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Chapter 285
🕑 Added 2023-11-13 19:58:00 +0000 UTCChapter 285
After their first mission, the three of them rejoined the others in Drifter's ship just to be greeted by Shadow in full combat kit holding children’s party paraphernalia.
Matt rolled his eyes at the antics and instead looked to General Darrow, who nodded at them. “Wonderful first showing. Now, Drifter, if you would?”
“Punching it!'' The pilot called back, and they felt the ship shift underneath them as they re-entered chaotic space, though this time staying more on the actual path, than cutting through unchartable territory.
It had been decided to merge their first outing with a group outing to increase the impact of the Empire's newest set of Ascenders. To that end, they were now slipping behind enemy lines and going supply raiding, planning to attack targets of opportunity in the Tier 25 to Tier 27 range.
Shadow walked over and bumped Aster's hip as asked, “So how was it? First real engagement?”
Aster shrugged. “It wasn’t exactly a hard engagement, that's for sure.”
Shadow rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t chosen for that by any means. It was meant to let you get your feet wet, and you did so. Our first mission was the same way. No cool terrorist masterminds for you guys to go after as a follow up, though. So sorry.”
Matt turned to Shadow and pulled on that thread. “Do you know what Maven is up to? We were on Ventillyria when the attack happened. We would like to sit down and talk with Maven about her involvement.”
Shadow whistled as she rocked back on her heels. “I knew that but had forgotten. Been a few hundred years subjective for me. Sorry about that.”
Light stepped forward and spoke up for his teammate, who currently had a foot in her mouth. “To answer the question, we do not know what she is up to. We have only encountered each other one time after our hunting of her.”
General Darrow spoke from his seat, where he watched the scanner reports on the large table hologram. “We very well might engage them once more, but both sides are playing chicken, and if we start openly hunting them, the other team will start running around trying to waste our time. We wish to keep Ascender Shadow’s capabilities hidden, so we simply ignore them as we deal with more vital missions.” He stopped speaking for long enough that Matt thought he was done when he added, “If this war follows the usual patterns, the various elites will start to gather at important battlefields around core worlds once one side either feels they can secure an important location or decide to escalate. Before that, we will just circle around each other without deliberate engagements.”
Liz caught the key word and asked. “Deliberate? So that means if we encounter them, we will fight?”
General Darrow’s third eye flicked to Liz and scanned her while his true eyes kept watching the screen.
“Ascender Torch, please do not interpret us doing our own missions as avoiding the enemy. The Tier 25 bracket is one of the largest in the war, but we are in no way battle-shy. If there is an opportunity to take down enemy elites, we will do so, and we will do so with extreme prejudice.”
Shadow caught her now thousands of blades and they returned to two blades that she stabbed into nothing. “Fuck yeah we will!”
General Darrow sighed. “Ascender Shadow, if you would please take your antics into another room, I would be grateful, as we are at yellow alert. I will remain here and watch the scanner and inform you if we see a target we want to hit.”
All of them took that cue and walked into the small spartan mess hall that doubled as a lounge room in the ship.
Drifter must have still been actively piloting the ship, as she wasn’t there, but the rest of Team Zero was.
Torment bellowed at them as they entered the room, “Welcome back!”
Happiness pushed clapping hands out of his cheek, but they didn’t breach his skin, which meant Torment had his emotions under control.
Stick and Stone, Dena and Eric, waved from where they were sitting together next to Bulwark meditating mid-air while he faintly glowed. Matt headed over to where Origami was playing with a book sized formation plate near Torment.
Light and Shadow joined them as they sat down, and the two older Ascenders continued their explanation.
“So Maven?”
Light nodded even as Torment’s face twisted as Rage and Detest started tearing through his skin for a moment, before his face went blank long enough for him to wrest control over his emotions.
Despite all that, Torment still managed to speak first. “Vile woman. May she rue the day we teleport in behind her.”
Shadow nodded. “Yeah. Sadly, it doesn't seem like that will be today. Normal mop up duties for us.”
Liz leaned forward as she asked, “So you do this kind of hunting behind enemy lines often?”
Origami sighed. “Sadly.”
Matt was confused by the reaction but was doubly surprised when Shadow sighed in unison with the combat crafter.
Light explained with his deadpan expression, which stood in stark contrast to Torment. “We can usually hit two or three ships before the Great Power we are targeting diverts all traffic around us. Thus far, we have been unable to provoke a larger reaction.”
Torment looked like he was ready to chew through a bulkhead as he said, “I still think we should go on the offensive. We are already behind enemy lines. Let us cripple a few fortress worlds. That will force them to engage with us and pull Tier 25 reinforcements from the frontlines. They shall then learn why our enemies tremble before us!”
Allie pounded the table. “Yeah!” She then deflated. “Sadly I already asked. Darrow said not yet. But hey, that wasn’t the usual no I get it when I ask.”
Torment nodded, but Origami tapped Matt on the arm. “What do you make of this?”
Matt took the device, roughly the size and shape of a slice of pizza, and started studying it. A moment later, he flinched as his senses properly took in the crafter’s handiwork. It was an incredibly dense piece of folded space, metal, ivory, and crystal. Tracing it all out, and following some of the lines, it looked like it would expand into a formation plate roughly two hundred feet in diameter.
Even at Tier 25, that was huge for a personal formation. Without dedicated infrastructure, very few people could power something of that size.
He just happened to be one of those people.
There also just weren’t that many formations which needed to be that big, and that made him curious. Lots of the device’s structure went over his head, as Origami had centuries more experience than he did, and a Talent enhancing her knowledge of the technology. But her work was refreshingly clean and straightforward, giving him a fairly good idea as to what it was doing, even if not the how.
“Is this a flying platform?” he asked, a little confused.
Origami nodded smugly. “It is indeed! When I learned just uh… how massive your mana generation was, I figured I wanted to stretch my crafting ability to try and actually, you know, get some use out of it? And I make a lot of flying platforms, for all kinds of stuff, so this was a good first step.”
“But why is it so big?”
Origami threw up her hands. “To hold really big stuff, obviously! More seriously, this thing has some of the highest weight capacity out of anything I’ve ever made. It could probably lift a castle and have power to spare. You know, in theory.”
