The Path of Ascension Chapter 400

Chapter 400

Matt and Liz were going to split up to both hit the location of the blood magic research facility and chase the saboteur’s signal down, but the answer to their problem was sitting in their suite’s living room when they stopped by to check in with the rest of their people who hadn’t followed them.

Allie waved, but the action was made less friendly than it would have otherwise been by the dagger spinning between her fingers, in a way that was only possible for someone who played with space the way she did.

She wasn’t alone, and Susanne waved at them from the kitchen where she was making herself a smoothie.

Matt half expected Zack to be there as well, but Susanne answered his unspoken question. “He’s elbow deep in some magical condenser thing and it will take him at least a week to safely disconnect himself from it. Allie will grab him then. Speaking of getting people, it’s probably time to get Aster.”

Allie flickered and returned with a fully kitted out Aster, who pulled Liz into a hug the moment she arrived.

“Sorry I wasn’t here.”

Liz grinned. “Don’t be. We already kicked their teeth in. Now it’s time to start stomping.”

Aster’s eyes flicked from side to side before she nodded. “Good. They deserve it.”

Allie tossed her dagger into the air before launching it into the far wall, where it bounced back to her hand, leaving not even the slightest scratch on the Tier 45 material.

“Let’s get to stabbing. Who do we want to start with?”

Matt looked to Liz, letting her take the lead. But she must have been thinking what he was because she said, “As much as I really do appreciate your guys’ help, I’m not sure you want to get drawn into this. From what we have been told about these kinds of fights, anyone who helps us becomes a target themselves. I don’t wa—”

Allie blew out a raspberry, while Susanne just gave Liz a flat look as she said, “We know that.” Looking to Allie, Susanne corrected herself. “Or at least, I did. Still, if they think they can mess with one of us with impunity, they have another thing coming.”

Allie flipped to her feet. “Of course I’d help. If they really want to fuck with me, of all people, I’m more than happy to make their lives miserable.”

Matt felt the need to be a downer. “Do remember that this group seems ready for everything we’ve been doing. They are probably ready for you to start poking around, Allie. Don’t fall into a trap, please. These are probably experienced Tier 45s, if not Tier 46s. They have the resources to actually trap you, as they won’t need to follow the Tier rules we dealt with in the war.”

Allie rolled her eyes. “I’m well aware. I haven’t just been slacking off in the last few years.” She eyed the three of them and sniffed. “Though apparently, I did fall slightly behind in Tier.”

Susanne hmmed in agreement, and Matt noted that both women were only about eighty percent through Tier 26, unlike their fresh Tier 27. Matt wasn’t sure what deal she’d struck with the army, but instead of sitting at Tier 25 as a pinnacle elite, she was pushing through all the way to Tier 35.

The difference was minor, but not nothing, and he’d bet the two would be pushing to catch back up sooner than later.

Despite that, he was relieved that they weren’t doing this alone.

Seeing they had a quick ride across the Empire, Matt pinged Esmeralda, who they had intended to bring to the raided facility. She was Tier 30, which would push Allie’s limits with her teleports, but it shouldn’t be more than she could handle.

He contemplated bringing others, but decided less was more.

They were just minutes after their counter, and less than an hour after the initial reveal after all. Most of the guild’s PR people who had come to the Capital were still frantically trying to put out fires, some more literal than metaphorical.

Esmeralda was enough, and Jericho needed to stay local to keep tracking down the signal from the metadata they had acquired from the portals the command went through.

Once the former spy arrived, Allie pulled all of them across the Empire with a wrench.

They were only two worlds away from the world in question, which they quickly traversed via real space and using the teleportation network, it being faster than teleporting through chaotic space directly for Allie.

When they arrived, there was a noticeable air of fear and unease on the world. A lot of it was directed at Liz, and a quick check of the local news stations showed they were still reporting the leaked news about Liz being involved with the hidden facility.

Matt considered how it would be best to react.

The fear could be useful in getting people to capitulate to them, but by that same token, people might not work with them if they thought they were trying to cover up Liz’s atrocities.

Between that last option and just not liking how the higher Tiers shied away from his wife, Matt activated the micro portals connecting the planet to the Capital for a few seconds, allowing data dumps to reach everyone.

