The Path of Ascension

Chapter 256

Matt floated in the void of space and blinked at the black hole in front of him. It bore down on his Concept like it was trying to remove its polar opposite from the realm. Which it sort of was. A true black hole wasnt the weak construct that Minkalla had made as a test, beatable by any Tier 14s. This was a proper, natural black hole, and a Tier 7 one at that.

Despite its low Tier, the black hole held a truly enormous amount of essence in its core that Matt could feel from well outside its event horizon. All celestial bodies took enormous amounts of essence to advance, but even compared to the suns Matt had visited in his quest for inspiration with his Intent, the black hole was a relatively endless pit.

And that was why he was here.

The black hole was his Concepts polar opposite, and through its pressure and resistance, he was able to better understand his Concept, and through that, his Intent. At Tier 17, it was getting safer to push a bit further at the pieces of his Intent, attempting to gauge the level of compatibility he had with them. It wasnt wholly reliable- many people had ended up with an Intent they initially had rejected, or found that what they thought was a perfect match was completely rejected by their spirit in practice. But it was a start. His attempts at a Minkalla-based Image was still his favored idea out of a dozen others.

Hed still test other Images once it was safe to do so, but he didnt have the luxury of waiting until then to determine a new potential Image. Hence, revisiting the black hole idea.

Using the Heart of the Black Hole from Minkalla had been great training, but as he got stronger and grew more attuned to his Concept, the pressure the item put on him had dropped to zero, which was why he had sought out the true version of his Concepts nemesis.

With the pressure of the black hole pressing down on him, Matt calmed himself before entering the very center of his essence cores, where his Domain resided. Inside, he found his Concept at the center of his being, where it radiated out endless energy. That was the core of who he was, and seeing that, Matt understood Aunt Helens earlier comments about Domains and their natures. His Concept was the core of himself, and everything else was built off that.

Mentally pulling back a little, Matt retreated slightly to leave the sphere of influence of his Concept where his Intent would eventually surround it. It was empty at the moment, holding only the vague echoes of Minkalla resonating with his spirit, and now bending under the pressure of the black hole before him.

His Phrase and Anchor were in similar states, and Matt gently pushed some of his ideas to the forefront of his spirit, seeing how they resisted and interacted with the very real black hole before him. Because his spirit was aligned with a white hole, anything originating from his Domain would be naturally fought by the black hole. If the idea had particular resonance with his spirit, then it would be able to resist the black holes presence because he could resist the black hole. If it wasnt able to resist the pressure, that meant his spirit wasnt empowering the idea and likely meant it was ill-suited to be a part of his Domain.

Others could go to places that synergized with their Concepts to see what resonated with them, but as he was the only accessible white hole in the realm, he didnt have that luxury. It wasnt a foolproof method by any stretch of the imagination, but it was one piece of the puzzle. Today, he was working on his Phrase. Another time, hed return for his Image and Anchor.

He had, if anything, too many ideas for his Anchor. A massive, ever expanding mana crystal, a talisman, an enchanters scribe, a mana concentration potion, a constellation, a suit of armor, even the heart of a black hole He still held out some hope that he could utilize his sword as his anchor, but while it felt lightly compatible with his image of Minkalla, he didnt feel any particular resonance with it. It was incomplete, somehow. The same went for his house and ring, which could have fit with the idea of a modular Intent.

He still wanted to try, but he knew attempting to chase specific interactions and initial abilities was something of a fools errand. Maybe he could brute-force it, but doing so would result in something far weaker that might possibly need to be outright replaced, if it truly was lacking in resonance.

Luna had suggested that his sword might not be appropriate as his Anchor because it didnt properly represent the way he interacted with the world around him. It was one tool among many, but his spirit was unconvinced that it wished to define itself around such a narrow scope. Matt wasnt sure if that truly was his problem, but he set those concerns aside.

For now, he was attempting to find a Phrase.

At the moment, his top contender was I Am Resolute.

It felt loose, not quite appropriate, and certainly not modal in the way he had hoped, but it still had some resistance to the black hole before him. Fittingly, intent mattered when it came to interpreting Phrases, and it was possible he simply hadnt found the right angle to consider the phrase yet, which would give him that eureka moment.

