Chapter 41

    Bob was tired. At Tier 41, he didnt need sleep. He just wanted it. The children of the various clutches were out of the cute child phase, and in the pestering teenager phase. It was the perfect time for a nap.

    With a wiggle of his tail, he sunk deeper into his magma flow, and pushed his spiritual sense to find his wife. After a moment, he found her on the other side of the planet, wrapped up in a fluffy white cloud.

    His wife, Safrar, noticed his presence and said, See you in a decade. Dont let the magma lizards bite, Baroub.

    Bob didnt flinch at the use of his full name, but his spirit still sunk into the ring around his third claw. The ever-repeating image of a young human, waving and smiling while sitting in his human forms lap, kept flashing through his mind.

    Raster hadnt deserved to be murdered by his older brother. Not over being a perceived threat to his brothers rise to the vassal kingdoms throne.

    When Baroub had been introduced to him, young Raster had been unable to pronounce his name, and just cut it down to Bob. At the time, he had hated it. But the name, and the child, had grown on him.

    It was a reminder of the cost of arrogance.

    Thats what made the assassination even more galling. The older brother had been Tier 15 when the deed was done. Bobs chosen punishment for the disgraced prince entailed reducing big asteroids into little asteroids, then reversing the process. The task would be doable, if not somewhat arduous for a Tier 15, and he would be doomed to waste away as an aimless laborer. He was still caught in the endless loop, two thousand years later.

    There wasnt usually any leniency for the crime of killing a child, but Bob had petitioned that death was an easy way out for the wretch. It had taken a lot of favors called in, and even more favors given, but he had gotten his wish. Now the one time prince didnt even have a name.

    He had taken Rasters future, so Bob took his in retribution.

    The misguided fool didnt even think that Bob would investigate Raster not returning from a rift. It was a level of arrogance he still hadnt come across since. Bob wasnt the ambassador for the vassal kingdom at the time, but when the news reached him

    He shook himself out of his contemplation of the past. The magma was evaporating where it was touching his scales. With a flap of his wings, he churned the liquid rock, as the core of the planet responded to his will and power.

    Closing his eyes, he checked his wifes projected path.

    Ahhh.

    Safrar would bring her storm cloud right over his exposed volcano in seven years, just when he would be getting the best sleep. With a flex of his will, he started the process that would belch a plume of smoke and soot out from the volcano, just as she passed over.

    Lets see her face when she wakes up ashen and gray.

    Bobs rumbling chuckle resonated with the magma near him. It bubbled and popped in glee.

    Wiggling, he found a comfortable spot, and let his satisfaction with the upcoming prank lead him into a nice, decade-long nap.

    Just as the first dream was nibbling at his tail, he was ripped out of his sleep when she came.

    Bobs first instinct was to flee, and he tried to rip into chaotic space and escape, but the entire planet was locked down. Knowing it was useless, Bob threw his will against the fabric of reality, but a greater power held dominion.

    Then, she was upon him.

    The feathered menace landed on his horn, and started jerking his head around.

    Look at your messages.

    Look.

    Look.

    Look.

    Look.

    Look.

    Stop! Bob managed to get a word out, thanks to the stirring of the volcano their antics had caused. The roiling magma had diverted the vile creatures attention, for a brief moment.

    The shaking stopped. He took a moment to look at his AI, and check his messages.

    There was nothing new.

    You stupid... His head was slammed into the wall. Bird brain! I dont have any messages!.

    The fire above him dulled, before flaring hot enough to singe his scales.

    Then he got it.

    The message from Mara was a forward from some Tier 4, and Bob almost refused to open the message out of principle. In the end, he knew that if The queen of monsters wanted him to view a message, there was little he could do but acquiesce.

    Glancing at the package of information, he froze. The information was from merely a Tier 4, so the AI was rudimentary at best. But his AI confirmed the information through the data provided.

    There was a rift with a dragon big enough to swallow solar systems as a snack. Even if the child who found it had been shrunk, the size was based on the stars surrounding the beast he had been on.

