The Path of Ascension

Matt sat and considered the camp with a somewhat skeptical eye. He was inspecting the log wall that the survivors had created which surrounded the makeshift camp and gathering point.

Everybody who wasn’t posted at the wall on active guard duty was sitting around, mostly with haggard looks on their faces. Morale wasn’t exactly high. Since he was part of the rescue team, Matt hadn’t been in the camp all that often for the last two weeks. He was thankful for that fact right about now.

With the increase in golem activity, there wasn’t much of a choice. The first few days of rescue work had gone without incident, with the various teams rescuing nearly two hundred people. But as the days went on, the number of golems patrols increased, as did the size of the patrols themselves.

Previously, the golems traveled in groups of five or six. But now, the squads had twelve monsters at a minimum, and they started traveling in pairs. That meant that the rescue teams of six were fighting groups at least four or more times larger than their own.

At first, they had countered by simply merging two of the four rescue teams together as a stopgap. But it didn’t work for long. The other team of twelve was barely able to fight their way out of an ambush that they stumbled into. The golems had reserves waiting nearby, and overpowered the unsuspecting team.

The golem’s were getting smarter and, if their speculation was correct, they formed a hive mind, increasing in intelligence with each new golem. Even fighting a single squad they were more competent and able to use tactics to their advantage. They set ambushes and retreated, not suffering unnecessary losses.

It led to harder fights and increased casualties in the teams trying to flee to the safety of the camp. With massive casualties in the third squad from a successful ambush, the survivors had to cut their losses, and stop venturing out for all but the closest or largest groups.

It wasn’t an easy call for Juni to make, and Matt didn’t like the idea of possibly abandoning more survivors. Still, he understood the man’s logic, and accepted the decision as the right one.

Losing members of the rescue team meant losing the most powerful fighters amongst the survivors. With nearly three hundred people to defend in the camp, they couldn’t justify losing their greatest defense for the last few stragglers.

Still skeptical about the effectiveness of the tree wall, Matt was somewhat pacified by the fact that it was currently being reinforced with dirt. Hopefully the clay-like soil would impart some extra weight to the thin wall. The entire defensive structure would have been essentially useless, if not for the anti-air construct that the prince had salvaged from the teleporter city. He and his group had salvaged it when he realized that the city was doomed, and that the Tier 15 would do nothing to prevent the coming destruction.

Each of his representatives were given two, and the weapons were the only thing keeping the city from being overrun. The constructs could be overwhelmed with numbers, but they were enough to keep the camp relatively safe.

The strongest fighters were supposed to have a meeting with Juni this evening. It was to discuss plans for the Tier 4 and weaker Tier 5s, who were unable or unwilling to fight. Currently, the survivors were too vulnerable with the weaker members needing to be defended. And that meant that they couldn’t move to the offensive against the ruin and its golems.

For Matt, it was eye-opening to see the combat abilities of run of the mill Tier 5s.

They were weak. Incredibly weak, if he was being honest, at least to Matt’s estimations. So many of them didn’t seem to actually practice or strategize in any way. They simply cast spells without regard at the first sign of movement, and only seemed capable of progressing at painstakingly slow rates through rifts of their own Tier.

Rescuing those groups had been more trouble than an ambush with a competent team. Matt had no idea why they had come to a known hostile area with such a lack of experience. He hated having to rescue these amateurs. On more than one occasion, their spells had hit rescuers instead of golems, which exacerbated the trust issues between teams of unknown people.

As of now, the surroundings were calm, and from their communication with the other survivor camps in the massive expanse of forest, the situation was similar for them. Things were calm and had been for hours. It was almost unsettling.

Matt stretched out his legs and shifted in his seat. His group was part of the quick reaction force, and was currently on standby. Liz, Aster, and Camilla were asleep in a row next to him, using rocks as backrests. The rest of their makeshift team was situated to his other side. Geraden was either meditating, or sleeping sitting up, and Fen and his wolves were asleep in a solid mass of fur and limbs.