My Will Is Resolute felt somewhat better, and seemed to hold resonance with the idea that he was capable of accomplishing anything should he be determined enough. It meshed with Minkalla and rejected the black hole, which seemed like a good start for a Phrase, which Matt felt fairly pleased with.

I Am Dauntless was another contender, oddly enough this one resonated fairly well with the black hole when he tested it, instead of rejecting his Concepts opposite. But the sense of immovability it brought seemed to be much the opposite of the modal effects he was aiming for, so it was discarded.

I Am Unstoppable, Forging Untold Worlds, Creating The Impossible, Vanquisher Of The Wicked, Defender Of The Weak, I Am Flexible, I Am Modal, I Overcome All, I Am Unaffected, all were tried and considered.

I Am Limitless held a distant echo of promise, and certainly could work. It promised a good degree of flexibility, and he was in many ways limitless in that his mana could enable him to fill any role. He could be a tank with his armor skills, or buff himself and be a powerful striker. He could be a support for Liz and Aster, or a blaster.

With the pressure of the black hole bearing down upon him, trying to pull him every which way, Matt floated in place and focused upon the infinite options before him.

***

Liz twisted slightly as she blocked the spear thrust at her with her shield and returned her own thrust to her opponent.

The Liz across from her was made from blood, but reacted the same way she had to its own attack, with a slight dodge to change the placement of the hit and block the rest with her shield.

At almost the same time, they jumped to their right and threw a burst of blood at each other. Liz blocked the attack with her shield, and when she lowered it, saw her blood clone had done the same thing.

Stopping her fight, Liz cursed.

She and the clone had fallen into the habit of mirroring each other once again.

Luna nodded. Good, you noticed it faster. You also lasted longer before the two of you synched up. It's an improvement.

Liz sighed. By a fraction of a percent. This would be a million times easier if I had a spell more sophisticated than [Lesser Mana Clone] for the base skill.

Luna nodded once more. That would most currently help, yes. But that isn't our goal. If you can get this down with the worst of the clone spells, you will be able to handle a dozen times more copies of yourself than someone who skipped this step. Turning, Luna called out to Aster, who was floating in a shimmering crystal of ice and wind. Aster, come to help Liz spar with herself.

It took almost a full minute for Asters eyes to start blinking, but when she did, she quickly dissipated her Concept and spells.

What?

The fox woman's ears twitched as she questioned the interruption.

Come help Liz.

Hearing Lunas order, Aster skipped over and summoned her staff, twirling it like a baton.

Even then, the staff seemed innocuous and harmless, but Liz knew damn well that was a blatant lie.

Aster had spent a substantial amount of time working on the manifestation, and it was every bit as potent a channel for her magic as Susannes sword alloted her, and then some. While it only affected spells her Concept already worked on, those spells tended to bypass armor entirely, freezing the metal it struck to the cloth and flesh underneath. Ice resistance enchantments helped, but Aster had spent a lot more effort developing her ability to overcome ice resistance than Liz had spent on improving it.

The fox was also proving annoyingly adept at illusions for someone who had disdained becoming a kitsune. Any given attack may or may not have actually been real, and those which were real could often appear harmless but be nigh-lethal, appear lethal only to be harmless, or be some kind of debilitating debuff. It worked well enough on rift monsters, as she could manipulate how threatening her spells appeared to be, but her deception really showed its worth against sentient opponents.

Liz summoned a copy of herself and did her best to banish all thoughts of controlling it to the back of her mind. She could already control it quite adeptly if she thought about it consciously, but attempting to control two wholly different bodies to do different things at the same time was complex, and keeping the two distinct streams of thought separate usually didnt last long.

Saying that her current goal was to run her clone entirely on instinct was incorrect, as instinct had to be tempered with strategy, but she wanted to be able to simply think about what she wanted her clone to do and have it act, instead of thinking about how it would act. The long-term goal was to make that almost fully subconscious, her training allowing her to steer around an entirely separate copy of her just as easily as she could recall her spear to hand. She was aiming to have someone more in sync with her than a counterpart with their own mind could ever be.

It looked to Aster and winked before asking, You ready, Scoop?

Aster smirked. You're damn right! Also, this still feels weird, interacting with two of you. By the way do you and Matt do a little extra freaky stuff with the blood clones?

Both Lizes snorted and ignored the last question.

