The Path of Ascension

Matt sat with his team and everyone else, waiting for the attack to begin. The waiting was eating him from the inside out. It was impossible to resist checking the time. He was sure that a half an hour had passed each time he checked, but it was never more than five minutes.

Everyone was prepared for the attack on the fortress. The crafters had been busy over the last few days, creating large platforms with rudimentary lightening runes. The various flying devices would be able to lift people into the flying fortress that they were set to assault.

While the crafters had been creating the means for their assault the fighters had been intercepting the fortress’s attempts to send out new factories and establish new footholds.

In an effort to distract himself, Matt listened to the people around him talk.

“Why are we even attacking? We could just wait the golems out. Eventually, they will run out of reinforcements while we whittle them down.”

Another chimed in, “Yeah, this feels foolhardy.”

Matt didn’t bother to correct them. The prince had explained his plan already, and his logic had made sense. Either they hadn’t paid attention, or their nerves were getting the better of them. If it was the first option, Matt would be anxious about them being on his team. The second was much more understandable. He was feeling the creeping tension as well, and was finding it hard to sit still. He wanted to get up and move to ease the tension, but couldn’t.

Prince Albert had mentioned it before they even left the base camp this morning. There were visible prisoners in the golem fortress’s lower levels. They needed to be rescued as soon as possible. If that wasn’t a good enough reason to storm the gates, the scouts had reportedly spotted massive stockpiles of materials gathered by the golems.

Everyone else assumed that the golems had mined it all, but Matt knew better. The ruin was already stocked when they had ventured inside. The monsters had to have gathered the Tier 6 metals from somewhere. He had only shared his conclusion with Liz and Camilla thus far.

He had a hunch that the golems had supplied themselves through a previous ruin break, resulting in the slow and eventual buildup of high Tier materials. There was no way to share the idea with the others without drawing suspicion to themselves. In the end, it didn’t matter. Ruin breaks were much rarer than rift breaks of the same Tier.

The essence and mana required for the outpouring was a dozen or more times higher than for a normal rift break. The ruin had to be using nearly all of the mana that it was drawing in. Keeping its massive bulk afloat, along with powering the numerous golems was a monumental task.

It meant that they wouldn’t win a war of attrition, even if the golems’ outer bases had been destroyed. And the ones they couldn't, the two factories that were too well defended to conquer, were sealed off and guarded.

Matt checked his HUD, and saw that only a whopping four minutes had passed. At least it was something.

He looked behind him and checked the raised platform that the anti-air defense platform sat on. It was the only reason they were able to fly directly into the fortress. It helped to keep the hordes of flying golems at bay. The underside of the fortress was woefully undefended, so it would be the best point of entry. In comparison to the top levels of the ruin, where the massive laser that had been taking out the satellites was housed, the lower levels were essentially abandoned.

The plan was to get directly under the fortress, and go straight up its proverbial ‘skirt’, starting their invasion from the lowest levels. Starting from there would allow them to reach the prisoners first, thus increasing their fighting numbers as they progressed. It would also help to stave off any unexpected ambushes during their climb.

Matt was to join one of the three first-strike teams, and was more nervous than he had ever been before. The fight itself was one thing, but he was trusting four other people to fly him up with the other frontline melee fighters. They all had improved defences compared to the average person among the survivors. Their job was to get into the ruin, then create and hold a breach in the fortress, to provide the others a safer route to funnel into.

It was dangerous, but Matt was more worried about getting swarmed by the flying golems during the flight up, rather than actually fighting in the ruin. There was a slight comfort from knowing that he would survive the fall if their platform was destroyed. But still, falling from that height was something that he didn’t want to experience.

Liz had his flying sword, after all.

As the sun slowly creeped overhead, Matt tried to keep his attention focused on his AI, along with its recent advancements. It had been running simulations with various runes and formations in its spare time, and he had been carving the prospective runes into a few bits of wood strewn in his bag.

The chilling effect rune was the only one that actually worked out of the batch. It quickly froze the freshly cut lumber, to the point that it cracked and broke with the expansion of the ice.

Matt made a note to try it with metal, or at least dry wood that could handle rapid change in temperature. Still, the rune had worked, even if it was a half failure with its early destruction. If nothing else, Aster would probably like the chill that it could provide.

