Once they realized they were losing, the invaders were allowed the illusion of a path to retreat. Some were allowed to slip by out the gates, while others found their ways to the edges of the Diamond Hill Sanctuary and fled over the walls, to various levels of success. But they weren’t actually free from there- they were simply dealt with by groups to maximize safety. Or taken down by various individuals with sufficient ranged abilities.

From there, the forces of Graotan moved to secure a wider area, and were quite proud to find how well local areas had done at defending themselves. Smaller cities hadn’t faced Ascension cultivators, but they came together to defend their homes with numbers. Not that numbers would have mattered without cultivation of their own, as they wouldn’t have been able to defeat even an Essence Collection cultivator without.

It wasn’t quite the scenario Anton had envisioned when he had the idea to teach everyone cultivation. His thinking had been much smaller, Spirit Building cultivators like Van Hassel that larger sects like the Order found difficult to catch. These invaders seemed to have similar motivations to Van Hassel, but less so to typical bandits.

Not all of Graotan had been successful in driving them away. Smaller sects and some towns and villages that fought back were destroyed. Completely demolished and stripped of anything of value. The latter was typical for bandits, but unlike with Dungannon wanton destruction was actually not a mainstay of bandits. It was wasteful to destroy a village when they might build up more wealth later, and it resulted in too much notice being taken of their activities.

Learning anti-ascension techniques might have provoked them somewhat, though information previously available indicated that was how the invaders had operated before. After all, the Luminous Ocean Society was the first to be rediscovered and was completely annihilated. The same held true for others.

The true mindset of the invaders was hard to determine, because even as they seemed individually concerned about their lives they were also quite resistant to answering questions. It was hoped that allies in Ofrurg might be able to help, but first they would have to regain contact.

-----

If they were actually planning to venture into Ofrurg, a small group would have been insufficient even if it were composed of Life Transformation cultivators. Instead they were merely approaching the border, and their numbers weren’t quite so small as they appeared.

“I don’t know how you all can bear to be covered in ants,” Velvet shook her head.

“They’re just sitting atop our clothes,” Hoyt remarked, “And we don’t have to hide, so their abilities don’t cause us the same sort of trouble.”

It might have seemed like the ants being undetectable via energy senses should have made them perfect allies for a stealth-oriented cultivator, but in truth they made things more difficult for her. When she was trying to display a perfect falsehood of the world to her foes, points of nothingness would ruin the whole illusion. Having to cover for them added another layer of complexity to an already difficult task.

“I’m just disappointed there aren’t enough of them with the intellect for using formations,” Catarina sighed. “The queen can do her part, but the other ants just don’t quite get anything that isn’t a structure they form. Though it’s pretty interesting what they do make.”

“Most of them are only a few years old,” Anton reminded her. “Except for the queens, most of the ants only live to a decade on the far end.”

“That’s a fair point,” she admitted. “I doubt I would have been able to grasp much of anything about formations when I was five. Though I didn’t have the chance until I was fifteen.”

“Fuzz doesn’t smell anyone,” Alva commented. “Nobody’s crossed the border lately.”

Anton nodded. “That makes sense. As for beyond the border…” he stretched out his senses in a particular direction. He had been constantly sweeping the countryside, but there was a particular place he was looking for. Veron was just across the border, to the point that if not for trees and uneven terrain everyone would be able to see it. For him, sensing such a city was much easier than targeting an individual with Horizon Shot. “Veron looks to have run into some trouble. It’s severely damaged, but… it still has people moving about. Mostly too weak to be invaders, though the entire city has a haze of ascension energy lingering around so I can’t guarantee anything.” He nodded. “But we can ask this approaching group.”

It wasn’t odd for a group of Life Transformation cultivators to attract attention, and a serious response to their presence had been organized quite swiftly. Only a single very early Life Transformation cultivator led the group, but there were dozens in Essence Collection and Spirit Building. Against their particular group Anton wouldn’t give the squad an advantage, but perhaps he was biased. After all, the people of Veron had also weathered the invasion.

“Identify yourselves!” the man who headed the group called out.

“We are members of the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars,” Anton replied. “And quite peacefully waiting on our side of the border.”

Everyone relaxed a little bit, but it was clear their leader was still on guard. “If you are indeed from the Order, your presence would be welcome. However… we’ll have to perform the test.”

Anton was pretty sure he knew what the man was referring to, and took the moment to sweep the patrol with a test of his own. “Go ahead and approach. Borders at the moment mean little in comparison to the invaders.”

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It was clear the man was less used to the techniques meant to pick out the members of the Twin Soul Sect as he had to get much closer and was more obvious about it, but in a way it was better that way. The rest of the group with him would have been able to sense it as well.

“Good. You’re not part of them. We learned the hard way… even though sensing these invaders is quite easy, the Twin Soul Sect’s methods still conceal them from casual observation. We barely held together when our defensive formations were taken apart from the inside.”