Liz wasnt her parents, who had spent more than a little bit of effort trying to get the clone series of skills classified as sex skills rather than general-utility skills, and who had gone several hundred years with the ability to use clones before they ever fought using them.

No, she and Matt had perfectly normal relations, even while utilizing their clones. Nothing particularly over the top, even by mortal standards. Though the blood certainly made things different at times.

Seeing she wasnt going to get an answer, Aster waved her staff, and a giant spear of ice shot out at Liz while her blood clone rushed forward, ready to block any attacks.

Liz was careful not to use her spiritual sense, as that still had the side effect of sending her into a feedback loop of her clone copying her movements, but she didnt trust that Aster wouldnt open up with a dangerous attack so she couldnt just block the spell.

It was a good thing she dodged, as when the spell hit the wall of their house's training room, it impacted with a loud crash that shook the walls.

Liz cursed as her blood clone thrust its spear into her shield, throwing her back a few steps.

[Lesser Blood Clone] was an incredibly versatile skill, and had been the main source of Lizs improvement in the last few years after she had run into a roadblock with her spell-less blood magic.

The blood magic was useful and she was learning new things, but getting more effects out of the ability without a source of living people was proving difficult to say the least. Rift monsters were a decent substitute, but there were places where they differed from normal life, and that meant the skills she learned in a rift couldn't be applied to humans without changes. Changes she couldnt test without killing a lot of people. And she wasnt training to be a good delver, but an Ascender able to fight other humans and evolved beasts.

Deflecting a bolt of ice that numbed her arm even through her shield, Liz flooded her arm with blood and manually moved it into position to block her clone's spear thrust.

Shifting left slightly so the clone was between her and Aster, Liz stomped on the clone's foot and shoved, but the clone allowed herself to fall over and grabbed Lizs shield to pull her down with her. Aster had been ready, and a flurry of snow swept over them and slowed Lizs perception and reaction speed. Knowing she needed to get out of the area of effect spell, Liz created a bubble of blood between herself and the clone's shields and detonated it, sending her flying.

She caught herself mid-air and shot a blob of blood at Aster, but the fox just waved as the blood went right through the illusion of her.

Twisting midair, Liz kicked out in case Aster came close behind her but connected with nothing.

That slight change in momentum allowed the clone Liz to send a copy of her spear at her back. The clones one major weakness was the same as the original spells; it didnt have its own mana pool. Where [Lesser Mana Clone] used the very mana that the construct was made out of to fuel any movement or spells, [Lesser Blood Clone] used its own blood as its fuel. Which was quite the boon, as the clone could fuel itself from the bodies of its slain foes. And in a rift, or a battlefield, the blood was endless.

It was also endless when she was near Matt, but that wasnt the point. She just needed to make controlling other bodies so automatic, she could single handedly act as a small squadron, most of which were utterly expendable.

Summoned monsters were a classic way to fill the battlefield, but when it came down to it, a monster just wasnt better than she was at fighting. Oh sure, was a fairly potent tactic for plenty of people. Some utterly lacked combat skill, and so the raw instinct the monster could run on was an improvement, not to mention the fact that summoner types had supplementary skills, Talents, or even a Domain dedicated to empowering their thralls. But Liz had devoted all of that effort into improving herself, and even without any skills, she knew that any same-Tier monster would die to her, regardless of its masters buffs.

If she used [Mana Clone] or [Clone] itself, this would be trivial. At that point, her duplicates would have minds of their own, and be able to act as their own copies of Liz on the battlefield, no special coordination or control needed. But doing so would mean they wouldnt have the uncanny degree of coordination that would come from them all being directed by a single mind. Theyd all fight quite well, though likely after an adjustment period to keep them from all going at the same target, in the same way, at the same time. Shed be teammates with herself, not one warrior utilizing multiple bodies as weapons.

By training now, the idea was that she could incorporate a lot more of herself in her future squads. If she mastered steering one body, two bodies, even three bodies- the commonly-accepted upper limit of [Lesser Mana Clone]- she could control five, maybe even ten times that many with its higher Tier versions.

Hell, at that point her limiter would just be how fast she could expand [Mana Clone] to allow for multiple simultaneous clones. That would be delightful.

This fight lasted for another ten minutes before Lizs concentration broke, and her clone began mimicking her exactly again, despite Asters assistance.

