The Path of Ascension Chapter 247

Chapter 247

Sergeant Ballor flew through real space around the farthest planet in the Hwah system while tending to his assigned patrol with his squad.

Everyone was on edge, and Lance Corporal Alvarez had almost let loose a dozen different spells at eddies of space dust, but Sergeant Ballor neither reprimanded nor blamed him. Word from higher-ups was that Light and Shadow were almost done with The Path of Ascension, and everyone with half a working brain knew that meant war was looming over them.

As a garrison bordering the Federation, and especially as one stationed near a gateway to a five link nexus system, they would be on the front lines.

This region was registered as a Tier 23 battlefield, restricting anyone above that from participating. Ballor himself was only Tier 22, but he was glad that only a small minority of the people here had Intents.

While he didn’t understand the history behind the treaties, he well understood the effects. The agreements segregated battlefields by Tier, putting a legal cap on the Tier of the participants, and a practical floor on who would participate, while also limiting fights to taking place in the outer systems on specially-made fortress planets, like the one his squad patrolled around. Whichever Great Power controlled the fortress controlled the system, but they weren’t allowed to interfere with its population beyond collecting a reasonable, set number of taxes. They would only permanently change rulers in the negotiations at the conclusion of the war, which was infinitely far away as far as most of the mortals were concerned.

Ten generations of mortals could come and go before a war ended.

Sergeant Ballor had thought it was an odd way to wage war when he was a low Tier, but now, as a Tier 22, he was grateful for those rules. When he was a child, he hadn’t even known that the planet he was on was occupied by the Republic, as life had been basically the same as usual under the occupation. It did explain why his parents were so worried at the time, but there had been no blown-up cities or anything of the like.

Civilized fighting was a good thing, as far as he was concerned.

Once upon a time, he’d thought that Tier 15 would have the weakest battles, but that had changed after actually experiencing it. It had the largest battlefields by far, with up to millions of people involved in a single engagement. Those areas were home to some truly old monsters who had spent tens or even hundreds of thousands of years honing their techniques, wringing every scrap of power they could from their limited essence and the mere two Talents they had to work with and contend against. He much preferred the low 20s. A rare few people stuck around even if they had developed an Intent, but the fact that there could be more than one on a battlefield managed to make them less dangerous overall, as they checked one another while everyone else fought around them. It basically created two battlefields in one, and a victory in either would usually result in the other half surrendering, cutting down on casualties.

Getting ransomed back was humiliating, but it was better than being dead.

Sergeant Ballor was scanning a suspicious-looking meteor when Corporal Vetta held up a hand and everyone froze, getting ready to fight.

“I felt a ripple in space.”

Her words caused Sergeant Ballor to immediately call back into headquarters, and he found the channel inundated by reports of a similar nature.

Waiting for a moment, he got the order he wanted.

“All patrol squads return to base.”

Calling out through his squad’s channel, he relayed the order and they all turned and fled back to the super massive fortress of stone and enchantments.

It was beautiful, and normally a site that he loved to gaze at, but with his position protecting the rear, Sergeant Ballor kept most of his attention behind him. The spatial ripples were now so apparent, his spiritual sense could feel something in chaotic space trying to tear a hole open into reality.

They were halfway there when the message reached them as a system-wide broadcast.

“Light and Shadow have reached Tier 25, and war has been declared by the Republic, Sects, and Federation.”

Sergeant Ballor felt his stomach sink, and with his best speed, he grabbed half his squad while Corporal Vetta copied his actions. They had a Tier and speed on the Lance Corporals, and speed was what clearly mattered.

They almost made it.

Behind them, Sergeant Ballor cursed as seven hundred and fifty-two ships ripped their way out of chaotic space like a tear in a fabric.

The ships seemed slow as they drifted through, but Sergeant Ballor knew that was for good reason. Before they fully materialized in realspace, their cannons fired with a pulse of mana, sending a torrent of projectiles in their direction.

Sergeant Ballor cast [Bulwark] behind himself and didn’t bother to dodge. Corporal Vetta fell into his pile of troops, and they all grabbed onto each other and him.

The first salvo passed them by, and most of the shots splashed on the planet’s shields harmlessly.

The salvo of point defense shots were directed at the returning scouts, but that was what Sergeant Ballor wanted. They took the hit and were sent flying to the planet even faster.

