C_Mantis
patreon
Chapter 364
🕑 Added 2024-09-27 18:59:01 +0000 UTCOk so update on the timing in the coming weeks. I'll be leaving the country in the middle of November so I want to take a break then for obvious reasons. At the same time this arc is about to end, roughly 375 or so for the Manny chapter, which is when I’d normally take a break but I don’t want to take a break more than take a break after one or two chapters. So we'll be skipping the after manny break and I’ll be taking off, roughly Nov 15th, 18th, and 22nd. Those dates might shift up but that's what I’m currently planning so as to minimize down chapter time.
TLDR: this book is ending shortly and I’m taking a break at almost the same time. Current projected break chapters are Nov 15th, 18th, and 22nd that might change slightly.
***
Chapter 364
Knowing they were teleporting back to the Empire, Matt had expected them to appear back on the Capital, possibly in Allie's penthouse apartment, or somewhere awful and annoying as a prank. Instead, he found himself in a perfectly sealed room with dozens of high-Tier formations layered one on top of the other to a degree that even a Tier 48 would struggle to break out if he didn’t miss his guess.
His initial reaction was to panic, but he forced that reaction down when he saw that Allie was calm.
She thankfully explained with a sigh while impersonating Manny’s lecturing voice, “Any and all travel outside the Empire means time in the containment room Allison. Any thoughts to avoid the containment room means a trip to the room to see if any impulses have been buried. It's for your own good and it’s standard procedure. Wah wah wah.”
That made a lot of sense, so Matt didn’t complain like Allie started to. He instead tried to connect to the EmpireNet as they waited to see what had been going on while he was away. Except his access was blocked. He should have expected that from Allie’s description, but he was still annoyed that there was nothing he could do but wait.
He was just about to ask how long they were going to be detained when a familiar face walked in. Melinda’s mentor, Baxter.
“Alright. Drop any veils you have, stop any spells, and please don’t complain. If you complain, I’ll start complaining. And I promise, I have more to complain about.”
Matt felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as the implications set in. If a Tier 40 something was complaining about this process, Matt wasn’t sure he wanted to go through with it.
It ended up not being that bad, as he’d gone through similar things before, but Matt still found himself a bit spiritually sore after two weeks of intensive medical tests. Between the rounds of rote questions, giving control answers and basic physical scans for any kind of implanted bugs, he was given a spiritual shakedown - literally, in one instance. The specific ways in which his spirit responded to given forms of trauma were measured for any deviation from his prior baselines, as well as any tell-tale signs of lingering mental compulsions or deep-implanted thoughts. He’d also need to have a few follow-ups some time in the next century or two, but no sooner than five years out, just to make extra sure they hadn’t missed anything.
That last part made him perhaps a bit more sour than he needed to, and when Allie exuberantly asked if anyone wanted to hit a club with her, he probably responded a bit more curtly than he intended.
She acted mock-offended, then in turn pitiable as everyone gave their actual pressing concerns. Zack wanted to check in on a few secretive projects he had going on, while Aster needed to start preparing for her own duchy’s arrival, as well as deal with her ice cream business after having been absent for a decade.
Matt and Liz played a quick few games of rock paper blade, but he lost, and so had to deal with the nobles that were no doubt waiting for them on Lilly. Meanwhile, Liz went to check on her bloodline research teams.
From the gloating look on both Lizzes’ faces, he was pretty sure he had been played somehow, but he was sure she hadn’t cheated in any obvious way.
Making a note to investigate the situation later, Matt resigned himself to dealing with the nobles.
Thankfully, Liz’s team was primarily based out of the Capital, and for all her complaining about them abandoning her, Allie intended to stick around the Capital for a few months. Or at least, use it as a base. What Allie considered ‘remaining close’ was more reminiscent of ‘checking in’ for most others.
Still, it meant Liz would catch up with him in a week or two at most, and while he would have dealt with the largest issues in that time, she would be arriving just in time to help with the drudgery.
After saying their goodbyes, Allie, after a bit of jokey cajoling, teleported them where they requested.
Knowing he just needed to get things done, Matt flew over Margaret’s palace.
Before he could even arrive, he was inundated with requests to speak with him.
Most were from nobles arriving to the slowly forming duchy, but they were nonvital, so Matt just pushed them off by a few days. Thankfully, most were understanding that he had just arrived back to the Empire after having been gone for a decade, but there were a few who were insistent that he needed to talk to them immediately.
Matt looked for Cato but found that his seneschal was off-world overseeing the delivery of one of the worlds from the Clans, but should be back in a day or three. Hoping that Isabella might be around to help, he saw that she was halfway across the Empire at an auction in Liz’s place, trying to buy valuable bloodline resources from a private collection that were being sold off.
Cursing his luck, Matt resigned himself to dealing with everything without any help.
In reality, the two seneschals had dealt with most of the problems that had popped up, but while they could act in their stead, they weren’t Matt or Liz, and there were things that the dukes needed to make decisions on.
He was tempted to check in on Titan’s Torch, just to see how they were progressing, but Matt knew that if he did so, he’d spend the next week going over test results. To resist, he just told himself that he had a month scheduled to visit the guild once this was over, and if he didn’t want to dig into that time, he needed to get through the paperwork.
Diving in, Matt trusted Cato’s ordering of the issues and just started from the top.
The very first issue wasn’t what Matt wanted to see, and if it was any indication of what was in the pile, it was not a good sign.
It seemed that when Matt expanded the island for his guild and tried to save the underwater ecological systems near it, he wasn’t quite successful. While things had seemed fine for the first decade, in the last ten years, the aquatic life had started a death spiral.
Cato had hired a specialist to come and fix the issue, but it was estimated that it would take another decade before things were both stable and returned to their pre-expansion levels.
He mentally kicked himself that he hadn’t just hired a specialist in the first place, and made a note to get some lessons on ecological sculpting sooner than later. He was sure he was going to create an island himself at some point, and didn’t want to create another environmental collapse when he did.
While that was personally annoying, that issue was at least being fixed. The majority of the remaining issues were ones that only served to anger Matt.
He tried to tell himself that these issues weren’t representative of his nobles and fief in general, but simply the worst of the issues that had built up over a decade. But it hardly helped.
One of his prospective nobles, not-yet-Baron Stevin Lin, had gotten black-out drunk on a neighboring ducal capital at a… Dynamic Extreme Tag tournament? He had to find exactly what that was, and was rather baffled at the result. He supposed it made for decent evasion practice, but what kind of entertainment was there in just watching some people chase each other when they couldn't even use direct attacks to hit each other? Either way, while getting drunk would have been embarrassing, it wasn’t an issue that Matt would have needed to know about. Except, Stevin was very much rooting for the losing team, and when they had lost, his second feature had come out: he was an angry drunk. He had then proceeded to start a fight with a neighboring set of fans who were celebrating their team's victory.
The fight had started a stadium-wide brawl that overwhelmed the local guards and forced the duchesses’ personal guards into action. While no one had died, thousands had serious injuries, and everyone's fingers were pointing blame at Matt’s not yet baron.
Rightly so, but the issue was that officially, Empire nobles could only be charged by their own lieges or with their lieges permission. And unless Duchess Cynthia Barbant wanted to escalate the matter to the Emperor himself, she needed Matt’s nod to punish the idiot.
