I grimaced as we approached the final temple. “Shit.” I said succinctly. “Should have guessed.” We stopped at a small copse of what looked like olive trees a few hundred feet down the mountain. To my Eye of Revelation, the forms of about a dozen other contestants were clearly outline against the grass and shrubs between us and the temple. “There’s twelve of them up there. Doesn’t seem like they’re all together, they’re in a few groups.”

“Think this is everyone left?” My sister asked with a grimace, trying to spot them herself. I saw a quick flare of light in her eyes and blinked in shock when I realized she was purifying her vision to sharpen it. I hadn’t known she could do that. It was an interesting technique I’d need to remember.

I shrugged in response to her question. “I don’t know, but probably not. There were a lot of paths, makes sense the final ring of temples would be set up to cause a big collision”

“Perhaps we could attempt to fly over the peak.” Said Serah consideringly. “Study the temples and see how many ended up at each? I’m not sure if we’ll meet resistance at the top, but it would be best to be prepared.”

I shook my head emphatically. “No way. This is a race based on hitting checkpoints. There’s no chance they don’t have countermeasures against people just flying up to the top. I’d be shocked if you even made it halfway. We just need to hurry. If this is supposed to be a big free for all, chances are good all the players aren’t even here yet, best chance of winning is to get in and out before they arrive.”

“Any chance you have a plan?” Chelsea asked me hopefully.

Snorting, I gestured up the mountain at the various subforces. “Based on what? The shapes of their ear lobes? Which I can’t even see at this distance because they’ve all got head gear on and are facing away from us? No, I have no plan.”

Serah, who had been looking seriously up the mountain, made a small hum of curiosity. “Maybe you could use your earth power again. Make a slide that drops them into the ground and carries them down the mountain.”

“Sure.” I said reasonably. “Or maybe I could jump up the slope in slow motion and punch the ground so hard they’re vaporized by the shockwaves. Because that would be way easier than what you just suggested. It’s not like we’re on a snowy peak, we can’t just start an ava-” I trailed off. “You know…I might have a plan.”

Grinning, my sister glanced up the mountain. “Can you do that?” She asked after she puzzled out what I was thinking from my dropped sentence. “That’s a lot of dirt.”

“Not as much as you’d think.” I disagreed. “I mean, it won’t be as tough as what I did in the temple. I’m not going to be controlling the dust. Just making like…a slide. The stuff is super fine, nearly no friction. I only need to do a small layer along the top of the ground. The trick will be doing a large enough section of the surface all at once, but I can push through that. The question becomes can you all take advantage of the distraction. Remember, we learned from the cat temple we don’t need to defeat them, just beat them to the key.”

Chelsea looked excited. “I can blanket the area in flame as a distraction while Holly and Serah fly right in and get the key. If Holly blinds the guardian with light, assuming it’s not immune or something, Serah can dart in and capture the key.”

“Perfect.” I said with a laugh. “I just need a few minutes before we start.” My head was still banging away. I was preparing to push through the pain, when I felt something odd. It drained out of me.

I blinked, looking up toward where I knew the audience was. My soul strain…it was gone. Or rather, I still felt it, but not in me. It was in Callie now. I knew she could help offset the strain of doing things, but I hadn’t been aware she could just TAKE it from me like that. Whatever they did to block the bond hadn’t stopped it either, though that wasn’t a shock. Skills had trouble with soul stuff most of the time.

With the newly unburdened state of my head, I was able to gather myself to prepare for the attack. But before I did, I had to bring up the elephant in the room. “I need to win this.” I said quietly. “Are you guys going to let me?”

Holly and Serah turned to look at me. One inscrutable and one coldly interested. They seemed to be waiting, because they said nothing as my sister turned around. “What?” She said in surprise. “I thought that was the plan all along.” She turned to the angels. “Were you two planning to win?”

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Laughing, Holly shook her head. “We’re under orders to help you.” She said bluntly. “A favor from the Radiant Pope is worth more than a bit of renown, even on the universal stage. “We were under the impression you were going to win, but if you think he should, that’s fine.”

“See.” Said my sister loftily. “It’s fine. Have you been worried about that the whole time? You’re kind of dumb sometimes, Shane.”

I rolled my eyes. “Noted. But that was all I needed to know. I have an idea of how I can minimize the strain for this and maybe produce a better effect. Nobody talk for a minute.” I shook my head, trying to strangle the fond smile I had on my face before I closed my eyes.

Mapping out the distance, I’d realized that it was going to be a rough time, even if I was just doing a thin layer. I was essentially going to be dissolving several tons of earth. Pit of Despair was made for decently large areas, but not THAT large. After a minute of thinking though, I realized what I was really doing.

I was DESTROYING a bunch of dirt and rocks and grass. I was grinding them all to dust. Converting and then deconverting them was useful most of the time because it let me make traps and restrain people, but I didn’t need to go through all that trouble this time. I wanted to break them and let them stay broken.

