Wish upon the Stars chapter 312

The next week flew by in a blur. We did end up talking to Celine, but  on consulting her we decided to wait to attend a gala. According to her  none of the really impressive forces would bother going to the  pre-party because they hadn't shown off their strength yet. Without  proving what they could do it would be harder to operate from a position  of social superiority. Celine estimated that ninety percent of the  important guests would wait until the end of the first round to make an  appearance, so they could pressure the others with their performance.

The  biggest change that happened was obviously that I managed to max out my  G-rank cultivation, reaching exactly one thousand points. I needed  sixty points to do this, and at three points per wish that ended up  being twenty wishes from the Beast Lord Initiates. It brought me up to a  nice round one hundred and ninety in Vitality. Since I had thirty five  wishes to burn over the week, that left me with fifteen, which I of  course used to bring Callie up another forty five points before the  tournament.

Callie decided that her Perception had been  slipping, and since she was going to be synergizing a new ability on  rank up, she wanted to stack her highest stat as high as possible to see  if she could stumble into some amazing ability like Jessie. The forty  five points brought her Perception up to a full two hundred and twenty,  with plans to take it even higher as she went. Perception was one of the  main components of her build, even with the addition of her Shadow  Manipulation Skill. You had to be able to keep track of fine details to  manipulate and adjust them.

Paying them off was an issue,  of course, but we managed to come up with a pretty solid compensation.  Callie often used her powerful Stealth Skill to hide us, but since it  was more powerful than mine and I found it useful she was able to use  stored Stealth charges to pay off her debt, giving me ten and promising  another five. In fact, I was over the moon about the discovery, because  having used two of those charges (leaving me with three left on top of  the base ten I could hold) I realized something amazing.

Experiencing  a higher level of a Skill I already had at a decent point let me  increase my understanding of it. Not to the level of ranking up  immediately, but I was pretty sure if I kept using these I could get my  Stealth Skill to Beginner and even to a high level of Beginner like  Callie's extremely quickly.

It opened up an entirely new  way of training for me. Granted, the circumstances were pretty specific,  since I was positive it wouldn't work with Skills I'd granted myself,  but I was sure I could find some Skills my friends had that I did too  and experience them so we could learn faster. Hell, we could probably do  it with Paired Dueling if I granted some wishes to Abel and Mel, at  least if I hadn't used up all my wishes for the day already. I was going  to focus on Stealth for now though, at least until Callie hit her cap.  We needed her there by the end of the tournament after all.

Regardless,  we were in our best condition, and that was why we were all extra  excited to find ourselves standing in the Varia Coliseum in Rajak,  waiting for the announcement of the beginning of the tournament, as well  as the selection for everyone's first round battle. It wasn't just us  and our team either. Aside from our two fellow fighters, Benny, Jessie,  Alexander, Sloane, Cark, Melinda, Baric, Croll, Lament, Wren, Sydney,  and several other friends from Doomtown were all crowded together in the  stands of the massive white marble structure, staring down at the  circular stage in the center.

"So." Benny asked curiously.  "What is the point of this huge extravagant ceremony? Because I feel  like they could have just picked the lineups out of a hat and send us  all a text."

Celine snorted out a laugh at that from next  to her boyfriend, getting shocked looks from everyone who actually knew  her. She gracefully ignored them before clearing her throat. "It's a  sign of status. A show of the resources and manpower that the Unity can  bring to bear as hosts. It's-"

"It's dick measuring." Cut  in Callie, the only one of us who didn't seem happy to be here. I knew  she was expecting to see her dad, so I didn't blame her. "They want to  show everyone how impressive and grandiose they are. It's a petty  attempt to save face preemptively because they know their teams are  going to get crushed." Some of our Doomtown acquaintances who didn't  know Callie's story seemed surprised by the venom, but the rest of us  weren't.

Alexander nodded under his darkened cloth wraps.  "Midknight has always been very concerned with appearances. In some ways  it makes him a better Ascendant, and in some ways it limits him. While  reputation is certainly important to us, you can only make so much of an  impression with a carefully curated image. To truly inspire awe or even  terror, one must step outside the conventional and do things the masses  wouldn't ever expect."

That drew a snort from where my  uncle sat behind us. "Shock and Awe vs. PR is an age old debate among  Ascendants. I personally hold to that school of thought myself though. A  real legend grows in the telling, trying to prune every branch of your  story to perfection just slows it down. Only cowards who are afraid of  recursion bother with that much image management. It's a sign of subpar  willpower."

Cass, who was here with the group, turned to  glare at him. "Hush uncle Zeke it's starting!" Despite yelling at a  literal force of nature, Cass seemed completely unworried and turned  back to watch the stage as a dark figure climbed it. Callie tensed up as  Zeke shot Cass a fond smile. I stared down at the black armored form  that I was pretty sure had to be Midknight, as he strolled to the center  of the stage.

