The Path of Ascension

Albert nodded to Juni in his private hospital room as he walked in the door.

“What's the report?”

Juni looked purposefully blank as he relayed the information. “Your highness, it's better than we feared, but worse than we hoped.”

That hardly clarified anything. Albert cursed Sara and her little stunt with the bomb. He was impressed, but still irritated by her methods.

Even with the army watcher's intervention, the explosion nearly took his head off, and he was under observation for the next day due to the concussion. They had slapped an AI restraining bracelet on him that prevented the skill from interacting with him, forcing him to get updates manually so he didn't strain his brain.

His right-hand man kept his professional demeanor as he said, “We’ve identified most of the spies in our structure. Not just the ones who moved, but the others who were complicit in their endeavors. As we predicted, they immediately moved two armies to surround and siege down two of our cities. Cities two and four. As we expected, Sara pulled most of her troops out of her teleporter city to make up the numbers. Our elites are ready to move out, and the general troops will be ramping up while the survivors try to hold the situation together. When we make our move, they will be ready.”

There was a slight pause before Juni added, “Nothing else unusual has been noted, except Alyssa was also assassinated and is recovering herself.”

Albert nodded along until the last. They had their own spies and informants in the Queendom hierarchy, and had early warning of the Queendom's attempt to take out the leadership. They were also well aware of the Queendom armies’ larger movements brewing behind the scenes.

They still didn't know why the Queendom higher-ups were pushing for a lightning-fast end to the war, but it slotted nicely into their own plans. No, Albert forced himself to be honest—

His father's plans.

It was risky, but having the Queendom on the offensive was exactly where they needed them. Them taking the Queendom’s teleporter city and cutting off their supply lines meant that they only needed to take a single, undermanned city.

If the Queendom wanted to end the war in under a standard year, they were prepared to respond in kind. It was incredibly unusual for co-opted vassal wars to host Pather wars, but not unheard of.

The Emperor wanted a place to train his youth, but he only put down a few laws regarding how that would happen. He gave out various rewards and reimbursement for resources spent, which meant the vassal wars were usually milked for years.

It was unusual, but they weren't close to the shortest Pather war, even at a year. No, that honor went to the Ascender before Duke Waters; the yellow dragon, Lila Worldwalker.

The young dragon had killed three-quarters of the enemy troops in the first two weeks, before being forced to retreat from serious wounds. That massive number advantage allowed her side to win in under a month, creating an Empire-wide shock.

A year would raise a few eyebrows, but it was nothing on that level.

Albert still wanted to know why the Queendom was pushing so hard.

He came out of his musings and realized that he’d let Juni stand there for far too long. He was engrossed in pondering the ramifications of the rapidly approaching end of the war.

Of all his people, he had thought Alyssa was a spy, with how she always seemed to be in place to take advantage of both sides' actions. While you might kill a spy to keep their cover in a situation like this, her death made no sense to him.

If Alyssa was left ‘alive,’ she could have taken control of his side's troops. If she were a spy, she could have handed them the victory with that move. He had orders for his own assassins to take care of her if she had survived.

She was a contender for one of the high level spies they hadn't been able to find and negate or remove. They left the lower level spies so they could report curated information the Kingdom mostly controlled. Their worry was spies in the highest position that they hadn't identified and Alyssa had been their number one suspect.

He nodded for Juni to continue, and the man delivered the rest of his report in short order. He quickly left once excused.

Albert's father reappeared in the chair next to him as he watched the door that Juni just left through.

“The boy always knows when I'm near. What an exceptional commoner.”

The gruff man straightened his shirt before standing. “I don't have much time left outside of my box.” He spat to the side, “Fucking army.”

Before Brice could exit the room through a spell or other means, Albert called out, “Have you figured out why the Queendom is rushing? Any word at all? And is Cori ok?”

The King paused, and the air grew heavy. Albert could see the man's thoughts as he considered punishing Albert for his impudence, but in the end, he decided to humor his son.

“Nothing from either front. They keep me in a fucking box to limit interference. The real war is going fine. Your sister is competent enough, and is fighting in a real war.” He narrowed his eyes at Albert in a not-so-subtle threat. “And she's winning. But there’s nothing I care to share with you otherwise. Focus on your own war, and don't lose me my item crafted by Madam Renaissance.”

Albert wanted to complain. He had earned his father the staff by earning enough points, but had never heard a word of praise for the act. His father only complained that it took him too long.

The King must have seen the bitterness in Albert's eyes, because he appeared at Albert’s bedside, either teleporting or moving so quickly that Albert couldn't tell the difference.

