The Path of Ascension

Chapter 124

Matt, Liz, and Aster spent the next few days trying to follow up on whatever leads they had been looking into before the latest capture.

No one turned up anything useful besides the mist that Aster had noticed in the video. With that as their only lead, they decided to look into anyone on the planet with water skills.

When they saw the sheer volume of possible suspects, they were tempted to just give up. But given the severity of the situation, they gritted their teeth and started the slog; there were thousands of results in the capital city alone. When the results were expanded to the entire planet, that target population skyrocketed to the hundreds of thousands. With that many results, they could do little more than rely on their AI to sort through the information.

Even then, there wasnt anyone who obviously screamed evil cultivator who kidnaps people. Even with the planetary AI, they found little to move forward with from that nugget of information.

The best they were able to do was just get a combat report on anyone who used water or mist attacks, but they found nothing of significance from those results.

Their best lead was proven to be a dead-end. One of the middle lieutenants of Nigels Delver's guild was incredibly suspicious, but her mist skills were reportedly a steam Talent. Viscountess Alara wanted to bring the woman, Daphne, in for questioning, but her Talent was widely known, and she was widely respected in her own right. Her steam abilities were regarded as something that only an incredibly unique Talent could produce.

It didn't mean that they didn't investigate her, but nothing stood out. She had come to the planet with two friends, half a dozen years ago at Tier 8, and shortly after joined the guild. She advanced slowly but surely, until she had earned her current position. She was primarily a melee fighter, despite her being able to manipulate an element with her Talent.

Daphne had even been recorded in public during the period when most of the kidnappings happened. There was little they could pin on her, but she was their only real suspect.

With that stumbling block, they instead tried to locate an area that could hold the requisite number of kidnapping victims.

With that as their highest priority, most of the Viscountess' guards spread out and began surveying the least inhabited regions of the planet.

Despite the planet being considered well-populated, there were still only half a billion people on the planet. Vast swaths of land were mostly empty, with only the occasional team of delvers camping by a rift, despite the danger of a kidnapper running around.

That didnt stop them from inspecting every uninhabited place they could find.

Sadly, they found nothing.

It was good training for Matt, as he extensively used [Earth Manipulation] at its max power to try and locate any underground bases. Most of his training involved strengthening his mana manipulation, so he rarely had the opportunity to spread his power out far enough to affect an entire mountain at once.

What Matt lost in finesse while increasing the amount of mana he used, he easily made up for in pure output. By funneling 320 MPS into the skill, he was able to spread the radius of his control out for nearly a tenth of a mile.

That was absurd for any Tier 8, as the cost to take control of any element scaled with distance. Someone of Matts power having even a modicum of control over a sphere of little more than a thousand feet was unheard of.

He wasnt able to do more than get a sensory view of the land at that range, let alone manipulate the earth, but that was all he needed. The whole purpose of stretching the skill out so thin was to find places where his actual manipulation wouldnt work.

With the lack of results, he changed his tactic, and stopped using the skill in a sphere around himself. Instead, he narrowed his control to a single, body-wide line that he extended out as far as possible.

By slashing his search range, he was able to push his sense of the earth out to nearly half a mile. At that point, he would just slowly spin in a circle and look for anomalies.

The first time he tried it, he spun too quickly, and passed out from the sensory overload. He had turned a quarter turn, thinking it would be fine, but he forgot to account for the sheer amount of ground that turning a half mile long line would cover. The resulting feedback had knocked him out for hours.

He just didnt have enough allocated to his sense and mind cultivation to handle that much information. It was a problem he was determined to rectify at Tier 9.

During his next attempts, he spun much more slowly, and processed the information without being overwhelmed.

Even with all of the Tier 15 guards conducting their own searches, they found nothing of consequence.

As the deadline approached, Matt, Liz, and Aster abandoned their search, and prepared for a fight.

If they were going to be the next victims; they were going to make sure to break the teeth of anyone who considered them an easy pill to swallow.

To that end, they planned out everything they could. While they didn't know much, they knew that Luna felt they were capable of handling the situation. Otherwise, she would have dealt with the problem directly.

They were able to guesstimate that the leader of this kidnapping ring was at max Tier 10. If they were any higher, they were screwed anyway, so they planned for a strong group of opponents.

