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Chapter 290
🕑 Added 2023-12-01 19:59:01 +0000 UTCChapter 290
Matt was sitting with Aiden, working on utilizing his Intent with the help of the older Ascender, when an alert bypassed his mutes.
Reading it, he realized he was finally free from the Tier 31 who refused to let him train alone. “A red alert for Team Zero. Thanks for the tips.”
Aiden nodded and waved him away. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go have fun killing things while I have to sit here for another few months.”
Matt rolled his eyes even as he cranked his perception and left.
Duke Waters had been saying he would be leaving in ‘a few months’ from the moment he made his way back to Camp Lightfoot, despite all the healers, Melinda included, stating that he would be out for at least two years subjective. That was only three real months in the Tier 35 rift, but Aiden insisted that was too long and that he would be leaving in the next couple months subjective.
As Matt arrived at the Team Zero briefing room, he found everyone but Light there, who arrived just a moment after he did, which seemed to be the cue for General Darrow to start the briefing.
“We have a priority mission.” Matt felt like that was obvious, and Allie opened her mouth, probably to say as much, but Darrow continued before she could. “Pator-Sul has fallen under a surprise push, and the system can’t be allowed to fall so easily.”
General Darrow brought up a dozen screens showing the situation. “Pator-Sul is a hub world that was well defended and was expected to hold out for decades, but the Sects managed to slip a team behind the shields on their initial probing attack. That team managed to not only disable the shields long enough for the Sects to land two full divisions on the planet, but they also managed to lock themselves in one of the supply bunkers and are holding the items hostage.”
Matt read through the reports and nodded along. The Empire could push through the bunker and get the spies, but that would waste a lot of healing supplies and new weapons for spies who were otherwise contained and unable to do more damage. The problem with the spies was that the Empire was diverting troops to ensure they didn’t make a break for it and wreak more havoc in doing so, but the major issue was the two divisions of troops who had overrun a portion of the fortress planet. The enemy troops were now making pushes to the shield generators that protected the planet.
If that fell, the Sects would be able to bring in their orbital troops without issue, which would spell the end of the siege and the opening of another avenue deeper into the Empire.
A few of their previous missions had been similar, and Matt felt like he was going to become incredibly familiar with this kind of mission in the coming years. Despite everything, the Empire was on the defensive. Which meant that they, as an Ascender team, were constantly bouncing around, trying to put out fires and keep ahead of things.
It just wasn’t always possible.
Their enemies weren’t dumb, and could enact plans to rapidly take down an important fortress world.
To make matters worse, Pator-Sul wasn’t even a Tier 25 battlefield; it was a Tier 27 one, which meant they were going to be fighting up to their limits.
Matt took the opportunity to check in with the war situation as a whole.
The Empire was doing its best, but had been pushed in by at least one planetary jump from the border regions with the Great Powers they were still at war with. Most areas were pushed three or four planets deep, but those weren't the parts that worried him.
The areas he focused on were the areas like Pator-Sul, where important fortress worlds were being attacked en masse. Entire sectors of the Empire were being attacked. It was less a question of the planets being under attack and more a question of how strong the attack was.
Morgan stepped forward and shook her head. Her ponytail was now a bright blue instead of the red it had been before. She had felt that there were enough redheads with Dena and Liz, and so changed the color to something closer to her bloodline feathers’ color. “Are the Great Powers trying to push through our lines?”
General Darrow shook his head despite agreeing. “Yes, but this is more of a probe. Any place that falls will be a great win, but they are simply feeling us out. Once they better understand our distribution of troops, we can expect the other Great Powers to send more targeted attacks in those directions. But that is all beyond our pay grade. Our job is to keep Pator-Sul from falling. Once we manage that, we will be relieving a number of Tier 25 and 26 worlds.”
Darrow opened his mouth but said nothing for a long moment.
It was long enough that Allie prodded him. “What is it, boss man?”
General Darrow turned on his heel and flicked his finger to show a recording of a monstrous crystalline spider breaking down fortress walls and sending Empire soldiers scattering. “Dao Child Maven has recovered from her last fight with you, and has been attacking a fairly large number of border worlds with little obvious strategic merit.”
Aster leaned forward and spread her hands in a questioning gesture. “And so why are we going to Pator-Sul instead of smacking the fuck out of her?”
Matt leaned forward to show he was in agreement, which was a move mirrored by all of Team Zero.
General Darrow sighed and raised up his hand to forestall arguments. “I already requested that mission, but Chess rightly pointed out that it's clearly a trap.”
Allie flipped her dagger before she caught it and threw it into the far wall. “What kind of logic is that? Triggering traps and killing everyone involved is what Ascenders do!”
General Darrow shot a passing glance at Zack.
“Allie,” the other Ascender said pointedly, and his partner wilted.
“Thank you, Ascender Light,” Darrow nodded. “Now, this is not a typical trap. While undoubtedly our enemies do have something particular in mind for once we do face Maven, Chess believes that the true intention is to bait us out and force our hand while the Sects finish overrunning Pator-Sul. Once we have relieved Pator-Sul instead of a direct confrontation we will be taking a step beyond that, infiltrating past enemy lines and striking here, Helios Delta. It’s an Empire border world turned Republic supply depot, and we intend to take it out and loot it for all it’s worth, cutting off support for this wing of the assault.”
Matt nodded as he followed the highlighted attacks and agreed with the plan. If he saw the other Ascender team slowly moving towards them, he would assume they were planning on a confrontation.
