Chapter 285

Chapter 285

After their first mission, the three of them rejoined the others in Drifter's ship just to be greeted by Shadow in full combat kit holding children’s party paraphernalia.

Matt rolled his eyes at the antics and instead looked to General Darrow, who nodded at them. “Wonderful first showing. Now, Drifter, if you would?”

“Punching it!'' The pilot called back, and they felt the ship shift underneath them as they re-entered chaotic space, though this time staying more on the actual path, than cutting through unchartable territory.

It had been decided to merge their first outing with a group outing to increase the impact of the Empire's newest set of Ascenders. To that end, they were now slipping behind enemy lines and going supply raiding, planning to attack targets of opportunity in the Tier 25 to Tier 27 range.

Shadow walked over and bumped Aster's hip as asked, “So how was it? First real engagement?”

Aster shrugged. “It wasn’t exactly a hard engagement, that's for sure.”

Shadow rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t chosen for that by any means. It was meant to let you get your feet wet, and you did so. Our first mission was the same way. No cool terrorist masterminds for you guys to go after as a follow up, though. So sorry.”

Matt turned to Shadow and pulled on that thread. “Do you know what Maven is up to? We were on Ventillyria when the attack happened. We would like to sit down and talk with Maven about her involvement.”

Shadow whistled as she rocked back on her heels. “I knew that but had forgotten. Been a few hundred years subjective for me. Sorry about that.”

Light stepped forward and spoke up for his teammate, who currently had a foot in her mouth. “To answer the question, we do not know what she is up to. We have only encountered each other one time after our hunting of her.”

General Darrow spoke from his seat, where he watched the scanner reports on the large table hologram. “We very well might engage them once more, but both sides are playing chicken, and if we start openly hunting them, the other team will start running around trying to waste our time. We wish to keep Ascender Shadow’s capabilities hidden, so we simply ignore them as we deal with more vital missions.” He stopped speaking for long enough that Matt thought he was done when he added, “If this war follows the usual patterns, the various elites will start to gather at important battlefields around core worlds once one side either feels they can secure an important location or decide to escalate. Before that, we will just circle around each other without deliberate engagements.”

Liz caught the key word and asked. “Deliberate? So that means if we encounter them, we will fight?”

General Darrow’s third eye flicked to Liz and scanned her while his true eyes kept watching the screen.

“Ascender Torch, please do not interpret us doing our own missions as avoiding the enemy. The Tier 25 bracket is one of the largest in the war, but we are in no way battle-shy. If there is an opportunity to take down enemy elites, we will do so, and we will do so with extreme prejudice.”

Shadow caught her now thousands of blades and they returned to two blades that she stabbed into nothing. “Fuck yeah we will!”

General Darrow sighed. “Ascender Shadow, if you would please take your antics into another room, I would be grateful, as we are at yellow alert. I will remain here and watch the scanner and inform you if we see a target we want to hit.”

All of them took that cue and walked into the small spartan mess hall that doubled as a lounge room in the ship.

Drifter must have still been actively piloting the ship, as she wasn’t there, but the rest of Team Zero was.

Torment bellowed at them as they entered the room, “Welcome back!”

Happiness pushed clapping hands out of his cheek, but they didn’t breach his skin, which meant Torment had his emotions under control.

Stick and Stone, Dena and Eric, waved from where they were sitting together next to Bulwark meditating mid-air while he faintly glowed. Matt headed over to where Origami was playing with a book sized formation plate near Torment.

Light and Shadow joined them as they sat down, and the two older Ascenders continued their explanation.

“So Maven?”

Light nodded even as Torment’s face twisted as Rage and Detest started tearing through his skin for a moment, before his face went blank long enough for him to wrest control over his emotions.

Despite all that, Torment still managed to speak first. “Vile woman. May she rue the day we teleport in behind her.”

Shadow nodded. “Yeah. Sadly, it doesn't seem like that will be today. Normal mop up duties for us.”

Liz leaned forward as she asked, “So you do this kind of hunting behind enemy lines often?”

Origami sighed. “Sadly.”

Matt was confused by the reaction but was doubly surprised when Shadow sighed in unison with the combat crafter.