Initially, Duchess Barbant had only been pushing for monetary fines to cover the costs and a small punishment, but not-yet-Baron Lin had thrown Matt and Liz’s names in the Duchess’ face, trying to get her to back down based on their Ascender reputation.
Justifiably annoyed, Duchess Barbant was now pushing for the maximum possible punishments. She hadn’t outright challenged Matt and Liz, but the situation was only a hair away from her doing exactly that, which was undoubtedly Baron Lin's intention.
Would Matt and Liz’s pride as Ascenders force them to interfere now that they had been challenged?
From the perspective of public opinion, Matt understood what Baron Lin was thinking. The reputations of Aiden and Lila were quite ferocious, after all. But knowing them personally, Matt knew neither of them would have interfered for such a matter unless it was to crush Baron Lin himself for trying to drag them into his issues.
Matt wouldn’t go that far, though he was seriously tempted after reading the transcripts of the encounter with the Duchess.
Instead, he just rescinded Stevin Lin’s noble appointment and sent Duchess Barbant a blanket apology offering to cover any costs that weren’t able to be seized from Stevin’s accounts.
He was tempted to do more, but he was already irritated and decided he didn’t need the stress of pursuing the issue further. His day had already been long, and it was only getting worse.
Viscountess Martha Yates had decided to take her planet's relocation into her own hands, causing massive damage when she forcefully disengaged her teleportation tethers without going through the proper procedures.
This act outright destroyed the teleportation tethers on the three connecting planets. Repairing the delicate formations had a cost easily in the Tier 35 mana stone range.
Reading her excuse, Matt wanted to strangle Viscountess Yates. Her planet's location had been temporary; they were simply using the Tier 9 world to extend their anchor deeper into chaotic space, but they had noted where her final location would be, which she had known about.
When a change in chaotic space eddies had blown in the proper direction, Viscountess Yates, trying to save a trip for a Tier 40, had disengaged her tethers to try and let the currents move her world for free.
Matt almost wished she had failed in her maneuver, because then he could have strung her up, but she had succeeded and moved her planet into the proper location. She even managed to reestablish the tethers, properly locking her world in place in a stark contrast to her leaving.
If she hadn’t ruined teleporters on three other worlds, Matt might have congratulated her, but now he needed to decide just how much her success weighed against her failures. Plus, the cost to move the planet had been part of the war reparations paid by their enemies, and the repair bill was, unfortunately, very much not.
Matt wanted to punish her, but he needed to balance that against her actually taking the initiative. Neither he nor Liz wanted nobles who were only able to follow orders. Viscountess Yates had also not shied away from taking blame for her actions in causing the destruction of the other worlds’ tethers. She had mildly implied that the late tether breaks were the fault of the other worlds because they hadn’t trusted a quick message to break the tethers, which further pissed Matt off, but she hadn’t outright stated it.
He was tempted to just remove her and replace her with one of her family members, but even Matt felt that was going too far, and decided to wait until Liz could weigh in. Instead, he gave her a provisional punishment of being forced to repay the damages. No matter what he and Liz decided, she would be paying them back for the costs, but further punishment could wait until Liz arrived and he wasn’t so angry.
A few other issues weren’t so bad, but just when Matt was thinking he had gotten through the worst of the cases, he came across a hot topic just weeks old.
Baron Thomas Lane had, in a blatant attempt to suck up to Matt, paid for all the orphans to spend time at the local PlayPen and use those local faculties. If their orphanages had been giving advanced combat classes pre-awakening like Matt’s had, that might have been a positive, but none of them had, and the PlayPen Director had rightly prevented any of those children from entering the rifts, which had sparked conflict between the director and Baron Lane.
Things had gotten so bad that several buildings had been destroyed, a number of children had rioted, those who had been there originally were angry about the influx and overwhelming of the local faculties, while the orphans were angry their hopes and dreams weren’t being lived up to.
In theory, giving orphans a chance to delve and advance at the local noble’s expense was a great idea, but the execution was so flawed, Matt was tempted to go punch some logic into Baron Lane.
Before that happened, he needed to take care of the children. As much as Matt didn’t want to do it, he overrode the PlayPen Director and authorized them to stay. At the same time, Matt set up a system where the children would be broken up and spread amongst ten other worlds to reduce the impact to the PlayPens, while he put out an open offer for anyone over Tier 10 who had teaching certifications and could spend a few years getting the children at least competent in the basics.
Matt also paid for a number of Tier 8 skills to be distributed just to ensure they were in a good spot, and not hurt by what should have helped them.
He wanted to do more, but the planetary AI was already warning him about overstepping the typical limits, and he needed to use his ducal overrides to shut it up. While Baron Lane was an idiot, he had tried to help the children who were most likely to slip through the cracks and remain in the lowest rungs of society, so Matt wasn’t going to be too harsh on him.
Doing something that helped people for the wrong reasons still helped those in need and mattered.
The children in question wouldn’t have starved or ended up homeless, the Empire wouldn’t allow that, but many of them might have been unable to join a guild or get a delving slot, which would have allowed them to improve their situations through their own efforts. There was always the white collar route of improving one's self, but without a Tier or two behind them, they wouldn’t be as desirable candidates as others who had money to spend on advancing themselves.
Just as he was finishing up dealing with a Baron who was failing to deal with an invasive species of fungi, Cato, who had just arrived, caught his attention.
“My lord, the latest report from Soerilia has just arrived.”
Matt looked up, finding Cato bowing in front of him, and he was bewildered that it had really been three days of paperwork already. He had to wonder just how the Emperor did this all the time.
Matt closed what he was doing and opened up the files that represented Soerilia, thinking a change of pace might do him good. The first few years’ reports from the overseeing administration team were disappointing, but not unexpected. Soerilia was, on all accounts, failing to meet expectations on their unveiling process.
He wanted to blame everything on pure incompetence or malice of the leaders he had met, but most of them had been replaced. Not because of anything he or the Empire had done, but because they had simply aged out. Even if they hadn’t been elected officials with limits to their term lengths and the need to win elections, it had been twenty years since they had originally integrated the world.
That time meant very little to Matt anymore, but it was a significant portion of a low-Tier mortal's life. It was a quarter of an average unawaked mortal's life span of eighty years.
It wasn’t all bad however. The first five years of reports showed there was progress happening. Most of the positive progress was in the Roland method: they had created a basecamp and it had taken off with numerous people flocking to the city, but that was to be expected.
A large part of the Roland method was using the economic wealth that cultivation brought, the plethora of monsters that granted essence, and untouched wilderness that contained valuable resources to drive people into the area where the secret would be impossible to keep. Mana and Tiered items were better than a goldmine on those planets, and the untapped Natural Treasures the Republic had seeded on Soerilia were extremely valuable both on and off planet.
The saying that a secret wasn’t a secret if two people knew about it might not be technically true, but it was accurate enough in these instances. That was helped along by a few well-placed encouragements for people to start openly using magic in small but noticeable ways. Slow, but ever increasing exposure was key.
If only the rest of the planet was progressing as well.
A number of countries were going through recessions, or in one instance, an outright economic depression thanks to a variety of circumstances Matt didn’t have the time or mental space to properly delve into. The administration team had done what they could within the bounds of the remnants of the veil, and while that had prevented absolute collapse, it hadn’t fixed the problem quite yet. Their estimates put the issue at needing another decade at least to right itself without more direct intervention.
