Dark Matter Ascension

Jace faced down the horde, letting out a war cry as he raced forward and began decimating them with broad sweeps. His Anathema Arms and legs, at his urging and thanks to the NICIF's control over his prosthetics, manifested edged weapons along the base of his feet, his knees, and elbows – all flickering with the power of his Void Blade and [Rending] effects.

He wheeled to his left, parrying a strike before grabbing the demon's head and crushing it with a single squeeze. The fountain of deep, grey ichor burst skyward – and Jace was already on the move as the stunned demons continued to try and resist his inexorable assault but were helpless against his onslaught. He was a force of nature, and even with the vast forces outnumbering him, he was still coming out on top. Activating Hope's Edge and Void Shield's (Reflecting) Skill Evolution, he re-topped off his energy as he activated Raging Cleave (Rank 11) on strike after strike, decimating huge squadrons of the demons.

They began to turn and flee from the unstoppable juggernaut before them, and Jace saw continued his carnage as those fleeing demons only ran into more of their allies who were assaulting the fortress, and now turned to see the specter of death that fell upon them like a relentless rainstorm. Every blow from Jace's sword brought demise, and he was so fast that his blur of gold and grey-white energy blitzed across the battlefield. Only to be punctuated with frequent crimson-red shockwaves from his Raging Cleave effect, the afterimages left behind by the crackling of his Aura of Wrath and [Voidflame Vestment], and the brief, purple emanations of his releasing the (Fulmination) Augmentation.

He did not feel tired, and even when Hope's Edge ran out and he deactivated the (Reflecting) Skill, he still fought onward. He had no clue how much time passed – but his energy was constantly, slowly draining away as it fueled his various Skills. And yet it seemed like no matter how many Astral Demons he slew, more popped up to engage him in the fight.

Get up above them, let us see where we are at. Ollie's instructions resonated in Jace's mind, and he shot his grapple line to a fixed point in space above, pulling himself skyward with several chained-together grapple-launches until he was well-above the battlefield.

He could see the line of carnage he had wrought, and it had barely scratched the surface of this horde. He was breathing heavily. "There's…a lot…"

May be worth using (Horizon-Splitter).

"That'll…tap me out." Jace felt dismay at seeing how little he had actually done in the grand scheme of things. It felt like he had been making a difference, but the Astral Demon's numbers were so numerous, so vast, he saw that he had only taken a tiny slice out of them. The fact that the Demon Commander was in that section he arrived at must have been a fluke of luck.

We…we're getting a comms request.

Quinn's voice came over the comms, "Someone else is probing your armor to see if you have a means of communication. Coming from that fortress. I can block it if you want."

"Patch them through," Jace said. He saw the Demons below as they began to finally track his location and sent bolts of crackling, Psykinetic energy up at him. He had to swing himself back and forth to dodge the bolts of energy, and re-launch his grapple as he slowly moved towards the citadel. "This is Wraith. Who are you?"

"Highlord Tibalt. Commander of the Universe 467 Stronghold, and representative of the Vanguard species on the Astral Verge. Thanks for taking down that Commander. That will sow some discord for a time."

"No problem," Jace replied. "You set the Mission?"

"Correct. Ending the siege single-handedly though? I figured another species with a warship or some WMD would show up."

"Why don't you nuke them?" Jace asked.

"Pardon?"

"Nuke? Like a nuclear bomb?"

There was silence for a moment before the man's voice came back, "Ah, that is a technology that was banned by our Vanguard Alliance Accords some eighty-thousand years ago."

Jace kept swinging towards the energy barrier protecting the citadel, maneuvering up along the flying Astral Demons and slashing them from behind as he progressed towards the fortress. "Why don't you have some WMD to obliterate an army?"

Tibalt was silent, and Jace wondered if he had dropped the comms connection before he came back, sounding irritated. "We've tried that. Astral Demons are made of stern stuff. Only Psykinetics can destroy them permanently. Otherwise, they just regenerate. And as far as I know, no species we've encountered has been able to imbue Psykinetics into weaponry or armaments of that scale. Firearms and melee weapons? Sure. But not bombs."

Void is an exception, Jace thought as he knew firsthand how well it could obliterate the creatures that besieged the fortress. I can use that or this Valiant Emotion Source. Hey, Ollie, does the Crusader's Might Talent make all my attacks have that Psykinetic damage typing?

Anything that you wield, Ollie replied. Weapons that are handheld in size.

I can't use it while manning a cannon, unlike Dee with her Spinal Laser Skill from that item. Jace spoke firmly over the comms, "Can I enter your stronghold?"