Light explained with his deadpan expression, which stood in stark contrast to Torment. “We can usually hit two or three ships before the Great Power we are targeting diverts all traffic around us. Thus far, we have been unable to provoke a larger reaction.”

Torment looked like he was ready to chew through a bulkhead as he said, “I still think we should go on the offensive. We are already behind enemy lines. Let us cripple a few fortress worlds. That will force them to engage with us and pull Tier 25 reinforcements from the frontlines. They shall then learn why our enemies tremble before us!”

Allie pounded the table. “Yeah!” She then deflated. “Sadly I already asked. Darrow said not yet. But hey, that wasn’t the usual no I get it when I ask.”

Torment nodded, but Origami tapped Matt on the arm. “What do you make of this?”

Matt took the device, roughly the size and shape of a slice of pizza, and started studying it. A moment later, he flinched as his senses properly took in the crafter’s handiwork. It was an incredibly dense piece of folded space, metal, ivory, and crystal. Tracing it all out, and following some of the lines, it looked like it would expand into a formation plate roughly two hundred feet in diameter.

Even at Tier 25, that was huge for a personal formation. Without dedicated infrastructure, very few people could power something of that size.

He just happened to be one of those people.

There also just weren’t that many formations which needed to be that big, and that made him curious. Lots of the device’s structure went over his head, as Origami had centuries more experience than he did, and a Talent enhancing her knowledge of the technology. But her work was refreshingly clean and straightforward, giving him a fairly good idea as to what it was doing, even if not the how.

“Is this a flying platform?” he asked, a little confused.

Origami nodded smugly. “It is indeed! When I learned just uh… how massive your mana generation was, I figured I wanted to stretch my crafting ability to try and actually, you know, get some use out of it? And I make a lot of flying platforms, for all kinds of stuff, so this was a good first step.”

“But why is it so big?”

Origami threw up her hands. “To hold really big stuff, obviously! More seriously, this thing has some of the highest weight capacity out of anything I’ve ever made. It could probably lift a castle and have power to spare. You know, in theory.”

Matt turned the plate a few different ways, trying to get a good look at what all she was doing. “So... I don’t think this’ll work. Looks like you’re using Fet’atal linking runes for the primary motive drive, and I know they’re the stereotypical ‘high mana’ runes, rated for use up to Tier 28, all that, but they can’t actually handle a throughput that high. The pair-links spontaneously redirect after just a few minutes once you have more than about fifty thousand channeled per second. Well, that’s at least with Tier 15 materials.

“You could probably squeeze some more performance at Tier 25, but that’s offset in part by the Energetic Aptitude Theorem. Maybe you could get a differential of one million with a single linkage? If you want to be able to actually handle a hundred million in the system, you’ll either want at least a dozen full sets of Fet’atal or a major throttle limiter capping the upper limit to something the system can handle. Or you could use Chalk Master’s conducting array, that scales up really well. Though, most resources assume you won’t go above a sextuple-degree array, and you’d need at least an octuple for this. That should work well with your style, though. You might be able to rig it in such a way that the array will only activate to the needed extent, and stay dormant otherwise.”

Origami looked like she wanted to say he was wrong, but instead, she flipped open a massive toolbelt filled with replacement parts, grabbed a couple of force and air-based pieces and a blank ceramic connecting rod. A few hours later, she had a bit of makeshift flight rod, with the same Fet-atal rune structure, scaled down accordingly.

It wasn’t a perfect job, nor a perfect analogy for the full-scale model, but it would work. Matt grabbed it, and carefully used his Concept to feed mana into the enchantment directly. While it worked initially, after about fifteen minutes the mana went wild, lashing out randomly and trying to spontaneously alter or form other similar runes to instead channel mana to them.

Matt quickly cut off his mana before it could progress any further, handing the contraption back to Origami.

The woman narrowed her eyes at Matt, and he generated a mana crystal for her to study. “I think my endless sub-aspect exacerbates the issue, but it happens even when I use different elements. I didn’t go too in-depth as to why they didn’t work at the time, I’ll admit. Path and all that. I just confirmed that they didn’t and moved onto other linking runes.”

“Lemme see that!” The blond woman grabbed the crystal, and her eyes began glowing as she peered at it, pulling out other devices from a surprisingly in-depth tool belt as she studied his crystal.

