I woke with a pounding headache. On checking my scan ring I confirmed it had been about eighteen hours, taking me firmly into the next day. It was crazy to think my wedding had been just yesterday, given everything that had happened. Focusing on that, I sent a quick message to Callie. “Good morning, and I love you.”

She seemed to be busy, but I got a rush of warmth and love in return and smiled. Sadly, the giddiness was quickly overwhelmed by other concerns, and I rolled out of bed, groaning as my head rang a little.

To my surprise, it was shockingly light damage for the amount of soul strain I’d been under. Super speed was counterable with precognition and area denial, but using all those skills and techniques at once had been rough. I still had my limits, and they were clearer than ever right now.

On the upside, my techniques had taken my original combination form (Belial plus Mephistopheles) and massively amplified its combat potential. That corrosive armor breaking cosmic collapse was probably the most devastating attack I had access to right now.

“Oh hey, you’re still alive.” Grumbled a sardonic voice off to one side. I turned to see my best friend slouched in a chair. “What part of ‘don’t die on me you moron’ was unclear? Because shattering your soul would definitely count. I’ve been pumping out spiritual calming all night at point blank range and there’s STILL damage. And I imagine Callie was helping too.”

Benny looked like shit. Dark circles around his eyes, glazed expression, just generally exhausted and in pain.

“That fight wasn’t one we had a good shot at winning.” I said bluntly. “None of us were a good matchup for that guy. Mobility powers are a bitch to fight against, and that particular ability was absurdly powerful. Either that or he was REALLY focused on Might. Those punches actually hurt me in my Mornax form. Nothing in E-rank should be able to do that, which means-”

He grimaced. “Which means someone past traditional limits.”

Being over the limit in E-rank was complicated. Much like earlier ranks, there were people whose power had qualitatively surpassed their rank. However, because of the watershed at D-rank, those people could NOT punch up ranks. Barring bullshit like we’d pulled with Callen, it was functionally impossible to beat a D-ranker at E-rank.

Bon Voyage, based on the damage he’d done, was something more like a ‘Post E-ranker’. Someone who had passed what should have been the cap for the Expert level, but wasn’t quite at the level of a true Master. Purely in terms of stats of course. You couldn’t rank up an ability past your current rank, and I was sure Bon Voyage’s speed was an ability.

Benny looked annoyed, but finally just sighed, waving it off. “It’s fine. I get it. If Callie isn’t berating you over it I don’t have a leg to stand on, and she doesn’t seem to be based on your demeanor.”

I laughed. “She does worry, but she knows some things are necessary. I didn’t get any flack for this one. She doesn’t get angry unless I take unnecessary risks.” I paused. “Well, she doesn’t get angry with ME. She’s not super pleased with the situation, and I think she might try to tear out Travis’s spine and beat him to death with it.”

“I’ll hold him down.” He said darkly. “It wasn’t enough to turn on us back in the imperial academy? He had to follow us home to twist the knife?”

Surprisingly, I didn’t seethe, or curse, or spit with rage. I was pissed, or course, but it was a calm fury. A certainty. “Don’t worry about Travis. He’s run out of chances. He’s not leaving Callus alive. Not after this. I’ll make damned sure of it.”

Benny grimaced. “I don’t know Shane. Travis was pretty scary back at the academy, and he pulled off a big coup. I get the feeling he isn’t going to be a pushover. Having already reached E-rank without access to you. I mean being an infamous traitor probably helped, even if I know the factions tried to suppress the rumors, but…”

“But he’s probably been personally instructed by some scary people.” I finished. “Maybe a god. I know that’s what most people would want as a reward for enabling their return. I felt a sense of power from him when we met. I have no doubt killing him won’t be easy. But it’s fine. I’ve been working on a new form specially for him. I know his ability, even if it might get countered.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Then you’d better rest and heal.” He said firmly. “Coming along with us for this run made sense, but now we’ve got Flicker on the team as a rep, and with Bethy, Gabe, and Walker our mobility is through the roof. Hell, even I’m probably just slowing them down. I’ll be staying here to help you heal.”

That was a big sacrifice, and it kind of blew my complaints out of the water. If Benny was willing to get sidelined to sit around and play soul recovery aid, then I had no reason to bitch about not being able to go out.

If anything, he was right. If I wanted to lead the raid on Wintervale, I needed to be back in tip top shape. Which meant all the smaller runs to collect assets would need to be left to the rest of our crew.

I clenched my teeth in annoyance at the realization, but finally sighed and nodded. “Fine. But I’m going on the run to Rajak. Callie is worried about her little brother. Honestly, she isn’t saying it, but I think she’s even a LITTLE worried about her dad. She may hate the bastard, but she doesn’t want him or Annie to get ritually sacrificed to dark gods and leave Eric without parents.”