Matt turned the plate a few different ways, trying to get a good look at what all she was doing. “So... I don’t think this’ll work. Looks like you’re using Fet’atal linking runes for the primary motive drive, and I know they’re the stereotypical ‘high mana’ runes, rated for use up to Tier 28, all that, but they can’t actually handle a throughput that high. The pair-links spontaneously redirect after just a few minutes once you have more than about fifty thousand channeled per second. Well, that’s at least with Tier 15 materials.
“You could probably squeeze some more performance at Tier 25, but that’s offset in part by the Energetic Aptitude Theorem. Maybe you could get a differential of one million with a single linkage? If you want to be able to actually handle a hundred million in the system, you’ll either want at least a dozen full sets of Fet’atal or a major throttle limiter capping the upper limit to something the system can handle. Or you could use Chalk Master’s conducting array, that scales up really well. Though, most resources assume you won’t go above a sextuple-degree array, and you’d need at least an octuple for this. That should work well with your style, though. You might be able to rig it in such a way that the array will only activate to the needed extent, and stay dormant otherwise.”
Origami looked like she wanted to say he was wrong, but instead, she flipped open a massive toolbelt filled with replacement parts, grabbed a couple of force and air-based pieces and a blank ceramic connecting rod. A few hours later, she had a bit of makeshift flight rod, with the same Fet-atal rune structure, scaled down accordingly.
It wasn’t a perfect job, nor a perfect analogy for the full-scale model, but it would work. Matt grabbed it, and carefully used his Concept to feed mana into the enchantment directly. While it worked initially, after about fifteen minutes the mana went wild, lashing out randomly and trying to spontaneously alter or form other similar runes to instead channel mana to them.
Matt quickly cut off his mana before it could progress any further, handing the contraption back to Origami.
The woman narrowed her eyes at Matt, and he generated a mana crystal for her to study. “I think my endless sub-aspect exacerbates the issue, but it happens even when I use different elements. I didn’t go too in-depth as to why they didn’t work at the time, I’ll admit. Path and all that. I just confirmed that they didn’t and moved onto other linking runes.”
“Lemme see that!” The blond woman grabbed the crystal, and her eyes began glowing as she peered at it, pulling out other devices from a surprisingly in-depth tool belt as she studied his crystal.
For the next three hours the two of them— though mostly Origami— worked on trying to figure out why the Fet’atal linking runes weren’t working properly. As it turned out, he had been wrong when he said the Fet’atal runes were worse. Their standard configuration didn’t hold up well, but apparently post Tier 15— the last time he used them— it was far more robust, and with the proper backing they could absolutely stay adequately focused on their pair, instead of going haywire.
He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was.
Their discoveries still meant the formation plate Origami had made needed to be scrapped. At the level of complexity required in Tier 25 enchanting, it was nearly impossible to make changes to a ‘complete’ device without a Talent or Domain to keep tinkering. Origami’s Intent actually did allow for that, but with the Fet’atal runic structure being so core to the entire design, she was better off breaking it down for parts and rebuilding it, than trying to modify what she already had.
Origami was pleased by the end of it, “Well, that was productive. Once we get back to Lightfoot I’ll have to give it another go. I’ve worked on some multimillion projects before, but they’ve always been group efforts. A solo project is absolutely amazing. Great for my Domain, though. It hasn’t felt this healthy in millennia. Maybe next time, I’ll make a fully portable fort.”
Shadow had appeared at some point, and Matt mirrored Origami as he tensed in surprise once he recognized her presence, narrowly avoiding [Mana Beam]ing her. As it stood, she was looking at the basic plans. “Can it include the most overpowered deflector ever? I want to watch the faces of a ship as their own shot comes back at them. Can you make it do that?”
Origami replied tersely, “Uh, uh. Also Allie, please don’t do that. Wrecks my thoughts something fierce. And no, for…. Actually. This could probably run an absolute defense as a base? Normally it’s prohibitively expensive, but that’s not really an issue, is it? If we used an Acils-core Invulnerability structure and —”
Shadow waved her off. “I don't care about the nerd shit. Can you do it?”
Origami rolled her eyes. “Maybe. Probably. Sure. But it’s not like a single ship attack, when reflected, would cripple its originator. Ships tend to fight other ships, they have armor and shields.”
Shadow apparently disagreed and insisted that the looks on the crew's faces would be worth the effort.
As the two started bickering, Matt returned to the main lounge area, running into a discussion Zack was having, predominantly with Aster, about bloodlines and elements. Out of curiosity, he settled down into one of the seats, trying to catch the thread of the conversation.
“Which is why I originally wanted to go with space ice. Of course, then I grew up a little and realized that nothing can use Void as a component, but I still wanna figure out something that’ll give me real bite, you know? And with my advisors telling me that I really can dream big, it’s come back up again.”
Light pursed his lips as he thought that over. “Well, while I applaud your creativity, I must concur that ice, winter, illusion, space, and void will not make a stable combination, not by any means. Even putting aside the sheer magnitude of discovering a wholly new level five mana type, when we’re still working on a level three, even assuming we do manage that… How would you get the resources? My understanding is that to evolve your bloodline you’d need at minimum a natural treasure at or above your Tier, which is unlikely, to put it lightly.”
Aster pointed at Matt. “He can just make me rifts of the associated mana types once we get something stable.”
Light shook his head before stopping himself. “The odds of successfully getting an aspected rift to Tier 25 would be astronomic—” Letting out a small breath, Light continued, “I suppose the associated costs really wouldn’t matter. I apologize for my oversight, it seems it will take me a little more time before I can truly adjust my thinking. With that in mind, I would be happy to assist you two with advancing your bloodlines in the desired directions. I’m quite jealous of your bloodlines actually. For a little essence allocation, you get fairly unique features and an entirely new form. I would love to have access to that.”
Aster nodded sagely. “Being a fox is great.”
Matt rolled his eyes and elbowed his bond.
Aster responded, but Matt was more occupied looking at his wife. She was nominally part of the discussion, but was mainly sitting quietly. Anyone else other than maybe Aster would think she was fully engaged, but he could tell her heart wasn’t in on it.
‘Hey’, he subtly messaged her, ‘You okay?’
Her hand flinched slightly. He’d broken her out of some deep contemplation, it seemed.
‘Mostly,’ she shot back.