“You knowingly decided to let that bitch’s plan go off unhindered. If this little stunt of yours loses me the war...” The King’s pointer finger pressed into Albert's ribs, and he felt bones crack, but tried to keep it off his face.

Showing weakness only invited more punishment.

The King growled, “Well there is a price for disappointing me. If you do fail... I. Will. Have. Your. Head.”

With that, he was gone. Albert coughed up blood as his shattered, crystal-like skin had punched through his lungs in a few places.

The alert by the room's monitoring system brought Healers running.

Albert resolidified his hate for everything his father and everything he stood for. The man controlled his actions at every turn, then when his own plans might yield detrimental results, shifted any possible blame to Albert.

If the King wanted to set up contingencies that cost Albert his lead in points, those plans were going to be used.

As he was being healed for the second time, he wished his father would just up and leave the Kingdom already. Even if he didn't get the throne, he just wanted the man gone.

***

Matt was finally able to see his friends when the four of them were let out of their recovery rooms.

Aster threw herself into his arms with a whining yowl. It drew attention, but he didn't care, and shoved his face into her soft fur.

“They hurt me. It's not fair! I didn't take their ice cream.”

Matt paused at that and squinted his eyes at his bond, who realized that she had given up too much.

Putting her ice cream theft off for a later conversation, he pulled the now approaching Liz into the hug before Conor and Emily neared them.

After a whispered check-up with Liz, Matt hugged both of them eliciting an eye roll and light punch from Emily.

“Damn, Matt, you didn't get like this last time.”

She did return the hug, which took any possible sting out of her words.

Matt unashamedly shrugged. “I wasn't with you, and that makes it a lot worse. I probably couldn't have saved us all. I'm not arrogant enough to think that, but I couldn't do anything at all, and that sucks.”

Emily gave him another half hug before they all turned to leave. “That's fair enough. Annie is still pissed.”

Conor laughed. “Yeah, I can see the chat log. Two hundred and nineteen messages.”

Emily scoffed. “That's less than half the personal messages she sent to me.”

“At least she got away, and is on her way back. That's the important bit.” Liz had an odd tone in her voice that made Matt look at her in worry. She was only half paying attention, and from the flickering of her eyes, he assumed that she was reviewing the information from the last few hours.

He had already taken in the information one piece at a time.

Things weren’t as disastrous as the initial outlook had appeared. A decent number of individual survivors from various sources were gathering together and trying to salvage the situation.

That didn't prevent some commanders from trying to further their reach, and take overall control. It caused some chaos, and no one knew what to do while the established leadership was out of the picture.

With five days left on his healing cooldown, Matt had watched the situation carefully, but was unable to take any action directly.

In theory, he could act as the Pather liaison, but that meant little. It was a position that allowed people on a healing cooldown because they didn't have direct authority. They only had veto power to send the Pathers to battle.

And Liz could perform much better in that role anyway.

They were back in their suite when Matt started to interrogate Aster.

She denied everything, but her furtive glances towards the fridge gave Matt all the confirmation he needed. They kept ice cream on hand for the fox, but usually, the freezer was safe because she didn't have thumbs or a way to get that high up.

When he opened the door, everything looked to be in its proper place, but when he popped open one of the ice cream containers, he found it filled with ice. Not ice cream, but ice.

Aster wilted and plopped down at his glare.

“So that's why you only nibbled at your dinner?”

Through their bond, he got, “I was hungry, and it smelled too good.”

Really, Matt wasn't that upset. Honestly, he was more impressed that she had gotten into the packages, and had the foresight to fill the containers to keep their shape and weight.

He kept that off his face as he gently reprimanded the fox.

When he told her that they wouldn't be buying her more ice cream until they would have if she hadn't eaten it all, she flopped over dead and yowled.

“That’s not fair!”

“My cultivation will backslide!”

“I'll starve.”

He had to interject at that complaint. “You ate three pounds of ice cream. You won't starve.”

Matt tried to prevent a smile at her caterwauling, but froze when Aster paused and stood up with her ears and tail perked up, as her sadness turned to happiness.

“I’ll just buy my own ice cream!”

Matt opened his mouth, then shut it, finger still outstretched. He had no counter to that, but tired anyway. “You can't live off ice cream.”

“I'll get hearts. Ice cream and hearts.”

“You still need a balanced diet.” It was a weak excuse, but it gave him his second idea, “Will you not eat my cooking? No more braised rabbit.”

Aster’s tail flicked, then drooped slightly.

She turned and met his eyes with her ice blue ones that glimmered with tears. “But I like the rabbit...”

