Elder Cultivator

By the time the Scarlet Alliance approved a letter from Everheart to Anton, he had gone through several iterations of what he wanted to send. His ultimate goal was to encourage the man to continue to focus on mutual enemies, as well as to encourage the few positive traits the man had.

Everheart had put a large amount of effort into creating tombs meant to raise the generation just before the invasion, knowing what would happen. Even if he’d done it to spite the upper realms, he still took care not to unnecessarily kill too many people in his tombs.

He already knew about the connection to the Scarlet Alliance- he’d been back to Ceretos, after all. So Anton focused on the most recent information to come in. Specifically, the information on Sudin.

“I find it interesting how Sudin used various forms of attention, including devotion, to empower himself and the soul drawing chambers the Twin Soul Sect made use of. I find that contrasts with the information I know regarding other Domination cultivators.”

Sharing information about Shelach with the lower realms had been a careful process. The process had taken several years to carefully transport the original scroll for those who needed to be aware of the details- primarily Enrichment cultivators. Even if they were confident in the security of their transmissions, they thought it better to not risk potential dangers.

It was a curious question, how a man like Shelach might have formed an anchor. If nobody knew about him or the anchor, where would he get devotion? If perhaps he cultivated spite or similar negative emotions like Everheart seemed to, it would still require being known. And fear… while the fear of a small number of individuals might be powerful, would that really be enough?

Perhaps it might be. Especially if he kept himself secret. Fear of the unknown was often worse than fear of the known. In such a case, spreading the information could either empower Shelach… or weaken him. But knowing whether or not he was going to be a problem for them was important first.

Either way, Anton wasn’t afraid. An assassin from the upper realms meant very little to him. He didn’t believe he would be killed, nor was he afraid of death if it did come for him. But they would have to be careful about others. Whether they tried to find out more or not would be the prerogative of the Scarlet Alliance, since they were the ones actually at risk. Though hopefully, their formations would be prepared to pick up sneaking Domination cultivators.

Anton’s letter continued, touching mainly on topics of power. “It is unfortunate that I couldn’t witness Koronis’ advancement firsthand. Bonding with a nebula is quite adjacent to my own style. I hear that you have been quite interested in stars lately as well. You’d better take good care of them. You never know when one you mistreat might develop a consciousness and try to hunt you down.”

The chances of such a thing happening were practically nonexistent. Though, if Everheart was messing around with stars perhaps such changes were more likely, as it was outside of the normal bounds of stellar interaction. None of Anton’s stars had showed signs of growing independence or sapience, and Maheg might truly be a unique phenomenon, but it was worth considering. Speaking of which, Anton had promised to see if they could bond together. Anton wanted to take some time to prepare for the possible results still, and the star was nothing if not patient. But soon enough, he probably would.

“Have you been practicing your archery? I know you aren’t the sort to devote yourself to a single weapon, but I imagine you should at least learn to shoot something in an adjacent system. It’s quite a useful trick. And perhaps with enough practice, you might strike much further than that.”

In all cases when interacting with Everheart- first his projections, then the real man for some time- confidence was key. If he saw weakness he was liable to exploit it.

“Oh, right,” Anton added at the end. “Paradise says hi. He heard you got a new turtle and would like to remind you to take better care of it and not abandon it for centuries.” With that, he included an image of Paradise, taken by an excellent photographer. There was of course a planet nearby for scale. Paradise was significantly smaller than a planet… but he did outscale most landmasses except the proper continents. He should be something like a couple hundred kilometers across. The invaders from the upper realms who saw him had gotten quite a shock at that.

-----

After delivering his letter, Anton found himself on the border of the upper realms. He didn’t have to roam far to confirm how much the Exalted Quadrant was pushing into the Scarlet Midfields. The Trigold Cluster too, and they should have had first hand witness that they were on shaky footing.

But since the upper realms had only really seen the one shot that annihilated Sudin, most of them didn’t really know the danger they were in. When the time came, Anton could take out anyone on any of those planets, just a few handfuls of lightyears over the border.

They weren’t close to cutting off the connection between upper and lower realms, as they had only pushed a few systems deep on either side and the Scarlet Midfields were far wider than that. But the Scarlet Alliance certainly had to think about expanding.

Anton practiced his shots far from the occupied planets. He couldn’t surpass a hundred lightyears like he had with Sudin, but his attacks could withstand the corrosive effect of ascension energy trying to annihilate him. And the more he grew used to it, the better he was able to steal it, or use the energy of the upper realms that was trying to annihilate his own against a target.

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By the end of the next cycle… Anton didn’t expect that anyone would be able to cross the border, if they were stupid enough to invade. Or at least, he could take out a great number of targets in the days it would take them to pass through his range. More Domination cultivators might be an issue, but perhaps he could discover the next step beyond Enrichment before that theoretical time. He already had ideas. Domination was an interesting topic of study, but if anything the similarities were in the concept of Anchors, which Assimilation used from the beginning.

