C_Mantis
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Chapter 320
🕑 Added 2024-04-08 18:59:01 +0000 UTCJust to clarify, no chapters the 17th and the 20th.
***
Chapter 320
Janet was fifty hours into working on a rebuttal to a proposal for an overhaul of Veil policy in some of the inner regions when her AI blipped at her, but she ignored it. As much as she felt that mortals should not need to worry about cultivator business, they couldn’t allow the Empire’s current policies to go un-investigated.
The idea that low-Tiers, born of low-Tiers and unused to the normal ways of the higher Tiers, could make Gladiators wasn’t unknown. It was the original way in which the Gladiator program had gotten its name, after all. But the original Gladiator program was so rife with abuse and unambiguously unethical, it had been excised in its entirety shortly after the first veil-born had reached high office.
And now… it might be coming back.
She didn’t know how to feel about it, in all honesty. There would be far, far more checks in place, more oversight, diligent monitoring of the handlers to ensure their charges weren’t being abused, weren’t being thrown into the arena en masse, or killing billions in the reckless pursuit of a singular elite. That was nigh unforgivable, and a crime for which the Empire’s hands were more blood than flesh.
Harold’s proposal was far too lax in such important considerations. He was too cavalier, too content to allow the sands flow red as he hunted for the resplendent few, and while there was too much support behind his initiative to fully shut it down… she could at least blunt it. Millions would still die. That much was certain, if this proposal went through. Potentially for naught, if the prevailing theory remained that the origin of Gladiators was genuinely random. Signs still pointed to no, from what she could tell. Aiden Waters, Matthew Titan, and Zack Light were all from worlds that would have been Veiled were they in the Republic, that was true. But Elizabeth Legion and Allison Shadow weren’t. Aster Wraith was something of an in-between, but it was clear that the children of immortals still had a better chance at becoming Gladiators.
And this was all assuming that Aiden, Matthew, and Zack weren’t seeded talents, something which she could not yet discount, and in some ways, something that only became more likely as she looked into it. Matthew had actually entered Republic border space at the time that he had “met” Elizabeth. And while it was difficult to fully investigate on account of the planet in question being stolen, they were quite certain that at Tier 3, having never officially left his Tier 4 homeworld, he already had bonded to Aster and possessed his signature impossibly powerful armor skill. A Tier 14, cracked armor skill at that. There wasn’t technically enough evidence to implicate King Frederick in Matthew’s seeding, but the odds that he was uninvolved were astronomical.
But, officially the Empire simply was playing dice with the lives of their mortals, until astronomical odds became inevitable. That the Empire was being honest was the theory which Grand Senator Harold was operating under, and it was a theory that would be tested one way or another. She only hoped she could limit its harm. This war was brutal enough, she did not wish to brutalize her own people as well.
By all rights, the Empire should have already crumpled under the pressure. It was three on one. Even counting the nominal participation of the Conglomerate of Guilds, the Empire was still effectively outmatched two to one. Unchecked and aggressive expansion was the diplomatic reason for the war; they weren’t supposed to already be so strong that they could weather such intense pressure! If there was any consolation, the Federation was also being pressed, thanks to their smaller size, which meant they would be even in an even weaker position than the Republic would be if, or rather when, a war between them started.
The revelations of the Federation’s experiments upon their subjects had been… disturbing. She almost wished they’d been more successful, because then she would have better cause for forming a new coalition to declare war upon them. Perhaps if Virgil’s mad plan to eliminate Aiden Waters worked, then Janet could garner enough support with the Unification of Clans, and Monster Collective, to war with the Federation next, under the pretext of their too-powerful soldiers disrupting the balance of power? It might take some time for her and the Republic to recover thanks to how drawn out this war had been, but she knew her next target. Janet might be able to set aside her morals for the bigger picture, but that didn’t mean she would disregard them entirely. She would not exist in a realm with something as vile as Virgil leading quadrillions to their doom. Still, for now, the Empire was the larger threat.
Emmanuel, like his father, was a conniving piece of shit, but he at least didn’t boast in the horrible evils he wrought upon his subjects. He at least acted regretful about the billions, even trillions who had wound up dead upon his bloodbath of a Path, compared to Virgil’s disquieting and proud glee at her twisted “children.” But, to give credit where it was due, Virgil was at least upfront about her twisted mind. Rather than Emmanuel, who had either bewitched or cut backroom deals with half of the Realm to look the other way as he climbed ever-higher, giving paper-thin excuses for what were obviously preparations for war. They’d even bluffed cutting funding to their Farm. Janet didn’t know what it was a cover for, nor why they’d chosen that as a cover, but it was hidden behind few enough misdirections that it was obviously the intended story to leak. That any other Tier 50 could look at a man amassing power, preparing a vast war chest, and consolidating some kind of ability to create Gladiators nearly at-will, and see anything but a warmonger preparing to attempt to conquer the entire Realm was mind-boggling to her. It seemed utterly short-sighted.
The worst part was that if she hadn’t joined the war, the Empire might have outright won. It was a horrifying prospect that she had tried to use to bring either Aoife, Tobias, or JR into the war on their side, but all of them had refused. Tobias had done so with just enough fervor that Janet couldn’t be sure if he had been bribed or if he was just holding out for a better offer. The Turtle had, until just a few centuries prior, hated the Sophrons. It was a professional hatred, born of grudges left over from the war of foundation for the Monster Collective and before, but it was there nonetheless. Yet now, he steadfastly refused to entertain the idea of joining the war against the Empire, and she didn’t know why. Her best theory was far too petty, that he was friends with Mara Moore and thereby saw her daughter becoming an Ascender as unworrying. She wasn’t sure if any of that was true, but there was no evidence for anything, and the bonds of friendship didn’t leave a paper trail.
JR, the greedy raven, on the other hand, had outright told her that breaking his neutrality would be too expensive –a blatant admission that he’d been bribed to stay out of the war– and there wasn’t anything she owned that could tip the scales to bring him in.
Neither would say more than that, and Janet couldn’t force them.
Aoife at least had the noble excuse of honoring the treaty Hastor had signed before his Ascension, which Janet couldn’t refute without tarnishing either party’s reputation.
Her AI blipped again and she waved it away as she continued drafting her rebuttal to Harold’s proposal.
Sometimes, she truly wished that the Republic might have been set up more akin to the Clans, Empire, or Sects. There, whatever the Tier 50 said simply happened. But in the Republic, she certainly had power, and lots of it, but it was far from absolute. Especially in terms of allocating the ten Tier 47 slots and two Tier 48 slots each Great Power was allowed. Were the other three Great Powers simply dictated who got what slot, if they got a slot at all, her power was far more limited. Even Janet's Tier 48 running-mates hadn’t even been assured to be by her side in the election. Whereas the other three could simply allocate slots as they wished, six of hers were outside her control. Most trouble came from the three generally elected Grand Senators, especially those on their second, or- in Harold’s case- third term. To win the election for a Tier 47 seat three elections in a row meant that his influence and represented population extended far and wide.
