Daysia, it turned out, WAS looking for a partner. Despite seeming incredibly shy and anxious, the daisy haired Dryad was extremely enthusiastic about working together. “I’m so happy not to have to do this alone,” she gushed. “I’ve never been very speed oriented. I’m a Tree Singer, and Dancers tend to be the ones who create speed techniques. Do you have some kind of transport we could use?”

  Shuttles, I was told, weren’t allowed, but mounts were considered fair game. I didn’t have a mount, but I DID have a bird. “I’ll have Archie carry you,” I said, jerking my thumb at my phoenix. “Just hold onto his legs once they call for it to start. Now, since that’s out of the way, do you know anything about where we’re headed? That direction…I want to say like five hundred miles?” It was tough to estimate based on the sensation of distance, but anything she could tell me about the general area was going to be useful.

  “Of course!” she said enthusiastically. “I think we’re supposed to be going to the Gloamwood. It’s the territory of the Dark Moon Weasel King. He’s at the C-rank. The Dark Moon Weasels are the sworn enemies of the Verdenloft Lemurs, and the Gloamwood is right on the edge of Lemur territory.”

  That sounded…less threatening than it probably should. A C-ranked beast would be very dangerous, but I found it hard to imagine a weasel being threatening. Then again, Melinda from the Beast Lord Garden had a weasel companion, and he’d been some sort of Moon Weasel if I remembered right.

  Best case scenario I could avoid him completely. I made a mental note to lean hard into Bael when I entered. In fact, I’d been working on a possible pseudo domain that might help in this situation, one that would be frighteningly effective in a pce called Gloamwood.

  Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to bring this up, because only a moment ter, a voice rang out across the ptform of the Mother Tree. “The ceremony…BEGINS!”

  Tasha’s voice boomed over us so fiercely the leaves in the canopy above us shook, and everyone sprang into action. All around the perimeter, I could see the vague forms of Drayds plummeting into the Tree Sea below. Some jumped, some created wooden gliders, some swung down on vines somehow, and some seemed to drift and dance in the air like dandelion leaves. But none of them could fly.

  I sprinted forward at top speed, leapt off the ptform, and spread my wings wide as I reached for an old friend I hadn’t used consciously in a very long time. State of Grace.

  What had once been a retively useful trick, when given literal wings, turned into a massive qualitative boost in capability. In a State of Grace, my movement speed and versatility in the air was magnified multiple times over, giving me an effortless sense of control and freedom as I soared out over the trees miles below me.

  Archie trilled in exultation, winging forth from the ptform with a shrieking Daysia clinging to his legs like she was using a feather hang glider.

  I cackled joyfully, exulting in the freedom and excitement of flying miles above the ground with perfect control of my movements, spinning and dipping and flying in loops. Archie chirped in annoyance as he passed me, and I smirked before reaching into myself and triggering my waltz.

  The new and improved Mephisto’s Waltz didn’t require a form to utilize, and offered so much more freedom and ease of movement. I fpped my wings, vanishing in a burst of dark fme, and Archie screeched a challenge before doing the same in a bze of green.

  Daysia shrieked, but the sound was carried away on the wind as my companion and I REALLY let loose, wings beating the air like the bdes of a propeller as we fshed across the countryside, our speed pushed to the limits of what a D-ranker was capable of. This was where the waltz could really shine, up in the sky on the wing, with nothing in the way and the only limitation being my own energy.

  Miles were eaten up under our travel, smaller forests making themselves clear as we moved from region to region of the Primordial Tree Sea. Eventually, we came to one where the leaves were dark purple and the bark was bck. The air above it was cold and bit at my skin and dark clouds gathered atop the canopy.

  As we approached, I swept down, spreading my wings as I approached an open clearing where my leaf symbol had been drawing me. My wings billowed, catching the wind completely and pulling back on my rapidly descending body like a parachute, with State of Grace allowing me to slow even further and nd gracefully at a steady walk.

  Archie, appearing next to me with a cry of outrage at me beating him here, unceremoniously dropped Daysia as he braked, letting the poor Dryad hit the ground in a bruising roll and bounce painfully across the clearing, nding on her back about halfway across.

  “Daysia?” I asked her as I approached. “You good?”

  She just id there, staring up at the sky and twitching. “I can hear the sunlight,” she croaked out quietly. “I can taste the north winds as they blow seeds from the deepest jungles.”

  I frowned, then leaned over her and rolled my eyes. “Oh damn it, you’re a pnt person.” I turned to my phoenix. “How many doses of life fire did she get during that race. You didn’t wonder if letting it just explode out like that would be good for her or not? Come on, that’s just sloppy!” He cawed back cattily. “Obviously you should care! She looks like she’s about to have a seizure!”

  He just sniffed and flew away to perch on a nearby branch, looking away from me in the snittiest way possible. I rolled my eyes again. Sore loser. Kneeling down, I poke her shoulder. “Daysia? You in there?”

  “I’m a part of the great tapestry of growing life,” she rasped.