    As he saw the heart from the rift boss, Bob shivered from nose to tail.

    Dragon Essence.

    Essence of a beast that strong was a prize he could not let slip into the republics hands. Even with the drawbacks of recreating the rift, they could still form a rudimentary copy of it. Once it was moved to the monster kingdom capital, they could slowly grow it.

    Still the hearts blood they pulled out of the beast would be thin, but that was only a question of quantity. But an ocean of blood condensed down would return it to its original quality.

    Bob finished his perusal of the information packet, and wanted to cry at the last bit of data he had read. The arctic fox had eaten half of that parasitic heart containing the precious material. It was such a waste. The little fox would have no inkling whatsoever of how to properly use the power that the heart contained.

    Then, he watched as little BethBeth ate the remaining half.

    He wanted to scream at the act of betrayal. He was at least her third favorite uncle. Without a doubt, her favorite dragon uncle. How could she not give it to him?

    Any of the high Tier dragons would empty their hordes for such a prize. Well, at least with BethBeth getting it, he was assured that she wouldnt waste the precious material.

    Quickly, he did some calculations. At Tier 15, the little chick would get her powers of regeneration, and she could create more of the dragon essence. It would just be slow, and the stupid bird still shaking him would get first dibs.

    He needed that rift copied and moved immediately.

    Roaring, he tried to remove the bird on his head.

    Ok! I get it. Lets go. There is no time to waste.

    Mara screeched out, Well, what are you waiting for? Where is Samuel?

    Bob checked his AI. Hes on the way.

    With a quick scan, he found his wife getting chased this way by Leon. The man was stealing all of his wifes obscuring mist, and making obscene shapes out of it.

    Safrar hated when the stronger storm mage did that. And if she didnt have the same gleam in her eyes, Bob knew that she would be fighting back harder. She wouldnt win, but she wouldnt be flying in a cloud shaped like a pair of mating ostriches.

    Bob was honestly impressed that Leon was able to make their movements look so realistic while keeping up with his wife.

    He had his AI take a recording. He would be saving this moment for the next time she tried to bring up one of his more embarrassing moments.

    With an effort of will, Bob escaped to the chaotic space around the planet. A moment later, his wife and the two Tier 48s appeared next to him.

    His world was like a firefly in the swirling area between universes. The power of his Tier 41 cultivation smoothed out the fluctuating energies around him, but the two royals turned the surroundings to a calm summer day in comparison.

    It was humiliating to be scooped up and carried off, as if their power was that of a hatchling learning to fly. But if he and his wife had to fly on their own, it would increase the length of the journey dozens of times over.

    Quickly, they left the lanes of essence that the teleporters used to let the weaker cultivators travel in between the worlds with essence, and flew directly through chaotic space.

    Bob used the travel time to find out what he could of the Tier 4 messenger. The one who found the dragon rift was from a new planet that he had never heard of, but that wasnt unusual. Bob was old, after all. What surprised him was the Emperors seal on the boys information. His details were wrapped up tight, like a new years present.

    Bob used his Duke status to try and get in, but was directed to his Monarch to get access. With a thought, he asked Mara, and she gave it to him.

    Now he could see, and he also saw why Mara and Leon could give access to the profile. BethBeth had formed a party with the boy, and that gave them certain rights to his information. He was getting the royal treatment on information blackouts.

    The only things still locked was everything about the boys Talents. Usually the rating and an associated score was visible, but not now. They were hidden behind the Emperors own seal, and Bob knew that could mean only one thing.

    The boy had value to the Tier 50.

    Ignoring what he couldnt see, Bob read the boys history. A mismanaged planet, subsequently being flagged with a detrimental Talent, consequently getting flagged by the planetary AI, and a chosen pair sent to evaluate him.

    The pairs identity was locked by the Emperors seal as well. Bob had hoped to get to their profiles, and see what they had to say about the boy. They would be Tier 15s, and able to feel the boys spirit. They could have at least guessed at what his Talents would be.

