The Path of Ascension Chapter 478

Chapter 478

 

Emmanuel exited his final rift with a sense of anticipation he hadn’t felt since he took the throne. They were done, and he could finally escape this prison.

With a wave, he obliterated the Tier 48 rift, officially ending his delving.

The only one who was already finished was Tobias, but Emmanuel had already come to expect that and didn’t comment as he joined the turtle. Silent coexistence was an acceptable outcome, both personally and politically.

Twenty minutes later, Janet exited her rift and dissipated the final rift in the star system.

Not wanting to delay any longer, Emmanuel spoke the moment everyone was confident there were no rifts left.

“Is everyone ready to complete our deal?”

The moment he had verbal confirmation from each Tier 50, he swapped Talents and retriggered his earlier curse.

“Voluntarily taken, voluntarily activated, let no one say I forced anything up until this point.”

Slamming his hands together, Emmanuel emptied his entire mana pool into the ‘spell’. In return seven orbs of light appeared, hovering over the others with a steady glow as chains loosely formed around their wrists and ankles.

“As per our agreement, you may keep two items hidden but no more, no less, along with a single veto.”

Emmanuel caught the moment where those who were truly hostile to him and the Empire contemplated turning on him instead of following through with their earlier agreement for his assistance. He also got to enjoy the moment they realized that was damn near impossible and he allowed himself to smirk, not bothering to hide it.

He hadn’t been kidding when he explained that Elrick Ashwound’s Talent was remarkably capable of binding any tier, as it effectively granted a temporary, additional Talent to any who agreed to receive it. Their own spirits were the enforcers, and it was a bit of a pity how restrictive the set was overall.

The Tier 50’s didn’t take it so well. They hadn’t expected his little light show to have enough power to keep them locked into place until they fulfilled their agreement or they depleted the mana spent to initiate it. The most dangerous moments were the first few, the ones before the Talent had been able to fully come into effect and assert its power, but Allister completed the ritual by dumping all of his rift rewards onto the ground around him.

With one active and willing participant, Emmanuel knew everyone else felt the restrictions snap into place. He also knew they would find it much more difficult than expected to renege on their agreements.

“Two items kept by myself. Here is everything else to take your five from. Take your time.” Allister smiled as everyone else looked above his head to the orb still shining brightly.

Not intending to go back on his word, Emmanuel found two of the lesser but still valuable Tier 49 rift rewards, along with three Tier 48 rewards and plucked them from the pile, trying very hard not to look at the handful of Tier 50 items tempting him. If Allister had gotten seven, the others were going to hate Emmanuel, because he wasn’t allied to them and would be taking whatever took his fancy.

The moment he completed his half of the bargain, the light above Allister turned golden before fading away into a mote of light.

He hoped the others would give up, but Winter Hornet snorted and tried to fly away. His feet never left the ground, but reality itself started to stretch and bend as the Sect’s Tier 50 put his considerable cultivation into trying to leave.

After his effort had no effect, Winter Hornet stopped his attempt to leave, having the audacity to grin at Emmanuel.

Allister snorted and made a show of walking around to pick up the rest of his rewards.

Seeing the restrictions weren’t so easy to throw off, six more piles of loot appeared, but JR’s light orb was the only one to change colors, causing the other five to look upward in confusion and dawning horror.

Not wanting to force their hands except as an absolute last resort, Emmanuel reminded them of the words he said when they agreed to his expansion plans. “I have no feedback from the Talent. It’s entirely self referential once active, which is why everyone had to willingly agree. I have no more insight than any of you. The darker the orb, the more items you’ve kept hidden. Once the orbs are clear, I will pick and we can be on our way.”

Tobias growled, the sound deep enough to remind everyone the turtle’s real body was larger than the planet they were standing on, but Emmanuel didn’t back down for a moment.

“I will not be bound by some human. Release me or suffer the consequences, now.”

Bringing his own cultivation to bear, Emmanuel met the glare calmly. “You agreed. Now either break our agreement and let’s start a true war, or bring out your items and let us cut to the chase.”

“I—”

Winter Hornet cut Tobias off with a laugh. “What if I prefer the true war?”

Seeing the growing hostility, Emmanuel glared at the remaining five one at a time. “Then let’s fight here and now.”

