Elder Cultivator

Little by little, Zazil was limiting the area Rambert could maneuver. She wasn't the only one focused on the man, but it was a great relief when Rahayu fell. That took much pressure off of the Alliance, even though it was a shame that the man himself had to go. Just like the entire conflict with Everheart- even if they didn't like him, he was often tolerable enough to have exist nearby. Sometimes helpful, until he snatched resources or knowledge from them.

Zazil felt repeated mental assaults from the Domination cultivator she was fighting. If she relaxed too much, she would likely succumb to his power. No, it was possible that by focusing too much she might also open herself up to trouble. That was why she had a squad of void ants watching her… just in case. If something went wrong, they could drain her energy.

Speaking of void ants, they were being delivered by various individuals. It was difficult, because Rambert refused to fully remain still. Which was rather smart of him. He was also powerful enough to break out of containment, and Zazil wasn't certain she would win a battle of endurance along that angle- so she did what she could.

The main targets assaulting Rambert Glas of the Heartbound Palace began with remotely piloted fighters. It was unknown if he could affect people through mental control modules, so there was a full layer of separation instead of direct connection. They were slower and weaker that way, but the risk of having more people turn against them was too great. The second group were Akrysians- and other non-humans. This included Fuzz, though Spikes was helping elsewhere. Meanwhile, Aconite was focused on incapacitating Alliance cultivators that were under mental control. She had various less potent poisons to make use of, and she could also modify the results on the fly to some extent.

Things were going well. But of course, with Everheart present they couldn't truly relax. He had to have more tricks.

-----

"We have no desire to fight you," Timothy said. "Take your people and leave."

With Chidi's negation, there was barely enough air present to speak- but they could exchange a few words at least.

Everheart shook his head, keeping his weapons at the ready. "I'm afraid that just won't do. I put all this work into my plans already."

"... Why?" Chidi asked.

Everheart chuckled. "You think I'd ever explain anything? Well, I can give you a hint. This is the best path forward for me."

"Unless you die," Chidi pointed out.

"You think you can kill me? You're basically babies. I'd like to see you try."

Perhaps that had been true at some point. Currently, he wasn't even half again older than them.

Chidi felt Everheart's killing intent, but didn't have time to close the gap before Everheart made his assault on Chidi's father. He did catch Everheart a moment after, his sword cutting deep into the sword the other man held behind him. A strip of metal half a meter long and a finger thick was shaved off of the blade- but Chidi had intended to kill Everheart.

Meanwhile, Everheart's sword had struck Timothy's right leg. Yet without his energy, his sword rebounded off of the armor. With Everheart's enchantments active, his blade would likely have overcome the durability of Timothy's armor, but his sword merely trembled as it struck.

Chidi at least felt pride in keeping Everheart's energy suppressed. Except… suddenly his energy began to flow backwards. No, sideways. His aura changed. It almost seemed as if his base cultivation method was completely different. Everheart took another swing. Timothy blocked with his shield, while Chidi swung his sword, adapting to the change. It worked, for a single instant.

Again and again, Everheart changed. He cycled through elements, through weapon styles, through esoteric powers. Chidi found it absurd that the man could manage all of such things. Weren't they contradictory? And that energy flow… no, it had to be unhealthy. This was a forbidden technique of some sort. Made for Chidi in particular, perhaps.

If Chidi could have attacked without restraint, he could have killed Everheart. However, he had to negate the man's energy- requiring specific angles of attack. Everheart seemed to have anticipated it, perhaps even guiding Chidi's strikes. Chidi's entirely mundane sword continued to strip metal off of Everheart's weapon- two or three more clashes and he would cut through- but he couldn't finish the man. Timothy could barely defend, parrying with his sword and trying to get his shield in play.

Then, a sudden burst of energy. Everheart's blade cut outward. Chidi stabbed him through the spine in the middle of his back. The man should be dead… but his arms still worked. He grabbed something in front of him. "I forgot, I actually needed the right leg," Everheart said. "Hope you don't mind."

Chidi and Timothy's blades met each other in Everheart's neck- Chidi slicing upward, Timothy's sword coming in from the side. The man was nearly cut in two. He should be dead. Yet he still managed to speak. "Seems I pushed a bit too far. After so many years, me, Everheart, slain by the Scarlet Alliance! So here it is that my Legend ends."

Then he exploded. Nobody present could really make out what was happening in the moment, but the Scarlet Alliance had hundreds of cameras recording the battle from every angle. Reviewing it later, they were quite certain his body turned into tiny bits and pieces. And at the same time, according to later information they obtained, every one of Everheart's clones also was annihilated.

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Catarina was supremely annoyed with the fleets fighting each other trying to retreat. The Exalted Quadrant and the Trigold Cluster thought they could just invade the Scarlet Alliance's territory and then leave? Absolutely not.

She adjusted the spatial distortions to provide a semblance of an opportunity to flee when one side was weak… and then she sealed the space. They fought back and forth, each side gaining the advantage for a time then losing it as they pushed for final victory.

