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Chapter 406
🕑 Added 2025-03-14 18:59:02 +0000 UTCChapter 406
Matt didn’t dawdle in leaving for the Corporations, even though he felt like he should be helping Liz and Aster instead of leaving to deal with a personal endeavor. It just felt selfish, even though that wasn’t true at all and they wanted him to go.
Liz had cajoled Allie into the two of them helping Melinda track down the remaining blood research facilities, but Matt could tell Allie was eager to do something ‘real’, having been removed from future wars.
Aster, with Susanne’s help, started combing through her own and Matt and Liz’s duchies looking for abnormalities. Her recent issue with the interference of the winter bloodline resources just showed they needed to look deeper at any issues.
Matt popped over to Aster's capital long enough to say goodbye, but the moment he got to his ship, he found Allie spinning in the pilot's seat.
“I’m jealous Lila gave you this. Kinda bullshit. Where is my super cool unique ship?”
“Could you even run a ship like this?”
Allie scoffed. “That's besides the point. It's the thought that counts.”
“Didn’t Lila give you a dagger made out of one of her claws? That means more than a ship.”
“Meh, she just cut off a finger. Not a lot of effort went into that. And besides, I can’t even use the dagger yet, so it kinda doesn't count.”
Matt shook his head as he hooked a finger over his shoulder. “Your logic is bad, get out of my seat. I don’t want to spend more time than I have to on this trip.”
Allie gestured at herself like he was stupid, but Matt shook his head. “I think it's better that I actually do the flight. This is personal, and I don’t want to bother you. I do know you hate people treating you like a taxi.”
Allie rolled her eyes and twisted out of the chair. “I'm offering. Also, I don’t guarantee a return trip soooo… I actually guarantee the opposite because I’m not quarantining again so soon after I just did it.”
Not wanting to argue against a year of travel saved, Matt got ready and promised to make Allie a batch of treats when he got back.
His musings were cut off when Allie jerked instead of teleporting them. “Huh.”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me. What's wrong?” Matt had never seen Allie abort a teleport like that and instantly readied himself for combat.
Flicking a finger at him, she said, “An automated message from the boss.”
Instead of a message from Allie, the packet of information unlocked a hidden and encoded message in his inbox from Manny.
Opening the short video, he saw Manny working at his desk. “If you’re receiving this, it’s because you’re about to enter Corporations space ahead of schedule, likely with Allison. I won’t stop you. However, I must caution you from visiting their capital system. If visiting it is unavoidable, I would ask that you speak to one of the Royals or my wife first, and that you use as little mana as possible while visiting. Regardless, I would ask that you do not visit their capital at all until we have the opportunity to speak on the matter in person.”
Matt was thoroughly confused and shared the video with Allie, who flickered out of existence just to appear a moment later.
“Carissa said it really is fine if you aren’t going to the capital.” Matt opened his mouth to ask the next obvious question, but she shook her head. “No, she didn’t tell me where the Boss is and I checked the capitals of the other Royals and none of them were there. My guess is he's in his secret Tier 47 rift instance.”
Matt knew he was being distracted, but the thread was too juicy to ignore. “Secret rift?”
“Yeah, fucker thinks he’s slick. Well, he kinda is, but every time he gets a new copy of my Talent, he makes sure I’ve got a return point inside his rift, then kicks me out before I can turn it into a full waypoint and jump in on him.”
Matt nodded and couldn't disagree with Manny creating a private space for himself. Though he didn’t agree that Manny was hiding out in a rift. Carissa and Melinda had both said Manny implied there was something he needed to do, which was why he was unreachable. At the same time, Carissa implied he was contactable if something truly important came up. From what Matt understood about rift breakers, there were few, if any, who could break into a Tier 47 rift, because none of the Royals were rift breakers, leaving Allie herself as the only method inside a high-Tier rift.
That meant it was more likely than not Manny was doing something else in real space.
Unless they had some way to send messages into rift instances without a rift breaker, and then everything Matt knew went out the window.
Still, it was mostly a moot point, since Max didn’t want to meet at the Corporations’ capital but instead at a hub trade world on the far side of the Great Power.
It was in fact closer to the Clans’ border, which was why Allie had a waypoint nearby, though he didn’t know when she would have had time to sneak into Clans territory to lock the waypoint in.
All things told, her help saved him just over a year of travel, which he was grateful for.
The moment Allie vanished, Matt tore his way into chaotic space and flew into Corporations territory, ignoring the hails from the various craft that tried to flag him down.
Entering Corporations space, and real space at that, was always a strange experience.
Instead of being a planet-based civilization, their preference for space-based mega structures immediately made their worlds feel different, especially with Tumaini being a kingdom-level transit hub for the Clans and the slightly farther away Sects border.
Tumaini being a Tier 37 world made the area a hub of traffic as, similar to other worlds higher Tiers wanted to live near, the high-Tier world and everyone of a lower Tier followed the money the higher Tiers inherently brought with them.
Even in the Corporations, with their weird currency system, higher-Tier items still were generally more expensive, and so higher-Tier people had more money to spend, which was readily apparent in the massive space stations before him.
The largest was the orbital ring that circled the main world and was ‘only’ a little larger than a mile wide; but that was deceptive. The ring was actually five layers deep, multiplying the livable area substantially.
It was also something of a garden world in Matt’s opinion, with there being no rifts on the habitat.
There were ways to make rifts in space. Anywhere with essence could form a rift, but without the gravity well of the planet and the planet's core making the circulation of essence automatic, it was often considered more effort than it was worth to create such rifts.
That entire subject was on a list of things Titan’s Torch was meant to investigate, but it had been repeatedly pushed down in priority in the last century.
Opposite the main world's moon was a more traditional space station surrounded by docking ships.
It was also his destination, and Matt flew over as he inspected the last of the space-based infrastructure in the system. Namely, the Oneil cylinders which were growing the system’s crops in massive automated cylinders. Some housed people, but they seemed to be a rarity.
