The anchor destruction team had not brought Bear Hug along with them, as the mission needed secrecy. Bear Hug would have done their very best, but too many possibilities existed for something to go awry. Neither did they have instantaneousmunication devices- they weren’t yet efficient enough to fit into a stealth ship.
It wouldn’t have made much difference though. They weren’t especially fast, but as they headed out of the deste center of the Swirling Swarm’s territory they eventually came to the upied systems. Or at least, the ones that <em>had</em> been upied. Now they just had random amounts of people or things left behind.
They immediately sent more messages back to the core alliance. The round trip would take over a month, but they didn’t want to wait until they had done a full investigation.
“We need to look more closely,” Velvet said.
“I agree in general… however, I think this is a time when haste might be paramount,” Zazil continued. “Systems don’t just <em>empty of people</em>.”
“... I’ll grab some of the people,” Velvetmented. “It won’t take long.”
During her brief trip down to the, she saw a lot of corpses. Destroyed buildings that had fallen and copsed on people, others were torn up and missing to some extent, and still others had people that had been crushed against the ceilings. Whatever had happened, it was messy and inelegant.
The people Velvet grabbed were… barely people. They were humans, obviously, but their consciousness was debatable. They were probably the most cooperative Swirling Swarm members she’d dealt with in a while, even as they dazedly answered questions.
“What happened to everyone else?”
“They are gone,” said one man.
“Where did they go?”
“Away.”
Velvet could tell that he wasn’t intentionally being deceptive. It was still annoying though. “Into space, right? Which direction did they go?”
“... North?” the man tilted his head.
ary north or gctic north?”
“Yes,” a woman interjected unhelpfully.
Velvet spread out her energy. “That way, or that way?”
“No.”
She thought that was precise enough. “Was it close to either of those directions?”
“Yes.”
Zazil made a face. “Something has seriously messed them up. I think the direction is obvious enough, though. The only direction they’d ever go, overall. When did this happen?” Zazil prompted. “How many days ago?”
That got a number of nk looks. But they fairly rapidly narrowed it down to <em>immediately when they destroyed the anchor</em>. Or very shortly thereafter.
-----
They rapidly moved onward, understanding that there was something urgent they had to deal with. System after system was the same. Eventually, they came to one that had void ants. They were still there- or at least some of the nests. It was a bit more difficult to navigate to them because of how the surface of the had changed and distortedndmarks, but once they got close enough the void ants came to them.
“Domination cultivators?” Catarina asked. “I’d… wonder if you made a mistake, but I doubt void ants would do so easily.”
The void ants they had gathered nodded seriously, exining what they knew. Which wasn’t <em>much</em> more but did exin a few things.
They rapidly grabbed as many void ants as they could shove into their ship- which was quite a few- and continued on. They weren’t worried about being discovered now. There wasn’t anyone to notice them, except for people who had slipped through the cracks somehow.
Thest few systems near the border they didn’t even bother to stop. They just kept going, only briefly brushing past higher energy zones to replenish. They could learn more details, but what they needed to do was… <em>something</em>. Either to catch up and fight the Swirling Swarm, or to rush back to Alliance territory.
“There’s no way they’re all proper Domination cultivators, right?” Catarina said, looking between the others.
“No way,” Velvet agreed.
Zazil took some more time to consider it. “We definitely destroyed an anchor. And they have not created some sort of new anchor in any of these ces. They can’t be.”
“So I can smash them?” Durff asked.
“Well…” Zazil made a face. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that.”
“But they should be weaker. And Zaur didn’t even kill me <em>once</em>!”
Half Oink spoke up there, her speech tranted for those that didn’t speak Akrysian. “He did kill Chikere.”
Durff’s shoulders sank. “Yeah, okay.” He didn’t even want to argue that technically, she probably killed herself or the entire full of people were responsible. Ultimately, the point was that she had died on the mission. While Durff was a very different style of cultivator, he had still respected Chikere’s devotion.
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“I’ll begin with a probing attack,” Velvet suggested. “I can be in and out without being detected. Either I kill one or it’s probably outside of your capabilities. No offense.”
“I know you’re more powerful,” Durff said. “If you need me to bash anything, I’ve got it covered though.”
“We might,” Velvet affirmed.
-----
They caught the Swirling Swarm in the territory of the Immovable Mountain Sect. Unfortunately, it wasn’t their first system. They briefly glimpsed the devastation of the Swirling Swarm passing through other systems, but there was no time to stop for anything more than a brief view.
Everyone was tense. They were aware that this was their fault. They thought they were solving a problem- perhaps they were- but the consequences were far beyond anything they had anticipated.
Velvet was actually d to feel far too many Domination cultivators. She couldn’t pinpoint them, but fortunately she had some excellent guides with top tier energy sensing skills. The void ants narrowed down the area, and she dove into the ranks of the Swirling Swarm to see if they could die.
The Immovable Mountain Sect was actually doing quite well. At least, they forced the Swirling Swarm to advance slowly. It was inevitable that they would lose, with the power of Domination cultivators against them. Throwing in three more might not matter. If so, Velvet would flee and the Alliance would have to figure out a new n. But there was no way they could simply produce so many Domination cultivators- presumably with many more in different ces. If they could, they would have done it themselves.