Matt could accept all of that. Things happened, and with so many moving parts, it was difficult to ensure everything worked properly.
What he found harder to accept was the plethora of new leaders who just outright refused to accept the facts as they were, and were effectively burying their heads in the sand.
One of the elected leaders of a midsized country had even attacked the admin who was overseeing his awakening. He hadn’t been able to hurt the Tier 15, but the act spoke of a deep issue in Soerilia and Matt wasn’t sure exactly what needed to be done to fix that.
Then, not a year later, a group had nuked one of the portable awakening devices they had shipped over in the early years. They had at least been smart enough to move it into a desert and disguise it as a bomb test, but it was so incredibly pointless. They hadn’t done any damage to the Tier 25 materials the device was made out of, but the sheer stupidity boggled the mind.
Or so he thought, until he noticed the attached copy of a report they made after the test showing they were just stress testing Empire materials, after all, lesser tools failed to achieve any appreciable results. The notes in the margins suggested they were both disappointed at yet another lack of results, and quite excited at the possibilities materials like these would bring. There was some mention of the potential for orbital elevators, a concept he had to look up and found quite neat, if rather useless in the wider Empire's context. Anybody who has business in outer space was high Tier enough to reach it themselves, or had a ship to do the same. Even so, that they were thinking of the future even if with their limited understanding was definitely a good thing.
He—
Matt’s eyes snapped down a few reports to a line he couldn’t quite believe he was reading.
A planned assassination and coup of Soerilia by a native.
Assassinations weren’t a new thing, public leaders were always at risk of such actions but what Matt wasn’t expecting to see was that the target was himself and Liz.
That was almost adorable, in a ‘watching a dog chase a flying taxi’ sense. Even if it caught up, there would be nothing it could ever do.
What was less adorable was the next entry was about the same individual, who in their attempt to kill himself and Liz, had set up plans to cause dozens of rift breaks all across the world to distract the guards he felt they would have.
Rifts in cities were the main targets, wanting to cause maximum chaos and damage. And as a nice side benefit, soften up the militaries of the other nations, for when they would conquer them.
Matt’s already simmering anger flared into bright hot rage.
Matt didn’t bother to ask why Cato or Isabella hadn’t just taken care of this asshole. He needn't waste his breath. Cato had long made it clear that as a seneschal, his job was to guide Matt’s interests as Matt desired, but that he wasn’t there to run things for Matt. That meant until Matt or Liz countermanded their previous statement about a light hand in the integration, he wouldn’t change a thing until that happened, or possibly the local acted to cause the rift breaks.
Cato's words from when they had first arrived at the world echoed in Matt’s ears. “What is right or wrong matters little. All that matters is how you wish to handle it.”
Matt was seeing the results of such actions, and he was tired of it. He wasn't a heartless higher Tier who thought of himself as better than lower Tiers. He was and had been willing to let the people of Soerilia dictate their own fates, wanting to ease the planet into the wider Empire while keeping as much of their culture alive as possible, and causing as few societal issues as possible, but it seemed like that was a futile effort.
Matt could accept that he and Liz had clearly mishandled Soerilia and they should have done things differently, but he couldn't change the past. He could, however, change the present. Matt didn’t have to let things continue in this clearly flawed attempt at a gentle integration. It was time for a firmer hand.
Standing up, Matt [Portal]ed to the teleport platform linking Lilly and Soerilia.
Overriding the warnings, Matt activated the teleporter swap sequence, which he knew would activate some serious warning lights on the Soerilia end just as it was doing around him. Anyone on the other side had fifteen seconds to either get fully inside the dome or get outside. Anything between the planes was going to find itself in two places at once and no longer a single entity.
As he appeared in Soerilia, he cranked his perception to the max and found that while some machinery had been cut in half, no people had been hurt despite a few panicked workers who had been unloading a shipment of goods.
Taking a step forward, Matt appeared five thousand miles away in an instant.
Looking down, he let himself glower.
Just as the report said, the leader of one of the smaller countries, or rather former leader who had kept power via means of taking up a non-elected role, had set up a rather sophisticated, if still unfinished, ensnarement formation for a newly integrated planet, deep in the woods around a rift hidden inside a mansion. Underneath said mansion were a dozen high-yield warheads waiting to be triggered.
He didn’t even slow down.
Stepping down into the mansion, Matt deliberately let his presence be known and watched as Fabian Lacor was rushed from his bath to a command bunker as he received reports of his presence. Watching his face transition through a dozen emotions as he realized his plan was seen through was quite gratifying.
The game was up, and Fabian knew it.
Matt wanted to, was even going to, give him one chance, but it was in vain.
He watched as Fabian decided to detonate the bombs and as he gave the command to a nearby aid.
Once the order was sent and the bombs were primed and ready to detonate, Matt reached out, twisted space, and grabbed Fabian’s collar, lifting the man off his feet with an expression he knew would be unreadable to the low-Tier man.
Fabian didn’t even stumble, but his eyes went wide and his body went into overdrive as his new location started to dawn on him.
The bombs should have already detonated, were the situation to play out as it normally would have. But [Light Manipulation] could be modified to affect beyond just visible light, and so Matt held the pulse of radio waves still as they traveled from Fabian’s capital to this remote mansion, giving him plenty of time to speak with the terrified politician.
“Was I too nice? Was that it? Were we too hands-off? Should Liz and I have come in and ruled with an iron fist, made it exceptionally clear that there would be no challenges to our power? Did I need to blow up a mountain? A moon? Just to get it through your abnormally thick skulls? Was there anything that we could have done that would have kept you and your cohort of idiots from messing everything up? We tried to be gentle, to give you the opportunity to close out your reigns with an age of prosperity, a peaceful ride into the sunset. Yet every step of the way, you’ve been digging your heels into the sand. So what was it? W—”
Fabian interrupted him by shouting, “Bombs!”
Matt didn’t even blink. “I’ve read the reports, but I’m still stunned to see such suicidal idiocy coming from a man who prides himself on intelligence. I’m certainly going to have a very detailed after action report to determine exactly where we went wrong, because you have a fatal misunderstanding of the situation. There is nothing you can do to stop this. I understand you don’t want to lose your freedoms.”
Fabian reacted, and Matt rolled his eyes faster than the man would be able to perceive, “You don’t want to lose your power. That’s understandable. But what we clearly failed to get you to understand is that you never had any to begin with. Your life is, and always has been, a lie. The thin veneer of respectability based on nothing more than the decision some very foolish people made thousands of years ago, to give you a playground where you can fight and die and make pretend so that you all feel so very impressive. Where you can live, shut off from such terrible knowledge as your absolute helplessness before anyone with true power. The bombs you’ve buried here are useless.”
Matt almost smiled as he saw Fabian misunderstand him, but his mood was far too sour for that.
“Let them serve as an example of what you don’t understand.”
With that Matt released the signal and the world was awash with flame.
Left unchecked, the explosion would have flattened the surroundings and ruined the forest for miles, but Matt put a stop to that. His Domain Meld flashed into being, the eclipse decreeing his absolute control over the manor, the forest, the continent, and he allowed the explosion to go only a single way: straight up.