The newest additions to their team were a couple. Basil and Thyme were slumped together after falling asleep chatting amongst themselves. Basil was a melee front liner, and Thyme was a mage. They were more than likely fake names, but they were what the couple had given when asked. No one pried about their real identities. They fought, and fought well. That was the important part.

They were all exhausted from their last venture outside of the camp, and desperately needed the rest that they were finally getting. Even with [Endurance] running, Matt still felt the wear on his mind from lack of sleep. He just couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes and lie still. At least, not when there were still people in danger outside of the camp.

There had to be something that they could do. They had a plan for keeping the weaker individuals safe, by getting them into a rift instance.They would be discussing that at the meeting later. From the few reports they had received, protecting the rifts long enough to form an instance would be a brutal fight. The golems had been delving themselves and were protecting the rift openings jealously.

Getting the noncombatants inside through the golems was another problem that they’d have to contend with. From the chatter on the crashed satellite network, it seemed that the prince wanted to mobilize all of the survivor camps at once, in a coordinated strike. Hopefully, the sudden rush of cultivators would stretch the golem forces thin, or force them to only reinforce a single location.

As his eyes were starting to droop, Matt’s AI pinged him, and the others all startled awake. The rest of his team all jolted up as well, and there was a flurry of activity while they read the report. A large group of survivors had just reached out during their journey to the camp. What they were doing this late at night was a mystery, but Juni had decided that there were enough of them to prioritize a rescue.

After a quick headcount, Matt agreed. There were thirty-seven people in total. It was too many to leave behind to be butchered. His guilt over the few teams that they hadn’t responded to still weighed on him, but right now, he was too tired to feel much of anything.

It took only moments for them to get ready, and they were outside the walls. Matt withdrew his flying sword, and made sure it was charged before Liz took control and hopped on with Aster and Thyme. They stayed low and just behind the melee fighters, and would provide aerial support from the flying device.

Thyme, despite being a Tier 6, was a pure mage with minimal physical cultivation. She was simply unable to keep up with the brutal sprint that the melee fighters ran at, so the flying sword was welcome.

Once in formation, they didn’t speak. They didn’t need to at this point. This wasn’t the first, or even tenth time they had done this.

As they continued at a ground-eating sprint, Matt checked the group’s mana reserves. They were the only group of survivors exempt from the mana tax to feed the anti-air construct, but they fought so often, it ended up equaling out. The mages were all nearly full, but the melee fighters were sitting at around half capacity.

It wasn’t a perfect situation, but it should be enough. They had retreated from a fight they couldn’t win before, and could do so again. Even if it had left a bitter taste in their mouths.

Showing mana amounts had caused a slight problem for Matt. He had wanted to hide it, but he couldn’t spoof the readout, and not sharing wasn’t really an option. So, everyone saw that he always ran on nearly no mana at all.

He had simply lied, and said that his Talent was his armor skill. His explanation was that it drained most of his mana for the persistent effect and strength boost. That covered both [Mage’s Retreat] and [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s effects nicely. Talents that did two things weren’t unheard of, just rare.

When they learned of the team being on The Path, the rest of the group accepted his story without question. Weird Talents were commonplace for The Path, and those that hit above their Tier always had them. With that, most of the questions were avoided.

It didn’t matter that [Hail] wasn’t explained. As long as no one questioned it, he wouldn’t have to offer up an explanation. Killing the golems was their goal, not learning the minute details about the skills and oddities of the other fighters.

Basil was in the lead, and was slowly gathering speed. He was one of the few who had also explained his Talent. He gathered momentum and released it in his first attack, which meant his first hit in a fight was always devastating. But when they ran, he slowly grew faster as he increased his stored energy.

Matt increased his pace and got ahead of the man, along with Geraden. The earth mage was somehow able to nudge trees out of the man’s path as they traversed an untouched part of the forest.

Before they encountered the party they were being sent to rescue, they ran into a squad of golems with a party of humans.

