The Path of Ascension - Chapter 303

After their latest victory, Matt expected their Guild contacts to encourage them to keep pushing into Federation territory. After all, with two Archwarriors dead and two captured, the five pinnacle elites that had been mostly responsible for holding the Tier 25 battlefields together in that sector, they had an obvious opening. Perhaps they’d go after the Tier 26 Terra or something. But instead, they’d been informed that their help was no longer needed.

It wasn’t exactly a dismissal, but they seemed quite set on redirecting them back to Empire space after the three of them recovered. Liz had gotten a healer to attenuate some of her worse curses and Aster’s skin was already regrowing, though she could fight in fox form anyway. After a bit of rest on his part, Matt’s spirit only hurt if he overextended himself in a few specific ways. Sure, his armor would need some pretty extensive repairs before it was usable again, but he wasn’t reliant on it.

Eric had a backup suit of power armor that he could pilot, even with his half-regrown legs. If they needed to, Matt could use it himself despite it not being made for him, but it would probably be more of a hindrance than a help if he’d tried to use it. But [Cracked Phantom Armor] had gotten him this far, and that was before it had gotten upgraded and received an additional boost from his Tier 25 Talent.

They’d be fine, but from what he’d gathered, the Guild leadership was worried about them “radiating curses strong enough to rot flesh from bone” and “utterly horrific injuries” that “absolutely required immediate specialist intervention,” which was a blatant exaggeration in at least five different ways. Team Zero might be injured, but they were far from being forced to retreat due to their injuries. Everyone kept giving vague deflections, but he’d overheard several conversations saying that “there is no way that we’re letting them anywhere near a battlefield.” Matt was tempted to find a skirmish or siege to break just to prove them wrong, but there weren’t any good candidates within easy range. Maybe next time.

Joy had also been pushing for them to head home so she could officially get her rewards for participating in the capture of Fred Baxter alongside Mercury. It sounded like, while she would get several bonuses for her service, she was mainly just looking forward to bragging about it with either a hated rival, longtime lover, or perhaps an older sibling or parent. She wasn’t very clear. Before any of that could happen, though, Mercury demanded they stay long enough to have a final get together before they left.

The six of them had spent a good bit of time with the Guild elite, so they found the request hard to decline. Doubly so when Mercury opened his home to them.

“I’m no cook myself, but I have a friend from my Villain days who has a knack for it. You need to try some of the local food before you go!”

Hearing that, Matt looked at the rest of Team Zero trying to let his hopefulness bleed through. They had only really had street food the last time they had been able to walk around a Guild planet, so getting to sample some proper cuisine and better yet, chat with a Talented Guild chef, wasn’t something he wanted to pass up.

Liz chuckled and agreed so Matt turned his attempt at puppy eyes to Dena, Eric, Joy, and Morgan.

When they didn’t look impressed, he grabbed Aster, who knew what he wanted, and transformed into her fox form while putting on her best puppy eyes. Holding her in front of his face, Matt asked in a poor attempt to imitate Aster’s voice.

“Can we please stay and try some food? Pleaseeeee!”

Aster even added a small whine into the mix, which really helped sell the act.

Surprisingly, Morgan was the first to cave and agreed with a shrug. “I’m down to try new food, and leaving a day late won’t really change anything. A little party could be fun.”

Eric and Dena agreed fairly readily, meaning Joy was firmly outvoted, and very mopily conceded the point.

Knowing she was a bit of a foodie, Matt shoved the still pouting Aster into her arms as he tried to bribe her by asking Mercury, “Can I use your kitchen to cook up a few things as well? I’m not Talented, but I’m a decent cook myself.”

Mercury nodded gleefully. “Of course! Doubly so if you can whip up some of the snacks I fell in love with when I was in the Empire.”

Getting his confirmation, Matt turned to Joy, who was busy trying to dump Aster out of her arms. The fox in question had frozen herself to Joy’s hands while trying to look cute, and Matt applauded her attempts to cajole the pilot.

“I can even make you something from home as well. Come on, don’t be a Debbie Downer.”