Despite the impracticality of the system, when a rift could be converted to a farm rift with a little effort and without really costing any resources, Matt loved the space-based cylinders. They just spoke to the primal part of his brain that liked to see people advance. To rise above their roots and grow.
Though even if none of that existed, Matt would have made the trip the slow way, just for the absolute beauty a few light years away from the Tumaini star system.
A black hole that had at some point in this universe's history absorbed some essence and started the process of essence cultivation.
According to the records from when Tumaini was settled, an era well before The Shattering, the black hole had been locked at stable but safe distance from the inhabited world by a cultivator with a related Domain before they ascended. The story might have been false, but the black hole was undeniably in a stable orbit around the center of this galaxy, which meant it never strayed too far from Tumaini.
Matt could hardly take his eyes off the celestial object once he let himself look at it and stared until he reached the space station Max said she would be meeting him at.
She was thankfully there, and Matt used her to get access to the station while bypassing the normal restrictions and checks a foreigner would have normally had to go through.
Max’s suite overlooked a garden atrium with a hidden balcony Matt used to reach her.
He didn’t even need to go inside, as she was drinking a glass of wine while watching the people below.
“Words cannot describe how jealous I am of Allie’s teleportation ability. Once she’s strong enough to offer it as a favor, she’ll basically have a free stake for every wager. And it’ll be excellent.”
Matt took a seat and gestured at the wine, to which Max nodded and he took a small sip. As a Tier 40 drink, even that small amount was enough to make him slightly lightheaded and he needed to boost the mana he was sending to [Regeneration] to counter the effects.
“That tastes awful. It's like rotten sewage fermented with bodies.”
Max nodded. “Pretty close actually. It was a wager from Wun, and I’ll be damned if I let him get one over on me by admitting the wine is shit. It’s also funny when I get other people to drink it by drinking it myself.”
Her grin was contagious and Matt laughed along.
“So what brings you to me after being so reluctant to accept help for so long? Come on, spill.”
Matt hadn’t intended to hide it and admitted, “I discovered my Truth and I’m not entirely happy with it having an effect on my mind, let alone my mentality. Felt like now was a good time to understand such things.”
Max leaned forward and whistled. “A Truth at Tier 27. That's damn impressive. Spill. I wanna see how close my bet is to the truth. Heh get it? I’m clever.”
“That's like the third time I’ve heard that joke, and every instance has been just as unwitty”
Max pointed at him and winked. “Third time so far. It's something of a tradition as those things go. But seriously, spill. I can memory-lock it if you want, but for our projects, I’ll need to know.”
“A memory-lock is overkill,” Matt waved the suggestion off. “Currently, the description I’m going with is ‘I am the Master of My Own Destiny’. I— What?”
Max was usually absolutely unflappable, but at his words, she may as well have become a different person. The relaxed smile vanished, and she instantly repositioned herself to be staring straight at him, her wineglass relocated to a distant windowsill. Her calculating blue eyes were fixed on him, staring through him and making him feel properly uncomfortable around the Chosen for the first time since he’d met her. “Repeat that. Three times, each time considering a different nuance to the underlying Truth. After that, say it in a Sect dialect, I don’t care which one.”
Her voice was hard and unyielding, and Matt warily regarded the woman as he complied. “I am the Master of My Own Destiny. I am the Master of My Own Destiny. I am the Master of My Own Destiny. I am the Master of My Own Destiny. Or maybe Fate? Future? Destiny is the transliteration…. Are you okay?”
Max sighed and relaxed to her usual posture, a colorful strand of energy extending from her fingers to retrieve her wine. She took a deep sip that turned into her upturning the glass and emptying it before she let out a shuddering sigh. “Whew. Okay. It’s okay. You’re okay. I’m okay. That triggered all the wrong alarms, sorry for startling you. That first impression was just way too similar to Charl. Man, Eclavorn is not gonna be happy when he hears that.”
The last part was said muttered into her glass as she glared at the empty cup.
Matt shook his head, trying to parse everything that had just happened. “Sorry. I’m still really lost. Charl is the Master of All, right? I know you uh…”
He tried to not think of the phrase ‘had a messy break-up’ to no real success.
“Yes, yes. They’ll never let me forget it. But no, despite what our friends may have you believe, Charl was not my boyfriend at any point. I did manage to break him up pretty messily, though.”
“I’m still not sure….”
“Okay, back up a couple steps. How much do you know about him? Most people don’t tend to talk that much about past Chosen, even when we’re just out of war Tiers. That goes double for foreign ones, and triple for dead ones. For all the propaganda, people don’t like to remember that we can die.”
Matt shrugged. Luna had drilled into their head the identity and general abilities of every Ascender from the past hundred thousand years. For someone like the Master of All, he’d studied the man’s few recorded fights fairly extensively, but he wasn’t certain what Max was looking for. “Andes Charl, the Sect ‘Master of All,’ completed during Georgios’ reign. True hybrid, good in close range and a half decent mage, and one who almost never used the same strategies twice, beyond a preference for hitting hard right at the start of a fight. Won a couple minor wars almost single handedly, but was brought back in six pieces after a Corporations border skirmish, and has been dead-slash-presumed-dead since then.”
He inclined his head towards Max for the last sentence, acknowledging the woman responsible for said kill. A bit of a grin ghosted across her face. “I do love that the six pieces thing stuck around. All generally correct. The one thing you got wrong is that Charl wasn’t merely half decent. He was really fucking good. You just have your perception warped because your freakiness is about throwing siege spells around like fireballs, and Zack’s freakiness is about throwing fireballs around that hit like siege spells. But obviously, there’s some similarities between him and you, and not just on the battlefield.”
Holding up her hands, she spoke over Matt who tried to object. “Now, you’re not the same in every way, but it’s hard not to see him in you sometimes. Charl could be… volatile. When he was in a good mood, he was one of the most delightful people you could ever be around. But when he was in a bad mood, it was everyone’s problem. And he also took everything far too seriously. Someone not bowing before him to the proper degree was a personal insult, attempting to contest him was a grave attack. Now, granted, that’s not too weird for a Sectie, but it’s weird for one of us to not be weird. We rarely fit such stereotypes. Look at Sien, she couldn’t give two shits about that stuff. And even Yun Me is alright.”
