The Path of Ascension

Matt sat with Liz and Aster on a nearby stone wall while everyone else scurried around, accosting the few people highlighted in green in his HUD. It was more like a school of fish swarming around prey than any normal human interaction..

Seeing nothing interesting, Matt started working on his Concept again. With an effort of will, he hardened the air in front of himself and tapped at it, causing the plane of solid air to crack.

“What the fuck Matt!?”

With a questioning look, he turned to Liz, who pulled at her hair as she glared at the area in front of his hand.

She poked his ribs and growled at him, “How are you doing that?”

He tried to get away from the finger of doom, but as he wiggled away, she scuttled after him.

“That hurts! And tickles. Stop! No fair! I’m running out of wall.”

Liz finally stopped but still pouted at him.

“How are you doing it?”

Matt noticed that for all her joking attitude, she was serious about her question.

“I just felt what the Colonel was doing and tried to sense it. When he felt me, it became clearer, so I copied it. It’s not strong enough to stand on yet, but it really doesn’t seem hard to do.”

Liz mixed a glare with a pout for a truly odd sight.

“You can’t really do that until Tier 10, though...” She let the statement trail off as she watched him recreate the plane of solid air. “At least that’s the common convention.”

She started poking the air in front of her, but he felt nothing with his Concept.

Liz gave up after two more attempts. “I don’t know if it’s my Concept being internal or what, but I’m finding nothing here. What are you doing?”

Matt thought about it for a minute before replying, “I’m just recreating what the Colonel did. I felt him hardening the air, so I just wanted the air to be solid. I didn’t really find it hard. Why? Is it normal for people to not be able to do it?”

Liz leaned back and started ruffling Aster’s fur while dodging playful nips aimed at her fingers.

“Yeah, most people can’t do it at our Tier, as they don’t have the willpower to do it. Maybe you’re getting a benefit somehow with your image, but I honestly don’t know. It’s impressive that you can do that already, though. I’m proud of you.”

Matt let the compliment bolster him as he added a ruffling hand to Liz and Aster’s game, but he still wanted to help Liz. To that end, he tried to explain further. “I’m doing what you do when you resist monsters in rifts from trying to restrict movement. It’s like that, but instead of countering their own will over an area of effect, I’m recreating what they were doing. I’m willing the air to solidify.”

Liz looked up from their game of ‘tease the fox’ and poked at the air once more, before raising an eyebrow at him. “But I don’t do that. When I resist a monster’s Concept with my own, it’s with my body. I force my way through it, so it’s not able to slow me down or restrict me. I don’t counter their Concept; I fight through it.”

“Huh. I didn't know that.” He really hadn’t known that she hadn’t used her Concept in that way. He had always assumed that she was using it just how he was.

In his mind, when someone tried to push you down, you resisted in the equal and opposite way, or you redirected the force. That way, it wouldn’t be able to apply the intended effect on you. It was exactly how one would resist a physical blow they were unable to dodge.

He did it constantly every time he fought.

That was when he realized why he might be able to make the change. With a thought, he turned the Concept from just hardening the air into willing a plane to exist and resist his forward moment. The harder he pushed, the more it resisted. It was like his Concept’s repulsive effect, but facing him.

The new resistance was also much easier to produce in comparison. With a flat palm, he shoved hard and slid backward until the back of his knees pressed into the wall. It drained some willpower, but as the area was a small, flat plane, and not a sphere around his entire body, it wasn’t that bad. The cost still increased with his force, but it was a good starting point.

Aster nipped a too-slow finger, and he returned his attention to where it belonged. With his family.

***

Colonel Throne watched as the boy played with his Concept and his friends from a hidden, warped area next to them with his Intent. He was about to leave while mentally noting that the boy was good, but not exceptional, when the boy’s methodology changed.

Suddenly, the boy did something that shouldn’t be possible at his Tier and experience.

He quickly brought up a profile on the boy, and was about to set up an offer for army recruitment and personal tutelage, when his body froze.

