“Cultivators of the Silver Fang!” Prospero projected his voice across the enemy fleet. “We have come to discuss terms of peace! If you negotiate in good faith, no blood need be spilled today!”

Hoyt grinned slightly. “You think it will actually work out like that?”

“That depends entirely upon them,” Prospero said. “Even if nothing is accomplished, we must take the steps.”

A few moments later, there was a response from one of the Silver Fang. “Have your fleet maintain that distance, and we shall meet personally between our fleets.”

“Very well,” Prospero agreed. He then called out to their fleet. “Scarlet Alliance, match velocity!”

It was quite pleasing to see their own ships move in synchrony, while the enemy ships staggered. They clearly found it more difficult to reduce their forward momentum, with each ship performing differently. But with a bit of twisting and turning, the fleets ended up immobile relative to each other some hundreds of kilometers between them.

“Should I come with you?” Hoyt asked.

“Just remain on guard,” Prospero said. “It appears my counterpart is moving alone as well.”

Hoyt nodded. “Good fortune to you.”

Prospero left the ship behind, flying forward to meet the other man. They stood perhaps ten kilometers apart in empty space, barely visible to the naked eye. Yet for Augmentation cultivators, they were practically touching.

“My name is Prospero Vandale, of the Scarlet Alliance,” he introduced himself. “And yourself?” They had some information on the leadership of the Silver Fang, but even those on their own planets didn’t know all of their elders. Many cultivators intentionally limited the spread of even such basic information.

The man who looked back at Prospero was covered in wolf furs- and had a wolf skull atop his head, fangs in front of his face. “I am Grand Elder Rafiq, of the mighty Silver Fang. You spoke of terms of peace… and we are willing to allow such, if you pay proper tribute to us.”

Prospero supposed it would be like that, even though it was clear he was intending to offer terms of the Silver Fang’s surrender. “Return those who you have captured, surrender your resources, and we will not have to burn down your forests.” The Scarlet Alliance wasn’t actually going to do that, of course. They would prefer to kill the cultivators responsible directly. But they were still in the simple threats stage.

In theory, the negotiations would work towards a middle ground. Prospero wouldn’t mind too much if they accomplished nothing on the current day, as he doubted Rafiq could truly negotiate for the whole of the Silver Fang. But they could have established a connection.

Unfortunately, as he had suspected from the moment the man first spoke, that was not to be. Barely a few more words were exchanged before the Silver Fang fleet fired their weapons… and Rafiq charged Prospero with his spear.

Prospero caught the spear just in front of his eye, negating the man’s momentum as his defensive energy absorbed the extended aura of the spear. He had kept his internal energy ready, and fire flared around him.

The enemy fleet’s weapons were enchanted ballistae, no less effective against defensive barriers than energy beams. But they were also not any more effective… and they were quite well standardized throughout their fleets. With barriers adapted to that particular style of weapon, none of the Scarlet Alliance ships were damaged. It was still possible to break through such a barrier but it took significantly more power or a wider variety of attacks. Their own cultivators might be more flexible… but they had to last that long.

Prospero’s fire aura grew, and Rafiq drew back as orbs of flame began to appear, orbiting around Prospero and rapidly growing in size. The same technique surrounded the fleet where Hoyt remained- though only for a moment, as Hoyt built up enough speed to begin letting his attacks loose at the ships that had fired upon them.

The Falling Stars that were orbiting Prospero suddenly began to surround Rafiq, flying in towards him and circling back around when he avoided them. He was able to destroy some with his spear, but the explosions shook him. Meanwhile Prospero stood in place without taking a step, mostly to look intimidating. In the long past he might have actually been unable to move due to concentrating on dozens of Falling Stars orbiting, but not anymore.

Rafiq found himself unable to advance towards Prospero, contained by the Falling Stars and finding his movements ever more limited. One by one Silver Fang ships fell, causing chaos within their ranks while the Scarlet Alliance was able to improve both their defenses and counterattacks as the enemy fell.

The enemy Augmentation cultivator attempted to flee, but a wall of flame blocked his path of retreat. “W-wait!” Rafiq called towards Prospero. “I see you are stronger than I thought. Like you said, no blood needs to be shed, right?”

Prospero nodded. “I both said it and meant it.” Then he clapped his hands together, as his dozens of Fallings Stars converged together on Rafiq’s location, crashing into him and exploding, each explosion building upon the other and amplifying the damage to Rafiq. No visible remains existed when the attack faded away.

The enemy fleet’s morale was already low, with many turning to flee. That moment convinced the rest, as the entire battlefield felt it. But they would not be allowed to run. Except…

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Prospero locked his energy onto one ship in particular. He pulled out a formation based communication device- a simple sort that was meant for exactly such a situation. He tossed it forward with his energy as he spoke. “Do not worry. You did not join in on the attack, so you will live. Let your elders know that when they are ready to stop your losses, they can speak to us with this token.”

It was a bit unfortunate that everyone on the ships had to die for the mistakes of their captains, but there hadn’t been any sense that anyone was resisting except the one captain. The bright ball of Prospero’s energy that was chasing after the ship matched pace with it, and the captain tentatively reached out his own energy to grab it, at which point Prospero relinquished his control.

