Elder Cultivator

Chapter 1153

Crossed Antennae found the responses of humans to various events fascinating. The Chaotic Conglomeration was more than a little bit surprised when the Scarlet Alliance managed to raise two Domination cultivators simultaneously. Crossed Antennae herself thought it was a fairly natural progression- when pressured, humans always grew quickly. Void ants were slower to adapt, which was why attaching themselves to humanity had been quite useful.

Everyone was somehow more surprised about the other thing that had happened recently. Having met Anton on her trip through the lower realms around the Exalted Quadrant, she had felt it. Crossed Antennae knew that humans could feel each other’s energies too, so why would they be surprised?

Well, she supposed that most of them hadn’t met Anton. Or the other Enrichment cultivators. They probably still thought that the lower realms were as stagnant as they had been for millennia past- as if that made any sense now that they weren’t being oppressed.

In Crossed Antennae’s opinion, this was merely the natural result of things, an explosion of power. Sure, it had taken almost a thousand years on its own to reach this point, but there had been so much buildup in the lower realms it simply had to happen.

But almost nobody ever asked Crossed Antennae for her opinion. Most people didn’t know she existed, and the rest just… didn’t.

The twins were an exception, though. They asked everyone about everything. It seemed to Crossed Antennae that they should have run out of questions for the whole of the Chaotic Conglomeration, but they were still going.

“Nobody’s really able to determine with certainty who will make it to higher stages of cultivation,” Misi commented. “Are you sure you knew?”

“Even if I didn’t trust my mother’s judgment,” Crossed Antennae signed, “I would have known. But of course, it is not that people are strictly destined. Anton could have failed, and it would not have been surprising as one of those leading the charge.”

“I still think being the first to reach a particular stage is always going to be surprising,” Juli added. The twins were paying careful attention to not miss anything she said, even as they recorded their own thoughts.

Crossed Antennae thought about that. “One time is a surprise. Twice might be unexpected. After a certain point, people must resolve not to be shocked.”

“Right,” Misi agreed. “But this is the first,” he pointed out.

“I’m not speaking strictly of Unity,” Crossed Antennae commented. It was a good name. Very void ant. At least, the void ants she knew. There had been some news from the lower realms about some that were a bit more jumbled up. “Nor of Anton. However, he was one of the first to reach Assimilation- at least as known in Ceretos. Then Enrichment and finally now Unity. But this stretches beyond that. This is a time of great change. Humans and void ants have become friends- and others who are not human. The wolves and Akrys. Maybe this new system.”

Crossed Antennae was not done. No, far from that- she felt she could continue to speak on what she had learned forever. Her passion was shown in the exaggerated gestures of her forelimbs and antennae.

“The Scarlet Midfields are unified for the first time in the memory of the people there. The lower and upper realms are working together- in some sections. Multiple Domination cultivators died within a century of each other. No one should be surprised at anything because nothing fits what people used to think was normal and unsurprising. I haven’t even mentioned the other cultivation paths that have sprung up. But I will. Advanced body tempering, Confluence, Negation…” Crossed Antennae looked at Juli. “Technology, both as connected to cultivation and as an independent factor.”

“Oh!” Juli’s face lit up. “How’s the micro tech process going, by the way?”

“We’ve run into limitations of the laws of physics,” Crossed Antennae said.

Misi frowned. “In what way?”

“Electricity doesn’t like many very small pathways close to each other. Among other things.”

He thought for a couple moments. “Maybe just make normal sized tech and… shrink it?”

Crossed Antennae tilted her head. “That sounds even more difficult for us to do independently.”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“We’ve got to get some of you interested in formations,” Misi sighed. “Void ants are so good at sensing energy flow!”

“It is not my job to create interest,” Crossed Antennae pointed out. “But you are allowed to attempt to seduce my kin away from their productive careers if you believe it can be successful.”

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Occasionally, Anton was actually able to reach Chidi with a trinity of energy styles. Chidi simply couldn’t negate upper and lower energy plus spectral energy all at the same time with any consistency. And while it was nearly impossible for him to encounter such anywhere else, the possibility of there being more obscure yet seemingly fundamental energies was possible. Domination cultivators would be the most likely candidates.

Previously, Anton had never needed to combine the energies. They functioned better independently, and he only combined them when he simply did not have enough of one kind. They weren’t strictly incompatible, but Anton didn’t necessarily see further progression down that path as anything of value in most circumstances. At best, it would be usable to bypass something like adaptive defenses. As for Chidi, however, it was valuable for him so Anton helped him train.

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There was one more thing they tested, and perhaps the most important when considering who Chidi intended to fight. Though Chidi was aware of his weaknesses, it was necessary to overcome as many as possible.

Thus, Anton was about a day away from Chidi- by the best speed he believed the younger man capable of. It was a distance at which Anton was still comfortable, though very few others would even get close. However, it allowed Anton the luxury of safety, representing an enemy Chidi could not reach no matter what.