Matt just looked at her in bafflement. “I’m nothing like that. What?”
Max leaned back, sipping on a newly-full glass of wine. “Mmm. You’re not nothing like that. If someone gets you mad, you get real mad. And until we got to know you a little better, it was hard to tell what might make you mad. Your friends dying is understandable, but surprising you’ve made it this far without being long-numb to it. You get real evasive about explaining how your abilities work. Simply saying the words ‘rift break’ is enough to sour your mood, and you get really touchy around anyone you aren’t confident you could break in a fight. And at the same time, you get mad at mortals if they cross you, while also cultivating gratitude and reverence from them. But still, it’s just a set of quirks. And now that we know you, we also know the resemblance is superficial at most. Or at least it was until you mentioned your Truth and it was so close to his. Especially in Empiric.”
Matt just blinked at her, not fully comprehending how they could be similar. Sure, Max technically wasn’t wrong… for most of it, anyway, but it was definitely an exaggeration to say that they were problems.
Max rubbed the bridge of her nose as she said, “You’re The Master of Your Own Destiny. Charl was The Master of Destiny. Or, if he was feeling a bit egotistical, ‘The Master of All,’ and no, the arrogant little brat didn’t have his Truth before his title.”
It took Matt a few moments to process that type of Truth and the person it would take to create something like that and he shook his head. “My Truth is entirely different.”
“I agree. That’s what I was confirming earlier. They’re almost the inverse to one another, but not quite, and I know at least a certain red and blue someone isn’t going to be happy. And for some reason, my word alone isn’t considered sufficient to disabuse them of the notion that you’ll be a problem. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to run through a few scenarios with you to present as proof when your Truth inevitably leaks to the group.” She paused, “The memory-lock offer is still on, by the way. I could even make the key be learning about your Truth some other way, so I’ll be able to remember and vouch for you whenever that happens without needing to re-test you.”
Matt let his gaze harden. “I’m fine with that because I’m not like that, and I’m confident that will be clear with a conversation and possibly a punch to a snout. I do want the rest of Charl’s story when we are done.”
After she agreed, Max launched into a similar round of questions to what Luna had done, and each answer seemed to make her relax more and more until she was laughing and joking with him by the end.
Waving him up, she led him through her suite and deeper into the space station. “Let's go look at a memorial. I always find visuals help with explaining things like this.” After a pause she added, “And I like to show off. The Empire stole our idea of letting Ascenders set up businesses. This was one of my side projects and I’m really proud of how well they have done in the hub systems.”
Matt had a ton of questions but didn’t voice them, trusting her methods.
He still didn’t like the implication that he was at all comparable to such a notorious piece of shit like the Master of All, whom even the other Ascenders didn’t want to interact with.
Finally, when they were in a museum of sorts, Max led him to a place he hadn’t really expected.
The Tower of Absent Chosen.
Or in other words, memorials to fallen Ascenders. Matt was slightly surprised. It wasn’t that Max didn’t seem to care, she’d just always been very focused on the present and future, not the past. Though, considering the mortals trickling in and out, this might just be a typical museum in Corporations space.
As they flew upwards through the tower, using a hole in the floor of each level left for vertical passage, Matt got the opportunity to take a look at the floors present. They started with the earliest dead Ascenders, and were getting more recent as they went upwards. If Matt had been told that anyone had something like this, he would have expected maybe a couple plaques acknowledging their loss, or something like that. But each of the floors had way more detail than he’d expected.
Because Max had been thorough. The earliest Ascenders didn’t have very much recorded about them, and even less was known about the presumed-dead ones. Those who Ascended tended to go out on their own terms, after leaving some kind of record for future generations. The dead ones… didn’t get the chance, but even a few glances in their displays was enough for Matt to pick up at least one or two things he hadn’t known about each of the fallen. Even when he didn’t see something new, there was always something noteworthy.
Slayer Daedalus had what looked like the man’s entire custom runic system documented in an extensive library. Honestly, that seemed a bit dangerous, considering how it effectively had a mind of its own, but he trusted that Max knew what she was doing.
Legend Death Knight’s last stand was rendered in an impressively gory illusionary scene, the man’s entire body splayed out as each bone and tendon individually grappled with a different one of the elites sent to kill him. Even after his probable-death, the necromantically animated body parts had carved a bloody swath through the Empire forces marching on Clans space, turning a near-stalemate into a horrendous loss for the old dynasty.
Some parts of the Empire still had a superstition about random deaths being from one of Death Knight’s fingerbones claiming yet another victim.
Gladiators Tick and Tock’s floor was illuminated by a light source Matt didn’t recognize, but was labeled to his [Identify] as being stardust collected from the remains of the Tier 25 star that the Clans had burned with their subsequently-banned superweapon to vaporize the duo. Matt didn’t have much time to look at their exhibit though, as they arrived at their destination.
While none of them had been sparse, the Master of All’s memorial was exceptionally detailed. Practically everything about the man was displayed somewhere in the hall, all around the centerpiece, an impressive recreation of the man’s dismembered body, limbs separated from the torso and his head little more than a bloody lump of flesh.
“Now. Charl was very charming. When he wanted to be. Even when he wasn’t, he had something of an aura around him that made it just oh so easy to excuse his problems as being no big deal. More on that later. Anyway, I’d known him for a while, we’d fought a few times in a couple of wars. There were… a lot of us active, back then. And things were far more tense, because the War of Monsters was in very recent memory. Despite that, we got along decently well, and while he wasn’t really my type, I’d never really had a problem with him.”
“Anyway, it was fairly well-known that he had a harem. A bunch of airheaded women he’d met on his travels and who were just so enamored by ‘the wonderful Andes Charl’ that they just had to tag along with him on all of his adventures. So, it wasn’t that weird when he was an absolutely incorrigible flirt. He just was like that, it was no big deal.” Max shook her head. “You have no idea how much I improved my mental defenses after this. But I digress. He was always trying to get us women Ascenders to go on a date with him. Not that any of us really cared to oblige. Lila never really played along, Sien already had a thing going on with someone else, and I was bored enough to agree to a single date.”
