Common Oak was quite startled by the attacks from what she had perceived as allies, but she still kept herself vigilant for aerial assaults. Then she realized that traditionally, void ants didn’t keep their wings. That was a recent development among the ones she knew- which she had rather expected to be all of them.

Where had these void ants come from? Had their queens been captured from the upper realms and transferred here? Common Oak had many questions, but they would have to be answered later.

Right now, she was being attacked. She hadn’t seen most of the structures the void ants were putting together before, but they were fairly straightforward. Ladders of ants trying to climb up to her- all she had to do was flutter a slight bit to the side and their efforts were in vain. The most annoying so far were the catapults, flinging void ants at her. That required constant movement, but even if they could predict her trajectory in a particular instant, she was more than capable of shifting her motion.

She took note that the two colonies seemed to be working together instead of trying to eliminate each other. That wasn’t necessarily typical, based on the Great Queen’s tale of her history. But they were quite focused on her.

Ah. Of course they would be- she was the largest source of natural energy in the room. No, on the whole planet most likely. Even away from her namesake source- though leaves in general still provided her power- she was still an Assimilation cultivator, after all. These local cultivators seemed set on Ascension, so they would no longer be present after Life Transformation.

Seeing how the void ants were climbing the walls, Common Oak decided it was best to not let the void ants figure out how to kill her. Because they might actually manage it. She led them over towards the door- which was the only other source of natural energy around. They began climbing that too, but at least some of them began to pick at the formations.

Since her task here clearly wasn’t going the way she wanted, Common Oak found it most important to leave. The humans likely had some way to contain the void ants- or to eliminate them, should something like this happen. She hadn’t wanted to kill them, but if they couldn’t communicate with her she really couldn’t save them anyway.

Aiming at the wall above where any void ants had climbed, Common Oak spun around, using her wings as cutting implements. Since the chaos would have already revealed her presence, holding back her energy for the attack wasn’t necessary. A formation meant to stop weaker individuals simply wasn’t enough. The walls were quite durable, but she made a leaf bug sized hold easily enough. Then she fluttered through at speed, before the void ants could cut her off.

Common Oak liked void ants a lot more when they were on her side. Unlike humans, she couldn’t easily squash hundreds of them- her only method of combat was her natural energy, which they were nearly completely immune to. Even if these ants happened to be young enough that her power as an Assimilation cultivator could kill them en masse… Common Oak didn’t want to see it.

Rather than instantly fleeing the facility, she made certain that the humans were panicking over the void ants being loose, using them as a distraction to leave. Fair was fair- she would have gladly led them out secretly, but they tried to eat her so they had to either live or die on their own merits.

-----

“... and they tried to eat me!” Common Oak ended her message to the Great Queen. Mostly, she was talking about how rude the feral void ants were. She didn’t know if they were somehow descendents of the Great Queen who had lost their learning- perhaps through captured royal eggs- or simply some other void ants left over from the extermination over a millennia before.

The final step, at least, had to have occurred during Everheart’s lifetime or he would never have been able to keep some safe. Of all the miraculous things Everheart could pull off, time travel surely wasn’t one of them. Common Oak believed it be impossible- though manipulation of time flow as one progressed forward was actually quite doable. Even she knew some of that, since she liked to keep some trees near the right season for comfort.

What the Alliance was able to discern of the chaos at the facility after her escape was fairly minimal. Common Oak had kind of been hoping they would at least wipe out the city, but it seemed the void ants were contained to the facility. Potentially exterminated, which was sad, but only because she couldn’t help but think they looked like friends. Normally she didn’t care too much about the lives of anything that tried to eat her, though.

-----

Across the galaxy once more, the eastern forces had been fighting their way through enemy fleets. Their approach had been cautious, as they did not want to overextend themselves into enemy territory. However, once actually in enemy territory they would conversely be safer to some extent, specifically because of Varghese and Anton. Roaming around they would not be at full strength, but with bound stars they would be at a level difficult for the enemy to match.

Before they could begin their counterassault properly, there were various details to consider. The various scouts combined their knowledge- and would pass such knowledge on to the cultivators of the Shining Cooperative when they arrived. The Free Planet Guardians were also expected to participate, as their borders had also been threatened.

A personal discussion between Anton and Varghese came before anything else. Anton especially noted the star they were draining. “It would be a risk to bind it. Then again, every other star here is also a risk. The Trigold Cluster is more than aware of our abilities.”

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

“Do you think that they have more star destroying weapons?” Varghese asked.

“We are but a small step away from where I created my blockade,” Anton said. “I don’t imagine it’s much more difficult for them to shift their launch location. However… the border is significantly further from these systems. The locals would likewise have to stretch themselves.”