It would almost be easier if he were one of the Grand Senators whose seat was set aside for the scholars, mortals, or blooded. Then his motivations would be more direct and focused, easier to work around, and simpler to negotiate with. But no, he kept winning the general elections, and that meant his appeal was wide and his goals were broad.
So, she did her best to simply limit the damage. Some people were advocating for universal state-sponsored awakening, others were advocating for lessening the loan programs present for awakening, and one faction wanted to do away with the Veil entirely. That particular group wanted to imitate the Empire and their mass-awakening technology in its entirety, nevermind that such machines were expensive and impractical to deploy at scale. How the Empire was managing it was something of a mystery, but it was eminently possible that they weren’t, given their apparent pushes for war.
Still, that particular bit of cruft was easy enough to dismiss with her counter-proposal of carefully expanding Gladiator recruitment. Firm documentation as to how and why the handlers chose a given candidate, explanation of the nature of cultivation before their first match, mandated handler-separated opportunities to leave the Gladiator circuit and get a low-level job at regular intervals, the list went on. Their Awakening could be state-sponsored if they chose to enter the circuit, but not if they opted out, and-
Janet glared as her AI beeped for a third time. Her flow interrupted, she brought up the message and froze for a moment until she jacked her perception to its max to go through and read the past messages.
02870105 11:12 ‘Empire Ascender Team has destroyed the alchemy crafting station at Resplendent Night.’
02870104 17:45 ‘Empire Ascender Team has destroyed the supply depot moon at Galphor’s Rest.’
02870103 02:32 ‘Empire Ascender Team has destroyed the arms crafting station at Kipling Two.’
02870101 09:53 ‘Empire Ascender Team has destroyed the…’
The messages repeated themselves five more times with various variations, but Janet couldn't quite process them.
It made no sense. The incidents were just days, if not hours apart, and crossing that much space should be impossible for a Tier 25.
What had happened in the war in the last few weeks?
The last report she was given had been about the death of an ex-Path elite and the serious wounding of Zack.
Janet had gone into her project content with the knowledge that all the resources that had been poured in the joint venture had paid off splendidly, and that the war was finally tipping into their favor after being a grinding slog for so long.
What had happened?
Scouring the attaching documents Janet almost couldn’t believe what she was reading. She didn’t want to believe.
They’d long suspected that Allison Shadow had a higher range than she was ostensibly letting on, but this was… impossible.
Rapid deployments across a Great Power were hard enough with Talented pilots. It had taken three Great Powers merging their resources to get enough of them to move that behemoth of a ship at a speed that should have made it impossible to outrun. Yet no matter how fast their ship moved, true instantaneous movement was faster still.
They’d apparently left the frontlines, seen an incredibly powerful healer, then returned to the frontlines to fight and win against the Harmony Accord, all within the span of a week. From the injury reports, they had to have seen a overhealth healer, which meant that at minimum they’d gone to a regional capital, if not Sophron Imperium Maginex itself.
The Empire Ascenders had then gone on to ambush unsuspecting troop transports, causing mass casualties in the Tier 25 bracket. Troops needed to batter down the final layer of Empire planets. Troops they couldn’t afford to squander.
As if to further anger her, the Harmony Accord’s responses had only led them to getting pulled into a more remote region of the war front. That had given the two teams of Ascenders the freedom to slip deep inside her territory, where they proceeded to destroy Tier 25 bracket infrastructure like children having a tantrum.
The shipyards and crafting locations had few actual casualties beyond idiots who disregarded the Ascenders’ threats, but that was the only good thing about this mess. Sure, it would take decades, if not a century, to get those factories up and running again, but if the majority of the crafters themselves had been killed, the Tier 25 war effort would have been crippled for thousands of years. It took time to raise tens of thousands of Tier 25 crafters. But what hurt worst of all were the supply depot moons they destroyed. So much had been lost as those nodes crumbled upon themselves.
Janet felt a flare of deep hatred pulse through her as she watched a recording of Titan throwing a bomb into her moon. Watching the resulting destruction felt like finding one had a chipped tooth when eating something minty.
Her generals had already redirected troops from the frontlines to guard what was left of their Tier 25 production faculties, but it was too late for ten percent of her facilities.
Janet immediately drafted and sent a proposal to the senate for expediting replacements of those faculties. They would be fine using existing stock for this war, but losing ten percent of her Tier 25 supply making capabilities would make that entire bracket look weaker. Weak enough that the Clans, the Monster Collective, or Corporation might see them as being ripe for jumping on.
While rare, if a Great Power took enough damage in a war, the other Great Powers might start declaring war on her looking for easy concessions. She could always decline, but that would come with payoffs. Worst of all, the Sects and Federation hadn’t even been attacked in the same way, meaning they might be just as opportunistic as the others when this war ended.
Fists clenched so hard she started creating distortions as the fabric of reality struggled to contain her might, Janet counted down from ten thousand.
It helped.
A little.
Letting out a breath, she brought up the rest of the war reports, searching for any good news.
Maya beating Aiden into a bloody pulp was technically old news, but reviewing the beating delivered to the freakishly strong Tier 31 made her feel marginally better. So did the reports in the Tier 15 and Tier 35 brackets.
The Tier 15 bracket was a brutal meat grinder where fresh immortals were chewed up by the millions, but there at least, the three of them were doing well. Virgil's implementation of her rune soldiers had given them a distinctive edge, and the callous Tier 50 didn’t mind using her soldiers like shock troops, even with the losses that came from such actions. The lack of any Ascenders or Graduates in that Tier bracket meant there wasn’t too much which could go wrong.
Having one of the major war brackets essentially in the bag was a relief.
The Tier 35 bracket had been mostly in a stalemate, but with Maya’s victory taking Aiden out of the fight, they were making steady progress in closing in on Rusty’s capital.
Two out of three major war brackets was still a victory. That couldn’t be denied. Combined with the loss of a regional capital, the Empire would be forced to give exorbitant reparations. But a victory for them or even a stalemate in the Tier 25 bracket would lessen those damages.
War calculations had been long hammered out when the war was declared, mostly using existing precedent. They could demand the Empire stop expanding for forty thousand years or so, even if the Tier 25 bracket lost, but Janet wanted more.
It wasn’t enough to drive the knife in, she wanted to twist it. She wanted to hit the Empire so hard, they couldn’t recover for generations of immortal rulers. That was impossible, but she salivated at the thought. Even an unconditional surrender wouldn’t give her so much sway, but still, she wanted to take some of the wind out of their sails.