“I was very clear that I had no interest in joining the gaggle of girls following him, slack-jawed in awe of his every move, but he insisted it didn’t have to be anything that serious. Just a bit of fun, it only needed to be a one-off between two people who could properly understand each other. Eventually, I agreed. He really was that charming, and hey, he was probably pretty good at the whole dating thing considering how much ‘his girls’ claimed he was amazing. In hindsight, another red flag by the way, not that I’ve been calling most of them out. I know that the opinion of random power-leeches like that is essentially negative value, and I knew it at the time as well… but Charl… Anyway. We started our date mostly by strolling through scenic places near our mutual borders undercover, enjoying a bit of anonymity, when I piece it together.”
She paused, “Okay. So, for the sake of this making sense to you, I’m not going to try and explain the exact way that I figured everything out. Instead I’ll just break it down from the start. Charl was a Talent thief. His Tier 1 Talent allowed him to ‘claim’ the Talent of those who he ‘conquered.’ His Tier 3 let him keep and use multiple ‘claimed’ Talents, compounding their power. His Domain was also tied into it, letting him steal skills and even some Domain powers, but he mostly cared about the Talents. His harem was composed of women who he’d ‘conquered’ in bed, and stolen their Talents as a result. Once upon a time, they’d been powerful, ambitious, and clever Talented women, until Charl got his hands on them and tore their spirits in half for a Talent he’d as often as not toss out just a couple months later when he found something more exciting or powerful to replace it with.”
Matt sucked in a breath at Max’s explanation of the Master of All’s true abilities. It made sense, but meta-Talents were so rare as to practically be a non-factor. Talent removal was essentially a myth, Talent stealing was the sort of bogeyman that only existed in movies and novels.
His mind inevitably went to Manny and how Charl was a lesser version of the Tier 50.
Matt paused as he realized the flaw in his own logic. It might be more accurate to say Manny was the lesser version of Charl if everything Max said was true, which he had no reason to suspect she wasn’t. Being able to not only steal Talents but stack their effects was something out of horror movies and folk tales.
His musings were interrupted by Max continuing, “And that’s what he wanted to do to me. I, obviously, objected. Strenuously. You know how you always hear that I brought Charl back in six pieces?” She pointed at the recreation of the man’s corpse, with his limbs floating a few inches away from his torso, and his head nothing but a bloody mess. “Guess what the sixth piece was.”
Her grin was predatory for a moment, before it morphed into something that was obviously insincere, and her voice changed to a much lighter lilting tone. “Speaking of which, I’d like to talk with Rah about getting a sample of his spirit in case I need to forcefully descend the Master of All if he ever manages to make a comeback. I’m pretty sure I can use his spirit as a calibration vector if the bastard somehow survived a progressive mind-wipe, spiritual shredding, three personality overrides, and a very shattered Domain on top of a cell-by-cell brain deconstruction and cranial pulverization.”
Matt hadn’t known that but was still mildly offended. “And you thought I might be like that?”
“Thought? Not really. But we didn’t think Charl would be that bad either. We definitely feared it might be the case. Even before everything came to light, he was warping the vibe of the group chat, and that’s far too precious a thing for us to risk. I know you appreciate having people who get it. We care just as much, if not more, as none of us had fellow same Great Power Chosen near our own age and Tier.”
“I think I’m still adjusting to the fact he could steal Talents from people while they were still alive. Removal post-mortem is how that usually manifests, but stealing? Shit, how did they survive at all? Their spirits must have been irreparably harmed.”
Max shrugged. “It’s the only one I’ve heard of as well and I searched through every record I could get my hands on afterward. It might have started as a ‘normal’ scavenging Talent, but he pushed it hard. For all his faults, the asshole was driven to be the best.”
Matt looked at the dismembered replica of Charl and asked what he felt was the most important follow up. “And what happened to his harem? Did they die alongside him? I’m assuming his Talent was keeping them alive in some way.”
Max smiled, and Matt thought it might be the first true smile he had ever seen from her with her fractals brightening and swirling.
“See, it’s questions like those that distinguish you from Charl. To him, people were either something to be pursued or something to hold onto as a trinket. The only reason he didn’t just discard his ‘spent conquests’ was because their minds were so twisted into pure devotion and praise towards him. But to answer your question, a lot of them are still alive. By the time the news that he was dead had properly broken, myself, Sien, Lila, and Olivier had raided his sect and retrieved the bulk of them. The rest took longer to track down, because he didn’t keep them all in one place, but Ollie is fast.”
“Did his sect know about his Talent?”
Max snorted. “Naturally. He got a lot of good Talents with their assistance, either killing them if he didn’t take a shine to them, or adding them to his harem if he did. It’s a bit tricky to say how much exactly they approved of what he was doing, because one of his earlier Talents gave him that aura I mentioned, of anything he wanted to do being fine.” Before Matt could clarify Max answered the question he had really wanted to know. “Not that it got them any mercy from us. Sien obliterated the sect in question and picked a fight with Grand Elder Desolate Plains about just how far it's acceptable to go to empower an Ascender.”
Knowing that Sien, Lila, and Oliver all had come to the rescue of the harem members lightened Matt’s mood slightly.
“What happened after that? Were they able to be healed?”
Max sighed and shook her head as she turned and led him out of the museum. “Not healed. The kind of damage they have is the sort you need a high-Tier spirit-specialist overhealer, the kind which just makes no sense at all, to even get a chance of beginning to mend. Anything that works by conventional medical techniques simply has no chance. But, we’re keeping them alive and trying to rehabilitate them. It’s not easy though, for all that they can sometimes pass as simply airheaded, they’re shells of people in a very literal sense. It’s been an ongoing project of mine to try and reconstruct whatever is left of the original person as much as possible.”
