Elder Cultivator

Bounty was finally closer to the lower realms than the upper realms, and Three Squeaks and Varghese were tired. That was the case even when they had the opportunity to work with every vaguely appropriate Assimilation cultivator. Providing continuous year round energy for a planet was difficult.

It still wasn’t close enough to get a usable amount of sunlight from any star in the lower realms, but it was drawing in some small portion of the natural energy. That created a better balance for the planet and the people there, which allowed them to contribute their own efforts. It wasn’t just the One Hundred Stars that wanted to help, after all. Most people just didn’t have any idea how.

For the most part, people couldn’t just go without sunlight. Asking an entire planet full of people to adapt to that within just a couple decades was a bit much. Aipra had managed to survive, but it had been an exceptional circumstance. Nobody even remembered exactly when or how people got there.

Rather than focusing on techniques for surviving in crisis, the lower realms focused more on simply improving the situation. If they’d had a couple more decades of warning, they might have been able to create something like artificial suns with mixed technology- but the plan had been close to spontaneous as far as cultivators were concerned. Their departure also hadn’t come a moment too soon.

If they had to move a planet between realms again, they would probably be a hundred times more effective. Fortunately, they didn’t expect they would need to. Velvet’s offer notwithstanding, because without needing to sustain life it was a fairly simple effort in comparison.

Three Squeaks sighed in relief as his shift ended and Varghese came to replace him. “So, do you think you could make that Shelach guy stab himself with his own needles?”

Varghese shook his head. “Not unless he’s a fool.” Speaking wasn’t such a big use of concentration that they couldn’t do it while also creating sunlight. Of course, the sunlight they made was somewhat different than each other and from Anton, as the stars they had bound weren’t exactly the same.

“He attacked Anton. Of course he’s a fool.”

“Fine. Not unless he’s a fool and martially incapable. In which case, he would have never made it this far, nor escaped. As long as he has any amount of defensive energy, I wouldn’t be able to control anything on his body. Not without reaching Unity, which is… a far more distant plan.”

Catarina looked at the star in front of her. There was nothing particularly exceptional about it, which made it perfect for her intentions. Building another solar station to add to the network certainly would appear rather wasteful to most, considering that there wasn’t even a single planet in the system. There was nothing of interest to be had. It merely happened to lie inside Scarlet Alliance territory.

That was perfect for what Catarina wanted, because depending on the precise implementation of her plans, the star might explode. It wasn’t supposed to, but the risk was not negligible. But some things were worth that risk. Even if she had to include a few more stars along the way.

-----

Velvet was going to have to trust Ratna’s information on Shelach was well thought through, but it certainly seemed to fit. While that was useful, it also meant that they’d already triggered the conditions to draw his attention to the main Scarlet Alliance, and that was a bit earlier than they would like.

Shelach didn’t like unexpected changes, and new powers popping up was part of that. The Scarlet Alliance was likely a target, especially Timothy and Catarina if they were ever away from Alliance territory. How Shelach’s attention was different from the great powers was simply that he acted as an individual, which meant as soon as he felt like it he could move out. He didn’t need to mobilize large armies or convince allies to take action.

“Do not worry, Velvet.” She found herself surprised by Aconite suddenly appearing, the wolf’s teeth both sharp and friendly at the same time.

“How can I not worry? There might be people that want to end the Alliance. Sooner rather than later, I mean. Obviously they’ve always been around.”

“That was not my intention,” Aconite growled. “Instead of worrying about what may come, you should be immunizing yourself to Shelach’s poisons.”

Velvet shook her head. “I’m not really the same sort of cultivator as you.”

“Chances of survival against a Domination cultivator are minimal already. We should create whatever edge we can. And we will be fighting Shelach.”

“Even so,” Velvet said. “I think by the time the poison gets to me I might just be dead.”

“Only if he spent true effort on you. Or could properly pick you out to achieve a true strike. Or if he does not use any that spread over a whole system.”

“Does he have those?” Velvet asked.

“That would depend on how big of a storage bag he can get. Durff is doing the training.”

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“You made him?”

“He volunteered.”

“Obviously.” Velvet thought for a while. “Is everyone doing the same?”

“No. Many have refused. Catarina cannot afford the recovery time. Some others would not find it fitting.”

“Tauno?”

“Still absent.”

Velvet sighed. “I hope we hear about a giant corpse appearing somewhere in the Trigold Cluster soon. Otherwise we’ll have to assume he’s dead.”

-----

Contrary to popular belief, Aconite didn’t enjoy poisoning herself. She enjoyed the results, but not the process. Even if it was easier for her, it was never truly pleasant. Her training allowed her to remain functional where otherwise she would not, which was especially important as she was monitoring a number of incapacitated individuals. Plus a couple dozen doctors, but they wouldn’t have the necessary specializations to know what was going wrong immediately if people were overdosed.

