After enemy fleets retreated from their territory, there wasn’t much the Scarlet Alliance could do. They did send pursuit fleets, chasing down the stragglers who were unable to keep up, but their victory hadn’t been so complete that they could afford to get into pitched combat beyond their borders.

On the eastern end, they quickly ran into Trigold Cluster territory. While they would have loved to properly retaliate against the Imbued Fragments and Broad Eyed Harvesters, they couldn’t realistically do much without dragging themselves into an even greater war.

However, just because they didn’t have any militaristic actions they could do didn’t mean there was nothing. They now had contacts within the Trigold Cluster- it was far too early to call them allies, but they were at least useful for spreading information. A declaration that any who chose to breach the sovereignty of the Scarlet Alliance would find themselves in the same situation as Zaur Beridze.

Reminding others that they had just killed a Domination cultivator was a good way to make them hesitate about… everything. No doubt the Silver Fang were trembling in fear. They might have thought themselves secure with the backing of Koronis… but it was one thing to repel Zaur and another to kill him. Some might have been ready to deny them injuring him in the second war, but it was impossible to deny his death. Everyone would feel it. The Silver Fang would be the first in the Trigold Cluster for the waves to reach, and the Trigold Cluster wasn’t over the death of Sudin. Not that it was expected they would get ‘over’ such a thing for centuries at a minimum. Domination cultivators didn’t die every day.

Yet there were suddenly two in the same century. Everyone would be more cautious.

-----

Aconite sniffed Chidi’s body, but senses no poisons or other abnormalities. His heart sounded normal. She couldn’t smell his brain functions but the machines assured her everything was normal. In fact, the doctors said he wasn’t even in a coma. Even though he clearly was.

“Hey. Wake up,” Aconite barked. Obviously, that didn’t work. If Yuval hadn’t been able to wake him, it stood to reason Aconite wouldn’t be much better. And his parents… were still currently incapacitated. Which was about a thousand times better than dead.

Unlike the older Westons, Chidi had been determined to be safely touchable. Which was good, because his body wasn’t self-regulating. He was getting nutrients through a tube.

The one concession they had made to treating him as a normal patient was his sword. They couldn’t remove it from his grip, though they had only made halfhearted attempts. Just because the doctors here worked without the benefit of upper energy didn’t mean they didn’t understand cultivators. Indeed, most were cultivators themselves… but such specialized facilities existed for exactly things like this.

Aconite nosed the metal of Chidi’s blade. The sheath had probably disintegrated in the battle, since as far as she knew it hadn’t been made of anything special. She got no response to the more direct touch. She licked the back of his hand. It was weird, feeling her energy just… stop. It wasn’t like he ate it, but anything that got near him no longer functioned. It felt like it disappeared, but it was still there when she pulled back.

“I melted a ship made of worldheart. Or at least, partially. Those metal guys are probably so mad. They might figure out how to reconstitute what didn’t get left behind though.” It wasn’t like the bacteria suddenly made materials not exist. They just turned metals into less functional forms. The actual chemical elements were mostly still there. Mostly, because cultivation sometimes transformed things between matter and energy.

Before she had been allowed to return to Xankeshan, Aconite had been very carefully purified. By the sun. Which was totally reasonable, as everything she had used really shouldn’t touch… anything.

“I poisoned that guy so much,” Aconite said. “I hope it helped. I don’t think it all made its way out of his fingers into his bloodstream because it wasn’t properly connected, but it clearly did something. Even after he turned into light.” She whined slightly. “I saw his leg get cut off. I know that had to be you.”

It wasn’t like he was going to wake up and say ‘thanks’, but she didn’t really know what else to do. Chikere was dead- that had been confirmed. The planet was fully obliterated now. Who else could get a reaction from him? Aconite thought about that. She also thought about using sneezing powder on him to see if that would get a reaction. The doctors probably wouldn’t approve.

-----

Velvet didn’t know if she was close to Domination. Nor did she know if she could advance to Domination. It seemed like a very public sort of thing, but Ratna did it so she couldn’t be certain.

What she did know, however, was that she had been effective enough to escape Zaur’s perception when he wasn’t actively focused on looking for her. Which was a good enough threshold to reach. If he still existed- which he didn’t- he most likely regretted letting her go the first time. The point was of course to instill fear in the Scarlet Alliance with news of his presence and power… but she’d been there for both the first and last contact the Scarlet Alliance would have with him.

She wasn’t afraid of him, or of other Domination cultivators. Not that she was eager to fight them alone, or at all. But avoiding their notice, and more relevantly the notice of everyone else? Her confidence was greatly boosted. Ratna had been very helpful with her growth, mostly indirectly. A few glimpses of her presence and trying to hide around her had been great training.

It would be nice to talk to her, but she wasn’t traveling through the Trigold Cluster’s territory for that purpose. She was heading for the combined territory of the Imbued Fragments and Broad-Eyed Harvesters… because there were many mysteries to solve about them. And maybe she’d take a little retribution while she was there. The metal cultivators would be a problem, if they sensed her. She probably wouldn’t try voidsteel on them in any case. But the others… she didn’t have any stone equipment nor was she worried about being attacked if they didn’t even know she was around.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Sometimes, Velvet traveled through the normal routes of enemy systems, riding on their ships in disguise. She might do that in the future, but for now she was making use of the same vessel that had gotten them to the Citadel. It had been somewhat cramped feeling with six people, but alone it was quite roomy. Though for the most part, she cultivated to pass the time as the ship would handle itself.