Instead of mollifying them or trying to back down, Emmanuel sneered. “Or, if we are going to break agreements, maybe I should just return home now and leave the five of you locked here. Let’s see how long it takes you to break free and fly back, and what I can do in that same amount of time.”

Virgil sneered right back at him, “If you think petty threats will let you get your way, then do it.”

Instead of getting angry, Emmanuel smiled at her, then let his gaze travel upward to the ink black orb above her head. “I keep my word, do you?”

Winter Hornet laughed and waved his hand, causing eighteen more items to appear on his pile of goods. Eleven were Tier 49, but seven of them were Tier 50, and Emmanuel felt his heart thump hard as the Tier 50 items joined the ones JR had displayed.

However, it wasn’t the items that Winter Hornet brought out that surprised Emmanuel, but rather the fact that the Sect elder’s orb had gone from dusky black to pure white.

Everyone looked shocked at Winter Hornet’s haul and he smiled as if he hadn’t almost torn the planet apart as he tried to leave a moment ago. “My word, kept. Anything else?”

Emmanuel didn’t let his shock show through, but he did probe the orb above Winter Hornet, wanting to ensure the other Tier 50 hadn’t used an illusion to trick him.

Deadlock broken by a third party, Janet sighed at Winter Hornet’s words but waved her hand, causing over forty more items to appear on her pile. Most were only Tier 48, but she’d gotten quite lucky herself, with fifteen Tier 49 items and four Tier 50.

Except, her orb didn’t go entirely white like Winter Hornet’s did. Looking up and realizing she couldn’t easily trick herself, she pulled out one more Tier 50 item, finally turning her orb white.

Instead of looking at the items like he wanted to do, Emmanuel looked to the final three Tier 50s with black orbs.

Aoife, Tobias, and Virgil didn’t exactly surprise him in their resistance as much as the others not kicking up that much of a fuss in the first place. With morality and momentum on his side, Emmanuel simply waited and let the pressure start to build.

With everyone’s eyes on them, Aoife sighed before she waved her own hand, turning her orb white. That left only Tobias and Virgil.

Emmanuel was considering how to break the deadlock when Tobias snorted at Virgil, “Very well. May none compare me to such a vile being as yourself.” Turning back to him, the turtle continued, “We’ll see what your word is truly worth in the coming days, Emmanuel. We’ll see.”

With a wave, a pile of rewards appeared around Tobias, but his orb only lightened instead of turning entirely white.

It was a dusky gray when Virgil dumped her rewards and growled out, “Make it quick, before my nausea overcomes me.”

Instead of moving, he waited for both of their orbs to turn completely white, which took a few minutes as the two tried their best to keep an extra Tier 50 item or two hidden away.

When the last orb turned fully white, Emmanuel let himself feast.

Swapping his Talent to one of his appraisal sets, he scanned everyone’s Tier 50 items, then worked his way down, looking for anything exceptional.

He found a lot. Too much. Five choices were far too few to get him everything he wanted, but more than enough to let him start dreaming. However, to his mild surprise, his initial appraisal told him that while rare, most of the Tier 50 weren’t that high on his priority list.

If he wanted to hurt them, he’d go purely for value or deliberately take items useful for their own people, but he’d much rather take things he and his people needed. If he played his cards correctly, he could come out ahead and come off as magnanimous whilst taking a step back.

Looking over the items, Emmanuel repeated a mantra of self control and restraint, but it was hard seeing everything laid out before him. He was inevitably interested in what the other Tier 50s chose not to display, but he didn’t let himself dwell on it for too long.

Instead, he looked at his rewards.

Emmanuel’s initial impression was that the other Tier 50s had made out far better than they had any right too. Unless one of them had become stupid, they’d each kept their two reserve items, which meant two additional Tier 50 items per Tier 50, and even he could count that high without his fingers.

It meant each of the Tier 50’s had gotten at least seven Tier 50 items. The very idea of so many peak realm items was mind boggling, given their normal rarity, but it had come at a cost. The planet around them wasn’t dead, but it was conspicuously empty as they’d drained the pond to catch the fish.

