The Path of Ascension

Chapter 295

Heidi gasped as she fell back from the patient who had just been brought into her healing station.

Even as she tried to catch her breath and settle her strained spirit, her assistants started casting their own cleaning spells. They were working frantically to resterilize everything as the soldier thanked Heidi for regrowing her lower body, all while Heidi refueled her mana reserves.

That much healing should have been done over three or four smaller healings, but her and her staff were overworked, and orders were to get the soldiers back into shape as quickly as possible. If the recent trend continued, the woman she had just healed would be given a day for recuperation before being sent back to the various battlefields in quickly assembled units.

If the woman was lucky, she would end up back in Heidis care, but it was more likely that she would end up dead.

Heidi had been a healer in the army for close to nine thousand years, had served through three wars, and seen action in over a dozen border skirmishes during her time as a battlefield healer. Despite all of that, these casualties were some of the worst she had seen.

It was disheartening, but having so many people to heal was a good thing. If they were coming to get healing, that meant they were staying alive and had either repelled their attackers, or had their units successfully escape.

Before she could ponder the greater situation any deeper, one of her assistants pulled a man who was missing both of his arms into the room. There was a golden light lingering on the wounds even now, but it wasnt a healing spell. It was a nasty curse she had dealt with a few times already.

Evidence that this man had been part of the Nether system battle. Shaking her head, she corrected herself. That battle had happened close to a month ago now. The golden curses only meant he had encountered Victor Radiant and lived.

Get me a Buffalos Vigor potion and a bandage talisman. Almost as soon as her words left her mouth, Fred was already handing her the requested items.

Catching the soldier's eyes, she widened her own, ensnaring the man in a minor illusion. This won't hurt.

He quietly repeated her words, and with him enthralled, she dumped the potion over his cursed stumps. If she hadnt enthralled him, he would be experiencing horrendous pain as the curse was purged from his body and spirit. Victor Radiant liked using curses that were interwoven into the spirit, making anything but slow and careful extraction incredibly painful. Heidis Talent wasnt too strong, but when boosted with her Domain, it was good at making someone numb for a few minutes, which was why she was getting so many of Victor's victims.

The moment the golden light was broken, she plastered the [Bandage] talisman on one stump while she started regrowing the other limb.

[Bone Growth], [Regrow Tendon], [Muscle Growth], [Nerve Growth], and finally [Skin Growth] put the man back into fighting shape within an hour, though hed need a checkup within the next week to make sure everything set in correctly. If he was lucky, hed get that checkup before he was sent back out.

Thankfully, he was following standard army body modifications and didnt have anything crazy that she needed to work around or recreate. Soldiers sometimes got pissy when their tattoos didnt get remade correctly, and Heidi was in no mood to coddle some pompous twit.

She kept her irritation to herself. This man hadnt done anything to annoy her, and if her illusion held, he wouldnt get the chance before she was on to her next patient.

Once the second arm was regrown, she dropped her Talent and let the man go, just as her team got everything ready for the next wounded.

When one didnt immediately arrive, Heidi opened her bleary eyes and looked around.

Terry understood her unspoken question and poked her head out of their room to ask what was going on.

Heidi heard the answer without Terry having to do anything.

They were out of patients for the first time since the push started two months ago.

Dropping to the floor, Heidi decided this was a good enough place to sleep.

If they needed the room, they could wake her up. Or better yet, move her without waking her.

***

Farrah touched her temple as a new wash of information hit her [AI]. The moment she got the initial processing, she called out in three of her higher-level chats. Ascender report.

That got everyone who was involved with the Empires Ascenders pulled into the information feed.

Farrah started passing the information and sending summaries to department heads who would need to be kept in the loop.

She froze for a moment as she double and triple-checked her information and verified the source before believing the reports on estimated goods collected and confirmed casualties. It was her job to deal with the Team Zero reports, but while she had seen wild things from them, she hadnt seen anything of this scale before.

Still, she was good at her job, and quickly started going through the information streams.

The easiest and hardest parts were the combat and trying to confirm the kills the Ascenders and Elites managed.

With the depth and variety of Talents, it was incredibly difficult to confirm a kill without a confirmed burst of essence. In theory, it was one of the most reliable ways to confirm a kill, but theory and reality were two different things. In a battle of that level, there were a million things happening at once, leading to the ship's sensors being overwhelmed with overlapping data. And to make matters worse, Drifters ship had taken serious damage, which had destroyed a good number of the sensors.

For a moment, Farrah wished she could access the Ascenders [AI] recordings, but they, like all AI recordings, were under incredibly tight security. Unless they needed to confirm a specific kill, they could only rely on secondary recordings.