For the next three hours the two of them— though mostly Origami— worked on trying to figure out why the Fet’atal linking runes weren’t working properly. As it turned out, he had been wrong when he said the Fet’atal runes were worse. Their standard configuration didn’t hold up well, but apparently post Tier 15— the last time he used them— it was far more robust, and with the proper backing they could absolutely stay adequately focused on their pair, instead of going haywire.

He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was.

Their discoveries still meant the formation plate Origami had made needed to be scrapped. At the level of complexity required in Tier 25 enchanting, it was nearly impossible to make changes to a ‘complete’ device without a Talent or Domain to keep tinkering. Origami’s Intent actually did allow for that, but with the Fet’atal runic structure being so core to the entire design, she was better off breaking it down for parts and rebuilding it, than trying to modify what she already had.

Origami was pleased by the end of it, “Well, that was productive. Once we get back to Lightfoot I’ll have to give it another go. I’ve worked on some multimillion projects before, but they’ve always been group efforts. A solo project is absolutely amazing. Great for my Domain, though. It hasn’t felt this healthy in millennia. Maybe next time, I’ll make a fully portable fort.”

Shadow had appeared at some point, and Matt mirrored Origami as he tensed in surprise once he recognized her presence, narrowly avoiding [Mana Beam]ing her. As it stood, she was looking at the basic plans. “Can it include the most overpowered deflector ever? I want to watch the faces of a ship as their own shot comes back at them. Can you make it do that?”

Origami replied tersely, “Uh, uh. Also Allie, please don’t do that. Wrecks my thoughts something fierce. And no, for…. Actually. This could probably run an absolute defense as a base? Normally it’s prohibitively expensive, but that’s not really an issue, is it? If we used an Acils-core Invulnerability structure and —”

Shadow waved her off. “I don't care about the nerd shit. Can you do it?”

Origami rolled her eyes. “Maybe. Probably. Sure. But it’s not like a single ship attack, when reflected, would cripple its originator. Ships tend to fight other ships, they have armor and shields.”

Shadow apparently disagreed and insisted that the looks on the crew's faces would be worth the effort.

As the two started bickering, Matt returned to the main lounge area, running into a discussion Zack was having, predominantly with Aster, about bloodlines and elements. Out of curiosity, he settled down into one of the seats, trying to catch the thread of the conversation.

“Which is why I originally wanted to go with space ice. Of course, then I grew up a little and realized that nothing can use Void as a component, but I still wanna figure out something that’ll give me real bite, you know? And with my advisors telling me that I really can dream big, it’s come back up again.”

Light pursed his lips as he thought that over. “Well, while I applaud your creativity, I must concur that ice, winter, illusion, space, and void will not make a stable combination, not by any means. Even putting aside the sheer magnitude of discovering a wholly new level five mana type, when we’re still working on a level three, even assuming we do manage that… How would you get the resources? My understanding is that to evolve your bloodline you’d need at minimum a natural treasure at or above your Tier, which is unlikely, to put it lightly.”

Aster pointed at Matt. “He can just make me rifts of the associated mana types once we get something stable.”

Light shook his head before stopping himself. “The odds of successfully getting an aspected rift to Tier 25 would be astronomic—” Letting out a small breath, Light continued, “I suppose the associated costs really wouldn’t matter. I apologize for my oversight, it seems it will take me a little more time before I can truly adjust my thinking. With that in mind, I would be happy to assist you two with advancing your bloodlines in the desired directions. I’m quite jealous of your bloodlines actually. For a little essence allocation, you get fairly unique features and an entirely new form. I would love to have access to that.”

Aster nodded sagely. “Being a fox is great.”

Matt rolled his eyes and elbowed his bond.

Aster responded, but Matt was more occupied looking at his wife. She was nominally part of the discussion, but was mainly sitting quietly. Anyone else other than maybe Aster would think she was fully engaged, but he could tell her heart wasn’t in on it.

‘Hey’, he subtly messaged her, ‘You okay?’

Her hand flinched slightly. He’d broken her out of some deep contemplation, it seemed.

‘Mostly,’ she shot back.

Matt held back a sigh. ‘It’s about The Book, isn’t it?’

