The Path of Ascension

Chapter 291

Matt looked around the barren wasteland that was Pator-Sul and shook his head.

They had won, but Pator-Sul was probably going to fall once more before Empire reinforcements managed to secure the system. The surviving Empire troops had retreated to underground shelters, but they had still taken heavy losses in the Sects initial push. Less than a quarter of them had survived to see their rescue.

Intellectually, Matt knew that casualties were always higher when fighting with the Sects, but reading about it in a report or being told secondhand still didnt drive home the information like seeing it for himself.

None of the Sect fighters had surrendered or tried to retreat, and despite knowing they were throwing their lives away fighting Ascenders, they had still done so willingly to impart even superficial wounds.

Matt understood the dedication to their sects was instrumental to the Great Powers success and standing in the Realm, but that same dedication had inflicted horrific losses on the Empire defenders.

It was there that Matt got to see another facet of what it meant to be an Ascender. There was the hero worship that the civilians gave, there was the respect he saw from other soldiers and higher Tiers, but there was also heartfelt gratitude from the survivors that Matt had never experienced before. Ventillyria had civilians who suffered greatly under the Sect sponsored terrorist attack, but those were still civilians who never wanted or expected to have to fight for their lives. Their happiness and gratitude was different from seeing similar expressions from battle hardened soldiers.

Bulwark and Liz worked as direct healers, patching the worst of the wounded up while Origami and Matt set up and powered a large-scale healing formation which knit the soldiers with less severe wounds back together.

Matt spent almost three hours powering the formation before being called out by General Darrow to rejoin the rest of the squad.

He moved to the side where the rest of Team Zero stood while General Darrow talked with the highest-ranking survivors. Plural, because the local Colonel had died in the final push. The two Lieutenant Colonels had also died, which left the three surviving Majors to lead the troops.

It took only a moment of listening for Matt to understand the issue, and he wondered how General Darrow would handle the situation.

A silver skinned woman his [AI] identified as Major Karaboli spoke, Sir, we cant in good conscience leave Pator-Sul. You have seen how the Sects were feverish for this system. So many of us died to hold this system. We cant just pack up and retreat because we took some losses. We

General Darrow cut the woman off with a hand motion. Major, I understand your stance, and if emotion was enough to defend a system, the Sects wouldnt be able to take even a step into Pator-Sul, but your command has been decimated.

Matt paid attention to how the lower-ranked soldiers, who were definitely not loitering so they could hear the conventions between their commanding officers and the Ascenders commander, stiffened. They seemed ready to fight at the Majors words as if ready for a rebuke, but relaxed at General Darrows compliment and acknowledgment of their valor.

Major, I understand that you dont wish to retreat after the sacrifices you and your fellows made to hold Pator-Sul, but the Empire is hard-pressed with attacks like this all across the borders. While it would be ideal to hold this system, the Sects initial attack and our retaking of the fortress planet has caused substantial damage to the planet's defenses. Without a month of an engineering division's time, this planet wont be in an operable state, and without a full Division to hold the planet, you would just be sacrificing the rest of your lives. General Darrows voice lowered, but was still plenty loud enough for the nearby troops to hear his every word. I would not see your lives so wasted, and as the highest-ranking officer on the battlefield, I have command. I see no way for you to complete your mission. Instead, it is better for you to pull back and be folded into another command. We will wreck the planet, so that when we push back through this system, we can either retake Pator-Sul more easily, or else cause the Sects to spend significant resources on repairing the fortress world.

General Darrow paused, and while none of his three eyes moved off the Majors, Matt felt he was addressing the rest of the troops instead of the three he was ostensibly talking to. The Empire isnt the Sects. We are all as willing to die as even the most fanatical Sect fighter, but our lives must be spent well.

That seemed to drain the obstinance out of the Pator-Sul troops, and General Darrow pounced. To that end, I am ordering your troops to take the fallen back to the Gateral rally point and link up with high command for further orders.

All three Majors went to attention before saluting and saying, Aye, Sir.

Major Karaboli's acknowledgment of her orders was more of a low growl, but the other Majors were more neutral. Even then, Matt didnt feel Major Karaboli was contemplating insubordination, but was rather expressing her general unwillingness to retreat after such a hard-fought battle.