She understood the need and desire for privacy, but she still wished she had more access. It was about the metrics, the underlying data. There was a ton of information that personal AI and [AI] were able to record thanks to being tapped into a cultivator's senses that she and her fellows could use.

The spiritual fluctuations overlooked in the heat of battle could be the key component in understanding an enemys Talent or Domain. The energy density of a spell might allow Farrah to derive the exact modifications that were done to the skill, allowing their teams to best prepare to counter that spell.

It was an old argument, and one they had lost long ago for privacy reasons. Checking herself, she also sent in a report that she once again was requesting additional; information from the Ascenders. She knew that wasnt going to be accepted, but still couldn't shake the urge to try anyway, which might indicate she was under a compulsion pushing her to betray the Empire. To prevent such incidents as much as possible, all analysts were supposed to report any thoughts that lingered a little too long or were more intense than usual. It was usually nothing, but even with Cosmind definitely not part of this war, one never knew if there was a mental compulsion that could jump around from person to person until one succumbed and became an unwitting traitor.

It had happened before.

Report sent, she made her way through the initial seconds of the battle. Almost immediately, she cursed the energy waves coming off Ascender Quill's energy beam. It blinded nearly all of the front-facing sensors, which meant she didnt know if there were seventeen killed in action, or fifteen and two casualties who managed to escape.

Things only got more chaotic from there, as Farrah needed to follow a dozen Ascender Torches as she ripped her way through a mass of attackers which meant relying on her Domain to help parse the information.

Even if it was just a recording, watching someone get hit so hard they burst like a water balloon wasnt a pleasant sight. That the Ascender got better from the injury that should have been lethal didnt change the unease she felt. At least following Ascender Torch through the fight made kills easy to confirm. When she killed someone, they exploded as another Torch punched their way out of the corpse. No one survived that.

Ascender Shadow was almost worse. Almost, but not quite.

Her kills were less bloody, but it was incredibly hard to follow the woman, even when her teleportation was limited. She had a way of slipping from the eyes of the sensors and Farrah alike. It was like trying to grab hold of an oil slick with just one's bare hands.

Ascender Scoop was far easier to track. Unfortunately, her attacks tended to suppress any and all vital signs even if they werent lethal, and she had enough sensory-deprivation skills it was challenging to tell if their spirits broke at any point. Was a frozen corpse actually dead, close to dead, or feigning death?

The only way to tell was to watch the corpse until they were either confirmed dead, got healed and rescued, or freed themselves. If a body disappeared, that could mean that they had been obliterated off-camera at some point, or that theyd gotten up and run. It was aggravating how often that happened.

Ascender Light was hard, but that was more because his presence was felt everywhere. Thankfully, his efforts in this battle were more defensive than offensive, which lessened the burden on Farrah.

The Elites at least had more typical abilities, allowing Farrah to count up their kills without too much issue.

It took a full twenty-five minutes for Farrah to run through the entirety of the battle and tally up the deaths. It took another two hours for her to run through everyone she believed was terminated and then check their records of Sect combatants to compare and see if they could confirm any of the dead.

Everyone here was an elite, though that title covered a vast difference in power.

A Great Power might only have thirty to sixty peak elites on the level of Dao Children, Graduates, Chimera, or Paladins spread between all twenty Tiers that the wars were fought on. Those were the exceptional few. Most sat at the major break points in the war Tier 15, Tier 25, or Tier 35 with a few at the lesser breakpoints of Tier 20 and Tier 30. Anyone with power one step below an Ascender was carefully tracked.

They were, after all, the usual forces which shaped the course of a war. A Graduate heading an army would reliably win against anything short of an Everborn leading their own army. But because language was frustratingly imprecise, the term elite was bandied about meaning anything from a Pearlescent Paladin to a simple veteran with a few noteworthy tricks that put them above their peers. It would be tempting to dismiss the archer who had made it to floor five in Minkalla as irrelevant, but it was as often as not that exact texture which could swing the tide of battle. A single lucky hit with an armor-piercing arrow wouldnt kill a Graduate, let alone an Ascender, but a dozen, a hundred, a thousand? That could make the difference between victory or retreat, or tip the scales of an even fight into a losing one.

That allowed them to stand above their peers just enough to be called an elite and was why the Empire needed to know if any of them died. Their deaths mattered when planning future operations. They might be little more than spell fodder for Ascenders but in a normal fight they were the core of one's forces who both kept the regulars in line and inspired them to keep fighting.