Liz scooted closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. ‘No, it’s definitely not about the book all about phoenixes who changed their bloodlines to ice or water or wood or whatever, and how they did it. It’s something completely unrelated to this discussion about evolving bloodlines that’s going on all around me.’

‘…Sorry, you didn’t deserve that,’ she quickly followed up.

‘Hey, it’s okay. I get it. You know I’m going to support you no matter what you choose, right? It’s not like I love you just because you’re a phoenix, or because you’ve got a fire bloodline, and I certainly don’t care if either of those change.’

‘Yeah. That’s not the problem.’

Matt absently stroked his wife’s shoulder. ‘I know. You don’t want to feel like you’re cutting yourself off from your family. But your mom wouldn’t have given you the Book if that was going to be a concern.’

‘My parents are too nice for their own good. I don’t know if it would actually break mom’s heart if I completely gave up on fire, and went full blood phoenix, because she’s just too supportive in everything.’

‘It’s definitely not an act,’ Matt reassured her. ‘Your parents aren’t that petty.’

‘Is it really pettiness though?’ Liz quickly replied, ‘I’d be rejecting what my mom gave me in about as literal of a sense as possible. She gave me the fire in my blood, she became a phoenix through her own efforts, and now I’m just throwing away all of that,  because what? It’s more convenient?’

‘Of course not, you’re taking what she gave you and making it your own. She’d be thrilled that you can use your bloodline to its fullest potential for yourself. That you can take whatever you have from them, and still use it as a connection to them, even if you move past it.’ A part of Matt wanted to bring up his history with his own parents, and the soul-searching that he’d undergone when he decided to actually, truly change his last name when marrying Liz… but it wouldn’t help. She was probably already thinking about it, and mentioning it would only serve to sour her mood even more.

‘….Maybe. But it still feels like abandoning them.’ Liz’s face may have been deadpan but he could still hear the whining in her message.

‘Liz…’

‘I made it this far, okay! And when I was Torch, I felt closer to my family than any time since my awakening. But now, sure I still have all of that prowess and experience, but it was hard enough being Torch by the end of the Path and I just can’t afford that luxury now. Especially with every eye in the Realm on me. I’m stuck, using blood every time it matters for the rest of my life, and that’s not really a problem, because blood is great as well, but I don’t want to give up my last true connection to fire, the only thing that even made it halfway possible for me to ever pretend to be Torch. It’s like I’m betraying myself as much as anything, no matter what I do. That if I keep being a fire phoenix, then it’s like I’m betraying myself by not being the best me I can be. If I become a blood phoenix, it’s like I’m betraying myself by sacrificing my past for scraps of power that I don’t need.’

‘What about bloodfire? Keep both parts of your heritage, combine them even, and become something greater than either your Talent or your parents. They don’t want you to suffer, and neither do I.’

‘…’

‘Come on, I know you’ve thought about it. And this is literally the perfect time to bring it up. What happened to it being alchemically complete for life, and all that? Isn’t that a good basis for an element?’

Matt sent a penetrating look his wife’s way when she didn’t respond after a few moments.

‘It’s not… it’s not that easy.’

“And why can’t it be?” he broke them out of their AI messages with a murmur, earning a curious glance from Aster. He shook his head slightly, then spoke up. “Hey Zack,” he started.

‘Noooo. Don’t you dare.’

“Yes, Qu-Matt?”

“As our resident expert on mana aspects, what do you think about merging blood and fire? Liz is too shy to ask herself,” he cheerfully added, earning himself a jab in the side that only made him smile wider.

“Blood and fire? I don’t have many insights, I’m afraid. I’ve only utilized blood a couple of times, for a bit of supplemental healer’s training with Kudzu, so the only things I know would be the things you’re familiar with.”

Matt raised a question. “Failure to merge in every attempt?”

“Yes,” he agreed. “Despite many attempts to form a Sacrifice element over the years, the two simply refuse to cooperate.”

Matt wiggled his hand. “Well, what about not trying to make it into Sacrifice, but into something more Life-oriented? I’ve heard that, what is it, standard alchemical stagings, combining blood and fire can be alchemized through some voodoo-?”

Liz cut him off with a glare, “I know what you’re doing.”

“And yet it seems to be working,” he cheerfully replied.