Tier 10 was a watershed Tier, much like every fifth Tier was. To break into every Tier that ended with a five or zero required one hundred times the essence, vs. the normal ten times. It was a stepping stone Tier for a reason; anyone who reached that point was far stronger than at previous Tiers.

Still, they were only at the bottom of the cultivation pyramid, and the difference between Tiers 9 and 10 was still smaller than the gap would be at the high Tiers.

They didnt discount the fact that they had cleared multiple Tier 10 rifts at their current strength, butpeople were far more dangerous than rift monsters.

The three of them were still confident that they could handle any four Tier 10 combatants or less. If they were faced with anything more than that, things would start getting dangerous.

They talked about trying not to venture into the unknown, but none of them were willing to leave the latest victims to their fate.

With their running theory of someone involved possessing a sacrificial Talent, they had looked into how the situation was normally dealt with.

It wasn't pretty, but was effective.

If the suspected cultivator was below Tier 25, the standard operating procedure was to send in a Tier 45, have them inspect the planet, and wait for the suspect to make a move.

If the suspected cultivator was at Tier 25 or higher, a special team was dispatched in secret to quietly find the culprit, catch them, and eliminate them. The authorities needed to act quickly, as someone at that Tier most likely had their third Talent, which unilaterally made sacrificial Talent users far more dangerous. If they had made it that long without discovery, the suspect was sure to have a way to hide, or some outside support helping to cover the incidents up as well. It was a frightening combination

To find someone that clever or strong, they needed specialized teams, usually comprised of former Pathers who excelled at combat. Even Kurt and Luna had recognized the possibility of the trio being recruited to such a team, or being called in to assist with a similar investigation.

The Empire estimated that only one in a few dozen billion people had a sacrificial Talent awakened per year. That meant thousands of instances of the Talent appeared every year, but most of the recipients declared it to their local noble, who would then report it up the chain of command.

They would be placed into a database and given a special AI after being carried to Tier 3, where they could be monitored for Talent usage. That was the standard operating procedure for any Talents that were considered especially dangerous, in ways that the user couldn't control.

After that, they would be allowed to live a normal life. Or, as the information reported, they would be recruited to the government. There, they could use their Talents under supervision, and cause minimal harm.

Even sacrificial Talents were desired, as the Empire still had criminals executed, despite capital punishment being a last resort. The people who didnt report their dangerous Talents generally did so because they didnt want to limit themselves. Eventually, they all fell to the temptations that came with acquiring power through their darker means.

With all their prep work finished, the three of them lounged around, just trying to relax before the coming encounter with the kidnappers.

That night, they went to one of the suspected locations, and walked back and forth for nearly half an hour.

While they didnt know entirely how the teleportation worked, they believed that they could force their way into becoming the next victims by forcefully keeping the other possible locations clear of people.

The prevailing theory was that any of the possible locations were available for teleportation, and the controller was able to pull anyone who fit their criteria.

Despite knowing that they could be walking through the area for hours, after fifteen minutes, Matt was getting impatient.

It took two long hours for a power to encase them, and suddenly, Matt found himself in a pit.

Despite being ready for it, he was still startled.

But they had planned for this.

Immediately, Matt activated [Cracked Phantom Armor], and sent out a pulse of both [Earth Manipulation] and [Air Manipulation].

To his surprise, he found that while they were in a pit, there was only earth for about five feet before it vanished into nothing. It was like they were in a chunk of earth surrounded by a void. Adding to that, while he could push his skill through the ground, he was unable to actually control any of the earth around them.

[Air Manipulation] gave him more information. With his power, he quickly grabbed control of all of the air in the enclosed space, and found that it was a large cavern the size of an apartment building.

They were in one of nine pits with iron bars fastened across the top.

A jeering voice filtered down from above them. Little rats caught in a trap. I love it when we get you idiots who think they can somehow defeat us.

Matt looked and saw three men and a woman, all pointing ranged weapons at them through the bars.

Seeing he had their attention, the man called out, Put your items and weapons in the bucket. Or eat an arrow.

They didn't need to talk about surrendering. While this wasn't one of their ideal situations, it was one they had planned for.

Matt picked them all up with his Concept while whipping up a gale with [Air Manipulation]. That was enough of an excuse for their captors to fire their arrows, which Matt easily blocked with his armor.

