The Path of Ascension - Chapter 298

Captain Elkdren jogged alongside his men as they went through the start of an exercise routine. His unit, like all stationed here, had taken serious losses and damage on the frontlines and were being given time for rest and recovery. They needed to be in top condition when they reentered the war. Elkdren was just happy his people were only in the horrifically wounded category, as while they had needed months of healing, none of them had died on their last assault. A fortune few other units had.

They were all Tier 26s and now in perfect shape thanks to the healing, but today was the day for their yearly serum dose, so the exercise was preparation threefold.

Firstly, the serums were better ingested into the body if the body was warm and ready to absorb blood and energy to repair itself. It seeped into the muscles and tendons, giving a better effect per serum dose if taken warm.

Secondly, and while no one would admit it to anyone but themselves, the serums hurt less if the body was already energized and primed to take in energy. None of them feared pain as the warriors of the Federation, but taking a serum cold was like pumping cold honey into your veins.

A warrior only needed to experience that once in their life to vow to never take their physical augment serums cold again.

Thirdly, from the moment they entered the Federation army as warriors they had only been given their serums after being pushed to their physical limits for the above reasons, and such a tradition and habit was hard to shake. It wouldn’t feel right if they didn’t work out beforehand.

Captain Elkdren even had a good plan for this warm-up.

Captain Kesler’s unit was also up for their serums, and so they had decided to have a little spar between their companies. It was more engaging than just running through an obstacle course, and it gave everyone a chance to hone their skills a little before they cycled back to the frontlines.

The sparring went well, and despite Captain Kesler’s unit earning a single victory more than them, they were all eager for the upcoming serums.

Elkdren’s usually well-disciplined troopers fidgeted, some of them going as far as rocking back and forth on their feet, but even he could feel the tingle of anticipation of the serum in his fingers. He just had the discipline to keep his hands in a relaxed position, clasped behind his back.

The serums weren’t addicting in and of themselves. There were dozens of tests on the subject, but what loyal warrior of the Federation didn’t desire, yearn, and crave to grow stronger and retake the glory that was rightfully theirs? All of them, of course.

An overly attractive Makers man opened the door with a wide smile and gestured for them to enter as he went over the same information that they had heard thousands of times.

Elkdren wanted to say he was beyond needing the repetitive information, but it was protocol, and hearing it made things feel right.

Tradition and holding onto their past honor was how the Federation would regain its former glory, just as their past humiliation at the hands of the other Great Powers who had descended upon them was a reminder of why they needed to not only regain their former glory, but surpass it.

Elkdren sat in the chair and returned the smile of the Maker who personally saw him. As a Tier 26 Captain, he not only got better treatment, but he also got a stronger potion, green compared to the warriors yellow.

As he felt the potion slide into his veins, he sighed as his muscles tensed and relaxed in waves.

It took a few minutes for the initial pain to pass, but when it did, he felt like he was even stronger than before and could take on a thousand of his past selves.

Most of the power would fade over the course of a few weeks, but a portion of it would remain behind. While his potion was better than the average trooper’s, he knew that Majors, Colonels, and Generals all had better serums. He had heard rumors that there were even stronger variations that the true archwarriors had access to.

He had never been able to get one of the few archwarriors he had spoken to to confirm that rumor. All they ever told him was to reach their level to find out.

Elkdren knew it was a far-fetched dream, but it was also the one he held closest to his heart.

Stretching, he called out to his men and gathered them up to take a nice slow run back to the barracks where they could digest their new power.

Or, that was the idea.

They were only a dozen steps out of the Makers building and heading towards the barracks when a high priority alert went off in Elkdren’s head and his carefully paced run came to a sudden halt.

His troopers, perfectly in sync with him, came to a halt with him, knowing something was wrong and ready to react. It only took a moment for the actual orders to come in, and when he saw the provided information, he immediately spat out orders.

“Back to the barracks, top speed. Prepare for rapid deployment.”

