Five Domination cultivators. Too many Augntation cultivators to completely eliminate the chances of them at least briefly achieving the power of the sa. One sect defending their system against the onslaught. Anton didn’t know any of them.
Yet among the Shrieking Spirit Sect he found faces that could have been those he knew. That woman could have been Idalia, the healer. Those two could have been the street kids Leo and Kit. Fintan. Lost family mbers.
That star could have been Maheg. Those planets could have been his.
Three arrows in a row struck the sa exact position, appearing from subspace to strike one incoming Domination cultivator. They were becoming more part of the Swarm, harder to track, but Anton had also been following them longer. Even if it was tiny, each cultivator had their own echoes of individuality in their aura. Perhaps a mory of what they had once been.
Each arrow pierced deeper into the heart of one Swirling Swarm leader. It was what was best for both sides. Anton doubted anyone chose to be part of the Swirling Swarm anymore. They just were, infected by madness. Whatever the reason for the sudden amplification of power and rise of unstable Domination cultivators, they had to be stopped. Hopefully their souls would be cleansed in the cycle of reincarnation.
Four. But Anton couldn’t do it. The Shrieking Spirit Sect certainly couldn’t. Their techniques were sufficient, their fortifications well enough developed. But their numbers and strength simply weren’t there.
Anton couldn’t do it, but nobody else could reach them to help. But of course, Anton didn’t have to be alone. He almost forgot he was a Unity cultivator. Obviously he used the power, but just passively drawing in power was no different from being slightly stronger Enrichnt.
The only appeal Anton could make was one of sincerity, relying on the hearts of his people. “I need your power to protect people you do not know. Those you may never et. Beyond our borders into the upper realms, people are in danger.”
His words weren’t transmitted through fancy technology. They didn’t even co through Bear Hug. Instead, they went directly into people’s hearts- perhaps they didn’t even know what he said, but they felt it.
Not even when the Tides of the World shifted at the end of the cycle had Anton needed aid as much as he did now. The Lower Realms had been prepared, and they fought back. He’d just been a small part of that. Now, he was the only one who could reach. He just hoped for a little bit more energy. Enough to save one system. It shouldn’t be too much to ask.
But Anton didn’t get what he asked for. Instead, he got far more. To the point that he couldn’t even fling his energy fast enough. He knew the mont wouldn’t last forever. People would tire, tensions would fade. Anton might hit his limit before that. It was already too much… so he just had to be better about using it.
Denser. Sharper. It didn’t matter if he wasted so of it, as long as he made a better attack. Arrows skipped through space, raining havoc on the Swirling Swarm fleets as they clashed with the Shrieking Spirit Sect. Sothing about the energy was… better. It wasn’t that it was more plentiful, and it certainly wasn’t higher quality. But the way it tore through the Swirling Swarm was sothing special.
Along with the Domination cultivators, Anton sprayed energy everywhere. Sohow he knew he had to eliminate the aura to the best of his ability to accelerate the process. He couldn’t risk new Domination cultivators arising. He broke the bonds between them- tenuous and thin. The Swirling Swarm lived among each other, crowded into ships and flooded over their enemies. But they were never together. They moved as one through little more than happenstance. Coercion and instinct instead of choice. Their bonds were fragile. Far less than Anton and a system he’d never even spoken to before today.
One system. That was all Anton had wanted to save. But he could reach more, and those he was tied to in Unity were not satisfied. Anton would tell them about the next system. And the next, if he made it that far. They could save one system. Maybe they could manage two or three.
Anton hoped the Alliance in the upper realms managed a coherent response. No, he knew they would- even though this was a total surprise.
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Taj was suprely overconfident. Madiha would have chastised them… but as a cultivator the line between confidence and overconfidence was difficult to discern. For Madiha herself, at least, Taj believed too much. They directly moved against the Augntation cultivator they were after- supported by void ants, of course, but it was still a risky move.
Only a lucky tumble allowed Taj to duck under the swing of an uprooted tree. It was a terrible, cumberso weapon- but for an Augntation cultivator it was a fine enough conduit for spreading energy. The shockwaves of it passing by should have killed Taj if not for the void ants.
It could have been luck. Or it could have been so sort of battle instinct. So cultivators had it. Madiha trained for infiltration. She could win a fight against soone near her in power- sotis slightly above, if she had ti to plan. Taj wasn’t even close to strong enough. No longer a street kid but a young adult. And yet… Taj tagged the Augntation cultivator. Their dagger didn’t even cause a slight dent in their defensive energy, and the counterattack sent Taj flying.
But Madiha saw that grin. She had to assu that Taj tossed a good handful of void ants onto the Swirling Swarm cultivator. It took several long and uncomfortable seconds to confirm that. After all, the void ants had to get in place. Then, they struck all at once. So had the special insights necessary to bite beyond the range of their mandibles. Others tore at energy. Others moved inside, seeking the vulnerable parts of the human head- ears, mouth, nose, throat, and of course the eyes and brain.
