Elder Cultivator

Chapter 965

A single strand of energy stretched across the gap between Kathariel and Turilia. Focusing on any other target would be nearly impossible, but he could just barely manage to keep track of Endymion, the strongest source of energy besides the planet itself. Anton arrived in Kathariel days before Endymion reached the system, and had been watching- and replenishing himself.

He was focused on the timing, given how much power was lost at such a distance. He would likely only have one opportunity. Too early or late, and he would find himself blocked by the barriers of the ship or planetary barriers. He could adjust his timing slightly by redirecting his arrows, but that would result in further energy loss.

He hadn’t waited so long for a single moment before. Not while actively focusing his mind. His task would have been easier if he had bound the star on the other end, but that was too risky. A whole system against just him would only work out if they were foolish enough to approach the star itself. He did not enjoy losing his connections, and he worried they would figure out a way to sever it.

He was already concerned more about the future, as they were now closer to the next shift in the tides of the world than the previous one. He wanted to be there for that- and losing his life in a reckless manner was something he wouldn’t abide.

The time came, and Anton calmly drew one singular arrow. He imbued it with as much ascension energy as he could, drawing upon the upper realms where he could never step foot.

His arrow flew, catching up to Endymion’s ship several minutes after it entered the planet’s atmosphere. Other members of the fleet were still landing, leaving the barrier thin where they entered. Anton was glad that he’d rightly judged Endymion to be the impatient sort. He certainly thought he was calm and collected, but he was not.

Endymion landed, withdrawing himself from his vessel at nearly the same moment Anton’s arrow entered the atmosphere. He felt it, several steps away from his connection to the ship and its cultivators. Endymion’s energy wrapped around himself as Anton’s arrow struck. Anton saw his panicked face.

The arrow detonated, and Anton’s senses were cut off, his tenuous connection cut. Either he had been successful… or he had not. Anton felt that unfortunately, it was the latter. But his actions wouldn’t be for nothing. He might have injured the man, and at the very least he would have destroyed the core of the ship. Anton hoped he didn’t kill any of the slaves, but at least they were disconnected so there shouldn’t be a forceful detonation from the loss of the Confluence cultivator.

Anton wanted to reach back out, but he instead let himself close his eyes, sitting and resting properly. Something had been odd about the planet, but Anton didn’t have the luxury of time to properly check it out. Perhaps once the fleet settled down their spies could make a report.

Then Anton remembered. The Sergeant had been there with Queenson. She had ended up around Waral… but the void ants were still there. There hadn’t been any orders to cause chaos- they were meant to remain hidden, after all- but the best part about ants like them was they could shift their priorities. Anton hoped that was what he sensed, though it wasn’t particularly clear.

-----

For all that Queenson wanted to join up with the escaping cultivators, it was too risky. They could easily be taken as enemies, aligned with the Numerological Compact somehow. So from the moment the plan began, he had simply focused on taking down the Numerological Compact.

He remembered to occasionally send information onward, of course. They were here for… sound and text? Well, the humans would figure out what was going on with enough of that. If the devices were still even working, which he wasn’t completely certain of given the formations blasting everything around.

The Son of the Queen led his local troops to follow the escapees. Humans were good at designating a leader, when they needed to. In addition, there seemed to be a sense of camaraderie among them.

Actually keeping up with them was… difficult. As in, it took several days to track them down- but void ants wouldn’t lose track of lingering natural energy so easily. And the formation used to hide everything? That stood out like a glowing light. Well, given the way it was arranged it was more like the shine of a fellow void ant- but its effect on the local natural energy on the whole was clear.

They nibbled their way through the barrier, of course, and eventually made their way into an old cave system, clearly long unused. The active formations were only half properly established, the rest being held together by active participation of the former prisoners.

“I still don’t understand how that happened,” one of them said to the other. “Who killed them and let us out? It’s like they were fighting an invisible opponent.”

“Nobody is completely undetectable,” another replied. “Personally, I think it was formations gone haywire. The compact likes to think they know everything, but they were only able to mimic our formations.”

“What should we do now?”

“We’ll recover from our captivity soon. After that… we go free Byron.”

“If we can find him. The world has changed so much.”

“I was free to see some of it,” one of them commented. “Everything went downhill once the bewilderment formations were enhanced. Nobody expected what happened. What I don’t get is how there are so many people walking around free, doing nothing.”

“They’re not free,” commented an old woman. “They’re… free range livestock. Allowed to wander far and wide, nibbling on what sustenance they can to fatten up for later.”

“Alright, so… all of us who remain, we must have held onto something. Can we combine our abilities to overthrow them somehow…?”

“Did you see how many- wait, what’s that?”

Queenson stood there proudly. He had been waiting for them to look over at him. He waved his front leg, an obvious human gesture. Then he attempted to manipulate the surrounding natural energy into sound. And he made one. It was a loud pop, but it was a sound.

Queenson was suddenly jealous of human’s lungs, vocal chords, and direct control of natural energy.

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“Did it wave?” the old woman asked.

Queenson nodded. Human insight should pick up on his well trained gestures quickly enough. Too bad they wouldn’t speak proper sign.

“How is there an ant?” one of the group asked. “Is it… dangerous?”

The old woman frowned, slowly approaching. “Dangerous? Almost certainly. Can you feel its energy?”

“... No?”

“Precisely. There’s less than nothing there.” She stepped closer. “You understand me, don’t you?” Queenson nodded. “I’m Luci.”

He responded in sign. “I am the Son of the Queen.” He flapped his wings.