    With that line of research cut off, he found the rest of Matts history. The rest of the story was mundane enough.

    The four of them only stopped long enough to grab Samuel, a Tier 37 dire wolf that specialized in spatial magic. He was their ticket to recreating the destroyed rift and moving it to the beast kingdoms capital.

    Though, as Bob thought it over, he pondered if the Emperor might want it on The Empires capital instead. This would be a strategic asset, after all. It was just that the capital was carefully curated at max rift capacity already, an extra rift might stress the mana ecosystem.

    Anyone who attacked her, always met a brutal end. The last guild who tried to extort the woman had lasted two hours before their leadership was completely exterminated.

    His grandmother attributed her crusade to reform the Empire to a more meritocratic system to the first meeting she had with the Phoenix. Even he had been found at Tier 7, and invited to her personal room to be fed a meal. Not as the son of the current Emperor, but simply as a young man trying to find his way on The Path.

    Even Leon and Mara had been scouted by the woman. She was never wrong about those she interacted with. The intelligence branch wanted to watch the woman, but he refused to betray her trust. Aunt Helen consistently showed nothing but benevolence to The Empire, and he wouldnt allow her privacy to be invaded.

    It was a shame that she was so stubborn about her Intent. Her iron will was the only thing that kept her going when her Concept was shattered. The death of her only child and subsequent suicide from her husband turned her entire existence on its head. It was that same iron will that kept her from restarting, and she chose to rebuild her Concept, one fragment at a time.

    It was an unwritten rule that anyone planning to ascend told her, so she could use the power to speed up her progress. The few that didnt were made examples of. The Empire officially honored their wills, but the other high Tier individuals of The Empire heavily discriminated against those they chose to help in their wills.

    A warning to those that remained. It had only happened twice in the last three generations of rulers. Emmanuel didnt expect a third time.

    That brought his attention back to Matt. The boy needed to Tier up, and the faster, the better. That Tier 3 Talent of his would be useful on its own once he passed Emmanuels current mana pool. But more importantly, he could recharge rifts.

    At Tier 30, it took a month for the rifts to recharge and maintain cohesion on just the ambient mana. If they were delved faster, they would fall apart. Matt would soon be able to do so much to reduce that time-frame, as long as he was within 5 Tiers of the rifts Tier.

    It would be insane. Emmanuel imagined the possibilities of full Tier 47 rifts. The rewards would be staggering. The higher Tier rifts were never left to sit long enough to recharge to maximum rewards, as it was far too wasteful.

    But with Matt...

    With Matt charging rifts, Emmanuel would be able to delve the Tier 47 rifts much faster. Currently, one-third of all the rewards he pulled out of the rifts were put aside. They were meant to feed the rifts when his thirty thousand-year rule neared its end. They needed at least that many resources to get a single cultivator to Tier 50 with just a Tier 47 rift.

    But with Matt...

    The Emperor even hoped that with the two of them, they might be able to increase the Tier of the Capital to 48. That would be a coup of the highest order.

    With Tier 48 rifts, they would be able to make even stronger cultivators. If that happened, they would be the only power with a Tier 48 rift. It would probably lead to war, but that was inevitable.

    The changes his grandmother had made to The Empire had taken them from sixth place amongst the Great Powers, to second place. It had taken slightly less than two thirty thousand year cycles of rulership. That was where another third of his delving rewards went.

    Emmanuel himself almost exclusively funded all of the social services that The Empire provided. In the last sixty thousand years, The Empire had nearly doubled in size, not including the vassal kingdoms. With that territory and population boom, they were producing stronger people at a faster rate than the other powers.

    Now, they were left scrambling to try and recreate The Empire''s success.

    The other powers had taken note when Duke Waters had risen, and were incredibly frightened of Light and Shadows impending completion of The Path.

    At least they arent on track for completing The Path in a hundred years.

