C_Mantis
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Chapter 305
🕑 Added 2024-02-05 19:59:01 +0000 UTCNote we are approaching the end of this arc pretty quickly so well have a two chapter break like always after the manny chapter.
Chapter 305
Aster reclined in the chair and gathered herself, then promptly got distracted by everyone that she could feel standing on the other side of the glass that took up a full wall of the room. On the other side stood essentially every person she knew on a first-name basis in Camp Lightfoot.
Matt and Liz were there for moral support, as Aster wouldn’t have wanted to do this without them, but the others were… there.
Allie had tagged along because she was interested in seeing a bloodline replacement, though Aster was pretty sure she was just hoping for a good show. If it was anyone but Allie, Aster would have suspected them of hoping she exploded, but Allie lived for any kind of excitement. Zack was there to examine how her mana and bloodline were changed. For him, it was purely academic. He would have been just as interested if anyone was changing their bloodline.
Dena and Eric were there for moral support. She appreciated that, really she did. The duo had become her friends, but their presence had opened the floodgates and brought in in the rest of Team Zero, which meant the small room on the other side was packed. Sebastian, Morgan, Joy, Ai’la, Arthur, Darrow, and Mathew had all tagged along and were snacking on the popcorn Allie had brought. Darrow at least had the good graces to abstain from snacking as he watched.
Feeling Aster's spiritual sense, Allie waved with one hand even as she shoved a handful of popcorn into her already stuffed mouth. She looked like she was a chipmunk.
It wasn’t a bad thing. These were people who cared about her survival and wellbeing. That was a nice feeling. She just knew how messy this would be, and that would be embarrassing.
And they weren't the only ones watching, she was sure of that.
Aster was one hundred percent sure Luna was somewhere watching her, she couldn’t feel or see the cat, but that meant little with their Tier difference. The cat could be on the table next to her, and she wouldn’t be able to know unless Luna wanted her to.
Aster looked to where Silverlake and Melinda were walking down the hall and grinned at the cart they pushed.
Melinda had said she was going to do that, but Aster was tickled by the theatrics.
Magic swirled around her, and upon its eddies rested the trio of natural treasures she would be using as fuel for her change. This would be nothing like her time at Tier 10, where she only had a scant source of winter mana and the dragon blood fueling the transition. Now, she had some of the very best tech the army had to support her. A Phantasmal Moon-Mothflower fluttered as though it was attached to an actual insect, Solar Salt gleamed like so many stars on a galactic wind, and a Frozen Lightbeam of the North shone with a thousand glittering colors.
If things went well, she would be providing the winter mana herself. If things didn’t go well, there was a perfect Boreal Jet behind her, almost radiant black as it reflected the lights in the medical chamber. To help it go smoother, Healer Silverlake was bringing a vial of purple liquid that utterly screamed danger, even at this distance.
Hopefully it all went well. It hadn’t been pleasant last time, being healed around her body self-destructing as it remade itself. At least this time, she wouldn’t be using the body she was changing, so that would cut down on the healing she needed.
She also had far more preparation this time around. Group Scroll had been informed of her intention to change her bloodline to aurora decades before she had arrived, and they had been working on the simulations and resource acquisition for the entire duration. Aster had a plan in place for what she needed to do and how, and she had been nearly guzzling the resources needed to lay the groundwork for her transition since she finished The Path. That was the easy part.
Now she just needed to execute.
Melinda waved to her as they entered, but Silverlake was completely professional. “Ascender, are you ready? I know you have done this process before, but do you have any questions you would like clarified before you begin?”
Aster shook her head. “I’m ready if you are.”
Silverlake nodded and withdrew a needle and pulled in a generous amount of the purple liquid. Aster braced herself, but the pain still made her entire body and spirit want to flinch. Silverlake held her in place, and the potion coursed through her veins both physical and magical. Her body and magic let out a halfhearted whine as they were suppressed, leaving only Aster’s bloodline core at full strength. Even most of her natural treasures were dimmed, cutting away everything that could be considered extraneous for the procedure.
It only took a few shuddering breaths to get herself under control, but nodding to Melinda, her friend started cracking the mana stones Matt had made for her, releasing millions of aurora mana into the hospital room.
There was so much aurora mana that illusions started to appear all on their own. The seams on the far wall started to merge and turn into pictographs, telling the story of a fox who dreamed too large. Silverlake’s face turned purple and evil, and even Melinda started making faces at Aster.
Actually, that last one was just Melinda making fun of her.
Maybe.
Aster refocused.
First was the Moon-Mothflower. The truth of its existence was stripped away, revealing it for the false existence that it truly was, but that falsehood was what gave it power. The possibilities of what could be, glimpses of Worlds That Were Not.
Winter was already something of a realm of falsehoods. Deep snows blanketed danger, yet did not mute its potential. Beauty hid the deadly chill of frost, and even the weak sun that shone overhead could blind the unwary. Illusion came so naturally in the wake of that, and phantoms and long shadows began to flicker in the corners of Aster’s winter.
