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Chapter 335
🕑 Added 2024-06-07 18:59:00 +0000 UTCChapter 335
Matt reached the shields of the Harmony Accords' ship in what felt like an instant, propelled by Light’s travel mana and an acceleration formation he and Origami had cobbled together after much planning. In all of their strategizing, they kept running into the same issue; they were outnumbered.
That, especially when combined with the giant neutral mana blocking crystal, made it difficult to push through not just the elites, but the corporation mercenaries supporting them. If they wanted a decisive win, they needed a way to reliably stop the Harmony Accords from retreating.
Which led to Matt moving through space with wisps of illusion trailing off his straining armor.
His acceleration ended when he bounced off the shields, but he at least had the wherewithal to flick his Intent to lock his backward momentum for a moment. Cursing Origami and his past self for insisting they needed the fifth amplifier, Matt started unfolding the formation they created to get through the shields.
His work was slowed as a significant portion of the Corporation mercenaries turned their cannons onto him, but Matt just flared his white hole repulsion to push the attacks off his work area.
The pilots of the ship, seeing he wasn’t driven off their hull, started to rotate the ship to take him away from the formation that was already digging into the shields. But Matt just used his Intent’s ability to lock his position relative to the ship to keep himself next to the formation. Before his meld, he wouldn’t have been able to do that while keeping up the repulsion defense, but now it was second nature to use both his Concept and Intent at the same time.
The rotation actually worked in his favor, as he was brought away from the attacks, and he used the opportunity to finish deploying the formation.
The formation he was using to create a hole in the shield was conceptually simple, but the actual execution was insanely complex. It was complicated enough that Matt had only been able to follow the general idea of it, and had relied on Origami to do most of the hard work.
The first part of the formation was meant to dig into the energy projection of the shield, which was easy enough for Matt to understand. A ship’s major weakness had always been sappers or anyone getting close to their hulls, where their point defense systems weren’t able to fire upon said attackers. On typical ships, it wasn’t impossible to just use explosive formations to blow a hole through the shields, but this behemoth of a ship had the capacity to carry enough reserves to withstand even Matt’s mana output. No simple bomb was going to get through the shields without more than Matt could reasonably carry. But that wasn’t the only method.
Another often used method was to use a formation to dig a hole through the shield projection and slip in that way. Despite the major weakness of doing so being that the stronger the shields were, the more advanced the formation had to be, it was still the method they went with.
The formation’s fractal-like pattern was a dark and menacing overlay on the bright blue shield, but Matt hardly noticed as he tracked energy shunts and their outputs. The whole time he adjusted the formation variables, trying to bring the formation into resonance.
Part one was done, but that had been the easiest step by a mile.
Matt tossed a mixture of alchemical ingredients they had postulated would solidify the formation into the shield, even as the ship rotated back to face the battle where Matt came under attack again.
His [AI] warned him that Maven and Long Zhiyuan, along with a few other pinnacle elites, were racing to his location. Even so, Matt ignored it all, trusting in Bolt and Torment who were distracting the majority of the weaker attackers. Bolt’s shots at Maven and Long Zhiyuan slowed the elites down just enough that Torment's summons were able to get in close and engage the lesser elites in melee. The two Sect Pinnacle elites, reluctant to break free of the main group pursuing Matt, were forced to divert attention from Matt to manage the distraction.
This bought Matt the precious seconds he needed to break through the shields. The moment the shield turned into a jelly like substance, Matt’s [AI] pinged again, and he followed its instructions as he activated the secondary and tertiary effects at the same time.
His own mana pool plummeted to almost zero as all of his forty one million mana generation was pulled into the formation, transforming into desolation mana. His armor flickered as it switched to backup power, and his [AI] and other boosting skills only kept running thanks to the endless sub-aspect of his mana.
A billion mana later, the entire ship's shield pulsed as the energy stored in the formation pushed down the shield projectors. They instantly and automatically changed over to their backup units, but that was where the tertiary effect came into play, as it kept the now jellified shield stable and partially connected it to the backup shields.
Matt drove his armored fists into the shield and screamed into his armor. The billions of mana flowing through the shield not only scorched his armor, but his very mana channels. While rare, mana back feeding like this was ill advised in the best of times. Still, Matt needed to keep pumping his mana into the shield to keep it in its gelatinous state.
It was like sticking his hands into scalding acid, but Matt didn’t let that slow him, even as he dug through the five feet of shielding.
Once he breached the other side, Matt dropped his connection and flared [Regeneration], almost shuddering with relief as his scorched mana channels were soothed and repaired.
As his connection to the formation was cut off, the gelatinous substance was ejected outward, and Matt couldn’t help but grin as his spiritual perception was able to see Maven and Long Zhiyuan impotently stuck just outside the shield.
They vanished in unison, and Matt suspected they had activated some recall system to return to inside the ship, even if he couldn’t feel it quite yet.
From their spies’ reports, Matt knew the physical shielding of the ship was going to be incredibly thick and made of both Tier 25 exotic materials and natural treasures. Still, he was taken aback at just how true that statement was. The hull of the ship was probably worth more than what a dozen Tier 30 star systems made in a millennium.
It was a work of wonder, but Matt didn’t hesitate to use [Telekinesis] to rip a hole in the side of the masterpiece.
Matt wasn’t Harper by any means. They would have found a small seam and used that to peel the ship like an orange, but that wasn’t his style. Matt didn’t bother with finesse and instead grabbed the side of the ship and wrenched as hard as he could.
When that didn’t immediately work, he gave himself more leverage by activating his Black Hole to lock his place in the realm.
For a brief instant, Matt’s world seemed to slow and narrow down to this moment as his unstoppable force was put up against the immovable object.
It felt like that even with Matt’s power, the enchantments running through the hull of the ship would be able to resist, but he didn’t give up or stop.
He was dauntless. He was endless.
The armor might be strong, but it was made of enchantments and items, and it lacked a living spirit that could react to changes and pressure.
Slowly, so slowly that Matt almost wasn’t sure he was really seeing it, he started to notice micro fissures form in the armor as the stress began to build and overcome the material’s structural strength. Those failures were almost instantly healed as the repair enchantments flooded the area with mana, and if someone was simply battering at the armor, it would have been able to heal all of the damage. With Matt pulling with constant, overwhelming pressure, the fissures never got a chance to fully repair themselves. Slowly but surely, the fissures started to grow larger until all of a sudden, the contradiction ended and with a burst of air, and a two hundred foot wide section of the ship's hull was peeled back.
A few support personnel were pulled out of the hull from the sudden decompression, but he ignored them first in favor of tearing his way deeper into the ship. He ran past the internal locks meant to compartmentalize the hull breach, and then right past Maven, who was rapidly approaching in her latest suit of armor.
