Chapter 450

7.7k chapter.

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Chapter 450

Matt hardly looked up from the mana stones he was creating as he felt a Tier 32 team appear and vanish upon seeing them. What had started as him trying to understand the trick of the previous strange realm’s storage gems had also become a very good mana control exercise. 

Such probes had happened fairly often, with the teams willing to challenge them being surprisingly rare, despite the Tier 30 world below them still full of mana for longer-term exploitation.

So far, they had only fought other teams a dozen times in the previous nine years. Some fights were harder than others, but most saw they had already looted the world and moved on. They expected more resistance once the largest exploration teams arrived, but they would probably have left before then. 

Those who did fight were mostly those trying to make a name for themselves, but given that all of them were under Tier 33, the fights weren’t that interesting. Fun and good practice, but not generally hard, given that most elite teams were still scrambling for the worlds that hadn’t been looted yet.

Even the Unsparing’s crew had grown bored of delving for profit and not advancement, having long-since filled the non-Natural Treasures storage the ship had three times over, thanks to Allie having moved most of their loot back to the Empire already since there was little else to do while they waited.

Matt was still amused when he thought back on how weirded out the crew was by getting message updates this deep into the breach.

The only news Allie hadn’t been willing to share with anyone, not even a pestering and begging Aster, was what she did with the loot.

All the teleporter would say was on the topic was an oft repeated, “We’ll all find out together when we return.”

Matt wasn’t bothered and neither was most of the rest of the crew, having not expected any information, but it twisted Aster into an amusing mess.

 To her credit, Allie used the trips to refill their supplies, which had improved morale substantially even while they were mostly cooling their heels.

It did let them learn more about Allie’s Talent. She could, in fact, teleport all the way from the Empire to where they were in the first layer of chaotic space, but the amount of chaotic space energies between locations made the spiritual strain of the teleport that much higher.

Or, that was their conclusion, as Allie, using the first world they stopped at to set a waypoint down on, was easily able to teleport to the Empire from there instead of being exhausted as she was when she covered the distance in one cast.

Alone, she could manage the distance without too much effort, but carrying additional things ballooned the cost substantially.

Seeing the other exploration team did, in fact, leave, Matt went back to his testing while exercising.

It was beyond difficult to make mana in a solidified form want to form anything beyond the standard rift mana stone crystalline structure.

Raw mana, if left untouched and cut off from circulating through a rift or the planet's core, would naturally form into mana crystals that had the same crystalline structure. The difference between naturally formed mana crystals and rift ones was rifts shoving more mana into a uniform size depending on the rift’s Tier.

No one was really sure how. The best synthetic and rechargeable mana stones scaled terribly, and they used a similar core crystalline structure based on the natural and rift mana stones. 

Matt, having researched the topic thoroughly during and after the war, knew the synthetic mana stones, the ones given to officially registered healers, had a better mana coefficient than naturally formed mana crystals.

Despite that, it was all based off of what solidified mana wanted to do.

Matt had never seen mana act in the ways the gems had.

So, he had been attempting to force his mana into new structures.

What started as an idle test had turned into determined exercise, as Matt used his mana control to force his forming mana stones into other structures.

He was a long way off from the complexity of the storage gem, but he also didn’t think that was what he wanted to recreate.

Did Matt want the ability to store items inside of mana crystals? Undoubtedly.

The issue was that after playing with the previously observable structure, he was fairly sure the strange realm’s gems’ storage effect was accidental. Or rather, his intuition told him the product was incomplete.

A truly perfect version might have allowed perfect Natural Treasure storage with no degradation, where these one had only slowed the process down. Additionally, if perfected, the gem shouldn’t have collapsed when the last item was taken out of it.

Matt had no way to prove any of his speculation, but he was fairly confident the gem was ultimately a flawed product.

Not that he necessarily wanted to replicate the gem in the first place; he had passed on his speculations to the guild through Kees, and to Erwin, Aisha, and Theodore specifically. According to the initial update on the project, they were having even less success, being forced to use mechanical assistance to condense mana stones in his absence, which already hampered control. He would much rather limit the application further to only mana if that would make it simpler.

Sadly, while the new crystalline structure wasn't entirely new according to all of the mana stone manufacturers the guild had reached out to. Strange realms that used such gems had been identified before but even with their heritage even the best mana stone manufacturers struggled to make minor stable adjustments to a forming mana stone.

Matt was no exception. 

He could make the mana stones himself, but he couldn’t easily force the structure into any new form with raw mana control.

What little he could do was hard.

Matt struggled, more relying on his Tier and intimate connection with the mana, but he had already started to learn easier methods with each attempt.