There was no ambient mana left in the entire star system, as everyone had wanted several ‘one last delve’s’. In their desire to squeeze out every possible delve, they’d hunted down every scrap of ambient mana. The rewards were equally impressive, but unless they were willing to destroy their own capital worlds, it wasn’t something they could recreate.

At least, not until Matt had a few more Tiers under his belt, but Emmanuel tried not to tease himself with the possibility of every delve session looking like this.

JR flapped his wings as if trying to ward off a predator as Emmanuel got close, but he could tell it was more an instinctive reaction to someone getting close to his collection of ‘shinies’ than true unwillingness to part with his treasures.

Hopping up the pile, JR asked, “Can I offer you a deal or two on crafted items so you don’t take all of my Tier 50 items?”

The other Tier 50s looked over, hopeful Emmanuel would agree, but he shook his head. “I’m looking with Talents.”

Hearing that, everyone stopped badgering him, which he found funny. They didn’t trust him, but because of how they saw and viewed Talents, they just assumed he’d follow their advice and therefore be immune to persuasion. He wasn’t that blind, but he wasn’t going to be nice when picking either.

Appraisal Talents came in all shapes and forms, and he flipped through thousands, millions even as he considered the incalculable array of treasures before him. Vera Tai, Cornelis Drebbel, Wotan the Keen-Eyed, Dmitri Eleve, Aloy Iera, Hans Lippershey, Tui Iala…

His first target, amusingly, was a Tier 49 acorn with blue and pink speckles splattered across its light brown shell. Having been able to see the seed’s description, he knew Tur’stal would kill him if he passed up on taking the Calamity Tree home. It was a tree and living, which meant it could and would have to Tier up but he was confident any expenses incurred would be cheaper than finding another seed.

However, his choice seemed to shock the Tier 50s and it caused them to start reevaluating their unknown items. He wished them luck, energy patterns could only tell someone so much.

Emmanuel wouldn’t have identified the reward himself, as he’d never seen the tree, even as a lower Tier variant, but he fell in love with the reward the moment he saw it. A long term investment, once the tree had Tiered up to at least Tier 47, the Capital’s Tier, it would start to grow into the Realm itself. There, it could create a crack between Realms and allow a tiny amount of ascension energy to seep out and into the Capital.

The effect wouldn’t be a millionth the magnitude of a true Ascension, but the tree would still be a boon for anyone who lived under its canopy. They could and might plant it elsewhere, but Emmanuel was already picturing the day where the hyper-massive tree was the Capital’s most important landmark.

JR hopped onto a scythe handle that was sticking out of the ground and asked, “Any chance you want to share what the seed did? I’ll pay for it?”

“Another Tier 49 item and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” Emmanuel agreed without hesitating, but the raven just fluttered his wings in return, pretending not to have said anything in the first place.

Aiming for one of the Tier 50 items specifically, Emmanuel grabbed what looked like a snowglobe. Perfectly round and seemingly made of glass, the unnamed item’s effect was as simple as it was powerful. It allowed someone to capture an entire star system inside without disturbing or harming anyone within the system.

One would still need to be able to move the weight of the world they captured, which limited its uses above Tier 35 unless Emmanuel himself was going to take action, but the ability to safely move not only planets but entire star systems was something he couldn’t pass up.

The other Tier 50 items, while useful, weren’t exceptional enough for him to prioritize. They were either too specific in their use or finished items, such as the Tier 50 hammer Emmanuel was mildly interested in. However, despite its material and Tier being exceptional, the enchantments were mediocre, as expected out of ‘common’ rift drops.

Instead, he picked up a Tier 50 silvery gray potion that his Talent said would boost the mind cultivation of the drinker. At first glance, it wasn’t the most useful potion, but at their Tier items they could actually use were rare enough that the raven nearly vetoed his selection.

After taking a few other Tier 49 items he thought would be the most useful, JR didn’t hesitate and swept up his remaining loot before taking to the sky where he angrily circled them, showing the restrictions no longer bound him to their little island.

Not wanting to dawdle, Emmanuel quickly selected his next several items, going through Winter Hornet’s goods without finding anything truly exceptional that caught his eye. Instead, he prioritized grabbing Tier 49 and 50 raw resources. They were always useful and each could potentially be turned into treasured high Tier items, but he had high hopes for the bar of Tier 50 bronze infused with Armageddon mana. The Tier 49 petrified branch of mulberry tree was interesting as well, it had illusory leaves of Spectral mana condensing every three minutes, despite being dead.