Those elites who did die at Team Zeros hands would send ripples through the war front as each was an opportunity for the Empire to capitalize on now that their frontline forces would be that much weaker.

Sai Sen the Roaring Tides had played notable roles in ensuring no less than five systems had fallen this war. He was the grandson of the sectmaster for the Crashing Azure Waves sect, had been active for nine thousand years, and had been torn in half by Ascender Torch after managing to force a single Ascender Torch into her elemental form.

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Yun Fe the Eel of Dark Flames had an equally impressive legend, but his spirit had been consumed by his own fires after attempting to attack Drifters ship while Ascender Light had been on watch.

Bai Shishi was an artist with a blade in the truest sense of the word, conjuring illusionary ink-strokes with every sweep of her sword that she could manifest into genuine objects and summons. She and all of her summons had been annihilated after her sword was turned away by Ascender Quills armored back.

Each of those deaths opened up opportunities for the Empire.

Though none of that might be as impactful as the supplies Team Zero stole from the Republic.

Farrah almost didnt believe it as she got the preliminary reports from the Ascenders initial acquisition of the goods. Considering the speed at which they had pilfered them, she wouldn't have been surprised if they had accidentally inflated the initially reported numbers of various supplies. That was why the supply depot they dropped their haul off at would get a true accounting of the goods. Searching through a few files she pulled up their report and cross checked the numbers. And in fact, they had been incorrect on the number of goods by a full thirteen percent. It was just that they had underreported the final tally.

There were a full fifty five million healing potions in the Tier 15 through Tier 28 range. Most were lower Tier, but lower Tier battlefields had the most people, and they needed and used a correspondingly high amount of supplies. Two hundred and thirty two million combat potions meant to boost various abilities of a cultivator without any long term side effects as well. There was even a note that the supply depot had found and locked away almost a million potions that gave greater power but came with side effects.

Then there were the fifty million precharged attack crystals, nineteen million temporary wards, twenty-two million utility field sets, seven million healing kits, and a half-million escape tools. Most of them were consumable or otherwise single-use, but it was still quite the haul.

Almost more impressive were the Republics unique goods. Team Zero had managed to steal three mobile fortresses. They were only Tier 20, but when deployed, they could replace or reinforce a fortress planet if used on the defensive. Or, if used on the attack, they could bring enough firepower to quickly chew through a planet's planetary shielding while protecting the besiegers. They were expensive to make and use, so being handed three for effectively nothing was an incredible boon.

Then, there were the weapons and arms. Most of it was basic items enchanted with baseline runes, as those who made them were unaware of who would be using them backup items meant to be battlefield replacements. That didnt mean those items were valuable, a mediocre weapon was better than.

Those weapons and arms would not only relieve some of the pressure off their own crafters, but their theft had deprived the enemy of those same items.

There was more, Team Zero had raided a supply depot meant to supply a warfront, but the combat items were ultimately the most important goods they got ahold of.

Farrah had never stepped foot inside a rift or been closer to a battlefield than the recording she viewed, but even she knew the importance of such supplies.

Before she submitted her report, she reviewed Dao Child Maven in the last fight. But with just the recordings from the ship, she wasnt able to see any obvious tells of what was boosting her so greatly. General Darrows suspicion that Maven was using a new potion had merit, but there were several oddities that didnt fit that theory.

When using a potion that greatly boosted one's power so completely, there was usually a great deal of wasted power. There were usually some traces of mana leaking from spells as well, since one was able to throw around more mana but was used to lower limits. There were even physical reactions to potions of that magnitude that should be present, like discolored eyes or blood. Backing up her assumption was Ascender Torch, who was a notable blood mage in her own right, and hadnt felt any unique potions in Dao Child Mavens blood.

It was entirely possible that Ascender Torch just couldn't perceive such a potion, but it was also possible for a Talent to directly kill everyone in the Realm. Possible, but so incredibly unlikely it should be dismissed.

General Darrow was good, but Farrah disagreed with his assessment and added in her own theories.

Not that she had anything better.

There were just too many oddities with Dao Child Maven.

The only hint that Farrah had found was three.

When Maven took a blow to her head that might have risked her life, there were three different spells used to protect her life. It was quite difficult to tell, as one was the Dao Childs normal defense, a moonlight barrier. But it was surrounded by a haze of light and dark smoke that could easily be mistaken as part of the base barrier. Given her readings, she was fairly certain that they were each separate effects. The moonlight, the dark haze, and the light haze all had unique magical signatures, working in unison and only distinguishable because they had gone out of phase under sufficient pressure.

