. "Only information I feel doesn't breach the security of the Church. But fine. I can give you a few odd facts. IF you manage to win."

Gesturing to one side, he called. "Archimedes. I'll leave this one to you, my friend." An olive skinned man rode forward out of the formation, hopping down. His hair was shaved on both sides of his head, and long on the top, pulled into a ponytail. His dark eyes bored into me as he walked forward, withdrawing a pair of hand axes covered with runes. They were clearly enchanted, and were both F-rank weapons.

I slipped my staff from where I had it secured under my coat and spun it casually a few times. "So, what are the rules here?" I said calmly. "I'm assuming this isn't a death match. We going off the first one down?"

Archimedes gave me a grim smile. "Down is fine. This shouldn't take long." He twirled the axes, eyes burning with malice. He felt...strong. Higher end of F-rank. His stats were WAY higher than mine, except for the lack of the extra point of Impact I had. I triggered my usual poison fire, sort of wishing I'd just kept the weapon burning after the fight earlier. He raised a brow as he saw the weapon start to glow, but shrugged it off. "So...you ready?" I nodded. "Then watch ou-"

I vanished. Double Trouble. Afterburner. Mercy Kill. Moonlit Night, triple stacked density shifted attack, Flurry of Blows, Marked for Death. And I topped it all off with the release of all the death energy stored in my staff as I brought it crashing down on his collarbone from behind.

There was no big fight, no struggle. I couldn't beat him in a drawn out battle. So I cheated. Afterburner applied to every single one of those subsequent boosters, and the stacking combination was an overwhelming burst of power he had no chance of standing up to.

Double Trouble left behind a duplicate, Moonlit Night shrouded me the next second. He was bracing for an attack from the front and the Stealth kept him from perceiving it before I landed my hit, not to mention my E-ranked weapon and my own enhanced Impact.

The blow slammed into his shoulder and collarbone and I felt it crack, Marked for Death bypassing his armor. To my shock, it didn't crush him entirely, but it drove him to a knee with a roar of pain, and he dropped one of the axes. I let Moonlit Night vanish, keeping the extra Afterburner charges in reserve as I stared down Brightlaw, who I was pretty sure would have managed to either tank or deflect that.

"We good?" I asked dryly. I tried not to let on how tired that made me, or the slight headache developing from all those stacking attacks. The fact was, that was NOT repeatable. I'd saved a bunch of death energy since I'd gotten my staff, and that had been the basis of most of the damage.

I'd taken advantage of the extra point of Impact and my powerful weapon to sucker punch him, but even that wouldn't have worked outside this exact scenario. I MIGHT have been able to kill him in a one on one with that shot if I aimed for his head, but he had teammates and I wasn't trying to kill anybody, so my only chance for winning this little contest had been a one and done blow with everything I had.

Brightlaw looked impressed. "That was...an impressive blow. I felt a hint of a path in that attack. Though not one I recognized." Path of the Doom Sovereign. I wondered if it was just using the Skill that did it, or if it was because I'd been utilizing my Fatewalker build to its full potential. How did one walk a path? Something told me the answer was different for everyone.

"You aren't pissed about the sneak attack?" I'd honestly been unsure if he would even accept the sucker punch. It had been a bit shady for the way I'd seen the Church doing things. Well, I hadn't seen much from real Church cultivators. Mostly fakes and distant relations. Still, it didn't hurt to make sure there were no hard feelings over how things went down.

He just snorted. "Don't be absurd. The match had started. Once it begins attacking is simply the best course of action." He paused. "Well, for this opponent. I'd have been more difficult to ambush in such a way." Looking at his absurdly long lance and the shining charger he sat on, I could believe that. Marked for Death made a shot unblockable against anyone close to my level, but it still had to actually land on the target. It could be parried or deflected.

I offered a hand to Archimedes. "I can heal that up for you man. It's going to take a long while to heal on its own." The death energy mixed with the poison was a nasty combo. Even after the poison skill ended, it would take time to mend. Especially given my E-ranked weapon. He grunted, nodding tightly, and I put a hand on his other shoulder, using one of my new improved heal bursts.

It didn't close visibly quickly, of course, but that should speed up the repair. Brightlaw nodded approvingly. "Alright, well, I did give my word. A bit of information sharing won't hurt." Looking back at his riders, he called out. "Disembark. Set up a table for us to sit at while we talk to our new...friends." He sounded a bit unsure of that last word, but I figured this could have gone a lot worse.

They dismounted, setting up a table, and we all sat down. I admit, my heart was pounding in excitement. My mom. I was going to learn more about the woman I could so faintly remember. I was going to learn more about myself. Stowing my staff I glanced across the table at Brightlaw. "Alright." I said solemnly. "So, you have some information for me? About the Star Queen? I want to know anything you can think to share. Tell me all about her."