The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

15

“You think I don’t know that?” Liz snapped, her voice raw. Matt reached out to grab her hand, and she clenched it tightly enough that her hand went white.

“I am well aware of what blood mages do. I’m not a healer, and don’t want to be one, but everything I’ve read has shown that it’s either being a healer or being a reprehensible, utterly horrid monster that history books will at best describe as ‘unstable’. That’s why I never even wanted to delve too deep into actual blood magic in the first place, now that I think about it. Because apparently, doing so is basically an assured way to go crazy and murder entire planets! I am all too aware of what blood mages do, I see what they do every night in my dreams. What I did.”

Luna opened her mouth, but Liz charged ahead without stopping. “And don’t say that that wasn’t me. I know that it wasn’t actually me. But tell me, at what point does it even matter if it was me or someone whose head I lived in for nearly a thousand years, watching them do everything and feeling every little bit? If I start following in their footsteps⁠—”

Liz cut herself off mid-sentence with a sharp breath and looked away, giving Matt’s hand a final squeeze and taking a deep breath. “Sorry, that was uncalled for. My next life was…”

In addition to therapy, Luna added a possible detour to see some of Liz’s family to their upcoming itinerary. Liz was broadly stable, and more than capable of overcoming her trauma once again, but Luna had made a rare misjudgment as to what Minkalla had done to the girl. It was less that she’d had an unfortunate life than it was a long-healed scar ripped up, then rubbed with salt. Multiple times at that.

In time, she would ensure that Liz excised the poor associations and preconceptions she held, and that all her misgivings were cut away. It wasn’t untrue that blood mages often did truly reprehensible things, but that was a matter of notoriety, rarity, and desire. Mana type did not influence personality in any meaningful way - the research on this was crystal clear - but certain personality types certainly favored particular elements.

Susanne’s lives were interesting enough, but nothing Luna particularly honed in on. She was Carol’s charge after all, and beyond some little bits of help, it was rude to interject on someone else’s Pather.

Once they finished with the lives, they moved onto the final floor and the rush they went through to get out of the free for all that the final floor turned into.

Luna saw the smirk Carol gave Susanne and rolled her eyes. The woman had reason to be proud, as the girl was good, but vendettas had a time and a place to be settled. That was not one of them.

Overall, she was both surprised and happy with her team’s showing in Minkalla and was even more pleased knowing they had gotten through the Forge at Tier 11. Even Matt’s little incident with having an inspiration would be a good thing in the long run, though she would have preferred it to happen sometime else.

It had nearly killed her to ensure he got to double his Talent-granted mana pool, but that was temporary.

These kids were going to be monsters when she was done with them.

Oh, she had so, so many plans.

When they finished their recounting, Luna had them remove all of the items they had gotten through their delve, and after seeing it all in one place, Matt had to admit…it was impressive.

While they had kept pretty good track of their items throughout the first four floors, once they entered the fifth floor and the fighting became hectic, most things had just gotten chucked into the house for later perusal.

Their final pile of loot was beyond massive, and once the various spatial items were emptied, larger than their house. And that wasn’t even considering the fifteen houses they had gathered from other delvers.

The houses were numerous and of varied quality. None of them were bad, per se, as the rings needed to hold a house that was also below Tier 15 were in no way cheap. But some were obviously made to a higher standard than others.

After seeing just how much they had gotten, Luna and Carol both agreed it would be dealt with once their team’s respective liaisons got back.

As it turned out, once they had started to suspect that the cycle had a Courtly Warfare, the two managers had sent their helpers out to prepare for when they came out of Minkalla in an expected year or longer, instead of the almost year they were inside.

A three month Courtly Warfare wasn’t a record, but it was close, and it had turned all their timetables on their heads.

They’d returned to chaotic space after their initial debrief and spent the time predominantly recuperating and relaxing. Carol’s ship wasn’t exactly the most luxurious place they’d ever stayed, but it still had more than enough comforts to keep themselves occupied, even if half of it wasn’t usable in their current state.

They had quite a good time, and simply being able to relax and sleep in was wonderful. There were several days when Matt and Liz just never got out of bed, as often as not just spent holding one another and talking. Their Folded Reflection lives, their battles hard-won and fun, plans for the future… They just talked and enjoyed each other’s company without the risk of death looming over them.

“She’s definitely helping me with…the memories, that’s for sure.” Liz sighed, her head resting on Matt’s lap. Even traveling through Chaotic Space, Luna had gotten them some virtual therapy sessions set up, with in-person meetings loosely set up next time they were in a suitable location.

“Well, that’s good. Progress, right?” Matt remembered the nightmares he’d used to have about his parents’ death, overridden by monsters, and Liz’s own lives had been worse, many times over. Considering the guilt he still felt about killing Liz in one life, Matt felt he had a faint picture of what she was struggling with. He ran his fingers lightly over her forehead, providing what comfort he could.

“Yeah, yeah. But then, with what Luna said…”

“That’s still bothering you?”

“Not one, Matt. She couldn’t find a single blood mage trainer for me that wasn’t just a healer who barely even touched the field beyond translating healing magic techniques into body magic. Luna couldn’t find a trainer. Out of quadrillions of people in the Empire, I’m the only blood mage who’s willing to use it offensively and isn’t worthy of summary execution.”

“Some just didn’t want to share,” Matt pointed out.

Liz waved her arm-stump. “That just means they’re doing ethically shady stuff on the side and don’t want the scrutiny that would come with training a Pather. Better at hiding their crimes than the ones who were executed, sure, but they most definitely are not great people.”

“You don’t know that,” he countered. “There are lots of reasons someone might decline to be a teacher, and it’s not like any kind of combat magic makes people crazy. I’m sure there are just as many fire mages who decided to burn everything down as there are blood mages who went all blood-sacrifice-crazy.”

“Are there though? There’s millions of fire mages who were great and noble and moral and went down in history, but there just aren’t any equivalents for blood mages. When they do show up in the history books, it’s always because of the awful stuff they did. And when I look at the lives I lived in Minkalla…”