It wasn’t an attack, but an overwhelming pressure of a greater cultivator. It was a second later that his spirit cried out a warning that a monster was looming over him with jaws wide open.

His instincts gained in countless battlefields over his last nine thousand years in the army cried out for him to flee, but he was caged by a will stronger than his own. His Intent was gently rebuffed and forced down.

It was a terrifying realization that also brought some comfort, because if someone that strong wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t have even noticed his death. The horror of being this close to a monster was something he hadn’t felt since his Tier 20’s.

A purple-haired woman floated in front of him, and he received a message verifying the woman’s identity. Her Tier was only marked as Tier 40 plus, but her message identified her as Luna. She was surrounded by two other people who stood close by, but said nothing.

With an air of pure authority,she said, “These are my subjects. Go find your own clay to mold. These are mine.”

This was a Path manager in the flesh. He had never met one before, and he already wished that he hadn’t.

“I didn’t mean to interfere, ma’am. I can...”

She didn’t seem to hear him, continuing as she sent him a second message with coordinates. “Also, make this island your base. But if you ruin the rifts there, I’ll take it out of your hide.”

Throne cringed internally at the order, as he would need to move his entire operation, but this woman was at least Tier 40, and had the Emperor’s ear. He had no obligation to follow her orders, but for something this small, it was a harmless change that wouldn’t impact their plans. He would do it to avoid trouble down the road, if nothing else.

He waited for a dismissal quietly. He didn’t want to leave before he was dismissed, which might anger the great lady. It was unlikely that she would harm him, but even in the Empire, catching a Tier 40 plus’ ire was never good for career advancement.

As Throne listened, his expression grew confused.

“This idiot boy. What is he doing? He could be getting fourteen percent more out of his Concept if he added a bit of firmness behind his repulsion. Lessons in physics are in order. This is shameful, her boy toy is using Concept manipulations, and she can’t.”

The man handed what looked like a piece of paper to the ranting woman while he wrote on a floating notepad.

Luna read it for a moment, then it vanished in a puff of void. “I don’t care if she has an internal Concept. It’s only a little harder for her. She could do it if she put in the work.”

Throne felt bewildered. Internal Concepts made it nearly impossible to harden the air or carry oneself without flight spells. The best way for most people with internal Concepts to circumvent that problem was to use their Concept to lift their bodies up. But that was thousands of times harder than having an external Concept and hardening the air.

This woman wanted the girl to do something he had only heard of two internal Concept users accomplishing? The difficulty of the task was only matched by the reward for actually figuring the methodology out. Internal Concepts sacrificed the ability to use manipulations like that for increasing the user's power. But if they were able to learn to reach outside of their body, they got the best of both worlds.

More than one cultivator thought they were unique and could bridge that gap, but the ones who succeed were more myths than tangible data points.

The man turned to him and nodded a dismissal.

Throne cast [Teleport] and escaped from the crazy manager. Anyone who pushed their charges that hard was someone whose attention he didn’t want to garner.

Those poor kids.

Just in case, Throne marked the trio to be watched. He didn’t plan on giving them special treatment, but he didn’t want to be surprised about their movements.

With an internal sigh, he started the arduous task of moving the army base to the island selected. He would personally inspect the rifts, as they must be unique for the Tier 40 to take an interest in them. He also didn’t want any potential dangers near his camp, no matter how unlikely a few Tier 1 through Tier 7 rifts were to be a threat. The Tier 1 rift was particularly unusual on a Tier 6 world, but it was no real cause for concern. The Tier 7 was rift was notable as well. Rifts growing to a Tier higher than the planet was normal enough, and indicated that the planet would be Tiering up in a mortal generation or two. But he still would need to check them both out as outliers.

***

They played with Aster until a commotion drew their attention, and they all peered over at the noise.

“Albie! Albie over here!”

A huge woman, with an incredibly muscular frame a little over six feet tall, walked in through the crowd to where Prince Albert sat at a recruiting desk. She called out loud enough that it carried to where he and Liz sat, “Did you get my flowers? Were you surprised?”