Even if they lost a Tier in relative power after being processed and melded with other lower Tier items, each high Tier material was precious.

Too precious, as Winter Hornet was the first person to use one of his vetos. “I’ve changed my mind. I no longer wish to trade the Tier 50 geode. Pick something else.”

Emmanuel snorted as he tossed the overlooked void geode back to Winter Hornet, considering them even after the Sect Tier 50 helped when he flipped sides without a fight.

Sadly, his kindness was misplaced, as Winter Hornet’s action reminded the others of that ruling and they all started using it trying to deny him the items they saw as the most valuable.

Given that their grading metrics were vastly different, Emmanuel wasn’t too worried. Or, that was true until he saw a Tier 48 drinking gourd in Aoife’s loot. He’d originally dismissed its effect of ‘converts essence into an unknown liquid’ as being bad, but having something repeatedly come back with an unknown piqued his interest, even as he went through his appraisal Talents.

If the Talents hadn’t known what the item did at all, he’d have understood. They could tell it was converting essence, but the Talents didn’t know what it ended up as, and once he realized the distinction, he couldn’t help but dig deeper.

Popping the tied-on cork out of the mouth of the gourd, Emmanuel earned himself a glare from Aoife, but he was as disappointed as everyone else to find the gourd was empty. However, the moment he uncorked it, a wave of ambient essence was drawn into the gourd as the essence vacuum tried to fill itself. Not willing to drain essence from the planet below them, he quickly closed the cork, but everyone was a Tier 50 and noticed the drop of liquid now in the gourd.

Instead of becoming interested, the others saw that the item required high Tier essence to function and immediately wrote it off.

Everyone except JR, who swooped down and looked at the gourd. “Why not pour out that drop of liquid.”

Looking at the gourd in his hands, Emmanuel shook his head. “I think I’d rather not.”

However, Aoife disagreed, sensing his reluctance. “If you don’t, I’ll use my veto and keep it myself.”

Considering how far to push people compared to what his Talent now told him the gourd did, Emmanuel decided that the truth was less interesting than their imaginations.

Popping the cork, but not allowing any essence to rush into the gourd, Emmanuel poured out a single milky white drop of liquid that seemed to hold stars in its depths.

Directing the drop of liquid to hover in front of Aoife, he allowed her to inspect the result and come to the same conclusion as he had.

“The gourd converts essence into a liquid that will strengthen people’s baseline physical bodies. However, as you saw how much essence it took to make a single drop.”

As everyone else’s interest fully waned JR fluttered his wings. “Any cha—”

“Not for resale.”

Taking one last look at the gourd, JR sighed. “Pity.”

While the others thought it wasn’t a great item, Emmanuel was already picturing the day he could make a Tier 48 rift, drain it of essence, fill it with mana, and fill up bathtubs of the liquid. He estimated it would take at least three full gourds to fully enhance a high-Tier’s body, which would mean oceans of essence fed to the gourd, but so long as he replaced the expended essence with mana, the rift would convert everything without worry or significant depletion.

What others saw as an impossible condition, Emmanuel only saw as a matter of time and resources, and what did either matter when they could be directly converted into combat power?

Not wanting to give Aoife a chance to change her stance on the gourd, he quickly moved onto a Tier 50 item he knew she’d been eyeing and selected it, forcing her to use her veto on that.

In a concession, he took a Tier 49 talisman that boosted the user’s durability. A Tier higher than it, it wouldn’t be perfectly effective, but the talisman was rift made and packed with enough power he was confident in it being useful. Best of all, it was valuable, but not so much that Aoife kicked up a fuss about it or the gourd, even knowing he forced her hand.

Emmanuel was fairly confident that he had already gotten all of the best treasures available today, but for the sake of thoroughness, he picked through some of the less-interesting treasures with his Talent roulette. Information in all forms flashed briefly into his awareness, only to be shuffled away the next moment. But when he swapped in Iluia Leafboot‘s Tier 1 Talent, ‘You always know the effects that would result from you consuming an item,’ he instinctively swapped to a full set of emotional control Talents, fast enough that not even a flicker could register to anyone around him.