Nonetheless, it was not truly winter, and so when she attempted to pull it into her mana pool, her spirit still fought it. While her mana core could only put up the most trivial of resistance, her bloodline savaged it all the same, rightly sensing it as a challenge to its power. It felt like each mote of illusion was frozen, constrained to a singular interpretation rather than the infinity it could have been. That ice was then shattered, becoming nothing but flakes of snow drifting in the fell boreal wind.
Without the aurora in the air, that would have perhaps been the end of it. But with millions of points of mana saturating the entire medical chamber, her bloodline’s howls of protest merely served to pull in more and more of the glimmering mana. That mana, that aurora, permeated her very being and began to guide that frozen bit of illusion into a form more suitable for her.
The infinity of illusion was a form of power unto itself, but it wasn’t quite the power that Aster sought. What she wanted was the illusion that overwhelmed the senses in a myriad of ways both subtle and overt. The colors of the nighttime rainbow which ensnared and enraptured began to gleam within the snowflakes of frozen illusion. But those colors were dim, nothing like the dazzling gleams that Aster was looking for, so she drained the mana and essence from the Solar Salt to ignite it.
Walls of green, orange, and red light snaked across the snowy landscape, crisscrossing her bloodline like thin strings attempting to bind her bloodline.
From there, she needed a solid push, and that was what the Frozen Lightbeam was for. Concentrated aurora mana streamed from it, and the strings became cords and the cords became chains, leashing her bloodline despite its vigorous protests.
Aster returned her senses more to the physical, and felt the aurora mana spiraling around her bloodline core like a planetary ring, closing in tighter and tighter. Spiritual light gleamed from within her bloodline, a harsh white-blue in color.
She was ready, and now she just needed to make the change itself.
Her bloodline resolved into a white fox with blue eyes, staring back at her as cracks began to accumulate all across its body. If she hadn’t undergone this before from ice to winter, her other body would be thrashing and struggling, fighting the change it couldn’t understand. Some beasts had been undone like this, as they lost control over their bloodline form and it consumed them like a feral animal.
But she had done this before. And Aster, no matter what her body looked like, was an Ascender. Her human and fox bodies locked gazes upon one another, and there was a moment of shared purpose, of shared conviction, and then Aster tightened the ring of aurora and her fox self winced with pain.
That pain was accompanied by a sudden and violent rend into the core of her Domain. Her Concept, built upon her bloodline of ice and already off-base from her time as a winter fox, cracked solidly, and while her Intent handled it well enough with its initial compatibility with aurora, it too was damaged.
She could handle the pain, but her Domain damage could prove catastrophic. It wasn’t too late, if she changed her mind. She could back off from the change, fix her Domain, and everything would go back to the way it was before.
A small part of Aster wanted to do that. She was fine as a winter fox. She had become an Ascender like that, it was strong, it was enough.
But she had never settled for “enough”.
Aster wanted more. She wanted to do the impossible, to have a bloodline of a Level 5 mana type while still only Rank 1, to make and claim space ice as her own legacy. To do that, she needed to take this next step. Beyond even that desire, Aster wanted to blaze a new path forward. She wanted to do something no one had ever done.
Liz was already revolutionary. Her development of a new element, a new bloodline, was still in its early stages. But she had a promising start, and was already beginning to change the common perception on blood mages as a whole. Aster prided herself on keeping her ear to the ground, and blood mages were already becoming far more accepted in the Empire. They had never been outlawed, but anyone who ‘chose’ to use blood magic, whether by actual choice or a dedicated Talent like Liz, were generally looked upon with distrust. If you were just going to be a red water mage, why not just be a water mage? If you were going to be a healer, why not just take wood, water, life, or healing mana? Why choose blood if not for its more nefarious aspects?
Except now, blood was breaking into the mainstream as a slightly more acceptable mana type to shoot for, and people were learning just how versatile and useful the mana type was both in and out of battle.
Liz’s mere presence had changed the Empire, and she hadn’t even tried.
What had she done?
Supports had seen a two percent higher approval rating and low Tier guilds reported an easier time of getting young kids into support positions. Aster understood that was important, and she knew that was making a difference, but it felt small and unimpactful in comparison to Liz.
Let alone Matt, her own bond.
Matt was already changing the realm and would continue to do so. Not just with his endless mana, but with what he was trying to use it for. She was sure when this war ended he, Zack, and Erwin were going to start making custom rifts. And his guild. The idea of giving creative people an unlimited budget to see what could come out of unrestrained ambition. If even one out of a hundred of his ideas worked, they would change everything.
Aster wasn’t afraid of Matt breaking their bond if she couldn’t make some realm altering change, but she wanted to keep up with them. They were a trio now, but what if one day she couldn’t keep up?
It wasn’t a thought she wanted to comprehend.
Mostly because she didn’t have any answers.
Aster had no idea how she could change the realm, but she knew that pushing her bloodline to its limits was the correct start.
With a very final nod shared with her bloodline self, the chains of aurora around her tightened, and her fox body shattered into motes of glowing snowflakes.
The aurora surged in, and Aster quickly worked to piece her bloodline back together, woven in with the new mana she was trying to integrate.