Her questioning tone seemed to long for reassurance that he wouldn't take her favorite dish away.

“Well, I won't cook it unless you can enjoy it. And if you’re full of ice cream, you can't enjoy it.”

That seemed to convince her, and she happily pranced away to the living room.

Shaking his head, Matt promised himself to never have a real kid. A little sister in fox form was bad enough. And she was rapidly aging, thanks to her Tier advancement and the effects of the Tree of Perfection.

Dealing with an actual child seemed like torture.

Annie came back late that night, and was visibly happy to see her sister ok along with the rest of the team.

Matt didn't miss the awkwardness when she hugged Conor, as Annie came out of the hug a light shade of pink, which everyone else pretended not to notice.

The next morning, Matt found Annie coming out of her room with an array of blades strapped to her while he was cooking for everyone.

Matt tried to stop the determined woman with a, “Wait.”

It mostly worked, and she paused long enough for him to get his piece out.

“What's your plan?”

Annie looked at him like he was dumb as she said, “I'm going to stab Sara a few times, then work my way down her organization.” She tapped her bandolier. “I've got a knife for each person. Knives for everyone!”

Her smile had none of the cheer on her face.

Matt had been busy with Liz that night. Things didn't sit right with either of them, and they had spent most of the night reviewing the Kingdom's survivors. They were pretty sure a good few were Queendom spies.

Liz shuffled out of their room, and when she saw Annie, asked while holding back a yawn, “Did you tell her yet?”

“No.”

“Tell me what?”

Liz looked into the pan while Matt answered, “We were reviewing information last night and think we’ve identified a few spies in the Kingdom hierarchy.”

Liz set down four plates full of eggs while Aster took her own chair and started digging in. She had found their investigation boring, and quickly went to sleep.

They explained their findings over breakfast while Annie nodded along. She wasn't dumb enough to disregard them, and eventually agreed with most of their reasoning, while also setting a few targets of her own.

After eating, she was out the door, ready to spy on a few commanders and remove them if they turned out to be dirty.

Considering that her plan was already to pay back the people who ambushed them, she was happy to add more targets. Though, it was harder to get her to stick to only gathering information until Matt came off his healing cooldown.

She wanted them punished immediately.

With her promise to only watch, she went out the door as she faded from their vision.

Matt and Liz informed the rest of the team about their plan when they woke up, and the five of them tried to scour the Kingdom command structure for more suspicious targets.

***

Annie stood next to her latest suspect and listened to her conversation.

The woman was in her bath while lounging. She was actively plotting against her own people, but not with the Queendom, just with other opportunists in the Kingdom.

Annie slipped out of the bathroom, and after checking her mana, teleported past the door. It was much easier than having the door shut on her when she entered behind the woman.

She had to drain three mana stones to deal with the rapid drain from making her intangible. Invisibility from her Talent, and even a minor level of intangibility, was free. But moving through hard, impassable objects drained her quickly.

As she made her way to the next target, she contemplated her assignment, with her mind drifting to her Concept. She had discovered her phrase weeks ago, but hadn't told anyone, not even her sister.

It was just too shameful.

She even had a good idea about the image that worked for her. Not the one she wanted, but the one that fit. She could make her Concept at any time, but resisted letting it solidify.

She didn't like what she had learned about herself.

That was part of the irony.

I do what’s necessary.

She had an idea of her image. Annie was the blade in the dark, the blade of darkness. She was the one who spied on allies to find traitors. She would get her hands dirty. Where others shirked away, she threw herself into the challenge.

If it was a reluctant realization. She could’ve tried to force something else, but the reality was that she enjoyed all of it. The skulking and hurried movements gave her a rush like no other.

Taking her target's life and then escaping was better than any thrill she could imagine.

That felt wrong.

She did what others didn’t want to do, but she didn't think she should enjoy it. The uncertainty was making her hold back.

In the end, she knew that she would need to make a choice, and it felt as if she was at a crossroads. Before she had found this realization, she had been able to get sharp and the image of a blade to mostly work.

She could always form a Concept around a standard sharpness idea, and fight like a generic rogue for delving rifts. But she didn't like that idea any more than the second option. It could work for her, but it wasn't the perfect fit.

Doing what was necessary fit her like a glove, but its related image did not.

As she found her next target, Kepler, she followed and watched his interactions.

She could tell he was a spy almost immediately.

The idiot wasn't even trying to hide it. Or had gotten careless in the extreme. While taking a Queendom man on a date could be innocent enough, his half-assed attempt at stealthily handing his date a sealed bag was beyond obvious. Especially when the date ended soon after.

