Elder Cultivator

Since he had been given no reason to stop shooting, Anton continued picking out targets within the system. Unlike Varghese he hadn’t bound the local star. With each step of cultivation taking longer and having covered a much wider range, he simply didn’t have the spare capacity unless there was an emergency. From his current location he could have bound the central star of the cluster and that was still the plan- but he didn’t want the enemy to know he could do that.

His continuous attacks taught them a few things. First, the planets- or what remained of them- were all able to move. Or perhaps it should be said that all the cultivators working together could move them, since those movements were something done by their energy control and not formations or technology. They weren’t terribly fast, but they did slowly make their way out of the system. But as they only moved at sublight speed… they couldn’t make it outside of his range.

Anton didn’t want to let the enemy know his exact comfortable range, but as he was more than fine with shooting into adjacent systems five or ten lightyears away, he certainly wasn’t worried about something in the range of one ten thousandth of that distance. So while they weren’t willing to approach the star, they also couldn’t get away from Anton. Thus, he was able to keep damaging them.

They did have some way to replenish their natural energy- or extremely large stores- so he wasn’t able to bring down their barriers permanently. Instead, he had to puncture them with each shot- or bypass them. The latter he achieved with spectral energy, targeting some of their stronger cultivators.

By the time their fleets had gotten proper rest and were prepared for their next attack, Anton had killed somewhere around ten percent of their Life Transformation cultivators. In addition, he had taken out numerous weapon emplacements at various points around the skeletal planets.

There was one downside of their delay, but it seemed to be an inevitable result. Even since the first planet had mobilized to attack them, the other planets had been converging together. Now, the remaining handful of rocky planets stood as a unified whole. Whether there was any boost in power beyond simple numbers was unclear, but it had to be assumed that they would be more difficult to fight.

Even so, the fleets of the Lower Realms Alliance were far more maneuverable than the enemy’s planet-ships and even their actual spacefaring vessels, so they were able to maneuver into an advantageous position. The enemy being further from the star would have weakened Varghese- if it had been him shortly after he reached Assimilation. But now, the distance the enemy was able to reach in a few days was insignificant. For all they had done, they were still in the effective range of the star.

Anton watched happily as his apprentice led the charge against their foes. Though Varghese had a very different style than himself, he made great use of the concepts of starbinding. Magnetism had been one of his favorites, even before he reached the point of Assimilation. However, Varghese also had control over flames, light, and gravity to various extents.

He used the latter to great effect when the enemies thought they could resist his magnetism. They were right, to some extent. But when their ships suddenly found themselves pulled towards each other- or the planets they were swarming from- they lost confidence in their own abilities. That was when Varghese suddenly turned up the magnetism. As for the stone ships, he had plenty of tricks for them too.

Nothing stopped Varghese from simply cutting their ships in half- and if their cultivators were willing to fight him outside in empty space, Varghese was still at an advantage. Some of the cultivators might have had a few centuries of training, but since they didn’t have anyone beyond Life Transformation their major threat was numbers.

And numbers they had. Anton could hardly comprehend how much difference there was between armies he had seen on a single planet… and what could be gathered from multiple planets growing for far longer. Tens of thousands of individuals made up a relatively small fleet- and there were even individual ships with that many people in the Alliance. Here, they were fighting against planets with limited space but dense populations, numbering somewhere around hundreds of millions- even if the only contribution of some cultivators was to make the planets move.

One might assume that some of those many individuals were unwilling, but Anton hadn’t seen any indication of cultivators willing to surrender or otherwise achieve peace except out of fear for their lives. From those they had interrogated, they appeared in some ways to be worse fanatics than the Twin Soul Sect- because they didn’t think

they were fanatics and had no promise of something for their sacrifice.

Rather than try to overwhelm the enemy planets- though they could- they chose to retreat after causing sufficient damage to the enemy fleets and infrastructure. The reason was simple enough- only the enemy ships were mobile enough to chase them down. Even though the planets could protect each other, they couldn’t stop the Alliance from an organized retreat where they would be able to return refreshed. With fewer but higher quality cultivators, that was their best way to manage their own casualties.

The current system they were in wasn’t the only one controlled by the stone and metal sects, but potential reinforcements were being monitored- and the Alliance wasn’t entirely focused on just the one system. Nor were they the only ones involved. The Free Planet Guardians and Shining Cooperative had also been targeted and wanted revenge for the damage they had sustained. Unlike the Alliance, not all of their initial encounters came away in a victory. Some of their planets had been partially dismantled… with no heed taken for those living upon them.

Over the course of several weeks, just to be cautious, they finally completed their conquest of that first system. It wasn’t pleasant, but war never was. Their next goal was driving deeper into enemy territory, striking at their heart- though not their most populous systems. Instead, they were going to secure one of the central stars for Anton, following their original plan. That would allow him to have a greater influence on future battles in many systems.

