Elder Cultivator

Over two centuries of study had elapsed since Maheg had been discovered and people began studying the remains of the planet. Two centuries was a long time, but to carefully study the remains of a whole planet it was just barely scratching the surface. The planet itself was left more or less as it was, with Maheg itself doing its very best to minimize any continued decay due to solar radiation.

But the system wasn’t empty aside from those studying the planet. Indeed, it had a growing population upon its moons, with the one that Maheg and Anton had populated with some replication of the local plants having a population of a few million people. That was still a sparse population even given the small size of the moon, but it could grow quite quickly once it took off. With the Lower Realms Alliance expanding, it could go either way.

Some parts of the population might spread out broadly, and they might gather in others. Maheg was unique enough to be a reasonable place for cultivators to develop themselves, though it was also valuable for them to begin their growth in more established systems. But with traffic increasing, people might find themselves more comfortable with going to further systems with the knowledge they could more easily return where they came from.

That was where Anton was when Catarina and Timothy were undergoing their advancement. He was aware of the precise date, but as much as he would have liked to support them he couldn’t from so far away. Even if he’d heard the call they put out within their system somehow, Xankeshan was still a bit far for him to shoot.

He did send his own devotion to them consciously. He hoped it helped. After finding out about how it actually happened, he calculated the possibility of attacking all the way to Xankeshan through the upper realms. If he used the same technique as he did against Sudin and he had the help of the Tides of the World… he’d still be a bit short even with optimistic calculations. But his growth had not stagnated yet, and he was still working his way towards a theoretical next stage. For that, he needed to actually bind more stars.

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A particular star came to Anton’s attention due to one of their scouts. Even if they were as thorough as possible, they simply didn’t have the people to actually visit each and every star just yet. Producing millions of ships and drones would be the easy part. For the more long term details, finding people who would be content going hundreds of lightyears away from the core of the Alliance for long periods of time was a bit more difficult. Most importantly, they needed people both willing and with the proper skills to survive. They didn’t intend to just scatter people about for nothing.

Because numbers were still limited, the particular star in question hadn’t been visited, and for good reason. It was weak… which meant it might not be possible to refuel there, or at least it would be more difficult. But the energy signature of that particular star caught Anton’s attention. Checking with what they had on record from their long distance measurements, he confirmed it had weakened sometime in the last few centuries.

On a stellar scale, that meant it had literally just happened. And the fact that it hadn’t been measured previously meant it might have been a result of outside influence. Anton was the first to be interested in that particular star and free to go in that precise direction, so he mapped out a route that would have him stopping by a cluster of other stars for in-person measurements to help do his part for the greater project.

Anton hadn’t been certain what he would find, but upon entering his targeted system he spotted a lone planet- or at least only one body directly orbiting the star. It was a gas giant that had a number of moons that could have been considered planetary bodies on their own were they not wrapped up in its orbit. One in particular was a sizable terrestrial planet… or at least what remained of it.

Unlike the usual methods he’d seem from the upper realms, the rocky moon had been devastated more than just on the surface. It was broken into chunks, some of which had clearly settled back together in the incorrect place while others were floating in a sort of ring system. Perhaps the whole planet would eventually pull back together, or it might split apart into the ring now that it had been destabilized.

Anton could feel traces of energy from long in the past, and there were clear remnants of human built structures, mainly rubble that didn’t match the rest of the moon. Though the past wasn’t quite so distant as it might have been.

It should have been from the end of the last cycle, now many decades past. He briefly wondered if he could have done something. But as his senses continued scanning he realized he could still do something now. The rocky planet was done for. It might be made into something usable again in the future, but there was no life there. However, he did sense life somewhere quite unexpected.

He would have missed it, except that the natural energy levels of the system were extremely low so it stood out. Buried under the surface of an icy planet was a liquid ocean. Such phenomena were known quantities, and life was theoretically able to survive in such places. But it was expected that it would be small organisms, like single-celled extremophiles. Even with natural energy, it wouldn’t be expected to have much else.

But Anton sensed people. It was pretty unmistakable, given they had formations protecting their settlements and clear traces of cultivation. Not many people, but they had set up some sort of structures at the bottom of the seas, where the ocean gave way to rocky structure. They were… not doing great, by his estimations. Choosing to have a low population was fine, but sensing the general nutrition level of the residents he didn’t think everything was entirely by choice.

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One thing that made Anton both more and less hopeful was that nobody was well fed. Obviously he didn’t prefer to have everyone suffering and weak, but it was in some ways preferable to having a class of those who had everything and others who had nothing.