  “Hm,” I muttered. “One second, I’ve got something for this.” I let Sammael drop, my wings vanishing, and then triggered Belial. I didn’t want to use too strong a version of it, since Belial was especially effective against things like pnts, and Sammael would massively amplify that. I put a hand on her forehead, then let the toxic fme seep into her skin.

  She sat bolt upright. “OW!” she yelped, her hands flying to her head. I hadn’t used much, and the overwhelming life energy in her system took care of it, but it was enough to shock her awake. “That hurt!” she whined, rubbing her head. “Also thank you. That felt…weird.”

  “I’m guessing your pnt body was able to absorb way more of that stuff than it should’ve,” I noted. “For baseline humans it usually just tops up and stops. I’ll have to let Jessie know to be careful of that too. Sorry about the poison. You ok?”

  She shook her head, but not to indicate a denial, more to clear it. “I’m fine,” she said after a minute. “It just sucked.”

  “Bme the feather duster,” I said, gesturing to where Archie was peacocking on a branch. “He really should be a little more restrained with that technique.” I smirked up at the seething bird. “He can’t keep up with me anymore, since I refined the waltz.”

  Realistically, his variation of that move was stronger than mine. Life Nova had an advantage in that kind of bursting explosive movement. Destroying space between two points was doable but extremely taxing, but after refining my waltz in the library, I’d reached a whole new level of precision and speed. Archie, naturally, was annoyed.

  She smiled a little, and when I cocked my head she expined. “Sorry, it’s just nice to see how close you are with your companion. I hope my companion and I are as close as you two.”

  “Wait, I thought most D-rank trees weren’t like…cognizant,” I said slowly.

  “Dryad trees are a little different,” she said with a chuckle. “Once you lifebond a tree their soul advances as it mixes with yours. Pnts tend to advance on rank up, meaning their souls are pretty stunted for their level. So…how are we supposed to search this pce? The weasels will surely notice us enter, and the Dark Wood Weasel King is far beyond our ability to fight.”

  Depending on its stat allocation, I might be able to fight it, actually, but I wouldn’t be able to kill it. And thinking about it, I might not even manage to keep up enough to hold it off. The amount of effort I put in to kill off that dark priest would be nothing compared to how difficult it would be to kill a proper C-ranked beast, and one that had presumably been at that level for a long time. Beasts usually had enormous Might and Vitality, and there was no way even the limit of D-rank would be enough.

  Luckily, I had my own ideas on how to do this. “Archie,” I called my companion. “Enough sulking, time to get to work.”

  Hearing the seriousness in my voice, his head snapped up, fierce eyes locking on me. At a gesture, he swooped down to nd on Daysia’s shoulder. He would be acting as an outlet for this domain so I could channel it into her without needing to huddle right next to her. That would keep my staff free for combat as well as providing personal space I was sure we would both appreciate.

  With that done, I closed my eyes and entered the library. Waving a hand, I conjured a bnk book. This was the first domain I was going to be making in here, and the first technique I’d be creating from scratch with Pride as a base. I was kind of excited, but I was confident I could skip a lot of prep work by using the library, and that the resulting domain would be even better than my others.

  The first thing I did, obviously, was write in the information about the forms I’d be using. Bael and Dantalion respectively. Bael was a stealth form that gave me a huge boost to Perception, and Dantalion was another heavily Perception based form with Focus pying a crucial role. Ideally, Dantalion’s amazing information gathering capabilities would allow me more deeply parse and eliminate traces of myself, leading to exponentially more effective stealth, even for that amplified effectiveness.

  I wrote them both into the book, identifying the exact volumes for the forms, the roles they pyed, and then started to get into the story of the domain. Domains were just advanced Paths, which were effectively techniques. Forms were basically halfway points between techniques and Paths, and the pseudo domain was a halfway point between a Path and Domain. Since they all came from the same pce, I could use the library to build my pseudo Domains just as easily as a form or technique, and even easier than a Skill.

  While my ancestor’s “Great Book Heavenly Library” was Skill focused, my own library focused more on techniques, prioritizing story over stats. This limited me in terms of Skill creation and adjustment, but gave me a massive advantage in terms of anything Path or domain reted.

  So that was what I did. I focused on telling a story. About how Bael and Dantalion descended into the depths of hell to the city of Murmur, the demon lord of secrets who served as a Duke under Bael, and with their powers of invisibility and information gathering, they gifted him the ability to move undetected even under the nose of the greatest princes of hell.

  With my Focus and Perception, it only took me about ten minutes to finish writing the story, scribed in stats to empower this domain. When I finished, I smmed the book shut, sliding it onto the shelf in an open spot, and then emerged from my mind.

  Daysia looked confused, but I just grinned and reached for my most recent triumph. I had Callie prepare with a few piece of mind parallels just in case the infodump was too much, and then I said the words aloud for the first time. “Fifth circle of hell. Murmur.” And all trace of us disappeared from the forest.