Entering a blank room, Max started an illusion which showed them in a healing ward. “Honestly, mind-wiping them all and restarting them as blank slates would be far easier, but they… aren’t really in their right minds enough to properly agree to that sort of thing. Some still took it, but only once we’d verified it’s not just because they’d rather forget their ‘master,’ and at that point most of the hard work is already done. We’ve even had a couple essentially return to full normality, including new Talents, but we aren't really sure what differentiates them from the others.”
The information about developing new Talents was interesting, but Matt didn’t bother thinking too hard about it when he realized the method to recreate it was not only cruel but gone forever.
She took a deep breath and let it out, but stayed quiet as Matt walked through the illusion, parsing the information that was being fed into it. It had a substantial amount of research data and Matt let his [AI] churn through it.
“If you send me the information I can have my guild and a healer friend go over it all. No promises on either front, but it can't hurt.”
Melinda’s Talent was unable to interact with spirits at all, but he knew that limitation had only pushed her into researching that side of healing, so she might have some insight.
Max shrugged. “If you want. I’ve had the best healers in the Corporations look at them, so I doubt there is much they can do, but I won’t say no to more help. They deserve to have normal lives, and we’re looking at another twenty millennia before they’re all better at the current rate.”
A burst of information later, Matt let his [AI] churn through it as well.
To his surprise, it almost immediately came up with a possible way to lessen the impact from the backsliding.
“Have you guys tried using Last Mountain’s Dew? Even though it's typically found as a Tier 10 natural treasure, it has the effect of making one's spirit more stable. I can’t see how that would be a bad thing in their case. Further simulations suggest using it in conjunction with Night Adder’s Venom might be useful for quickly repairing then locking in their spirits.”
Max just stared at Matt for a few seconds before shaking her head. “Right, I shouldn’t be surprised your [AI] is that good. That’s literally why we’re doing the integration. How many cycles did that take?”
“Only a few million.”
“Only. As for the question, yes we thought about using Last Mountain’s Dew. We discarded the idea because we aren’t trying to stabilize their spirits as they are but get them to regrow completely. We never considered pairing it with Night Adder’s Venom. I’ll pass that along, and we'll see if it's viable. I won’t forget to check in on the status of the integration, by the way. I was talking with Delphi that I’m working with someone else on it - don’t worry, I didn’t say it was you - and she had some ideas for some setup that I’m kinda now sad I wasn’t able to do. Do you want to focus on that this visit, or wait until later? I know you’ve still got some mods left before the fun really starts, but it’s always fun to talk strategy!”
Matt shook his head. “One thing at a time. I want to make sure I’m prepared for my Truth's mental effects before anything else. Especially mind altering things like integrating a skill into my subconscious. That's honestly kind of scary.”
Max clapped her hands together before rubbing them. “Okay! Then let's get to work. Sooner started sooner finished.”
Comments
KnightRider007
If they don't subject EVERYONE to these same checks, Matt should GTFO of that Ascender chat and have nothing to do with them. Why the hell would you hang around a group of people who have zero respect for you and demand you prove you're NOT some psycho rapist, just because of "vibes"? Especially when one of their "red flags" is "he got angry when his friend and mentor, who changed the entire trajectory of his life, died". They clearly will never actually believe or trust him, and at least one of them is *actively* looking for reasons to hate him (Eclavorn, in order to cover up his inherent racism for Matt not having a Bloodline while daring to lat hands on a Phoenix). they'll turn on him in a heartbeat
KnightRider007
“You get real evasive about explaining how your abilities work.” Oh? Like the other Ascenders are open and honest about their powers? “You get really touchy around anyone you aren’t confident you could break in a fight.” I don’t recall this applying to him any more than any of the others of his generation? “And at the same time, you get mad at mortals if they cross you, while also cultivating gratitude and reverence from them.” The fuck?
Julie Smith
Whew! That was a long wait. But it was worth it. Max doesn't seem so bad to this point. I like getting the back stories on Ascenders from history.
John MacDonald
I recently joined the Patreon, and then Monday came around. No chapter. I swear it felt like I was going through withdrawal. Pretty sure C. Mantis has a Talent for putting some kind of addiction meme into text form. Good stuff!
1FantasyFanatic
All For One!
Corvid
Yeah I can't see even Lila having a good time against a cranky Luna or Mara and Leon
Corvid
Fair take. I think of it like working in a very niche and highly specialized field. There aren't going to be a lot of people in that field, and even if you compete against them from time to time, most folks still want someone to talk shop with at their knowledge level. But like I said, very fair way to look at it.
C_Mantis
Matts giving the Empire wayyyyyyyyy more then hes getting in return so hes got decades worth of mana coming back to him and its not like manny/the royals wont let Matt get it on credit. After all hes good for it.
Caleb Alexander
I get it, but it's not like they would be alone in any way without this risky friendship. A tier 45 or 46 has nothing to fear from any ascender, and there are plenty of cultivators that dedicate everything they are to being the best possible. Ascenders just happen to have succeeded the most. Matt has plenty of friends of all tiers that aren't Ascenders. In a way, other ascenders are the only people not to trust as they are the only ones able to kill each other. This feels kind of like a "the power of friendship" kind of plot tool tbh. Can't wrap my head around the justification for risking everything to gain little 🤔
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
JM O'Hare
How does the guild get the mana for their budget when Matt is away for years at a time?
Alex
Also, keep in mind what Allister said in the chapter where Manny went to meet with him; every Great Power has a couple of healers with overhealth abilities, and at least one healer with a broad-spectrum overhealth power that gives any healing spell they use the overhealth effect. It’d be no secret to Max that Matt knew an overhealth specialist — she’d know one or two of them herself — and given Matt was thinking of Melinda’s technical expertise rather than her Talent when she came to mind, Max wouldn’t have any reason to suspect just how strong Melinda’s healing abilities were.
Rodney
I think of it in terms of like an IET book where rivals and minor enemies become friends especially whenever they're close to the top and about to ascend to the next realm like the MC of stellar transformations was basically enemies you up all the high powers and then made friends with a few of them
Bryce Daniel
Hey I was just relisting to the pather tournament and I think mla should run into a nightmare unicorn it would be cool to see what other uses the unicorns body would have and the rift could be a illusion rift that aster has been trying to get the gang to go into for awhile. Not sure on any more details for the rift itself but it's food for thought thanks for the chapter!!