Things like the full Path of Ascension audit would reveal enough cause to further censure them. Taking inspiration from her current counter-proposal, perhaps they could establish some form of cap for the maximum number of deaths allowed upon the Path? That could effectively force them to limit the number of entrants, and therefore both strengthen the older more conservative noble factions, as well as make it harder for the oddities like Aiden, who weren’t exceptional until far later, to be discovered. Additional reparations, more planets, natural treasures… the Empire had a lot of momentum, but it could still be hampered, and in the best case, taken for the Republic’s benefit.
After seeing Supreme General Alicia Fortan was going on the offensive to force the Empire to respond to them, instead of the other way around, Janet finalized her proposal for the expansion of the academies.
Janet wished there was something she could do to personally change the course of the war, but at this point, she was just an observer.
But she believed. Believed in the indomitable Republic spirit that would see them through this difficult time. Her people were nothing if not hard working and stubborn.
That would have to be enough.
It had to be.
***
General Declan Raven tapped the table with a finger as he got a report directly from Brigadier General Darrow.
The message had been sent just before he and his team had left the rift, which meant there was no way to respond. Declan didn’t take it personally or get mad. It was a classic move that he himself had pulled a few times before in his career, when he wanted to do something he knew wouldn’t go over well or wouldn’t get approved.
So long as the mission wasn’t a complete disaster, such transgressions were usually forgiven.
Usually.
When they weren’t forgiven, you ended up promoted to a seat on High Command, where you were endlessly tortured with paperwork and the inability to throw a fit.
Ahh well, such was life.
Opening the contents of Darrow's message made him wince internally, but he didn’t let any of that show as the others looked to him.
“Our Ascenders are planning to do their own thing.”
It was almost amusing to watch the others stiffen at the news that their most goodest boys had decided to slip the leash after so long of plodding along with the boring ass missions they had been given.
Declan wasn’t one to gloat. Eh, who was he kidding? He fully intended to rub it in. “And this is why I said we should be giving the Ascenders missions with some teeth. Keep them from getting too bored and complacent.”
General Brooks had a vein throb on his temple so quickly, it almost looked like he was trying to send a message. But really, it was just his anger. “What are they doing, Raven? We can’t have them messing up our plans now of all times. We are too close and have been working too long to prepare for this moment.”
Declan flicked a finger to send the message to everyone else and gave them a moment to process the information.
General Li let out a slow breath that was almost a sigh. “It could be worse. If—”
“Worse? This could spoil our plans. Operation Defang has been our trump card for winning this war, and the Ascenders are risking it by gallivanting off to take out a few armies and supply bases!” General Crawford was nearly standing from the power he slapped the table with. “I propose we issue them an immediate recall via any means necessary.”
Declan looked around but saw less support for the motion than he expected from everyone's expressions.
General Kjarr waved a hand. “If this is the extent of their plan we can work with this.” Seeing Crawford nearly explode at the very suggestion, Kjarr narrowed her eyes. “I understand you are worried about the operation you spearheaded, Crawford, but keep control of yourself, man. You are reacting like a six year old child who was told he can't have any candy. Far too emotional.”
Declan smirked at General Kjarr’s verbal smackdown, but didn’t add to it. He would have been a bit more cutting, but she had dealt with the situation and that was what really mattered. That, and he did understand where Crawford was coming from. Operation Defang was their big gamble in the Tier 25 war front, and if it was spoiled by the Ascenders going wild, they were screwed.
Let alone that officially, the Ascenders reported to him, so he’d be the one taking the heat of any issue from their actions both sanctioned and unsanctioned. Oh well, maybe they’d let him retire after this fiasco.
Once she saw that she had things under control, General Kjarr brought up a projection of the war front. “Without the Ascenders running out and plugging the war front assault, we are going to lose more ground than we expected, but Defang isn’t in danger of being exposed just because they show Shadow’s Talent a little earlier than we desired. If we want the operation to succeed, we still need Team Zero to smack the Harmony Accords down hard enough that they can’t respond immediately. This can be a good chance to force such an encounter. I say we let the game play out and react as needed. What’s more immediately important is the question of how we want to handle Team Zero’s absence on the war front. Do we bring out the last of our reserves to bolster the defenses, or let planets fall?”
Declan listened as the others argued back and forth, but ultimately agreed with the choice to let the war front get pushed in. It meant losses both in personnel and planets, but it would help sell the message they were on their last legs and being propped up by the efforts of their Ascenders.
The fact that it was true helped sell the not quite illusion, but this was the moment where hard sacrifices needed to be made.
They needed the Harmony Accords to take a loss, and if Declan was right, they were about to be led around by their noses. And for elites who must feel like they were on top of the world, that would be the worst feeling imaginable. That was their opportunity.
As days passed, they got more reports and Declan couldn’t help but grow excited. The dozens of armies that had been destroyed were great and all, but what he really cared about were the reports of the tub the Harmony Accords floated around in had been seen running around as they chased Team Zero across the war front.
Dozens of stops and starts when Team Zero moved around and hit locations until they finally decided on a place to hunt and their futures settled down. It was a simple strategy, but one that forced the Harmony Accords to respond, as Team Zero was more than happy to just slaughter armies should they not be checked.
After they brought the Harmony Accords across the warfront to an out of the way location, Declan and the other Generals waited for reports of Team Zero sightings.
The reports from the Watchers came in first, and they were glorious and eventually filled in when Team Zero returned to the rift.
Ten critical Tier 25 points of infrastructure taken out in the Republic, forcing all the Great Powers to redirect troops to their heartlands where vital infrastructure should have been beyond reach.
For the first time since news of their little expedition, General Crawford’s expression relaxed just the tiniest bit. “While they didn’t ruin our plans, we are at a juncture where we need to make a choice. Do we loose the arrow now, or do we hold it a little longer? Now that deployments are changing, we are going to start losing track of elites, and that could ruin everything. It might be worth it to send them right back out with now that we know the Harmony Accords are deep inside Republic space.”
Declan chewed the inside of his lip as he mulled over the problem.
He actually agreed with Crawford. A week and a half of travel time, two at the longest if their estimations of the ships capabilities were off, wasn’t the ideal opening they had been hoping for, but it was an opening. And sometimes, you didn’t get what you wanted. They could always wait, but the longer they waited, the more out of date their data became.
It would be better for the Harmony Accords to be inside their space, but this might be the best chance they got.
Operation Defang was the culmination of decades of planning on how to use Shadow’s Talent reveal for maximum effect. The idea was simple. Use her mobility in the waypoint infested war front to let Team Zero teleport around like madmen, with the single purpose of killing as many elites as possible.
