The Path of Ascension

Chapter 265

Matt knew how the Great Powers grew, at least in an abstract sense. The known Realm drifted through chaotic space, passing through regions of the roiling, primordial energy like a raft adrift on the seas. Countless low-Tier worlds passed through and around the territory of a Great Power, carried on the currents of chaos just as much as the Empire was pulled past them. Nobody knew for sure how large chaotic space was, and it was in many ways a meaningless question to begin with. To say it was large would imply things like distance and volume had consistent meaning, and whether it was infinite was anyones guess. Hed heard theories both ways, but no matter what it was still growing.

There had been some attempts at making realspace crossings, but the handful of times it had been tried put the newly Tiered planet so vastly far away in chaotic space from any inhabited planet that no known method could bring it into the net of the Great Powers. It was only the connection the Tier 50 leaders had with any person of a high enough Tier that a distance and direction could be found at all in the roiling vastness of chaotic space; virtually every other tool and trick normally used for finding a path back home failed over such gargantuan distances. Instead, realspace crossings were found through comparisons of star charts, when two already established systems could compare what their constellations looked like and prove that they were in the same universe, at which point the systems could be moved closer to each other at enormous expense.

The growth of the Realm was simple though, planets from any universe that reached Tier 1 would appear somewhere in chaotic space, their essence cores manifesting as a ball of light anchoring its surroundings which correspond to an area of realspace. Then, over untold eons, the planet would slowly Tier itself up as essence was added to the cycle as creatures that were not removed by cultivators lived and died. The vast, vast majority of planets in the Realm were under Tier 5, and were generally allowed to simply pass through and around settled territory unimpeded, unless they were needed for some other reason, such as acting as a link to another, more valuable world.

That was how it normally worked. Tens, even hundreds of planets were added to the Empire each decade this way, at least on average. But, once in a while, a planet actually worth the trouble would pass through a region which could feasibly be considered in two or more Great Powers expansion range. When that happened, there was usually some form of minor war, skirmish, tournament, bet, or gamble to establish who would control the new planet. This worlds closest approach to inhabited space put it in a bit of chaotic space near the borders of not only the Empire and Unification of Clans, but close enough to the Monster Collective for them to make a claim as well. Though, it would be a bit of a stretch for them to extend their borders so far in one move, but it was one they considered worth it for a Tier 22 world. It would act as a perfect local center of power, and would be a nice economic boost to the border regions for whoever claimed it.

Instead of simply relinquishing their claim, the Empire had managed to negotiate a contest of champions, so that they could at least try to win the planet, no matter how unlikely, without a war. It was limited to the Tier of the planet, which was common enough, but that limit hurt the Empire more than the others. The Empires elites were already stretched thin on account of the war, making Matt, Liz, and Aster the Empires best chance at winning.

The opportunity to fight elites from two other Great Powers, not to mention the rewards the Empire was offering for participation, made it an easy choice, and they quickly agreed to go. It would take them almost six months to get there, and that was only because they could use one of the Empires four realspace crossings to cut out most of the trip, and the fact that they were using Lunas ship for transportation. Without the crossing, it would have taken years. And without Lunas ship, it would have taken them decades.

The Empire was just too damn big.

Six months, by comparison, was a pretty reasonable timeframe, and one that Matt was happy with, as he could spend the time working on his Intent and making talismans for whatever the fighting would entail.

Having that thought, Matt asked his question, What will we actually be doing to compete for the planet? What kind of fights and what kind of rules?

Luna shrugged. It's usually some combination of clearing the planet of monsters and then a fight between the Great Powers, but theres no set competition or standard method. Each Great Power favors and pushes the methods they are best at. The Clans favor small units or large army fights, usually, as they have the numbers and the wealth to equip their elites with the best available. The Monster Collective, on the other hand, prefers solo fights, and they dominate that style. Ideally, we would get something of a middle ground, but whether that works out depends on our representative, and how big their fist is.

Luna did assure them that they would get more information as they approached the gathering point, but they were under something of a time crunch, and needed to quickly start moving. With that in mind, for the first time in a long time, they got into Lunas chaotic spaceship and moved through the Empire.

Matt, any time he wasnt actively making a talisman, was in a meditative trance refining his Intent. There werent any major breakthroughs or serious revelations, but he was making steady progress overall. Hed narrowly avoided a dip in the healing pod more than once, but had held back far enough to not get too badly injured from the backlash. Still, he hoped to complete his Intent sooner rather than later, as any edge could help him in the tournament

Liz, once she was out of the healing pod, put herself back in it twice more from other attempts before deciding she needed to ease up. Shed resume in full force after the planets contest, but she didnt want her Domain to be out of commission when facing elites three Tiers above her. She claimed that the wounding, and subsequent healing, was helping her grow closer to her Intent, but Matt felt there was more to it than just that.

