C_Mantis
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Chapter 376
🕑 Added 2024-11-08 19:59:01 +0000 UTCChapter 376
Emmanuel stood up from his desk and stepped through space to arrive in one of the palace's personal gardens. It wasn’t one of his or Carissa's favorite ones but it was empty and he needed to think.
The Empire’s economy was… not great.
Fighting a war nearly alone against three opponents was not easy, and it surely wasn’t cheap.
They had been digging deep and at most, they had another century before they would have been forced to throw in the towel solely due to mounting costs. And they certainly were not fine just because they pulled out before they had truly reached the bottom of the barrel. This was even in spite of the diversion of resources from the Farm.
For all its expenses, the military and its various support structures had been bolstering the economy as money flowed in and out of a million and one facets of the civilian and military economies.
With those institutions being shuttered, the core financial mechanisms had more money to spend on other things, but it also lost an easy way to circulate money back into the economy.
Frederic was doing a masterful job in keeping things balanced without a recession or inflation of mortal economies which tended to be the most susceptible to such fluctuations. The immortal economies on the other hand were not doing quite so hot and it was causing some political fallout.
Things should improve, as wealth from the other Great Powers began to flow in thanks to the terms of the treaties, but it would take centuries before that started to actually generate a meaningful impact and stabilized them. Normally, that wouldn’t be an issue, but the Empire hadn’t been truly robust since before Emmanuel had come to power. Since before his family came to power, really. They’d been stretched thin even before the war, and that had pushed them nearly to the breaking point.
Now? Emmanuel wouldn’t say that Matt’s Talent was solely, or even primarily, contributing to the solvency of the Empire, but the amount of mana he was receiving from the Ascender, paired with the times he spent producing mana using his Talents himself, was responsible for an uncomfortable amount of their mana bank.
If it was being this genuinely useful right now, what would it be like in ten to twenty Tiers?
He wasn’t sure they could actually hide the influx of mana if they intended to use it like he wanted no matter the projections and plans they had in place.
It didn’t help that he felt adrift.
He, like the economy, was slumping.
They had been pushing so hard that the lack of pressure thanks to the treaties from all the other Great Powers left him feeling like he was missing the firm footing he was used to.
He felt like he and the Empire should be doing something, that they should be hunkering down for the next battle, hoarding their strength while waiting anxiously for the next blow to land.
Emmanuel knew that that was emotion and not rationality speaking but logic was losing out to feelings.
The Empire needed a breath so they could relax and be in a good place for the inevitable true war, which made this slump part of the natural process they needed to go through. Not just in the sense of the economy but the people. Everyone needed time to breathe. The high-Tier crafters needed breaks, the medium-Tier soldiers needed time to return to their families and or just reintegrate back into civilian life, while the low Tiers needed time for the existential fear of crushing defeat and being handed over to their enemies to fade from their memory.
They needed to process but it wasn’t so easy to relax like that.
At least, Emmanuel didn’t find it that easy.
He wanted to do something. Fix something. Keep himself busy.
And he couldn't, which made him feel adrift.
He once again pulled up his models, trying a slightly different set of variables to see if they could afford to force one of the Tier 47 rifts to Tier 50. He could technically do it, but doing so put the Empire uncomfortably close to an economic death-spiral, at least until Matt Tiered up to Tier 35. Tier 40 would be even better but that was the problem with growth Talents, it was always a balancing act between doing and waiting until the doing was easier.
Seeing the numbers again made a part of him, a small part but a part nonetheless, want to put pressure on Matt to get him to move a little faster. After all, would it be so bad to send Matt and Liz a capable administrator who could handle most of their ducal problems? Would it be so bad to preemptively end some of the plotting that was targeting Matt and his guild? Would it be so bad to just make a suggestion or two the next time he saw them that advancing faster and out of the war Tier’s would lessen the Empire's political burden? Would it be so bad to just come out and state that the Empire needed Matt delving back-to-back to be in a better state than it might otherwise be? He could even Talent up some unique rifts for them to delve he was sure. Would that really be so bad?
Yes. They would all be bad.
Emmanuel didn’t like to bend his morals, He Was Not A Tyrant, but it was so, so tempting sometimes to justify just one thing. Which was exactly the problem and was the first step in breaking his Aspect.
No, the kids were doing fine. In fact, they were doing exactly as he had foreseen, which was a relief considering everything else beyond his control these days. They were making mistakes, learning, growing, and imposing their will upon everyone around them.
That was part of the interesting things he had only really understood about reality and human interactions and society after he had access to a Tier 50’s future sight.
Some people bent the Realm around them. Their very actions changed things in far reaching ways that weren't always obvious.
Sure, an Ascender killing another duke because he was a rapist obviously changed things, anyone with eyes could see that a number of nobles pulled back on some of their more… obviously eclectic behaviors after Aiden’s rampage, but it went beyond that. Even just Allie teleporting around and frequenting various small bakeries in her quest for the best scone had an impact. It wasn’t as obvious; no economist would have predicted it or would even really notice anything, but when he delved into her futures and their myriad permutations, those simple actions had impacts not readily obvious.
Allie’s frequenting of bakeries around the Empire shouldn’t matter, she usually took precautions to obfuscate her identity and Talent even now, but she was an outside influence that normally wouldn’t have interacted with the normal trajectories of fate. Her mere occasional presence shouldn't change things, but it did.
One of her favorite bakeries had been on a path to foreclosure but her additional semi-frequent presence in the shop had added to the shop's ambiance, which in turn drew in new customers because busy establishments always did better. After all, other people wouldn't be there if the food was bad. Now, the shop that should have shuttered its doors was considering opening a second location.
And that was just Allie and her snack addiction.
All people had similar impacts, but some had more weight than others. Some a lot more than others.
