Elder Cultivator

Redirecting magnetic pull to a small portion of their ships’ mass was an interesting trick that this new Imbued Fragments Sect managed to pull, but Varghese wasn’t about to quit just because he didn’t utterly annihilate them with his first attempt.

Seeing that they had methods to counter that only made him more interested. How would they deal with that if their own ships were the epicenters of the magnetic fields? Varghese shifted in space until Azun stood precisely on the opposite side of himself and the fleet. Perhaps that didn’t matter, but they had fastidiously avoided the neutron star, which happened to be the greatest source of magnetism Varghese had ever interacted with. Even if the angle didn’t matter at all, it certainly wouldn’t hurt for him to feel that everything was aligned properly.

In his head, Varghese saw each ship as a blot in between him and the neighboring- and rather tiny- star. He imagined its connection to him settling on the ships as his aura flooded over them.

Immediately, the loose fragments that they had unleashed onto the crossed planes that Varghese had first created began to flow towards the nearest ships, but that was not the end of things. Each ship began to drag towards each other. Having so many nodes made none of them quite as strong, but soon enough ships were crashing into each other.

Surprisingly, they molded together like waves, once again revealing how the structure of the ships were not as they seemed on the surface. But even as ships tried to fuse with each other, Varghese felt death. The material might have survived, but not everyone could get out of the way of the process.

Against an entire fleet working together, Varghese wasn’t certain he could take them out in a short time- but their concentration was solely focused on him and their own survival, without even the opportunity to attack. Meanwhile, their other fleet was likely waiting for them to break through and help with the assault on In’istra.

The local defensive fleets had split between those providing backup for Varghese- even an Assimilation cultivator could be overwhelmed with numbers- and those chasing down those who tried to bypass them. In their eagerness to attack the planet directly, the stone ships of those referred to as the Broad Eyed Harvesters had foregone their potential to flank and had instead found themselves in nearly the same situation, with ships behind them and orbital defense platforms in front of them.

In’istra actually found the enemy ships to be surprisingly effective, holding together under their assaults. Their cultivators even managed to disembark the ships and begin hacking pieces off of the orbital platforms, using picks to break apart the structure. But for all their haste in dismantling, they couldn’t withstand the continuous assaults forever.

Soon their ships began to crumble, though they still managed to carry random bits and pieces of the orbital platform to their ships, killing some of the defenders along the way. But they swiftly lost momentum and were beginning their retreat about the time that the Fragments began to flee.

Rather than trying to catch everything and potentially letting them all slip through his fingers, Varghese focused his efforts on the densest group of metal ships. The structure of the ships shifted moment by moment, splitting into shards and then returning to smooth surfaces as the cultivators adjusted the placement of their ships. Their form of metal control was a direct elemental synergy- their training to resist magnetism was simply a necessary defensive measure.

By focusing on a smaller area, Varghese was able to use more strength. Perhaps a third of the remaining fleet was pulled together into a single mass, with local ships chasing after the others and shooting down as many as they could.

The fleets of In’istra gave chase until the enemies felt safe to jump into subspace at the edge of the system’s influence- though a few ships jumped early and left a bit of themselves behind.

Varghese still had a large mass of metal that was once many ships- and still had a good number of cultivators who had carved out their own places within the structure. He projected his voice to them. “If you surrender now, I can guarantee your lives will be spared and you will be treated with dignity. But if you continue to struggle, the consequences will be on your own heads.”

He was slightly worried that nobody would act up and let him demonstrate, but in a group of cultivators beyond a sufficient size there was always going to be at least one. The question was simply if they had already gotten themselves killed.

This time, there were a few spares. They had worked their way towards the outer segment of the metal mass, striking outward and sending sharp metal shards flying at Varghese. The distance the attacks had to cover gave him plenty of time to swing his swords a few times, flames extending from his weapon to melt the metal, which he then sent back directly towards the attackers. It was a completely excessive and inefficient method of killing them, but the point was to show how little control they really had.

“Anyone else?” Varghese asked. “Because I’d like to remind you that there’s also a fleet surrounding you.”

He could feel people shifting into more structurally sound pockets within their mass, but beyond that everyone seemed to be capitulating. Varghese sent word ahead to have special restraints prepared. Energy nullification cells should be sufficient, but it was still better not to have bindings that matched the preferred material of prisoners. Fortunately, the Lower Realms Alliance had more than a few options for just such cases.

The damage to In’istra was not significant, but they had not managed to entirely avoid casualties. How the planet would respond to the assaults depended on what they learned from their captives.

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The Unified Sector, formerly under the influence of the Numerological Compact, was not expecting an attack… but they were ready. When attackers came to their systems, they acted in tandem. Many were parts of greater or lesser hiveminds, but even those who were not fought in harmony besides the rest.

