Elder Cultivator

It was audacious to take a planet from the upper realms, but aside from the fact that neither of the great powers had any claim to it, they owed the lower realms at least a planet or two.

Anton had hoped that they would be able to take a more leisurely approach, but the approaching enemy fleets had forced them to accelerate the process. Nothing good would have happened to the refugees on Bounty when the great powers arrived.

It might still be a problem. For all that they were actively involved in a war, they seemed far too focused on the people yanking away the planet instead of killing each other there. And while Anton had a high estimation of the abilities of everyone involved, it wasn’t feasible for the handful of Enrichment cultivators to beat a number of Augmentation cultivators in their own realm. Especially not with full fleets supporting the upper realms instead of just the Island Tenders.

Timing would be important. Anton readied himself, gathering what Ascension energy he had through Fleeing Youth. The upper realms itself would not be happy with his theft, but Anton thought that was just because it was jealous. If he understood correctly, he was only taking from himself- what might have been. The actual energy in the upper realms likely didn’t have feelings and merely reacted with the energy because it was off in some way.

He wanted to conserve some for when he had to act as a star to Bounty. They would appreciate a smooth transition. But the approaching fleets were a problem.

He estimated the time when the first fleets would likely be within range of Paradise- the natural target as he was most visible. The Island Tenders would no doubt help protect him, but most of Paradise’s own energy, as well as Erin’s, was focused towards the planet. They could turn and fight, but Anton didn’t think they should have to make that choice.

Anton’s arrows cut through subspace, covering lightyears in an extremely short span of time. His first arrow glanced across the bow of the foremost enemy ship, its trajectory altered at the last moment to keep up with the active situation. The warning shot did little good, not that Anton expected much else.

That first arrow whipped back around, piercing through one of the larger ships at the same time as his second arrow, creating four large holes. Instead of taking the hint, an Augmentation cultivator on the ship launched himself forward, joining one of the Ponderous Turtle Clan on a much smaller turtle.

The turtle would be spared, for now. But the Augmentation cultivators were going down. Shooting into the upper realms wasn’t optimal for Anton, but he wasn’t afraid to show that he could. If they believed he was limited to the very edge that was all well and good. Even if they determined he could reach deeper, he didn’t care. The whole point of his power was to use it in situations like this.

The Augmentation cultivators survived the first few shots Anton actually intended to hit them. Not because of their own merits, but because Anton carefully controlled the way his energy reacted with the native ascension energy. Otherwise, it would have exploded and hurt the turtle.

Then one of the Twirling Forest pulled out in front, ready to attack. An arrow returned to normal space just a few hundred kilometers away, covering that distance in an instant and striking the man directly. Anton let the natural reaction happen, which caused a great rush of the local energy to try to annihilate his own energy… and the enemy that happened to be there.

Anton wondered if he might actually be more effective right on the edge of the upper realms, where his attacks didn’t have to pass through much ascension energy but could still provoke such a reaction.

Lacking the ability to launch a counterattack on Anton, who was some twenty lightyears away, the great powers had the choice between retreating or simply trying to take down their targets.

They made the wrong choice, obviously. So Anton began annihilating their Integration cultivators. Their numbers would have helped swarm the people who were quite busy doing things other than fighting.

Anton continued to attack the Augmentation cultivators as well. Paradise seemed to think that the planet was moving fast enough for the moment, and he turned to face them. His fin swept out, ripples of water suddenly appearing around him and washing over the fleet. Humans were knocked away, including those who were riding upon the backs of giant turtles- but not the turtles themselves.

They did slow. After all, even trained animals could understand fear. As Paradise could probably fit half of them in his mouth at once and crunch through their shells, it was a fully rational fear.

With Paradise briefly ending his contact with Bounty, Erin redirected her focus to fighting of Augmentation cultivators as well. Anton continued to support them, hoping that they would decide that further losses weren’t worthwhile… and soon.

Bounty was beginning to reach the point that could truly be considered outside of the local system, but it was still mainly surrounded by ascension energy, with some portion of that coming from the planet itself. Anishka had to provide warmth and light, and Devon was still pulling it along, accelerating it bit by bit closer to the speed of light.

Not that it would ever reach such speed, as it required more and more power. Cultivators could break the rules of the universe around themselves, and that limit could be circumvented in subspace, but nobody had the ability to do that with a planet.

Not even Anton.

“How is it going?” Anton turned to see his most adorable mammalian disciple- Bear Hug was a strong contestant for most adorable in general. Three Squeaks had waited for a lull in the combat. “There’s fighting, right?”

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Anton nodded. “It’s difficult to hold them off…” He still had some arrows in flight, but he had to consider future use. A few moments would allow him to replenish some of his energy, at least.

“Can I help?”

Could he? Three Squeaks certainly had a significant attack distance, but it was still on the planetary or system scale. But Anton didn’t expect he meant that, since it was clear he couldn’t reach the battle in that manner. “I’m not certain. What were you thinking?”