Matt held back a sigh. ‘It’s about The Book, isn’t it?’
Liz scooted closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. ‘No, it’s definitely not about the book all about phoenixes who changed their bloodlines to ice or water or wood or whatever, and how they did it. It’s something completely unrelated to this discussion about evolving bloodlines that’s going on all around me.’
‘…Sorry, you didn’t deserve that,’ she quickly followed up.
‘Hey, it’s okay. I get it. You know I’m going to support you no matter what you choose, right? It’s not like I love you just because you’re a phoenix, or because you’ve got a fire bloodline, and I certainly don’t care if either of those change.’
‘Yeah. That’s not the problem.’
Matt absently stroked his wife’s shoulder. ‘I know. You don’t want to feel like you’re cutting yourself off from your family. But your mom wouldn’t have given you the Book if that was going to be a concern.’
‘My parents are too nice for their own good. I don’t know if it would actually break mom’s heart if I completely gave up on fire, and went full blood phoenix, because she’s just too supportive in everything.’
‘It’s definitely not an act,’ Matt reassured her. ‘Your parents aren’t that petty.’
‘Is it really pettiness though?’ Liz quickly replied, ‘I’d be rejecting what my mom gave me in about as literal of a sense as possible. She gave me the fire in my blood, she became a phoenix through her own efforts, and now I’m just throwing away all of that, because what? It’s more convenient?’
‘Of course not, you’re taking what she gave you and making it your own. She’d be thrilled that you can use your bloodline to its fullest potential for yourself. That you can take whatever you have from them, and still use it as a connection to them, even if you move past it.’ A part of Matt wanted to bring up his history with his own parents, and the soul-searching that he’d undergone when he decided to actually, truly change his last name when marrying Liz… but it wouldn’t help. She was probably already thinking about it, and mentioning it would only serve to sour her mood even more.
‘….Maybe. But it still feels like abandoning them.’ Liz’s face may have been deadpan but he could still hear the whining in her message.
‘Liz…’
‘I made it this far, okay! And when I was Torch, I felt closer to my family than any time since my awakening. But now, sure I still have all of that prowess and experience, but it was hard enough being Torch by the end of the Path and I just can’t afford that luxury now. Especially with every eye in the Realm on me. I’m stuck, using blood every time it matters for the rest of my life, and that’s not really a problem, because blood is great as well, but I don’t want to give up my last true connection to fire, the only thing that even made it halfway possible for me to ever pretend to be Torch. It’s like I’m betraying myself as much as anything, no matter what I do. That if I keep being a fire phoenix, then it’s like I’m betraying myself by not being the best me I can be. If I become a blood phoenix, it’s like I’m betraying myself by sacrificing my past for scraps of power that I don’t need.’
‘What about bloodfire? Keep both parts of your heritage, combine them even, and become something greater than either your Talent or your parents. They don’t want you to suffer, and neither do I.’
‘…’
‘Come on, I know you’ve thought about it. And this is literally the perfect time to bring it up. What happened to it being alchemically complete for life, and all that? Isn’t that a good basis for an element?’
Matt sent a penetrating look his wife’s way when she didn’t respond after a few moments.
‘It’s not… it’s not that easy.’
“And why can’t it be?” he broke them out of their AI messages with a murmur, earning a curious glance from Aster. He shook his head slightly, then spoke up. “Hey Zack,” he started.
‘Noooo. Don’t you dare.’
“Yes, Qu-Matt?”
“As our resident expert on mana aspects, what do you think about merging blood and fire? Liz is too shy to ask herself,” he cheerfully added, earning himself a jab in the side that only made him smile wider.
“Blood and fire? I don’t have many insights, I’m afraid. I’ve only utilized blood a couple of times, for a bit of supplemental healer’s training with Kudzu, so the only things I know would be the things you’re familiar with.”
Matt raised a question. “Failure to merge in every attempt?”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Despite many attempts to form a Sacrifice element over the years, the two simply refuse to cooperate.”
Matt wiggled his hand. “Well, what about not trying to make it into Sacrifice, but into something more Life-oriented? I’ve heard that, what is it, standard alchemical stagings, combining blood and fire can be alchemized through some voodoo-?”
Liz cut him off with a glare, “I know what you’re doing.”
“And yet it seems to be working,” he cheerfully replied.
“Could you finish what you were saying?” Zack prompted him.
Matt mimed shutting up, and after a few moments of a curious Zack stare, Liz relented. “Blood and fire. They’re alchemically complete for life… almost. Any creatures I make trying to use both of those elements tend to not last long, and I haven’t gotten any to actually reproduce without the direct aid of my Intent.”
After pondering for a moment, Zack asked, “Hmm. What of including Life directly?”
“Overpowers it, same as most other formulas for life,” Liz shook her head.
“Ah, that does make sense. I’m not familiar with life-creation, but I have found that including elemental Life in just about anything has a very… aggressive effect. I can see why that would be detrimental to forming a distinct type of life.”
“Yeah, and the fire always gets shoved way to the back, and I definitely don’t want to bring in bone to just make elemental body, I want elemental bloodfire. I tried crystal, and that didn’t go badly, but it didn’t go well either.”
“Yes, crystal is good for magnification and reflection, but what of…”
The four of them chatted for several days until a beep went through their collective AI.
General Darrow had found them a target.
It was a supply convoy like he had hoped, but the target was a rich one. It was a supply cruiser which, if it was making its usual run, was going to resupply a Tier 26 battlefield with equipment.
The central ship was truly massive. Close to five miles long and three across, it floated like a balloon in chaotic space, being pushed around in small random jitters.
If it was alone, it would be an easy target, but supply ships never neared the borders undefended for good reason.
Four smaller, sleeker ships kept position around the cargo ship and bristled with cannon ports.
Drifters' laughter echoed through their com-chanel. “Quill? Let's hit 'em with the one-two special.”
Matt flooded his mana into the arm-thick mana conduit that Drifter had exposed before they embarked on the mission.
Through his connection to the ship, Matt felt the massive rechargeable mana batteries drain as they fired the large mana cannons repeatedly.
From full mana to half, then back to full, Drifter hit the escort ships and flared their shields.
Shadow took that as their cue, and the twelve of them were teleported out of the ship.