It didn’t go well at first. She was, after all, fighting herself more than anything, and no part of Aster Alexander was anything but a fighter. She needed to call upon the Boreal Jet, feeding the surge of winter mana to her bloodline as almost a form of mollification. It only made her bloodline stronger, as she wrestled with the gleaming light that had once been a fox, but it paused long enough to eat its new meal that Aster managed to grab the very tip of one of its ears and force aurora into it.
At the very tip, a singular mote of color shone green, then orange, then blue. She was one percent of the way there, and now it was only a matter of time.
Five percent. An entire ear was now glimmering and gleaming.
Ten percent.
Slow and steady.
Fifteen percent.
Most of its head was no longer white-blue, and a singular multicolored eye stared back at her as it fought on, uncaring of its hybrid state.
Forty percent.
The other eye shone with color, intelligence, and ferocity, and it swiped at her with a paw that trailed ribbons of color, leaving marks behind on her arm. The change was strengthening her bloodline, and that meant it could fight back all the harder.
Seventy percent.
She was up to her hindquarters now, but the slippery nature of illusion was making simply holding onto her bloodline a task unto itself.
And for an instant, her control slipped.
She was juggling a dozen different tasks at once, trying to keep herself together despite the horrific pain she was undergoing as part of reworking large portions of her spirit, but she was managing it with all the fidelity and precision she had come to expect of herself. Until a jolt of pain that shot through her entire being informed her that she had done something ever so slightly wrong, infused illusion into her Concept a hair slower than she was doing for her Intent, and the spiritual shearing shot hairline faults through her Intent.
It was fixable, but she was in too deep now to back out. She just had to push through and deal with the consequences later, and hope that she could do everything else perfectly.
Ninety percent.
Only the tail was left now, a wonderfully floofy appendage that was pure white in defiance of the riot of color that the rest of her body was.
Ninety-nine percent.
With a mournful howl, the very tip of her tail gained color, and she dropped the fight with more than a bit of exhaustion. Her gleaming fox-self curled up peacefully in her arms and began to sleep.
She still had more work to do, to repair her Domain and rework her human body in a thousand ways to account for the new changes, so she wasn’t done, but…
She was done.
She had done it.
Gasping, Aster let all of her powers drop and she started laughing.
The glass next to her popped and the aurora mana tried to wash out, but she grabbed at it. It was easy. Her bloodline and mana pool were now in tune with aurora mana, which made it second nature to control.
Wrapping the aurora mana around her, she created an illusion of herself and had it stand up to greet the others while masking her real body that still laid on the table.
Only two people weren’t tricked.
Matt, who could sense her through their bond, and Silverlake who was too high Tier to be tricked so easily.
Her bond ran a hand through her hair and gave her fox ears a small scritch before asking, “How are you feeling?”
He already knew, but she appreciated him asking.
Sadly, it gave away the game, and Aster let her illusion copy fall away in a wash of ice and light. She was in a considerable amount of pain, especially after using her brand new bloodline to spin up an illusion, but more than anything, she was exhausted. Napping for a year sounded like an amazing idea right now.
Allie blinked at her with wide eyes, and Aster could tell there were dozens of plans for mischief running through her mind.
“I’m fine, or well, I’m alive. My bloodline refinement is shot, and I need to patch up my Domain, but give me a decade and I’ll be good to go!”
It was fortunate she was so awesome. It wasn’t rare for immortal beasts to take centuries to get back to where they were before a bloodline change, but she could do so much better than them.
The suite of recovery resources would help, of course, but it was mostly her. Combined with the time dilation in the rift, it would look like she changed her bloodline practically overnight. Besides, she could fight even if she weren’t at full strength. Same-Tier fights were just too easy at this point.
Darrow nodded. “You will be placed on medical leave until you are cleared for battle. It shouldn't be too much of an issue either way. The Empire wants to keep just how good our healing teams are under wraps, so there was no way your half of Team Zero was getting sent out for anything but an emergency mission anyway. I’m glad you pulled through. If you need anything, feel free to ask.”
Aster thanked the general and made a note to grab him a baked good on her next jaunt with Allie. He was a bit of a straightlaced guy, but he was nice and cared about all of them on Team Zero.
The others took that as their cue and after congratulating Aster took their own leave. Everyone but Matt, Liz, and Allie.
Well, them and Silverlake and Melinda.
Seeing Melinda’s glowing hand reach for her, Aster flinched out of the way. “Hey, hey, hey. I worked too hard on remaking myself for you to touch me and make it all go away.”
Not that a healing spell, especially one cast by a Tier 15, could affect her body, let alone her bloodline, without her allowance, but it was the principle of the matter. Melinda Talent was too strong, and could revert the changes if Aster didn’t firmly block it. Best not to push her luck.
Melinda rolled her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. This isn’t a healing spell, it's a minor divination spell to check your body.”
Aster relaxed enough to let Melinda lay her hand on Aster's head, and felt a tingly sensation go through her body a few times before Melinda pulled away and started talking medical jargon to Silverlake.
She didn’t understand any of it, but neither looked worried, so she assumed it was normal and got up just to wobble.
Her body felt weird.
