The Path of Ascension Chapter 214

Chapter 214

Luna felt a ripple in space, and like everyone else, narrowed her spiritual perception into the Clans’ moon to inspect the group who came out.

Tier 13s, and with the overly full feeling that came with a successful Folded Reflections reward. Seeing that, everyone’s attention retreated off the now thoroughly scanned team and spread back across each of the eight moons.

The nerves across the highest Tiers were palpable, and translated to the various spiritual senses trying to shove the others away from their area of influence. But with so many spiritual perceptions layering, it was like trying to shove the ocean away with one’s hands.

It just flowed back in, but the exercise was more about demonstrating displeasure than actually accomplishing anything.

In the Empire at least, it was outright illegal for higher Tiers to spread their perceptions so widely on a regular basis, as well as being rude, but Minkalla paid no heed to decency at the best of times.

Thirty seconds later, when another spatial ripple appeared on the Federation moon, everyone repeated their swarming, to see that it was only a pair of Tier 14s leaving from the fourth floor with new Concepts. Luna and everyone else returned to a more neutral stance before four quick exits to various moons from floors five and six raised their hackles. None of the entrances gave them anything of consequence, and she quickly remembered why she hated Minkalla.

She was half tempted to bring out her tail, just so she had something to flick.

The waiting for the final floor’s reveal and the unknown fate of her children were like two sore spots that were also rubbing her fur the wrong way.

Normally, things weren’t quite so bad, but with the fourth floor Courtly Warfare, she knew the various groups would be preventing anyone from fighting a boss undisturbed. It would help them better finish off the last of their kill missions, which would form a bottleneck on the final level of the seventh floor.

As tensions rose like boiling water trying to escape the pot, a fight broke out between two Republican and Corporation Tier 40s. They at least had the manners to fight each other in the outer system and keep their attacks limited in scale, but the gas giant that was already on its last leg was obliterated by a stray attack, creating a pretty swirl of gasses trailing perpendicular to the rest of the system.

The fight at least provided some entertainment that was more exciting than counting the spires of the planet again, during the lulls between teleports.

Luna was just getting ready to start scratching something when another ripple appeared on the moon under her.

As her spiritual perception swept over them, she instantly teleported next to her charges and brought them all to the hospital, with her heart racing. They were well into Tier 12, which made her wonder when they had been forced to Tier up. More importantly, she could feel the spiritual damage that always accompanied a new Innate skill slot. Skills were not yet placed inside them, but that didn’t directly tell her anything surprising.

Even with her acting to shield her charges, everyone over Tier 25 in the system was already hovering over the moon, demanding answers to the most important question.

What was the final floor?

She used all of her spiritual sense to wrap up her children, but she could feel others, notably the Tier 45’s from each Great Power, ripping her shielding away and trying to inspect the four of them.

Minkalla was a neutral ground by treaty, but each Great Power had the ability to staff their planet with one Tier 45, and their largest job was to learn about the newest up and comers each Great Power had sent through the Forge.

Watcher Eru, the Empire Tier 45 representative, was doing his best, but even with his help, their efforts were shaky.

As they materialized, Luna finally had the opportunity to inspect her charges, and she didn’t like what she saw.

Liz was ostensibly the best-off out of all of them. She was missing an arm, yes, but was otherwise limited to an array of small injuries and a not-quite-healed scar on her throat. However, while the injuries that she still had were minor, the fact that Liz, with as much focus as she’d given to her self-healing and regeneration enhancements, hadn’t healed through them all passively meant that she must have been several times over normal healing limits.

That Aster, with a shattered ribcage, shredded and torn foreleg, missing tail, and skin covered in third-degree burns, was the next best-off spoke to the degree which Liz’s healing had already carried her. Still, at least most of the fox’s wounds were superficial, save for a bit of internal bleeding that wouldn’t prove life-threatening for a few more days.

