The Path of Ascension

Matt watched the crowd around the table. They had been bickering for the last fifteen minutes, talking in circles that led to nowhere.

The leader of the noncombatants, or as Matt preferred to call them, the less-combatants, was Kline. He kept pushing back on almost every measure brought up. Sure, most of them were fighters, but they were only peak Tier 4 or weak Tier 5’s. They had decided to try their luck with the subjugation, but they hadn’t signed up for anything like this.

He couldn’t blame them, but he did hate that they complained about essentially everything. The original plan had been to set them up with two months of food. It would be enough time for the war with the ruin to be decided either way. If they won, they could leave the rift that the weaker survivors were safely held up inside. If they lost, the Tier 15 would be forced to act, and the weak would still be able to leave the rifts safely. But that wasn’t enough for Kline. He was demanding more food, more materials, and more defenders.

It was ridiculous, really. All of the combatants would be escorting them into the rift, and would hold the line for the fifteen minutes that it would take to create an instance. But Kline was asking for a permanent station of guards. His logic was that when they left the rift, they would need more help. But no matter how many times people reiterated that it was pointless, as they wouldn’t know what was going on outside the rift until they left, he refused to back down.

Matt was out of patience, and just wanted the meeting to end.

The rest of it had been fast enough. Juni had simply relayed the plan that the prince decided on, and they moved to complete it.

Food had been gathered and prepared, and a rift was chosen. Kline even managed to complain about the rift they had chosen. Everyone had submitted their ideas for the rift according to the surroundings, and they had found a Tier 4 wooded rift with deer as the inhabitants.

It even had a stream for fresh water, but no, that wasn’t good enough. Kline wanted a stronger rift so he and the other Tier 6’s could get some essence.

Tuning out the irritating man, Matt scanned the crowd. He and the other combatants were here to offer their opinions about what they could do in regards to protecting nearly two hundred and fifty people. It would be a challenge, as they expected to face all sorts of ambushes and traps set by the golems.

The current plan was simply to keep the Tier 4’s and the weaker Tier 5’s in the center, while moving to their chosen rift. It, like most rifts in the area, was being guarded and delved by the golems. From the reconnaissance they had done, the golems seemed to be delving for raw materials, more than rewards or anything else.

That meant that both of the rescue teams had to be on the offensive. They needed to get to the rift, and hit it hard and fast. Breaking through the defenders would be the easy part, but they had no way of knowing how many golems waited inside.

The twenty of them had the simplest job on paper, but in practice, they were the linchpin that the entire operation depended on. If they couldn’t secure the rift entrance, the mass of people following them would be sitting targets. They were taking the anti-air weapon with them as insurance, but the weaker group expected to be harried by the enemy at least somewhat. The prince had decided to strike out from all of the bases at once, to split the response of the golems and the strain on the fighters.

The worst-case scenario was the golems focused all their forces on one or two of the bases and overwhelmed them. Still, it was a chance they had to take.

As Kline continued to argue, the uncomfortable shifting among the members of the meeting increased, until even he noticed the atmosphere, and gave up. Everyone moved out of the area as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Matt followed Zoey, using views from the rest of his team’s AIs.

He moved to his tent with Liz, then crawled in and right out of the back that they already had unzipped. Once he was outside, he moved deeper into the mass of tents, with a nondescript blanket thrown over his shoulders to ward off the chill. With it covering his form, he looked no different than the others who sat out or moved between fires.

Finding his planned vantage point, Matt withdrew his flying sword, and found some branches and leaves to cover it while he was sitting on it. The foliage made the sword look like any other hill. Sitting down, Matt pulled the blanket over his head, and pulled his scarf up higher on his face. It was suspicious, but he didn’t want to be seen by Zoey’s AI before he acted.

As he waited, Matt thought hard about what he was getting ready to do. He was going to willingly assassinate someone, only because they had different morals and laws in their land.

He couldn’t hide that from himself.

At first, he tried to rationalize that it had to be done. But while that was true, he was doing it in a way that avoided the law. His mind tried to use the excuse that it was the local laws at fault, but that didn’t help stay his guilt. The vassal kingdoms were given leeway for a reason. Matt was sure that the Emperor could enforce laws uniformly, but chose not to. He didn’t pretend to know the thoughts and motives of a Tier 50, nor the inner workings of an Empire that spanned thousands of planets.

He still was agonizing over whether this was the right thing to do. He was stopping someone from abusing their power on the weak, but he still felt dirty for even considering the means to that end.