Darrow immediately highlighted the ships who were firing at their group and ordered. “Ascender Quill takes them out one by one. If they disgorge their companies, don't fire on empty ships.”
Torment laughed and explained, “Mostly intact ships make for fantastic merits.”
The enemies weren’t so nice, and their mana cannons started firing, but Light stood forward, and the blasts of mana turned from imposing projectiles to mere illusions.
Around him, a massive array of plates unfolded as Origami prepared her stabilization array. As soon as the worst of Chaotic Space’s influence was blunted, Matt took his position at the center of the massive set of interlocking rings, connecting with the enchantment and using it to lock himself and his mana in place.
A whirring built up around him as Matt withdrew a set of mana crystals, filling up his mana pool to the point he could actually sustain the full five million mana he was preparing to throw into [Breach].
Power swirled around him, and Matt wrestled the mana to behave. Normally, this kind of working would be a lost cause in Chaotic Space. The laws of magic changed too quickly, too violently for him to keep up with it at this scale. But the stabilization array, based on some of his own designs and made real by Origami and Firmament, kept it in check.
Ethereal whisps of blue materialized from the ether, bending Chaotic Space around him as he passed the twenty million mana mark. Even though he wasn’t the highest-Tier individual on the battlefield, even if each of the ships had more mana available to them than he did, it was he who was the center of this battle.
Fifty million. The pressure was palpable now, and questing ‘roots’ of blue spread out from the growing sphere of energy cupped between his hands. Where they passed, Chaotic Space bent, interlocking veins of white and black pushing and pulling unpredictably. Giving and consuming, not balanced in the slightest yet held in equilibrium.
One hundred million. Even in realspace, wrangling this much mana was a tall order for Matt. He desperately fought the mana, keeping it in one place as it tried to spontaneously change aspects, teleport in every direction, detonate in his face, collapse into a temporary black hole, or a thousand other issues. At least in Chaotic Space, it was completely incapable of becoming a rift, that was always an annoying one to fight.
Two hundred million. Origami’s formation was fully operational now, and the rings were spinning faster and faster, helping Matt keep his spell on track and preventing Chaotic Space from getting any fancy ideas about suddenly mimicking the nature of a siege-class spell, something that he wasn’t sure they’d survive. At minimum, it would certainly disrupt the protective enchantments that enabled them to actually put their full attention towards the fight, instead of simply surviving. At worst, it might overwhelm the enchantments entirely, transforming them all into nothing but fuel for the spell itself.
Three hundred million. It was taking forever for this spell to charge, well in excess of ten, maybe even twenty seconds, he couldn’t check. He kept pouring in mana as fast as he could, but whether the limit was [Breach]’s own charge-rate limiters or his own ability to keep his spell in control fluctuated constantly. Without his teammates, without a target as large as a ship, this would never be even remotely viable.
Yet here he was.
Four hundred million. Origami’s formation began to slowly shift from simply supporting Matt in his casting towards aiding his aim. The rings began to slow and re-orient, focusing ring after ring on Matt’s target. They fed information and stability to Matt, his AI, and his spell alike as space began to turn blue.
Five hundred million. The spell stabilized in Matt’s hands, a pulsing mass of raw power, a wild and barely-tamed skill that nonetheless obeyed him, bent reality to his whim. The last of the rings had settled into place, and Shadow had temporarily disabled the engines of the ship he was targeting.
Matt unleashed his spell.
[Breach] shot off into the swirling void, pulling along the corrosive reality and leaving the impression of stars and galaxies in its wake. The mirage of a universe, created and washed away in the presence of Matt’s all-consuming spell. It was almost beautiful.
Then it struck.
The ship's shields flared, but it made no difference. The [Breach] projectile with five hundred million mana crushed the invisible shield without even slowing. It was like an egg being thrown into a wall.
There was no resistance, just destruction.
The ship itself didn’t fare better. The [Breach] projectile went straight through the ship and kept flying off deep into chaotic space as the corrosive energies ate at the spell, slowly destabilizing it.
Matt blinked as the battlefield froze for an instant.
The Federation ships stopped firing, and Team Zero all paused as they inspected Matt with their spiritual senses.
That pause only lasted an instant.
The Federation escort ships started disgorging their personnel in streams as they rushed to not be such a large target.
Matt didn’t even bother getting ready for another [Breach].
The spell took too long to cast, and if he lowered the mana cost, he would still need to take a few seconds to cast it. Seconds he could do other things with.
Like cast [Gravitic Bolt] with [Barrage] to triple the projectiles.
Matt hardly bothered to aim.
He didn’t need to, as Light was taking control of the spells and guiding the hyper-fast projectiles to target the soldiers who stood out to him.
Origami floated to the side as she tossed out a small cube that expanded into an entire fortress that she, Morgan, Torment, General Darrow, Light, and Aster manned.
Morgan waved her hand and a dozen, then dozens, of physical spell constructs appeared and floated forward to land on the walls of the portable fortress, where they started firing at any Federation soldier who neared them. Origami threw out more constructs, which merged with Morgan's spell constructs and buffed them. The chattering of their attacks sped up to a whir.
Morgan didn’t just rely on her constructs, she pulled out a massive crossbow and started firing on the targets that General Darrow highlighted.
She didn’t kill someone every time she fired. She usually killed two or more, her shots tearing through the Federation troops.
Aster had already used her tiara to create a [Dispelling Wind] elemental which raced forward and into groups of enemies, utterly wrecking any attempts to get established, even as she brought up [Tailwind], [Headwind], [Cross Wind], [Absolute White], [Meadows of Rime], and spell after spell to hinder their enemies and help them.
Behind her, Torment roared, unleashing his emotions with deadly intent. Despite looking like something out of a horror movie, the demons clawing out of his body radiated an aura of killing intent identical to their master. He was no slave to his emotions, they existed only to serve him.
Rage was the first out, as claws burst out from inside a massive, horned beast twice as tall as Matt was, with red skin just a few shades darker than Torment’s own. Fire erupted from its back like great wings, coalescing into a deadly sword and whip combo.
Shortly behind it, Obsession slithered its way out as a half-serpent, half-woman beast with at least six arms, pushing the summoner’s mouth open too wide for it to climb out, just like a snake shedding its skin. It instantly fixed its gaze upon a nearby soldier and set upon its unfortunate victim with a triumphant hiss.