Susanne was missing a leg and an eye, with raw fourth degree burns rendering half her head a charred and burned mess, down to the bone. Several of her limbs were covered in fractures, and there was basically no part of her body that wasn’t bruised. She’d broken three fingers, cracked her collarbone, and a portion of her exposed skull had a chip of bone missing. As she was doubtlessly far over her healing cooldown, that could prove an issue.

Matt was unsurprisingly even worse off. He was the physically toughest of the four by a substantial margin, but that just meant he tended to throw himself into harmful situations with even less regard for his physical well-being than the others. His hands were slightly blackened and had so much nerve damage, she wondered if he could even properly hold his sword. He was missing half his hip and right leg, had a broken left foot, a shattered arm, half a missing hand, and a fractured jaw with half his teeth missing and only a single one fully intact. To top it all off, his chest was a mess of puncture wounds, one of which had torn one of his lungs to bits and caused some worrying damage to his heart. That his entire body was an off-color purple from a forming bruise was almost an afterthought.

It would be inconvenient to fix, but he had [Bandage]s covering the worst of his wounds, and he could be stabilized well enough to make a full physical recovery. What worried her more was his vacant, unfocused and catatonic expression, as well as the way he was limply hanging off of Liz.

That was not a good sign, and her claws were out in worry at the worst possibilities.

Luna refused to allow herself to panic, however. His spirit was intact, and his Concept felt very healthy. He hadn’t failed Folded Reflections, that much was certain, so she had a chance at fixing whatever was wrong.

Looking to Liz, who seemed to be at least mostly conscious, she was about to ask when her [AI] received an update from the girl. At the speeds Luna was processing, that was faster than her speaking. It was a good sign too, as it showed she remembered their exit procedures.

The message was thankfully short and to the point. “Final floor Mind Over Matter.”

She passed the information on to the waiting horde of watchers faster than she could even allow herself to properly appreciate a double-Concept final two floors.

That satiated most of their curiosity, and most left, but the Tier 45s’ spiritual perceptions kept sweeping her charges, trying to catch any hint of whether they had reached Minkalla’s core at Tier 11. The masks they wore were in no way strong enough to hide their real cultivation from such a Tier difference.

It was also a question she wanted answered.

Both Tier 12 and Tier 11 delvers could gain an Innate slot, but it wasn’t required to fill the slot immediately. Some did, but others left it open to absorb a skill after they left. It was tricky, as the Innate slot wanted to be filled, and even an errant nudge of a core skill could push it into the Innate slot, but no amount of upgraded [Analyze] studying would reveal that particular tidbit. It would be even worse for the other Great Power watchers, as they had to contend with Watcher Eru fighting their scrutiny to protect their proper identities.

Instead, they were looking at how far along into Tier 12 the kids were.

It was also what Luna was investigating.

They were a little more than a third of the way through Tier 12, which nearly guaranteed the fact they had to Tier up early which was expected if disappointing. That meant it was just a question of when they Tiered up and what the Tier 45s were trying to sense, but that wasn’t so easy a task.

Before a full second passed from their exit, the spiritual perceptions vanished, and Watcher Eru appeared next to her, using his range advantage to help keep anyone from easily intercepting AI messages.

“What’s wrong with Matt?” That was her first question and most pressing concern.

Even as healers rushed in and started casting [Bandage] on their wounds, since actual healing would need to wait, Luna didn’t have the luxury of time if something serious was wrong.

Some matters of the mind could be time sensitive.

Liz paused for an agonizingly long two seconds as she clearly mulled over how to say what happened without giving too much away to anyone who might be tapping in. “A hefty amount of spiritual overstrain, and then… He saw his Image in person.”

Luna paused hearing that, as her mind ground to a halt.

They had found a white hole?

That seemed impossible, but they were talking about Minkalla, after all. Anything was possible, and if the planet really came from the higher realms, the fact it might have something that didn’t exist in the lower realms shouldn’t be surprising.

As she processed that information, Luna inspected Matt a bit more closely and had a moment of realization at just what that meant for him. She just needed a single piece of information to know if it was a bad thing.

“Liz, sitrep? Quickly!” Luna was counting the milliseconds as they ticked by at a glacial pace.