The moment his orders left his mouth, the troops blurred as they cranked their perception to the limits and moved. In less than a second, they had already returned to their barracks and geared up.

Two minutes later, they were on the staging field as dozens then hundreds of other companies arrived.

Elkdren linked up with the other Captains he was familiar with to ask what they knew, but they were as clueless as he was, even as he listened to his warriors asking similar questions to each other.

He didn’t know who started it, but someone said they heard from a Major that there had been an attack on a civilian planet and they were being mobilized to retake it. Just the idea of such an engagement set his serum warmed heart ablaze with fury.

He had known the other Great Powers had never been content with just ganging up on the Federation, and must have taken the opportunity to kick them while they were down. He wondered how many of his brothers and sisters from the Community had had their lives reaped.

Hundreds?

Thousands?

Millions?

Horror washed over him and he added his voice to the chatter in the Captain’s chat about wanting vengeance, as he realized the crux of the issue while others talked about the possible death toll.

“It doesn’t matter how many died. If even one of our brothers or sisters died under the hands of the inferior invaders, I’ll extract ten times that many lives from their Community in retribution.”

His words started a litoney of similar calls to arms. “Not just ten times. A hundred times!”

“A thousand!”

“No, a million times as many. Do they think we are just pushovers who will tolerate such behavior?”

“No, burn a planet for each life lost. Then maybe they will understand that there are consequences to their actions.”

The chat quickly devolved into a fever pitch, but it silenced when a group of Majors came out led by two Colonels and a General.

A General Elkdren knew. General Falcon was a decorated Warrior who had only been a newly commissioned Lieutenant when her unit single handedly repelled an attacking force in the War of Great Shame.

Everyone was silent as they waited for the legend to speak and give them their orders.

Contrary to his expectations, she didn’t immediately speak, and instead let her silver eyes roam over all the Warriors. Elkdren even had the honor of having her gaze linger on him for an instant, and he tried to stand taller despite his posture alreadying being ramrod straight.

The General’s voice was soft but hard, like steel wrapped in velvet, when she finally spoke. “I’m sure you know something odd has happened. Even questioning what the other Great Powers have done. Some of you are closer than others. The main rumor I heard was that the other Great Powers attacked a planet. That rumor is false, but only to the first degree. The dogs of the Empire have attacked Mobile Shipyard Seven, killing indiscriminately like the rabid dogs they are.”

General Falcon paused for a long moment, letting everyone absorb that information. “Word has just reached us, so the details are unclear, but our objective is clear. We are the closest gathering point for Warriors, and so we will be the first in—” Her speech was interrupted by a roar from the warriors, which caused the General to smile for a moment before she continued. “We will be the first in, so we don’t know much, but our mission is clear. Retake the system, dislodge the attackers, and make them pay for their indiscretions.”

Her small smile turned into granite as she said, “We don’t know what we will be facing, so we need to be flexible. To that end, I’m giving general orders now, and it will be up to the Majors to lead the Captains assigned to their ships. Maneuver as you see fit, but our objective is as simple as it will be difficult. Defeat the enemies. No quarter given.”

The moment the order was given, the ships that lined the mustering yard lowered their hatches, and assignments were sent out through their AI.

Elkdren barked orders to his two Lieutenants as they hustled over to their assigned ship.

Despite the chaos of hundreds of companies moving across the battlefields, not a single one got in each other’s way as they moved under the Generals eyes.

They were Federation warriors, better than such simple mistakes.

After he got his troops settled down he met up with Major Rattle, who did his best to prepare them for their upcoming assault. Sadly, information was scarce, so their planning was limited. The only thing they knew for certain was that the target of the first attack had been the shipyard, and not the fortress world. The fortress world was undoubtedly already defeated by whatever occupying army had been sent.

What they debated and tried to game out was where the army would be stationed.

They suspected it would be the fortress world, but there was always a distinct possibility that the defenders were holed up near the inhabited planet in the shipyard instead. While it didn’t change their mission, it would change how they would attack.