Not to fend off armies, armies could ultimately be replaced, but elites, especially peak and pinnacle elites, were oh so valuable. A death or two could be shrugged off, but if Team Zero could kill a dozen of them, they could outright cripple their enemies’ ability to wage war in the Tier 25 bracket.
With the threat of Ascenders ready to pounce the moment an elite moved to engage in a frontline battle, the enemies would only have two options, neither of which was palatable. Gather all their elites together with the Harmony Accords, or pull their elites out of the war so they were safely sequestered away from the danger of an Ascender swooping down to kill them.
If their enemies were smart, they would pull their elites back, but if they wanted to risk a defeat in detail, Declan and the other Generals had plans for that too. Either way, the heaviest hitters would be removed from this war, which would make all the earlier losses worth it.
With that and Aiden assuring them he could single handedly turn the Tier 35 bracket around, the Empire had a chance to flip this war around in one moment.
They just needed things to go right.
And anyone who had led troops on even something as small and easy as a picnic, knew that never happened.
It had taken tremendous effort from all sectors of the Empire war machine for them to get precise locations of most of the enemy elites in this narrow little window, but that information would quickly lose its value as time passed and orders changed.
If they moved now, they could ensure at least a minimum level of damage. But if they waited until the Harmony Accords was inside Empire space, they could use their reserves to slow both the Accords and the elites down.
Settle for a smaller but more certain victory, or risk it all for the large victory?
The choice had plagued military leaders since man picked up its first pointy stick, Declan was sure, but now that he was in the position to help decide, he found himself conflicted.
As he cast his vote, he smiled seeing the others almost unanimously agree with him. It almost surprised him, but they all must have had the same thought.
Ascenders did the impossible all the time.
What was one more?
Comments
John
Thanks for the chapter!
StanLemon
Exactly this. And I like how Raven is well aware of how stupid the other generals have been and called them out for it. Frankly, High Command was stupid in their treatment of team zero
Nicholas Grey
This chapter reinforces the fact that Team MAL aren’t really seen as *real* Ascenders, by High Command this time. Command is treating them (and referring to them) like tame house-dogs rather than giving them the respect (and behavioural expectations) applied to other Ascenders. Ascenders are walking *strategic* assets, with an extremely well-established history and tendency for independent action and bucking (or ignoring) the chain of command when they get bored. You don’t treat them like mushrooms - if you decide you simply *cannot* keep them in the loop and informed, then you *must* cater and account for those tendencies. If you must use the dehumanising dog analogies, then you need to treat them as high-energy working dogs: either *work* them, or provide ample stimulation and exercise. Otherwise bad stuff happens.
Bacon Sir
Always weird to see Janet’s complete obsession with the Empire
Steve
Eh. I'm inclined to disagree. If they had been doing deep surgical strikes before, the great powers would quickly bolster internal defenses, which would slow down war efforts a bit but not significantly enough. The only outcomes at that point would be to risk the lives of smaller elite teams, or go full shock-and-awe like Team Zero just did, thus exposing the talent the empire was trying to keep secret until they were ready. Previously, the Republic wouldn't have any reason to more widely distribute resources and/or bolster internal defenses. They would certainly do both now, so a campaign causing this much destruction this quickly is likely only going to work once, and comes with exposing the teleportation secret. Also, it is implied that Operation Defang does involve some level of inspiring complacency so the enemies are willing to bunch up their elites. After all, there's no way the Ascenders could reach them all, right? So I guess I'm saying it makes sense to me why they held back previously. I'm sure resources will not be so concentrated for easy attacks in the future.
adam1
Janet comes across a person justifying their prejudices after the fact. That she acknowledges the Federation is definitely worse but is staying the course is proof of that.
adam1
His limitation from delving was for assassins to stop targeting Pathers in general. That it benefitted Light and Shadow just fed into Janet's conspiracy theories.
Tijay Arnie
We're told that because it's a propaganda tool and we're following the POV of the Goodest Empire Boy, his Mystical Princess Wife and his Magical Fox Sister.
Andrew Adams
Why is auditing the PoA such a big deal. Say the empire is fiddling with it...so what? Wouldn't that just mean their ascenders weren't all they're cracked up to be? That would literally only benefit every other nation.
Serran
Actually that was my point, within 30 generations Immortals will outnumber mortals even if they don't have kids. A significant majority of the mortal population doesn't pass Tier 5. Even with constantly growing population the goal will not be moved back significantly. Even assuming the average mortal generation is 100 years, instead of a significantly smaller amount it will take less than 5000 years for immortals to outnumber mortals. The currently polcy of awakening everyone was introduced in story about 62.000 years ago. At that time the Empire had already a vast immortal population and didn't start from zero. Yes, we need to account for the fact that immortals are killed regular and maybe this pushes the 3,5% of everyone born which reach Tier 15 to below the population growth. But since it is a net positive growth anyway that is very very unlikely. Unless we get a WOG to the contray I reached the conclusion that Immortlas outnumber mortals significantly enough for there to be almost as many people being born to immortals as mortals. But that is just my Watsonian reasoning, the Doylist one is, that Janet didn't say anything about there being so fewer people born from Immortal parents comared to mortal ones that the discrepancy of a 2:3 is still weighing towards her argument.
Kain
I mean to defend her math there are WAY more mortals having kids than immortals and high tier births, as shown in the Manny chapter, are extremely rare. So the fact that 2/6 are from high tier parents does in fact help her case. I don’t think she’s right just that her math isn’t off in that instance.
Zed
Were the other > Where the other
Serran
I got to admit, when rereading Janets segment I am concerned. Like seriousy, that does not read like a mentally healthy or reasonable person. 1. The whole 3 out of 6, a whopping 50% of the Ascenders had mortal parents and only 2 out of 6 had immortal ones while one didn't have any. So what does she do? Only consider the 2 out of 6, 33% to be the ones proving her point to be relevant. There is no conisderation on how many children are born to immortals as compared to mortals. Given we don't know most of the relvant statistics (How long an immortal is active until they are killed or ascend, how many children they have on average etc) only that after 30 mortal generations more people have ascended to immortality than there are mortals alive at that point. That is not being considered at all so we can reasonably conclude that immortal / mortal parent numbers are not so different as for it to be relevant. 2. Leading to the second point. At no point does she trust her intelligence apparatus enough to consider the idea that any atrocities the Empire manges to hide are vastly overshadowed by the ones the Federation is commiting openly. Not even mentioning that there has been proof provided that the Federation was kidnapping Empire citizens for these atrocities. Even worse she hilarously thinks that a significant number of people in the Empire can be unawakend without this comming to the attention of another power in tens of thousands of years. 3. For an elected leader she is completely disregarding the possiblity of people being able to chose their own fate, most especially how they die. If the choice is between dying of old age and dying in combat chasing immortality she fully intends to prevents people from chosing. Not weighing in on the choice but straight out denial. This reminds me of the quote from C.S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” Overall the chapter is very good, but doesn't make me like her any more.
