Elder Cultivator

The Swirling Swarm certainly hadn’t meant to reveal as much about themselves as they had in this latest assault. Of course, they also certainly hadn’t intended to lose, so there was that. At the very least, the more prominent among them expected to escape with their lives, potentially after causing a sufficient amount of destruction or stealing some amount of resources.

Instead of whatever they had meant to accomplish, the Scarlet Alliance had finally displayed the greater workings of their region wide spatial distortions, and in exchange they gained a significant amount of knowledge about the Swirling Swarm. As none of them happened to carry anything even vaguely resembling a cultivation manual for their own style there was still quite a bit of guessing happening, but the pieces of information the Alliance did have were significant.

First and most relevant was that their Domination cultivators could lose that status. The reasons weren’t quite clear, though it was hypothesized to be something due to the loss of devotion from their own. It was presumed that the death of so many local followers had weakened those that fought Zazil, whereas Timothy’s target had been isolated and then dipped below Domination entirely. That shouldn’t be a universal method, however, because one had run off alone in the past and had maintained proper abilities as far as anyone was aware. At least until a future encounter.

They had still only seen three at once. That could possibly mean that there were only three or that could simply be their preferred group size. One had been drawn away from the previous attack on Xankeshan, leaving only two, thought it might simply have been too far for the Swirling Swarm to send another ‘set’.

Still, unless the Swirling Swarm began with an astounding number of Domination cultivators it was fairly clear that they were replaceable. It might also be more correct to call them a Domination alternative, since presumably any anchors would be destroyed upon their deaths.

The other thing they had learned was that Aconite’s techniques were even more effective the second time than the first- especially without a Domination cultivator to stop the spread of her virus. Normally, it wouldn’t have even been something the Scarlet Alliance considered as a combat option… but the only permanent residents of their systems seemed to be just the Swirling Swarm. And it was becoming increasingly likely that they’d have to be wiped out.

Not that the Scarlet Alliance would do anything in the near future. They still needed to understand them better, and they were deep enough in Trigold Cluster territory that they would risk too much launching an attack without making certain people along the way were distracted or paid off. As far as true allies went, the Trigold Cluster’s sects didn’t seem to have many and the Swirling Swarm even less so.

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Catarina was monitoring the remnants of the Bloodsoaked Nebula with interest. Things had continued to condense in the area, even after there was no ‘target’. All of the energy had rushed towards Koronis, and upon her destruction the matter continued to follow along… as well as it could. As it was stretched among numerous systems, without some sort of enhancement it was constrained by standard laws of physics, where it had to move slower than the speed of light.

It was entirely unintentional, but Catarina believed she was witnessing the birth of something amazing. She just hoped it was the right sort of amazing. Preferably, all of the matter would condense into a black hole and take in any lingering energy instead of turning into a vortex of terror and hatred. And while nobody had observed anything quite like that, whether they wanted it or not, all of the matter of the Bloodsoaked Nebula- along with the lingering essence that created it to begin with- was going to condense together. It was actually more likely than not that it would turn into a danger zone, except for being able to bleed off some of that malice by destroying Koronis.

If it did end up becoming a negative zone, at least it would take up a smaller area than the Bloodsoaked Nebula had. There were some concerns that it would rebound, and great care was being taken to ready the surrounding spatial distortions for such an occurrence. At least they had years to ready themselves for such an eventuality.

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“... I expected more void ants,” Runa commented.

Velvet chuckled. “Eventually, for sure. At the moment, the lower realms contain the vast majority of them and you have most of the rest. We’ve only recently begun to plant colonies here.”

When Velvet had first befriended Runa, she had been reluctant to leave behind her friend at the border of the Chaotic Conglomeration. However, at that point it had required a long journey through the Exalted Quadrant and there had been practically no communication.

Over time, they had improved communication, developed inter-realm ships which resulted in technically longer but much more practical trips. Then there was the establishment of the Little Alliance and the extension of spatial distortions. Now there was a path through the southern portion of the Exalted Quadrant, though that wasn’t exactly safe. It was more for show.

In all that time, Runa’s main concerns had been with keeping her people safe. She didn’t have the luxury of going away for a long period, not with the instability of their position. Traipsing off to the core Scarlet Alliance simply hadn’t been something she could do often. Dipping into the lower realms had happened a few times after the Little Alliance was formed, observing things across the border.

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It would have actually been quite easy to overlook the void ants or lack thereof. They were so unobtrusive… but the Little Alliance had relatively recently undergone the transplantation of their tiny allies. Runa remembered the work and the changes that it brought.

For the first time since they had met, it was possible for Velvet and Runa to leisurely tour the Scarlet Alliance. After all, they could return to the Little Alliance in a matter of weeks instead of years. The world was growing closer… though that could be a dangerous thing. Fortunately, their Alliance was growing stronger and their foes were being brought low. Danger continued to loom over the horizon but it was possible to imagine a future where that wasn’t true.