The barest mote of concentration was all that was needed to spare himself and Fabian from the bombs as everything around them turned into a raging inferno.
Meeting Fabian’s eyes, Matt said slowly and carefully so the overstimulated man could comprehend. “No, I didn’t disarm them. Your power simply means nothing to me. I stopped them from detonating, and now I’m stopping them from harming anything. If you unleashed every bomb in your arsenal, detonated every last one mere inches from me, you wouldn’t singe so much as a single hair on my head. This is what we clearly failed to convey. I want to say we shouldn’t have needed to but clearly it was as necessary as it was lacking.”
Fabian had nearly gone catatonic, and Matt had already fully decided on what he wanted to do with Soerilia. “I have the authority to execute you, right here and right now. Perhaps I should, as I have clearly been too soft with you. But, truly, you do not matter. Instead, I shall simply exile you. Fabian Lacor, you are henceforth barred from all public transportation, managed rifts, and Empire support programs. You are not barred from delving wild rifts, but given how you’ve ruined your foundation by being carried through Tier 3 rifts as a Tier 4, good luck.”
Seeing the once proud leader trembling, Matt almost felt a little cruel, but he crushed that sensation utterly. “If you want my suggestion, take up a fake name, use the wealth you squirreled away and live out the rest of your days knowing that nothing you did mattered in the slightest.”
Matt teleported Fabian next to the crater before stepping up into orbit.
They were only fifty miles from the nearest settlement, there was a road to follow, and it was late spring in this region of the planet, so there was no chance that Fabian would die on the way back. As a Tier 4, even one who had used lower-Tier essence, he could easily make it to civilization in under a day.
Matt, though, was done doing things slowly.
His Domain Meld was still active, blanketing a good chunk of the planet. A flex of will and that expanded to the entire planet. There was no contest to the action, as those few people who had so much as a Concept on this world sensed his Domain, full of fury, and wisely retreated into themselves.
Everyone felt his act, but Matt wasn’t done.
He stepped forward, leaving behind him a trail of [Afterimage]s, each a perfect replica of him as he was. Normally, they would fade almost instantly, but enhanced with [Cast Illusion], puppeteered by [Illusion Manipulation], and further empowered by his Domain in an almost-but-not-complete Domain clone, they lingered.
With a thought, he sent his illusions forth. One appeared in the sky above every major population center, casting a penetrating light upon those beneath him, the citizens of Soerellia awakened from their slumber and shaken out of their stupor. His [AI] churned with mana, coordinating with the planetary AI as he, brandishing his bifate pair-linker like a baton, built out an array for a truly massive scale. Hundreds of millions of mana, several talisman plates, and far more effort than he let show went into organizing a global formation array that would ensure every human on the planet, even those who were naturally deaf, heard his words in their native tongue.
He looked down, and spoke.
“People of Soerilia, hear me and listen.” Taking a deep breath, Matt continued, “Your world has changed, and it will continue to do so. Twenty years ago, your leaders were informed of a greater reality, and were tasked with sharing this revelation with you all. They have failed, attempting to hoard wealth, status, and power for themselves and their underlings. Now, I speak to you, to inform you that great power is within your grasp. From this day forward, you are all citizens of the Sophron Empire, and powers which you dismissed as impossible are yours to claim, should you be willing to brave the challenges they require.”
Matt took the opportunity to scan the planet and cataloged the reactions of the citizens. He was only Tier 26, and couldn’t get perfect scans of all of the people, but from what he could tell, the primary reactions were fear, confusion, disbelief, and a certain amount of anger.
That was about what he expected. “I am Ascender Titan, a duke of the Sophron Empire, and while those who previously controlled your planet desired to keep you all locked away, hiding the true nature and extent of reality, I and the Empire I represent believe that all individuals ought to receive magic. That it is their right to take their destiny into their own hands to do with what they will.”
After pausing for a few moments, both to give people time to digest what he said and to give him an opportunity to wrestle a portion of the translation array back into place, he continued. “No more shall you be subjected to the whims of those who attempt to control you through ignorance, who seek to divide you pointlessly for their own petty agendas. As of this moment, I am disbanding every military on the planet, and announcing the end of national divisions.”
As he spoke, he tracked down all weapons of war, anything larger than what a single person could easily carry and use on their own, and vaporized them each in turn.
“Your leaders had the opportunity, twenty years ago, to make this transition easy, to make this entirely painless. Yet they have failed, and in so doing, I am acting. Today is the day that Soerilia properly joins the Sophron Empire, not just in name but in reality. Over the coming days, you will learn far more as to what that entails, but for now, those of you who seek to harm others, to kill, to rape, to rob, to destroy, know that I am watching. If you do not seek to harm others, you have nothing to fear, and much to gain.”
Checking in, Matt found most people just fearfully watching the nearest projection, but there wasn’t much he could do about that.
Instead, he tried to give them a little hope. “Though you may be afraid, rest assured that, overall, little will change. Those who are sick will be healed, those who are ambitious may accrue great power by their own hands, the students shall continue to learn, farmers will continue to farm, cooks will cook. Your world will keep spinning just like it always has. I just ask that you remain calm and not do things you will regret. I will be persona—”
Matt felt Cato stretch out signaling he wanted to talk.
Raising his perception to Tier 26 speeds, Matt tried not to snap at Cato. “What?”
“My lord, unless you wish to cancel all of your next few years of plans, which let me remind you involve you settling a dozen new worlds, meetings with the preeminent dukes of the Realm, an official meeting with your nobles, and many things I don’t have the time to list, you do not have the time to personally oversee this, my lord. Give the command and I can rearrange things to fit that, but that would be an unwise decision by most metrics given your stated priorities.”
Matt growled. He’d made this mess, he should be the one to fix it. But if he threw everything else aside as he fixed this, what other messes would he be making? “How long do I have?”
“A week before other projects would need to be pushed aside. A month if you are willing to skip your scheduled time with your guild.”
“A month then. When is the earliest Baron Hastra can arrive?”
Yarklan Hastra was the noble who was slated to be the ruler of Soerilia, but Matt knew from their check ups that he was still at his mother’s barony, ruling in her stead until she returned from her latest delving cycle.
With the delays of Soerilia, Matt had previously given him leave to attend to his family's holdings for political and practical reasons, but all of that went out of the window now that he had unveiled Soerilia.
Cato paused for a moment before blinking. “We can get him here in a three weeks if you are willing to pay f—”
Matt cut Cato off. “Do it.”
He had already made the mistake and he could chalk up the extra expense as his own personal stupid tax.
Turning his attention back to Soerilia, Matt picked up where he left off. “—lly overseeing the integration for the next month, after which point, your new baron will officially take office and will guide you the rest of the way.”
Matt almost ended his speech with a ‘If you have any questions, please contact me.’ but there was no way he would be able to answer the amount of questions that would bring him.
“Please remain calm and look over the information. If you have a vital job, please continue to carry it out. More information will come shortly as things settle down.”
Turning to where Cato had been, Matt nodded at the administration team.
“Ok, we have our work cut out for us. Initiate unveiling protocol 8 variation Echo. That best suits this situation. Any suggestions?”
When he got head shakes in return Matt nodded. “Let's get to work then.”
Comments
Istyatur Elestel
Took a lot longer to reach Hear me and Listen than I expected, but man was it a good ride.