All of his attempts had resulted in failures, but they were continuously more complex failures, and that actually helped Matt regain his mana control. He still found himself limited by how much raw mana he could shove through a spell before the spell structure fell apart, his spirit’s strength unable to force it to remain stable any longer, or the outward manifestations of his spell becoming too unwieldy and destroying itself with conflicting energies.

The guild was looking into his other ideas to see if they were at all viable, but Matt thought he might have found a secondary solution with the mana stone.

First, though, he had to get his control over his forming mana high enough that he could even begin testing towards the complexity of the strange realm’s gem structure.

It was the perfect project between fights, so he worked on it most of the time while they waited.

From friendly groups passing through, they knew most of the initial wave of explorers had settled down. In another few months, people would start to go around and explore solely for the purpose of strange realms, using them before they fell apart while they waited for the bubble of third level chaotic space energies to dissipate, now that the fastest loot had been collected.

If history repeated itself, the safest strange realms would survive the shortest amount of time, with people willing to hang around the strange realm until they got to use it. Some groups would defend their strange realms, but most would allow others to enter for a cut of the rewards.

Enforcing such reward distribution led to conflict left, right, and center, but more often than not, it was peaceful until then. 

Strange realms that demanded separate groups enter together would last correspondingly longer, as people were always wary of teaming up. Not every strange realm had life-saving measures in place, even when they were cooperative instead of competitive, and deaths happened.

Competitive realms would stay around the longest, as people were justifiably wary of risking their lives. Strange realms had been known to let only the victor leave, forcing friends who risked it to turn on each other, and few others willingly allowed others such control over their lives if they could help it.

They would be used— there were always those willing to risk it— but they’d stick around for decades if they were dangerous enough.

Days later, their next opponents appeared and it surprised Matt, who had arrived to challenge them, because it was immediately clear this was a retaliatory strike.

Two mercenary-style ships, one from the Corporations, and one from the Republic, arrived with shields raised to their maximum. The emblems emblazoned on the side of each ship explained exactly who they were.

Pinnacle elite army teams.

When they exited their ships, Matt saw each Tier 31 pinnacle elite team had a contingent of army fighters with them.

He wasn’t sure if the full pinnacle squads had explicitly stayed together in case of running into them and being able to get revenge for their fallen pinnacle elite Tier 25 comrades, but Matt knew a confrontation was inevitable.

The Republic pinnacle elite team was centered around Remi’s Raiders, the core seven additional peak elite members, last seen as Tier 30s in their war with the Clans. If they were arriving so soon, given the war, and having broken through at that, despite having sat at Tier 30 for tens of thousands of years, Matt knew both Great Powers must have put away their arms and redirected personnel.

What was more interesting to him was their Tier. It was obvious they weren't fresh Tier 31s, having made about ten percent progress through the Tier. That implied they had either defied orders together immediately, or that they had been ordered to break through and advance as much as possible with the breach.

It also implied they might run into Maya or On The Last Line. If pinnacle elites were allowed to roam around, surely their fellow Ascenders would have ventured out. The major question was if they had come to this breach, or gone deeper to the remnants in the second layer.

Remi, a many times descendant of a founding wolf clan in the Republic, had an exceptional bloodline. Combined with his own prodigious combat ability, honed in the army for over a hundred thousand years, he was a formidable opponent. The seven members of his team were all close to comparable.

And they hadn’t arrived alone.

With a Corporations designation no one in the Empire used, Patricia’s Pincushions had gotten the name when during her first real battle, Patricia, an already famous crossbowman, shot one of her frontliners in the ass instead of hitting the enemies with her very first attack.

The rest of the fight hadn’t been so funny, as she quickly proved what a fluke that shot was, but the moniker had stuck in foreign Great Powers, even as she rose all the way to become a pinnacle elite and was cultivated by the Corporations.

Unlike Remi’s team, who were all comparable in strength, Patricia’s team was centered around protecting her. Her five other teammates were all firmly peak elites, but hadn't managed to push through that ephemeral barrier to become pinnacle, which was why they were put on her team instead of given their own. 

That didn’t mean they were weak, but they were slightly weaker than Remi’s combined team, even with Patricia herself factored in. She had accounted for that well, as her escort troops were a cut above Remi’s mere low-level elites. 

At Tier 31, Matt would be wary of either group, but with both of them, he knew this was about to be their hardest fight yet. Such pinnacle elite teams could fight Ascenders on a mostly even footing when they were the same Tier, let alone with a two Tier difference.

Matt saw that Liz had ordered all of their crew back into the ship and to prepare for an immediate extraction, but they weren't going to slink away.