Devon was among them, having made the cluster of systems his long term home. The Shattered Chains were strong there, built by cultivators who were turning their worst experiences into power they used to take control of their future.

The attacks were not precisely at the same time as those on the eastern portion of the Alliance, but they came in too short of succession to be entirely coincidental. Even with their most efficient communication systems, word had not yet spread to the western front.

Devon recognized the cultivators, not entirely from previous interactions but in large part from recordings sent from the upper realms. Chief among them were cultivators of the Citadel of Exalted Light. There were several other sects from the Exalted Quadrant among them. The most notable exception was that there were none from the Numerological Compact.

Either way, all were clearly from the lower realms. There was a visible difference between cultivators who typically used ascension energy but temporarily adapted to natural energy and those who always used it. Beyond that… their cultivations maxed out at Life Transformation.

It was a foolish attack. Devon doubted they thought it through at all. Thousands of ships, but for what? If all the fleets had come to one system, he could likely have wiped them out himself. Did they really have so many cultivators to throw away? That might only be answered along with the more important question- where had they come from?

It was well known that the exploration of the lower realms was not complete, especially more towards the ‘west’. But even so, they could not have been from within fifty lightyears in any direction.

The only thing that made sense in Devon’s head was that they were assuming that these systems were weakened from the invasion a few decades ago, and that one final push from these lower realms flunkies would cripple them. But of the various options, the Unified Sector was perhaps the least damaged aside from the first worlds to join the Lower Realms Alliance. Having an Enrichment cultivator like Devon around certainly helped.

Devon had several hundred people chained up, and not a single ship had made it back out of the systems. There were plenty of people who could spill the beans.

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Anton suddenly found himself having to choose between his grandson and his disciple… though the choice wasn’t something that kept him for long. In’istra itself had done well, but it wasn’t the only system attacked on the east. The western systems happened to be more isolated, but they had established a very powerful fleet by using the technology of the Numerological Compact.

Thousands or tens of thousands of individuals could combine their energies into one greater whole, facilitated by cultivators or by ships. They were not forced to, anymore, but chose to be part of the fighting forces. With the initial attacks causing them little harm, they could afford to wait for backup. Combined with the attacks on In’istra happening first and thus alerting Anton to trouble, Anton had already begun to move.

He did ask the Ceretos branch of the One Hundred Stars and others to send reinforcements, just in case. There were also other colonies being established in that direction, and they might be next.

Thus, people were mobilized to support the systems that suddenly found themselves attacked, and preparations were made for those that might. The origin of the attacks would be hunted down. Anton had been hoping for centuries of peace… but the upper realms had to call attention to their continued presence skulking about in the lower realms. That simply wouldn’t be tolerated.

While he was on the way, news came to Anton that the Adamant Federation and the Free Planet Guardians, which had once both been under the control of the Trigold Cluster, had also been attacked- to greater success. A few border regions of the Shining Cooperative had also come under attack. That gave a better picture of where the enemy could have come from.

He had some information to add to their potential routes, given he had sensed various ships passing by some of his bound stars. Ultimately, Anton expected that most of the assaults should have come from further east, perhaps including southeast of In’istra. There was also another dimension to consider, but if they were coming directly from the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ edges of the lower realms their attack patterns would have been different.

Conversely, Anton expected that the attackers approaching the Unified Cluster might have come from perpendicular to the galactic plane. He himself had made a large loop around the western region just recently, after all. He hadn’t sensed any planets housing cultivators within his very significant sensory range, but if they were away from his plane of motion they could easily be a few systems further.

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Before Anton could reach In’istra, there were several more attacks in the region, including on the system of In’istra itself. Anton watched closely through his connection to the local star as the Imbued Fragments began to adjust themselves to Varghese’ style… only for him to adjust his actions in turn. Magnetism wasn’t the only tool in his kit, after all. It simply happened to be the best one to use against ships made entirely out of metal. Anton was looking forward to hearing a better explanation of what they were doing when he arrived… but for each attack along the way he tried to find a good spot to stop and aid them.

Unless enemies were right next to one of his bound stars Anton was far weaker than he would have been, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have any effect. He wasn’t trying to annihilate a fleet on his own, just protect those he could. He didn’t find any proper engines or even movement formations in either the metal or stone ships, but that simply meant that shooting through them to kill the cultivators inside served double duty. If they were the power source, then killing the right people would rapidly make them nonfunctional.

But if he was there in person… he could take them out before they could even threaten a single person. He didn’t have to do that, but he kind of wished he could. Which once again made him consider what the step beyond Enrichment was… even if it felt a little bit greedy to seek that much power.

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