Julie Smith
"huh, light manipulation to affect radio waves. Not what I expected to affect them, at least not the first thing. Maybe it does maybe Matt is just really good at manipulation skills." Yes, radio is just another form of light, electromagnetic radiation. Perfectly logical to use these powers on radio.
Julie Smith
Matt lowers the boom! Fabian gets less than he deserves, but the humiliation may be the best punishment for him. As Tolkien said of Saruman, he may still do some evil in some small, mean way. However, if Fabian attempts to delve, he'll probably die, not being trained.
Andromeda Adams
What a great chapter. Wonder how Liz will see this?
Cteatus
If that's what you believe then stop replying to me. But allow me to point out that in your previous response to me you accused me of criticizing and complaining, neither of which I have done. Regardless, in the future perhaps you might acknowledge that our views on this story are just incompatible and you can simply ignore me.
Kelly Bryan
Its a matter of communication. When you use a word to convey a message to another person you should attempt to use it in a way that you both agree on the definition. You appear to be an inflammatory troll asking for misunderstandings otherwise.
Cteatus
I'm not sure why my standards for incompetence have to conform to your expectation.
Jeff Wells
Yeah, probably the single biggest failure was allowing the local Baron to manage his family's estates instead of rushing over to oversee the transition. It was nice of Matt, since the Baron shouldn't have been necessary, but in hindsight that's a major goof that could have solved most of not all of this.
Jeff Wells
It wouldn't be satisfying though, because even now, at tier 4, he has already ruined his foundation. He can't even clear tier 3 rifts on his own. It would take the kind of inspirational turnaround that would be deeply unsatisfying to read for a character like him.
Jeff Wells
I'm not sure how it's incompetence that M&L failed to predict the actions of the veiled world leaders, when even the experts they hired failed to do so. Failure is not the same as incompetence, and thinking that it is is a great way to ensure that you never grow into more competence. Incompetence is failing to learn from your mistakes and making the same mistakes over and over again. That is pretty much the opposite of what Matt is doing here. One mistake, even a big one, does not make them incompetent.
Cteatus
Lmao
Kelly Bryan
Incompetence is being told that your new rulers received your planet as a reward for doing well fighting in a war, testing a nuke on their civilian device, not leaving any visible damage then saying "I bet 6 would take them out." Matt and Liz had a few percentage points of the resources the AI would allow them to feed their new tier 3 planet siphoned away and the adjustment to Empire standard delayed by a negligible time. Oh no! The unveiling went suboptimal! Thats not incompetence. It isnt all or nothing with ruling and thats the lesson I think Manny wants them to learn, further this is a veil world, there are exceedingly few of them relative to the rest of the realm and they represent the biggest problems with integration. Yeah mistakes were made but show me where people suffered irreparable harm from their direct decisions. You cant, it didnt happen. Criticize all you want but keep your complaints realistic.
Cteatus
Dropping the ball is incompetence
Kelly Bryan
dropping the ball and straight up incompetence are two different things.
Cteatus
If it was trivial for them to stop it, even at the last minute, then it would have been trivial for them to fix it if they were paying attention. It was fun to read about them ripping through Sect rifts, but ultimately they're Dukes of this region. The only one they report to is the Emperor, and he explicitly said he's taking a hands off approach. So the buck stops with them IDK why its so controversial to say: hey the hyper-competent immortal supercouple dropped the ball on this one.
yannick schwende
There are talents for everything. I would not be surprised if Manny had a talent that aloud him to fix his foundation or aloud him to cultivate with weaker essence without the issue others have. The others don't have that. So yeah they are right effed, but Manny I'm not so sure about.
King Nereus
It wouldn’t be the worst idea to have him be resourceful enough to disappear into obscurity, figure out how to navigate the wild rifts (somehow), then try to come back and take his revenge in 5,000 years or something. He is already a schemer, even if he is not personally a threat to ascenders, he might be able to lay a better trap which proves more bothersome, plus he has reason now to plot revenge since he was basically just deposed and banished. Maybe he becomes a spy for the republic and convinces them to power level him, in exchange for being a thorn in the Empire’s side, I don’t know.. But if he can get to tier 15, he would have plenty of time to continue tiering up, and then wait for a perfect opportunity for his revenge,
Kelly Bryan
While I completely understand why it isnt the case in The Empire proper, other GPs show clearly that some other forms of technology are viable. I would like to see Soerilia experiment with things like that because they are low tier and already have a more advanced base in it, if that was how they maintained their 'culture of Soerilia' it would make sense and appeal to the scientist in Matt and maybe show off some firearms specialists, or give some insights into low tier spatial effects that he might use to make low tier spatial rings.
Jaroslav Zapadlo
Woohoo
Kelly Bryan
Im with Sean on this one, ultimately the plans werent complete and the rift breaks didnt go off, sure mistakes were made but most of it boils down to Matt and Liz not giving their admin's enough rope to do their jobs and it comes from a place of them wanting to do their best but not having experience delegating. I mean who expects Ascender's who relied on only themselves for about 200 years and then spent time as a part of an exceedingly small special forces team to be good at relying on administrators?
Kelly Bryan
I would bet that a bunch of lower tiers would be susceptible to nukes as well giving the opportunity for the idiots like Fabian to actually kill a decent number of people adding to the negative propaganda "They are invading us and are strong but we can still hurt them!" Matt may be angry now but it could be a whole lot worse.
Matt H
For me, part of the oddity of this whole situation is that the realm as a whole is a place where the tyranny of power is absolute; the T50s decide how things will be and everything proceeds from there. However, Manny's personal decision is that higher tiers shouldn't impose their will and force those weaker than them to act in a certain way. In that sense, I see the "Roland method" as following the spirit of Manny's beliefs while the authoritarian sundering of the veil is more along the lines of the true nature of the realm.
Sean C Jackson
To be fair I don't think its quite a failure on the part of either Matt and Liz or the Roland method. I feel like Matt and Liz, because their inexperience with the practicalities of governance had highly unrealistic expectations for how this would go. Like the Roland method I'd guess is supposed mimick a natural unveiling which I feel could easily take centuries depending on how resistant the people in power are to losing it.
Sean C Jackson
Damn, that was the fastest way to fuck yourself I've ever seen.
Zed
month scheduled > monthlong scheduled?
Adam Fellon
They did have people managing it but those people were doing it by the letter. They followed the instructions they were given even if it wasn’t in the best interest of the citizens. Plus, while things could have gone very badly, they didn’t, there were mostly just slow. No significant harm was done and Matt/Liz are better prepared for their next planet.
Tristan R Mitchell
Most of the time they don't bother with space a lower tiers. They have the teleport formations for trade, and those are faster and higher volume-per-time than any space-based convoy system would be.
Elaine
good chappie
William Johnson
Regarding the space elevator I think it's just that real space is big and things are slow in it. Like sure you could mine the asteroids or whatever but they're probably tier zero and you could get more and better resources out of a rift without all the space to worry about. Also if you want to get things off-world the big advantage of a space elevator is savings on fuel to move around the gravity well, but from what we've seen getting to space is trivial for anyone over tier 15 and inter-planetary transportation is handled through teleportation gates. It's too bad though, space elevators are sweet.
