Chương 229: Ascended

In a labyrinth of stone crevasses and tunnels, a rat crept forward on silent paws while occasionally stopping and sniffing the air.

"I can smell you here somewhere… Where are you~?," the small vermin muttered to itself in a voice soft enough that would make it impossible for all but the most perceptive high rankers to pick up. The stone crevasse, of course, did not respond and neither did the storm above except for the faint rumbling it occasionally gave off.

The rat kept its careful pace for a little bit longer, turning a corner, rounding a slightly bigger stone than the rest and-"Wait wha-" To a normal observer, it would have simply looked as if the stone transformed in an instant, there one moment and replaced with a metallic beetle the size of a person's hand the next.

But to the rat, who was anything but normal, instincts practiced through a lifetime let it turn quickly enough to see how some kind of plating shifted texture as it shrunk slightly into the more compact form of the small construct. In hindsight, it would also have been able to appreciate that it seemed like it was the very surface of the thing itself which had changed to look like the stone without illusions or similar light-bending magics.

But as the rat currently found itself pounced upon quicker than it could react and was now tumbling along the stone floor trying to ward off a pair of pincer-like mandibles while the beetle's sharp legs pierced its fur, it was unable to properly appreciate the impressive camouflage.

Another rat came sprinting down the corridor and bodily threw itself upon the beetle, silver-ranked fangs scoring the metal but unable to do much damage on their own nor save its companion from its fate as the mandibles bisected its prey with a wet snap. The reinforcing rodent tried to backpedal and retreat, but it proved to be too late as another of the beetles came skittering along one wall.

And therefore, the last thing the rat saw was a spark of lightning between the mandibles of the new arrival, a flash and then that perspective of vision vanished.

"What? What heidel dung is that~?

"Wander?" Kite asked, having found a lull in the fighting as he watched Soul demolish a pair of drones with her transcendent strikes while Glint and Fantina acted in support.

"Beetle guy is here~," the rat growled at his shoulder, annoyance radiating through her spirit in waves.

"The one from outside? He's taking a more active role?"

"Perhaps? I'm not sure yet. But what I am sure of is that this guy will regret messing with poor body 319 and- Oh crap that's a lot of them~!"

"Wander?" Kite prompted again, more urgently this time. But at the moment, she did not respond. During his time knowing her, Kite had only seen the outworlder silent for any length of time if she was either stunned speechless or - as suspected in this case - forced to concentrate enough on some of her many bodies to be unable to properly manage others with any degree of detail.

Which, given that Wander had essence powers that specifically helped her do just that, meant something now placed her beneath significant strain.

"Heavens," Kite breathed, trying to imagine it while he rejoined the others in taking down the last few drones as swiftly as possible. Because the thought of having Wander distracted to that degree made the walls of the Labyrinth seem to tower all the more ominous around them, suddenly seeming to hide dangers unseen. The ordinary group of arthropods fell soon thereafter, with Soul turning to Kite and nodding towards Wander, eyebrow raised.

"Something is happening which leaves Wander unresponsive" Kite explained to the celestine.

"We'd better try and head for Dragonfly, Will and Laevyeth. At least they're close enough this time."

"And River and Little Crow?" Fantina asked, concern clear in her voice.

"We'll just have to hope that Fortune's touch remains upon them even in this place. But at least they are the ones among us whose paths should tip the scales in their favor quite a lot. Now, let's be off. The plan is still in motion, after all. And it remains up to us to become suitable bait."

"I have encountered the swarm," Jin stated, cold eyes forlorn as he stood up against one of the Labyrinth's walls, another of his cultists - Aki - and their… thing… standing protectively nearby.

"And?" Verses asked, impatient.

"And I have engaged it. This should give us the approximate location of the interlopers."

"Why not just dispatch it?"

"While the nodes of my network are individually more powerful, the vermin are quite numerous. And responsive, it would seem. They are banding together to ward me off most efficiently."

"So-""So you should seize this opportunity, my 'allies'. After all, our ascended drone here needs to be properly tested," Jin interrupted, raising a questioning eyebrow at Verses' tone. That gesture and his look of superiority grated viciously on her nerves too, but part of Verses knew that the confidence wasn't unfounded. Not when Jin and his cultists had created a gold-ranked being before their very eyes.