It was only when he tried to affect the air that he discovered the same resistance that existed in the ground, only it was extended to the air in a lesser form. He was able to control the air, but his power over it was greatly reduced.

They reached the bars before the four of them recovered, and Matt cast [Flamethrower] with a scorching 70 MPS.

From his palm, a wide cone of fire lashed out, raging hot enough that the metal of the Tier 10 bars started to glow almost instantly.

Once the temperature was hot enough, he stopped, and Aster directed her prodigious ice skills at the now orange bars. They shattered with an explosion that Liz blocked with a layer of blood.

It didn't protect the others, and two rushes of essence tried to enter Matt's spirit.

He shunted and felt that something else sucked it up.

They rose out of the pit and saw that two of the archers had died, while their other two assailants were little more than charred corpses. They were only still alive due to the innate vitality of a Tier 9.

They picked up and dropped the two alive ones into the pit they had just escaped from, before quickly inspecting the other pits around them. Inside each, they found the missing people.

All of them were worse for wear after their time captured, but they were all still alive.

Matt tried to reassure them that they were safe, but the pleas for help were unceasing, and he had to move on.

Their actions were noticed; he could hear shouting from outside the room they were in.

He took the lead as the door was kicked open, and a pair of Tier 8s barged in.

Instantly, a blast of greenish water gushed forward at Matt, but he pushed through, with his two layers of armor funneling 100 MPS each.

Matt was taken aback by the pressure that the skill was putting on him, but it was nothing that even a single layer of his armor couldnt block. What surprised him was that the skill felt more like a Tier 9's level of power.

The acid was powerful beyond its Tier.

As he was defending against that attack, a trio of arrows slammed into his armor.

That stressed the structure of his skill enough to worry him, but Liz and Aster quickly dispatched the two Tier 8s in the instant it took to get off their own attacks.

Once again, the essence from the two kills was pulled away once they shunted it away from themselves.

Matt looked back to Liz and said, Two ways, both lead to a larger room. Left or right? Pausing to check with [Air Manipulation], he found no one rushing in, and added, Doesn't matter. No one is coming, theyre all holed up in the biggest room.

They pushed through the hall that seemed to be made of chiseled stone, but Matt, with his [Earth Manipulation], knew that it was just a surface layer facade.

When he entered the room, he found half a dozen people in black and red robes surrounding a multi-level plinth. A nude woman stood with her eyes closed as she gently waved her arms in alternating circles.

The rest of the room was made of the same false brick as the stone walls, with hundreds of candles in recessed candelabras. Dark columns ran in parallel down the length of the room, culminating into ornate arches in between each pair. Torches burning with flames of various colors dully illuminated the room from their perches at the center of each arch.

Everything was bathed in the flickering light, which, when combined with the chanting of the robed figures, created a creepy atmosphere to the situation that made Matt's hair stand on end.

As he looked back to the woman, there was a visible power radiating into her like heat waves, but Matts spiritual sense indicated that the energy wasnt essence. What exactly it was, he couldnt be sure, but he wasn't going to let it continue. It felt dangerous.

Sending mana into his spirit, he cast [Fireball] and [Mana Bolt] nearly simultaneously, after filling his mana pool with a mana stone. His own attack was followed up by Liz and Aster, who both launched spells of their own.

Sensing the attack, the woman's eyes snapped open, and she shouted wordlessly.

Matt's entire body felt like he had been kicked, and their attacks were launched backwards, landing harmlessly against a wall. In his spirit, [Cracked Phantom Armor] vibrated as if the shout was able to shatter skills, but he was either too far away, or the skill was too weak.

You come where you are not wanted, and you are early. It is before the time of bleeding. Your lives are to be forfeited tomorrow.

The woman spoke over the chanting, then smiled at them.

With her completely nude, the effect could have been almost seductive, but there was an ominous presence that surrounded her. It gave her words a weight that should have been precluded by her lack of dress.

Her next words sent the robed figures into action. We must restrain them. The sacrifice must not be stopped.

With that, the silvery red energy that Matt had felt the woman absorbing rushed out, and in a stream, entered the twelve robed figures.

Suddenly, the Tier 9 presences in Matt's awareness spiked. The shift was so extreme, it was almost as if they had reached Tier 10 with the infusion of power.