“Akrys supports you,” Three Squeaks said. “Maybe we can… help somehow?”

There were many things about Unity that Anton hadn’t tested- there hadn’t been an opportunity, and if successful it would have been a significant waste of power. But here there was an important cause. “Yes. I think you might be able to.”

Anton drew upon his connection to the local star- and through that, the residents of Akrys. All of them would have noticed his attacks. It only took the slightest nudge to call upon their energy.

Anton didn’t know what he had expected, but he directed the sudden surge of energy along the trail of his perception that led into the upper realms. It wasn’t a proper attack, and he no doubt wasted most of it, but some of it actually managed to tear its way through space and reach the end destination. Once there, that energy barely clung together. Anton directed it ‘over’ Bounty and Paradise, sending it vaguely towards the fleets.

The shape it took was nearly a sphere. Anton had thought it was like a star, but the power didn’t annihilate the fleet as it washed over them. Perhaps it had diminished too much from the journey, but Anton merely thought that wasn’t how it worked. He wasn’t interested in killing people, and his Unity connection to Akrys would have indicated the same. He just wanted the fleets to leave.

And they did, as the sphere tore apart into millions of individual shapes, natural energy that took on the form of a great many cultivators of Akrys. Most likely just the strongest among them, as their energy was durable enough.

It might not have been able to actually harm anyone in the fleets, but it didn’t stop people from fleeing like it could, as the mass of energy resolved into individual forms. It wasn’t so much an attack as it was a demonstration of will, but it provided much needed space.

Paradise took the opportunity to turn about once more. Though his movements appeared slow, it was only because his bulk was so massive. His movements would cause great tsunamis if he were in any sea- not that he could really fit in most seas anymore.

He returned to Bounty, once again pushing upon its seas, accelerating the planet with Devon.

Anton kept watch on the fleets, but after a day passed he began to relax. He let his energy recover for a few weeks as Anishka strained herself. He had a long task ahead of himself, so he needed to be ready.

-----

Ji-Eun looked up at the sky. Most of the stars were still there- and why wouldn’t they be? They hadn’t moved far on the galactic scale. They just happened to be a little bit… distant from Bounty’s star. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

She never would have expected anything like that to happen when she was fleeing the war. She just wanted to be safe- and surprisingly to keep strangers she didn’t even know safe, taking several journeys on her ship.

Said ship was now properly anchored at a dock. It really should have gone in some sort of sky port, but Bounty didn’t have much more than simple structures at the moment. After all, they’d had just a few years to establish the vast population.

People were worried. That was inevitable, even with someone projecting confidence to them. They had reasons to worry, though not so much about attacking fleets anymore. They needed crops, and for that they needed a sun. One of the cultivators was providing warmth and light but even Ji-Eun could tell it was no proper substitution for a sun.

She was still looking up at the sky when the sun rose, and she was extremely confused. There wasn’t supposed to be one of those anymore. Where did it come from? Was there a secret star, hidden from their star charts?

Watching it move through the sky, it was clearly not the same star. But everything told her it was a star. Even her energy senses, except they said something more. It was more than a star… and much closer than one should normally be. She was also fairly certain it was rotating around their planet instead of the planet spinning, since their rotation had been more or less locked in place since people started moving them.

Moving a planet. Ji-Eun had sort of tuned out the massive chains in the sky, but they were still there- not all the time, but they were never gone for long. Chains should have made her feel restricted, but somehow she didn’t.

News spread slowly. The people of this planet hadn’t exactly established a proper network for such things. Ji-Eun didn’t even hear that there was a sect on the sky turtle until after the sun appeared. If she had, she would have gone to visit.

No, that was crazy wasn’t it? Could such a grand sect even allow someone like her to approach, especially on a kind of terrible ship? It was a silly thought.

But as she looked up, someone looked into her eyes. There was no way Ji-Eun could see someone on the back of the turtle, but she did. A kind woman, waving her upward? Was she reading her thoughts?

Ah, it was that other woman next to her. The one who kept people from doing anything crazy. She also revealed herself.

“Just to be clear,” a voice rang in her head. “That was an invitation to visit. You can bring others, if you wish. Other people from Bounty- what one of our friends named this planet some time ago- have already had the opportunity. Aerona says you took many trips to bring people, so you deserve it as much as anyone else.”

“But… I’m just a Spirit Building cultivator.” She forgot that she might be heard.

The woman’s calm face filled her mind. “Bravery and honor in weakness is all the more deserving. But you also don’t have to remain weak.”

“... I wasn’t able to save any of my sect’s techniques, just the early part of the cultivation method.”

“We have many others,” the woman said. “But you won’t be able to see them if you don’t come.”

“... Where do I land?” Ji-Eun knew how to pilot the ship well enough to not crash into things, now. The previous times had been luck.

“We do have docks,” the woman said, gesturing to a part of the turtle’s shell. Ji-Eun couldn’t see anything, but she could at least fly to the vague region and hope they didn’t yell at her.