The Path of Ascension

Matt spent the evening with his team, casually watching movies and dining in. He wanted to cook, but the others wouldn't hear of it, and ordered a spread of dishes before they even reached their room.

On their way back, they picked up Aster from a groggy Alyssa, who only opened the door long enough for them to enter before she shuffled into her bathroom and into the running shower.

Aster was happy to see him, but was still mostly out of it. So when they got back, they put her in the freezer until the food arrived. Unsurprisingly, she miraculously revived at the smell of roasted rabbit.

She was still feeling the alcohol and only nibbled at her food until Matt cut it for her. She whined a mental, “Thank you,” before projecting an image of her being fed by hand.

He was happy to do so. It was cute and nostalgic to see her so helpless. It took him back to when she was a newborn, when she needed him to help with pretty much everything.

His introspection ended as they watched a comedy movie, and he went to use the bathroom. He noticed how Liz wouldn't take her eyes off of him, and was tracking every movement he made.

When he went to fetch a drink from the kitchen, she took the opportunity to descend on him.

She rubbed his arm, and when that wasn't enough, leaned in for a hug. Then, holding him tightly, she apologized, “I'm sorry I wasn't there. I...”

Matt rubbed her back while in the embrace, but cut her off. “Don't worry about that. Even if you had been there, I still probably would have snapped on him. I'm more mad at myself for giving the bastard what he wanted.”

Against his conscious desires, his body tensed at the mention of Talous and his Concept.

Liz noticed and pulled back. “What do you mean?”

Her eyes were sharp, and Matt understood how it felt to be a rabbit with Aster eyeing them from a bush. It was unnerving to know that a predator had their full attention locked on to you.

When he didn't answer quickly enough, Liz prodded again. “He wanted a fight, but your tone tells me that's not all. What did he want?”

Her tone was gentle, but there was a hardness in there that spoke of the pain and anger just waiting to be unleashed. Not willing to lie to her, he debated a half-truth, or something less revealing. But in the end, he decided to just let it out.

“I think the reason he wanted to fight me so badly was that he was close to finishing his Concept, and fighting me got it for him. Halfway through the fight, he finished forming it and started using it. I expect he was just a hair away, and needed the final push.”

He tensed up again, but tried to shove it down. Liz noticed, so he finished his thought. “It pisses me off that he insulted my parents to get me to fight, and that's what earned him his Concept. It feels like he besmirched their memory.”

Liz was clearly concerned, and he noticed that his knuckles started to pop. Realizing he was tensing, he shook himself in an effort to relax.

“It's fine. I just need some time to cool down completely.”

His girlfriend and teammate looked at him like he was stupid.

“What?”

Her look of incredulity only increased to near comical levels.

“Matt, you need to talk to someone.” When he opened his mouth, she spoke over him. “A professional. Talous threw some hateful shit at you, and you’re just pushing it down and bottling it up. Have you even messaged your therapist at all?”

Internally, he winced. He had thought about it, but had decided against it. He just wanted the incident behind him.

“No. I haven't.”

She hooked an arm through his arm and started to drag him out of the suite. She called over her shoulder, “We’re going for a walk,” to the rest of the team, who was watching them leave.

Aster jumped off Emily’s lap and padded after them on her slightly wobbly feet. He leaned down to scoop her up and carry her after he probed their connection. Her head was hurting enough. He felt bad about her not resting, but kept his mouth shut.

The Tree of Perfection’s fruit had nearly completed its mental effects on her. She was self-aware enough to decide what she wanted to do herself. If she wanted to come, he wouldn't stop her. And he wanted her close. She was a balm to his spirit.

His fluffy bond sent peaceful thoughts to him, which stopped him from resisting more than anything Liz had said. Aster had a direct line to his emotions, as did he to hers. Despite her pain, she was more worried about him than anything else. Even rabbits and ice cream were distant thoughts for her right now.

They didn't talk much as Liz led him to the hospital and into a check-in section. Seeing she was going to sign him in, he gently put a hand on her arm and handed off Aster to do it himself.