Having found some people, he was disappointed to find nothing on the other moons. Perhaps only a small remnant had fled from the original planet. It wasn’t that unlikely. But Anton kept looking. There was one more place he thought was viable. However, he couldn’t find anyone floating around inside the gas giant. Not until he reached the very core.

He hadn’t sensed the formation directly because the immense pressure and heat towards the center of the gas giant registered with its own intensity. But once he brushed up against it, he knew he wouldn’t lose track of it again.

Scouring the core, there was just one large city to be found, totaling a greater population than the various small settlements on the icy moon. Anton’s senses stretched through the barrier keeping its inhabitants from being crushed and incinerated all at once. From what he could tell, it was drawing its power from that very heat that threatened to destroy it. A risky proposition, but it was unlikely anyone would try to live in the core of a gas giant for fun. The risk must have seemed worthwhile. The people seemed overall healthier, if still downtrodden.

There was a policy Anton had that it was not his problem to search out and fix each and every issue he found in a civilization. But he also had the policy to not ignore anything happening directly in front of his eyes. His bow snapped into his hands and an arrow flickered through the system before cutting its way through the dense gas. Then it cut through subspace to avoid puncturing their barrier- he wouldn’t be saving everyone if he did that. That final maneuver weakened his power by half, but he hardly needed it for his intended purpose.

His target reacted too slowly to jump back, but Anton wasn’t in a mood to annihilate anyone for an only half-understood situation. The man’s arm did snap back rather painfully as he struck it, however. That left an opening for the urchin to run. Having not seen the whole situation Anton couldn’t say if the urchin had stolen something, but it was entirely inappropriate for someone of that size to be menacing a child with a weapon. And worse to have actually taken a swing.

Anton felt more justified when the man cursed at the rooftops. The way people reacted to setbacks said a lot about them. The man was currently calling him a coward for not coming out and fighting. There was nothing ethically wrong about being slow to understand a situation one was in, but he would have expected someone to default to caution in the same circumstances.

Strands of his perception stuck to the two involved individuals- it might not be his responsibility to prevent future trouble, but now that he had involved himself he would feel strange not to.

Anton had been intending to check out the star before revealing himself to any of the locals, but the situation hadn’t quite worked out that way. On the other hand, he didn’t seem to have alerted the city as a whole. Perhaps their energy senses were underdeveloped. Then again, Anton had limited the impact of his energy and there was a powerful barrier to distract everyone.

Now then, the star. It was… not looking good. As in it actually looked bad, which was not something he could say for most stars. There was a sort of gray pallor covering something like a third of the surface, a shadow that was… yes, it was growing. Quickly or slowly depended on perspective. Anton reckoned it would take decades more to cover the surface, so that might be considered slow.

But stars were big, and the fact that it might cover the whole star was concerning. Furthermore, the timing wasn’t necessarily what he first estimated. Was it accelerating? Careful consideration indicated that may be the case.

Anton sighed. He would be going against two norms right away. Normally, he would ask for permission to bind a star, but this one needed him. Waiting would only mean there was more damage that needed to be fixed later, and Anton already didn’t know how long that might take.

Reaching into the core of the star to begin the process, Anton was relieved to find that it was healthy. If it had been tainted from the inside out, he wasn’t sure he could fix it- or whether it was worth the risk to himself. But since it wasn’t an inherent part of the star, he could rest easy. He was still opening himself to some risk, but that often happened when one wanted to do good.

Previously, Anton thought he had been too shy about binding stars. Not ones that others should have some say over- he still felt it only right to ask in that case- but rather he’d been keeping too many ‘free’ stars. He might have been neglecting part of his growth. So he’d been filling every available space except for a few for emergencies. This might be one of them.

The corruption was almost as bad as it had seemed on the surface. As Anton developed his connection, he determined that while it wasn’t a full third distorted on the inside, it was certainly more than a blemish on the surface of the star. When he completed his binding of the healthy parts, he focused some of the energy of the star onto the edge of the blighted area.

It pushed past him, but he reached out and grabbed it. It was cold, unlike the star. It was the opposite of life and growth. A cessation of power, the end to fusion. And it was malicious. This wasn’t some accident or some consequence of the age of the star.

Anton began building a wall within the star, slowing the growth of the corruption. He needed to know he could do that before he worked out how to heal it. Fortunately, he didn’t have to work with just his own power… and he had the example of nearly two hundred other stars to work from for what was natural and correct. Those were just the ones he had bound, as he’d observed far more either up close or from a distance. He’d save this star… and its people. Though one of their groups might make the task more difficult for him.

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