The anchor destruction team had not brought Bear Hug along with them, as the mission needed secrecy. Bear Hug would have done their very best, but too many possibilities existed for sothing to go awry. Neither did they have instantaneous communication devices- they weren’t yet efficient enough to fit into a stealth ship.
It wouldn’t have made much difference though. They weren’t especially fast, but as they headed out of the desolate center of the Swirling Swarm’s territory they eventually ca to the occupied systems. Or at least, the ones that had been occupied. Now they just had random amounts of people or things left behind.
They imdiately sent more ssages back to the core alliance. The round trip would take over a month, but they didn’t want to wait until they had done a full investigation.
“We need to look more closely,” Velvet said.
“I agree in general… however, I think this is a ti when haste might be paramount,” Zazil continued. “Systems don’t just empty of people.”
“... I’ll grab so of the people,” Velvet comnted. “It won’t take long.”
During her brief trip down to the planet, she saw a lot of corpses. Destroyed buildings that had fallen and collapsed on people, others were torn up and missing to so extent, and still others had people that had been crushed against the ceilings. Whatever had happened, it was ssy and inelegant.
The people Velvet grabbed were… barely people. They were humans, obviously, but their consciousness was debatable. They were probably the most cooperative Swirling Swarm mbers she’d dealt with in a while, even as they dazedly answered questions.
“What happened to everyone else?”
“They are gone,” said one man.
“Where did they go?”
“Away.”
Velvet could tell that he wasn’t intentionally being deceptive. It was still annoying though. “Into space, right? Which direction did they go?”
“... North?” the man tilted his head.
“Planetary north or galactic north?”
“Yes,” a woman interjected unhelpfully.
Velvet spread out her energy. “That way, or that way?”
“No.”
She thought that was precise enough. “Was it close to either of those directions?”
“Yes.”
Zazil made a face. “Sothing has seriously ssed them up. I think the direction is obvious enough, though. The only direction they’d ever go, overall. When did this happen?” Zazil prompted. “How many days ago?”
That got a number of blank looks. But they fairly rapidly narrowed it down to imdiately when they destroyed the anchor. Or very shortly thereafter.
-----
They rapidly moved onward, understanding that there was sothing urgent they had to deal with. System after system was the sa. Eventually, they ca to one that had void ants. They were still there- or at least so of the nests. It was a bit more difficult to navigate to them because of how the surface of the planet had changed and distorted landmarks, but once they got close enough the void ants ca to them.
“Domination cultivators?” Catarina asked. “I’d… wonder if you made a mistake, but I doubt void ants would do so easily.”
The void ants they had gathered nodded seriously, explaining what they knew. Which wasn’t much more but did explain a few things.
They rapidly grabbed as many void ants as they could shove into their ship- which was quite a few- and continued on. They weren’t worried about being discovered now. There wasn’t anyone to notice them, except for people who had slipped through the cracks sohow.
The last few systems near the border they didn’t even bother to stop. They just kept going, only briefly brushing past higher energy zones to replenish. They could learn more details, but what they needed to do was… sothing. Either to catch up and fight the Swirling Swarm, or to rush back to Alliance territory.
“There’s no way they’re all proper Domination cultivators, right?” Catarina said, looking between the others.
“No way,” Velvet agreed.
Zazil took so more ti to consider it. “We definitely destroyed an anchor. And they have not created so sort of new anchor in any of these places. They can’t be.”
“So I can smash them?” Durff asked.
“Well…” Zazil made a face. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that.”
“But they should be weaker. And Zaur didn’t even kill once!”
Half Oink spoke up there, her speech translated for those that didn’t speak Akrysian. “He did kill Chikere.”
Durff’s shoulders sank. “Yeah, okay.” He didn’t even want to argue that technically, she probably killed herself or the entire planet full of people were responsible. Ultimately, the point was that she had died on the mission. While Durff was a very different style of cultivator, he had still respected Chikere’s devotion.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on . Report any occurrences.
“I’ll begin with a probing attack,” Velvet suggested. “I can be in and out without being detected. Either I kill one or it’s probably outside of your capabilities. No offense.”
“I know you’re more powerful,” Durff said. “If you need to bash anything, I’ve got it covered though.”
“We might,” Velvet affird.
-----
They caught the Swirling Swarm in the territory of the Immovable Mountain Sect. Unfortunately, it wasn’t their first system. They briefly glimpsed the devastation of the Swirling Swarm passing through other systems, but there was no ti to stop for anything more than a brief view.
Everyone was tense. They were aware that this was their fault. They thought they were solving a problem- perhaps they were- but the consequences were far beyond anything they had anticipated.
Velvet was actually glad to feel far too many Domination cultivators. She couldn’t pinpoint them, but fortunately she had so excellent guides with top tier energy sensing skills. The void ants narrowed down the area, and she dove into the ranks of the Swirling Swarm to see if they could die.
The Immovable Mountain Sect was actually doing quite well. At least, they forced the Swirling Swarm to advance slowly. It was inevitable that they would lose, with the power of Domination cultivators against them. Throwing in three more might not matter. If so, Velvet would flee and the Alliance would have to figure out a new plan. But there was no way they could simply produce so many Domination cultivators- presumably with many more in different places. If they could, they would have done it themselves.