The man had presence, I'd give him that.  Granted, so did every E-ranker I'd ever met. You needed to be something  special to make it to the peak of cultivation for a planet, even when  that peak was as low as it was here. Midknight strode across the white  marble stage, swept along on a carpet of rolling shadows that spilled  from his pauldrons, tumbling to his feet like a cape only to buoy him  aloft like some sort of ghostly warrior general.

I took  Callie's hand, letting her grip my fingers so tightly I lost feeling in  them as she glared down at the man attracting all of the attention from  the now silent crowd. Midknight stopped in the center of the stage,  glancing around slowly as if choosing his targets, both in terms of  words and who he would address. Finally, he spoke. "Conflict." He  intoned. "War, by another name."

His voice was deep and  resonant, almost hypnotic. I'd expected him to sound weasely. Guess I  had been making assumptions. He continued speaking. "Some would say this  sentiment belies our purpose here today. To gather in celebration and  pit ourselves against allies. They would speak of peace. Of  togetherness. Of...Unity."

That got a bit of a chuckle,  though it was diffuse. People were too wrapped up in what he was saying  to laugh. It wasn't really going in an obvious direction. "Fools!" He  barked, making everyone jump. "War does not make a mockery of alliance.  It lends it strength. It does not contradict peace, for even in the  tamest peace must we do battle with our inner selves. War is our nature.  Our purpose. Our core."

"Is he serious right now?" I  whispered to Callie, making sure to use Stealth to prevent my voice from  being overheard. Apparently my Stealth Skill wasn't good enough to hide  my words from someone at Midknight's level, because the blue eyes in  the helmet, the ones that looked so much like Callie's, snapped to my  face.

Far from being agitated, my girlfriend...well,  smiled would be a generous description, but she bared her teeth in  something approximating the gesture. SHE didn't bother to use Stealth  when she responded. Or keep her voice down. "Unfortunately. The old man  has always loved to hear himself talk. Shame he's too self involved to  notice no one else likes hearing his voice as much as he does."

You  could have heard a fucking pin drop. Every single eye in the whole  arena swiveled to fix on Callie, who was still baring her teeth at  Midknight in that same not-smile. The man sighed. "So many years  Calliope. Yet you remain so disrespectful. Your mother's influence I  assume. Amelia never did know how to keep her mouth shut. Silence  yourself girl, I'll deal with you when this is over."

"The  FUCK you will." I snarled. I'd like to claim that I was trying to lure  him into attacking so Zeke could smash him like a bug, but honestly I  hadn't even known I was speaking until I said that. I also hadn't  noticed myself standing up. "You come near her and I'll fucking kill  you. I might not be able to fight you in a head on conflict, but I bet  you'd have some real trouble surviving an E-ranked spike of metal  through the eye while you sleep."

I admit. That wasn't the  most...diplomatic thing to say. But I could feel Callie's rage and hate  through our connection, not to mention my own because I LIKED Amelia,  and fuck this guy for blaming her when he'd been the one who humiliated  and left her. I expected him to get angry, to try to lash out at me, but  fortunately for my anonymity, someone else had something to say too.

"Enough,  Paul." Said a quiet murmur from our side. "This is enough. Have you  really become so pathetic and pompous that you need to poke at your own  daughter's wounds for all to see?" I noticed he used Midknight's real  name this time, and realized it was because Midknight had done the same  to Callie. Alexander was letting his brother know that anything he did  to her The Nothing would pay back in kind. He was offering her  protection.

Not to be outdone, Melinda snorted from the  other side. "Please, like there's anyone on the planet who doesn't know  Midknight is a brownnosing rat bastard who sucks up to the public and  treats everyone around him like shit when no one is looking. If there's a  Hypocrisy Skill his is probably at Master rank." Her mocking sneer was  so unlike her I had trouble even processing it for a second.

On  second thought though the Unity and the WCP were public enemies. Not to  mention Melinda was allied with our Pavilion and I was a guest elder of  her Garden. She was making her stance clear, probably because if  Midknight chose to make an issue of this he would be effectively  challenging THREE E-rankers, Melinda, her companion Travis, and  Alexander himself.

The man's blue eyes bored into our  group, icy with rage, but to my surprise, he just chuckled. "Criminals  and trash will always show their true nature. By all means, put on your  show, clowns. I'll accommodate you. I imagine our guests would love to  see such a comedic performance." Melinda looked livid, but Alexander  made a gesture. With a bedgrudging nod she sat back down, and they all  stared at each other for a minute before returning to the matter at  hand.

I winced. Midknight was good. Any further  provocation would vindicate him and make the other two look like  children. It was the same thing the triplets had done back in Valen.  He'd diffused that way too easily. Still, I wasn't stupid enough to  think this was over. His cold blue eyes had locked on Callie and I as he  resumed his speech. We'd challenged his authority, and he wasn't going  to let it pass. That was fine. I might not be able to fight him, but I  had ways of making his life harder. He could bring it the fuck on.