Then and only then, he swapped his Tier 1 Talent back, and verified what he’d seen.

The object before him, with a name that meant Heart’s Emberseed in an old Clan language precursor dialect according to one of his Talents, didn’t look very impressive as far as the Tier 50 items arrayed before him went. It looked like a twisting seed pod with a surface of tarnished silver, with a point made of a glowing golden gem. Deeper pulsing veins, invisible from the surface, extended throughout the entire structure making a complicated four dimensional weave even he struggled to follow.

It was also off to the side with items Virgil saw little value in, and he had nearly overlooked it because it looked almost… broken magically speaking.

The energy inside of it was unbalanced, spinning haphazardly and chaotically around nothing, like it was but one half –or one third– of something actually worthwhile. A few jagged spiritual edges and a far lower than normal amount of essence within it, completed the look. However there was no denying what he’d seen it could do.

He didn’t want to believe it, but after he confirmed his findings with a few other Talents he had no choice.

He’d expected a lot on their trip, but this… this? No, he’d never even dreamed about such an item.

Emmanuel didn’t even allow himself to directly think about what it was or what it could do until he’d secured it for himself. Knowing Virgil would be just as recalcitrant as the other Tier 50s, he waited until she vetoed one of his first five choices to circle back around to the seed.

When he finally picked up the Heart’s Emberseed, he not only made certain to not react any more or less than he had for any of the other items, but had to resist looking at Aoife.

Despite finding an answer that people had been searching for since the Shattering, Emmanuel only had more questions as he pocketed the orb.

Their return trip was much faster than their exit trip, as they were no longer fighting the raging storm that was chaotic space. And with so many new high Tier items, none of them were in the mood to bicker or fight. Everyone wanted to return home, and as they passed their Tier 45s in the third layer of the breach, Emmanuel smiled at how his Ascenders and the Empire had done.

Not the best, that title probably went to the Collective, with them grabbing a Tier 39 True Sunflower, which Tobias was already gloating over. But far from the worst, which buoyed his mood considerably.

The moment they split up and their agreement ended, Emmanuel made his move and teleported back to his home rather than spend the ten minutes needed to fly. He had to run more tests on the Emberseed, and inform Carissa about the treasure he’d happened upon.

That was why he was more than a little surprised to see his wife in his throne room with his Ascenders and aura producers brokering a deal. He… hadn’t expected that at all. He also hadn’t expected Matt to clear things up, with Mackenzie Harrington of all people, after learning how she’d been part of the Cabal arrayed against them.

Seeing that a Tier 45 asset just became available for long term use, Emmanuel couldn’t help but smile.

Appearing in the privacy bubble that Carissa had thrown up as she eagerly watched the show, Emmanuel officially returned home.

Leaning over her shoulder so their heads were in line, he quietly asked, “See anything interesting?”

By the time the two of them came up for air they didn’t really need, it was time to wrap things up and Emmanuel had no patience to wait. He wanted to clear everyone out of his house so he could spend at least a little time with his wife, and of course celebrate their good fortune, before he inevitably had to get back to work.

Not that he was going to let a good opportunity pass him by. By inviting everyone involved to the palace, he could help obscure the real meetings he wanted to have with the people he wanted to give higher Tier items too.

His plans were ruined as Matt approached instead of leaving with everyone else.

Very politely, Emmanuel used the last of his patience and asked, “You wanted to talk to me?”

“You didn’t see it already?”

Emmanuel briefly considered strangling his Ascender, but restrained himself when Carissa looked interested in hearing him out. When miniature clones of his Royals appeared, he let himself worry. Those ‘clones’ weren’t supposed to reveal themselves unless it was very important, given the costs involved in their use.

His stomach started to sink to his feet and further as Matt started to bounce as he struggled to stand in place.

“Maybe we can go to your office? Your most heavily warded office?”

Seeing his Royals and his wife giddy with anticipation, Emmanuel’s mood grew steadily worse until they sat down.

The worry unable to be suppressed any longer, Emmanuel asked, “What?”

Then Matt did something he didn’t expect, he stabbed himself and pulled a gem out of his chest.

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No longer hidden by the veils Matt kept up at all times, the same ones Emmanuel was normally too polite to pierce, every warning sense he possessed started screaming as he felt the gem.

