Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1265
The assault on the Little Alliance came quickly, but was actually predicted via data the void ants returned with. It wasn’t a clear declaration they would be attacking, but subtle movements that had been garnered from various sets of data. In fact, the royal guard might have stepped up the timeline with their assassination of an Augmentation cultivator- regardless of whether it was known to be them or not.
But that made the assault from Chaotic Conglomeration forces slightly off in its timing. The anticipated collusion had come to pass, and while it wasn’t the whole of the Chaotic Conglomeration, it was a few sects that had previously had strife with those now part of the Little Alliance, even when they had watched the border. In that position, they had not been able to directly act, but now after decades they seemed to be viable targets.
Bear Hug wobbled unhappily. “They’re getting pretty close to me,” Bear Hug said. “I can sense them.”
“I know,” Anton said.
“Aren’t you… going to do something?” Bear Hug asked solemnly. “Or is it… too far? I don’t want you to feel bad if you can’t.”
“I promised to aid them,” Anton said. “And I will. To the best of my ability. I would judge that to mean causing maximum destruction to their enemies. Our enemies.”
The last time Anton had been to war was the assault to distract foes from the Scarlet Alliance, shortly after the end of the previous cycle. Now they were close to the next cycle, where the whole of the lower realms was prepared to crush anyone who came across. They probably wouldn’t need Anton for that, but he could do this.
He was waiting, not because he didn’t have the range, but because the further entangled enemy forces were, the longer he would be able to shoot at them with impunity. He did have to aim between twenty-five and thirty lightyears at his targets, but that was fine. He really wanted to make sure Ramil got close, though. If he spooked off the Domination cultivator, he could just come back later with more fleets.
So he focused on the western flank for the moment. The Chaotic Conglomeration had seemed like decent folk, but that was probably because all of his contact was through those who would eventually become allies. Velvet had accidentally become friends with Runa, which said something about her temperament. The Scarlet Alliance had grown close to some sects… and some others hated void ants.
Anton understood why people would fear them. They were scary. The ability to devour energy? Cultivators could barely touch them. And yet, from what Anton had seen they were far more reasonable than cultivators. Perhaps he was biased, as the only void ants that had been enemies of the lower realms were mainly suppressed by the Great Queen’s forces, and they hadn’t been well organized. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
Ultimately, Anton wasn’t going to be afraid of his friends, but people were going to be afraid of Anton’s friends. They just wouldn’t need to be if they weren’t awful people. Anton might have said if they didn’t start any conflicts the alliance wouldn't, but it wasn’t so simple. Who struck the first blow wasn’t always as clear as stories.
Arrows flew, cutting through space. A few exchanges with Alva had helped him there. To his understanding, she was expanding her own range- though she would never be quite the sniper he was. It was something built into earlier layers of cultivation, where their paths had diverged.
The upper realms hated Anton’s energy. It might not actually be alive, but the future him that never was might have scared the energy itself on an instinctive level. Everheart hadn’t tested it himself, or he might have come up with an explanation. Anton was the main practitioner of Fleeting Youth, as it was difficult to recommend to the majority of others. Slightly less so with Assimilation as an option, but most people didn’t start cultivating while aged… so it provided very little effect.
Yet it was perfect for him. He couldn’t thank Everheart enough. He might also kill the guy the next time they met, depending on the circumstances. Fortunately, he’d been staying away from Alliance targets for the most part.
Anton’s arrows struck deeply embattled Augmentation cultivators. The energy of the upper realms meant to stop him then went after them, creating shockwaves they had to resist- if they didn’t fall to his arrows. And while he was a Unity cultivator, he didn’t have it in him to kill most Augmentation cultivators in a single shot. Not while they were in the upper realms, anyway. They would sense the attack coming as it neared the system, plenty of time for a cultivator to react. Not to dodge, but they at least go to defend.
Against him. Half the time, that resulted in something like Runa or Emrik stabbing them, or Durff bashing someone’s head in- he was in a different system, but the battles were happening nearly simultaneously.
The Disciples of the Beyond and other upper realms sects roped into the assault had arrived both earlier and later, assaulting a few systems and pulling back when they realized the attention wasn’t split as far as they wanted. Anton had been very patient not to shoot them, so they would commit further forces. It was a shame to lose the lives he could have protected, but he would ultimately save so many more this way.
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“Wow, you’re a great shot! You hit that guy from all the way over here!”
Bear Hug’s commentary was fortunately not terribly distracting. It was a small channel of communication among a vast river of precise energy control.
“I’ve had over a thousand years to practice. I ought to hit, if I take the shot.” Anton wasn’t going to say that everyone should be able to hit a target at any distance, but at a certain point their shots should have meaning. Technically, a miss could have its own valuable in group combat, or as a feint of sorts in single combat.
