Elder Cultivator

A year passed with no further aggression from the Sylanis Cluster, but neither was there an offer of peace in any measure. There was no indication of any discussions on the topic being ongoing either, and Anton didn’t want to pester Aridasa too much and imply that the trifold alliance was desperate for peace. They weren’t… but they also couldn’t exactly afford to keep fighting forever. The Sylanis Cluster likely only managed because of how many worlds they were spread across, and even they had refrained from anything for decades after their previous war with Weos.

The Sylanis Cluster was an annoying combination of unified and disconnected. As a whole they had participated in the war, yet there didn’t seem to be anyone directly in charge. Not a single figure, at least. Powerful sects had basically drafted whoever they felt like into the war to take what victories they could, and repeated defeats hadn’t discouraged them as much as would be expected. It seemed as if lives were of no value to them, but they had been strangely stubborn even with the cost of the ships involved. It hadn’t been made explicitly clear, but that only made sense if they intended more than simple raids and were instead intent on conquering a whole system. Even Rutera’s system would be valuable to them despite it lacking a good basis of resources for traditional cultivation.

With a sort of peace, Anton had his eyes on visiting other nearby systems. There were a few to the ‘south’, away from the upper realms, that seemed like good candidates for life. There was some possibility that they also had human cultivators through the same methods that all of the other systems had been settled, long in the past. Anton thought it would be nice to intentionally meet neighbors instead of stumbling into them by accident or beginning with a battle.

He would be weaker if he were to go, unless he attuned to their stars, but he intended to avoid doing that unless necessary. Not that he had spare stars to attune to at the moment, but likewise his plans of visiting were vague. He likely shouldn’t go alone, but with some sort of official delegation that didn’t look like a small army while still being secure. The details might take time to sort out- years, even, but that no longer felt long to Anton.

-----

Something felt wrong around Rutera. It wasn’t a feeling Anton had towards the planet or the residents, but rather about the space itself. He had nothing to back up his ideas, but when he casually mentioned it the Great Queen acknowledged having the same feeling. “Something is wrong,” she confirmed. “These past days, perhaps the whole week.”

“I don’t feel anything,” Devon contributed. “Not that I doubt either of your senses, but perhaps that could indicate what sort of problem it is.”

Merve rarely removed herself from Anton’s presence, so she was likewise present for the conversation. “I might sense something,” she said. “But I didn’t until you mentioned it so I might be projecting something.”

Anton pondered what he was feeling. It wasn’t just a sense of foreboding- he would have trusted it regardless- but an actual tangible sense of something. Something familiar yet foreign, present nowhere yet everywhere around the planet. “I wonder if we should warn Nicodemo or the president. Or if they could even do anything.”

“I’m not sure,” Devon said. “But perhaps Rutera might be able to pick up something with their sensors? They could at least mention anything they noticed.”

“A good plan,” Anton said. “We should contact Matija. She at least knows those who work with such things. And I’ll make a mention to Nicodemo, just in case. It might be nothing, but having some people on standby wouldn’t hurt.”

A few days later, Anton found himself present in an orbital monitoring station, working with some individuals Matija had introduced to him. “So, what do these charts mean?” Anton asked.

“Nothing, mostly,” said the man working with him. “This is just the normal background static on top of the base stable state we observe.” He pressed a few keys, changing the technological image to display two things side by side. “And this is how things are now.”

“It’s different,” Anton said. “But I don’t know how much variability is normal.”

“I’m honestly surprised you can tell,” the man said. “It’s barely one part in a thousand, which is abnormal for this.”

Anton smiled, “I could count the number of specks of dust in the next room over if I wanted to,” Anton said. “I can see the difference in curves and waves between two very similar images without issue. I just don’t know what it means.”

“I don’t like to say this,” the man said. “But same here.”

“What are we looking at, at least?” Anton asked. “I heard you had to do many tests to find anything.”

“Right,” he nodded. “And because of that we were hesitant to introduce this as more than a statistical anomaly. But this shouldn’t change from our charts, because this is the local gravitational mesh,” the man explained. “A sort of map of curved space and gravity. It might change throughout the year as planets orbit the sun, but it wouldn’t change from usual patterns without something strange. Anything that could actually affect things like this would be easily spotted. But the readings are accurate.”

“Space…” Anton nodded. “This is for sensing enemy warp drives and the like, then?”

The man nodded, “That’s what we’ve been mainly using it for, at least. It was just for astronomy before.”

Given the information it was potentially some sort of spatial distortion, Anton focused on that feeling. He could confirm that was it. It was just that such things had become normal. Between traveling between systems himself, the various methods between Ceretos, Rutera, and Weos all did something with space to some extent- with Weos being more direct about it and making use of such things more casually. His senses stretched around the planet with that in mind and felt something. It was minor, as if there were light tracks of passage in a forest, but Anton could feel it. Not quite all around the planet, but also vaguely concentrated in a point nearby.

He reached for something, trying to feel more… but he simply didn’t have the technique. A gap in his sensing abilities, unable to feel beyond space as he pleased. He could pick up traveling ships, but perhaps there were methods to conceal things. Or it was something else. “What if it’s focused on that region?” Anton pointed. Actually describing the location was more difficult, but after the course of an hour clear ripples showed in the charts, waves of change that were only on a small scale but propagating for a short distance and even overlapping to grow slightly.