She had a glowing, menacing lance that she used to trip the two guards that tried to intercept her. Matt didn’t miss that Juni moved behind her, but stayed in the crowd.

Prince Albert crossed his arms and replied with a stiff face, “Yes I got them. Very…” He paused for a long moment, clearly choosing his words. “Considerate of you. Although, in the future, I would prefer if you delivered them to the front desk, and not break into our headquarters. I should report you to the Colonel for violating our sovereign territory before the start of hostilities.”

Princess Sara laughed. “With your outdated security it was hardly breaking and entering. But you like the flowers? That’s great. My team found this great out of the way rift that was full of them. It had these awesome vine monsters that spread seeds if you didn’t kill them fast enough. From what my team told me, they should put up a good fight. If you want, I can take you to the rift. Besides the vine monsters, it's very romantic. Nice and isolated, on the edge of a cliff that has a great view. What do you say? Could be fun.”

While the Princess was speaking, she worked her way through the crowd until she was standing in front of and looking down at the Prince, who looked flustered.

Uncrossing his arms and standing up, the Prince took a step back. “If you’re done playing games, I think you should leave. As you can see ,we are very bus… Hey!! Stop poking me!!”

“What? I thought you like being poked with a stick! You know, considering the one lodged firmly up your ass.”

Liz pulled him forward, saying, “Oh, I like her. Or at least, I like that she’s annoying the Prince. Dude’s an uptight prick.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda nice to see him all flustered after all the shit he pulled during the golem incident.” Matt enjoyed the exasperated, non-in control look the Prince had on his crystalline face.

They pushed through the crowd in time to see Princess Sara hit the butt of her lance against the ground. “Come on! Let’s ditch this place. How about this? You come with me to the rift, and I’ll let you know where we’re entering the planet.”

“Like you would betray your Queendom or mother. She would have your skin.”

Sara shrugged. “She would chew me out, but I’ve been chewed out before. It can be worth it if the cause is just, or the person doing the chewing is the right person. Do you want to be that person? You could put that cut jaw of yours to good use.”

Matt wanted to laugh at all of them. He wasn’t sure if it was a ploy to get the Prince flustered, or real affection. But the woman was shaking the Prince up well and truly. The royal didn’t look like he knew how to handle the woman’s advances.

If she was serious, Matt was impressed with her determination and forwardness. If she really liked the Prince, she was pursuing him directly. Whether that would work with the kingdom’s seemingly backward morals or not was to be seen, but it was an entertaining sight to behold.

“I would ask you to stop your antics and leave. Against my better judgment, I’ve already agreed to your proposal if you win the war, and that’s the last I’ll hear of it until a victor is decided. Remember that I get twelve percent of your income from delving for a year if I win. I would also appreciate it if you stopped encroaching into my kingdom’s territory before we begin.”

She shrugged and called out to the watching crowd, “Then get better security! We have quite a few unsigned Pathers here. Why don’t we have a spar to show them their potential leaders? If you want to win the war, you will have to do better than your current attempts at recruiting. A good fight, best of ten engagements.”

The Prince laughed, “And let you take the advantage with your higher attacks? No, if we fight, it will be until one surrenders. I won’t let you take advantage of your burst damage like that.”

“You want to spend more time with me? Perfect!” She clapped her hands together and twirled slightly. “Let’s fight then.”

The Prince looked once again thrown off his plan with her change in tune, but quickly he settled himself.

Matt expected for them to clear an area right there and get to it, but one of the floating platforms moved over. It was a flat grassland with a single tree covered in brown leaves. It had a thick, green trunk that contrasted with the burnt orange hue of the grass.

Even the Princess looked at the weird flora of the arena with a cocked head, as it gently landed in the lawn. The Prince shook himself out of his trance first, and he climbed to the grassy arena, taking a position on one side of the circle. To Matt’s surprise, he was nearly half the size he should be, and the grass came up to his knees.

Is everything here spatially expanded?

The cost seemed extravagant, but Matt paid attention to the Prince's armament. He had upgraded from the last time the trio saw him fight. Now, the Prince had a blue sword and yellow shield combo that seemed to meld with the armor that grew from his skin like liquid metal.

