Limbo was a fundamentally different place when I was up against so many fighters. In my last battle (if you could even call it that) against the Minotaur, I’d simply destroyed every possible timeline, whittling away his options until he had no choice but to walk headfirst to his destruction.

This time, things were a bit more complicated. I could still see the timelines, but I was running into a new issue. While I could destroy a series of events to ensure one came to pass, I couldn’t find one where everything went perfectly. With this many attackers, the longer I went on, the more compromises I needed to make to keep up.

But that was fine. I had my Abomination Engine active, and as I exploded forward into my Waltz, the power inside me roared to life, stoked higher and higher by each blast as the energy cascaded around inside my armor.

Deciding to worry about potential sacrifices later, I focused on doing the most damage possible in the shortest time. I found that future, blasting toward a specific spot in the circle. I appeared in front of an innocuous random minion, slamming my staff into his foot, releasing an explosion that lifted him off his feet. My staff came up, slamming into his side and imbuing him with my corrosion as I whirled and tossed him into the crowd forming as they converged.

Stepping two feet left, I slammed my staff back, grinning as it met the kneecap of one of the faster minions, the blast of black flame taking out the leg as I hopped up and blasted off the shoulder of another as they fell, launching myself at a group of them.

Deciding to cheat JUST a little I used my bond with Callie to retain Mornax in the air, using her planted feet to offset the requirement for my ultimate defense, and then the dance began.

My staff whirled and smashed, batting aside bodies and blasting attackers away. For the first few minutes I avoided all the responses, my body filling with power as Abomination Engine roared to life inside me.

Four minutes in, the numbers caught up to me. I felt a spike of red energy slam into the joints between my plate mail, skewering my shoulder.

Even Mornax couldn’t stop it, some kind of layered energy attack with a piercing attribute. It had been intentional. Tanking that hit would save me from being impaled through the spine in five minutes. The next hit I had to take cracked a bone, then a sprain, slowly I was worn down, but it didn’t matter. Their numbers fell one by one as I danced, destroying them, getting stronger and stronger.

Until my Limbo hit something new. I lashed out to destroy a possible timeline, pushing the battle toward my perfect victory…and my staff slammed to a halt. I stumbled backward, eyes wide as I realize I’d been knocked OUT of my pseudo Domain.

A man stood in front of me, looking solemn, with plain brown hair and brown eyes, holding a ragged looking metal blade. The edges were chipped and torn, and his clothes were dirty and matted with blood. Millie was standing off to the side, glaring at me, and she turned and spat at him. “Took you long enough, Bount.”

I realized quickly what he was, and why I’d lost my domain access. C-ranker. Not a strong one, or he wouldn’t have been here working for her, but still, even a beginner C-ranker had too much Impact for my domain to effect.

My body was already moving before I made the decision to attack, Abomination Engine still pumping me up to absurd levels of power. My staff crashed against his blade, sparks flying up as I forced him back a step, my staff blurring as it became an ocean of crashing wood and metal, raining down on him like a dark hurricane.

Explosions of corrosion erupted at the point of Impact, and his blade batted them aside, slowly being tainted by the energy, but too slowly. His Might stat was lower than expected, or mine was so absurdly inflated it bridged the gap, but I suspected the former.

Bount, as she’d called him, was a bare minimum C-ranker, and I was pumped up with energy to the limits of my nearly unbreachable reinforcement form, but even so, without my armor I’d have died right there. His blade lashed out, seeking gaps in my assault, and scraped off C-ranked plate as he took the openings he could.

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He stared me down, and I clenched my staff. My wounds were gone, I’d used the weapon to pass them to my enemies as I’d walked among them, cutting them down like firewood, but Abomination Engine was reaching its cap. I didn’t have a way to take out a C-ranker yet.

So I did what any reasonable person would do in that situation. I bluffed. Lowering my staff, I put away the weapon, turning to Millie. “This is pointless. Are you really going to waste a C-ranker taking out some random person you’ve never heard of? What is it going to do to your business if you lose him?”

I figured that her grip on the section of Rackham’s underworld that she currently held had a lot to do with this guy, and that he was an asset she couldn’t afford to lose. She stopped, looking at me suspiciously.

“What do you mean?” Her voice was cautious, which made sense. From her point of view, I was able to punch up a rank. She, much like her people at the door, couldn’t see where I was in D-rank. The ability to hang with him meant I was probably peak of D, and fighting up against him was clearly possible.

I sighed, shaking my head. “You can see from my armor I’m not lacking in funds. I HAVE weapons to dispose of your guard. But wasting them on someone at the very bottom of the C-rank would pain me. You’d lose, I’d lose, there’s no point.”