The thing which had previously been one of their ordinary drones was now an abomination of carapace and metal that looked to have been ripped apart from the inside as a steel framework with crackling crystals and nodes had burst from within while still leaving the chitin in ripped patches along its form. The shield was bigger too, and the other arm had distended into a huge metal pincer which seemed more like an overgrown pair of gardening shears.

A single globe rested in the center of the semi-open torso, the creature's lone eye gazing at the world around it with indifference.

"You should go soon, too," Jin continued, seeing her hesitation.

"You know that an inferior vessel like this will deteriorate over time. Best put it to good use so that our resources spent won't go to waste. We only have a limited number of cores, after all. Now, of course, the offer still stands if you want to offer up one of your subordinates. That would be a vessel good enough to properly last." At this Verses only gave the man a withering look before turning her eyes back to the drone-turned-construct.

She had been forced to leave the officator orb some ways off from the thing, as the ascended's presence had agitated the trial's construct to the point that Verses had worried it might actually be damaged.

"And this will obey us as well?"

"As long as I have commanded it to. I will be content to let Aki guard me here. Kura might even have another of the ascended ready once we return""Then, construct, follow me. Ignore the rats. Beyond them, we should find the interlopers. That is when you will serve your purpose." As Wander was fighting a war against the metal beetles on a wide front across multiple corridors, crevasses and - in one case - a running, leaping conflict close to the raging storm above, she realized something.

"Oh I hate fighting with someone my own number. Hate it, hate it, hate it~!" It took all her attention to direct herself this actively across so many conflicts at once and across these distances, enough so that the conversations of her friends and companions were just clipped glimpses, as was their surroundings.

"I need to free enough resources to at least let them communicate. Especially Little Crow and Mistress Brooding. They'll- Oh no you won't! I'll get you! Take that! Hah! Yes! Fall before me and- Hey! No! Stop it~!" Back and forth the widespread battle went, beetles ripping rats apart or blasting them with lightning while the rodents ganged up on individual foes with supernaturally sharp claws or even blew themselves up in small bursts of force and rejuvenating blood that left the constructs in pieces.

Wander had just started to feel as if she had found a semblance of control when a small part of her swarm - all localized around a certain, nondescript corridor - was taken out at almost at once as the beetles made a reckless offensive.

"Think you can fool me with that? I'll show you just how much They Who Wander has practiced this particular game~." Forcefully charging another flank of their miniature war, Wander had a whole bunch of her bodies detonate at once, sacrificing some peripheral control to get enough cognitive capacity to spare in order to get some eyes and ears on the now dark area in her zone of control.

Twitching noses soon picked up familiar scents - the silvers from before - but also something new; a mess of metal and magic slowly coming apart at the seams in a trickle of rainbow smoke. But the potency…

"Oh crap," Wander thought, managing to send some pieces of attention to her allies, enough to get a few words through before they were again needed elsewhere.

"Something big incoming, guys! I think it's gold, or something like it~!" Then the beetles made another push, and Wander's mind almost went blank at the flurry of activity.

"So far we're even, beetle-man. So far. But just you wait~!"

"What was that? Gold? Wander?" Kite called to the rat at his shoulder, but that particular body of the outworlder had once again turned forlorn and distant.

"Wait, a real gold-ranker?" Dragonfly asked, clearly sharing the concern of the others even though Will, Laevyeth and Soul hid it rather well, the latter even looking a bit eager.

"Heavens, let us hope not-" Kite began, but then their aura senses all picked it up too as a powerful presence swept over them even though it source was still distinctly distant. It felt hollow though, powerful but somehow not on the level of the gold-rankers Kite had met in his life so far. Even Van Sztramm had possessed an aura a lot richer than this. Still, it was definitely a gold-ranked being. But the sensation oddly gave Kite back a good deal of hope.

"So, my friend, what do we do?" Will asked, being the first to break the silence where he stood hand in hand with Laevyeth, looking off into the distance as if his eyes could pierce the stone separating them and what was coming.

"We fight," Kite answered, trying to project as much surety as possible.

"They may have hampered Wander, but this was no subtle assault. We can prepare. And give the plan a chance to work."

"Good. I'll take it on!" Soul responded eagerly, with Kite giving her a considering look before nodding.

"Do it, but call for aid if need be. The rest of you, we need to prepare. Dragonfly?"

"Yes, love?"

"Find the nearest group of drones and get that fire going."

"On it!" Dragonfly called in response before she set off in a blur of silver-ranked speed.

