The Path of Ascension 4: A LitRPG Adventure

20

Matt thought that was a good thing and was about to say so when Luna shook her head. “Matt, you need to realize that three rulers ago, the Empire was in fourth place. In a little more than sixty thousand years, The Empire has gone from fourth place to first. That’s not just unheard of, it’s incredibly frightening to the other Great Powers. Add in the fact that we have an ascender in Duke Waters, along with another team about to complete The Path. The other Great Powers are scared. Terrified even. They want to take us down a peg or twelve, so they have time to recreate our success.”

He interjected at the slight pause. “Why attack us? Isn’t everyone afraid of Duke Waters? It seems like it would be better to sit back and let him advance past Tier 35.”

Luna shrugged. “At any given time, a Great Power is about as likely as not to have an Ascender. One usually appears every thirty to forty thousand years, and they usually will remain in war Tiers for about fifteen to twenty-five thousand years. On the rare occasions when a single Great Power does have two Ascenders, it’s always been right at the end of the former’s career, when they’re getting ready to push to new frontiers. They might stick around for a little bit, win a couple minor wars, but then move on. That’s the problem. Duke Waters has been an ascender for just over a thousand years, and he’s in no rush to move on. Two ascenders in a millennium is impossibly fast. We’ve proven that our method works, Matt. If the other Great Powers don’t attack now, they won’t ever have the chance again. But if they attack now, and force us to give concessions about expanding, our progress will slow enough that they can catch up.”

Mathew spoke up, “So, war is inevitable?”

From the tone, Matt figured that the man already knew the answer, but didn’t blame him for asking anyway.

“Yes, Mathew. We expect it to happen when Light and Shadow reach Tier 25, and officially complete The Path. That will give our enemies a reason to declare without looking like petty tyrants.”

“How can we win a one versus how many war?” Melinda sounded quite worried, and Matt understood her concern. “And why don’t they just attack us before Light and Shadow can complete The Path?”

Luna held up four fingers. “It will probably be a four versus two. The Guilds will support us since they’re our allies and have recreated most of our programs. They would have increased in ranking if not for a streak of awful luck, with new worlds not drifting by them. But they haven’t decayed in power either, which is telling. It would be us two against The Sects, The Republic, and The Federation. Possibly, we’ll have to contend with The Corporations as well. They’re strictly neutral for this sort of thing until they’re paid to care. We know The Federation will join in, as they are the weakest of the great powers, and share a border with us. They’ve also never forgiven us for helping dismantle them and creating The Monster Collective.”

“Wait, what?” Vinnie raised his hand while looking sheepish.

Matt only knew because Liz had said something about that when they were on the training planet.

Luna grinned, showing all her teeth. “Yes. We and everyone else jumped down their throats when they got too strong. They were assholes who deserved it, but don’t mistake the real reason for it. The then strongest Great Power got lucky and found a natural Tier 46 planet drifting deep into their own territory, not even near their borders.”

Matt had a sinking feeling that he wouldn’t like where the conversation was going.

His trainer seemed to notice and looked at him. “Yes, Matt. No one could allow a Great Power to have the equivalent of a second capital world. They could have created more Tier 46s than anyone else, breaking the current balance of power. Currently, everyone is limited by the fact we all have a single Tier 47 planet. It limits the number of higher Tier people that a Great Power can have when they need to raise up a new Tier 50 every thirty thousand years. The Federation having two was unacceptable.”

She raised two hands like a scale and started to raise them up and down in counterpoint. “No one could allow them to have a fresh, mana full, rift full Tier 46 planet. Thankfully, there was an excuse to go to war. They had been treating those with bloodlines, and Bonds as second-class citizens. It had been going on for a while and was only getting worse. That was the reason every other Great Power declared war on them at the same time. Or at least officially, we came to the aid of the beast liberation movement. That was our justification for war. We weren’t taking the knees out from under a rival. We were saving the downtrodden.”

Matt was able to draw the parallel to his own Talent, and what it meant. The realization made his throat go dry, and he had to swallow twice to ask, “And what happened? Did the higher Tiers fight?”

Luna laughed, “The Federation got their asses beat and most of their lands taken over. And yes, the war had combatants as high as Tier 42 toward the end, but the battles were kept out of real space. None of the Great Powers could decide on how to split the territory, and with our official justification being the treatment of Beasts, a new Great Power was raised. The territory was split, and most of the lands were given to the self-named Monster Collective. The Federation was given the weaker capital planet, and the worst areas of land. They hate us enough to jump in a war to try and expand into better territory.”

Unwilling to say it directly, Matt asked while gesturing to himself, “What about…”

The shorter woman seemed to understand even without him spelling it out. “Our situation is different. We have an agreement with the Clans to stay out of any wars because of an agreement between Emmanuel and their current ruler. The next one up is unlikely to break that agreement. Then, we have very good relations with The Monster Collective, so they’re unlikely to join in either. But that’s only the first war for Light and Shadow. I believe the current strategy is to cause enough damage in that war so that no one is willing to go for a second round so soon.”

“And if they are?” Matt really didn’t want to know but needed to ask.

Luna seemed unbothered as she said, “Who knows? Maybe another high Tier war. We just don’t know, Matt. All we can do is prepare.” She blinked and then turned to Melinda, “Forgive me, that explanation took too long and led me astray of your question. Why wait to attack for Light and Shadow to complete The Path, correct?”