Elder Cultivator

The issue with fighting a distortion beast was not that it had any sort of tactics. Nor was its significant power the largest concern. Instead, the troubles came about by how the creature worked, its pieces reaching into the world in ways that were unintentionally confusing.

On the grand scheme of things, the openings its tendrils came through didn’t move, relative to the planet. That didn’t mean there was no relative motion, but it was more or less consistent providing stationary targets. Those were the target of most attacks, to reasonable effect. Severed tendrils quickly ceased their aggressive movements. The biggest issue was simply that there seemed to be no end of them, both individually in length and size, as well as by count. More and more continued appearing- and they didn’t come from just one direction. It took some time, but seemingly after realizing there was a proper assault on it, tendrils came from ‘behind’ the fleet as well.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to provoke it, though Anton still stood by his understanding it would have come through at some point. At least it couldn’t reach the orbital defense platforms just yet, though it seemed to be vaguely moving ‘towards’ them.

Every Ruteran fighter and every foreign cultivator fought hard, making use of everything they had. Auras stretched throughout the battlefield, bolstering allies and restricting the creature. Merve’s Angelic Providence bolstered the attacks of many around her, while her wings allowed her to maneuver around the incoming attacks- despite there being no real atmosphere to interact with.

Devon was focusing his chains of a few tendrils at a time, squeezing, crushing, prodding, and slicing until he or someone else destroyed his target, severing something. The distortion beast seemed to have no blood- at most, there was an inky black mist that lingered for a few moments as wounds were caused. It seemed to have no immediate ill effects, but everyone was cautious about it.

On a personal note, Anton found himself less of a target with everything else going on. That allowed him to focus on offense, including trying to hurt something important. For the most part that meant firing his arrows through the length of the limbs, trying to have his attack pass through the entry points to the other side. Dozens of arrows moved with no effect, but Anton didn’t give up easily.

Spectral energy was even less effective than he would have hoped, with no obvious critical points to target the energy simply caused minimal damage where it was first allowed to interact with the creature.

Anton drew upon ascension energy, focusing on the vague start of a technique that was probably not even a thousandth of the way complete, or even determined to be viable. Here, he didn’t want to shoot a large distance, just somewhere else. He was able to distort space around himself traveling between systems, but doing anything of the sort near a gravity well was difficult, and only affecting some energy in exactly the way he wanted was something he had no experience with.

Two, three, four, five. Anton quickly burned through half of his ascension energy trying to achieve results, the main thing he learned being that ascension energy was at least effective against the limbs.

Then the maw opened. Determining its size was impossible, as it couldn’t be seen. Nor could it be properly felt, a hole in space much like void ants appeared to be. Natural energy was drawn into the area, attacks absorbed including one of Anton’s own Ascension shots. An area several kilometers wide was being drained, with the spread widening. Energy used for sensing was devoured as well.

Two things happened simultaneously, either of which could have produced the end results- or perhaps they were both necessary. First, Anton gathered a sizable arrow of spectral energy and launched it towards where he presumed there might be something important, not quite following the flow of energy. Second, a ship flew through the center of the area, wings like blades. Natural energy augmented it, but the vehicle itself was made out of expensive alloys that were both sturdy and sharp.

The whirlpool of energy rapidly snapped closed after both attacks, condensed energy bursting back in all directions. All around, tendrils were withdrawn back into nothing.

The pulse of energy had little effect on anything but Ty Quigley’s ship, near the epicenter. Its spherical shape meant the power it had rapidly fell off, and anyone closer than one kilometer had already been consumed- some leaving no traces of body or energy. Beyond that point, it was mostly uncomfortable and at best able to shake the starfighters or loose cultivators slightly, their energy defenses withstanding the dilute energy.

What remained behind were crushed ships, some dead pilots and individual cultivators that had been targeted… and many tendrils of unknown material. Anton was surprised that they didn’t simply disappear, but he hadn’t actually encountered many distortion beasts. There had only been one, and it seemed both smaller and weaker, quickly chased off by himself and Everheart. Hopefully, the latter would have some idea of what to do with the material. Or for the sake of Rutera, he might not know and decide to purchase it anyway.

-----

The small meeting was uncomfortable. Nicodemo was there, not upset but not happy. Anton was there, along with Devon. Finally, there was the Great Queen, who was resting on her belly in a way generally unnatural for ants.

“I’m sorry for the losses,” Anton said. “I maintain my stance that it was necessary.”

“I agree, unfortunately,” Nicodemo shook his head. “I only wish there was more we could say about our victory… and of course fewer losses.”

“I will admit,” Anton said. “I expected it to be smaller and weaker. I don’t think such a creature would naturally find its way to Rutera. Your natural energy is moderate at best, given recent advances. Nothing special. Nor did you have exceptionally high spatial activity.”

The Great Queen just looked disappointed that she could not eat the distortion beast. She had asked Anton to show her a sample, and had immediately taken a bite. A moment later she vomited it up, an act quite unnatural for ants. They had certain methods to share food, but doing so for something unhealthy was outside of the norm. Then again, the Great Queen was in every way. The main thing she could conclude was that it was not normal flesh, and whatever it did with the energy it did not linger in the various tendrils it exuded.

“What do you think lead it here, then?” Nicodemo asked.

“Sabotage by the Sylanis Cluster, most likely,” Anton said. “Or perhaps the Ivory Maw, as a form of petty revenge. Though if it had appeared when you were unready, the results would have been quite different.”

“The… bone craft that Bala Sycora had slipped easily into and out of subspace, correct?” Nicodemo confirmed. He hadn’t been at any of the battles, and there weren’t recordings.

