Elder Cultivator

Chapter 894

Even after the assault forces withdrew from Egnos, Varghese wasnt done with them. The Trigold Cluster was going to learn how troublesome the domain of a star could be. If he had the same proficiency as Anton, he could actually assault Egnos itself without even being in the system. He did not, however, but he could make traffic through the middle of the system very difficult.

For the sake of not revealing too much, he actually let a few ships slip through at the edges of his range- and he was still focusing on expanding that skill further. If he attacked up to his very limits, they would certainly calculate it and be able to exploit it in the future.

It might not seem like much at first, to force ships to take a slightly longer route. All they had to do was angle slightly above or below the plane of rotation and they could circumvent his reach with the power of the star. At most, he could set people back fifteen minutes or an hour, if they were coming from a system located on the far side of the planets current orientation. That might not seem like much but over ten ships? A hundred? A thousand? It would quickly begin to add up.

Beyond actual disruptions, Varghese was also able to keep track of what was coming and going- including the continued presence of the full fleets that had come to drive off their own assault.

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While it was technically possible to keep their ships in orbit at all times, in practical terms humans needed to land and interact with other people. Beyond that, people also needed something slightly better than dried rations to keep morale up. Thus, various bases they had captured along the way were repurposed for their own ends. They always kept active patrols, of course, and some vessels like The Wayfarer were never meant to land anywhere to begin with.

The Shining Cooperative and the Lower Realms Alliance kept different barracks and the like. They had separate command structures, and while they were allies in this particular war they still were not that familiar with each other. Then there was the matter of the void ants. The Lower Realms Alliance cultivators were for the most part quite used to them- there were very few planets that didnt have a sizable population of void ants, with their own contained pathways so nobody accidentally stepped on them.

They could have lived entirely underground, of course, but they were intentionally kept visible. In the Great Queens estimation, people needed to see and be around them regularly for them to be fully integrated. Varghese agreed. Though it was a difficult social interaction with vastly different sizes, most of the void ants werent interested anyway. Only those who were more developed interacted with humans beyond what they were ordered.

The first sign that something was wrong came from the void ants. They grew restless all together, and Varghese knew better than to underestimate their senses. Whats wrong? he asked.

There were a few exchanged words- and no doubt some pheromones he wasnt great at processing. But he got the general gist of it even before the highest ranking among them reported the consensus to him. Ascension energy. At this angle, the void ant said while the others gathered together to point.

Varghese was the first to report, though a few others were moments behind. The Wayfarer was the first to begin investigating, moving towards the edge of the system, and other ships were quickly added to the mix. The various patrols kept to their patterns, just in case the ascension energy was a distraction somehow.

The response was quick and efficient, and that might have been the only thing that saved them. Varghese could barely sense The Wayfarer moving towards the edge of the system, but he also felt something else. And yet only a moment or two later, a powerful beam of energy tore through the system, moving at a speed many times that of light.

Varghese and many others immediately rallied their energy to support the defensive formation over the base, and even then it nearly crumbled under the assault after only a short moment. Void ants were scurrying out of the buildings to try to fend off the attack, but a moment later the beam distorted, tearing across the surface of the small moon they were stationed on. It left deep gouges before reaching its final orientation, remaining in that position for several seconds more. That was all it took to bore a hole a kilometer wide through several hundred kilometers of ground, passing through a slice of the moon.

Fortunately, it had been directed away from other bases. Or rather, that had been intentional on the part of The Wayfarer, deflecting the beam with one side of their own and a counterattack from their cannon.

From start to finish, the entire incident was less than half an hour- and the actual attack barely more than ten seconds. The Wayfarer reported the target destroyed, and Varghese lamented his lack of power in their current system.

It was far less than the power to destroy an entire star, but whatever had been deployed was still unexpectedly powerful. And charged with ascension energy somehow, though how they would keep such energy stable in the lower realms long term was unclear. Perhaps their investigations would reveal more.

But just as they felt things were over, Varghese felt something. There was a lingering disruption in space, as the beam had pierced through subspace to cover the tremendous distance in just a few moments. But even as that disruption was fading away, tremors emerged. Not just from unstable bits of the moon- though that was plenty of an issue itself. Instead, there was something else.

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Distortion beasts! Varghese warned. Stay ready!

He didnt have much experience with them himself, but he was aware of them from various incidents, and of course Antons personal experiences. There were reasons it was difficult to push travel technology further, and they were one of them.