Matt’s first reaction was to assume that they were engaging one another. But as he took in the details, the picture painted was far darker. This was a group of humans selling other humans to the golems.

The ones being sold were stripped of their clothes and bound together in a pile on the ground. Matt saw a golem handing one of the dressed and armored humans a sack as his team crested the hill.

No one needed to speak, and when the slavers noticed the rescue team, it was already too late. Matt and his comrades were already on them.

Their camp had heard of this from the others, but they hadn’t yet encountered it personally. How the golems and humans communicated was still in question, but apparently they offered nice rewards, if the goods recovered from apprehended slaver groups were any indication.

No one hesitated to correct the injustice, and the rescue team dismantled the golems quickly. The group of slavers dropped to their knees and put their hands up with shouts of surrender.

Matt looked around after the battle. They were three-quarters of the way to their intended rescue targets. They were close enough that his AI was picking up intermittent messages bouncing off the mountains.

Basil spoke up first. “What do we do with them?”

Matt didn’t answer. He knew what they needed to do... he just didn’t want to do it. Letting them go would just allow the slavers to return to their scummy opportunism, but they needed to press on and rescue the other party.

Camilla answered, “We all know what we need to do.”

Everyone nodded. It wasn't ideal, but they would do as the other groups who encountered bandits before them did and strip them. While, naturally, protecting the captives' lives over bringing the bandits in for justice. A single member of the party would escort the survivors to the camp while the rest of them continued to their mission of saving the larger group.

To his surprise, along with everyone else’s, her bladed whip lashed out, and wrapped around the neck of the man who took the payment. Before the shouts of protest were out of their mouths, the man’s throat was shredded in a spray of blood.

The rest of the man’s party reacted violently. The fight was short and brutal, with Camilla getting the drop on the leader. She tackled the nearest woman and choked the life out of her with her bare hands.

Matt had to cut down another woman, whose hands had started glowing with mana. He felt sick doing it.

“What the fuck was that?”

Matt’s voice was drowned out by the others’ shouts of similar expletives. None of the slavers were left alive, except the woman Camilla was still strangling.

Looking up, hands still wrapped around the woman's neck, she glared at all of them.

“Why would we leave such monsters alive? They would just return to their ways if we left them! If...”

Fen shouted the loudest, “We could have stripped them! And let her up!”

Camilla squeezed the woman’s neck harder. Her kicking and struggling faded as the lack of oxygen took its toll.

She calmly stated, “No. They were monsters who betrayed everyone, as well as our efforts to protect people. They would have gotten more gear and started doing this all over again.”

The shouts drowned her out, but she stood her ground and finished strangling the woman. Her brown eyes were as cold as ice and shone out of her helmet with angry defiance.

“They would have stolen more gear and continued their crimes. You’re naive if you think otherwise. The only way to stop them was to either abandon our mission, or kill them. I won’t leave any survivors for dead, and I won’t let trash like this remain. Ascenders know what the golems need people for.”

Matt hadn’t wanted to think of that particular aspect of the situation, but the best-case scenario was that they were being used as mana farms. The other options were much darker, and he didn’t have any interest in mulling them over.

Matt wanted to argue that they could have done something besides murdering them, but he held his frustration in check.

“We need to move. Let’s cut these people free and get them moving.”

The prisoners were Tier 4’s, and would just get in the way of their rescue. They needed to get them moving towards the camp, and pick them up on the trip back with the other survivors.

Putting his words into action, he reached down and cut the bindings tying them up. After removing their gags, he was inundated with thanks and tears.

It didn’t escape Matt’s notice that Camilla moved directly to the lone woman, who when freed, cried in her arms with violent sobs. The small tufts of fur and blood told his AI everything he needed to be able to guess the situation. The woman had visible bruising and other marks on her body that the others in her party didn’t have.

They clearly were beating the poor girl, whether for sport or because of defiance, he wasn't sure. From the claw marks on the dead leader's face, it appeared that her bond died defending her, which made Matt shudder in sympathetic rage.