That was weird, because it wasn’t like she’d actually changed it. Sure, there were some places where her bloodline persisted in her human form, but it shouldn’t make that much of a difference.
Her body felt lighter than before. Like she could step into a sun beam sideways and vanish. It was an odd sensation, and one she followed up on just to get odd looks from the others when it didn’t work.
Aster shrugged as she explained, “I got the feeling I could vanish into a sunbeam. It felt like it was worth a try. Who knows what my Rank 1 bloodline power is.”
The way the she had engineered it, she would be able to utilize a standard bloodline affinity and apply it to aurora, increasing the potency of all the spells aligned with the affinity, along with a host of more minor benefits. But until she got around to testing the specifics, she couldn’t be sure. Bloodlines could be weird, and she was the first aurora fox after all.
Speaking of which, the moment she got home, she had Matt manifest a large mirror in their living room and she transformed into her fox body immediately.
She was gorgeous.
Her fur was a pristine white like it had been before, except now it had a slight underwater waver to it. Even that wasn’t quite right, as it wasn’t like Duke Water’s hair. Instead, it looked more like the hair itself was rippling and flowing, as though it were water itself. Each strand of fur was still fully real and discrete, and never moved when she looked at it closely. But no matter how much of herself she studied, the rippling remained.
It also reflected light differently than before, having picked up an almost iridescent sheen that neither shed light nor required it. With a thought, she could brighten it or dim it, or change the color to… whatever she wanted. She turned her fur’s luminance purple for a moment, ranging the brightness from nearly blinding to barely visible, but under it all, her pure-white fur was visible. A bit of experimentation showed that wasn’t a limit, and the fur itself readily turned blue while the light it shed became red.
Allie oohed at the sight, even as she shoved a hand into Aster's fur. “Oh, this is so pretty! I wonder if we can skin you and keep the effect. Could you imagine how g—” Aster had heard enough and bit the other Ascender hard enough to show her displeasure. “Ow! That hurt. What was that for?”
Aster put her nose up even as Allie tried to explain. “Come on, with Melinda we could have you skinned a dozen times in like five minutes. Then we could go out on the town in style. Can you imagine aurora fox scarves? They would be the talk of the capital! We would look so good!”
Aster hated to admit it, but she was tempted. Allie was right about Melinda and the healing. And it would look good.
Shaking her head, she sent through her [AI], “No way. I’m going to transform my tail into the same effect on my human body then I’ll have it to show off and still be the only one with it. It's a win-win for me.”
Allie pursed her lips before asking, “What if your tail gets chopped off in combat? Can I make a scarf out of it then?”
“No way. If I say yes, I’m sure my tail will just happen to get in the way of a spell.”
“I would never.” In a much softer voice, Allie added. “Do something so obvious.”
Aster couldn’t help but laugh at that as she turned back to the mirror.
The effect was striking, she had to admit.
Turning to Matt, she pushed a questioning feel through their bond.
He reached down and rubbed a few strands of fur through his fingers. “Think you can turn fully invisible? That would be a pretty damn useful ability if you can manage it sans skills.”
Aster concentrated on making herself see through, but she found that the effect didn’t want to move past the halfway point of her fur. She was pretty sure she could extend that range through practice and hard work, but for now, she was unable to do anything but make it look like she got a haircut.
Liz, on the other hand, was still looking at a drop of blood she had swiped from the hospital room.
“It's very strange to see the differences in your blood and how it’s reacting to the new mana typing. I’ll want to see how this progresses, but it gives me a few ideas. I’ll also need some of your heart's blood once you fully settle in for the tree. I’m interested in what powers I can get for burning your bloodline. Aurora is a pretty versatile bloodline, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on any aurora bloodline samples, not in the short time since I put in the request.”
Aster huffed and nipped at Liz’s hand. She wasn’t any better than Allie wanting to turn her into a coat.
Rotten, the lot of them.
Not bothering to shift back into her human form, Aster slunk back to her room, just to be followed by Allie who was already pulling out cold weather gear.
Chuckling to herself, Aster linked into the house and turned the temperature down even further than usual.
Threaten to turn her tail into a scarf? Get your toes frozen off!
Matt was at least kind enough to make a snack for her, which he said he would deliver when it was done.
The cold of her room hit her like a club, but Aster enjoyed the quiet curse it pulled out of Allie.
“Come on dude this is just too damn cold, even for you. I apologize for threatening to take off your tail.”
Aster debated whether to raise the temperature or let Allie suffer more, but ended up choosing to be magnanimous and raised the temperature to something she could handle.
Finally in her own room, she curled up on her bed before rolling over and sprawling out with a groan.
“Is it that bad?”
Aster thought for a minute before coming up with something she thought might be able to explain it. “Have you ever tried psychedelics?”
“I’m insulted you had to ask.”
“It's like coming down from a bad trip where you left your body and it doesn't feel right as you come down from it. My body feels alien. It's like someone replaced my favorite shirt with a new version of that shirt. They might look the same, but they will wear differently.”
Allie patted Aster on the paw, nodding. “Yeah, that kinda sounds awful. How long will it last?”
Aster felt Matt poke her through their bond and transformed into her human form to get ready for her snack.