"We'll make a slight gap when you're close."

"No need, I'll warp inside." Jace got close and activated Void Step to warp past the barrier.

"How the blazes did you do that?" Tibalt asked with genuine curiosity tinging the brusque tone.

"Won't say," Jace replied. He looked out upon the battlefield below and deactivated his Skills. Glancing down at the defenders, he saw they were…human. "What species are you all?" he asked over the comms.

"Vanguards," the man replied.

They are effectively humans, just from another universe with slightly different biological functions. They eat minerals, so their digestive tracts are far different. Ollie sounded fascinated, like a scholar who was delving into a library for the first time.

Jace dropped down to the top of the walls, amidst the Vanguards dressed in power armor that was lightweight, like his, but with bulkier pauldrons. They were carrying rifles that had cartridges on the bottom, and had some type of stick-weapon on their hips. The loud zap of the turret emplacements going off shook Jace's bones. "You don't have any troops out there, right?"

"Correct. You are welcome to join the defensive effort."

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"Do these Astral Demons have a draw? Something we can use as bait?" Jace asked as an idea formulated in his head.

"I've answered a lot of your questions – answer mine. How are you permanently putting them down? You raised your hand, then a swathe were destroyed – and then a golden light shot out."

"I cannot say," Jace replied. "Just know that I have the means to obliterate them fully."

Oh, speaking of, since we are in a little bit of a breather space. Here's the Essence you accumulated from your rampage. 260, leaving you at 394 total.

"I need more to go on than that if you're looking to bait them with my resources," Tibalt replied.

Jace looked at the soldiers surrounding him, only now noticing that they had weapons at the ready but were holding position. Still as rocks, their weapons trained on him. Void Shield (Rank 6), he thought as he willed the barrier that was invisible to them to pop into place, just in case. "A demonstration, then." Jace looked out to the battlefield and raised his hand. Void Beam (Rank 1) [Horizon-Splitter]. He saw his energy bar drain all the way, and his Void Shield sputtered out. He willed his NICIF to hold his body upright so that it appeared that he did not tire at all, but he was exhausted.

The entire world before him, all of the Astral Demons on that side of the mountain citadel, were obliterated. Their faint, whispy-white trails of Essence shot towards Jace and into his palm, and he felt the weird substance coat his skin before being sucked up.

Big jump there, Ollie said. Another 400, putting you at 794.

Jace smiled as he saw the gold suffusing him to an even more lustrous glow. Glancing at the soldiers, he made sure to sound as confident as possible. "I'm not a threat to you. You can put the rifles down."

The soldiers whose expressions he could not read underneath their metal helmets and visors lowered their weapons, and Tibalt's voice came over the comms. "The fuck?! You could have done that?!"

Jace kept his voice neutral and replied, "I cannot do it constantly, and it is a directed attack. I could not do it from behind their lines, or I would have risked destroying your citadel."

He saw the reaction of the soldiers around him. There was a slight tension, a movement in the air. An unease that seemed to spread as they realized the true scale of power difference between Jace and them. Tibalt came back over the comms a few moments later, and he sounded aggravated. "You claim to be able to destroy us?! The mighty Vanguard Empire?"

"I could," Jace replied. "But I won't. I just want Essence, and to get to the next layer down. I only stopped because I saw your citadel under siege, and your Mission. That's it. Once the Mission is done, I'm gone."

There was silence, and the soldiers surrounding Jace went into various doors and hallways, or hopped aboard hovering transport sleds that whisked them away from that side of the citadel. Even the gunner crews left their posts as they went to fronts where the fray was still active. Tibalt came back a few moments later, "I see your Class is [Crusader]. How do you feel about joining the Vanguard Empire as a contractor?"

"I'll pass," Jace replied. "I can clear out each front in time, but not back-to-back. It'll be easier if you can group the Astral Demons together."

"We'll set up bombing runs to herd them as best we can – but there will be stragglers."

Jace shrugged and began walking to another side of the citadel, "They can be cleaned up easily enough."

Quinn's voice came over the comms, "Good call on keeping yourself separate and not trying to make friends of any faction."

Agreed, Ollie replied. It is wise. We stay focused on getting Essence, getting you to a higher Potency, and getting down to these deeper layers.

Jace kept walking, confidence brimming as he felt his energy slowly refill.

Roxcla felt the air shake and tremble. She felt the vast emptiness spread out before her as something was torn away. She knew that her mate was slain. That stupid citadel, she thought. He must have been too cocky, or confident. She sighed and walked to the pit, where more broods of Astral Demons were reforming. A sickly-sweet smell came from the pit that delighted her senses and tickled her mind. The wails of agony from within that bubbled out from the amalgamated corpses of Dreamers, all turned to a single, large mass of writhing flesh that birthed new forms for consciousnesses to inhabit brought her to the edge of ecstasy.

