Elder Cultivator

Sometimes, things were good. Decades were passing relatively uneventfully, bringing a clear moment of peace. Enough time passed that the planet promised to Ratna was just about to arrive in the upper realms.

Having never transported anything on that scale across the border before, the Lower Realms Alliance had discovered that the energy infusion didn’t remain quite as robust as they might have liked. However, it was still viable as materials infused with natural energy.

If Ratna complained, they would remind her that everything else in the upper realms- by which of course they meant everything not in the Scarlet Alliance’s hands- was at least another century more decayed.

Space was big. A single planet was nothing there. Even if it had a distinct energy signature, it wouldn’t be picked out easily. However, the forces needed to properly redirect a planet were another matter. The forces of the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance were a stealthy bunch, but a few hints of their presence here and there seemed to have been picked up. If it were a matter of snatching up a package and disappearing they could have gotten away, but…

It was a planet. Not the largest example of its kind, but not a tiny one either. Most relevantly, it was restricted to moving at sublight speed since it didn’t fit into any sort of ship. Not even the most ambitious projects of the Scarlet Alliance could handle that. The Imbued Fragments had shells of planets that acted as ships- or rather, they used to. Their attempt to seek retribution on Everheart and the distraction from the Lower Realms to draw away from the siege were both significant drains on the sect.

They appeared to be making a last ditch effort at reinvigoration. Bold, to go against a Domination cultivator like that. Perhaps they had some sort of special plans. Anton wondered if they had factored for him.

He was watching, of course. It was just across the border, and it was something they were sending. It would be a shame if things didn’t go smoothly. It was of course Ratna’s responsibility within Trigold Cluster territory… but good allies would help where they could.

-----

The Imbued Fragments sent one of their spindly ships towards her planet. Ratna might not have been a Domination cultivator focused on direct destruction, but she thought that was a bit bold. How bold would they be when she showed herself, however? That would be the determining factor in her methodology. For the moment, however, one of her elders would be handling that.

Lexia revealed her presence, shining bright in front of the planet as the Imbued Fragments approached. “Approach no further. This planet is the property of the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance.”

A masculine voice responded from somewhere on the surface of the skeletal ship. Ratna focused on the man for when she was inevitably going to have to act against the sect. “A likely story. Merely showing up first means nothing. It is not as if the planet has your mark on it.”

Ratna smirked slightly. Some jokester actually had carved ‘For the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance’ on the planet. It was tied into the preservation formations, though she didn’t know if it was functional.

“I would happily debate with you the merits of our ownership if you weren’t just trying to drift closer. Stop now, or cross a Domination cultivator.”

“She’ll never hear about this,” the man said arrogantly.

Seriously, it was quite foolish of him to think that. Apparently losing an entire star wasn’t good enough for them to recognize power. Also, how did they think they were going to keep it quiet? Even a complete massacre of the Guardians wouldn’t be enough to explain where they suddenly got a planetful of material imbued with lower energy.

“You have made your choice,” Lexia declared. “Don’t expect to-”

That was the point at which Ratna appeared next to the man. She gutted him from his waist up, slashing through his dantian and the majority of his vital organs. Normally she focused on more precise attacks, but she was interested in making an example. “I will give the rest of you a single chance to flee.”

Before she was even done speaking, the entire structure was slowing its momentum. It wasn’t as if even a number of cultivators sufficient to populate a small planet could instantly reverse the direction of such a large structure. However, the general consensus of the people was clearly to flee her. And she was happy to accept that. Individually slaughtering all of them would be more of a pain than breaking apart such a large structure.

-----

Just because Ratna beat back one attempt to steal her new planet didn’t mean people would be done. They presumed that she couldn’t constantly be present- and they were right. Six years later, only a few curious onlookers had poked their heads around the area it was traveling through. It had more or less surpassed the border systems, though very few of those were actually occupied by anyone in the Trigold Cluster.

Though the fleets watching the planet were ever vigilant, they were unprepared for the following circumstances. One of the ‘ships’ of the Imbued Fragments was in their path, potentially left along their predicted path years before. It was hidden well enough between systems, such that their scouting operations hadn’t stumbled across it.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

They had only a short few days to prepare for it. Redirecting the planet was too large of an endeavor for them to accomplish before they would encounter the enemy ship. Lexia, who had a more or less permanent station with the drifting planet, made her plans.

She wasn’t prepared for what actually happened. She took a portion of their fleet to attack the planet-ship, leaving some behind to watch for anyone trying to slip by… but she underestimated the will of cultivators.

As soon as the clash began, ships from the surrounding systems began to flood towards the planet- quite literally. Most were not powerful enough to stand up to even the segment of fleets that remained, and even with their numbers it would have been a fair fight that could have delayed long enough for Lexia to return. The problem was that none of the ships actually fought.

She could vaguely feel the events as they were happening, but she was an hour or so distant. She couldn’t stop the ships from just… descending towards the planet and grabbing everything they could.

