The Path of Ascension

Matt and everyone else stood in the predawn gloom, with a few sparse lights illuminating the Prince. He stood on a platform that had just been erected for this gathering.

"Today, we strike back!"

The Prince's voice was smooth, and carried across the area with gathered people. It tickled Matt's ears in a way that told him a skill was being used.

"We will move through the enemy's ranks, and pay them back for our lost comrades. We will make them suffer the consequences of taking our friends and allies captive, and inflicting unknown horrors upon them."

There was a small cheer from the people in the crowd.

"We have gotten new information that the menace taking over this world has hidden bases. They are trying to prevent us from pulling them up from the roots in one quick strike. But that is exactly what we must do, because we are the only ones with the ability, and position from which to strike."

He took a deep breath and paced around the platform, meeting everyone's eyes.

"I thank all of you. I know we have others from the Empire proper, and others still from some of the surrounding kingdoms. I want to apologize to you all."

There was murmuring when Albert said that, but he shouted over the noise.

"No! I can acknowledge and admit that our Kingdom isn't perfect. I have spent time in, and traveled throughout the wider Empire. They treat the lower Tiers with respect and kindness, something we seem to lack. That is the change I wish to see, and the change I wish to be. I will not turn a blind eye to the corruption that infects our Kingdom."

At the Prince's words, the atmosphere shifted oddly. Matt wasn't sure if it was a smart play to admit fault during the rally before a large fight.

"I wish to make changes, but we are stuck in a hard time. We’ve been cut off from our resources, and our main city’s destroyed. This was a chance for my royal siblings to make their move, and so they did. But with adversity comes opportunities! Risk means reward. That is the law of rifts and of this world. They put me in this position, hoping that I would die, or be chased into a rift where they could disgrace me."

The Prince's face looked like the facets of a crystal as the lights flickered off his scowl.

"They underestimate me! They underestimate you!"

The crowd roared at that, but the Prince shouted over them.

"When we defeat this disaster and crush the golems, who could say we are wrong? I will earn enough acclaim to firmly entrenched myself as one of the strongest contenders in the line of succession. Then, serious changes can be made. Yes, they put us under intense pressure, but we will come out stronger than before!"

The cheering became a solid wave of noise produced by everyone in the crowd from the Kingdom. It was so loud, it bounced off the mountain walls and echoed back, adding to the noise.

"We just have to fight, and win. When you go to take the golems factories, I ask you to push as hard as you can, but without losing your lives. I don't want any one of my new brothers and sisters to throw their lives away. We can always strike a second time if our first attack must fall back. But we must strive to destroy every golem satellite production facility, and thus stymie any reinforcements for when we attack the flying fortress. With their eradication, we will ensure the destruction of this menace, once and for all. This plague on our new land will be wiped out all too easily. Today, we fight so that the battle tomorrow will be our last!"

The crowd went crazy with their cheering, while Matt looked around and observed.

Liz and Camilla seemed to be above the wordplay, along with Fen and Geraden. None of them allowed themselves to be caught up in the fervor, but the rest of his team were shouting and pumping their fists in the air. Some were even jumping.

Matt had been in clubs with less energy.

Looking over to Liz, he got an answer to the question that had been gnawing at him.

"He used a skill that amplifies emotion. It only works when the person speaking deeply believes what they’re saying, and when the listener is directly affected or cares about the topic. It just heightens emotions. Nothing nefarious, it’s just a sort of feedback loop that both sides feed on."

Matt and everyone else moved to their positions, where they readied up for their departure time. A few teams immediately moved out, as they had the farthest distances to travel.

It didn't escape his notice that the Prince visited each team before they left. He made his way around, shaking everyone's hand and smiling at them.

Matt couldn’t decide if Albert’s display of reverence for his subjects was a sham or not. Did the Prince really want to be a catalyst of change for the better in his Kingdom? If he was true to his words, it was a laudable goal that Matt could support. But it also felt too good to be true, judging from what he had seen of this Kingdom so far.