Varghese nodded. “But we can’t afford to ignore the threat. Do you think it would be inappropriate to call upon the Free Planet Guardians to take on that task?”

“It’s closest to their territory. Coordinating with them is the least we could do. We must be willing to handle it ourselves, though. Perhaps I could repeat my efforts,” Anton said.

“It seems like a waste of your skills.”

“Perhaps. But it would require just myself, instead of however many squads to block off several systems. We can’t guarantee the Trigold Cluster will be using the same tricks… but we can’t expect them not to, either.” Anton stroked his chin, “We might not have to do that, though. I could take an active role in hunting down unwanted packages. Specifically, I can shoot across the border now. This is a situation worth revealing that Sudin wasn’t an exception. As long as I don’t show my actual limits, it should be worthwhile.”

“Didn’t they take forever to show up?” Varghese asked.

“Indeed. They were sending kinetic packages at sublight speed, which means at least a decade of travel time between realms. They would have already had to have begun this task, if they were planning it. Or perhaps they might already have finished, thus the reason for the assault.”

“Their first attack was kind of pathetic,” Varghese said. “But that could have been specifically to throw us off. Enough effort to possibly look serious, but based on what has been seen within their systems… they could have had fleets ten times as large.” Varghese looked at a star map projected in front of him. “You’re not at risk of them attacking a star with you next to it, are you? What if you never had to leave?”

“I’m intrigued,” Anton said. “Continue.”

“It’s fairly simple. Any of these stars here puts you in range of… most of their territory. You can hit ten lightyears out, right?”

“Slightly more, though my shots would be far weakened.”

“How weakened?” Varghese asked. “Like… could you still take out ships? Kill individual Life Transformation cultivators?”

“With a good star at my back…” Anton considered for a few moments. “I wouldn’t be much good in a planetary siege, but I could cause chaos before that. Though I could likely handle whichever system we chose on my own- new superweapons excepted.”

Varghese laughed. “You just have to prevent them from getting anywhere near you. What could they really do?”

Anton raised an eyebrow. “Should we really ask the question like that?”

Varghese sighed. “Fair enough. Perhaps there is some extreme they could achieve. But we’re confident that their cultivations are limited, right?”

“Indeed,” Anton said. “The cultivators themselves wouldn’t be the issue for me. Though it seemed they were quite capable in their own right.”

“Yeah,” Varghese admitted. “I thought I’d completely wipe them out, but it wasn’t good enough. I’m so close to Enrichment, though. I just… have to figure out the next step.”

“I wouldn’t suggest pushing for it in a war,” Anton said. “But if it happens naturally… then it would be riskier to try to stop yourself. Pay close attention to your heart, and make sure you’re not fooling yourself.”

-----

The target planets of the Trigold cultivators weren’t strictly difficult to attack, but their unusual structure bore special consideration. Their formations were more tightly bound to what remained of their hollowed out planets, and it appeared that they had weapon emplacements that could cover the planets inside and out. The fact that there was an exposed inside of their planet would have been a major weakness otherwise.

Though there had to be some consideration for whether or not they cared. While traffic between planets and systems was consistent, it seemed that there was a pattern where older planets were less active, instead of more. If their only goals were to tear apart planets for resources it did fit, but everything had to be considered. They had yet to understand their enemy’s full motives.

Among other things, they knew that these sects had to believe there was an avenue towards victory for them. They weren’t the Twin Soul Sect, counting on some sort of reward after they perished. That was why more forces were being shifted to guard the Alliance’s worlds, their cultivators readied for battle.

Caution was appropriate- but too much caution would lead to inaction. They laid out a plan of attack that would go through the enemy systems starting at their nearest border. No doubt it would have to be flexible based on how the enemy responded, but they were prepared to attack the first system immediately.

Since it was their first intrusion into enemy territory, Varghese didn’t hold back. As they were approaching, he bound the local star. They had plenty of reason to be cautious about such moves, but they’d determined there was nothing wrong ahead of time- and it would be a good place to establish themselves. Having a bound star would make that more stable.

He didn’t push himself out front beyond the fleets, however. He used exactly the same attack patterns as he had the first time, trying to draw enemy fleets into each other. Without another target the stone ships flew with the rest, so they were of course unaffected by the magnetism- but the metal ships responded about the same as before. Perhaps they were hiding their new tricks too.

Anton forewent binding the first star they approached, instead keeping his distance at the back of the fleet. He was still able to pick off key targets one at a time, drawing upon his substantial energy stores.

The enemy quickly fell back towards the nearest shell of a planet where some surprises would no doubt be waiting, but the Alliance was ready to deal with all sorts of counters.