The Path of Ascension 9

Light and Shadow have finished the Path of Ascension, something nobody alive has seen done. The celebration does not last. Three foreign Great Powers, each as strong as the Empire, respond by declaring war.

The Empire has only one ally, and its own estimates point to a narrow defeat. The one thing that could shift the odds is another Ascender of rare ability, produced fast enough to matter.

That job falls to Matt, Liz and their Bond, Aster. They are now among the most closely watched climbers in the Empire. Espionage assignments, fights over contested planets and dives into rifts that can still kill them stand between the trio and Tier 25, and the war will not wait for them.

This is the ninth of twelve volumes in the Path of Ascension series, a progression fantasy first serialized on Royal Road and published by Aethon Books. It mixes LitRPG elements (dungeons, skills, measurable Tiers) with the internal logic of xianxia cultivation. The series follows Matt, an orphan whose Talent is supposedly detrimental, as he rises from the bottom of the Empire alongside Liz and Aster.

This volume also widens the world as the climb nears its end. Readers learn more about the rival nations, how the Empire came to be what it is, and how the magic system actually functions.