Chapter 304
Drifting through the emptiness of space, Matt listened to Dena grumble with Morgan and Joy. They should have been picked up well over an hour ago, but their teleporter was nowhere to be seen and they were all starting to get grumpy.
Finally, after three hours Allie appeared in the lounge with a casual wave and a murmured “Sup?”
Morgan, who was closest, kicked her right off the bench without hesitation. “That's all you have to say when you are three hours late!? What the flying fuck!?”
Allie teleported to another seat and shrugged. “Shit’s hectic as fuck right now.”
That got everyone's attention, and Aster asked, “What's going on?”
“Aiden slipped behind enemy lines, without my help I might add, and captured some idiot elite whose father is a big shot in the Republic on his way back to recover. They, in turn, lost their fucking minds about the situation and are calling it a breach in war law, despite the guy being a valid target, and despite his being away from the war front. Aiden, being Aiden, told the messenger to shove it up her ass and then proceeded to occupy the local system all by himself.”
Matt blinked as he processed all of that information. It sure sounded like something Duke Waters would do, but there was one thing he was confused on. “And how does that make you late? Are they escalating the war or something?”
Allie looked confused. “What? No, I just didn’t want to miss any of it. Buuuuut, things started to slow down and coming outside the rift is like putting the drama on fast forward.”
There was a chorus of insults hurled at Allie, who just grinned. “But really, the drama is juicy. Aiden is demanding the release of all Empire and Guild prisoners in return for this guy and the Tier 46 countered by saying if Aiden handed his son over he’d allow Aiden to leave Republic space only seriously hurt, which brought the GP leaders in. Rumor has it, Janet, the Republic president, put him under house arrest. But who knows if that's true. The Boss is apparently demanding that the father is immediately forced to ascend.”
Aster shook Allie before twisting her back and forth a little. “Where is the teleport button?”
Allie wiggled her eyebrows but did in fact teleport them back into Camp Lightfoot.
The moment they arrived, they were swarmed by healers from Kudzu, the crafters from Firmament, a pair of strategists from Chess, and finally, a bemused looking General Darrow who nodded to them.
“Welcome back, and I’m gratified to see you all alive. Is there anything you need to immediately report?”
When they said there wasn’t, he turned and told them to report in after they were healed, taking most of the Chess people away with him with the data dumps from their [AI] and Matt’s armor’s own sensors.
Colonel Galanodel just blinked at Matt when he handed her the storage ring that housed his armor. “Where is the rest of it?”
“That's all that survived.”
“Survived what? There is only a third of the armor left.”
Matt flicked a finger at her and sent her the recording. “Cameron Chime, a Federation Archwarrior, decided death was the more important part of valor and detonated his core in melee range. I think he weaponized the backlash from a botched Aspect formation as well, but it’s hard to say.”
Colonel Galanodel tsked at the report, but took the ring and moved to Eric, collecting what was left of his primary armor. Killing a pinnacle elite and capturing three more, along with a dozen peak elites, was more than a good enough excuse for coming back with such damage, but none of that seemed to mollify Colonel Galanodel.
Allie, who had summoned an apple fritter to her hand at some point, mumbled, “She’s just pissed because she just got done fixing Ai'la’s and Arthur’s armors from our missions.”
That certainty explained some of her irritation. While Team Zero got a few mandated days off between missions, the groups weren’t always so lucky. If their armor was destroyed, it was up to the crafters from Firmament to get them back in working order in a matter of weeks, sometimes days. Due to how complicated their arms and armor were, that was not an easy feat, requiring round the clock work by everyone.
With that in mind, he made a mental promise to try and do something nice for them. That, unlike promising his armor would be in better shape after his next fight, was within his control.
When Colonel Galanodel finished gathering everyone's armor, he sent her a message listing a few things he’d like to change on his armor in the next iteration. Nothing major, but thanks to the repeated combat, he had found a few pain points in the otherwise fantastic armor.
Once that was taken care of, the healers of Kudzu descended on them like a pack of wolves on their prey.
Matt tried to insist he was fine with just some lingering residual spiritual damage, but they ignored his wishes and dragged him to the hospital, where they spent a full hour poking and prodding him.
As much as he wanted to complain and protest, he had it the easiest out of everyone except Joy, who hadn’t been injured at all. Not counting whiplash, of course. She spent fifteen minutes bragging to the staff about her capture of an Archwarrior until, after an inspection, they kicked her out. Her grin told him she had done it on purpose, just to escape, which made Matt contemplate throwing his weight as an Ascender around.