The moment Remi stepped out of the ship, his large canines were put on prominent display via his falsely pleasant smile. “Good day there, Gladiators. Fancy running into you here. Sadly, you guys are sitting on our world. We can smell riches, and we won’t be sharing.”

Matt could see that he was looking for a fight, and everyone else could see it as well, but that wasn’t the angle he had expected them to use.

Why hadn’t he claimed revenge for their fallen comrades? 

Matt didn’t know, and neither did anyone else, but Liz didn’t back down in the slightest. “I think you should recalibrate your nose if it's telling you that. I’m willing to lend my spear to the effort if you need the assistance.”

Remi smiled at Liz’s comment, the rest of his team of elites behind him ready to spring into action, even as their boss egged on the fight. “In fact, I could use your help. Why don’t you hand over this world’s loot so I can make sure you didn’t take anything I care about.” 

Matt still didn’t understand why the wolf was bothering with this angle, but Remi continued with a self-satisfied smirk, showing his metal-covered rear teeth, exposing how inevitable the fight was.

“If we capture you all, I’m sure your Tier 50 would piss himself in anger. We might be able to get some of the rewards from in the deeper layers. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

The wolf turned his head as if asking his team, or possibly Patricia, but he never took their eyes off the seven of them, where they stayed in their orbital fortress. “What about you guys? Are you itching for an extra juicy reward? Let's say we take half of their gathered materials after a very thorough search.”

Their hold was actually nearly empty, but Matt wasn’t about to let Remi find out. It was much better for other groups to speculate on Allie’s Talent rather than have anything confirmed, not that their enemies didn’t already assume its power was near omnipotent.

Despite the teammates not making a sound or moving at all, Remi laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke before his expression went blank and he started to growl.

“Give me a reason, Ascenders. Give it to me. Stay and fight over this world with me. Do it.”

Matt saw deep hatred in the Tier 31’s eyes that he couldn’t quite place. 

He also thought he saw desperation. Not in Remi’s eyes, but in his teammates’. It wasn’t much, but they seemed determined. If they had come into the fight claiming vengeance for the Day of Long Shadow, that might make sense. But as far as the army intelligence reports knew, their attack hadn't deeply affected Remi, Patricia, or anyone they should have known to explain the hostility.

They had been briefed on enemies they had made that day, and he knew neither of these two were on those lists. In fact, Patricia’s presence didn’t make any sense, as the Corporations hadn’t been heavily targeted that day.

Treasures and loot could explain a lot of conflict, but the level of determination he saw almost seemed personal, given there were only a few months until most worlds were fully looted and people would start moving around to find strange realms.

Before Matt could psychoanalyze the enemy any more, the fight started. 

Remi howled.

Unlike a normal growl, the Domain-assisted rumble Remi let out traveled through the vacuum of space without any obstacle. As it passed over his side’s troops and Patricia’s, the sound bolstered them, a small pulsating aura forming over them while it tried to sap the seven of them.

Aster, having expected the spell, dispelled the wave of power before it could affect them, but their enemies didn’t waste the opportunity the howl had bought them.

That did nothing to remove the buff both teams got, but she and Zack were already fighting both groups’ mages and their support teams’ mages, trying to gain dominance over their surroundings as the frontline fighters approached the shield in perfect unison.

Remi’s ship, or more likely one of his teammates, had a very strong anti-teleportation ward raised, preventing Matt from swapping places with Liz and making it harder for Aster to use her spirit space.

Not impossible, the attacking groups didn’t seem to have gear specifically made to counter them, just spatial magic in general.

Those types of defenses were good, but they could only hamper, not stop, Allie.

She appeared next to Remi’s team healer, only to nearly lose her head in return as the man next to the healer was already bringing his glowing staff up and around. Her teleport had only been slowed down a tiny bit by the wards, but that made it readable by the well-trained Tier 31.

With Allie’s ambush failed, she teleported out, leaving the healer to fully reattach their head. Remi’s team charged along with all of Patricia’s general soldiers and half of her elite defenders, the rest protecting her from Allie.

Matt cast [Hail] for a brief moment to give Aster some more ice to work with, but he was forced to cut the spell off as the one of the backup troops’ support mages interrupted the cast with a purple dart of metal.

The additional troops were only Tier 31 and low-level elites, so Matt wasn’t too worried about their tricks in a vacuum, but he wasn’t going to be dumb and risk taking the hit.

He had no idea if his dropping of the spell was correct, as the orbital bunker came under fire.

Checking the shield reserves, he immediately understood they weren't going to last long. The items both pinnacle elite teams were using, while only Tier 31, were the best their Great Powers could give them.

Each of Patricia’s bolts caused their shield to wobble and distort, forcing the shields to expend more mana to restabilize.