Never truly able to perish, being a Potency 3 or higher demon, she awaited for the return of her beloved's consciousness.

And she waited.

Hours passed. In fact, she was barely seeing any new spawn. What is going on? She thought as she looked off to the distant mountain fortress. Her base camp and the brood pits she had dug were only a few hundred miles away, and her enhanced vision could easily make out the…far smaller army. I sent five million?! Where are they? Why aren't they respawning?!

Then, she saw a brilliant cascade of gold that decimated the remaining forces. They broke and fled, heading back to her. She felt fear. Not an unknown emotion for a lesser Astral Demon like her. Even at Potency 3, she knew that she was outmatched by many. But there was a deeper fear than that of being overthrown from her position.

Someone over there, a Dreamer, in all likelihood, was a high Potency, and should not be on Layer 1. The higher the Potency one was, the harder it was for them to stay on the first Layer of the Astral Verge, as the very fabric of reality tried to push them towards those of their same or equivalent capabilities.

"Pack up the camp!" she shouted as she descended into the brood pit and tapped the fleshy bulk, pulling it into an extradimensional storage space. "We are going elsewhere for our prey!"

Jace had spent hours going around the fortress, annihilating the Astral Demon army and sucking up the Essence. By the end he had a total of 1800 Essence accumulated – enough for a level up – and the notification appeared in his screen that his Mission was completed.

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[Mission Success: End the siege of the stronghold protecting Universe 467.]

[Reward: Rare (Gear Alteration) Infusion.]

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"Good thing I got the Mission reward regardless of what this Tibalt guy thinks," Jace quipped as he took shaky breaths.

It seems like the Astral System is truly neutral, Ollie replied in his mind. Once a Mission is put forth, the reward has to be put up. And thanks to the whole Emotion Source component, the System automatically upgrades the rarity of the Infusion if you pursue a goal in line with your chosen source.

Tibalt's voice came over the comms, "You've destroyed millions," he said bluntly – impressed but also irked. "We need your powers to help us expand. We've been keeping a foothold for years now, but with something like that, we could really expand the Empire."

"Quinn, I don't want to hear this guy anymore. Jam him." Jace was quite done with the man, who had been giving him various sales pitches each time he blasted a section of the army to nothingness. I'm not here to serve someone else or help an empire from another universe. I just need to get deeper into the Astral Verge.

"Right, blocking him," Quinn replied with a smug voice. "Pompous pricks like that want to keep all the resources at their disposal." Jace launched his grapple line forward and pulled himself to the shield, using Void Step to warp past it, and descending to the ground before he broke into a jog. Quinn's voice came back, "I don't think he's taking no for an answer."

Jace turned around and saw vehicles – flying vessels that were bulky, bristling with turrets that glowed with a blue energy – engaging in a pursuit. Void Stalker (Rank 1), he thought, knowing that he would effectively not be regaining energy whilst it was active – the drain was just about the same as the restoration rate for his power. "I didn't see an Equipment interface the last time we pulled up an Astral System status screen," Jace stated as he kept jogging.

I think it was because the Astral System was still evaluating you and integrating you. Let us try prompting it now.

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Name: Jace Seren (Potency 1)

Emotion [Class Level]: Valiant [Crusader 1]

Talent [Specialization]: Astral Adaptation, Astral Translation, Valiant Crusader's Might

Essence: 1,800

Infusions: Rare (Gear Alteration)

Gear: <TPSB>, (Returning / Adaptable / Fulmination) Nethaldrim, (Medium / Snowguard / Burnguard / Repairing) Reaper Armor, (Thrice Judged / Soul Tether) Anathema Arms, (Overclocked / Lightfoot) Anathema Legs, (Terrifying / Sealing) All-Seeing Dragon's Eyes, (Anathema) Primal Hide, (Flexible) Adamantine Skeleton, (Reactive) NICIF

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Oh, the TPSB is a sub-menu, Ollie stated. Let us pull that up.

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TPSB: survival meals (x100), enhanced canteen, (Restful) Wildercloth tent, Devilsram wool bedroll, Blood-Infused Holy Water (x3), Throwing Knives (x20)

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"Handy," Jace replied. "This Infusion is going to be like an Equipment (Augmentation) I'd imagine?"

Yup! But since this is not The Cosmic System, I cannot manipulate behind the scenes or nudge the way it would develop in one direction or another. We are going in blind.