It sent every sense she had on high alert. She didn't really know Prince Albert. She had met Juni more than once, and from Matt and Liz’s recounting of their time on the planet fighting the golems, the man was anything but dumb. She had seen as much for herself when under his command during the first city's siege.

There was no way that she could believe someone that competent didn't know about the rampant corruption in the middle ranks of his commanders. The only options she believed were either he was a traitor himself, or they did know, and her team wasn’t privy to whatever he had planned.

That possibility sent her on a searching spree for the next two days, whenever she wasn't trailing a target. The only time she rested was when she went and got her mana stones refilled by Matt.

She would rest while he dumped endless mana into fast converting mana stones, then transferred the mana to her stores. She took naps while that happened, but kept pushing herself otherwise.

It was finally when she started following Alyssa that she found the proof she was looking for.

A Kingdom spy was following the woman. They were good, but Annie was better. She could admit that she might not be as good without her Talent, but she did have her Talent, so she followed the watcher as they observed Alyssa’s every move.

Over the next few days, she unraveled the Kingdom's counter-espionage operation. For an organization that had just been decapitated and was now floundering, they had a thorough network of watchers.

It wasn't obvious, but she found dozens of people who worked at static locations, or were responsible for covering a modest area with limited movement. They reported information through secure pads while keeping a low profile and limiting their exposure.

The Kingdom seemed to have one in every position. With that knowledge, Annie could identify the Queendom spies by noting the people who weren’t being actively watched. It seemed that the Kingdom wasn't wasting manpower watching those they knew were turncoats, and instead were dedicating resources to ferreting new ones out.

Liz and Matt repeatedly asked her to not kill anyone until they were ready. But when the man with too much mana had one day left of his healing cooldown, they finished vetting their targets, and she rested for the fun that would follow.

***

Matt and Liz prepared for their next moves as they painted a picture of the corruption. They quickly all agreed that The Prince and Juni had a plan after Annie’s information came back in, but they didn't care.

The spies and traitors were making sure that the political situation remained turbulent, and the remaining top Pathers were barely able to hold things together. The two intact teams were leading troops in harassing actions, while trying to get reinforcements to attack the armies surrounding the Kingdom Cities.

The other Pathers, who were single survivors from decimated teams, were less cohesive. Their inexperience in politics was only further increasing the disunity.

Matt had let them know that when he came off his healing cooldown, he intended to add some order back to the situation.

When the team asked how he planned to do that, Liz answered for him, and said that he’d use the same tactic anyone else would use in a power struggle..

Overwhelming power.

That, and an invisible, stab-happy trump card didn’t hurt either.

Really, they were going to heavily rely on her gathered information. And after killing a few of the spies, they expected that most people would fall in line.

The crux was killing the right people without setting everyone against him. The last thing he needed was to unintentionally unify the leadership against him.

Matt was incredibly nervous, but with Liz reassuring him that he couldn't mess things up that badly, he was ready to at least try.

The next morning, he came to the area that had turned into the ‘command center.’ In reality, it was just where the surviving leadership argued with each other every day.

Matt felt like an idiot as his armored form kicked down the door. That was Annie's demand to go along with the situation.

He knew that it was purely theatrical; he’d never actually do something so obnoxious. The door, frame, and wall were all made from reinforced Tier 7 materials. He would run out of mana before he kicked the door down.

Annie promised that she would handle that, and after she convinced the rest of the team that it would set the right tone, Matt gave in.

Considering the door nearly flew off its hinges at his [Mage’s Retreat] empowered kick, he relaxed and stepped through the now empty metal frame.

Annie had done her job. Now it was his turn.

Someone stood up and shouted, “What the fuck are you doing!?”

Matt punched him in the face as hard as he could. The man crumpled, and before he hit the floor, he was gone.

They had used Annie’s contacts with the assassination reporting function to let the army know that they were going to clean house, and to be ready to take bodies out.

Seeing the numerous shocked faces, Matt took the temporary silence to hop onto the table and shout at everyone present.

“You are the dumbest group of people I've ever fucking heard of!”

“That's not fair. We...”

Matt kicked a pad at the speaker. They weren’t highlighted red like the known spies, so he didn't kill them out of hand, and continued speaking.

“The Queendom kills most of the leadership to stop a coordinated response, and you all bicker for individual power. They already have breaches in a wall. In less than a week. All because you can't unify to put up a resistance.”

A wave of sound hit Matt as everyone proclaimed their innocence.

Matt ignored most of it until a woman highlighted in red copied his action of standing on a table and shouted, “Exactly! Like I’ve been saying for days. We need unity.”