Sergeant Ballor’s nascent Intent was strained, but he had protected his squad, and with the additional boost of speed given to them by the attack, they passed through the shields and flew to the indicated rendezvous position.

Healers flew to his team and inspected them and their light mana burns, but after they were okayed for duty, they got their first assignment.

Their squad and entire platoon was being used to reinforce the defensive battalion.

Sergeant Ballor sighed in relief. That was exactly what they had prepared for, and it indicated that things weren’t going too badly.

The sky flashed overhead as more shipboard cannons fired hundreds of thousands of mana with each shot, but their planetary shields would hold for quite some time. His squad had just reached their position and rejoined with the other scout squads of his platoon, when the planet seemed to shake as the anti-ship cannons fired.

The beams of mana were as wide across as an elephant, and with his spiritual sense, Sergeant Ballor was able to watch as eleven ships’ shields failed and were blown into glowing bits of molten metal.

Eleven wasn’t a bad first salvo, but it was a drop in the bucket when compared to the hundreds of ships disgorging their troops as fast as possible.

The ships stopped their bombardment as they increased the power of their shields, trying to protect their troops, but another two dozen ships were blown up as the planet’s cannons focused on them.

Then, all at once, the cannons stopped firing and returned to their shielded positions

Sergeant Ballor sighed. “Squad, get ready to repel the assault. We are here to reinforce any teams that look like they are struggling. Follow me and watch your asses.”

With the ships defending their troops, the mana cannons weren’t cost effective anymore, and they would need all the mana they had to weather the storm surge of the war.

It took almost an hour for the Federation ships to empty themselves and form a defensive line that could act as their own base of operation, as well as a shield against any additional mana cannon shots.

Sergeant Ballor watched the Federation squads form into platoons, then watched the platoons formed into into companies, and finally, the companies into battalions.

He counted almost fifty thousand troops and cursed. That put them at almost three-to-one odds, which would be a problem, as it looked like these were some of the Federation’s elite soldiers. The Empire was used to outnumbering their opponents, so even with a fortress planet behind them, their chances were less than ideal. He wouldn’t bet on them keeping the planet, but it wasn’t a guaranteed loss either.

The first probing attack came down at another section of the planet, so Sergeant Ballor and his squad had to sit there and watch as spell and blade flew back and forth.

A giant fire elemental appeared and started killing Federation members, which let him know Lieutenant Poplar was there defending the position.

When the losses started to rack up, the Feddies pulled back with their wounded carried between the ambulatory members of that platoon.

Another dozen probing attacks tested the planet’s various sectors before their section came under attack.

Sergeant Ballor kept his cool despite watching well over a hundred Feddies falling on their location. He wanted to let loose his attacks, but that wasn’t his job, and the defenders instead opened up with coordinated bursts of fire, targeting the weakest sections of the formation.

The Feddies deployed shields, both magical and physical, but they still lost almost a dozen of their members that were caught on a bad angle or had their shields bypassed in various ways. Still, they pushed through the spells and arrows to close with the defenders.

Defenders took to the air to engage with their sector’s assailants, which kicked off the full fledged melee.

Spells and blades flashed back and forth, causing blood from both sides to flow, but Sergeant Ballor just kept watch.

When he noticed that one of the teams was taking more serious injuries, he called out. “Mark, Corporal Vetta, Attack.”

“Aye.”

Her single-word response was punctuated with a shining blue bolt of mana that punched through the chest of one of the attacking Feddy’ Tier 23 leaders. He wasn’t dead, but he reeled back, blood spraying even as the defenders pressed the advantage.

Sadly, his subordinates were able to protect him long enough for them to retreat into a mass of their comrades.

Their squad only occasionally intervened in the fight with a handful of precisely aimed strikes, which led the Feddies to cut their losses and run before too long. Eight dead Imperials compared to thirty-two dead or captured Federation soldiers was a win for this particular fight, though not every front had such good luck. Before too long, Ballor’s squad was put directly on the wall.

It took the Feddies almost a week to test each sector at least once, and in that time, their side had started taking serious casualties. After the probes, they settled into the real siege.

Sergeant Ballor knew this would be a slow whittling down of their defenders while the Feddies tried to keep their troops as intact as possible. Eventually, they would go for one final push.

