Chapter 168

Chapter 168

Emmanuel arrived in Doronines real space to find two spiritual senses Dicomatys, and a slightly weaker one he didn't recognize lock onto him.

He entered the atmosphere of the ecumenopolis without a ripple, despite how tempted he was to just punch out and blast the planet apart. He could simply remove a rival before the inevitable war even started.

But that wasnt how the game was played, and no matter the impending disaster, he was unwilling to haphazardly slaughter so many innocents. Besides, for as much as they despised the Empire, neither Dicomatys nor Janets profiles suggested they would do something so blatant, so he would continue to play nice.

Further, the Tier 47 planets, like this one, were the greatest treasures that each of the Great Powers had. They each had an out-sized impact on how quickly all of the other planets in the realm Tiered up. To destroy one would put the entire universe backwards. No one would allow even their bitterest rivals capital to take any permanent damage.

Janet appeared right before him with a teleport skill. The first thing Emmanuel noticed was that she rippled with power, confirming the unknown spiritual sense he felt alongside Dicomatys was her. She was sitting at the peak of Tier 49, and her spirit was packed full of essence, making her just one crunch of power away from achieving Tier 50.

Smiling, Emmanuel waited for her to speak.

Janet said nothing, but scanned Emmanuel up and down. As the silence stretched a full, tedious second, Emmanuel decided that any polite greeting protocols were clearly out of the picture. Instead, he brushed past her to head onto the Presidential Hill.

Janet attempted to lock him down with her Aspect, but Emmanuel slipped through its control with one of his Tier 25 Talents. The woman hadnt reached Tier 50 yet, and thus, she didnt understand. He didnt hold it against her.

As he was leaving, Janet finally deigned to speak, Unbelievable. Is that really how you treat your host?

Emmanuel sighed. Janet was full of her own newfound power, both political and cultivation, and was already hostile towards himself and his Great Power.

But he would be the bigger person. Madam President Elect, youre not my host for this event. Not yet. President Dicomaty is.

Brushing past her, he entered the area that was reserved for foreign Great Powers and found Head Elder Winter Hornet, the Sect's leader, sitting in the middle of the room. He was toying with a chess knight across from Chancellor Virgil, the Federation's leader but they weren't playing.

Both were blatantly hostile to the Empire, so he ignored them. Nothing he could say would ever sway their opinions, so he didnt bother.

Off to the side sat both Managing Director JR and First Shepherd Toby, the leaders of the Corporations and Monsters Collective, respectively. JR was a mundane raven who had managed to start cultivating on his own, eventually gaining sapience before becoming a crafter of great renown. Even in his bird form, he started making uniquely enchanted items that sold very well, and leveraged that into a massive business empire. It only grew larger and larger as his crafting and mercantile skills became more and more profound.

His business acumen and crafting abilities kept him moving up in the capitalistic battlefield that was the Corporations, until eventually, he was able to buy enough support for his Ascension to Tier 50. According to Harper, the intelligence community suspected that JR had also formed his own unique bloodline, but was obscuring it somehow to still appear as a Rank 1 bird. He had asked Aunt Helen to subtly dig into it the last time JR came to the border to, once again, propose to her, but she hadnt been able to confirm either way.

Still, the raven was living proof that Mara was an idiot, not because she started life as a bird, but simply because she was an idiot. As usual, he stayed in his bird form, moving the chess pieces with his beak and talons. Unnecessary, but JR disdained using his Concept to move things in his bird form. If he really needed hands, he just shifted to his human form briefly.

Toby was a World Turtle, or Zaratan as they were sometimes called. They had learned of the Rank 3 bloodline from one of the few people that had chosen to give up their lives in the higher realms and descend to theirs, if the half-broken [AI] data dumps were to be relied on. The scant shreds of data were the only information they had on Tobys kind in the entire realm.

The body he was chatting in right now held a weight and pressure that only one of his species could possess, comparable to the mass of a larger brown dwarf star, last Emmanuel had heard but it was always growing so that information might be out of date. The back of his shell contained its very own super planet, and all the relevant necessities for life, including landmasses, oceans, tides, weather patterns, and most importantly, rifts.

Fortunately, despite his own Tier being 50, his portable landmass was only Tier 22, making it effectively irrelevant in the Great Power's struggles.

