Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1220

It was certainly a bit odd for vines to grow out of ships, but Ty could accept that. He didn’t mind cutting apart those he could reach while seeking out ways to harm the real body of the distortion beast- though it should eventually tire itself out at such a battle pace even if they couldn’t injure it. Nothing had limitless energy. Not even Domination cultivators, though admittedly Ty had little in-person experience with them. Just what had been seen, and what their allies had said.

It was weird that the vines grew out of the metal, but fine. What was not fine was when it tried to grow out of the surface of his face- which was just weird- and then a moment later inside of him. Nothing was supposed to be in his veins except blood.

He would have none of that. Even as vines tried to grow around his sword, Ty sharpened himself and sliced the growing vines to ribbons. They had no physical basis, so they simply disintegrated… but Ty understood that most people wouldn't survive the attacks nor the dispersing energy. This thing had to be killed rapidly.

What was good against vines? Fire? No, these were wet plants. “Got any lightning?” Ty asked Nekesa. “Or any of the other ships?”

“We do have arc generators,” she confirmed. “However, they require a physical target. Do you think we could use them through a crack in subspace?”

“No time to find out,” Ty said. He pushed away from the ship, both to keep moving and thus be a harder target and also to move towards the epicenter of the distortion beast’s assault. “Hit me with them. Or my sword, preferably. I’ll let you judge intensity.”

Ty reached for the upper limit of his power. It would have been greater, if his ship were closer and completely assembled… but it was still functional regardless. Now was an excellent moment to learn something about the distortion beast. Whether or nor they could feel fear was up for debate. They withdrew when sufficiently damaged, but that wasn’t the same.

Perhaps, if it could sense killing intent, it would leave before he even had to do anything. Ty slid his sword along his body, like a whetstone. It was more symbolic than actually functional- though his ship could serve the function. Sharpening his blade further would weaken it, but he just needed it to last for one cut. Then he would hope that the locals could make him a new blade.

He waited, then the lightning came. In a way, it was a sign of trust from the locals. He came up with a mad plan, and they didn’t hesitate to go through with it. He thought they might have slightly overestimated his durability, though maybe the settings of their weapons weren’t fully dynamic.

Not that he had long to think about that. He admired the way the ships moved and instantly generated lightning over the vast distance between them. Then it was going through his blade. At least the ships understood his intention so they didn’t actually attack him. He probably should have been clear about that though.

It was still too much power to hold onto for more than a moment. His sword, carrying all of his sharpness and the lightning of his allies, cut outward. A single slash that appeared to cover only a single direction actually blossomed in all directions, covering a large number of planes as each reached for various levels of subspace.

Silence and stillness followed. Most importantly, the energy of the distortion beast lost any cohesiveness. A horrible black goo began to leak into normal space, blood or ichor or perhaps the creature’s true body. Ty would let people figure out what to do with that. Maybe toss it into the local sun.

He looked at his sword. It was a bit droopy, having overheated from the lighting and slightly melted. He nudged it back into shape, but he knew that was just a cosmetic fix.

-----

“There have to be smiths,” Ty complained to Uzochi. “Where did those Esoteric Blade Guys get their swords if they don’t have smiths?”

The technician rolled his eyes. “They are not us,” Uzochi explained. “And they are called the Esoteric Order of the Blade.”

“I’m absolutely going to order a blade. Do you think they do interplanetary shipping?” Ty asked.

“I-” Uzochi just shook his head. “I have nothing to do with any of that. But I would advise you against stirring up that particular hornet’s nest. There’s enough trouble as it is.”

“Even more reason, then,” Ty swept his arm widely, taking in his partially assembled ship, the damaged allied ships, and even his own sword. “If those guys keep showing up, I don’t know if you’ll last.”

“Perhaps not.” Uzochi turned his head, looking around the area. He then used his energy to block off their surroundings. “Some people have said… that your arrival is the cause of the distortion beast flood.”

Ty wasn’t certain he’d call it a flood, though compared to the normal arrival rates it was certainly high. “I’m planning to leave, when I can,” he pointed out. “Who’s saying this?”

“Nobody local,” Uzochi clarified. “Nekesa has nothing but good things to say about you. Everyone who has seen you fight in person. But a few people are suspicious about the timing.”

“They think I drew something to Nekesa then arrived to ‘save’ her?” Ty asked.

Uzochi spread his arms. “You know how people work, I see. People are afraid. Stirring up the Esoteric Order of the Blade wouldn’t bring you many friends.”

“How much trouble are they?” Ty asked. “I could just exterminate them.”

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“That’s… I think very few would be able to publicly chastise you. You wouldn’t be around for any consequences, but we would be,” Uzochi said. “You’d have to be… certain.”

“How many Origin cultivators do they have?”

“Nobody is certain. At least three.”

“What’s the upper limit?” Ty prompted. He thought he could probably take ten, at least. Assuming they had swarms of underlings. He might have to borrow some of their swords or wait for his ship to be repaired, first.

“Seven or eight?” Uzochi frowned. “If they had more, they could likely conquer a planet and legitimize their position.”