He was even nice enough to bring a scone for Allie. It was delicious, as only food cooked by Matt could be.
Between bites, Aster recounted how long it took her last time she changed her bloodline to feel normal.
“Really, it comes down to how long it will take me to fix my Concept.”
Allie winced. “That sucks something fierce. I cracked my Concept on our way out of Minkalla, and I was bed bound for three months, and feeling the aftereffects for years. I was so worried that it would cost us everything because of the Path. How is your Intent?”
Aster probed her Intent and felt around it like a blind man searching for his knife. Carefully.
Her Intent was cracked, there was no question about that, but the damage was fairly minimal. Her Phrase, Frozen Crown of the World only had some superficial damage, and her Anchor, her growth tiara, was perfectly fine. Though she knew she would want to reinforce it with aurora mana before using it in battle. Her Image, though, a lifeless yet beautiful snowscape, would need some work to patch the holes that had formed with the addition to her mana type.
What had once been complete as a winter wonderland, a reflection of her bloodline, was now missing the light and illusion aspects of her aurora mana. Her dream was to leverage the minor space aspects of aurora mana to expand her Tier 25 Talent spirit space into something greater, though that was going to be exceedingly hard, if it was even possible.
Aster had faith in herself and the resources the Empire could pour into her. Luna had mentioned knowing of another Pather manager who had done something similar, so it was possible in theory, though all Talents were unique, and hers might not be able to take that necessary step with just a supporting mana aspect to lean on.
If it didn’t work with aurora mana, she would just wait until Matt made her true space ice and try again.
Part of her wondered what that would be like, and another part of her wondered about her new bloodline.
Before today, there was no such thing as an aurora fox. There had been a few winter foxes in the past, but they had never reached the population numbers needed to become a rift-droppable bond species. And so far as she knew, there were none currently alive. Nearly one hundred thousand years ago, there had been a winter fox in the Clans who had aimed to stabilize a lineage for herself, and had a child with someone whose Talent allowed them to mirror any bloodline. Then, they had taken the potions and done the rituals to ensure that the child would have the standard Talents for the bloodline.
What she found was unexciting, a Tier 1 Talent for an innate winter storm skill, and a Tier 3 Talent that increased the range and potency of winter spells. It wasn’t exactly a guarantee that Aster's hypothetical children would get the same Talents, but it was a distinct possibility if she also took the potions to ensure a natural Talent. And frankly, a downgrade to her current Talents wasn’t the type of legacy she had wanted to establish.
Just what would be the aurora fox innate Talents? What would the Rank 1 and Rank 2 bloodline powers be? Aster would be able to confirm the Rank 1 in a few days, but the Rank 2 would be lost forever if she decided to go down her current path further.
It was a greedy thought, but even with her current success, Aster had no desire to settle for merely pathblazing an aurora fox bloodline when she could truly push herself to include space ice with her Rank 1, rather than pulling it in as a Rank 2 ability..
It wasn’t, by most measures, a good idea, but forging on ahead and defying the odds was the providence of Ascenders.
Unless you were born with it, obtaining a bloodline with a level 4 mana type was considered an enormously bad idea, given the resources and risk involved. Some people still did it, of course, but attempting it as a Rank 1 was considered nearly impossible.
Aster had done it anyway.
Aiming for a Level 5 element for her Rank 1 affinity was ambitious, to put it mildly, but it left the door open for more future power when she eventually did get a Rank 2 bloodline. Getting an affinity for aurora and space ice, as both of her bloodline powers, was absolutely the easier route to go, but it was leaving power on the table. She wouldn’t be able to get anything especially potent as a Rank 2 ability, just a half powered affinity that did most of the same things as her Rank 1.
No, Aster wanted to make a bloodline like a phoenix, something that had an utterly incredible power, not some scattershot bloodline that lacked true potency.
It was just that lack that rankled Aster.
How bloodlines came to be was a mystery. Most people simply settled for the explanation that they came from rifts, but where they had come from first was completely unknown. There had never been a winter fox bond egg, let alone an aurora one, but why not? Some people thought it had to do with stable breeding populations, but then why did dwarf beast eggs never drop from rifts? They were far more numerous than dragon turtles. Rift monsters often had something sort of like a bloodline, which could be cultivated into a true bloodline, like with briar wolves, but then why was there no human bloodline, when most people agreed that the first humans came from rifts?
But what she knew with certainty was there had never been another aurora fox in the entire realm nor any of the Tier 25 realms that intermittently sent people to this one, and while she was less certain there had never been another in all of the myriad of realms beyond their own, becoming the first Rank 1 space ice fox in all of existence was an accomplishment worthy of Aster Alexander.
It wasn’t the same as changing the realm, like Matt might do in the future, but it was something that only Aster could do, something someone born as a simple arctic fox bond could do.
That called to Aster.
It would be something truly hers.
It would make her the first on many levels.