MikeL
Way too easy for a T49 to suddenly tier up and then they would have 2 T50’s. Also the amount of resources after T47 is astronomical. To get a T50 the Emperor said it was 1/3 of his delving for 20,000 years. a T49 would be a lot still.
Michael Younger
The Janet POVs make me furious because of how delusional she is
Andre cook
No heads up or info on book 5 audiobook being released yesterday?
Sam Ellis
"Nobody is forcing anyone to do it..." And Janet's entire problem is she can't warp her head around the Idea that the Empire doesn't in fact force every on to the Path of Ascension. Or even to seek immortality they just try to make sure that there is a way for any citizen to walk that are clearly marked.
Uuds
Agreed!!
Uuds
I thought he was forbidden from delving to advance by treaty and in return L&S were not targeted by assassin squads while on the path?
Andrew K
The speed right now is certainly due to Allie's talent. However, a key part of my point is that they've had decades on end where they could have conducted surgical strikes at one infrastructure target at a time (drawn from a pretty large target pool) without obviously abusing her talent. From there, if we combine the damage estimate and repair / replacement time given here with a reasonable estimate on the number of such individual strikes over the length of the war (even just the length of time since MLA finished the Path), the estimate for long-term infrastructure degradation from pursuing that strategy comes out a lot higher than the damage inflicted just recently. At this point in the analysis, there's nothing obviously problematic yet. However, once we take Janet's reaction and impact assessment for the recent strikes, things change. If the damage from this series of strikes is as bad as she considers it, this implies that a long-term infrastructure degradation strategy is both extremely high impact on the targets in at least the short to medium term, but hasn't actually been pursued by the Empire in this war despite clearly having the exact right sort of team to pull it off and not doing anything clearly more effective with them. This implies that either such a strategy isn't actually that effective after all, or that the Empire would be *very obviously* using Team Zero implausibly poorly. The first case would mean one or more of the assumptions in the impact consideration must be wrong, but a lot of the assumptions come directly from Janet here, and the remainder (estimated potential long-run frequency of infrastructure strikes) is very reasonable given what the missions and timing thereof we were shown in the previous book. The second case isn't out of the question (though holding back Team Zero to the point of obvious misuse of their raw power seems too far for the Empire to go even with their current particular strategic goals), but would be exactly the sort of thing that would have someone like Janet engaging in frequent paranoid obsession over (because it would seem too incompetent to be plausible without being part of some huge scheme that she would absolutely latch on to speculating about), and we don't really see evidence of that here.
Jeff Wells
You've got to remember they were hiding Shadow's abilities. Going this deep into Republic space is how they did so much damage, and there's no way to do that without exposing Shadow's full range. Any yearly attacks you're thinking of would have to be near the front lines, where they are both better defended and smaller in size. Going deep let them hit BIG targets.
Thomas Todd
It only worked because they had Allie's talent, they might not have even done as much damage against a single target without it. Their travel towards it would have been tracked and it locations in the area would be reinforced. They probably couldn't replicate the same death again now that it's known, countermeasures for their type of suprise attacks would be developed
Kelly Bryan
He doesnt want to advance past tier 35 and is forbidden by treaty from delving to advance. So, he could take an inspiration, or even tier up from essence from his fallen enemies.
Kain
Same I think there are ways to head-cannon it into making more sense but nothing in cannon. Things like “high command is 100% committed to their elite assassination plans and so sacrificed all other opportunities in service of pulling operation defang off flawlessly” Hell I’m currently head cannoning that high command knew exactly who was on team HA, they are apparently tracking all enemy elites how could they possibly miss 20 of them going missing for several decades, but never told and even explicitly hid that info from team 0 so that their plan is shielded from scrying and future sight, every single additions person who knows info in this universe literally makes it harder to keep secure even if the person isn’t themselves an info risk.
Jeff Wells
Lol I had to stop and comment during Janet's internal monologuing about how the Empire are obvious warmongers. I'm like "Bitch, YOU declared war! You're the warmonger! They knew you would, so of course they built up a war chest! For defense against you! Who declared war! " Lol back to the story.
Kelly Bryan
I agree, its too much too fast, if T0 has been putting enough work in to be tired of missing time off and their strategists are not total incompetents than they would have been achieving more and this big a change to the status quo of the war is bound to make these paranoid tier 50s act out
Lachlan Donald Nichols
I think Janet is the leader of the Republic? Virgil (aka crazy child soldier experiment b****) is the leader of the Federation.
Michael Rojas
Is he? I thought he just didn't delve anymore because he didn't want to advance? Been a while since those chapters, maybe i'm wrong.
SwiftFate
Oh, while I was referring here to Janet as well, it was actually even more in reference to several chapters back when we got one of the point of views and thoughts from one of the play pen caretakers. Their distaste in the fact that 'kids' (mortal adults) die in such numbers because they idolize ascenders like Matt and try to follow his footsteps, thinking they can do the same. In my opinion, that thought process stems from an 'immortal' arrogance. It's perfectly fair for them to feel sadness over the deaths of course, and that they essentially encourage and manage it. But at the end of the day, it will always be an adult making the choice. Whether they were encouraged to do it through propaganda or their surroundings doesn't matter.
Coorsbie
I think it’s pretty clear that they are targeting the republic because of its political structure. The Republic leader can lose an election, and if Manny says offers concessions to some opposition leaders, he can break the Republic with its own political machinations. Plus, they are the odd men out of their allies. The sects are brutal and the federation is well… bad.
Kelly Bryan
My biggest argument for him having an inspiration mid-fight is that it comes with healing of will power strain so he could completely gas himself then let the inspiration go and be right to 100 again
Andrew K
I really liked the chapter overall, but all things considered the recent damage being 10+% of the Republic's tier 25 war production infrastructure from hits on 10 locations seems high to me, particularly in conjunction with the replacements taking decades to a century. It seems like even with a very conservative strategic management approach to Team Zero, they should have been able to pretty safely pull off a couple strikes a year against infrastructure targets of that scale while still having a solid presence in various normal front-line fights and still not being too predictable about timing or target selection. That seems like it would translate to all their enemies being down an average of 20+% of that sort of production infrastructure even with ongoing rebuilding. Given Janet's viewpoint on how bad the current damage is and how obvious such a long-term strategy would seem, things don't quite seem to add up here (unless the Empire is intentionally trying to look strategically incompetent, which would be expected to set off Janet's paranoia in ways we'd expect to see referenced here). If you're willing to consider edits here, I would politely suggest either dropping the overall damage percentage by at least half (further playing up the speed angle and concern about it continuing to keep the same overall tone), or perhaps augmenting Janet's earlier paranoid musing to include a chunk where she's speculating about why the Empire has been so passive with Team Zero and not going after infrastructure as hard as she (or perhaps her generals) think they should be (and thus allowing this event to feed into her paranoia).