When the Prince made his way over to their group, he smiled and shook hands as he had done everyone else. From the snippets of overheard conversation, the Prince seemed to be genuinely interested in what everyone had to say.

As the Prince made his way to where Matt, Liz, Aster, and Camilla were standing, he stuck his hand out at Matt. With a smile, he said, "I hear you have a defensive Talent as well. One that can even partially jump Tiers. That's impressive, and I'd love to get in a friendly spar together when this is over. It's a rare pleasure when I can find someone near my own level. Especially an opponent that can take a blow as well as I can."

"I'll gladly take you up on that when this disaster is over, your highness."

Satisfied, the Prince turned to Camilla and repeated the same routine of shaking her hand and complimenting her.

"I hear you have a bladed whip that digs into your arm. That’s quite an interesting weapon you don't usually see. You must have quite the will power to fight with such a weapon. I feel that you haven't made your own Concept yet. I can give you some literature about making your own, if you so wish. If you are able to fight through that pain, you should succeed far sooner than most."

Matt knew that Camilla didn't need any sort of information that the Prince of a vassal kingdom would have access to. Not with Duke Waters treating her like family. But she graciously nodded in response and said, "Thank you, your highness."

When the Prince turned to Liz, his smile turned softer and sweeter. Matt wanted to laugh. Liz was beautiful. Even in full armor, she exuded class and poise.

The Prince was interested in Liz, but his flattery and charming words were the worst way to go about it.

"Ah, your beauty is greater than I heard. It is only eclipsed by your abilities. I hear you held off the flying golems nearly on your own. Truly it is an accomplishment few could match. I..."

Liz's expression shouted that she wasn't impressed, and her tone only reinforced the idea when she interjected. "I was one of many."

The Prince picked up on her disinterest, and quickly left. He wasn't dumb, that was for sure.

As The Prince talked with Juni away from everyone else, Matt clutched his chest and said, "Ahh, for shame! I’ve been replaced so quickly with a prince." He put his hand to his mouth, and fluttered his other hand by his face, as if he was about to faint. "Whatever shall I do?"

Liz shoulder bumped him, not at all amused. "Ugh. I hate people like that." In a high-pitched and mocking tone, she added, "Your beauty is only outshone by your skills."

She shook her head and added in her normal voice, "Ascenders, I hate that kind of ass kissing."

Camilla butted in. "Matt, are you not jealous that Liz could be swept off her feet?"

Her tone implied that it was said in jest, but Matt looked into Liz's eyes and answered her as if it was a proper question.

"Not really. I trust Liz. We agreed that we were exclusive. That's really the end of it. Am I supposed to be mad at her for being beautiful? She didn't flirt back or anything. I can't stop people from taking their shots at her."

"You're no fun Matt. I wanted to see you rage and throw a tantrum!. It would have been a great new facet of your personality."

Camilla didn’t let him bring the conversation serious and pulled it back to joking, so Matt went with it and played along.

She then leaned into Liz, and in a falsetto said, “Oh Liz, you are so pretty! Please, your skill is only matched by your beauty. Please be swept off your feet by this line used in every cheesy romance movie! Please, I beg of you!”

Seeing Liz’s cheeks tinge pink, Matt added, “Oh how I've been defeated by honeyed words! Whatever shall I do?”

He leaned back and put a hand to his head, and let the other dangle.

Liz, growing ever more red, put on her helmet and turned to look at the mountains. She said, “The mountains look especially rocky today dont you think?”

Their banter was interrupted when Juni broke away from the Prince, and told them to get moving. He turned towards another group and moved towards them at a jog, yelling orders at every team in the vicinity.

***

Matt and his team were trekking through the mountains, along with half of the combatants that came to the camp with Juni. Originally, they were to have two squads in each strike team. But as Juni had briefed them this morning, the Prince had gotten new information from his scouts. They had discovered new hidden factories for them to target.

There were so many new facilities discovered, they needed to either split the teams, or make two separate strikes. In the end, the Prince had decided that the risk of the golems reinforcing the remaining lairs was one they wanted to avoid if at all possible.

