Chapter 533
The chances of encountering anyone between systems was already astronomically low before considering different methods of travel, and with the arrivals and destinations being different then there was simply no chance of being near each other.
Thus there was only a strange tension of waiting and running at the same time. They were retreating victorious, but Anton couldnt shake a bad bad feeling. Not one of imminent peril, not to himself at least, but of greater troubles. Not as all epassing as the tides of the world shifting and allowing for invasion, but significant nheless.
Piled atop Antons head were dozens of ants. He wasnt particrly keen on being a recement nest, but a sign that he was trusted by the wiped out group was nice. Even if most of their time in the blood ocean hadnt resulted in direct attacks on them, the general presence of spectral energy was dangerous for them. So they were recovering where they felt safest- which was for the royal guard around their queen, and for the Great Queen with Anton. If he understood correctly the Great Queen knew how to recover from most long term effects of spectral energy, but it required energy intake. There wasnt exactly a ton of that to spare in the void between systems, and munching on Antons was likewise forbidden as his recovery was almost nonexistent away from his stars.
Nthanda, despite being the direct target of attacks, seemed to be doing better. That is to say, shed been violently sick in the hours after their retreat, but now she was able to move around with no significant signs of difort. She still had injuries, but if Anton watched carefully he could see them patching themselves up, more quickly when Nthanda had something to eat.
Merve lingered nearby, as oveing years of not trusting <em>anyone</em> was difficult, and she still felt mostfortable around Anton. As expected, she had the best effect on the battlefield augmenting the most people possible instead of just Anton, though she wasnt necessarily happy about that.
Anton himself just felt drained. He had the greatest experience with spectral energy among them, though he was nearly as new in terms of fighting it. Regardless, he was able to bring himself to a fatigued but stable state after the battle, though he couldnt fully recover until they were back in Rutera. So he could only wait.
Finally, after about half of their journey back they got a response from Rutera. Or rather, a message that was likely sent before word was received of their victory in Aphuna. It was mostly a message ryed from Weos. As indicated, B Sykora and the final Worldbinding member of the Ivory Maw Leonas Kas had led an attack there. The warning had arrived in time for them to scramble some sort of response, but it was still difficult to deal with the two powerful cultivators and the army they had with them.
Following messages came with updates. The initial defense Weos produced was only what they could quickly rally, and the attackers pushed past them towardsary targets. Lives were reaped for no purpose other than to feed a mountain of bone and a writhing ball of flesh, the power of two Worldbinding cultivators. They were finally driven away, but not before more deaths including Oluchi, one of Weos new Assimtion cultivators. It was unclear if the two Worldbinding cultivators woulde away weaker or stronger after the conflict, but at least many lesser disciples of the Ivory Maw were also killed- though theyd added to the necromancers respective abominations.
If Anton had simply chosen to reinforce Weos he probably wouldnt have arrived by the time everything was over. That was the truth, but what he <em>felt</em> was that he could have helped, prevented those deaths and perhaps swung the battle enough to y the two Worldbinding cultivators. The fact that ultimately hed <em>probably</em> made the right choice didnt make him feel any better. Not while word of the spear-wielding cultivators death was fresh in his memory. Later, he could look on things with fresh eyes.
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The Great Queens enthusiasm was restrained as she ced Vaams head on the table. We look forward to continuing productive rtionships with Rutera in the future. She slowly rotated herself until she was facing the local representatives of Weos. We are sorry for your losses. Know that as members of this alliance we will diligently hunt down enemy Worldbinding cultivators.
Anton was appreciative that the Great Queen didnt ask for or even <em>imply</em> the exchange he knew she wanted- nests in Weos. Learning any human tact had been difficult for her, but she seemed to know not to bring that up now. Later, perhaps, if she had something more to disy.
As for Vaams head, though it could be said that Anton and Nthanda were contributors to the victory as well, the void ants were the ones who secured the victory. With Anton not having any need for negotiating weight at the moment and Nthanda being an advocate for the void ants, letting the credit mainly fall to her was eptable.
One of three, General Nicodemo said. A massive step forward. Perhaps not worth the losses in Weos, but we managed to make the best of the situation. The question is if we can take out the other two. Nicodemo looked quite unsure at that. With the addition of Devon and The Independence he looked to Anton for his judgment.
That might work, Anton agreed. But I cannot say there would be no losses among us. Perhaps another Assimtion cultivator. For the sake of ease, they would lump Nthanda and the Great Queen in among those. Assimtion and Worldbinding had enough oveps that they could be considered the same, or at least part of somerger category, but keeping the distinction between enemies and allies for the moment was convenient. However, we will need some time to recover from our previous excursion. And there are other ns in motion that will hopefully produce some sort of results.
And those ns are? Nicodemo asked.