Titan’s Torch had been like a boulder landing in a puddle with its impact, so much so that he was still trying to parse the changes in fate that had been kicked up. Scientific discoveries were often as much chance as they were fate after all, but thankfully most of what he had seen was positive.
Even the things that would be negative to Matt himself.
He was stepping on established interests, and the next few millennia would be interesting as they collided.
That was one place where his intervention would be a strict net negative.
At least from a monarch's perspective.
The Empire needed internal struggle and strife if it was to grow. Trees grown in a greenhouse never grew as tall as those that grew under the open sky and people were the same way. They didn’t grow without some strife.
That was however a fine line to walk. Too much struggle and most people could never climb out of their starting locations, at least not the average mortals. Too little and they just never felt the need to rise up and improve themselves or their station.
And what a pity that would be. Even just looking at the highest profile examples, the Ascenders who had risen from humble beginnings, Lila, Aiden, Zack, Matt, and Aster. They were able to rise up because they had the opportunity to risk it all. Not that they were alone. With his father’s past sight, he was able to see the ever-changing web of the future and the happenings of the past, which let him see how effective those methods were even for the average folk.
Even without pre and postcognition, it was obvious that what the Empire was doing was working. Create a happy baseline for the mortals where those who wanted to live normal mortal lives could do so without being trampled while giving the ambitious a ladder to climb and things sorted themselves before too long.
It wasn’t just The Path, though that was one of the imperial government’s more useful pipelines. It was the low-Tier guilds, the laws that allowed corporations to flourish and fail. It was opportunity and growth that fed back into a system that lived and breathed like any other.
A system that could all too easily break if neglected or put under the wrong sorts of pressure.
Manny had been well trained and prepared for his throne but he felt adrift having overcome his first real hurdle.
He was the culmination of two generations of effort to change not just the Empire but the Realm.
What if he failed?
It was a scary thought that weighed down on him every minute of every day. He should have been able to wave away such thoughts with the proof of executing the war not just better than expected but as close to perfect as was possible. But if anything, that success made every fear and doubt so much worse.
Things were going so well compared to his original projections, he was terrified that any misstep would not just ruin the foundation that his father and grandmother had set, but also ruin the perfect start he had unexpectedly created.
Which was why Emmanuel was stuck in a loop of self-doubt and condemnation, worrying about things beyond his immediate control. A loop that logic played no part in pulling himself out of.
Sitting down in the garden, Emmanuel retracted himself.
He deactivated all of his Talents, muted his [AI], broke down the partitions of his separate mental walls letting the other selves that took care of other tasks return to the greater whole, clamped down on his cultivation letting his proprioception fall to a mortal level, and finally closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Emmanuel let himself lay there for an unknown amount of time, but he knew it couldn’t have been that much time. His job would never let him be absent for too long. At some point, Carissa found him and laid down next to him without saying a word, but Emmanuel just continued to lay there.
Thoughts flitted in and out of his mind until things calmed down. Like an ocean having just experienced a storm, his mind slowly stilled.
Sitting up, Emmanuel didn’t feel instantly better but he was in a much better mental place.
Taking Carissa to breakfast, they cooked up a simple fare together without fanfare and talked about nothing important.
Their morning was interrupted when a meeting alert broke through Emmanuel’s silences.
The meeting was about war. The cynical side of him wanted to dismiss it but war was simultaneously unimportant with the rules in place and also the most important method of diplomacy the Realm had.
Thankfully, this meeting wasn’t about their wars.
General Ios was the one giving today's brief and despite trying to keep those ranks apolitical, she was a well-positioned noble scion who held great influence in his oppositional factions. She was also a competent military leader who kept her political aspirations out of her orders and job but he still couldn’t afford to slight her by ignoring the briefing she had asked for the opportunity to give.
“Good day, Your Majesty,” she bowed as he entered and stood at attention waiting for him to singla her to star.
Her greeting was perfect in every way and Emmanuel acknowledged her, then indicated that she ought to proceed.
“The war between the Federation and the Monster Collective is going about as well as we expected. The Federation, despite losing a substantial amount of their top-end power in the Tier 25 bracket, is holding on well. This is the first major conflict between the two Great Powers and we are getting a look at how the Collective has diverged from the Federation and how the Federation has prepared for them. As we suspected, the Federation has a number of anti-bloodline weapons and potions they have been putting into play. The ones we are seeing currently are all clearly from before their dissolution but their existence speaks to greater capabilities, as we suspected. The Collective’s countermeasures have proven mostly positive but there has been noticeable slippage.”
Emmanuel nodded as that all fit their predictions.
The Federation had had anti-bloodline equipment for a long time; most of them just disrupted the usage of the bloodline core similar to any cultivation suppression, but it had always been hard to deploy on a large scale or wasn’t more impactful than any other poisons.
Yes, you could block a phoenix from reviving. But in most cases, it was far easier to just trap and double or even triple-kill the bird in question.
Given how rare bloodlines were on the whole, anti-bloodline armaments were rarely deployed in war. But, he supposed, using them against the Monster Collective did make the most sense, and if they were attempting to refine something old or field-test something new, they could hardly ask for better targets.
With their most hated enemy attacking them, everyone had been expecting the weapons to make a resurgence, but it seemed like both sides were taking the slow and cautious approach.
“Currently the Collective has pushed a quarter of a sector into the Federation border territory but they are struggling upon the secondary lines of defense.”
Emmanuel raised a finger, and Ios explained. “The Federation defenses are holding up surprisingly well. Part of that can be attributed to them reinforcing that portion of the border heavily in recent history, but another part can be blamed on our last war. Their soldiers are bloodied and hardened where the Collective’s troops aren’t. The Collective strategy seemed to expect that and they are taking a slow but steady approach, ensuring their people outnumber the Federation where they can and cycling battalions in and out of the frontlines. That is contributing to their slow progress.”
“How are the Collective’s troops faring?”