Good, at least they could establish simple communication that didn’t require occupying a planet or the like. But Prospero would have very much preferred it if Rafiq had chosen to shout and insult him, completely reject any deal, and then storm off. But he couldn’t allow one who broke the bonds of negotiation get away with it.

Hopefully the captain would not be punished for surviving. At the very least, the Silver Fang should understand how to use the communication device. Though in the time it would take to get any sort of message passed back and forth, the Scarlet Alliance didn’t intend to simply stop their counterassault.

Prospero decided he would have them hold off a few days and try another planet.

-----

Chidi was quite at home around Spikes and Fuzz. Without any real intention, Spikes had become something like his aunt. She was gentle… to those who were not a threat to herself or her family. That was allies, of course, but also those who were simply neutral.

He was happy to have them join the battle against the Silver Fang. The sect, even with its recent losses, had been quite stubborn. It was months since the assault on the capital planet and the great damage there… but rather than trying to cut their losses, they seemed determined to amplify them.

The wolves were quite happy to make that so. They were particularly upset for the disrespect the sect showed to wolves. Those wolves found on other planets were not of especially high intelligence, but simple beasts who cultivated through ingesting prey that possessed spiritual energy. Even so, they found the Silver Fang personally insulting- especially since the wolves were a known factor within the Scarlet Alliance.

Personally, Chidi didn’t even find the fur-covered aesthetic of the Silver Fang appealing. The manner they did it in was more of a crude showing of their supposed strength. But none of the wolves they had fought were properly strong. Maybe some equivalent to Life Transformation cultivators at best.

The wolves were not possessed of great sapience… but the understanding of animals was also not completely based on instinct. They knew the humans were enemies… and so Fuzz and Spikes intended to show the humans their foolishness.

Chidi followed behind as the two crashed into one of the local Silver Fang compounds. And crash they did, the two of them together like an apocalyptic meteor descending upon the sect. An explosion of fire and a shockwave of earth toppled many buildings after they broke through the formation… but they were just getting started. The very land beneath the sect bent to Spikes’ will, twisting and bending to attack her enemies or block their assaults. Fuzz filled the area with flame, melting any weapons that actually managed to make it past various other barriers.

They could have probably destroyed the whole compound with just the two of them, but that wasn’t the ultimate purpose. Intead, Chidi landed secretly near the edge of the compound and began to slip apart the formations supporting the barrier. But he wasn’t completely destroying them… instead, they were modified. Without adding anything, he could only make his modifications temporary- then the barriers would slowly collapse. But before then… well, they would see what it was like when the wild beasts could get to them without age old barriers.

It wasn’t the most efficient way to defeat the Silver Fang. Once again, Fuzz and Spikes alone could have probably accomplished the same thing with great thoroughness. But the Scarlet Alliance very much wanted the Silver Fang to be forced into submission. They had no interest in eradicating their population, nor did they wish to conquer all of their planets. Besides, trying to establish a permanent foothold within the Trigold Cluster would be asking for further trouble. They just wanted them to stop their assault, with the Scarlet Alliance showing proper strength to discourage others in the future.

Aconite followed behind Chidi, leaving not a trail of poison but instead one of temptation, scents to attract the local wolves as well as other cultivating beasts. Perhaps the open barriers would be enough, but if they wanted maximum damage they needed to be attracted en masse.

For their escape, Spikes pulled together a giant pillar of stone. It was a completely unnecessary effort, given that everyone could just fly away with their energy. But it was extra insulting to have a mountain of stone torn from under their sect grounds. It could be seen from other cities, not all of which were under direct control of the Silver Fang. They controlled the planets, but other minor sects still existed, as well as those who weren’t serious cultivators filling up the cities.

The latter was a waste of potential, but Chidi wasn’t about to start giving the Silver Fang prosperity advice.

-----

Velvet took a good look at Durff. “This is perhaps the most insane method I’ve ever heard to free slaves,” she said. “I need to know how confident you are it will work.”

“One hundred percent,” he said. “Assuming the ships are there waiting.”

That was good enough for Velvet. “Then I will help you set that up. It’s… less risky. Though we’ll have to come back for the rest later.”

Durff nodded. “But we’ll get all the ones that are together. And then maybe everyone can join the… Smashed Shackles?”

It took Velvet a moment. “Do you mean the Shattered Chains?”

“Oh, yes. That. I heard there’s a really cool guy in the lower realms who established that sect. The crew of those new ships that have lots of people were talking about it.”

Velvet nodded. “Devon won’t be able to personally oversee their progress, but there are a sufficient number of members of the Sect ascending to establish their own foothold here. And whoever we free, whether formerly of the Alliance or not, should be given the opportunity to join. We just… need to get them all.”

They had been freeing slaves on the planets they assaulted, of course, but without completely conquering a planet there was only so much they could do at once. Durff’s plan might accelerate that, though only for certain groups. Then again, they had to take things one step at a time. While he was busy with that, Velvet might make sure a few people responsible for maintaining the despicable trade within the Silver Fang never woke up.