“Could you finish what you were saying?” Zack prompted him.

Matt mimed shutting up, and after a few moments of a curious Zack stare, Liz relented. “Blood and fire. They’re alchemically complete for life… almost. Any creatures I make trying to use both of those elements tend to not last long, and I haven’t gotten any to actually reproduce without the direct aid of my Intent.”

After pondering for a moment, Zack asked, “Hmm. What of including Life directly?”

“Overpowers it, same as most other formulas for life,” Liz shook her head.

“Ah, that does make sense. I’m not familiar with life-creation, but I have found that including elemental Life in just about anything has a very… aggressive effect. I can see why that would be detrimental to forming a distinct type of life.”

“Yeah, and the fire always gets shoved way to the back, and I definitely don’t want to bring in bone to just make elemental body, I want elemental bloodfire. I tried crystal, and that didn’t go badly, but it didn’t go well either.”

“Yes, crystal is good for magnification and reflection, but what of…”

The four of them chatted for several days until a beep went through their collective AI.

General Darrow had found them a target.

It was a supply convoy like he had hoped, but the target was a rich one. It was a supply cruiser which, if it was making its usual run, was going to resupply a Tier 26 battlefield with equipment.

The central ship was truly massive. Close to five miles long and three across, it floated like a balloon in chaotic space, being pushed around in small random jitters.

If it was alone, it would be an easy target, but supply ships never neared the borders undefended for good reason.

Four smaller, sleeker ships kept position around the cargo ship and bristled with cannon ports.

Drifters' laughter echoed through their com-chanel. “Quill? Let's hit 'em with the one-two special.”

Matt flooded his mana into the arm-thick mana conduit that Drifter had exposed before they embarked on the mission.

Through his connection to the ship, Matt felt the massive rechargeable mana batteries drain as they fired the large mana cannons repeatedly.

From full mana to half, then back to full, Drifter hit the escort ships and flared their shields.

Shadow took that as their cue, and the twelve of them were teleported out of the ship.

Darrow immediately highlighted the ships who were firing at their group and ordered. “Ascender Quill takes them out one by one. If they disgorge their companies, don't fire on empty ships.”

Torment laughed and explained, “Mostly intact ships make for fantastic merits.”

The enemies weren’t so nice, and their mana cannons started firing, but Light stood forward, and the blasts of mana turned from imposing projectiles to mere illusions.

Around him, a massive array of plates unfolded as Origami prepared her stabilization array. As soon as the worst of Chaotic Space’s influence was blunted, Matt took his position at the center of the massive set of interlocking rings, connecting with the enchantment and using it to lock himself and his mana in place.

A whirring built up around him as Matt withdrew a set of mana crystals, filling up his mana pool to the point he could actually sustain the full five million mana he was preparing to throw into [Breach].

Power swirled around him, and Matt wrestled the mana to behave. Normally, this kind of working would be a lost cause in Chaotic Space. The laws of magic changed too quickly, too violently for him to keep up with it at this scale. But the stabilization array, based on some of his own designs and made real by Origami and Firmament, kept it in check.

Ethereal whisps of blue materialized from the ether, bending Chaotic Space around him as he passed the twenty million mana mark. Even though he wasn’t the highest-Tier individual on the battlefield, even if each of the ships had more mana available to them than he did, it was he who was the center of this battle.

Fifty million. The pressure was palpable now, and questing ‘roots’ of blue spread out from the growing sphere of energy cupped between his hands. Where they passed, Chaotic Space bent, interlocking veins of white and black pushing and pulling unpredictably. Giving and consuming, not balanced in the slightest yet held in equilibrium.

One hundred million. Even in realspace, wrangling this much mana was a tall order for Matt. He desperately fought the mana, keeping it in one place as it tried to spontaneously change aspects, teleport in every direction, detonate in his face, collapse into a temporary black hole, or a thousand other issues. At least in Chaotic Space, it was completely incapable of becoming a rift, that was always an annoying one to fight.