Liz turned to Luna, who nodded. That was good. And enough for today. It's time we grab Matt and head back to Gettra so we don't miss our transit.

Liz agreed, and they left their house together with Aster, which floated in space a good distance from Matts location, which was far too close to the event horizon of the black hole for Lizs liking.

Flying next to him, Liz ran her hands through his hair, lightly scratching until he woke up from his trance.

He smiled at her before pulling her into a kiss. Once they broke apart, he ruffled Aster's hair, and through their AI, asked, I assume Luna said were leaving?

Aster nodded. Yup. Liz was getting beat up, and Luna decided to have mercy on her.

Liz grumbled but didnt defend herself. Instead, she cast [Lesser Blood Clone] and transformed into her phoenix form. Letting the human clone fly next to them, she hopped on its shoulder and did her best to adjust for the altered morphology.

It was another form of training Luna had given her, and was much harder than fighting herself. When her bodies werent physically in sync, simply using [Lesser Blood Clone] was more difficult, and her practice was simply making her clone interact with Matt and Aster. She at least didnt have to worry about syncing up her movements between her bodies, as it was hard enough to get her legs moving instead of comically flapping her arms in an attempt to move.

Or waddling. That had truly been embarrassing, and she never wanted to live through that ribbing again.

***

After Matt reached their home, he found Luna standing next to it, and he took the hint while absorbing the now much larger house into the Tier 20 spatial ring they had bought for the purpose.

It had taken a considerable chunk of their profits from delving, but expanding the house had been the right call.

Instead of it just being two rooms, a connected living room and kitchen, and their small labs, the house had grown.

They had expanded both of their rooms into full suites with their own private bathrooms, and put a guest bathroom next to the living room, which was also expanded to a more comfortable size. The largest changes were in their labs, which had both expanded to full-sized rooms, along with a comparable room for Aster and her own ice cream-making process.

They had also added a spatially expanded training room that cost them both an arm and a leg. They were delving Tier 21 rifts, but the model they had gotten needed to be able to handle their power, which meant at least a Tier 23 version, and the cheapest version was still selling for Tier 25 mana stones.

They even dedicated some of the rings' available space to better shields, both defensive and private, so they didnt always need to rely on Luna to keep their privacy.

Still, it had been a worthwhile investment, as it allowed them to safely practice their various skills when settled in on a planet.

With a thought, Matt pulled out their latest expensive upgrade. Their own cramped, chaotic spaceship was long gone, and the new model was far more impressive. It had a full suite of rooms for five, much better engines for both chaotic space and real space, and actual armaments in case anyone decided to attack them.

The ship was actually a refitted exploration ship they bought secondhand, and was nice enough that Travis and Keith had good-naturedly complained that the ship was much more comfortable than the one they used.

It wasnt comparable to Lunas ship, but it was fast enough that they were able to do things like jump to nearby star systems without too much effort. It allowed Matt to work on his Intent while they traveled to a new planet where they could settle in for long delves. They had outgrown the last world they had traveled to after leaving Ventillyria almost a decade ago. That, combined with their approaching the peak of Tier 17 and Tier 21 rifts losing the veneer of their consistent near death challenges, meant they needed to relocate.

To that end, they were going to Wandering Fallows, an old, old world that could trace its history well into the last era of Great Powers, located near the capital system. As a Tier 25 planet, it was well populated, but that was an issue they were running into everywhere they went.

Unlike lower Tier planets, which were in abundance, Tier 25 and higher planets were scarce. Even some marquees didnt have such valuable planets to their name. Normally, Pathers went to the border regions to find higher Tier planets with fewer people fighting over the same rifts, but with those areas under attack and full of spies, they needed to head deeper into the Empire.

The only good thing to come of it was that they were crossing paths with Bradley and Jill, their friends they had made in Minkalla. They had fallen off the Path and were at loose ends, so when Matt, Liz, and Aster realized their paths would cross, they suggested the meetup.

April took the opportunity to guest-lecture at a local academy, at Lunas behest. Path management was strongly encouraged to share their knowledge with people other than just Pathers, and while liaisons usually only did so when they didnt have an active team, Matt knew Luna well enough that the cat didnt want Aprils first lecture to happen after theyd parted ways.