The man in full armor next to Matt had been watching him, and bumped him with his knee. He asked, “How’re you so calm, man? I’m sitting here fidgeting, and you’re just calmly playing with runes. I can’t sit still long enough to try anything.”

Matt glanced at the man, and saw a pale face that he was slightly familiar with. He had definitely seen the man in the last few days at least.

“Keeping busy helps me not check the time every thirty seconds. It was making everything worse for me. Try to carve something, or just whittle at some wood for something to do.”

Putting actions to his words, Matt tossed the man one of the pieces of wood that he had. He started to use his mana, and dumped it into the block of wood, trying to push out the moisture remaining in the still-green wood.

It was a practical application of mana manipulation that he had never done, but he did something similar while pushing out the toxins in monster flesh from rifts. Matt gave up quickly, and just carved the frost rune on the small dry patch he had created in the corner of it.

This time, it lasted long enough for his spiritual sense to get a good reading. The piece of wood was actually chilling the immediate area around it quite a bit. More so than a standard frost rune, at least as the books showed. He had partitioned his AI to prevent contamination of its learning so he could get results that weren’t tainted from the general knowledge. A quick check showed that this rune wasn’t in the database of Tier 5 and lower runes that he had saved.

A second check caused Matt to sigh. The rune was awful as far as efficiency, but it was quite a bit more powerful.

Are all the runes that my AI makes going to be so wasteful? Even if I can power anything forever, it severely limits their uses apart from myself, or even for long-term items. They would eat through any reasonable-sized mana stones so fast, it would be useless.

Before he could speculate more, the platform he was on jolted, and the wooden platform started to rise.

Checking his HUD, he found that he had been engrossed for the last forty minutes. Their departure time had finally arrived. Crushing his rune, he tossed the wooden fragments off the side of the quickly rising platform, and focused his mind.

With his sword on his lap, he readied himself for a fight. He expected the raft they were on to charge at the ruin in short order, but was instantly disappointed when it stopped at the top of the trees they were hiding in.

It was infuriating that they were unable to just get it over with, and Matt found it hard not to complain. Why had they moved at all if they were going to just sit here? They could have sat on the ground with little issue.

In the distance, Matt saw a swarm of flyers rise out of the trees, and they raced to the ruin. Matt’s heart clenched as he saw a wave of spells launch out.

There was ice and blood mixed in there.

He knew that Liz and Aster would be providing a distraction to let them get a clear path, but he worried for his friends. If anything happened to them, he didn’t know what he would do.

Maybe I’ll join Camilla in her over the top reactions?

The half-joke rang a little too true for his comfort, and Matt reassured himself that nothing would happen to them. They were strong, and they weren’t exactly planning to get into a slugging match with the golems.

As the wave of golems launched themselves into the air, Matt’s platform started moving. At first, the progress was slow. He looked to the four corners of the platform, and saw four people with flying devices strapped into it, with pursed lips and creased eyes.

Their speed increased as they moved, and soon, they were moving fast enough for the wind to batter them. They had to shout for anyone to hear each other.

Someone yelled and projected over to their AI’s, “The wind is worse than we expected. Hold on to your handhold with one hand, and the person to your right with the other. We. Can. Do. THIS!”

Doing as instructed, Matt clamped one armored hand onto the small cutout in front of him, and his other on the man’s shoulder next to him. The man to his left did the same.

The approach was the worst five minutes of Matt’s life.

The fortress was looming overhead, but as they approached, the defenses started to note their existence. The drone golems attacking the retreating mages turned, and tried to swarm the first three platforms.

Before the flying golems could disengage, and turn en masse, they faced a counter attack from the previously retreating mages. They broke off their charge, but they were able to keep a large portion of the golems engaged and unable to attack Matt’s group.

They couldn't contain all of the golems though, and as they moved forward, Matt’s stomach clenched. He desperately wanted to grab hold of his sword, but it was trapped between his legs. As they approached the ruin, he got a better look at, and count of the golems. He wished that he hadn’t.

There were nearly two hundred golems moving to attack them.

It would be a race to see who reached the fortress first, and the golems were pressing hard to reach them.

Their sheer numbers would overwhelm their anti-air defenses, and that would spell their quick and ensured demise.

Matt was sure that they would miss their opportunity, no matter what calculations his AI was outputting about them being fine. In less time than he would have thought possible, they were peppered with bolts from the flying golems. That only served to reinforce his belief that they wouldn’t make it. They were at extreme range, but they still hunkered down on the platform, causing a few defensive skills to be activated.