Her armored form was larger than the ship's corridors, but neither of them cared. While the outside of the ship was made with materials strong enough to block every conceivable T25 attack, the interior, non-structural components of the ship were made out of ordinary Tier 25 metal. With a quick application of [Metal Manipulation], Matt shredded a wide swath of the internals to make room for his next move.
Matt avoided engaging with her even as she tried to tie him down and flew forward with his best speed. Doing so, he did notice that his neutral mana shields were still down. They had hoped that the Harmony Accords wouldn’t be able to use the same effect inside the ship since its systems had to run on neutral mana, but it seemed they had a method to work around the effect. Or at least selectively disable it.
Maven jumped at him, claws gleaming, but Matt dodged to the side and slightly downward through another two walls and a floor, sword aimed right at Long Zhiyuan, who had been poised for a flank.
The slippery man dodged to the side and tried to entangle Matt with a glowing spider web net. Matt didn’t stop to engage, using a pulse of his repulsion to force the net to miss. Instead, he kept flying towards the ship's engines.
The pinnacle elites who had been with Maven and Long Zhiyuan were already in place, with a Federation army scattered through the paper thin corridors and blocking every trajectory to the engines, which even now were gathering and cycling energy.
In their plans, Team Zero had worried about the ship trying to leave real space and fleeing, trapping and effectively capturing Matt. But Drifter had rightly pointed out that a ship of that size would take a lot of energy to move, let alone rip through reality.
So long as Matt was fast enough in disabling the chaotic space engines, he could strand the ship.
Even in the worst case scenario, he could always fight his way out, which was the reason he was alone and why they were willing to risk this play.
Presumably, Aiden’s fight had concluded, but he wasn’t sure what this attack meant about the outcome there. Not that it mattered. Win or lose in the higher bracket, a crushing victory on the Tier 25 warfront was still their job, and right now, that meant crippling the Harmony Accords.
A dozen smaller shield units came on, trying to block Matt’s path. But even though they were connected to the massive ship reserves, the projectors were small enough to be deployed inside, which meant they had no chance of being strong enough to stop Matt.
He barreled through the first dozen shields head first, and just as he was beginning to slow, he slashed out with his longsword. The [Wind Cutter] was almost a mile long and cut through compartments like they weren’t even there, but Matt didn’t just let the spell fly forward uncontrolled. Instead, he activated [Air Manipulation] and sent the spell on a spiral, letting it cut forward like a blender tearing through metal and flesh.
Before any of his opponents got themselves back under control, Matt activated the [Sheer Cold] he had been charging.
The ship around him turned white as metal tore and fractured, and the surroundings echoed the screams of metal cooled suddenly to well below zero. The soldiers who were nearest didn’t even have time to realize how they died, and Matt had to shunt dozens of streams of essence away from himself and out into space.
At least, what wasn’t used to cast [Sacrifice]. Like with its lesser counterpart he had pulled from a rift so many years ago, Matt felt power flood his limbs and clarity seep into his mind.
[Dragonflame], in turn, transformed the winter wonderland into an inferno hellscape.
Maven arrived just as he was ending the spell, and Matt darted forward just before her attack landed, not wanting to get tied down.
Soldiers threw themselves in front of Matt, but they were only throwing their lives away, as nothing they did even slowed him down. [Shadowstrike] extended his sword's reach and the illusionary blade cut through flesh and molten metal alike.
Long Zhiyuan came from the side again and managed to force Matt to a standstill as his razor-like claws nearly pierced one of the thinner spots on Matt’s neck armor. How Long Zhiyuan knew that was a weak point without [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s reinforcement, Matt wasn’t sure, but he couldn't let himself get bogged down.
Thrusting his sword at Long Zhiyuan’s head, Matt cast [Cracked Air Slide] and slid forward like the air still venting out of the ship.
And then he was there.
The engines pulsed around him, streams of raw mana captured within an enormous floating array of enchantments, natural treasures, and even essence. There was no illumination in the room beyond the base glow of mana. Still, that was sufficient to cast an intense blue light across the entire area with a red undertint that he could only associate with some kind of enchantment byproduct. There was no apparent ceiling or floor within the engine room, the formation suspended within what apparently was an endless column-shaped void, save for the walkways surrounding it.
Matt studied the engine, pulsing his AI with a huge amount of mana and even reinforcing it with willpower, coming to a basic understanding of how it all worked. Once upon a time, he would have simply blasted through it, or at least tried to, but his time with Light had taught him a better way to deal with the engine.
The kinds of forces needed to keep this large of an engine in check even Matt couldn’t overpower… but if there was one thing he was good at, it was using a lot of mana in one go.
Through a careful dance of tactical retreats and pushing forward through the defenses and attacks from the defenders, Matt maneuvered himself until he managed to touch the engine apparatus at seven key points. At each place, he dropped a metal plate and a manifested large chunk of mana crystal to seal it in, then fused the plates to the engine with his BPL.
Once the seventh plate went in place, Matt flew as fast as he could out of the middle of the engine. When at a sufficient distance, he activated his new talisman.
By his normal standards, the talisman did nothing. There was no great explosion that it was building up towards, no grand battlefield effect which it enacted to turn the tide of the fight. Even if he could have gotten an effect like that in this simple of a talisman, that wasn’t the use he needed currently. All that this talisman did was power itself with all the mana it could access.
And when hooked to the ship’s engines, it could access a lot of mana.
The mana crystals were there to get the working started, and they vanished the instant the formation came online, used to fuel its activation. That gave the talisman just enough power to breach the engine’s containment and latch on to the incredible source of mana present there.
A stream of mana jerked violently as it was diverted into the talisman from the careful weave of power that powered the ship, the sudden change of course shearing through a walkway and sending it plummeting into the void below. Emergency shut-offs attempted to stop the flow of mana, but a different plate simply stole the mana before that shutoff circuitry could initiate, and diverted the mana to the talisman’s working. All the while vast currents of mana tore through the room and caused havoc as the talisman further plundered the ship’s entire mana circuitry.
The issue came when an external override function came into being, absolutely shutting down Matt’s own attempts to usurp the ship’s mana for himself by locking down all enchantments in the area.
He wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, but many of the soldiers fighting him instantly had their weapons and armor sputter to a stop, their magic suppressed. Matt’s armor, as well as the suits worn by Maven and Long Zhiyuan still worked, albeit hindered. He couldn’t do anything too fancy at the moment with his gear… but he didn’t really need to.
The enchantment suppressor was a fairly absolute method of stopping a runaway engine failure, but it was also limited in scope. His analysis, assisted by Origami and Light’s borrowed insights, suggested that it wouldn’t apply to any focuses. It had been designed as a suppressant such that anything catastrophic would be halted long enough for engineers to get in and fix the engine. To do that however they would need their tools, so any spells cast through a focus should be unimpeded.