Elkdren and the others, along with Major Rattle, hoped the enemies were foolish enough to stay with the shipyard, but they doubted they would be so lucky.

As the attackers had proven in their ambush, it had less defenses than a fortress planet.

The moment they entered real space they poured out of the ship and organized themselves in their companies, but as Elkdren looked forward, he had no idea what he was looking at.

Where the shipyard should be was a massive fortress of ice.

It was like someone had grown an iceberg around the shipyard, as absurd as that sounded.

Even an army of ice mages couldn’t create that much ice in just a day and a half since taking the system. It was just impossible.

Except it was in front of him.

Elkdren would have thought it was a trick, brought in by some impossibly large spatial item, but he could see bits and pieces of Mobile Shipyard Seven captured inside the ice, which meant that was impossible.

But what he was seeing was impossible, and he didn’t know how to weigh two equally impossible things and decide which was true.

Thankfully, he didn’t have long to ponder, as orders came down for them to advance with shield teams leading.

Stolen novel; please report.

That settled him and those under his command. Elkdren didn’t know about impossible feats, but he did know how to fight. He was good at that.

“Lieutenant Marqus. Take Corporal Diana and Menendez forward to join the shield wall.”

“Aye, sir.”

Elkdren watched as a wall was formed by the various defenders and smiled. They might not be a proper army that had dedicated shield walls, but they were numerous and were more than capable of creating a facsimile.

When the wall was formed, they started flying forward and towards the impossible fortress.

They were halfway to the fortress when it seemed to come alive.

Where there had been hills of snow, constructs made out of mana rose up and started unleashing their spells. It was like autonomous crossbows had been given form. Their wave of spells slammed into the shields, and while a few crumpled under the onslaught, the deaths were few as the healers were ready to mend those wounded. After the first wave of attacks the shield stabilized, and while it forced them to slow their assault, it didn’t stop the indomitable Federation spirit.

“Sergeant Sal, go relieve Diana and Menendez with your squad.”

When he got a crisp, “Aye Sir,” Elkdren scanned the fortress of ice.

He had been in enough battles to sense that something was about to happen, and he wanted to cut it off if at all possible.

There were many things wrong with this situation, but the main one was nagging at him. Where was the army that had taken the system?

Had they really left?

If they had, who was commanding these spell constructs?

Were they trying to defend the fortress itself and make them fight inside its icy corridors?

That seemed foolish when the Federation army could just choose to hang back and blast this icy fortress to bits with their overwhelming power.

An ambush from the rear?

That was equally impossible with their numbers. He asked Major Rattle, but he was just told to keep a steady advance.

Elkdren didn’t like that, as it meant the Major knew something and wasn’t sharing it, but he had his orders.

As they reached the quarter mark, where Elkdren could feel the cold radiating off the mountain of ice despite the lack of air to transfer the cold, a figure in black armor accented with gold stepped out of a crevasse in the ice.

Elkdren’s AI recognized the figure a moment before he did.

Slayer Quill.

Horror dawned on him and his company as the Slayer pointed his left hand seemingly right at them.

A blinding flair of light lanced out and a person-thick beam of energy reached out to reap lives. It punched right through the frontline shields of the company next to Elkdren’s and then swept to the left, away from Elkdren’s company.

Like a sharp blade through a vegetable, the beam of energy cut through Elkdren’s comrades regardless of their individual defense, killing indiscriminately as it went.

Elkdren looked to where Captain Kesler’s command had been accompanied by Major Rattle just moments ago.

There was nothing larger than the occasional arm or leg that hadn’t been in line with the beam of death.

Except, that was proven false when Major Rattle’s bits and globs, all that was left of his body, rippled as he reformed, gasping in the void of space. Elkdren was about to order his warriors to protect the Major when a crossbow bolt took him in the head, and his AI signature vanished.