She reached out a hand towards Matt and said, “We need to gather our forces and strike out hard.”

Matt reached out and took the proffered hand in his armored own.

Annie didn't need to be told, and a message of the woman talking with a Queendom higher up and receiving a pouch of mana stones played for everyone who watched the video.

There were sounds of surprise or laughter as Matt's grip tightened, and he pulled the woman towards him and drove a spiked fist into her chest.

Jenifer gasped out a last burble of blood as Matt shoved her away to be taken by the army.

He shouted, “None of you can trust each other because you’re all a bunch of lying, traitorous pieces of shit! There are nine other traitors with us here, right now. Or at least, nine that we have proof of.”

As the noise level tried to pick back up, he shouted over it, “No, this is my time to talk! All of you need to listen. You have had days to talk, and you’ve gotten absolutely fucking nowhere.”

Linking his AI to the larger wall screen, he played the other traitor's videos in rapid succession. Those around the spies quickly restrained them, and Matt shouted to get everyone's attention once again.

“They aren't the only ones! We have more spies that need to be disposed of. But until Prince Albert is back from his healing cooldown, I'm in charge. I don't give two shits about your Kingdom, or this war.” He patted his armored chest. “I'm in it for the points, and I'm not going to let you stupid fucks screw this up for me.”

“That's not right! You have no power over us!” A larger man shouted, and Matt shrugged, then punched him in the chest.

He had retracted the spikes, but he still felt things shatter.

“That’s your first and only warning. The next person to complain will be sent for a two-week vacation.”

He paused to let that settle in, then sarcastically asked, “Would anyone else like to voice an objection?”

When no one said anything else, Matt started passing out his orders. It was mostly him reiterating the plans that they and their AI had come up with, but it got people moving.

All the while, Matt felt like absolute shit. He felt exactly like the Healer Iris, who tried to steal Aster’s egg what felt like a lifetime ago. He was using his greater power to enforce his desires on those weaker than him.

Liz and his team had convinced him that with the Pathers outside of the normal command structure there was nothing they could do except crush everyone's resistance with physical might as they had no political power in the situation. At least nothing they could do and resolve the situation quickly at least.

The fact that it was for their own good didn't alleviate his concerns or make it any better. It somehow made the pill harder to swallow.

These people were his peers in Tier and power. But with his greater than average fighting prowess, he bent them to his will.

Still, he shouted his orders, and when a woman balked at merging her force with someone she hated, he didn't stop Annie from driving a knife through her chest.

His teammate had said something that stuck with him when he expressed his concerns for their plan. Sometimes, you needed to do what was necessary, instead of what you wanted to do.

It reminded him of killing Zoey in the golem war. The woman endangered those weaker than her, and had to be removed. Matt had killed her to prevent further harm, but worried that those incidents would only become more frequent.

He had done what was necessary, but while he shouted orders, he was worried that this wasn't really necessary. He had no stake in this war.

Even earning more points didn't feel like a justified reason to lord his power over those weaker than himself. The whole thing just left a bitter taste in his mouth.

But he didn't stop giving orders and turning his armored form to anyone who resisted and intimidating them into following his orders.

***

Albert and Juni were sitting and watching a show when their informants reported that Matt and his team's assassin were taking over. They watched the recording of them storming the room and throwing their weight around with bemusement.

That indifference turned to worry as the man started killing spies and traitors.

They needed some of the spies and traitors to enact their own plan.

Albert looked to Juni when someone they didn't have registered as a spy was outed.

Juni cursed as he threw popcorn into his mouth. “Well, fuck. We missed one at least.”

Albert glared at him. They had spent a massive amount of resources to not be surprised. It was far too late in their plan to have unknown actors.

Juni shrugged. “Edward is a small player. He didn't matter, so us missing him is fine. Our digging teams were well-vetted, and he had no contact with any of them. We’re fine, Albie.”

His friend chewed, then said, “The die is cast. The chips have fallen—” He waved his hand, “Other cliche sayings. Yada yada yada. We can only do our best now. It's really a good thing. It will take them at least a day or two to get a sizable army to face the Queendom, and I doubt they will immediately engage. When we get back, we can reroute them to the Queendom main city.”

Albert tried to relax, but the King's threat loomed over his head. He really didn't want to be killed by his own father because the Pathers suicided all his troops in a stupid battle.

All he could do was wait, so he snatched the bowl of popcorn from Juni and went back to watching the show. Try as he might, he couldn’t stop shifting his focus back to Matt, watching as he distributed orders.