Corvid
I think they are generally trustworthy for the most part. It's a big reason they made a point of determining if Matt had that same mindset before they really let him join the Ascender's group. They're on opposite sides in a military sense sure, but outside of an active conflict there really aren't other people who have their mindset and drive. Even when Maya and Aiden were actively fighting each other during the war and legitimately trying to kill each other, they weren't really doing it with hatred or anything. Plus they're all addicted to growing stronger, and the people in the group are really the only ones who can push each other to do that. Add in that if one of them really did go off the rails and try to do harm, the others would likely step in to end that threat, like Max did.
Corvid
It's pretty interesting to think about the comparison of Matt and Master of All. They really are inversions of each other in a lot of ways, I think. He takes from people, where Matt gives to all. He steals the destiny of others, where Matt will not let anyone determine his destiny. Even down to the whole thing of "sacrifice the weak to elevate the strong" versus "the strong should elevate the weak." Good stuff. Plus yeah, Master of All definitely takes the cake for one of the easiest characters to hate in fiction, even just from one snippet.
Thomas Todd
It's a strange relationship but I can see why they a friendly. The other Ascenders are really their only peers, no one else really knows what it's like to reach their level. Plus they usually don't care about the political side of stuff, they enjoy progressing and have their own pursuits
Kbzzy
Corpies care primarily about money and Matt online will have more of that than the eight powers combined so I think them siding with Matt is entirely possible
Andrew C Kerr
After the experience in Minkalla and his fears as a Tier 1-Luna doubt he will ever let it be known. More likely for one of them to finally figure it out and crow about it so all of the other ascenders just spend their lives figuring it out to shut the first one up. Don't forget, they might be fellow ascenders and good people, but they are higher Tiers and are a significant threat to his long term survival.
Caleb Alexander
Ehh am I the only one who doesn't really trust Max and the other Ascenders? It's likely that some of them will have to seriously try to kill each other eventually so it feels strange to trust a future enemy so implicitly. I get that they all have something in common but Matt has no way of protecting himself from them or knowing what of his secrets they know... I mean, Matt could have just given up Melinda's secret by thinking about her in the presence of a mind mage so far above him. A secret cannot be taken back and he seems to be relying on a bribe from the emperor to keep him safe, yet his secret is worth more than basically anything else in the realm. Idk about this
Jason Hatter
I wouldn't say it was after the fact. Seems like as soon as they figured out just how bad he was they took steps.
Patrick
It was only like one paragraph, a few chapters back, on how the Ascender’s group found out about their flexible innate slot and Max talked to him about an experiment to modify his AI.
Alex
Max talking about how precious the group chat is reminds me so much of Conquest in the season 3 finale of Invincible: “I am so lonely. All the other Viltrumites are scared of me. No one talks to me, no one wants to be my friend - they think I am unstable. They send me from planet to planet committing atrocities in their name, and as I get better at it they fear me more, and more. I am a victim of my own success. Conquest; I don’t even get a real name, only a purpose. I am capable of so much more and no one sees it. Some days I feel so alone I could cry - but I don’t, I never do, because what would be the point? Not a single person in the entire universe would care.” Before the advent of the group chat I think more than one Ascender would have become completely unhinged because of how isolating their position was - particularly the solo Ascenders.
Rehoboth Okorie
that would be a bad idea. for all that they're buddys they are still military assets to their great power. and we just learned that not all ascenders are good people.
WaterSmith
I got a real question how long till matt tells the other asenders a out his talent.
Mario Morales
Also known as The Goku Button.
C_Mantis
Alex is entirely correct, I can't stand when nothing has stakes because you can just go back in time and undo it. Or same logic for reviving the dead. Nothing matter if getting your buddy back is just going on a quest.
C_Mantis
Also mine you the boyfriend comments are made in good fun ie max truly doesn't mind. After all the reminder is also a reminder she got to be the one to kill him so each insult is also a flex.
Magisch
Andes Charl is my new yardstick for least favorite character in fiction - well done.
Alex
Max is an Ascender class MIND MAGE. Can you even begin to imagine how lonely that would be? She can probably count the number of people who feel comfortable being unguarded in her presence on one hand with fingers to spare. Charl comes along, offering to be her friend because they ‘get’ each other, all in an insidious attempt to ‘conquer’ her and leave her as an empty, broken husk. There are no words for how fucking evil that is.
David Bean
Wait, did I miss a chapter? What’s this integration thing they are talking about?
Alex
No*. There’s technically no hard limit on who or what Allie can teleport because the [Teleport] spell doesn’t have a restriction like that, but teleportation is harder based on the physical and metaphysical weight of what is getting moved. High Tiers are too ‘heavy’ for Allie to move; during the war arc she says she teleported Medea (Aiden’s Tier 35 wife) to sneak her into Camp Lightfoot at Aiden’s request and it knocked her on her ass for like a month. Manny's a Tier 50 so he can move much 'heavier' things than Allie can when he's using her Talent because the restriction isn't inherent to the Talent, it's based on how powerful the person using the Talent is.
Tom C
Sure it gives him character but that doesn’t mean he can’t grow and overcome it. This is a progression series after all! And there will always be some other issue cropping up
Bettafish
Damn the "killed her boyfriend" jokes are horrific with THAT context. Max is fascinating as a character too, just because of perspective bias we don't get a lot of basically good people in other great powers (at least as far as we've seen i reserve the right to retract that if Max winds up horrific somehow later) so it's nice to see this.
wanderer117
Remember that Ascenders are Main Character and have a history of coming back from the dead. I think C. Mantis spent a chapter talking about it ?during the war? Once other MCs internalize that possibility they'll be looking over their shoulders for the rest of eternity, just in case.