    Emmanuel sighed. He had needed to capture the man who would become Duke Waters and sit on him. If anyone knew he had been on track to complete The Path in half the time, the war would have been instantly declared. Tier 25 on one''s own effort, especially within one hundred years old, was completely unheard of.

    Even as a Tier 50, Emmanuel was shocked at how strong the man was. It was absurd. He didnt even have any Talents related to water or combat.

    If he couldnt copy the mans Talents, he would have never believed that the mans Talents were about animal husbandry. They weren''t even strong Talents! They just gave a small health bonus to any mundane creatures that he raised himself.

    Duke Waters had refused to go the non-combat route, and oh how it had paid off.

    War was inevitable, though. As usual. The Tier 50 from the number one power, the Unification of Clans, was ascending, and that would firmly put The Empire on top.

    Sword Saint Hastor was a true monster, and didnt cultivate like most. No, the crazy bastard had relied on inspirations, like a crafter, to cultivate to the top of the Great Powers. He never used rifts or ambient essence. Fifty Tiers of inspiration had truly created the most unique existence on this plane.

    Emmanuel wanted the man to ascend. They had a deal. Hastor would let Emmanuel copy his Tier 50. In return as payment, he would declare that the Clans couldnt be touched for the remainder of his time as a ruler.

    It would cause trouble, but it would force them to remain neutral in the upcoming war. With The Conglomerate Guilds as a staunch ally, Emmanuel was confident in at least not losing the war. Winning would be harder, but it wasnt impossible.

    He looked over the other political entities, in order of their power, and analyzed their threat levels to The Empire.

    The Unification of ClansThe EmpireThe RepublicThe SectsThe Conglomerate GuildsThe Monster CollectiveThe CorporationsThe Federation

    The Federation was weak, especially after the civil war had separated them from what became the Monster Collective. The Federation had started implementing speciesist laws against the Beasts, Monsters, and Evolved Humans. His father had backed the now Monster Collective in their bid for freedom.

    Maras predecessor had not allowed anything else. The Monster Kingdom in The Empire was given such leeway and autonomy, only because their smart ruler realized that while they were intelligent, they were not human at heart.

    The Federation took that a step further, and tried to enslave the non-human population. That had all come to a head when the then number two power found a second Tier 46 planet. None of the others could allow them to have planets at Tier 47 and 46. They would become too strong, and none of the Great Powers wanted that.

    Seeing their chance, the Beasts had rebelled, and pushed a policy of equality with humans. With the other powers backing them, the faction was allowed to keep the older, stronger Tier 47 capital.

    The other powers had stopped them from completely absorbing the Federation, creating two weaker powers, and preventing the newly formed Monster Collective from gaining too much strength.

    Emmanuel was able to cross the Monster Collective off the list of possible attackers. They had good relations, even if they werent officially allied.

    The Federation would take any opportunity to attack, but they had no truly powerful people. Though they did have a few hopefuls.

    The Corporations were in the same situation. Too weak to be a real threat, but they would join for scraps.

    The Guilds were officially allied with The Empire, so they were a non-threat. Their treaties stated that they would mostly help defend their shared border, but that was enough in Emmanuels mind. They had the longest connected borders of any two political entities. That fact alone let him not worry about nearly a fourth of his borders.

    The Sects and the Republic would be the true opponents. They had already officially allied against The Empire threat. A two against one war would be doable, just difficult.

    Which brought his thoughts back to the young man with too much mana. Their projection reached a point where he and Liz decided to go to one of the vassal kingdoms, the Seven Suns kingdom. They had just recently discovered a nice Tier 20 planet.

    Emmanuel checked his AI. Yes, he had a message from the neighboring vassal queendom, the Alliance of Allied Queens. They wanted permission to fight over the same planet. It was only five jumps away from their border, just one more jump further than it was from the Seven Suns border.

    With a thought, he accepted their proposal. A vassal war would be good training for those on The Path. He was also very unhappy with The Seven Suns recent actions and this was a good way to remind them that they existed at his whim.

    It would also help his niece, and if the two swooning idiots next to him got their way, his next nephew.

