My staff struck out with the force of an exploding sun, smashing against the armored form of the C-ranker I’d been sparring with and sending them back a step. I tried to follow up, but Abomination Engine had capped out with that last blow. It was about as much as I could take, even using Mornax to reinforce my body.

“I’m kicked.” I called as I dropped onto my ass, the heavy plate thumping down on the mat as I slumped back, sprawling out in an exhausted pancake of pure relief.

Keiko happily strolled over to look down at me. “That was pretty good.” She jerked a thumb at my opponent. “Vandal is one of our most durable C-rankers. Even moving him back a step is way beyond your current Might stat. Which is what, actually, I forgot to ask? You got a bump recently, I can tell.”

“Thirty one thousand two hundred.” I groaned. “Five thousand points in that one, with my wishes and the last of the income from the siege combined. That’s starting to taper off sadly. The renown from all those mortals was used up pretty fast. But hey, I got another thousand Fantasy at least.”

She held out a hand, effortlessly pulling me to my feet. “Being able to make those scrolls and store them for your wife to pass out was definitely a good idea. But your techniques have come a long way. You’ve refined that Abomination Engine into a brutal fighting style. I still think you should consider a maul like mine for usage though. Or maybe an axe.”

“Goetia is a staff art.” I said firmly. “I can’t deviate too far from the essence of my ability. I’ve just got to keep working. Do you think that attack was enough to keep up with the stronger D-rankers I might run into?”

Crossing the rank divide was tough, but possible from D to C-rank. That said, it would be way more likely when I was closer to the peak of my rank, and up against someone a little closer to the beginning of C. Which was why they’d picked Vandal as my sparring partner. He was tough enough for me to go all out without any real risk, but still had enough Impact at C-rank to be vaguely movable.

I’d been hoping that my new combat techniques would bridge the gap a bit more, but a part of me had known I wouldn’t be actually beating him. This was realistically the best I could hope for.

“Hard to say.” She mused. “There are so many kinds of abilities out there. Some of them are a hard counter for even your levels of power. That said, barring some kind of perfect defense or kinetic absorption that also has some kind of corrosion offset, I’m pretty sure you have the raw power to take on most early to mid D-rankers. As for the rest…”

“I need to grow.” I sighed. “I know. I still have ninety percent of D-rank ahead of me, it’s unrealistic to be invincible at the same rank. Hell, I wouldn’t even say I was that at E-rank, even if I was pretty close.”

She nodded sympathetically. “Your Path puts you pretty far ahead of most people at your stage of development, though. So you might not be invincible, but you’re still punching far above your weight. At the end of the day though, you’re not Might focused. Not really. You can’t rely on brute force, which is part of what we’ve been doing here.”

“Working some of my other tools into my combat techniques.” I said with a sigh. “I know it. Are we almost there? We should be reaching orbit around Rackham soon, right?”

We’d spent the last month in transit on my grandmother’s S-rank spaceship, heading for the planet Rackham at the opposite edge of Unity space from my home planet of Callus. I’d been separated from my wife of roughly six months soon after being reunited to do some crazy infiltration job for my lunatic great-grandmother so she would declare my family off limits to her fanatical cult of followers.

When a goddess gives you a job, there isn’t much to say but yes, so I was en route to this backwater planet to enter some kind of selection tournament to get in good with one of the vanished gods, a member of a pantheon of rogue deities currently at war with the six gods of our current universal order, of which my great-grandmother, Black Sorrow, was one.

Her daughter, my grandmother Celia (formerly known as Drowning Shade), had defied her mother to run off with my grandfather, Nicholas Andres, the current Radiant Pope of the Church of the Red Revenant (another god and her husband and worst enemy, not to mention Celia’s father, who Nicholas was the youngest disciple of), decades ago. The situation had been hidden from Black Sorrow until recently, but once she found out only the truce brought on by the god war had forestalled her attempts to have us all killed (except Celia, she was still attached).

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

To say my family situation was a hot mess was an understatement on the level of referring to your average exploding sun as ‘warm’.

Still, my grandmother had left me with her guard captain Sorana, her assistant Kristoff, and Keiko, who was an expert in strength based combat, not to mention a bitchin’ suit of extremely powerful C-rank armor aimed at boosting my combat abilities enough to make this task only ALMOST impossible, instead of just being a blatant suicide mission.

It helped that my grandfather’s senior bother, another of the Popes of the Church, had given us a heading with his karmic abilities so we would be sure to maximize my chances of being accepted by the Lady of Lamentation so I could get my hands on the location of her father’s world so that my great-grandmother could integrate it with her own for a big power boost.

Thinking of Callie made me reach out to my wife with our bond, the connection created by the Expert Paired Duelling Skill we shared. I felt a pulse of warmth and reassurance, but didn’t bother to reach out. We had a call (for some value of that word) set up for night time before bed, just so we could keep in touch and be there for each other over longer distances.