"Fantina, be ready to top her off when she gets back. Guarding you will be my first task. Will, Glint and Laevyeth, keep close enough for her to reach you and prepare the battlefield in what ways you can. Given our speed, it should carry us across several corridors and intersections. Let us show them what we learned from last time until the moment comes. Let's hope Wander told River and Little Crow too…

But if they - especially River - would have missed this thing coming at us, something has gone very wrong already." The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. As he finished speaking, Kite could feel Dragonfly engage a group of drones not too far away where the 'front lines' of the conflict was currently drawn. Which gave him another idea.

"Wander, if you can hear this, I'd like to add a step to the plan for Little Crow specifically. Can you get a message through to him?" After a few seconds of nothing, Kite thought that he might have seen the rat at his shoulder twitch somewhat into something that might be interpreted as confirmation. Deciding to chance it, he told her the brief message while praying fervently to Fortune back in the outside world that the message would reach the assassin in time. And that he would understand the intent behind it.

"Now, let us prepare-""Yes! Prepare! Hold the line! For the Queen of Jade and Sky!" the officiator orb added, once again trumpeting war cry as it broke into the conversation. At first, there was only a moment of silence in the intersection where they prepared to make their initial stand, before Kite eventually spoke up.

"What it said, I suppose. May Fortune keep us all."

"There you are," Verses said as her spiritual senses finally managed to lock onto their targets; five silvers and that odd draconian slightly spread out a few intersections off in the distance. Their own construct wasn't subtle by any means, and the auras of their foes were decently hidden even if it didn't matter if the attempted stealth was made in ambush or in the hopes of evading notice. Their six to Verses' and her fellow adherents' six and a gold-ranked construct should be more than enough.

"Seek out those new auras and kill them," she commanded the construct, which set off immediately in a whirl of screeching metal as it charged in the indicated direction.

"The rest of us split into two groups and choose other approaches in case they try something similar to last time. Let Jin's toy absorb their opening salvo. None of his people are here to help, after all." Verses was still rather cross with the man for not wanting to risk any of his people in active combat, with one ritualist still hard at work with their beacon while the other made preparations for a new ritual to ascend another drone.

This left Jin guarded by Aki further behind them, waging a war of control over the area with the swarm-user. Strained, but frustratingly safe. She had to let that go for now, however, as she fell in behind Brother and Sister who mounted their usual moving slab of stone as they set off in one direction, Sunless and his people in the other.

This time they knew their foes better and- The surging of several auras as well as several resounding detonations interrupted Verses' thoughts, and she sped up along with her companions, bounding off walls to make sharp turns as they closed in. Their ascended drone had engaged.

"Face the defiant phalanx!" Will felt a surge of pride that neither his hand nor his heart wavered even as a veritable monstrosity came crashing around a corner ahead. A brief glance easily confirmed that the thing had once been one of the enemy drones, but was now an abomination of distended carapace and metal that towered over three meters tall. Even though it had a shield, the monster - or construct?

- seemed to regard it more as an extended bludgeon as it plowed through the corner of a stone corridor ahead and began a headlong charge towards their position. But that was also when the spears of Instant Phalanx rose to greet it, copies of his Lady rising from the ground and walls in deadly angles to form a pointed wall as each of their tips was aglow with Laevyeth's frost.

Seeing the first rows broken and swept aside by the creature's shield arm brought more emotion to Will than witnessing the creature itself, as the thought of his wonderful Lady - even just a mere copy - broken like that caused him to smolder with indignant anger. But as the creature continued its onslaught, quite a few of the points found its flesh-covered metal for a moment before they too broke.

While the damage inflicted wasn't overly impressive, reduced significantly by the rank disparity, the thing's momentum did slow somewhat.

A mental command sent all of the spears in the phalanx flying towards the creature's back as Will started conjuring his Thunderbolt Javelins as quickly as he could, Fantinas arrows and Kite's projected attacks joining the calamitous destruction which sent gravel and stone chips billowing out to leave the glowing orb at the creature's midriff as the only visible indicator that the thing was still advancing.

The construct had just burst from the cloud and stepped into the more open intersection when Soul appeared in front of it, slamming a foot glowing with transcendent light into the broken chitin of its head. Even though it barely staggered from the impact, it did cause the creature to thrust its shield-arm down into the ground to pivot on the spot in another cascade of gravel as the pincer of its other arm snapped up with great speed.