Torment sagged as his two demons entered the fray, but other than a malicious smile creeping across his face as he stared hungrily at the Federation army, he was fully composed. He cast spells empowering his summons, conjuring more mundane beasts to aid their fight and directing his main representatives.
Matt cast [Meteor Shower] and dedicated enough mana to ensure that it would continue to give Light projectiles for a good long while.
With that done, he flew forward to join the melee.
Despite their ambush, the fight wasn’t one-sided.
The Federation had their own elite troops, and while this company wasn’t their best, they were good. Good enough to keep themselves from getting instantly overwhelmed.
Drifter was at least having more success; she had already flown around to the rear of the transport ship, taking out its engines, and was moving into position to give them covering fire with the ship's smaller cannons.
Matt joined Liz, where five of her attacked an equal number of Federation soldiers next to Stick, Stone, and Bulwark.
As Matt entered their range, he found himself buffed by both spell and Domain. He cast [Bulwark] to block an incoming spell, prompting a laugh from Bulwark himself beside him. “Always good to see my namesake in use. I love the spell.”
It took real dedication to name yourself after a single skill, but Bulwark clearly had that commitment. A golden shield hovered around him, usually near the wrist like a real shield would, but also swooping around on its own to block incoming attacks. Matt had no doubt that the man had upgraded the skill, enabling it to be empowered by other shield skills, but likely had gear dedicated to enhancing [Bulwark] specifically, among many other things.
Matt darted forward into the middle of two Tier 26 lieutenants, and with the full strength of [Telekinesis] empowering his sword, struck.
The first man blocked the blow but his blade was snapped in half in the effort. The second was too slow and lost an arm.
A lance of ice took him in the head and ended his life, allowing Matt to turn his attention to the remaining man.
Before he could finish him, Liz’s spear took him in the gut and he exploded in a spray of blood.
Shadow appeared behind another Federation soldier who was giving orders, a captain if Matt translated the rank correctly. She almost blended in with the swirling not-colors of chaotic space with her cloak, Gerald, both shielding her from the dangerous energy that was chaotic space and making her almost invisible. The only things that were visible were her daggers, which looked far too utilitarian for someone with her personality.
They fit, though, and even as she decapitated the man, her body blurred as she teleported parts of herself out of the way of a half dozen attacks.
Twisting, she kicked the head at her attacks even as she called out, “So what are you three thinking of for your new Ascender titles? Quill, Torch, and Scoop just dont work post unmasking.”
Bulwark laughed, “That's easy! They love their crystals. Call them Ruby, Diamond, and Sapphire. It fits their styles and their armor.”
Shadow bobbed her head as she thought over the offer, the movements also dodging an attack that almost took her in the head. “I like Ruby and Sapphire. They fit really well, but Diamond? It feels too basic.”
Stick wrapped three Federation lieutenants in a cloth wrapping and squeezed them until they popped as she offered, “What about Onyx? It fits when he goes all black hole-ey.”
Liz shook her head even as she fought off two Federation captains alongside Obsession, the snake-woman wielding severed heads like flails. “We thought about Ruby and Sapphire. But they didn’t work that well, especially before Matt got his Tier 25 talent. Now, we could revisit them for Aster and myself, but Diamond is too close to ‘E Diamond’ for what we want, and Matt’s hyper-concentration mode is too Willpower intensive to be reflected in his name.”
“Ah come on,” Shadow protested. “Victor E Diamond was like... the ninth Empire Ascender, it’s been long enough you can do something similar. And I’m sure Quill will go all black eventually. It’s just basic forethought!” Matt reached out and grabbed a blade that almost took Stone in the leg with his left hand and crushed the metal under his grip. Anger tore the man into ribbons, and Matt ducked and thrust his blade upward to take a man in the groin who was trying to come in at him from above.
Spinning, he cast a short burst of [Dragonflame].
Chaotic space itself was tinted red for a moment as the wave of aspected mana distorted the surroundings.
They quickly returned to their normal mix of purplishish non-colors, and Matt used the opening to throw himself into the middle of two colonels.
He blocked one of the blades and focused [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s outer layer to better deflect a crossbow bolt the second man fired.
Stone brought his staff down on a Federation soldier's head, popping it as he shouted, “What about Endless, Immortal, and Eternal? None of them have been taken before, and they have a nice ring as a trio.”
Shadow popped back in long enough for three people to stop moving as their heads and bodies separated from each other, the chaotic space already eating away at their now undefended bodies. “I don’t know... It's good, but it feels like Torch should have an E name as well there. Also, how is Aster Eternal? Isn’t her Concept about the end of things?”
Matt grunted as the two colonels fell. “And now you know why we haven’t figured this out on our own before! It's damn hard.”
Flying upward, he started casting [Mana Beam] as he felt one of the ships start to charge its cannons.
Shadow cursed before she vanished, “Mother fuckers! I thought I killed everyone in there.”
Matt’s shot destroyed the charging cannon, and he turned his mana beam towards the gathered troops, cutting through anyone who got in his way. He stopped after fifteen seconds and let everything but [Cracked Phantom Armor] drop as he drained a few small mana stones from his ring for good measure.
It was basically impossible for anyone to tell how much mana he’d pulled from his personal stones, making it the perfect cover. It didn’t matter if nobody would see the deception now, what mattered was the habits and patterns that would emerge from him consistently pretending he needed mana stone mana to pull off his intense stunts.
Thus ‘recharged’, he entered the battle.
Chess had come up with the idea based on his original false Talent for Quill. They needed to be able to explain Matt’s mana expenditures, and so they pretended that for every five hundred billion mana he spent, he needed to recharge. In total, they were pretending his initial Talents revolved around wastelessly absorbing mana stones, the mirror to him being able to now create mana stones. Officially, they were acting as though they were pretending to give him Tier 35 mana stones, but they were ‘actually’ having him fill up on much, much lower-tier mana stones, then convert those into his own personal stones. Or something like that. He was just glad he could use his full capabilities, even if the level of espionage they were working to counteract made his head spin.
Aster had found it endlessly amusing to trick people with something that was essentially the exact opposite of his real Talent.
With that taken care of, Matt threw his idea into the pot. “It's similar, but I was thinking Life, Death, Eternity.”