That gave Matt a fairly easy way to bypass the lock. He opened his spirit up to the talisman, making himself the conduit for the mana it was pulling from beyond the engine room. Like a dam breaking, millions of mana instantly poured from the ship beyond, through him, and into the talisman array in the engine room once more.
Mana flared around him, reminiscent of plasma but more liquid. It crashed onto his armor and cut deep furrows into the enchanted metal. Some stronger arcs even cut down to his flesh, but [Regeneration] ensured any damage was healed almost instantly. A halo of power surrounded him, strong enough to dissuade even Maven and Long Zhiyuan from approaching.
Few other Tier 25s could have channeled so much mana, but for Matt, it was just barely noteworthy. He wasn’t Light, trying to grab a hold of a multimillion mana spell with no training or experience. This was what he was good at, and he was absolutely not about to lose consciousness over it.
Though, he would have loved to black out. The pain was world defining, and Matt was happy there was so much power rampaging around him that Maven and Long Zhiyuan were unable to do anything but throw spells at him from range. If they had been able to get in close, they would have found every muscle in Matt’s body locked up tight as he tried to resist being thrown away from the engines like any other piece of debris.
To Matt, it seemed like the discharge of power lasted an eternity. But in reality, it only lasted a few seconds before someone threw emergency shut offs somewhere past where his talisman array could reach. But he’d done enough. Both in terms of damage and havoc wrought.
Even if the ship had backup engines somewhere deeper in case of emergency, like Drifter suspected, he had caused enough damage in the mana conduits that ran the ship that they wouldn’t be using them any time soon.
The ship was stuck in real space with him inside it.
Good.
***
Susanne had a feral grin on her face as her spiritual perception watched the rear half of the Harmony Accords ship explode. The morale of the other side plummeted, and she wasn’t going to let that advantage go. .
She darted forward, her blade blurring as she chased down three of the rune soldiers even as Liz went after the mage who had nearly killed her in a burst of flames, lightning and golden blood.
They needed the turn of the momentum. Morgan and Sebastian had gotten penned in by the Federation’s rune soldiers, and despite her best efforts to get there in time, she’d only reached the squadron an instant after Morgan’s upper body was vaporized in a blast of light. She’d taken the man who’d gotten her down with her, but the damage had been done. Sebastian had fallen a moment later as Despair, a cloak made of tattered darkness, erupted from his body. The shock of the emotion manifesting had given a pair of the remaining rune soldiers the opportunity to grab him and whisk him away as a capture. But Despair was still present, only sort-of on their side with its summoner absent. The aura it projected was horrific enough that Susanne hesitated to get close to it, but it was occupying some of the rune soldiers well enough that Susanne could engage the remaining ones with the advantage.Susanne brought her blade down in a cross attack, turning the slash into a thrust that neatly cut off the left leg of the nearest rune soldier.
The golden armor that was something to do with Liz absorbed the blood and used it to grow, coalescing into a loose pauldron clinging to Susanne’s shoulder, even as she dashed forward trying to turn the wound into something lethal.
An [Air Slide] sent her forward on a burst of air, boosted by her various natural treasures from both Minkalla and elsewhere.
Surfing along the turbulence, Despair rode along and blocked a lance of fire by simply engulfing it. Not a hint of the attack remained, not even a stream of smoke. The uncanny feeling only grew stronger.
Susanne channeled that feeling into her blade. It was the truest expression of herself that she had. Her greatsword danced, writing a story of loss, anger, and despair. The increase in dexterity let her cast [Air Slide] slightly faster than was normal, and she got minutely ahead of the first rune soldier.
Slashing out, Susanne left a trail of energy streaking behind, knowing the network of sword aura would perfectly cut though the rune soldiers head like it wasn’t even really there.
The burst of essence was sucked up and pulled into the nearest soldier, but the body exploded into blood, which the golden Liz-armor used to grow bigger. It then began casting spells from Susanne’s shoulder as though Liz was right by her side.
Another small explosion rocked the Harmony Accords ship, even as a second and then third rune soldier fell.
It was time to finish this.
***
Matt’s armor crackled with excess power and glowed with heat, and he needed to break several fused joints as he wrenched his feet free from where they had welded themselves to the floor.
Maven and Long Zhiyuan were the only two combatants Matt was worried about, but that didn’t mean the others didn’t exist. He had been kind and refrained from any kind of large scale spells, hoping that the support personnel would surrender and leave the ship, but that time had passed. Anyone still here had made their choice.
[Cosmic Presence] strengthened the artificial gravity of the ship, but that wasn’t enough for Matt. He used [Gravity Manipulation] to cause a feedback loop of pressure, but when that still wasn’t enough, he tapped into his Intent and used his Heart Of A Black Hole to urge the cycle on.
The few bits of steel that hadn’t been frozen, melted, zapped, or cut apart, twisted as gravity multiplied a millionfold.
Feeling the artificial gravity plates trying to counteract his working, Matt changed his pressure from a simple downward force into an ever consuming point centered on his Heart Of A Black Hole. The anchor happily absorbed everything that came close to it, and fed that power back to Matt.
The soldiers who weren’t sucked into the gravity well started vanishing until it was just Maven and Long Zhiyuan left to face Matt.
Still affected by the neutral mana suppression field, Matt didn’t have access to a large portion of his kit, but he didn’t let that bother him.
Darting forward, Matt sent his anchor off to the side before recalling it like a yo yo, causing gravity to change unpredictably.
Maven summoned her full moon image, which tried to twist Matt’s flesh into something unrecognizable. It was a new application of her power, but it was far too weak to do more than inconvenience Matt.
Long Zhiyuan slashed out with his claws and dug deep cuts into Matt’s back armor as he was ducking, which caused several force amplifiers to lock up and limit his movement. Without [Cracked Phantom Armor] reinforcing the physical armor, it was susceptible to attacks such as that, and Long Zhiyuan seemed to have an eye for those opportunities. But Matt still mostly ignored him.
Long Zhiyuan wasn’t his target.
No, that was Maven.
Matt slashed out, aiming for Maven’s head and heart with every blow.
While her armor boosted her strength, it was nothing compared to Matt’s, and it seemed that she hadn’t been chosen to fight with the boost of Synoid and Crastor because she was slower than him at every turn.
Still, she was no slouch and kept to her defensive posture, minimizing damage to her armor while trying to keep Matt occupied. Long Zhiyuan used that to land attack after attack on Matt’s less protected rear, but Matt didn’t stop his assault on Maven.
He was tracking the fight and waiting for one specific moment.