“Oh, so not that bad then,” Ty said. “And just to be clear, none of them are… second order Origin cultivators? Whatever you call the next stage.”

Uzochi narrowed his eyes. “Next stage?”

“Unless you count everything post life-transformation as one big stage? But the upper realms has Integration, Augmentation, Domination. We have Assimilation, Enrichment, Unity.”

“I don’t believe anyone has surpassed the Origin threshold,” Uzochi said. “It would likely be… a large event.”

“Right. I should be good then.”

“Are you… an Enrichment cultivator?”

“That’s a good question, isn’t it?” Ty replied.

“I won’t pry, if you don’t wish to answer,” Uzochi clarified. “I was simply curious.”

Ty stroked his chin. “I sparred to a mutual defeat with the swordmaster that killed a Domination cultivator. But, only in a world without energy. Does that answer your question?”

“It actually raises far more questions,” Uzochi admitted.

“Too bad. That’s all I’ve got. Maybe I’m too self-centered to reach Enrichment. Or maybe I’ve been in Enrichment for a long time and it’s just not obvious. So, how are the repairs going?”

Uzochi looked at the ship. “It required a lot of analysis of unique parts and replication of technology dissimilar to our own. It’s a good thing that your computer systems were not damaged, because we couldn’t replicate them from a material level. We hope the subspace drive will be manageable, but it requires a large amount of custom parts. Fortunately, there was no lack of people interested in the project. Would you like to talk to those involved?”

“I’d just distract them. And I wouldn’t have any useful insights.”

-----

Ty had to privately consider if he was actually the cause of the distortion beast epidemic. The first one had been there before him, so signs pointed to no. And relevantly, all of his tech had been in good shape. It was all designed specifically to not attract them. Given that other planets were facing the same difficulty, he concluded his ‘investigation’ positively. He was cleared of all wrongdoing. Now he just had to convince the rest of everyone.

Maybe he could hunt down where they were coming from. Without his ship, and with a damaged sword. He still had other weapons. Nothing meant to fight stuff at distortion beast size, but a blade shooter would still work with his energy and insights.

He went to find Nekesa. She trusted him, and he imagined she was taking some heat for supporting him. He might not help that by interacting with her more, but he’d like to help. This system was quite fun, and he’d like them to join the Alliance or at least give up their isolation. If it was determined safe, at least. Obviously they’d need some nearby allies to improve that. There were people with a shared origin across the border, though from a long prior split.

“Do your computers do pattern recognition well?” he asked.

“I greet you as well,” Nekesa said.

Ty shrugged. “I’m not good at social stuff. Hi. Pattern recognition. I doubt I can input all of your data into my system even if you were allowed to share it, but it could find where things are coming from if I could. Do your computers do that? I’ve been assuming we had similar capabilities.” Ruteran computers could do that sort of thing for all of Ty’s lifespan, so it was not unreasonable that a spacefaring single-system group should be similarly situated.

“Patterns can only be found where they exist,” Nekesa commented.

“I have to ask if that’s a ‘we tried and found nothing’ or ‘we didn’t think there would be a pattern’?”

“Previous trouble with distortion beasts has produced no patterns of note,” Nekesa explained. “But… I suppose this is not the same as before. I might inquire as to whether anyone has been thinking along similar lines.”

“Yeah. Maybe you drifted near a nest or something.”

“... A nest?”

“Distortion beasts have to come from somewhere. I don’t know most of the details, but I do know that sometimes they get along well enough to not eat each other in specific places. We call those nests. They are fortunately quite rare.”

Nekesa frowned. “Nobody has noted anything like that.”

“Subspace,” Ty said. “Obviously. You might be able to look for gravitational anomalies. I couldn’t tell you how, but I know those things have a lot of mass. Energy flow might also do it, since they leak between layers. They don’t just steal information from normal space without being detectable.”

“Do your people have much experience with them?”

“Way more than I personally do,” Ty said. “I’ve killed them. That’s where my interactions end. But we’re wide-ranging enough that they come up quite frequently among our various systems. I hadn’t heard of anything like cultivation insights though, so that’s new and terrifying.”

Nekesa narrowed her eyes. “You do not sound frightened.”

“Existentially terrifying,” Ty explained. “I’m not really that afraid of something being able to kill me. Otherwise I’d just be useless all the time because there are so many people and things that could. They’re a whole different scale than void ants, and I don’t want anything that big and mean to have cultivation insights.”

“Have your people experienced much trouble with void ants?” Nekesa asked.

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“... no,” Ty said. “Like I said, they’re small.” It probably wasn’t the right time to get into that whole thing.

Nekesa looked at him. He was telling the truth, but he was also hiding things. “Last I recall, the upper realms was attempting to exterminate them.”

So she wanted to stick to that topic. “They mostly did it. Except where they kept a bunch around for experimentation in systems below the border.”

“Who?”

“Exalted Quadrant. Probably just them, as far as we know,” Ty explained. Good, he’d stumbled upon a perfectly reasonable excuse for knowing about void ants. He didn’t want his new human friends to be wary of him just because he had small friends as well.