Matt understood. At least, he thought he did.

Major Belwater, the male Major, turned to the troops and started barking orders for them to gather what they could find of the dead and all the items and equipment they could salvage.

It only took two hours for the survivors to lift off in one of the more intact Sect troop transports, and then it was Team Zeros turn.

While General Darrow hadnt lied about its state, the fortress world wasnt at the point it would need to be decommissioned. They intended to rectify that.

Origami deployed a small formation that channeled power and Matt stood in the center, knowing the surviving troops were watching him from the Sect ship that hadnt left the fortress planet's orbit.

Matt subtly recharged his mana pool with some of his stored crystals as he charged and cast a max-mana [Breach].

Without anyone trying to kill him, Matt was able to fully concentrate on charging the spell, and roughly a minute later, a projectile the size of the troop transport was unleashed. Without any shields, the spell slammed into the planet and visibly shook it as it blasted a crater ten miles across and close to three miles deep, throwing rock and building materials well into the planet's atmosphere.

While impressive, creating a large hole wasnt the purpose of the spell. No, the place Matt had attacked was where one of the five mana reinforced bunkers was. That catastrophic failure and discharge of mana would fry most of the formations that powered things like shields and wards the planet used to defend itself. If they hadnt disabled the safeguards, which would have greatly limited the cascading damage, he would have had to fire at least a few dozen times to create this level of devastation.

When the last shot was fired, the planet was scuttled. Both of the ships floating above it turned and flew away.

The surviving troops flew deeper into the Empire, where they would be given some time to recover before being sent out to other battlefields to hold back the onslaught of attacks while Team Zero went on their own mission.

Following their initial plan, Team Zero moved through two more systems and repelled the attackers. As those planets' shields hadnt been breached in rapid assaults, their jobs were far easier and cleaner, which meant they only needed to fight off the invaders in space with the support of the fortress world. It was much better for morale than assaulting one of their own bases.

After they helped the defenders of the last world clean up the battlefield and ensured they were in a position to continue defending the system, Drifter pulled them into chaotic space. Once they were there, they immediately flew off as if continuing on with their interception of the combined team of Tier 25 elites that the other Great Powers had created to counter them.

If the enemy Great Powers had any spies watching them and their movements, they would only be able to see exactly what they expected.

Instead of flying to the next Tier 25 planet in the line, Drifter activated every sensor her ship had, and General Darrow pored over the information feeds using his Talent, Domain, and intuition to try and find anything suspicious.

Nothing without a spirit defending it could survive in chaotic space, which meant any unmanned spy equipment needed to be powered, like a ship with a mana shield, and even the best shielding had its tells. Even if the other Great Powers had sent a person with a Talent or bloodline that allowed them to survive in chaotic space, there were always signals and fluctuations.

After a few minutes of reviewing the information, General Darrow looked up and nodded to Shadow.

With a twist of reality, they were deeper in Empire space where they were able to recover for a few days.

To better hide Shadows Talent, they would be waiting two days before teleporting behind the enemy lines.

In fact, this little maneuver was only possible because the Empire had lost the outer rim of border planets earlier in the war, and Shadow had created waypoints in those systems before the planets were lost. It also helped that the picket lines the Republic had spread through chaotic space gave them the confidence to move a supply depot into what was Empire space.

Shadow let them bypass the pickets and appeared inside what the Republic considered occupied territory, where they could strike a devastating blow to the current assault.

Matt knew he shouldnt be greedy, but he still wished they could have appeared in the Helios Delta system itself. Shadow didnt have that dense of a network of waypoints, and they were three planets away from the supply depot, which meant they were in a race. A race to see if they would be spotted and the Republic was able to move a Tier 25 group to intercept them, or if they could hit the supply depot.

The moment they arrived in the now occupied system, Drifter pulled them back into chaotic space. They hoped that the incredibly brief instant would be, if not disregarded by the Republic troops garrisoning the system, then not reported quickly enough for them to be trapped.

If they werent willing to take a risk or two, they wouldnt have embarked on this plan. Shadows Talent was to be kept a secret, but the other Great Powers would eventually put it together, withTeam Zero constantly moving quickly while having the Ascender teleporter in the group. Especially if they constantly made seemingly impossible moves. But that was why they had waited for two days to teleport, resulting in a believable amount of travel time for an Ascender-grade teleporter paired with Drifters piloting ability.