“You don’t speak. Well, I don’t know what I should have expected. Can you write?”

Queenson nodded. He definitely could. Sort of.

“Did anyone bring any ink?” the old woman called Luci asked.

“Oh, sure, we just picked up some writing utensils on our way out of the interrogation complex,” said one of them.

“Doesn’t look like he’s got the hands for it anyway,” another commented.

Luci shrugged. “Ink would have been nice.” She stepped closer, pinching her fingers together. When they came apart, a small drop of blood had beaded up on one of them. She bent down and held it out. “Here, use this. Don’t worry, my eyes are still good. Write small as you please.”

Queenson stepped forward, dipping his foreleg into the droplet over and over. Each stroke required more. Though it was only a tiny portion of the human’s blood, he wanted to use it respectfully.

“I Queen Son,” he wrote. It irked him to leave out grammar and the like, but it was slow for him to write and he didn’t want to use too much blood.

“A male ant? Well, I don’t know if that’s unusual for your type,” Luci responded. “Why are you here?”

“Followed from complex,” he wrote.

The old woman frowned. “Were you responsible for letting us out? How? Why?”

“Yes. Lever. Needed help.”

“I see… what did you need help with?” she said.

Looks like Queenson had to clarify. “You needed help. So we helped.”

“Oh,” Luci laughed. “Well, we appreciate it. But where did you come from.”

“Tens of lightyears galactic east,” he wrote in reply. That was vague enough that even if the Compact found out the information it shouldn’t be much more useful than the first direction they had shown up from.”

“... How did you get here?”

“Human friends. We come spy on Compact,” he wrote. “Mutual enemies?”

She nodded. “Yes. I know you let us out but… how? You said the lever, but they would have tried to stop you.”

“Simplification. We fought.”

“How do you fight?”

Queenson moved forward like he was going to dip into the bead of blood once more- it seemed she was intentionally pressing more into it when it shrunk. Good thing humans had a lot of blood. Then he pressed his jaws into her finger, hard enough she would feel it- and realized her layer of defensive energy did nothing. When she reacted calmly, he snipped off the tiniest amount of her energy as he withdrew, just to show her. He was ready to flutter away should she overreact.

“You… can pierce through and eat natural energy? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

One of the others interjected. “I have. Once. But I didn’t hear the details. Maybe it wasn’t even these same… ants? Since they aren’t local.”

“We are ants,” Queenson confirmed in writing. Now, if they were treated like normal ants he might be insulted, but ants were still ants.

“Right. So…” Luci thought for a few moments. “You were spying on the Compact. Why?”

“At war,” he wrote.

“... I hadn’t heard of that,” Luci said. “Any of you?”

“I overheard something like that,” one of the men said. “Before a session. It’s been… a few months, maybe?”

“Well, I suppose we’re glad that happened,” Luci said. “I know this is a stretch,” she said. “But have you heard of a man named Byron? I know they’ve probably killed him by now but-”

She stopped when he leaned forward to get some blood. He realized he could actually hold a drop in his jaws and just raise his leg into it- void ants weren’t naturally that flexible, but he could manage.

“Heard of him. He’s gone.”

She sighed. “I figured. Just to be clear, he would have been in a similar place… and there could easily be others with the same name.”

“Confluence cultivator,” Queenson wrote.

“Yeah, that would be the one.”

“Went with the Sergeant.”

“... Sorry?”

“He is off-planet somewhere.”

“Wait, you actually saw him and he’s not dead?”

“Sensed him. She was there when he was lifted away.” This woman was going to get tired of donating blood, even if it was just small amounts. “Should be fine. Sergeant is highly capable.”

“That’s… difficult to believe. But I do, somehow. So… could you possibly help us with something?”

“Conditionally,” he replied. As long as it helped the Alliance. Or didn’t hurt it. Also, probably best if it didn’t end up with too many ‘innocents’ dead.

-----

Back on Waral, the Byron in question was eager to get into action.

“You took out one of those ships?” he asked. “Then we should be able to free this whole system.”

“That is the plan,” Devon said. “There are some… slight hiccups we have to consider, however.”

“Like what?”

“Us,” Ammar said. “The hivemind. He is concerned a larger one will develop on larger planets, which is not unlikely.”

“Hmm,” Byron nodded. “Is that a problem? You’re not upset about it, are you?”

“I am not,” Ammar replied. “It has been postulated that maybe I can’t be, but I personally reject that notion. Precisely because some formerly of us were bothered by it, and have withdrawn to personal lives.”

Devon sighed, “I’m more worried about the collateral damage they’ll cause.”

“Speak openly and honestly. Or alternatively, let them perform the same purge.”

“We would really rather not have that happen,” Devon said. “But… personally, I don’t see a more effective way. Regardless, we need to make plans. And you’re part of them,” he turned to Byron. “You said you should be able to control a Magnitude III ship?”

“Without making it overly laborious on those contained,” he added. “I can understand that being rejected, however.”

“You’ll need volunteers. And nobody is particularly enthusiastic about being contained. Though the group you helped save is a good start.”

Others were interrogating Raeburn. Most likely they wouldn’t get much of use, and there were already plans to execute him. There was no difficulty gathering sufficient evidence against him, if simply being one of the Elders and piloting one of the ships wasn’t enough.

Whatever they did in regards to the rest of the system, they had to act soon. Food stores wouldn’t last forever on Waral, they needed the resources of the larger planets. Which also meant securing that without letting the enemy destroy it. It was clear the Numerological Compact was petty enough.