One of Liz grunted as she tore a woman in half with her bare hands. “And I still like Never, Again, and Forever. It's far better for marketing.”
Matt rolled his eyes as he threw out an answer that had gotten him glared at last time. “What about Princess, Knight, and General?”
Bulwark laughed and caught a glob of blood to the face for his troubles.
Shadow teleported back just in time, as the ship Matt had disabled the mana cannon on exploded. “Some fucker in there wouldn’t die so I teleported him into the mana crystal engine. That got him. Also, I agree with the last one. Princess, Knight, and General has a nice symmetry.”
Liz ripped her spear out of a colonel. “There is no way I’m being called Princess in any kind of serious fashion.”
“No, Scoop would be Princess. She’s the one wearing the crown. Therefore she’s the Princess. You’re just… generally around, so you’re the General.” Shadow confidently replied.
“Aren’t you ‘generally around?’ By that logic, you should be General and Light should be Specific.”
Shadow opened her mouth to respond, but vanished in a cloud of purple smoke before she actually said anything.
Stone gave a decent suggestion, “Hero, Squad, and Army? That kinda fits as well.”
Liz mused that over, but Matt disagreed. “Hero is just too pretentious. Even for me, it's too much.”
Shadow reappeared with a pop of red lightning. “Princess, Hero, and Legion.”
Matt tossed a dismembered arm at her. “That didn’t fix the problem.”
Bulwark blocked a spell and healed the small wound that Rage had been dealt. “I think I like Never, Again, and Forever. It seems classic.”
Matt shook his head. “Sure, it sounds great as a trio, but the words are too vague. Think about trying to talk to someone who goes by ‘Never, Again, or Forever’ it would be endless confusion.”
By the time the last of the troopers fell, they did not have an answer, and General Darrow was glaring lightly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned his attention to the supply ship and messaged them. “Supply ship of the Federation. This is your opportunity to surrender. I—”
He was going to say more, but the moment he mentioned the word surrender, the ship transmitted its unconditional surrender.
Shadow sighed. “Man, they take all the fun out of it. I was getting ready to teleport their engine out if they decided to blow the whole thing or something heroic. Do you know how fucking cool that would look in a movie?”
Comments
Daniel Hogan
Endless - Matt Eternal - Li Eclipse/Expanse/Empress - Aster?
Juli Freixi
Thanks lot for the chapter!!
It does not do you any favours to make paragraphs about random jargon terms that we have no idea what they mean. Make explanations consistent with information we have or information we will get later.
Ties
Matt - Eternal = eternal on the battlefield Liz - Endless = there is an endless amount of her Aster - Enthropy = it's what shes going for with her domain
Eidetic Eidolon
What was Aiden's name when he was wearing a mask, before he got outed by that one guy? Also, the names don't need to fit. And Light & Shadow do not fit them at all. It fit Shadow when she was on the Path and pretending to have arbitrary limits, but even then, it never fit Light. And it doesn't need to fit. It's a name, not a descriptor. Torch and Quill are beyond descriptors now. When I think about Quill, I don't think about a guy whose identity must revolve around talismans. I just think of it as Matt's Ascender name. If in thousands of years, people think why is Matthew Alexander's Ascender name Quill...and are then forced to search it up on their AI, so what? Weird names with interesting back stories are the best. I don't remember if Lila Worldwalker had an Ascender name that was different, but I do remember that it wasn't Sand-Spitter or Sand-Swimmer. Worldwalker doesn't exactly describe her power set, and no-one cares. On another note, Waters or Duke Waters is a lame ass name. But it's not because Duke Waters is a badass.
Phil
I mean Aiden wasn't known as Duke Waters until he became an Ascender and duke with mastery over water. Light and Shadow kept their names because even after revealing their full capabilities the names still fit. For Liz and Matt, Torch and Quill don't really fit anymore. Maybe something like Bloody Torch and Boundless Quill would be more fitting? I could see those modified monikers sticking and also matching their new image.
Eidetic Eidolon
I get that Scoop isn't the best name, and if she wants to change it, she should. Quill & Torch are already great and shouldn't be changed. They have history, plus everyone already knows them as Quill & Torch. A world-famous person just up and changing their widely recognized mononym just doesn't work. Just look at "the artist formerly known as Prince." If you feel the need to change Scoop's name, then go ahead. But don't ruin the great grandiosity that already is Quill & Torch. Just the idea of thinking up snazzy names that go together is dumb. Which is why Quill & Torch were so great already. They have nothing to do with one another, but they still roll off of the tongue well together.
Jana
True but Matt just laserbeamed that ship for more than 100 times what a normal flagship cannon shoots and while it is possible to do that at T25/26 it’s so expensive that one might question the legitimacy if it happens more than just a few times.
Alex
Nobody is stopping the other great powers from giving a shitton of Manas tones to their troops. It's just ruinously expensive.
Jamie Trevino
Ascender Null (Aster) Ascender Infinite (Matt) Ascender Unity (Liz)
antitankcat
So speaking from a conceptual point of view combining Blood and Fire to make alchemically complete life would only lead to immortal creatures something Liz herself had to ascend 15 years to become, so if your making life from scratch it has to be capable of death and therefore should include elemental Death.
Jana
So, if Matt keeps pumping out Spells with 500 million mana, how long will it take till Someone accuses the Empire of punching down Tiers?
James Townsend
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolightning Found it, apparently it turned inorganic matter into organic matter
James Townsend
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere, maybe pseudoscience, but lightning is apparently how life was first created with single celled organisms. Apparently there's some sort of experiment you can do that documents it
Kelly Bryan
Thats mirrors my thoughts and I really want to see the argument it would spawn between those two loons.
wanderer117
It was a supply convoy like he had hoped, but the target was a rich one. should be It was a supply convoy like he had hoped, and the target was a rich one.