While he wasn’t normally one to talk mid fight he couldn’t help himself. “Do you have any regrets, Maven?”
When she didn’t answer, he kept his attacks up. “I have a lot of regrets. So many. But one of them ends here and now. I’m going to bring your head back with me to Ventillyria for all the pain you caused. Whether or not you were breaking the rules, that was wrong. It was vile.”
As Maven’s arm came up and deflected his sword, it swung into a structural pillar that was far stronger than the weak metal they had been pushing through like it was tissue paper. With his blade stuck firmly in the pillar, Matt let it go even as Long Zhiyuan drove a claw into his heart, taking advantage of the damaged sections he had created while Matt was focused on Maven.
A burst of his repulsion shoved Long Zhiyuan back, but his Intent’s grip on Maven prevented her from leaving.
Matt used the moment to dump twenty million mana into the surroundings, solidifying it, preventing the neutral mana destabilizer from dispersing the mana with a good deal of effort. It was worth it, though.
They were now locked in a box of Matt’s making, and when combined with him locking down space, there was only one way in or out. Through him.
A few short and brutal exchanges later, Matt had his moment. He seized it, ignoring Maven’s desperate counter attack that attempted to cut off his head.
“So many lives lost as a distraction. Ventillyria didn’t ask for your attack. It and its people didn’t ask to be just a chess piece in your games. They were normal people who just wanted to live. Instead, you brought pain and suffering to generations. Do you know how painful it is for children to be ripped from their parents? Do you know how hard it is for mothers and fathers to grieve for the loss of their children? To walk through the ruins and only see the corpses of everybody you ever knew? To see the blood of your loved ones pool on the floor? Do you have any idea how it feels? Because I do. I've been there. I've been one of those orphans, one of those people trying to put their life back together and put it behind them. I know how hard it is. How it always stays with you like a stain only you can see, but that can’t be scrubbed away no matter how much you try. But you don't. You have no idea. You can justify anything as long as it furthers your aims. Can you even understand how it feels when you have no power? How it feels to be at the whims of others? Can you, Maven?"
Matt finally looked at Maven’s corpse, hanging limply in his grasp, as he asked the last question, her essence long since returned to the realm.
He had been saving the void modified [Mana Claws] from Frederic for this very moment. He had saved it through a dozen opportunities for a possible revenge like when he had turned Maven’s armor into a talisman. A massive part of him had salivated at the idea of going for the opportunity in that moment, but while they fought outside the ship, there had been the chance that Maven could activate some lifesaving treasure that would teleport her back to the ship before the claws of void mana could dig all the way through her specialty made armors.
Even that fleeting chance had been wholly unacceptable, which was why Matt had waited. He knew he only had one shot at using the spell before Maven and the rest of the Harmony Accords would be aware and prepare for it.
So he had held back until he was guaranteed to land a decisive blow.
With the deep purple glow from his fingers fading as he unclenched them from their place deep inside Maven’s skull, hand still tingling from the void mana that had coursed through it even with his Stygian Gossamer. Matt felt empty but he kept looking, not for himself, but for Ventillyria. Some of those who had experienced the attacks would still be alive even now, almost two hundred years later, and Matt hoped this moment could put to rest at least some part of the hatred they must feel. He knew that, when the Junipers had been taken to task, he had been able to breathe easy for the first time since the incident.
He just wished he could have delivered on his promise earlier than this. So many would have grown old and died without ever seeing vengeance wrought on their behalf.
Without Matt’s constant reinforcements, Long Zhiyuan was able to break through, but Matt ignored him for long enough to take one last look at Maven.
Dropping her, Matt turned, blocking Long Zhiyuan’s slash with his forearm and letting [Regeneration] close the wound even as his Millennium Willow Lifesap broke the curses that had tried to take root in him.
Now that it was one on one, Matt reached for Long Zhiyuan’s head just like he had Maven’s. The skill was still on cooldown, but Long Zhiyuan didn’t know that. Long Zhiyuan retreated with a burst of flames, but Matt ignored him in favor of retrieving his blade from the pillar next to them.
He needed to break the pillar to free his blade, but, as he got a message from Darrow, Matt turned his attention from Long Zhiyuan to his Intent’s Anchor.
His Heart Of A Black Hole pulsed with power, and Matt threw his Intent into working.
He crushed and condensed.
His mana turned ink black.
[Overcharge] allowed him to boost the amount of mana he cast a spell with and he paired it with [Cosmic Presence]. Reality started to warp as the gravity increased, but Matt kept himself at the center of the power letting it crush him down. He even added a healthy application of [Metal Manipulation] to rip and tear anything that refused to bend.
Matt hardly felt the pain, but he pushed the feedback loop until his organs started to be crushed into mush. Right as he felt himself reaching his limits, Matt switched to his repulsion effect and pushed everything away from himself as hard as he could. He didn’t just use his normal repulsion effect, but added the Minkalla given explosion effect as well.
Together the outward wave of pressure was too much for the ship to handle, and Matt felt his spiritual perception finally free itself from the confines of the ship as it popped like an overfull balloon.
Long Zhiyuan vomited out a mouth full of blood, as he had taken a majority of the attack head on being so close to Matt. Before Matt could finish him off with a burst of [Dragons Breath], he surrendered and vanished into his own shadow.
The ship was still twisting and turning as it tore itself apart, but Matt made everything worse as he flew out to join his team.
Before he even rejoined the fight, the overall surrender went out.
The Harmony Accords had given up.
Matt was just processing that when he got an even more shocking message.
The war was over. An armistice had been agreed upon to sign an official peace deal.
He had no doubt that the Tier 50s had been watching this fight, and their victory had signaled the end of the war. It was just a question of whether it had been enough. Had Aiden won in the Tier 35 bracket? Had their victory been enough to tip the scales in the Empire's favor or had they only been clawing back some modicum of war score for the Empire?
No matter how it turned out, they had done their best, and that was genuinely enough for Matt. Even with all the power in the realm they couldn’t do everything. So long as they did their best that was all anyone could ask for. Even his own conscience.
Seeing that both Liz and Aster were alive Matt finally let himself fully relax for the first time since Eric's death.