Jacob
That does make since. I guess i never pick up on that being a part of her skill set. Does Allie have a tier restriction on who she can teleport?
wanderer117
IDK, it gives him character. When you sand all those imperfections off characters can get boringly samey. Besides it's not that big of a flaw. He doesn't fly off the handle when people give him gifts then throw them on the ground.
wanderer117
Grey goo is less of a concern if it can't rank up. T5's delving T5 and lower rifts to make more T5s is the kind of problem one T15 can solve. Hyper aggressive mono cultures like that don't do well in nature. Gray goo is also less of a concern for non entropic realities. Oh no, this city turned into gray goo. That's fine. Scoop it up and shove it in a rift. Bam 15 min for goo to essence. Destroying planetary cores is a crime (unless you raised the core your self) so any goo capable of that might be an illegal WMD.
C_Mantis
Allie can always return to right where she was. In game terms its easier. You can teleport to any city (WAYPOINT) from anywhere but then need to to walk back to the forest or dungeon because there isnt a WAYPOINT to teleport to. Allie has that power but she can RETURN to her last location as a temporary WAYPOINT that lasts for a few hours. Now in story Manny takes Talents exactly as the are so that temp WAYPOINT for Allie is permanent for him. Does that make sense?
Jacob
Can someone tell me the difference between a RETURN point and a WAYPOINT, when talking about Allies abilities? Also, when did Allie get a tier restriction on who she can teleport?
Andyr98
I seen light novels with the Mc is that monster and it's so nice to see someone like that ripped to shreds
The lord of chaos
didn't Melinda use her talent to copy Mat's psudo immortal body from the root of perfection by copying the changes to his spirit?
JM O'Hare
> Winter Hornet made things worse by bringing his full attention onto Matt. “You are truly unique, Ascender Titan, are you not? Selflessness is good for a frontliner, yet you are not a true defender. You do everything to your utmost. Stronger than a warrior, more magical than a mage. A true Master in your hybrid style, yet most individuals I have met like you think of themselves as the most important person in the Realm, the one to whom all things are owed. The Master of All certainly did, and that ultimately killed him. There is much you dabble in, yet you never give anything anything less than your full capability. It matters not whether your guild is but a passing fancy, for you would never allow yourself anything less than full commitment to it, giving away secrets that could easily define a powerful Sect to all those who would listen.
JM O'Hare
Winter Hornet compared Matt to Master of All just three chapters ago:
austin kutz
It's physically possible within the story, yes, but I'm betting that it's strictly illegal to produce entities that do that as part of warfare other than people and beasts. A mindless insect swarm doing it for warfare, as am example, is likely a war crime of some sort
Alex
"The kind of damage they have is the sort you need a high-Tier spirit-specialist overhealer, the kind which just makes no sense at all, to even get a chance of beginning to mend." Whelp, I guess we know what Melinda's Tier 25 Talent is going to be now.
Alex
IMO it's 1000% because resurrection powers completely ruin stories. Any story where resurrection is an option just ends up being kinda meh because who really cares what happens to who when you can just bring them back anyway. Same deal with time travel - when there's just a convenient redo button lying around, who gives a shit what happens. To be fair there are some outstanding time travel stories (Perfect Run comes to mind), but writing a good time travel story is an artform that usually necessitates time travel being the central premise of the entire story, not just a convenient power that exists within the magic system.
MinE
Given how random and seemingly unrelated Talents can be to personality, I though it was more the Talent being completely gone forced the healing to produce a new one rather than due to the mind wipe. Plus, she didn't really specify it was only the ones that got mind wiped who got new Talents since she. Plus she said she didn't know what differentiates them from the others; she would've mentioned it if it was only the ones who got mind wiped.
MinE
The whole no bring dead rule works more as a no recreating a spirit from scratch or messing with the afterlife. There are plenty of Talents to bring back people from death but when the spirit is gone; it is not coming back. P.S. I think its mainly to prevent to many extreme fake out deaths or questions on why this or that character is permanently dead.
MikeL
Great no time travel. Once used it always becomes “there is a new problem why didn’t they use it again”
MinE
I mean getting, its not like he loses control under normal circumstances. The whole monologue to a corpse thing, is definitely something odd. Its not like any time they have a benign reason for causing them. If he had issues on causing rift breaks on an uninhabited planet or as part of a controlled training excerises assuming they took proper precautions, I would be concerned but everyone has something that annoys them.
Bob Bryan
Why not brining back the dead. The others I get but that one seems a bit out of place with the others
Havokk
With Max's plans for "if Charl returns" I wonder how many other Ascenders have plans in place for that event
Bob Bryan
I don't see them trying to destroy matt. Heck, most of them would probably love to work with him and Matt with them. Think of everything they could make together.
Matt H
And it's not a great sign that Matt doesn't believe it to be a problem either. As long as he continues to think it's fine it'll remain a button just waiting to be pushed at an opportune moment.
Tom C
With the truths and language - the way I see it is like the dao, the truth itself is not the language - the language is merely a map trying to represent the actual territory that is the truth. Sure different languages might describe it in different ways but ultimately, they are all just fingers pointing at the moon, not the actual moon itself.
dragon
Well, one would assume your brain being shredded and whatever else Max said she did to him would hurt so, yeah. Also I kinda hope this world has a hell so that this guy can burn there.
C_Mantis
Thats not a hard rule but Im not sure it would work as a normal rift and not a ruin
SunStar
Melinda is a True War surprise for the enemies. No declassification soon.
Dallin S
Could there be multiple entrances to the same rift that would potentially pit people against each other?
Oghosa Idahosa
I agree that they are but I think Charl was just that bad that even flimsy connections probably instantly set off alarm bells for everyone even if they aren't deserved.
JoshCalmick
Damn good chapter, Mantis. I'm glad you subverted the "ascenders and the other great powers' equivalents are all happy go lucky crazy good battle junkies" misconception. What a horrifying character. Also the reveal that Max was the one to tear him apart was wonderful. What a monster.
Alex
@austin kutz the golems delved Rifts for resources during the golem incident, so that is explicitly allowed within the canon.