Battles between elites happened like that a lot of the time. At least, when there wasn’t an ambush waiting, like what happened to Duke Waters.
As that thought came to him, he raised a finger and asked, “Is this push happening because Duke Waters was hit and injured?”
General Darrow nodded. “We believe so, and that is why we don’t want to risk a second ambush with the rest of our Ascenders. Hitting the supply depot is a better move, and if we can pull the elites away from anything they were able to prepare, all the better.”
They went over a few more bits of information before they piled into Drifter's ship, and Shadow teleported them across space.
Team Zero went from inside a rift in the heart of the Empire to months away, by even the fastest ship, in a moment.
They went to war.
Shadow didn’t have a waypoint at Pator-Sul, which meant they teleported as close as possible and would be flying the rest of the way on their own. It was a good thing Drifter was their pilot, because she broke every rule of flying through chaotic space and got them to Pator-Sul in just a week.
Matt was ready for a fight the moment they arrived in Pator-Sul’s real space, but things weren’t so easy. The Sects’ ships they expected to be surrounding the planet were instead floating just miles above the fortress planet's surface.
They had arrived too late.
General Darrow sighed at the sight even as he stood up. “Nothing is ever easy. That said, our job hasn’t changed. We are to push the Sects out and reinstate the defenders and Empire rule on this system.”
His third eye flicked around seemingly at random for a few seconds before he nodded. “Drifter; full speed. I don’t want the Sects to reactivate the planet's shielding. The Empire defenders should have destroyed it as is—”
Even as he said that, the planet they were watching on the screen flickered as a light blue barrier appeared.
Shadow laughed and punched Darrow on the shoulder. “Ha, you fucking jinxed it.”
General Darrow ignored her and instead looked to Origami and Matt. “I want a plan to crack the shield before we arrive…”
Drifter heard the implied question and shouted from her pilot's seat, “One hour if I don’t slow down for an intercept and just drop you guys off.”
Hearing that, Darrow nodded. “If possible, I don’t want the infrastructure of the planet damaged. Ideally, we can hand this planet back to the captured defenders so they can continue to defend the planet.”
Light stepped forward slightly, and despite his dry voice, his words held concern. “Will the Sects allow us to do so? They are Tier 27, and certainly not about to surrender.”
Bolt's blue hair nodded in agreement, but General Darrow shrugged. “If that is the case, we are to destroy the planet so thoroughly that the Sects are forced to replace it if they wish to hold the system, or back off, allowing the Empire to retake the system. But that is a last resort. Quill, Origami, I want a preliminary plan in fifteen minutes.”
Matt moved off to the side and asked Ai’la, “Do you know anything about the fortress world’s defensive structures? I don’t know anything about them and there isn’t anything stored on the ship’s LocalNet.”
Ai’la nodded. “I know of them and even have their blueprints stored.” She put her words to action and sent him the information.
Matt quickly scanned it and let out a long slow breath.
He wasn’t sure he could take the shields down without frying the infrastructure completely.
A five hundred million mana [Breach] would punch through the shield without a doubt, but the fortress planet's shields were built to handle orbital bombardments from dozens of ships for months. If they fell because one spell pierced their barrier, they would be shitty shields. At best, Matt could open a small gap in the barrier, which Shadow could use to teleport them inside the barrier, but that would leave them dangerously open to retaliation shots. The shields acted as anti-teleport wards, and they were damn good at what they did.
Shadow could still teleport under that level of suppression, but it would be a dozen times harder and would mean that she couldn’t teleport the entirety of Team Zero, so they would need to fight through the enemy's attacks as they tried to close the defenses.
On the other hand, if Matt just kept right outside the shield and slammed the planet with a few thousand [Breach]’s, he could probably break the shield formation projectors, and once they were down, the defending Sects members would be without the shield's protections.
That would force them either into their ships, to sortie out of the fortifications, or hunker down and try to weather a bombardment.
The second option was most likely, as an invading force who wasn’t able to completely control the defenses but anything was possible.
The problem was that the option was slow, and would cause the very damage Darrow wanted to avoid.
Matt thought it over and asked, “What about shoving another shield into the planet’s and letting them merge? That could give us a gap. We know the shield frequencies, so it should be relatively easy.”
Ai’la shook her head. “Not possible. The fortress planets are expected to fall to enemies and use a frequency modulator which changes the frequency of the shields all the time.”
Matt hadn’t known that but nodded.
Ai’la flipped through a few pieces of paper before offering her own suggestion. “What about a mana drainer? Normally, I’d never suggest it because of how expensive they are to run, but you could power one, I’m sure. Will that burn enough mana to force them to drop the shields?”
Matt shook his head, and they went back and forth with a few more suggestions, but ultimately, they weren’t able to produce the miracle General Darrow seemed to be expecting.
Matt shrugged and looked over to where General Darrow was talking with the others about strategy.
“Sir, what are our priorities? Speed or taking the place intact?”
General Darrow's third eye flicked to Matt before he said, “What is the issue?”
Matt explained that they could make a small breach in the shielding easily enough, but that would just trap them in the formation with all the wards active and fighting them. If they wanted to prevent that, they would need to break through the shields the long and slow way.
General Darrow pursed his lips before shaking his head. “We go in through a breach then. It's less than ideal, but speed is a greater priority here.” He paused before nodding once more. “I want as much damage as possible done to them. Try and create a localized area of the planet where the wards are down. You should be able to do that with [Breach] and [Barrage] correct?”
Matt ran a few simulations and nodded. “I should be able to do that, sir.”