They had already engaged the Imbued Fragments before the other enemies arrived. She could pull away, but without dealing a crippling blow to the ship they risked significant damage as they tried to retreat. Lexia herself was looking for something she could sabotage- some critical structural components or formation markings. Or just their strongest cultivators. The skeletal planet-ships would collapse under their own gravity if sufficiently damaged.

She felt the attack coming a mere few seconds before it arrived. A terrifying amount of lower energy, leaving a wake of disturbed upper energy behind it. It tore its way out of subspace, piercing into the structure of one of the planetary limbs. Upper energy rushed towards it and annihilated the attack- or perhaps the attack augmented detonated the surrounding upper energy. That was the practical result, as a few hundred kilometers of structure simply turned into rubble.

The structure began to shift. It was a slow process, as it took time for gravity to take hold, especially as the local cultivators fought against it.

Lexia was terrified, and relieved. She knew that power. She hadn’t personally interacted with Anton- he’d never been to the upper realms, and she’d never been to the lower- but she recognized the energy nonetheless. He’d previously interacted with the region around them, during the war. Even if she hadn’t been present there, she had interacted with the energy of the Order of One Hundred Stars. It was pretty difficult to mistake it for something else.

She wondered how often he could do that. If he could take out another couple limbs… but she should take advantage of the chaos herself. She could feel the energy of local cultivators shifting. She could easily take down a few vulnerable ones. Even if Anton did nothing more, he’d greatly accelerated the timeline for them breaking away.

She’d taken down about a dozen Integration cultivators when she came across a particular pair of women. A late Integration individual and an Augmentation cultivator. The Imbued Fragments fought alongside the Broad-Eyed Harvesters, respectively. The latter had disturbing heads with stretched and warped features… they also carried large picks. Lexia didn’t have any intention to get hit by it, of course.

Lexia wanted to take out the Augmentation cultivator rapidly, if she could. However, she thought better of it and charged for the metal cultivator. She had purposefully kept her weapons out of normal space. Fighting with bare hands put her at somewhat of a disadvantage, but she still had stealth. She appeared right next to the weaker cultivator, a burst of light energy piercing through the weaker woman.

Immediately, the pick carried by the stronger of the two swung at her. Lexia blinked away, disappearing just before she was struck. The attack didn’t suddenly cease, even if the Augmentation cultivator wanted to. Her attack still took out a section of the ship the size of a city block- only a small portion of the attack, and there wouldn't have been any collateral damage if Lexia had been hit.

She moved in and out of the shadows- sometimes more literally than others- bombarding her opponent from various angles. She just had to make certain there were no more metal cultivators immediately present and she could use her blade, which would be more effective. Another arrow went immediately past her head- and slipped between the legs of the other woman.

Now he was just showing off. There was no way he’d missed. The arrow tore through a hundred layers of structure longways before detonating not terribly far from them, another rush of surrounding upper energy following it.

Lexia took advantage of that moment to slice into the upper arm of her opponent, her blade flashing from seemingly nowhere. The attack could have severed her arm or even killed her if she hadn’t properly responded, but it still cut into the muscle and slowed her retaliation.

Lexia continued the battle, monitoring the other forces of the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance. They were focusing on one side of the planet-ship, hoping to bring it down. With Anton’s arrows, they likely would.

The pick swung towards Lexia, piercing into her sternum. Of course, it was only something that looked like her. Manipulating light and darkness was a trivial illusion she hadn’t thought would be nearly so effective. She struck towards her opponent’s spine, not cutting as deep as she would like but still causing further damage. Several moves later and the Augmentation cultivator was down. Lexia was completely unharmed- though she expected it was either that or being completely shredded by her opponent with no middle ground.

A third arrow. The structural collapse accelerated. Lexia called away their forces, not bothering to deal with the Imbued Fragments escaping from the collapse. She had to get back to the planet.

-----

By the time she arrived, the attackers were gone. The damage… a few casualties- though far more enemies than allies. Along with that… the attackers had hauled off some chunks of the planet. Not good ore for the most part, but still valuable in its own right. They literally scattered around the planet, grabbing whatever they could.

It wasn’t a great loss, but… Lexia couldn’t help but feel she failed. If Ratna had been present… no, it might have still happened the same, except that the Imbued Fragments would have been dealt with more quickly. But stopping so many ships all at once was not an easy task. And they hadn’t fought unless they had to. Lexia’s lieutenant had been uncertain of whether to split up or not. She’d chosen to keep formations and hunt down the larger concentrations- probably the best option.

Some small portion of the planet was lost. They also had caught some of the fleeing ships, so the resources were recovered. Not the worst, but Lexia needed help. No, the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance needed further aid, if they didn’t want the planet to continue to be dismantled piecemeal it was simply too valuable of a prospect- especially for the resource-starved Trigold Cluster.