Anton searched through his memories, finally finding something that fit. With everything else that happened he had placed a thought aside, considering it a non issue, something dealt with. This was a problem that could be, like most things, traced back to Everheart. Even if the man wasn’t even tangentially responsible for this one, Anton’s limited knowledge came from him.

“It might be a distortion beast,” Anton said. “Though whether it is working on its own or being provoked by some hidden entity, I’m unsure.”

“Wha-?” The man looked concerned. “You’re telling me those are real?”

“Do you think we spoke to Rutera and Weos about them because we wanted to scare you? I’ll admit to only having encountered one, but it left a distinct impression.”

-----

“So,” Nicodemo said. “Let me get this straight. You think there’s a monstrosity dwelling outside of space probing around our planet intending to devour what energy it can… and you intend to provoke it?”

“Draw it out,” Anton said. “In a controlled manner, instead of waiting for it to come through on its own, or at the behest of a hidden party. Trust me, you wouldn’t like it if The Independence dropped by and suddenly there was a monster attacking it from the inside.”

“And then you’re going to fight a monster over the planet.”

“We are, yes,” Anton said.

“And everyone will go into a panic about eldritch horrors.”

“The information is already available. It’s simply that those managing warp drive usage set up reasonable protocols so that few ships jump anywhere near the planet. With no gravity well these things don’t tend to come out, and there isn’t much gathered energy either.” Anton thought for a few moments. “If I am wrong, there won’t be much to see. Otherwise, you get to help guide the narrative.”

“This will take some time to set up. Coordinating with the president, the media…” Nicodemo frowned.

“You have three days,” Anton said. “If it goes any further than that, I can’t be certain if something will show up or not. Trust me, you want to be ready.” For his part, Anton was going to make sure Devon was prepared as well as Rutera’s space force. The Great Queen had not wanted to participate, which made sense as it was unclear if she could reasonably chew on a monstrosity spanning kilometers of space, and getting crushed if she was noticed was a real threat. She would be observing from an orbital platform just in case.

-----

Anton was accelerating towards Rutera at a rate that was truly reckless. Even if he was not going directly towards the planet, if he was diverted slightly he could run into any of the many orbital platforms they had for various purposes. But this was the only way to cause a sufficient distortion that Anton was certain would reveal the distortion beast… or disprove its presence.

When he saw the planet screaming past him, Anton suddenly stopped. At least that was how it would appear around him. From his perspective, it was a complicated process involving stretching space and time for himself, negating his momentum. Star Steps was an amazing technique, but like many of Everheart’s works it was extremely complicated to learn. Anton could only consider himself a novice, and not for lack of practice. Though generally he used it more moderately in his battles instead of in such a flashy manner.

There were a few moments where Anton thought he had misread the situation, in which case the ready ships would be informed that it had been a drill and they could all return home safe and happy.

Then Anton felt it, immediately accelerating himself with his energy away from the tendril extending from nowhere. Not using Star Steps, as attempting to further distort space in the presence of such an opponent was ill advised. He might find himself jumping into its maw rather than fleeing it. As it was, he was busy avoiding limbs that appeared from nowhere throughout his path, changing his direction of acceleration constantly.

In his hands was his bow, blades of energy slicing towards the limbs. They were far too large for an arrow of measurable size to damage, with the most narrow dimensions of the tendrils being several meters, all of them quickly extending to hundreds of meters in length or more as they reached from beyond.

Anton’s arrow-blades cut into the limbs, fortunately finding them as vulnerable as the previous one. That was not always the case, according to his information. The form of the creature wasn’t set in stone either, though tendrils were common.

He had his hands full with what attacks he could manage and merely staying alive, however, and he found himself the focal point of the danger. Fortunately, he had backup. Devon sprang into action immediately, entangling some of the limbs with his own chains. Strangely enough, that was enough to hold them in place- though neither end of the limbs were anchored to anything. Part of it might have been the nature of the beast, reaching through holes in space, and the rest would be Devon’s focus on the concept of binding itself.

Rutera’s space forces acted as well. The Independence was on standby if necessary, strategically located further from the planet so no accidents could occur. It was an opportunity for the fighters to show their effectiveness once more. Ty Quigley’s participation could be ignored, not because he was ineffective but because he was always an anomaly. His ship severed limbs as it tore through the densest masses of distortion beast, narrowly avoiding calamity with every move.

The other fighters found that attacking this target was both easier and more difficult than their standard enemies. Despite the speed of the tendrils, their movement was predictable enough- and even if they missed there was always more to hit. They didn’t even have the issue of their weapons being negated like on the Sylanis Cluster’s barriers. Conventional projectiles and beams alike found themselves effective in penetrating the strangely yielding flesh of the creature. Yet the sheer size made it difficult to know if they were being effective.

Anton drew directly upon the power of Rutera’s star, firing burning arrows that moved along the length of the limbs, charring them from the inside. That was effective even for the larger sizes, heat spreading through the thickest points readily. Anton just hoped the thing would die or give up soon… though actually killing the thing was probably outside of the expected scope.