Elder Cultivator

The blood sea on the surface of the Ivory Maw was full of spectral energy, not that Anton expected much different. It would just make it rather difficult to do anything involving landing. As waves of blood rolled over local structures, Anton hoped for their sake that they were sealed. Or that Varlaam was the type to clean up after himself.

From what Anton could feel, disciples of the Ivory Maw were being swept up in the waves of blood, and while they didn’t seem happy about it, it also didn’t seem to be killing them. Instead, it was carrying them together. Specifically, towards Varlaam himself- and all the most important looking half-underblood buildings. In short, all targets were in one place. Anton considered just remaining where they were above the false moon, but with just Nthanda and himself he wasn’t certain they could slay their primary target.

His arrows sunk into the rising tides of blood, finding the energy filled liquid just about as difficult to navigate as he imagined. Nthanda actually did a bit better, her arrows impacting with a massive physical momentum that forced apart the blood around them. They created a sort of tunnel and Anton followed them with shots of his own, though any gaps were quickly sealed by both natural fluid mechanics and Varlaam’s intentions.

As this was Varlaam’s domain, fighting him here would likely result in the two of them exhausting themselves first if they only tried to handle him themselves, so Anton quickly swapped tactics. They needed to secure one of the taller buildings to land some of their fleet. He wasn’t willing to just let people enter the blood sea, but securing those positions to add the attacks of all of the other cultivators should be worthwhile.

Anton noticed the Great Queen pull away, giving him only a short sentence before she left. “I’ll be back with something good.” Then she moved along with her royal guard, devouring energy in such a way around them as to propel them in the direction she intended. It was an odd sight, but he appreciated knowing she was ready to contribute. Hopefully training with Anton’s own spectral energy had helped enough.

As a melee-only individual, Anton understood the Great Queen pulling ahead of the fleet. What he didn’t understand was Nthanda leaping down. It seemed more than just a little bit reckless, but by the time he noticed it was already too late to stop her. The best he could do was support her descent towards a spire.

As she fell, Anton’s understanding of her intent shifted. He thought she was at least planning to take over the spire, despite it bringing her to be the first to approach the blood ocean. However, the angle of her descent wasn’t quite right. She continued to build up momentum as she fell, flinging attacks around with her bow, powerful shards of metal ripping through whatever she targeted. None of those had anything to do with her destination.

When she hit the spire, its defensive formations protested. Black flames spewed out in a counterattack, but they barely licked the surface of her skin as she was through and out the other side in an instant, ripping through the tower with her body and effectively severing the top half dozen floors. Then she landed with significantly reduced momentum on the roof of a smaller building, only cracking the defensive formation atop it.

Her lower position allowed the blood ocean to rise up over her, bringing with it enemy cultivators. Her body spun, arrows drawn from her quiver in bundles between separate fingers, fired in whatever configuration she desired at the time- in singles, pairs, or triplets. Her attacks contained barely a drop of natural energy, her arrows tearing through enemy disciples mainly by virtue of kinetic energy as her specially made arrows also limited the effectiveness of their defensive energy- not that it would have mattered against most of them.

Various attacks swarmed her- black flames, bolts of pure spectral energy, darts of bone and skeletal warriors. Some attacks she simply let hit her, unconcerned. Her armor and body were too strong to worry about them. Others she dodged, either in full or in part. For some, she tore them apart with her fingers- making no distinction between wicked looking daggers, people, skeletons, and ephemeral energy except that only the first and the last were drawn towards her mouth and consumed. Nthanda had no desire to eat current or former people, but metals and energy seemed to be just fine.

When the waves of blood crashed over her, she was briefly drowned in blood before the waves suddenly fell away, no longer controlled. Draining the spectral energy from that batch of the tides of blood seemed to take some actual effort, but Nthanda maintained her position.

The first ships descended near the half destroyed tower Nthanda had moved through. Some people leapt onto the tower to take care of those standing in the section that had not toppled over, while others attacked from the ships, circling their way around the area. Allowing themselves to be fully stationary would likely result in the destruction of the ships, and they were also betting on the blood ocean rising up around the tower- which it did. As it climbed, cultivators leapt back onto the ships. One of those ships carried Merve, whose powers bolstered the trifold alliance’s cultivators.

Without Varlaam, the enemy forces weren’t much of a concern. Though he’d raised tides of blood over a massive part of the Ivory Maw, he’d only managed to pull in those within a handful of kilometers, a radius that was slowly widening. In short, most of the Ivory Maw disciples were not present to defend, though their density had been higher in the main area to begin with.

Taking him out would not only make everything else easier, but could also serve as an accomplished goal in itself. Every Worldbinding cultivator out of the picture was one more they didn’t have to handle later- and the Ivory Maw was certainly a group they’d not be able to have true peace with.

With Nthanda being an obvious target, it was Anton’s job to find ways to attack Varlaam, at the very least forcing him to defend himself directly to some extent. He seemed quite content beneath his blood ocean, but Anton noticed he wasn’t fortified within a building. Did he not think it necessary, or would it break his connection and control? If nothing else, Anton imagined it would weaken that attachment.

Anton gathered ascension energy. He could practically feel the upper realms screaming at him, not because the significant energy he took was significant but because whatever caused the separation wanted to keep things that way. He didn’t care, though. The energy he took through Fleeting Youth obeyed him regardless, and the quantity he had access to only grew with the rest of his power. There wasn’t even a relevant downside anymore, since Anton couldn’t ascend now. Though perhaps there was a roundabout method to ascend after Assimilation or something similar, he knew that would be no good for him.

