Chapter 10 - Of Legionnaires and Quivering

Ascension.

Mankind’s forced evolution from ordinary to extraordinary. 304 of mankind’s fittest evolved. Incomprehensibly powerful and unreasonably effective in the ways of war, the Celestials were beaten back. Nigh fully-sentient creatures, they were terrors to humanity, but Ascension – Ascension saved us.

But to someone like me…it’s a pain.

The results I’d achieve, beyond longevity, were minimal. I would Ascend my Core, it would gain power, but all of that potent power would be inaccessible to me.

Only having one Median, was a minor blessing in that the speed in which I Ascended was unparalleled. No one could match me.

One, my bloodline was a given to superior Ascension over the masses. With all 7 Medians, my Ascension would be above average at least.

But I was exceptional. With all 7 Medians, I would be a prodigy of prodigies.

My Ascension speed was increased even further, by my lacking of 6 Medians.

With less to Ascend, I could run the Road much faster than the other blokes behind with their 200 pounds of luggage.

After getting registered and collecting my formal uniform, Stationery – a strange material required for talismans, and a bracelet set to act as my identification, I had been led to Lord Commander Roy’s Cohort. It was a massive building – it’s getting old – marble and burnished gold, I was pushed into a guest room by one of the servants, and told to stay there til breakfast. When that was, I had no idea.

After settling into the ultra-nice room, I sat down on one of the rugs, my legs crisscrossed beneath me.

Back with Burney, having him peer-review my final product had helped a lot. But it also made my life infinitely harder. There were so many flaws in what I had built. Perfect for functioning at a base level, but to reach the heights I wanted – it had the potential to get there. But it wasn’t there yet.

I needed enchantments, something I thought I could put off. It was foolish, on revision. That pure technology could achieve that processing level. Not even close.

By this age, I would have been 3 quarters of the way to a Primordial’s level. If I knew, almost certainly, that I could be there, the others at the Tournament, would be there and above.

There would be very little my Minds in their current state could do to fight back.

But my code had potential. Enchanting my 6 Christophers would allow them to funnel Essence into processing. Enchantments, however, were expensive. 800,000 units of Essence was the requirement for what I planned to do to my Christophers.

My Minds, the learning part, would help me learn anything so much faster. Including combat, including leadership, everything was a skill to be learned and my Minds could do it all. Each Mind, something my Christophers could replicate endlessly, would pick apart the good bits of what it observed, tailor it to me, and infuse it into my brain with a liberal application of Mental Essence.

Likewise, for combat, for my Minds to learn, I’d essentially need to be beaten up everyday, for the next five years, to get to a reasonable level – it would have been shorter if I my mind was functioning regularly, but I was now dependent on my Minds.

That level of martial prowess would be useful, but not entirely what I needed – not nearly enough of what I needed. I needed to process, to know, what someone was going to do before they do it. Thus, Minds.

But powering it was a problem. And achieving that knowledge before an opponent strikes, and factoring in the vastly enhanced processing speeds of someone who Ascends, was something I needed enchantments for.

And because it needed to be so fast, that my body could react before a fist that broke the speed of sound made its way to my gut.

And I would never be able to move fast enough, because I didn’t have Medians to support my limbs from flying off, even with my Minds, but my goal wasn’t complete evasion. I needed to shift minutely, perfectly. Enough for it not to land damage. Also because with my Minds I was hoping to develop something so close to precognition, nothing like a proper solid hit would ever come my way. But I needed such impeccable timing, that even with proper Ascender’s processing speeds, I would be out of the way of a hit.

But if I could develop precognition, it would take me out of the way for all of it. Looking seconds into all possible scenarios, boiling down into the most plausible ones, rooting out comminalities, and being at the exact optimized position every millisecond, so the entire fight would be choreographed for me, I would be where I needed to be based on what I had done and what the opponent would do 10-20-30! moves ahead of my opponent.

…yay!