Treating the woman like a standard buffer seemed like the easiest answer, as the energy transformed into writhing tattoos on the robed figures' faces and hands.

I'll handle them. You kill her. Matts plan was the standard counter to a support mage; he expected that if she died, everything would end. He could handle even a dozen people empowered to Tier 10 for the time it would take Liz to do her part.

Liz jumped over him and onto the platform, where he saw that the leader was now fully armored, and wielding a sword of her own.

With Aster at his heels, Matt lunged forward and cut the closest women's extended arm off.

The light that was forming vanished, but the woman seemed unbothered by her missing limb, and sent a glowing kick at him.

Matt sidestepped the attack, as a feeling from Aster told him that she was going to strike.

An icicle the size of his thigh pierced the woman's gut, but didnt kill her. That was their last resort. None of them were dumb; they could see that there was some sort of feedback component to the leader's Talent. Killing her followers would probably just make her stronger.

They had all noticed the essence being pulled away, and it didnt take a genius to guess that the woman was taking the power for herself.

Still, the woman tried to stretch out with her good hand, but the massive blood loss took its effect, and Matt was soon embroiled in a fight with four of the lackeys.

He was holding his own against the robed fighters that couldnt feel pain, but it was a struggle. While they were only Tier 9, the boost to their powers allowed them to fight with the strength of Tier 10s.

Being outnumbered didn't exactly help.

He was only able to prevent himself from being dragged down by the sheer numbers because of his training over the last few years. It had refined his abilities, and he was able to dance through the crowd with his blade.

The robed figures seemed to be an even split of melee fighters and mages, as he was getting peppered by attack after attack.

More than half of his attention was directed to [Cracked Phantom Armor]s second layer, reinforcing the areas getting hit repeatedly.

He dodged a thrust from a spear, only to catch a [Jolt] to the side.

As the fight dragged on, he noticed that the silvery energy was infusing the skills and spells that the cultists were using.

From the brief glimpses he was able to take in during the hectic fight, the energy somehow reinforced and supplemented the mana in the skills, while also increasing the strength of their physical bodies.

Still, Matt was a steel plate with his magical and physical armor. While he was slightly weaker, with so little mana to spare into [Mages Retreat], he was slowly whittling down the robed figures.

Suddenly, he was hit by a purple liquid that resisted his movements.

He turned and saw that the first woman had been healed, with both arms reattached.

Unwilling to let this continue, Matt was about to unleash [Flamethrower] and fry everyone when Aster sent him an idea through their bond.

After seeing her plan, Matt winced but agreed.

Her situation wasn't any better, but with her small size, she was able to dodge in between their legs while attacking them from underneath. If they had felt pain, she would have quickly dispatched them, but her idea was an acceptable alternative.

Aster used [Ice Pillars], and from the ground, half a dozen arm thick pillars appeared. Matt threw himself to the ground and maxed out the mana throughput to both layers of [Cracked Phantom Armor]. Despite 275 MPS in the sections of his armor reinforcing his back, Matt was still rattled when Aster cast [Shatter].

All the ice pillars shattered in a wave of rapidly expanding ice that shredded everyone still standing.

[Shatter] broke any ice skills it was cast on, doing more damage with the amount of ice broken, and mana spent in the cast. In combination with the strength of the [Ice Pillars], anything inside the field of ice had little chance of survival.

The only problem was that the high damage was met with a correspondingly high mana cost, and his bond was nearly emptied of mana in a single spell.

After deactivating [Cracked Phantom Amor] for a second, the purple goop fell off of Matt, and stopped restricting his movements.

Careful not to step in the pool of purple goop, Matt popped to his feet as the silvery mist from all the robed figures rose up. In a swirling mass, it rose to rejoin the leader.

Along with the mist, Matt felt the essence from her dead followers flow into her as well. He was getting ready to rush forward when he paused.

That wasn't right.

When the energy left the robed figures, it killed two of the people who had survived the explosion of ice.

He didn't like that. It just felt wrong, and he suspected that it was going to make the resulting fight even harder.

Rushing forward with Aster, he channeled his Concept onto her to refill his bonds spent mana reserves.

He wasn't able to fully replenish her, but he was able to reduce the strain that she was putting on the mana stones in her collar.

