Malcolm Tent

Call of the Void chapter 19

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1049

After reincarnating Brad, we descended into the pit with no issue. The spikes had all vanished, and the whole place just felt…empty. Which was an odd thought to have about a hole in the ground, but even more than most holes, Brad’s former pit felt like an absence of a thing more than the presence of an absence.

I summoned Brad himself, or rather, Pit of Despair, and gestured down to the empty hole. “Alright, so where exactly IS the arrowhead? Because I’m not sure where you hid i...

Secret Ending chapter 148

nsfw mind the tags

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1048

Arriving at the pit wasn’t hard. The orangutans had, I suspected, been sent to bring us there directly after we’d spent hours mapping things out. The pit had become hungry, and was tired of waiting for its food to step into its salivating maw. So the recon we’d been planning, while still necessary, wasn’t nearly as challenging as expected. Especially since when we arrived, the thing was WAITING for us. After a fashion.

“Evening,” said the cheerful older man standing in the c...

Secret Ending chapter 147

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1047

“You know, you scare me,” I said to Dayna conversationally as I stared up at the giant bronze lantern fish pinned to a large nearby tree. This was the third time I’d felt the need to mention that to her, but the pincushion she had made of the giant fish still made my skin crawl. Granted, Asmodeus had helped, but she was still MUCH scarier than I remembered her being at D-rank.

She shrugged. “As I said, I have a special gift for dealing with ambush predators.”

“But thes...

Call of the Void chapter 18

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1046

Despite the unhappiness, they DID leave most of their forces inside my Domain. Dayna and I stepped out with the two leaders (Renier and Edward, or blue and red respectively) into the castle proper. Renier, who had arrived first and was nominally in charge, led us to his temporary base camp, a series of tents set up in a magnificent ballroom.

Looking at the decor as we walked, I could kind of see what she meant about this place. It felt…hybridized. The skeleton was an old time castle, ...

Secret Ending chapter 146

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1045

No one was amused by my banter, sadly. Their weapons all came up (spears mostly, but made of a weird hooked crystal with an energy sphere floating inside the hook) and they levelled them at me pointedly. “Silence!” screamed one of them. “State your purpose!” I looked at him uncertainly, and he gestured with his spear again. “I said state it!” He screamed, seemingly on the edge of hysteria.

One of the ones next to him sighed and leaned over, whispering to his friend. “You t...

Call of the Void chapter 17

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1044

The first thing I noticed about the Void was the power. Not like it gave me strength or anything like that. It just returned what so many places in realspace had taken. The Void wasn’t a place, not really. Not was it exactly the absence of place. It was more of the idea of place, but backwards. As such, the Void lacked something crucial. Something fundamental to the way the real world worked. Impact.

Void spawn and Children seemed to have Impact, or something analogous to it, but the ...

Secret Ending chapter 145

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1043

I stood among my people. That was really the only way to describe it. I wasn’t feeling particularly noble or leaderly at the moment though, just…safe. I was with family. I was loved. And it was ending. It was time to go out on my own, to do my best for the family, and to try to prevent a war that would absolutely destroy everything I cared about if left unchecked.

Callie was pouting. Her eyes were wet, but also hard and a little angry. Not that I was leaving, but because I’d told ...

Secret Ending chapter 144

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1042

I was a long night, and by the time I dragged myself off to bed, my head was ringing with the endless waves of congratulations, ass kissing, and doubletalk. But I still found time (with the help of Piece of Mind) to consider exactly what I could do to keep Callie safe. I wracked my brain, considered multiple options, and eventually came to one inescapable conclusion: there was nothing I could do.

At least, not personally. But if I was running off to the Void to get myself potentially ki...

Call of the Void chapter 16

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1041

Changes. That was the first thing I noticed. Not just the recent ones, but all the changes I’d gone through. It had been years now, since I started this journey, and in those years, I’d changed so much. Rank-ups, abilities, my Domain, and now my new office. I was a completely different person now, and despite that building for so long, putting on the crown felt like some kind of trigger. Like the spark that lit the fuse that burned away everything I used to be in a sea of violet fire.

Secret Ending chapter 143

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1040

We headed to the terminal to make our way to the back palace. Instead of heading to the same place as the sword dance symposium though, we made our way through the hallways until we got to an unassuming looking stairway. “You’ll be going up there,” my mom said gently. “There’s a staging area, and then you’ll emerge for the coronation when they call you. Aiden should be up there waiting for you.”

I gave her a hug. “Alright, wish me luck,” I said in a determined voice. �...

Call of the Void chapter 15

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1039

The next morning came with a surprising lack of pomp OR circumstance. I woke up, rolled out of bed, and then just kind of…sat there. Today was the day. My coronation. My ascension to Wishmaster. 

Despite having known it was coming, having worked for it for years, having fought and bled and almost died to achieve it, it felt bewildering. I was somehow blindsided. All the panic I thought I’d worked through, the fear I had faced and set down, came flooding back into me like a thun...

Secret Ending chapter 142

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1038

After I finished talking to the old man, I went home and went to bed. I was…so exhausted. The kind of exhausted where you actually pass tired and loop back around to be being energetic, only with a brain that works hilariously badly for any complex tasks. Like you passed your sleep window and were now “post-sleep” and the entire experience made everything feel raw and painful like a jagged wound.

I dropped into bed and then slept. I don’t know for how long, but judging by the re...

Secret Ending chapter 141

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1037

Power. A recurring theme in my life for the last few years. More than any other, honestly. Love, family, choice, I’d grappled with some heavy things in my time as an Ascendant. But power was perhaps the heaviest. What it meant. What it required. How it changed you. Because all power changes a person. Or perhaps as Zeke said had said, power just revealed.

And now I was faced with a choice. With the option to obtain more power. And what did that reveal about me? What would this choice s...

Call of the Void chapter 14

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1036

Extending my Domain inside the core turned out to be effortless. I’d half expected to run into trouble, given the weird interactions between Domains and the Void. The old man told me I was a moron, because I’d been opening my Domain in the Wishworld since I developed it, and I was still IN the Wishworld.

When he saw how far it expanded, he let out a low whistle. “This is decent work for a C-ranker. The projection is unusually solid. That staff of yours is a treasure. Better hold i...

Secret Ending chapter 140

Wish upon the Stars chapter 1035

We emerged from the portal back out of the council chamber, into the same hallway we’d entered from. The council was waiting for us. As were my parents, my grandparents, and several other people, including the Moonlight Pope and Uncle Sam. As soon as we stepped out, my mother rushed out of the crowd and scooped Callie and I into bone crushing hugs, one arm each. “You’re ok! Oh gods you scared me out of my wits. You couldn’t have been more descriptive?”

I shrugged. “Sorry ma,...