Elder Cultivator

The assault on the Shining Cooperative was split among a great many worlds. When he was young, Izaak never thought he would see more than one. No, he hadn’t even expected to see all of Mazlerth as he lived on his own farm. Or to live, for that matter.

Anton might not have technically saved his whole planet, as they would have eventually found their own cures for the plaguing fungus. However, Izaak himself would have certainly perished- and his family wouldn’t have done much better.

Izaak himself had not followed Anton along the path of archer nor of starbinding. The latter was partially bred in timidity, and partially a consequence of his earlier life. The fungus designed to wipe out life on Mazlerth- while spreading elsewhere- was defeated in large part by spectral energy. That had influenced his own growth.

It didn’t fit perfectly within the cultivation method of the One Hundred Stars, but he was still able to achieve a form of Assimilation balanced around life and death, growth and decay. It sounded more impressive than it was, in Izaak’s opinion.

The invasion of the Shining Cooperative was widespread, though ultimately that had been favorable. Izaak himself had moved from system to system with many of the others, slaying the attackers. Those of the Twin Soul Sect met their final end- the others as well, but it was less notable when someone not trained in reincarnation techniques perished permanently.

The spread of the Shining Cooperative and the subsequent support by the Lower Realms Alliance had let many worlds grow strong in cultivation, enough that previous tactics of the Trigold Cluster would no longer work. Some of the fleets already arrived somewhat damaged, seemingly the result of void ants- they were not common in the Shining Cooperative, but Izaak had seen many of them throughout the Alliance.

It had been impossible to completely stop the invaders, but they would survive and rebuild. That was what Izaak had learned at a young age, and he had been preparing for this moment ever since.

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The light of life left the last of the Numerological Compact invaders. Devon didn’t enjoy it, but neither would he shy away from their deaths. And the Compact lost the least people out of anyone in the war, since even if an entire ship was destroyed the vast majority aboard were not theirs.

They had managed to disable about two thirds of their ships, which was an excellent ratio… but thinking of all the remaining individuals who perished needlessly, they could only blame those in the upper realms.

That day, a great many people made the decision to ascend to the upper realms, where they would eventually be able to enact vengeance. Certainly, they had killed all who dared step into their territory using slaves as batteries… but those who commanded them were still far behind.

Obviously the Numerological Compact was but one part of the Exalted Quadrant, and thinking of defeating either of the great powers with just the Scarlet Alliance- even if their numbers doubled or tripled- was more than simply ambitious. But they could at least be a thorn in the sides of particular subsets of their enemies.

Devon was proud of them, those who would fight for their own freedoms and for others- even those they had not yet met. He was personally bound to the energy of the lower realms, though he could theoretically survive a trip to the upper realms, unlike his grandfather. Though just like Augmentation cultivators were weakened in the lower realms, so he imagined Enrichment cultivators had to be lacking in the upper realms. But not everything was about battle, and he might wish to visit regardless… once it made sense.

The Shattered Chains would no doubt grow in numbers once more. The sudden influx of new people would be a burden on the surrounding systems, but nobody would deny those who were just freed a proper opportunity. And they even had convenient ships to drop them off in various places. The Compact wasn’t using them anymore, after all.

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Even with his training, using magnetism at the same strength around In’istra was impossible for Varghese. That was fine, however, as using the same trick twice would get stale. The enemy fleets were likely already prepared.

It was unfortunate that their route was more cautious about getting too close to the star, but fully expected. Either way, he was still able to display great strength defending his home planet. Varghese focused on individual targets instead of the whole fleet at once.

In several places, the planetary barriers were broken through and enemy ships tried to sow chaos. They were successful to some extent, though they were quite surprised that everyone on the ground were cultivators as well. Even if they were not all combat trained, most knew at least the basics of using defensive energy.

Individual cities also had their own barriers to divert enemy attention to better defended locales, and there were extra defensive emplacements. This wasn’t an unexpected invasion on those who had forgotten the past- or had it erased. People were prepared to fight, to defend their homes and their fields and their cities.

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Turilia and the surrounding systems made it through. Anton also felt the results of battle around In’istra directly, though official communications wouldn’t arrive for some days yet. The core worlds would be the next reached, and after that only a scattered impression of various systems further from the border.

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The twin planets of Shrenn and Tenoun’a were untargeted- the upper realms believed them to have been completely annihilated previously, and all useful resources secured. At least those worth the time of the invaders. They still maintained a force of defenders just in case they were wrong, but many of their strongest cultivators they lent to other systems.

Anton had some of them with him in Ekict. Every additional soul was welcome, especially when facing a sizable group like that incoming.

With the guidance of others, Ekict had developed their own Assimilation cultivators instead of following the practices of cultivation theft they had once developed. Anton didn’t fault the original developers, and indeed if they had only used it on those who actually wished them harm he might have supported the practice. But they had masked themselves and stolen from the people of Ceretos and the rest of the Lower Realms Alliance, betraying the offered friendship.

But that was long past, merely the history of Ekict. Now they were run by the younger generation who had the practice concealed from them, those who had truly believed Ekict intended to befriend their lower realms neighbors in turn.

Along with them was Anishka, who had grown into her own during that war. She was supported by the Sergeant, who had been her steadfast ally at the time and ever since. It made Anton miss the Great Queen, but she was focused on defending the core worlds.

At a certain point, Anton decided it was time. He began to draw upon the power of his stars, and then he was slipping through space towards the enemy fleet. As an arrow, of course, because it would be foolish to make the trip towards them himself. It would be a waste of all his training.

He chose to target a random mid-sized ship in the fleet. While he might have liked to try to take down one carrying an Augmentation cultivator in his first volley, he thought it most likely the would be able to defend themselves and his element of surprise would be lost. Thus, he could take out some of their other ships and force them to at least consolidate their transportation. He couldn’t guarantee everyone aboard would perish, after all.

Though Anton hadn’t been using his full power, he hadn’t been holding back either. His arrow contained sufficient power to destroy his target ship and perhaps drive through to another. But instead… his arrow met with an unbreakable force.

That clash told him all he needed to know. A diffuse aura throughout the fleet that seemed unimposing, but was actually the greatest among them. And unwilling to allow even the weakest member among them to perish. Anton wasn’t able to confirm if it was the Domination cultivator known as Sudin in particular, as there had been no energy impression in the reports. He couldn’t even confirm from that single interaction if it was a member of the Twin Soul Sect… but it didn’t change his strategy.

Anton shot another arrow. And then another. The enemy fleet was still many lightyears away, and Anton intended to take advantage of one thing in particular. His rate of energy replenishment next to his stars was astounding, and it had only grown higher as he bound to new stars. That should be exactly the perfect counter to anyone from the upper realm, who should be unable to replenish their energy.

Though Anton seriously doubted that his foe would somehow forget to defend the ships in a particular part of the fleet, his attacks came in from all angles. He wasn’t using any sort of fancy technique, simply curving his arrows as he covered the intervening distance. A few kilometers on either side when he was covering a lightyear was only the most minute of adjustments. In fact, he had to avoid changing trajectory too soon or he could go vastly off target.

Without this Domination cultivator… Anton wondered how much of the fleet he could have already taken down on the first day. It might have been enough for them to want to retreat- though he’d have the same amount of time again as they retreated. Perhaps longer, as they could be fighting against the Tides to retreat at the current moment.

Instead… he felt like he was trying to stab an ocean to death. He wasn’t entirely certain that a Domination cultivator couldn’t recover energy, as his target felt limitless. But as long as he didn’t give away any other special techniques, it was still worth his while to probe his opponent as they approached- and if Anton wore him down at all it would be worth it.

“The void ants are going to be important here,” Anton declared. “Sergeant. If you could arrange for a strike force of the best…?”

“Of course, Sect Head Anton,” the Sergeant signed. “I will prepare the best of the best. We have not tested ourselves against Domination cultivators just yet, but we will!”

“Be careful, though,” he said to her. “After all, we don’t know what became of those who should have attacked this fleet. I don’t think we would have missed one like this, however.”

“Affirmative. We’ll focus on a surgical approach, only attacking when this Domination cultivator is distracted. We can also allow the rest of the void ant forces to appear at another part of the battlefield to assuage any worries.”

Anton nodded. “I think anything we can prepare will be worthwhile.”

The distance from the last system beyond Ekict was covered in just a few days. Anton kept up his bombardment, despite the lack of discernible damage. The Domnation cultivator had still not revealed their full aura until the fleet passed into the system proper. When they did, Anton wasn’t certain it was the true aura of the man.

Anton was uninterested in attempting to force the man to reveal a Twin Soul Sect cultivation if he was one of them. Better to not give the man a chance to learn the technique and think of a counter. So far, it seemed they had managed several techniques the greater sect did not know how to counter. Similar techniques were used in the upper realms, so it would be a problem if he learned something and survived.

For the moment, Anton would just have to assume the man was Sudin. For the moment he was appearing as some sort of light element cultivator. Perhaps something like the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance, though it wasn’t quite right. Anton doubted that was a mistake, and more likely it was a near perfect replica of some other group that Anton had no energy impressions of. Or the man might just be a light element cultivator. Anton could possibly pick that out by using some of his own light. He was going to be pulling out every technique in this battle, that he well knew.

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