Why are you special?

Death greets me like an old friend, "He's a grade-A rat, isn't he?" For once, he's not reading a book.

I nod as I reach for the tomes of death, "Yes, but I can kind of understand why. Centuries of being top dog at everything, yet forced to do the bidding of someone else who's also apparently pretty abusive. He needs to be taken down, but…" I shake my head.

Death chuckles softly, "You are a mess of contradictions, you know that, right?"

I need to progress spellcasting… "Yes, it's stupid. He's earned whatever is coming to him a thousand times over. And I do plan to take him out of circulation, but I'm concerned…."

Death raises his eyebrows, "Oh? And why is that?"

Ah, Mettle, from the Hexblade. I already get it vs. non-Mythic effects, but it'll be nice to not need to concern myself with fort or will partial effects from Mythic folks too, "Put it this way… how do you get power, exactly?"

Death shrugs, "From the cycle of souls. When a soul is scrubbed, we collect and eat the memories of their prior lives just before putting them in a new one."

Ah, the Shapechange of an Aleax… I get to keep all the Extraordinary and Spell-like abilities of my base form… but I'd lose a lot of Supernatural stuff still, so no… "And what determines who gets to eat?"

Death considers, "Souls are tagged. There's exactly as many souls tagged for me as there are for Life or any of my siblings. It's supposed to come out dead even."

Ah, I'll be able to pick up Time Clone from Spheres this level; so I want the Coven Hex from the witch: that will let my copies boost my caster level through the roof. I'm going to need that… "And yet it doesn't. Tell me: Who picks out souls for rebirth in the cycle?"

Death pauses, "That would be my sister, Life … who hates me… and has been feeding a massively … she couldn't … she wouldn't…"

For the feat… extra JP for Fey Power from a templated Cù-sìth, I think. Add my Charisma to Attack, damage, CMB, and CMD, "I'm a modern man; I view all things as a pool of resources used to accomplish my goals. Your sister hates you, and can starve you out simply by changing how she does her job. But I have a really stupid idea… where does my power come from?" I pull out a specific book.

Death seems confused, "You don't know? Same place as the dungeons, but without the leakage. For practical purposes you have access to an infinite amount of energy."

One evolution point… Skilled it is… "OK, and the Sustain spell … how does it work?"

Death shrugs, "It converts energy into what the body needs."

Lots of numbers… "Great! How do you feel about my trying it on you? Also, care to check my work?"

Death stops cold, "That could not possibly work."

I shrug, "It's a stupid idea, yes. But you do eat, after a fashion…" why is it I feel compelled to work on my sheet while here? But waiting on Death to review seems to let me hold off, no problem….

Death nods, "Yes… I consume memories that can't go back with the soul anyway. But that's…"

And I can keep going, huh, "Converting one kind of energy into another. And you just told me mine's unlimited, or nearly enough. So if there's a spell specifically for that…."

Death chuckles, "It seems so anticlimactic, and absurdly easy, though."

I consider, "Fits though, doesn't it? It's a spell that can only exist here because of the choices in my blessing, and will only stick around because of the choices in my blessing. And I only have the opportunity to apply it because my blessing brings me here. So why won't it work?"

Death takes a breath, "And… that’s the last on the list. And for once, I couldn't give you an answer anyway, as it shouldn't work, but I can't find any good reason why it won't… and things nobody else would think could possibly work are kind of Dad's signature. OK; try it, please."

I reach out and touch Death, casting the spell as I do, and ask "So how do you feel?"

He considers, "Better than I have in a while. That's… huh. Thank you."

I smile, "You’re welcome. Now… why am I compelled to work on the sheet when I'm here?"

Death shrugs, "It's your blessing. That's the purpose of your access here.  You MUST be doing something related. No big deal, really. So let me check your work… spells, defenses, and more numbers? With the action shenanigans you already have, you'll be quite the melee meatgrinder. Why The Coven hex, though?"

I smile, "Well… your sister hates you because she blames you for the death of her lover and child, right?"

He nods, "Yes…"

I nod, "How will she react if your champion returns them to her? I'm going to need a very high caster level to reach back that far, and this is the level where I can temporarily copy myself. So I'll have my copies boost my caster level, picking up a huge number of them, and… well, can you get me enough information to uniquely identify them?"

Death considers, "She will… I honestly don't know how she'll react. She's not the same person she was then. But yes, I can give you their names, as well as the exact date, time, and location of their deaths. It's kind of my specialty.But yes, this seems in order."

I nod, "Then I'm done until the next level; thank you as always, Death."

Death waves, "Be seeing you…."

As the office fades out and the world fades into view, I see the last two dragons leaving. No time passes while I'm there… that's a considerable Time Stop effect.

As for what happens next… well, I have the Plane Shift focus information, so I should be able to Plane Shift in blind. Which does NOT appeal to me. OK, so…

First, Invisibility. I have Undetectable on my Mythic ring, might as well make use of it. I have a runtime caster level of fifteen (eight levels, plus one each for an Ioun Stone and the Create Magic Tattoo spell, plus five from Suffer the Flesh extended well past the intended duration), so I go ahead and invoke Superior Invisibility from Spell Compendium. It says only touch can find me, and renders me invisible. Meanwhile, my Mythic Ring says that while I'm invisible, I can't be found by any means. Should be good to go… and it's natively dismissable.

Oh. I should maybe stop and prepare my newest level of spells… and update the party.

I speak telepathically《Hey Wendy?》

《How’d it go?》she sends back.

I update Wendy,《Some wrinkles… idiot tried to kill me after I gave him a form of immortality to match what he lost when he rejected his patron… he ran off, but left me with a fight with some mind-controlled minions of his. I freed them, most ran off, a few stayed and gave me some intel. How do think everyone would feel about raiding the home of the guy who killed us all? Private demiplane, so no law to worry about.》

I can feel Wendy's grin from here, 《With the power you gave us? Should be a cakewalk. Let's get everyone to chime in first, though.》

Right. Party dynamics. 《I'll be back momentarily.》I dismiss my Invisibility, and Greater Teleport back to Wendy, Paula, and Christine.

"So how'd it go?" Paula, this time. Right. She didn't hear….

"Eh… he's a jerk. Oh, and he revoked his own prophet-hood; rather vocally. Called the Blessed Mother a 'scum-sucking streetwalker' and a 'backstabbing lying abusive witch'.  He also tried to kill me after I granted him agelessness, ran when it became clear he'd lost, and threw a bunch of mind-controlled slaves at me. I freed them from the mind control rather than killing them. Most ran, two stopped and gave me some intel on his home. It's on a private demiplane, so no constables to worry about," I smile, "And I have directions. How does everyone feel about raiding his home?"

Paula smiles, "We can't let him get away with such sacrilege, can we Carter… Christine."

Eh, I slip sometimes too. Christine picks up, "Absolutely not. I'm down for meting out some divine punishment."

Wendy smiles, "I'm game. This guy's been around for how long?" She looks at me.

"Close to a thousand years from what my patron tells me," I'm all smiles, "And the freed slaves let me know he's absolutely loaded."

Paula nods, "Then we're good to go, aren't we? Lead the way."

I direct everyone into a circle, holding hands, and cast a spell to take us out of this world: Plane Shift. A moment later, we're standing on rocky terrain elsewhere, looking up at a stone castle floating in mid air….