“As well as can be expected for fresh troops with little in the way of veteran soldiers. The bloodline-heavy army is leading to some new and interesting tactics we are noting and theorizing counters for as we learn of them. One notable bloodline that I believe you should be made aware of are the Sunshine Rats who seem to have the ability to slip through shields like they don’t exist. They are acting as infiltrators and saboteurs who haven’t failed yet.”
Emmanuel closed his eyes as he probed his future sight Talent set and checked the history and past of the bloodline.
Opening his eyes, he smirked. “They had heavily interacted with a Tier 45 or higher recently. I’ll send a report down once I parcel through the interference but that is a low priority on my time and mana usage.”
What he really meant was that he’d need to get closer, probably teleporting into Collective space and using methods to hide his presence, and scan one of the bloodlines directly. Or that was what his gut was telling him he’d have to do to get through their Collective’s various anti-divination methods.
That would certainly punch through most anti-divination methods but would also take substantial preparation time if he didn’t want to get caught. Hopefully he could just find a place where they were near the Empire border where he could scan them directly, but that was unlikely if the Collective were doing their jobs properly.
“And the Federation?”
“Their troops haven't shown any new techniques or capabilities since our war, but their morale is high considering their losses. Our read on their sentiment is that they believe this war is their way to strike back at the traitors and regain the honor lost by their forebearers.”
Emmanuel listened as more details of the war were explained until he asked, “How committed do your people rate each side?”
“Very, but they are taking things slow. First Shepherd Tobias has the full support of his people and from all accounts, seems dead set on taking a chunk out of the Federation. Virgil on the other hand, has been surprisingly quite publicly disinterested about the war but Federation officials are pushing hard to keep public support high. Personally she seems unconcerned or is otherwise occupied.”
Emmanuel nodded at the report which fit what other information he had.
He suspected that Virgil was aiming to develop an Authority.
JR had already spoken with Aiden about what he knew regarding Authority formation, and while Aiden was usually entirely incapable of providing any useful information whatsoever about Domain formation, he could explain the basics. He was still too injured for JR to subject the man to a full bevy of testing, but it was just a matter of time before additional knowledge about Authorities propagated from Aiden to JR, and from JR outwards as people could afford the bird’s nigh-extortionate rates.
Even the simple knowledge that such a thing was possible had set the rumor mill ablaze. So far as Emmanuel knew, nobody had actually attempted to create one yet - making an attempt this soon into Domain development was just suicide by another name - but there were rumors that a Sect elder who’d blown themselves up had been attempting to create an Authority. It was more likely something more mundane, but Authority discussion was the topic of the millennia.
If they were lucky, all of their enemies would kill themselves attempting to reach for greater power and they wouldn't even need to fight them in a true war.
The entire situation was a conundrum without an easy solution.
Reaching for an Authority was stupidly dangerous as seen by Aiden being the first person in living history to succeed. Hastor counted but he had only succeeded at Tier 50 and had immediately left without actually telling anyone what his process had been. Even if he had, they would still be left fumbling in the dark.
With Aiden unable to leave the Realm via Ascension yet, he had been pressured to sell the information but that was why they knew how fiendishly hard creating an Authority would be. And if no one succeeded, they would be fine, but the instant one of the Tier 50s succeeded in creating an Authority was the moment the balance of power shifted.
Personally, Emmanuel didn’t want to try. It was stupid, idiotic, suicidal. Even for them, the Tier 50s, it was the equivalent of asking a Tier 5 to create their Intent. Or for a Tier 25 to create their Aspect. Except it was far harder as with each stage of growth a Domain became increasingly complex.
The fact that the one man who had actually created one couldn’t explain anything only made it all far worse. You’d be creating one all but blind, with most not even knowing what new piece needed to be added to the Domain - what Aiden had called a Place - and the Realm was littered with the corpses of geniuses who had stretched themselves just a bit too far.
Why would any of them be different?
Even for those who could learn from Aiden, he was a certifiable madman who went more off feeling and intuition instead of facts, logic, or anything concrete.
Even if he could explain things well— which he couldn't— they couldn't even be sure he understood what he had done well enough to ensure he was explaining it well.
With a map, even a bad one, there was an avenue to greater power.
Emmanuel didn’t think any of the Tier 50s would be trying to create their own Authorities first but instead the information would be distributed amongst their most loyal Tier 46s, Tier 47s, and even Tier 48s, who were more… replaceable.
If any of the Tier 50s died, it spelled the end of their Great Powers.
But if any of them succeeded, their Great Power could ascend to the strongest Great Power in the Realm overnight.
There was always a risk that they would get jumped on but as Hastor had demonstrated, with an Authority, a Tier 50 could unleash all of their power without the risk of a forced Ascension.
The million-credit question was if a portion of an Authority would have a similar effect.
Emmanuel doubted that a single facet of an Authority would be enough, but only time would tell. For that, his gut told him a Tier 50 would need at least a half-formed Authority, with either a Place, as Aiden named it, or whatever the other supposedly possible way is.
At least if the Authority held true to the past stages with two variations that each had their own unique effects. Internal/external Concepts and such.
It was possible that Hastor had created the other version but without being able to ask him, they couldn’t know so anyone who wasn’t like Aiden would be fumbling around in the dark.
So only the mad men of the Realm had any chance to create an Authority.
And there was one source of mad men who were publicly trying for their Authorities.
Ascenders.
All of the older Ascenders were pushing for advancement to reach Tier 46, where they would start serious attempts at their Authorities.
That worked for the Empire, who had four Ascenders but at the same time their Path had just been cut off at the knees.
As Manny left the meeting room and got back to work, his mind kept coming back to the idea that Ascenders were the key.
Those lucky few who could flip a coin and have it land on heads time and time again but the idea never crystalized into something actionable.