Two hundred million. Origami’s formation was fully operational now, and the rings were spinning faster and faster, helping Matt keep his spell on track and preventing Chaotic Space from getting any fancy ideas about suddenly mimicking the nature of a siege-class spell, something that he wasn’t sure they’d survive. At minimum, it would certainly disrupt the protective enchantments that enabled them to actually put their full attention towards the fight, instead of simply surviving. At worst, it might overwhelm the enchantments entirely, transforming them all into nothing but fuel for the spell itself.

Three hundred million. It was taking forever for this spell to charge, well in excess of ten, maybe even twenty seconds, he couldn’t check. He kept pouring in mana as fast as he could, but whether the limit was [Breach]’s own charge-rate limiters or his own ability to keep his spell in control fluctuated constantly. Without his teammates, without a target as large as a ship, this would never be even remotely viable.

Yet here he was.

Four hundred million. Origami’s formation began to slowly shift from simply supporting Matt in his casting towards aiding his aim. The rings began to slow and re-orient, focusing ring after ring on Matt’s target. They fed information and stability to Matt, his AI, and his spell alike as space began to turn blue.

Five hundred million. The spell stabilized in Matt’s hands, a pulsing mass of raw power, a wild and barely-tamed skill that nonetheless obeyed him, bent reality to his whim. The last of the rings had settled into place, and Shadow had temporarily disabled the engines of the ship he was targeting.

Matt unleashed his spell.

[Breach] shot off into the swirling void, pulling along the corrosive reality and leaving the impression of stars and galaxies in its wake. The mirage of a universe, created and washed away in the presence of Matt’s all-consuming spell. It was almost beautiful.

Then it struck.

The ship's shields flared, but it made no difference. The [Breach] projectile with five hundred million mana crushed the invisible shield without even slowing. It was like an egg being thrown into a wall.

There was no resistance, just destruction.

The ship itself didn’t fare better. The [Breach] projectile went straight through the ship and kept flying off deep into chaotic space as the corrosive energies ate at the spell, slowly destabilizing it.

Matt blinked as the battlefield froze for an instant.

The Federation ships stopped firing, and Team Zero all paused as they inspected Matt with their spiritual senses.

That pause only lasted an instant.

The Federation escort ships started disgorging their personnel in streams as they rushed to not be such a large target.

Matt didn’t even bother getting ready for another [Breach].

The spell took too long to cast, and if he lowered the mana cost, he would still need to take a few seconds to cast it. Seconds he could do other things with.

Like cast [Gravitic Bolt] with [Barrage] to triple the projectiles.

Matt hardly bothered to aim.

He didn’t need to, as Light was taking control of the spells and guiding the hyper-fast projectiles to target the soldiers who stood out to him.

Origami floated to the side as she tossed out a small cube that expanded into an entire fortress that she, Morgan, Torment, General Darrow, Light, and Aster manned.

Morgan waved her hand and a dozen, then dozens, of physical spell constructs appeared and floated forward to land on the walls of the portable fortress, where they started firing at any Federation soldier who neared them. Origami threw out more constructs, which merged with Morgan's spell constructs and buffed them. The chattering of their attacks sped up to a whir.

Morgan didn’t just rely on her constructs, she pulled out a massive crossbow and started firing on the targets that General Darrow highlighted.

She didn’t kill someone every time she fired. She usually killed two or more, her shots tearing through the Federation troops.

Aster had already used her tiara to create a [Dispelling Wind] elemental which raced forward and into groups of enemies, utterly wrecking any attempts to get established, even as she brought up [Tailwind], [Headwind], [Cross Wind], [Absolute White], [Meadows of Rime], and spell after spell to hinder their enemies and help them.

Behind her, Torment roared, unleashing his emotions with deadly intent. Despite looking like something out of a horror movie, the demons clawing out of his body radiated an aura of killing intent identical to their master. He was no slave to his emotions, they existed only to serve him.

Rage was the first out, as claws burst out from inside  a massive, horned beast twice as tall as Matt was, with red skin just a few shades darker than Torment’s own. Fire erupted from its back like great wings, coalescing into a deadly sword and whip combo.

Shortly behind it, Obsession slithered its way out as a half-serpent, half-woman beast with at least six arms, pushing the summoner’s mouth open too wide for it to climb out, just like a snake shedding its skin. It instantly fixed its gaze upon a nearby soldier and set upon its unfortunate victim with a triumphant hiss.

