305: A Plague of Phantoms: A Banquet, Seasoned With A Pledge II

'This carriage is shit!' I thought as I shifted in my seat.

I was seated on the right side of the carriage between Grandpa Seamus and Jane, Colossus sat on the floor between Grandpa's legs. Louie and Angie were seated on the same bench to the right of Jane with Damon and Alberto to the right of my Grandpa. KC, Bo, and Indy were seated on the bench opposite of the door to the carriage. Reddrick was seated on the bench opposite of me and sat in an uncomfortable silence.

"OW!" Indy exclaimed as he was launched into air and bumped his head ion the wall of the carriage. This was thanks to the carriage being jostled because of some bump in the room.

"This carriage is shit!" Bo griped as he caught Indy and rubbed the bump on his head.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" KC exclaimed and flailed his arms and legs in the childish way only he could.

"Language!" Jane, Louie, Angie, and I exclaimed.

"But is it!" Indy reiterated for Bo while pointing to his head. Damon and Alberto both snickered at the boys but a quick glare from Angie made them straighten up quick.

"Sorry about them." Louie apologized to Reddrick. The diplomat shook head and looked at the boys apologetically.

"Compared to the luxury you're used to traveling in this probably a step down…" Reddrick said.

"Yeah…." Everyone said then looked away from Reddrick out of guilt.

"Might need to add a few cars to the King's Glaive for carriage storage." I said absently. Jane's next snapped to look at me and she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Instant no for whatever you are planning." She said in her scary tone. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

"Like you could stop me." I grumbled. Jane shot me a death glare while smiling innocently. The look of pure and unadulterated violence in her eyes sent a shiver up my spine.

"Better stop while yer ahead Starlight." Grandpa advised with chuckle.

"Anyway! Reddrick, I heard that there are going to be Paragon's at this Banquet." I said, hoping to quickly change the subject. Reddrick took the bait and clapped his hands together with a smile.

"Why yes there will be! I'm told Lady Amaterasu Paragon will be in attendance today, along with Lord Agni Paragon, Lady Izanagi Paragon, Lady Basset Paragon, and Lord Loki Paragon." Reddrick replied.

I couldn't help but notice Alberto flinched a bit at the mention of his sperms donor. I wasn't the only one that noticed it either, they way Louie and Angie glanced his way indicated they did too. Reddrick glanced over at Alberto and narrowed his eyes then suddenly widening in shock.

"You're Alberto Silva! Son of Loki Paragon! Forgive me for not recognizing you sooner!" Reddrick exclaimed and bowed slightly at the waist.

"No need, I'm here as a employee of Sho'lajah Artifact Company, not as the son of a Paragon." Alberto said quickly. Reddrick looked at Alberto with an approving nod.

"I see…most peculiar though, working for a splicer that is at odds with your father. Now that I think about it, there was a rumor that you and Master Kingston were at odds at well." Reddrick said.

"That was more than a rumor. However we were able to reconcile our differences or at least find common ground." Alberto replied then looked out the window.

"By that you mean you got tired of having your pride gutted by Chase and decided to become his Shaping student." Damon teased. Alberto turned and glared at Damon.

"My losing streak had nothing to do with it!" Alberto snapped.

"Suuuuuuure it did…" Bo teased.

"You…!" Alberto growled and turned glare at Bo only to get a pop on the back of my head from Grandpa Seamus.

"Mind yer manners laddie." Grandpa warned. Alberto huffed and rubbed the back of his head then pouted.

"Yes sir…" Alberto grumbled.

***

"We're here…" Reddrick announced as the carriage came to a stop.

I glanced out the window of the carriage and saw that we'd came to a stop in front of a tall gate comprised of multiple red wooden pole at the base of a large long winding staircase leading up the side of a mountain. Reddrick opened the door and motioned for everyone to get out of the carriage.

As I stepped out of the carriage I felt like I was being watched. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Apart from Reddrick and his soldiers there wasn't anyone around.