Matt couldn't bare to think that they would stoop so low but, if they had, the entire party deserved to be killed. They were criminals, even if they just stood by and let it happen. But they should have been judged by the courts, not them.

His louder, more practical side was tired of the deaths and golem attacks, and was just happy that they were gone. That reality concerned him a little. He was worried that this conflict and recent events were changing him.

It was making him hard and uncaring.

After a few minutes, they got the group of Tier 4’s geared up with their previous belongings and the loot that the traitors had accumulated. The resources heavily implied that they had sold many groups before this one.

These people were nothing more than opportunists and rapists who sold out scores of humans. That fact didn’t exactly help ease the conflict in his mind. They were bad people, but Matt didn’t feel like the right person to be passing judgment.

I just don’t know what’s right anymore. They were evil, and deserved punishment, but there’s no civilization here. Camilla’s right. We can't leave people like this alive.. I just need to be careful that we don’t go too far.

Seeing that they weren’t going to be escorted back to the camp, the Tier 4’s panicked and begged them to stay. They eventually quieted down when they heard that there was a larger group being attacked.

Both parties quickly got on their way, and as they ran, Matt noticed that the others kept a little more distance from Camilla. Feeling that was wrong, he moved closer to the woman in solidarity. He wouldn’t have made the same choice as her, but he understood her reasoning and couldn’t fault her.

She seemed surprised at his approach, and at his nod, sent him a message.

‘I didn’t expect you to agree with my decision.’

‘No, I don’t. But I recognize that it was necessary. I wouldn’t have chosen to do the same, but I can’t say that you were wrong either. Even before I saw what they did to the woman.’

There was a long pause, where the only sound was the crunch of leaves and pounding of feet.

‘I’m not surprised you feel that way. You’re sheltered, and haven’t seen the less savory side of the Empire. Let alone humanity as a whole.’

Matt wanted to refute that, but couldn’t. It was mostly true. The orphanage was hard but they were taken care of and kept separate from most of the hardships that had overtaken the city for the first year or so after the rift breaks. He never saw people sell each other to monsters. So he admitted it.

‘Will you help with a problem in the camp then?’

He was taken aback. He didn’t know there was a problem in the camp.

‘What problem?’

‘One of the Tier 6s in the group that’s staying to protect the camp is extorting the lower Tiers.’

Matt was surprised by her message, but it seemed like a somewhat minor matter.

‘So we report it. It can be easily solved.’

Camilla laughed beside him.

‘They’re a part of the group that the prince sent. And what she’s extorting isn’t monetary or material. She wants sex. And she’s threatening people with shoving them out of the rift they retreat into.’

‘How did you find out? She’d be stupid to speak out before entering the rift with the lower Tiers.’

‘I don’t know why she’s showing her hand now, but she’s been careful thus far. I only overheard because I got a little too close to a tent, and caught a bit of her conversation with someone.’

The weight on Matt’s shoulders increased, along with the churning in his stomach.

‘I take it, you have proof?’

Camilla’s reply was a recording of the encounter, and it was damning. The woman was whispering to a weeping man that if he didn’t do everything she said, she would shove him out of the rift and leave him to the golems.

The voice was unmistakable. Camilla had waited outside with a clear view of the tent’s entrance, and watched the woman exit. There was little room for it to be called bedroom play, as a panicked and weepy man came out of the tent a few minutes later.

That hurt as well. Matt and their party had been the ones to rescue that particular Tier 4. But now, it seemed they had only rescued the man from one bad situation and inserted him into another.

Trying to reach out for an answer that didn’t involve murdering someone, he asked, ‘This is damning evidence, and we can take it to Juni. They’re both part of the prince’s party, but the lower Tiers would riot if this went unpunished.’

When he didn’t receive a response, Matt shot a look at Camilla as she ran next to him.

‘I’m afraid that if we press the claim, they’ll underplay it. It’s better to just remove her quietly and be done with it.’