Others had similar enchantments on their weapons, carefully attacking from cover, not exposing themselves, as they battered the shield. While clearly unfamiliar with each other, both pinnacle elite teams seamlessly worked to chip their way through the barrier.

The only positive Matt could see in the situation was the fact the ships hadn’t tried to gang up on the Unsparing, instead flying away from the planet and possible conflict.

Matt pointed a finger and cast a short but energy-intensive [Mana Beam], cutting out to cross both enemy teams.

Having worked so much on his mana control in the last few years, even when cast at a hundred million mana, the bar of mana hardly wavered, outwardly only looking like the radiance of the spell had increased.

He was already doing his best to condense the bar of mana into an appropriately thin laser that would best penetrate armor, but that much mana was hard to keep smaller than his thigh.

The average Tier 29 was not meant to be throwing around millions of mana through a spell, and at Tier 29, Matt had a lot of mana. 671 million mana available every second gave him more mana to throw around in a blink of an eye than Tier 40 mages had for an entire battle. 

Shields turned red then white, enchantments flaring, as both groups' defenses tried to shed the energy [Mana Beam] imparted to them. People swapped places and no one panicked, but their siege against the barrier increased as their squad leaders urged them on.

Matt wasn’t alone.

All seven of them used their best mid-range spells to try and wear through their attacker’s defenses before they inevitably broke through into the fortress itself.

Frontliners swapped constantly, but they only managed to inflict semi-serious wounds onto the non-pinnacle elites, not defeating more than the occasional unlucky elite.

When Matt had no better options, he turned [Mana Beam] onto them, but both enemy teams’ elites fearlessly persisted, only surrendering when it was clear he would have killed them otherwise.

A momentarily exposed helm was all Matt or any of the others needed to defeat the comparatively weaker fighters, but the peak and pinnacle elites moved to their support the moment any of them tried to wipe out a large portion of the weaker elites. Forcing the seven of them to redirect their attention elsewhere gave the weaker elites time to recover, replace gear, and start attacking the barrier once more.

The stalemate held for what felt like days, before the shield cracked and shattered under the relentlessly and well-coordinated assault.

At that moment, a deceptively fast red and blue spell left Zack’s hands. Before anyone on either side knew it, the spell had already covered the distance and slammed into their enemies’ own shields, taking down the linkages they were using to spread the damage.

Everyone’s spells started doing serious damage, with Matt’s [Mana Beam] cutting through five lesser elites before being intercepted and blocked by one of Patricia’s guards. All of the elites grabbed their bodies and fled the battlefield, signaling their acknowledgement of the possible kill.

Shields down, Patricia made her presence known.

A rain of crossbow bolts, each a different color, fell and exploded on the battlement around them. 

The varying elemental effects did a surprisingly good job of damaging [Cracked Phantom Armor], the armor trying and failing to match aspects as the elemental damage types rapidly changed.

That single area attack, effective as it was, wasn’t enough to penetrate [Cracked Phantom Armor].

The following bolt that slammed into Matt’s chest, carried along by force mana, however, was successful.

It was filled to the brim with poisons and toxins, each lethal all on their own, but even as his flesh melted, it was repaired just as quickly.

With a small use of [Telekinesis], Matt yanked the bolt out of his chest, along with most of his heart.

The next bolt was aimed for Zack’s head, but when he dodged it and every following shot, thanks to his recent Natural Treasure acquisition, Patricia changed from a medium-range approach to a close-range one, closing in and seeming intent on fighting Matt.

Unlike most who used her weapon, Morgan being the last Matt had fought alongside, Patricia was perfectly comfortable in melee combat as a crossbowman. 

Her move signaled Remi, who launched himself forward with a howl, this time trying to intimidate them with a fear spell.

Seeing the approaching enemies were in the best spot that hopefully wasn’t lethal for the lowest elites, Matt activated the talismans he had built into the outer face of the orbital station.

The world exploded as a wave of mana slapped the approaching shield wall.

If Matt had waited too much longer, the battle-hardened elites might have identified the blocks of mana stone as not being part of the wall, but more importantly, he would have risked outright killing the weaker elites and escalating things. 

Even with adjustment, their opponents lost nearly twenty percent of their lower-level elites due to surrenders after the explosion, as the worst of the injured retreated back to their ship for healing and consequently stepping out of the fight entirely.

Instead of slinking back like he hoped, both team leaders called for a continued push, wanting to get in close enough that the seven of them couldn’t harass from range from the fortress.

As they charged forward, Matt waited a moment and activated the backup talismans he hadn’t yet detonated.

