The Tides that led to Ceretos first passed Weos and also glanced close to Rutera. It wasn’t precisely possible to determine what proportion of the forces would attack each system, but transferring support from one to another would have been possible in a short timeframe if necessary.

Rutera wasn’t expected to be a target, and indeed the fleets that pulled off towards them seemed to have been a last minute adjustment. They recognized another system that now had natural energy, so they moved to attack.

On the surface, it seemed like it would have been better for Rutera to remain isolated or to only continue down the path of technology. However, that would have discounted all the good their technology did, especially when combined with traditional formations in areas of more substantial natural energy. And their own system was now flourishing in terms of cultivation after centuries of building up their natural energy levels.

Rutera did not regret their association with Ceretos and Weos, nor the wider Lower Realms Alliance. Besides, the incoming enemy ships had more than a few things they had to deal with.

Like the solar cannon array that had been set up. Each took only a tiny portion of the power that would have otherwise been scattered uselessly away from the star and focused it through itself. Together, they were a dangerous arrangement of weapons that began to start tearing into enemy ships as soon as they entered the system. Or at least, once they started getting closer to planets.

Each was equipped with sophisticated tracking systems and subspace energy manipulation devices- otherwise even a beam of light would take several minutes to reach the planets they were trying to defend. It would be difficult to hit targets like that.

The technological components of the solar cannons were some of the best that Rutera had, and the way the energy was concentrated it tore through enemy barriers like paper. They didn’t appear to have any adaptation that could keep up, either.

Rutera also had people like Ty Quigley, whose small ship happily flew through the enemy fleet, slicing apart any ship or cultivator he chose to approach.

The impromptu breakoff of the fleet wasn’t even going to be able to provide information back to their systems in the upper realms, as all communications were being jammed. That same technology was present in the other core systems, and to a lesser extent elsewhere. It would be better for the results to be mysterious and for the fleets to simply never return, if possible.

Some of the ships were going for other planets than Rutera itself, but the rest of the system was no less well defended. And there was a particular moon that some of them took shelter on which was much less peaceful than it seemed to be.

Or at least, for them it was. Vecesta was a very nice place in general. Massive forests full of life, and with a relatively small population. For the most part, it was the domain of the Grasping Willows.

The invaders were at least somewhat cautious. They avoided getting close to the most massive tree. They were just looking for a chance to catch their breath and regroup.

Landing wasn’t a problem for them. But after that… disaster struck when the forest itself began to fight the. Normal Grasping Willows were without consciousness and merely grabbed anything that triggered their branches- but with the guidance of the sect and the giant willow, they took a more active role. They caught individual cultivators and moved to snag ships when they tried to leave.

The largest among them wasn’t as grand as Grandfather Willow had been in living memory, but it still towered into the sky. And its branches stretched much further than they thought they would.

The scouting invasion of Rutera would not be reporting back.

-----

There was an odd combination of ships that came to Ceretos. Both ships from the Exalted Quadrant and the Trigold Cluster had come for various reasons. They seemed to have a mutual agreement to stay apart- but they certainly weren’t coordinated in their attack. They did happen to draw things onto two general fronts, however.

The Exalted Quadrant had numerous ships, but among those stood out a few vessels pulled by giant turtles. At least, by most accounts they would have been enormous. Easily a hundred meters long, and able to swim through space without issue.

Unfortunately for them, Paradise was in the system. And while Erin couldn’t quite pick out what he was feeling, he was not happy to see them. She couldn’t quite tell if he was mad at the cultivators for forcing them to do the work or the turtles for allowing themselves to be used in that manner. Paradise was helpful to humans, but that was his own choice- and nobody could force him to do anything.

The whole region around the section with turtles, presumably upper realms representatives of the Ponderous Turtle Clan, was suddenly covered with an ocean of water, trapping them inside. Paradise stuck his head inside and chomped one of the ships. Erin followed up by beginning to destroy others. The turtle would be able to decide later what he thought about his fellows, either way the cultivators were clearly going to be one of the targets.

The whole situation with Paradise caused the rest of the Exalted Quadrant fleets some consternation and delay, meaning that the Trigold Cluster began to reach planets first. Ceretos was their main target, though they took note of other planets having great natural energy.

Even with defensive fleets and Orbital Platforms, the incoming fleets hit hard and fast. They crashed against the planetary barrier, and in some sections they broke through. Some ships began to descend, seemingly to invade the various landmasses below. But they stopped before they got close- and it didn’t seem as if it was because of the other layers of defenses restricting them.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Nothing visible happened, though some of the local cultivators got a sense of wrongness and danger. They were several steps behind Lev, however.

The atmosphere trembled, and they sensed Lev’s energy- and that of the Grandfather Willow- catching onto something the ships were releasing. Not in small quantities, either. Indeed, it seemed they had opened up storage holds full of extradimensional space that could only contain invisible poison. That was what people sensed when it got closer. But instead of landing on the cities- or clashing with the lower level barriers- it was instead drawn towards one particular place.