Their hour of prep time seemed to vanish in seconds, but Matt and Ai’la managed to work out a rough idea they believed would work. The rest of the crew weren’t idle, bustling around and determining which potions and other supplemental gear would be most useful in the upcoming battle. Considering they were about to enter a Tier 27 battlefield, they couldn’t afford to leave any advantages on the table.
Like Drifter had said earlier, she didn’t turn their ship and use the engines to slow them down, which would have increased the time it took for them to reach the outermost planet in the Pator-Sul system, but instead continued to accelerate them forward. That meant they were going to be jumping out and relying on their Domains to slow them down enough to engage with the planet. If they all worked together, they could have managed the same thing with Drifter's ship, but they risked tearing it apart, and they didn’t really need the ship for what came next.
The nine of them stood at the back of Drifter’s ship and stepped off the ramp while gripping the Tier 15 space around them with their various Domains.
The moment they were at a controllable speed, Matt cast [Bulwark] and took up a forward position. It was unlikely the invaders had taken over the weapon systems so quickly, but it was possible.
That was only where a small portion of his mana went.
Instead, most of it went to charging a [Breach] cast with [Barrage].
Matt and Origami had been frantically busy as they worked on the best method of taking out the infrastructure that was buried deep in the planet, but they believed they had succeeded.
Instead of Matt creating the breach in the barrier, they were going to rely on Light. He had agreed to the plan without any prodding despite being a little leary at interacting with that much mana, especially after his and Matt’s taking each other out in their initial duel.
Thankfully, Origami would be doing most of the work with a scorpion-like contraption she had quickly whipped up, so the risk was minimal.
Matt watched as Origami tossed her shield breaker, which settled on the opaque shield before it drove its pincers and stingers down in a rush.
The moment the construct touched the shield and pulled a little of the shield’s mana into itself, Light was already changing that mana into air mana, which simply vented off into the emptiness of space.
Shadow used that brief moment to jump them into the shield.
Unlike her usual teleports which were so smooth that if you didn’t pay attention you might not even notice them, this one was rough and felt like they slammed into a wall. Shadow had warned them it would be rough so Matt was ready for the impact and managed to keep hold of the spells he was controlling through it all.
The moment they were inside the shields, Matt let the three [Breach]s fly.
The first one punched right through a shielded ship that was in the way as it slammed into the massive pillar that projected the shield above the planet. It kept going, and Matt felt Light tweak its trajectory the smallest bit to ensure it would hit one of the mana battery banks.
The second shot was a perfect hit that skimmed along the surface of the planet like a stone skipped across a lake.
The third hit its target but detonated on some kind of shield the Sects had erected around the projector. It didn’t stop his spell, but instead caused the siege spell to detonate right next to the defending Sects fighters, wiping everything out.
Matt felt the restrictions that tried to slow him down weaken, and they teleported a few thousand feet to the side the moment they were able to.
It was part of their initial plan, and a good call, as the ships and Sects defenders opened up fire on their old location.
Most of the shots flew through the shield and away from the planet, but a few curved and slammed into the [Bulwak] Matt had put most of his now freed mana regeneration into.
He grunted as he felt the damage that was imparted to his shields, but they held without him having to utilize his Tier 25 Talent.
It felt like a decade, but General Darrow gave the command and let them loose. “Go! Go! Go!”
They knew their jobs and Matt dropped his [Bulwark], knowing that Origami was already deploying one of her mobile fortresses, which would defend their mages.
Instead, he dove in to create some blood for Liz, letting the anti-flight wards accelerate him to the ground. That would allow them to move onto part two of their battle plan which was to take out the Sect leadership as quickly as possible.
He landed on a fortification in a rain of spells as the Sects members tried to take him out, but most of their spells were blocked by [Cracked Phantom Armor], his physical armor, and the array of buff potions and spells he had active. Only two managed to bypass those defenses, but [Regeneration] closed those wounds as quickly as they formed.
Extending his blade, Matt twisted and slashed out with an oversized [Mana Slash].
His initial attack bisected the closest Sect fighter, but those behind her managed to dodge the blow, so Matt was forced to follow up with a second and third [Mana Slash]. One man slipped in close, trying to drive a dagger into Matt’s spine, but he flared [Telekinesis] and sent the man flying in an explosion of blood.
While he did that, the Sect fighters in front of him had gathered themselves enough to launch a coordinated barrage of attacks he blocked with [Bulwark].
Matt didn’t wait for their bombardment of spells to end, and instead rushed forward with his sword leading the charge while flexing his Black Hole Intent, which made him hard to sense.
It worked, at least if the expression of surprise on the Sect man who his blade gutted was anything to go by. Matt was moving past him as he continued his charge, even before the man hit the ground, but he followed up with a small but incredibly dangerous [Gravitic Bolt] that popped the man's head and ended his life before he could detonate his core.
His blade took a Sect woman's head off despite her robes flaring and trying to defend her. Despite failing to stop the initial attack the enchantments did block the follow-up [Gravitic Bolt] he tried to finish her off with, forcing him to slow his charge enough to spin and slice her head in half.
A half-million mana channeled through a weapon made for Harper wasn’t so easily stopped by a Tier 27 enchantment.
That move slowed him down long enough for the rest of the team to relocate him. Their attacks combined with the reinforcements who had joined them started to wear down [Bulwark].
Feeling that Matt let the spell fall and instead reached for the air around them. [Air Manipulation] stole the air out of everyone's lungs, but Matt didn’t keep it for long. He slammed the collected air down with force, crushing the rest of the defenders on this portion of the wall to paste.