“That’s right,” Anton nodded. “So I would put that near the top of the list. The good news is we’ve determined that you have sensors that can detect this. The bad news… is that it was only barely. I don’t know what will happen from here, either. The beast might retreat permanently. It might come back for revenge. Or there might be another who finds the spatial distortions and determines this is a good place to feed.”

“Could we… repair them?” Nicodemo asked. “These spatial distortions.”

“I would imagine they should go away on their own,” Anton pondered. “But I could be wrong. As they were almost certainly caused intentionally, doing the opposite should be possible. Counteracting the effects to prevent this might be useful. Unfortunately, this isn’t even close to my expertise. Perhaps Weos might know more.” Contacting them would be in order anyway. Bala Sykora might target them, or perhaps Leonas could do the same- if one of them made it away from the purge, perhaps both did. There had been no official information out of the Sylanis Cluster on that topic, or much of anything.

Devon added his contribution, “My tactics were relatively effective, but I could not stop any part of it from retreating once it chose to do so. Individual tendrils, specifically. I didn’t even think about attempting to stop its final withdrawal.”

“One thing that seems fairly certain is that it takes effort to bridge the gap,” Anton said. “Effort and time. It should be made easier by any spatial distortions, though information I have says they generally just wait on the ‘other side’, slurping up any stray energy that gets through.”

“Hardly a comforting thought,” Nicodemo said. “But it is what it is.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Strange to think that in a hundred years I might be able to deal with such things myself. And that I’d still be alive and youthful.”

“I do believe your people lived quite long without full cultivation methods,” Anton said.

“Perhaps,” Nicodemo shrugged, “We don’t have anyone who is two hundred and thirty, though.”

“I’m not one of the oldest ones,” Anton said. “I mostly started late. Though I suppose much of the older generation has perished now.” Even so, there were still people up to three or four hundred years old on Ceretos- though those who were talented in cultivation had already Ascended. None of the older generation Anton was aware of had attempted Assimilation, though there might have been some who were unsuccessful and perished.

Nicodemo shook his head, “Whatever. We need to get working on countermeasures. Can’t say if they’ll take a year or ten, and when we might need them.”

-----

Specific practice did little more to improve Anton’s ability to shoot arrows into subspace of any sort. He needed more. More skill, more power, more understanding. Possibly all of them. Doing so with himself was simple because all of him was there to provide power as needed, and maintaining the state was relatively easy. Even if he managed to do it to a Spirit Arrow, accuracy would be an issue. Subspaces were more complicated than just a space behind every point in natural space. Going from somewhere on one edge of a system to an edge of a different system was about as close as Anton got to ‘accurate’, and he could be off by thousands or hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Over a shorter distance one would assume greater accuracy, but that wouldn't be quite true.

He could still launch arrows vaguely towards the upper realms, and he was able to convince himself he shortened the distance his arrow traveled, but that had only range and no accuracy- and effectively no flexibility. It was simply a vanity or a hobby, like distance shooting. Trying to get the furthest shot with a bow while he was younger had been fun, but it relied just as much on the luck of the winds changing as skill- and simple distance from the starting point meant nothing in actuality. Hitting a stationary target was a step above, but also insufficient for practical matters.

Anton wanted to consult Everheart at some point, but he didn’t want to rely on the man. Both for his own safety, and because if he couldn’t manage on his own then his growth would just stagnate.

As he performed his tests- that was what they were, more than proper training- Anton also drew upon the power of Rutera’s star. It was only energy that the star would have output anyway, it simply went to him instead of being among the masses of heat and light being sprayed in all directions. A tiny portion.

Yet drawing upon it, Anton gained energy inside himself without it crossing the intervening distance… mostly. Distance was still a factor, but there wasn’t a delay on any level he could sense. Anton had taken the time to read through many papers Rutera had on theoretical- and now actual subspace mechanics. Their mathematical avenue of understanding didn’t fit Anton quite as well, and as a cultivator he also relied on insights into the mechanics that went beyond what could be written. The transfer of energy from a star was somewhat like a wormhole- though only in the barest surface level understanding.

Anton had to admit he didn’t understand everything he’d read- even if he could read it quickly- but given some years and additional study he might actually digest it to be something useful. It was simply a matter of where he spent his effort. Once again, Anton understood why Everheart made so many projections of himself to get more things done. Though he certainly hadn’t been intending to reabsorb most of them- especially not the way it ultimately happened.

Still, the idea of spitting himself off in the short term was appealing. He might even be verging on understanding enough of the mechanics of formations and the other things required to manage a basic version of that. The question was how much study it would take him to save time in the future. Time. He had an unknown quantity of it. Perhaps not long before further troubles with distortion beasts, and within a decade no doubt there would be more conflict with the Sylanis Cluster unless they could push for peace before then, or perhaps the Ivory Maw would cause trouble. A good seventy to a hundred years before the invasion. Would he live that long?

He didn’t know. Perhaps if he continued to grow in cultivation he would not reach the end of his lifespan. Or maybe he was close to the precipice. He might be able to push himself to understand, but he thought it better to not. Fleeting Youth was training rather consistently, which had some implications, but ultimately Anton would choose to spend his time the same way regardless of whether or not he died tomorrow. Well, if he knew he had one actual day to live he’d go back to his family, but he visited Ceretos regularly to begin with.

An arrow shot through space into nothing, well away from Rutera. Anton clicked his tongue. It would take a while for him to get much of anything down, but he wouldn’t give up easily.