I dropped Abomination Engine, letting the power drain from my body. It was a risk, but honestly not a huge one. I was GOING to lose this fight if it kept going. I didn’t have the power to kill him yet. By dropping my technique like I was so confident it didn’t matter, I gave myself a better chance of selling this.

“So what, you want me to give you my nephew’s location to save a hassle?” She said hostilely. “That kind of cowardice would ruin me..” The fact that we were still talking told me they weren’t hard limits, but that was fine. By giving me a problem to solve before we did business, she was showing me the path forward.

“What if you didn’t give it to me?” I asked bluntly. “What if I bought it? You’re a businesswoman. I have no intention of harming your nephew, but I know how things work.”

She paused, clearly thinking. Looking at Bount, she glanced at his sword, then at the armor where it had barely left scratches. I said a silent thank you to my grandmother, because this shit was WAY too high level for me, and it made me seem way more powerful and influential than I actually was.

“Make your offer.” She said after a moment, nodding to her C-ranker. He lowered his blade and I let myself relax marginally. I’d played this as well as I could have, given the information I had on this place. No D-rankers I’d seen were threats, and this guy had shown up later. Sadly, my divination apparently didn’t even WORK on him, because I hadn’t seen him among the futures I’d destroyed. Something to take note of for later.

It was a stark reminder that there were threats here that I had no way to counter. I was walking the line that other Ascendants had to walk, daring vs. stupidity. No Zeke here to bail me out, and if anyone on the Acheron stepped in I’d forfeit my shot at pulling this off.

That said, if I shied away from conflict and backed off at any inconvenience I’d never advance either. Reaching into my ring, I withdrew a small bag of D-rank chits. Tossing it over, I waited for her to check them. Fifteen. Not too much, not too little. Enough that she could save face, since it was nominally paying for the location of one relatively unknown D-ranker.

“Fine.” She said eventually, storing the bag. “Since you avoided killing most of my people.” She glanced around at the broken bodies, mostly still breathing. The corrosion had countered their Vitality, but it was hard to kill a D-ranker, especially with so little time to focus. I was disabling them, but most of them were fine.

Not all, I saw a few bodies here and there, people who took a blow to the head or spine that hadn’t managed to survive. Small numbers compared to the total though. It was staggering, this casino had as many D-rankers as my entire home planet. I was just lucky they were all pretty unimpressive. I guess if they weren’t they would be working for someone stronger than Millie.

Still, I was proud of what I’d just done. I could push back a relatively weak C-ranker, and my attacks had been fast and hard enough to convince him I’d be able to actually fight him, even if I knew that was VERY untrue. It made me believe I would have a chance against ACTUAL peak D-rankers soon. At least under the ideal circumstances that they let me ramp up fighting dozens of disposable goons first.

Millie passed me a small piece of paper with direction to a town and an address. The town was apparently so small it didn’t have a name. She seemed less upset than I’d expected about having to cave though. Maybe it really had been all about her reputation.

Belladonna was staring at me with a weird glitter in her eyes, like she just found her new personal hero, and as I left, she trailed behind me peppering me with questions. “That was AMAZING! What was that? Can you do it any time? What was that stuff that was exploding? Why did it feel like everything changed around us for a while? Can you teach me?”

“That was a pseudo Domain, yes, corrosive energy, domain stuff, and no.” I replied in order. “And why are you following me. You accomplished your promise. I appreciate your assistance and your friends are safe.”

“But I don’t want to LEAVE!” She gushed. “That was amazing, you’re the toughest person I’ve ever seen!”

I shrugged. “Statistically that says more about you than it does me. Plenty of people on this planet are stronger than I am. Not even just C or B-rankers, but other D-rankers higher up into mastery.

She shook her head stubbornly. “No WAY. You’re awesome. I want to learn from you. Teach me!”

I blinked at her. “Teach you what exactly? How to use a staff? Techniques? Do you even have a Path yet? Plus your ability is obviously completely different than mine. What am I supposed to be teaching you.”

She stopped, putting her fists together and bowing. “Anything you wish, master. Your humble disciple is eager to learn.”

“That’s…what? Don’t do that.” I was appalled. I didn’t need a fucking APPRENTICE here. That was crazy. Especially one who was already a D-ranker. I mean I guess I could train her in techniques but- NO. I wasn’t considering this. That was ridiculous. “I’m not your master. I’m not training you.”

I turned and strode off in the direction the paper indicated, and Bella jogged after me. “Wait, did the training already start? Is THIS training? Like if I give up I was never worthy in the first place? Master? Is answering me making things too easy? Stop moving so fast, my legs are so short compared to yours!”