After checking in, he was barely able to sit down before his AI pinged that he was able to be seen.

A man in nurse's robes escorted him to a room situated along a hall filled with doors next to each other. Behind the doors, his spiritual sense could feel blocking wards and spatial expansions. From the spacing of the doors, they should be closer to closets than the spacious room he was led to.

He had waited in a stuffed chair for only a few seconds, when an older man came in and smiled at him.

“Healer Lester, Tier 18 with seventy years of mental health expertise.”

“Matt.” He had no idea what else to say and waved slightly, which just caused the older Healer to smile and ask, “ And how do you think you’re doing today?”

Matt wanted to say he was fine, but tried to be more truthful. “I snapped on someone after they insulted my parents to get me to duel them, and then proceed to beat them to a pulp.”

The Healer took that in stride and started to talk to Matt.

They conversed for a little more than an hour and a half, before the man escorted Matt out and back to Liz.

He felt slightly better, but realized it was still too soon for him to really be ok. He was angry, and the only way to start healing was to let that simmer down a bit.

He and the Healer had scheduled a follow-up meeting for the following week.

The three of them wandered the city for a good hour, just window shopping and seeing what they could find. Aster was feeling well enough after a passing Healer threw a healing spell on her. Now, she was bouncing around and revelling in the attention she garnered from the crowds.

They made it back to their room just as everyone else was getting ready to go to bed.

The next day, Matt found a reason to escape his teammate’s watchful eyes thanks to Melinda, who asked to inspect his body once more. With that excuse, he spent another few hours in this hospital, being poked and prodded by Melinda and her mentor, Baxter.

Most of what they said went over his head, but finally, when they both seemed happy, Melinda asked for his help.

“I think I was able to get my Talent to latch on to the spirit and make the changes.”

When he looked confused, she punched his arm.

“If I can figure this out, I can heal people to have a perfect body like yours.”

Matt sat up. “I didn't think you would get it to work. What changed?”

She looked awkward as Baxter smirked.

“Well, for one, I've been practicing my Concept. And secondly, I’m getting a lot of practice, since you keep getting injured.”

Matt opened his mouth to congratulate her, then closed it with a confused click. He had no idea how to respond to that.

“You’re welcome?”

At his question, Baxter snorted, and Melinda laughed as she explained. “No, really. The Tree of Perfection works by changing the spirit, then providing the energy to the body for the transformation. When you get limbs cut off or whatnot, the new flesh that grows back is the perfected flesh. All of your injuries have allowed me to observe the changes, and see the different stages as they appear in different parts of your body.”

Matt was taken aback. “Wait, wait, wait... Is that safe for me?”

Matt started looking for parts of his body that were distinctly better than any of the other parts. The arm he lost to the void user was completely regrown, but it felt mostly the same.

At least he thought it did.

“Relax, Matt. It's not dangerous. Your body is just more perfect than before. It's not physically a Tier 15’s body. It's just that any imperfections are fixed, and your body runs a lot more efficiently. It's also primed to start using essence as a fuel source.”

“So it's not dangerous to have bits and pieces in different stages?”

This time it was the mostly silent Baxter who answered. “It's not. The rich will start cutting limbs off and regrowing them to speed up the process. It's not dangerous. And even if it was, Melinda would keep you alive.”

“That last bit isn't comforting.”

The older man rolled his eyes and flopped into a chair that wasn't there a moment ago.

Melinda refocused his attention. “So, I want to try to heal you into the point of the Tree’s process being finished. But I’m pretty sure it's gonna take absurd amounts of mana.”

That was something Matt had in abundance, so he stuck out his hand. “I can keep you going with my Concept, while also refilling the mana stone rack things your healers all have, if you want.”

Baxter just watched as Melinda cast a spell. They were both staring at something Matt couldn’t see or feel as thousands, then tens of thousands of mana was drained from Matt into Melinda.

It cost him nothing, and was a good willpower exercise. After an hour and way too much mana, Melinda stopped casting and dropped into her own chair next to the examination table.

“So?”