It would also be incredibly difficult. Getting the resources to make the jump today had been hard, and she would need more aurora natural treasures if she wanted to speed up her bloodline excavation. The higher the mana level, the harder it was to strengthen. If one wanted to strengthen a bloodline, they needed an area with large amounts of that mana type. Ice bloodlines needed to find places with lots of ice which naturally had ice aspected mana, fire bloodlines needed places with fire mana. Typically, the higher level the mana type, the harder it was to find. Rifts were great places where someone could cycle massive amounts of mana to temper their mana without ruining a local environment, but while fire or ice themed rifts could be found anywhere, there were only a few planets that had winter rifts, and there were no aurora rifts. Let alone space ice. And without a plethora of aurora mana and natural treasures, she couldn’t even refine her current bloodline properly, let alone prepare for yet another jump.
Still, Aster had faith in Matt. He would figure it out for her.
Her bond was the best.
That was why he had gotten her.
He was the luckiest human.
Aster was getting all cold inside when Allie poked her in the cheek. “Hey, stop getting all dopey. I can see it on your face. Let's work on our Concepts. We'll repair them together.”
Aster wanted to pout that Allie had ruined her future planning, but she had a point. She needed to work on fixing her Concept as quickly as possible so she could return to the battlefield if needed. It was also touching that she would do this with her. Aster knew how much the teleporter detested anything resembling extra work.
Aster appreciated it.
Not that she would tell Allie. It would just make her smug. Instead, she stuck up her nose. “I wasn’t getting dopey. I was planning my future as queen of a new Rank 1 bloodline that pushes the boundaries of what is thought possible. I—”
“Yeah yeah whatever, just get to gluing your Concept back together. Errrr… it’s ice. Pouring water over it? How do you mend ice? Do you have a giant fre—”
Aster sighed and blasted her friend into the wall with a blizzard.
Comments
Nicholas Grey
"But what she knew with certainty was there had never been another aurora fox in the entire realm nor any of the Tier 25 realms that intermittently sent people to this one" That's... the first time this has been mentioned, afaik? I mean, it's makes *sense*, but to just have it only mentioned in passing this far in?! Just checking my understanding: When cultivators in this, our normal story, hit 50-max, they can Ascend into a higher realm, which has a 1-100 range. By implication, there are also LOWER realms, 1-25 range realms, which can Ascend INTO our main story realm? So our realm isn't the "baseline" realm, it's just one on the range of possibilities. Which raises the possibility of there being other 1-50 realms, "sideways", since we know that there are at least three higher (1-100) realm options that a Tier 50 can Ascend into
Fozzy
Is there a limit on how far Liz can be away from herself? If not, there's no reason not to do ALA and MLZ
Rui Lourenço
Talent upgrades only happen when ascending after Tier 50. But they can be nudged into compliance.
Tommy
@saganatsu this is really helpful, thank you :) I’m now understanding all that Aster was talking about. She wants to wait and get level 5 mana (space ice) while she is still at rank 1 so it will change her rank 1 ability again. Rather than changing the mana when she ranks up to rank 2 (which is what many bloodline people do but it means their rank 1 ability is tied to the previous mana type). Ok I’m on track now I think!
C_Mantis
@MinE yes. Im just blind and cant read what I wrote before hitting enter.
saganatsu
it's an annoying thing to be precise about, but there's 2 different things being referred to: her bloodline rank, which is currently Rank 1. Each rank of bloodline grants abilities. And the Level of the mana aspect, which measures how hard to find/make it is: Fire is everywhere, and is Level 1. Level 2 mana aspects are stable combinations made from level 1 mana aspects. Level 3 are made from level 2 and maybe level 1 mana aspects. and so on. Higher Level mana aspects are more both rarer in nature, more complex to develop artificially, and harder to transplant. What she did here was replace her Rank 1 bloodline of Winter (either level 2 or 3, don't remember) with Aurora (Level 4). this involved a loss her Rank 1 Winter Bloodline ability, and it being replaced with a rank 1 Aurora Bloodline ability (currently unknown). Her long-term plan is to eventually replace Aurora with Space-Ice (which doesn't exist yet, she'll be relying on Matt, and probably Zack, to actually develop it. Space-Ice, with an Aurora component, would be Level 5. She still wants to do this as a rank 1 bloodline, rather than accept the Aurora permanently as her rank 1, and then switch to Space-Ice as a rank 2, as it would be weaker that way, with overlap between her rank 1 and 2 abilities.
MinE
Rank 1 with a winter mana aspect; I believe winter is level 3, Ice+wind.
MinE
Wasn't the whole point it was still a Rank 1 bloodline?
Eeekkkk
I thought Asters Winter Fox bloodline was only rank 2 that is a big jump from rank 2 to rank 5
sambee
The same with Aster and Zack combo. It would be deadly because Aster would blind the enemy’s senses so much that they will be too disoriented to even know Zack has changed the mana type of an attack.
MissingP_rt
"there had been a winter fox in the Clans who had aimed to stabilize a lineage for herself" maybe "establish" instead of "stabilize"?
Tommy
Thank you!
C_Mantis
Aurora is a level 4 maan type that she shoved into a rank 1 bloodline. Level vs Rank
Jonathan Berman
8x I think
Tommy
So Aster will only be an Aurora Fox for a short time, before she becomes a Space Ice Fox? This whole things has gotten really confusing to me. Aurora is a rank 5 bloodline but Aster is only Rank 1? Is there an explanation for all this somewhere, where it is explained in simple terms?
