The Path of Ascension Chapter 457

Chapter 457

Gervásio Mendes froze with everyone else in the pagoda as twelve new presences appeared in low orbit over the breachpoint. Ships had been arriving hourly and were mostly ignored unless they were Tier 35 or higher. A brief scan was normally all any group earned, but this was twelve people arriving where they shouldn’t have been. And as such, they got extra scrutiny.

While he himself kept out of it, content with observing from a distance, most didn’t feel the same. Spiritual perceptions clashed as most of the higher-Tier groups tried to probe the Empire’s newest groups of Chosen and their delving teams.

Gervásio found the implications of the Chosen not bringing their ship along far more interesting than anything gleaned from a spiritual scan.

The more he mulled it over, the more he didn’t like it.

Signaling his people to ignore the new arrivals as much as possible, he hoped they would keep to the Tier 30 areas, leaving everything a little higher alone. Despite that wish, he felt it in his gut they would probably clash. Their relative combat powers were too close, and that would inevitably lead to intertwined interests.

Personally, Gervásio didn’t want anything to do with Ascenders or anyone else. He and his team were only here to make their fortune with the breach. He wanted nothing to do with the factionalism the Sects were forcing by arriving en masse either, but such matters were beyond his capabilities and he was forced to play ‘the game’ with everyone else.

Their unified presence had forced the Tier 35 groups from each Great Power to band together, or be forced out and hope to reach one of the other breachpoints before the bubble popped and unleashed a concentrated wave of turbulent chaotic space energies. Anyone caught in close proximity to such a wave without a ship inherently able to explore the third layer of chaotic space would find their lives ended without fail.

Neither Gervásio nor any of the others wished to chance such a fate, so they banded together. Alone, none of them could beat the Sects armada, but together they had enough weight to crush them, which kept things amicable.

That, and the Sects’ new young prodigy, the one put in charge of this fiasco, clearly wanted nothing to do with it.

As a keen businessman himself, Gervásio could see Gan Le would rather do anything other than ‘fighting for the Sects’ Honor’ as some of the more battle hungry factions liked to phrase it. Those psychopaths were looking for any excuse to slaughter people they could find, and barely trying to disguise it.

Another group he wished not to get in contact with.

However, Gan Le was no pushover. For all of his lack of desire, he adroitly navigated the situation, keeping things from turning into a bloodbath.

Rather than letting such aggression fester, he had suggested ‘friendly sparring’ in space. From anyone else, it would have been an excuse to kill people, but with his stipulations that any serious injuries would result in mirrored consequences, there were few underhanded attempts to cripple or kill.

Gervásio had felt the two could work together, and had by virtue of not being an ass kisser, managed to navigate his group into a good position in both the Corporations and Sects camps despite being only Tier 32.

He was about to check on Gan Le’s reaction to the new arrivals when his Talent flared to life and shattered all of his carefully constructed plans.

Gervásio was technically a Seeker.

As a kid growing up in the Corporations, he’d thought it had been his chance to rise. And it had been, but it’d given him something far from the easy life he envisioned.

His Talent was all about opportunities.

Even with his Tier 3 and 25 Talents improving things, he had limited control over what his Talent directed him towards. All he could ever be sure of was that it always led to the theoretical ‘best outcome’.

He’d also learned the hard way at Tier 1, it wasn’t a path to easy success where he’d find lost money on the side of the road, rather a pointer to what he should be working on.

When it directed him to apply to the mechanics specialty school, he had followed its general guidance to graduate with a few additional benefits under his belt. Not as many as he could have. He sometimes failed in securing the items, but thankfully, the Talent’s highest priority seemed to be his life. If he was ever in true danger, its focus would immediately shift to the best way for him to survive.

It was far from foolproof, and its mistakes combined with his sometimes poor execution of its guidance had led to painful times.

His Talent had led him from disaster to near-disaster time and time again, but he still trusted it enough to know it pointed to only the best things. The damn Talent had even found him his husband.

Which was why he was taken so off guard when the new Chosens’ arrival made his Talent scream at him.

Opportunity had arrived.

He liked to picture his Talent like a fire— it was how he first envisioned it— and despite not needing that framework any more, he liked it and operated best while using it. When his opportunity was far away in either distance or time, his Talent was like a single ember. When he probed it when it was in that state he would only get a general sense of what to do but little else.

The moment before the Chosens’ teleportation, it had been a smoldering fire, still alight but with very little visible flame. Now, it blazed like an inferno firmly targeted on the new arrivals.

Instead of being happy, Gervásio felt his stomach plummet through the floor.

That didn’t stop him from sending a message to his husband and second in command, Felipe. “Get everyone on high alert. All personnel to their stations. Get the shields online and at quarter power. I want them ready to be brought fully online if we need to at a moment’s notice. My gut tells me something big is about to happen.”

He could see Felipe’s worry but his second in command got things in motion quickly before replying via message, “What happened?”

Gervásio quickly explained what his Talent told him but Felipe wasn’t any happier to hear that than he was, having long dealt with his Talent’s penchant for getting them into danger.

As they waited, the Chosen were taking the time to saunter down to the central pavilion, so the two of them started formulating plans for every possible scenario they could think of.

Somehow, they were still wrong.

Gervásio watched in astonishment as Chosen Wraith completely disarmed Gan Le and led him away. He would have been less impressed if she had captured him through a battle, but instead she managed it through sheer charisma and her willingness to smile at even the people who sneered at her.