She just grinned at him, so he asked, “It worked then?”

“It worked like a charm. I was able to improve the furthest-behind portions of your body by fifteen percent.”

That didn't sound like a lot, and he said so, to both of the healers' derision.

Baxter pointed at Melinda and shook his head. “Kid, she just proved that it worked, then demonstrated it. That's huge.”

“Yeah, but that took over half a million mana and two hours. While I don’t mind providing it, it seems ineffective.”

Melinda stepped in. “Only because I was providing the energy for the physical change. The spiritual one is already done. Now I need to test on someone without the spiritual changes. If I'm right, making the spiritual change won't be anywhere near as hard.”

Matt put up his hands. “Back up for a second. Did you say the Root of Perfection provided the energy? Wouldn't it be bad if that was lacking?”

He was worried that she'd hurt herself.

“Relax, Matt. Worst comes to worst, I've already proven that I can fix that with enough mana.” She pointed at the older Healer and said, “ From other tests, Baxter and I theorize that at worst, it will siphon off a small bit of mana regen, or steal a bit of the essence we absorb until the changes finish.”

Seeing that the two far more knowledgeable people were in agreement, he again provided mana to Melinda in an endless stream, and she cast a healing spell on herself.

It took hours, but eventually, she came up from her casting and started to look at herself, while Baxter walked around and did the same.

Matt, having no idea how things went, asked, “So?”

Melinda grinned at him. “I was able to convince my spirit that the changes were its natural form, and even jump-started the process a bit.”

He smiled. “That sounds great.” He paused and asked, “It is great, right?”

“It's amazing. This will let even Tier 5’s live for centuries longer than normal. It's a step to healing old age itself. To turning back the clock.”

He had no idea what she was talking about. The two things seemed completely unrelated. Letting someone live longer wasn't reversing aging, and it wasn't like she could heal people one at a time.

When he said that, Melinda explained, “My Tier 3 Talent is the 'you know what'. It's still a Tier 3 Talent though, which means it's a growth Talent. It will grow as I push it. When I Tier up, I should be able to rely on it doing the hard work, and making changes if I want to. No going inch by inch to convince the spirit to accept the changes.”

“That doesn't sound that hard. Why couldn't a normal Healer do that?”

Baxter snorted, “It's what her Tier 3 does. It’s still doing most of the heavy lifting. I wouldn't trust anyone else with that type of detailed work. Even the healers who do manipulate spirits mostly do so with Tier 44 specific healing spells. They rely on those spells to do the heavy lifting.” Seeing that Matt still didn’t believe him, he continued, “Imagine trying to demonstrate an entire ecosystem with only your hand, while blindfolded... and drunk. And without having hands.”

Melinda cut him off from further diatribes. “It's hard, Matt. My Talent makes it so I don’t have to worry about the little details. I just need to think about the ecosystem in general, instead of every detail. If someone else tried and messed up one little thing, it could be quite dangerous. At the PlayPen, when I was still learning before acquiring my Tier 3, it was explicitly stated a million times to not mess with the spirit.”

“So when you Tier up, you’ll just slap a normal healing spell on someone, and it’ll just make the change? What if someone doesn’t want that?”

Melinda shook her head. “I have control over things like that. I can't turn off the general overhealth, but I can turn off the things I've added to it. And it still won't be that easy. It will require a lot of mana to do, but I’ll be quick. I still need to convince the entire spirit that the body should be more in line with what the root did to you.”

Matt changed the topic. He was thoroughly lost in all this medical talk.

“You said that you worked on your Concept. You've been cagey about it. What did you figure out?”

That caused Melinda to sigh. “I’ve learned to accept that it's what I have. Death isn't who I want to be, but it is what’s shaped me. I wish it was something like life, but that's a hard ideal to embody.”

That was something Matt had experience with.

“I feel you. Did I ever tell you what my Concept image was?”

At her head shake, he explained. Matt didn't miss that even Baxter seemed interested. But if the man worked for the Emperor personally, and was sent to watch Melinda, he expected the man to know how to keep his mouth shut. He might even get the higher Tier man to talk.