Eventually, they came for her. Catarina led them on a merry chase to the last place she'd dealt with annoying intruders. Or at least the most significant one. Space folded, but they blindly followed her into the domain of a black hole.

Seeing fleets drop into nothing almost made Catarina forgive them for the trouble they caused. However, upon hearing what happened with Everheart… she almost wished she could do it again and again.

-----

Mauled-by-Wolves had seen an overly large turtle sent tumbling. A space turtle of some sort. She, on the other hand, was not a space turtle. Nor a turtle at all, but a proud tortoise. She didn't swim. She walked. Now, it just so happened that she was in vacuum. That made it more difficult to walk, so she had set the direction she was drifting when she left the nearest orbital platform. Then she tucked in her head, arms, and legs.

She could see little black ladies crawling around, making use of the trapped air within her shell. Normally Mauled-by-Wolves could use her energy to propel herself and refresh her own supply of air, but they were on a stealth mission.

And many others were not stealthy. The still rather small Half Oink was aggressive and obvious. Good at drawing the attention of this human away from the real threats. Hopefully, she would not get herself nearly killed again.

But that was what they were all involved for. So that they could defeat superior opponents.

Mauled-by-Wolves drifted past giant ring blades the size of small moons- at the moment. Sometimes they were even more grand.

Everyone was putting in a great amount of effort to slay this Domination cultivator. She of course had offered her own efforts, such as they were. She wasn't lazy, just slow. She liked to sit and absorb energy, whether it had been lower energy or now upper energy.

Nothing good came of tortoises trying to rush things. Her trajectory carried her closer to her destination. She was slightly off course, but the void ants she was carrying could pull on threads of the energy around. It would take a few more minutes to cover the small number of kilometers to the target- she was faster than a proper land speed by several orders of magnitude, but slow for space.

Mauled-by-Wolves didn't care. She was patient.

Flames from Fuzz failed to burn up the mental cultivator. The eagle Echoing Cry made dozens of strafing assaults. Some insects- not void ants but Akrysians- also added their energy to the mix. However, sometimes they interfered with each other's attacks.

Was it the influence of Rambert Glas? No matter. The tortoise continued forward.

In the course of time, she impacted the man at a speed that equated to a soft nudge. The man's energy pressed down on her, pushing into her mind. Oh, he'd gotten pretty good at messing with Akrysians in the last hour or so. Hmm, indeed, Mauled-by-Wolves felt herself compelled to attack her fellows. Maybe even to crush the void ants within her shell.

But she didn't have to do it fast. She'd get around to it eventually.

Or not. Because the man died shortly after that. Maybe a few minutes later, or another hour of fighting. She wasn't really paying that much attention. She just knew that it involved void ants- maybe some she'd helped transport- and then a bunch of their ships and Akrysians and of course Zazil with her giant ring blades.

After that, her head cleared up. And she kept drifting. Everyone in the Scarlet Alliance kept trying to do things so fast. They should learn to slow down a little. She could teach classes on that… eventually.

-----

"It's fine," Timothy said. "I can just get a new leg. We don't need to regrow it."

"It's not the same," Catarina said. "You'll be… weaker."

"Yet I was strong enough." He hugged her. "And… we took out Everheart."

Catarina made a face.

"Yes, I know," Timothy pat her on the head. "Everheart is dead. Don't expect Everheart to stay dead. I'm not quite sure how he would come back from that. It felt pretty final and was surprisingly well documented. But if he does, we'll deal with it."

"I really don't like the way he spoke before he died," Catarina said. "I think… it meant something."

"Words tend to do that. I'm sure you'll figure them out. Meanwhile, I'm going to go get a very nice prosthetic leg."

"His leg!" Catarina suddenly jerked up. "How do we know that was the original?" Catarina asked. "He could still have clones somewhere."

Timothy just smiled. It was good for his wife to have something to devote herself to. As long as the obsession didn't grow too unhealthy for too long, it would be fine. And there probably were obscure details to figure out.

-----

For the moment, the Alliance was not in conflict in both the upper and lower realms. That didn't mean the war was over- in the upper realms, they had retribution to enact upon the sects that assaulted them. If they didn't, they would be inviting more attacks in the future. It was also a good opportunity to break the remaining foundations of the 'great powers'.

Meanwhile, in the lower realms, they could pretty safely have just ignored the Holy Stars. One remaining divinity wasn't a threat… yet at the same time, one angry and desperate individual could cause them massive damage. But rather than retribution, they had better plans. Oriana would be managed somehow, but what the Holy Stars needed was something different.

An injection of hope. Of truth. There was none better to bring that to them but one of their own. Chiara, plus some of the others the Alliance had captured that were sympathetic. Aerona would be assisting her, of course. It might seem strange that the Unity cultivator was merely providing support, but the Holy Stars didn't need an outsider to come in and tell them that everything they knew was wrong. They needed someone they could believe… even if the message was the same.

It might not be as simple as they planned. Whether they should kill the last divinity was also in question. But they were confident they could manage any difficulties. They always did, and they had the whole Alliance to support them.