The war hade quite suddenly, unanticipated by everyone- including Everheart. He did have some expectation that emsomething/em was going to happen. He’d learned about the Scarlet Alliance’s infiltration of the Swirling Swarm, of course. Just because the Swirling Swarm themselves were incapable of picking out such obvious movements didn’t mean those around them had to be.

    Everheart hadn’t managed to get information about the anchor. He might have liked to study it himself, if the tidbits of information he picked up after the fact were at all correct. A corpse. He wondered if it had functioned as an anchor while the cultivator was alive. It was far toote for Everheart to go down that route now even if it worked, but knowledge was always valuable.

    Ultimately, what happened happened. Everheart wouldn’t admit to being surprised, instead he repositioned forces to the 11th Everheart System at the first sign of trouble. He’d had a few hints prior to that moment, since the Trigold Cluster wasn’t great about message security. Not that they thought they needed to be.

    The 11th Everheart System didn’t matter. There wasn’t anything valuable about it, nor its neighbors. It had simply been established to have a foothold in the region. Everheart had also been interested in monitoring the activities of the Swirling Swarm, at least from a distance. He could have abandoned the system, but he didn’t for one important reason- Domination.

    The Swirling Swarm Domination cultivators seemed immortal, but were more emreceable/em. That was one thing, though Everheart didn’t believe their methods were good enough to bother. emHe/em wasn’t receable, and he’d rather have subordinates that didn’t die if he was going to bother investing in them. The Swirling Swarm attack had been an opportunity.

    Capturing them had been disappointing, but educational nheless. There was nothing about them that qualified them as Domination cultivators, and they rapidly broke down once they were no longer observed. Aside from confirming a few theories and allowing him to attempt some tests he wouldn’t otherwise have the chance for, it didn’t result in much. On the other hand, each bit of data he had about Domination cultivators- even fake ones- would allow him to improve his own cultivation further, and even help boost his allies beyond the same threshold.

    He had to trust them, of course. Rahayu was going to reach Domination without him, so Everheart thought he might as well contribute and build up some good rapport. He wouldn’t be the swordmaster’s foe, as the man wasn’t interested in him personally. As for others, he had a few ideas. Not always the first, but the best. Everheart just wanted to make sure he was stable enough in his own position. Managing subordinates was difficult.

    But he had to do it to keep up with the Scarlet Alliance. In truth, he had probably already fallen behind. Still, he was more capable of bringing all of his forces to bear where he needed them. They hadn’t emquite/em gotten down long range teleportation yet- not on the scale they needed it to function at. Neither distance nor quantity. Eventually, though, he suspected they would.

    It was a good thing they didn’t hate him quite as much as some others, but he still had to remain cautious. Everheart was very aware of how much of a threat he was, and he knew that emthey/em were aware. He didn’t intend to emstop/em being a threat though. He could get along quite happily emadjacent/em to them, but certainly not emwith /emthem. There were too many ethics and political shes.

    He liked things just fine where they couldn’t afford to move against them, and he couldn''t afford to move against emthem/em. Assuming he couldn’t just get enough power to do whatever he wanted, anyway. Post Domination… if such a thing existed, he was still many centuries away from even getting a hint. He’d have to settle for widening his power base.

    -----

    It was a good nap, made quite a bit longer by Anton’s need to pay back quite a bit of energy to various sources. There hadn’t been any sort of formal discussion, but drawing upon the power of Unity he’d gathered energy from various systems with bound stars- including their people. Drawing energy from such a wide area probably wouldn’t cause any significant long term harm even if he did nothing in return, but ultimately he wanted to take some time off anyway. Spending most of his thoughts monitoring his stars and their output was a perfectly reasonable thing for him to do.

    He couldn’t just rest forever. Even though most of the excitement had been happening in the upper realms, he was scheduled for another meeting with the eastern systems. They would probably want to know why he hadn’t mentioned the potential for a sudden eruption of Domination cultivators from the Swirling Swarm. He would honestly answer they hadn’t known it was possible- there was a reason they had been studying them after all.

    He thought about what he might want to get out of the next meeting. They were a bit inconveniently ced for Anton to arrange for any sort ofrge scale trade. Too far east of Lower Realms Alliance territory. Obviously. They were past the entire Trigold Cluster.

    Still, it wasn’t impossible. It might even be possible to think in the long term and suggest nting sects in the lower realms- though obviously that was a touchy subject. In Anton’s opinion the problems came in when upper realms sects were there simply to scour the every six centuries and steal all the resources they could. If they just wanted to emlive/em there and asionally toss up some Ascension cultivators, he wouldn’t mind.

    Probably best not to mention it until they were certain it was viable, though. The sects seemed fine, but that might just be inparison to how awful the Trigold Cluster was at various points. Lantilwe might help keep them in line, but other groups who would be their eventual neighbors would have to be on board. That meant establishing propermunication with more of them- not just Aretis and Lantilwe.

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    -----

    Taj hadn’t expected that they merited an Augmentation cultivator toe teach them. It would have been surprising to get an opportunity to go listen to an Augmentation cultivator speak. Having the more powerful individual travel? It just didn’t make sense.

    In times like this, you were supposed to take deep breaths. “What do I do?” Taj asked Madiha. Surely she would know.