“I knew my phrase was, ‘I am endless,’ but the image gave me a lot of trouble. I didn't like how a wellspring felt, even if it was easy to make.”

Baxter nodded silently as Matt continued. “A sun was a lot harder to make, but felt way better. Suns live forever with essence, but the knowledge that they die without essence kept cropping up in the back of my mind. Weirdly, going with hotter and shorter-lived suns worked better for me. They were less endless, but they had power.”

Seeing Melinda’s interested expression, he explained. “With the Ascension, I was able to form all of those images, but what I settled on was a black hole. Those are endless... or so it felt.”

Matt paused to gather the right words. “It felt perfectly wrong. Like a mirror image. So, I inverted it into a white hole. They aren't necessarily real, but the image was perfect for me. Endless energy outflowing.”

Melinda looked interested but stayed silent.

Baxter nodded respectfully to Matt before saying, “Thank you for sharing. A person's Concept is a glimpse into their truth.”

He raised a hand, and a greenish energy mana flowed out into a tree. “My Concept was the idea of growth and renewal.”

The tree bloomed into a green explosion, but he smiled as it withered. “My Intent wasn't what I expected. It was the night that let some rest, and others hunt. A time for healing and pain.”

The tree’s leaves drooped as a white moon rose out of the mana and took center stage, casting its light down on everything it touched.

Matt leaned forward, “No one I've talked to really knows Intents or Aspects. What about you?”

Baxter leaned back, and his solemn aura vanished. Suddenly, the relaxed man who took nothing serious was back.

“No one can tell you anything because it's a personal journey. I can't tell you about you.” Matt opened his mouth to protest, but Baxter waved him down. “I'm not trying to be cryptic. You can't even start on your Intent until you've converted all of your essences to resonate with your Concept. I've already heard that you learned about mana aspects. That's an extension of expanding your Concept. When you’ve fully converted your cores, things will be clearer.”

That was actually helpful, so Matt nodded at Baxter before asking, “Is it the same for Aspects?”

“Not really. Even Intents are different to form, but there isn't a one size fits all way to go about it. You'll still need a phrase and image, but beyond that, it varies from person to person. Don't worry about it now. You have plenty of time.”

As the older man said time, Matt had a thought and blurted it out. “If you said I need to convert my essence to resonate with my Concept, I shouldn't advance.”

Baxter shrugged. “That's a strategy. More than one person has used it. If you convert everything to resonate with your Concept early, it's easier. Any new essence added will automatically convert. But it's not like you have to stop. Your Concept is already doing it. It's a passive thing. The more your Concept fits with you, the faster it spreads.”

He pointed at Melinda. “She didn't even mean to get her Concept, and it's perfect for her. Her essence is already converted. It only took her weeks. But your phrase and image are massive and complicated. The white hole is a brilliant move, but it's still a huge idea. Death, or at least how Melinda sees it, is simple.”

Matt and Melinda both looked at each other with confusion. Baxter rolled his eyes and stood. “You have until Tier 24 before this becomes an issue. That's why this information isn’t widely available. Focus on the next step. Not the one ten steps down the line.”

With that, he walked out the door and was gone.

Matt and Melinda chatted a bit about their Concepts and their experiences with them. He was slightly jealous of the idea of a passive part of her Concept.

It seemed incredibly useful. He had no idea what he could do with a passive version of his own Concept, but he liked the idea.

They eventually both had to leave for their team training, but it was nice to spend time with his old friends, and even help them grow. Even if it was just giving them the mana to try wacky things, like reversing old age.

Team Bucket's Concept training was going well. Emily felt closer and closer to her Concept with each training session, and was hopeful that she would fully manifest it in the next month or so.

Contrary to the norm, she actually already had her image. It was herself standing on a growing pyramid as her Talent increased the power of each subsequent spell she cast. She just couldn't pin down her phrase.

Annie was growing frustrated with her lack of progress, but Conor was closing in on his own image, after already having his phrase.