Matt hadn't seen Malcolm after he went to speak with the Prince. The only message they had gotten from him said that they were flying him around, using his Talent to triangulate locations for the golem bases.

They were currently wading through a small, mostly dry creek bed that meandered through the bottom of a valley. They were close to their purported mark, but they hadn't seen anything suggesting golem activity thus far.

None of them expected their scouts’ information to be exact. That was why they had planned for a few hours of leeway with their strikes at the golems’ base. But as the minutes passed, the attack time crept closer, and they continued to find nothing. Their nerves crept up as the anticipation built.

No one wanted to be the team caught with their pants down, and fail their mission.

Matt made his way to Juni and said, "I can scout with my flying blade."

Liz followed him to Juni's position, and added, "No, I should do it. I'll already need to get on the blade for the tactical advantage when we engage."

"Yes, but I'm going to scout, not fight. I have my armor in case I take fire. If I see anything, I'll come right back here."

Juni was nodding his agreement as Matt finished.

"Sorry Liz, I agree with Matt. He's durable, and can handle a few crossbow bolts if he finds the golems. You are one of our heaviest hitters. Scouting usually isn't done by the important offensive weapons."

Liz didn't say anything, but Matt saw her lips pressed tight under her helmet.

When she didn't say anything else, Matt withdrew his sword and took to the air.

He didn't fly high immediately, but instead kept to just above the treetops, scanning the area around them.

Still unable to find anything of note, he increased his altitude and made wide loops at faster speeds.

Finally giving up, he went straight up the side of the mountain, keeping close to the rocky wall to avoid cresting early. At the top, he slowly and carefully broke the plain of the mountain ridge. When he found nothing, he moved forward carefully, along the ridge.

Nearly falling off his sword at the view beyond the ridge, he dropped to the ground and winced.

He had found the golems.

Hearing the sounds of large amounts of metal moving, Matt didn't hesitate to fly directly into the sky as fast as he could.

The factory was producing flying golems. It had simply dug itself into the mountain in an artificial hole. Coincidentally, that hole was facing directly towards the direction Matt had come from, and more than one golem had spotted him.

Checking his rear, he found a swarm of golems chasing after him.

He was faster than them, so he curled around to lead them away from his team. There were nearly fifty flying golems, scores more than they could deal with on their own.

Using the speed of his unburdened, Tier 7 sword, he cycled through evasive patterns that had been beaten into his muscle memory. His games with Travis of stun Matt and blabber on for half an hour were finally paying off. He begrudgingly made a mental note to thank Liz’s brother as more than one crossbow bolt whizzed past him.

When the golems’ fire died down, he looked back and saw that half of the golems had turned around, and were flying back to the factory. Matt assumed that his team had used his diversion to complete the mission, and that their presence alerted the golems to return and defend their base.

Cursing, he turned hard and curled around. He sped forward and cut off the golems that turned around towards the factory. Matt dropped a cast of [Hail] in the airspace in front of them, and got some of the golems’ attention. It wasn't perfect, but now there were only about a dozen golems heading back to his team.

The team had enough ranged attackers to deal with twelve golems, even if they tried to stay at range and pelt them with crossbows.

Matt wasn't worried about them. He was far more worried about how he was going to keep the rest of the flying crossbow wielders occupied, while not getting hit. He was hoping that these golems were also being made with lesser materials. That would make their bolts’ penetrating power weaker than that of the ones created in the ruin.

While the information would be useful, he didn't relish the idea of having to take a bolt to find out.

On instinct more than conscious thought, Matt dove down towards the trees and left, before pulling up hard. A bolt glanced off [Cracked Phantom Armor], but his maneuvering was enough to change the impact angle, lessening the damage to where he barely felt it in his spirit.

Continuing his evasive maneuvers, Matt felt the pressure intensify as he was unable to lead the golems away. He couldn’t go far without them turning to overwhelm his team, and more importantly, Liz, Aster and Camilla.