The Grandfather Willow himself, where the masses of poison swirled and twisted, only to be devoured by his branches. Lev grinned. Most people couldn't see the expressions of the enemy ships, but he could pick them out. Speaking of which, he lashed out his energy and grabbed them, dragging them towards him. If they were going to do all that, they had to be prepared to die to their own poison, right?

Luckily for them, there was so much of the poison that they died quickly. They were foaming at the mouth and coughing up blood before they even reached the leaves of Grandfather Willow where most of the toxins were currently being held. They died within a few moments, instead of enduring long periods of pain. That was fine with Lev. It was a poetic enough result.

The rest of the Trigold fleets had pushed towards the planet with the intent to get those particular ships through the barrier. They’d thought themselves successful, and they were prepared to take advantage of what they had anticipated would be despair by the defenders. But they were thrown off guard when ultimately, their attacks were defeated swiftly.

And they weren’t far less ready when a few moments later they realized void ants had begun to board their ships, deployed from the various orbital defense platforms.

The Exalted Quadrant forces were lucky to notice something happening and were more cautious in their approach. They tried to spread out towards other planets, looking for somewhere they could secure a foothold. Or at least, most of them did. There was some section of them beyond the Ponderous Turtle Clan which was rapidly being dismantled that refused to call off the attack. Members of the Hardened Crown Sect, unaware that those they wished to clash with weren’t even in the same system anymore.

They battered themselves against the planet and its defenders, quickly defeated without the support of the rest of their peers. Not all of them died before they had the sense to retreat, but that was also partially by design. Because letting them go would likely cause them to push their allies to attack sooner, instead of making proper strategical adjustments.

The Trigold Fleets were repelled, their initial tactics defeated as they pulled away to try to coordinate for their next move. But already, it was clear that Ceretos would be tough to handle.

-----

The flagship of the fleet approaching Weos actually did not know what hit it. That was because their senses were looking for things like large concentrations of natural energy or other similar disturbances… instead of just something very heavy coming at them very quickly.

An ‘arrow’ pierced through the center of their ship, almost going through the Augmentation cultivator in charge. It would have, if not for her quick reaction to the outer part of the ship practically exploding. There was only the tiniest instant to bolster her energy defenses, and even so she was propelled out the back of the ship. While it was an extreme indignity, she ultimately survived with superficial injuries. The ship, however, was not so fortunate.

Most of those aboard were not injured in the preliminary attack. However, the first arrow was followed by others- and then there were the local cultivators they had sensed approaching. One cultivator in particular was a woman who carried the weight of a planet with her, drawing the ships of the fleet towards each other as gravity tugged them suddenly off course. A cultivator who was beyond Life Transformation.

The invaders from the upper realms had some idea that such things were possible. Indeed, the Trigold Cluster knew of Anchoring cultivators among other things, and the Numerological Compact had shared their version of Confluence with the upper realms. That was not counting other encounters with the Shining Cooperative and the Lower Realms Alliance where they would have had some people survive and potentially send messages to the upper realms- though they weren’t particularly good at doing so, which meant such information was limited.

The woman who had been shot in the chest had assumed that being an Augmentation cultivator would be sufficient. Indeed, she thought she could probably defeat the other woman… but that was considering a single battle. And also considering not getting hit by tree-sized arrows. Where were those even coming from?

She tracked one along its trajectory with her senses. At least that wasn’t complicated, it was practically a straight line except for subtle influence of gravity. What she was was a woman ‘holding’ something that could generously be called a ‘bow’. Though mostly, she was pulling back the string on a rather large structure that was supporting the main body of the bow. When the string snapped forward, tree sized arrows launched towards other ships in the fleet.

All of that… could have been handled. Then one of the other Augmentation cultivators died. No, was killed. By what, she could not tell… and that was the worst part. One moment the man was just there, in another section of the fleet, the next he was no longer alive. There didn’t seem to have been an attack or any cause.

But it happened again, moments later, to a nearby Integration cultivator. And again. A few moments later, a wave of energy which was the panicked screams of that vessel called out something worrying. Void ant.

They had some indication there were void ants in the lower realms still. There had been several incidents, including the previous invasion. But killing an Augmentation cultivator without him noticing? If that was the case, could it happen to anyone? No, the woman knew it wasn’t so simple. Even if void ants were particularly troubling, there was a limit to how fast they could move. It wasn’t as if they could cover a hundred kilometers in a few moments.

The massacre stopped. Perhaps the ants had been defeated. Then the woman felt a slight ripple of energy in front of her. Normally, such a tiny fluctuation wouldn’t have alerted her… but she was tense. And having energy just disappear without a clear reason concerned her.

She caught just the slightest glance of a pure black carapace as something the size of a finger, maybe slightly more, suddenly appeared in front of her. And that was the last thing she felt or saw except sharp pain in her neck and then her head. Her defensive energy did exactly nothing to help her, and indeed the energy inside her seemed to tear at her body as it was devoured.

She shouldn’t have come. None of them should have come. She realized that, but far too late to do anything about it. Whatever rewards she might have received were nothing, now that she was dead.