The Authority revelation at least gave Lila a plausible reason to linger in the Realm without the other Great Powers getting suspicious. Ascenders rarely lingered in the realm once they reached Tier 45, and she had been getting close to leaving before Zack and Allies and then Matt, Liz, and Aster’s arrival.
For all her Ascender tendencies, Lila was willing to stick around for the possible true war. He wanted to believe that it was purely because of her patriotic nature but she had outright told him it was because she was eager for the chance to fight at the peak of the Realm against the other Great Powers.
That was an Ascender for you.
He also suspected that at least partially she was sticking around because she liked the newest generation of Ascenders and saw herself as something of the mentor she had never had. Few Ascenders ever had any younger Ascenders before they left in their own Great Power and Lila seemed to like the role of older guide.
Not that his current Ascenders were hard to like.
They were good kids.
Kids who he hoped at least survived their suicidal attempts to form Authorites. They at least had good chances of surviving any failures if past Ascender ‘deaths’ were anything to go off of.
As for his Royals, he had disseminated the information Aiden had shared to them but had asked them not to risk it.
He was sure they would at least feel out the next stage if for no reason than to see if they were lucky but he couldn’t risk their deaths. He’d rather have them be theoretically weaker than dead.
The odds of success were just too low.
Authorities were things for the next Realm.
Even knowing for hundreds of years, thousands if his subjective rift time was accounted for, he with Talents that made Domain creation easier, hadn’t been able to take even the first step.
And Aiden had done it, just like that. He’d joked about trying for the stage after Authorities, what would be needed to reach Tier 100, but even he had only been joking. That was a step too far for even him.
But who knew how long that would remain a step too far?
Domains were hard.
His mind was wandering back to the idea of finding Ascender-type people despite reduced funding when he got a pulse of spiritual power from deeper within the palace.
Ciceron flexed his spiritual perception for a second time just an instant later and Emmanuel stood from his desk stepping to the librarian's fief.
The library was as anyone would expect from a Tier 50. Grand didn’t begin to describe it. They had every copy of a non-fiction book produced for the last two million years in digital form and physical copies for the top hundred best regarded works from every decade in every category.
It was a place he had loved exploring as a child and he hoped his soon-to-be-born child would find the same joy in the halls.
Ciceron had been a fixture of the library since his grandmother's reign and was trusted, so when he asked for Emmanuel’s presence he hadn’t hesitated. What he hadn’t expected was to find the librarian near the Astral Map.
Dots of lights twinkled on the projection; some were linked together while others freely floated through the void.
It was one of the few real-time maps of chaotic space that existed and one of the Empire's greatest secrets.
The other Great Powers probably had their own versions; he knew the Clans had something similar that worked with a forge’s flame and that the Corporations had something but they didn’t know how it worked exactly, just that it existed. The Empire’s however was a good old projection and the strongest version of the item.
Made by the old dynasty, the treasure let them see the surroundings of all planets connected to the Capital’s teleportation network. With how interconnected the Great Powers were, that meant they had a vision around the entire cluster of millions of worlds. It didn’t project anything but worlds as they drifted through chaotic space so it couldn't track ships, people, or anything on the planets themselves but it let them see in real time where and when the other Great Powers collected other planets and their Tier.
It could even see deeper into chaotic space but the range was limited from its last tethered node.
This was how his father had found a Tier 30 world to drag back with the Guild's former leader when they had been going through a dry spell.
Scanning everything, Emmanuel looked for a higher-Tier world drifting near Empire space, the largest thing that could get the other Great Powers to break their treaties, but he didn’t see one and so let his perception drop to Ciceron’s Tier.
“What's wrong?”
Ciceron vibrated in excitement as he pointed. “Look Your Majesty. Near Exalon. Do you see that discoloration?”
Emmanuel looked and thought he saw what Ciceron was talking about. Or he saw it, but he would have dismissed the discoloration without the librarian pointing it out. The map showed currents and eddies in shades and discolorations which made the one around Exalon fairly unremarkable upon a casual glance.
“I see it, but what does it mean? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ciceron’s eyes were wide as he smiled. “I had to check the records, but I believe it's an Ascension to our realm.”
Emmanuel’s eyes rose into his hairline as he studied the area. “Do we have a time frame?”
“According to the records, somewhere in the next few years. Perhaps a century from now, perhaps a decade, but this has only happened twice since the Astral Map was created so the information has limited precedent. I’d like to requ—”
Emmanuel’s eye’s flickered gold and started to shine.
Oh, now this would be interesting.
Comments
KnightRider007
With our luck, we’re actually a Veil world who just got traded to the Federation…
HN
I think it should be "signal her to start", not single.
KnightRider007
Their soldiers are bloodied and hardened where the Collective’s troops aren’t => in this specific context, “blooded” - meaning they’ve experienced real combat.
KnightRider007
Yeah, that’s a common error (as in, generally, not specific to this story) that *really* bugs me! 😬
KnightRider007
Yeah, it’s been mentioned exactly once, and that was only as a casual aside in chapter 305, when Aster mentions it *parenthetically* after she changes her bloodline to Aurora. “But what she knew with certainty was there had never been another aurora fox in the entire realm nor any of the Tier 25 realms that intermittently sent people to this one” As far as I recall, it has never been mentioned before or since.
KnightRider007
It’s been mentioned exactly once before in the *whole series*, just after Aster changed her bloodline to Aurora (Chapter 305). And that was in a casual aside that was never expanded on, despite the mind-blowing implications 😆 Just as our main characters live in a Tier 1-50 realm and can Ascend to a Tier 1-100 realm that’s “higher” on the reality chain, there exist realms that are “lower”. These are Tier 1-25 realms, and people can (very rarely) Ascend FROM them, TO the realm that the story takes place in. It’s known, it’s documented (as in, it’s not hypothetical or theoretical, they’ve actually had people do it), it’s just super rare.