The more well-known managers, such as Luna herself, would speak on their speciality at some of the most prestigious Academies in the empire, with their lessons being recorded and broadcast to other Academies in the years thereafter. Even after Luna had retired, shed still continued giving her lectures on eliminating all points of possible weakness, but Matt was fairly certain that was because she enjoyed terrorizing the students more than anything.

Matt had no idea why they would hate Lunas specialty of destroying spells cast at you with the smallest effort possible. He had no idea. None at all.

April wasnt anywhere close to the level of fame that Luna, or even Kurt, were at, with Academies constantly sending her requests for her to lecture for them. But, her Tier made her more than qualified for the local Tier 5 academy, and after discussing her options with Luna and the academys leadership, decided to give a lecture on identifying monster weaknesses.

She practiced her speech extensively with the three of them, and Matt did his best to imitate a Tier 1 just starting out on his journey, eager and hopelessly naive. Over the course of the practice, he learned that low Tier academies like that often broke their low Tier rifts to reform them with a new monster type, so their pupils didn't get complacent delving into the same rifts.

Matt wanted to be upset at the very thought, knowing damn well how expensive such practices were even on a higher Tier planet, but accepted it as just how the world worked. Academies were very much catered to the elite and the wealthy who wanted their children to be the most well-rounded individuals they could be. That meant more lessons about business, beginner crafting skills, leadership, and nonstandard delving. Most of the children who graduated would then go on to act as normal part-time delvers, getting full guides to the local rifts they delved, but the better foundation would still help them should they ever need to step out of their comfort zones.

He just wished everyone could get such a level of education.

When he mentioned that thought to Aster, she laughed in his face.

She brought up her time at the beast academy as a counter-example; most people simply didnt want to undergo such training. Living his life as a delver who mostly interacted with other delvers and was rushing through the Tiers had tainted his view on what the common person wanted with their life. A simple education, a good job that allowed them some luxuries, and a safe environment to raise kids in was more than enough for them.

They were simple people with simple desires. The ones who did want more than that went to the Path or the guilds.

Matt wanted to rebut that, but knew she was right, as the three of them had spent a full month in a lower Tier portion of the city they were living in to reacquaint themselves with the desires of the normal citizens. Or rather, he and Liz did; Aster had proven herself to have a much better finger on the pulse of normal life.

Part of that definitely came from her time at the academy, but a portion of it also came from keeping in touch with her friends from the Bond Academy. While Aster was rapidly delving to advance, they had gotten jobs and were living more normal lives while sharing their experiences with her through their many chats.

Matt and Liz made a note that if they had some extra time at the end of their journey on The Path of Ascension, they should visit Asters friends before they went public. It would be nice to meet her friends before they gathered too much attention.

When they arrived at the nearest inhabited planet, Matt and Liz met up with Bradley and Jill at a more upscale Tier 20 restaurant, letting Aster have free reign over the house for the night. They all would have preferred that she could have joined them, but the security concerns involved with confirming that Torch and Quill had a quadrupedal ice bond, even in just a private-ish setting, were too high.

Bradley and Jill looked good; Matt had to admit that Bradley had bulked up since he had seen him at Tier 12, and Jill had grown out her hair and looked more open than the quiet woman who wandered through Minkalla as a dangerous archer.

They obviously didnt recognize the two of them out of their masks, and now, even out of the Quill and Torch masks, they still hid their identities, but they at least had normal faces.

When Matt nodded, Bradley laughed with a knowing grin on his face after scanning the crowd .

There you guys are. We almost didnt recognize you.

Jill snorted as she stood to greet them, then broke into a beaming smile. It's good to see you guys. Weve heard a lot about your exploits. And Torch, I heard you two got married? Congratulations!

Liz returned the smile, and the four of them spent the rest of the evening chatting and catching up while sharing stories of their adventures in recent years.

Bradley and Jill wanted to hear about the rescue of Justinian and the attack on Ventillyria. The three of them happily shared the more light-hearted adventures while trying to brush over the worst bits.

Matt didnt talk about the emotional numbness that lasted for almost a full two years after the attacks, and then therapy to help him after. They didnt talk about how Justinian was still a nervous wreck.