Seeing Major Rattle was truly dead, Elkdren took operational command of his company back. “Scatter out, and don’t clump up!”

It was a standard tactic to counter such a strong single point of damage. Normally it was better to gather behind shields, but when a spell could kill you through the shields, it was the height of foolishness to remain clumped up.

Elkdren just hoped that logic applied to Slayers.

“Lieutenant Marqus, get our warriors back to me.”

He was only half listening as he looked for somewhere they could enter the fortress.

Entering a hostile position fortified by ice constructed by an Ice Slayer sounded like the height of foolishness, but staying out in the open when there was someone using a beam spell to cut them down was certain death. The more he thought about it, the more Elkdren was certain that was the right choice. Slayer Scoop was known to be a beast bond, and everyone knew those animals who could only hope for human forms were weakness incarnate, and those created by rifts were even weaker.

That meant she wasn’t even a real Slayer.

Better to fight in her fortress than to fight a monster like Slayer Quill, who simply pointed a hand and killed hundreds, even if it meant getting close to the spell constructs still firing at them.

He wasn’t the only one to come to a similar conclusion, as close to half of the companies broke ranks and rushed forward while spreading out, until they were just feet away from the ice. There, they regrouped out of danger from the Slayer still above them, cutting through any groups who stayed too close to each other. It was a good thing too, as the armored figure started to engage with the units who were too slow.

Elkdren cried out the moment his feet touched the ice as a debilitating cold tried to creep into his legs, but he flared his Domain and resisted the power.

He and his Lieutenants had to grab a few of his warriors to help them free themselves, but they managed to prevent any deaths. They were fortunate that they acted quickly, as they saw how in the crevasse next to them, Captain Ablor lost three people from her team, frozen from the inside out.

They tried to melt the ice, which didn’t seem to work; fire spells were weaker than they should have been and any ice that was melted seemed to regrow the moment the heat was taken off it. Elkdren even had their ice mage try and carve a tunnel through the ice, but she wasn’t to do more than the fire mages to the giant structure before them.

With no other options, Elkdren gave his order. “Gather yourselves and push deeper. Watch out for traps like the crossbow things. Sergeant Ultrch, Sergeant Exlor, take your squads and take point and rear respectively. Slow and steady. This cold is blocking my spiritual perception.”

They climbed through cracks in the ice until they reached the metal hull of the shipyard, and Elkdren ordered his warriors to halt while he inspected the structure in front of him. If the ice was only outside, getting inside the shipyard could mean an easy path forward.

Drawing his finger on the frozen metal, he cracked the hull of the station and jumped back as the plate fell back at him, thanks to the slow rotation giving the illusion of gravity.

“Sergeant Ultrch.”

The man and his squad jumped into the interior of the shipyard and spent a few minutes scouting things out. When it was noted as being seemingly untouched, Elkdren nodded.

If the Slayers had more time, they probably would have booby trapped the shipyard, but the speed of their response had prevented such measures.

“Sergeant Exlor, take your squad and return to the opening of the crevasse and spread the word that we have a seemingly safe opening.”

Once she was on the move, he dropped into the hole and set up a secure breach point.

It took a few minutes, but when Sergeant Exlor came back, she reported that there were a dozen similar points and that over a dozen other companies were on their way.

Pursing his lips, Elkdren ordered Lieutenant Marqus to interface with the shipyard systems and see if they could tap into the life support systems. If they could, they could not only start to thaw out this ice cube, but track their enemies.

While Lieutenant Marqus was able to get the system operational, the shipyard’s power station was either disconnected or robbed of the stored mana. Elkdren suspected it had been spent to make the very ice around them, but simply filed that away for later reporting.

As the other companies funneled through his section of the shipyard, he had his warriors finish setting up a makeshift healing station. The moment the support personnel arrived and started healing the wounded he gathered his men and progressed deeper into the hull.