The best and worst part of Shelach’s poisons was that most of them were difficult to manipulate with energy. In short, removing them from the body was quite difficult. That was good only because it put people on a sort of level playing field. Aside from Aconite, only Durff and Chidi were conscious. To different extents, they engaged in advanced body tempering.

“How is it?” Aconite asked Durff. Since he was incapable of speaking proper words, he just groaned in pain. Which was much better than the screaming many people were doing. “It will only get a little bit worse,” Aconite assured him. “Then you will be on the path to recovery.”

Chidi was next. He had taken a meditative posture. He appeared to be in a better state then when he was combating Domination energy, but she didn’t want to interrupt him. His was the most important life.

Some weren’t doing well. Pain was fine, but if they caused unnecessary damage to themselves with their writhing, it could harm their recovery. Some people simply didn’t react well to certain things, and Aconite’s job was to drain out some of the poisons. Blood was easier to replace than a whole body, or cultivation.

Of the various poisons, some seemed to attack the body while others were aimed at a cultivator’s energy. Those were the natural branches of poisons. Potency was key- if someone didn’t die quickly, they could launch a desperate counterattack. Though Shelach must have been aware of that, and seemed to have been ready to retreat.

Despite the suffering of those around her, Aconite did not believe Shelach chose anything specifically for the painful properties. Pain was merely a response of the body indicating something was wrong, and his poisons could damage blood vessels or muscles, or target lower level cells.

There were probably more that nobody had ever witnessed, but Aconite could only make do with what she had. Everyone here would be stronger, and if they lasted one single second longer against a Domination cultivator, it would be worth it. They’d have to resist annihilation by his energy, of course, but at least Durff and Chidi could probably manage that.

If all went well, Shelach wouldn’t get a single attack. Aconite wasn’t dumb enough to assume that even her exceedingly competent friend would be so effective. So they prepared, and she monitored their bodies to make certain there wouldn’t be any permanent damage.

-----

Twenty years was either an eternity or a blink of an eye. For cultivators, it wasn’t a long time- but serious battles and wars could be extremely quick. Or they could drag on forever, like the war between the Chaotic Conglomeration and the Exalted Quadrant.

Bounty arrived fully in the lower realms. Paradise and Devon arrive ahead of time to slow it down, the process taking some months so as to not harm the planet and the people on it. There were numerous ships present in Akrys’ system that were meant to guide them into the exact position they wanted the planet, orbiting offset from Akrys itself. It was carefully calculated to minimize the impact on the rest of the system while placing bounty in the habitable zone.

It was likely that it would need some updating after decades or centuries, but being afraid of something so minor when they dragged the planet twenty lightyears already would be silly.

By the time they had arrived, all of the cultivators had purged their upper energy and begun new cultivation methods. Unlike the rest of the Lower Realms Alliance, however, the planet was quite lacking in other ways. Not everyone cultivated, partially because the planet had been relatively low in natural energy and thus it was difficult to start. They were also missing the long history and infrastructure that any other planet would have.

All of that could change, however, now that they were safely away from the threat of the great powers. There were some who had wished to return to the upper realms- war ravaged as the Scarlet Midfields were. They had already been handled during the intervening years. Though the inter-realms ships were small, there hadn’t been many who had followed the call of Bounty only to ultimately reject it. Mostly, it was a few who had desperate hopes that they might find loved ones in the war zones. Those who believed that were essentially lost already, but nobody would stop them from choosing their death.

They folded into the star’s Unity seamlessly. There hadn’t been much concern about that, but introducing such a large population all at once might have had some risks. The locals of Bounty were quite surprised at various features of the lower realms- including the main population of Akrys, for example. The various animal form people were one thing, and void ants were another. However, it didn’t take much to realize that centuries of peaceful life together wasn’t just random chance.

The war that had pushed them out of their homes still raged. A few decades hadn’t been enough to quench the anger of the great powers, and their ancient hatred remained strong. The scope of the war continued to grow as more factions found an excuse to join the war. Everyone above a certain line were being evacuated to the Scarlet Alliance- if they chose to accept it. Some feared the offer, suspecting trickery. Others assumed they would be safe. Neither were correct, but they made their own choices.

The war continued to spread until it started to clash with the Alliance’s very borders. Despite their reluctance, the great powers respected the borders… mostly.

One Trigold fleet retreated across the border, finding themselves near Xankeshan and chased by the Exalted Quadrant. The Scarlet Alliance sequestered both forces and sent them away, cutting off the conflict. Some time later, a scouting group from the Exalted Quadrant ‘accidentally’ crossed the border once again. They were let go with a warning.

When a battle fleet next ‘accidentally’ entered the area, they captured the fleets and the commanders, offering the commanders and crew for ransom. The Scarlet Alliance didn’t want to join the war, but they were clearly being tested. Showing weakness would lead to both short and long term losses. But of course, it was not without risks to stand up for themselves.

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