Tier 27 fighters were harder to kill, but not impossible by any means.
A Liz fell to his location and merged with one gorey mess before two rose up. Both clones repeated that action, but Matt wasn’t able to enjoy the show.
Along the wall that he had just cleared, what seemed like a squad made up of higher-ups arrived. Matt would call them officers, but that wasn’t how the Sects organized their military, and he didn’t care to look up how this specific sect referred to their team commanders. They were smart though. Instead of targeting him, they tried to fire on the still-forming Lizzes.
As if Matt would allow them to attack his wife right in front of him.
He rushed forward with a freshly cast [Bulwark] leading the charge, providing cover for the multiplying Lizzes.
That concentrated the fire enough for even Matt to be slowed down which would lead to him being bogged down if he allowed the situation to continue. [Archmage’s Presence] flared to life and Matt felt his power skyrocket.
The armor, first made for North Star of the Cosmos, had been made with this exact spell in mind, and while it had been designed more to enhance bursts of usage, [Cracked Reinforce Stone] made it more than robust enough to handle Endless power just as well. With the spell in turn empowering the enchantment, it resulted in a very nice feedback loop strengthening everything Matt did.
It was enough to let him cross the distance in a blink, taking the arm off the lead Sect fighter as the man, more than two full tiers above him, was too slow to retreat.
There were five officers with gold trim around their robes’ edges, and each of them moved in a different direction the moment Matt arrived amongst them.
Two of them fired what he identified as highly modified [Mana Bolt]s, and though Matt’s spiritual sense said they were far more dangerous than they looked, he didn’t dodge. The third woman had a saber, and was attacking where he would have to dodge to if he wanted to continue forward while avoiding the bolts. The fourth officer cast a spell that caused the shadows to rise up and grab Matt’s legs the moment he moved, while the final Sect officers threw a bolt of lightning at him.
It was a good combination he was sure would work on most people, but Matt wasn’t most people.
He grunted as the two [Mana Bolt’s] punched right through his armor and tried to wreak havoc in his body, but Matt crushed their effects under an onslaught of [Barbarian’s Hide], putting himself back together with [Regeneration]. The lighting bolt was blocked by [Cracked Phantom Armor] without issue while Matt reached down to grab the shadow chains.
Instead of dispelling them, he flooded them with mana and only started moving when he heard the man who had cast them scream as his spell was used as a conduit, straight into his mana core.
He wasn’t dead, but he was nearly crippled and unable to cast anything for a good long while.
Matt reached up and grabbed the descending saber of the woman and squeezed.
The blade didn’t break like he expected. Instead it bent like putty. For a moment, Matt thought that was from his strength, but the blade had its own tricks and tried to crawl down his arm,digging at [Cracked Phantom Armor] like a worm trying to bore into him.
It didn’t work; [Cracked Phantom Armor] was far too good at defending from such attacks. Matt ignored the blade’s advances in favor of driving his left hand into the woman's crossed arms, sending her flying back into the crenelated wall.
He sent out a flurry of [Gravitic Bolt], peppering the two mages. One of them had a [Phantom Armor] flare, which protected them from a bolt that would have taken their head off, and the second managed to dodge the bolts sent at them.
Matt’s spiritual perception was drawn above him for a moment as he saw the mages from Team Zero, slowly falling in the fortress Origami had created, bombarding the area Liz was fighting in. The active wards prevented him from finding out why, so he had no choice but to refocus on the fight that was in front of him, cutting off the hand of one of the mages.
As he did so, Matt felt a larger blast of lightning land squarely on his back. Absorbing it into [Cracked Phantom Armor] gave him a burst of speed, and he didn’t let it pass. Using the small opening that the change in speed created, Matt lashed out three times in quick succession with his sword, sending out just as many [Mana Slash]’s.
One of the [Mana Bolt] casters was a moment too slow and lost their legs, but his other two spells were dodged. The Sect officers had quickly realized that despite their Tier advantage, they weren’t able to confidently block any of his blows, and prioritized dodging.
Stepping to the side, he cast [Sword Twin], merging all four copies into a single blade and let that solitary blade block the saber woman who tried to ambush him from behind.
He was going to dart at the delegged mage who was preparing another spell, but felt a flare of danger from behind him, where the lightning mage was recovering. He also felt the shadows start to crawl up his legs once more, trying to lock him down.
Acting on instinct, as he had a good feeling of what the man was doing, he cast [Cracked Air Slide]. Having been upgraded twice, the spell let out a burst of air which ripped him free of the shadow bindings, and Matt skated around the oversized bolt of lighting that punched right through the wall and dug its way into the dirt.
The man had cast with essence fueling his spell instead of mana.
Matt shook his head even as he continued his movement to make a circle to cleave the man's head in two.
Few were willing to sacrifice their painstaking efforts to cast a spell with their accumulated essence, even if they knew they were going to die. But it seemed that this particular man was made of sterner stuff.
Twisting, he grabbed the [Sword Twin] out of the air, merged it with his blade, and used the increased effect of the weapon to send out overlapping [Mana Slash]es, which ended the saber woman's life and finally stopped the metal of her sword from attacking his left arm. He took a blow to the chest for his troubles, but [Regeneration] was able to knit his torn flesh back together without too much issue.
Despite knowing it was useless, he offered the two surviving mages an offer of surrender, but when they responded with spells, he ended their lives before they could detonate their cores.