The World Turtle was one of the few Rank 3 beast bloodlines in the realm, and the only one with a publicly known Rank 3. Though, it was hard to hide when his true body went anywhere. It had been a matter of study for a while after Toby reached Rank 3, to see how the world on his shell managed to exist and function without issues, even while he was in human form, but they had only been able to chalk it up to beast bloodline shenanigans.

Neither were hostile to the Empire, and Emmanuel nodded to them as he went and sat down next to Grandmaster Allister, his closest ally here and the leader of the Guilds. The man, as he usually did, had six metal balls orbiting behind his head.

Allister had offered his Talent to Emmanuel when he reached Tier 50, as part of a set of trade deals, but he had politely declined to push for better terms elsewhere. Ultimately, the superior deals hed secured were worth far more than the mans Tier 50 Talent, as it was largely useless without the entire set and so didnt mesh well with Emmanuels mix and match Talent style. Still, with war on the horizon, it might not be a terrible idea to at least reconsider the idea. He could hardly afford to leave power on the table, not if he were likely to fight.

Off to the side were Sword Saint Hastor and his own Tier 49 replacement, Aoife. The combination of the two was almost comical, with Hastor's slender six-and-a-half-foot frame and close-cut hair totally contrasting Aoifes five-foot even stature. She was nearly as wide as she was tall, and had more hair than head.

The woman was a part of the Clans royal bloodline, which consisted of the direct descendants of the founder of the Clans. They were human, or at least technically so... Probably. It wasnt entirely clear how hed done it, but the founder of the Clans had established his own bloodline, without a beast anywhere in his lineage.

Theories abounded among those who cared, but what Emmanuel found most likely was a treasure rumored to be findable in Tier 47 rifts, which could give the user a bloodline of their choosing, or strengthen an existing one. There were no Human Bloodlines, but something must have happened. The feat had never been replicated previously, or since. An item from the border of a higher realm, meant for use on a beast, but applied to a human instead? It made sense to him, but no one could confirm something that happened so long ago. Even Aunt Helen was just a chick when the Clans founder ascended let alone when he created his bloodline.

Then again, perhaps it was just a Talent. Stranger examples certainly existed, and especially at higher tiers, it was almost easier to list the things that Talents couldnt do. Regardless, they were an utterly unique existence among the Great Powers.

The dwarves, as they called themselves, were short at a maximum natural height of about 53. They sacrificed height for sturdy bodies that were far more physically resistant than a normal human body. Their bloodline abilities granted them greater durability, an innate understanding of metalworking, and some fairly interesting biology. Whether their metal skeletal structure actually assisted in them being better smiths was debatable, and no one could say if it was part of the bloodlines power. The only certainty was that the bloodline widely resulted in some of the best metalsmiths in the Realm.

Technically, they were considered beasts, but as their beast form was a humanoid one that could still procreate with baseline humans, no one truly considered them as such. Not that the clan royalty bred outside their own very often, but it did happen, if only when the baseline human married into the clan. Even then the candidate would have to possess enough bloodline natural treasures to ensure that the half-blood children could reach Tier 15 and purge their human blood altogether.

The dwarves technically had a distinct human form, as beasts did, but they were born in their dwarf beast forms, and never switched from them, even after Tier 15. They considered it a great shame to take human form, and at Tier 15, many went through a sacrifice to purge the ability altogether.

Aoife was known to Emmanuel, and he had sampled her Talent. She was a monster in a small package.

For her Tier 1 Talent, she was able to create and share a separate essence pool, which allowed one hundred others to link a small fraction of their allocated essence to a greater collective. Anyone of the collective could then tap into that power to give them a temporary boost, but Aoife could control the entire pool. If not actively used, the essence gave everyone a small, passive boost in power, but it was relatively minor when compared to the active boost which added the entire pool to her own power.

Then, her Tier 3 and Tier 25 followed the same patterns, but allowed her to promote her original one hundred followers to higher positions, and recruit another one hundred people into the same structure. Those recruited were then able to do the same, and could introduce a new level beneath them. She, as the originator, was able to tap into everyones essence pools for a short term but massive power bonuses.

He expected her Tier 50 to continue down that path as well, and she would then have one hundred million people to share essence with. That would make her a tough opponent, but he had secured Hastors and her promise to not interfere with the upcoming wars, as long as the Empire promised to defend the Clans if they were attacked during the same time period.