She’d actually considered requisitioning another ship, but the problem was what she wanted didn’t exist. So she really couldn’t. But somehow, Velvet had the feeling it might in the future. Just not a near enough one she was willing to wait.

-----

Uzun steepled his fingers as he looked at the lab ahead of him. “Plastic,” he said.

Koralo just raised an eyebrow. “There’s, uh, no plastic there. Just metal and stone.”

Uzun blinked, then shook his head. “My apologies. I was thinking about something else.” He moved forward, finding the few salvaged bits of the great star draining device that the lower realms had sent. If they had these samples earlier, would it have helped with the war? Not without more warning, likely.

He ran his senses over the partial plate in front of him. It would likely not be bothered by a simple touch, given the sturdy materials, but there were protocols to follow. “What do you make of the formations?”

“I’d like to tell you that I have the same level of insight as Grandmaster Catarina, but I don’t,” he shook his head. “I know what these do mostly because I was told what they do. I was able to confirm it, but I doubt I can do anything like reconstruct the whole project. Not that we would want to.”

“Certainly not,” Uzun agreed. “I think the material itself is worth considering. Hand constructed lattices, meant to withstand massive pressure. Replicable at a large scale, obviously. Completely necessary. I have many ideas.”

“That’s why you’re the head of technological development,” Koralo said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without an excellent teacher.”

“Catarina learned from others as well.”

“Yes. But I needed the best teacher,” Koralo shrugged. “I don’t think I’m cut out to be chief formation master. Even if I’m currently the most qualified. I’d prefer to be an expert lab assistant for Catarina.” He shook his head. “If I could just snap my fingers and remove that energy, I would.”

Koralo didn’t realize he’d been in a daze until he heard the sound of Uzun sipping a drink he hadn’t previously been carrying. “So?” Uzun asked.

“So… what?” Koralo said.

“Are you going to do whatever you thought of?”

“I- how could I? It’s crazy. Reckless. We wouldn’t be able to test it.”

“A superweapon?” Uzun asked.

“What? No!” Koralo shook his head. “Why would you think that?”

“Well, we can test pretty much anything else. Even a replica of this.” He gestured to the plate in front of them. “For a few moments. Anton isn’t here to tell us we’re bad boys and hurt a star’s feelings.”

“Oh Yeah?” Koralo raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying you’re confident he couldn’t shoot you?”

“... Obviously I’d stop it immediately,” Uzun said. “If we even needed to test something like this. Which we don’t. But what was your idea?”

Koralo sighed. “It’s stupid, but basically this.”

“For what purpose?”

“Like I said, it’s reckless.”

“Just tell me then, and I’ll let you know.”

“... To try to save Catarina and Timothy. By draining that Domination energy cycling between them. But I’m certain she has her own plans and I don’t want to disrupt them,” Koralo explained.

“She told you she had plans?” Uzun asked.

“Well, no. But she always has plans,” Koralo pointed out. “This isn’t the sort of thing where I go ‘ooops, I wasted the money equal to a planet’s GDP’ and brush it off.”

“Did you do that?” Uzun asked. “Or did she do that?” Koralo scratched his cheek. “Or did I do that?”

“None of that’s the point,” Koralo said. “She’d die.”

“Pretty sure she’s going to die like this,” Uzun said. “And let’s say she had a plan. Do you know what it is?”

“I already said I don’t.”

“So how do you know it wasn’t to take inspiration from these formations here and save her?”

Koralo furrowed his brow. “That’s way too specific. Besides, she hasn’t even seen this. Just… the scans from the Lower Realms.”

“So she does know about this.”

“There’s no way she anticipated what happened to her.”

“Actually,” Uzun said. “I agree. Which is why you should do something. And that something is likely to be formation-forward. But of course, I’ll gladly support you from the tech end.”

“... We’re studying this anyway,” Koralo said. “I don’t have to build anything if it doesn’t seem like it will work. I guess I can at least try to put together some plans?”

“Good,” Uzun grinned.

Koralo began to take notes. “So what was that about plastic?”

“Oh, that?” Uzun shrugged. “Just thinking about subspace drives. And ship hulls. And… well, everything. Wood might be better except there are way more wood cultivators than plastic cultivators.”

Koralo paused for a moment. “There are plastic cultivators?”

“Of course. We make plastic. Someone has to break the more obscure ones down for re-use.”

“... I honestly did not know about that part of our recycling initiatives.”

“Right,” Uzun said. “So as long as we don’t get anyone from our own faction angry at us, I’d say plastic is pretty well uncontrollable by enemies. I don’t think a ship could be made out of it. I mean, not a pure tech one. I’ll have to talk to some of the specialists. How hard is it to carve formations into plastic?”

“It’s… not one of the preferred materials,” Koralo said. “To be honest, I can’t say I’ve ever done it outside of very specific practice.”

Koralo sighed. He couldn’t believe Uzun thought of a plastic ship and yet he was the one in the room with the stupid idea.