The two scouts explained everything to the others waiting aboard the stealth ship. Catarina and Velvet both had different details to add, but ultimately the process was rather quick. It was agreed by everyone that destruction of the corpse anchor was necessary.
“This is what we ca for,” Zazil declared. “An anchor for their Domination cultivators. The only unfortunate thing is that we cannot confirm that it is the only one.”
“Why does that matter?” Durff asked. “We want to break it, and it’s here.”
Velvet knew how to best explain to him. “Because if they have more than one, they’ll protect the other ones better.”
“But we can’t find the other ones until we break this one, right? Once it’s gone we can track the others.”
“I suppose so,” Velvet agreed. Then she quickly moved to the task at hand. “We’ll have to slightly modify our intended attack plans. Zazil, you should attack with Durff and Half Oink. The rest of us will watch for problems. Catarina, is it safe for you to set up formation flags?”
She nodded. “Anything more than that might give so forewarning, but I can certainly manage sothing. We don’t know how well it will be able to defend itself. Though… even if it is the full power of a single Swirling Swarm Domination cultivator I’m not concerned. Maybe if it’s several put together, but without allies around them…”
-----
The group prepared their strategy and began their assault. The sa mont that Catarina began to toss out formation flags to fill the space around them, Zazil attacked with her rings- at a perfectly reasonable size instead of mountain cutting. That was the size of the target, after all.
Durff was a few monts behind. He was more vulnerable as an Augntation cultivator, so he held back to prepare for the imdiate reaction. Half Oink didn’t have to commit to heavy attacks in the sa way, and dashed past the corpse with her energy slashing to the side.
Velvet was fully focused on potential counterattacks. She was also prepared to take advantage of any opportunity that ca up from those efforts. Destroying their foe would protect their allies.
The auxiliary Augntation cultivators, including Aconite in the current circumstances, all kept their defensive energy ready. They could protect allies if necessary or provide energy to Catarina’s formations if she called for it.
Half Oink’s slash made the tiniest cut atop the desiccated skin of the corpse. Only a small amount of damage, but tangible. Zazil’s attacks were sowhat more impactful, but cumulative effort was what mattered.
The corpse reached out for Half Oink, flaring with Domination energy. She jerked away but she couldn’t be fast enough… except the whole thing began to lurch towards Zazil who was at a different angle. She was still sent flying, but not overwheld by the sudden surge of energy like she could have been.
Catarina locked in the formation, suppressing the Swirling Swarm energy emanating from the corpse while bolstering her allies. Durff charged forward, taking advantage of the corpse’s focus on Zazil.
A leg lashed out at a strange angle, spinning the corpse away from its counterattack on Zazil but not quite striking Durff as the energy moved relative to the limb’s position. He struck the back of the knee, keeping the leg from twisting towards him. Zazil’s blades continued to spin around the corpse, cutting through the defensive energy.
Velvet flashed through, cutting first with her void blade. She couldn’t risk touching the corpse itself- voidsteel was fragile, and anchors were incredibly durable. The desiccated corpse appeared much the sa. Her second dagger followed behind in the sa instant, using her energy not just for speed like the first dagger but for power, cutting through the brief opening.
She didn’t expect to cut all the way through several ribs, through the front and back. Then again, a living cultivator would have put more effort into defending their internal organs. That wasn’t all, though.
The Domination energy from the corpse was… chaotic. It wasn’t trying to do one thing- it was trying to do everything. Each limb was trying to attack a different person. So tried to defend against the sa attack, overlapping their efforts, while so attacks were left completely open.
Then, a mont later, Zazil’s ring blades pierced into the body of the corpse, two of them back to back. They cut in opposite directions up the midsection of the corpse. That wasn’t the end of things, but it was the beginning of the end.
Half of the damage to the corpse ca not from the attackers, but the very Domination energy emanating from it and whoever was controlling it. More than one cultivator at the sa ti… and they certainly weren’t in sync.
Little by little, the Domination aura began to fade as the corpse was crushed and cut, the connection the Domination cultivators had to the anchor fading. The corpse went from whole, to sliced in half, to quarters, to nothing. Little chunks, crushed by the Domination energy of multiple cultivators. At that point there was none to protect it, so it was rely unattended organic bits that turned into dust.
-----
One minute Madiha was training Taj and Horst- the latter was doing well to rehabilitate himself according to a new style. The next minute, Xiopia was in chaos. The aura of the Swirling Swarm that covered the whole planet was chaotic. It bent and twisted. Madiha noticed so people being torn apart. Others went along with the flow, protecting themselves but not the surrounding buildings as energy spiralled out of control.
There was a sudden pressure. Then it receded, shrinking away to nothing. Then raw Domination energy began to crush the planet.
Madiha was already sheltering her students by that point. Everything was happening so fast she didn’t know what to make of it, but she followed her instincts- and the instincts of her allies. Specifically the smallest ones. She ran, though she did not know why. She reached the nest just about the ti that her body beca light.
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Madiha stretched out her energy towards the nest. Horst didn’t seem to understand what was happening, and was currently the weakest of those involved. Taj, however, reacted brilliantly. They bent down, letting the first void ants grab onto them and their energy.
