Wish upon the Stars chapter 1016

I’d expected Devon, based on my weaselly impression of him, to be incompetent or pathetic. I was surprised to see that wasn’t even remotely the case. Devon moved through the Void Spawn like a wheat thresher, mowing down monsters with the curved daggers. No wonder he felt robbed of the Wishmaster position, he might have had a legitimate shot at it based on this display.

Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t a dick, but I wasn’t going to let my cousin bleed to death if I could help it. A quick Life Nova (available even outside of Zagan now that I’d made progress with it) shoved into his gut wound, and he was at the very least on the mend. My staff whirled around him, sweeping away the Void Spawn, the sharp blade of flame at the end of my Glory spear driving them away, giving him some room to breathe.

As soon as I did, the others swarmed us, circling up to defend the two of us, with only Marco joining us inside the circle.

Devon glared at me hatefully. “I was FINE!” he hissed. “I didn’t need your help.”

“You’ve been stabbed,” I said dryly. “In the guts. I can SEE your lower intestine. You do not have the high ground here.”

Snarling, he produced a potion of some kind, pouring it on the wound. Interestingly, the liquid seemed to catch fire, Zagan’s flame treating it like fuel as it closed the injury. That was something to file away for later. I wasn’t sure what was IN that potion, but I needed to get some asap.

Still, he didn’t exactly look stable. I let out a low whistle, and a large green form swept through the air, landing firmly on my upraised arm. I nodded to Devon. “My cousin is wiped out. Can you top him up?”

Archie trilled his agreement, then hopped off my arm onto Devon’s shoulder with just a single half beat of his wings. Devon was still sneering, but when Archie landed, he screamed. “Oh gods! Oh, claws, claws, claws!” Archie gave him an innocent chirp, adjusting his grip, and then poured life energy into him. I might have believed it was an accident if the bird hadn’t WINKED at me when Devon’s gaze was averted. As it was I was just glad my mask covered my face.

“Alright, what the hell?” I demanded as Devon’s face began to fill with color again. “Why were they attacking you? And why are they here? And don’t give me any bullshit about not knowing, because they almost definitely work for you. What happened? You lose your usefulness when you crashed and burned in the first part of the trial?”

He sneered at me. “Absurd. You’re the one in collusion with the Void here, traitor. I have proof. You think your little tricks will protect you, but I’m going to show people what you really are. Just wa-”

There was a screech from beneath us, and one of the guard corpses, eyes blazing Void blue, surged up, baring a mouthful of needle like teeth, and sank its jaws into Devon’s throat. Once it had a grip, it lurched back, tearing itself free and taking most of his windpipe with it, hot blood spurting freely into the air.

Cursing, I drove my Glory spear into its head, vaporizing the damned thing before letting my staff return to my soul space. I shifted to Zagan, dropping to my knees with a curse as my hands snapped out to clamp over the wound in his throat. “Fuck!” I snapped as I flooded the damaged area with life fire. “Archie, give me a baseline.” My partner screeched, then strong green energy surged through his claws into my cousin.

“Don’t you die on me you asshole,” I snapped. Because honestly, if I hadn’t been here he WOULD have. I could feel the Void Taint in the bite, surging into his body like an infection tainting his blood. I was burning it away as it seeped out, but it was massively slowing down the actual healing. That was why I needed Archie. I was purifying the Void Taint, leaving him to do the actual healing.

“Shane, what happened?” Callie called from nearby, her sword flashing as she bisected a Void Werewolf.

I snorted. “My disphit cousin got his throat ripped out because he was too busy complaining about me to pay attention to his surroundings. Honestly, I’m not even upset. Apparently I was about to listen to a long drawn out diatribe about how I’m a traitor. Seems he really DOES believe his own press, but I’m not sure why. I’m also confused as to why he seems so damned certain he’s going to win this trial.”

Whatever his so called evidence was, it wasn’t accurate, and with Roland as a witness to the whole thing, I wasn’t worried. Well, I was a little worried Devon was going to be executed, but I had Crell figuring out a workaround for that.

“Shane!” Callie screamed, her voice surging over both the bond and the intervening distance between us. My head jerked up as I triggered Mornax on reflex, boosting it to B-rank with my staff.

Only after that was done did I glance up to see what Callie was looking at. Sure enough, a giant Void Scorpion was plunging down from above me, stinger flashing toward my eye. The monster was B-rank, which meant while I could block it, I wasn’t going to enjoy the process. I grimaced, wishing I still had Glory active. I’d dropped it in order to focus on Zagan, and using that and Mornax at the same time was pretty much all I could handle at the moment, given how much I was already doing with Asmodeus.

I braced for impact, ready to tank the strike to my face, but before the scorpion could get close, there was a flash of light. I blinked in shock as the monster literally DISINTEGRATED into tiny pieces, blowing away on the wind.