A large shield appeared for a moment in the air. It was made from a yellow-brown mana. Matt wanted to check the skill out, but it was quickly canceled when the bolts were proven to be ineffective, and unable to hurt them.

In what felt like years, but only took seconds, they flew into the open hold. The adrenaline in Matt’s veins pulsed through him. In the excitement, he questioned if this was the exact same hanger he had explored in the past.

His AI confirmed that it wasn’t. He didn’t have more time to think, and charged forward with the others in the first three groups of platform riders. They were meant to push forward, and hold an thus undetermined area. They preferably would secure a chokepoint that would stop the golems from using their numbers to their advantage. Meanwhile, the back rows would turn and start to guard the entrance from the golems already outside.

As Matt charged at a golem, it was turned to scrap metal when a man to his side activated [Shield Charge]. With glowing feet and shield, he sped past everyone and crushed the golems in front of him. The explosion of mana was deafening in the confined space of the hanger, but Matt’s [Cracked Phantom Armor] was enough to keep his ears safe. Unfortunately, some of the others weren’t so lucky, and their shouts of pain could be heard over the din.

Matt was kind of surprised at that. Everyone should have hearing protection for delving in underground rifts, if nothing else. He never needed them, but Liz used them almost every time they were in close environments.

It seemed amateurish to forget about that.

With his longsword fully charged, Matt obliterated a golem as he pushed forward. They reached a hill, and were greeted with a volley of crossbow bolts. The man next to Matt went down when a bolt ricocheted off the wall, and took him in the throat. Someone dragged the wounded man back, and while Matt hoped he survived, he didn’t have time to worry about him.

“Weapon swap!” His callout was acknowledged by the second ranker in behind him, who stepped forward and rotated his shield forward.

In the close quarters, Matt sidestepped a slash from a golem, and dropped his sword into his spatial bag. He withdrew his war hammer and shield. It would have been better to already have them at the ready, and he chastised himself for the lapse in judgment.

Returning to the front line, his recently procured shield took a bolt, as he lifted it to protect his head and chest. It had been on the prince’s orders that everyone in the first wave was provided with a Tier 6 shield. They each came with a simple durability enchantment. It was another weight on the crafters, who had spent the five days after their initial retaliatory attacks hard at work. But it was time well spent from Matt’s perspective.

The hall was only wide enough for three people standing shoulder to shoulder. The person next to Matt shouted, “Forward!” They moved at a steady pace, each of his steps in opposition to the thuds and thumps from the bolts slamming into his shield.

To his horror, the bolts started slamming near the bottom of his kite shield as well. He closed his stance in response, not wanting to take a bolt in the leg.

A roar from the side and a crashing of metal was accompanied by a flash of bright light that nearly blinded Matt. He was able to see an arc of mana race down the hall, and watched as it cut the two golems in front of him in half.

Matt’s steps faltered when a bolt knocked his shield backwards, into his leading leg. But the man behind him kept an arm across his back, helping him to stay upright and stable.

Once again, he cursed the fact his armor made him one of the better tanks, even with a Tier disadvantage. He swore that once he could get a usable ranged skill, he would transition to a mage, and never again have to face a dangerous enemy head on.

Following up with another front liner using a water spell, Matt took his cue and cast [Hail]. The magical ice rained down and damaged the golems, while also slowing their reload speed.

Screaming to let out the fear, anger, and nerves, he brought his hammer down on the head of the newest golem opposing him. His heavy, Tier 6 blunt weapon smashed the lighter frame of the ranged unit, and he stepped forward with the others.

He deactivated [Hail], as the survivors were nearly under its effects, and they stepped over the remaining ice and water mixture.

They reached and killed another row of golem with their next steps forward. They quickly came upon the next wave of enemies. Shield golems made for extended melee battles came to reinforce the ranged golems, and their advancing progress was quickly halted.

In the close quarters, they were limited as far as their options for effective attacks. They decided on a phalanx. In the formation, your range was limited by your comrades holding the shield wall to your sides, so horizontal swings and slashes were out of the question. Traditionally, you would stab forward with a thrusting weapon. That tactic was pretty ineffective against enemies who weren’t made of flesh and blood. They wouldn't exactly be brought down with a poke from a sword in the gut.