The snapping steel caught only air however as Soul had already kicked off and out the way, and any observer with magical perception could see more of her self-targeted boons flaring up as she kicked off a nearby wall, crossing the crevasse to kick off the other and deliver another empowered punch to the creature's other side. Will was just about to launch another javelin when a surge of spirit from his Lady caught his attention.

No words were needed with proximity as close as theirs, her intent carrying clearly that she had detected something. A minute shift in Will's stance had him redirect his throw towards a seemingly innocuous patch of shadow, and a chant left his lips before the Thunderbolt Javelin had started its flight." Descend, gifts of the heavens!" A pair of spears - also simulacra of Laevyeth, of course - came crashing down from above like heavenly lightning towards the same spot as the javelin.

As Will had known thanks to his Lady's keen senses, the patch of shadow roiled and rippled as a chained sickle dripping blackness arched out from the depths to flick the javelin from the air while another independent shadow rose next to it and managed to cause one of the descending lances to miss too. But the third hit the emerging form of the sickle's wielder, a black-scaled draconian who retreated back into his shadow as soon as the lightning from Will's attack hit.

"They are here, my Lady," the Will murmured.

"The servants of strife. Discord."

"Then we shall pierce their lies, my Lord. Let me become one with thy Heavenly Shaft."

"With pleasure, my Lady," Will replied with an exultant grin, brandishing the glowing Laevyeth as more auras started appearing to his senses even though they were hard to make out in the interference from the wildly projecting construct which Soul had now started to properly clash with.

"Witness my Heavenly Shaft! Darkness Penetrator!" Verses had just turned a corner in the siblings' wake when she heard the outrageous cry, but it was followed by very real danger as one of the people she had not engaged in their previous clash - a blonde elf wielding a beautiful spear - had just turned toward the tunnel of their final approach and launched a huge, golden projection of a spearhead towards them.

It was big enough to fill the tunnel and then some, creating a rounded indentation in each side of the crevasse as it roared towards the siblings and their stone vessel. As she decided to let her momentum carry her forward and past the turn in the tunnel she had first intended to make, Verses didn't see how the siblings dealt with the incoming attack, but from the strain she suddenly felt in their auras, handling the burst of golden light which swept in from the tunnel behind her wasn't without toll.

Verses decided to let the pair handle themselves as best they could, letting her momentum continue to carry her forward and look for another angle of approach. From the feel of the auras at the intersection, the ascended drone was doing its job admirably, but Verses still decided not to dally. Her steps grew hazy as each ate much more distance than they were supposed to as distance was subverted and broken up by her powers. Making another turn ahead, Verses then saw her opening present itself.

The space ahead was a confusing mess of auras by now, but she didn't need spiritual senses to see the blonde healer with the bow and tentacles take a step back and into Verses' line of sight as she fired another arrow at some unseen target. Leaving an unseen echo node behind, Verses sped up as her mantle of illusions spread out around her, and once she was in range she sprang into a leaping lunge that aimed a spell-charged fist towards the side of the healer's head.

However, just as she was about to impact and deliver the destructive dissonance of her touch spell along with the force of the blow, Verses' instincts flared with danger that had her shifting back to her echo node in the blink of an eye. And it turned out to be not a moment too soon as a distinct ripple bloomed into existence just where her hand had been, hinting at a tearing void that hungered for her mana. An effect she clearly recognized from their last clash just shy of a day before.

But as opposed to then, Verses had now properly placed from where she recognized the descriptions of his powers.

"Pathbreaker." The young man stepped out into the opening, positioning himself between his healer and this new threat that Verses posed.

"Priestess," he greeted in return.

"As that is what I imagine you to be." Verses didn't spare him any more words, however, already blurring into motion. The three vortices that hovered above him was a constant - if slight - drain on the mana of everyone around he considered his foes, but even its gradual effects would be felt keenly over time as battles between silver-rankers were rarely over quickly.

A few bolts of discordant dissonance left Verse's hands with a quick series of castings, and then they were off; clashing again beneath the storm above.

"That abomination must be brought down! It is an insult to the trial!" the officiator orb called from where it hovered not too far away from where Kite held his ground, multiple arms moving to project strikes both in offense and defense as he exchanged attacks with the unarmored masked elf whose motions were all wrong.

"Busy -," was all that he managed to reply before he was forced to abandon any further words in lieu of concentration. Much like during their clashes yesterday, his foe remained slippery in body and spirit both and Kite had to spend another few seconds with his focus fully on discerning which projectiles were actually real and their true direction.