Joy rolled her eyes as she shoved Aster back into his arms. “I’m not being a Debbie Downer. I just want to get back home and brag. If we just stay for a small party, I’m fine, but I know what Guild parties turn into, and small isn’t a descriptor I’d use.”

Matt raised an eyebrow even as he put the transformed Aster back down. “Oh?”

Joy rolled her eyes and sped up to talk to Liz, even as she called over her shoulder, “Yeah, Mr. Anti-social. You’ll see. You’ll see!”

Matt got a little worried about having to interact with hundreds of people, but when he asked Mercury, he got the answer he was looking for. “Nothing like that. While I’d love to bring you guys to a proper Guild party, we don’t really have time to set that up. Now, those are quite the spectacle. Let me tell you about my first true Guild party, it was amazing. I was a junior Villain, Tier 3 and new to the city. Still didn’t know my ass from my elbow when I pulled off this amazing caper. First day I arrive in the city, I see this giant sphere filled to the brim with money right above this casino, ripe for the taking. A villain duo hits it but gets slapped around by the premiere Tier 5 hero team of the city. They were hired by the casino for the promotion to protect the money, and I think to myself, ‘But it’s all right there, and how hard can it be to run past some Tier 5?’”

Matt snorted while Aster full on laughed, to which Mercury nodded in agreement. “Like I said, I didn’t know my ass from my elbow, but I saw shiney and I wanted shiney. So, I look into everything and the promotion was going to end that night, so I didn’t really have time to plan or anything. Anyway, I decided to go to the first black market I could find and buy some maps of the sewers so I could use them to get away. It was a great idea, and literally nothing could’ve gone wrong. Well, the guy I bought the maps from didn’t tell me the city had just remade the sewer system after a hero and villain fought in them and cracked half the system.”

Seeing where this was going, Matt grinned at the thought of a young Mercury messing up like that.

“Not really having a plan except, ‘be fast’, I waited until they were about to take down the money and was just going to run through the glass. Imagine my surprise when they weren’t going to be idiots and open a door or something and roll out a red carpet for me to steal the money. They had a suction tube and started draining the money. Panicking, I just ran at it and shattered the glass with my head the hard way. I surprised the shit out of everyone and using a spatial backpack I just started waving it around while money flew everywhere.”

Dena, who had fallen back to join the conversation, shook her head. “No way. You have to be exaggerating.”

Mercury laughed but rubbed his neck as he shook his head. “Nope, it’s all recorded.”

With a flick of his finger he sent them a recording of a much younger Mercury standing in a globe with paper money flying out of the Mercury shaped hole in the side of the glass while he waved his spatial backpack around.

Until he got a little too close to the suction vent thing and the bag got sucked into it.

“And as you can see, my bag got stuck, leaving me dumbfounded.”

The Mercury in the recording hopped up on the side of the ball, and using his legs, deadlifted his backpack out of the vent with a groan until the suction was broken and he was sent flying through the glass one more time, just as a [Fireball] whizzed right past where he had been pulling.

“With my prize in hand I just started running and dove into the sewers, only to find the map was completely wrong. But the good thing about getting lost is that those chasing you can’t predict where you’re going. After like two hours of running around being lost as shit, I finally found what I thought was an exit, but it was in fact the rain runoff of the local Tier 35 guild who was having a massive party. I thought I was nabbed for sure, but they were awesome and let me keep my ill gotten gains. They even let me join the party as something of a mascot. I had so much alcohol poured into me I’m still waiting for the hangover to hit me a thousand years later.”

That story got everyone talking about various misadventures they had gotten into as they entered Mercury’s house, which was a nice, if austere, place. Thankfully, it had a full kitchen, even if it looked like it had only been used a handful of times, that was connected to the living room so Matt could chat while cooking.

After Mercury’s story, Dena shared one of her and Eric’s misadventures from their early time on the Path. “Eric and I knew each other from the time we were kids. Grew up on the same block to poor families who were more than happy to just exist and do as little as possible. We wanted out and knew it, but that stuff can be hard to shake. After we joined The Path, we found ourselves two planets away, but renting an apartment in a similar area without even thinking about it. Some local toughs must have not gotten the message about us being on The Path, because they came knocking on our door asking to come inside. We were super confused, but we let them in and even offered them some food. When they asked for protection money we just laughed at them, which pissed them off good until we mentioned we were on The Path. That sent the idiots running but we were renting in a shitty, neglected house, and they broke the door latch trying to rush out, leaving them trapped with us until fire rescue could come get us out.”