Farrah had no answer as to what could possibly cause such an oddity, but she trusted the instruments and their data. It wasnt her job to have all the answers, but to sort and aggregate data for others who might be able to glean something more from it.

After finalizing her report, she submitted it to the higher-ups.

It was their job to worry about the war.

She just got to play with data, and eagerly dug into the next report that landed on her desk.

***

General Declan Raven looked across the battlefield maps and pondered how the Empire should best weather the most recent push. It had been a coordinated attack from all their enemy Great Powers, but they had been ready for it, and at first, they had held up admirably.

Once Duke Waters went down, the Tier 35 battlefields had recklessly advanced, and the others had taken that as a sign to do the same.

With their highest Tier battlefields no longer under the threat of being threatened by the Duke, it was smart to push up and use them as secure anchor points for things like harassing supply lines needed to sustain the rest of the war fronts, but it put great pressure on the Empire.

That was why he had pushed for the mission that sent Team Zero deep behind enemy lines, where they could hopefully remove a supply depot. For anyone except an Ascender, it was a near-suicidal move, but that was why he pushed for Team Zero to go. Ascenders loved nothing more than fighting in impossible odds.

The plan was simple. Without supplies, the lower-Tier battlefields wouldnt be able to keep up their rapid advancement, which would leave the Tier 35 battlefields overextended and allow for a counterattack. If the enemy Great Powers reacted too quickly, most of the Tier 35 battlefields would retreat back into the larger offensive line, which was still a victory, as it would free up their supply routes. But if the Empire's plan worked out, they would be able to encircle a number of the Tier 35 battlefields and deal a significant blow to their highest Tier battlefields combatants.

Declan had pushed for an immediate surrounding of the battlefields, but while the other General had agreed with his plan to neuter the offensive push by destroying an important supply depot, they hadnt been willing to risk so much on a mission with unseasoned Ascenders.

That was foolishness of the highest order, but he was only one of a dozen Generals who had overall command of the Empire's defenses.

It just all came down to whether the Ascenders could do the impossible. He wouldnt have an answer until the Ascenders returned or were reported captured, which made all the Generals nervous. With two Ascenders active, it was all but impossible yet still nerve-wracking.

He still thought it was best to commit to the full plan if they were going to send their Ascenders into battle, but also understood not risking their reserve Tier 35 troops with Duke Waters still recovering.

He was going through battlefield reports when General Gloria Kjarr jerked. He was already cranking his perception to the limit, so seeing that allowed him to instantly jump on the information packet that dropped.

Declan quickly scanned it, and seeing the main line, he immediately initiated a vote to send the Tier 35 reserves to encircle the enemy battlefields before they could escape back to the safety of their lines.

General Kjarr immediately agreed, and just a moment later, there was unanimous agreement between the eleven of them. With their pre-planned orders going out and setting in motion what would hopefully deal a decent blow to their overreaching enemies, he read deeper into the files.

Team Zero had done quite well, securing all major objectives with only minor losses of their own.

They would only know for sure when Maven came back to the battlefield, but he suspected she would be out for the next few years at least. The Sects would shove her into a Tier 35 rift to take advantage of the time dilation, the same way they did with their own elite units. But even so, the methods he knew that could bring someone of Mavens power to the level she had just displayed normally took years of recovery before one was able to use them again.

With Wellspring, most of Team Zero would be up and out in a matter of weeks in real time, according to the damage reports they suffered. Graduate Torment would require more than that, but he would make a full recovery in time.

What caught his attention even more than Maven was the list of supplies they had successfully brought back to the Empire.

That was more than he or anyone else had expected them to be able to bring, and that opened up some opportunities.

Leaning forward, he tapped the table, pulling the other Generals' attention from their own reports and to him.

I think we

General Crawford interrupted him before he even got started. I believe that we should take the time to decide on the distributions of the equipment before moving onto anything else. That is, unless you were going to suggest the same thing Raven?

Declan shook his head and sat back upon seeing the others agreeing with Crawford.

General Li raised a finger and brought everyone's attention to a distribution plan she had already created. I believe this is as fair a distribution as possible.

There was only one item everyone looked at. Most of the goods stolen from the Republic were useful, but not notable or important enough to bicker over, but the portable fortresses were another matter.

Declan didnt particularly care about them. They were Tier 20 and just generally not something he, or anyone he had connections with, would care about getting their hands on.

By design, all of the generals in the High Command came up through different paths to reach their current positions, and while they were all dedicated to the Empire, they all represented their own people's interests. Having different viewpoints and experiences ensured they could make decisions for the entirety of the army, and not just a narrow portion of it that they had experience with. More than that, none of them were fools. They had seen millennia of combat before even being considered for a spot in High Command.