Matt almost felt back to normal as the evening rolled around.

The next day, he was still on a healing cool down, so the rest of his team was sent on an escort mission without him. The army was moving a large number of troops who would have normally taken care of such activities.

Unable to participate in the mission, Matt encouraged them to go while he went to work on crafting with Kelley, after receiving a message saying that the man had something to show him. He was glad for it. With all of the sub-aspected mana he had accumulated over the length of the war, he was ready to try new things.

Most people were happy to give him a bit of mana for a few points. It cost them nothing, and the points meant little to Matt.

Still enjoying his new Tier 11 status, Kelley was strutting around the room when Matt walked past his nephew manning the desk.

When the crafter saw Matt, he beamed, extending his hand with a familiar-looking ring to the one Matt had on his finger.

“Look what I got!”

A quick inspection showed that it wasn't a growth item, but a standard item.

“I see that. What does it do, and how did you get it?”

Kelley let Matt take and examine his ring while he explained, “I've been putting every point I have into hiring Tier 5 teams to run that rift for me. Myself, and every other crafter who learned of your ring. I finally got lucky.”

Matt nodded along. He and Kelley had talked to other crafters after discovering the changes to see if it affected their own products. It did for everything that took mana. Tailoring, smithing, and every other trade were all improved with the proper sub-aspect to the mana that the crafter used. It even improved the quality of the finished product.

Items that went through more than one crafter's hand were improved as well. A sword that was smithed with hardness sub-aspected mana was better than one without. If paired with an enchanter that also used hardness sub-aspected mana, or even strengthening, the blade was nearly unbendable when an actual hardness enchantment was embedded into the weapon.

The effects compounded. It was an incredible revelation, and everyone wanted the ability to store the sub-aspected mana types without having to imprint a personal mana converting stone for each type.

The number of needed stones quickly got out of hand.

Matt knew that Kelley had a spatially expanded storage crate made that held all of his tools and materials. It was a huge boon for whenever he wanted to move locations. He had heard the man bitch often enough about how much it cost and how unwieldy it was. But it was much larger than a standard backpack, and was the only way to store as much junk as the Tier 11 pack rat kept.

He, along with every other crafter, had another crate made for the mana stones, and they quickly filled them.

They had all wanted a ring like Matt had, and while no one said it, he was sure that they wanted to buy or steal his own. Fortunately, the ring being a bound growth item put a stop to all of that.

Kelley stroked his ring with his thumb. “It only holds one hundred mana types, but its efficiency in converting the mana is nearly perfect. About ninety-eight percent.”

That was much higher than the normal converting mana stones available, making the ring an amazing tool for saving mana.

Matt brushed past the shorter man and asked, “How many people have tried to buy it from you?”

The Tier 11 laughed as he, with his greater cultivation, shoved Matt back. “Nearly all of them. Even had a few assassination attempts from real contract killers.”

Matt looked to his friend, but the man waved it off. “Nothing new. Nothing new about that at all. I'd be more concerned if they weren't trying to take it.”

“Still, killing you? That seems excessive.”

Kelley still seemed unbothered, “Not at all. I’d at least try the same. Most of the things we pull from that rift are trash.” He showed Matt a familiar dual mana stone that his own team had gotten from the rift. “These things are interesting, but they’re ultimately useless. It's just pre-aspected mana. It doesn't even have a sub-aspect, and once you empty the stone, it breaks just like any other mana stone. This is mostly what we pull out. Tiffany is trying to figure out how to use them, but she isn't making any headway at all.”

That lined up with Matt's own experience with the rift, so he brought them back to the ring. “And you’re the first to get a ring like that?”

Kelley shrugged and responded, “I'm the first one to make it public.”

Seeing Matt’s look, he scoffed. “Idiot team I hired to run the rift started celebrating as soon as they left the rift and were showing the ring off. I still paid them, but I would have paid more if the idiots didn't broadcast it to everyone else. So every crafter knows I have it.”

Only able to trust that the man had it handled, Matt offered, “Do you want the rest of the mana samples I've gathered then?”

