As focused he was on keeping the vault sealed, Leonid almost failed to notice when help arrived. That said, his failure to notice could slightly be excused by the fact that the person who showed up was ‘only’ a Life Transformation cultivator. Or at least, that’s what he felt like.

“What’s happening here?” said a voice that caused Leonid to nearly jump out of his skin.

He quickly recognized the individual who had suddenly appeared. Indeed, he couldn’t have his current position as an honored archivist without knowing about Chidi.

“Swordmaster! The uh… contents of this vault were suddenly imbued with energy.”

“I can feel that,” Chidi said. “Hold it like that for just a few more moments, will you?”

“Yes sir!” Leonid said. He nodded to the two guards on either side of the door who were providing the majority of the augmentation of the formations. Honestly he wasn’t even sure if their efforts mattered, let alone his own. Leonid was a cultivator, but his most practiced technique was Ten Thousand Scrolls. He was supposed to read things, not… do things.

How long was a few moments anyway? He felt the power of a Domination cultivator from the other side of the door, emanating from what he understood to be severed fingers of Zaur Beridze.

Suddenly, with a great burst of energy, the door was broken apart. Leonid’s eyes couldn’t register what was happening except for the blinding light. By the time he was able to react, he knew he would be long dead.

But at least it didn’t hurt. Perhaps it was cowardly to close his eyes to his death, but his specialty wasn’t fighting and risking his life. He could have preserved a library full of books in an afternoon, though.

Odd, he didn’t remember practicing any sort of reincarnation technique, but here he was. Still conscious. He opened his eyes, to see two fingers- the index and thumb of a right hand, pointed at him.

Chidi had closed one hand around them, and held them in place. The power of Domination was gone, and in its place was… nothing.

“Go welcome my family, would you?” Chidi said. “I need to continue to hold this.”

“Of course!” Leonid said. He noticed Catarina and Timothy approaching. Along with them was Yuval, who technically didn’t have clearance to enter the area. But who was going to tell him not to, when he was with those two? “Councilors! The uh… remnants of Zaur Beridze are acting up.” He noticed the guards he had been expecting simply remaining in the hall. Surely they could have come to support him? But perhaps there was a bigger plan.

“That’s why we rushed over as soon as we could,” Catarina said. She and Timothy didn’t bother walking or running along the corridor, instead nearly teleporting as soon as the door was properly open. They were probably just flying in a straight line faster than Leonid could comprehend, but he didn’t know if they had some other special technique.

“This is probably the most exciting thing that could happen on my birthday,” Yuval commented. He stepped forward, wiggling one hand. “It’s those fingers, right?”

“Indeed,” Leonid said, escorting Yuval towards the actual incident. “Your birthday…?”

“We only celebrate once a decade,” Yuval said. “But I’m still a kid in their eyes. Well, I suppose I’m never really going to catch up. I probably won’t even hit Augmentation before my parents figure out Domination. And Chidi… will do whatever he does,” Yuval shrugged.

By the time they walked back down the corridor, the room was sealed once more and the fingers were dormant. The actual structure needed repairs, but the formations were fully active.

“What should we do about this?” Catarina asked.

“I dunno, burn ‘em?” Yuval commented as he approached.

She shook her head. “It’s too valuable to have them around for research.”

“Yeah, but he’d be permanently weaker, right? Obviously he’d be mad but… that’s never not going to be the case.”

“I could cut them into microscopic pieces,” Chidi suggested.

Catarina rolled her eyes. “That kind of ruins our ability to study them. It’s not any better than the burning.”

Leonid knew his security clearance was significant, but should he really be standing around listening to them discuss this? He decided not, simply for his own sake.

-----

Later, far away from the vaults, Catarina asked the question again. “Obviously we have to do something. But even though I didn’t see any ears…” she shrugged. “Who knows if he could have overheard somehow. Zaur clearly figured out how to channel his energy through them.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Uh…” Yuval grimaced. “Should I not have suggested burning them? Or throwing them into a star? Or freezing them on an ice planet?”

Timothy smiled, “Those were all wonderful distractions that will hide our true intentions.”

“So you knew we weren’t gonna do it?” Yuval asked.

“If we were going to destroy them, we wouldn’t have bothered sealing them,” Timothy pointed out. “It was tough enough even with the built in formations. And he could only channel a fraction of his power.”

“Useful information,” Catarina said. “He can channel full power at his body or his anchor, but this disconnected part of his body is… far less functional.”

“I could chop up the fingers,” Chidi said. “But I could do it in a way that we could put them back together layer by layer. How many layers do you think would be good? We could hide a sliver in each system to study later.”

“As much value as there is in studying pieces of a Domination cultivator, I can’t actually allow for a security breach,” Catarina said. “We do have to deal with them. Your idea… while interesting, won’t produce the best results. I would prefer to ask for assistance elsewhere. I suspect we’re headed towards a third invasion by the Citadel of Exalted Light.”