“Graotan was fortunate to not encounter that particular trouble… though they did seem to assume there would be traitors among us.” Anton shook his head. They hadn’t specifically checked for members of the Twin Soul Sect, but they also hadn’t accepted random new people either. And while Anton couldn’t guarantee his ability to read the Life Transformation cultivator in front of him, the Spirit Building cultivators were open books that corroborated his story.

“Forgive my manners,” the man said. “I’m Commander Tallgate. All of you… at your cultivation, you would be Elders of the Order, correct?” Anton nodded. “I see. Then I-” he squinted. “Umm… you appear to have an ant on your shoulder?”

“I am aware,” Anton said. “They are valuable allies in the fight against the invaders.”

The man shrugged. Cultivators made use of beasts of all sorts, so even if he hadn’t heard of these particular creatures he wouldn’t question it. “If you want news about Ofrurg as a whole, I’m afraid we don’t have it. We drove off the attackers and have been fortifying our defenses ever since.”

Catarina looked into the distance. “I can fix your formations for you.”

“We repaired them already, though we appreciate the offer.”

“Oh. Then… I can upgrade them.” That seemed her nice way of saying that the formations were so weak as to be barely noticeable… which was accurate even by Anton’s standards.

“I…” the man shrugged. “Sure. I trust the Order doesn’t intend to cause any trouble.”

“Not with anyone native to this world,” Anton grinned. “Though we don’t plan to stay long right now. We’re merely here to check out the situation.”

As they rode towards Veron, Anton saw people working in the fields. Once, they would have been slaves. Now, they were cultivators able to handle entire fields by themselves.

“Things are pretty different in the past couple decades,” Tallgate commented. “I used to be working in those fields. I still could, but… my life branched in a different direction.”

Anton nodded, “But you’re a Life Transformation cultivator now? You must have great talent.” He did look quite young, though it was hard to tell with cultivator sometimes.

“I-” Tallgate shook his head, “I don’t know about that. Would someone with talent let so many people die? Veron and the surrounding area had more than a handful of Life Transformation cultivators more powerful than myself, and I’m the only one who got through relatively uninjured. Two are gravely wounded and the rest…” he shook his head.

“The Order lost many as well,” Anton commented. “The six of us… we’re nearly half of what remains from what was briefly more than twenty. You don’t get to choose who lives in a battle. Sometimes, it’s old men like myself.”

“He started cultivating at the same time as us,” Hoyt pointed out. “Don’t let him fool you on that part.”

“Uh… I don’t know how to respond to that,” the commander admitted.

In the city, Catarina quickly moved to study the formations. She was already altering them when someone showed up to protest- then stopped themselves as they saw her working.

Anton hadn’t been planning to actually come to the city, but now that he was present he couldn’t help but do something. Clearing away rubble was within his capabilities, and he had some experience with construction as well. He’s put together a barn or ten in his time, though structures meant to have more style and comfort than pure function he had little experience with. Even so, he could hold tools, lift things, and keep an eye out for people approaching the city who shouldn’t be.

-----

Though Graotan had stabilized internally, there was little time to rest. News from Ambati was still positive- in that they seemed to be fighting back with some success. Droca had less news, but no invaders appeared near the borders. The situation in Ofrurg was unknown on the large scale, but now that Veron knew Graotan was relatively safe they would be able to communicate if more news came in.

While some were assigned to that, Anton was on the northern border, looking into Estary. Sensing such a large amount of the world at once didn’t make it feel smaller like he might have imagined, though certainly some places seemed closer together. Misty Hill Palace, for example, was not so far from the border that it was beyond Anton’s senses. Or at least what remained of it. He only felt ruins, until he started finding bodies. No living cultivators, either from the Misty Hill Palace or occupying it. Whoever had participated in the attack had already moved on. Likewise, the border was empty of anyone.

Even though Estary had been friendly with Graotan they still watched the border up until the time of the invasion, mainly for purposes of cultivators trying to evade either oversight from either country. With them gone, it meant they were either occupied, or dead. Anton hoped for the former, and did not have enough time to closely inspect the area to determine the latter. Except at one specific border crossing, where the limited structures in place were still intact.

Things might not have seemed so grim if the nearby towns and cities weren’t all destroyed or abandoned. Estary might need aid… but the same could be the case in Ofrurg. Even if Ofrurg was doing well, joining up with allied sects there would ultimately make everyone stronger. But time was an issue. Where would Graotan aid first? They couldn’t reasonably split and aid both, or they would risk annihilation. It was already nearly a miracle that they had done as well as they had, and that was with a death toll that was as high as a quarter to a third of those in the country, though obviously the counts were not finalized yet.

Of course, Graotan could choose to fortify its own borders. There were even arguments for such actions, but realistically if they waited the invaders would simply have time to consolidate their forces and wipe them out. If they helped, they could at least work with others to minimize the destruction that could happen. Defending their homeland was all well and good, but defending their world also needed to be considered. And even if alliances with Estary were vague promises, there were several sects in Ofrurg that had sworn to aid each other during the invasion if possible.