“We’re coming into orbit.” She said as we made our way out of the training room. “You’ll be descending tomorrow morning. Madam Celia wanted us to make sure you were well rested and fed before you go planetside.” She smirked at me. “Apparently the incredibly broad shouldered armor was a hint. She thinks you’re too skinny.”

I made an outraged sound. “I am PERFECTLY proportioned. I have a swimmer’s build. Also I’m an Ascendant, she does know she can’t ACTUALLY put more meat on my bones right?”

“She might’ve been kidding.” Admitted Keiko. “It’s so hard to tell with her. She does NOT emote much. There’s always at least a fifty percent chance that she’s messing with us and we just don’t notice.”

That made me laugh. “That I can believe. No way she’s married to grandpa Nick without a sense of humor.”

My grandfather was one of the most laid back people I’d ever met, and loved to joke around. He liked to play up how strict his wife was, but I’d always gotten the impression he just liked putting people off balance. Celia had seemed pretty chill to me.

We entered the galley still chuckling, and Kristoff, Sorana’s lieutenant, and my grandmother’s captain of the guard herself, waved us over to the table. “Shane!’ Boomed the big man who specialized in fast paced combat. “Heard you knocked Vandal on his ass in training!”

Laughing, I dropped onto the bench seat. “Not even close. I barely moved him. Nice to know people are making me look good though.”

He clicked his tongue. “No, no, no. You’re an Ascendant. Always take maximum credit. Hell, go further. Say you destroyed him so thoroughly he can’t even look you in the eye anymore. You shattered his confidence and he can never be in a real fight again.”

“Please don’t corrupt the Madame’s Grandson with your showboating nonsense.” Said Sorana mildly. “He’s a very powerful young man and will have no problem establishing his legend in the proper way. Shortcuts create weaknesses in your foundation. What if he starts getting a reputation for exaggerating and people stop believing the TRUE stories.”

“That can happen?” I asked worriedly. “Because some of the shit I’ve done probably seems unbelievable.”

She smiled reassuringly. “I wouldn’t be concerned. Ascendant culture is built on stories, and we have our ways of verifying information.” I nodded in relief. I was pretty sure that was what made secrets such a blindspot for the wish power, how hard it was to keep them. If something stayed buried, you knew for damned sure someone wanted it that way.

They waved over a server, who set down a silver tray in front of me and removed the domed cover to reveal a huge plate of prime rib with mashed potatoes and vegetables (some kind of squash and zucchini mix). “Man, you guys definitely went all out today. Decided to give me a last meal, huh?”

“Nah,” said Kristoff cheerfully. “If you die it’ll be weeks from now probably. You’ll eat tons of stuff before then.” There was a thump and he grunted, grimacing in pain at Keiko before clearing his throat. “I mean, you’re definitely not going to die and will eat many more meals, some of them on this ship for sure.”

“You will do fine, I’m sure.” Said Sorana warmly. “You’re a talented young man. I’ve never seen anyone take to technique modification like you. You’ve got an unbelievable talent for it. Your-” she grimaced. “Abomination Engine, despite its unpleasant name, is a wonderfully complex technique with endless potential.”

I actually blushed a bit at the praise. Being told you’re talented by an A-ranker is always a fun thing to hear, especially someone strong enough to be my grandmother’s guard captain. “Thanks, that means a lot. I’m excited to see what I can do on my own, really.”

“We’ve all been there.” Said Keiko with a laugh. “You’re in a good position. D-ranker with a bit of extra Impact and a Solid Path? Plus your pseudo Domain. You’ve got plenty of advantages. If I could give you any advice, it would be not to get in your own head. You don’t magically become a different person without backup. The things you’ve done until now you can still do just as easily on your own.”

That was really good advice. It was easy to think of this as almost the first step in my great journey, but it definitely wasn’t. I’d been through a lot, and had proven myself time and time again. I could do this.

“Thanks.” I smiled at her. “That helps a lot actually.” I glanced at the other two. “How about you guys? Any notes?”

Sorana shook her head, but Kristoff responded. “You should change your demeanor a bit more to match your imposing presence in your new identity. You have the voice and the power, but you’re sort of informal. Which is fine, but think about who you want to be seen as when you’re being Mephistopheles.”

“He’s not wrong.” Admitted Sorana. “Presentation is an important aspect of Ascendant culture.”

We talked more about possible things I could do to improve my first impression, things I’d learned about Rackham, and exactly what Id do when I got down there, and the more we spoke the more relaxed I got. This wouldn’t be easy by any means, but it would definitely be exciting. Now that I was out of my head a little, I could focus on the adventure, and I was pretty sure that was exactly what I needed.