That left overhead vertical swings with their blunt melee weapons, but that was easier said than done. Especially with their shields pressed together with the golems’ in a shoving match.

They had practiced this before in the camp, and Matt knew his part.

Keep the golems from shoving them back, and tank the hits that the golems would slip through.

It was the main reason he was chosen to take the front line. The shield-wielding melee golems were equipped with mana blades that were nearly useless against [Cracked Phantom Armor].

As he kept [Mage’s Retreat] on full blast, Matt used the bracing of the men behind him as leverage, and shoved forward. It was just enough to keep the golems from advancing, and he could feel the wind created by the man two rows behind him with the halberd. He brought the rear spike of his weapon down on the golem that Matt was holding back with a brutal swing.

The mana blade slipped between their interlocked shields, and thrust into Matt’s side and abdomen. All the hit did was drain more mana, in order to counter the damage that the structured mana weapon tried to dish out.

Suddenly, the resistance in front of him disappeared, and Matt surged forward, before the next golem in line ran up to fill the gap. Still, the brief lapse gave the invaders an advantage. Matt, with his attention to the front, was able to see his backup front liner engage the golem to their side. The man lashed out and took the golem in front of their next row in the side. He destabilized its footing for long enough for the column next to them to advance, and take up a position in Matt's newly created line.

There were more shouts, and Matt used the brief moment of respite to glance over his shield. He used another cast of [Hail] on the backline golems. He only let the spell run for a moment, as he couldn’t spare too much of his mana generation. He needed it for [Mage’s Retreat]. His mana stone only had enough charge for three more casts of [Hail], before he would either need to swap the mana stone on his wrist, or forgo the skill entirely.

Screaming echoed in the hall, and was contrasted with the clash of metal on metal. The silence of the unfeeling golems filled the invaders with unease as they fought. The humans with Matt fought for their lives, while the golems fought because that was all that they were programmed to do. They didn’t have to worry about fear, or self preservation. Their only concern was their assigned task of defending the ruin.

The humans pushed forward. Matt didn’t know how long it took, but finally, they advanced to the end of the short hall. They were able to push the golems out and into the refinery level proper.

Matt felt someone push him to the side, and his brain finally registered them saying, “We’re setting up the defensive formation.”

Following the plan, he and the others in the first three rows pushed out slightly, and forced the golems back as they advanced.

The monsters tried to reclaim the tunnel, while their frontline kept the humans at bay. The only advantage that the survivors had was that the only golems able to effectively engage them were the melee ones. The crossbow variant was largely ineffective, thanks to the phalanx formation and close quarters.

Their advance held the golems back long enough for them to hear the command, “Retreat! It’s set up.” There was excitement and joy in the leader’s voice that Matt felt in his bones.

Pulling back, they led the first row of golems back into the hall, and a barrier sprung up. It covered the entrance of the hall in a translucent, shimmering, blue barrier of mana. It was then short work to destroy the cut off golems.

With the first group of separated golems taken care of, the man behind Matt started to move the corpses away, so they wouldn’t be underfoot.

Matt used the brief lull to swap [Mage’s Retreat] for [Endurance], which quickly melted his exhaustion away. [Mage’s Retreat] was an amazing skill, and it allowed him to fight well above his limits, but it strained his body to keep up with such massive expenditures. He also took the opportunity to refill his mana stone, so he could use more casts of [Hail] in the upcoming battles.

Turning to congratulate the man next to him, he saw that it was the halberd bearer. The man had dropped his main weapon for a shield, and was covered in blood. He had a shocked expression on his face.

Matt grabbed his shoulder and asked, “Is it your blood? Are you ok?”

When he got no response, Matt looked to the rear and called out, “Someone get him to a healer! And find me a replacement!”

The shell-shocked man just allowed himself to be led away.

He was replaced by Matt’s own backup, while they watched the golems batter at the mana barrier in front of them. As much as he wanted to run and check on the other party’s progress, especially Liz and Aster, he was forced to be satisfied with the readouts from their AIs. There were enough people to ensure that there was a network on which information could be transferred over. According to his AI’s readout, it was only delayed by about fifteen seconds.

As his breathing slowed, and the soreness vanished from his muscles, Matt kept his shield at the ready. He was interrupted when the man next to him spoke, without taking his eyes off the golems on the other side of the mana barrier that tried to batter it down to no effect.