As he sat under the stars, with the cold seeping in through his blanket, Matt wondered why he had never seen such corruption in the Empire. He knew it existed, but all the examples he could think of were instances of corruption being quickly rooted out. Even Camilla, who had it the worst, was eventually saved.

Does that make me Duke Waters in this situation?

The thought felt so arrogant, it made him cringe. Duke Waters found a situation and immediately solved it, right there in the open. Matt was hiding under a blanket in the cold, waiting to ambush a simple crafter. The last time he killed humans on the training world he had killed in self defense, but this was cold and calculated. Premeditated.

His introspection was cut off when a familiar figure moved into the row of tents, and Matt had to stop himself from tensing.

As the figure approached, the moon gave just enough light for Matt to clearly see her face. It was Zoey. After a quick message to Geraden, it only took seconds for Matt to hear the loud sounds of two wolves making a ruckus.

Zoey turned slightly, and at that exact moment, a root reached out and grabbed her feet. As she tumbled to the ground, Matt was already moving. When she caught herself from hitting the ground, he slammed the metal rod he had palmed onto the back of her neck.

From all the power that his [Mage’s Retreat] infused muscles could produce,the blow landed with a sickening crunch. The body of the royal crafter went slack just as the horrible sound echoed in his ears.

Matt moved his scarf to her face, and wrapped her eyes up. He had broken her spine. It would certainly kill her, but she wasn’t dead yet, so he had to be wary of her AI. Pulling both of them up to his sword, he rose in the air. With all the speed that the Tier 7 flying device could muster, he left the area.

Zoey’s body felt like a ton of bricks as he flew into the darkness, with the wind whipping at his unarmored form. He wasn’t willing to risk [Cracked Phantom Armor] ’s slight glow giving him away.

As he sped away from the camp, he felt the burst of essence from the woman after five minutes of flying. His AI noted it was right in the normal range. The royal was dead.

Having already moved miles away, he removed his scarf, and dumped the body into the forest.

Turning around, he quickly returned to find that the camp was a flurry of activity. Slipping through the darkness in between carried lights, he navigated through the mass of tents, and returned to his and Liz’s tent from the rear.

Liz shot him a panicked look that quickly turned to relief when she saw that it was him. She didn’t verbally ask anything, but he read her expression well enough.

At his slight nod, she wrapped him in a big hug, with Aster snuggling in between them.

They didn’t say anything. They didn’t need to. Neither of them liked the situation, and they wanted to put it far out of their minds once it was over.

Not long after, they were checked on, and asked to join the search for the attacker. Zoey had gotten a distress signal out before he had taken her away, but she hadn’t been able to identify her assailant.

No one expected Zoey and her attacker to have gone far. They searched the camp for a few hours, until everyone gave up, without finding a single lead or clue. Soon, they returned to the “normal” that was living under the constant threat of golem attacks.

The next morning, when they met for breakfast, the group talked over their successful mission. They all agreed that it was good that Camilla didn’t carry out the hit herself, and had been sitting around a fire at the time. Perfectly visible.

She had been the first and most thoroughly questioned person, and was able to say with AI verification that she took no part in killing the woman. It had come to light that Juni already knew about Zoey’s actions, but was unable to act. The rumors were spreading around the camp, as a few of her victims had stepped forward with news of her death. Not long after, there was outrage brewing in the camp, directed at the lone leader.

Matt almost felt bad for the man, but he was still numb from what he had done. He didn’t have nightmares, but he didn’t sleep well either.

As they talked over breakfast, the team was asked to meet with Juni and the other rescue team for a briefing. As they ate, they saw that the camp was quickly getting dismantled. There was no reason to dally, as their planned move-out time was just after noon.

When they arrived, Matt saw the others prepping their gear and sitting around Juni. When he saw them, he called out, “Oh good, you're here. We need to go over a slight change of plans. The prince wants to move the time up by half an hour.”

“Why?” Liz, their team’s spokesman, asked the question on everyone’s mind.

Juni shrugged while rubbing his face. “I don’t know. That was the message passed to us, and all of my requests for more information have gone unanswered.”

Matt felt that the answer was obvious, and didn’t hold back.

“So we’re gonna be used as bait for the golems? That’s fucking grand.”

Juni just smiled slightly.

“This is partially my fault. Well, it’s really mostly my fault. The prince wasn’t fond of Zoey, but she was his maid’s sister. Since I let her die under my watch, I’m pretty sure that we’ve now become the distraction.”