Comments
nolan saylor
Thanks for the chapter! Sometimes you just get good luck, the shipping rotating to move him away is logical, just unfortunate for them he can benefit from it instead. It is good that Matt can't always use the hammer approach, though him casually ignoring cannon shots by repelling them is a fun visual. I wonder what other ways an ascender could overpower the ship. If even Matt would struggle and need help. What would happen in a war if they used this ship, would it just reign unchecked until the Empire agreed to sponsor the Death Star? -I feel it is more this is a quick solution, perhaps Allie would figure out how to go past their space shielding, Liz might manage to infect someone sneakily enough to enter, Aster advance her illusions enough to enter, Light might alter the mana in the shields. -Barring ascenders they need other methods. This was 3+ GPs, as I think the Corporations and maybe others had tech bought from them. Not sure Maven or LZ should, or would wait for the lesser elites. Their priority would be the ship. Perhaps they think Matt can beat them both on his own, so need the support or that by going back they can finish Bolt & Torment quickly enough for it to be worth it. -I say neither would as Maven as both are soldiers, and from GPs that don't value lives, or at minimum have them as not a top priority. Yeah, Pain tolerance is needed as an immortal combatant, and it sucks. 'Looks to me like I've got all the horses. Looks to me you're on the wrong side of the shield!' -personification of smug. There is rich... -Yeah, I hope Matt can study the ship. I hope it is included when the HA surrenders... and as it's not a human I don't think it needs to be sold back for ransom. Though with the tech in it it would fetch a good price. Though maybe they'll argue over it, the Republic probably wants it back the most with the veil tech in it. It would be bad if others could infiltrate the veil with the ship. -Aww, I think the ship is toast... does mean it might be up for salvage by the Empire! Still unlikely. Ya gotta love Matt ripping apart a ship -It must be so satisfying as well with all the annoyance the ship has caused. I think I misunderstood at first. I thought Matt's armor was fracturing. It is the ship's armor. Hull might be a better word. insulating against their own attacks makes sense. Particularly when it is needed if the ship needs to flee or defend itself. I do question what would happen if the ship moved with Matt. Though I think it would be closer to "you're trapped in here with me." Unrealistic though with so many elites. I am not even sure he could flee until the shields are fully taken down, not simply having a hole in them that may be undone. I'd assume the cockpit is also shielded fairly well, even though it is inside the ship. I think that was even mentioned in an HA PoV. Brave soldiers, but foolish. Like throwing yourself in front of a cannonball. -Maybe a human trying to catch a falling building, as enough humans could stop a cannonball, but... The BPL feels a bit like the Talent of the dice gal's cousin. It really is a fun Talent and device. Some fun little shade at Light. (I like the unintended pun) Poor Morgan. I can't mourn her as much as Eric, but still sucks. SLAM has known Morgan basically as long as they knew Eric by now. Interesting to see Sebastian fail via his own summon, or at least sorta. I wonder if there was an emotional manipulator causing it, as T0 are winning, or perhaps it was just based on the loss of a friend. I wonder how well [Air Slide] works without air, as there is not generally air in space. Beyond what is leaking from the HA ship. Welding yourself to the floor is scary... but must make an awesome visual. I hope we get art. (The molten metal guy from Minkala might look like this in combat.) A millionfold... that seems like too much. Am I thinking wrong or is Mantis enjoying the numbers going brrr. Before I read further it seems plain... bye bye Maven. Your powers will be missed, as they were interesting, but you won't be. -Dang, the machine/human gal and Maven probably did have the more interesting powers. Or perhaps the others just didn't get enough focus on them? Gan Le had focus, but not very exciting powers. Ah, now we get the 'you're stuck in here with me' bit. This may be more satisfying for Matt than ripping apart a ship. I hope he gets out most of the anger in his heart. LZ is really learning how he fell short. I wonder if his attempt to kill them in Minkala is now a point of pride or a failure of regret.
Julie Smith
And so ended the war. Nothing left but the gloating. Maven was killed and Long Zhiyuan was captured. I wonder if the sniper survived? There was a stupendous amount of destruction within the ship. I also wonder if Susanna and Liz finished off the rune soldiers? I hope so, for their sakes.
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Andre cook
F5
EmmieCurls
No, it was Morgan (Bolt) who died
Erriballon
Did Susana die ?
adam1
Manny said he wanted Matt up to Tier 45 before the truces ran out. If there's a true war, fighting will exceed Tier 35, so Matt getting way up there will benefit the Empire overall, both in advancing the Empire and also having Matt available for high tier attacks.
Namorat
I liked how we got Zack deciding on a different tactic due to Matt last chapter and vice versa in this chapter.
William Johnson
I've never really had an issue with the sniper. It's a war, she's a professional killer. Sure she killed someone we cared about but ultimately that's what happens in wars. I think the lesson here is that war sucks, and taking it personally when someone you're trying to kill doesn't just roll over and die for you kind of makes you the asshole.
William Johnson
One thing to keep in mind about Matt is that his scaling is insane. Not only because of his mana (he'll be at what, 40 billion mana per second by tier 35) but also because of his full physical cultivation. His advantage in mana isn't static, it grows massively every tier. I suspect that if both were at tier 25 Waters would win even with just his aspect, but by tier 35 Matt may well win out even against Water's authority.
JM O'Hare
People getting hung up on the sniper not being “resolved” by killing her in revenge for Eric’s death. But I think that’s very simplistic and boring. *The real resolution is Matt changing and the sniper being useless against him.* The sniper is a window into Matt that we don’t normally get. An enemy that has a very dangerous talent to find weaknesses in others, yet finding (almost) none in Matt. Everything she tries to do to hurt his team has Matt interfering somehow. He is endless, unstoppable, etc. To the sniper Matt is quite scary. But like all pray, he has some weakness: his emotions. Matt is not mature enough to handle the stress of losing someone while in combat. His ego flares up, he has done less than perfect, and revenge is the only thing on his mind. During this time the rest of the team are more susceptible since he’s not nearly at 100%. Matt has to learn to overcome this issue. We had some of this already with Aster confronting Matt about capturing vs killing the peaks. Matt must fully crush his ego here in order to remove this weakness, and thus not endanger his team in these terrible circumstances again. But we need more of it, in order for the sniper thread to truly be resolved. How the final resolution will happen: a similar setup to before, she is assessing the battlefield that Matt is on, and sees all the futures where Matt foils her kills. So she looks to find a weakness in him again… and finds none. There are NO weaknesses left. He has truly killed his ego here. There is no way for her to harm his friends. Her talent fails and her mind cannot take such a failure. He has defeated her from range, by finding her own weakness.
Coorsbie
Author said she is “dead dead”
Robert Cummins
I think it’s OK that most of Matt’s monologue happens after maven’s already dead when you’re dealing with someone like her you don’t screw around if you get your shot, you take it
Robert Cummins
I’m pretty sure this chapter happened at the same time as the last chapter remember at the end of the last chapter Liz was looking over and the ship was exploding
Blackhole
Really nice one - will Maven as a quasi-Ascender ever return?