Stormbuilder
Yeah, no polity is willing to allow another to have a second t50. They don't want people to be within a shot of it. Also the more authoritarian rulers believe that a t48 can't threaten them because it's next to impossible for a t49 to challenge a t50. The emperor's grandmother was a major exception
Luciaron
I mean she’s not wrong? The empire path does lead to many young people dying in the pursuit of greatness. We just saw in a previous chapter how all the playpen leaders get ptsd from seeing so many kids die. I think it’s just hard for low tier people to conceptualize how many people die on the path so it doesn’t seem like a huge deal.
Notanautomaton
I'm hoping that Manny will be able to use the path audit as a solid negotiating chip. Convince Janet that it's really important to him and get her to give up a massive chunk of her war gains in order to get an audit that shows that the Empire is fine. The only question is if Manny can manage to get an audit that doesn't reveal Matt's talent.
Mecha Paladin
It'll be that, or he'll go off the deep end and form an Authority which is only confirmed to be possible by Hastor before he peaced of the realm.
Notanautomaton
No, we've been told over and over again that Ascenders need to convince everyone that they're invincible forces of nature. In one of Duke Water's viewpoint chapters we see him half-dead and bluffing an army into quietly surrendering, despite the fact that they could have escaped, injured him, or forced him to retreat.
Derze
she grew up in a different environment. the previous Emperor for the Empire were't as "nice" and "good-hearted" as Emmanuel and his father. Because she lived through those times it becomes hard to disassociate. Manny's rule is in his infantile stage. She lived through more of the previous rule than the current one. Also prejudice, she is so set in her box she can't see outside. and the fact she can't see all the chips... so she has to be happy with what she was given
Kain
Yeah I’ve had that happen before sucks when it does but can’t really be changed at least in my experience
Caelum
I have the same thought. I think he'll use a inspiration he's been holding back along with a normal level up. It'll be exciting to see
Aaron Martinez
Not sure why people are praising Janet. I thought she seemed very unstable.
Aaron Martinez
I don't think he's banned from tiering up, just from delving.
Aaron Martinez
I'm feeling a mix of Kain and Valter. This chapter helped quite a bit. But for me the magic is gone and while it seems it might be coming back, building it up is a long process. My sub will lapse soon, and I'll take a long break. I expect I'll probably come back and read through the backlog, eventually, though that doesn't always end up happening.
Kain
I do have one idea about Duke Waters surprise. Like a lot of others have suggested I think it could be he’s holding off an inspiration, like actively holding one off right now it’s come up how impossible that would normally be but he does the impossible even more than other ascenders. Anyways the next time he fights Maya and the super elite I think he’s gonna take damage and “his control will slip” tiering up in the middle of the fight and putting both of them out of commission if not out right killing them. Normally him tiering up would break the treaty they have but if he sells it like he did everything in his power to hold it back but they forced his hand he might get away with it, especially if he’s telling the truth and is in fact holding it back as best he can.
Aaron Martinez
Lol yep, anyone you dislike in fiction is emblematic of your political enemies.
Kain
Eh it depends on what information you’re working with. We know mortals in the empire are generally treated just fine and we have literally unparalleled access to Manny’s internal thoughts and motivations. An outsider like Janet could absolutely believe that the empire’s mortals are treated like trash and are forced to either live as second third or fourth tier citizens or throw themselves in the meat grinder that is The Path. Now she’s still clearly prejudice against Manny and the Empire but it’s not fully unfounded given the empires past rulers. Don’t get me wrong she’s also very overbearing and patronizing to mortals but the entire system she was raised in seems to be so that’s not fully on her.
Kain
Far too much empathy present
MinE
It was Janet and she kinda strawmanned the theory more than the feds did somehow; it was mentioned changing bloodline affects people, so it’s not unreasonable to assume talents generally have at least a small impact on personality. P.s Janet just used her surface level analysis of talent to complement her Allie’s why insulting the Enpererors.
SwiftFate
The 'Path' may be one of the bloodiest and ruthless methods, but the truth is that people make choices. To enter the path, even under the illusion that you might be able to succeed, is still a choice. These higher ups that feel guilty, or regret the fact that 'mortals' enter something like the path shoe their arrogance. They might understand the Path better at their level, how brutal it is, how many die etc. But that doesn't mean mortals are completely ignorant of the risk. They act like people aren't making the choice because 'they' want to. But they are.
J
Agreed, I think Janet has her heart in a good place but she's either too self-deluded or her intelligence apparatus has failed to a horrifying extent for her to think what she does. We know as readers that there's a lot of politicking in the Empire around positions (and presumably tiers); Frederick's promotion to Duke showed that.
Xarow
Great chapter! Love hearing about others points of view. The extra detail gives the story more breadth for the imagination than just following Matt and Liz. P.s. Mr Mantis - Keep writing your story for you, how you want it! I love it.
Aaron Hardin
A lot of comments on how humanizing this chapter is for Janet and it makes her more sympathetic. I find it concerning, she is a Tier 50 immortal, and has been alive for hundreds of thousands to millions of years, and has a range of experiences well beyond what mortals like us readers should be able to comprehend, so for her to mentally be so relatable, as well as to have such poor ability to judge what the current reality is in the empire indicates massive mental block or mental issues. She appears to have not adjusted how the empire is currently run under Manny to his predecessors, so her view of the empire is like how it was a long time ago, but so much time has passed since then that still having this level of misconceptions is a failure of analysis in someone at T50 who is also the designated leader of the Federation. In addition, her idolization of mortals and mortality appears to be a deep seeded coping mechanism for some mental health issues, so while yes, it makes her seem more humanized and sympathetic compared to her past portrayals, it also makes me think that she will likely make a catastrophically mistake in the near future.
William Johnson
Ah man, I kind of loved the idea of some dude just getting grabbed off of a veil world and getting told "hey there's magic and now you're part of the government, everyone else is a god have fun!" This makes much more sense though.
Alex
How the Empire was managing it was something of a mystery, but it was eminently possible that they weren’t, given their apparent pushes for war. Always so sure of herself and her conspiracy theories. Always conveniently forgetting that the Empire didn't start the war. Sure they were preparing for it, theyre not idiots, they knew somebody else would start it and they didn't want to just surrender.
da Finnci
To her defense, Matt's Talent is a cheatcode and he has that coincidence nexus of a biography. Just MC things. Maybe Janet would figure out the truth, if she read more books ;)
Valter Anunciação
None of that matters. We were told for 300 chapters that ascenders were forces of nature that nothing could overcome. Then they get taken out by mooks that were intriduced 3 chapters before just shows that the author wrote himself into a corner and then proceeded to nerf the ascenders. The story now has a major plothole and the ascenders now are basically nothing special.