Meanwhile, when they checked on their nearby teammate, they found that Liz was actually fighting defensively.

The cultist leader kept fighting, but a second illusionary image of her had stepped out of her main body and yelled, You killed them far too early! The time of bleeding isn't now! So much of their power went to waste! I'm going to kill both of you! Slowly! So much faith energy wasted... Years of work! Gone!

Matt flicked out his sword to cut the apparition, but it vanished, like smoke on a windy day.

On the leaders main body, the silvery tattoos were much more active in their movements, and Matt understood why Liz was having such trouble killing her.

Just as the robed figures before her, she seemed to feel no pain, and the silvery energy seemed to heal her perfectly and quickly.

It didn't help that the leader was a true Tier 10, and with the excess energy, she was pushing peak Tier 11 in combat strength.

Matt threw himself into the fray, parried the woman's blade, and lashed out at her arm in response.

She withdrew fast enough that Matts counter-attack missed, but Liz was quick to follow up.

As they were forcing the woman back, a shard of ice punched through the woman's side.

It was a grazing shot, but Matt was able to watch as the woman's silvery energy rushed forward and recreated the flesh.

It was minute, but there was also a dip in the woman's power.

Seeing that they could exhaust the energy, Matt pushed forward again, only to catch a face full of silvery, razor-like wind blades.

They broke through [Cracked Phantom Armor] easily, but Matt's helmet was enough to prevent him from being blinded. Though, he could still feel the gashes on his face as they bled freely.

Growling, he activated [Flamethrower] and heard the woman shriek again.

Like before, it felt like he was kicked. But this time, the skill also destabilized all of the active skills in his spirit.

It wasnt a thorough shattering, but it did remove his armor and buffs.

Not letting the chance go, Matt threw himself into the woman, using his longsword to knock her weapon aside, and took them to the ground.

As they tumbled to the stone floor, she headbutted his already injured face with her helmet. All of a sudden, the world around him ground to a halt as Matt felt the familiar presence of Luna and Kurt appear.

Luna was the first to speak. Well done on this one. Better than we expected. Liz, going for the kill was the proper action. But we have questions for her. We need to see for how long, and how many other times shes done this.

Matt scrambled out from under the frozen woman to see Liz standing up from a half-crouch, with her blood ax only inches away from the woman's back.

Now that the fight was over, Matt started wiping at the blood leaving his face, and cast [Ranged Heal] on himself until his vision was no longer impaired.

He then cast the skill on Liz and Aster, only pausing to refill his mana.

Kurt had sealed off the area around the woman and was speaking to her.

She was already under the influence of his Talent, and she started babbling. My Talent is to have this space, and interlock it with a planet. Inside of here, any humans killed come with extra energy efficiency, to the point that a single kill is like running two or three rifts. My Tier 3 allows me to collect the worship of others, and it acts like a secondary energy source that reinforces the body and heals rapidly for a short time. Any injuries will reappear if not healed properly after two hours. The more worshipers I have, the more energy I can collect and distribute to them. Faith energy also allows me to advance rapidly and smoothly. It's like a second core of energy, like mana.

The sound around her vanished once again as Kurt spoke. When she started speaking, sound returned. I've done this on three other planets. Staying for less than three years each. Then, I leave and move at least as far as a new duchy. This time, I was going to push to Tier 11.

Kurt must have asked something else, as the woman said, Something was wrong, and I needed more and more faith energy to advance, which is why we needed one more ritual. That was why we started taking more people, even after the investigation. I can only change the planet once per Tier. I already cast my miniature world at this Tier, and we needed to finish up here quickly, as the authorities started paying more attention after they found those chopped up bodies. This was supposed to be my last ritual before we left for another planet.

Silence fell as Kurt asked another question. No, that wasnt me, my miniature world expands slightly with each corpse. Im not stupid enough to leave corpses lying about.

Matt was surprised that she had nothing to do with the three bodies that has been brutally murdered. If Kurt wasn't the one asking, he would have assumed that the woman was lying, but she was incapable of that while under Kurts influence.

It meant that there was another killer out there, but Matt was honestly too tired to care about that.

Luna then asked, Why did you only start using your Talent at Tier 7?