Finally, a bolt smashed into Matt's side and destabilized [Cracked Phantom Armor]. Slowing in reaction to the near injury, he lost the distance he had built between himself and his enemies, and was encircled by the golems.

Hoping his friends had handled their invasion of the golems replication factory, he flew up in an arc that would bring him down into the tunnel. As he got close to the entrance, he reached the range of the combat network, and realized that he was coming into a still active fight.

In the brief moment he had to think, Matt changed his course as much as he could, and sent his flying sword off to the side. He essentially turned his armored form into a cannonball. Bracing before the impact, he slammed into a large spider construct, and crashed through two of its legs before tumbling to the ground.

He had aimed for the second giant spider golem that was defending the factory. His group had nearly finished the first, but with his pursuers hot on his trail, he needed to free them up to be able to fight their opponents to the rear.

Scrambling to his feet, Matt felt better than he had any right to hope for after that maneuver. Between [Cracked Phantom Armor], his one hundred percent physical cultivation, and the slight durability increase from [Mage's Retreat], he was unharmed from the collision. At least, he didn't feel any injuries, and his AI indicated that he was fine.

Reaching back, Matt pulled out his hammer from his spatial bag. He ran to one of the giant spider’s remaining goodlegs, and brought his hammer down on the joint.

There was a marked difference from his first fight with a giant spider golem in the ruin. There, he and his entire group were nearly taken out. It was only a hard-fought battle, and Camilla using her [Bolt] 's electrical properties to damage the spider’s internals that led to defeating the golem.

Now, after weeks of fighting hordes of enemies at his Tier or higher, he had advanced through nearly a quarter of Tier 5. That increase in strength was nothing to scoff at. It allowed him to bash his way through the spider’s outer protective armor, and get to the more fragile leg joints.

Having a properly enchanted blunt weapon also helped. Matt couldn't deny that. Eric's words from back at Benny’s about never only having one weapon type were well proven at this point.

With all of the golem’s legs on one side destroyed, it started to tip over, and Matt flicked a glance at his rear. There, his teammates were holding the cave entrance against the returned swarm. Tossing a cast of [Hail] over to assist them, he turned back to his giant spider, and swung the spiked rear of his war hammer. He drove a flurry of holes into the outer shell in quick succession, while dodging attacks from the golem’s last stray leg.

After assuming he had done enough damage, he used his hammer to pry up the spider’s plate armor, and exposed the internals right on top of its power core. After a final blow from his weapon, he turned and ran over to give his team a hand, but they had already destroyed all of the flying golems which had tried to follow him into the tunnel. Their ability to hold the entrance gave them the defensive advantage which let them overcome their numbers difference.

Fen was the closest to him, and shouted at him, "Fucking awesome entrance, man!"

Calling over his flying sword that was hovering near the factory entrance, Matt answered him, "I think I'll stick to somewhat smoother landings in the future."

Basil approached them, and clearly had modeled his armor after a porcupine, judging by all the bolts sticking out of him. He added, "With a defensive Talent, it would be a waste to not go for broke."

Not entertaining the two idiots' suggestions of crazier stunts he could pull, he moved towards the factory. It still hummed with power as it drew in ambient mana in a whirlpool. It was a clear indication they still had to finish their primary mission.

Juni had a line of blood dripping from his scalp, with his helmet nowhere to be found. He said, "We want to deactivate these without damaging too much of the machinery. A replicator is valuable enough that the Prince wants us to conserve as much as possible when taking it down. But the priority is still stopping its ability to create more golems, through any means necessary."

Liz mocked quietly next to Matt, "Oh no! Don't destroy the thing that creates more murder golems. We might be able to use them ourselves. Idiots. It never works, and they break free from their reprogramming eventually. If you want golems to do things, buy the Empire made ones that won't turn into murderbots."

Matt couldn't blame the Prince, even if he was doing the exact opposite of what he claimed to have wanted. Even he wanted to get his hands on one of the factories and pull it apart. It would be useful for his AI to learn about the creation of the ruin. But he also didn't think it would be smart to start producing more golems in any appreciable quantities.