JM O'Hare
Let the in between arc begin soon! T25 war complete, now Matt and the gang must level up to T35 to prepare for the True War™️. Though they should have a few thousand years to prepare, so I’m looking forward to seeing some good downtime / power up discoveries: Matt’s Guild, Liz’s Bloodline corporation, Asters’ exploration / creation of her winter wonderland of death in her Talent area. All the while we get the behind the scenes view of the “bad guys” working out how to finally take down these new ascenders. Looking forward to it!
Matt H
How exactly did Matt make it to the ship so "easily"? On one hand, yes, Gan Le is no longer around. But on the other Shadow was completely absent, Team Zero's battle line was "collapsing" after the whole situation with Light and Wraith, Liz was struggling to survive, Morgan was killed, and Torment was captured. And that's all on top of the fact that the neutral mana blocking crystal was still active. On some level Matt's rampage in the Harmony Accords' ship doesn't feel earned yet (even if it was satisfying). Sure, the Harmony Accords were weakened as well over the course of the battle, but Team Zero was significantly isolated and pushed to the edge over the course of the battle. I can understand the Ascenders surviving, but the other Elites should've taken more of a beating (and casualties) than they already did in order to facilitate Matt's actions. If Team Zero was sufficiently powerful to negate the sort of oppression they were facing why didn't they do it sooner?
Aki Foxtail
I include Janet in that too
C_Mantis
It was meant to be a bit jarring so as to build a little suspense as he talks.
C_Mantis
yeah I added that because people are (rightly) getting hung up on it
Tristan R Mitchell
Virgil is so deep in denial that she won't believe it. Obviously Matt is a false ascender, likely genetically and spiritually engineered, like a better version of her rune-soldiers.
Tristan R Mitchell
Yeah, probably Virgil.
Ted Burgess
Totally worth the wait. Thank you for a high impact, well written, exciting chapter.
Alex
No point letting the combatants continue killing each other when they've decided to end the war.
Patrick S.
Why even call an armistice? Can't the highest tier of leader + strategist change the speed they perceive time? The negotiation should be done in a free seconds 🤷🏻♂️
Quixotic
Maven's death could use a little work, wasn't clear that Matt wasn't just standing there monologuing
James Harrison
I think as well it was a matter of all 5 of the MLA & LS gang are all *very* specialised despite having versatile skill-sets. Aster is hyper-focused support and debuff, Liz is anti-personal and weak against most inorganics (though her new bloodline probably will change that given how lightning and fire are very destructive), and Matt is basically a Juggernaut who *can* get tied up if someone is difficult enough to kill because he himself tends to use endurance fights. Light is almost entirely focused on magic, sabotage and subversion of opponents spells. Shadow is very much a skirmisher style combatant, lots of movement skills, quick lethal strikes and stealth when needed. Individually each aren't that hard to counter, so it was just a matter of getting more refined observations about each ones toolkit then assigning enough people for each with prepared counters to their toolkits.
Alex
Fortunately most Bad Guys don’t take the Fundamentals of Tactically Sound Monologuing course at the Villain Academy since the units don’t count towards the humanities requirement.
James Harrison
Matt is starting to become a true Ascender with that monologue. All he needs now is training by Duke Water's in battle trash talk lol
Alex
Man I cannot wait to see Virgil lose what little shit she has remaining.
Sean McClain
If I can make a suggestion, I would put the moment Matt felt essence burst from his kill of Maven (unless I missed it or you purposely left that out)
yannick schwende
While amusing, I think that is unlikely. With the the Tier 50s watching that is pretty much impossible to go unnoticed. They will likely want to get Matt's recordings, though.
Sean McClain
Matt's talents are amazing, Matt's concept is very useful application of this talents, Matt's intent is terrifying, When coupled with his training, support, and ability to use all at the same time he is apocalyptic He is still not in Waters level as we have yet to see him fight Ascender level fighters even at a lower tier which is great story telling. Our MC is very strong but it's a big universe out there. Would be cool to see Waters and Matt have a spar at the same tier. And you know Matt (and his whole team) will be driven to get Aspects early now as well.
Uuds
Matt monologuing like a boss.
Silver Beard
Armistice isn't peace. Five more chapters to go; surely someone is going to be a sore loser.
hachetnif
Good chapter there is no victory in war only what is left All the great powers have spent too much resources already on the war and they believe the empire has spent most of there resources on the war that was the whole point of this war to stop the empire's advance what they don't know is that the empire has infinite mana. So everybody is going home believing that they have completed their objectives
Eofad
I think that qualifies as a win in the T25 category… with the Harmony Accords defeated and all the Elites from the other side being dead, captured or joined to the Harmony Accords, Team zero would have mopped the floor with any armies in the T25 category if the war had continued. The Empire would have no problems reclaiming any lost territory in that category.
SunStar
I think Manny's negotiation position is gonna start with Waters and Shadow will be back up 'shortly'. All those things that stopped them from steamrolling your lines. All the things you used to keep our Ascenders in check. Those are on the sidelines now and the Guilds have just sent in reinforcements. Now ask yourself....are you feeling lucky?
Aaron Hardin
Considering that about half of the elites and peak elites of the three powers in the T25 bracket ended up dead, and about 3/4th of the remaining ones were captured, I don't see how T25 can be viewed a draw, the strategic situation is that the Federation, Sects, and Republic don't really have the personnel or resources to fight against the elites of the Empire anymore, much less the ascenders, so while the Empire may be down some planets, that wont last long. Same is true for the T35 bracket, so between the T25 and T35 brackets, the logistical corridors needed to support the T15 advance in empire territory wont remain, and will likely cause the T15 front to be overextended if there is not a quick retreat from most of empire space. On top of that, the 3 powers have lost significantly more resources give both how the Empire raided a lot of strategic deposits recently, and then the catastrophic loss of the ship that had so many resources poured in it. On top of that, the three powers have lost so many elites and above in both T25 and T35 that they are easy pickings for other powers, the pressure to end the war before they loose more is on them while with the collapse of both T25 and T35, the Empire is no longer under serious further threat, so they don't feel the same pressure to end the war as the Republic, Sects, and Federation do. Add in that the Federation has already started taking out some of the Sects and Republic Elites in the background before this battle, and it will only get worse.