Julie Smith
What a great close! You show the humanity of Manny with his fussing over things he can't control. With a far faster mind and far greater capabilities I can see that easily happening. You finished with a mystery! What's an Ascension TO the realm? And how is this future event showing up on a current projection of an astral map? I've got a lot of questions. I have a small edit: Replace: "she bowed as he entered and stood at attention waiting for him to singla her to star." with: "she bowed as he entered and stood at attention waiting for him to single her to start"
Alex
Aiden and the Authority. I absolutely loved the chapter where he accidentally lets it slip to Manny that he already has his Authority
TwoMoreYears
I’ve really come to enjoy the manny chapters capping every book. They aren’t always necessarily realm shattering but they do always provide an interesting bit of context that adds to the story. I really really enjoyed what you did with this book. It feels like the part of story that we usually only get to imagine. Hero fights in big war, goes home with love interest, maybe a flash forward to a happy day, the end. We then hope Matt/Liz/Aster and co. each got to carry out their dreams beyond the hard fought wars and other struggles. I love that we’re not even at or near the end of the story and we’re seeing what it actually means to try to make a life beyond the fight. To see Titans Torch after Matt dreaming about it for so long. To see Matt and Liz manage their new duchy, and to the point that even Liz’s family is coming to them for something they want/can benefit from instead of the other way around. Minkalla and the War were great story lines, but so is this one. Hope we get to see more books like this in the future.
Rodney
Speaking of that Matt does need to hurry up so he can create some tier 48 riffs so Mara and Leon can get to the peak of tier 48 so when the true war starts they can advance to tier 49 and be real menaces as well as all of the royals getting to the peak of tier 47 so they can advance as well I know that's a bit of a cheat but I'm rooting for the home team lol
austin kutz
They might not care about people ascending in a higher realm. There's only supposed to be 3 realms a person can ascend to from their current realm (though this may be incorrect and there might be more due to incomplete information from fallen AI holders) but I bet there are tons of realms that feed into those 3 realms. At a minimum, there's 9, assuming this is working on a base 3 system given 3 upper realms, and a minimum of 27 lower realms. I bet there's way more than that though. If it isn't the case that ascension to the higher realm is more common, that means there's significant time dilation between the realms, given that it only takes a few minutes to ascend, getting centuries worth of warning has frankly baffling implications about the differences in the flow of time. Also, there may be a large number of people ascending together, instead of just one person
Nathaniel Ownbey
The emperor has a decade to century of warning we have no idea what the response to this will be but I think the next chapter will be from the perspective of the one ascending
Dereion Hardin
Thanks
Alex
Ten. "[...] the ten Tier 47 slots and two Tier 48 slots each Great Power was allowed." - Chapter 320.
Dereion Hardin
Does anyone know if there's a limit to how many tier 47s each great power can have at a time?
Andromeda Adams
Tyftc! Will there be a time skip to this? I wonder what is coming! Cliffhangers…
Patrick S.
Because of that theory MantiS made the hard rule of no rift in a rift. So we dont go down that rabbit hole
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
George Campbell
You know what I think might be relevant or worth considering? Dungeons. At high tiers, they're practically realms unto themselves. There are also watersheds. It might be that those here in lower realms simply believe there are separate realms to ascend to, when in fact, it's simply so large and disparate that it seems as though it MUST be separate?
David Bean
Either that or I hope them ascending is just the mid point of the story.
David Bean
Fascinating. I had no idea there were lower realms to ascend from. This is going to be really exciting. It would be cool if Exalon was in their Duchy, though it’s probably not. I’m guessing it’s at least in the Empire though…? Hopefully. Though the fact that they have a decade to a century of warning is a bit concerning. It means that when MAL ascend there’s a good chance that there will be a… welcoming committee. I can only hope where ever they ascend to has someone like Manny in charge.
A Flashy BR
If the end point of this story is when MAL Ascend I hope we get a continuation story in the next realm
Tom sawicki
Hahahahah oh if only we were so lucky 😅🤣
Jason Hardman
Po-tay-to / Po-tah-to 😜
Patrick S.
Are you sure about the Tier 75 realm? I was under the impression that it always doubles from T25->T50->T100–>T200 etc. Since we know that a T50 can tier up into a T100 realm.
Leander
Talk of the millenia -> Talk of the millenium, millenia is plural millenium is singular, similar error in last chapter.
Zack
I like embodiment, but I would also put forward 'Divinity' as a next/final stage.
Hydrabogen
I suppose it's also possible that the two version of the Truth are based on whether it's a negation. "I am not a tyrant" vs "I am a tyrant" for example
Andrew K
"once I parcel through the interference” - seems like "parcel" should be "parse" instead.
Jeff Wells
Piqued
Jeff Wells
That's not Isekai, that's classic Cultivation Ascension. It is a fundamental aspect of Chinese mythology. Isekai is someone getting dragged to another realm via some freak accident or a plot of the gods or whatever, not a cultivator growing powerful enough to ascend to a higher realm.
C_Mantis
There are thousands of t100 real s above but this realm typically connects to 3. Or so the people of this realm believe.
Jason Hatter
Right. It seems far more likely that Genesis energy will be more important, and whatever it cycles to. Maybe essence.
Jason Hatter
Or start.
Blake N.
I thought it was funny that both the typos in this chapter were in the same sentence
Aaron Hardin
You though the Path of Ascension was a galactic cultivation story, but it is really an Earth system apocalypse story with a really long prologue full of world building before the actual story starts.
Blake N.
This is a book. There isn’t a “chance” of them befriending the main cast. It’s going to happen for sure
Blake N.
I think he meant descending from a higher realm and just using the word ascending to mean changing realms in general. I think it’s going to be one of those high tiers that come but then die due to the lower realm suppressing them
Blake N.