Because of that, Anton could gather as much energy as he could control. For the sake of safety, Chidi was on a small device that should be able to absorb any accidental energy aftershocks while still allowing him sufficient freedom of movement to react and potentially counter Anton. Obviously Anton wouldn’t actually hit Chidi, but when gathering a certain amount of energy simply dissolving it into the surroundings could still be extremely dangerous. Anton intended to let his attack dissolve safely far away, but something could go wrong.

Anton expected he would display a similar effect to when he killed Sudin, and when he completed his advancement. The upper realms would no doubt be in a tizzy- but not knowing where the attack went, he might hope they would underestimate anything in the future. This attack wouldn’t be traveling past multiple systems, so it would only exist briefly and that was it.

Energy condensed around the lower realms, snapping everything into place. The shape of a bow wouldn’t really allow attacks to go from the outside to the inside, but Anton wasn’t physically using the stars as structure. He drew upon all of his bound stars, gathering energy for quite a long time. He didn’t take anywhere near as long as the flight of Sudin, both because he was more efficient with the process and because his attack didn’t have to go nearly as far.

Even so, it was an amount of time that would have been impossible to use in a short ranged battle. It could only be done like this as a sort of artillery strike, or through the methods of an assassin. Chidi was aware the attack was coming here, but not precisely when. That would have to be good enough as far as Anton’s contribution went.

A streak of blinding energy tore through space itself, arriving at a speed Chidi shouldn’t have anticipated. Anton was confident enough to aim straight for his grandson, but he was prepared to alter the trajectory of his attack at any moment if he had to.

He was his arrow, streaking towards Chidi. Then the image of Chidi disappeared from his vision as an area of Negation stretched outward. Anton didn’t even feel his arrow fade- it was just gone. A minute later, the natural energy in the system was several times higher than the normal ambient, but otherwise not notable. Certainly it didn’t have any resemblance concentrated force sufficient to destroy a planet.

There was just one more quite annoying thing Anton had to do. He shot one arrow after another, spaced out so they would arrive several seconds apart. He could do that literally forever. He might find he had to sleep after a few months, but until that time his energy replenishment was far more than necessary. He could have used more power, but that wasn’t actually useful.

Staggering the timing between the arrows so they weren’t predictable, Anton forced Chidi to defend himself. Some arrows he sliced apart as individuals. Often he had to use Negation directly around himself, but even if it didn’t tire him much, over the course of hours he was beginning to look rather ragged.

If that was where things ended, Anton would have been disappointed. After all, Chidi had weeks to think of a proper counter measure. He wasn’t expected to somehow catch Anton, but if he could at least escape it would be good enough. Even so, Chidi hadn’t moved at all from his starting position.

An illusion… was both outside of Chidi’s wheelhouse and impractical. It couldn’t be directly affecting Anton’s mind, and any energy he used would have been blown away by Anton’s arrows reaching the area regardless of what Anton’s senses might be convinced was going on. Chidi simply didn’t have the energy stores to resist that.

Was Chidi simply going to surrender? No, more likely he was waiting for Anton to be off guard somehow. He did his best to continue his attacks with minimal paused- though he took a few minutes off every once in a while, keeping his senses locked on Chidi.

He also launched hails of arrows, forcing Chidi to cover himself from all arrows. Again and again Anton continued his attacks. If this was endurance training he’d gladly continue, but he hadn’t seen any progress. And he didn’t until one time Negation faded and Chidi simply wasn’t there.

Anton searched for him, trying to extend his senses to cover more of the system, but the young man was just gone. There weren’t even traces of spatial distortions- though that didn’t mean they hadn’t happened, just that they were covered up.

It took about an hour for Anton to get a message from Chidi. That gave him a hint to Chidi’s location, but aside from informing Chidi not to taunt any actual opponents it was sufficient to show that Chidi had actually escaped his notice, moving further than Anton thought was capable and keeping his energy concealed, after a short time of Negation cutting of Anton’s sensory access to the local space.

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“So how did you do it?” Anton asked.

“If I told you, I’d have to silence you,” Chidi said, dragging his finger across his throat.

“Harsh but fair,” Anton agreed. He had his own guesses, actually. Most likely, it was some combination of keeping the area of Negation static while moving himself towards the edge, thus foiling Anton’s immediate sweep of the area. But he could only guess that was what it was. “Is there any more training I can help with?”

“Just an endurance test. Something like omnidirectional suppression. It would be a shame if I lost to someone’s aura, and I can’t imagine there’s anyone better here. Then I was hoping to take some of Devon’s time.”

“Really? I hadn’t expected he’d be a good matchup for you. Or rather, despite his considerable abilities, he’d certainly lose.” Devon’s range was merely planetary, so at best he could run from Chidi. There was no way he could slip past Chidi’s defenses or overpower him, especially not as an Enrichment cultivator. Maybe if he reached Unity- if that was even something that was a universally valid path.

“I do believe that would be the case,” Chidi agreed. “But I need to match myself against alternative energy suppression.”

A fair point. “Have you tested with standard energy negating shackles?”

“I can cut them apart with merely my sword intent,” Chidi confirmed. “And I’m confident I could handle most formations.”

“I’m sure he’d be glad to help. You’re family, after all.”