After converting his pile of Tier 24 monster flesh into parchment, they were turned into talismans, and for the first time in a while, Matt had a decent supply. He even made a few new types of talismans that he thought might surprise anyone they fought who was relying on past recordings to try and predict his style.

Matt wasnt about to transition into a true talisman user, but he appreciated their versatility and the way they gave him the ability to counter anyone he might be fighting. As they approached the gathering point, they got feedback on some of the notable contestants they were going to fight, allowing Matt to abuse his [AI] and start running simulations and building counters.

A little more than five months later, Quill, Torch, and Scoop arrived, ready for a fight. They werent going to bother hiding Aster for this fight, as even if the worst came to worst and their real identities were revealed, they were past the point where it would be easy to hire an assassin to take them out. They still had ninety years left to finish the Path, but as Tier 20s, it would be hard to stop their momentum this late in their journey.

Quill watched the screens in Lunas ship as they tore through space on a Tier 3 border planet that the three Great Powers shared. It was so similar to the training planet that he had gone and explored, he took a moment to pull up its information and smiled at the memory of how he had met Liz oh so long ago.

The planet below them was normally used for the same occasional joint exploration, though with three Great Powers sharing the border planet, the fights were far less cordial, as everyone tried to step on the dead to climb just one step higher.

It was sadly similar to what they were about to do, just on a smaller scale, all things told.

Things had been decided during their travels, and Luna had correctly predicted some of the methods that the Great Powers would be using to determine ownership of the planet.

First, there would be a free for all with the express purpose of clearing the roaming monsters, with each Great Power taking roughly a third of the primary continent for their own. The Great Powers would then take how quickly each of them cleared their portions of it, and would assign points. When Matt had heard that, he thought things seemed a little too controlled and tournament-like, and his instincts were correct.

Even when they were ostensibly supposed to be fighting the monsters, fighting between the Great Powers people was not only allowed, but encouraged. Surrendering might be allowed if the opponent was merciful, but no one would prevent killing.

It seemed like a waste of life, but Quill had well learned that individual lives were drops of water in a bucket for Great Powers, and no one would worry about spending some water to claim a prize. Even they, as possible Ascenders, were simply more impactful drops of water. They were still expendable. If there was a large enough prize, they would be spent first to secure the prize, not last.

Though, they would most certainly not be the only water spilled today, as the border system was filled with ships. They quickly joined the cluster of Empire ships, but Quill read the telemetry and knew they were thoroughly outnumbered. Given they were already at war with three Great Powers, and the others decidedly werent, it was hardly a surprise that they could scrounge together more than a few local Tier 22 delving teams. Though, maybe they weren't outmuscled. That was the point of Ascenders, after all.

Quill just hoped the three of them didnt fumble their first inter Great Power showing, or they would look foolish, and that would carry through even past their completion of the Path.

A three Tier gap wasnt insurmountable, but if they encountered anyone with an Intent, they might run into a wall. Very few Tier 22 people had Intents, in large part simply because most people who did get an Intent tended to shoot up to Tier 25 in short order, looking to claim their third Talent. So, any Intents they were liable to run into would be fairly fresh, and would likely be the primary source of their opponents power. With luck, they might still be able to pull out a win against someone like that, so long as they werent elites before that power boost.

Ironically, Tier 20s with Intents would be the most dangerous, as it was far more common to wait around for centuries or millennia while honing their Domain at the breakpoint Tiers than anywhere in the middle. Though the lack of a Tier gap would give them a good chance at beating anyone who lingered like that.

Quill expected that once they arrived, everyone would move out, but his ego took a small hit as he learned that everyone hadnt been waiting on them, and instead, they simply joined the formation of ships.

Luna then informed them that a VIP from the Clans was still a few weeks out, and once she arrived, the contest would begin.

With that in mind, the three of them went to settle in, but Luna instead informed them that they were ordered to visit the leader of the expedition.

Knowing they were going to be treated as a dog and pony show, Quill put on his best political mask and got ready for a boring evening, but when they arrived, he was pleasantly surprised to see who the commander actually was.

Lila Worldwalker stood there with a shit-eating grin on her face. Hey, kids! Fancy seeing you here.