All were single use items, having been made from his mana, but they made up for the lackluster materials with raw power. Not entirely caught off guard like he hoped, the teams survived the smaller explosion even better the second time. Though they still lost a considerable number of normal troops in the process.

Retreating into the fortress where the reinforced ice walls made it harder for enemies to attack, and impossible for them to try and flank them, Matt fought two of the defensive elites from Patricia’s team and the woman herself. 

The two peak elites were experts. Despite not being comparable to Patricia, they were close.

Together with the lesser elites constantly taking opportunistic shots at Matt from every direction, they were difficult to deal with, due to using long-standing Anti-Elite methods designed to wear down even the strongest foes. 

With perfect coordination, they advanced on him, keeping their shields up and preventing Matt from attacking each other's arms or limbs, all while Patricia flitted behind and around them, shooting various bolts at him, trying to determine how to best dismantle his armor.

Trying to feint his way into a better position, Matt’s blade found no opportunities to do anything but cut at shields or deflect blows that came from above and the sides, the pinnacle support teams taking the open space to spread out.

That backfired on them quickly, as it allowed a Liz to run rampant amongst over a dozen of the support staff before one of the peak elite healers managed to isolate the infected, and they surrendered as Liz dissipated the body.

While that hurt their enemies, both pinnacle teams had come well prepared, having more than enough people to fill in the gaps.

Having reached melee distance, the fighting became brutal.

With his spiritual perception, Matt saw as Rah and Susanne were each targeted by a peak elite from Remi’s team with a squad of lesser elites backing them. They didn’t instantly try to rush down the weakest two members of the team, but instead tried to exhaust them, the lesser elites constantly attacking while the peak elites kept their attention. 

It was a well-proven tactic to deal with strong but outnumbered opponents.

It also wasn’t without its flaws.

Even under immense pressure, both Susanne and Rah managed to force the lesser elites to retreat, but they paid for each victory with blood. Susanne had a substantial chunk of her left leg missing and it wasn’t growing back, while Rah seemed to be suffering from a concussion.

All of them were well used to fighting alone, and so the lack of a dedicated healer didn’t hurt them, but in this fight, even Matt’s Concept couldn’t keep up with their mana expenditure, forcing them to dip into their reserves.

Not that the other side wasn’t burning through their own reserves the same way, but even the best rapid mana stone converters were lousy, which caused millions of mana to go to waste. However, anything less would mean running out of mana mid-fight, and that was something they didn’t normally encounter. But fighting up two Tiers over Tier 25 was considered impossible for a reason.

Thankfully, Matt did have his Concept out, and while two of the support mages had tried to probingly disrupt Matt’s working, they had bigger threats to deal with in the form of Aster, Allie, and Zack. Not that taking down his Concept was easy, even if they were left to work, given how long he had established connections with the six others. 

That helped their side fight to their limits. Spells were cast the moment they were off their internal cooldowns and cycled back to the moment they were applicable and available.

Most spells weren’t large-scale but rather tightly focused to best penetrate armor.

Liz was, in fact, the only one not desperately struggling, though she wasn’t winning either, her dozen bodies holding their side’s center from Remi and his remaining frontline peak elites, who were advancing steadily but not pressing too hard, trying to wear them down.

Matt was definitely not having an easier time of it.

Patricia stepped out from behind one of her peak elites and fired her crossbow at Matt, aiming for his left eye, before quickly stepping back behind and vanishing from Matt’s spiritual sense once more.

Blocking a thrust and sidestepping into a spell that failed to penetrate [Cracked Phantom Armor] and barely registered to Matt’s perception, he slashed out at a spot to the right of the peak elite.

Patricia still got her bolt off, and it slammed into his upraised left hand ineffectively, though the maneuver opened him up to a retaliatory barrage of attacks from the lesser elites. Both peak elites rushed him, shields raised, trying to crowd Matt out and preventing him from causing any more harm to their team leader.

The bleeding from the [Wind Cutter] he sent back didn’t last long, but it lasted long enough for Liz to pierce the pinnacle elite’s invisibility, letting Allie attack.

Like the teleporter herself, her attack was quick and vicious.

She teleported to the side of Patricia, her dagger already moving with spell-enhanced speed, ready to ram into her skull, but before the dagger could do more than brush her eye, the pinnacle elite was replaced with an explosion. 

The first of her life-saving treasures teleported Patricia to the side, and without a moment's hesitation, she raised her crossbow to snap off an opportunistic shot at Susanne. The worst was avoided when Susanne desperately threw herself out of the way. It saved her, but in the process, she lost the rest of her leg, resorting to creating a Domain clone copy replacement. It allowed her to keep fighting, but it was yet another burden on her already stressed Domain.