Torment sagged as his two demons entered the fray, but other than a malicious smile creeping across his face as he stared hungrily at the Federation army, he was fully composed. He cast spells empowering his summons, conjuring more mundane beasts to aid their fight and directing his main representatives.

Matt cast [Meteor Shower] and dedicated enough mana to ensure that it would continue to give Light projectiles for a good long while.

With that done, he flew forward to join the melee.

Despite their ambush, the fight wasn’t one-sided.

The Federation had their own elite troops, and while this company wasn’t their best, they were good. Good enough to keep themselves from getting instantly overwhelmed.

Drifter was at least having more success; she had already flown around to the rear of the transport ship, taking out its engines, and was moving into position to give them covering fire with the ship's smaller cannons.

Matt joined Liz, where five of her attacked an equal number of Federation soldiers next to Stick, Stone, and Bulwark.

As Matt entered their range, he found himself buffed by both spell and Domain. He cast [Bulwark] to block an incoming spell, prompting a laugh from Bulwark himself beside him. “Always good to see my namesake in use. I love the spell.”

It took real dedication to name yourself after a single skill, but Bulwark clearly had that commitment. A golden shield hovered around him, usually near the wrist like a real shield would, but also swooping around on its own to block incoming attacks. Matt had no doubt that the man had upgraded the skill, enabling it to be empowered by other shield skills, but likely had gear dedicated to enhancing [Bulwark] specifically, among many other things.

Matt darted forward into the middle of two Tier 26 lieutenants, and with the full strength of [Telekinesis] empowering his sword, struck.

The first man blocked the blow but his blade was snapped in half in the effort. The second was too slow and lost an arm.

A lance of ice took him in the head and ended his life, allowing Matt to turn his attention to the remaining man.

Before he could finish him, Liz’s spear took him in the gut and he exploded in a spray of blood.

Shadow appeared behind another Federation soldier who was giving orders, a captain if Matt translated the rank correctly. She almost blended in with the swirling not-colors of chaotic space with her cloak, Gerald, both shielding her from the dangerous energy that was chaotic space and making her almost invisible. The only things that were visible were her daggers, which looked far too utilitarian for someone with her personality.

They fit, though, and even as she decapitated the man, her body blurred as she teleported parts of herself out of the way of a half dozen attacks.

Twisting, she kicked the head at her attacks even as she called out, “So what are you three thinking of for your new Ascender titles? Quill, Torch, and Scoop just dont work post unmasking.”

Bulwark laughed, “That's easy! They love their crystals. Call them Ruby, Diamond, and Sapphire. It fits their styles and their armor.”

Shadow bobbed her head as she thought over the offer, the movements also dodging an attack that almost took her in the head. “I like Ruby and Sapphire. They fit really well, but Diamond? It feels too basic.”

Stick wrapped three Federation lieutenants in a cloth wrapping and squeezed them until they popped as she offered, “What about Onyx? It fits when he goes all black hole-ey.”

Liz shook her head even as she fought off two Federation captains alongside Obsession, the snake-woman wielding severed heads like flails. “We thought about Ruby and Sapphire. But they didn’t work that well, especially before Matt got his Tier 25 talent. Now, we could revisit them for Aster and myself, but Diamond is too close to ‘E Diamond’ for what we want, and Matt’s hyper-concentration mode is too Willpower intensive to be reflected in his name.”

“Ah come on,” Shadow protested. “Victor E Diamond was like... the ninth Empire Ascender, it’s been long enough you can do something similar. And I’m sure Quill will go all black eventually. It’s just basic forethought!” Matt reached out and grabbed a blade that almost took Stone in the leg with his left hand and crushed the metal under his grip. Anger tore the man into ribbons, and Matt ducked and thrust his blade upward to take a man in the groin who was trying to come in at him from above.

Spinning, he cast a short burst of [Dragonflame].

Chaotic space itself was tinted red for a moment as the wave of aspected mana distorted the surroundings.

They quickly returned to their normal mix of purplishish non-colors, and Matt used the opening to throw himself into the middle of two colonels.

He blocked one of the blades and focused [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s outer layer to better deflect a crossbow bolt the second man fired.

Stone brought his staff down on a Federation soldier's head, popping it as he shouted, “What about Endless, Immortal, and Eternal? None of them have been taken before, and they have a nice ring as a trio.”