William Johnson
Oooh trying to orchestrate mass rift breaks? Yep you hit the reverse scale there! Thanks for the chapter!
CringeWorthyStudios
Eh, to be fair it’s not all their fault. The bigger issue is that they trusted career politicians to do the right thing which is just stupid, but they’re used to working with competent people…
Tommy
For me, The problem here is you are equating power with intellect. Grown adults that are mortal might not be as powerful as awakened but they can think, reason etc as adults. The idea of an adult screaming at children is kinda flawed due to this imo
Tommy
Yeaaaaah, finally we see what happened in the prologue from Matt’s perspective! Ascender Titan. What a legend TFTC
Robert Smart
Wahoo finally see the prologue from the other side
John
Thanks!
Jake Thorpe
Yea from what I gathered the if you fill your cores with essence weaker then yourself then you will be weaker and that's also why Ascenders are so dam strong matt was filling his cores with essence 5 Tiers above himself his core is like diamond and can crush anyone at his Tier. Also that's why sword Saint Hastor was so feared since go got to Tier 50 with inspirations when the others used Tier 47 rifts and Tier 40 planetary cores.
Alex
I think people like Fabian are incapable of the introspection you’re describing. He’s probably going to become a bitter(er) asshole who thinks the world cheated him of what he was owed, or some deluded nonsense like that.
Cteatus
Gonna be honest Matt, you're the immortal with limitless resources, powers, and immortality. Choosing a slow and carefully managed integration means that you have to have someone actually managing it. Feels wild to blame the method when its just straight up incompetence from Matt and Liz on this one. Which makes sense because its their first planet.
Jake Thorpe
Yea I definitely need to see a pov chapter off all the characters like the architects, Fabians walk back to civilization regretting everything and the administrator would be cool too as she might be a Tier 15 but she will be feeling a pissed off Ascender Titan for the first time and the massive world spanning array that he built in an instant.
michael pigott
So how many of these noble incidents are the senses at work? Part of their plan to take Titan down a peg was exactly this kind of thing. Also exited to see the other leaders from Sorellia reacting to this. Multiple nuclear explosions immediately before the worldwide announcement paints somthing of a picture for them to react to.
Throngler In Chief
A video of his monologue needs to make it to the ascender chat, with ascender shenanigans, ribbing, and other commentary being the result. (And/Or an evaluation report from Luna on how he can improve his monologues). Even better if someone gets a recording of him effortlessly tanking those nukes and makes a fart joke. Or asks for a few of the bombs to use as novelty party favors. Also, a space elevator on low tier worlds sounds like it could be a hell of an economic boost in places that just aren't worthwhile for high-tiers and don't have many ships. At least in the right circumstances. Like bulk shipping of low tier goods (harvest season for tier 4 alchemy ingredients on a farming planet?), Space based resource collection in the solar system, or if there are multiple habitable low tier planets in the same solar system. Especially if it can use travel mana on a lift system that never stops moving. Seems like he missed something there.
Alex
@Abriel Blauer there's no doubt in my mind that Ascending would fix a flawed foundation, but if the Tier 50s have flawed foundations that's kind of a ticking timebomb. Manny wants to use Matt's mana to give the Realm Tier 50 rifts so that people can advance to Tier 50 properly, instead of eating planetary cores. That change alone would have a transformative effect on society since a ridiculous amount (I think it was literally half) of each Great Power's resources goes towards The Farms. But what happens when people start hitting Tier 50 the right way, and suddenly they're inherently stronger than the current Tier 50s because their foundations aren't flawed? Suddenly the existing Tier 50s aren't the absolute power anymore - not only are there other Tier 50s, there are other Tier 50s who are inherently stronger because of their perfect foundations. Because Manny is the Goodest Boy it's easy to trust in his vision of reforming the Realm, but what happens if some asshole reaches Tier 50 with a perfect foundation, and Manny can't stop them because his foundation is flawed?
Flopmind
Yay!! I've been waiting for this!! Thanks Mantis! Can't wait to see how the rest of this integration goes! I hope we can go back to the architect's POV eventually and/or get other POVs/recurring characters. Particularly Yusef.
David Bean
Not gonna lie, seeing Matt not only shrug off a bunch of nukes, but control the explosions was pretty badass. Sometimes it’s easy to underestimate just how powerful he’s become when he’s dealing with other cultivators and monsters on the same level as him, or ships and mana shields that I have no real frame of reference for how hard they actually are to damage. It’s a demonstration of power that’s easier for my earthling brain to really comprehend. (Granted, I did start to get some inkling before when he dove into a freaking sun, lol)
Apep
It is the essence, probably there are methods to compress it but if you can do that you don’t need to delve down. It was mentioned in book 1 that even essence stones are worse than delving because the monster essence is already as compressed as it can be for its tier. The only thing which can fix that are inspirations (and maybe back to Basics from minkalla), but only for one tier as far as I can remember. So the guy who got the sponsorship by Liz is safe because the inspiration fixed his ruined foundation.
Abriel Blauer
Delving a Tier down seems to be pretty normal and mentionned a few times in the story so far. Remember however that even if you delve a tier down (or more) it doesn't mean that you absorb the lower Tier essence. You can simply be delving down for the money. I believe Juan, Aster friend from the Bond Academy, was probably doing that. People who absorb essence below their Tier will be weaker than other people at their Tier. For exemple, a Tier 15 delving Tier 14 rifts and absorbing the Tier 14 essence will be weaker at Tier 16 than someone having used Tier 15 essence at Tier 15. Since that person using Tier 14 essence to reach Tier 16 is weaker, they will not be able to delve Tier 16 Rifts at Tier 16, creating a vicious cycle. As for Tier 50 being weaker for having used Tier 40 world core to reach Tier 50, they are weaker than a True Tier 50 (or maybe even a Tier 49, as proved when Agatha killed the previous Emperor and send another Tier 50 on the run while being Tier 49) However, I believe this weakness can be fixed when Ascending. It was said when Ascending to the higher realm, everything you have is made better, like your Talent and your Domain. I wouldn't be surprised if it also fixed and improved your essence, like an Inspiration but better. If not, I find it hard to believe that most people would accept to cripple themselve with Tier 40 essence to reach Tier 50, while knowing they have to Ascend 30 000 years later.
Dallin S
For real it isn’t bad monologuing either like some other series have.
C_Mantis
Also the idea about pulling a Stanislav Petrov would have been great. I just didnt think about it and neither did the beta readers. Hard to think of every possibly but that would have been a good one.
Kelly Bryan
Matt's monologuing to his enemies are becoming my favorite parts to reread.
Kelly Bryan
Ascender Titan living up to his name.
Melody Haren Anderson
Based on previous things, likely both. essence that isn't "dense" enough makes your foundation weaker, cracked... and the more you do it, the worse it gets. The tiers have never been just one level of power. There's a reason Elites and Ascenders are so powerful, but it can go the opposite direction too. If you never take chances, your power rots on the vine.
crusaderstar
Look forward to it, and shall withhold more comments until then.
