Elder Cultivator

The instant the forces defending Xankeshan seemed to be getting a leg up on Zaur, a certain alarm went off. With most communications on lockdown during a battle, Koralo knew that the incoming message had to be important. He diverted some of his attention from bolstering the formations- though he didn’t feel like he could spare much- to hear the message.

He almost wished he hadn’t. But of course, ignoring problems wouldn’t make them any better. It appeared Alva’s senses had been correct. Fleets were approaching their eastern border. The questions he would have asked to try to bring some hope to the situation had already been answered. It was not, unfortunately, the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance. Nor the Distant Shadow Sect. It didn’t even happen to be the Creeping Fire Sect- who might prioritize Exalted Quadrant cultivators despite any other plans they had.

First were a smattering of Silver Fang cultivators- with those numbers a trivial threat except for the current circumstances- but they appeared to be more of an addendum to the main forces. Those forces were the Imbued Fragments.

Koralo didn’t have the luxury of time to look at the breakdown of enemy forces beyond that point. The numbers were sufficient to be threatening, especially at such a sensitive time. What could he even do?

Perhaps he should drop the spatial distortion. That was a risk, because it would take time to gather enough energy to re-establish it. Still, that would force the approaching forces to fight their way through the eastern systems. Systems which were… relatively unprotected at the moment. And if the Exalted Quadrant was repelled, they would pass through the western systems. They might feel the need to plunder vulnerable targets along the way.

If it led to the survival of the Scarlet Alliance, Koralo was willing to make the sacrifice- and take the consequences of such choices upon his head. But… he didn’t truly believe that was the correct solution. Regardless of the reason the Imbued Fragments were here- having drawn the connection to their losses in the lower realms or simply trying to take advantage- would they really prioritize the Scarlet Alliance over the Exalted Quadrant?

He had no idea, but Koralo would prefer to limit their choices. He couldn’t stop them from coming- a solid barrier around Alliance territory would be more like a thin piece of paper waiting to be torn open. However, perhaps he could… redirect the arrival location of the incoming fleets?

He had a few minutes to think of a solution. The grand formation mapped the space at the edge of their territory onto Xankeshan’s system. But did it have to map it onto the same side?

No. But just because he had an idea didn’t mean the solution was trivial. “Uzun!” Koralo urgently contacted the head engineer. Perhaps Catarina could have managed a solution on her own, but he needed every bit of help he could get. They had to at least try.

Voidsteel stabbed into the dantian of another cultivator, preventing them from lashing out as they died. They’d have a few moments of pain, while everyone else would experience nothing at all. They would forget their ally was even there, at least for the moment. Velvet doubted she could erase more than one or two further individuals before the distortion became too unbelievable, but she’d already taken down several of the Augmentation cultivators.

The Citadel of Exalted Light wasn’t known for their physical defenses- though normally their energy could prevent attacks from reaching them, so it hardly mattered. But with enchanted clothing being their main defense, voidsteel easily cut through.

Velvet shuddered at the feeling of Zaur’s energy. Even though he might only be half as powerful as before- and he wasn’t even really present as Timothy had pointed out- it was still an overwhelming power. Voidsteel… wouldn’t be enough. She was confident in that. The metal's miraculous suppressive properties could only go so far. The same was true of the techniques the Spirit Slicing Sect had taught her.

As much as she would like to be a hero saving the day, she wasn’t sure she could act against him. She could perhaps take down the last of the Augmentation cultivators, and at that point she could fight the others on the Citadel head on. Prospero was doing an excellent job of repelling the rest coming from the planet below- if it could even properly be called a planet in its current state.

So she could kill or… help Durff. Obviously Velvet wasn’t going to be able to damage the Citadel. With her enchanted daggers, she couldn’t break through the defensive energy. With her voidsteel daggers, she couldn’t damage the structure- they were too brittle and barely even sharp after a few uses.

But Durff was relentlessly smashing a single point. Whether it was important or not Velvet had no idea, but if he could actually cause damage… it would be significant. Because if there was one thing he was good at, it was smashing things with his hammer.

She winced as another attack from Zaur blasted Durff. Unfortunately, the excess energy that went around her friend wasn’t able to harm the Citadel- it was all Zaur’s Domination energy, so he wouldn’t so easily screw things up. As for Durff… the armor he’d found in one of Everheart’s places was holding, though it probably wasn’t supposed to be glowing. The good news was that it didn’t melt when white hot, the bad news was that meant Durff’s defenses had failed and he was almost out.

Even if she’d had other plans, at that point she had to act. She didn’t want to reveal herself- even to Durff, as his change in expression might reveal her presence to Zaur. She was fairly certain that she had avoided his senses this time- finally, due to her long practice.

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Between Durff’s wild swings, which caused the energy underfoot to tremble, Velvet sliced the edge of the pillar Durff was hitting. She wasn’t certain it would be substantially different than trying to target Zaur, but the important thing was she didn’t need to cause any damage herself. Just cause enough of a distortion to let Durff do something.