Emmanuel didn’t know what his Ascender had been hiding, but the energies inside the gem were raw and unfettered in a way that set him on edge, as if someone was scratching metal just behind him. At the same time, it reminded him of a mortal trying to approach an active volcano. The very heat would prevent them from getting too close even before they actually touched the lava in most cases, and he similarly wanted to squirm away until he wasn’t quite so close.

Trying his very best not to let his panic show, Emmanuel squeaked out, “Is that what I think it is?”

Seeing Matt shrug, Emmanuel’s desire to throttle his Ascender nearly peaked, but the words he said prevented any conscious moment. “Are you thinking this is a strange realm reward that can turn any item into a growth item, captured and preserved for the last few hundred years? If so, good guess because, yes, that’s exactly what this is.”

Emmanuel just looked at the Tier 30 in front of him and wanted to ask why. He thought Matt liked him, but clearly that was wrong. He hadn’t even sat down yet, and somehow, his recently acquired rewards were already being given to a greedy raven. Still, the very fact that Matt had captured a strange realm reward, and in doing so creating a new technique to manipulate his mana, was worth any price.

Emmanuel wanted to tear out his hair, as he sure as shit hadn’t seen this coming, but that was why he never let himself become dependent on future sight. It wasn’t what you saw coming that was the problem. It was the things you never saw that hit the hardest.

And he hadn’t seen this coming. Not at all.

Emmanuel was far from happy, but there was no way he was letting this opportunity pass them by. Which was why he was already contacting JR before Matt finished explaining his ideas. Instead, he played along until JR finally reached his own capital world and got his message.

Seeing the raven was receptive, Emmanuel stood, trying not to vomit.

There were a few ways he’d consider this upcoming meeting a success and a million and one that he’d consider a failure.

They’d just have to see what happened.

Looking at Matthew, Emmanuel could only trust in his Ascender and hope that was enough.

***

Matt froze momentarily as Emmanuel stood up, not expecting the Tier 50 to be quite so decisive. Rather than dawdling, he filled his mana pool, said goodbye to everyone else and once he received well wishes in return, nodded and the two of them vanished.

He’d half expected them to appear in front of JR himself, but they’d teleported to the Empire border and flew into Corporation control chaotic space. They’d only traveled for a moment when a translucent raven intercepted them before vanishing as quickly as it appeared.

“Good, he knows we are here. Time to speed up.”

Matt had thought they’d moved fast before, but traveling with a Talented Tier 50 changed his perception on speed. What would have taken the Unsparing months at full acceleration to cover was crossed in a matter of minutes as they arrived at the Corporation capital system.

Instead of taking them into real space, Manny looked to Matt and asked one last time, “Are you sure?”

Matt didn’t quite trust himself to speak and so only nodded once more, to which Emmanuel grinned. “I’ve got your back.”

Hearing those words did make Matt feel better, but nearly a thousand years of worry and stress were hard to discard with a few words. However, he did trust Manny, and that was all he could do if he wanted his item.

And he wanted. Matt wanted so badly he could taste it.

Entering real space he felt a gentle but indomitable pressure guiding him away from the area they’d selected to enter. Seeing that the Emperor didn’t resist, he didn’t waste his efforts. Due to the redirect, he wasn’t all that surprised when they appeared in the single most advanced laboratory he’d ever seen.

Filled with top of the line, if not fully bespoke equipment, the enclosed room was massive, but it still managed to feel cluttered despite being perfectly tidy due to how many objects there were.

Seeing everything made Matt’s heart race.

This was exactly the person he needed to make his armor.

The raven in question only looked confused as Matt arrived, his head tilted fully sideways as he cawed. Matt wasn’t sure if Manny hadn’t warned JR who the item was being made for or if the bird was acting, but it caught him off guard.

“I hadn’t expected you to accompany your Tier 50, Chosen Titan. That said, it’s lovely to see you. How are Legion and Wraith? All well, I hope? Do anything fun while we were gone? I hear you killed some people and gave away free information. Naughty naughty.”

Matt looked to Emmanuel for guidance but his Tier 50 only shook his head, indicating he’d keep himself out of the upcoming conversation until necessary.