Here’s the rub – Impeccable timing, perfect movement, a fuck-ton of Essence. Develop precognition.

But enchanting classes haven’t started yet, so we’re getting started on the preliminaries. Namely, for tonight – Ascension.

I sat in a meditative pose, not yet Ascending, but reviewing. I had maybe Ascended for a week, total, in the past 3 years.

A very little amount. I just didn’t see the use in it. I had Ascended until I could support my brain from turning to mush and enhancing it to learn and perform quicker. After, it was more work than it was worth.

But now I had something that made Ascension worth it. The last two things were enchanting and Essence requirements. Everything else was set.

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Ascension was separated into two phenomena. Colloquially, the two phenomena were Realms and Stages.

10 Realms – main advancement, and Stages – what Realms are segregated into.

The Realms, from least powerful, are Foundation, True, Attuning, Transcendent, Sentinel, Legionnaire, Juggernaut, Champion,

Warlord, Sovereign.

They had other terms, but these were the most widespread. Ascenders, like I’ve said, were unreasonably effective in the ways of war. Their power reflects that, so the names like Legionnaire and Warlord.

Ascension represented infinite possibility. Of course we would expand beyond mere Realms.

That’s where being a Primordial lied.

There were speculations of places of power beyond Primordial. There was nothing investigable, no one had ever reached the 5,000,000 Essence minimum. But, they speculated that anyone who crossed that threshold, would under go something similar to an evolution. With 5,000,000 units of Essence, you’re at the peak, but to evolve further? Frightening.

Not having a case to observe and experiment had never stopped humanity from theorizing. Theorizing required terms for further theorizing.

The theoretical form of Ascension after that evolution is called Cultivation. It’s different because what everyone is currently on is the Road to Primordial Ascendence. Being a Primordial is where it ends. After the collection of 5,000,000 Essence units, you’ll need to tap into something else, something beyond raw ability. But enough theorizing. Let’s start Ascending!

I was firmly within the Realm of Legionnaires. My lifespan exceeded a long 10,000 years. Like every living being, after our evolution into Ascenders, we had a Core.

A Core is a pool of power, something that has all sorts of active and passive benefits. I couldn’t use any of the active benefits, other than the abilities related to my mind, but the passive benefits include minor things, barring longevity. Some of it is a passive enhancement of my body, lagging behind the active power they could imbue their limbs with, and I’d never have the physical capability of an Ascender, but still, I'd rise above a human, my cells would become infused with Essence in the Warlord Realm – something not connected to Medial Capability.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Closing my eyes, and evening my breathing out, I dove deep into my mind. Breaking through Realms required an insane amount of Essence saturation in the air. But I was in the fourth stage, of ten, so all I had to worry about was working out imperfections and inefficiencies in my Core output.

Everyone’s representations of their Cores were different, mine was a machine. Gears, and pulleys. A simple machine, but something I understood. It’s like a switch. When you start Ascending, there’s an instinct where you open a connection to your Core – it’s like shitting. When you know, you know – you go. Following that, everything is done in your mind, and implemented in your Core.

For me, everything needed to be smooth and perfect. That was how I Ascended. By creating the ideal machine.

In my mind of course, 100% efficiency still didn’t exist.

Opening my mind’s eye inside a foggy area, full of sparks and creaks. Gears turning slowly, but with massive force.

Quite frankly, if you happened upon this scene, you’d say it was chaos.

But to me, it was precious. It represented something I could fix, something I could control in a universe where power was everything and something I never had.

When I first started Ascending, sometime around my sixth birthday, it was an arena. Something pretty common for most Ascenders. Simple and appropriate to the end goal of bashing skulls.

It changed after my eight birthday.

Floating over towards the sparks, I started my repairs. Going through a mental checklist, I settled on a HyperSteel insertion. Because, one, Ascension is all about instinct and feel, two, my mental checklist only consisted of a HyperSteel turbine, and three, it was the only thing that fit.