I think it’s just the name of a random planet. I’m sure we’ll hear more as Emmanuel plans around this event
Jason Hardman
Fair enough. That sounds like something that Matt may become able to cause to happen. Seems a bit weird to have a non-round number Tier cap though, unless it leaps up to 100 or something. Edit just to add: It occurs to me that I've not seen any of the portal apocalypse or system apocalypse type stories use "Earth has built up enough essence to ascend to a new tier" as their starting logic yet. I feel it would be a better start than some I've seen to be honest.
Alex
Mantis has confirmed that planets don’t Ascend, over-Tiering a planet raises the Tier cap of the Realm.
Jason Hardman
Denying me my sense of fun... booo! 😉 I would define Isekai in a more literal sense as just the story someone being transported to another world, the method isn't key. I'd say this qualifies, even if it's not what you'd normally see. The common theme is usually the juxtaposition of someone with a specific worldview suddenly being exposed to something very different, and the opportunities that provides. I've seen a few authors attempt what you might call a "reverse isekai", where the protagonist is someone from a fantasy world that's suddenly exposed to ours, or a version based on our world. I'd be interested to see what kind of realm the person (people?) ascending came from, what's normal for them, and how magical, sci-fi, or neither the PoA realm seems by comparison. An interesting idea that occurred to me is that it's probably not impossible for an entire planet to ascend. If you could push a Tier 50 world up to 51, then I presume that would happen automatically, so stands to reason if a lower realm world gained enough essence over time, it could happen that way too. If that happened, it might be considered something similar to an portal apocalypse scenario for some. Imagine if the world before ascension didn't have dungeons, and suddenly upon arriving in the new realm they start spawning.
Alex
Mana crystals are literally money though; I can accept that Matt's Talent might be less valuable in the higher Realms, but I cannot believe its value would be so much less that people wouldn’t care.
Tsorov
As far as we know there could be an infinite number of same tier realms. The reason for ascension being so rare could just be that they all go to different realms. That is also the great danger for when MAL ascend, that they don't end up in the same realm, or that they don't end up in the same realm as Mara and Leon
antitankcat
bold of you to assume mana is anywhere near as valuable in a higher realm
Alex
An Intent is either claimed or created based on the Anchor: if a cultivator turns a previously existing real thing into their Anchor (like Matt's Heart of a Black Hole, Liz's Blood, Or Aster's Tiara) then it's claimed. If they turn an unreal thing into their Anchor (like Susanne, who turned her Concept Manifestation into her Anchor) then it's created. Claimed Intents tend to use the Anchor as a guide for how the Intent should behave, and are analogous to external Concepts. Created Intents tend to function through the Anchor specifically, and are analogous to internal Concepts. The analogy for Aspects hasn't been described because MAL aren't at the point where they've tried to create theirs yet, but it would have something to do with the Truth - presumably a Truth that pertains specifically to yourself (like, I am not a tyrant) would be the internal variant, and a Truth that describes the world around you (like, you don't have to be in the depths to be in danger) would be the external variant.
Nathaniel Ownbey
No not traditionally. Isekia generally involves reincarnation or summoned or vrmmorpg. A source or power outside of the mc's control
Apep
Has it been mentioned what the variations like internal/external concept of an intent and authority are? I can’t recall.
Donan The Barbarian
It was mentioned in passing a long time ago but there's tier 25 cap realms as well tier 5 cap realms if I'm remembering correctly. As well as the Empire knowing there's 2 tier 75 realms and a tier 100 realm that people can ascend to from their realm. Basically every realm where you need a new stage of your domain to advance in tier is a stopping point.
Thomas Todd
I think he said a 1 in 3 chance, I'm not sure if that means there are only 3 realms or if there are 3 common realms or even if the realms rotate so 3 different realms are connected at different points
Spencer seidel
••“Good day, Your Majesty,” she bowed as he entered and stood at attention waiting for him to singla her to star.•• *signal not single And stand not star
Alex
Speaking of Ascensions, there's something that's been bugging me for a long time that I want to discuss: The goal at this point of the story is basically to let Matt Tier up so that his insane mana generation can be used to improve the Empire. The Tiering up thing has two benefits - firstly, he'll produce a lot more mana once he's a higher Tier, and secondly he'll be able to deal with the threats he'll face once the wider Realm becomes aware of his mana generation. Matt and the Royals have basically accepted the fact that Matt's Talents will go public at some point, the aim is just to delay that for as long as possible: this is the issue that I have a problem with. Let's say the absolute best case scenario plays out, and Matt manages to Tier up to Tier 45 before his Talents go public. Let's say things work out even better, and he makes it to Tier 46, or even Tier 47. As an Ascender, there'd be less than 50 people in the Realm who would actually be a threat to him, and with Manny, Mara, and Leon on his side, he can pump out mana at a prodigious rate, raise the Capital to Tier 50, make life better for everyone, win the Realm War by slapping the Empire's enemies around with his wallet, then Ascend once the work is done and start a new adventure in the next Realm. Things work out great, and the story gets its happy ending, right? Wrong. Back in the tournament arc when Matt meets with the Royals we get a PoV from Leon where he talks about his and Mara's plan to protect the kids if things go wrong. Mara will take them deep into chaotic space where nobody will find them, so they can reach a high enough Tier to Ascend, and he'll hold off anyone who comes after them. He says in the worst case scenario he might have to Ascend himself - without Mara - which means there'd only be a 1 in 3 chance that they'd end up in the same higher Realm together when Mara Ascends after him. This is the point that I find alarming. Are there only 3 Realms that cultivators from MAL's Realm can Ascend into? That is going to a be a serious fucking problem. If everyone in MAL's Realm finds out what Matt's Talents are, then those people will Ascend into the higher Realms with that information, and disseminate it to the Tier 100 cultivators who live there. We know that there are some truly evil bastards in the higher Realms based on the people who have Ascended from MAL's Realm in the past - Georgios is up there somewhere, so are all those scum from the old dynasty, hell, the Ascended rulers of the Glorious Everlasting Kingdom are up there, and they were supposed to be some of the most heinous villains imaginable. All of these people are going to be far beyond Tier 50 when Matt shows up in the higher Realms, so what happens if they find out about what Matt can do and decide to throw him in a dark hole and use him as a battery? I hope this issue gets addressed, because at the moment it seems like Matt's setting himself up for a truly terrible fate when he Ascends into the higher Realms.