Velvet hoped that was the case. But if they were wrong, maybe she would just die. It wouldn’t make up for this massive mistake though. She really needed to do better than that.
Rather than expending energy on not being crushed by the Swirling Swarm, Velvet pretended to be quite arge number of individuals. Even if some people pressed into the area from the outside, she left a sizable bubble for herself as she dove through their ranks. The fleet had already agreed that they would reveal themselves, even though this was the Trigold Cluster. They couldn’tin about the Alliance fighting the Swirling Swarm, could they?
Besides, the Scarlet Alliance <em>had</em> warned them about the danger. Just not this, specifically. If they’d known… they might have still needed to do what they did, but they certainly would have hesitated a bit longer.
Velvet found a woman striking at the frontlines. It seemed that she had destroyed her weapon and was just swinging wildly, letting her excessive Domination energy blow away the local cultivators. The Immovable Mountain Sect did well to live up to their name- an Augmentation cultivator stood her ground for a few blows.
Velvet slit the throat of the Domination cultivator. Perhaps it was the wrong move, but she was quite pleased that it <em>worked</em>. Velvet was d that she instantly moved away, as the Domination cultivator exploded the area around her in anger, creating a wide crater. Once again, without the Immovable Mountain Sect’s formations and cultivators it would have been far worse. That could have been the.
Perhaps Velvet should have been more thorough. The woman wasn’t dead yet. Instead, she was using her energy to handle the blood flow though her neck. As Velvet considered the best timing to go back in, the woman’s head exploded. Well, her whole body really. If she hadn’t been watching so closely, Velvet wouldn’t have seen the slight destabilization of energy that led to it all spiraling out of control, repeating the same sort of wide scale shockwave that had just happened.
The good news was that they were definitely weaker than proper Domination cultivators. Maybe Velvet could even take them out by herself, one at a time. The bad news… this might not make it like that.
Velvet felt the others moving in at the conclusion of her ‘battle’. Zazil pretty immediately revealed herself, and Catarina began surrounding the in a grand formation.
Durff threw himself onto the frontlines, which was a risky move. The Immovable Mountain Sect was just as likely to attack him as the Swirling Swarm. In theory, anyway. In practice, they were far too strongly engaged to bother with a random Augmentation cultivator that at least seemed to be helping them.
Surprisingly, Durff hadn’t gone for a Domination cultivator. He wasn’t even seeking out Augmentation cultivators. Maybe he couldn’t- they mostly blended into the Swirling Swarm. Instead, he took wide sweeps with his hammer, crashing Swirling Swarm cultivators into each other in a massive area. It was brutal. Precisely what the local sect needed to clear some space.
Zazilunched giant ring des towards one of the other Domination cultivators, chopping apart hordes of Swirling Swarm cultivators as they came to attack her or defend the Domination cultivator or <em>whatever</em> they were doing.
Then Aconite got involved. It was probably a terrible idea to do on a that had <em>anyone</em> they didn’t want dead. But she had a perfect virus for the Swirling Swarm. Velvet was going to have to cut down some of the Swirling Swarm cultivatorsing for her. The Domination cultivators may not have <em>cared</em> about the people rapidly dying to a virulent gue, but they had some vague knowledge that it was not good for their overall… strategy? If that was a thing. They really just seemed to be trying to ughter everyone and destroy everything.
Velvet’s second kill focused more on instant death. A deadly wound was not good enough, they could cause too much damage in that time. She picked a target that had only light armor, slicing away defensive energy and stabbing her other weapon into the target’s dantian. It was quite effective, though she did find herself flung away by the sudden shockwave. Then she moved onto her next target.
Zazil took out two more Domination cultivators in rapid session. Catarina didn’t <em>look</em> like she was doing anything, but that would be a naive assumption. The Swirling Swarm was suddenly much more sluggish with her formation in ce, saving countless lives around the globe and allowing the Immovable Mountain to get their footing. At the very least, some of their poption might survive.
Velvet took down another one. Then one went after Durff.
It may not have been intentional. They might have just been in the area. Their spear techniques were clumsy, but their power was still <em>something</em> like Domination.
Velvet had to thank Everheart for the armor they had stolen from him. Not that she would actually do it, but if her brief moment of thanks gave him some devotion she wasn’t worried about snatching it back. And maybe he would get sick because it was a positive feeling, she could only hope.
The spear still ended up going through Durff’s side. Velvet traversed a quarter of the in an instant. She cut the Domination cultivator’s head in half.
It was excessive. A huge waste of her energy.
“Oh, thanks!” Durff gave her a grin. She could tell even behind his helmet. He was clutching the spear in his side. “I was going to hold her down for a while.”
“... She could have let go of the spear,” Velvet pointed out.
“But she didn’t!”
“... Don’t die.”
She didn’t want to think about that possibility. She much preferred the other option where he reached Domination.
It wasn’t really important to the flow of the battle, but the Immovable Mountain cheered. Not for Velvet. They honestly seemed to care less that the Domination cultivator was dead than that Durff took a hit head on and survived.
Some cultivators were weird. But at least they stuck to their weird priorities.
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