Sammy made a bow with her hands clasped and looked to the ghostly visage of the one who’d addressed her. “Under a sky of rarest beauty, we hope for the cheer of yesteryear,” she declared dramatically, as if for an audience.

  She swayed her hands upward. “It is merely for the foolery of a game of entertainment we play at masquerade, and for whom it resides most deservedly? Our king, who broods through endless skies of gray! With equal cheer, please cast aside unfounded suspicions and grant in confidence our passage, for what serpents could mere fools possibly hide?”

  When she was done, her eyes rolled around to gauge reactions. Azure was nodding along favorably, confidently, while striking her own dramatic pose in support. Orswyth meanwhile looked… dubious.

  Two of her ghostly allies — Linguist and Waytaker — stared incredulously at her. Stargazer sighed and closed his eyes.

  Whaaaaat?!

  The weaponless wraith scowled at her. The great bearded wraith just blinked in confusion, now wearing an uncertain smile.

  The wraith with the orb staff sniffed derisively. “Solicitors of foolishness? A fortuitous sky our ilk were warned to reside here, to spare our king more magnification of spite and anger. Well again, to spare such fools as come in clouded skies to court their destruction with an intolerant spirit. Begone! Thankful or not for the mercy of caretakers for an ignominious interception, this is no sky shared between us.”

  “Hrrrrrrarrgh!” the scimitar-wielded offered, holding up his weapon.

  Son of a bitch! I really felt like I had that one.

  With little choice left, Sammy removed her mask and threw back her hood, striking a brand-new, more heroic pose, invoking [Goddess] and her variety of status-centric traits, including the new [Aura of Conquest]. She made sure to throw in [Diplomacy]. “Not just any fool is before you — behold! A goddess in truth, of Fate, of Pneuma, of Light!” Utilizing [Light Manipulation], she took the golden-tinted luminance from the door, amplified it, and made it highlight her in the pose. “I seek an audience with your king; pray, let us pass!”

  The guardian wraiths all stared in shocked amazement at the display. And a moment later, their faces elongated as they snarled monstrously, their eyes suddenly full of fury and hatred. No words were uttered — on a dime they’d become effectively feral.

  Tough crowd.

  Sammy’s senses for sudden violent outbursts were fairly acute and her response time in a spirit realm was quick as sin, but two of the wraiths nonetheless stole the initiative. Psychologically, Sammy hesitated to begin with — getting attacked first made self-defense actions fully justified, after all.

  Considering she had no specific protections on — by request of her wraith friends to avoid unnecessary suspicious spell auras and such — Sammy took the opportunity to activate half of her Minor Contingency effect, buffing herself with Three Small Fortunes and thus a wound negation. She had a more powerful Major Contingency spell now, but she hadn’t secured the time (and spell components) to deal with it yet.

  The orb-wielder thrust his staff and a terrible beam of blinding light shot from it at Sammy’s face.

  She didn’t bother defending against it. The light splashed over her and she absorbed it, soon radiating it out as temporary Light FE. “Nice try, buddy,” she added. “Might want to pay attention to tactical tells next time.”

  A vicious snarl of offense was all she got in return. “Hrrrarrgh!”

  Meanwhile, the wraith without a weapon was also acting — two ornate wands in the shape of demonic figures appeared in his hand. One he thrust out, and green fire erupted out in a wide cone.

  This looked particularly bad for her allies, so Sammy rather intuitively opted to go all-out on countering it. As the lot of them were probably appetizers for a battle with some zombie god-king, Sammy wasn’t very inclined to expend dailies… so instead she sacrificed 80 mana and utilized [Split Prediction: Spell Reaction]. The effect she was staring at had an ‘emanation point,’ so she used the staple spell for stuffing aggression: Wall of Force.

  With one mystical word uttered, a shimmering relative sphere surrounded the wraith, just outside of the blooming spell fire and otherwise wrapping around him and the nearby ‘hook staff’ wraith — she didn’t block off the other two because the wall would block her side’s attacks too.

  Half now, half later!