Drendude
I was getting Arcs/Ar'Kendrithyst-flavored vibes from that paragraph. It was great!
Anime Problem
They can return they'd have to be basically dead with no possibility of survival though
Kain
I think it’s been kinda hinted at before but yeah just having it confirmed that there are other realms that are in contact with “the great powers” is a wild little bit of lore to just throw in there.
RedLeaf
And with this Aster becomes another reason, in her own right, that other GPs will use as an excuse for a T35+ war. And if she actually manages to get a Level 5 affinity with her bloodline *still* at rank one?!?! Janet--and all the other paranoid T50s--will instantly view that fact as proof that the Empire was engaged in some very radical research using the population of Lily as their "lab rats". Interesting times ahead...
George
lower realms, however, were never mentioned
The Shard
I would imagine they just go up forever, and I'm sure there at Tier 5 realms that spit people into Tier 25 realms. We know the next realm is capped at 100, I wonder what they need post Aspect? And what the realm above that one is (I can't figure out the number sequencing other than "author choose that order" but I would bet 200 or 10000 (doubled or squared)? Another one is are their Tier 1 realms that spit out into Tier 5, and are their Tier 0 Realms that become Tier 1 (or 5 if that is the base) spontaneously.
adam1
Bloodlines give another set of specific abilities, and beasts get Talents that synergize with their bloodlines, like Aster getting Innate Ice Manipulation and improved Ice Magic Talents to go with her initial ice bloodline. Sapient beasts or humans born to people with bloodlines often get Talents that synergize with their bloodline, but not always like what happened with Liz. Each rank of a bloodline has one effect. Rank 1 is usually elemental effects, and Rank 2 is a more powerful effect that builds on that, and Rank 3 does it again, like phoenix fire control, self resurrection, and healing tears. You can mess with what you get on rank up by hybridizing yourself as part of the rank up, as Aster was talking about with space ice as a potential rank 2 instead of making it her rank 1 and further building on it to rank up.
adam1
Higher realms have been a thing since Matt got his concept, but we have no real information what the range is for levels in those realms, and if there are even higher realms above the accessible by ascension ones mentioned so far.
Lu
Thing is, there's a massive time dilation in the rift. As Aster said, "it'll seem like she changed her bloodline practically overnight", although I don't know from the top of my head how much the dilation was.
adam1
It was definitely mentioned that you ascend into one of three higher realms randomly, and the only way to be sure you and another go the same one is to ascend at the same time. I don't know if it has ever been said if there are other lower realms equivalent to this one.
adam1
Yes, it was said that the spirit bursts upon descending, so the information on higher realms that they have is from AI dumps that were partially corrupted by the spirit bursting and the descender dying.
Desidia
If Aster had a special kind of potion or Aurora ice cream, could she use her growth item to have an endless amount of special, magical ice cream?
MinE
Bloodlines seem to have a standard set of talents at least for tier 1 and 3, which every non sapient member of that bloodline or ones that had a ritual preformed get and those stay the same even if their bloodline is changed. Sapient members seem to get normal talents with a chance of their bloodline influencing their talents.
MinE
P.S Their is also a mostly unexplained process of bloodline refinement and other improvements that allow you to improve the purity, quality, rank, amount of essence you can put into your bloodline, etc.
MinE
Basically each Rank Gives a new ability which acts like a psuedo-bonus talent fueled with the essence you put into your bloodline, 10% of total essence used to advance usually. A rank 1 would have one ability, a rank 2 would have 2, and so on.
MinE
I think only people with talents related to their offspring will be offered at this point; she focuses so much on her bloodline that they might assume her goal is to create a legacy of a superbloodline.
MinE
I wonder if there is any way around that. P.S I wonder if descending downgrades your talents, body, and domain even if you manage to survive.
Tom
Do people get Talent upgrades from ascending from Tier 25 realms?
Violet
But nebulae are actually very hot? They aren't stars, but they're still far, far warmer than almost anything else.
CringeWorthyStudios
Aster, clearly. They’re both super powerful but Aster is also fluffy!
Violet
Fighting Allie and Aster would be hell because you'd never know where they were or what was going on around you. Particularly if Aster figured out how to use her minor space affinity to hide Allie's spacial folding.
Sanairb
How do bloodline ranks work again? Does the rank 1 ability take the place of a talent?
Violet
D'aww, they're cute! My ship sails on unperturbed. :3
Sezra_
Thanks a bunch! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔゞ゛
Den
"First was the Moon-Mothflower. The truth of its existence was stripped away, revealing it for the false existence that it truly was, but that falsehood was what gave it power. The possibilities of what could be, glimpses of Worlds That Were Not." Masterful wordsmithing. You are an exceedingly capable writer!
Havokk
Can you imagine all the new marriage proposals Aster will be flooded with as soon as people learn shes now the only Aurora Fox bloodline? And not just from the Monster Collective or the Beast Kingdom but from nobles who want a new bloodline added.