It was possible that Anton wouldn’t be able to reach the next stage due to taking the wrong path or a lack of guidance. However, he had no worries that it didn’t exist. It was clear to him that it must, another great increase in power. Cultivation might have an end, but he could see enough of the path ahead to know that being restricted to natural energy didn’t somehow limit the heights of power that could be reached.

-----

Infiltrating the planets being established in the Scarlet Midfields was easy. They weren’t completely without defensive formations, but establishing secure planets took more than a few decades. Velvet noticed the Exalted Quadrant was well prepared for void ants, but they were looking in the completely wrong direction. She hoped that the Chaotic Conglomeration would soon cause enough trouble to make the Exalted Quadrant feel less comfortable about pushing into the midfields.

She would think that their losses in the lower realms would make expanding seem like a bad idea. The same should be true of their increased pressure on the Conglomeration. But perhaps their losses were exactly why they were taking risks.

Other than a clear intent to drive out void ants, there didn’t seem to be much else to it. The Scarlet Alliance would like to claim the entirety of the Midfields, but that was simply infeasible. This was over a hundred lightyears from their southern border. They were being obvious that the Trigold Cluster could have accused them of violating the compact if they actually cared, but both sides were pretty well beyond that point. THey’d both interfered with the Citadel of Exalted Light, and both had their own conflicts with the emerging Scarlet Alliance.

Trying to push them into conflict over the old compact of neutrality would just be asking for trouble for the people who actually lived there, which happened to be most of the people in the upper realms that Velvet knew. It was still somewhat surprising that there were others. Not just Runa and the Chaotic Conglomeration, but also Ratna- at least a little bit. Velvet was still somewhat bitter at having been tricked, but she couldn’t really say it wasn’t her own fault. She hadn’t been good enough to see through the deception.

It was a relatively lengthy trip across the Midfields to the Trigold Cluster, but she had to verify that their situation was similar. A desire to confirm the eradication of the void ants and for what resources they could squeeze out of the planets.

One detail that Velvet noted was how few people were colonizing the new planets. It made sense, as it required cultivators to withstand the rough state of an early developing planet. But the Scarlet Alliance was able to grow more quickly, because they simply had more cultivators. Even if most people wouldn’t make it past Body Tempering or Spirit Building, each person would be several times more durable and generally effective. Even a single tier of cultivation improved body strength and cognitive function.

The problem for the great powers was that they were not willing to share. Each cultivator was a drain on the energy in the area. But with proper methods, they would be a net positive over time, allowing each cultivator to actually boost each other.

Velvet didn’t intend to give anyone advice, of course. They would have to figure it out on their own- and they didn’t yet seem to find the Scarlet Alliance worth emulating. Hopefully, they would hesitate to take them at full seriousness for a few more centuries so they could further establish themselves.

-----

Leonid wasn’t supposed to do anything involving physical storage. He was more of an archivist. However, the Scarlet Alliance did have a number of dangerous artifacts… and he happened to be the closest person of sufficient security permissions when something happened. Thus, he found himself running into the secure vaults to do… something.

He sure didn’t know what that something might be. But maybe he could make whatever bad thing was going to happen delay until someone actually important showed up. He preferred a quiet life, and the last few years had been far too stressful.

“What are the contents?” Leonid asked the guards outside the room. They might not know, which would help inform his reaction.

“I dunno,” said one young woman. “Fingers or something?”

The older man next to her shook his head. “Not ‘or something’. These would be some rather important digits.”

Ah. Leonid knew this one. The exact details weren’t public, but Zaur Beridze had lost fingers in the most recent confrontation.

“So what should we do?” asked the woman. “Do we open it up or…?”

“Absolutely not,” Leonid said. “We’ll be watching to see if the formations are doing their job. If they struggle, we’ll supplement their energy until someone proper shows up.”

A worrying burst of energy came from behind the door. Leonid had felt that before, but only from a great distance. Everyone on Xankeshan had. Nobody would forget a Domination cultivator. His mere presence above the planet had caused some people’s cultivation to go awry, and others broke through barriers they’d been struggling with due to sudden insights.

Leonid had hidden under his bed. But apparently he had ended up rubbing shoulders with too many important people, so here he was.

Oh good, the formations worked. He felt things settle down in a few moments. “How many times has it done that?” he asked.

“Four or five,” the woman said.

“Exactly four. Stronger each time,” the more reliable older man declared.

“About every minute then,” Leonid grumbled to himself.

There was another surge of energy and something in the room cracked. Leonid just about jumped out of his skin, but he supported the wall with his energy. He really hoped that someone else would show up soon. Surely they couldn’t be more than a minute or two behind him, right…?

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