‘No! Camilla, if we get everyone here on board, we can press the matter. They can’t ignore us. We’re half of the best offensive power that the camp has. We aren’t judges and we aren’t vigilantes. The law is there for a reason.’ Before he sent it, he swallowed and firmed his will, adding, ‘If Juni doesn’t fix the problem, we can make a move then.’

He didn’t get a message in return, just a nod.

Not long afterwards, they caught up with the group of survivors that they were sent to rescue.

They were being harried by a mix of spiders and humanoid golems. Matt and the melee fighters moved in, and started cutting down the golems attempting to encircle the group.

Thankfully, none were the flying types, and the mages on Matt’s flying sword were able to reinforce the group. Eventually, the golems realized that they were outmatched, and retreated.

With efficiency born of repetition, they pulled out slings from their spatial bags and got the wounded loaded up. They were stacked two to a stretcher. The golems had been trying to capture more than kill, so they aimed for the Tier 4s’ legs, to slow the group down as a whole. It led to a lot of wounded, but few of them mortally so.

The few healthy Tier 5’s were given the task of carrying the wounded. At Tier 5, the weight was negligible, the size of the load was the problem. It made for awkward travel in the forest, and the better fighters needed their hands free.

The mages in the sky used their altitude to scout their surroundings, and were able to trigger a spider golem ambush before the rescue operation ran into it. That led to a fighting retreat, but with the rescue team’s combat ability, they only lost one of the survivors. He tripped in the rush to escape the spiders, and was too slow to get to his feet.

Matt wanted to help, but was unable to do more than think about it, before the man was covered and shredded into a gory mess.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful, just long and slow. Still, they were able to catch up with the group of Tier 4’s that they saved earlier, and made it back to the safety of the walls as night was setting in.

Before Matt and his team joined the meeting scheduled for that evening, they were intercepted by Juni, who said that it was postponed. He said that he needed more time to settle the new arrivals.

As the group changed course to the communal cooking area, they grabbed plates of unevenly cooked meat, and a random assortment of roasted vegetables. They accepted their haphazardly prepared meal, and moved to a side table to eat.

Looking at Camilla, they decided to wait until everyone was done eating to speak up. When they had finished, Camille broached the topic that he was dreading.

“We have a problem.”

At the tired and questioning eyes, Matt filled in the rest.

“It’s like what we encountered earlier, but in the camp.”

There were sighs and slumped shoulders, but their faces were hard. Liz, next to him, tightened her hand on her fork until her knuckles went white.

After explaining and sharing the video, everyone’s expressions became dark, but determined. Everyone except Thyme, who looked awkward and sad.

“We have a problem. Zoey technically didn’t break any local laws.”

A quiet chorus of ‘what’s’ met her proclamation.

“None of you are from this kingdom. She’s a member of the royal house, though distant from the core family. The law clearly states that the royal family can take what they want. That includes sexual favors. She would have to have forced him with actual violence. Even him being a lower Tier is fine, as long as she doesn’t physically attack him. ”

Liz ground out through clenched teeth, “She did. She threatened to shove him out of a rift into bloodthirsty monsters.”

Thyme smiled, but it was one of pain and sadness.

“There’s been more than one royal who’s done the same thing, and it’s always held up in court. Here, in this kingdom no one will convict a royal for anything done against a non-royal.”

Camilla didn’t look surprised. Matt couldn't tell if it was because she knew that already, or because she had expected the worst.

Fen spoke up, shaking his head. “Sure, I’m from the Empire proper, but there has to be a way to charge her. No?”

Basil nodded. “There is, of course. You just need a higher-ranking noble of this kingdom to pass the judgment. Then, it doesn’t matter if she’s guilty or not.”

Geraden was looking at his staff when he murmured, “And I’m guessing that she’s the highest-ranking royal here? Because, of course, she is. They always are. Or at least they only act like that when they are.”