Meanwhile, thankfully, Allie reacted fast enough to avoid the worst of the explosion, but Matt saw her stumble to the ground deeper in the bunker, her armor red hot from taking the hit, her cloak torn and tattered.

The teleporter was almost immediately back in the fight after she downed a potion, but Matt saw a new opportunity as he parried a thrust from one of Patricia’s peak elites.

After informing Liz, Matt launched himself to the side, reigniting his main three sword skills, [Tribulation Strike], [Mana Slash], and [Mana Charge]. He didn’t aim for Patricia’s peak elite tanks, but at Remi’s peak trying to wear Susanne down.

While she was managing to hold her own against one of the peak elites, she was doing so by pushing her everything to its limits. Her eyes bled, her muscles tore with each movement, her spirit screamed as she forcefully cast spells before they were ready to cast again. Her Domain, her greatsword manifestation in particular, was in fact the only part of her that was shining as brightly as when the fight had begun, as it was her singular focus.

Rah was holding on slightly better, but that was at least partially because he had mostly given up the offensive and was using his Ascension-upgraded Talents to protect himself. He still ran the risk of being forcefully captured, but his life wasn’t in danger.

The two were continuously retreating, forcing everyone else to retreat faster in line with them, but that was why Matt left his place in the frontline with a Liz to try and prevent the seemingly inevitable.

His blow landed, but the peak elite vibrated, trying to phase through the attack. 

Matt countered by throwing his Intent at the man, forcing him back into reality, but his sword was already into the man's chest at the time, avoiding a lethal blow only by some very careful placement on Matt's part. It, nonetheless, heavily wounded him, and forced a healer to redirect their attention from the lesser elites.

Seeing that his gambit failed to truly work, Matt joined the frontline, cutting through a few of the lesser elites who didn’t respect lethality. 

As they retreated, he noticed a feigned opportunity aimed to bait out an attack from Rah. Seeing that, Matt cast [Cracked Air Slide] nearly teleporting next to the peak elite.

Deflecting the initial reaction, Matt slipped his blade into the peak elite's armor, cutting a long furrow and leaving a bloody wound as his blade caught on a crack and penetrated deeper.

The lower ranking elites on both sides of the peak immediately turned their full aggression towards Matt, aiming blows at his head trying to force him to disengage. 

Matt flared his Power, pushing deeper instead of retreating. [Cracked Phantom Armor] blocked one of the blows, but the second, a heavy axe, managed to shatter his armor and cut deep into his chest. 

He ignored it all.

While he had spent most of his time working on his mana stone project, Matt hadn’t stopped working on his Power while they waited.

Empowering his arms was fairly easy, and the increase in strength surprised everyone as Matt’s sword impaled the peak elite.

Wrenching his sword free through the man and his armor alike, Matt felt two much stronger than normal spells landing on his head and shoulders, but both failed to fully penetrate [Cracked Phantom Armor].

The peak tried to use their escape method, but having already seen the phasing, Matt commanded reality to firm itself with his Intent.

They surrendered just as Matt took a crossbow bolt to the spine that nearly made him falter, but he had long since cast [Sword Twin], letting his blade move independently to secure the surrender.

Rah followed up with a punishing blow to the elite that attacked Matt with the axe, crippling his arm, but they pulled away, letting another fill in before Rah could follow up and destroy the limb entirely. A few moments later they returned, arm repaired, and rejoined the attack.

Matt used the opening to attack the second peak elite, unleashing a [Tribulation Strike], [Mana Slash], and [Mana Charge] combo, driving the advance back for a moment.

The tide quickly turned once more as Remi and two of his elites tore a Liz apart. 

As the ichor tried to flow away, a gourd on his flank tried to rip the water from the ichor but failed to fully do so. However, it still managed to slow Liz’s retreat enough to destroy the body.

The other Lizzes didn’t let that go unanswered. They struck out, unbothered by the wounds they took in return, aiming for the pinnacle elite's eyes.

One of her spears managed to penetrate, but his Tier advantage allowed Remi to retreat before she could expand the damage.

Allie, pausing from trying to take out Patricia, arrived and drove her dagger into one of the elite's eye before withdrawing and teleporting away.

Axe wound healed, Matt continued to pull back, aiming for a fighting retreat.

Instead of allowing that, Remi called out from behind the frontlines, ordering another push despite them taking two important losses.

One of the peak mages on Patricia's team tried to dissipate their secondary shield, but they fell for the illusionary barrier Aster had created in front of the real one, buying them some time. 

Their inner layer of shielding that blocked the entrance of the fortress fell to a second device. It resonated with the shield and then purposely disharmonized, pulling the entire shield down as the device destroyed itself.