Fen asked, “Is there anything we can do to not get slaughtered? I don’t look forward to dying, solely because some rapist got removed.”

Juni just laughed. “Disobeying would be treason in a time of crises, and we would be executed if we survived. The only hope is to go along with the plan, and not die.”

Matt’s hand tightened on the hilt of his sword.

Were my actions worth getting more people killed in retaliation?

The second-guessing and guilt ate at him, until he realized that there was no good answer. He couldn’t tell the future, and he didn’t think he could live with himself if he had walked away from that kind of abuse.

He just couldn’t find the answer that could leave the most people unharmed, no matter how hard he searched for it.

He decided that what was done was done. He tightened his grip on his sword,and spoke up.

“So we push through, and cut the golems guarding the rift down. Then we...” he gestured to the rest of the fighters, “Pivot and act as a rear guard.”

That started the planning phase of the meeting, and they decided to go with that general idea. They also wanted to have a group of Tier 5 fighters watch the rift for exiting golems, while the stronger fighters moved to engage the enemies that were sure to follow.

With their plan being the best they could come up with, they moved into position, with the rest of the camp being none the wiser. Matt didn’t know how he felt about leaving the others in the dark about the changes. The only ones who knew the original time were the leaders of various factions, and Juni decided to just tell them that everyone was moving early.

If the people panicked, it would just cause more casualties. Staying in the camp was a sentence to a slow death, for all the fighters who went out and those who defended the walls as well.

Matt had bent so many of his morals at this point, he wasn’t sure if he was still the same person he had been when he came to this planet.

The twenty heaviest hitters moved first, and the fourteen melee fighters ran forward with loping speed, covering ground quickly.

Juni had given up his personal flying device, which allowed all the mages to fly, with the addition of a third device. It wasn’t as good as Matt’s Tier 7 flying sword, which was not only a higher-end model, but also a model made in the Empire proper. It’s quality was far superior to any product made in the vassal kingdom.

The mages kept overhead, and didn’t range too far out, but just far enough to keep them from being ambushed. Despite all of their preparation, they encountered no resistance, until they came to the plain of grass containing the rift that they had targeted.

The golems had created a fortification around the rift, and had small walls built up with stone, either from the rift or scoured nearby. It was only chest high for the golems, but it gave them a modicum of protection and cover from ranged attacks .

As the survivors ran at the fortification, the mages in the air started unleashing spells, bobbing and weaving through the rain of bolts fired at them. It was more a distraction to keep them from attacking the less agile melee fighters on foot. And it worked. For a time.

But when they crossed a threshold of the golem’s defenses, the bolts started flying at the melee fighters. Matt didn’t stop running. Cowering would just allow the golems to pin them down.

It was terrifying to run directly into fortified monsters shooting at him. Every instinct Matt had honed from delving said that there had to be another way to handle this, or to lead them away. But everyone was pressing on, and taking the same risk.

As they approached the fortification, Matt flared his Concept, trying to direct most of the repulsion up instead back at the golems. He just needed to redirect the bolts, not necessarily send them back. He needed to conserve as much will as he could, if he was going to make it through the day.

There were no screams of pain, but as he felt each bolt reach his zone of control, the drain of his willpower was noticeable. As they closed on the crossbow golems, a flurry of skills flew out from his sides. While most were absorbed by the wall, a few golems were hit and dropped. The reduced number of bolts thrown at them gave the fighters confidence as they advanced.

Then, Matt was at the wall, and leaped over. His off-hand tapped the wall, shifting his momentum. As his feet landed, he lashed out and chopped a golem at the waist, then ducked. Spinning, he slashed at the golem behind him, smashing it into the wall.

Before he could do more than catch a glimpse of the others coming over the wall, the heavier melee variants of the golems rushed them. Matt cast [Hail], but had to draw from the mana stone at his wrist to fill his mana pool for a moment. The combination of skills drained his mana pool completely, as [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mage’s Retreat] drank down the remainder in a fraction of a second. It brought him back under one percent of his maximum, where his mana regeneration would increase to 40 MPS.

With his sword’s [Mana Charge] already holding 1000 mana, he didn’t bother with fancy blade work, and just brought his glowing blade around in a wide arc. When his longsword met the shield of a golem, he unleashed the stored mana. In a flash, the shield golem’s upper half evaporated, along with half of the golem next to it.