Drifter was also taking a lot of the credit, with her Talent being fairly well known for being strong in its own right. Free systems on a ship allowed her to add things, like long-range slip drives, that would normally be too expensive to run on a ship of this size.

Being behind enemy lines, they were on high alert, and none of them let their guards down for even a moment during the two weeks it took them to fly to Helios Delta. Even Origami, who was working on her own little surprise, was ready to take action at a moment's notice.

When they did finally arrive at Helios Delta, it was almost a relief, but that was only because the battle was imminent.

Helios Delta was, as their reports indicated, a supply depot, and Matt marveled at what the Republic had managed to set up in just a few decades of occupation.

He had expected a Corporation like a space station to float through the void, taking and receiving an inordinate amount of traffic, both military and civilian, but he couldnt have been more wrong.

Oh, there was a massive amount of traffic, but the traffic was flying into the light reflected off the moon and vanishing.

Matt blinked, seeing the oddity, but Darrow was barking questions at Origami, Shadow, and Drifter, trying to get an answer for what they were seeing. It was Shadow who had the answer.

Its not a pocket dimension. Theres no spatial magic involved there. Are they hiding inside the moonlight? Shadow shook her head, her mouth hanging open a little. In other circumstances, Matt would have thought she was playing it up, but her shock seemed honest.

Thankfully, Origami was able to provide more information. In a manner of speaking. Their base is built inside the moon. Not physically inside the ball of rocks, but within the moon itself. Its difficult to explain, and I dont quite understand how they manage it, but I have seen similar institutions before. No physical force will breach it.

Origami paused as a thought came to her, but Light beat her to the punch. They wish to synergize with Maven and her bloodline.

Origami nodded. I suspect so. It's ingenious, really.

Bulwark chuckled. Shame we got here before Maven arrived then. No moon boosting for her.

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General Darrow looked away from the moon base, towards Origami and Shadow. I am uncertain that was their goal. There is little trust between the Republic and the Sects, and certainly not enough to warrant something of this scale. But, that is immaterial for now. Can one of you get us inside?

Origami looked to Shadow, indicating the teleporter was the best chance to manage the feat.

Shadow closed her mouth with a click and nodded. Of course I can. There hasnt been a folded space I cant breach. Drifter, just get me close.

Origami shook her head. Its not a pocket space. Its more conceptual than that. At best, it would act like a layer of reality slid between realspace and chaotic space.

Shadow scoffed. That doesn't mean shit. Just get me close.

She cracked her knuckles and then her neck before getting into a half crouched stance.

Theyd appeared near the systems planet, and thus, it didnt take long to maneuver to a position where the full light of the moon shone upon them.

Shadow frowned. Oh that feels weird. Guess you were right, Aila.

Origami rolled her eyes.

But its nothing I cant manage, Shadow narrowed her eyes in concentration. I can still slip Through The Cracks.

Before them, the surface of the moon looked to shudder and warp, then a pitch-black fissure opened in the moonlight, before quickly spiderwebbing across the entire surface of the moon. It interrupted the silver light their ship was bathed in, casting jagged lines of shadow throughout the cabin.

And then they were gone.

The ship rocked as they took a number of shots from some kind of defensive battery, and while they put a substantial dent in the ship's mana reserves, Matt just refilled the lost mana in seconds.

As they landed, the firing continued regardless of the other docked ships, and Drifter clapped her hands and stored her ship in her ring. Compared to the rest of Team Zero, she wasnt much of a fighter when out of her ship, but she wasnt useless, and acted as a backup support for the team.

The moment they were exposed to the writhing fire from the defenders, Matt flared his Concept and pushed the spells away from them before casting [Bulwark] over their heads.

That bought Light enough time that he was able to take control of the cannon's spells and explode them while they were just inches away from the cannon's barrels and still within the defensive shields.

With that move, the rain of spells ended, and Matt was able to take a look around.

Once more, he was shocked at what he was seeing.

It genuinely looked like he was inside a moon. An indistinct, silver-white void stretched out well beyond the range of his spiritual perception, but with graceful columns and arches wrought from a more solid version of the same misty moonstuff defining countless hallways and doors every ten feet or so, each hiding unknown spoils.