It wasn’t metal though, Matt’s AI identified it as the skill stopped forming. [Living Crystal] wasn't bad, but wasn't amazing either. Its major downside was that the crystal was brittle, and restricted movement of the caster’s body. It had its advantages in that it rendered slashing attacks and most magical attacks all but useless. The skill was essentially relegated to those who couldn’t afford better, or those that could either leverage one of its advantages, or negate its downsides.

The Prince was clearly in the second category. His Talent was obviously something that made him crystalline. But the odd thing, at least to Matt’s mind, was that the man’s skill had clearly merged with his Talent. It made him bulkier, but without the rigidity that the skill normally imparted.

Princess Sara hopped into the ring with much less armor than her counterpart. Her arms and shoulders were covered in a heavy armor set, but the rest of her armor was either leather or light mail. Her shoulder pauldrons extended up nearly a foot, and were angled in a way to direct blows over her armored head. Matt took note of them, as he had never seen anything like that in an actual battle before.

It was an interesting combination that seemed to revolve around her lance.

Lances weren’t standard foot fighting equipment. It was usually used by mounted attackers, or those with a lot of speed. As the Princess didn’t have a mount, Matt expected the reality to be the second option, and he was proven correct as soon as the fight started.

Sara launched forward with incredible speed that cut a swath through the oddly colored grass. She bolted in a straight line for the Prince.

Her glowing polearm led the way, but the Prince simply set himself into a defensive stance, clearly willing to take the attack head-on instead of dodging. His reasoning was proven correct, as when the Princess got within fifteen feet of the Prince, she reappeared on his right side, momentum intact.

Matt wasn’t sure if it was a teleport variation or something more unique, but his AI took note of an important clue. Her current location relative to the Prince had maintained a perfectly circular arc when compared to her previous position.

Albert then stepped forward while spinning, with his blade cutting across at Sara’s neck level, and his shield reaching over to block the glowing lance.

The sword and lance were both blocked by their wielder's respective armors. Sara’s shoulder pauldrons perfectly meshed with her helmet when her arm was extended, and caused Albert's blow to deflect up and over her head. At the same time, her glowing lance was knocked to the side by the Prince’s shield.

Sara moved through and out of the Prince's range, but it was too late for her to completely dodge the [Earth Spike] that Albert created and kicked at her retreating back.

As she passed the fifteen-foot range, Sara vanished, then charged at Albert for a second time. Now, she came directly at the Prince’s from directly ahead. He hadn’t expected a frontal assault, so his pivot towards the wrong direction in anticipation was costly. He turned his head to face the princess just in time to watch the glowing lance catch him in the side, testing his skill enhanced skin.

To Matt’s surprise, the kingdom’s leader was neither cut down, nor pulled out of the ring by the hovering referee. He only had a deep gouge cut from his crystal armor that had slowly begun to heal itself.

This time, Sara moved through the fifteen-foot radius, and kept going until she was fifty feet away.

“Mmm that’s so hot, Albie. No one at my Tier has ever taken one of my attacks so casually.” Even under her helmet, she cocked a cheeky grin and asked, “Why won't you marry me? We could do this every day.”

“I barely know you!? I’m sure you can find someone else with a strong defense, if that’s your largest criteria.”

“Yeah, but none of them would have your chiseled good looks,” the Princess replied with a smirk.

The Prince now looked cool and collected in the face of the woman who stood outside of his range.

Liz whispered, “Oh, she has him now.”

Matt was turning to look at Liz when an explosion rocked the stadium.

As the dust settled, the now soot-blackened Prince charged out of a crater with his shield leading the way.

Sara seemed unprepared for this, and was unable to create enough distance to effectively use her lace.

Albert wasn’t in any better shape, as half of the crystalline armor on his lower half was shattered. It had only just started growing back to cover the exposed skin as he started his charge..

Sara backstepped and cast [Twister], causing a funnel of swirling air to launch at the Prince. He paused just long enough for her to pass through the fifteen-foot radius around Albert, and she reappeared at his sword side in another charge.