All the fighting in the last two weeks had given him an abundance of Tier 6 essence, which was doing wonders for his cultivation. Even the encounters with the weaker spider golems were valuable for essence. What they lacked in Tier that made up for in quantity, and Matt was nearly ten percent into Tier 5.

It was a crazy advancement speed, made possible only by the abundance of enemies above his Tier. The increase in cultivation made each of his blows hit harder, and he used the increase in power to great effect.

As Matt moved into the wall of shield users, the other melee fighters did the same, cutting a path with their skills and abilities.

Matt saw Geraden swing a much larger Den in an arc that ended with an explosion. The wall that had the audacity to think it could stop a tree was shattered with the blow.

Sidestepping and spinning, he caught sight of a screaming and flailing Camilla. She was letting out the pain he knew that she had to be feeling, judging from the two crossbow bolts in her leg. Her whip and mace were tearing through the golems, and she used the odd combo in an ever congealing style, all her own.

Arrow, one of Fen’s companions, jumped past him with a bolt stuck in his shoulder. With Bow’s help, they savaged a golem after dragging it down. Matt didn’t see their bond, but the man was slippery in a fight, and his AI said no one died.

Yet.

As spells and arrows rained down from the flying devices, Matt dove back into the fray.

***

Camilla looked around and jumped to the side. The two bolts that were lodged in her legs empowered her with their pleasure.

She screamed as she brought down her mace. She was so angry and confused.

Camilla had expected the reaction of the others, after she killed the filth that sold humans to golems. They all pulled away, exactly as she expected.

But Matt…

Matt came to her and said that he understood.

She still didn’t get that. It was replaying over and over in her head.

That wasn’t how people reacted.

So, she wanted to see how far his newfound pragmatism went, and told him about the monster that lurked in their camp. She expected him to avoid doing what was necessary. But then, he volunteered to make the kill, and had gone through with it when the others put out the facts.

Camilla hadn’t known the local laws, and still didn’t care after learning them. She saw a monster and wanted them gone. She fully expected to be caught and killed for it, but the rest of her team did it for her.

She was going to kill Zoey no matter what. But the rest of the team had protected her, and got the job done.

They were… Friends?

She wasn’t sure.

She came out here to grow stronger, and had instead set off a catastrophe, the likes she didn’t know were possible. Aiden said that the Empire was large, and that anything could happen, but she didn’t believe him.

The rest of the team had all made their way over to her after they ate, and apologized for their reactions after she had killed the bandits.

She still wasn’t sure that had really happened. People didn’t apologize or admit when they were wrong.

A cut through her leg brought her attention back to the fight, and a shard of ice took out a golem that was trying to flank her. She made a note that she owed the little fox a tub of ice cream, once they got off this forsaken planet.

Aster seemed to have an innate sense of her mood, and more often than not, would curl up in her lap when she was lost in her thoughts and darkest memories.

Aidan and her therapist had talked about getting a mundane animal. They thought raising one would help her, but she resisted the idea at first. After spending time with the ball of fluff, it didn’t seem so bad anymore.

Flaring [Cracked Healing Touch], she healed the gash in her flesh and threw herself into the mass of golems.

Aidan had spent a fortune on the skill, simply to complement her Talent enforced fighting style. The skill was a good crack, as it was a self-cast healing skill. It sacrificed healing others and bones for incredibly cheap and efficient healing of flesh. It still built up stress on her healing that she needed to manage, but it was less so than a normal spell.

She owed him so much, and let the shame of relying on someone else guide her recently upgraded whip. She still was shocked that the ruin had the materials she needed. It was an amazing find, and it kept her competitive with the human wrecking ball that was Matt.

The man in question threw himself into the thickest fighting, with no regard for his safety. Despite being only Tier 5, he was the tip of the spear, and was leading the charge.

It had taken months to actually trust the man who looked so much like her tormentor, but she had come to realize that he was a good person. Matt was far more naive than she expected, especially for someone who grew up in an orphanage. He always saw the positive side of things, and the good in people. She had had that removed by life early on, somehow he kept a positive outlook.

She could now see the difference between him and her nightmare. Matt might superficially resemble him. But they were so different in temperament. She understood why Liz locked him down early. She wanted to find a woman who would look at her like he did with the blood mage.

A blood golem smashing a pair of monsters next to her brought Camilla’s thoughts to the blood mage in the sky for a moment. But quickly, three attacking golems forced her to concentrate on the battle again. During her fight, she was once again distracted by a flash of mana from Matt’s blade.