"Master Kingston, the Banquet is being held at the top of the mountain before you. Just a short climb and you'll be there." Reddrick said.

Jane stepped next to me and glanced upwards at the top of the stairs though she couldn't see it since it stretched into the horizon. I could however thanks to Bone-lasher's electromagnetic vision. The stairs stretched up for a out a half mile up the mountain to a flattened out section that looked to be a sort of observatory.

"That's a pretty far trek." I said glancing over at Reddrick. He chuckled nervously, and glanced over at the soldiers. The soldiers all looked nervous as well.

"Apologies Master Kingston, but this is as far as the carriage can take you. You'll have to climb the stairs the rest of the way…" There was more than a hint of fear in his voice.

"Well if it's as far as ya can take us. We better start walking." Grandpa Seamus said then started towards the stairs. I frowned and shook my head.

"Yeah, not doing that." I said then channeled mana into my void pocket. I pulled out a silver disk the size of a plate. It had a dozen or so rows of runes on it. Channeling mana into the disk I tossed it in front of me and it expanded to around the size of the carriage we stepped out of. Everyone jumped back and frowned at me.

"Chase…what the heck is this?" Damon demanded.

"A enchanted item I made a while ago. I'm calling it Levi-disk." I said then stepped onto the center of the disk. The moment I did I started channeling gravity attribute mana and the disk started to levitate a couple inches off the ground.

"It's better than walking." Bo exclaimed then jumped onto the disk. Indy and KC both jumped on after Bo. Louie and Angie both shared a look then shrugged and stepped onto the Levi-disk after them with Damon and Alberto stepping on after them. Jane sighed then stepped on with Grandpa Seamus and Colossus.

"Thank you for escorting us this far. We'll take our leave." Jane said, flashing Reddrick a soft smile.

I commanded the Levi-disk to start flying up the stairs, moving at a decent speed. To make sure that nobody fell off I made sure to differentiate how gravity effects each side of the disk. The top side had gravity slightly higher than normal while the gravity on the bottom side was reversed to push against the ground. It was pretty mentally taxing to keep the two separate, thankfully I had my evos to help mitigate the strain.

The climb up the stairs only took a few minutes thanks to the Levi-disk but offered a great view of the southern part of the islands. I had a good view of the white weeping willow forest and Grimm-Guard patrolling the island from above.

At the top of staircase were four soldiers from the JSDF, who all jumped at seeing us rapidly approaching. I brought the Levi-disk to a stop shortly before the top step.

"Last stop! Everybody off!" I exclaimed.

"Really Chase?" Jane said with a groan then stepped in front of me and up to the most senior looking soldier.

"We are the members of Sho'lajah Artifact Company, here for the banquet." She said. The soldier saluted and stepped to the side, snapped out of his shock from having seeing us fly up the stairs.

"Of course! The banquet is being held inside the observatory down the path." The soldier said. I nodded then packed up the Levi-disk. We then started down the pathway towards the observatory with everyone in my group following close behind.

The observatory in question was a tall square building that looked similar to a lighthouse, except for the massive platform off the side of the third floor that hung over for side of the mountain. From the front of the observatory I could only see a portion of the railing though.

As we approached the door I paused and looked back at everyone, remembering that we'll be entering a large party filled with the leaders of countries that have plenty of reason for fear me and one in particular who had a lot of reasons to hate me. Everyone looked at me with questioning looks until I started summoning four crystalline structures from my farm crystal.

"Jiggles, Empress, Fours, Bone-lasher!" I exclaimed and flung their crystals behind me. They shattered in mid-air and my four evos landed on the ground around my group. "Bone, Jiggles, Empress, Fours, protect everyone in this group, no matter what. Be on maximum guard, all of our worst enemies are going to be inside. I will not tolerate anyone getting hurt."

"YES BOSS!"

"MY LORD!"

"ALWAYS STAR SHAPER!"

<OF COURSE PRETENDER!>