He idly noted in another life she’d have made a truly fantastic sales executive. He could easily envision her being poached from business to business as her Tier advanced to sell bigger and better products. A natural saleswoman like that was a rare find, and the deeply established corporations fought over them fiercely.

His idle thoughts vanished as Chosen Legion started to speak and his Talent thrummed like an instrument carefully plucked.

“What other information do you all have? We were here for about a decade at the start of this and have the chaotic space recordings. We’ll trade them one for one with anyone whose Seekers can speculate about Tiers of the first few worlds inside.”

Having been warned by his Talent to look deeper, Gervásio analyzed more thoroughly than he might have otherwise.

A very attractive woman, Chosen Legion had an air of command about her. The daughter of Tier 48’s, she had a confidence backed up by her own might. Together, those factors made the words that might have otherwise been considered rude, accepted without more than a grumble from the general crowd.

Gervásio watched as most of the strongest groups dismissed the Chosen, seeing her words as a lack of respect they felt due to their higher Tier. Fools too used to people who advanced on reasonable and predictable time frames.

His Talent flaring to life told him the truth.

It was a multilayered test that went who knew how deep.

“We are taking the offer.” His words were quick and left no room for complaint as he put action to them, downloading the information and agreeing to her terms.

Feeling his Talent pulse in urgency he added, “When they do it, make sure we put everything we have in the reply. Trust me.”

Their dedicated long-range Seeker combined with their navigator’s Domain had already indicated several interesting bits of information about the nearest breach planets, but this would help considerably. He and Felipe had earlier considered if they should leverage that information for a better spot through the tether, so Gervásio knew his actions looked crazy, but he had built up enough trust that no one on his team wasted valuable time questioning him.

They knew he’d explain why after the fact but, as he felt a creeping urgency starting to rise, he broke out in sweat. He could have stopped it but let it happen, using the connection to deepen his bond with the iron crown embedded in his skull.

His growth item helmet’s least conspicuous form was anything but subtle. Still, it was better than the full face version that made him look like a villain.

As much as he hated it, the crown was half of the reason he was able to be as successful as he had been. One of the first items his Talent directed him to, and had nearly killed him in acquiring, it was worth every downside it came with.

Activating its metaphysical half, he felt the information his Talent sent him become far more digestible and understandable. For the briefest of moments, Gervásio felt as if he had total omniscience, but that quickly faded, and all that remained in his mind was related to his Talent’s target.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Getting the updated reports and seeing they were excellent, with notable improvements at least partially thanks to the additional information, he sent the documents and waited.

There was no immediate reaction from either his Talent or from Chosen Legion, but Gervásio felt the intensity of his Talent finally stop rising.

He’d done all he could, and anything further risked the opportunity more than it helped.

The passing of information helped in numerous ways. As the Chosens’ presence and domineering attitude became accepted, a number of groups stopped paying quite so much attention to them and returned to politicking.

Already, several of the Tier 35 groups were trying to gather enough support to prevent or at least delay the Chosens from entering the natural tether. Noting the foolishness, he quietly kept his people on high alert, feeling that a disaster was about to fall upon them.

As if trying to prove him wrong, things seemed to be settling down into an even more harmonious atmosphere as the Chosens went to do PR stuff with the Empire people back in spa—

Gervásio and everyone else shot to their feet as they felt the world ripple.

Having experienced something similar before, he knew this world had connected with its counterpart in the breach a year earlier than it should have.

He immediately started shouting orders through his [AI] to his crew getting them ready in case a fight broke out.

As he did so, he felt his [AI] beep but he pushed the notification aside to deal with the immediate crisis.

His efforts were interrupted as a fight nearly broke out.

The most radical Sects factions immediately drew their weapons, ready to fight the Empire groups. In a vacuum that would have been fine, but they did so despite the presence of lower Tiers of every Great Power who would never survive such a battle.

Gervásio was preparing to get himself and Felipe out when the angry shouts inside were overtaken by a second much more interesting topic from the outside. Calls from all factions for their leaders to check their [AI] pushed through the building anger.

Along with everyone else, Gervásio checked the message he received from Chosen Legion before they absconded with the Sects’ new little prodigy. As he did so, he finished giving his orders keeping his people on high alert.

All of that came to a halt as he recognized what he had been given.

Catching himself, he changed his orders slightly and looked to Felipe, silently communicating the gravity of the situation.

Thankfully, they weren’t the only ones to get a message. Everyone did in fact.

The basic message came from the ascender Ra’thala as they left. It also served to stymie the outrage that had just started to boil over. It did so by containing a Tier 15 formation that only could have come from another Realm given its unique design.

A portable method to stabilize interplanetary tethers.

As they had proven the effect, if successfully scaled up, it could forcefully open a breachpoint nearly a year in advance.

It was a massive advantage and anyone would be able to enter months earlier than they had expected, so long as the documentation wasn’t exaggerating about the effect being less Tier dependent than most, as it was only strengthening a naturally occurring phenomenon.

They, along with a few other groups, the ones who had shared their information, had gotten something else.

Something extra from Chosen Legion.

A Tier 20 version of the formation that was much, much more detailed and had much better effects.

Gervásio’s suspicions that his group were the only ones to get a Tier 25 version, thanks to his quick acting, was confirmed when he read deeper into her message.

Additionally, they had actually been given a full license to the highest-Tier design and could innovate upon or sub-license it as they chose. His mind went to developing it first and selling it second, but both seemed viable.