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News continued to reach the western assault forces about attacks on the Unified Cluster. However, Devon wasn’t worried. The systems formerly under Numerological Compact control were some of the strongest systems in the Alliance, or at least they had the most concentrated power. For all the terrible things the Compact did… the aftermath of their existence had resulted in some amazing things as well.

The hiveminds were happy with their existence, despite the horrors some had endured. Together, their many individuals took their traumatic and painful experiences and built something far better. Overlapping with them were the Shattered Chains, Devon’s sect. He was proud of them as well.

And it seemed there were some potential new recruits. Not that it made Devon happy. The only thing he could say he was happy about was that this particular combination of sects didn’t have a huge abundance of slaves… but that didn’t mean there were none.

Devon was always able to pick them out as they resonated with him. As the war had progressed, he’d had various opportunities to use World Encompassing Chains on new planets they encountered, taking in the planet as a whole- but he always ended up focused on those in chains, physical or otherwise.

He focused his energy on a mine, where miners rested after a hard day’s work. Anton always said work was hard enough without intentionally making it more difficult… and these people could use a full belly and a release from unnecessary burdens dragging along with them.

Normally Devon wouldn’t interfere for worry about the consequences to slaves- if they were seen as some sort of weakness, they would be threatened or killed. However, they were just about to begin their assault of this planet. And with his personal attention, he could prevent any issues.

Devon created an image of himself in between the bunks. The slaves weren’t even cultivators, so they didn’t react to the changes in natural energy. However, several were alert enough to pick out his presence regardless.

“... Who are you?” asked an older woman- probably ineffective for a position in a mine. Not that the local cultivators likely cared about being effective, or they would have done the work themselves.

“I’m sure you’ve heard something about us. Attackers from space or miscreants of some sort. I prefer the proper inhabitants of the lower realms… much like yourselves, perhaps.” Honestly, Devon really didn’t care about the origins of these people. Just like they had accepted sects from the upper realms under the banner if they were willing to swear them off, anyone oppressed by them willing to despite the Exalted Quadrant was alright in his book.

“... How did you get in?”

“I’m a cultivator,” Devon explained. “The Sect head of the Shattered Chains.”

The woman looked down at her own wrists. “Will you destroy these?”

“Is that what you want?” Devon asked. At this point, the rest were waking up- and many were clearly getting worried. “Don’t worry, they won’t hear us talking.”

“Why… why wouldn’t I want my chains destroyed?” the woman asked. “Your sect…?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Devon said. “I’ll free you. And I can absolutely break your chains if you want. But wouldn’t you rather I teach you to do it yourself?”

“You think these old bones can break steel?” the woman asked.

“Can you break stone?” Devon asked.

“Hardly. They just enjoy seeing me struggle and I’ve refused to die.”

Devon grinned widely. “That sounds like exactly what you need. In other circumstances I’d let you defeat your former captors with your own hands, but we don’t have the luxury of capacity to hold onto them. So you’ll have to settle for taking your revenge as you please. Or you can ignore them and wait to be picked up.”

Outside of the densely packed shack the miners were kept in, the sound of clinking chains began to grow louder- and even those inside felt the pressure of natural energy as Devon forced his energy through the barrier and bound the guards and all those responsible for keeping them in place.

“Go ahead and take a look out the window.”

The old woman dragged herself along, an unnecessarily heavy ball and chain wearing her down. Between the simple slats- the opening not wide enough to squeeze out of if they were removed- she just managed to pick out some of the guards struggling. That was around the same time that Devon ripped off the door leading to the outside.

“You can wait in here for rescue or go out. A ship will be here in an hour or two at most,” Devon said. Devon watched the old woman, weighed down as she was, struggle her way to the door first, and out. “What is your name?” he asked.

“It’s Gaila,” the old woman grunted. “You said we can do what we want to them?”

“Yes,” Devon said. He understood that captives might be particularly cruel to their former captors… but he knew they all deserved it. It would also let him judge what people might need to recover their minds.

Gaila dragged herself out to the closest guard, held by Devon’s chains. She walked right up to the other woman, then shoved her with her relatively more mobile hands.

“What are you doing?” the guard demanded, trying to sound strong but the quiver in her voice making her not very successful. “They’ll kill you for this.”

Gaila just shook her head. “None of you get to choose if I live or die, or I would have died long ago.” She stepped forward… eventually dragging the heavy ball onto the other woman’s chest. The guard was a cultivator in early Body Tempering… but without the benefit of her energy- sealed by Devon’s chains- the weight was more than she could bear. But not in the short term. Her body was just strong enough that she could breathe… with great effort.

Gaila just watched as the woman struggled to fill her lungs… until finally she collapsed. Then Gaila dragged herself off to the side and looked up at the sky. “Let’s see if that ship is coming.”