  Green fire hit the invulnerable wall and flared for an instant before going out, having dealt no harm. Mostly none, anyway — it had partially rebounded and singed the clothes of the two wraiths, who smoked a bit and gave vicious snarls of offense. “Hrrrarrgh!”

  Largely, Sammy still had the initiative. While she could play it defensively and take back some of that ‘all-out’ she’d committed to, she decided to keep the train going for the most part. First of all, she dropped a REX buff on Orswyth, loading him up with wound negations. He had a solid failsafe already, but REX buffs were pretty much free actions. Sadly, he was the only qualifying Follower.

  She went with the logical utility tactic available to her, activating [Create Phantasms] for the full range of effects and Independent layers, as filtered through [Deific Pneumamancy]. With this, she spawned multiple doubles, moved to the side, and otherwise focused on a quick telekinesis-like effect targeting the scimitar-wielder. She slapped and grabbed him with a huge intangible hand, attempting to knock him and carry him through into the orb staff wraith, possibly to carry them both into the force wall for some extra smashery. It also qualified for [Simple, Stupid].

  Mr. Scimitar was blindsided as he was slammed and grabbed, but Orb Dummy quite deftly dodged out of the way despite his armor, doing some sort of odd floating dive-roll as if he’d once been an acrobat. Idly, he swept his staff around, which hit a Goddess Double that put on a show of being knocked by it.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  His maneuver displaced his cape, which revealed that a separate steel chain around his waist ended in a large, golden, glittering key.

  Well, well, what have we here?

  Mr. Scimitar was crushed into the Wall of Force with a vicious snarl of offense. His armor was dented, and apparent bits of him seemed to crumble off. He was not out, though still gripped rather handily.

  If I didn’t know any better, those snarls of theirs sound almost repetitively similar. Wait, do I know better?

  Hook Guy was trapped behind the Wall of Force — he viciously snarled in offense, making a face like a zombie with constipation. He gave the wall a kick to no effect and otherwise seemed poised and bristling to act as he looked helplessly to his nearby ally.

  Eerily similar. Eerily.

  Sammy, as pretty much always, made sure her rather automatic aura, The Dawn Will Rise, was up. Simple as it was to qualify with her Followers and Servitors in continuous mental communion, it required a little bit of gusto for outsiders like her new wraith buddies. So she called out, “Rip these ghosts some new assholes, team!” as encouragement.

  “Gladly, my love.” Azure lifted her hand in the direction of Orb Dummy, summoning forth her staple of dark gleaming magical blades by the half dozen. The wraith met the onslaught with deft parries by his staff but was soon backpedaling diagonally upward as he took a couple of slashes slipping between armor gaps. He did manage to score his orb on one blade directly, which caused a small explosion of light and banished it.

  Sammy noticed Azure had conducted something of a new support habit of hers before this, for both of their uses — a minor contingency to fling out a dozen physical mirrors to float around.

  She’s so sweet! But actually, she’s been increasing in her potential use cases for them.

  Stargazer lifted his hands and began a spell chant of dramatic emphasis, as a sparkling glow began around the party. It only began though — it was a quite slow spell, whatever it was.

  Orswyth also began something a bit slow, though not as slow as Stargazer. It was a summoning and perhaps the most powerful summoning to pull off for one of Samantha’s order: a Servitor.

  Normally, I’d bring them with me, but noooo, we had to be all stealthy and work in a small teeeeam… so much for that now.

  Waytaker’s eyes were studiously watching Hook Guy and the spellcasting wraith — Wandy, Sammy decided his name was. Waytaker summoned her own staff, a resplendent thing ending in a white, winged skull. She seemed to be poised, waiting, slowly floating into the mix in a defensive stance.

  Linguist flew over behind Sammy, apparently fleeing and cowering. However, he whispered at her back, “Goddess, Realm Rules will make this fight long and arduous due to their status as Sentinels and Royal Guardsmen — their durability is extreme.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve fought literally invulnerable enemies, so no biggie,” Sammy replied.

  “Nonetheless, the shortcut would be to take the key and open the way. Perhaps you can block off their pursuit? The king could summon them directly, but his response to any plea is irregular at best.”