She knew that she wasn’t the only one who questioned how he could fight with such sustained vigour. The others thought that he had an armor Talent, but she knew that was wrong. What he was really capable of was only growing more apparent in fights like this. He continuously took blow after blow that should drain the reserves of any armor skill. The others in their rescue team hadn’t talked about it, at least not when she was near. She had been keeping an ear out for exactly that, and would warn him if need be.

A twinge of jealousy wracked her, as he picked a golem up with one hand and repeatedly slammed it into the stone wall.

She had a Talent that was all about empowering her strength, but was still unable to match the man in power. Pound for pound, her AI said that she was stronger, but the man was huge, and was packing on more and more muscle every day.

Camilla was only 5’6”, and one hundred thirty pounds, to his nearly two-fifty. It was unfair that he got more out of strength cultivation. She had assumed that her Talent would allow her to out muscle anyone at her Tier, but unless she activated her trump card, she didn’t have a single hope of matching the man.

The thought brought her to the small device implanted in her lower back. She had demanded that Aidan go through with the surgery, as soon as she discovered the possibility of creating a drive to directly stimulate her nerves. The pleasure was debilitating, but the strength it put out was equally impressive.

The problem was, it damaged her to the point that she needed a dedicated healer with impressive skills to keep her going. Especially if she pushed it too far, nerve burnout would occur in less than a minute.

It was a last resort. She had promised Aidan as much, and she wasn’t willing to break a promise to him.

The fighting continued as they moved through the fortifications. Golems rushed to them in waves, only to meet their end.

Finally, they hit the open area where the rift was situated, and Geraden slammed his staff into the ground. The tree that hid its form in the shape of a staff had its roots reach out of the ground, and swallow the remaining golems. With the area cleared, she turned to see the holding force reach the edge of the forest.

It was embarrassing that they just now reached them, but they all turned and ran back to save the group of noncombatants that were moving towards them. They were already signaling that they were being attacked with greater and greater numbers.

How useless.

***

Liz stood from her vantage on their flying sword, and reached up and scratched Aster fur. They had helped where they could, but after the melee fighters had engaged the golems, they had to aim their shots well, and this was only the beginning of the fight. With Thyme holding on to her waist, she turned and flew back to the group.

They had made depressingly little progress for the time they had been running.

Pushing the flying device, she shot ahead of the others, and quickly reached the rest of the group. There were so many dead that she had to swallow.

As morbid as it was, it gave her what she needed. With a flick of effort, she gathered the blood of their fallen comrades up, and sent it spinning in a whirlwind of blood.

It wasn’t perfect, but it bought the defenders some distance. Seeing the melee golems pull back to avoid her blood, Liz levitated the blood, with her innate connection strengthened with [Blood Manipulation]. With waves of her hand, she started attacking the spider drone golems that were trying to overwhelm the anti-air defense with disposable units.

Her mana quickly drained with the effort, and she pulled from her mana stone’s reserve. She had been sparing with her expenditure so far, and it was just for a situation like this.

The mages knew that they would get back here faster, so they unleashed their most destructive spells only when they would do the most good.

Liz moved the flying device so they were still part the anti-air defense, but Thyme and Aster could join in.

They helped hold the line by attacking any group of the golems that tried to pierce the thin outer layer of defenses and reach the weaker Tier 4’s.

Liz refused to let that happen. After finding out what they had unleashed, she wanted to beg anyone she knew to come and stop the carnage, but her parent’s’ words stopped her.

When she was young, she asked why Uncle Manny didn’t just fix everything. They said, “If people don’t have struggles and loss, they can’t grow. Even if they do, they will fall at the first sign of harsh winds.”

She thought their words were directed at the random people in the Empire at the time, but now she knew better. They had been directed at her. She needed to make mistakes and solve them.

Matt had held her crying more than once after a failed rescue. They both hurt.

She hated that he had had to kill the vile woman, and debated using her position to put pressure on the prince, but she found it too unlikely to succeed. Promises for the future were worth less than allies now. It had been necessary, but she didn’t like it. And the action had hurt Matt no matter how much he tried to hide it.

With the weight of responsibility driving her magic, Liz moved to disrupt golem formations while the party retreated.

Two hundred people didn’t move fast. As she was trying to snake a line of blood around a golems leg, Aster’s yip and Thymes’ sudden jerk brought her attention to the horizon.

At first, she thought it was only a large cloud, but realized that it was a massive wave of golems blotting out the sky.

Liz wanted to cry.

How am I going to protect everyone from that many golems?