As it was currently the biggest news story, the information proving Liz’s innocence was a large portion of what got sent over.

Once the initial bits of information were verified, the news organizations started paying for their own micro portals and Matt let his channel end.

He then watched in real time as news organizations stopped their dissection of the recordings to start showing the interview they had just left, along with the inevitable fallout of the power station being attacked.

Through these local news stations, Matt was able to see some of the Capital’s more recent speculations.

Some of them were interesting.

Most had pivoted to the attack on the power system and were using that as proof of their own beliefs.

Those that still felt they were guilty used Matt’s appearance and interference as him covering up the attack he himself created, but from the snippets he saw, they were in the minority. Most news stations seemed to be taking the Empire’s very swift and angry descent onto the building as proof of there being bad actors targeting him and Liz.

Paying the costs once more, Matt requested an update on the Empire’s investigation and was surprised to see he had actually been cut off from the official reports. As he considered, it actually wasn’t too surprising as he had intervened and could be a possible suspect. But it did tell him the Imperial government wasn’t happy that someone had messed with critical infrastructure like that.

Not that he would complain if their hidden attackers got themselves in trouble.

That would all take time to progress, and so Matt turned his attention back to the situation at hand.

People were still looking at them with fear, but he had hopefully blunted the worst reactions.

Phoenix Liz gave him a small head nuzzle for his efforts, which made it all worth it.

Once they left the planet’s atmosphere, Matt used [Portal] at his maximum range to cross a decent portion of the star system without wearing Allie out more than they had to.

It was mildly slower than rapid fire [Teleport]s but not by much, and it wasn’t like he was going to need the mana.

The casting also served as good practice for his mana control, which had become clumsy thanks to his latest doubling.

The bloodline research base was hidden deep inside a Tier 2 gas giant, right between the inhabited planet and the fortress world.

Matt had to admit that it was a good location for a hidden base, thanks to the massive size of the world and its Tiered gaseous cloud layer disrupting casual spiritual scans.

Checking the report, it was more a fluke that the base had gotten caught than expert work from the resident Count. A local detective had noticed that every dozen years or so, right when the gas giant was farthest away from both the inhabited world and the fortress world, a Tier 20 would come through and he eventually, over the course of several more decades, tracked the man to the gas giant.

The story seemed incredibly suspicious, and Matt wondered if the detective was a plant from their mystery attackers. But reading into it more, that conclusion was brought into question.

Instead of the detective randomly noticing the Tier 20, he had been watching the man thanks to reports of a Tier 20 fitting his general description being wanted in a kidnapping case five hundred years ago, when the detective was a rookie in a neighboring Count’s world.

If true, it was an incredible series of coincidences, but very much plausible. Matt noted they needed to talk to this detective, Mike Danson, but suspected he would be where they were heading, or near enough to not make a difference.

Diving into the gas giant didn’t bother them at all, but the planet was so large, it took them almost ten full minutes to actually fly down to the base. It was quite easy to locate thanks to the plethora of guards and other officials loitering around the base.

One of whom was the Count and ruler of the system in question, who was not happy to see them.

“I must protest. A suspect in th—”

Allie held up a finger. “Check the news before you say something you regret.”

It would have been a normal enough gesture, except she still had her dagger in her hand, which put the threat to her words.

Count Rilki swallowed, even as the guards around him tightened their grips on their weapons.

Thankfully, before things could spiral out of control, the Count raised a hand. “It seems things are in question. Still, I must insist that you let the process proceed on its own without interference. I do not want to be involved with whatever spat you have gotten yourselves into, nor do I wish to have Imperial investigators knocking because I allowed you to interfere with an official investigation.”

Liz floated forward and just stared at Count Rilki for a long moment before saying, “I understand your position and that you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I am happy to work with you and your people, but I need access to the facility to find as much information as possible about who tried to set me up as fast as possible.”

Count Rilki didn’t back down. “I am formally informing you that you are overstepping your bounds as a Duke and as an Ascender. You have no authority here, and if you do not desist your actions and leave, I will be forced to speak to Marchioness Tallow, Duke Tadakuni, and Monarch Harper.”

Liz shrugged as they flew past him. “Do so.”