Charles handgis
Maybe a tier 15, immortal ascension and all that.
JoshCalmick
Interesting! I've been curious what the next impetus for action would be and this seems to be it lol
Adamas Shield
I hope is a entire system/planet ^^.
Kevin DD
Just a planet I think.
Alex
Always was. The stated end point of the story is when MAL isekai themselves into the next Realm. It should really be called the Path of Isekai.
Sean McClain
Does that mean the tier 100 realm has people born into who also start at tier 0? What chapter was this topic discussed before?
Jason Hardman
PoA is now an Isekai? 😁
James Skinner
To form your Dominion you need to find your Mandate seems pretty good!
Alex
As the Domain stage required to Ascend from the NEXT Realm, I think Dominion fits.
James Skinner
So after Authority what's next? Mandate seems plausible as either the level or the domain extension, for the latter the level could be Embodiment or something similar.
Christopher Roberts
From a tier 25 realm
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
John
Thanks!
Maurice Williams
Is Exalon in The Empire?
John Balman
Damn tease 😂
Kain
My bet is still that there are several other “Realms” the same tier as the GP’s but whatever cataclysm destroyed the old empire also segregated the GP’s from all of those other realms. The disturbance might also make ascending to this area particularly unlikely.
MikeL
Does Aster need a love interest?
jacob butler
That is the meanest cliff hanger
joshua adkins
So Matt and Co. Don't occupy the lowest planes, I'm excited to see what that could look like.
Sanairb
Mikaela descended though.
Darune Albane
Jana made a comment you should read .. ascension is from a less magic to a more magic
Alex
The stratification of power would be incredibly stark in the lower Realms. Bottled Concepts require an Intent to create, and were based on a natural treasure which may or may not exist in the lower Realms. If it's even possible for a person to create a Bottled Concept in the lower Realms, the only people who would be able to do it would be cultivators around the Tier cap of the Realm. Keeping all that in mind, it's safe to assume that Bottled Concepts do not exist in the lower Realms. Furthermore, the inter-planetary teleporters are Tier 35 tech, so they wouldn't exist down there either. The supermajority of cultivators in the lower realms would never advance past Tier 4, because they'd get stuck and die of old age at the Concept wall, and travel between worlds would be more or less unheard of, since it would require the use of chaotic spaceships. Keep in mind that the worlds in the Great Powers are tethered to each other with the inter-planetary teleporter connections, so worlds in the lower Realm would be untethered, and just drift around on the eddies of chaotic space, making chaotic space travel fiendishly dangerous. People in the lower Realms would live out their lives on a single planet, with immortality being the stuff of myths and legends. Any immortal in the Lower Realms would basically be a god by virtue of how rare it would be for anybody to advance past Tier 15, so immortals would be more or less unchallenged, and they'd probably go around acting like the gods of olympus - taking whatever they wanted, and killing any who displeased them. In short, life in the lower Realms would be fucking miserable.
James Faulkner
Holy shit this is awesome!! Maybe this new person will have a completely different take on existing power systems/be able to workshop new forms of power with the crew??
Jana
Since a ascension usually goes from less magic to more magic, at least that’s how it’s been so far, this comes with some implications . Less magic may mean more technology, a different point of view, different abilities, a different approach to magic and someone supremely talented. This is going to get interesting real fast.
Rodney
Okay my interest is piqued
Jsar
Man, I have wondered about lower ascension many times. That's gonna be fun.
austin kutz
I guess it must be a tier 25 realm or something
Zack
Any bets on this newly ascended person being from Earth's realm? Maybe a post-apocalypse survivor from when Earth gets an essence core?
Zack
On the time frame, my guess is there's a time dilation, kinda like in rifts. The higher the essence density of the rift/realm, the faster time moves, meaning it'll take noticably longer in the higher realm than in the lower if you can see it from both sides at the same time.
Flopmind
Oh! An ascension into the realm! How exciting!
Dan
I think I didn’t realize there where lower realms
JM O'Hare
Nice
Sean McClain
I imagine Luna is waiting for some event to come back into their lives and brow beat them back into delving. Maybe when they have a kid.
Alex
The Tier 25 Realms are mentioned for the first time back in the War Arc when Aster is changing her Bloodline to Aurora; she basically says that nobody from the lower Realms has indicated that Aurora Foxes are a thing down there - and that is the beginning, middle, and end of all canon information about Tier 25 Realms up to this point, we really haven't heard a lot about them, and it was quite a shock to hear they existed at all. My guess is that the lower Realms don't often send people to MAL's Realm because the Realm is kind of broken. MAL's Realm is imbalanced because there aren't any worlds at the Tier cap - it isn't clear when this problem became a thing; when Manny meets up with Allister, Allister says that Matt's mana creates an opportunity to fix an imbalance (i.e the no Tier 50 worlds problem) that has existed since the Shattering, so there may have been a Tier 50 world back then that was destroyed in the Realm War, but when Luna first talks about the Shattering she says that the capital of the Glorious Everlasting Kingdom was the 7 Tier 47 worlds of the current Great Powers, so the problem may date back even further than that.
Zack
Minkalla is theorized to be a de-scension from a higher realm. So not the same as this. This appears to be the other side of what the high tiers do for their ascensions, except that this realm is the higher one instead.
RedLeaf
And if that's not the sound of "Adventure!", I don't know what would be.
Havokk
I thought the theory on Minkalla was it somehow fell from a higher realm not ascended from a lower one. If Minkalla came from a lower realm it wouldnt be able to block out the T50's. its been stated that no person can move to a lower realm and live but Minkalla is the planet of miracles and not a person ???
Etoyrt
We are going to get a character who ascended from a lower realm! I thought that would be cool, but vaguely believed it would never happen. I am proven wrong in a good way. The perspective of a character who is outside the entire conflict as it has been presented should be interesting. There is also a chance that they befriend the main cast as they could be in a similar tier range as tier 25 is the peak of the realms below. With the combination of the fact that this person would have the ascension boosts for their talents/domain and the emperor's thoughts about how much value an ascender like person could bring and how to acquire them with the path stiffled, it I'd quite possible this character is being foreshadowed as someone who would not just befriend the main cast but also keep up with them.
Sean McClain
Ascension *to* their realm.... from where?
Alex
Minkalla is - BY FAR - the oldest thing that is known to exist in the Realm. It is believed to be trillions of years old: that's waaaay too old to have occurred during the lifetime of the Astral Map. It's also theorized to have descended from a higher Realm, not Ascended from a lower one.
John Smith
I would imagine that Emmanuel expects Liz’s parents to help. Anything Emmanuel does beyond that feels a lot like official notice of the emperor and that reality changing stuff he mentioned.
Dan
I know something was theorized about Minkalla and where it came from?
Dan
Do we know what the other two ascensions where?
Havokk
ohhh boy this could be fun :) It was said that we wont see another "Ascender" from the Empire in the near future but........ they never said we wouldnt get someone with potentially and Ascenders power level soon :) who knows maybe this will be a powerhouse and maybe itll be someone who happens to be very Empire positive, especially if they happen to like Ice Cream and Fox Girls lol
Derze
What
SqrlyGrly
Thank you for the chapter! Small typo I think... "Singla her to star" I think you mean "signal her to start"
MikeL
I am guessing this is an ascension from a 1-25 realm? I think they have been mentioned in comments/forums but were they mentioned in canon before this? If so why the long time frame? Why aren’t there more? Do they go to a higher realm instead?
Bob Bryan
I mean Emmanuel could drop matt, liz and aster a hint. Not solve it for them but give advice. Like a teacher. On that, suprised luna hasn't shown up at least once with a bunch of notebooks full of what they are doing wrong.
Darune Albane
An ASCENSION wonder what a realm LOWER then this realm would be like
Matt H
So, if the pattern holds true this person will for sure have enhanced T1 and T3 talents and an enhanced Concept. Depending on if they ascended as soon as possible or not they may also have an enhanced T25 talent and an enhanced Intent. Looks like we just got a new peer to MLA and L&S. The question now will be if they end up a friend or foe?
lamp
Thanks for the chapter! Found a couple typos: "waiting for him to singla her to star." -> "signal her to start" "Zack and Allies and then Matt, Liz, and Aster’s arrival." -> "Allie's" (maybe I am wrong but it reads as plural of ally to me right now)
M van Dongen
Now that's a bombshell.
JNovaris
Tftc!
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis! Thanks Dae! There is the whole idea about how boring life would be if everything could be accomplished with a thought. What pride is there if there is no effort. It's kinda nice to see Manny have problems as well. Everyone has problems, power doesn't solve everything. And it is nice to see everyone struggle as you can also see them overcome. I am curious how much Allie is eating if her visiting a bakery a few times changes it's fortune. Matt causing waves as the Matt do. I do love the fact about trees needing wind or else having pathetic roots and just falling over. I've had to include that idea in my own writing. It is interesting that many stories have those in power realize/decide that it is a disservice to help people too much, that struggle is necessary. It is often true in the novels. Here it is what creates Ascenders. The Sects just do it to the extreme. -All this still requires the people to have hope though. I wonder if Manny has a therapist. Or perhaps his mind is too important for another to see so he bears the struggle alone. Maybe he sees a therapist in secret, having a fake identity or some acceptable mind wiping. Maybe Harper is a therapist, or I guess some of the other reliable people. Sucks that Manny is/ has to be impartial for telling the Feds that the rats are cheating. Not confirmed yet but seems likely. I offered my personal character to be blown up, a story of the past. So it is kinda funny to read about a Sect Elder blowing up and getting excited, thinking "Is that me?!" I feel that the next GP Leader to get to T50 via an inspiration, or even the other upper tiers, will be under extra scrutiny as people may assume they have the Authority. Though that may be less scrutinized if a current Leader gets to that level or Matt has already made the T50 rifts or planets, normalizing T50 for people. And if a T45 or so gets an Authority they are a contender for the next GP leader. Bonus if they can hide their Domain advancement. -The Sects seem likely to encourage attempts. If a Royal fails I could see them not promoting anyone immediately but offering the T47/T48 position to the next person who makes an Authority. I know Manny told the Royals not to risk it, but I feel Mara has a decent chance at survival upon failure. An Almost Ascender and a Phoenix to boot. -Maybe she fakes a failure and can relax with the kids for a bit as a cover, and also maybe scare some other GPs into risking their top combat power before this true war. Lol, Manny thinks Aiden was joking about going for the next stage of Domain, the Ascenders thought he is serious. Ey! We get an ascension from the other angle! I wonder if it is a one time thing or a T25 Realm newly connected to this one. Either way the Ascenders should enjoy. The person's Talents should at least be fun. Their personality remains to be seen. I was hopeful this would happen. It isn't big enough for a true war or powerful enough to affect the state of the Realm, but it is exciting! I like the maps. I wonder if the other GP's maps are sensitive enough to notice the likely ascension. Might be a good way of seeing who has a map by seeing who arrives. Does being on the site the Ascension happens also give a boost to Talents for people Awakening at that time? I'm surprised there was such a big time frame for the Ascension. Is leaving quick but arriving slow? Have a great weekend everyone!