If Anton had to defend himself against the enemy cultivators, he might have been more conservative with his shots. But they were just as far away from him as he was from them, and unless he was greatly mistaken they didn’t have any way to reach him. And if he was wrong… he had allies. Devon was sadly busy elsewhere, but Naamah was around and had promised to take any hits meant for him. Anton thought she just wanted to fight people from the upper realms no matter how.
Nthanda would have been a great guard, but regrettably she wasn’t there to protect Anton. He could use her company. Then again, he expected those in the Little Alliance to appreciate her company more.
Technically, she was weaker in the upper realms. Practically, she was still a major force to be reckoned with as she could impart unbelievable amounts of energy into her arrows. Whether individual cultivators or ships, if they got hit they would likely die. And her ability to pin people into a position where they had to make the choice of how to get hit, despite barely being able to redirect her arrows, was fantastic. Probably his best student. Not his cutest, though.
Anton could feel Ramil approaching. He tried not to make his own sensory energy obvious, and was avoiding the entire system with his attacks. Anton might be able to take him out now, but it wasn’t that easy to kill Domination cultivators. Just because he had done it before didn’t mean he was going to assume he could do it whenever he felt like.
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Juli wished her brother were around. Or a few more Augmentation cultivators. Tessouat was a great ally to have, but he wasn’t much for conversation or technical insight. If he reached Domination he would probably be terrifying, like a Timothy that was more retributively focused. Not that another Timothy exactly as he was wouldn’t be sufficient.
Juli herself wasn’t that confident about reaching Domination. Even Uzun hadn’t, and he was the first tech ascender. Juli herself had adopted tech after reaching Integration, so while it wasn’t new it was a bit harder to develop her path. Not that she could complain, because Augmentation had been outside of her wildest dreams as a child. A great many people reached Integration, but few went beyond.
The readouts in front of her weren’t promising. Quantifying the absolute energy of a Domination cultivator was an exercise in futility and depression, but they certainly tried. She shut it off so she didn’t think about how many times Ramil could completely overpower her defenses and turn her to dust. It was a lot. And the Great Queen was in another system, having taken a gamble on Ramil’s path. All they had here were… a whole ton of void ants.
And Tessouat. And her. And a few other Augmentation cultivators that were… hopefully going to be good enough.
Plus, a promise of long distance fire support. That one she had the most trouble with, because even though there were documented instances it still sounded fake to say Anton could help.
Ramil approached, but Juli didn’t see him. Just a horrifying monster that stretched across half a system. That couldn’t all be real, right? Well, as real as projections were. Surely some of those limbs had to be fake. An illusion, rather than solidified energy.
A million people were scanning to find out, and that wasn’t even an exaggeration. Some people had no combat prowess to contribute, but they could operate certain pieces of tech. Active effort by competent cultivators made any merged tech better. Hopefully, they would find some weaknesses.
Juli steadied herself with the thought that at least Ramil was being supported by thousands of his disciples, instead of just acting alone. Yes, that meant he was more dangerous, but it meant he wasn’t this dangerous alone. In the circumstances, it was a comfort.
That was close enough though. She felt others ramping up attacks, and flicked a single switch on the orbital cannon she was manning. She opened fire, tearing through one of a great number of tentacles. There were more in subspace, as well as weird spikes of bone and wings and horrible flesh and-
Well, it was a distortion beast. None of it made sense, even if it should have to. It was a fake one, but that was no comfort when it could still kill her- as it was doing to many ships.
Her sensory array nearly exploded when a giant wave of energy cut through the top third of the projection, detonating a vast amount of energy on the way. It didn’t make it all the way before fading out, but it caused a visible setback to Ramil. He didn’t seem to have a limit to his energy- like all Domination cultivators, it was difficult to discern their actual capacity until they were practically empty. After all, they were drawing upon their anchor for replenishment, as well as simply getting it from devotion.
Juli wanted to kill Ramil, but Tessouat would head that task better. The crazy man was standing fearlessly, slicing at incoming attacks and repelling them with his shield while void ants waited all over him for something to gnaw on. The projection didn’t seem to be quite right.
Juli focused her attacks on secondary cultivators- Integration or Augmentation individuals propping up the giant projection. She also contributed to the scanning efforts, though it was really difficult with Anton’s attacks repeating. So she hadn’t taken the recommended steps to tune out his energy before the battle, how was that her fault? Nobody had said it would be this bad!
Alerts popped up all over. Incoming ships. Stationary ships. Dead allies, vulnerable enemies. The chaos of battle took over. Tessouat looked like he would be devoured alive… but that hadn’t happened yet. And he was slowly pushing his way towards the center of the projection. An impressive feat, even if they did have a Unity cultivator constantly harassing Ramil.