Explaining where the distortion beasts were was something Varghese didnt have the words for. Indeed, as they were able to co-locate with things via their presence in subspace- and potentially deeper layers beyond the veil of reality- they were both difficult to track and not necessarily contiguous with themselves as a single entity. It was entirely possible the masses swarming towards them were in fact a single distortion beast, though the variety of tentacles, spikes, mouths that came from all directions, and other such things indicated it was probably several different creatures.

All Varghese could think to do was to create a small distortion in space just above the moon, drawing upon what power he had available outside of a bound system. Perhaps he should have bound this star, but he wasnt necessarily going to stay at this base long term. And the process of replacing his first ninety-nine took too long. Either way, he drew upon his connection to Azun and the neutron star in Zunrose. Both were dense to the point they caused extreme distortions in space.

It was enough to draw the distortion beasts towards the point Varghese designated and even to have parts of them revealed- which were quickly assaulted as they entered real space by hundreds of cultivators. It would have been more, but not all had enough range for that.

Pilots had already been scrambling for ships, but at least the first warning had given people sufficient time to get armed and armored- for those few cultivators who ever were away from their weapons in the first place.

It was unclear if the distortion beasts were an intentional part of the assault or not. Theoretically, if things had gone as intended the Lower Realms Alliance base would have been completely wiped out, and the moon itself might have collapsed with a hole straight through its center. It was difficult to say what exactly would have happened, but it wouldn't have been pretty.

The condensed firepower of the Astral Spear was quite valuable, just above the surface of the moon, and their numerous cultivators all contributed in their own way. This was not an insurmountable opponent, but even though the battle was over quickly it still resulted in the loss of life for many. Some were lower cultivation, or simply unlucky, but that didnt make their deaths sting any less.

Varghese himself had done his best to reveal the distortion beasts to others, as his combat strength was not at its peak in the system. He thought that was more valuable than trying to burn part of one, and he was quite uncertain whether magnetism would do anything to the vast beasts.

Ultimately, the training and coordination of their people won out, but everyone remained on edge. That was true even as The Wayfarer came limping back. It was actually quite impressive how much the ship had managed to resist, a testament to the engineers who constructed it, the crew augmenting the ships barriers, and of course the general who was the core of its current strength. If they didnt have an Assimilation cultivator like general Gabriela, perhaps this portion of their fleets would have been utterly destroyed.

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Word reached Anton of another unexpected assault, and yet another previously unknown weapon that had come seemingly from nowhere. The question on everyones minds, beyond how many things they could possible pull out, was why it had not been used previously- such as an assault on one of their main planets. But perhaps it was too easily picked out or there were other flaws. Not that void ants sensing it was a good indication of that. WIthout the void ants, it would have likely begun its assault with nobody having sensed it. Then they would have been bolstering their barriers too late.

Anton had the resolve to not be involved in the war, and that was still his intention but there were things he could do that might still be useful. He had hunches to act upon and while it would be a significant effort to undertake he couldnt simply stand by. He was still near to Akyrys along the northern border of the lower realms, and he immediately turned to the east, going along the reverse of a path he had taken but once.

He was going to take more than a month or two to even reach his destination, but if his hunch was correct that would barely change anything. And if it wasnt well, he would have wasted that time. But it was better to waste time than to let the lives of people fall by the wayside. And it wasnt just a hunch. It was a cultivator hunch. His Insight told him something he couldnt yet substantiate.

It was a rather straightforward thought process, however. If they had these superweapons of sorts, why would they use them so infrequently- and why on the particular topics they had chosen?

The simple answer, to Anton, was because most of the time they didnt have them. So someone was giving these things to them. And that someone could only be one group, the Trigold Cluster in the upper realms.

As for how, he was less certain of that. Travel between the upper and lower realms was near impossible, outside of Ascension and the Tides of the World allowing for it. But near impossible wasnt impossible. Hadnt they just sent a small ship of void ants into the upper realms? It might be possible to do so in reverse- though the key factor was whether they could bypass the issues of swapping between upper and lower energy.

That wasnt necessarily impossible, and theyd had millenia to consider the problem. Anton knew it must still be difficult, otherwise they wouldnt rely on the Tides of the World so much. He might even be wrong about what was happening. But he still had to go look for himself.

Here he was, meddling again. But rather than relying upon his strength to dominate their opponents, Anton didnt mind so much if he made use of his other skills to help out. Like his abilities as a scout. His senses were quite good, after all.