Wish upon the Stars chapter 100 (Patreon)

I had to point out the obvious as we looked around the mostly empty  clearing (at least if you didn't count the unconscious bodies of the  sleepers) "So...thematically I feel like the wings aren't really  suitable for the whole murder cultist image. Does this seem jarring to  anyone else?" I looked around, seeing Cold Snap raise his hand until  Benny smacked him in the back of the head. The...semi-reformed cult  mercenary? Glared at my friend and rubbed his head while I turned to  look at the hooded form. "So, you gonna introduce yourself? Or just  stand there looking menacing?"

I expected the voice to  come from Mr. Grey, but this time it issued from under the hood itself.  "See. This is why I should have just killed you. But no, I wanted to  maintain my image. Still, I expected that little visit to the Bleakest  Depths to kill you. I didn't even have to send a second agent for you to  tail, you stumbled on the one following the bounty hunter. I suppose  that's what happens when you trust braindead meat to run your errands."

The  voice sounded...familiar. But not. It was colder than the last time I'd  heard it, but the context and the story made it obvious. "Saint Aiden I  presume? And how does that even work? You would think being a member of  the clergy would get problematic if you worked for the Black Sorrow  Cult. You have some way to hide that?" I assumed he WAS an actual clergy  member based on the glowing white wings.

He pushed back  his hood, revealing that same pleasant, fine featured face. The eyes  that had looked kind and welcoming before were still pale blue, but they  were poisonous and cold, like chips of frozen cyanide. "Obviously. I  have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be this irritating to handle.  Bit of fear gaming with the card to shake you up, then when you were too  paranoid to function lure you out somewhere to kill or capture. Most  people run AWAY from assassins. And yes they check for it, but I  have...ways of getting around that."

Benny raised his  hand. "Can I just say that I knew it all along? I mean, I didn't say  anything because it sounded paranoid but come on, holier than thou  pretty boy? Had to be evil. No one could possibly be that boring unless  they were doing it on purpose." Aiden's eye twitched slightly and I had  to fight the urge to burst out laughing. Benny always was way too much  of a smartass for his own good. "Have to ask though, why would you come  here? Like...this seems really fucking stupid."

I was  wondering that too. I was also concerned he managed to banish the mist.  Whatever that energy had been hadn't had much trouble clearing away a  consistent effect from my ability. It made me curious as to what the  hell it actually was, because I somehow doubted it was a power he had  personally. If that was what he was relying on though, it made sense to  show up in person, and it was looking likely based on the fucking wings  sticking out of his back. Was it a racial trait? Was he an angel  somehow?

His cold amusement didn't fade at all at the  question, if anything it intensified. "Hardly. I might be G rank, but  I'm at the higher end of that spectrum. Bringing you in will push me to F for sure. The Cult rewards its loyal followers. Not to mention as  you've seen I have some tricks up my sleeve. That mist was annoying by  the way. Took me ages to gather enough power to break it. Luckily I have  this neat Job from the Church and it provides so excellent benefits  when used properly."

I raised an eyebrow. "So you're  really a Saint? I thought that was just a bullshit title." I wasn't  exactly sure how the Church did things or even how job worked, but I'd  have expected Saint to be a high ranking job. Maybe I'd misunderstood  the way things worked? Whatever was going on the Cult clearly had people  in places no one would have expected. The sooner we got them off this  planet the better.

His amused smugness slipped as he  stared at me for a second in shock before he burst out laughing. "Oh  gods. You don't know. The son of the youngest Saintess in the history of  the Church of Red Revenant thinks I'M a Saint! That's absolutely  hilarious." He laughed so hard he actually doubled over and had to put  his hands on his knees, flaring his blazing wings, but I wasn't paying  any attention.

My mom. He was here because of my MOM. Not  my dad. I knew mom was an A ranker and that she and dad hadn't seen eye  to eye about things he'd been doing, but knowing my mom was a Saintess  of the Church was another thing entirely. It also meant that Saintess  was apparently an A rank job title, presumably the reason I was being  cackled at by an obnoxious cult handler. The others were just as  shocked, staring at me in awe. I was guessing some of them knew that  Saintesses were a big deal. The WCP got around, but the Church was  pretty insular. You didn't see many high ranking members outside their  Holy Dominion.

Aiden stood up, his laughter abating as he  wiped his eyes. "Oh, wow, thank you. I really needed that. As a thank  you I'll murder all of your friends quickly instead of beating them all  to death slowly like I was planning." He paused. "Nothing personal you  see, it's just that you've all been an unbearable nuisance, and I can't  have you chasing our golden boy over there back with me when we return  him to Cult territory. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally go  home. I absolutely abhor this place. It's all so...theatrical. And they  call US lunatics."

