The Path of Ascension Chapter 411

Chapter 411

Emmanuel was surprised.

It was quite the strange feeling, given his frequent use of his father’s Tier 50 Talent for future sight, but he had been genuinely caught off guard when Carissa used the emergency contact while he was occupied. Upon returning to the Empire, he was immensely happy she had done so, but that only contributed to his surprise.

His Ascenders had created a mess.

No, mess was the wrong word.

They had done something unexpected and unaccounted for.

It wasn’t what he had expected to happen. What he had seen.

When he had divined the future for the children and their conflict with the cabal, he had seen a fairly straightforward cat and mouse between them until the cabal was slowly unveiled and the battlefield shifted more into the open. And it had continued along those lines right up until the moment Matt and Titan’s Torch had released the information about the skill creation method.

Looking back, he could see how he had underestimated its impact, leading to his surprise.

The method in and of itself had limitless potential, and was guaranteed to change the Realm. That was hardly a shock, but its impact proved wider and deeper than his initial glimpses into the future had suggested.

The skills were always going to change the face of the Realm; they influenced the lower Tiers too much to not do so. But in his original predictions, while the skills ran rampant through the Empire, it was supposed to take longer for the results to truly show themselves.

In a vacuum, that might have held true, and yet the Realm was anything but, which was what made future sight so finicky.

Instead, the skills’ reveal had triggered trillions of individuals’ futures to change, which, in turn, propagated further until the waves ruined nearly all of his past predictions.

The consequences of which would need to be teased out of the jumbled mess that was the future, but that was just a matter of finding the time and mana to spend. He had already checked, and both the best and the worst things coming were still on track, though their timings had shifted.

With Matt having Tiered up recently and having doubled his mana again, Emmanuel’s own theoretical maximal regeneration had increased; though he still desperately wished for Matt, Liz, and Aster to advance faster.

The selfish part of him was tempted to go and strangle their problems in the dark, ensuring they had nothing occupying their time and thus allowing them to delve, but he wouldn’t do so.

Even ignoring the fact the conflict had gotten Matt a possible Truth far earlier than he would have otherwise… if he did interfere, then how would he be surprised?

As a Tier 50, let alone a Tier 50 with future sight, there were few things that surprised him. The longer he remained in his position, the more he enjoyed the unexpected, good or ill.

He hadn’t foreseen ‘Marquess Galip’ being caught so soon. That whole fiasco had originally been slated to be the whetstone for one of the Empire’s next generation of Ascenders as the old dynasties shadow faction rose up and tried to maneuver themselves into positions of power, taking over several duchies and making a bid for a kingdom, similar to Frederic.

His Grandmother genuinely hadn’t been able to fully root out the old dynasty, but that was hardly a fault of hers, given the old dynasty’s ties with the Sects Tier 50 at the time, who sheltered them. That act of ‘benevolence’ had allowed them to spread through the other Great Powers and establish their own little shadow organization with the goal of reclaiming the Empire’s throne.

In fact, there was still the younger sister of the former Emperor alive and well, pulling the strings from where she thought she was safe and secure.

Their plans might have worked if Emmanuel’s father hadn’t had the power of future sight and ensured they never got any true victories, any meaningful momentum, in their attempts.

Georgios had told Emmanuel his plans for the old dynasty and Emmanuel had agreed, continuing to allow them to seep into sectors of the Empire, particularly those of the Keepers of The Golden Age. Rot infesting and accumulating more rot, allowing for the entire mess to be collected and thrown out all at once, instead of needing several efforts, which would just splinter the groups further.

It would have been a marvelous stroke of planning and foresight but it was, at least partially, ruined by the efforts of his current Ascenders.

It wasn’t just Matt, though his contribution was outsized, but all of them working together which jumbled the future and bent it to their will.

If Matt hadn’t been so selfless with his releasing of the aura rifts creation method, Nardo da Molin’s Concept wouldn’t have shattered, allowing him to finally confront his past and see the error of his thinking. If they had confronted the version of Nardo who didn’t have his Aspect and his way out of the Realm to avoid the consequences of his actions, he would have never turned on any of the societies, let alone his.

If Allie hadn’t been able to teleport the group across the Empire effortlessly, they would have been too late to even talk to Nardo, and would have missed out on the opportunity altogether.

If Liz hadn’t had the group pause as Nardo was reveling in the success of his Aspect’s creation, he would have Ascended before anyone could have stopped him, just wanting to leave before being confronted with an ill-spent lifetime’s consequences.

If Aster hadn’t stopped Nardo for selfless reasons, he wouldn’t have subtly updated the information he passed on to contain the secret of Marquess Galip being a traitor, along with a few other key secrets of the Keepers of The Golden Age.

So many things had to go just the right way for Nardo to truly turn on his society so deeply. But they had, and so he had.

Which left Emmanuel surprised and amused.

Even Aunt Helen had gotten her dream of wholly repairing her Concept almost a full five years earlier than she, or he, had originally thought possible. The woman of the hour was now enjoying invites from everyone who was anyone, including a particular bird who still had a clone dancing on the border even after she had thanked him personally. But Emmanuel simply wished her well. She, if anyone, deserved to celebrate so much hard work.