Michael Younger
I really hate how naive and just plain ignorant the head of the Republic is, it makes me feel like I'm in Donald Trumps mind with all his crazy mess.
Choegoup
I remember DW killing people and cleaning their essence while musing on concepts, because he cleaned theirs off with his own. Maybe he's been hiding his real cultivation all along :)
Thomas
The Harmony accord didn't "kick the ass" of the ascenders. They spent 70 years prepping to fight against specific people with elites who have been fed massive amounts of resources to rival or exceed what the ascenders get after reaching Tier 25. Then the best they could do is kill 1 team member who is an elite when they outnumbered the ascenders and their team 3 or 4 to 1 with a battalion of same tier troops helping them. The next time they clashed the Harmony Accord almost lost several of the elites that were fighting before running away. The next time they clash the Harmony Accords are going to lose someone since the Ascenders are learning how to counter the Elites far faster than the elites are learning to counter the Ascenders. So what if the Ascenders got beaten a little bit by a group of Elites that was trained and given massive resources to end their threat. The Ascender's job in war has always been tying up a disproportionate amount of resources to counter them, which they are doing marvelously. There has always been hints that Ascenders can get the tar beaten out of them when facing overwhelming odds, with Duke Waters being the exception for how well he can fight above his tier even for Ascenders.
RedLeaf
Thanks for the chapter.
Alex
A lot of people on the Empires Path die, that sucks, but its hard for me to feel too bad for them. Nobody is forcing anyone to do it after all. And after a couple tiers on the Path or even at the very start you are usually good enough to get good offers from Guilds that let you level up slow and safe. Joining the Path is a choice. Risking your life is a choice. The only thing that sucks is that kids can join at 14 cause 14yr olds are adults in their world, but thats Earth bias talking. In our history people at 14 were also considered adults at some point. In my Earth mind delving in general should be forbidden till you turn 18. Or at least unsupervised delving. Truthfully I don't like supervised delving for kids either. Murdering a bunch of stuff at an early age can't be good for brain development.... or its exactly what they need, getting used to it early, cause thats what they'll be doing for potentially the next million years. Murdering a bunch of stuff over and over
Kain
That’s not true. Several things were moved from head cannon/speculation to confirmed in canon. Things like exactly how involved the guilds currently are, the empire high commands focus on lasting damage to the enemy great powers fighting power even at the expense of the current war front, exactly how the other GP’s are fairing in the war compared to their own expectations, and new more specific information about the current state of the war and its 3 fronts. All of this helps a bit as for where the information comes from that matters a TON an Empire general saying “that will cost them” or hell even Blood hands saying “that’s expensive” matters so much less than Janet’s internal monologue on the same topic. The other 2 are speculating she’s The authority on the costs and we are seeing presumably her unedited true thoughts on the matter.
austin kutz
Except having the veil and portraying people that believe in cultivation as insane is both unnatural and cruel; what's the point of having the drive to achieve immortality if you think immortals are just a myth that only children and crazy people believe in?
James Faulkner
I forget if it was Aoife or Janet but some GP leader who believed their talents/domain are an innate indication of who someone is at their core is gonna shit a brick lol. By those standards Matt’s talent is basically the realm calling him a God-King
John Smith
If you need it, the old idea of US senators being elected by the legislature rather than the people can help with some of that layering. Some people behind the veil know something is above them and vote. Do that a layer or two and you can get to a grand senator.
James Faulkner
This is so good, thanks for the chapter!
Mario Morales
The problem with "natural" in this case is that the veil that limits the knowledge of immortality is unnatural and the knowledge itself is what is natural. In this setting.
Wool
Tftc. 1) Her generals had already redirected troops from the frontlines to guard what was left of their Tier 25 production [faculties] …. I think you meant facilities but then you use “facilities” at the end of that sentence which would also read oddly. 2) Janet immediately drafted and sent a proposal to the senate for expediting replacements of those [faculties]
Aurora1325
i mean fair enough. it was not made clear earlier that Duke waters is just grade a bullshit over powered
Blake Noyes
I think they could be tier 14, which if I recall have a lifespan of at least a couple thousand years
Valter Anunciação
The chapter doesn't ruin the series. What he did with the acords kicking the ass of the ascenders ruined the series. This was just the end of my sub and I have no intention of keeping the sub for a story I now see as ruined and garbage. Might as well vent.
Thomas
There was nothing new in this chapter, except the point of view the information was coming from. I personally can't tell what it served narratively. I also don't understand how this chapter could ruin a series. It was just fluff, and there is a lot less fluff in this story than almost every other serialized web novel of similar lengths.
Matthew Church
I'm betting he's going to tier up and flip the 35 battlefields
Kain
Now come on fighting another ascended 4 tiers higher than you can’t by definition be “normal ascender stuff” if he was any more broken the realm would shatter.
Matt
I dunno about baffling. Letting nature run its course and letting those with the drive to push beyond the veil do so is a very natural thing. Her take on what the empire do, push people to excel and mop up the blood of those that don't make it, is completely valid.
Tom
I'm super excited for a close end to the war, and for Janet to push super hard for the primary concession to be a Path audit. Then the results come back: Helen was a little generous, but Matt's just a badass
Thomas Todd
T49 slots are allocated specifically for the heir to the t50, Janet was t49 for a while before the former president Ascended.
Violet
Is the lack of Tier 49 slots designed to ensure that no one can surprise anyone by pushing to Tier 50? Or is it just a "Tier 50s are bad enough, let's not have a bunch of nearly Tier 50s running around being nearly as much of a threat to the stability of the Realm." thing?
Kain
Yea can’t agree with this one. Ive been pretty loud against the handling of the first HA fight but this chapter was fine and plugged at least a few holes for me. Now is it perfect did it answer or address everything? Naw, it would be literally impossible to do that if I’m being honest, but it’s still a decent attempt and gives me at least enough to just head cannon the left over holes.
C_Mantis
correct.
Tom
I hope he just says screw it and Tiers up and just wrecks Maya and whatever the Sect one is
Amazon Shopper
My guess: Duke Waters going to get his Authority (next step in domain). and start crushing the warfront. Must. Have. OP. Duke. Waters. so far we've only seen him do normal ascender stuff (i know he is fighting peak elites/ascender lvl ppl 4 tiers above him but still, need some op stuff. And crushing 4 tier up ascendor lvl pps is what we need) Could even make a hole 3-5 chap arc of just Aiden and him achieving the Authority.
