Being chosen for an important mission was both a great honor for Xaliima and extremely stressful. However, she was the most qualified for the purpose- at least of those scouts not far afield, hundreds of lightyears from the borders of the Lower Realms Alliance.
She tried not to discount her own skill. She was close to Enrichment now, with a focus on crew cultivation. It would have been stranger not to be, given her long period of cultivation. Her growing age meant Unity was off the table, but at least she had experience. If she actually advanced, she could look forward to many more centuries of life.
This would be her toughest mission yet, facing off against an opponent far superior. Then again, if she had to fight the battle was lost regardless. It was just Xaliima and a small crew, following after Daria from the Holy Stars. The Lower Realms Alliance had other scouts already searching for their systems, but the most guaranteed option was to simply follow them.
Xaliima and her crew were waiting around r with the express intention of following anyone who returned to cause further trouble. The battle had been terrifying, and even at a great distance they were almost swept up in the shockwaves of certain attacks. That was what happened when a Unity cultivator fought someone that called themselves a divinity.
It was a shame Anton hadn’t killed Daria. Xaliima would have found it far easier to follow the group without her. She was currently sheltering what was left of them with her wings- somewhat more than half of their initial forces.
Personally, Xaliima thought that Anton had let her go. For a good reason, of course. It was simply difficult to imagine that someone so powerful could fail at any task they undertook. Xaliima knew that was foolish, because Daria was <em>also</em> powerful. But at the very least, Xaliima knew that Anton could be attacking even now. They were only twenty lightyears beyond r.
His <em>actual</em> range was unknown. However, it had to be at least that much. Varghese had told her much about Anton’s strength nearly a thousand years ago, and she’d heard iplete tales of his battle. If nothing else, he shot into the upper realms during the Swirling Swarm eruption- that had to be twenty lightyears even at the shortest distances, and it was doubtless more difficult.
Was he watching her now? How foolish a thought, she needed to concentrate fully on the pursuit. The majority of the stealth capabilities they had came from the ship- but it was the job of Xaliima and the crew to fill in the gaps. Responding to active sensing in the right way was important. Fortunately, the ship was small and if they felt like nothing at all it wouldn’t be perceived as incorrect in the void of space.
Underestimating such powerful cultivators would be a mistake, though. Xaliima was always on duty when she wasn’t sleeping- shift rotations were important for long term missions. Even if Daria hadn’t slept in thest day, Xaliima wasn’t going to risk that for herself.
Passing through systems was the most dangerous part. There, they might encounter atmospheres. They had to be careful when they absorbed natural energy to replenish the ship’s stores in case they might be noticed. They also had to keep pace, which meant spending <em>significant</em> amounts of fuel.
Xaliima took the vessel around the far side of the local star. Fortunately their quarry navigated through systems instead of bypassing them. Otherwise, the chase would be over soon.
She suddenly felt it. Active energy sensing. Was Daria simply paranoid, or did she suspect something? Her aura extended throughout the system, including behind the star. Xaliima took active control of the ship’s concealment. She replicated the flow of energy from the star, hiding any signs that they had depleted just the tiniest amount.
Meanwhile, some of the ship’s smaller crew were responsible for active mitigation. Void ants, of course. If they simply tore apart Daria’s energy, she would know. However, they were skilled at manipting energy cement. They helped bend her aura around thepact hull of their ship. A scale of just tens of meterspared to the massive size of a star meant it was little more than a speck of dust- but even <em>that</em> could be picked out.
Daria kept it up for an hour. It likely didn’t drain her much, and indeed her overall energy stores seemed to be replenishing. Their passive sensors just picked up whatever energy she gave off, which was quite a lot. The crew’s personal senses were also used.
“Has anyone gotten readings on her wings?” Daria asked.
“They’re still concealed,” one crewmate responded. “They do appear to be quasi-real instead of merely energy projections, but without them being active the energy signatures are difficult to read at this distance.”
They still had useful information. Hopefully, the wings that had disappeared were permanently gone. As much as any injury could be permanent with cultivators, that was. Hopefully, her arm would be one of those. The crew hadn’t been able to contact the allied fleets for information before they left- it was too risky to activelymunicate while near Daria. Thus, they only knew that there had been <em>some</em> damage, by void ants based on theck of energy readings.
Some void ants used poison. Not many, and most of those lived in the upper realms where they had been birthed and trained, but it still happened. They could hope that more than physical damage happened to Daria. She might not <em>need</em> an arm, but anysting damage would inhibit her abilities.
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The void ant crew were interested to see if they could chew off her wings at the base. It was just idle chatter, though. The mission was to have <em>no</em> contact. They weren’t trying to hunt her down and finish her off. Instead, they came alone precisely to minimize any possibility of detection.