In the end, he decided to stick around and just went into Aster's room to hang out. He would have visited Liz, but she was still getting de-cursed in a fortified healing room, which was both unpleasant and would require her full attention in helping the healers find and destroy the afflictions. There was some interesting tech involved, but apparently it wasn’t a good idea for him to study curse receptacles, even before they were filled.
Though, Matt almost wished he had, as Aster made him watch a movie about their time in the vassal wars while the healers were inspecting them for anything nefarious that might be lingering in them.
As it turned out, ‘When Sun’s and Daughter’s Bleed’ was significantly better than he expected. Instead of exaggerating everything like movies about Ascenders were wont to do, it was fairly grounded, and told a variety of compelling stories about the war. It heavily focused on the three of them, but quite a few old faces made appearances and had their own stories told.
“Wasn’t she so good? I’ve watched it like five times since it came out.”
Matt perused the information about the actor, Cynthia Sinclair, that Aster sent him and could easily agree she had played Aster to perfection. His own actor, Marcus Burtop, had done a fine job, but he had played Matt a little too stoic and heroic for his own taste. It wasn’t excessive, but Matt didn’t have the level of gravitas the actor had put into every word now, let alone when he was sixteen.
“Yeah, she really captured the young you. What’s your angle though?”
Aster blinked up at him even as her tail started swishing harder. “I have no idea what you mean. Why would I want or have an angle?”
Matt didn’t believe her for a second and grabbed the floofy tail which still tried to swish out of his hands. “Spill.”
“Fine, fine, fine. If we follow the typical Ascender time frames, we’re going to be sent on a press tour in the coming months, and things would seem far more authentic if you mention how well she did a time or two in the interviews. I talked her up a little before we had our ceremony, but if I overdo it, it will look inauthentic.”
Matt saw where she was going and ruthlessly shut her down. “They’re going to make movies about us no matter what we say. Why get involved?”
Aster pouted something fierce, and Matt almost caved. “Because they were supposed to make a tv series about my time at the bond academy, but they pushed it back because of us being Ascenders. I want my own show! Do you know how cool that would be!?”
Snorting, Matt caved. “Sure, I’ll help.” Pausing, he cocked his head and inspected his smug bond and poked at her through said connection. “How did you even figure that out?”
Aster tried to seem aloof, but he just stared at her until she gave in. “Ugh, so I might have received a thank you message from her after I complimented her performance in the movie and after some chatting we became sort of friends. As I got back to Empire space, I got a message from her where she complained about the project being indefinitely pushed back for larger group movies.”
Matt sighed and shoulder bumped her. “And how are we, or more specifically me, supposed to do anything here? It sounds like she has the role, so what good is complimenting her acting going to do? And why is she so certain she is getting the roles? Aren’t the actors usually cycled?”
Aster perked up just to wince as a healer shoved a glowing hand through her chest. “I made a few public statements that she should get first dibs to play me in any major movies right before the ceremony.” Matt hadn’t known that, but it was typical Aster. “And before that, you know I made it clear that I don’t just want random bloodline foxes playing me in major productions. It's gotta be something cold. As for what good this will do, I have a seven step plan on how to drop hints about my time at the academy. Step one, they are going to ask questions about the missions you two did when I was at the academy, and I intend to bring up my time at the academy anytime they do that. Step two—”
Aster kept rambling on until Matt agreed to help. He wasn’t sure it would work, but he was interested to see a show about her time in the bond academy. He had gotten messages from her, but they had been cut off for a decade, and no amount of stories could make up for that. Seeing it acted out could be fun, and if her plan didn’t work, he had his own plan.
Message a studio and tell them to do it.
He knew Aster was worried about throwing around the title of Ascender thanks to some of the rumors about her not earning the title, and while he wouldn’t use it for his own ends, he had no issues throwing his title around for his younger sister.
The moment he saw an opening, he tried to distract her. “What about changing your bloodline to aurora? Do you need anything for that?” Seeing the excitement on her face, Matt corrected himself, “Do you need mana or mana made things that I can help with? I’m not going to be an errand boy.”
Aster pretended to wilt, but he felt her excitement underneath it. “I will need aurora natural treasures, so—”
Matt held up a hand in protest. “I can’t make a Tier 25 aurora rift, let alone inside a rift. Aurora might be rare, but it's not unheard of, get Chess to get you some more natural treasures.”