The sparks were coming out of a socket of extEssence, and it was surrounded by little canals. If it was that alone, it only warranted a collection tank and pipes. But there were filters on each of them, so I needed to convert the extEssence, into metEssence, pheEssence, and valEssence. Something done with a simple application of a HyperSteel 31-20-AAHH9 Turbine.

It went like that. Finding visible areas that posed problems, working out the requirements, imagining each component of the material required, and fixing it in.

I climbed 4 stages that night.

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~~Erast Naesanthe, Uncle of Rale Ilem, First Son of the Immortal Blizzard.

I strode into the Prime’s mansion, unannounced. Ever since my discussion with Rale, I had taken it upon myself to provide background help. Not much, but enough to grease his path.

And, despite however much he hates us, he is a part of the Immortal Blizzard’s family. Emancipation is a hoax for any other than the sole heirs of noble houses. He’s important and he requires protection, if for nothing more than protecting the Royal Family’s assets. Him being hostage could derail a number of projects. That’s why I assigned him ten guards scattered through the student and staff population. Three of them should have made contact, by now. I’ve given them autonomy, and it’s on their heads’ if they screw up.

My steps firm and long on the gravel beneath, I passed the Prime’s hexagons of hedges and statues, grass and vibrant flowers.

With a flick of a finger, I threw a crescent of Convergent Essence out, disrupting the cameras and defense mechanisms starting to spin towards me. Power and money – the easiest way to get what you want. Of course, you have demonstrate you’re full of more than air, first.

I stepped under the grey stone arch, something at least 20 feet in height, and rapped on the tall, black wooden doors. Mid-knock, guards dressed in black, armed with humming swords and S-Grade armor, swarmed onto the house.

The reaction time was pathetic. They had the peak of equipment and they still only reacted after I reached the door? I was walking.

Information. On top of being a terrible person, the Prime’s rule was weak. Not even cruel. Weak.

Information extortion is only a short step away.

Still rapping on the door, incessantly, without acknowledging the formation of guards forming behind me.

An arc of crystalized energy warped into formation behind me, my Essence-awareness the only thing telling me something was happening.

It launched across the large lawn with a deep rumble, screaming across the expanse between us. And it collided with my unarmored back, I was wearing a casual jacket and jeans - an article of clothing remnant from my past.

I continued knocking. There was very little that anyone or anything could do to me, barring my mother and father, the Thunder Fist Emperor, and the other Empress and Emperor.

I heard chatter behind me, an even stronger charge was powering up. I was unconcerned.

I continued knocking.

Their final blast, before the converters in the Launcher were depleted, whipped across the distance between us, slamming into my back with the boom of an artillery shell.

I continued knocking. My jacket ruffled slightly.

‘My arm’s going to fall off before they manage a hit.’ I sighed mentally, exasperated.

Letting my arm fall down, I huffed before turning around.

…And then I blew the doors off its hinges.

Shouts of “HALT!!”–“STOP!!!”–“STOP HIM!!!!” Came from behind. Amused, I finally turned to look at them. They were like puppies. Yapping and yapping. Even with the benevolence I show them by not retaliating, they persisted.

Spreading my legs slightly, I summoned a flickering sphere of convergent Essence, its power freezing every molecule in its 5 meter vicinity. It was a warning. I could extend the boundaries and stop their hearts, I could throw this ball at them sending them into stasis for a millennia, I could alter its Essence intake by a single unit and then throw it at them, and their entire bodies would crumple into a single speck-sized orb of crimson, banished from existence.

There were a lot of ways I could kill them.

Instead, I waved a hand and let it dissipate. Acting against those weaker than you is the mark of a coward and a fool.

After my little display, they started to back up but they still remained in formation.

“Enough!” A shrill, high-pitched voice rung out from behind the array of guards.

A man fitted in a set of lightly glowing armor floated over the guards and to a stop 10 meters from me.