Her blade flickered, sliding along the energy. At first, it appeared to do nothing. It was Domination energy after all. She stepped back for a moment as Durff swung again- fortunately in a nice rhythm. But she felt it. The tremors changed- and she saw the slightest scar in the energy, not yet reinforced.

She twisted her body to slash with all her power and technique. The tip of her blade just grazed the pillar, sparking. But that meant it tore through the energy. Durff may or may not have noticed, but his follow up attack seemed slightly more powerful. The energy of his hammer blow sank into the pillar, and Velvet could see how deep the infusion of Domination energy went. But with the surface marred, the perfection was broken and that single pillar still shattered. One out of hundreds.

Zaur’s reaction showed it was more than just a minor pain to him- the Citadel was his Anchor, and they had previously seen how it was tied to his body.

“I can’t believe a fool like you would actually dare to mar my body.” The speed at which Zaur spoke could only be comprehended by cultivators- but Zaur was clearly the dramatic sort so he didn’t simply act. “Perish.”

Velvet had expected another beam of light from the man’s hands. Perhaps one that was far more focused than before, but the origin was expected to be Zaur. Instead, the Citadel itself lit up, and Velvet had only an instant to move around behind Durff and slash her two voidsteel blades. One towards the floor, and one towards the other pillars.

Durff didn’t seem to give a single thought to defense and swung his hammer down- onto the collapsed pillar. Velvet heard a dull thunk sound.

Now that was odd. Had the sound actually reached her ears before she died?

A few shards of crystal fell to the floor. Velvet had no idea what was going on. Wasn’t there supposed to be… energy?

“Left leg or right leg?”

Chidi’s voice wasn’t something Velvet had expected to hear at that moment, though she was likely confused because of the lack of energy.

“Psst. Velvet.” Durff whispered to her. “When did you get here? Is your energy broken too?”

Ah. She was visible. That made sense. Sort of. She looked over at Durff. Then at Chidi. Then back at Durff. “Stop trying to use your energy and just hit it.” She said.

Velvet had seen Negation before from Chidi. She knew it lasted less than a second. It was more difficult with more people, too. But this… how long had it been? Nobody seemed to know what to do.

“You’re slow, kid,” Zaur said. “I know your ability won’t last. You want an answer?”

“I do,” Chidi said.

“Well…” Zaur drew it out. “I guess I’ll destroy your right leg first.”

“I’ll count that,” Chidi said, stepping forward.

As he moved, there was a bright flash- somehow Zaur managed that even with energy not functioning. Velvet winced, surprised at how vulnerable her eyes were. Then she felt the flow of energy return all at once. Domination energy reared its oppressive head around her.

Velvet’s eyes cleared with her own upper energy, and she saw Zaur holding a crystal blade. Chidi was standing in front of him, blood around his waist. But… it was Zaur’s leg that was falling to the floor.

“I can’t believe you tried to blind me. That was literally the worst move you could have picked,” Chidi said. Ever since he reached negation, Chidi never felt very strong. His energy had dropped from Integration to Life Transformation. Now, exhausted, Velvet thought he felt more like an Essence Collection cultivator- which wasn’t much of anything.

Durff’s hammer came down, and at the same time a whole section of the Citadel collapsed. Maybe a tenth of the whole place? Not from Durff’s hammer- though he did drive the remnants of the pillar through the floor and out. A trickle of blood appeared on Zaur’s chest, most likely in response to that.

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There was no time for Koralo and Uzun to come up with an elegant solution. Instead, they simply started the first solution that came to them- twisting the coordinate map. The first ships appeared in the system from the north, but rather than a line they were a twisting spiral extending to the west. Traveling through the spatial distortions, they probably noticed something weird with the ships in front of them… but there wasn’t any damage, so they likely thought it safe to proceed. And it was. It was simply that they were strewn around a quarter turn of the system… placing some of them among the Exalted Quadrant’s reserve fleets.

Nobody stopped to ask who anyone else was. They just started fighting.

Of course, that was only the ones who were immediately next to each other. More of the Imbued Fragments continued directly towards Xankeshan, but at least the impact had been blunted. Now they just had to deal with all of the invading fleets and a Domination cultivator.

Speaking of which… Koralo felt weird. A strange pulse within the Domination energy. It was a scream of anger that threatened to shatter the planet itself- and yet, for all that it caused Koralo to cough up blood, it felt like an idle threat.

His senses stretched to feel Zaur- who normally felt like nothing more than a mass of unfathomable energy. But that energy was a step weaker- and there was a leg sitting on the ground. Until Fuzz snatched it up in his mouth and ran away with it. Suffuse with flames, the wolf was targeted with a beam of light- but Spikes threw herself and a good portion of the planet between Fuzz and the attack.

When Koralo could next pick anything out, there was nothing in Fuzz’s mouth except some charred bones. The wolf shook his head, flicking the bones to the ground. And the visual display for Zaur was briefly not overwhelmed by excessive light. There was a lot of blood- and not just from where his leg was missing, but any patch of exposed skin. Zaur coughed. His body almost looked like it was melting, before it turned into a pillar of pure light. Very angry light.

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