They weren’t new devices, and unless the Corporations had made a breakthrough, the attacking pinnacle teams had burned through two very rare sound Natural Treasures to get into the bunker proper. 

Having been forced back so far so quickly, Liz signaled for everyone to start fighting to cause as many injuries as possible before they fully retreated. Between Matt and her, they would heal faster than their enemies, so it was time to raise the cost of this world that their opponents seemed so determined to take.

Inside the fortress, the lower rank elites moved in perfect unison, trying to gain control of empty halls, only to find them filled with traps. They had built the fortress to army specifications to try and waste the enemy's forces. With only seven, they had no need for the large halls and spacious workshops, so they booby trapped everything except their retreat path.

As the attackers took serious losses trying to clear the fortress, they redoubled their attention to trying to defeat them, now pushing for as fast a defeat as possible.

Matt saved Rah from being physically dragged under, his cultivation method putting him in a serious disadvantage when it came to raw power, but took a crossbow bolt to the neck in return, thanks to Patricia’s regular testing of his defenses’ weaknesses.

Once more, poisons tried to invade his body, but this time, he failed to completely purge them. They were reduced to mere background nuisance, but the fact they were there at all was distractingly painful. Whatever poison she had started using, Matt wasn’t sure, but he could feel as it tried to claw its way to his bones and convert his marrow so it would produce further toxins.

Matt did his best to cover three peak elites, two from Patricia’s team and one from Remi’s, but he was barely able to keep from being surrounded and dragged down, having to cycle between offensive and defensive phases to keep them from succeeding.

Seeing Rah get advanced on by yet another peak elite swordsman and two lower-ranking elites, Matt took a sword to the neck to escape his encirclement and intercept.

The enemy had expected that, and the three peak elites reacted instantly, each moving to try and surround him.

One tried to use their Intent to break Matt’s concentration, but fully engaged with his fight, he shrugged the attack off.

Casting [Cosmic Pressure], Matt made one of the peak elites stumble.

Before he could follow up and decapitate the man, one of the other peaks thrust his shield between Matt and his comrade, even as the third cast a spell aiming at Matt’s head. His [Mana Slash] reflected back at him, but he didn’t deflect and let the spell detonate, using the force to accelerate his left fist forward.

The [Fist Blast] took on the spikes Matt grew on his fists with [Cracked Phantom Armor] and its impact cratered the reflective shield and caused the man holding it to start vomiting blood, as the backlash from having the growth item heavily damaged rebounded.

His attack wasn’t without its cost.

The third peak had put everything into their silvery flames, but [Cracked Phantom Armor] blocked the attacks until a crossbow bolt slammed into his cheek, shattering the spell, and letting the flames rush his body. 

Clearly waiting for that moment, the elite attacking Rah turned and kicked out towards Matt with their glowing boot. The spell disrupter fizzed against the raw amount of mana flowing into Matt’s body, thanks to his Millennium Willow Lifesap, unable to end his healing spells and leave him vulnerable.

The flames ate at his raw flesh, waves of fire following one after the other just as flesh replaced flesh.

When the flames stopped, Matt was charred from the waist up, but as the flames petered out, he opened his already healed eyes, letting his anger leak through. 

Casting [Cracked Phantom Armor] after a second armor-breaking bolt meant rebuilding the spell structure in his spirit, but it was his oldest and most familiar spell, making the process easier than it would have otherwise been.

Luna had made sure of that.

Feeling blackened skin flake off him, Matt lunged forward, not grabbing for his sword but rather the retreating foot.

The peak elite sacrificed the entire leg instead of letting Matt grab him, and that saved him from Matt’s follow up.

Seeing he was still up, more elites turned to face Matt, but at that moment, the world went white and Aster’s spirit space expanded and retracted in moments.

All of the lower level elites not directly next to one of the peak elites vanished as their side’s support mages failed to keep Aster contained.

So many people removed, Matt was able to see a Liz falling apart, having landed a decisive blow on one of their support mages at the cost of her life.

The remaining Liz still on their side exploded into a flow of golden ichor as whatever they had hit her with truly killed Liz.

She revived with a gasp, but the fight only intensified with two of the remaining peaks going after Liz, trying to take her out once again.

Patricia reacted a moment faster than Remi and snapped a shot at Aster’s actual location, triggering [Floating Snow].

Remi instead turned his attention to Matt, seeing he was still standing as he ordered the peak who had been attacking Matt to focus on Rah and Susanne.

Matt wanted to help, but with the strongest pinnacle elite on top of him, with his most trusted peak elite lieutenant at his side, it was all Matt could do to keep himself from being overwhelmed. 