“Thanks for the save. You handled the attack a lot better than the column to our right. I… Just thanks for holding steady.”

Matt just nodded, and didn’t say anything. A part of him wanted to know the fate of the others, who were no longer in their newly formed row. A larger part of him didn’t want to find out. He saw the first man take the bolt to the throat, but hadn’t noticed the backup shield-bearer go down.

Reaching up, Matt rubbed his eyes. It was odd for a moment. After a battle that fierce, he expected to be covered in blood, but was only met with sweat.

Not long after that, more people started to fill the tunnel for the next push. His nerves that had been active for so long were strangely quiet, and Matt readied himself to push through the barrier. Their next target was the refinery room in front of them.

He received a message in the group chat with Liz and Camilla. Liz sent, ‘Made it inside safely with Aster. How’s everyone else?’

Matt quickly responded, ‘Fine, we took the first hallway.’

Camilla chimed in at the same time with, ‘We have secured the second hall.’

She was a halberd bearer in the third row of the other hall’s phalanx. She didn’t have the durability of the other Tier 6’s but she was able to deal plenty of damage. She was too valuable to be left out of the fighting, as someone with a self-healing skill.

One of the Prince’s strategists had wanted her to heal tank, which was absurdly dumb, considering the amount of healing she would need afterwards. It wasn’t like she was able to avoid the side effects of healing being less effective after subsequent damage. Besides, she would be more useful in the open battles, where she could maneuver more.

Before they could talk more, the order to advance came, and Matt pushed forward with the others in his hall.

In the larger area, they had the ability to use their own numbers to greater advantage. For all the golems’ strength while fully charged up, they didn’t have skills or more than rudimentary tactics. That simple fact let the invaders take and hold the advantage in the struggle.

Everyone was tired from the previous fighting and wanted to pause, but they were spurred on by the sight of the next room. While there was a large refinery in the room they were currently in, there were visible cages containing humans in the next room.

The prisoners looked fairly well, and Matt didn’t see signs of injuries. When they regrouped, they advanced to the next room before the golems could reinforce it.

The fighting was brief and brutal, but the invaders were incentivized by the shouting and cheering from the locked-up humans. When they cleared the room, everyone but a few front-liners quickly moved to free the trapped people. Matt noted that the entrance to the room was being sealed with a mana barrier.

He winced at that, as they only had so many of them, and they were made to be immobile after being deployed. But he couldn’t blame them for the caution, with some of the human prisoners near at hand.

They were quickly seen to by their healer, who pronounced them healthy enough, if a little malnourished.

When someone asked one of the more coherent people what they were used for, Matt went cold as their story was told.

“When we were captured, we feared that we would be used to power rifts with our corpses or something, but they just wanted us for mana. They would only feed us when we provided mana. At first, it was really bad, as they seemed to expect us to be able to give mana endlessly, and withheld food. But the stupid tin cans seemed to figure it out after a few days, and started feeding us, as long as we gave enough mana.”

Matt wanted to pound his head against the wall. The collective, or whatever intelligence that the golems had, must have either seen or recorded him dumping out nearly a million mana, and thought everyone could do the same. It was probably the entire reason that they started to take and hold prisoners. They were trying to recreate what Matt had done on a larger scale.

Rubbing his head, Matt didn’t know what to do. This entire incident was his fault, as he had sped up the awakening of the ruin. But he never thought that he was the reason the golems had attacked and captured humans. He taught them that humans equaled mana, and through his actions, had caused so much extra heartbreak.

How bad would it have been without the golems taking prisoners?

Matt’s first instinct was that it would have been better, but he paused halfway through the thought. The golems were rift monsters, and would have attacked no matter what. Matt might have saved lives that the golems would have otherwise ended without a second thought.

It felt like he was equivocating to himself, and avoiding the responsibility, but the logic checked out. He wasn’t absolved from the sin of causing this, but he might have made it slightly better by showing the golems that people had uses. At least beyond killing them to feed rifts.

He was just too tired to think about it, and was just grateful that the prisoners were safe, and had not been tortured.

Before he could settle down, there was a call to regroup, and they were to push to meet with team two. Team three would be mirroring their actions on the other side of team two. Grouping up would allow them to secure their flanks, and thus start the real push through the ruin.

Matt just wanted to ensure that Liz and Aster were well and that desire drove him through the pain and exhaustion to form up and prepare for the charge.