General Darrows third eye spun before snapping onto Liz. Torch, clone up and start searching these rooms. Torment, get your scouts out as well.

Liz exploded into a massive pool of blood, then split off into smaller pieces as Torment began summoning an array of weaker monsters.

One Liz became two, four, ten, twenty, fifty, and finally one hundred and fifty.

With perfect coordination, many of them transformed into hawk-sized phoenixes and began swooping down the corridor, while others remained human and sprinted down their own hallways. Slightly less coordinated, but still effective, Torments small army of spy-monsters flooded and skittered every which way .

In just a moment, a flood of information came to Matt and he used his [AI] to parse and sort the information the Lizzes sent to them.

It was in the rooms that Matts expectations were finally fulfilled. Crates as large as he was were stacked to three or four high, and Liz was able to sense the contents of them now that she was in the rooms. Each room seemed to have its own type of item, and there must have been some level of organization, but Matt wasnt able to understand the logic.

Why did medical supplies like various healing potions and talismans belong in the same room as a crate of portable toilets? The same went for the long swords that were kept together with great shields instead of any other type of sword.

Still it didnt matter what they found. Their job was to take it.

And Liz, or rather the Lizzes, performed admirably.

When the Liz in question found items worth collecting, she turned into a wave of blood, which flowed in like a rising tide before sweeping up the enchanting boxes and pulling them out the doors.

There, they returned to the central loading area where the rest of Team Zero was. Origami had already deployed what looked like a closet, but Matt knew she had spent the last two weeks of their travel working on her portable chest.

By abusing her Talent, Shadows incredible finesse with space, and Matts mana, she had created an expanding space that could, at least in theory, hold an entire planets worth of goods. It wasnt particularly stable, and Matt wouldnt want to keep anything he considered precious inside of it, but for capturing enemy supplies, it was perfect.

The Lizzes flowed past in a line while throwing their ill-gotten gains into the open doors, where the chest enchantments would carefully store the items.

Sadly, their raid was interrupted.

The Republic defenders didnt like the idea of the Empire swooping in and stealing their goods.

It was a shame for them.

A Tier 25 squadron rushed down one of the halls, firing their spells at the nearest wave that was Liz.

Without needing to be told, Shadow teleported inside the group for a brief moment. The only things that were clearly visible were the pair of daggers that shredded the squad. Before the bodies finished hitting the ground, Shadow was already back at her location next to Light.

General Darrow turned to the returned Shadow and ordered, Carefully zip around here and see if you can figure out where their command structure is located. I can feel the space warping around us, so dont get locked away into a trap you cant escape from.

It was a subtle reminder that Allie shouldnt risk having to use her Tier 25 Talent, but Matt wasnt sure the teleporter would heed the warning, considering she vanished the moment the last word left Darrow's lips.

There were a few moments of calm before another dozen squads came out from seemingly random doors and charged at the Lizzes.

The moment General Darrow gave the order, Matt jetted forward on a cushion of air to reach the nearest group attacking his wife.

It didnt matter that his wife losing a clone wouldnt really kill her; Matt wouldnt allow anyone to get away with such an action.

His black blade descended and blood splashed.

A moment later, the blood started to tremble before rising up and turning into five Lizzes.

Before Matt could return to the center, another two squads of troopers came rushing out of a set of doors, but this time, they were clad in heavy armor.

Matt slashed out, but his blade was intercepted by the leading trooper. His blade still cut the man in half, but the block gave his fellows the opportunity to unload a flurry of spells onto Matt.

[Cracked Phantom Armor] blocked the spells, and in seconds the group of fighters died.

Matt felt the space warping around him, and he felt the area trying to move him somewhere else, but Matt flared his Intent and denied the action.

He wasnt so easily moved.

Space seemed to fracture, but the doors around Matt all opened, and another dozen troopers rushed out.

They were still Tier 25, but these men and women moved like lightning. The leading troopers darted in with blade extended, trying to skewer Matt while he was fighting off the pressure from the facility they were in.

The first three blades just skittered off [Cracked Phantom Armor], but the fourth penetrated thanks to a Domain and Talent combo. Matt just flared [Regeneration] and trapped the blade, preventing it from being withdrawn.