With this section of the wall cleared, Matt looked over to where the Sect commanders commandeered fortress stood. A glance to his left showed close to fifty Lizzes killing their way through a mass of Sect troops who had encircled a crater the mages had created. To his right he saw Bulwark, Stick, and Stone surrounding a trio of Torment’s summons who were cutting their way forward slowly but surely.
On the other side from himself was Shadow, who despite having her teleportation limited, was cutting her way through the enemies to the leader's section almost as fast as he was.
Seeing he was the first one to break free of the defenders, Matt flared [Archmage’s Presence] and slammed into the shield formation they had set up.
Reaching back, he drove his spiked fist into the blue shield. With each blow the shield turned more and more opaque.
On the seventh blow, the shield failed, and he rushed inside.
He took a blade to the head, but [Cracked Phantom Armor] deflected the strike and Matt grabbed the woman's head with a lightning-wreathed hand, ignoring her look of shock as her ambush didn’t work. And the look of shock that came with nearly a million mana of lightning coursing through her body.
One squeeze later, a rush of essence confirmed her death, and Matt dove into the command center where a dozen gold-clad officers stood ready for him.
He threw himself into their waiting blades and disarmed the closest man, taking a gush of purple flame to his side that chewed through [Cracked Phantom Armor] like acid.
A quick pulse of [Mana Beam] ended that fight, but he was hit with a counterspell and [Forbid Spell] combo that fizzled the beam and put it on cooldown before he could eliminate the rest of the commanders with it.
Matt didn’t mind doing things the hard way.
A burly woman tried to tackle him to the ground, but Matt twisted and drove a spiked gauntlet into her brain before tossing her into one of her friends.
He dodged a spear that felt dangerous, but took a [Earth Spike] to his own blade which knocked it out of his hand.
Disarmed, he must have seemed like an easy target, because two blade-wielding men rushed in and tried to take him down, regardless of the wounds he would inflict on them in return.
Matt used his left hand and arm to deflect the first strike and drove a fist into the second man’s chest.
A third and fourth Sect officer jumped at him, wanting to take him down with pure numbers.
Flames roared as he cast [Dragonflame], and the fire chewed through those closest to him.
The same person tried to hit him with another [Forbid Spell], but Matt was ready for it and had dropped [Dragonflame] for an instant before reactivating it.
Turning his flames on the mages who had been peppering him with attacks from range, Matt stomped down to take out the single surviving woman who was trying to grip his leg.
The mages shield protected them for long enough that Matt thought the fight was going to turn into a slog, but Shadow kicked open the far door and started cutting her way through the mages' less protected flank.
Knowing his teammate could handle it, Matt simply flared [Dragonflame].
A dozen flares of essence tried to rush into him in as many seconds, which signified the death of the remaining Sect leaders.
Turning his spiritual sense to the fighting that was still going on outside, Matt saw how the mages were concentrating their spells to the east of where Matt and Shadow were. It was probably a mid level commander who was trying to direct the battlefield now that the leadership had been wiped out.
Matt nodded to Shadow who flickered away.
Matt called his sword back to hand and began charging it with lightning.
The fight wasn’t over yet.
Comments
Fucking Shracc
first, jk last
MinE
How was the whole Federation kidnapping potential pathers handled; I have no idea how their is a loophole that allows targeted attacks on low tier children.
Phillip Hunsicker
there aren't any tier 50 planets known about. That said part of what they are looking for from him is tiering up planets and rifts to tier 50.
dibjuv
I thought there were no Tier 50 planets or rifts. Isn't the highest tier planet/rift only Tier 47? And that's the capital of each Great Power.
Markus
The question is how much.
Jana
Ahh now I see where you’re coming from. You predict that the true war will start over DW getting killed by a T36+ and that’s what starts the war. I still disagree though. Without Matts power getting discovered the other Great Powers, even the Empires Enemies would gang up on the rulebreaker and even if they don’t it would definitely lead to the neutral forces joining the empires side. And Matts cover ability (the one with the mana stones) is quite genius as he used manastones early on to jumpstart Hail etc. It’ll take some time to get through that deception. Nah I believe the Empire will make the current one a war they will not win but not lose either. Costly for both sides, some concessions that don’t really hurt the empire but look good on paper (like Tiering up to T35+) followed by a time in which Matt will start his Guild and a general time of progression leading to a true war upon Matt being discovered. But don’t get me wrong Matt being discovered early would definitely lead to jumpstarting the true war.
Jake Kimmerly
Right it's not the empire's choice whether somebody breaks the rules to kill DW
Jana
That makes little sense, cause DW dying would weaken the Empires T35 down army, so the enemies would have a vested interest in keeping the war there instead of allowing Lila to take field. The Empire will try to delay the true war as long as possible as they win the time game with Matt increasing their high tier delve slots, their economy and their fighting power.
Jake Kimmerly
Oh let me be clear, I think Duke Waters dying is one of the things that kicks off the true war, just like I think Harper has somebody shadowing that one Republic woman that can just make somebody not exist to kill her at commencement of real hostilities.