Eric chortled at the memory. “It gets even worse. They tried to squeeze out one of the windows, but the owner of the house had sealed them shut for some dumb ass reason. They were panicking something fierce by the time the door was opened. It was after that we asked ourselves why we gravitated to such a shitty part of town. We immediately moved to a luxury apartment in the downtown area the next day. Now that was a nice place.”

Dena poked Eric in the side while grinning wickedly. “Except that bidet incident.” At Eric’s wince, she explained, “The place was the first time either of us had seen a bidet and the big lug turned the water on full force and got a surprise enema.”

Eric complained as everyone laughed at him. “It was more than an enema! The water pressure was trying to clear out my tonsils for fucks sake.”

Liz grinned and leaned forward with a wicked grin on her face. “You should hear the story of how Matt, Aster, and I met!”

Aster smacked Liz with the pillow she had been leaning on at the reminder. “You got me covered in blood! I had forgotten about that. How dare you?!”

Matt smiled along as he reminisced about their first meeting, even as Liz and Aster played off each other as he cooked them up some snacks. Fritters were easy, but they were the perfect snack food for this kind of chatting, and were apparently one of Mercury’s favorites.

Just as he was setting the plate down, Dena flipped her hair and poked Matt with her toe. “I was just telling Liz about how lucky she was that I didn’t wear a mask when I recruited you. I set her up for your love of redheads.”

Matt rolled his eyes as he denied that accusation. “I dated a brunette before Liz, you know. And I had flings with all manner of hair colors, so it’s not like I have a type.”

Dena snorted at him while Eric chuckled and shook his head, saying, “Yeah, no. Your eyes hardly left Dena the whole time we were there.”

“What? That’s not true at all!”

Dena flicked her finger and sent everyone a recording of Matt from when they first met. It was weird seeing his younger self in the Benny’s Inn clothing, but his attention was drawn to his eyes as the duo walked away from the counter. His eyes bounced from Dena’s rear to her hair and back again until she was out of the room.

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Shrugging one shoulder, Matt denied everything. “Clearly an AI forgery. I would never.” Holding back a grin, he tapped the now empty plate towards Dena. “On a completely unrelated topic, can you get us a refill?”

Laughing, Dena grabbed the plate and sauntered over to the kitchen, making sure to sway her hips like she was in high heels. Everyone took in the view, and Morgan nodded at Matt as she watched. “I mean, I get it.”

That caused everyone to laugh, even Dena, who turned the tables back on Matt. “My point is proven. If it wasn’t for me, you might not have married Liz. Praise be me!”

Knowing he was going to regret this, Matt denied even further. “One time is hardly setting a precedent to like redheads.”

Eric snorted mid sip of his beer and nearly died as he choked on the liquid going down the wrong pipe. “It was hardly one time.”

Flicking his finger, a half dozen videos of Matt watching Dena out of the corner of his eyes when they were in the bar or in the gym cause Matt to blush.

He was going to defend himself when he saw the final video of himself lamenting that she had let him hit her in their sparring, just to see his younger self flush bright red as she took her top off and exposed her sports bra. His eyes were indisputably not on the shirt with a small scratch on it, but instead her chest before he yanked his eyes to her eyes where he flushed even deeper.

As everyone started to rib him, Matt held up his hands. “They slowed down the recording to make it look like I was staring. I glanced at most. And—”

Dena half stood and pointed at Matt. “He admits it!”

Liz toasted Dena and half bowed. “It seems I really do have to thank you!”

As if that wasn’t enough, Aster took her own shot at him. “Do you remember when you guys were trying not to have sex because you guys are dumb? Here’s a recording I saved from the time.”

A slightly older Matt watched as a sweat and blood covered Liz tiredly stepped past him, and just like with the earlier recording of Dena, his eyes went from the strands of hair that escaped her helm to her rear.