Their attacks proved ineffective, but neither tried to use more than the skills they had already shown. There were enough aborted movements from both royals to indicate that they were each clearly holding back reserves of skills and abilities.

It was smart, but it caused the fight to stalemate rather quickly, and the referee called it a draw after a few more ineffective engagements.

Neither side looked entirely happy with the outcome, but they weren’t upset either. The Prince and Princess both put on charming smiles and headed back to their respective sides. The Princess didn’t try to start any other shenanigans, and with that, she was gone.

The battered and soot-covered Prince smiled while he called out, “A good fight! Ah yes, where was I? Mr. Polovesnty, we were talking about what you would gain by joining my faction.”

Matt and Liz turned back as Albert was swarmed by green outlined people trying to join the kingdom’s side. Apparently, his little showing was more effective than Matt would have guessed.

It didn’t escape his notice that Sara had an identical scene around herself on the other side of the landing area.

Matt and Liz returned to their room, and by nightfall, were joined by three other people to round out their squad.

They all sat around in the little common room that linked their five doors into a suite.

The first was a man who looked slightly older than them, and had the beginnings of stubble on his face.

He introduced himself, “The name’s Conor. I’m mid Tier 6 and twenty-two years old. I primarily tank, with a few special properties that allow me to use [Demon Zone] without hurting myself. I’m a solo Pather, so I’m going to have to change some things up to work with y’all, but I can make it work.”

Matt looked closer at the man and nodded, he knew the skill and its limitations, as he was looking at getting it himself back on the training world, but that hadn’t panned out yet. It was an incredibly rare Tier 8 skill, since it wasn’t valuable enough to farm rifts for.

Liz nodded and said, “We’re familiar with the skill, and Matt at least can work inside without issue.”

That caused Conor to look closer at Matt. They would need to have a good spar and test each other out. Melee fighters needed to be familiar with one another’s fighting styles if they were going to work efficiently in each other's vascinity. The best way to accomplish that, obviously, was a good fight.

Matt looked away and nodded at the next two people who sat close to each other.

They were identical twins. Even Matt’s AI had a hard time telling them apart when they left his sight. It didn’t help that they purposefully styled themselves in the same fashion, but they took the hint and introduced themselves.

“I’m Emily.”

“And I’m Annie.”

Emily continued, “I’m a burst mage with mostly water and lighting spells.”

Annie continued without missing a beat, “I’m an assassin with invisibility.”

Like that, she vanished. Even the indent where her weight pressed down on the couch was gone.

Matt spun and guarded his and Liz’s rear, ready to activate [Cracked Phantom Armor] at the slightest indentation of the short carpet.

From behind him, Annie questioned, “What are you doing?”

Matt turned around to see that the woman hadn’t moved.

“I half expected some teleport or [Blink] with a move like that.”

The woman looked wistful when she said, “No. I wish. It would be an amazing combination. Sadly, we’re just too poor to buy a skill like that.”

The other twin, Emily, continued, “We’re both peak Tier 6 and twenty-five. We were going to Tier up to 7 early, and keep ahead of the curve, but we held off with this little war. We had the time, and even without the rewards, the combat experience isn’t easy to come by.”

Matt waved slightly and said, “Matt. Low Tier 6. I have [Hail] as my only real offensive skill. I’m a longsword melee fighter with an armor Talent that lets me take hits a Tier above my own. I also get a strength increase with the skill.”

Conor and Annie looked interested, so he flicked his armor on for a moment to give them a look. He was going with the same excuse that he used during the golem fighting, as he was sure that Juni had it registered. There was no need to blow a cover that was already provided for him.

Liz continued, “I’m Liz. Blood mage who can act like most water mages, as I’m sure you already know. Emily, we should see how your lighting works with me. I absorbed some blood iron, so maybe we can do some combination attacks there. I’m good at sustained and long fights, as the more people bleed, the more free blood I get to use. I can take down Tier 7 foes with my skills.”