Shadow popped back in long enough for three people to stop moving as their heads and bodies separated from each other, the chaotic space already eating away at their now undefended bodies. “I don’t know... It's good, but it feels like Torch should have an E name as well there. Also, how is Aster Eternal? Isn’t her Concept about the end of things?”

Matt grunted as the two colonels fell. “And now you know why we haven’t figured this out on our own before! It's damn hard.”

Flying upward, he started casting [Mana Beam] as he felt one of the ships start to charge its cannons.

Shadow cursed before she vanished, “Mother fuckers! I thought I killed everyone in there.”

Matt’s shot destroyed the charging cannon, and he turned his mana beam towards the gathered troops, cutting through anyone who got in his way. He stopped after fifteen seconds and let everything but [Cracked Phantom Armor] drop as he drained a few small mana stones from his ring for good measure.

It was basically impossible for anyone to tell how much mana he’d pulled from his personal stones, making it the perfect cover. It didn’t matter if nobody would see the deception now, what mattered was the habits and patterns that would emerge from him consistently pretending he needed mana stone mana to pull off his intense stunts.

Thus ‘recharged’, he entered the battle.

Chess had come up with the idea based on his original false Talent for Quill. They needed to be able to explain Matt’s mana expenditures, and so they pretended that for every five hundred billion mana he spent, he needed to recharge. In total, they were pretending his initial Talents revolved around wastelessly absorbing mana stones, the mirror to him being able to now create mana stones. Officially, they were acting as though they were pretending to give him Tier 35 mana stones, but they were ‘actually’ having him fill up on much, much lower-tier mana stones, then convert those into his own personal stones. Or something like that. He was just glad he could use his full capabilities, even if the level of espionage they were working to counteract made his head spin.

Aster had found it endlessly amusing to trick people with something that was essentially the exact opposite of his real Talent.

With that taken care of, Matt threw his idea into the pot. “It's similar, but I was thinking Life, Death, Eternity.”

One of Liz grunted as she tore a woman in half with her bare hands. “And I still like Never, Again, and Forever. It's far better for marketing.”

Matt rolled his eyes as he threw out an answer that had gotten him glared at last time. “What about Princess, Knight, and General?”

Bulwark laughed and caught a glob of blood to the face for his troubles.

Shadow teleported back just in time, as the ship Matt had disabled the mana cannon on exploded. “Some fucker in there wouldn’t die so I teleported him into the mana crystal engine. That got him. Also, I agree with the last one. Princess, Knight, and General has a nice symmetry.”

Liz ripped her spear out of a colonel. “There is no way I’m being called Princess in any kind of serious fashion.”

“No, Scoop would be Princess. She’s the one wearing the crown. Therefore she’s the Princess. You’re just… generally around, so you’re the General.” Shadow confidently replied.

“Aren’t you ‘generally around?’ By that logic, you should be General and Light should be Specific.”

Shadow opened her mouth to respond, but vanished in a cloud of purple smoke before she actually said anything.

Stone gave a decent suggestion, “Hero, Squad, and Army? That kinda fits as well.”

Liz mused that over, but Matt disagreed. “Hero is just too pretentious. Even for me, it's too much.”

Shadow reappeared with a pop of red lightning. “Princess, Hero, and Legion.”

Matt tossed a dismembered arm at her. “That didn’t fix the problem.”

Bulwark blocked a spell and healed the small wound that Rage had been dealt. “I think I like Never, Again, and Forever. It seems classic.”

Matt shook his head. “Sure, it sounds great as a trio, but the words are too vague. Think about trying to talk to someone who goes by ‘Never, Again, or Forever’ it would be endless confusion.”

By the time the last of the troopers fell, they did not have an answer, and General Darrow was glaring lightly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned his attention to the supply ship and messaged them. “Supply ship of the Federation. This is your opportunity to surrender. I—”

He was going to say more, but the moment he mentioned the word surrender, the ship transmitted its unconditional surrender.

Shadow sighed. “Man, they take all the fun out of it. I was getting ready to teleport their engine out if they decided to blow the whole thing or something heroic. Do you know how fucking cool that would look in a movie?”