Havokk
For Liz's Blood Fire problem Im in love with the idea of lightning being the last component. With that she would be taking things from both Mara and Leon and making it her own. And I think that Leon and Mara would be over the moon at that
Acidionis
Salvation - Fire and Blood both have deep meanings into salvation and her path is set by her need to be saved from her past.... Permanance - I mean....its Matt Exalted - Fits the royalty theme Aster is following
DasGoat622
Nulla, Nihil, Nil are all Latin words for zero (according to google) Matt is zero because he is the center of all battle so like 0.0 on a grape. Aster is zero because see is seeking absolute zero from a temperature perspective. And Liz is Zero because she is the genesis of life, Blood and Fire
DasGoat622
In general combat I would suspect yes because the talisman were always meant to cover up his spells and mana regen. As was mention early I think he will shift from small talismans for is main attack to large scale attacks or specific functions like the void armor he used on that battle planet around Tier 20. Also I don’t know if his enchanting has kept up with his progress as they spent a lot of the last few tiers in Rifts where he didn’t need to hide his power. So I don’t know that his talismans are at the level of his general combat abilities.
Silver Beard
Wondering what the ship could have that would justify the expense of the mana used to take it out. Sure it's war, but overkill is a thing too.
Kelly Bryan
Its fine to think that. Except for Mara being a very fine Queen of Beasts and weve seen how she behaves. And Aster's student council time at least indicate she has sides we dont see all that often.
Aelia Aeldyne
Lycoris for Liz, after the spider lily flower (and its imagery of being both blood-red and the only flower that grows on sites of slaughter) Nidavellir for Matt (I think the imagery of a cosmic forge powered by a neutron star fits him) Harbinger for Aster (because she brings the end)
austin kutz
Ubiquity doesn't really work for blood, tbh. Is it really necessary to match the first letters?
Matt (Inexorable), Liz (Sanguine), Aster (Cryos/ Cryogenic)
Violet
His two Domain elements are both singularities. That's what a white hole and black hole are.
Haikaiko
LPT: if you see a guy firing off 500,000,000 mana [Breach]es like it ain't no thang: run. Death Pro Tip: or don't, your funeral.
Haikaiko
Brahma the Creator (Liz with her blood), Vishnu the Sustainer (Matt and his neverending mana), Shiva the Destroyer (Aster.) Bonus because Lord Shiva is normally associated in pop culture with vain beautiful women and powers over ice.
Jonathan Campbell
Sanguine, Ouroboros, and Kelvin
CringeWorthyStudios
Yeah, exactly! Or maybe Endless, Eternal (for Liz) and Entropy (for Aster)? Endless, Undying and Inevitable? I think those are the three aspects you have to play up. Matt won’t ever stop, Liz won’t die and Aster is the cold void at the end…
Lucas
Beam, flood and frost
Haikaiko
Luna stared at Matt expectedly, waiting for him to break the silence. "So I need your help." "Well, Well, Well." "I know, it's unusual for me to seek you out, but --" "No. That's my suggestion for your Ascender titles. You're a wellspring of mana, Elizabeth is a wellspring of blood, and Aster is a wellspring of cold. Well, Well, Well." "It's not too... punny?" "Child, please. It's better to pick a terrible name than be given one. I had a partner with a sprinting Talent, insisted on being called Boots." Matt raised an eyebrow, curious. "If I can tolerate being called Puss for four hundred years, you can handle a few 'your team's name is a very deep subject' jokes."
Fake Name
They could also add knight to each of those colors. Of course if they kill enough Feddie's they might start calling them the red death, the white death, and the black death or some other monstrous applilation.
Lucas
Great chapter!
Thorsten Schiller
Ubiquity, Eternity, Entropy
MikeL
I guess we will see what gift he receives form the T50 Raven.
Aaron Martinez
I'd guess everything in combat is tier subjective
MikeL
Giving Aster a Royal name lime Princess, Monarch etc would be confusing as people no doubt now know Liz is a double princess.
MikeL
Misdirection, they are trying to hid that.
Alex
Still my favorite out of all suggestions so far. Considering Matt is pretty far removed from being a stripper, it's probably gonna be fine. That said, ever since their fight with LS and them wondering about their aestetically matching armours I am calling them Team sparkles in my mind. (obviously that name doesn't strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, but it makes me happy thinking about them that way xD) Also, the only real life person I know named Crystal isn't a stripper. :) (still kinda a stripper name, she's Chinese and way too many of them pick stripper names. I worked in a day care center for a bit and I talked a few parents out of giving their kids stripper English names. Good times. :D)
Namorat
Not bad, but Crystal sounds too much like a stripper name for me.
I like the theme of a universal cycle, (Matt)Creation: representing the big bang (Liz)Propogation: the spreading of life and the universe (Aster)Destruction: the inevitable end as the energy of the universe fades
I actually liked the Endless, Immortal titles. Having Finality be Asters would be perfect. Or if you wanna have them all start with the same letter. Infinite (Matt), Immortal (Liz), Inevitable (Aster. Like Inevitable Death)
The Grey Mage
Genesis, Eternity, and End
Zachary Blevins
I am Endless I am Immortal I am Eternal
Allen
But Matt is Endless, how is that a singular?
MinE
She is the best option, mostly due that dude committing political suicide repeatedly.
MinE
I just realized Matt could hang out in higher tier rifts, make mana stones, and get Shadow to move them around the empire to multiply his mana density to insane levels.
MinE
Apparently his mana gained another subaspect, Dense, so Ascender Dense is a potential option.
Violet
Singular/Singularity, Sanguine, and Subzero
Dylan Alexander
I honestly think Aster would make a terrible monarch/queen. That beast dude had it right when he said she’d have no idea of what it truly means to be the ruler. I don’t think Ascenders in general make good rulers. They’re killing machines. They don’t have the time nor the necessary skills to rule.
Mashiara
My suggestion would be Life (Matt), Death (Aster) and Rebirth (Liz)
Allen
I like Legion as a name for Liz and Paragon sounds awesome. What about Terminus for Aster? Then we can have LPT, and get a life pro tip every chapter. 🤣
Mana monarch militia/military
Havokk
even a conversation through AI's would have registered partially on their expressions and the people on the ship are just watching and seeing they arent even paying full attention to the fight and still casually wiping everyone out
Michael Olson
Blood and fire could be phoenix? or rebirth?
CringeWorthyStudios
Endless, Immortal and Finality? Eternal doesn’t work for Aster, sure, but Finality or something similar would, and Endless and Immortal work for Liz and Matt pretty well.
Alex
My favorite so far
Alex
They would've talked through their AIs, the enemy wouldn't know it. But they did see them casually slaughter everyone, only idiots don't surrender in the face of overwhelming force.