No one had been willing to fight Hastor and his ridiculous power, and so the Clans had expanded rapidly under his rule, but that earned them nearly as much ire as the Empire had for themselves.

Almost.

Aoife wasnt strictly an ally, but she was better than purely neutral.

Emmanuel was happy to have her outside the upcoming fights, if for no other reason than the fact that she had secured the loyalty of the other royal families in the Clans, thanks to her Talent. It made the Clans a far more united front than most Great Powers could ever produce.

Sadly, her Talent was like Allisters, a power set that only really worked well if each part of the whole was perpetually active. He did wonder what title it would lead her to choose when she took over.

Every Tier 50 leader of the Clans was awarded the title of Saint, but each new leader would declare what specifically they would be the Clans Saint of. It was usually based on some combination of their Domain, Talent, specializes, achievements, and what they hoped their reign would represent for their people. Hastor became the Sword Saint for plainly obvious reasons. With Aoifes Talent and contributions though, Emmanuel could see her taking the title in a few different directions.

Left to their own devices, the leaders of the Great Powers chatted and hammered out deals. Mostly, this centered around JR from the Corporations, as they acted as a neutral trading hub among the Great Powers. However, closer allies like himself and Allister could and did make trade agreements on their own.

Small-scale trading often occurred between the border worlds, but high Tier, rare, and heavily demanded items were considered too valuable to leave in the hands of low Tier middlemen. For such cargo, the Corporations would happily act as a secure go-betweens, offering their own guarantees for a small percentage cut of the sale.

That, if nothing else, earned them a steady stream of profit and connections. It also helped that no one was willing to attack the Corporations because they had some of the best mercenary companies in the Realm.

Blades for hire, they were willing to do damn near anything for the right price, including fighting in wars. They werent willing to throw their lives away, but they were willing to do anything short of suicide missions if the rewards were sufficient.

Part of their existence was to act as a backup to the Corporation's standing army. They were elite troops that saw more combat than most of the other Great Powers elite forces, and they fought like it. If the Corporations went to war, all of the mercenary companies were recalled and ordered to fight for their cause.

It was an interesting contradiction that a Great Power so centered around profit and corporate structures had fostered such a patriotic citizenry, but they had citizens that could give the Sects a run for their money in radical nationalism.

If they werent the second smallest Great Power, only ahead of the recently cut down Federation, they would have been exterminated by a collective alliance of the other Great Powers long ago. But they knew their position, and kept their expansion in line with the other Great Powers, always ensuring that they were in the bottom half of all the Great Powers in terms of size.

Still, they hit above their weight and were always willing to join wars if the price was right.

Emmanuel half expected them to join the upcoming war with the Empire in one way or another.

It wouldnt be malicious, but a simple cost-benefit analysis. The Corporations had turned being neutral middlemen into an artform. They were no ones allies yet everyones allies at the same time, depending on how valuable it would be. It meant they were never truly targeted, but neither could they be relied upon. Accordingly, he hoped that hed be able to find something that theyd find worthwhile enough to sit out the upcoming wars. JR wouldnt stop mercenaries from hiring themselves out, but Emmanuel at least wanted to keep the Great Powers standing army out of the fray as well.

A three versus two would be way more tenable than going against four factions.

It just depended on what the other side had promised them.

As they made their deals the entire ecumenopolis was celebrating Dicomatys impending Ascension, and Janets rise to Tier 50.

Even the vastly different people and city structure didnt stop Emmanuel from enjoying the festivities.

The whole ordeal reminded him of his fathers Ascension, and his own simultaneous rise to power.

A good memory, that. Even after a thousand years, he still cherished it, despite now fully understanding why his father was so willing to leave the realm behind.

The celebrations continued for over a year, with various special events sprinkled throughout. Most of the time, Emmanuel and the other Tier 50s were there as set pieces, and just lazed around looking pretty for the cameras. All the while, their senses blanketed the Republics nearest worlds, often poking around to ease their boredom.

When the time came and Janet finally prepared to break through to Tier 50, all of them went on high alert, scouring the area for anyone trying to use the Ascension to illegally break through to Tier 47. Thankfully, no one around seemed intent on violating the old treaties, and they felt the weight of the world settle on her.