Abriel Blauer
Just reading a lot of comments and people seems to be under the impression that the Empire have achieved "Victory" in this war. Some even say that it is a "Crushing Defeat" for the other 3 Great Power. Maybe I have missed an episode, but the Empire is far from the victory people seems to believe it have achieved. The war is divided in 3 battlefield: Tier 15, Tier 25 and Tier 35. On the Tier 15 front, the Empire lost, and apparently lost badly. On the Tier 35, the Empire almost lost a sub-capital with The Fortress. Aiden managed to pull an upset with his Authority and captured Maya and Yun Mei with a few Tier 35 Legions. However, he his in no shape to fight anymore and cannot get back the lost territory. Which the Empire have lost a lot. If the war continue, there is still a chance for the Citadel to fall. Also, with the buy back option, Maven may come back in operation before Aiden recovers. However, once he recovers, it will be bad for the 3 Great Power Alliance. So, from my point of view, the Tier 35 battlefield looks more like a draw, with maybe an advantage for the Empire. Now, the Tier 25 battlefield. This is not a "Crushing Victory" for the Empire. Team 0 was able to offset a lot of loss. But ultimately, they could only be at one place at a time and the Empire still lost territory on that front. What turned the Tide on the Tier 25 Front was 3 points: First, operation Defang, where the 3 Great Power Alliance lost a lot of their Tier 25 Elites, some permanently for cause of Titan Rampage. The loss of Elite coupled with the ransom for all those that were captured offset some, maybe even a lot, of the loss Tier 25 territory. Second, when Team 0 went "Rogue" and launched a series of raid on the Republic. The result was a permanent loss of the overall production capabilities for the Republic by a full 10%. This will takes a lot of time and effort for the Republic to recover. Add to that the fact that the Monster Collective, The Clans and the Corporations already announced their intentions to attack the Republic after the war put Janet in a bad position and force her to seek an end to the war with the Empire rapidly if she is to still have a fighting chance for the Tier 25 battlefield of that upcoming war. Thirdly, and finally, the decisive battle with the Harmony Accord. The ship contained pretty much all the remaining Elites that survived Operation Defang. With all those now captured, the 3 Great Power Alliance look at, one, for a major ransom and second, Team 0 is still pretty much intact. Meaning they will be able to recover a lot of lost territory with the absence of those Elites. Add to that the fact that Shadow will probably be soon recovered enough to return to active duty. And not to forget that the HA ship is now good for recycled part. In conclusion, the Tier 25 battlefield can be considered a victory for the Empire, but not necessarily a major one. it was also mentioned a while back that the Republic was the one who loss the more in the war compared to the other 2. The Sects doesn't seems to be as badly damaged as The Republic, and it was even mentioned once that Janet was anticipating the Sects to abuse their better position after the war. As for the Federation, I believe Virgil is pretty much "batshit crazy" and would continue the war to the bitter end. However, without The Republic, The Sects and especially The Federation, cannot continue the War against The Empire. So, my personal conclusion for the war is a loss at Tier 15 for The Empire, a Draw with a good position for the Tier 35 and a probable come back for the Tier 25. Given the loss suffered by the 3 Great Power Alliance, especially for The Republic, continuing the war is unlikely to end with a better position and will only cumulate more loss. So, the Armistice is declared and now the Negotiations begins. The Empire is not in a too bad position for this, but far from the overwhelming advantageous position people seems to believe it to be. However, the ransom for Maya, Yun Mei and pretty much the totality of the HA will greatly offset the major territory loss for The Empire.
Jeremiah
Badass!
Robin Richards
The twins were boosting the Mage who tried to kill Liz I think
Fake Name
If the twins were empowering Maya, did they die when she did?
C_Mantis
I need it as well lol. All this combat is hard to write.
SunStar
the monologue is uninterrupted because they're encased in feet of mana crystal and the audience has void claws in her skull.
Aaron
What ship? Matt turned it into a massive ball of metal.
ma ka
I cant wait to hear the score and what the price will be, from the empire if not winning then drawing in the 2 bigger wars. Til duke waters and shadow buy out
SunStar
Bifate Pair-Linker. This one crafted by JR
Patrick S.
I'm pretty sure it's one of those war rules that you have to let others buy out people for the right price (planets / long truce..) If not you can get hanged up on harder 🤷🏻♂️
Patrick S.
What does BPL stand for? can't remember for what it stands for..
Scott
With the crushing defeats in the 35 and 25 tiers, what's the incentive for Manny to make Any concession? If anything, Waters and Shadow make a great deterrent for any future wars, likely until Shadow tiers out of the 35 brackets. And there may vary well be sufficient ascenders to replace them in those brackets by then. The only thing(s) worth while likely wouldn't be given up, such as that teleportation technology from the other great power.
Cindri
I hope matt keeps the harmony accords as his personal ship for his upcoming guild
Cteatus
Nice to see the inevitable conclusion for the Harmony Accords. Overall, I quite enjoyed the fight and Matt's rampage. Matt had Magneto vibes for sure ripping apart the ship from the inside out. Really liked mirrors of Zack and Matt and how they've both learned from each other. Also I think the shield breaking was a breath of fresh air in how the fights played out. Really liked seeing the ingenuity of Team Zero on display. My main complaint is, I think, the monologue and the Mana Claws. Perhaps the coming chapters will be from the perspective of Maven and LZ and we'll get a better impression of Matt coming at them in full black hole mode with Mana Claws, and this complain will be rendered toothless, but right now I feel like we've missed out on not seeing the skill in its full glory, but instead just getting the last moments of its activation. I also think the monologue goes is slightly too long to be uninterrupted. Which isn't to say it needs to be shortened, I think the overall composition is fine, but I think the pacing would be helped by breaking it up. I wonder if there's not a place to break up the monologue with the description of the skill? I think I have overall thoughts of the entire war arc, but I'm gonna save them until the arc concludes.
ShivaMcTimber
I think there will be a reckoning down the line. Maybe a little side story reminiscent of old west revenge/justice
ShivaMcTimber
TYFTC! The action writing was excellent; superb pacing, kinetic, exciting, brutal with a perfect end. Well done, Sir!
Jordan
But she is immortal so she has all the time in the world to hunt the sniper down.
Ashrothe
Gonna love the Rulers reactions I can just bet. How many Ascenders can they afford to buy out of the future war(s)? One might even be a bit shocked by Matt's speech - if she believes it.
ShivaMcTimber
Yes! I had totally let Luna slip from my mind. She should totally get a POV
Dallin S
I hope this quells the people saying ascenders in tier 25 haven’t been as strong as needed with Matt showing off his power this chapter. He just did something massive by destroying the ship single handedly power usage wise. Yeah he used help with the details of the formations but the power he took on and expended were definitely ascender quality
John
Go Matt!
Robert Cummins
I guess Dena doesn’t get her revenge
Sean Shivers
The second half is confusingly worded. My understanding is that the stream shears through the walkway... but it makes it sound like the change is doing the shearing.
Sean Shivers
"A stream of mana jerked violently as it was diverted into the talisman from the careful weave of power that powered the ship,...... the sudden change of course shearing through a walkway and sending it plummeting into the void below."
Dolduck
This was just great. Great action scenes and as been said before, cathartic. Also a wonderful way to blow up the ship.
Alex
Yes, Morgan was Bolt.