He had seen enough movies involving uprisings that devastated the local populace. He was pretty safe about using the few gathering golems that he had snatched from the ruin. The golems grew in intelligence as their numbers increased, but only using the two he took would be fine. At least, as long as they didn't get access to the larger network of the enemy golems.

Though that wouldn't happen, as Matt refused to even take them out of his spatial bag before this crisis was dealt with.

Matt stood around and watched as Juni tried to find a way to disable the factory. He searched every nook and cranny, but grew increasingly frustrated, and decided to just hit things one at a time. He swung away at constructs until they stopped drawing in mana and deactivated. The Princes' right-hand man was smart. He actually attacked the runes that drew in the mana, and not the power accumulators built into the devices. It was hidden, and Matt was only able to notice its location with his AI burning 30 MPS to analyze the constructs thoroughly.

As they waited around for Juni to finish, one of the others climbed to the top of the hole, and set up the long range communicator they had brought with them. It was really just a stripped satellite that one of the crafters had repurposed for land based communication. The hunk of metal had to be deployed far from the camp to get the range they needed.

They got a ping that one of their nearest teams needed assistance, and Juni finally just started smashing everything with reckless abandon, until the factory stopped altogether. Afterwards, he quickly called for everyone to get moving. They started their trek to assist the other team, but it would be an hour long journey, even with their cultivation enhanced physiques.

Juni called Matt and Rachel over and asked, "What's the carrying capacity on your flying devices? Can we use rope and carry a few extra people to get ahead? We can't let a strike fail because we were too slow to change the outcome. Any base left working means more golems left for the final assault."

Matt looked to Rachel, the only other person with a flying device, and waited for her answer. She had a Tier 6 flying device, and while it was funcutal, it was a lower end model compared to his own.

She slowly said, "I can carry three people total without losing enough speed to make it useless. Three including myself, so only two extra."

Matt chimed in with his own answer when she finished, "I can carry three on the blade itself, and can keep up with Rachel's device with another 4 in slings underneath. It will kill my maneuvering ability, and I'll be burning mana like water, but I should be able to handle it for long enough."

That last bit wasn't true, but he needed to keep up appearances after all. The maneuverability part was true enough, though. He wouldn't be able to use his usual evasive maneuvers if they got ambushed mid-way through their travel.

The group quickly gathered the strongest people together and used a rope to fashion makeshift saddles. They tied small loops for hand and footholds, and lashed the saddles on each side of Matt's flying sword. It was quick and dirty, and they needed to rearrange people to balance out each side. But within ten minutes, they were in the air and moving to render assistance.

Their luck was good, as they didn't encounter any opposition on the way, and were able to travel without hindrance. They reached their destination, and set down behind the line of humans fighting with golems on a mountainside. His passengers stepped down as Matt lowered the rope they were holding onto, allowing them to run forward and join the fight. Once they were off, Matt covered the last bit of distance with a single burst of speed, and settled his blade with a sliding stop.

Seeing someone that appeared to be giving commands, Matt called out, "What's the situation?"

"We’re trying to push into the hill, but they were prepared. They have at least a dozen crossbow golems holding the entrance, along with a front line of the shield golems. We already have four people in critical condition, and another two dead. Now, we’re just pinning each other down. If we try to retreat, they sally out. They’re really interested in keeping this base secure. It's only creating wing attachments for the golems, but not the normal ones that we’ve seen on the golmes already. Either way, we need to break in and destroy the factory. Like the prince said, not a single factory can be left funcutinal."

Matt nodded and moved forward, with Liz, Aster, and Camilla following behind him. When they reached the front line, they found a makeshift barrier and joined Geraden, who had joined them on the expedition.

He was busy looking out of a slit in the barrier towards the golems’ position.

"We seem to be trying to creep forward with log fortification, but they’re throwing rocks at us. They’re doing what the crossbow bolts can't do. I can't really work with dead plant life, so I’m really no help there. Can any of you do something to give us an edge?"