“Ok I have a type. Sue me.”

Laughing, Mercury pretended to take all the fritters from the plate and asked, “Hey Liz could you give us a refill?”

Liz chuckled and put on the same show as Dena had earlier. Turning the tables on Aster, he pulled out his own recording of her. “If we’re sharing embarrassing moments, I have one of you biting the tail of a fox soldier in the vassal war.”

Aster flushed but shrugged even as she kicked his shin. “I wasn’t fully sapient by that time.”

Liz walked back into the room with a plate full of rotting fritters, distracting Matt for a moment. He opened his mouth, and Liz shook her head. “Whoops. One moment.”

“Are you okay?” Aster asked.

“Yeah!” she called back, returning to the kitchen, “Just lost control over a curse. I’m fine!”

Matt refused to relent, despite Aster’s attempt at deflection. “Bullshit. You’d already eaten the Fruit of Perfection, you have no excuse.”

“Fire bad is the only excuse I need.”

Seeing Liz return with a non-spoiled plate of fritters, Aster grabbed one and shoved it into her mouth.

Joy rescued her by turning to Morgan and bumping her shoulder. “I remember you having a crush on a cute little redhead a few centuries ago when you just joined the army. What was her name? Madison?”

Morgan flushed a little and nodded to Matt, clearly trying to pass the buck back to him. “You get it. Redheads.”

Matt shook his head while waving his hands in defense. “Nope, don’t drag me into this one!”

***

Charlie sat with his team as they were released from their essence pods. As delving would be too time-consuming, they instead had essence directly pumped into their cores through some of their implants for multiple hours each day. It was effective, too. They, along with Alpha and Bravo teams, had reached Tier 25 a few days ago thanks to the shards of reality their own mother had personally crafted for them into gems unlike any other. Their mother was truly the most generous, instilling her very being into a guiding light that pulled them from the inky mires they had been trapped within while creating their Intents. Best of all, as their reward for succeeding, she was coming to see them in person.

Charlie wanted to be as excited as the other two teams were, but after the last few visits from Mother, he was more scared than anything. They had failed her not once, with Cecil losing his mind in the reflection, but then again when Carlos defected and went to the Guilds.

One failure could be explained, but two was a pattern, and one that Charlie worried endlessly about.

Mother Virgil was endlessly benevolent and gave her love to them regardless of their failure, but Charlie and his siblings yearned for a way to prove their loyalty and usefulness. To have a way to redeem themselves in her eyes.

She hadn’t been cold to them, but after her last visit, they felt like they had been left on the outskirts of her affections and they were desperate to get back in her good graces.

Her upcoming visit could be their only chance.

Her upcoming—

The entrance to the pocket dimension rippled and Mother Virgil walked in. Charlie waited to feel the wash of pleasure being in her presence alway brought with it, but instead of the normal rush, he felt little more than a trickle.

From the way Chase flinched beside him, he was not alone in his worries.

Terror started to set in as Mother Virgil went through Alpha and Bravo teams, giving words of encouragement to each person. Charlie hoped and prayed that they would get the same treatment, which would fix whatever was wrong. He prayed that her closeness would fix the seemingly broken connection.

Mother Virgil caressed his face, and it was only Charlie’s hard earned power that let him control the shudder that tried to pass through him at the contact. “How are you Charlie? You seem nervous. There’s no need to be. Tell me about your cultivation. Are there any problems?”

With her touch, the connection strengthened, but it wasn’t even a tenth of normal. That sent a spasm through him, though he kept it under control well enough that Mother Virgil didn’t notice, which was good. He didn’t need to add even more shame to her image of him.

She talked with each of his siblings in turn for a moment before walking into the center of the area, where she could see all of them.

Despite her not looking over at them, Charlie felt like her eyes never left him, and it made him squirm.

“I have an issue, my children. I—”

They all clamored to help before the words even finished leaving her mouth. Charlie and his siblings even more so than the others. This might be their last chance to return to Mother Virgil’s good graces.

Mother Virgil simply smiled but held up a finger, which silenced them. “I love your enthusiasm, but this won’t be an easy mission. So allow me to explain before volunteering.”