    “Just rx. I don’t know Tessouat personally, but he’s well respected among the Scarlet Alliance. There’s nothing wrong with an entric cultivator seeking out those who are interested in a simr style.”

    “But I… fight nothing like the Retributive League,” Taj said. “I’ve watched some videos.”

    “Not them,” Madiha shook her head. “Just Tessouat.” Madiha pointed to the void ants piled on each shoulder, almost serving as pauldrons- they didn’t need to be hidden on Xankeshan, so they liked to be able to see instead of just making assumptions via energy flow. “A void ant specialized fighting style.”

    “Surely there must be a lot of people like that,” Taj said. “I mean, they’re so great!”

    “People fight alongside them all the time,” Madiha said. “Nobody in the Alliance who has done so had regretted having them as allies. Even so, that doesn’t mean everyone wants to have void ants carried with them.”

    “You do that.”

    “It was out of necessity,” Madiha said. “I became a vessel to deposit Devours Viins. It was practical at the time, but it’s not my emstyle/em. You, however, have taken to it quite strongly. It’s not a bad thing. We were emlooking/em for passions. Cultivation requires them. I’m not quite certain what you can do with your cultivation to enhance your effectiveness, but Tessouat will know. Even if you have different base styles, you can adapt. It’s not toote to change cultivation methods. Maybe you’lle up with something unique instead.”

    One of the void ants- not Devours Viins as the queen was quite busy- made ament. “If you like void ants, there is also Nthanda’s style to consider.”

    Taj was getting pretty good atputers. Pulling out a hand tablet, there was really only one Nthanda of note. “... Archery?”

    “Not at all,” the void ant rified. “That’s just her fighting style. Her cultivation is… body tempering.”

    “No, she’s stronger than that,” Taj said. “If this sample energy is at all reliable.” She was only listed as post Life Transformation. Not Worldbinding or Assimtion or anything.

    “Advanced body tempering,” the void ant continued. “She makes her body better than a human body can normally be expected to be. She has even adapted certain traits that void ants have naturally.”

    “Uh…” Taj frowned. “I can’t find anything about that.”

    “Not all information is public,” Madiha reminded them. “I might also remind emyou/em of that,” she said to the void ant.

    “We do not believe Nthanda would mind. Not that I know anything truly valuable anyway. Taj would likely have to seek her out in the lower realms to learn anything important.”

    “Well, that’s a bit… impossible,” Taj pointed out. “For five more centuries. And I doubt I’d be weed.”

    “A determined cultivator can do anything,” Madiha said. It wasn’t actually that hard to get a trip on any of the various inter-realm ships. They were still kept as secret as possible. No public information, but doubtless some of their enemies were still aware of them to various extents. It would be impossible to keep them actually secret for so many years with many thousands of different people going back and forth every day.

    Thousands was nothingpared to the overall poption- whether it was a single or the whole of the Alliance- but the number was always growing. Once, it had been a hundred or fewer individuals on a trip that took months for a single exchange. Now such ships only operated at the border- a border which the Alliance controlled both sides of, allowing for further transportation. Ultimately, people needed to return to their proper realms to thrive in cultivation but the option existed.

    -----

    Tessouat sized up the young cultivator. He was slightly disappointed. There were nowhere emnear/em enough void ants to block their entire body. Tessouat himself had adapted his armor to berge, loose clothing. There were specialized tubes for the void ants, though in abat situation they would take whatever the fastest route was even if it risked crushing. He had more than enough to cover his whole body and even his shield.

    He supposed a young cultivator like Taj might not actually need to be prepared to step on the battlefield at any moment. Plus, habits about emnot /emcarrying so many void ants it was obvious could take a while to ovee.

    It was time to approach. He suspected his energy remained hidden, but Taj still turned to spot him. Probably the void ants noticing their own. “Hello, Taj. I imagine you have been expecting me.”

    “Sect Head Tessouat!” Taj bowed and scrambled and overall put on a pretty pathetic show. The Swirling Swarm had no lessons on propriety. Titles weren’t something people had. Respect for those who were strong… that was variable.

    “You can just say ‘pleased to meet you’. I do prefer to be treated like a person.” Taj wasn’t that tall. Normal growth was probably over, but cultivators could still have odd growth spurtster in life. Taj wasn’t even fifty yet. They seemed younger because of how emnew/em to ‘real life’ they were. “You don’t even have to mean it. Don’t be offended if someone says it and doesn’t mean it.”

    “Pleased to meet you,” Taj said stiffly.

    “Likewise,” Tessouat responded.

    “Thank you for pretending for one such as me.”

    “I could be sincere, you know? This Alliance does a pretty good job of filtering out ungrateful and unsociable individuals. Now then, I heard you like void ants.”

    “... They saved my life.”

    “More than once, I’d bet. Let’s see if we can figure out a way you can do the most together.”

    “Wouldn’t that be your style?” Taj asked. “Since you’re the strongest void ant carrier, right?”

    “I might be,” Tessouat said. “Depending on your definition. But I joined with void antste in my cultivation path. I was already strong and set in my ways. I’ve been slowly adapting, but I bet we can do better.” Tessouat held out a hand. “These guys have emso many ideas/em. Feel free to tell them when some are stupid, though. Individual void ants aren’t great at self preservation.”

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