  “Oh shit! Now there’s an idea…”

  Within the force wall, Wandy had been preparing some spell effect, waving the wand in his off-hand, magical energy building. He did a final flick and unleashed an anti-magic type of blast that hit the Wall of Force and banished it immediately.

  Instantly, the waiting Hook Guy sprang forward and flung his staff into the open space, which made the hooks fly off still attached by wires — they zipped right for Samantha, the wraith having successfully kept his eyes on the real target despite her decoys.

  I don’t like you anymore, Hook Guy.

  Sammy was prepared to take multiple licks but someone else had been waiting too — Waytaker leapt to intercept, or rather positively flew to interject herself. She spun her staff around fluidly and with tremendous speed, a glowing blur apparently as enhanced by the item in her grasp. She knocked one spooling hook with a skull head, another with the butt of the staff, and a third with the head again.

  One hook maneuvered around the friendly ghost’s furious defense and stabbed Sammy in the shoulder, passing through her physical armor like it wasn’t there. Due to her utilizing [Spell Reaction] and doing other shit on top, she couldn’t do much more than tough out the resistance and her wound negation was breached.

  The hook sliced through a bit of flesh and slipped free with a spray of blood. Technically, she was bleeding, she just happened to not need that blood very much.

  Her other Minor Contingency triggered by the condition of losing a wound negation, casting Mystic Armor on her and bestowing her with another.

  Alright, no more all-out shit! I hope. Perhaps they do warrant some daily expenditures? Hrm.

  Orswyth’s spell materialized as a bloom of light formed into a big, golden-armored angel with unfurling white wings, a massive sword, and a kite shield — Michael. “I’ve had enough of you ghouls and your fiendish whining!” he declared as he swept his blade before him and rose up in the center of the room. “It shall come to an end, by the light and truth of the Holy Goddess, Samantha.”

  They all viciously snarled in offense. “Hrrrarrgh!”

  “See?! That’s what I mean, right there! Gah! Stop that!”

  But like a broken record, their repetitive utterances only continued. “Hrrrarrgh!”

  Orb Dummy had created some space between him and the dark blades slicing and dicing him. He used this space to bring his staff up over his head and slam it downward. The orb exploded in a cascade, creating a huge flash of light that swallowed the entire chamber. The blades got annihilated as everyone not a goddess or a being of light shielded their eyes.

  Azure cried out as she got caught a bit more flat-footed and staring in response than the others, not to mention perhaps being the most vulnerable of the bunch to it.

  No worries. We’re doing alright so far. Just need to get this key… without everyone getting pasted by an AoE. Just a teensy bit tricky, that’s all!

  Everything worked out perfectly, as you can see. Hrrrarrgh.

  Next Chapter...

  The key remains the key target.

  Backers go here! Huzzah! Thank you! is a link to the claim thread for those who want a spot.

  Elias Blade, holding eternally the tarot of The Fool!

  Helva, holding eternally the tarot of The Hierophant!

  Gostsamo, holding eternally the tarot of Death (+ Binky)!

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  Renn, holding eternally the tarot of The Lovers!

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  ObsidianShiv, holding eternally the tarot of the Seven of Swords!

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  Nick, holding eternally the tarot of the Four of Pentacles!

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  ZelTheUnbroken, holding eternally the tarot of the Knight of Swords!

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  GrimmRozen, holding eternally the tarot of the Five of Swords!

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  Kaylee, holding eternally the tarot of the Two of Pentacles!

  SlipJay, holding eternally the tarot of the Four of Swords!

  Talisman, holding eternally the tarot of the Four of Cups!

  Ant Mac, holding eternally the tarot of the Page of Pentacles!

  Taublatt, holding eternally the tarot of the Nine of Pentacles!

  Shattered, holding eternally the tarot of the Ten of Wands!

  IsacIW, holding eternally the tarot of the Two of Swords!

  Claire Rylander, holding eternally the tarot of the Seven of Wands!

  Zimmy, holding eternally the tarot of the Nine of Cups!

  Sarai, holding eternally the tarot of the Seven of Pentacles!