Technically, there was one scenario they could afford to be discovered. It was still best not to, because it meant their deaths, but if they found systems from the Holy Stars and transmitted the information, their primary mission would be aplished. From there, they could act if they had to.
Daria’s senses focused around the star. Xaliima nearly panicked, but it wasn’t even slightly focused on their side of the star. She was inspecting it closely. Looking for… Anton? Yes, that made the most sense. Xaliima could casually tell it wasn’t a bound star, but she wasn’t going to exin that to her enemies.
Then Daria began to leave- without withdrawing her senses. It would be possible to follow behind her at a significant distance- she wasn’t exactly subtle- but Xaliima knew they still had to move. She waited. It felt like forever, but the senses never went away. They were already extending over a lightyear. She wasn’t going to stop.
Xaliima gathered the crew. “Can we afford to let her reach the next system? What are our projections?”
“Not good,” said one. “If she speeds up even slightly, we’ll have problems. We’d have to elerate faster and spend less time replenishing our energy during the next stop. If we lose our momentum like that…”
Others had different opinions, but Xaliima knew they were already too far behind. If Daria withdrew her senses and suddenly changed direction, by the time they caught onto her trail… it would depend on if she knew she was being followed. It appeared there was some active erasure of her energy, but she still left behind one part in a thousand of her aura. That was not insignificant for a cultivator of her power.
Xaliima made the call. They broke out of their passive orbit, creating slight fluctuations inside of active senses. They probably hadn’t already been discovered, and it was a risk, but Xaliima joined with the crew to extend their energy beyond the borders of their ship, minimizing their disturbances before they even happened. A single ripple and they would likely be caught.
They had no reason to believe Daria could attack from such a distance, but there was no guarantee- and if she was motivated she could easily chase them down once she caught onto them. They would be killed- though being captured was no good either. Either way, simply being noticed meant they would have failed their mission unless she thereafter <em>intentionally</em> led them to upied systems.
Xaliima was sweating despite no <em>physical</em> exertion. It was difficult to both use her maximum amount of power and also not be noticed. Almost a contradiction, but stealth cultivation was like that.
They only slowly elerated at first, trying to angle away from the star and thus the focus of Daria’s senses. Thousands of kilometers from the star wasn’t enough, but after a tense half an hour the density of her sensory aura had diminished. Another fifteen minutes and with some careful consultation with their own feelings and the ship’s sensors they determined they were outside of her active perception.
They took a longer route out of the system rather than going directly along and risking getting too close to her tether of perception. The crew could handle things alone from there. Xaliima isted herself- as much as was possible on a small ship- and meditated to restore her state of mind. She needed to be ready again as soon as possible. The ship still had to close the distance, which was unfortunate. <em>And</em> replenish energy through an alternate means, if she was going to be closely inspecting the stars.
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Nthanda wasn’t sure whether to be happy about her more or less sessful sneak attack or toin about most of her bones being broken. Then again, thetter wouldn’t be true soon enough. A few weeks, probably. Her healing rate was far higher than most people, but her bones had been far more damaged than most people could survive as well.
Some of the others had been injured as well. There had been a few lost Ascension-ss battleships- though not all of the crew died. Paradise had taken the bulk of the hits for the Ind Tenders, but he was clearly in a poor state overall. He was a huge target, after all. Erin was fussing over him constantly, having not slept in the days since the battle.
Anton was contemtive. Not upset, but neither did he disy much joy at their victory. It was an understandable reaction, because it didn’t really <em>feel</em> like they won. Not when they knew they had more powerful enemies to face.
Nthanda wondered if she would ever be able to match Unity cultivators. Having chosen an esoteric path of advanced body tempering, it was possible she never would. Even if it was possible, she might not be on the right path. She was the one leading the charge, after all.
She tried to consider what she could have done better- aside from simply having been more durable to begin with. Having seeded in delivering void ants, Nthanda only considered that she might have grabbed Daria’s <em>other</em> arm after making way for them. Not to restrain her, but to throw her off. It had only been a short moment before she retaliated with a powerful st of energy. A slight shift in focus might have let more void ants endure. Maybe Nthanda could have shielded some of them instead. Her body could take <em>one</em> hit just fine.
Maybe it would be two when she recovered, if she could take advantage of the remnants of energy that had sted through her. She hadn’t had too many opportunities to test herself in thest century, so perhaps her body had grownzy.
They needed better defenses in r, though they also couldn’t expect anyone to return there. Maheg might also be a target, having been the first to take out one of their angels. It was also possible they would be looking for their core systems as well, though they had noticed no scouting groups. Then again, they might not. That was why they had to keep Devon and many others in reserve. But they would certainly be fortifying the southern region now that they were aware of a Unity equivalent cultivator- and theoretically several more.
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