Elder Cultivator

Lightning coursed through Anton’s body, tightening the muscles and causing the whole thing to spasm. Anishka knew that the movements weren’t his, but her own heart jumped at the sight.

The novelty of Severs Sickness being a praying mantis with a lemur assistant had worn off, and they brought no levity to the situation. All those watching could think about how important Anton was- to them, to the world, or both.

Another convulsion. Anishka knew the human body was delicate. Perhaps she’d overestimated her own abilities. Damage to Anton’s heart wouldn’t need to be big.

A third time, and his body barely moved. The small lemur was still gathering lightning around her hands for another attempt, but at some point it was clear it was pointless. Not that anyone would have stopped until far later.

Tiny hands were gently laid on Anton’s chest, causing no movement. Anishka’s own heart was trying to leap out of her mouth, which wasn’t helping anything. She heard the sound of blood rushing in her ears and her own heavy breathing. She couldn’t ask the doctor how things were going, as it would be an unnecessary distraction.

She couldn’t feel Anton’s energy. It had been roiling and angry, but after she had calmed it, the energy began to fade until she wasn’t even certain it was there.

Something Severs Sickness did caused her assistant to back away. Was that it? Were they giving up after just a few minutes or… had it been hours? Days? Anishka honestly didn’t know anymore. She could have been standing there for a month.

The world moved in front of her eyes in rhythm with her heart, otherwise seeming to be frozen. Should she freeze him again? Maybe it wouldn’t be too late. Maybe she could restart the fires inside of him or…

Anton coughed, a glob of blackened blood sputtering out of his mouth. He started to sit up, but his head barely moved before Severs Sickness jumped on his head. “The patient must not move unduly. Additional recovery methods will be required.” As before, her voice was like knives rubbing against each other.

A quiet voice escaped from between Anton’s lips. “I don’t seem to be dead.”

“Depending on who you ask, you were,” Severs Sickness commented. “Do not speak. I will be working on your chest.” She hopped down to over his heart, waving her claws over him but not stabbing aggressively like earlier. Her energy did sink into him, though Anishka couldn’t tell the exact details without active sensing that she feared would cause trouble.

She managed to convince herself to back away. It wasn’t as if she could do anything more, and it seemed that he was alive. He wouldn’t fade away again… right?

-----

“I haven’t felt this old in a while,” Anton commented to nobody in particular as he sat ina reclined bed- outside. Severs Sickness had kept away visitors for a day- and she had wanted to keep things that way for more, but dealing with strong personalities on both sides made that an impossible task. “It’s nice to not have to be the one making sunlight,” he commented. Paradise had moved closer to the sun once there weren’t more worries about Anton’s energy doing something concerning.

Devon sighed as he looked at his grandfather. “The poisons-”

“He was afraid, you know?” Anton said. “I’m certain of it. We must be doing great for someone that strong to be afraid.”

Devon grimaced. “Any after effects?”

“I don’t think I’m going to be dancing about this afternoon,” Anton said, his eyes flicking to Devon’s face as he grinned. “But I’m not going to wilt away. What of Bounty?”

“Three Squeaks is taking care of it,” Anishka said. “Along with some of his disciples and a significant proportion of the local fleets.” It hadn’t been nearly as long as Anishka feared it might have been. Her sense of time had been extremely far off, in fact. The entire process had been a few minutes, after days of cryostasis. Then again, it made sense. It shouldn’t have taken long for him to die.

“He won’t be able to keep that up the rest of the way,” Anton said. “I can feel that. But we never expected someone to last alone.” He shifted. “Varghese is moving. I assume he’ll take over. I hate to say it but I’m not going back to work anytime soon.”

Devon nodded. Silence reigned for a few moments. “We want to move you back to Ceretos. So you can be safe.”

“As long as I don’t have to walk there on my own,” Anton said, “I’m not going to stop you. The rays of my home star would be quite welcome.”

Anishka could see Anton considering something. “What are you thinking about?”

“That was Shelach, I presume,” Anton said. “No wonder Everheart was so timid. But he won’t come into the lower realms. That sort would never step foot somewhere so risky.”

“You can’t know for sure,” Devon said.

“I shot an arrow into his gut,” Anton countered. “In an exchange like that, you can come to know many things about your opponent.”

“Yeah yeah,” Devon said. “And in turn, he knows your favorite color.”

“He knows I’m not afraid of him. That’s why he ran.”

Erin, who had been quietly nearby, spoke up at that point. “He probably thought you would die.”

“Yes. That was why he was afraid.”

“He was afraid of… you dying?” Erin asked.

Anton grinned slightly. “I’m not afraid of dying, so he couldn’t make me fear him. He could kill me or even a significant number of people I know. He might, still. So we’re absolutely going to kill him. But we have no reason to be afraid, because a single person like that… killing people is all he can do. One, a hundred, a billion at a time- it doesn’t matter. He’d never be able to destroy what we’ve built.” Ř𝘢ƝȱＢЁṠ

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“You’re sounding particularly… nostalgic today,” Devon commented.

“That’s because I almost just died and can’t train right now.”

-----

Why did nobody put brakes on the star? Someone really should have. It couldn’t be Everheart’s fault, because he

hadn’t built the structure. He’d only done a few small modifications to the formations. Yes, it was the lack of care of those Imbued Fragments.