Fortunately, Fantina soon moved back towards the open area which let Kite snap a few barriers in place as a delaying tactic before following the priestess as she aimed to stay within her - admittedly very long - range of touch to both Soul, Will, Glint and Dragonfly.

The celestine still had the gold-ranked former drone in somewhat of a stalemate, the most stable of the conflicts as long as Soul got to ply her trade of perfection reasonably undisturbed while the spearman and his outworlder weapon was currently engaging both the other elves whose stone-riding charge had once more been interrupted.

And at the other side of the open area, a fully blazing Dragonfly who had just arrived from some time spent stoking her inner fire on some drones was engaging not one but three of the foes; the black-scaled draconian, the human man with the dual blades and the airborne leonid. Kite himself had fought three on one at times, a prospect that he would not recommend without a suitable path and - ideally - a very limited time when one would be forced to do so.

His own set of powers was, admittedly, surprisingly decent at it given his advantages but Dragonfly's was more direct as it traded the tricks and finesse for offensive and staying power.

Normally, she would be at her best wading through a monster surge, but at that moment - inner fire radiating and continuing to rise as she fought with a kind of controlled recklessness that accepted most wounds which in turn healed very quickly - Kite had to admit that his lover was breathtaking, even more so given what her recent commission from Peony did to her flames.

Said feelings did not stop him from conjuring plenty of barriers to intercept some blows as well as project what attacks he could in support during the brief time he and Fantina drew closer while their lone pursuer was delayed. And of their allies present, no one demanded more of the healer's attention.

Fortunately though, all three opponents seemed to have paths more focused on wearing down their foes, but Kite's heart still clenched slightly as he saw his intended step into and accept what seemed like a much more vicious singular strike from the draconian only for it to mostly fail to hurt her while stoking her inner fire that much more. Then the elf in pursuit caused his final barrier to crumble in a distortion of rupturing magic, and Kite was forced to split his attention once more.

But as long as they could stay together long enough for River and Little Crow to find their moment, he hoped that the presence of him and Fantina would tip the scales.

"It shouldn't be too long now. Seconds perhaps," he thought to himself as he found himself warding off his assailant in melee as she tried to slip past him to reach Fertility's priestess who had just empowered Will even further and set his aura thrumming with potential. But when silvers fought, seconds could be a long, long time. As it would turn out, Kite wasn't too far off the mark in his estimation. Nine seconds was what it took.

Nine steady heartbeats of time in a swirling pandemonium of unleashed essence powers and individual fights being carried all around the open space of the intersection as well as up along its walls. During those nine seconds, Kite witnessed Will and Laevyeth make an impressive stand of whirling deflections and impeccable assaults as the spear seemed to come alive in the Will's hands as more copies of the outworlder's true form sprouted like a growing garden from the floor and walls.

This was while Kite followed closely on Fantina's heels up into the air as she used her tentacles to steady herself as she ran along the walls of the corridor while shooting her arrows and trailing Dragonfly's frantic exchanges with her healing touches even as Kite himself fought off a most persistent priestess of Discord whose touch seemed to part his barriers as if they were made of paper.

And this was in turn while all of their foes were busy dodging the restraining orbs of water which Glint commanded, the celestial carp acting as enough of a nuisance for the leonid woman to break away from Dragonfly and dash towards the familiar with a torrent of wind blades in her wake." Ward!"

Kite was just about to swing another set of attacks; two projected towards the leonid while his staff intercepted another obscured touch of the priestess before him when - unbeknownst to all of them - the ninth second passed. Because it was at that moment that a chain came twirling out from a side passage and caught the leonid woman by one foot before yanking her away and out of sight." Wall!"

Barriers of force immediately blocked off that exit from the open space, and not a moment too soon as part of them became covered in cracks mere moments after forming. The source of the impact wasn't any attacks from their enemies, or at least not directly, but Soul who had finally been a hair too slow in one of her dodges and been sent flying straight across the open space like a comet trailing amethyst hair and transcendent light.

The celestine took the massive impact well though, or at least as well as one could expect from a silver-ranker of her caliber. That still left her dazed for a second or two, which in turn was enough for the gold-ranked construct to continue its charge. Will, the first in its path, quickly vanished as he swapped places with one of Laevyeth's nearby copies.

Which left its charge, full of momentum and with its shield-arm crackling with unstable energies, carrying it straight into where Dragonfly and the other two silvers still tangled.