When gravity suddenly reversed, they managed to pull a large number of void ants with them. But they didn’t all co, which ant it wasn’t really gravity. Devours Villains held onto Madiha’s wrist, the familiar weight comforting. They couldn’t speak- the world was trembling so much that they couldn’t see void ant sign, and their energy was subjected to too much chaos to make any precise motions.
They were flung out into space. Had they been caught by a Domination cultivator?
No, that couldn’t be it. Everyone was flung into space. Then, there was a voice. Several voices, maybe. “We raid!”
Then, every single voice from the planet joined in. Madiha too, though she just shouted. She didn’t feel the sa compulsion she knew they did. However, the energy carrying them along and sort of shielding them from the harshness of space was clearly influencing… everything.
The most important thing was to continue feeling like they were part of the Swirling Swarm. Madiha knew they could adapt to anything after that. First, she made certain void ants were all able to find purchase inside her sleeves and those of her disciples. They hadn’t gotten all of them- and there were certainly more nests. But they could only do so much with rapid chaos ensuing.
Madiha kept her energy steady, carefully prompting Devours Villains to reveal herself. She whispered her question, doing her best to conceal all of her actions. “... How many Domination cultivators do you sense?”
The void ant queen didn’t respond for a while. “Eight,” she signed. The movent of the entire planet full of people had steadied as they were hurtled through space.
Madiha had sensed nine. Neither number was reassuring. Both were wrong.
Could the Swirling Swarm have nine Domination cultivators? Potentially, in the worst and most extre scenarios. Were there eight or nine of them on Xiopia right now? Or flying away from it? Absolutely not. No chance at all.
Yet she sensed them.
“It will be alright,” Madiha said, taking one hand of each Taj and Horst. Taj was barely an adult now, with Horst a few years older, but they were still kids as far as cultivation was concerned.
That was the last thing Madiha managed to say before they were pulled into subspace. Fortunately, the void ants ca along.
“We must conserve energy,” Madiha said. “Be patient. Be ready.”
She wasn’t sure what was going on. The Swirling Swarm was certainly impulsive, but this? It made no sense at all. It was far too extre. They often sent out raiding parties in the forms of entire neighborhoods. Cities, sotis.
But they always took ships. And presumably let people get their weapons if they didn’t have them.
-----
Several tense minutes beca days of uninteresting travel. Madiha did her best to keep herself and her disciples in the ‘entirely uninteresting’ bucket. This was still the Swirling Swarm, after all. Even if they were heading out on a mission, there was still a decent chance that friction among their mbers would result in deaths.
Technically this was probably the coziest they’d ever been- spread out kind of randomly instead of packed into tight holds of ships- but as cultivators shifted their relative positions there was still sotis trouble. Madiha didn’t avoid it- she made it avoid her. Avoiding trouble looked weak and invited trouble. At least, when you were surrounded by people like this.
Two very concerning incidents happened during the journey. First, another Domination cultivator appeared. It was difficult to confirm with Devours Villains because subspace wasn’t good for normal vision and senses- at least not without a ship dampening the effects- but Madiha was confident enough in her own assessnt.
Then two Domination cultivators died one after another. While theoretically beneficial, it was still concerning. Domination cultivators weren’t like bamboo plants. They didn’t just shoot up overnight or get chopped down casually. The crazy thing was they weren’t even fighting as far as she could tell- though their deaths did explode so untold number of millions around them. Well, there was that concern. She didn’t want to be around that.
The planet that they crashed into- because Madiha was not willing to be generous enough to call it a ‘landing’- held the aura of the Fearso nagerie. While Madiha wished them no good things, she also didn’t wish this on them. Whatever it was.
Madiha didn’t quite know what to do as they ended up out in the countryside. Domination auras were all around them. Were they still being observed?
It was Taj who broke the silence. “So… we’re altering our mission objectives right?”
That snapped Madiha out of it. “New goals… survival.”
“And saving innocents!”
Madiha was going to say there wouldn’t be many here. That might be true, but compared to Xiopia…
“... Why do I feel so light?” Horst asked.
“Never got swept up in a raid?” Madiha asked. “This is a more typical gravity.” She gestured. “That way.”
“People to save?” Taj asked.
“And food.” She used her energy to keep their words to themselves, as there were still Swirling Swarm cultivators raining down around them. “You two will need the food. But we’ll start with taking down that guy.”
The target was an Augntation cultivator. Risky, normally. Half covered in void ants? Not so much. All they had to do was get close enough to let the void ants take their shot. And Madiha had the expertise to blend in. Horst wasn’t great, but she could make up for his errors. Hopefully.
They ran across the farmlands towards their target. The locals here were actually doing sothing to survive- they weren’t just sect cultivators. Besides, the Fearso nagerie wasn’t all bad despite how Yann led them. Certainly not friends with the Alliance though. Navigating things after this was over would be… difficult.
Madiha couldn’t help but flinch every ti she felt a shift in the Domination energy. It was still too much, and it being unstable didn’t make her any more comfortable about the near future.
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