Or at the very least they could hope for many more centuries of peace, instead of just one or two at a time- and uneasy peace at that.

“I didn’t expect void ants,” Durff commented.

“Of course not. You spent a lot more time here,” Velvet said.

After they had ended up falling away from Veiled Brilliance territory- through one of Everheart’s solar dimensional piercing stations, disguised as ruins of the ‘Nighstar’ sect- Durff had become part of the Alliance fairly quickly. Then, ultimately, the Veiled Brilliance had joined up as well. He didn’t have much interest in going back though. Except for visits with his aunt, he had little reason. Even if the overall atmosphere had grown more suited to someone who didn’t fit the standard cultivation method, that wasn’t where his friends were.

Misi and Juli had come along as well. Velvet was surprised to find that she was ‘visiting’ just as much as any of the rest of them. The Little Alliance was home now, even if she had old friends in the core Scarlet Alliance. Velvet would still fight and die alongside Catarina or Timothy- and she would have done the same for Hoyt- but she could still do just as much good for them and her historical friends in a different location. That was the first reason she’d gone to the Chaotic Conglomeration.

Then she’d met a friend she never wanted to leave behind, though that wasn’t always an option. She had Misi to thank for pushing to bring their physical locations together, because Velvet did want to visit regularly. She could only endure being away from any group of her friends for so long because of long training as a cultivator, not because she didn’t feel the strain.noveldrama

But the world had moved on, and things continued to get better. Even if old faces began to disappear a little bit at a time. They had been quite fortunate with how many of their allies lasted as long as they did, thriving and growing.

There weren't all that many terribly exciting tourist destinations for people from the Little Alliance, but Xankeshan was still a sight to behold. Great cities that grew up into the skies and down into the planet, filled with energy from interwoven nature. No individual thing was impossible for the Little Alliance- knowledge had been shared. They simply hadn’t had so long to build up various wonders of technology or mixed tech.

And of course, the Little Alliance had fewer meerkats. Xankeshan had tons. As the core of the Scarlet Alliance, a good portion of ascenders ended up there and much of the Alliance’s trade flowed through the area. The recent developments with the spatial distortions had promoted a number of other systems as well, but they were still a millennium short on growth.

Runa was interested to see hivemind cultivators- because they tended to move as a whole group the Little Alliance had only gotten infrequent visitors. Ultimately, they were just people who happened to have deep and lasting communication with many others- but it was still of interest.

“I’m here too!” Bear Hug exclaimed. “But that was true where you were too.”

“That’s right,” Runa grinned. “We’ve been glad to have you around.”

“And I’ll be even more glad when I don’t have to be.”

“Really?” Runa tilted her head. “You don’t want to be part of the Little Alliance?”

Bear Hug took some time to iron out their thoughts. “I don’t want to have to be anywhere. I want to be where I want to be, and I want people to want me to be places instead of needing me to be places.”

“Ah, I get it,” Runa nodded.

Durff nodded seriously, “I barely get it. But I still kind of do.”

“... I hear work on that has been going well,” Velvet commented.

“Really?” Bear Hug asked.

“Shouldn’t you know?” Velvet replied.

“I don’t have a high enough security clearance to know,” Bear Hug said. “And they use lots of really hard technology words that don’t make any sense in energy sign unless you spend a century at a big fancy learning place!”

Velvet shrugged, “I suppose that makes sense. Well, it’s not too much to let you know that they’ll probably be done soon. For some definitions of soon. Maybe decades, maybe a century. But the studies are going well.”

“That’s good!” Bear Hug said. “Maybe then I’ll have more of me on Second Gift or elsewhere.”

Misi pondered for a few moments. “You might be a good backup system, though.”

“No~ I don’t wanna be the backup.”

“Well, I didn’t mean it to be an insult or anything,” Misi said. “But it would be nice if you hung out on the most populated planets still. People wouldn’t have to drag you around to dangerous places, though.”

“That’s good. I don’t like dying.”

Nobody said something uncouth like ‘at least you don’t fully die’. They knew it was still unpleasant, and that was likely an underexaggeration. Having a portion of one’s existence cease to be certainly couldn’t be pleasant. It wasn’t polite to go up to people who had just lost a finger and tell them to be happy they had nine left.

Except maybe among sword cultivators, but they were weird like that. Some of them treated scars like battle trophies, proof that they had survived something they probably shouldn’t have. Of course, those who were too eager to get scars didn’t survive long, since it was best to never get injured to begin with. For those who fought worthy opponents regularly, perfection simply wasn’t feasible.

But survival was. As long as you were the best. Or so they would claim.