Torch laughed and accepted the hug Lila was offering. It's good to see you again! How come you got tasked to do this mission?

Quill and Scoop were hugged as Lila explained, Tasked? I begged to get this mission. Ive been going stir-crazy sitting around waiting for ages, and theres only so much refining of my bloodline I can do before I start itching for a fight. So when this mission came up, I volunteered. With the war going on, having a former Ascender reminds people the Empire isn't too occupied to hold our own. That said, I'm glad you kids are here, or we might have shown our asses.

Lila brought them through her personal ship and to a dining room, where they shared a nice meal as she gave them a more detailed rundown on what they could expect. They ended up not bothering to leave even when the VIP arrived, and the convoys shifted into chaotic space. It was a bit of a trek still to the planet itself, even though the convoy actually moved through the Clans space, planet-hopping for a week between low-Tier worlds until they delved into the true unknown.

Leaving the calm areas inside the net that was formed from the interlocking planets' teleportation network was a little nerve-wracking for Quill, as he could feel the chaotic energies slamming into the ships shield, and knew that his ship would have been tossed around like a leaf in the ocean. They might not outright die, but flying anywhere would have been a matter of luck rather than skill.

That said, there was a majesty to the venture.

The massive convoys charged through the swirling energies, carving a path into the seeming emptiness of chaotic space. With his low Tier, Quill's spiritual perception was limited to a measly few miles in this region of chaotic space, and that wasnt nearly enough to be useful, which added a layer of the unknown to the venture.

It took another week of cutting through seeming nothingness, but Lila prepared them so they could see the brighter-than-normal dot as they approached, like a lighthouse in a storm. The turbulent energies were calmer near the spark that was the free-floating world, and Quill breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they had reached their destination.

Scoop turned around to Lila and Luna and asked, How did anyone even find this place? Who is exploring this far out? It seems extremely risky.

Lila nodded. Divinations are a common way, but so is studying the flows of chaotic space to find big, noticeable planets that will be drifting by, or even going out to personally search. That last one is the most reliable, but also the most dangerous, because after you get more than a couple of days out, you pretty much always need some sort of trick to ever get back. Pretty much anything worth taking is months to years out, so fill in the blanks there.

Quill made a note to ask more about Travis and Keiths job the next time they met up, as he hadnt really realized just how dangerous their jaunts into chaotic space really were. Knowing Liz and the entire Moore family, he had no doubt that Travis and Keith were going deep into chaotic space and not sticking near the safer regions.

When they neared the firefly that was the world and entered that universe's real space, Quill got his first chance to scan the planet, as the information had been kept confidential. Or at least, Lila had refused to spoil the surprise, which amounted to the same thing.

The planet was normal enough, roughly standard size, right in the middle of the habitable zone of the G-type star, giving off a perfectly normal yellow light that wouldnt be amiss in ninety percent of the planets of the Empire. There were even two moons slowly orbiting the planet, but that was where the normality ended.

The planet spun so fast that Quill watched as the planet rotated by at a startling pace. A two-and-a-half-hour day-night cycle was exceptionally short, but he knew that was fixable by any of the Tier 40s leading the expectations.

It did create some incredibly unique life forms, or at least the life forms that had formed and survived the ever-increasing essence amounts and against the hostile life forms that came out of the ruins and rift breaks.

Lilas ship registered five ruins, showing just how old this planet was.

Quill expected everyone to swarm the planet, but instead, they settled into a wide orbit while a team of Guild explorers flew off, transmitting information to all the leaders. Quill watched as the data came in, the totality of an entire world displayed for him to see. Notable resource points were marked while preliminary scans of the ruins also flashed across the screens. It seemed that they hadnt touched anything while waiting for the representatives of the Great Powers to arrive, which struck Matt as odd.

Lila must have known what he was thinking, as she explained, Information about incoming worlds is valuable, triply so when the planet is near a border region, and the payout for the location of an untouched planet was worth more than anything the discovery team might have found before it came into our reach.

Letting the bit of information simmer on the back burner of his thoughts, Quill got ready for a fight.

It might not be imminent, but it could happen any moment, and with all the warnings about there being no safety margin, all three of them were ready for an attack.

Nothing happened for a while, until Lila transformed into sand and flowed straight through the ships hull, reforming in her dragon shape outside and meeting with the other representatives as they flew from their respective convoys. The Monster Collective representative was a massive, bronze-furred, bear-human hybrid, fifteen feet tall and with weirdly elongated and prehensile claws. He even had thumbs.

Scoop had told him about the middle ground some Monster Collective beasts went for, but it made for an interesting first sight.