With Major Rattle dead he didn’t have access to the Command staff channels, but he also hadn’t tried to fall under someone else’s command. He wasn’t a glory hound who wanted to pave his own path to fame, but he knew the Majors would be struggling to maintain operational command over their own sections without him reporting to them. He knew the mission as well as they did. Reach the top of this fortress and hopefully find and kill, or at least repel, the Slayers defending that location.

Easy enough.

While he had never been in a space station like this, he knew who had spent significant time on one.

“Corporal Ves, you did a rotation on one of these tubs. What is the best way to get to the top?”

Corporal Ves chewed on his lower lip for a moment before pointing up. “There are really two options, sir. The fast and dumb way and the long and impossible way.”

Elkdren didn’t like that answer and waited for the Corporal to elaborate. “Normally, you would just use an outer hatch to exit the station and fly to another of the rotating rings. If you don’t want to use that and want to stay inside, the only way to move between rings is the central shaft.”

Elkdren was about to say that was where they needed to go then, but Corporal Ves shook his head. “Sir, it’s a straight shaft they move cargo through. If being outside was allowing the Slayer to shoot at us, that might as well be sitting in his sheath.”

Cursing, Elkdren thought as hard as he could, but had no perfect answer come to mind.

Lieutenant Vallotton thankfully did have an idea, even if it wasn’t a good one. “Corporal, what kind of cargo is moved through that tube?”

Corporal Ves shrugged. “Everything from specialty parts to processed materials used to make the ships.”

Seeing where she was going, Elkdren asked, “Barstock and the like? Lots of metal?”

“Yeah, they use a lot of that shit… Oh, fuck yeah! I get what the LT is asking, and yes. They always have these girder things. They are the backbones of the ships. Fifty feet thick of solid steel, and they always had some of them in the central spires. Can’t make a ship without one, and if it’s busted you need to replace it. Can’t really fix it, so they always keep a few dozen in reserve. Even a Slayer ain’t burning through that much steel if we bundle them and just ride behind it.”

Elkdren slapped Lieutenant Vallotton on her shoulder even as he stood. “Spread the word and then let’s go. Corporal Ves, where do they usually keep the girders?”

“If this shipyard is like the one I served on, then they usually keep a few by each ring for easy access.”

With a mission goal, Elkdren led his warriors down the cold tunnels. They weren’t sprinting along, but they were careful where they put their feet.

No one wanted to find a trap with their boots.

They made it halfway to the central pillar before they heard fighting in one of the adjacent halls.

Rushing forward, they found two companies fighting an armored form that was covered in blood.

It was alone, but had cut down half of the two companies with bodies littering the floor.

“Advance and fire. Frontlines shields forward.”

Putting actions to worlds, he pulled out his projection lance and channeled [Severance Shot] through it as fast as the spell amplifiers could cycle.

His company’s concentrated fire caught Slayer Torch off guard, and she staggered as she took a dozen shots in rapid succession. That brief pause allowed the other two companies to disengage, and they added in their own fire.

The Slayer raised her spear and spun it rapidly, but while it blocked some of the attacks, more slipped through and slammed into the feather-like armor she was wearing.

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and seeing it was working, Elkdren called out, “Give it everything you have!”

To kill a Slayer. That was a feat worth bragging about. Maybe his name really would go down in history.

As the armor started to falter, he grinned.

As Slayer Torch fell back into the blood that surrounded her, he called out, “Prepare pulse grenades! Throw on my command!”

Slayer Torch fell back into the pool of blood, and he was about to command the grenades to be thrown when the decimated companies rushed forward melee weapons at the ready.

He wanted to curse them as he held his command to throw the grenades. It would be best to blow the Slayer to bits first then ask questions later, but seeing their casualties, he understood their hatred, rage, and desire for personal revenge.

Except, something was wrong.

The Slayer who fell into the blood sunk too far. It was like she was ice melting on a hot summer day.

He was about to cry out when the blood that coated everyone and the floors and walls started to writhe like the tenderals of an octopus.