Matt looked to the others and shook his head. If the golems were able to nearly kill two people, he didn't think they were the Tier 5 variants, but instead the Tier 6 originals from the ruin. Those golems were a much bigger challenge, as they could pierce his layers of armor. He already considered himself lucky to make it through the last flying battle without taking a bolt to his fleshy bits, so he wasn’t keen on rushing in.

As they watched, another wall of logs fashioned into a portable shield started to move forward. From out of the tunnel came a rock the size of Matt's head. It was thrown so hard, it became a blur, and its impact caused the wooden construct to nearly explode.

Judging from the debris and shards of wood lying around, they had clearly tried this before. Matt didn't think that either Liz or Aster could make a difference in getting close to the entrance. Liz's blood didn’t have the density to stop a projectile thrown with that much force, and Aster's ice wouldn't handle a rock of that size any better than the wooden wall did.

There was a call to try and just rush the place, but no one was volunteering to poke their head out first. Matt couldn't blame them.

Eventually, as he watched another wooden barricade get pushed forward and explode, Matt thought out loud, "Why can't we just bury them inside? If we get enough of the hill to collapse, we can avoid taking the base down."

While not taking her eyes off the tunnel entrance, Liz asked, "It's a good idea in theory, but how would we go about making it happen? I don't have high explosives."

Geraden perked up at that, and looked to his staff and bond, Den. He shrugged, and launched the tree in staff form into the tunnel, as if it was a javelin.

Matt had only seen the tree expand to its true size once before, and he wasn't disappointed this time either. Den expanded rapidly, grew through the top of the tunnel, and then instantly shrunk down and flew back out to Geraden's waiting hand.

The destruction of the tunnel’s roof was only half the damage caused by the tree's expansion. When Den shrunk back down, it caused half the mountain to collapse into the area they had needed to clear out.

Now, there wasn’t even a tunnel left.

"Ascenders..." Matt breathed out.

The others around them had equal expressions of wonder and awe.

Geraden shrugged it off, and called out loudly as the dust settled, "I can't do it often enough for it to be a real attack. It'll take two months of planted rest in a nice sunny area with good soil for Den to recoup the energy spent on that stunt."

The rest of them moved forward and looked at the pile of rubble, searching for anything out of the ordinary. They needed to check if the golems would be able to climb out of this rubble, however likely it would be. More and more people came over, thanking and congratulating Geraden. The man seemed to dislike the attention, but he didn't shoo anyone away either. They were genuinely grateful, and that seemed to get through to him. At the very least, it placated the man's distaste for so many people touching him.

From the time Matt had spent with the man, he knew that Geraden couldn't care less about humans, and was much more worried about the golems’ destruction of his forest. His priority was putting a stop to the harm being inflicted on the environment, rather than the human element of this mess.

Matt wasn't sure if that made him a bad person or not. He didn't think so. Then again, the trials they had gone through on this planet had blurred the lines between good and bad for him. Geraden still helped protect the people, even if they weren't his goal. He could have hidden and waited for everyone to start attacking the floating fortress, and then gone to help, but he hadn't. The man had fought through thick and thin. At the very least, the man wasn’t a coward.

That was something Matt could respect. He also was self aware enough to realize that he had looked down on anyone not actively fighting as well. They were all trying their best, making the contributions that they could, even when they could have chosen self preservation. Matt had felt that because those people couldn't fight, they were lesser. But now, he didn't blame them for choosing to live. Having something trying to kill everyone hiding behind every corner would wear down anyone’s psyche.

On his home planet, most of the people near him reacted to the rift break by training to fight. If it ever happened again, they wanted to be prepared. Everyone learned to fight. Even Benny the drunkard, who barely cared about anything, still used the training room once a week.

But, now he understood the horror and stress people talked about being unable to stomach after delving the rifts.

As much as this had been a nightmare of an experience, a part of Matt was glad that he had gone through with it. He had grown quite a lot in the last month. Even if he didn't quite like all of the new developments.