Foreign power tore through the ocean of blood, sinking its way towards Varlaam until it ran into a hardened barrier of blood. Anton felt the ripples of control as his attack faded, indicating to him that the reaction wasn’t automatic but required Varlaam’s intention. It would also expend some amount of the spectral energy he controlled- vast though it was, it wasn’t limitless. Meanwhile, Anton was replenishing his own energy through Aphuna’s star. It was like comparing a river that fed an ocean to the ocean itself, but he wasn’t alone.

When he saw a good opportunity Anton took a shot at the weaker cultivators around, since every enemy they didn’t have to fight provided another moment they could work together to overpower another. They had to stay ahead of the incoming tide of enemies as well, though that at least was going reasonably smoothly. The flow of the blood ocean towards the central area had slowed, either as the masses of blood already in the area made it sluggish or as Varlaam became otherwise occupied. Either way, Anton kept harassing the man while also lowering himself in the sky to a tantalizing distance. He felt tendrils of blood hesitantly rising towards him.

Then he senses catapulting clusters of blood. In the most basic manner it was like Paradise’s attacks, though significantly weaker. He danced around the attacks, not wanting to test his resistance to spectral energy too much. Some of it simply hung in the air, chasing after him, but he could feel the energy draining out of it as it did so. Even as he fled, he continued to shoot his arrows, curving them towards his intended targets.

The way the battle was going, the trifold alliance was coming out on top… but they were certainly not without casualties. More than that, they had no reinforcements coming and were within Varlaam’s territory. Even if he couldn’t focus on killing the weaker cultivators with them, he could occasionally snag a few along with harrying Nthanda and Anton. Though compared to the options where he wiped out entire ships at once like he probably could have, that was tolerable. Still, Anton was waiting and hoping that the Great Queen could pull through. He had no idea where she was in the blood ocean, but she was doubtless there by now, swimming or otherwise moving towards Varlaam. Keeping him focused on Nthanda and Anton would meet him with a nasty surprise.

Anton mixed ascension and spectral energy into the same arrow, the combination allowing him to ignore the material properties of the blood while still having to deal with Varlaam’s spectral energy itself. This time, his attack struck against an already in place barrier… but it trembled with the difficulty. Anton supposed this was not the time to conserve himself. If he could kill Varlaam, it didn’t matter what he had left or what he revealed with it. He tried to attack from every side, circling around and even directly above. He even came up at low angles in case Varlaam was especially careless, but the man hadn’t reached Worldbinding by leaving such simple openings.

Anton felt yet another arrow, one of his last that could have ascension energy, strike against the barrier once more. The barrier rippled, holding firm. Then… it cracked. With his arrow dispersed Anton couldn’t make out the exact details, but he only had to wait a few moments to confirm his assumption. He didn’t stop his hands, firing arrows of all sorts from his proper bow and all of the energy bows around him.

One of his arrows that found its way through the blood ocean narrowly avoided one of many empty spaces directly around Varlaam, piercing into the man’s lung. Anton expected the man’s own blood to have even more powerful properties than the ocean he controlled, and perhaps it did- but he was concentrated on wide scale attacks. And, what was more frustrating for everyone who fought void ants, he was used to only requiring effort to kill things beyond a certain size. Anton could shoot the wings off of a fly, but he was used to weak points on large creatures being at least a hand in size.

The Great Queen herself was barely that length, and much less actual area. Her royal guard were smaller, and a bit weaker. But Varlaam only had an ocean of blood to defend himself, having neglected to bring more than a dagger he swung at the swarm around him. He got a couple void ants, but he failed to prioritize the correct target. Mandibles bit into his spine, stopping his muscles. Control of energy didn’t require the same connection, but as his head was separated from his body and carried away his efforts, control over the blood sea became less and less significant, until it entirely fell away.

The ocean of blood didn’t suddenly stop existing, nor did it stop having spectral energy in it. Instead, it simply stopped being controlled. Blood fell to the control of gravity, and untamed spectral energy tore through those who moments before had been using it as shelter. Some were able to defend themselves or control a local bubble, but many more Ivory Maw disciples perished instantly.

Anton wondered if this false moon had something like a worldheart. He quickly decided that even if it did, it would be tainted. Better to find any vaults they could and loot them. He wasn’t confident in his ability to take on an entire planet full of enemy cultivators, and it would likely take long enough for two more of concern to return if so. A couple hours wouldn’t hurt, but any number of days would be a risk.

To that end, Anton found his way over to the Great Queen and took her prize. “For Nicodemo, I assume? I’ll put it in my storage bag.” He wrapped it in a water tight cloth first. “We should probably take the rest of his body, too. Who knows what these necromancers will do with it.” The Great Queen nodded. “How are you feeling? Up for chewing through some vault defenses?”

Though her words were slow, she still signed with confidence. “You think that I will let something so simple stop me? I am ready to devour their petty barriers. I shall share with my royal guard as well.”

In Anton’s interpretation, that meant they were all tired as hell but that consuming the energy would probably be good for them. As the blood ocean flowed away, Anton determined that the buildings were not in fact, sealed. So there would be some wading required as the blood ocean oozed its way out of the local area. At least killing the rest of the disciples here would be easy. Normally, Anton would have let them go if they surrendered… but nobody was going to ask for anything like that. Not here, watching a blood ocean slowly recede atop a moon sized skull totem which seemed to be made in large part of real bone. Fortunately, not from one thing.