Zachary Blevins
Action sequences should always be fast pace Like a car accident a series of events that take place so quickly that you actually have to ponder about it afterwards A fight sequence should never take more than three minutes per a combatant The sequence itself can go on and on from one action to another, but it should never be a long drawn out event with he said she said That’s the reason why you break boxing matches into rounds That’s the reason why fencing matches most rounds in at the first touch Quiet reflection can be done, but it’s done after or before Like the movie, gladiator little sequence with the bird, and then you get to see a Roman legion in all of its horrible glory, destroy a barbarian host, and then after the battle, you see the general walking the battlefield and retrieving the sword he dropped two moments of quiet reflection done before, and after the action sequence, which was fast paced and uninterrupted Jurassic Park Clever girl and it was over before he realized he had made a mistake Saving private Ryan After the explosion deafens, Tom Hanks, and everything starts to slow down as the fight ending and the sequence fades to 50 years later in private, Ryan, looks at his wife and says tell me I’m a good man You can break a fight sequence up for the sake of the story, and there are ways to do that well Star Wars episode six The end of that movie is masterfully done With a three-way battle On the moon in the space above the moon, and on the death star Each event taking place summertime with the other The movie serenity does that really well too at the end Villain there’s a great many innocent people dying above us right now Hero You have no idea. And then a clash between a back alley, brawler and a eloquent train killer you get to cut outs, and maybe a paragraph or the dialogue between the two of them while they’re trying to kill each other and then the fight sequences over
Apep
@chris: No 50 is a semi hard limit at least for beings. It is mentioned earlier that the T50s need to use an substantial amount of their power to resist ascension.
Jana
If he dies at all, he will die in the true war that is yet to come. I can see the Empire making a (not really) concession to tier him out of T35 wars at the end of this one thus stuffing him in dungeons for a while, but I cannot see him dying in the T35 and below wars.
Namorat
I disagree wholeheartedly. While I don't want anything changed here, I would be bored beyond belief if every writer would handle action scenes the same. I personally rarely care for the action, but the effect it has on the people, both perpetrator and victim. And although those things can be evaluated on, I also feel there is a case for it during those scenes. That said, cool chapter.
Chris
So I guess it would behoove the empire to try to create a 'willpower wound' dungeon versus regeneration dungeons. Spread it far and wide and ascended are done versus standard troops
Chris
Not that I'm against killing mc's but it just seems like a weird not laid out way to make overheal worthless to save xyz character. Might as well throw in 'Legion' and say xyz great p came up with super op willpower injury wpn to ignore her. Just saying if it wasn't healable then why isn't that the super wpn? Like you may have 300 Spartans but I have smallpoxs...I just have to wait to hit you with my equivalent ascended after to hold the line. Idk war strategy wise I'm confused. Maybe I over/under estimate ascender value?
Erriballon
I want to know as well
Chris
My understanding is that there is no 'auto-ascend' at 50 bc all the leaders are t50. Hense 50 is the limit so a 51 planet or rift I expect to ascend to rip apart but the 50 planet and rift suff is doable but never had enough resonable resources to push them until Matt so I'm pretty sure the capitols of each system are 47-49 but is not 50 just b.c of resources. It seems exponential to me like if a t20 takes 10 mil mana say 20^5.381 that would mean that a t50 would be 1.4 B so the Empire goal would be building up more higher planets to push more ascended it makes no sense to push the higher planets for something not usable in developing warriors (ignoring possible skills)
Chris
I think it would be worth the nebulous questioning and I think it's the goal to surprise other ascenders with Allie and Melinda to kill them. I guess I'm just not sure what a willpower injury means...I suspect my intent training argument is still valid consideration but the discussion Aiden had about aspect and amount of power is in play. Idk if willpower injuries are so killer I just would think Melinda's ability is more 'meh' than gamechanging (at least how she is being used). I'd have thought this would have come up before (maybe it has) it just seems like any bad injury MLA has suffered has been 'MELINDAED' so I would just expect if willpower injuries would be 'in the strategies' rather than killing or at least be more expletive about how hard it is or not. Like the wound to Luna during her inspiration intervention was that the same or something different?
John Balman
Tier 50 planet would have at least one tier 50 rift, as I understand it. But if realm had multiple tier 50 worlds it would be close to tiering up the realm as I understand it
John Balman
So does Matt know how to scrub essence from human enemies now????
Phillip Hunsicker
So I have to ask the dumb question. Everyone is talking about tier 50 rifts, but everything that is tier 50 automatically ascends. So you can't have a tier 50 rift on a tier 50 planet as it would ascend.... (is that correct?) I can see, maybe tier 49 planets with tier 50 rifts(which will eventually ascend the planet when it tiers up) as maybe rifts don't ascend automatically, but the mechanics of it seem a bit iffy. if you can have tier 50 rifts on tier 49 planets. I don't see why he wouldn't just push to tier 50, 51 or higher on tier 47 planet while waiting for the planet to tier up some. When he gets close to tier 45 or so it seems like with his mana regen and the density it will be at by that point it is potentially possible. Also a tier 50 or higher rift would only be useful for skills as anything else it produces would need to be anchored to the lower realm once it leaves the rift, assuming you can have a tier 50 rift in the current realm. My question is how do the mechanics of this work...?
C_Mantis
Ehh I just didnt feel like it was necessary to go into more clean up fights. I wanted to keep it snappy. If its not enough I can add more but let me know after mondays chapter.
Matt H
Locking him out of regeneration for a while like they did to Mana Beam could also be a viable strategy since he seems to take hits in return for dealing them out as well. They may not be able to kill him during that time, but they could injure him enough to weaken and make him more vulnerable for the rest of the fight.
David Lund
I would go with "three real months outside the Tier 35 rift." Note I am certain your English is far better than mine. Also could be three real months while beinh in the Tier 35 rift.