The planet might fall in a week or a decade, but it would fall.

The Feddies were the only ones getting reinforcements here, making it a simple game of math. They just needed to survive.

***

Lucius tried to control his breathing, but exhaled out a little too heavily, prompting a coughing fit that seemed to clear the lung that was full of blood. Spitting to clear his mouth, he took a deep breath as the healer came up to him and repeated the healing for the hole in his chest.

He was well over his healing limit, but their side was so close to victory, and he wanted to earn as many merits as he could before the end of the first battle. He was so close to completing his Aspect that with just a little time with a master, he could become a true powerhouse.

With his body mostly intact, he rushed back to the fortress and rejoined his team in trying to break into the last bunkers of the Empire, still holding onto the planet with their fingernails. He’d rather kill them all after the friends he had lost in this siege, but capture was the order of the day.

They had spent almost seventy thousand lives to take this Tier 35 fortress down in a record six months, and they were so close, he could taste it.

There were only seven bunkers still standing, and his Cohort had the honor of taking one of them down. Just as he was gathering his mana to help burn through the reinforced bunker, he felt a small ripple in the space right outside their base in orbit of the planet.

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One person stepped out.

Lucius’ initial reaction was to laugh at the ridiculousness of the planet’s reinforcement being one person, but when he saw the blue hair waving like it was underwater, he knew they were all dead.

Duke Waters had arrived.

No matter the humiliation, their army scattered like so many bugs dispersing after a rock was lifted.

Lucius tried to tear through space, but he felt Duke Waters’ power commanding space to stay still. He had come in through a door then shut and locked it behind him.

It was utter madness for anyone, but Duke Waters was crazy enough to do it.

Lucius waited for the order to surrender, but it never came. Two hundred Tier 35s from their reserves swept in, unleashing lightning bolts which could crack mountains, fireballs that could burn away the oceans, beams of light blinding to even look at, and orbs of darkness swarming like flies. All a deluge of attacks falling upon the lone figure.

None of it even came close.

The air around the Gladiator rippled like a pond with a stone tossed inside, and it swallowed the first spell, then the second, and the third. Attacks dimmed and sank away, as effective as an unawakened seeking to attack the ocean itself with pebbles.

The arrogant asshole spoke far too slowly, his every word stretched out as he mocked them with his inferior cultivation, but his voice and smile alike echoed as it reached each of them. “That’s not nearly enough. Where are your elites? Where are your generals? Heck, where’s Maya? I haven’t been able to slap her around lately, I’d love to catch up.”

The way he spoke of Grand Shaper Maya was disrespectful, but Lucius would have cursed her ancestors to her face if someone said it would get their Gladiator to arrive.

She was the only chance any of them had to survive this encounter.

He cast his mind back to one of the speeches their generals had granted for morale, saying that Duke Waters would be focusing upon the Sects and Federation. He wouldn’t stop the Republic, with Grand Shaper Maya aiding their overall assault.

Oh, how wrong he was.

The generals were rushing forward at Duke Waters, and Lucius hoped that the seven of them could take, or more realistically, delay or distract the mage long enough for the rest of them to flee into chaotic space. That still wasn’t entirely safe for them, but Lucius was confident that most of them could follow the teleporter connections back to the Republic and reenter real space before their Domains and spirits were too weakened.

Lucius cursed his lack of an Aspect once again, as it would almost entirely shield him from the aquatic demon’s ravages, but he could still manage.

As their dwindling reinforcements attacked Duke Waters once more, Lucius threw his Domain at the fabric of reality and could feel the others near him doing the same, but it did nothing. Horror overcame him as he realized his life was at the mercy of the man slaughtering the strongest members of their army with his arms crossed above the fortress planet.

The fear started to make it hard to breathe, and Lucius struggled against it, but the horror turned to terror as he realized he shouldn’t need to breathe.

He tried to use his essence to cover that biological need, but found it was already doing so.

His body demanded air.

His body demanded he breathe.

Lucius started to panic as he felt his vision going black, as his brain started to starve.

He tried to urge his essence into providing for his body, but it seemed useless.

He needed to breathe.

The air seemed like a distant memory, but that could have been the fading grip he had on his consciousness.

It seemed almost like an unimportant afterthought, but his [AI] blipped out a message that he knew he needed to read.