Matt reached down and grabbed the woman on the other end of the blade, who paused for the briefest instant as she hesitated in leaving her weapon behind. That indecision spelled her end, and Matt crushed her head before pointing his finger at the rest of the attackers.

[Mana Beam] carved a line through the attackers and they fell in pieces. Not all of them were dead, but those who survived sent messages giving their surrender, and despite hating them and everything they stood for in this war, Matt wasnt a monster. To that end, he honored their surrender and stepped over the bodies without finishing them off.

As he did so, they started to fade into the ground before vanishing, but Matt was unable to track where they had been taken. Some hidden healing facility, he was sure, but that didnt really matter to him; he had new opponents.

Another three doors opened up and Matt twisted as he was forced to flare [Archmages Presence] to avoid what seemed like every suppression ward in the facility crashing down on him. They tried to disrupt his spells, tried to weaken his body, his mana, and his Domain, but it was all futile.

He was Endless.

He was Dauntless.

If they wanted to stop him with Tier 25 formations, they would need to do a lot better than that.

Still, Matt didnt give the game away immediately. He froze and let [Cracked Phantom Armor] dim as if he was unable to keep feeding the spell with as much mana as it required.

The Republic troopers rushed in, this time with glowing cudgels. The moment they were within blade range, Matt moved.

Three [Mana Slash]s cut half of them in half, and Matt used his physical blade to finish the remainder off in moments.

He took a few blows from their cudgels and frowned, as they had a disrupting effect on his Domain. If he had been relying on his willpower to block those weapons, it would have drained an inordinate amount of the resource to do so. It was something he hadnt seen before, and so he absorbed the fallen weapons into his spatial ring before reporting the oddity to General Darrow.

Come back to the center Ascender Quill.

Hearing that order come through Matt rushed back down the hall hearing something was wrong.

As he exited his corridor, he saw Bulwark and Drifter returning from their own corridor at the same time Stick and Stone returned from a neighboring one. Light was casting spells as fast as he possibly could, with various types of mana darting out like multi-colored bolts of death as he covered two corridors on his own.

Torment was focusing on one corridor himself, or rather, his summons were butchering anything and everything that dared to not be a Liz. This time, his primary summon was Hatred, a wolf made out of black and red lightning that kept spawning more of itself, a nightmare only contained by the Graduates twisted emotions.

Aster, on the other hand, was keeping the wards from weakening the rest of the team through her own counter spells and a little help from Origami, who had deployed a number of her constructs.

The only one who wasnt doing anything was Morgan, who stood there, her crossbow cocked but lowered.

As he stepped on to the landing area and got a clear shot down one of the undefended corridors, Matt sent out a flurry of [Gravitic Bolt]s punching through the first of dozens of troopers rushing down the halls. Instead of bursts of blood as his spell tore through dozens of people before faltering, there were bursts of light that looked almost like dust that faded away into nothingness as the constructs were destroyed.

The idea that this supply depot had some sort of formation to make construct soldiers wasnt too surprising. Disposable troops like this were weak and expensive to deploy too widely, but were damn useful in wearing down attackers, especially defensively. And in the end, who cared if you spent mana that was about to be stolen? Better spend it possibly getting a casualty than letting the enemies just take it.

As he was clearing out the halls with bursts of [Gravitic Bolt]s, the space around them flickered, Morgans crossbow snapped up, and her bolt whizzed out as it cut the air. A man fell out of the air somehow both right next to them and also miles away, a crossbow bolt pierced through his right eye.

Not a construct, but a real soldier. As he fell, Matt analyzed the purple armor with deep red runes carved on it before the man landed in the mass of ever spawning constructs.

Origami reached over and shoved a bolt into Morgan's crossbow, but that didnt seem to interrupt the orchestra she was conducting. The team's crafter was working overtime as she wove an intricate dance, stowing and deploying more and more spatial chests as endless streams of Lizzes flowed through, depositing their loot then going out for more.

Matt relocated closer to Origami, carefully placing a hand on her back and activating a pair of linked runic tattoos theyd gotten. With physical contact and a bit of help from his Concept, he was able to feed the woman an incredible amount of mana, converting almost instantly to match and fill her mana pool. Once he felt a few sparks build up, he cut off the flow of mana and stepped back to prevent overloading the enchantment.