The same thing weve been working on for a while. Diplomacy, Anton grinned. At least, thats what some people call it. While it was fun to remain vague, Anton really needed to properly exin. Aridasa sent us good information. So we replied with information about Vaams unfortunate death. Killing two Worldbinding cultivators is a significant decrease in difficulty from three working together, but still risky. If the situation has been understood correctly, however, there might be some within the Snis Cluster who would be willing to take that risk for us. If were wrong, Anton shrugged, Then well act in some manner after were recovered.
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A series of monitors disyed iing text and images. Video would have been impossible, and Theia was honestly surprised that the transmissions were working from afar despite using minimal energy. She didnt want to think about how much money had gone into the project and how many expensive recording and transmission devices had been subsequently stomped on or otherwise destroyed in Okloi.
Aphuna wasnt much better. The first bits of information were just trickling in, pixted pictures of blood coated buildings and garbled text representing nearby conversations. Some had never transmitted anything, and some suddenly stopped. Even so, every bit of information they got from these was something they would have no ess to otherwise. The extremely minimalmunication with Okloi notwithstanding.
As a coordinator for all of this iing information, Theia found most of it was nonsense. Even so, she and her subordinates were tasked with looking through everything. Images and snippets of conversation could be important, but so far there had mostly been a lot of disciples speaking in fear about Vaams death and othersining about having to sort all of the bodies. Not bury them- apparently that was not a dignity the Ivory Maw allowed. Instead, they would be reused. Expected, but still diforting.
Even so, some of this information could one day be words spoken by their Worldbinding cultivators, secrets spoken where no ears should be. Unless they found all of the hidden devices and destroyed them. Or worse,promised them. Filtering through things that might be intentionally misleading was another job for Theias department.
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It was an ufortable time to be in the Upper Realms, not because things were going particrly poorly for the Xankeshan Guardians, but because those from the Order wished they could be of assistance in the war. But they had taken their opportunities for advancement as they came. Assimtion was attractive, but each of them would have still chosen Ascension even if they were fully aware of the possibilities.
Catarina was fascinated with what formations could do with upper energy, and Timothy would have followed her anywhere. Hoyt was able to encounter his reincarnated grandfather, while also working towards the future safety of his homeworld. Velvet chose to join them after being aware of the options, pitting her stealth skills against ascension level opponents regrly in bothbat and espionage. Alva hade to follow Fuzz and the others. Spikes and Vari were already in the upper realms to begin with, and Chikere wouldnt have given up the chance to get better swords.
Just in case, they had been looking into the potential of any presence of the Snis Cluster in the upper realms. There was no indication that there would be, but that just made it easier to ask. At best, they found information on simrly named sects, systems, ors. So they probably didnt have to worry about that in particr when the tides of the world next changed, something that would happen in less than another century- at least for the region around Weos, Rutera, and Ceretos. It seemed it wasnt the same for every ce on the border between the upper and lower realms, but finding even what they did about the phenomenon was difficult. It seemed that the Exalted Quadrant and the Trigold Cluster preferred to keep it secret so they could exploit it.
Both were far too powerful for the Xankeshan alliance to even dream about making a move against, but the Harmonious Citadel was another matter. They were bound toe into conflict for many things as the Harmonious Citadel continued to spread throughout the area. Working with the Dark Ring, Xankeshan had prevented some of their westward expansion, but they continued to gobble ups and systems year over year.
With few powers of any significance to oppose them, their efforts had been sessful. Getting disconnected people together for an organized resistance was difficult, especially since some didnt think they should bother. For cultivators, if a powerful sect took over they thought they might be able to rise up within the ranks. That might even be true. The issue was the Harmonious Citadels structure being set up to be intentionally unfair, while hiding that from both the public and the members on the subordinate track. Sadly, informing people about that was about as useless as using a bucket to try to drain ake. Few people would listen, as information from a random individual wasnt necessarily reliable.
Those who were a bit more clever knew that information from arge sect was also suspect, but there was little they could do. Except now, they might hear about joining the Xankeshan Guardians. The problem was, even though expanding rapidly was required, they couldnt just arbitrarily let anyone join them. It wasnt just a simple desire to not give up control, but weeding out bad actors and spies was necessary. Repairing the old formations to manage not only external but internal defenses was a project for a lifetime- one Catarina was d to have, but it meant they could only count on them to stop direct assaults for the moment.
Still, as the personal power of each of them grew at a steady pace, the risks they could take on grew as well. It would be a long time before any of them were the equivalent of Augmentation cultivators, but having gone through proper Ascension- or an atypical advancement like Vari- they were a step above most of the rest. It was possible for natives of the upper realms to smoothly transition from the end of Life Transformation to Ascension, but without undergoing proper trials they werent as effective. With more time, the gap would grow- though there were resources that could be used to ovee any hurdles. For the moment, however, time favored those new to the upper realms in thest few decades.