General Li had worked her way to her current position through the general army, with most of her time spent in the sub twenties. That she allocated one of the portable fortresses to a unit she had spent considerable time in as a Colonel wasnt surprising, but opened her up to attacks.

And General Brooks jumped on General Lis suggestion. Preposterous. 2nd Division is on rotation to the backlines. They neither need nor can use a portable fortress. It's better given to

As the politics started to tick on, Declan ignored it all and studied the Realm map, looking for openings. Opportunities.

He had come up through the special forces, and while all his boys and girls would love to get their hands on a portable fortress, they would just throw it at a planet or use it as an impressive place to get shit-faced between missions.

No, he didnt really care, and in the end, he would side with General Li if she was able to sway some of the others. She had backed his proposal to send Team Zero on this mission, and this was an easy way to pay her back.

Letting his eyes drift, he scanned and found a few places hed like to send Team Zero.

There were places they could make an outsized impact, and after their last showing, he wanted to push them forward. Duke Waters was still down, but if their plan to take out the over reaching Tier 35 battlefields was successful, they could stall both the Tier 35 and Tier 25 battlefields, and in turn, the entire advance. Once momentum was lost, it was hard to regain.

As he heard the conversation about the portable fortress turn into a vote, he indicated his support of General Li with two taps of his fingers.

She nodded to him, but he was only waiting for the decision to be made. The moment it was, he pounced. I believe that we should leverage our victory into stalling the warfront. Seeing that he wasnt interrupted, he highlighted a few of the systems he believed would make the greatest impact to send Team Zero into.

After he made his case for each and highlighted the advantages he wanted to hammer into his fellows, he leaned back, indicating he was done speaking.

General Wilkerson looked around the table but settled on General Hale. It's a viable suggestion, but I dont think I agree. It would serve the Empire better if we used Team Zero to reinforce some of our existing battlefields. If we move fast, we could free up dozens of battlefields in short order.

General Hale nodded in agreement. I concur. The Federation moved their third and fifth cohorts into Isseral and Aenixar. Team Zero could repel those advances, and we know they can hold those positions, which frees up the armies we would otherwise need to send to relieve those sieges. We could even have them clear one and hold the other for an extended period of time, as they are just a single jump away, and Prima Ace Drifter can easily cover that distance alone.

General Crawford shook his head. No, no, that's not a good use of our Ascenders. What about sending them deeper into enemy territories to wreak some havoc? Burn another supply depot down. Assassinate an important commander or three. With the right precision strikes, we can do even more damage.

That's far too risky. I suggest we

The conversation went around in circles for a full five minutes as each of them argued for or against their own ideas and strategies.

Once they were all championing their own ideas and right where he wanted them, Declan opened his mouth to offer his own suggestion they wouldnt otherwise accept, but General Kjarr beat him to it.

I think we have gotten too fixated on the idea of Team Zero as a single entity. We have two sets of Ascenders, and we might as well use them like that. Split them in half and have them hit two objectives. With Ascender Shadow, we can even reform the team on short notice if needed.

Declan nodded and added his own support. I agree. Let them hit Isseral and Aenixar at the same time before splitting off on their own separate missions.

With that suggestion, he gathered partial support from General Hale and General Wilkerson, but he looked to General Li and General Casey for additional support. While General Li indicated support, General Casey shook her head.

One half of that team hasnt even received their full complement of equipment. I feel it's too risky to send them so deep behind enemy lines under those circumstances.

General Brooks shook his head, and for the first time this conversation, spoke. As much as I hate to agree with anything Raven suggests, I feel his suggestion holds merit. Worst comes to worst, we have Ascender Shadow teleport them back into the rift to get their armor between missions. Our last reports say their version one prototypes were near completion, and what better way to stress test their new gear? The real question is, what do we have them do once they split?

With his support, the motion was going to be forced through, and the conversation turned to where they felt the Ascenders would be better sent after Isseral and Aenixar.

The entire time, Declan never stopped looking at the map and trying to find some kind of point of failure, even going so far as to poke at his Domain a little to see if it had any good ideas.

The Great Powers were massive, which meant it was impossible for there to be a single point of failure that could topple the entire war, but there were always places they could do serious damage, like the supply depot.

His gut told him there was something, but his eyes and mind werent seeing it.

His gut was always right. It had kept him alive through thousands of dangerous missions, and he trusted it. Even when it got him into hot water, it was right. If he got in trouble that just meant he just failed to interpret his gut correctly.

Letting his vision drift over to the Guilds territories he grinned.

There it was.