Alex
I mean it's not like the Great Powers would have just destroyed the many, MANY doomsday weapons that have been developed in the history of the Realm. There's got to be who-knows-how-many hidden vaults scattered around with horrifying WMDs stored in them, just waiting to be unleashed when the powers-that-be decide they want to go nuclear and burn everything down. Actually now that I mention that, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Manny's been up to - secretly going around the Great Powers, quietly clearing the board of all the MEGA fucked up doomsday weapons before the True War kicks off.
austin kutz
Probably, but I'm thinking this weapon was banned because it had to waste a tier 25 star and not because it was especially powerful. They've probably got indiscriminate weapons like plagues, grey goo nanite swarms, and quickly reproducing biohorrors though. Imagine a creature that not only lays eggs wherever it goes but also delves rifts in order to power itself up. As far as I know, there's nothing that would prevent that other than possibly rules against that sort of thing
Alex
It's a good example of what happens when you take someone with a dangerous power and mix it with a complete lack of moral standards. The moral standards of the Realm are....skewed... from what we think is acceptable. Shit, Matt's openly admitted to killing hundreds of thousands of people and we don't think of him as some incorrigible monster. Charl's Talent would have worked perfectly well if he had of just taken Talents from people he killed in mortal combat - so long as he stuck to the rules of engagement (like accepting surrender and not punching down) I don't think anyone would call him out for getting the maximum value out of each kill with his Talent and Domain. That's just common sense, and it's basically just a higher level of what Aiden does when he harvests essence from the cultivators he kills in combat. But no, instead of sticking to VERY BASIC moral standards that would have allowed him to use his power in a vaguely justifiable way, he went around mind-bending and raping people so he could crack them open and hollow them out. Guy really topped off his double-decker shit sandwich by parading his victims around like trophies after he'd violated them too. Fuck that guy. I hope his death hurt. A lot.
yannick schwende
Awesome chapter. Didn't expect the exposition at all, but nice touch. And yeouch The Master Of All seems like a real piece of work. Would definitely not like to meet him.
SunDI7
A banned super weapon that was capable of killing two ascenders.. sheesh. I bet all the great powers have banned/secret super weapons like that. They will probably make an occurrence when Matt’s Talent is revealed and a true war starts.
Nathan
I like max
Tom C
Ahhh so glad someone finally commented on Matt’s tendency to react strongly to rift breaks! Having such a strong trigger is just asking to be maliciously used by enemies I feel TFTC!
Havokk
Okay yeah Charl couldn't have been any more horrid if Virgil herself raised him. But Max even after all these years trying to help his victims just makes me like Max even more. I truly hope then when everything goes to hell with the true war the corpos are siding with the Empire just because I want to see her side with MLA.
fruit dragon
Honestly, the connections to Matt seem flimsy at best
Tai Allen
I really love this chapter. Master of All was truly disgusting, and it's sad to hear about that, of course, but this chapter feels so gentle despite the horrific subject matter. Thank you, C. Mantis. Every secret revealed is so satisfying, and I can't wait for more.
C_Mantis
Hes not getting a new copy when she Tiers up but rather when she expands her network of waypoints enough to warrant an update.
Bunny Waffles
God damn, that dude was a monster.
James Faulkner
Damn that’s a vicious talent
C_Mantis
The only Hard No Rules are: Time travel backwards, bring back the dead (the true dead), descending from a higher realm (and living), and rift within a rift.
Daedalus
The only hard-rule no for Talents are backwards time travel, reviving the already-dead, and surviving Descent (though that one also prevents permanent changes to the entire realm - single universes are possible though)
Accio123
Dude that's fucked... good chapter but damn
Domy
It’s good to see even the beings who can wipe out armies and are effectively the bogeyman of the various powers, have moral standards. Even if it was after the fact.
Alex
Wow. I honestly thought Talent stealing was in the category of things that definitely weren’t allowed. No wonder everyone hates the guy so much.
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
John Sanders
thanks mantis
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis! Thanks Dae! Not Sure Manny needs Allie to enter the rift every time she tiers up. He can learn from his Hastor experience and just not delete the old copy of Allie's Talent. Location saved. We get confirmation of rifts being possible in space!! I wonder if a space station could have enough life on it to create a core. Particularly something large, like a Death Star. -I am also amused by a death affinity star, just for the confusion. A fun possibility regarding locking a black hole with a domain. Maybe a fun thing for Matt to study, if only he had more time. Though I wonder if he might be given time in the future in return for releasing his mana while he studies it. Dad jokes are a logical tradition. It just makes sense, and ain't that the truth. I wonder at a person having a Domain with phrases, or truths and such, in different languages. It would be cool for a multilingual person. But imagine if a person just found a translated word that fit them perfectly while knowing little else. -A language with more nuance may help with a more exact wording. Or it may drive a person down a rabbit hole for something more perfect. So Matt just repeated the same phrase, but we didn't have anything in bold or such to indicate what was emphasized. Was that an accident or just to let us think of the options in our own head? Oof, Matt like Charl. Did Luna drill identities into them in case they pulled an Ascender and came back to life? I do enjoy a reasonably natural lore dump. Hi again Daedalus. Fun to read about the exploits. Death Knight being a menace even after their death is cool, being able to be a superstition or bedtime story after death is a finger in his cap. A bone or such being comparable to an Elite is impressive. They made a super weapon just to defeat them... Now to have even less respect for Charl. Barring his power, no respect. Crippling people is... unpleasant to say the least. So can Charl grow those Talents he steals? Since Manny can mix and match. Can Charl reclaim a Talent after tossing it aside? Can Charl use multiple Talents at once, of the same tier? a good 6th piece. I hope Melinda is declassified soon. Able to help the thralls. Interesting to read about people gaining, in some way, new Talents. Admittedly it seems as if they were mind-wiped to be new people and have essentially new spirits. So no re-rolling your own Talent unless you are okay becoming a new person. -I read something about cloning a service dog and the clones being good service dogs. Some part of the instincts sticking. I wonder if there was a study on cloning a person with a good Talent or an Ascender with a good mindset to try and create an Ascender, or at least a Peak Elite. Probably, but also probably with bad results. I do like good guy Matt, a good palate cleanser after learning more about Charl.