Velvet hoped that was the case. But if they were wrong, maybe she would just die. It wouldn’t make up for this massive mistake though. She really needed to do better than that.
Rather than expending energy on not being crushed by the Swirling Swarm, Velvet pretended to be quite a large number of individuals. Even if so people pressed into the area from the outside, she left a sizable bubble for herself as she dove through their ranks. The fleet had already agreed that they would reveal themselves, even though this was the Trigold Cluster. They couldn’t complain about the Alliance fighting the Swirling Swarm, could they?
Besides, the Scarlet Alliance had warned them about the danger. Just not this, specifically. If they’d known… they might have still needed to do what they did, but they certainly would have hesitated a bit longer.
Velvet found a woman striking at the frontlines. It seed that she had destroyed her weapon and was just swinging wildly, letting her excessive Domination energy blow away the local cultivators. The Immovable Mountain Sect did well to live up to their na- an Augntation cultivator stood her ground for a few blows.
Velvet slit the throat of the Domination cultivator. Perhaps it was the wrong move, but she was quite pleased that it worked. Velvet was glad that she instantly moved away, as the Domination cultivator exploded the area around her in anger, creating a wide crater. Once again, without the Immovable Mountain Sect’s formations and cultivators it would have been far worse. That could have been the planet.
Perhaps Velvet should have been more thorough. The woman wasn’t dead yet. Instead, she was using her energy to handle the blood flow though her neck. As Velvet considered the best timing to go back in, the woman’s head exploded. Well, her whole body really. If she hadn’t been watching so closely, Velvet wouldn’t have seen the slight destabilization of energy that led to it all spiraling out of control, repeating the sa sort of wide scale shockwave that had just happened.
The good news was that they were definitely weaker than proper Domination cultivators. Maybe Velvet could even take them out by herself, one at a ti. The bad news… this planet might not make it like that.
Velvet felt the others moving in at the conclusion of her ‘battle’. Zazil pretty imdiately revealed herself, and Catarina began surrounding the planet in a grand formation.
Durff threw himself onto the frontlines, which was a risky move. The Immovable Mountain Sect was just as likely to attack him as the Swirling Swarm. In theory, anyway. In practice, they were far too strongly engaged to bother with a random Augntation cultivator that at least seed to be helping them.
Surprisingly, Durff hadn’t gone for a Domination cultivator. He wasn’t even seeking out Augntation cultivators. Maybe he couldn’t- they mostly blended into the Swirling Swarm. Instead, he took wide sweeps with his hamr, crashing Swirling Swarm cultivators into each other in a massive area. It was brutal. Precisely what the local sect needed to clear so space.
Zazil launched giant ring blades towards one of the other Domination cultivators, chopping apart hordes of Swirling Swarm cultivators as they ca to attack her or defend the Domination cultivator or whatever they were doing.
Then Aconite got involved. It was probably a terrible idea to do on a planet that had anyone they didn’t want dead. But she had a perfect virus for the Swirling Swarm. Velvet was going to have to cut down so of the Swirling Swarm cultivators coming for her. The Domination cultivators may not have cared about the people rapidly dying to a virulent plague, but they had so vague knowledge that it was not good for their overall… strategy? If that was a thing. They really just seed to be trying to slaughter everyone and destroy everything.
Velvet’s second kill focused more on instant death. A deadly wound was not good enough, they could cause too much damage in that ti. She picked a target that had only light armor, slicing away defensive energy and stabbing her other weapon into the target’s dantian. It was quite effective, though she did find herself flung away by the sudden shockwave. Then she moved onto her next target.
Zazil took out two more Domination cultivators in rapid succession. Catarina didn’t look like she was doing anything, but that would be a naive assumption. The Swirling Swarm was suddenly much more sluggish with her formation in place, saving countless lives around the globe and allowing the Immovable Mountain to get their footing. At the very least, so of their population might survive.
Velvet took down another one. Then one went after Durff.
It may not have been intentional. They might have just been in the area. Their spear techniques were clumsy, but their power was still sothing like Domination.
Velvet had to thank Everheart for the armor they had stolen from him. Not that she would actually do it, but if her brief mont of thanks gave him so devotion she wasn’t worried about snatching it back. And maybe he would get sick because it was a positive feeling, she could only hope.
The spear still ended up going through Durff’s side. Velvet traversed a quarter of the planet in an instant. She cut the Domination cultivator’s head in half.
It was excessive. A huge waste of her energy.
“Oh, thanks!” Durff gave her a grin. She could tell even behind his helt. He was clutching the spear in his side. “I was going to hold her down for a while.”
“... She could have let go of the spear,” Velvet pointed out.
“But she didn’t!”
“... Don’t die.”
She didn’t want to think about that possibility. She much preferred the other option where he reached Domination.
It wasn’t really important to the flow of the battle, but the Immovable Mountain cheered. Not for Velvet. They honestly seed to care less that the Domination cultivator was dead than that Durff took a hit head on and survived.
So cultivators were weird. But at least they stuck to their weird priorities.
Reviews
All reviews (0)