Remi fought like a monster, utilizing his body type and size to their maximum advantage. 

When he snapped, trying to bite Matt’s arm and drag him down, Matt shifted to avoid the blow but a second mana-made jaw appeared around Remi’s mouth and clamped down on Matt’s arm all the same.

Having succeeded for a second time at grabbing one of the Ascenders, Remi drove his paws into the floor and pulled.

Matt didn’t move. He anchored himself with his Intent and even with Remi trying to crack his Domain’s power with his own, Matt didn’t waver.

Remi, however, wasn’t alone, and his lieutenant Simon’s longsword danced out, cutting at Matt. A more typical example of the type, long, thin, relatively light weight, the blade crackled with a colorless energy the army suspected was part of the man's Talent, and was something Matt didn’t want touching him.

Not that he had a choice, unless he was willing to be dragged around and torn apart.

The mana from [Cracked Phantom Armor] slipped from Matt’s control to flow away like cobwebs being caught upon a broom handle as the blade passed through his flesh and innards like a razor.

Sadly for the two men, what should have been an opening on any other magical armor, [Cracked Phantom Armor] wasn’t a typical magical armor spell.

The mana taken was instantly replaced.

Matt ignored the crossbow bolt that bounced off [Cracked Phantom Armor] and raised his sword to deflect a follow up swipe from Remi, cutting a deep furrow into his muzzle. In return, he slashed out with the blade hidden in his tail, transitioning his dodge of Matt’s follow-up strike into an attack.

Simon wasn’t as lucky as his leader. 

A touch slower in his retreat, that mistake cost him.

[Mana Slash] was a fast spell, and Matt’s version was faster than most, but it was still slower than the Tier 31 peak, who managed to raise his blade intercepting the spell. 

Foolishly, Simon tried to take control over the mana with his sword and redirect it as he had with Matt’s armor. He even managed it, but he wasn’t able to stop all of the mana. The excess shredded his armor and chest, the peak elite falling back to the remaining pair of healers as his helmet's greater protection saved his life.

Matt wanted to follow the attack up and finish a weakened opponent off, but Remi expanded in size and rammed into him.

Together, they slammed into the far wall, the Tier 30 materials shattering on the impact. Matt was less bothered than Remi, who realized he now had a blade protruding from his chest.

Matt yanked it free, taking a large portion of the wolf’s chest, but their healer was good enough to fix the wounds as they clashed again.

Remi howled, buffing himself and his allies once more, but Matt cut off one of his rear legs for his distraction. The move turned out to be the right one, as Remi was forced to pause to reattach the limb as Matt felt Rah signaling that he was being overwhelmed in the same moment.

Turning that opening into a sprint for Rah, things collapsed further. Susanne signaled that she was also at the end of her rope. Liz split off a clone to help, but at the same time, Allie informed them the backline fighters were setting up additional spatial stabilizers which would make leaving even harder if they waited any longer. 

Seeing the situation was lost, Liz called it.

Allie, sans her left arm and with a crossbow bolt still in her chest that Matt knew from experience was laced with poison, appeared next to Rah, teleporting him away. An instant later, she did the same with Susanne, despite their enemies’ attempts to stop her.

Matt, despite already running lower than he wanted on his Willpower, activated his Meld for a moment, canceling the various enemies’ Domains who were assisting the technological measures.

Knowing what was about to happen, Matt disengaged completely and ran to Aster along with Liz.

Aster, eyes glowing, cast [Shatter] on the core of ice the orbital fortress had been built around, releasing the spell the moment Allie appeared next to her.

They got to watch the explosion from inside the Unsparing as their healing spells were finally able to get ahead of the damage they took. 

Remi and Patricia were the first to escape the rubble, the rest of their elites, now with even more wounds, appeared bedraggled, but looking like they had been told they could immediately advance to Tier 50. In fact, Matt saw that everyone on their side had similar expressions, as if all of their hardships were worth it now that they had the world.

It was probably for the best that no one had died, but Matt wouldn’t have minded removing anyone from the other side. He didn’t understand why they had attacked so determinedly, but the enmity was sown.

Matt pushed those thoughts down. For now, they needed to recover. Keeping his Concept going above all else, the seven of them healed quietly and topped themselves back up. The moment Aster dumped the lower level elites out of her Tier 25 Talent, the Unsparing tore its way into chaotic space.

when they were all recovered enough to start looking beyond themselves, Rah said, “I am sorry, I—” 

He was cut off by Liz. “Rah, don’t apologize. A loss is a loss, and if we try to make excuses we will never improve. In fact, let's do our debrief now. Let's start with the shorter list. What did everyone do right in the fight?”