Jake Kimmerly
*Nobody* allowed to kill him can kill him, that's the character
Amanda Holmes
You guys are not thinking big enough. 10 chapters before someone shatters his domain like Helen's was disintegrated. Anyone can simply kill him, big morale shredder is that the best domain person gets his smashed into paste.
adam1
If they crush the others in the wars, and make some treaties to share the wealth, Matt could tier up worlds with no able to contest the Empire. If he can get powerful enough, Matt's Talent can propel the Empire so far beyond the other Great Powers that they can never catch up. My personal bet is alliance of the Empire, Beast Collective, and Guilds, maybe with the Clans, to crush the other three Great Powers. Plus, Virgil's plans will probably start a massive retaliation against the Federation.
Aaron Hardin
A couple things wrong with that. First, it was mentions in an interlude some time ago that every other tier 50 can sense whenever a new tier 50 ascends, so the Empire could only have ascensions to tier 50 if every other power is already investing them with people above tier 35, otherwise it would precipitate the all out war the emperor wants to delay as long as possible. Second, while I don’t doubt that the emperor would want to ascend a planet to tier 50, it was mentioned that the previous major power was ganged up on in an all pit over tier 35 war which destroyed them completely for trying to acquire a second tier 48 planet, so any any attempts to tier planets up beyond tier 48 require a planet completely hidden from any other powers to prevent being invaded by everyone in an all out war. Unlike the tier 50, this could be hidden, most likely by making he only way people get there is via Allie teleports or something like that, but it would first require finding new undiscovered planet by someone with a high security clearance to start, and the planet would likely start at a tier well below 50, so it would take a lot of time to reach tier 50.
Jake Kimmerly
My first instinct was 10.5
Havokk
I suspect once Matt can make tier 50 rifts youll see more than a few of the royal raised top 50 as well. So I suspect MLA will all reach tier 50 before leaving the realm.
Cam
ill take the over but less than ten
Snugglebadger
I believe there is also the secondary benefit of not letting the other great powers learn about Melinda's ability. They can play of a shorter amount of time to recuperate as his injuries not being so severe, but if he was right back in the action, they'd figure out some new healing prodigy was working with their Ascenders. They want that info kept hidden until it is absolutely necessary to risk revealing it.
The El Bandito
Hopefully they are at least using [Lesser Sacrifice] on that essence to get a boost. Who knows maybe they are up to [Sacrifice] or perhaps even a higher tier spell such as [Greater Sacrifice]. If those even exist.
Jake Kimmerly
Over/under 6.5 chapter before Duke Waters is killed
C_Mantis
Yeah its more about waiting for his willpower to recover as he overdrafted it
WhiteRabbit
Really need to alpha strike Matt to do much of anything. He's too much like magic Hulk lol
adam1
Actually, my bet is that he becomes the next Emporer to get his next Talent and spend 30,000 years fueling the Empire. This also works out so that Aster can be next Beast Queen.
Magnuss
It could be that Darrow is willing to sacrifice all captured ppl or that he is referring to breaking the enchantments and other defending infra so the world is getting defacto destroyed because that is its only function.
Alex
They only really use Allie at the start and end of a mission. Everything inbetween is normal travel for months. Allie does weaken my argument for seperate teams cause teleportation can accomplish similar things, but it can't change everything. The cleanup they do after the main mission and drawing attention still takes months. They could go draw attention at different fronts. Allow the regular troops to have even less resistance
Jamie Trevino
Blood for the Blood God? (His loving wife Liz)
Michael Storms
Name idea for Liz, Matt and Aster: Legion, Dreadnought and Desolation
Valter Anunciação
Feels like the chapter ended midway
Andrew K
I believe he was indicated to be dealing with willpower depletion, which healers can't really help with per se, but would be familiar with evaluating.
Zachary Blevins
Time is relative to your position in space he’ll still have to experience two years worth of time. Everybody outside the rift will experience about 12 weeks.
MinE
The difference between tiers is bigger at higher tiers plus infinite mana is limited by his skills, control, and concentration. His current build helps on the skill issue, but it still has limits. His control is a serious issue; he might have the worst mana control in the history of Ascenders despite being good relative to an average elite. Eventually his concentration is going to grow to the point of becoming more of a factor in combat than his infinite supply but by that point domains, especially Aspects can outweigh even an infinite supply of super dense mana. P.S I wonder if his mana density will eventually get to the point it is basically essence; I wonder what his new dense subaspect does.
Zachary Blevins
Time is relative to your position in space Duke Waters will experience two years of time displacement, while the rest of the universe experiences about 12 weeks of time
DowagerOfVeils
But then what are MLA gonna do? Travel time is a very real concern; if you send MLA on a month-long trip to one location, and have Allie teleport the rest to another front that isn't guaranteed to be nearby, you've kinda put MLA out of commission for twice the travel time. Sure, you could use Allie to cut that down drastically, but then you're just sending all of Team Zero somewhere, but only having half of them fight at a given location. The fronts don't appear to be constantly happening simultaneously, so you lose little by sending all of Team Zero to each fight, and spending the time that *would* be spent on travel time instead magnified eightfold in the home base rift, recovering, training, and destressing.
Zachary Blevins
Great chapter !!! No inner monologue, no tragic self reflection, no pleading with the voice in his head about his present state of morality I wish every writer would, write fight sequences like this brutal efficient and most important fast Fight sequences should always be fast-paced I wish everybody understood that. Great chapter !!!