Honestly, I could understand. I wanted to stomp on her dad’s hands and feet until they popped like bubblewrap, but I knew wishing him dead was a whole other ballgame. My wife hadn’t asked me to help them, but she didn’t have to. That said, if Paul were to be ‘accidentally’ injured during our escape, I suspected no one would be too broken up about it. I couldn’t be expected to pull everything off perfectly.

“Done.” He said with a relieved sigh. “And you can take over the planning here. Nat’s been standing in, but she doesn’t have as much up to date experience with our capabilities, and she’s been kind of freezing up. That’s fine when no one is going out, but she hasn’t been sending rescue parties and we need to start dispatching soon. As for Rajak…I’m a bit worried. At this rate it’ll be weeks before we can stage an assault. Will there be anything left?”

I snorted. “I imagine the occupiers are thinking the same thing, but they’re overestimating themselves. We saw from this little raid into Trevally that there are upsides to being stuck at the same rank for millennia. Countermeasures in place, contingencies that have had centuries worth of resources and refinement poured into them. Rajak is the capital, and home to the biggest and baddest Callus has to offer. I doubt Travis has enough divine gear to go tossing it at every problem. Rajak will be a tough pill to swallow.”

Callie had all but confirmed that from overwatch. She’d been keeping apprised, and the progress in the capital was anything but rapid. The defenses in the WCP were created for just such an occasion, and Cicero wouldn’t have poured so much effort into regaining control of his deed back in the day if they weren’t potent. She couldn’t see the situation perfectly because of how deep underground they were, but plenty of enemy soldiers were being carried out in buckets and bags.

“So we take our time.” He said with a sigh. “Do it right. And use yours and Nat's wishes to shore up defenses so if they DO find us, they’ll pay in blood for every step they take into this damned cave.:”

I laughed. “Hell yes we do. Speaking of which, I assume yesterday’s wishes went over alright? What did Celine end up paying for?”

“Anonymizers, anti-detection wards, dimensional isolators, pretty much anything she could think of to prevent us from being picked up with Perception Skills or abilities. We’re lucky that you invited Beaker to the wedding. He’s been insanely helpful. We wouldn't have been able to set up the defenses half as well without him. A lot of the stuff she was going to wish for would have degraded the efficiency of some of the other measures. Setting up stationary defenses is shockingly complicated.”

I laughed. “Beaker is here? I’m glad he made it out. He wasn’t in the wedding party, so he kind of got lost in the crowd for me. How is everyone else?”

“Cass is terrified. Cark is angry.” He shuddered. “Abel is…well, he’s acting the same as usual, but there’s an edge to his demeanor that no one is really comfortable with. We don’t know if Cicero or Valk are alive. He and Mel are sticking with Nat while they’re here, I think that’s helping him keep his mind off it. Honestly Jessie is holding it together best out of all of us locals. Girl has iron in her veins when the chips are down.”

I laughed. “Don’t I know it. The two of you saved my ass back there. Without you to rely on there’s no way i could have pulled that off.” Sure, them helping was part of the plan, but I only felt comfortable pushing my soul to that extent because I had the healing and soul recovery powers at their disposal to make up for it, not to mention Randall to stand guard.

My best friend rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was pleased. We’d been pulling ahead of Jessie and Benny for a while, though they were catching up fast. They’d gotten a decent chunk

of points on the trip over, though I hadn’t checked in about specifics yet. But this was Callus, they not only knew the place well, between Benny’s Path and Jessie’s absurdly specialized ability and stats, they were up to the task of taking on most E-rankers.

With Callie out of commission on the sip, my team was coming together to back me up, and they were doing a hell of a job. Speaking of. “How are your folks and Maria?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Dad is stressed and angry, mom is trying to figure out a way to spin this mess to her advantage, Maria is worried about her friends. They’re all glad they came to the wedding, but Valen is home. Not being able to go back is hard.”

Sighing, I rubbed the bridge of my nose, realizing my mask was on the night stand next to the bed I was in. I slipped it back on, realizing I must have been even more out of it than expected if I’d taken it off before bed. “Alright. Well, since I had a nap, I suppose it’s time to go talk to everyone. We need to get moving on the rescues.”

Eighteen hours would be plenty of downtime. We needed to get back to finding E-rankers to bolster our forces. One or two runs a day was probably the limit, and we’d have to mix it up so they couldn’t ambush us. Within a week or two we should be ready for the raid on Rajak.

Despite the confidence with which I’d reassured Benny, I was still worried. I hoped we’d be fast enough to get to the capital before too many people died. Whatever happened, I would at least make good on the threat I’d made earlier. One way or another Travis was going to die for this. With that in mind I headed up to talk to everyone. Once the next rescue party went out, I could get to work on my next form. Like I told Benny, I was creating it special.