“Of course I do. In the last teleport from off-planet, I had another two hundred personal mana stones brought over. Damn merchants are jacking up the price, so that's all I can afford right now.”

The crafter moved to the shipping crate that held his mana stones, and they ducked into the waist-high box to enter the expanded space, where shelf after shelf lined the six-foot-tall space.

Every three inches was a slot with a mana stone, labeled with a single mana type held in each stone. Matt filled each of the new stones with mana types that the man didn't have already.

Matt had nearly five hundred various mana types and sub-aspects, all gathered from the people who were willing to give him mana. Kelley could have fit all of them in his newly constructed container, but every other crafter was trying to do the same. The competition drove up the price of mana stones to the point that he couldn’t buy them.

After Kelley got the mana types he wanted, they started crafting various trinkets.

Kelley was convinced that he could make a fireball staff with water aspected mana, along with a sticky sub-aspect. So far, he had gotten nowhere, but the man was determined, and Matt enjoyed the tinkering enough to join in.

They were in the midst of an attempt when Matt’s AI blared a warning that all but one of his team was now in the hospital.

He quickly told Kelley what happened and started running out the door to get to the hospital. As he did so, the general messages started flooding in, painting a larger picture.

Everyone of importance to the Kingdom side was taken out at the same time. Everyone from Prince Albert, to Juni, Alyssa, and even Olivia weren’t spared.

Anyone with any authority was hit during the coordinated attack. Assassins made most of the kills, but reports were coming in that more than a few spies took the opportunity to break cover and take out valuable targets.

The top ten Pather teams were all attacked. Ambush squads hit a few teams, but at least one of them was reported to have been bombed in their room. There were even reports of another team turning traitor at the same time.

From the brief messages from Liz, the attackers had hidden in a mass of normal soldiers, and were perfectly picked to counter their abilities.

She had fought a man who had simply absorbed her blood, and by the time she realized the problem, he was already on her with a spear through her chest.

Emily had been countered by a woman who turned all spells near her to fire, regardless of the original mana aspect. It completely cut off her advantage and let her opponent, who seemed to be immune to the element, waltz up to her and slit her throat.

Aster, who had been with Emily, has suffered a similar fate. All of her spells were at best hot water, and at worse, actual fire spells. Neither of them had lasted very long.

His heart hammered at his bond’s condition, but he could see her AI, and despite a cut to her chest, she was fine after being teleported out. Even now, he could see the report that said the wound was closed, and that the scarring was being removed. She was still unconscious, but he expected that had more to do with a Healer than her being hurt.

Conor was the last one to fall. The enemy had peppered him with long-ranged attacks, while sending waves of Tier 6’s in heavy plate to keep him pinned down.

Annie was the only one to survive the hit, with her new skill giving her an advantage that the enemy hadn’t prepared for. With her Talent, she was able to escape into a forest and hide, but she was currently on another continent, avoiding enemy troop movements. Once the area calmed down enough she was going to fly away but she couldn’t risk it until she was sure she could escape detection.

As bad as his team's situation was, the general situation seemed worse. Two armies were caught out in the open, and were being whittled down. Reports were already coming in about how both generals were taken out right at the start, along with their command staff.

People were demanding answers as to why the armies had been out in the first place, when it came to light that the Queendom had gotten wind of their movements through spies, and had planned the ambushes well in advance.

From the stream of information, things didn't exactly seem perfect for the Queendom. At least two teams had fought off their attackers while sustaining only minor losses, and one Pather had survived the room bomb. Apparently, he was in the shower during the explosion, and it protected him well enough that he had only needed minor healing.

Matt was approaching the hospital when the news came in that the Queendom had two of the Kingdom cities under siege.

Pushing away the things he could do nothing about, Matt waited with dozens, then hundreds of others for their friends and teammates to come out of the healing ward.

Matt paced, unable to do anything. He was out of the war until his healing cooldown elapsed in five days. Waiting in the crowd for his friends like so many others, he felt very alone with only Annie’s unending stream of curses through their team chat to give him company.