Instead, they shared the more humorous moments, like when Justinian complained about the remakes of some of his favorite movies, or when they got trapped for a full week in a rift maze because he and Liz didnt believe Asters solution of just believing they were out. She had been free the entire time while they walked in place, believing they were in a maze, the two of them too stubborn to believe something that was so obviously not true.

Matt took great delight in filling Asters role of teasing Liz, relaying Lizs protestations about the compulsion to believe what they saw to his bond over [AI] and repeating what his sister responded with. The protestations just made everything funnier, and even Liz was chuckling by the end.

Bradley and Jill, in turn, told them of their own adventures, like when Bradley got a little too relaxed inside a magma flow, drifted downstream, and bubbled up in someone's yard. Or the time Jill shot Bradley in the butt inside a lava rift, mistaking his diving for a new monster type in the rift.

When even their tea plates were cleared away, their conversation turned to what the duo were going to do in the future. Pathers who made it to Tier 17 on the Path before falling off were in high demand, and the two of them had thousands of recruitment offers from noble families, corporations, and guilds.

Bradley played with his fork as he explained, We have so many offers, we don't know what to do. A lot of them are really good too. Our manager is willing to help us with that before she leaves, but even she admits we have so many choices, it's hard to pick.

Matt nodded while Liz leaned forward and asked, But what do you want to do? We have some other friends who fell off at Tier 12, and after reaching Tier 15, they decided to open a local delving school, while another went into business using her Talent. Have you guys thought of something like that? There is no reason you need to choose one of the offers when you can do damn near anything with your powers. Or do you want to just take a break? I know that's a common one.

Jill, who was running a finger along the rim of her glass, agreed. We thought of that. My parents are Tier 15 merchants, and they would be more than happy to have us join the family business. We just don't find any of the ideas appealing. Currently, we are thinking of joining the army, but the problem there is a little stupid.

Bradley snorted as he finished for his wife. Neither of us just wants to be part of a normal unit doing normal things. Call us conceited, but we feel we can do more than that. We aren't better than the positions, but we want to do something useful.

Liz raised an eyebrow as she shrugged. As Tier 17 Pathers, you shouldn't have an issue there.

Jill grinned. That's our problem. We dont want special treatment because we feel like we haven't really earned it. So you see the issue.

Matt laughed with the rest of them, but also commiserated with them and their plethora of choices. It was almost easier to have fewer choices than they did. He had no questions about his future after The Path; hed join the army and then the war as an Ascender. Once the war was won, hed start his guild small as a part-time thing, and try to invent things to help the lower Tiers with like-minded people. He knew what his future held, and that seemed so much easier than having to guess and plot the unknown.

After parting from the pair, they attended April's lesson and watched from the rear with Luna, who, like usual, took copious notes, but Matt felt April did a great job. She kept things simple enough that the fourteen-year-olds didnt get overwhelmed, but was detailed enough to be useful.

He was sure Luna would tear her performance to shreds, but he happily admitted to her that he wished he had been able to get a lesson like that from an expert as a kid. He had gotten something similar, but the lesson was mostly a slide show taught by one of the orphanage staff who, while doing their best, wasnt a delver, and didn't have the experience to really make the lesson personal.

With that done, they were off to Wandering Fallows, where they put their noses back to the grindstone and pushed to Tier 18.

When they broke through at the ripe old age of 87 years old, a full eleven years earlier than The Path required, they got word of a new mission for them.

They were to go undercover into the younger generations of the noble elite at the capital. Matt thought it sounded interesting until he saw the information about their false identities.

They would be themselves.

They would be pretending to still be Tier 15, but they needed to schmooze with the noble elite, or at least the younger generation of the noble elite. Liz had been Tier 15 for almost two decades, and she needed to attend her official Induction to high society. While the spies covering for them could do most things in their place, if they took her position for the Induction, it would not be received well once the truth was revealed in the wake of them finishing the Path.

While Matt and Aster had been more or less looking forward to it since theyd learned it would be happening a few decades ago, Liz had been dreading it, and now that it was actually time, she joked about declining the mission.

Conveniently, Wandering Fallows was only one jump away from the capital, so they could continue delving with no one the wiser, though at a slightly reduced rate.

Best of all, Matt would get to see what it was like to live on Mara and Leons capital estates.

He hadnt seen his in-laws in over a decade, and he was happy to know they would be spending time in the capital.