The Path of Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure, page 71
Now, they were left scrambling to try and recreate the Empire's success.
The other powers had taken note when Duke Waters had risen and were incredibly frightened of Light and Shadow’s impending completion of The Path.
At least they aren’t on track for completing The Path in a hundred years.
Emmanuel sighed. He had needed to capture the man who would become Duke Waters and sit on him. If anyone had known he was on track to complete The Path in half the time, the war would have been instantly declared. Tier 25 on one's own effort, especially within one hundred years old, was completely unheard of.
Even as a Tier 50, Emmanuel was shocked at how strong the man was. It was absurd. He didn’t even have any Talents related to water or combat.
If he couldn’t copy the man’s Talents, he would have never believed the duke’s Talents were about animal husbandry. They weren't even strong Talents! They just gave a small health bonus to any mundane creatures he raised himself.
Duke Waters had refused to go the non-combat route and, oh, how it had paid off.
War was inevitable, though. As usual. The Tier 50 from the number one power, the Unification of Clans, was ascending, and that would firmly put the Empire on top.
Sword Saint Hastor was a true monster and didn’t cultivate like most. No, the crazy bastard had relied on inspirations, like a crafter, to cultivate to the top of the Great Powers. He never used rifts or ambient essence. Fifty Tiers of inspiration had truly created the most unique existence on this plane.
Emmanuel wanted the man to ascend. They had a deal. Hastor would let Emmanuel copy his Tier 50. In return, as payment, he would declare that the Clans couldn’t be touched for the remainder of his time as a ruler.
It would cause trouble, but it would force them to remain neutral in the upcoming war. With The Conglomerate Guilds as a staunch ally, Emmanuel was confident in at least not losing the war. Winning would be harder, but it wasn’t impossible.
He looked over the other political entities, in order of their power, and analyzed their threat levels to the Empire.
The Unification of Clans
The Empire
The Republic
The Sects
The Conglomerate Guilds
The Monster Collective
The Corporations
The Federation
The federation was weak, especially after the civil war had separated them from what became the monster collective. The federation had started implementing speciesist laws against the beasts, monsters, and evolved humans. His father had backed the now monster collective in their bid for freedom.
Mara’s predecessor had not allowed anything else. The Monster Kingdom in the Empire was given such leeway and autonomy, only because their smart ruler realized that while they were intelligent, they were not human at heart.
The federation took that a step further and tried to enslave the non-human population. That had all come to a head when the then number two power found a second Tier 46 planet. None of the others could allow them to have planets at Tier 47 and 46. They would become too strong, and none of the Great Powers wanted that.
Seeing their chance, the beasts had rebelled and pushed a policy of equality with humans. With the other powers backing them, the faction was allowed to keep the older, stronger Tier 47 capital.
The other powers had stopped them from completely absorbing the federation, creating two weaker powers, and preventing the newly formed monster collective from gaining too much strength.
Emmanuel was able to cross the monster collective off the list of possible attackers. They had good relations, even if they weren’t officially allied.
The federation would take any opportunity to attack, but they had no truly powerful people. Though they did have a few hopefuls.
The corporations were in the same situation. Too weak to be a real threat, but they would join for scraps.
The guilds were officially allied with the Empire, so they were a non-threat. Their treaties stated that they would mostly help defend their shared border, but that was enough in Emmanuel’s mind. They had the longest connected borders of any two political entities. That fact alone let him not worry about nearly a fourth of his borders.
The sects and the republic would be the true opponents. They had already officially allied against ‘the Empire threat.’ A two against one war would be doable, just difficult.
Which brought his thoughts back to the young man with too much mana. Their projection reached a point where he and Liz decided to go to one of the vassal kingdoms, the Seven Suns Kingdom. They had just recently discovered a nice Tier 20 planet.
Emmanuel checked his AI. Yes, he had a message from the neighboring vassal queendom, the alliance of allied queens. They wanted permission to fight over the same planet. It was only five jumps away from their border, just one more jump farther than it was from the Seven Suns border.