The Clans representative was, unsurprisingly, a dwarf that was literally dwarfed by the other two, at about five feet tall. She was practically just as wide as she was tall, with muscled arms that Quill fleetingly wondered whether or not they were as thick as Scoops torso. A white-hot forge hammer hung from her belt, palpably radiating with the idea of smithing, even from miles away.

Without being able to hear anything that was going on between them, he contented himself with studying her hammer for the entire duration of the discussion.

Two hours later, a decision seemed to have been made as the entire fleet got the order to disembark and settle down on a mountain range surrounded by a large desert.

The moment Quill, Torch, and Scoop stepped out of Lila's ship, the three of them became the center of attention as people stopped removing buildings from their storage rings to stare. Quill wasnt sure if they hadnt been told they were coming, or if they just didnt believe it.

To cut the tension, he leaned over to Torch and whispered, Look at how they adore me. You need to work on your public image.

That earned him a few snorts and a few more jeers, but it got everyone moving. Before too long, Lila returned. Not from the air; instead, she swam up the mountainside like it was water, up from the desert she had been swimming in.

The moment her draconic head breached the stone and slithered out, she roared, You have one Empire standard day, but then it is your job to clear as much of the continent as possible. The other two continents will be left untouched for the winner of the planet. Otherwise, it's open season, and you are encouraged to kill everything that moves out there. The only place you may not fight is within a dozen miles of the Great Powers' bases. Otherwise, just kill everything you can and take everything not nailed down; it's yours to keep or trade as you see fit. The Empire will buy anything at market price if you want to sell here and now. After that are the more direct fights, but thats not your concern right now.

As she finished speaking, sand rose up to create a perimeter around the makeshift landing base before harding into sandstone and then turning glossy like polished marble.

Lila, on the other hand, sank back into the rock of the mountain like it was water, vanishing from sight and spiritual perception alike.

Being left to their own devices, Quill turned to everyone and said, First order of business is to create quadrants to more efficiently plan our searching; the Tier 30s clearly did a good job, but

Throwing out a talisman, Quill blocked the small bolt of lightning that someone shot out at him, interrupting his plan.

The woman who had thrown it out snorted, We arent listening to you, child. I don't care if you are the second coming of Agatha.

Quill could already see the other delver teams starting to turn away and knew they needed to act immediately. If they allowed this team to run roughshod over them, no one else would respect them, removing any chance of the coordinated assault which they would need to complete their mission. At the same time, forcing people to work for them would be opening their backs to a knife in it.

Looking to Torch, she instantly understood, and in a burst of flame, rocketed towards the woman who had shot the lightning bolt. Another woman next to her stepped forward to intercept, but Scoop waved her staff and the woman slowed for a brief moment, allowing Torch to slip between her grasping hands and chains of wind that tried to grab her.

Rather than her spear leading the charge, Torch led with her hand in a claw-like grip as she grabbed the woman's arm and pulled her into a headbutt. The woman rocked back, her helmet slightly deformed under the attack. She was already charging a spell to counter with, but Torch was already moving, and kicked her knee from behind and sent the woman to her knees and pressed a flaming hand to the woman's head.

The not-so-subtle threat made the woman's team freeze, and Quill spoke for their team. Anyone who wants to ignore our orders, feel free to buzz off and do what you want in your own direction, but look at our situation. We are outnumbered, and the Empire only had so many volunteers versus the genuine soldiers of the opposing sides. If we don't work together, we won't even get to participate in the later fighting, and that's if you guys don't get picked off by the other two Great Powers or taken apart at the end.

Turning to Torch, he signaled her to let the woman go before addressing the rest of the Tier 22s. Seeing their teammate was free and unharmed, the group stood down, and Quill continued. Anyone who isn't willing to work with the group, fuck off and don't get in our way. Im only giving you thirty seconds.

After thirty seconds, Quill only noticed a handful of teams leaving. Amusingly enough, while they had moved off to the side, the team who started it all hadnt left. Seeing that, Quill now suspected the interruption was less an actual rebuttal to them stepping forward, and more a power play to take the lead position themselves. He could work with that.

As I was saying, everyone needs to report to me their teams general delving portfolio, notable specialties, and miscellaneous abilities, in addition to proficiency against real people.

A flurry of reports came in, and Quill fed them all into his AI before using the provided maps to allocate roughly balanced teams in quadrants of the continent.

They were in the southern portion of the continent in the large desert that covered the portion of the large landmass, while the other two Great Powers had bases to their northeast and northwest. The Clans had taken over a small mountain range while the Monsters Collective had straddled the intersection of a forest and a plain.

All three of the Great Powers were roughly equidistant, but Quill was quite happy with their location, as they had open sightlines for miles. It ensured that ambushes, traps, and rushes would be hard to pull off for the enemy.

The same went for them, but Quill could already see they would be defending most of the time rather than going on the attack. When his [AI] spat out a good mix of teams, Quill reviewed them briefly before sending them out. The team who had called them out, Dixies Maidens, was one of the more capable Tier 22 teams, able to delve Tier 23 rifts blindly and Tier 24 rifts as long as they took it slow, countered the rift, and didnt encounter any monsters with Intents. For a group who only had partial Intents, that was impressive. If they had had to fight it out, Quill was confident his own team would win, but perhaps not within their mask limits.

With only a day to prepare, they weren't able to do too much, but it did give Quill enough time to talk to the defensive teams, who would ostensibly be preventing the other teams from clearing out the monsters. Then, there were the stronger teams who he had acting as quick reaction forces and guarding a number of squadrons.

Where possible, Ascenders were the final layer of defense, which irked all three of them, but they knew they couldnt galavant around just because they wanted to. That would be unacceptable, and would essentially constitute shirking their responsibilities.

The positive was that they had Lila, who happily chatted with them and spent a good amount of time commiserating with their plight, as it was one she had been stuck in a number of times herself.

The day of preparation gave Quill a little time to explore, which turned out to be fruitful. Despite it being locally midnight, they got to experience the effects of the short day-night cycle and see how the planet had evolved with it. While the desert was hot, there had been some life moving around in the short day, just mostly a variety of snakes and lizards. But at night, the place came to life with dozens of species, some most certainly from ruins rather than the planet's own natural evolution, as they didnt have the six-limbed aesthetic the planet seemed to have developed. The local fauna all seemed to be fighting for dominance; it was quite entertaining to watch a Tier 15 beetle fighting off over a dozen larger serpents before moving on to get eaten by a Tier 20 frog that crawled out of a short-lived oasis created by a small burst of rain at dusk.

Pulled out of his exploration, Quill flew up with everyone else as the timer of one standard day ended.

Blurs of light flickered out as everyone rushed to try and get as far away from the base and competition as possible, but Quill knew that only meant the fighting would start soon.

Fighting was most certainly the purpose of putting them all on one continent rather than spreading them between the other two. Despite that, Quill was looking forward to what was about to happen.

After all, he had reviewed the profiles of the peak representative the Monster Collective and Clans had sent forward, and he was looking forward to seeing how the three of them matched up.

***

Lila rolled onto her back and wiggled her body to sink into the sand, letting herself consciously relax into the surrounding earth. Not that she wasnt ready for a fight; she was ready to throw the entire desert at Viralira or Aplald on a moment's notice, just as they were ready to attack her if she encroached their area.

That said, she didnt think they actually would attack. While she was only newly Tier 44, in contrast to their peak cultivation, she was still an Ascender, and could deal with them easily enough. If they attacked her in unison, the worst-case scenario was her having to retreat. Not that it mattered. The two were more likely to fornicate in front of everyone than team up for anything.

Still, she smelled an opportunity to enlarge her hoard, and Lila couldnt pass it up.

Sending her spiritual perception out to entwine with the others, she spoke through the series of vibrations that high Tier communications amounted to, What do you two think about a not-so-friendly wager?

Viraliras spiritual sense rumbled back like she needed to remind everyone she was, in fact, a dwarf and not a human. Like youre willing to pry your scaly claws off anything, dragon.

Lila smiled. She had already won Viraliras interest, and so ignored the provocation while waiting for the bear to speak up.

It took almost a full minute, but Aplald rumbled out, What do you offer, and what do you want?

I offer three scales from First Shepherd Toby on his first shedding after reaching rank 3 bloodline. I want anything you could possibly give to match such a prize.

She let her smile creep over her maw, knowing that had been an irresistible offer to the others. The scales had been one of her most prized possessions, bought at great expense from First Shepherd Toby by Georgios when she left active military service. They promised a slow but sure way to reach rank 3 on her own, but her steady supply of blood from a dragon at least rank four was far better suited to that task.

Using her trash to fleece Viralira and Aplald for their treasures was a fantastic trade. She just hoped Matt, Liz, and Aster were as good as Luna said they were.

Even if they weren't, oh well. Gambling was fun in its own right. It added a little thrill to this adventure where she could only watch.