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
Est P
Morgan = Bolt ??? I don’t remember their government names. It’s a lot to keep track off but fun chapter.
Wes
Hope some spies snuck into the ship to study the Republic's transporter when Matt was wrecking shit.
Patrick Brennan
Thank you Mantis. I know a lot of people had issues with the start of this book but the way it ended really paid off. Keep up the fantastic work and enjoy the mini break you have coming up
Jaroslav Zapadlo
Pheeew
Roro
Wow! Epic end to the war. Can’t wait to see the aftermath. TYFTC!
Ryan Berends
I can’t wait till we get the guild ark. I hope they get a bit of slice of life. They need it lol.
Thomas Brusilovsky
Delightful
Tom C
Mattery brings the hype! What a chapter. Can’t wait for the aftermath next week Thanks for the chapter 👏👍
Aaron
I am concerned that there was no mention of essence release. So I'm concerned she got away.
Abriel Blauer
I don't think Janet will be bitching. She played, she lost and I believe she will assume it with the Dignity inherent of a Tier 50 and the President of the Republic. As for Virgil, I anticipate her reaction to be one for the annals. I remember her demand of 200 Tier 30 planetary core. Remember the Vassal War was over a Tier 20 planet. The Clan, the Monster Collective and the Empire had an Elite competition for a Tier 23 (or 24?) newly discovered planet. Virgil was asking for the equivalent of 200 Tier 30 worlds. I hope Manny find a way to turn that around in an ironic fashion.
Aaron
Also, need Lila and the others reaction to Matt and Liz.
Aaron
Can we some how get a pov of Luna's thoughts on how her monsters are developing. Also I want her thought on Waters having his Authority.
James Faulkner
FUCK YES, this was so damn satisfying. Maven as a corpse on Matt’s claw is such a great image, Tftc!
Ryan Berends
Damn great chapter. Rest well Mattery you’ve earned it.
Robbie
Awesome
Zack
I'm in the middle of a re-read and I just finished the Ventillyria attack chapter. This was so cathartic.
T
Yea and Sep got captured
Aaron
It's the heart of black hole. Planets and celestial objects can tier up with mana. In Minkalla they stated that only the emperor is allowed to harvest cores but since it was sin Minkalla it was fair game. And Matt definitely has the mana to tier it up.
Bob Bryan
Any chance we can either get a small chapter or part of one of the chapters with ventillyria's reaction to mavis's death. Thanks for the chapter.
Owen Kaz
When did they say they were buying out light? Shadow and Aiden yes, but Light? When?
Tim Johnson
This was such a good end to the war. Matt getting closure in multiple ways and finally taking out Maven and also beating the shit out of Long Zhiyuan, Liz having her Ascender breakthrough Moment in the heat of battle in the last chapter. Aiden just being Aiden and revealing to the world he knows himself and his part in the realm so far beyond anyone else's wild dreams. Aster proving to everyone she wasnt just brought along for the ride. I can't wait for the armistice talks and seeing Janet and Virgil bitching about Manny not being fair and they have to be cheating.
Aaron
Not really, they know he can channel huge amounts of mana. They just think the source is mana stones. So he only reinforced their theory by channeling the ships power.
Abriel Blauer
I liked that line for Matt and all the irony of it: "They were now locked in a box of Matt’s making" Matt greatest fear always has been to be locked in a box. This a perfect conclusion of a 200 years regrets. For Matt, Ventillyria was a remake of his own tragedy on Lilly, and like when he was a child, he wasn't able to do much despite everything. By the sounds of it, it seems that he will finally be able to get some peace over it. It was also a long time since we saw Matt use one of his Folded Reflection Concept (the explosive one in this case)
Tom C
Maven isn’t an ascender, just a peak elite. Definitely dead I reckon
Clay Smith
So clarification, did Morgan die? I assume so because her top half was vaporized and Seb lost himself to despair, but it happened so fast and was kinda glossed over I wanted to make sure lol
Alexandre Ablon
Is Maven is really dead ? I mean it seems pretty clear with all the talk about corpse but because of the lack of mention about essence and ascender being known for surviving crazy things I'm not sure
Aaron
How many of the empires ascenders can the others afford to buy out? They're already buying out light shadow and waters. They'll definitely want to add Matt and Liz to the list.
Aaron
Wow
Yellowfrog
Epic end to the war
Psyren1596
Thanks for the chapter! Seeing Maven get her shit rocked was cathartic.
Elaine
let's goo they won good chappie
Tim Johnson
i dont think the time dilation will generally effect people that can life forever. There has to be a mental hump that you need to accept and process yourself when you realize that you will outlive potentially everyone else in your family if they are unable to hit tier 15. Whether or not you spend 10 or 1000 years clearing a rift, if every mortal you had known would die is just something you need to accept. Probably why people will generally only associate with other immortals as they are the only ones who "get" it.
Wheels42
Excellent chapter. I'm glad he killed her rather than monologue missing his chance. We still got the monologue but in a tactically sound fashion
AzraelExiled
That was everything i needed and more. Its been a long time since Ventillyria, but DAMN was that satisfying. Also hopefully this lets Matt relax a little more. He's not as flippant as other ascenders (Aiden cough cough) about life, but Maven pushed almost every button he has that would make him go berserk. Now that hes gotten some revenge out of his system he'll (hopefully) settle down a bit and take as much time as they can give him to decompress mentally. Also, has it ever been stated if the time dilation of rifts can have negative mental effects? It seems like the cognitive dissonance from spending hundreds/thousands of years in a rift, only for like a year to pass irl would take its toll even with higher tier mental cultivation and willpower.
Jana
Some Chapters make my Soul purr like a cat. You put out quite a few of those within the last weeks:-) love it.
Callis93
What a fucking chapter man, finally getting to see matt crush maven was so satisfying!!
LeapoldJKLOL
Enjoyed the chapter, Hopefully there is some resolution with the Sniper? It would be terrible if she just existed to kill off Erik and then never be seen again. Still some chapters left before the end so hopefully soon?
LazyF0x02
Whelp, now it's just a matter of time until Matt's secret is out after him channeling so much mana.
Benjamin Warlick
Can someone clarify how the intent anchor thing works exactly? My understanding was that if you use a non growth item then the anchor becomes less powerful over time or something. Isn’t the heart of the black hole he used only tier 14? I think I’m missing something.
Alex Perez
matt my goat
mitchell kaiser
What a FIGHT!
Teatime42
OMG yes! Planning, so much hahaha! I knew they had to be, but god this is just so good :D And they actually kicked a bunch of ass vs sn enemy that just constantly ran away, cathartic af XD
Pixie
Awesome
Captain the Red Beard
Tyftc so hyped!!!
James Getgood
tftc