Matt stopped next to the Count. “Where is Detective Danson? We would like to speak with him.”

Count Rilki glared at Matt. “I will not assist in this flagrant violation of my sovereignty, nor allow you to badger one of my people. The more you push, the more I am forced to believe that you are here in bad faith.”

Matt just caught the man’s eyes and stared. He wasn’t trying to intimidate the Count. Not exactly, at least. He was more trying to get a feel for if the man was playing a part or not. He could appreciate the Count trying to do his best to remain impartial and keep himself out of it, but this stance could just as easily be the guilt of someone involved in the conspiracy trying to cover their own ass when the five of them appeared far earlier than expected.

“Count Rilki, I can appreciate your position being untenable. If you are innocent in all of this, you have been put in an awful position. You were simply trying to keep your front lawn clear of disreputable garbage when you stumbled into something bigger than yourself. The issue here is that we are on a very time sensitive task. Every second counts when it comes to this kind of thing. Frankly, it’s already probably too late to actually find critical evidence, but we have to try. So protest. Lodge the official complaints. We are more than willing to pay reparations when it is decided by the Royals, and it won’t be seen as a bribe. But the thing is, we will be gone faster if you assist us. Do so under duress so those watching know you aren’t playing ball with us, but please don’t drag your feet. We can and will force this, either through our noble titles or Ascender rank. We just don’t want to do so because we aren’t assholes.”

Count Rilki almost looked like he was going to cry out of frustration, but eventually nodded.

“I cannot find fault with your logic. I will comply because I have no other option. Detective Danson is on-world giving a full debrief, but it should be over sooner than later.”

Matt smiled. “Thank you. Next, have you identified who leaked the falsified video?”

Count Rilki growled his response. “I have not, but once I do, I will be quite thorough with them to ensure they know what kind of shitstorm they have dropped on my lap.”

Matt just studied the Count before nodding.

“Thank you. If your people could forward all reports to me, we will only ask you to step away for a short while. We will probably want to speak with both the first responders and everyone who was involved, including those found at the facility.”

Thankfully, the news had leaked soon after the raid and most everyone except the prisoners, who had already been transferred to the inhabited world, were still at the scene.

Matt then entered the once-hidden facility and let his senses roam through the building.

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The outer layer was made out of Tier 2 materials, which seemed odd because to protect the low-Tier material from the harsh conditions of the gas giant, a constant low level of mana had to be fed to the metal to feed repair enchantments. Using that as a pseudo-natural disguise was a good play, Matt had to admit, as a higher-Tier metal would have stood out more and run the risk of someone noticing.

Inside that layer was more of what Matt expected, with a Tier 25 metal shell not dissimilar to a ship’s hull in its composition and magical structure.

As for the facility, it was pretty much exactly what he expected of any research center. Clean, organized, and packed with equipment and supplies.

That told him this was an actual research facility, and not someone’s attempt at making a horror show.

Poking around in a few rooms, he found most of the data servers had been destroyed but he took scans of them and let his [AI] see anything could be reconstructed. Unlikely, but entirely possible.

Matt did stop by a small apartment area that had housed the captives and scanned it.

Not that it made what had been happening here any better, but he noticed that the accommodations were… humane. If not for their location, the rooms could have been in any Empire apartment.

Looking to the side where one of Count Rilki’s guards watched him, he asked, “Were the captives recovered alive?”

The guard looked torn before she nodded. “Most of them, Ascender Titan.”

“Oh?”

“A number didn’t—” She looked pale, but after swallowing, continued, “—survive leaving their rooms. We didn’t know they had been infected with things that only reacted once they entered normal air. We believe it was an anti escape measure but we aren’t sure.”

Matt felt himself growing angry but nodded to the guard. “Thank you for informing me. I assume they have all been removed to a hospital for evaluation and healing?”

To his surprise she shook her head. “No, Ascender. There was a worry that the others might contain more delayed pathogens, and so they were moved onto a ship and are being kept in isolation. All of us who were part of the raid have been kept back from Kelispo on the same worry that we might have been infected. Likewise with the few researchers we captured alive.”

Matt sighed but realized it was a good precaution. He knew as well as Liz did the horrors a skilled blood mage could unleash if they wanted to.