“If you had let me finish, you wouldn’t look so dumb. I already had them get me some treasures. I also had them get me an aspect adjustor. It’s stupid expensive to use, but with a few billion mana, you can add a mana type to a natural treasure. Aurora is just adding illusion to winter mana, so it should be easy.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Matt sighed and leveled a flat stare at her, “No, it’s not. It’s very carefully balancing illusion and light mana in concert with the base winter mana, then stabilizing the entire thing with mist and space mana. Do you know how hard it is to use a level four supporting element? If it required more than a drop, it would make the entire thing level five. It’s only because we have samples of aurora mana that it’s even possible. Heck, you know about the struggles that Erwin has been having, trying to synthesize a new level three element. How would you like it if I described your smithing as just ‘shoving one bit of metal into another,’ and… you’re just having me on.”
Aster smiled and innocently looked to the side, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Matt just grumbled.
His bond reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder, “But seriously, thank you. I don’t tell you that often enough. Yeah, I have what I need for now… but if I’m going to cultivate my bloodline, I’ll need a really robust sense of aurora and everything it can manage. There’s just not a whole lot out there, so I’ll need a lot of natural treasures to work with. It’s not a rush, but if you can just poke at it somewhat, I’ll be really grateful.” Matt started to agree, but Aster wasn’t done, “After the war though, when I’m making that last jump to space ice… that’s when I’ll really need your help. And Zack’s. And Erwins. And well everyones. You are still making a guild right? Dedicate a team to making space ice for me, thanks.”
Matt couldn’t help but laugh as he asked, “Is there anything else you would like to order while you are at it, princess?”
When Aster looked like she was seriously contemplating the question, Matt shoved her off the table.
They were settling into a good argument when three bedraggled Lizzes came into the room.
One Liz moved sluggishly through the body of human-Liz as blood, the second was a phoenix with drooping wings collapsed on the shoulder of human-Liz, and the final one was human-Liz herself, practically dead on her feet and with a spirit that looked like a wrung-out dishcloth.
“Curse free?”
“Yeah, but I almost wish they had left the curses in place. That sucked.”
Phoenix-Liz let out a strangled squawk of agreement.
Melinda stepped past Liz and shook her head. “Oh, don’t complain. It was fun! I got experience with three new types of curses today.”
“Matt, save me!”
Matt didn’t recognize the older healer behind Melinda, but his AI did. Silvermore a healer who had earned their reputation fifty thousand years ago. “You may leave once I examine the other Ascenders.”
They’d already been pronounced clean, but Matt just shrugged and proffered his hand while he inspected Melinda. “So how have you been?”
Melinda just shrugged. “Same old, same old here. Nothing interesting happens inside the rift. It's only when you guys come back that we really get to do anything. Most of the rest of the time, I’m just practicing my skills or enabling research stuff.” She patted his arm and added, “That makes it seem worse than it is. It's a little repetitive, but it's not bad. I’m even going to get to Tier up soon, so that's fun.”
Matt knew Melinda was taking her Tier ups slowly to give her Tier 3 overhealth Talent time to adjust and grow, but he was kind of surprised she was getting to Tier up after so long. He had half expected the healers to keep her at Tier 15 for a thousand years or so first.
“Congratulations are in order then. I’ll have to cook you and Mathew something nice in celebration.” Thinking over the things he knew they liked, he asked, “Did Mathew ever remove his allergy to mustard?”
“Yeah, we took care of that ages ago. What are you thinking of cooking?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I wanted to make sure I can get a little wild. Ok, let me know when they are doing your Tier up and I’ll try to coordinate a dinner around then.”
By the time he and Aster were cleared, Liz had poured her blood body back into her main body and her phoenix body had groomed itself back into something presentable, and the three of them escaped to their rooms to sleep in their own beds.
Sadly, nothing was ever easy, and while they were eating breakfast, General Darrow set a meeting for a more thorough debriefing for just a few hours later. Matt really wanted to complain and point out they hadn’t been given their two days of rest after a mission, but knew this was a special situation.
Aster had been chatting with Allie and the other Ascender had informed them that their half of Team Zero had hardly had a week inside the rift since they had split back up. The war was raging, and they were all busy, which meant they needed to be ready to sacrifice.
The debriefing was thankfully short. Chess simply wanted to confirm a few things about the operations they had done. After only four hours, they were free to return to their breaks.
Knowing Aster wanted more aurora natural treasures, Matt talked to Scry and requisitioned one for his own research before joining Zack and Erwin in their mana testing chamber. While they were gone, Erwin and his group thought they had isolated a new arrangement of a stable fast mana, and he was eager to get his hands on it.