Thyme nodded. “Correct. Juni commands more of the prince’s trust, and so he leads, but he isn’t a part of the royal family. He could be accused of treason if he acted against her.”

Matt asked the duo, who seemed to know more than the rest of them, about local politics.

“So what are our options? It seems that we either ask the prince himself to do something, or take matters into our own hands. What are our odds of receiving help from him? We need a royal decree, or something putting her under our custody.”

As he finished, an idea came to him, and he asked, “What if we just get her removed from the party remaining behind? That way she won’t have access to the weaker tiers while we aren’t around.”

Thyme shook her head again. “I don’t know the prince, but any royals here are either from opposing factions, or of his own. Hard to say which one she’s from. Best case scenario is that she’s from his faction, and he puts a stop to her actions. If she isn’t, there’s little he can do. There’s no way he would piss off one of his siblings by acting against one of their people. And she's staying behind by virtue of being a crafter. She won’t be in the fight no matter what.”

Fen chimed in. “So it’s a gamble if we bring this up. If we do, we draw an easy target on our backs.”

The hard set of Matt’s jaw and nod to Camilla showed that he had already made up his mind.

Basil added, “Yes. And you aren’t wrong with what you are all thinking. By the same token, that makes the prince unwilling or unable to move against anyone that… disposes of her. He won’t act to get vengeance if there isn’t a sign that points to anyone. It isn’t worth it.” He paused, before adding quietly, “Zoey wouldn’t be the first low royal that disappeared for their actions, and there’s rarely anyone to look into it. At most, there’d be a paltry investigation for show. Besides, Juni detests the woman, so he won’t look too far into it.”

Liz opened her mouth to speak, but Camilla spoke faster.

“So how do we do this? I wasn’t planning on having your particular abilities, or really any help at all.”

Basil nodded at her. He laid out a plan, “After the meeting, it will be fully dark. She’s a crafter, so any of us melee types can take care of her quickly. But it needs to be quiet. We also can’t leave a body as evidence, which means we’ll need to remove her quickly too.”

He looked to Matt, the only one with a flying sword, and asked, “Can you get in the air unseen?”

It meant he would be unable to use [Cracked Phantom Armor], but he could do it.

At Matt’s nod, Thyme finished for her husband. “Then we do it quickly and quietly. Fen, can Bow and Arrow make a bit of a scene?”

With the huffs of the wolves’ answer, she continued, “Camilla, you need to be visible. Sorry, but Juni isn’t stupid, and he will have heard about what you did to the slavers already. While I agree with the action, you’ll be suspect number one. Geraden, how long can you make your roots? Can you keep Zoey quiet from a standing position?”

“No, but I can trip her and do it that way. I have enough reach to be visible, as long as Den is touching the ground.”

Matt didn't know the man's tree bond hiding as a staff had that kind of range. He made a note of it in case he ever needed to fight the man.

Basil asked Liz, “The two of you are known to be sleeping together, so can you give him an alibi?”

The duo seemed to know a bit too much about Zoey and how to get rid of her, and Matt had to wonder if they had done this before. They had a plan too fast, and it was too detailed for them to have come up with it on the spot.

Still, Matt was willing to do whatever he had to, in order to protect those weaker. Especially those without the Empire proper giving them a voice. This wouldn’t be happening if they hadn’t set off the ruin in the first place.

“I can make the kill if Geraden and Den can trip her. As long as they give me a single second of quiet. No need for two of us to be missing.”

Basil gave Matt a hard look but, after searching his face, nodded.

They sat around for a few more minutes. Liz gripped his hand hard, while Aster pushed thoughts of confusion at Matt. She wasn’t quite clear on why they had to be secretive about the killing. They did it all the time, after all. But after a few exchanges of thoughts, she mostly understood.

Matt hardened his heart and mind in preparation for what he had to do. He couldn’t let something like this go on under his nose.

He didn’t like it, but he knew he would never be able to look himself in the mirror if he did nothing. Especially when he had the power to stop such abuse of power.