I was not looking  forward to this fight. He seemed so certain he could win, even against  all of us. I wasn't really sure what the hell we were going to be able  to do to stop him. We needed a plan, which meant we needed to stall and  make one. Luckily this asshole had apparently been saving up an evil  monologue for years while he pretended to be a good guy, so I decided to  play to his vanity. "How did you keep your image to clean for so many  years on this planet as a traitor? It must have been difficult."

He  smirked knowingly at me, but didn't call me on the distraction. I think  he knew but didn't care that I was stalling. "It wasn't easy, believe  you me. But being able to move the meat puppets with my brain made it  simpler. Besides that I made sure to use them to gather resources to  fund my "charity". The Bleakest Depths was only one of my revenue  streams. The charity itself served it's own purpose. Letting me walk  among the downtrodden to identify children who might have potential  later in life."

That  awful smirk turned on Cark. "Like your sister. I remember her you know.  Remembered her even before you became such a nuisance. After all, power  tends to run in family lines. That's why I took her you know. Because  when I was on one of my missions to the megaplex I heard all about you. I  was so impressed I decided I wanted a Cark of my very own. Fire users  are so useful." He turned to the orange haired girl Cark had been  fighting, lying burned and beaten on the ground. "Well...some of them.  Speaking of useless disappointments, I see you over there Adrian."

Cold  Snap seemed to subconsciously retreat a bit behind Benny. "You've gone  too far this time Prophet! I had no choice but to help them take you  down." We all gave him exasperated looks. He didn't care about any of  that and we knew it, but clearly he figured Aiden would kill him anyway,  so he had the best chance at surviving all this if he stuck with us. At  least as a group we had a chance to beat him.

Aiden  rolled his eyes. "Yes, very moving you little weasel. In any case, I  think that's about all the stalling I feel like allowing at the moment.  Sorry to throw cut this little chat short but I have places to be and  people to murder. If you don't mind, maybe almost all of you can die  now." He flared his wings, calling to that same blazing power, and I  flinched back from how absurdly bright it was. He condensed and  coalesced the energy until he was holding a long glowing sword. I got  the impression the thing wasn't going to be all for show.

Of  course, he didn't have a chance to use it, because the moron had given  us plenty of time for everyone to get ready to fight and get in  position, and that included Jessie. Banishing that fog had exposed the  whole area (not that she couldn't see through it anyway) and with all  the lights from the big flash dramatic skills he was using he was an  easy target. Our healer had been pumping Vitality into one of those  acorns for the whole time we'd been talking, and when she saw the sword  she decided to let loose with her projectile.

Needless  to say Aiden wasn't exactly unsurprised when the glowing green acorn  came down and smashed into the ground at his feet. He stared at it for a  second before the explosion of roots burst forth and wrapped up his  whole body in pulsing green glowing plant matter. I saw his pale blue  eyes widen in alarm as he was subsumed roots alongside Mr. Grey, who  hadn't made a sound at all during the puppet master's little speech.  Within seconds they were both swallowed up by the wood, with not even  the light showing through the cracks.

I  blinked a few times before turning to the others. "Ok, well as cool as  that was I somehow doubt it's going to hold him for long. Whatever that  light is it's pretty scary. Anyone have any idea exactly how long we  have to figure out what the hell to do before he busts out and tries to  murder us all?" It looked like he was trying to tear free, but the green  light pulsing inside the roots was repaired them as fast as he could  cut himself free, even if it was getting much dimmer as it was  happening.

We  all looked at Callie, who just shrugged. "Don't look at me, I don't  know how Agria's ability works yet. But based on the lights I'd say we  have a minute or two at most, so we'd better get planning." With that  she started to explain the plan. She assigned each of us a task and I  couldn't help but be proud of how cool she was under pressure. She'd  been rock solid throughout this whole thing, even when the rest of us  were shaken by the mist being banished by that weird glowing power that  Aiden had been about to use on us directly.

Speaking  of which I had to wonder what that was. Some sort of holy energy? Was  that the power of a god, used secondhand? It would explain it being able  to get rid of the mist. I was working myself up but I forced my  breathing to calm. I vaguely remembered the wish being to summon mist  for the duration of the fight. That didn't necessarily mean that mist  would be impenetrable, I imagined that would have taken a lot more in  the way of stats.

I was making a  mountain out of a molehill. I made a mental note though to check into  this when I was doing my experiments with my power after this was all  over. I didn't have time to think more because the roots exploded as he  finally got loose, and the fight was on.