Matt had had a good time in the Guilds, and he wanted to go back when they weren’t fighting in a way, but he was glad to be home.
***
Gan Le shouted into the near vacuum of the planet as spells slammed into him and the sect fighters around him, courtesy of the final spot of resistance on this world, a reinforced command center set on a hill. The spells, which should have rent flesh from bone and severed limbs, left little more than flesh wounds. Though they did add some strain to his spirit.
Junior Sect Leader Su Yi shouted, “Charge in close!” which sent everyone forward, Gan Le included.
A dagger slammed into Su Yi, but when the blade was removed, it left a tiny wound no thicker than a needle might have. In return, Gan Le drove his fist into the face of the Empire soldier.
Bones shattered and blood sprayed, but it wasn’t Gan Le’s.
As the Empire dagger wielder was sent flying, Gan Le saw an Empire General holding her hands close together with purple lightning arcing between them, all while staring at Su Yi.
Attempting to throw himself in between the two, Gan Le intercepted the attack by putting everything into his Talent and Revelations.
I endure what others can not.
Combined with his Talent for reducing damage to himself, and thanks to his Tier 25, anyone in his spiritual perception he chose to extend it to, the spell that threatened to crumble a warship left nothing more than a small burn on Su Yi’s back.
Gan Le might not have been able to intercept the blow himself, but his Talent ensured that the Junior Sect Leader wasn’t harmed. That was why he had been brought onto this team, and he knew how to do his job.
Panting for anyone who might be watching, he watched as the Empire General was slain before turning his attention to the rest of the battle.
He had once been a Young Master, and with his defensive Talent, he had been quite fearsome until his offensive skills had failed to keep up with his peers. Said peers had been wholly unable to kill or really injure him as his Tier 3 Talent grew stronger and reduced damage to him, but his first Revelation had only cemented him as a defensive fighter.
That earned him accolades on battlefields like this, as he was able to keep any group with him much safer by spreading his Talent to all of them, but it had seen him lose his place in the system when he was just unable to keep up.
Still, he didn’t regret it.
It wasn’t flashy, but there was strength in keeping one's teammates alive through even withering spell fire. And it fit him. His Revelations proved that. He was a stone, hard and sturdy, you could break him down, but no matter how small the pieces, it was always stone. That combined with his second Revelation, which expanded on the idea he was a hard man to kill.
Su Yi walked over to him and nodded deep enough it was almost a bow, but not quite. “Thank you Gan Le. That was an impressive move. I could have survived, but it would have wasted a treasure, so I app—”
Gan Le tuned him out. Su Yi wasn’t a bad sort as these things went, but he was a bit too pompous for someone less than a thousand years old. Yes, it was impressive that he had reached Tier 25 this quickly, but his mother was a Sect elder in a Tier 40 sect, and she doted on him. It would be more impressive if Su Yi had failed to reach this height in a thousand years, but he wasn’t the worst leader Gan Le had fought for in this war.
He just liked to talk a lot.
“In fact, I recommended you to my mother and she took note of your impressive abilities. She wants to offer you a great opportunity.”
Gan Le cursed inside even as he kept his outward expression calm. He didn’t want praise or commendations. That led to promotions and being given labels. Labels that led one to fighting peak and pinnacle elite fighters. That led to death more often than not.
Gan Le liked his place in the mid elite Tiers of the wars as a no name fighter.
Still, he had to be tactful in his refusal.
“Ah, Junior Sect Leader, I don’t deserve such praise from one such as your esteemed self.”
Gan Le really meant that. He didn’t want such praise from someone who was going to throw themselves into a fight they couldn’t win one day and die, but he couldn’t say that out loud.
Su Yi didn’t hear the double meaning in his words though, and simply nodded as he received his due praise.
“As true as that may be, my mother said if you do well on this attack, she would consider you for a special mission she is overseeing.”
Gan Le hid a frown. Special missions were never a good thing. Special missions were filled with the unknown and danger greater than anyone was ready for. He was strong and sturdy, but he was also a realist, and knew his limits.
“Junior Sect Leader, I simply can’t accept. Your honored mother would, ummm, would be disappointed by my abilities.” He saw a weird expression on Su Yi’s and knew he had pushed things too far in being humble. “I may excel in some minor skirmishes like this, but when the damage gets too high, my Talents and Revelations simply can't keep up. Then I would disappoint your honored mother and get kicked out of her important business. How could my honor recover from such a blow?”
Gan Le thought that would end the discussion, but contrary to that, Su Yi’s expression only got stranger until he gave him a weird, gazing look. “Gan Le, do you not know who that was?”
