Did it make sense that a Domination cultivator’s anchor was imbued with their power and thus might require a similar level of power to destroy? Yes. Was it extremely unfortunate to discover that when deep in enemy territory trying to do that very thing? Also yes.
Cultivators rushed towards the infiltration team from all over. Was this why Lelka hadn’t bothered to spring the trap? Because their goal was pointless anyway? Velvet hated that thought, but she had to accept it as a possibility, even as she erased her own presence.
Oh, she wasn’t planning to abandon those with her. She just found it more efficient to kill enemies who couldn’t see her coming. Preferably, they wouldn’t even notice she attacked until she had moved onto another area. It was a delicate balance, striking with her void blade and immediately replacing an opponent’s sensations with an illusion. They would likely feel an instant of pain, but when it went away they might think nothing of it, at least for a second.
That was all she needed. Velvet picked out the most threatening enemies- not necessarily the strongest overall, but those she could reach. One such individual was an Augmentation cultivator. She found it worth the risk to plunge her dagger all the way into his eye and deep into his brain. In the last instant of the man’s life, he recognized something and created a wave of upper energy, blinding light that filled the area around him.
Velvet didn’t hesitate to make a mad dash away as a hundred attacks were launched at the surrounding area a moment later. Fortunately, she managed to drop lingering motes of light that would have revealed her location.
Koralo was having decent success turning the local formations against their enemies. He wasn’t in complete control, but he took advantage of the formations’ excellent abilities to manipulate light. That was what the Citadel of Exalted Light was all about, so of course they were prepared to defend against similar abilities. Or their own, as it turned out. Koralo was holding in place a smooth barrier, powered primarily by the Citadel’s own formations. Alva was within the same barrier, picking off targets outside, her arrows skipping through subspace instead of disturbing the barrier. A barrier that was meant to be one-directional had weaknesses that could be exploited, and she knew that.
Unsurprisingly, Chikere hadn’t seemed to consider sheltering in the barrier for a single instant. She was instead wading through a great many disciples of the Exalted Light, a whirling dervish of death. She cared not that their assaults came in the form of intangible energy, as she would sever such things as easily as she cut through their bodies. A thousand razor thin blades made of her own blood were a vortex around her, expanding with every moment.
For one instant, an Augmentation cultivator stood facing her, a blade of pure light in her hand. The next instant, the Exalted Light cultivator had crossed the entire width of the core sect, a rift of light following behind her and slicing the grounds in two. Chikere didn’t seem to have moved a single millimeter in the exchange, until her right arm fell to the ground. She cocked her head, looking through the rift in the buildings where the woman stood over a kilometer away. Then Chikere shook her head.
Velvet was too far to clearly make out why the other woman fell, but Chikere’s artificial arm reached out to grab an incoming enemy by the ankle. Not that she would have let getting an arm cut off stop her anyway.
Though the chaos of battle had only lasted a few minutes, Velvet already thought they were doing quite well to have survived. However, it was entirely possible they should have fled immediately. But they still had someone stubbornly attempting to bring down the Citadel.
Durff, largely ignored, was punching the crystalline structure. His hammer had already broken previously, and needless to say his fist was far less of a threat. Yet he seemed determined that if he hit it right, it might do something.
No, it wasn’t just him. Koralo was manipulating some of the incoming attacks towards the Citadel, testing how the translucent structure responded to incoming beams. Alva continued to try to attack it, and a portion of Chikere’s efforts were also focused on attacking it. Unfortunately, none of that mattered.
Velvet highly doubted that voidsteel would be effective against a Domination cultivator’s strength, and it was a weak enough material she couldn’t afford to swing recklessly. However, Koralo had pointed out some parts of the formation that she might attack. She just had to slip inside. It wasn’t exactly safe, but she felt compelled to try.
Everything was protected by Zaur’s energy. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling, her voidsteel dagger dragging across upper energy so durable when it normally cut through it like air. She couldn’t even reach the formation markings, but she continued to adjust her angle.
Then, somehow, she felt a moment of weakness. She didn’t bother to try to find out what it was, she just reacted with Instinct. That wasn’t her regular method of operation, but in a place like this it was all she could do.
She stabbed down with all of her might, trying to disrupt the remaining energy. Her voidsteel cut through the rest, and into a section of the formation. Alva’s arrows appeared around Velvet, striking more of the Citadel at the same time. Koralo’s energy spread throughout the area, sending the protective formations off balance.
A thin line suddenly split along the center of the Citadel. Chikere stood there grinning, even as she was impaled by several spears of light. Blood shot from her wounds, stabbing into everything around her as she fell to her knees.
Even Durff punched the wall and made a small crack in the crystal. They’d far underestimated what they needed, and Durff didn’t have a weapon that could support him.
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A nearby Augmentation cultivator seemed to take the greatest offense at an Integration cultivator daring to defile the symbol of their sect. In the same instant Durff made his small crack, the man sliced into Durff’s left shoulder, severing his arm.
Velvet should have been there to protect him. As if she could. Her own strength was only so much.
Zaur’s energy returned to the citadel in a huge wave, blasting Velvet out of the Citadel with a huge flash of light. Their best chance to destroy it, and from almost every angle it looked perfectly fine. One good crack, a couple broken formation markings, and a thin cut almost impossible to see.