“Honored Visitor, I apologize for such rash behavior from my guards. They are overzealous in their desire to –”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, shut up.” I raised my Essence to above his pathetic Sentinel Realm. He was exceeding two hundred years. What the hell is he doing to remain so powerless? His station allowed him nearly unlimited resources!

The man’s mouth snapped shut. His guards were muttering and shifting irritatedly, and worriedly, over the ‘rash behavior’ comment. They knew if I was volatile enough to punish someone, it’d be them. Their heads were on the line.

I beckoned a finger over, and Essence seized every part of his body and carried him, struggling, over to me.

“I need two things from you, Prime of Rhid. You are a wretched ruler and an even worse person.” I looked him straight in the eye. “Before I reveal all the sordid affairs you keep under wraps – ” I leaned forwards and whispered in his ear, “of mistresses, smuggling, laundering, treachery,…harvesting–” I looked at him in disgust. Straightening, “you will do everything I ask of you and your entire existence shall remain that way until I find some, currently nonexistent, shred of pity.”

“You will expend the Inalisan Patriarch’s family debt. I require one of my men in a position I cannot reach. You will put him there. And second, you will ask the Patriarch to completely ignore a student. You will make sure he doesn’t find out this student’s identity, and on the chance he already has an idea, you will make sure he does not let it known–to anyone.”

I raised my presence to a Primordial’s. And brought his face to an inch’s width from mine. “Got it?”

The man was quivering so hard I couldn’t tell if he nodded or not, but there was enough fear to push him along.

I threw him aside and started back down the gravel path. Sending the guards scattering, their discipline breaking.

It was a rush job – I was in and out within 10 minutes, but what was the use to prolonging it when you could walk into their house announced, trounce their guards, and completely annihilate their dignity?

Walking out of the mansion I hopped into a carriage. One hitched to a fire eagle. As the driver, one of my guards(unnecessary, but for appearances’ sake), commanded the bird to take flight.

As the eagle settled into smooth flight and we left the planet, I thought back to Rale.

Corruption was always going to be present and weeding out every piece was futile, but I needed someone in the Ascension Studies department. The Prime of Rhid is the obvious choice to blackmail.

Rale leaving before his first century did him an enormous disservice. His Core had untapped potential, much of which would remain so unless he had one of our methods. It wouldn’t matter much until he reached the Warlord Realm, but if he continued advancing beyond that, without unlocking that potential, he wouldn’t be able to do so later.

There wasn’t an open position in the combat department, and neither was there one in the Ascension Studies department, so inserting any of my people, like I did in a couple others, wasn’t possible. Thus the threatening and messy business.

I needed to make Rale aware of Arcane Fashioning. If it came from anyone in our family, he’d reject it completely. So I could do nothing but introduce some concepts to him and hope he could put the rest together.

I sighed deeply. When he finds out all the manipulation that filled his time at the Inalisan Academy of Essence Formation, the backlash would be terrible. We were all at fault, and this help now would do more damage than good to his relationship with us. But, for once, I’d put him before all of us.

I was at fault for, even while thinking it wrong, not acting. Not being there. I was nearly 800 years old, still I didn’t have the wisdom nor the gut, to do anything. He grew up alone since he was eleven. He’s felt isolated for long before then.

It wasn’t pity for him I felt, it was anger at myself. Pity for him wouldn’t help him, anger at myself might push me into doing something. Anything.

The trip between the three lightyears separating the two Empires, took less than an hour, the Fire Eagle being a beast bred to exist in the Sovereign Realm.

We landed lightly in a forest, the harness between bird and carriage holding taut so we could circle down with little fuss.

Hopping out of the carriage, my guards disappeared from sight, following me without detection, from a distance.

I walked out of the forest clearing, through a barely visible path, my boots crunching in the snow. Quickly reaching a set of wards, I altered their formation, converging the focus of the wards onto a leaf, to ignore me. I left the guards to figure their own way in.

After forcing my way into the property, I set my sights on the sole building.

My half-brother’s mansion. I needed answers about Rale.