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By the ti the cultivator reacted, it was too late. Maybe they squashed a couple void ants, maybe not. The death, rather than a burst of power, was barely a gust of wind as the void ants absorbed the pressure.
Madiha could take out the rest of their targets- those attacking so farm on a planet she didn’t know the na of. All she knew was that it was within the territory of the Fearso nagerie- but the people on the farms were just people. So had small pieces of cultivation, but that was all.
Madiha took down one of the stronger Integration cultivators before realizing she could target the weaker ones and leave the strongest to void ants. Once they were willing to reveal themselves, they could move in strange formations at quite a rapid pace. They ford shes and rolled as cylinders, but there were also other forms of mobility they enacted. Human propelled montum was one of their favorites- which is to say Madiha throwing an armful at those she was passing by.
Cultivators fell one by one. Horst followed behind Madiha, seeking out more reasonable targets. The Swirling Swarm was endless… or at least they felt like it. But this little pocket was cleared out for at least a few monts.
Taj staggered back towards them with broken limbs. They probably shouldn’t have been moving at all, but Taj was anything but a quitter.
“You said there was food?”
Taj loved food. Madiha imagined it was easy to appreciate given how much Taj had been without it. The locals were happy to feed people who had saved their lives. They would need it too but… there were slightly fewer mouths to feed.
Besides, for it to really matter the planet had to survive.
“We need to take down a Domination cultivator.”
Taj spoke those words aloud at about the sa ti as Devours Villains was informing her own people. Madiha wanted to say that it wasn’t their job- that they should leave it to soone else. But who? How?
Of those on the planet, Devours Villains was probably the most qualified- though that might have been Madiha’s bias towards the queen she knew. Maybe there were others. It wasn’t a competition though.
“The closest one is…” Madiha looked off into the distance. “A couple hundred kiloters away.” That was actually far too close. She did look over at Taj and Horst. “You won’t be fast enough.” It wasn’t even worth ntioning the broken arm and leg. “You two protect this place. From them,” Madiha pointed, referencing another group of Swirling Swarm cultivators that were flowing into the region.
Taj should have had weeks of recovery. But snapping bones back into place would have to do. At this point, the Scarlet Alliance could either give up… or go all in.
If they could take down one… Madiha thought people would get the ssage. She hoped they managed to grab their smaller friends, because they would need them.
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Hundreds of kiloters of enemy territory was far scarier if said enemies knew that they were enemies. To Madiha, it felt like Xiopia on a rowdy day except warr and her body was lighter. Maybe a little bit bloodier, but not as much as one might think.
She didn’t fly high above the others, but wove through their ranks. Fortunately they were plopped down pretty much everywhere so she could always use them as cover from other Swirling Swarm cultivators… and of course the locals.
Madiha saw a giant elephant being sward. It was really unfair, for a single Augntation cultivator to have to endure all of that and fight against a Domination cultivator. Or sothing much like one. She was slightly less charitable when a mont later her ears were ringing from a massive trumpeting sound that exploded the heads of quite a few Swirling Swarm cultivators.
She lost too much cover, so she tried to look like she was randomly wandering over the bodies instead of striding in a determined fashion towards a battle she had no business in. She held her weapon loosely in her hand.
The Augntation cultivator stood no chance- but at least survived long enough for Madiha to cover the distance. Then, she struck. Her arm flicked out, releasing her weapon. Obviously her daggers would be pointless there.
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Devours Villains had never gotten to eat Domination energy before. It was spicy. She was absolutely certain so of her children weren’t going to survive that alone. She actively endured the pressure- sothing almost inconceivable to a void ant that was naturally resistant to energy. Domination was reaching too high… but it was either that or perish. The Great Queen wouldn’t accept the latter, and she had instilled that sa determination in her daughters.
This wasn’t a battle with a Domination cultivator. The energy itself was far more dangerous. In fact, up close it was simple to determine that the cultivator was less controlling the energy and more being controlled by it. No doubt there was so will involved to begin the process, but sane humans didn’t do… this.
They were more like bugs. Devours Villains understood the irony.
With no ti to digest the energy, she tore off as much as she could. She just needed to do sothing. Normally it was a bit of a challenge to twist foreign energy in just the right way to harm a cultivator. It was sothing that took practice.
For these Domination cultivators… it was actually easier. Their bodies weren’t prepared. It only took a mont for her to sense the sudden build up when she twisted so energy. The dantian of the cultivator was overfilling.
“Grab it!” There was no ti for more complicated orders. Mostly, she just threw pheromones around and herself at her target, hoping her royal guard would figure it out. They might not have even heard her, but they did move with her.
The energy tried to spread, to infect. However, it wasn’t intelligent. She held onto it for an instant… and then it fizzled out. The whole planet noticed what happened. Even if there were a few other transitory Domination cultivators, that death could have destroyed the planet.
Maybe another one would. But Devours Villains was willing to find out herself. It certainly wouldn’t last longer with active and malicious ‘control’ over such powerful energy. She just needed soone to carry her closer- she couldn’t move nearly as fast as her mother just yet. Though if she didn’t die from her latest al, she could certainly close a good portion of that gap.
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