Something grabbed Velvet as she was swept outside by the burst of energy. Her eyes were blinded from the flash and her energy senses were shot for that instant, but she could still hear.
“You’ve gotta fix your concealment,” Durff said calmly. She heard him hit the Citadel again, causing the surroundings to rock. Velvet felt something splash on her face. “Hmm, that’s not gonna work. I’ve gotta… go.”
Her senses got back in order just in time to feel Durff jump away. Normally the formations would have prevented him from just escaping, but he flew without anything impeding him. Velvet didn’t judge him for just leaving, carrying his arm with him. That was… odd. Velvet dipped her finger into the slight wetness on her face. Blood wasn’t new to her, but it was still a bit disturbing.
She wondered why she hadn’t been killed for her moment of stillness, then she realized she was standing in a crater. The Citadel was buried perhaps fifty meters below the surroundings. When had that happened? Was it Durff? Unfortunately, it didn’t look like the structure had been damaged, just the foundation below- and a good portion of the core sect, of course.
-----
Timothy didn’t turn his head towards his son. Before the battle, he’d asked Chidi how long he needed, and the answer had been simple. As long as he could manage, but most important was that Zaur fight as close to full power as possible. The first formation had lasted a minute. Timothy knew this one was less effective for keeping Zaur contained or even for bolstering his own energy.
Having all of the rest of their Augmentation cultivators here would have been nice. But that would only help for a moment. So instead, Timothy charged forward as Chidi began slowly moving closer.
“Really, you’re still trying?” Zaur rolled his eyes. “I guess I can make another hole in you. How many will it take before you fall?”
Zaur flicked out with a single finger, striking the point of Timothy’s sword and crumpling it. The difference in energy was simply that much, even with the formation bolstering him. Then Zaur lashed out with a kick, striking Timothy’s shield. Well, he was aiming for his chest and Timothy blocked.
He staggered back two steps. His arm was already broken, and he was using a good portion of his energy to maintain its structure. His shield was made of little more than hopes and dreams right now, and sadly not in the way he might have preferred. If it was actually made of smithed hopes and dreams, it would have been better. Instead, it was some sort of Worldheart mixture, using just a tiny amount of the rare and often problematic substance.
Chidi took another ‘step’ forward, though there wasn’t a floor around so he was simply flying. Zaur finally took notice of him. Obviously a cultivator as powerful as him wouldn’t actually miss anything in his surroundings, but he had previously disregarded him.
“Normally I wouldn’t waste my breath, but your audacity…” Zaur said. “A simple Life Transformation cultivator dares approach me? You could not cut me even if I completely lowered my defenses. And you must realize that your eyelids will not protect you from my divine light.”
He raised a hand, a flash a hundred times brighter than a sun coming from him. Timothy’s mind whirled, even though he got only a small portion of it as his mind tried to compensate for what was happening. He could vaguely sense Zaur stabbing out towards Chidi with a single finger, not that the motion had anything to do with the attacks he could unleash.
Then Timothy felt nothing. The world was darkness, his eyes blinded. Only vacuum surrounded him, cutting off hearing. And energy? For the briefest moment, it was nothing at all.
It returned in a flash, and the formation collapsed. The instant Zaur’s energy had begun functioning fully, he was suddenly in another place- nearly to the edge of the system. The formation hadn’t held him in place at all.
Timothy hadn’t recovered his sight, but he sensed something left behind. A grotesque hunk of flesh that appeared to be half of an index finger and a thumb, severed cleanly from the wrist.
Blood trickled from Timothy’s lips as he tried to move, to throw himself in front of Chidi. Zaur would destroy him in an instant. But instead… he didn’t stop at the edge of the system. Nor had he simply concealed his energy and hidden himself.
Timothy- no, the entire battlefield- could sense Zaur fleeing at top speed, making use of all of his energy. The great presence he radiated spoke of extreme power. Yet everyone knew, now, that Zaur was not strong. Not truly. The strong did not fear for their lives, even if they were about to perish.
-----
A corner fell off the Citadel, sliding smoothly and crashing to the ground. It first fell on the edge of the core sect above before toppling into the crater, shattering to pieces.
Chikere grinned, even though she hadn’t been the one to cut it. Then she laughed, blood streaming from all parts of her body and dancing wildly around her. “Did you see that? Did you, you weaklings? My apprentice just completely wrecked your sect master!”
The taunt did not go over well with the remaining enemy cultivators. They had forced the remaining four to huddle together- Chikere still just outside the barrier. The only thing that saved her was Koralo extending it to cover her as beams of radiant energy converged on her.
Alva cursed. “That was the perfect opportunity and I missed it.”
Velvet nodded. The explosion that had flung her out of the Citadel itself felt like forever ago, but was probably a matter of a minute or less. That had taken a lot out of her. “I couldn’t do anything.”
“Me neither,” Chikere sighed. “I was going to create a nice perpendicular cut, too. Or preferably turn that thing into eighths. But I was too slow.”
“You should probably get some of that blood back inside of you,” Velvet said.
“Too late,” Chikere shrugged. “If you see Durff again, tell him he can have my arm. Though it’s the wrong side.” A dozen Integration cultivators trying to slip past the barrier were cut down. Even so, there were a number of fresh Augmentation cultivators waiting outside for the four of them to weaken.
At least Durff got away. That was what Velvet thought, until she felt a surge of energy from him… all the way on the opposite side of the planet. What was he doing there?