Though perhaps that was in part to do with their recent strings of losses. Losses in the lower realms, losses against the Scarlet Alliance. But they should have learned from those and change their methods. Everheart could get behind scouring whole worlds for their resources, but they were so inefficient about it. He’d seen the Alliance do more with less. They didn’t need to capture all of the energy of a single star if they could just take a bit of excess from hundreds.

All that to say… Everheart was just going to have to deal with the momentum. Hopefully his calculations were precise enough that the gravitational strength of the star outside would intertwine to create a binary system instead of collapsing into a single star or flinging one of them off into endless space.

At least he had plenty of power to work with. A quick shove and he would be back in real space. Now then, if he was him, he would have put the ambush-

He hadn’t moved up enough dimensions. He almost got star inside him. The formations weren’t happy about spatial distortions, especially since some of them had only been written on a single layer of the world. Everheart pushed again.

Real space. For certain this time. He could properly see the stars and wasn’t filled with horrifying dread. Plus, devotion reached him again.

The ambush- ah, there it was. “Potato,” Everheart said twice at the same time. He looked at himself. It was good to know that being dropped into a particularly deep layer of subspace severed even his connection to his own soul- fortunately not permanently.

Everheart was a bit annoyed that he hadn’t been one step ahead. But if both of him were real, a tie was reasonably the best he could expect. There was always the chaos option, but actual randomness wasn’t a good way to succeed. Even against himself.

He didn’t have to ask how things had gone. He just remembered. Shelach had tried to kill Anton. He’d revealed some things to lean that towards not death.

Now he had two things he needed to do. First was declare publicly he’d stolen a star, since the news might not have hit the Exalted Quadrant yet. Second was reconsidering his position regarding Shelach and the Scarlet Alliance. Because they were currently throwing his name around all over their semi-public transmissions. And yet nobody was cowering in fear.

Maybe they could actually kill him. Everheart wouldn’t be participating, but he’d cheer them on. Possibly literally. It could only help.

-----

“None of this information is useful!” Crossed Antennae complained.

“Sure it is,” Juli said. “You just need to know how to go through it. Did you know they have a secret sect hiding on some of these planets?”

“A secret sect, really?”

“Or something like it. They want cultivation resources but they aren’t Soul Piercers. But they seem to be afraid to act publicly. Anyway, that’s not important. What’s important is-” Juli stopped herself. “Anton isn’t dead.”

“Don’t just say things like that!” Crossed Antennae complained. “You did that when he was attacked too!”

“I was merely communicating information expediently. I know you’ve been wanting an update. It only took a week. Though, technically, he’s been not-dead for over a month now.”

“Isn’t he like a thousand?”

“Sure, but he was dead at least once or twice in there,” Juli said. “Oh, your mom asked if you want to join her on a crusade to devour some Shelach guy.”

“I’m busy! We need to kill Korin. If she even exists.”

“She definitely does,” Juli grinned. “I even know where she is.”

“What system?” Crossed Antennae jumped onto Juli’s face, which made it hard to actually communicate.

“No system,” Juli said as she plucked her ant friend off her face, placing her somewhere more convenient. “That’s the secret. She’s been hiding out in between. Nobody knows where. Except, of course, some people have to. She can’t get by without any supplies. Not without some way to regenerate her energy.”

“We’re going,” Crossed Antennae declared.

“We are,” Juli agreed. “But we need to be careful. We’ll stick out as the only source of energy in three lightyears.”

“I’ll fly there myself.”

“She’s expecting void ants,” Juli shook her head. “It wouldn’t take much for you to die. She could just freeze a layer of her defenses and you couldn’t really do anything about it. We’ll need the right group.”

“What about her anchor?” Crossed Antennae asked.

“If she’s smart? Orbiting a black hole somewhere,” Juli commented. “But if she’s not… maybe in there with her. Anyway, we can’t expect our stealth systems to work so we can’t necessarily make a thorough plan. We’ll need my brother and Runa.”

“And Tessouat,” Crossed Antennae declared.

“Quite a change, for someone who hated you.”

“More humans should be willing to let void ants act as armor against energy phenomena. We’re quite good at it. And he can use his own energy to erase other obstacles. A perfect synergy.”

-----

Anton felt a great sense of relief. It was his own, to some extent, but it was more the people of the lower realms. He was more than a guardian, he was a symbol. Anton had to take that into advisement for when he died. Hopefully not too soon, but it would happen. If he could, it would be after a few more people reached Unity. Interestingly enough, he thought Aerona might have the best chance to vault past others. It simply fit her well. She just needed some way to connect with people throughout the realms.

Some people were afraid, worried that he could be attacked and nearly killed. But they hadn’t actually been in the lower realms when it happened. Anton wasn’t afraid… but he did have to admit that he wouldn’t be crossing the border at all anytime soon. There was bravery, and then there was tempting fate for no good reason. Fighting old time Domination cultivators was not on his list of things he wanted to do.

That was why if they could find out something about Shelach’s location, they weren’t going to let it become a fight. If Anton could recover sufficiently and he had the audacity to get within fifty lightyears of the border… Anton would give him a reminder. Though most likely, those in the upper realms would have to deal with him. Maybe Chidi. He was a talented fellow.