Matt held up Aster, who had walked by him, and introduced her, “This is Aster, my bond and the third person on our team. She’s an arctic fox who uses ice spells. She’s just starting to talk, but she’s only really at two-word sentences, so cut her some slack. She loves eating ice cream and hearts.”

The latter caused everyone to pause slightly, but no one questioned it. He also purposefully didn't say their ages. While Liz was six months older than him, she still wasn’t quite nineteen. While not unheard of,it was an incredibly fast pace to reach Tier 6 by. They were hoping that little tidbit would be overlooked.

Aster looked around and asked everyone present, “Ice cream? Where? No smell.”

The others smiled at that, but Emily asked, “While I don’t have a problem with it per se, why are you three in charge? You’re weaker than us, and younger by a good margin.”

Liz answered that. “Well first, we’ve been in the kingdom for a while. We came in as a part of the subjugation mission for this planet.That involved fighting in the golem battles when we were Tier 5, and we took both first and second places for our contributions when taking the fortification.” She let that settle for a moment before she tacked on, “We were only mid Tier 5 at that time attacking peak Tier 6 monsters. We’re on the Path as well.”

The last was added as almost an afterthought, but Matt had to smile at how it caused all of them to re-evaluate their perceptions of the trio. Liz, for all her bitching about high society, had a knack for handling people.

Conor nodded, “That’s impressive enough; I won’t complain.”

Annie asks, “So you’ve been here longer. Why choose the kingdom over the queendom?”

Matt shrugged a shoulder casually. “We were already here and actually like Juni- the Prince's right-hand man. Also, we wanted to delve in peace during the downtime between the announcement and attack.”

They had since confirmed that it was a good call, as anyone who chose to swap sides had been confined to the cities for the duration of the countdown timer. They were stuck there until the neutral city had been built. Matt didn’t want to know where they would be if they hadn’t had the time off to increase their wealth and strength before the announcement of the war.

Liz checked her watch and said, “We were told that we wouldn’t be deployed until tomorrow, but I’d like to get some light sparring and team tactics training in tonight. Nothing crazy, since we don’t have a healer. But enough so that when we get started, we don’t have to fight together blindly.”

No one disagreed, so they went to find a training room, and saw that mostly everyone had the exact same idea. All of the training rooms they came across were already occupied.

The Golem Battalion had been nearly fully staffed with the arrival of the Pathers. It didn’t escape anyone’s notice that there were no teams consisting of cultivators on The Path and kingdom cultivators together. They were always in separate groups.

They stood around for nearly ten minutes, until Conor asked, “Does anyone know how the challenge areas work?”

Liz caught on faster than Matt and called out, “Brilliant! I challenge you three to a duel.”

Matt laughed as their AIs asked for confirmation. When they accepted, they got a notice that a platform would be sent to their location shortly, and showed a four-minute timer.

Annie looked at the other man and nodded, “Good thinking. I wouldn’t have thought of it on my own.”

Conor looked unperturbed. “Saw it in a movie, so I can’t take the credit.”

They milled around, and to the shock of the other teams nearby, boarded the platform when it descended. They got a marshy swamp area; Matt felt bad for anyone who didn’t have a skill to keep out murky water and foul stenches.

The teams who were huddled around the front entrance of the kingdom’s building put two and two together as they watched the group of six. As their platform rose, Matt was able to see four more platforms moving in their direction.

Summoning his sword, he began moving forward, only to stop when a hovering woman appeared to ask, “What’s the challenge for, and what win conditions do you want?”

Matt quickly said, “We’ll be using the platform for round-based three vs. three with team swapping and breaks.”

The woman shrugged and vanished while echoing, “Well, let me know when you all are done.”

Almost as an afterthought, she added, “Do you care if people can see or watch in?”

Liz quickly added, “We would like our privacy, please. From all but you, of course.”

The edge of the area seemed to shimmer in the air like a heat haze. Seeing that they were protected, Liz withdrew her spear and said, “Well, let’s test each other out some, shall we?

Matt readied his blade. They had a war to prepare for.