William Johnson
I wonder how the monster collective is going to react to this. Being the only winter fox active, and then becoming the only aurora fox period, seems like the kind of thing that should be a big deal for the great power most interested in bloodlines. Especially given that she's not one of them, and that Liz is well on her way to being the most important bloodline researcher at their tier. Basically it seems like the collective should be obsessed with their team one way or another.
Matt H
I think it was shortly before going into Minkalla, if I recall correctly. I also thought it was mentioned that you couldn't control which realm you descended to either.
da Finnci
I'd love to learn more about other realms, as so far they have been pretty much described as a blackbox with people not being able to return post Ascension
Havokk
Last chapter there was mention of them doing a press tour and that would be perfect as it would give Aster time to heal and adjust before dropping back into the fight and hitting the enemies with her new powerset
George
adding the idea of tier 25 realms 300 chapters in is wild lol
Havokk
my first thought would be the MLZ combo would be the more powerful of the two but then came the realization of teleporting illusions that freeze you...... yeah that would definitely cause some chaos
Matt H
Interesting, I had the completely opposite reaction: For the semi-near future while Aster has Domain damage I figure Team Zero (with respect to the Ascenders) will either: 1) Only have L&S go out and fight, 2) Have L&S and M&L go out and fight, or 3) Have everyone go out to fight as normal with Aster being a bit weaker than normal. Any of these three options will result in the kill squad having an easier fight by either fighting fewer Ascenders or fighting while at least one of them isn't at 100%. It's only if the attack is delayed years to decades that Aster's bloodline change will make the fight harder for the enemies. Edit: Plus, it's unclear whether the weakness seeker has even had the chance to scout out MLA yet. We only saw them do it for L&S for sure.
Havokk
It was stated in a previous chapter ( I don't remember which one ) that if someone from the higher realms does descend its always fatal to them and quickly enough that they wouldn't be able to re ascend to the higher realm
MinE
I remember him spoiling that the proper name for space-ice is Nebula.
Discordian23
No people from higher realms can't come down. Tier 50s have to actively fight against being pulled up all the time.
yannick schwende
I love the dynamic between Aster and Allie. They make a great pair. Maybe they can split the ascender groups to surprise the enemies Matt, Liz and Zack together and Allie and Aster together. Just to mess with the enemies. :-)
James Faulkner
Wait is a rank 25 realm? Also could we see some cross-realm shenanigans? Or maybe people from higher realms coming to try to nab Matt when his talent goes public?
Patrick Brennan
Aster can act like a 3 year old and 300 year old all at the same time
Havokk
"its being recorded now. Like this week so hopefully it will be out before the end of the month." best news of the day
Havokk
Aster is so unbelievably adorable and badass at the same time. Im torn between what the best spirit animal would be .. Aster or Godzilla
RedeyeA
Aster mentioned some T25 lower realms, but I think it was stated earlier that there are no realms that feed in to the current realm. Also, I am wondering when someone will tell Aster that comet is a much better name than space ice.
Anime Problem
I can see Aster' bloodline being a semi inverse of the Phoenix one where Phoenixes are the fire of life she would be the cold of death Death does not seek you for all eventually find their way to deaths embrace.
Tener
Thanks for the summary ☺️ I guess this is unusual, so I actually wondered what are typical strategies and constraints for this. Bloodlines mechanics got relatively little screen time throughout the series, considering they were "secret" and had hidden aspects even from bonds before T15 (if memory serves me well).
Jana
Aster just evolved her mana aspect and people are like: Ohh let me scan your body! Can I make a scarf out of you? Blood sample please?! And worst of all Aster herself plans something considered suicidal right after… - yeah these guys deserve each other. Love the Friendship:-)
C_Mantis
Shes chosing not to go to rank 2 so she can have a more unique breakthrough from rank 1 space ice to rank 2. In blaze a new trail rather than moving to rank 2 and then side stepping.
C_Mantis
its being recorded now. Like this week so hopefully it will be out before the end of the month.
Tener
I don't think I remember the details of Rank 1 bloodline talents or whatever that is. Why is Aster still Rank 1 and not higher? What is the general story here?
S T
Thanks for the chapter. Do you have any updates on the next audiobook?
Aaron Hardin
This will mess up badly the planned actions of the Ascender kill squad being created. The weakness seeking talent from that one elite is the basis of their plans, and the significant change to Aster also changes what her weakness are. She also has new strengths added to her old ones, so the plan is both messed up in targeting weaknesses that no longer exist, and being build around avoiding strengths while missing some new strengths that exist (like needing to protect from illusions now on top of everything else). When a ton of firepower needs to be concentrated to bypass Matt's defense, unexpectedly hitting an ally by mistake because the aurora fox's illusions utterly destroy their strategy, and if enough of the higher tier elites are taken out in that ambush, there may not be enough elites to attempt doing so again.
Anton Selling
Thanks for the chapter
mitchell kaiser
Excited to see Aster in action again, thanks for the chapter.
Coorsbie
Thanks for the chapter.
Bunny Waffles
Space Ice Fox!
Kasamuri
Thanks for the Chapter
Will Saye
thanks for the chapter!