Alex
I suppose they were still on the ship? Distance in space?. And maybe the others were distracting him? Some regular fire from drifter? It's not like they'd actually expect anybody to be able to just blow them up with a 500million mana breach. Remember, everyone was super impressed when Light handled like three million mana once.
Alex
Well, it's not like the battle was hard for them. They're definitely Ascenders alright xD there's the reason why the people they work with need to have specific personalities to deal with them.
Rhys Rathbun
I like legion for Liz. Not sure about the other two. The other one I came up with which I think is fitting because the Sophron Dynasty was styled after the Greeks was Alpha: Matt, Omega: Aster and Stigma for Liz.
Alex
"‘….Maybe. But it still feels like abandoning them.’ Liz’s face may have been deadpan but he could still hear the whining in her message." Is the maybe supposed to be blue?
Kenneth Dennis
Oh I like that
Scott
Dawn, Eternity, Entropy
John Balman
Love the banter/discussion
Obran
Matt - Velocity, Liz - Flow, Aster - Breaks
Kain
Legions also been floated for Liz and I quite like it. Could go demons Legion Liz, Belzebub for Matt over consumptions kinda fits, and then classic Satan/Lucifer for aster “prince frozen eternally in ice” = princess gonna freeze the universe
austin kutz
He is until he spends more time figuring out runes of his own tier.
Sean McClain
Drop the Star, and be Dark, Frozen, Blood but then there is no theme and adding Star doesn't really work because what is a Blood Star? So it's just adding Star to the end to force a theme.
Rhys Rathbun
For the two words: Dark Star, Frozen Star, Blood Star?
Rhys Rathbun
If liz manages to create bloodfire that becomes easily the best suggestion I've seen. Kind of mad I didn't think of it.
Abriel Blauer
We finally learned what "The Book" was. As for blood and fire, I think I remember a bird and his shinnies mentioning something about adding lightning in the mix.
Retroburn
Legion (L), Paragon (M), Monarch (A)
Tom
Crystal, Crimson and Cryo?
Kain
Hmmmm your first trios got me thinking around divine comedy themes inferno for Liz, blood and fire with demons being “borne” of both in some interpretations /imaginings. purgatory/ pergatorio for aster stasis similar to absolute 0, and Paradiso for Matt his ability is damn near the ability to make the realm itself paradise
Tom Henman
If you want simple... Black, White, Red (Scarlett or Crimson) Kind of used them before...
Ford
Chapter 285, in which Mantis recycles his "new trio name ideas" brainstorming list into a couple pages of story dialogue.
Sean
Probably will have some cool arrays saved for a rainy day but he just doesn't need them.
Thanks for the chapter!
Sean McClain
Could just do Mana, Blood, Cold and be dead simple. But if you want a theme, we'll I would say King (M), Queen (L), and Princess (A) but Queen is pseudo taken For two words: Dark Star, Blood Phoenix, Winter Ice Others: Black, Red, White Star, Sanguine, Subzero
TimeDrawsNigh
Hah! Loved the whole “so how was your day” while ripping the enemy to shreds.
edgardo rossi
Endless, immortal and eternal would be really cool. Even if eternal does not work I think endless and immortal are perfect
Tibstrike
What I'm asking is if the 30+ seconds spent generating this spell was "true time" as in what a t0 or t1 experiences or if it was Tier appropriate time as in it was "Matt experiences 30+ seconds". Either way it was a staggering amount of time in a combat situation.
Discordian23
I don't think the difference is that large between tiers otherwise fighting up a single tier would be impossible and fighting up 4 would just be suicide.
1FantasyFanatic
Eternal Empyrean Legion is bad ass. And each individual name is cool too and fits with M/A/L.
RedLeaf
Thanks for the chapter! That "new name" conversation mid-battle just felt like something Ascenders would do. Especially with Darrow's reaction to the discussion.
Jaklelope
Tyftc
Neil
His entire role in battle is to be enduring, stand there and take the attention. We jump automatically to mana because we know, but why would you assume that otherwise? They already know he has a mana generating concept, so him being able to endlessly use abilities shouldn't be a huge surprise, it's only the sheer scale that is so important to hide.
Rhys Rathbun
Genesis: Matt Terminus: Aster Purgatory: Liz Or alternativelu but not as good Endless: Matt Everlasting: Liz Entropy: Aster and finally Life: Mat Death: Aster Samsara: Liz
Tibstrike
Is the time taken to generate the mana and form his spells Matt or tier subjective or Realm objective? Did the opposing T26 flotilla sit around for subjective ages waiting to get ganked?
Matt H
I think it'll depend somewhat on the situation. In smaller fights when it's just Matt or MLA he might still use some. But this chapter demonstrated that with access to people like Origami there are more effective ways to use his throughput. I suspect that the type of talismans he uses will shift to massive, complicated arrays for spells that would take a lot of time or concentration to cast manually during a battle. But it will probably take a lot of time and resources to develop and build up a stockpile of those.
MikeL
Endless seems a weird name when they are trying to hide his endless mana. When people ask why that name what would be the reply?
Havokk
I really love the idea of merging fire and blood for Liz if she can pull that off it would definitely be a strong link between what she was ( what her mother gave her ) and what she has become. Besides it would be cool as hell to see the Liz blood clones on fire and raining flaming blood on an enemy army. Also the transport ship surrendered so quickly simply because heres team zero causally talking and debating names while slaughtering everything around them I cant blame them for "noping" right out of the fight
SwiftFate
Life, Death, Eternity/Eternal. Fits them very well, especially if Aster continues to push her focus towards extreme cold.
Tommy
I like that it was a semi-serious convo mid-battle. Rather than them bantering hard trying to be funny which can come across a bit cringeworthy sometimes imo
MikeL
Nice to see some important banter. They need new names ASAP! So far all of the names mentioned I wasn’t positive which name went with which character.
Neil
Endless, Countless, and .. Heatless? Hopeless? Timeless? Aster is hard. Or maybe cut the hard trio based names. Liz: Sanguine or Legion Aster: Empyrean/Celestial Matt: Aeon/Eternal
James Faulkner
Tftc!
Joshua Jernigan
I would imagine temporarily yes but I think he will have some once he learns some new ones to use
Dan
Is Matt done with talismans?
Miguel Canarte
thanks
Tommy
Let’s goooo!