“Situation three-N.” Liz responded, and her mouth began to twitch into a smile, which would have been well earned in any other situation.

Situation three-N meant they finished Minkalla at Tier 11, and Tiered up on their exit. How they had accumulated enough Genesis Energy to get so far into Tier 12 was something she would find out in due time, but the implications for Matt settled into place immediately.

Matt hadn’t doubled his mana yet.

And he was undergoing an Inspiration.

Luna finally allowed herself to panic as she threw her Domain at Matt.

***

Matt couldn’t believe it.

A white hole existed.

It was real.

That fact seemed like a mantra resounding through his mind.

It made him feel like he had found his place in the universe, despite not knowing he was adrift before.

The epiphany felt like he was in a pool of water that perfectly matched his body temperature, allowing him to forget that anything else existed.

He felt at peace, despite being in serious physical pain.

Almost without his control, he felt his spirit start to seemingly expand and merge with the world around him. It was trying to do something, and he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to analyze or question it, he was just able to experience it.

Wake up.

Matt’s mind jolted into awareness, as a presence far beyond his own slammed into his spirit and mind. His cultivation was utterly crushed, his cores slowed to an utter standstill, but the sheer bliss he felt seemed to fight it, pushing against the suppression and even making some headway.

His head was stuffed full of cotton, and he could barely understand what was being said… Or not said, messaged. His AI was alerting him to several Highest Priority messages from… Luna?

With no cultivation, even his thoughts felt agonizingly slow as he accepted it.

“Wake up. You need to use your Talent.”

His Talent? But that was automatic. The messages kept coming though.

“You’re undergoing an Inspiration. I’m stalling it, you need to fight it, you need to use your Talent.”

Panic fought through Matt’s clouded mind, even though he wasn’t sure why.

A voice cut through the fog.

You are about to Tier up twice in quick succession.

Oh. OH!

Matt’s panic finally fought through his brain. His maximum mana doubled with every Tier, but none of them knew what would happen if he didn’t double his maximum on a given Tier, whether he would be able to quadruple his mana, or would miss out on his Talent’s greatest power. He tried to mimic what Luna was doing, suppressing his own cultivation, but his Inspiration had already started, and there was no stopping it now.

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He needed to double his mana now, and the fastest way to do that, he sent a message in response, “House. Drop house.”

He’d barely even sent it when Matt suddenly found himself inside Luna’s house where he dropped his own house immediately. Then before he could realize the transition they were next to his mana crystal.

Even before his house had bonded to him as a growth item, the mana crystal it ran on was already perfectly matched to his own, and the millions of mana it currently held were more than enough to fill his pool a dozen times over.

Liquid poured down his throat, even though his mouth was closed. As it was absorbed into his stomach and began to concentrate his mana, his spiritual sense finally was able to perceive Luna properly.

His manager usually had a wild air about her pale skin and dark hair, but today, it looked like she had gone through a week long bender, with bloodshot eyes and sallow skin. If that wasn’t enough, right before his eyes, he watched as the blood vessels in her eyes burst, and her nose started leaking blood like an artery had been cut.

Seeing her assistance was in no way easy or free, Matt tried to hurry along the process of the mana concentration potion, and redoubled his efforts to slow down his spirit’s expansion.

Both were futile.

His spirit seemed to be already on the final stages of expansion, and the potion was beyond his control. Luna seemed to notice the same thing, and her skin turned translucent as her presence redoubled.

His inspiration seemed to halt for a moment, but that was when he saw Carol, Susanne’s manager, appear next to Luna before she almost instantly collapsed. Whatever she had done had earned Luna a moment of reprieve, and together, they resisted his spirit’s expansion for the few seconds needed for the mana potion to take effect and to attain his Tier 12 maximum mana again.

At first, he almost didn’t believe it when Luna’s power vanished, and his expanded spirit seemed to find harmony with the realm around him. It was like he was a part of the realm itself for a moment, like he was connected to everything.

That was when he understood.