With a thought, he accepted their proposal. A vassal war would be good training for those on The Path. He was also very unhappy with The Seven Suns recent actions, and this was a good way to remind them that they existed at his whim.
It would also help his niece, and if the two swooning idiots next to him got their way, his next nephew.
He announced the vassal war, put up rewards for participation, and sent healing squads to manage casualties.
The Empire needed to be ready for conflict, and a bit of a safe environment would allow for more growth. And hopefully fewer casualties.
He checked his AI for what Melinda was doing. Emmanuel got hourly reports on the girl, so he was always able to see what her team was up to. He wanted her to participate in this. He had three Tier 40s watching the girl at all times. She was his greatest asset, and he wouldn't risk those.
Her Tier 3 was already amazing but, at each Tier, it just got better and better. He had tweaked things and gotten her an [Area Healing] skill shard as her Tier five reward for being on The Path. He had done his own testing and found that the girl’s Talent for Overhealth also affected any subsequent healing spells cast by other healers.
Emmanuel had used [Crack Skill Shard] on every healing skill he had and purchased as many as he could without affecting the market. He needed the healer to have an incredibly slow heal over time skill. It would be game-changing in a war. But he'd had no luck so far.
The only thing he was worried about was the young lady’s mental state. She innately created a death Concept with no prompting. A healer who tried to heal death away was not a standard path. And one he worried wasn’t sustainable.
Emmanuel pushed the thoughts away as Samuel finished copying the rift. It was a small rift in space and was utterly fragile.
He looked to his two royals and friends. “All right you all, head out. I’ll destroy the evidence and this world. No second copies of this baby.”
When they left, Emmanuel stood still. Not even his hair moved. With the five off the world and in chaotic space, he released his will that held the fabric of this world together.
At the seams, the bonds of reality frayed. At Tier 5, the world was unraveling slowly, simply from his mere presence.
Switching to his fire preset Talents, he ignited the sun. As the ball of fire exploded at the speed of light from his overwhelming strength, he switched to an earth preset, and shattered the planet by pulling down its moon. Molten fragments hit his still form. When they touched him, they disintegrated against his sheer power.
He was the immovable object, and they broke against him
Most of his Concept, like his Intent and Aspect, was being used to resist the pull of the higher realms. But what little he had made him a shield that would protect the Empire.
Emmanuel had known from a young age that he would rule the Empire. His adaptability demanded it, so he accepted it without protest. He didn’t want it, but someone had to protect the average citizen, and he was best suited to being whatever the Empire needed.
Emmanuel was the bulwark for the Empire. Her enemies would have no choice but to break him, but what chance did they have when he resisted? Emmanuel’s Concept, Intent, and Aspect all revolved around protecting those under his aegis.
As the expanding sun washed around him, the Emperor raised his hand, and reality tore like a worn-out fabric.
Chaotic space rushed in and eroded everything. Not a speck of the planet and its essence remained. That cut off the reality, and Emmanuel was ejected into the chaotic space. The ember of lights that represented worlds were only visible because of their essence. With no essence, they returned to nothingness.
Emmanuel pulled out a mile-long needle with a grin, moved to Mara, and stuck her in the thigh. It only removed a drop of her phoenix essence, but the Tier 48 screamed like she was dying.
“You wanted dragon essence. I want phoenix essence. Now, we’re even.”
Emmanuel was going to gloat more when Mara clutched her butt and fell into her husband’s arms, who now wore healer’s robes.
“The prognosis doesn’t look good. You’re dying.”
Mara fluttered a hand over her forehead. “I only have one final wish. Ravish me.”
Emmanuel’s calls for them to stop were ignored.
Leon looked aghast. “But, lady, I’m married!”
With that, the two disappeared. Emmanuel took a deep breath and picked up the three lower Tiers they had left behind.
Mara had promised to give him phoenix essence once Emmanuel had mentioned wanting to make a fertility potion for his wife. They were planning to try for a child in the next few thousand years. The needle was a bit of fun, but the two lovers took any opportunity to gallivant off.
It was probably why they also had seven children without ever needing outside help.
Emmanuel just wished they didn’t leave him with ferry duties.
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C. Mantis, The Path of Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure
