Elder Cultivator

Waves of ascension energy rolled out from Sudin of the Twin Soul Sect. However, as it touched the cultivators of the Lower Realms Alliance his energy was worn away faster than expected, and the same was true of all the other cultivators in their army. They had special training to fight against ascension energy, after all. That was what was allowing them to fight against higher levels of cultivation effectively.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make Sudin himself any more vulnerable. Though he was the main focus of attacks now, the strength and speed of a Domination cultivator allowed him to withstand any attacks that struck him and to avoid most of them.

Every scrap of Anton’s energy was being used to attack his foe, including what he could get from Candle Wax. As one would expect, he did not regularly burn his lifespan and thus was unfamiliar with the effect the technique had in the Enrichment stage. It wasn’t quite as much as he might have hoped, but to defeat a Domination cultivator he would take any power he could get. Especially as Sudin transformed his aura into a newly malicious configuration.

Spectral energy reached out towards the surrounding armies, drawing on the souls of those around him. Friend or foe, Sudin didn’t seem to care. Anton understood he couldn’t let the technique go on for long, as it was spreading towards the planet as well. While those fighting up above could withstand it at least for a few moments, a sufficient portion of those below were weak enough that whatever it was would kill them instantly.

Anton wasn’t alone in his attacks. The major sects of Ekict had been reformed, and that meant among others the Enkindled Sun Sect and the Northern Glacier Sect. There was also the Vermillion Inferno, who had been relatively inconsequential centuries ago but had grown into something respectable.

Along with Anishka, fire and ice were the most prominent- but Anton spotted cultivators of every sort of elemental form including water, earth, and wind. There were weapon cultivators in abundance including the bow, sword, spear, axe, and weapons more obscure.

Cultivators of less concrete ideas such as time, space, and soul combined with cultivators of plants, trees, and even technology- though Ekict was far short of Rutera’s dedication to the latter.

Anton’s own attacks included as much spectral energy as he could, trying to disrupt whatever Sudin was doing. His stolen ascension energy was used without hesitation as well, detonating as it came into contact with Sudin’s traditional energy, though that was valuable from Anton’s perspective as Sudin wasn’t able to prevent his own energy from straining to take out Anton’s.

Cultivators around Sudin began to fall, especially the remnants of the fleets that had come with him. Anton watched as their bodies remained whole but life drained from their eyes, their souls pulling apart like candy fluff. It seemed that perhaps Sudin could fight all of their forces alone- but if this was something he could do easily he would almost certainly have come alone to have all of the loot and glory for himself.

So all they had to do was break the technique. Anton condensed his energy, pulling back his bow. He’d never dared to use so much, and he felt the soulstring straining. As he released his shot, the string snapped- but it propelled his energy forward with greater power than ever before. Along with his attack came a wave of souls.

Time slowed as Anton as an arrow flew past the defending fleets. He calmly watched thousands of attacks en route to Sudin, some trying to cause maximum damage and others meaning to constrain his movements even just for a moment. Anton flew over Anishka’s shoulder as she charged forward, heedless of the danger in the man’s surroundings like so many others. If they were afraid of death, then they would have fled long ago.

A flicker of recognition lit up in Sudin’s eyes as he noticed Anton’s attack. He took a step, covering a distance halfway to Ekict’s moon. But Anton followed, turning to strike him even as he prepared to move once more. Anton struck the man in the back, aiming for his lower spine. He put everything into the attack, and the memories of souls from his bowstring came along with it.

It was astounding that Sudin didn’t end up as mere particulate matter, so thoroughly annihilated that no trace of him remained. Instead, he withstood the attack. On the surface, at least. Even as Anton was feeling despair at his seeming invulnerability… Sudin was three steps further. Beyond the orbit of Eckit’s moon, and with no signs of stopping.

Anton had little left in him but the energy to reach out, lashing his senses to the man as he moved. On the surface, the man felt powerful. But like Zaur Beridze, he fled for his life. In this case, he had no visible wounds… and Anton didn’t know of any attack on his anchor, whatever it was.

It was a bitter sort of victory, watching the man retreat with so many of them dead. Anton’s energy strained as Sudin stepped into the Tides of the World, the ascension energy tearing at his own energy. He pulled back outside the tides, keeping a distance as he followed the man’s progress out of the system.

Anton wanted to chase him, but he could only sink into Ekict’s star in exhaustion. What more could he have done? What techniques could he have developed? Perhaps there was nothing, but to let the man go felt wrong. But what could he even do? If his bow was whole, he would be able to take a few piddling shots at most. Without it…

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Anton formed a bow of energy, shooting from within the star. He certainly wasn’t going to give up. His arrow was swiftly torn into by the tides, but it struck Sudin’s heel. The next arrow revealed an instability in the man’s energy, but not one Anton was equipped to exploit. He simply had no energy left, and it would take time to recover.

If Anton had been at full capacity at that moment? He would have had over a day to assault Sudin. With the man in the state he was… Anton might have caused real damage. Anton thought about giving chase, but even using the increased speed between his stars- if he had the energy- the Domination cultivator moved more swiftly than he could have kept up with. It would still take more than a month for him to reach the border, but there wasn’t some sort of fleet that could cut him off along the way. They wouldn’t even be able to touch him.

Anton barely managed to keep his senses on the man as he went, while Anton languished inside a star. If the tides had not passed by other bound stars, Anton would have certainly lost that connection. Not that it was a coincidence that he had connections along the path. He’d built up his network for a reason. Now, he was slowly recovering his energy- but what was the point when he was still in Ekict?

Ah. But there was that one technique he’d been working on. It wasn’t something he could do swiftly but… with almost a month remaining, perhaps he could manage a single shot. He’d have to recover enough energy as well, but the power of his stars was pouring into him- including more from Varghese and Three Squeaks as they sensed his need.

Starting with Ceretos, Anton linked himself to his stars. Weos and Rutera were nearby, and he wrapped himself around them and them around himself. He continued eastward, towards his physical location and Ekict. There were many stars bound along the route to In’istra, and Anton linked his energy between all of them in sequence. He was stretched thin. He had no idea if this would even work. He was barely regaining more energy than he was using, and he almost lost track of Sudin more than once.

But he wasn’t going to give up. The upper realms needed to receive a message that they could not do as they pleased. No amount of sacrifices would be sufficient for them to trample upon the lower realms. As Anton thought that… he felt his bound stars respond. They had no consciousness, exactly, but they still burned with his own resolve.

The far east endpoint was Azun, just beyond In’istra. A good endpoint. Dense. That was where Anton started making a more solid bridge of energy up to the north. He would have liked to ask for permission from the Shining Cooperative, but his message likely wouldn’t have reached them in time. Either way, he was technically only going around their systems.

Anton had spread his bound stars far and wide based on the practicality of the moment, But the shape it made… well, he couldn’t even pretend it fit anything. Even the constellations old astrologists saw in the stars were more accurate to form than what he was doing.

Either way, Anton had at one point bound stars along the northern border as well, leading back towards Ekict. He was ahead of Sudin, technically, as he continued to form his bridge of energy. But he was only two thirds done with his full project… if it even meant anything, it would have to be complete.

Around the time Anton reached Akrys, Sudin was at the border of the upper and lower realms, swimming the Tides of the World. Anton still had to connect the same distance the man had run, approximately.

Anton’s senses were not actually stretching between himself and Sudin anymore. Instead, there was a mote of Anton’s energy that wound its way around the Tides. He was lucky that his energy wasn’t annihilated as it followed him into the upper realms, though it was a close thing.

It was probably already too late, but Anton linked back to Ceretos. His bridge of hard energy connecting to the other end of the string. Once again, Anton was amazed at how… inaccurate it was. A bow was supposed to be smooth curves, not random lines between stars not all on the same plane. The string didn’t hang taut.

But he pulled upon it anyway. Constellation Shot… he only thought he’d do it with a couple neighboring stars, maybe extend his range slightly. Energy from all throughout the lower realms fed into him as he formed an arrow, filled with more than what Anton had recovered during Sudin’s retreat. All across Anton’s little slice of the lower realm, a bow bent and released an arrow.

That was another issue. Anton grumbled to himself. A bow wasn’t supposed to shoot an arrow at something the equivalent of one step in front. But it could, and as long as there was a specific distance it would work just fine. Not that any of this made sense in normal practical terms anyway.

But the arrow flew, as straight and true as other arrows. Which meant ultimately where he told it to go… but a much more meandering path than most people realized. There wasn’t a physical bow nor was the arrow made of matter, so the archer’s paradox didn’t exactly apply- but it flew along the boundary of the Tides, where natural energy was being pulled into the upper realms.

Sudin had stopped, just about that time. No doubt the man felt himself safe, some hundred lightyears into the upper realms. The man would be composing himself, preparing his story to save face. Resting from his sustained flight- no cultivator could move their maximum speed for so long without consequences. These were all speculation on Anton’s part. He didn’t even have a single instant to actually observe the man’s expression or reacting as the arrow approached, cutting through subspace. Anton’s bowstring had barely reached its full forward position when the arrow reached its target.

He made sure the man’s soul would be destroyed. Just because he hadn’t expected his technique to work didn’t mean that he couldn’t do things properly. The point of his arrow dug into the man, infused with energy that defied reincarnation. Anton’s own, and of course that of this man who thought he could do whatever he pleased.

Everyone felt it. Not at that exact instant. Some would not sense anything for hundreds of years, as the shockwave slowly propagated throughout the cosmos. But the destruction of a Domination cultivator was no small thing. There would be much speculation on what actually happened until information slowly trickled up from the lower realms. Even after that, most people didn’t believe the truth. Anton might not have, either.

But for the moment… he was going to take a nap. He probably should have come out of the star so people could see him first, but he was tired.

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