Though he was really going to have to chase away that pigeon if he didn’t leave the border. It might be innocent in nature but having a Tier 50 so close to his space did not put Emmanuel in a pleasant mood.

Now he had to pivot his plans on the fly, but that was… workable.

The old dynasty would retreat into the shadows again. There were good odds they failed and their ploys were dragged into the light, but there was a thread of hope for them in the current iterations he had seen, though it was temporary. Even if they managed it, he would root them out when the inevitable true war happened, if it didn’t happen before that.

The odds were in flux, and with a Tier 46, particularly her, leading the effort, there was a good bit of uncertainty in the predictions, even without everything else being in such turmoil.

Either way, it would be fine. His father had already made ample preparation and he hadn’t slacked on his own.

This generation of Ascenders might just clear out the worst of the societies themselves, even if they didn’t take out the festering remnants of the old dynasty at the same time.

Emmanuel had originally planned on using that source of conflict a few more times, but as things were escalating, that seemed unlikely.

Executions, at least state done ones, were like celebrations, and that was reflected in the atmosphere simmering in the Capital. Every noble who could make it to the Capital in time did so, and that led to parties and celebrations, as people wanted to mingle and feel good about the triumph. Even if they hadn’t done anything.

Amusingly, his Ascenders, the cause of the event, were intending to arrive late, but a quick message solved that.

He didn’t order them to arrive early because of his future sight showing him anything, but because he wanted them to enjoy the celebrations. That, and if his plans were going to be ruined because of them, he was going to make them suffer a tiny bit in return.

A little harmless fun. The societies were too busy burning anything they thought might be compromised so the children would make no more progress on that front for a while. And given what he saw for the cabal’s eventual return strike, they could use the celebration.

Still, there was time.

On the scheduled day of the execution, the Capital bustled as people jockeyed to get a glimpse of the now-revealed Marquess Galip.

Personally, Emmanuel would have preferred to keep an execution quieter and more lowkey, but he had seen the old dynasty’s way of ruling and its consequences better than most.

When he fell off the Path and his father started preparing him to take on the burden of the throne, he had been forced to review every piece of media they had about the old dynasty. From documentaries about specific issues, diaries of the commoner serfs, to firsthand accounts from people of all walks of life who were still alive.

The old dynasty deserved to be eradicated, and so he’d allow the public to vent.

He was hardly present as he went through the initial motions, instead working on all of the paperwork he had missed while he was busy. But when the moment came, he brought his full attention to Galip as he changed his Talent set.

“Do you have any last words you wish to say?”

Galip glared up at him, venom in his gaze. “One day your dynasty will fall just like th—”

Emmanuel cut him off with a pulse that disrupted his brain enough to stop the words from forming, but without harming him. It wouldn’t do to allow him to invoke the name and call her attention to them. It was almost a clever idea, but one that Emmanuel was long prepared for, and it would ruin some of his preparations, and some of his future fun, if she knew he could block her Talent.

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Besides, he didn’t want her getting such an intimate glimpse of the proceedings. Better to let her stew on it all with only carefully curated recordings to satisfy her.

Leaning down, he spoke so only Galip could hear him, letting a hint of theatrics slip into his voice. “Don’t bother with your games. I already know it all. I know how the second one made you back out of every room facing them or they would attack you. I know how the fourth one made you serve in those outfits. I know that the first prefers orange juice to grape juice. I know she still burns with indignation that her brother was chosen to take over the throne instead of her, and then lost it all. I know it all. Now, any last words?”

He wasn’t intentionally cruel to just be cruel. Emmanuel wanted to ensure he got everything out of the man before he killed him and the Talent combination he was using was better with strong emotions and wandering thoughts.

Galip’s mouth moved before he croaked out one word. “Why?”

Emmanuel wanted to roll his eyes, but instead smiled. “A bogeyman is useful, but do you know what is more useful than something that goes bump in the night? The hero who slew said bogeyman.”

That proved to be the right thing to say, and his Talent combination was able to dig deep into Galip’s history, getting around the barriers she had created to ward off Georgios’ Talents.

Being used as a known stepping stone must have been a more prevalent fear in the man’s mind than Emmanuel had expected, or possibly even the old dynasty loyalists as a whole, given the rush of information he received.

Standing, Emmanuel made the kill clean, disintegrating the man’s brain faster than he could process, all while talking about the glory of the Empire and the Sophron dynasty.

When all of the Royals confirmed the burst of essence that signified the traitor’s death, Emmanuel waved a hand and disintegrated the rest of the body.

Turning to his Ascenders, old and new alike, he smiled. “Well, haven’t you been busy?”

***

Melinda sat in the grass of the estate she and Mathew had been given once it became clear that finishing her Intent wouldn’t quite be as easy as she had hoped.

As the door to the courtyard opened and Mathew walked out carrying a tray of snacks, she smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she knew if she didn’t eat now, she’d get distracted and find herself ravenous. But her husband always knew what she needed when she needed it. She refused to do the modifications that made her desire for food completely go away, instead opting for the one that turned it off for a set amount of time. But even then, she hated doing it. Eating was part of what kept her grounded to herself and to life itself.

Sitting next to each other, they watched as Palustris rotated above them.

Poking her husband, she asked, “What are you thinking?”