-----

Later that same week, the fingers were moved to an independent location, sealed in what appeared to be an ordinary box, the sort that might hold jewelry. It was of course far from ordinary, with preparations made internally and externally to secure it against even the most extraordinary events.

The incident was kept secret from the general public, which was why the Scarlet Alliance definitely didn’t let anything slip to their new ambassador Aminu. They certainly wouldn’t have been counting on word to make it through him to Ratna. After all, they weren’t allies with anyone in the Trigold Cluster. Though Ratna was also an enemy of Zaur Beridze, so if she happened to act against him they wouldn’t be upset.

Those assigned to watch the box knew it was important. The exact details were not shared with most of them, but they were to report if the box did anything more than wobble- and the regular wobbles would be reported at the end of the day or if they had a change in frequency.

For the first several weeks, things were quite tense… but there was no immediate reaction. The box did wobble frequently, but the energy was well sealed. The cultivators guarding it took their jobs very seriously, even as weeks stretched into years and it began to act up less frequently.

-----

It was only because of a slight slip-up that Varghese noticed the enemy incoming. However, that slight error gave In’istra several days’ notice, once he realized what he had felt.

It had only been the slightest change on the periphery of his senses. A mere blip of magnetism next to Azun. Perhaps it wasn’t even Varghese that had sensed it. The fleet had actually circumvented the domain of the star, though whether it was because they were cautious of some sort of connection or for another reason of practicality Varghese was uncertain.

But the movement of a great amount of metal created just enough fluctuations that Varghese noticed something, and after confirming it he called upon the people of In’istra to prepare to mobilize. It was possible that the fleet would turn off towards an adjacent system, so they had to be prepared to intercept them in such a case. But it seemed that as the most populated planet, they were chosen as the direct target.

Once they entered the system, Varghese realized he wouldn’t have noticed them at all if their ships were of the normal build. There were ships made entirely out of metal, a very unusual construction for cultivators. It wasn’t unique, but the fact that they didn’t even resemble waterborne ships was a surprise. Along with them was another group Varghese actually felt only dimly- not because they were particularly stealthy, but because they came with a complete lack of metal so didn’t register to his understanding of magnetism but only his normal senses.

Though Varghese didn’t expect that large fleets showing up out of nowhere came in peace, he supposed he should at least try to speak to them. “Be aware that you have crossed into the sovereign territory of the Lower Realms Alliance,” Varghese declared as he approached with fleets at his back. He projected his voice from quite a distance, to prevent any fighting starting before his attempt at diplomacy.

“Your alliance means nothing to us,” the woman declared.

So it was going to be like that. “May we at least know what your sects are called?”

“We are the Imbued Fragments and Broad Eyed Harvesters. Should you act respectfully and comply with our demands, we will not need to disassemble your planets.”

“Listen, just because I asked who you are didn’t mean I was worried about offending your faction. I just wanted to know what to call you when I turned you into pulp.”

Though Varghese would have liked to attack then and there, they were really too far for him to fight effectively. Anton could have of course started attacking long before, but Varghese was generally more close ranged- and the influence of his local stars was significantly less. Still, he could fight at full strength well away from the planet so that no collateral damage would come to them. It didn’t seem that the enemy fleets were necessarily interested in facing off against them.

They weren’t turning to retreat, but rather spreading out- what Varghese could only assume were the Broad Eyed Harvesters, flying stone ships, were clearly trying to circumvent them. Varghese didn’t want to leave the planet undefended, but splitting their forces was just perfect. In’istra still had plenty of cultivators and of course some defensive platforms.

Meanwhile, he was quite looking forward to crushing the Imbued Fragments like so many suits of armor. Or tin cans, but he hadn’t seen those until far later in his life.

He waited for the enemy to be well within his range, so that if they immediately turned to flee somehow, they would find it more difficult. The surrounding fleets were ready in case the Broad Eyed Harvesters attempted to flank them, but Varghese was first to attack with the Imbued Fragments closing in.

With a single horizontal slash of his sword, Varghese created a plane of magnetism intended to pull in the enemy fleet. And it did, though they actually resisted better than he thought they might. Instead of instantly flattening them and then forming them all into a ball with his cross-stroke that created a line of magnetism in the middle of their fleet, their ships managed to struggle against his control- but struggle they did, their movement slowed.

Then the ships began to tear apart. Varghese hadn’t done that, he was quite certain. Perhaps their wrestling for control had strained the hulls? No, it didn’t look right for that at all. The ships were pulling apart into slivers instead of tearing off random chunks. Somehow, the dislodged bits and pieces all crashed together into his intended space, but the rest of the ships continued forward.

A fascinating level of control, to negate his magnetism with decoys. That was a level of rule breaking insight most would never reach, and the combined fleet performed it so naturally. However, if they thought Varghese was done with his first move they would be sorely mistaken.