    He announced the vassal war, put up rewards for participation, and sent healing squads to manage casualties.

    The Empire needed to be ready for conflict, and a bit of a safe environment would allow for more growth. And hopefully fewer casualties.

    He checked his AI for what Melinda was doing. Emmanuel got hourly reports on the girl, so he was always able to see what her team was up to. He wanted her to participate in this. He had three Tier 40s watching the girl at all times. She was his greatest asset, and he wouldn''t risk those.

    Her Tier 3 was already amazing, but at each Tier, it just got better and better. He had tweaked things, and gotten her an [Area Healing] skill shard as her Tier five reward for being on The Path. He had done his own testing, and found that the girls Talent for Overhealth also affected any subsequent healing spells cast by other healers.

    Emmanuel had used [Crack Skill Shard] on every healing skill he had, and purchased as many as he could without affecting the market. He needed the healer to have an incredibly slow Heal Over Time skill. It would be game-changing in a war. But he''d had no luck so far.

    The only thing he was worried about was the young ladys mental state. She innately created a death Concept with no prompting. A healer who tried to heal death away was not a standard path. And one he worried wasnt sustainable.

    Emmanuel pushed the thoughts away as Samuel finished copying the rift. It was a small rift in space, and was utterly fragile.

    He looked to his two royals and friends. Alright you all, head out. Ill destroy the evidence, and this world. No second copies of this baby.

    When they left, Emmanuel stood still. Not even his hair moved. With the five off the world and in chaotic space, he released his will that was holding the fabric of this world together.

    At the seams, the bonds of reality started to fray. At Tier 5, the world was unraveling slowly, simply from his mere presence.

    Switching to his fire preset Talents, he ignited the sun. As the ball of fire exploded at the speed of light from his overwhelming strength, he switched to an earth preset, and shattered the planet by pulling down its moon. Molten fragments hit his still form. When they touched him, they disintegrated against his sheer power.

    He was the immovable object, and they broke against him

    Most of his Concept, like his Intent and Aspect, was being used to resist the pull of the higher realms. But what little he had made him a shield that would protect The Empire.

    Emmanuel had known from a young age that he would rule The Empire. His adaptability demanded it, so he accepted it without protest. He didnt want it, but someone had to protect the average citizen, and he was best suited to being whatever The Empire needed.

    Emmanuel was the Bulwark for The Empire. Her enemies would have no choice but to break him, but what chance did they have when he resisted? Emmanuels Concept, Intent, and Aspect all revolved around protecting those under his aegis.

    As the expanding sun washed around him, The Emperor raised his hand, and reality tore, like a worn-out fabric.

    Chaotic space rushed in and eroded everything. Not a speck of the planet and its essence remained. That cut off the reality, and Emmanuel was ejected into the chaotic space. The ember of lights that represented worlds were only visible because of their essence. With no essence, they returned to nothingness.

    Emmanuel pulled out a mile-long needle with a grin, moved to Mara, and stuck her in the thigh. It only removed a drop of her Phoenix essence, but the Tier 48 screamed like she was dying.

    You wanted dragon essence. I want Phoenix essence. Now were even.

    Emmanuel was going to gloat more, when Mara clutched her butt and fell into her husbands arms, who was now wearing healers robes.

    The prognosis doesnt look good. Youre dying.

    Mara fluttered a hand over her forehead. I only have one final wish. Ravish me.

    Emmanuels calls for them to stop were ignored.

    Leon looked aghast. But lady, Im married!

    With that, the two disappeared. Emmanuel took a deep breath, and picked up the three lower Tiers they had left behind.

    Mara had promised to give him Phoenix essence once Emmanuel had mentioned wanting to make a fertility potion for his wife. They were planning to try for a child in the next few thousand years. The needle was a bit of fun, but the two lovers took any opportunity to gallivant off.

    It was probably why they also had seven children without ever needing outside help.

    Emmanuel just wished they didnt leave him with ferry duties.