Charlie burned with anger that anyone could bear to get in Mother Virgil’s way, but he kept silent like everyone else as per her desires. “Our glorious Federation has run into a little problem as of late.” Charlie felt everyone’s desire to speak, but Mother Virgil continued seamlessly. “The evil Empire has once again cheated and created a trio of strong fighters they prop up as Ascenders. Our allies have failed in their attempts to destroy them, and they have still yet to remove their last false Ascenders. It is shameful, and I refuse to allow them to carry on this farce any longer. To that end, I have proposed that each Great Power send the best we have to create a task force to counter these dogs. We are creating the Harmony Accords, and I need eight brave volunteers to represent the Federation.”

Charlie shot forward the moment Mother Virgil’s words stopped. She must have set this up for them to redeem themselves if she was asking for eight of them, and they all knew it. The other teams had sour looks on their faces, but Charlie Team was ecstatic.

Best of all, the warmth that had been absent from Mother Virgil flooded back into Charlie like a wave.

“We beg you to give us the chance, Mother Virgil. Let us show you that while the rest of the team may have been weak, we are strong and loyal.”

Mother Virgil caressed his cheek and smiled down at him. It felt like the warmth of dawn after being lost in the darkness of a blizzard.

It was home.

It was Mother.

Looking up, she smiled at the other two teams. “Worry not. I have something for you all to do as well, though it will demand even more from you. I need your two teams to reach Tier 35 in a scant few decades. It will be hard on you. Lonely, as you experience millennia in an even stronger acceleration chamber placed within a rift. I don’t ask you to do it frivolously. I am depending on your dedication to slay Waters before the end of this war. I need you all strong, as we will only get one shot to do it right, and it will be exceedingly dangerous. Will you all do it for me?”

As Bravo and Alpha teams called out their willingness to do whatever Mother Virgil wanted, Charlie sneered. He knew they were simply being given a task so as not to feel bad that the eight of them in Charlie’s team were her true right hands.

Looking down, she smiled at them. “As for the eight of you, we will need to get you trained up. The Tier 25 battlefields are brutal, and I can’t have you dying too soon.”

Charlie felt pride rush through him, as it was clear Mother Virgil was worried about them. She cared about them.

Mother Virgil brought them out of the pocket dimension, and reality warped before they entered a rift with the help of a silver skinned man. Once they were inside, they flew so fast the world blurred, until they were in the center of a vast mountain range where seven buildings were built into the side of the mountains.

As they entered, Charlie realized they were simple training rooms. Or at least, the first one was. The only occupant of the room was a single woman in armor standing at ease in the center of the room.

She was Tier 25, but Charlie ignored her to watch Mother Virgil.

“You all have been simply absorbing essence long enough that your combat skills will have gotten rusty, and we need you polished up before sending you into a fight. To that end, I have gathered seven sparring partners. The first is Corporal Dee. She is an average Tier 25 fighter. Once you can defeat her, you can move onto the next fighter, Captain Elva, who is the weakest of elites. Once you defeat the last fighter, Colonel Shay, then you will be ready to enter the war.”

Charlie was beyond honored that Mother Virgil would set something like this, as it was clear she was worried about them in a real war, but her next words caught him off guard.

“This was expensive to set up, as I needed to bring all seven of these trainers out of the war. If I hadn’t, we would be limited to a Tier 35 rift, which only has a eight times acceleration and that is far too limiting. But it also means the seven of them are out of this war for good, so I need your contributions to outweigh what I lost with them. This is a Tier 45 rift, so time passes eighty times faster in here than outside. Take your time and learn the lessons the people I have assembled can teach you.”

With that statement, Mother Virgil vanished as if she had never been there.

Before he could speak to his team, the woman, Corporal Dee, blurred as she raced towards the eight of them, her fists glowing with mana.

There was no time to draw a weapon, but Charlie moved into a position to defend against the worst of the attack while getting ready to drive a fist into her abdomen in retaliation, but Corporal Dee stopped right before she reached his melee range and blurred to the side.