C_Mantis
Next chapter is an after action report because yes. A lot of things failed to get to this point
Abriel Blauer
The problem, I believe, was that the Administrators couldn't directly intervene. As was explained, Matt and Liz choose a slow Unveiling for the world and implemented pre-established protocols and procedures. The Administrators could only act inside those bondaries. We have to remember that this is an Empire, based on nobility, and the orders of the noble are in a way absolute. Matt and Liz are Duke, the highess nobility rank below the Kings (Queens) and the Emperor. They issued a plan for the Integration of the world and their peoples cannot deviate from said plan. If Matt and Liz had been around and not in the Sects, they would have issued new orders as needed, but the Administrators couldn't overrule the last directives from their Dukes. If the noble that will be in charge of this world was there, he might have more latitude to intervene, but in the absence of the Dukes (Matt and Liz) and with no noble in charge of the world, the Administrators couldn't deviate from the Plan. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an AI somewhere monitoring all those Administrators to make sure they do not overstep. Also, if there is someone, somewhere, who could have intervened, I believe such person didn't act as to let this be a learning experience for Matt and Liz. Honestly, going incommunicado for 10 years while Unveiling a world that has already proven problematic without even leaving someone with the authority to make decisions when, not if based on previous events, everything hit the proverbial fan was a gross oversight from our beloved characters.
crusaderstar
Well written and fun chapter, but rubbed me the wrong way. The parts where Matt says he mishandled things on Soerilla and kinda imply he shouldn't have Roland methoded, though he does acknowledge his attempt was flawed. Seems like all this was a lesson that yes Matt, they are sheeple and the best thing for you to do is be a benevolent dictator god, otherwise they'll nuke themselves. Trying to respect their dignity and autonomy as fellow humans was a fool's errand. Maybe next chapter there will be more nuance and digging into things, on why their attempt failed. There also could've been a Stanislav Petrov here who refused to nuke, or some other wondrous example of the human spirit, but nay, just assholes who matt + his subordinates should control for their own good. Feels bleh.
Aki Foxtail
The tier 50s use planetary cores to push the last 3 tiers don't they? It isn't even rift essence so that might change things even more.
Rodney
I get your point but Fabian is a someone you love to hate and piling on the anguish is satisfying
C_Mantis
Great description. I'm stealing that lol.
C_Mantis
That will be addressed next chapter because yeah. Clearly a lot of shit failed to get here.
Chymor
It’s a funny chapter… but it really makes me wonder what the t15s administrators were doing? Shouldn’t they have stepped in and policed the power abuse/corruption a long time before it got to nuke testing on awakening machines? Basically it seemes to me that the plan contained no disciplinary punishments despite including a lot of people who detected a lot of issues. Things like demonstrating the power of T15s, reducing or removing access to rifts or new magic and a few cases of replacing leaders should have been easy, and kept most in line.
Xarow
Fantastic! Love it when Matt decides truly to act.
Zack
I feel like being held immobile in the middle of several nuclear explosions *without getting hurt* is a pretty good demonstration of the 'what' portion of that. But yeah, I hope he gets something that shows the 'who' bit.
Luciaron
All I can imagine is a grown man screaming at a bunch of children. He could have just stopped the rift breaks, had a quick conversation with Cato and the administrators to let them know the change of plans, then make his announcement. Instead he basically ranted at a planet lol.
Bob Bryan
I mean, I get it. How many people could of died due to those Rift breaks. It's not that progress was slow, it was stagnant. Next Rift break might not have been so lucky. Honestly matt and liz let the world leaders think they were weak children, not what they are. That is where they messed up in all of this.
Charles Axelrad
Gosh darnit! why do I have to wait till Monday for the next chapter!?
Rodney
What I really want now is for Fabian to some how MAGICLY get something that shows him just what and who he was plotting against
Bob Bryan
Damn, matt was just done with all of that nonsense, especially Fabian.
Alex
@Kurai - Yes, Inspirations, and Minkalla's second floor exit reward fix flawed foundations. Unfortunately, both of those things can only realistically be attained by people who don't need them. It's a bit like when the professor gives an extra credit question on the exam that's harder than the rest of the test combined - the only people who benefit never needed the extra help in the first place.
mitchell kaiser
Fantastic chapter can’t wait to see the fallout!
Rodney
Thanks for the chapter can't wait until Monday now
Kurai
It can, if I understood correctly, be fixed by an inspiration. Or by minkalla probably. But ye, probably lots of people are weaker than they should be
Havokk
Nothing will say "all your imagined power is so far beneath me that I don't have to lower myself to kill you" better than standing in middle of all the nukes set up as a trap as they go boom. Yup Fabian is a good example of the "fuck around and find out" rule
Damien MIllns
Great chapter. Looking forward to seeing where you go with this.
C_Mantis
thats what was going on with the admin team pretty much. As for having lots of lower tier people, that would feel more like an invasion IMO.
Kenneth
Thanks for the chapter. I've been WAITING for this one! Honestly, this is probably the best method of transition. These people simply can't understand the greater universe they live in and unless you grab them by collar and FORCE them to act accordingly, they just won't do it.
xyphion
Wouldn't it be easier just to have a bunch of high stirred people basically babysit a planet for a few years, and have a feeling thousand or tens of thousands low tired people come to the planet and expedite the transition? Seeing as a tier thirty ish can almost be omnipresent
jason m
I’m so glad he finally did that.
Alex
@Drendude It's the essence I think - it's been mentioned several times that cultivating lower Tier essence is a terrible idea. Although there's definitely an element of selection bias that people who suck at combat are more likely to delve down, so it is a combination of both things. Which also begs the question, are the Tier 50's actually weak? There's no such thing as a source of Tier 50 essence anywhere in the Realm unless you can cultivate with inspirations, so the GP leaders must have advanced to Tier 50 with lower Tier essence. Manny says in the end-of-book chapter where Dicomaty and Hastor Ascended that all the Tier 50's were terrified of Hastor - I thought at the time that was because Hastor was a god among men like Aiden, but I'm beginning to suspect it might be because Hastor was the only Tier 50 who hadn't fucked up his foundation.
C_Mantis
Its fixable even without an inspiration and if you dont intend to delve combat its not the end fo the world but it just makes you appreciably weaker.
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Drendude
Is it the essence? Or is it the fact that he is unable to fight even at a tier down?
Drendude
As a resident of Earth, I love reading Matt casually blowing himself up with nukes simply to show that not a single thing Fabian did or could ever have done would have any effect.
Alex
Bit of a strange takeaway, I know, but if you can fuck yourself up semi-permanently by cultivating with essence that’s a Tier below you, I wonder how many people in the Realm can't advance anymore because they shafted themselves earlier in their lives. It's got to be a lot, right? Like, I feel as though delving a Tier down is something a lot of people would choose to do because they felt like it was their best option at the time, and they hadn't fully rationalized the fact they'd be permanently fucking themselves. Shit, Juan, Aster's Stone Elephant friend said he delved down with his bond before he went to the Academy. This feels like something Titan's Torch should be looking into - cheap and reliable ways for people to unfuck themselves because they ruined their foundations and they can't pull off an inspiration.
Luciaron
And full circle, nice. lol Matt sure has became a hot head. It feels likes he’s slowly growing into his power and status but that’s also making him more whimsical. Like in this instance he clearly could have coordinated a change in strategy with his administrators before this but he was literally overwhelmed by his emotions.
Matt H
Not that his anger isn't justified, but Luna's going to need to force Matt to spend some serious time with a therapist working through his lingering trauma associated with rift breaks. Between Maven and now this it's too obvious and too potent a sore spot for someone of Matt's authority to have.