Then, they spun like a blender, and the warriors in front of him were cut down.

“Throw the grenades! Throw! Throw! Throw!”

A full dozen grenades flew forward, and the rapid pulses of energy blew the pool of blood into droplets and then those droplets into nothing.

Still, he didn’t trust it.

“Fire spells! Fire spells! Fire spells!”

A dozen types of flame spells blackened the corridor and heated the frozen walls until they glowed and started to drip, despite the cold aura that weakened the spells even this deep inside the shipyard.

Panting, Elkdren swept his spiritual perception across the corridor and found nothing.

They had actually done it.

They had killed a Slayer.

Slayer Torch had been snuffed. A fitting end for a tainted human such as herself.

A small cheer started to rise, but he instantly crushed it. “Back in formation! Prepare for an ambush. Our mission isn’t over and hasn’t changed. Refill your mana pools and get ready for another engagement.”

They carefully moved forward and through the searing heat of the area they had cooked just to return to the frozen corridor ahead.

They found the remains of another two battles, and to his anger, could only find the bodies of his warrior brothers and sisters. Some of them looked like they had been strangled by the scraps of cloth littered around them, but he wasn’t able to find the one responsible.

His company was closing in on the central pillar when Sergeant Exlor cried out, “Rear!”

Elkdren spun and froze, not able to understand what was going on.

Slayer Torch stood there, spear in hand. Head snapping back to the front, he saw another Slayer Torch standing there.

There were two of them.

How?

[Clone] was the obvious answer, but not one that Elkdren liked or could accept.

If they had only managed to kill a clone that had been ambushed by them while it had fought two other companies, what chance did they have alone?

None.

Making a desperate play, Elkdren called out, “Through the wall!”

To their credit, his warriors followed his command and Chancellor Virgil herself must have been watching out for them, as when they cut through the hull of the space station, they found themselves in a crevasse in the ice fortress.

“Go! Go! Go!”

He followed the troopers into the bitter cold and turned to the hole they had made as his mind spun. “Corporal Ta. Reform the metal. Lance Corporal Gala, create some stone behind the metal. Everyone else prepares to repel the Slayer.”

That order sounded mad, but he had no other option.

Corporal Ta threw her shield forward which grew until it was large enough to cover the hole they had made in the shipyard’s hull and Corporal Gala created a mass of stone behind it.

He expected banging and clanging as the Slayer battered her way through the metal and stone, but nothing happened. As heartbeats turned into seconds and seconds into minutes Elkdren’s nerves didn’t settle and instead his panic spiked.

Something was wrong. You only didn’t bother to charge someone when they jumped into a trap.

He tried to scan through the ice, but his spiritual perception couldn’t pierce more than a few feet of the ice before being halted.

Turning, he visually scanned the ice around his squad.

“Lieutenant Marqus, have your squad take position in the rear.”

When Elkdren didn’t get an instant acknowledgement of his order, he turned to where Lieutenant Marqus should have been, but the man was gone along with the rest of his company.

Spinning, Elkdren looked around, but all he could see was ice and snow.

But that didn’t make sense. He was inside a glacier of ice. How was there snow?

He looked up but found nothing but the gray and white of a snowstorm. Looking left and right, he tried to find the glacier.

Reaching out with his free hand and spiritual sense, he found nothing.

Was he in an illusion?

If he was, then firing his projection lance could be dangerous, but there shouldn’t be anyone above him, so he raised his arm and fired, watching the spell get absorbed by the wind and snow.

There was something wrong, but he just knew he needed to move. Flying forward with everything he had, he felt it growing colder and colder, with ice creeping into his very spirit until it seemed to reach his cultivation cores.

As the ice reached the center of his power, his Domain tried to resist but it was cold and sluggish, and he felt his power vanishing as his very essence turned into ice.

Elkdren didn’t want to die here, and kept running with his mundane body trying to find an exit.

All illusions had an end, and he was sure he could find it.

He—