It didn’t feel like a skill was being used, as there wasn’t a structured burst of mana. Instead, her speed simply increased to an incredible level. It felt like a mountain crashed down on Charlie and he was sent tumbling through the air and skidding along the smooth floor.

Kicking his legs to gather momentum, he flipped himself back to his feet ready to re-engage, but he instead caught a knee to the face.

Pain lanced through his entire body as he slammed into the farthest wall and felt several of his bones break, one even severing his spine.

Debilitating pain coursing through him he fell to the ground, just in time to miss Conan being tossed into the wall right above him, his body just as battered as his own. Chase followed a moment later, then Clarisse and Calvin were thrown in the same motion. Carter didn’t hit the wall, but simply dropped where he was standing. Corvis bounced off the ceiling before landing directly on the rest of them, and finally Cynthia was sent flying after she had been struck by Carter’s unconscious body, crashing into the pile of bodies with a final thud.

Corporal Dee sauntered over to them even as healers started putting them back together.

“The Counselor said you all had spent too much time advancing without solidifying your foundations, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. You aren’t even pushing your cultivation to its limits.”

Conan spat at her, “You are a Tier higher than us! Of course you are stronger than us.”

Corporal Dee chortled. “No, I’m a Tier 25, just like you all. The difference is that I’ve spent fifteen thousand years in the army and have fought in two wars before this one. Like The Chancellor said before she left, I’m an average fighter. What I excel at is whipping new Tier 25’s into shape. I don’t care that you were strong at whatever Tier you excelled at, it means nothing here. This is a breakpoint Tier. There are monsters who have spent fifty thousand years fighting and refining their skills to become the strongest they can be at Tier 25.”

As Charlie struggled to his feet, he grumbled out, “We may have gotten rusty from advancing with just essence injections, but we were fighting up three Tiers at Tier 12 and kept that going until Tier 17, when we dropped to two Tier ups. We are also physically stronger than you—”

A fist caught him in the chin, shattering his jaw like it was made out of glass. He remained on his feet, but that only meant the knee hit him in the testicles instead of the face.

Gripping his short cropped hair, Corporal Dee bent his face up to look into her eyes.

Charlie expected them to be dead, like someone who had seen too much, or alive with the brutality of enjoying what she was doing, but instead he only saw indifference. That was somehow worse.

“That is your ego talking. Anyone in the war and at Tier 25 is strong. Maybe they weren’t as fancy-pantsy as you were, doing Minkalla at Tier 12, but immortality does funny things to skill. You can take a thousand years to perfect a single skill, to refine your Domain, to reforge your body into a perfect weapon. There’s plenty of fools like you, who dive into the war expecting it’ll be no harder than a delve, and they die fast. But you’re supposed to be facing Archwarriors and Slayers, and they delve up. And if you can’t face little old me, when I barely even do low Tier 26 rifts, how do you plan on standing against someone used to doing high 27 rifts for fun?”

Charlie growed with his now healed jaw and let the runes which the Empire had so cruelty carved into his bones flare to life as he swung at her jaw in return. Chase and Carter attacked at the same time, moving to pen Corporal Dee in and make it so it was impossible for her to dodge.

Instead of shattering her jaw like he intended, she deflected his blow with her forearm and drove a punch into his stomach. She twisted in a weird way that made his sibling’s blows just graze her, but for the first time she nodded.

“Good. You have the power, but now I need you to start using it effectively.”

Jumping backwards, she called out, “Try to attack me. No skills, pure melee. I want deliberate attacks while not leaving yourselves open. If you leave any gaps I’m going to break something.”

Charlie wanted to complain and say that they knew this, but held his tongue. Mother Virgil had set this up for them so they could hone themselves. Embarrassing as it may be to be defeated by an average soldier, if they wanted to be useful to Mother Virgil they needed to be able to defeat Corporal Dee, and the first step of that would be shaking off the rust that had clearly built up on them.

That was fine, though.

Thanks to Mother Virgil’s efforts, they had as much time as they needed.

They just needed to clear these seven rooms, and then they could join the war and bathe in the blood of anyone who stood in Mother Virgil’s way.

What was a little pain when the reward was pleasing Mother Virgil?