Valter Anunciação
Do ignore the part where what ruined the story was that the acords crap ruined what an ascender was supposed to be and made them basically slightly stronger mooks.
Keegan Moss
So not necessarily distinct battle lines, more intermingled depending on the planets they are occupying?
Violet
I also continue to like Janet. She's quite compassionate for someone with as much power as her. Sure, she's mired in false consciousness like everyone else in the setting, but since it isn't unique, I don't think she's dumb for being like that.
C_Mantis
hes a t47 representative of the mortals not a mortal himself. IE he grew up on a veil world and worked his way up so can now speak for them. They are probably even voted in by mortals in some way but I really haven't planned the republic government out that deeply.
Tommy
It’s like the PM in Harry Potter learning about the ministry of Magic I guess 😂
Isley
good chappie
Tommy
“which meant they would be even in an even weaker position than the Republic would be if” -> be in an even “Were the other three Great Powers simply dictated who got what slot,” -> where the other It might be worth it to send them right back out with now that we know the Harmony Accords are deep inside Republic space.” -> right back out now Great chapter thank you! 👏
Owen Kaz
I can't wait for the day we get her reaction to Matt's talent. Watching her freeze for a moment as all the pieces suddenly fall into place. He was never preparing for a war of conquest, he was preparing for a Renaissance period. A renaissance period that would come after the most brutal war in millions of years.
C_Mantis
its all mixed in with each moving independently but mostly moving in unision. So the t15 could move ahead but then they risk being open to flanking without the other brackets being there to protect their flanks.
Tommy
lol wtf? It’s providing context to the story from differing viewpoints
Captain the Red Beard
Same! Cannot wait for Friday!
Keegan Moss
I don’t remember if you had mentioned a Tier 15 battlefront as well, so in my mind I had been operating under a series/groupings of tier 25 and tier 35 battle lines, but with all three it would be nice if we got some crude map just showing how the battle lines are made. Like is it just waves of tier 15,then 25, then 35, or are their sections of the overall war front dedicated to each tier, or some combination.
William Johnson
Wait wait wait the Republic has full on mortals in their supreme governing body? How the heck does that work? I'm fascinated by this idea, like for the tier 47s it must take a subjective week for them to read a briefing. They have to know they're mortals surrounded by immortals, do they get awakened after their term?
Captain the Red Beard
Thank you for the chapter!
Captain the Red Beard
Lol, go touch some grass.
Josh Bullock
Yeah I almost want them to lose and have the path audited just so she can see it was all legitimate. Would love to see her reaction to that even if it was only in a "hypothetical" chapter if Mantis is ever feeling so inclined ;)
Pizza Scribe
I think the (real life) weeks of war have done an effective job of establishing how much of a slog this has been for Team Zero, while building frustration with the status quo. This chapter was then a fantastic release of pressure, since it contextualized how much damage Team Zero did when they vented their frustrations on the Republic, and signaled that there will soon be a light at the end of the tunnel for our characters. We're switching gears from, "war as a grind," to, "war as a way for the characters to achieve great amounts of violence with flash and aplomb," and I'm fucking stoked.
Derze
Janet actually sounded human this chapter, I’m conflicted. Overall, I’m really excited for what’s to come. I feel like Aiden is being set up to fail, but oh well. Let’s see our boys steal the cookie from the other Powers
Josh Bullock
Thanks for giving us this chapter. There's only so much bashing everyone in I think we all want to see one chapter after another. It's fun and I definitely want more, but we need these alternate views once in a while to give some perspective and break up the monotony. It's not like nothing happened this chapter anyway and seeing reactions from people having their board flipped unexpectedly is always fun!
William Johnson
I continue to like Janet. She's got some blinders when it comes to the Empire but she also seems, so far, to be mostly focused on the good of her people rather than power or glory.
Anime Problem
I think it's more likely for the Republic to come to a neutrality agreement with the Empire when everything is all said and done and I do mean everything not just this war the empire follows the principle of dangerous freedom and access to informative is acceptable so long as you take on the responsibility that comes with the power you hold. While the Republic is all about the safety of the low tiers from knowledge and the possibility of seeking that danger unless you're "ready for it" this leads to me thinking that they probably have a few layers of veils even for people who meet their criteria to be allowed the knowledge of cultivating essence. They're similar and opposite they can agree to not agree while the sects are just a bloodbath with the Empire probably never seeing eye to eye with them.
Jsar
Loved the big picture snapshots!
M van Dongen
The Republic will lose in the end. It's top leader is operating under false premises. That is not conducive to generating correct outcomes. Kinda like Marx and his metaphysical lineage spawn.
Mike
Thanks for the amazing chapter as always
Adurna
What a lovely chapter and framing of our trio's new missions.
Tommy
I really hope Janet learns more. I don’t like it when someone who seemingly has a good moral compass is operating under incorrect assumptions. She could be an actual force for good if she wasn’t a dumbass. I think. I might be wrong though
MikeL
So what does DW have planned? I’m still saying an inspiration or 2.
austin kutz
Janet seems to be under the impression that being forced to die of old age in bed is morally far superior to dying in the attempt to attain immortality. It's really a baffling position for an immortal being to take, imo, and just shows how out of touch she is
C_Mantis
I wish you the best of luck going forward. Other people wanted a bit of an outside perspective so I gave them one. We will be back to the normal MLA chapters next chapter. A alt pov isnt unheard of in this story or others.
Havokk
Loved the chapter. Janet's pov was great and seing her so ready to take out the feddies and also being paranoid that others were going to pile on the republic. The generals pov and consequences of T0 deciding to flip the board was fantastic
Patrick Brennan
This is turning out to be the best book since Minkalla
Kevin DD
Seeing the perspective of the other Great Powers is always brilliant. Their own ideals and inability to see the good in other colour their perspective so much that the fiction they create is better than anything that Harper could seed into false reports. Makes me wonder what "facts" about the other Powers that the Empire has wrong.
Valter Anunciação
Such an empty chapter. Congratulations. You ruined an epic story built over 300 chapters with your accords bs. Dropped
C_Mantis
Lets not go too far
mitchell kaiser
Ooooo I’m so excited!
EU-Nox
I need more
Jinjitsu
I always like the alternate pov chapters
Bob Bryan
Melinda is definitely going to get Duke waters ready quickly and Janet is going to hate that. Love how she is reacting to matt and thinking of how the empire cheated with him and Manny can just order everyone around. That woman.
Kasamuri
Thanks for the Chapter
MinE
Janet actually sounded like she had a functional brain for some of that; what’s next Virgil having empathy.
Thomas Brusilovsky
That does seem like a worthy goal for a team of ascenders. And the second dude was complaining about being put in harms way; at least this way he has a team of elites with him when team 0 swoops down to murder him.
Luna_1001
Yay ty