The woman ignored the question until Kurt asked it again while locking down sound. She responded, I had a boyfriend who was deeply in love with me, and it acted like weak faith energy. It was a massive rush of power like I had never known before. Once I got a taste, I was tired of being weaker than everyone else, and having to slowly advance. My Talent is there for a reason. Then, once I started actually killing people, I was growing too fast and too easily to think about stopping.

Aster growled at the woman, and Matt concurred. It was obvious who had been her first victim.

Luna and Kurt interrogated her, and they learned of her entire operation. Her name was Cindy, and she was pretending to be a socialite, integrating her way into noble society while she gathered followers.

She would then find and recruit anyone that was power-hungry and morally flexible enough. If they didnt agree to join her little cult, she would bring them into her miniature world and kill them.

The teleportation was a function of her Talent world. The way it was bound to a planet was up to her, but she envisioned it as a lattice of linking fibers. Planning them out herself was too much effort, and she left it up to her AI to get the best layout, which explained why the pattern was so mathematically arranged.

Finally, they were done with the interrogation. Luna waved her hand and radiated power, then the space shattered.

Suddenly, they were outside an apartment building in the capital city.

As Matt caught himself and his friends with his Concept, he noticed that Nigels Delver's guild house was directly behind the apartment building.

That explained why the Viscountess kept thinking that the guild was behind the kidnappings. At Tier 20, she was hard to fool, and must have been feeling something off, but couldn't identify it as a pocket dimension created by a Talent.

The Viscountess was quick to arrive and take charge of the victims. They were starved, and most had injuries of one type or another. Thankfully, they were all still alive, and they were quickly given to the healers.

As Viscountess Alara was debriefed by Luna, Matt found Kurt sitting on the roof and staring off into space. He had never seen his trainer so depressed before, and was worried.

Are you ok?

Aster, sensing he needed attention, crawled into his lap from Matts.

Kurt took a deep breath and sighed as his board appeared, and he started writing.

I hate people like her. I have a similarly rated Talent. The difference is, I reported my dangerous Talent to the proper authorities. We tried everything to create a workaround to stop it. Most Talents like mine have some weaknesses, but not for me. If my willpower is stronger than my opponents, or my Tier is higher than theirs, my words are like imperial decrees. I don't speak because it's dangerous, and I don't want to hurt people. I can't even sing anymore. Im just too powerful. You know, I had a scholarship for singing in four different schools for the fine arts. Good schools, too. I could have made it big. But I sacrificed it all, and it burns me up to see people like her using their Talent with no regard for the consequences. I spent three centuries hunting down stronger versions of her type. Eventually, it got to me, and I was transferred to training other Pathers. It was a way to do something productive that wasn't so damaging to my mental wellbeing. I fell in love with training, but seeing this brings it all back.

Aster headbutted the man then snapped him with her tail, causing the Tier 35 to silently laugh.

Matt was ruminating about what he said. He realized that his own Talent could be a lot worse. He was at least able to speak, and sing in the shower.

Liz patted Kurt's hand and said, That's because youre a good person. You gave up something you love to avoid the risk of hurting anyone. That says a lot.

Matt latched onto that idea and said, When we out Tier you, can we hear you sing?

Kurt looked at him as if he was crazy, then started silently laughing until he had to wipe tears out of his eyes.

Then he wrote, If anyone else had said that, I'd have called them delusional. But with you three? Yeah. That's possible. I'd be happy to take you to some desolate planet and sing for you. Thanks, that means a lot.

He jumped into the air and set Aster down, writing behind himself, Well be leaving soon, but I wanted to let you guys know that you did well. These types are hard to find without overwhelming power, and Cindy had one of the hardest Talent sets to find that Ive ever seen. But you did find her. Be proud of that. She can't hurt anyone anymore. Well have a full debriefing tomorrow, but you completed the mission and saved their lives. Well done.

Matt scooted over and wrapped an arm around Liz as they watched the investigation that took place, with guards going over all the bodies of Cindy's followers.

That had done it. It wasn't perfect or clean, but they had made a true difference.

Cindy would even be given a public trial, despite the overwhelming evidence Kurt and Luna had gathered over the last month.

Matt had half expected Luna to just swat the woman into paste but she was captured alive and would be tried like anyone else.

The three of them sat there even after everyone else left, and together, they watched the sunrise. It was a new day, and one free from fear for an entire planet, thanks to their efforts.