When Gan Le looked confused, Su Yi pointed to the black mark on his armor. “Ester Van was a peak dao child with damage that could injure pinnacle dao children if she was given time to charge up her signature spell. And despite taking a direct hit, I only took a small burn on my armor. That's not a level of power that gets you rejected.”
Gan Le cursed internally and wondered if he should have let Su Yi get blasted harder. He could have probably controlled his Talent well enough so that he was only injured and not killed. Probably. Maybe.
Mind racing, Gan Le tried to find a way to deny his participation and came up with a perfect answer. “If she was so powerful, it clearly wasn’t me. It was just your armor and life saving treasures, Junior Sect Master. How could I compare to your glory?”
Gan Le was proud of that deflection, as even Su Yi started looking conflicted. He was inherently prideful and wanted to claim the honor for himself, but it seemed he wasn’t so prideful that he was blind as he shook his head.
“I think you are just too modest, Gan Le. Weren’t you—” Su Yi pounded a fist into his hand as he realized something. “Brother Gan Le, you were a Young Master at the same time as The Drowner. It makes sense you are comparing yourself to him, but that makes you seem too weak and lowkey. You are clearly much stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
Gan Le blinked at Su Yi, not comprehending how the kid had made that connection. Yes, he had been in the Young Master program at the same time as The Drowner, but Gan Le wasn’t an idiot. He didn’t compare himself to that freak.
No, he kept a lowkey profile because he didn’t want to die. He wanted to seem weak so any battlefield he was in wasn’t a danger to him. He only had five hundred years left of this contract, and he would complete his enlistment to the Sect army and would be granted access to the resources he needed to progress to Tier 36. Then he planned to get a cushy job in a Tier 40 sect teaching children. Maybe even counting items in a supply depot, or if he was really lucky, he would find a wealthy Tier 45 woman who wanted a boy toy where he could live as a kept man.
He wanted risk-free ventures.
This ‘great opportunity’ sounded like anything but a risk-free venture.
He shouldn’t even be fighting in this war. With The Drowner in the Empire, the Sects should have never gone to war with them, but the stupid Empire had to not only have another set of Masters, but two more in his Tier bracket. He had contemplated Tiering up to escape their bracket, but statistically, Masters rarely fought in their own brackets. Besides, there were three times as many Tier 25 battlefields as there were Tier 26 ones, which meant those poor fools in the Tier 26 battlefields were more likely than him to face a Master.
No thank you, he was happily going to stay as a Tier 25.
He even contemplated Tiering up right now, but he didn’t think he could spin that as anything but avoiding this responsibility. It was still tempting.
Thinking about the Masters he would be three times more likely to face if he did Tier up, Gan Le gnashed his mental teeth and hoped luck was on his side.
Su Yi threw an arm over Gan Le’s shoulder and walked them over to one of the command stations.
Elder Han, one of this battle Sect’s leaders, looked at them and nodded. “Gan Le. It's good to see you. I saw how you blocked Ester Van’s attack. Very impressive. That more than satisfied Elder Su’s requirements.”
Gan Le wanted to reach back in time and strangle his past self for doing his job so well.
“Thank you Elder. I don’t think it was that impressive. Really. There is no need to bring it up.”
Elder Han nodded. “Such modesty will serve you well. Your mission here is done. You should report to Sector Seven.”
When Gan Le plotted that area, he blanched. It was a section of territory that bordered the Republic and the Federation. That did not sound like a quiet assignment. It sounded like a team up, and even an idiot could figure out what three Great Powers were teaming up to deal with in the Tier 25 bracket.
Making up his mind, Gan Le nodded firmly and pounded his chest. “I am more than willing to complete such orders. It's an honor to get Elder Su’s recommendation and will make her and the Sects proud. To that end, I will be on my way immediately. I have quite a fast personal ship and can be there in just five weeks.”
That was fast enough he’d need to make some risky jumps between teleport tethers, but it was faster than any troop transport and it would get him alone. Then he would Tier up en route and blame it on an inspiration. It would be a little hard to fudge the recordings of his ship, but he could always find a reason to get that blown up in a battle before anyone tried to dig into the logs.
Some people would definitely doubt him, but there would be no proof, and that was all that mattered.
Elder Han shook his head. “That's not fast enough. A special courier will be arriving tomorrow to get you there in a week.”
Gan Le blanched. If he was around other people, there was no way he could fake an inspiration.
Mind racing, he agreed and tried to find a way out.
A day later, when he was escorted into the courier ship, he was still thinking.