And I just so happened to have a form that was excellent at breaking things. I triggered Mephistopheles, then focused on the area I wanted affected. It was large still, but having changed my perspective, it was less daunting. I didn’t need to work a massive amount of dirt with dust construction, I just needed to carpet bomb the slope with my destructive energy.

Belial actually might have been better, but that wouldn’t work fast enough. Belial’s corrosion was a slow creeping thing, and someone would notice.

By shifting into my Mephistopheles form though, I changed the game. Because I wasn’t using a move, I was using a TECHNIQUE. Techniques, unlike normal abilities, mobilized the power of a Path, and mine was downright ridiculous in its scope of application.

This would have been easier if I’d had a form for Dust Construction like I’d been toying with earlier, but destruction would work fine.

In my head, I started creating the images. I told the story I needed, and how it related to Mephistopheles. How the demon came to rain destruction on the world, and the ground itself ran like water and swept away his enemies in an earthly flood. Pit of Despair even fit the narrative theme wise.

Reaching out over the slope, I focused on what I wanted, on how my Path could bring it into being, and then I cast my newest technique. The name just came to me, and I didn’t have time to really consider the meaning other than intoning it aloud. “Damnatio Memoriae.”

I struck the ground in front of us with my staff, and a wave of black flames roared out, rolling along the ground for about a square mile in the shape I’d envisioned before sinking into the mountain. The ground around us began to rumble, and in the blink of an eye, the huge section I’d covered turned to ultra fine dust, and it all began to slide down the slope.

Not being an idiot, I’d shaped my technique to leave a wedge of solid rock in front of us, starting where I struck the ground, and so all the dust flowed around us to either side. The enemies probably would have reacted, but before they could, a fucking FIRESTORM of pure white flame consumed everything above the dust flows.

I staggered, catching myself on my staff, drained more than I’d expected, but still grinning fiercely. The angels took wing, ascending with two massive flaps to gain air and then gliding toward the temple.

“That was nuts.” Gritted out my sister. “I can’t believe you’re strong enough to do something like that.”

I shook my head. “I cheated.” I said breathlessly. “Pit of Despair only does one thing. I just supercharged it with destruction flames. I’m probably never going to be able to use that technique for anything ever again. It literally ONLY functions in this exact situation.”

Being able to create giant swathes of slippery mountain wasn’t exactly an impressive move in most situations. I was almost skeptical it was worth the trouble it had taken to create that technique, but Chelsea just chuckled, shaking her head. “You think any of THEM know that?” She asked rhetorically, chucking her chin up at the invisible audience. “They just saw you smack the ground and wash away a dozen powerful Ascendants.”

“Takes one to know one, ms. one mile firestorm.” I said with a laugh. “That one isn’t going to fade from memory anytime soon.. Though speaking of memory, here comes the angels with the thing we were here for.” I nodded up to the sky, where a pair of shining forms swept toward us.

Laughing, my sister held out a hand, and a jagged black shape dropped from above, spinning down to slap into her palm. She tossed it to me and I grinned as I stashed it in my ring. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” I crowed. “That’s number twelve. Let’s get to the top.”

Chelsea nodded slowly. “Well yeah, but like…how?” She gestured up the still flowing slope, the very tops of which was showing big empty spaces where the dust had fled.

Laughing, I gestured up at the angels. “Have them each grab an arm. They should be able to carry you wherever. Meanwhile, I’ll go ahead and take the keys up to the peak myself. Remember not to go up toward the summit, there’s probably defenses anywhere past the temple.” Flying low to the ground before the temple had been a calculated risk, but it had worked out, no point in tempting fate.

“You’re going on alone?” She asked worriedly. “That makes sense, but…what if someone is up there?”

I shrugged. “Then I fight. But I think I can beat them. This little trap would have stopped anyone else dead. It would take hours to fight through a crowd or negotiate a passage. As long as I hurry, I should be the first.”

And with that, after making sure I had all twelve keys, I triggered Ripple Running and took off, bounding from one platform to the next, keeping close to the ground as I let State of Grace carry me in long, low arcs. Once I passed the still failing slope, I hit the ground at a run, State of Grace pushing me onward.

I bolted up the mountain at my fastest speed, blood thundering in my ears and cape flowing behind me, and I couldn’t help but grin. I was going to win, I was going to be the first. I reached the chest in record time, sliding to my knees in front of it and fumbling with the keys. I was so enthused I barely noticed my Danger Sense going off. Barely, but I still did, triggering Mornax in time to tank the massive black iron hammer head that smashed down on my skull.

Apparently I wasn’t the first one up here. Standing up, I put away the keys and cracked my neck as I turned to face the huge hammer wielding man. “That.” I said evenly. “Was unwise.”One more obstacle to get through. I’d better make it quick.