Sean Shivers
People doing nothing in the face of impending apocalypse in order to accrue power and wealth? Living in denial? Psh. That would *never* happen. /s
Blackpan2
Amazing chapter. Completely paid off the setup from the prologue chapter and Soerilia's original representative's conversation with one of the leaders talking about Matt & Liz being the Ascenders without the proper context.
James Faulkner
Satisfying. Im glad those dickheads had their faces rubbed in it
C_Mantis
We do know Matt told some leaders about it because he mentioned it with the Roland Method.
Bunny Waffles
The poor dumb bastard. He deserved what he got, but I can't remember if they were ever informed just how much Matt despises anyone who knowingly causes mass rift breaks, either as the goal or out indirectly out of greed/stupidity. At least we now know EXACTLY what caused him to break the veil in that first chapter!
Cam
So good to finish this books prologue!! Thanks mantis!
Dallin S
Loved the chapter and the show of strength and mercy because it shows Matt’s growth in power and that he still has stuff to learn
Thomas Kuhn
Thanks for the chapter! I'm a big fan of Matt flexing his power a bit here to help right this world.
C_Mantis
White color -> white collar
James Townsend
Thanks for the chapter! Finally I get to see what we see eons ago!
Nate Slattery
Thank you for the chapter
Thomas Brusilovsky
Thanks or the chapter!
Bryce Daniel
Thank ya thank ya
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis! Thanks Dae! Oddly nice to see Allie not flouting the rules. She enjoys doing so, but knows which ones she can flout. I love the idea of trauma resonating in the spirit in unique ways. Not liking trauma, but the idea that it is measurable in some form. As well as how they might measure it. -I wonder if some Talents make it hard to test trauma, maybe Torment with his more volatile mental state. -I know the rune kids, version 2, won't be leaving the Federation to explore. I feel they may be harder to read any changes on them.. and anybody who is assigned to diagnose them is as messed up as Virgil. Side bits like Matt needing to check out the rock-paper-blade is amusing. There is so much going on the little things don't matter as much while still being able to build the story. Huh, curious why a collection is being sold off. Maybe a noble's fall from grace or the highest tier of the family died in a rift. Even an ascension is a possible cause if the other descendants don't need the bloodline stuff or want to endear themselves to Liz. -Also an option is that it is getting everyone away from the Duchy for the shadow cabal to make it's move... dun dun dunnn. Kinda good to see that while Ascenders are amazing, they aren't experts. Particularly in things out of combat. They just have lots of talent and prestige. -Also cool to see he wants to grow his skillset. War is what he is good at and can thrive in. What he loves is peace and knowledge. Yeah, might also be good for Matt to realize how much in the Empire isn't great. The Empire isn't perfect. Some things are found and it is hard to find and address everything in a mortal timespan. I love the idea of PoA sports and am happy to read about them. Dynamic Extreme Tag. Matt really does have a weird perspective. It is a different angle than I am used to seeing when people criticize sports. With the knowledge of a literal scheming cabal in the background it makes me relate more to Janet. Is this ruckus of the would-be noble a natural issue or did the cabal scheme to make nobles seem more reasonable. I don't think so but I can't rule it out. The guy trying to name drop is harder to incite but there are Talents for it. -So many people after just getting rich or famous tend to ruin themselves from it. Or perhaps they are just the people who make it to the news and are more seen. Huh, I like reading about the issue of a person trying to be thrifty. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. The guy sending orphans to the playpens is painful. Even well intentioned I am reminded of Helen's fear at all the deaths from a new Ascender being risen, let alone from her own playpen. All the issues seem enjoyable when I don't have to deal with them. It is a strange world and intriguing to see different problems than what is at home. I admit so much paperwork sounds terrible, but being able to zone in so much sounds nice. More so with the life-force and lifespan to back it up. It really is funky to internalize the timeframe. Huh. I love them actually using nukes... and failing. Sad Liz didn't get to eat a nuke though. I feel that orbital elevator question, and the denial of its practicality, was brought up rather recently in to the Patreon's chapter release. A coincidance or a deliberate inclusion after realizing it would be an interest of mundane scientists. So now we see the attempt... it's a whole rollercoaster :) Wow, the guy really was stuck up in his own ego. Or maybe didn't internalize the bit about how powerful they were and focused on their apparent age. If it happened after a nuke failed to hurt the equipment even better. -And they were so stupid they didn't have any thoughts about the progress of others on Sorellia if they could get this far? Definitely had to be a dictator nobody could criticize without dying. -Probably for the best they didn't know so they don't keep their true self hidden till they can get away with stuff. 'Kept power by taking a non-elected role.' Wait, it didn't even happen yet?! He definitely saw the bomb test. This guy is truly dumb. I now know his name but it's not worth remembering it as he is about to be dust in the wind. Debating if Matt should bring Liz in on the decision or if it is cute that they trust each other to just do stuff. They will have so many issues that it is fine to trust the other to fix it. Probably the latter. -As Manny said it is okay to make mistakes. Their spouse won't judge them either. huh, light manipulation to affect radio waves. Not what I expected to affect them, at least not the first thing. Maybe it does maybe Matt is just really good at manipulation skills. Lol, telling a dictator he doesn't want to lose his freedoms. Irony. So this is just as Megamind would want, presentation! Since Matt certainly could've stopped the signals, as seen, and he also could've taken the bombs. Maybe this is where Matts shows up in the prologue chapter. It would be good if he did confirm with Liz, but as mentioned they know and trust the other. 'you never had any power to begin with' -Fabian is not the sharpest marble in the toolbox 'some foolish people thousands of years ago' could refer to the original people who settled here or the people who made it possible for a dictator to emerge. What did Fabian misunderstand? Minor note, were the bombs nukes? Did Fabian just get teleported into a nuclear zone? I sorta doubt it just as that is harder to hide when smuggling across borders. So we toss aside the old issues and get to see whole new issues! -Oh so many new issues just off the top of my head. It is fun to confirm the timeline, a 10 year gap did make sense for when the issues sparking the prologue would occur. I hope Aster is learning from this. Maybe there is some teacher or historian who can give her deeper background on planets types, integrations, and common problems. Matt has gotten better at speeches since the Pather War arc. I like the idea of destroying every weapon... but that is how some can delve. It does suck for the leaders who were doing well starting integration. I wonder how many news cameras got that, and how many will need phone footage. Yeah, again Matt gets to see how hard it is to deal with everything. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. -I am intrigued by if Matt will need to change what he said. I'd say it's funny to see him rescind his words but that just sounds depressing for those on the planet. On the bright side this conversation is happening at high speed so the gap won't be noticeable. (might be possible with a good audio but the amount of time may not be their focus.) I do appreciate he set aside his personal time at the guild. There is a reason Manny had faith in Matt (and Aster and Liz)'s character. Hopefully the future planets will feel tame by comparison... no high hopes. Hopefully the planets don't go the way of the middle child and get less attention/ support than the first child. What a way to get back from a vacation. Poor Matt, lucky Liz. I hope she at least gets to relax in her pet project. I think she might instead take over the normal paperwork he left to rush here. -Maybe some later pillow talk of how he took a bomb meant for her.