Chris
I'm more confused about why Aiden needs all that time with the overheal effect. Not sure of all the damage types that overheal has no benefit towards. I thought it was maybe intent damage from what the elites tried to do but then why have Aiden do intent training when they have other pros who are subjectively better teachers. Am I forgetting something that spelled this out more?
adam1
Yes, but Light and Shadow would still have gotten there faster than expected. I think that Allie's gift will end up slipping before the end of the war. They'll be forced to move too quickly to too many locations fighting fires.
adam1
Yes, while it is technically correct as written, it could be "That was only three real months outside the rift." or something similar.
Zachary Blevins
I really think it’s worse than that. I think at level 35 he’ll be able to take on a level 50. And I don’t think Matt’s gonna see level 50 in this reality I think you’ll be forced to ascend before then and then he’ll be level 40 take it on level 60s
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
crusaderstar
That answers one half of my question, the other was basically Darrow said he'd like to hand the planet back to the captured defenders with minimal infra damage. Then somebody said the sects probably won't surrender, at which point Darrow said we'd destroy the planet. Does that included the captured Empire defenders? And all the support staff such a world needs, janitors, cooks ,etc. etc. etc. Trying to understand what's Darrow's approach and moral lines here.
C_Mantis
DW isnt the only person but hes very good at it. Well talk about it later no doubt
Dr. Redbush
Makes it seem that it’s 3 months IN the Tier 35 rift, when it would be 3 months real time OUTSIDE the Tier 35 rift
Corwin
Using the essence of other people taints their cores unless they've learned to use their domain to scrub the essence. So far only one person is known to be able to do that, and he hasn't shared that info. Duke Waters.
BurnNote
All battles happen on fortress moons/ planets. No civilians there.
Dr. Redbush
Specifically the “only three real months in the Tier 35 rift”
Dr. Redbush
This part here: “Melinda included, stating that he would be out for at least two years subjective. That was only three real months in the Tier 35 rift”
Daniel Golding
Would Matt, for example, use the essence from these combat kills for his physical core, or do they not use it? Is it too low level (they delve up 4), or does that not matter?
C_Mantis
they are the equivalent of the systems pluto so no one lives there and they are just used as a point to fight over safly.
C_Mantis
If you or someone else can point out what part is confusing I can tweak it but it all makes sense to me as I wrote it.
Dr. Redbush
Ok yeah that is what I thought. The way I read it in this chapter seemed like it was the opposite so it threw me off. I must have just read it wrong here. Thanks!
Havokk
Fortress worlds are designated battle grounds so no civilian population. They are near populated worlds but the agreements by the Great Powers keep the battles from non combatant worlds themselves. If the fortress world falls the neighboring planets are considered conquered as well
PhDoug
I actually loved it as is and thought it was clever. I recommend not changing.
C_Mantis
Its subjective vs real time. the rift has an 8x dilation so one second in the real world is 8 seconds in the rift.
C_Mantis
yeah more like free the blood from the enimies bodies. If its not clear I can tweak.
Havokk
the time dilation in rifts is faster than the outside world. This is why they are abusing the rifts this way so that they can get back into the war much faster than expected
crusaderstar
Was taken aback by Darrow saying they'd destroy the world if they couldn't retake it, are there no mortals on it? Empire soldiers imprisoned by the sect? Even if his answer is still yes would've liked that being fleshed out a bit.
Dr. Redbush
I’m a bit confused about relative vs. real time. The way it was worded in this chapter made it sound like 3 months inside the rift was like 2 years outside in the real world. I thought it was the other way around where 2 years inside the rift (relative time) would be 3 months outside the rift (real time)? I could just not be reading it correctly but if someone could help me straighten out my understanding, that would be amazing. 😜
RedeyeA
Zach is really rubbing off on Matt. Why waste the mana when there is so much blood already there in their enemies?
PhDoug
"Instead he dove in to create some blood" followed by zero uses of [Create Blood] and just wanton slaughter was awesome.
Alex
They can't expose her talent too much though. Of course it makes stuff smoother, but is it really worth it? Kinda seems like they could've just replaced MLA with a couple more higher tire elites and get a similar effect
Derze
"We expect you to do the impossible ! you have 15 minutes to come up with a working strategy... be quick" Man...I love this chapter
Solopath
A name proposal for Matt, Aster and Liz: Fusion, 'llusion, and Lesion/Legion
Havokk
This is something Ive truly been waiting for in the war, seeing Matt the Monster crushing those who are tiers above him in a way that, very very slightly, makes you feel bad for opponents who arent smart enough to just surrender right away. I know weve seen other fights but this one really feels like Matt will be as feared as Duke Waters is if not more so by the end.
Bender
Feels a bit Star Wars-y. Orbital ships, planetary shields and such.
mitchell kaiser
Can’t wait for Monday!
C_Mantis
"hand" fixed ty
Eduard Marciuc
But the point of Team Zero is, using Allie's teleport, getting to situations stupidly fast and handling them even faster with overwhelming power from 2 sets of Ascenders, because sure one set can be fast, but a second helps make it so much easier and smoother
Alex
Yeah, it's T27, so it makes sense to send them all, MLA are still new too. But they could put together teams of T26/27 elites to work with them on those missions. Then they could still win and be at two places at the same time.
adam1
Or smash one hardpoint with overwhelming power. They're on track to retake the world in about a half hour of fighting.
Solopath
"Matt grabbed the woman's head with a lightning-wreathed, ignoring" I think a word is missing.
Alex
The whole benefit of having two ascender teams is that you can send them to different locations at the same time.
Michael Storms
Thanks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter
Andrew Eaker
Appreciate it
Alexander
Thanks for the chapter