Emmanuel smirked as his newest rival winced.

Few people really understood what standing at the peak of this pyramid really meant.

To reach Tier 50 was to become connected with the Realm itself. Literally. That was why each of them could sense the ripples of anyone breaking past Tier 45, from anywhere in the entire realm. Crossing the chasm between Tiers also granted a massive jump in power. To push oneself to the ceiling of Tier 49, and then smashing through to the other side, an outlandish quantity of essence was required. When all of that potential coalesced and activated during the breakthrough, the metamorphosis shattered reality, even for people at their level.

Tier 1 Talent: Instinctive understanding of swords and bladed weapons.

Tier 3 Talent: Bladed weapons you wield and any enchantments they have are empowered to match with an equivalent weapon of your Tier.

Tier 25 Talent: You may pre-cast a skill into a blade you wield for storage, and may freely cast it later. Blade-specific skills cast this way have strongly increased effect.

Tier 50 Talent: You perfectly control what your sword cuts.

Finally, seeing exactly what Hastors Talents did, he was more impressed with the older man. Everyone thought he had a Talent for inspirations, but Emmanuel was feeling the proof inside his own spirit.

Hastor was just that good.

The Tier 1 was something Emmanuel had a few dozen variations of, but he still equipped it to see if he learned anything new. Talents werent all the same, no matter how similar their effects. Hastor's Tier 1 gave him no new knowledge though, and he moved on to the Tier 3.

It was damn useful. Even he only had a Tier 48 weapon, and its enchantments were limited by its materials. If the Talent upgraded the weapon, he might be able to swap it out and keep the effects. Hed have to test with a lower Tier weapon, as Tier 48 weapons were rare, since the metals were only gathered from rare Tier 47 rift rewards. With the way the Talent felt in his spirit, it seemed like even the metal would be upgraded, which made for some interesting possibilities.

Hed also need to see if he could swap out the Tier 25 and keep a skill stored in the weapon. That could make the Talent incredibly useful, but once again, he wasnt going to risk his own weapon on a test that could fail in a million ways.

The Tier 50 was the real treasure. It was a combat-oriented Tier 50 Talent, instead of his father's past and future sight.

Now that Emmanuel had this, he could fight without any loss against the other Tier 50s. Instead of always being on the defensive, he could go on the attack with builds that perfectly countered each of them.

Hastor may be leaving, but Emmanuel became a lot more dangerous.

It only cost him defending the Clans if they were attacked. Not a small price, but one he was happy to pay.

Before they left, Emmanuel asked Hastor a question that surprised the man. Laughing, he agreed. Hastor even said that hed make a distraction so the others didnt notice Emmanuel using his Talent.

Two years later, Hastor and Aoife took to the skies and they all watched as the young dwarven woman broke through to Tier 50.

There was nothing unusual about that, but what shocked all of them all was that Hastor spoke.

From my awakening to now, I surmounted every Tier with an Inspiration. Many have asked if I had one ready to reach Tier 51 for when I ascended, but I never answered them.

Hastor smiled at the other Tier 50s, one by one. Each and every recipient felt a chill wash over them.

Really, the question everyone should have asked is; why would I wait? Hastors smile widened. It wasnt overtly malicious, but Emmanuel and everyone else immediately had their weapons drawn at the ready.

Hastor pointed his sword at the sky.

I am The Sword.

The world rumbled, and all the essence on the planet started to rush into Hastor. It wasnt enough, and the Realm opened up and started to spew essence into Hastor like a flood. But that wasn't all. A power greater than an Aspect unfurled from Hastor.

He had established his Authority.

Everyone knew the basic requirements for a Domain.

A Concept to reach Tier 5.

An Intent to reach Tier 25.

An Aspect to reach Tier 50.

Known to far fewer, an Authority was needed to reach Tier 75, and Hastor had just created his in the lower Realm, at Tier 51. A stunning twenty-four Tiers early.

His power was quite literally beyond this Realm, and crushed down on them like the pressure of standing on a sun.

At the same time, precious little of the essence flowed into the planet around Hastor. He was like a bottomless whirlpool as he broke into Tier 51.