That little trick was something all the mages had gotten done, Aster included. Matts Concept was great and moved a lot of mana to those he chose to give it to, but in a fight at their level, that was still too slow. Their solution was tattoo formations that would allow Matt to directly charge the team's mages, and Origami was at half mana thanks to her efforts. Tattooed runes werent perfect, though, and could cause serious harm to the person's spirit if pushed too far, which was why Matt didnt overdo it.

Origami didnt even seem to notice his actions, and Matt moved over to Light and topped the other mage off. While Light would always be an efficiency mage, he had taken to spending his own mana a little more aggressively when Matt was around.

Once the mages were topped off, Matt went back to attacking the constructs while Liz brought in more and more loot, only stopping to keep the mages above half their mana pools. He was on his tenth round of recharging everyone's mana when Shadow popped back in next to General Darrow.

She almost caught a crossbow bolt to the eye, but Morgan controlled herself after an initial flinch.

I found it.

Shadow seemed almost gleeful, but General Darrow just nodded. Then we retreat. Torch, wrap it up.

Instead of rushing back outward, the Lizzes formed up into pools of blood as they came back in. It still took her three minutes for all of her outlying clones to return, but when there was only one Liz standing, General Darrow handed Shadow what looked like a camping lantern.

Matt flinched when he saw what General Darrow had handed her.

Thirty second timer.

Matt didnt need his commander to tell him that the bomb Shadow was holding only had half a minute before it went off; he could see the display showing the time. It wasnt even entirely true, as the countdown had already lost a second.

Drifter slapped her hands together and her ship reappeared, then Matt helped Origami, Liz, and Bulwark move the stack of spatial chests back into the ship. Matt was quite firmly in awe of Origamis prowess. While the supply base didnt have a huge degree of reserves, it was still on the order of what would normally be transported by five or six supply fleets. Yet the crafter had managed to fit the billions of pounds of cargo into a small enough number of crates that Drifters ship could carry all of it.

The woman was darting from crate to crate as they loaded up, frantically making adjustments and repairs as small runes burned out from the strain they were under, but it looked like she had it all under control.

Matt watched as his AI mirrored the countdown he saw on the bomb, and when Shadow wasnt back by the ten-second mark, he started to grow worried.

When she wasnt back by the five-second mark, he started to panic.

When she wasnt back by the three-second mark, he started calculating how he was going to survive the resulting explosion and protect Liz and Aster.

Thankfully, Shadow arrived at the two-second mark, and the moment she materialized, their ship twisted through space, and they returned to the real space of Helios Delta.

One second after that, there was a ripple through the fabric of space, and the moon just a few dozen miles away from them rippled like a hologram that was bumped. When the image of the moon settled, the once-real moon was half transparent.

Whatever the Republic had done to anchor that portion of the Between to the moon had collapsed as the one billion mana bomb Shadow set off detonated.

Shadow whooped, but Matt just wanted to sit down.

Sadly, that was impossible.

They were still deep behind enemy lines, and with all their stolen cargo, it was impossible for Shadow to teleport them unless they wanted to give up on their goods.

Drifter ripped a hole through to chaotic space, and Matt finally relaxed as they saw no sign of anyone moving to attack them.

Seeing they had a moment of respite, Bulwark moved around and started healing everyone and checking for curses or hidden injuries. Matt expected them to run into an ambush or something before he was able to take care of them, but the team's healer patched them all back together without issue.

They had to dodge a few ships searching for them through chaotic space, but thanks to Drifters excellent skills, they were able to remain undetected throughout.

They skimmed near a world trying to find a break in the combined Great Powers picket lines when the ship was engulfed in a colorful aura, and a sudden yank dragged them from chaotic space. They materialized in the middle of an asteroid field in realspace, and warning klaxons began to beep as they were immediately set upon from multiple sources.

Trusting Drifter, Matt spread his spiritual sense outward searching for who had done this. There, among a dozen gathered ships, stood one far more ornate ship.

One that wasnt bothering to hide or camouflage its passengers.

A ship that housed Dao Child Maven.

Matt readed his sword.

It was about time he encountered her.

He hadnt forgotten the debt she owed Ventillyria.

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