There was a click, and I looked down to find Roland sheathing his sword as he stepped out of a side passage. I exhaled in relief. I’d been worried about his health. Given the attack on him last time, I’d thought he might have been a target, but not only did he not look like he’d been attacked again, he looked like he’d recovered well from the last one already.

“Thanks for the assist,” I called as he approached. Delia emerged from another corridor, sighing in relief as she saw her friend and joined him. 

Roland nodded casually. “I owe you one. Hell, I owe you a dozen. Happy to start evening up the debt.” He glanced at Delia. “You were supposed to wait back at my place,” he admonished. “You’re a strategic target. I’m not worth nearly as much.”

“I was WORRIED about you, ass,” she sneered. “Not that I should have bothered. Need I remind you that you were DYING not long ago?”

He shrugged. “Dying is a yes or no thing. I was dying, now I’m not. One has nothing to do with the other. Besides, I knew Shane was around, and the kid gets into more trouble than a trombone section. Was I just supposed to let him die?”

She sighed. “No, obviously not.” Her eyes turned to me, a warm smile slipping onto her face. “I’m glad to see you’re ok, Shane.” I hadn’t expected she would care that much. Delia seemed to like me fine, but she was also a veritable stranger. I expected Roland to be fond of me because of the whole saving his life thing, but apparently that had endeared me to Delia too. She glanced around. “What are you doing here anyway?”

I nodded down to the still pale Devon. “My idiot cousin almost got himself murdered.”

“And you saved him?” she seemed genuinely perplexed. “If he died, it would have been all but impossible for him to pursue the trial. At least before the end of the coronation. Resurrection is possible, but there’s no way any powerful Wish user would have thrown in their lot with him during the trial given his poor showing. They’d have waited until it ended and you were crowned Wishmaster to curry favor.”

“His dad would have saved him,” I shrugged. “Besides, I don’t want to see a blood relative die. Devon is a moron, but I’m becoming increasingly sure he isn’t malicious.”

She frowned at that. “What do you mean?”

“Umm, guys?” Roland said warily. “I hate to break up the debrief, but we have a pack of Void Jackals coming in from the northwest, and I think they’re B-rank. You’re saying that Devon is the target?”

I nodded. “Almost positive, yeah.”

“I’ll take him to his mother,” Roland said with a grimace. “I agree with you, I don’t want to see a member of the family dead because of stupidity. Ayra should be able to save him easily enough. Pass him here.”

Delia shook her head. “Let me,” she interrupted. “I don’t have your combat skills. You can watch out for Shane during this mess. If they don’t track Devon, he might need the extra firepower.”

Roland hesitated. “I think I’d be faster,” he said worriedly, clearly unhappy at the idea of Delia running around with a LITERAL target on her back. She arched an eyebrow at him, and he sighed in resignation. “Alright, go ahead and take him. But come back as soon as he’s safe, alright?” I could tell the idea of letting her go out there was really bothering him, and she obviously could too.

“Don’t patronize me,” she said with a teasing smile. “I’m not exactly a wilting violet. Don’t forget, I’m the fastest in our generation.” She leaned down and lifted Devon effortlessly. I’d cleared enough of the Void Taint that he was stable, though I warned her to hurry, because it was going to start building up again soon.

My fate sense was completely silent. Apparently the problem I’d been sent to solve was Devon’s death. Why that would have negatively affected me I had no idea, but apparently unlike Delia thought, if he’d been killed the trial would NOT have gone smoothly for me. Or I’d have opened myself up to some other danger, who knew?

She vanished out the door, and Roland sighed deeply. I clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t be such a helicopter…” I trailed off. “What actually is your relationship with Delia? I thought you might be related somehow, but given the atavism thing…”

He smiled sadly. “Her sister was my wife. Penny was another candidate I met when I was out growing to D-rank. We fell in love and got married, but she was killed before I returned to the Palace. I found Delia here and told her about it. They’d never actually met, but Delia sort of…adopted me. Her honorary big brother. Delia and Penny were only a few decades apart, but I felt compelled to look out for her.”

I squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. “She seems like a badass,” I commented with a grin. “Could probably take you in a fight. I don’t think she’ll be that easy to take down. Don’t worry so much, ok?”

He snorted. “You know, as the older and higher ranked relative, I should be consoling YOU. Aren’t you SCARED of this whole invasion thing?”

“This?” I asked derisively. “This is a Tuesday for me. It’ll take more than that to shake m- OH GODS WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?” I screamed, jumping back as what appeared to be a Void…Clown Demon, jumped out of my shadow with a huge knife. Roland bisected it with a casual slash, chuckling at my fear. “Hey, shut up!” I snapped. “Anyone would have been scared of that. That was horrifying.” His laughter only got louder, and the very solemn and dignified expression on my face in no way resembled a pout as we rejoined the battle. Honest.