When the torrent ended, the bounds of the Realm started zealously rejecting Hastors existence, and he began ascending automatically. Still, they could all feel that he didnt use his Authority to resist it. If he had, he might have lingered, which was a horrifying thought.

As he faded away, he lowered and brandished his sword, sending a dark premonition through everyone's spirits. Hastor was in position to unleash one final attack. His Authority hung over them like an executioners blade.

Hastors last words shaved at their ears instead of his blade, though.

Youll always know that I had time for the final strike. That you were all spared.

Hearing that, Emmanuel threw his Talent at Hastor's fading figure over and over again, trying to catch his Talent as it was upgraded by the Ascension. This was the perfect time to test his theory that he could, in fact, pickpocket a Talent mid-Ascension. Hastor has said he would create a distraction for Emmanuel but he hadn't expected something so large.

The first few times, his Talent grabbed nothing.

He was writing it off as a failed experiment when just as Hastor's nude form and blade were nearly gone, his Talent gripped onto something. The copy of Hastors Talent inside his spirit resonated with its twin, and then morphed as an updated version slotted in place.

As everyone else stood horrified at Hastors naked threat, Emmanuel was reveling in the successful execution of his plan.

A few microseconds passed in the time it took to understand the changes. When he conceptualized them, his face began shifting until he was grinning like Mara or Leon. The last of his self-discipline was spent barely withholding a cackle from escaping his throat.

Tier 1 Talent: Instinctive understanding of swords and bladed weapons. Inherently understand the fighting style of opponents wielding bladed weapons as well.

Tier 3 Talent: Bladed weapons you wield, and any enchantments they have, are empowered to match with an equivalent weapon of your Tier. The effect lingers for hours equal to your Tier.

Tier 25 Talent: You may pre-cast a skill into a blade you wield for storage, and may freely cast it later. Blade-specific skills cast this way have increased effect. Stored skills grow stronger with time, based on how long the blade is equipped.

Tier 50 Talent: You perfectly control what your sword cuts. You may uncut what you have cut.

As his own thoughts spun, Aoife hastily performed damage control with the other Tier 50s, who now took their recent panic out on her. With time for one decisive strike, a Tier of greater power, and an Authority, Hastor could have slaughtered all of them. But he chose not to.

That caused the invincible rulers of quadrillions to feel fear for the first time in who knew how long, and they didnt like it.

Emmanuel couldn't care less.

He had taken an evolved Talent set from someone Ascending.

One by one, he pondered the implications of his four new treasures.

The Tier 1 and Tier 25 upgrades were strong, but not insane. He already had multiple Talents sets that could produce similar or better effects as needed.

The Tier 50 upgrade was interesting, but of still limited use to Emmanuel. Instinctively, he also felt that the Talent still had a strict time limit on its uncutting, which stunted the applications further.

Additionally, the Talent needed to be kept continuously active from the cut to the uncut for it to work. Though, seeing as he only possessed two Tier 50 Talents, he would not be swapping it out when in combat.

The true prize, what he really wanted, was the Tier 3 evolution. For someone who swapped out their Talents, it was perfect. He could empower a sword before battle, and still reap the benefits of this Tier 3 Talent, even after he swapped it out. The intended purpose of the Talent was probably Hastor outfitting the people around him but it worked perfectly for Emmanuel and his own abilities.

With enough creativity, almost every single one of his builds could potentially benefit. He would need to have a massive armory of swords crafted with enchantments specifically designed for each build or counter he could ever need. Since they could be low Tier weapons, the cost involved would be almost nonexistent.

Everyone said that Ascension upgraded the body, which made them physically stronger than those born on a higher Realm. It would empower the spirit, which encompassed Talents. And it would strengthen their Domains, their Concept, Intent, Aspect, and for Hastor, his Authority. But he hadnt realized how much stronger it would make each of them.

If the Talent upgrade was anything to judge by, the benefit was substantial.

He couldnt wait for his own Ascension, and was kicking himself for not trying this before with his own ascenders. Even just getting their Tier 1 through Tier 25 Talents upgraded would have been worth the trip, if they were all as strong as this.

Emmanuel now had a Tier 50 sword for fifty hours at a time. Hed still need to do some testing, but he was sure it would work as he wanted now.

As the other Tier 50s left Westmorra with simmering bellies full of anger, he left with a smile and a new plan.

War was coming.

But now he was ready.