“What do you think?” Anton handed the spyglass to Grant.

The younger man took a careful look, moving the spyglass minutely. “Shoddy workmanship on those gates, but excellent materials.”

“That’s not quite what I meant,” Anton shrugged, “But it also answers the question better. You can actually tell something about the workmanship from here?”

“Sure. It’s a bit faint with this thing,” he tapped on the spyglass, “But the fixings are off kilter. I’d bet the masonry on the wall is subpar too, though you’d have to ask an expert.”

“You think it’s a facade?” Anton asked.

“No, it should be real. I just don’t think they have any experts. They replicated the materials and form but lost some of the essence.”

“Does it matter if we still have to tear it down?”

“Absolutely,” Grant gestured vaguely with the spyglass. “If you hit those gates right they’ll fall under their own weight, formations or not. They’ve set up a fortress, but they don’t really have the technique.”

“And those materials? They’re from the Cragtooth Mountains?”

“Should be for the most part,” Grant shrugged. “Could have brought some with them, or stolen some in their early successes.” Grand carefully turned the spyglass over in his hands, “How does this work?”

Anton shrugged and looked directly at the fortress in the distance, “Don’t know. It’s got something to counteract that,” he gestured towards the dark mass on the horizon.

Large-scale formations could block energy sensing, and if some effort was taken they could block other senses as well. For targets inside a formation there were various options including illusions, but for the outside the only real method was to lock down anything leaving the area. In short, light and sound would have to be stopped. Yet such methods were never going to be perfect.

“I suppose I should ask later,” Grant said. “It’s not perfect, but I can make out the important details. Very useful.”

-----

Perhaps realizing that an attack from the north was one of the easiest options, the invaders had focused on that side for their defenses. Yet they did not have very long to put together a sort of fortress and they were stretched quite thin. The fortress itself covered a much smaller area than the formations that stretched their effects beyond it, but in its current state reaching the fortress would still require a concentrated effort to break through the formations to begin with.

Efforts were being made to ascertain details on the actual formations themselves, but that information was being discovered a little bit at a time. At the current moment there was no way to set up a sustained bombardment to see how the defenses reacted, and Anton acting alone was insufficient to cause significant enough fluctuations to reveal much in the way of weaknesses.

Yet there were some universal truths about formations. They took energy to operate, and though the efficiency of how the energy was used depended somewhat on the skill of the creators it had its limits. With enough power any formation could be broken through from the outside.

If the defensive formations were relying strictly on the natural energy in the surroundings, they wouldn’t last long against the armies. The chance that they were actually counting on the freely available energy was minimal, and more likely they had some sort of power source ready to assist it. Formations could even be powered by cultivators directly. Large groups could resist powerful attacks together. If the invaders were relying mainly on their own power, it would actually be advantageous to attack the formations even if they didn’t break through. After all, the invaders would recover more slowly. But if they had another power source- which they almost certainly did- then the attackers would risk fatigue for nothing if they didn’t make any progress.

-----

The assault could only wait so long. Within a matter of days an attack plan was prepared and executed, making use of the various options available. A contingent from Facraona menaced the eastern side of the Cragtooth Mountains, threatening an assault. To the south the forces of Droca had fortified the area, though some of their forces were also being lent to the attacking forces.

The main contingent of the attacking forces came from the north, in a not unexpected but still logical route that allowed them to avoid vulnerability when navigating the mountains. Siege engines were disassembled and arranged piecemeal in storage bags. It would require some time to properly put them back together, but it was much easier than navigating steep slopes and rocky terrain.

The various advantages the locals had were all considered. Every scrap of information left behind by Everheart had been tested for efficiency and would be used if possible. As they had to advance on an enemy position it wasn’t possible to rely on the growth of plants that hindered their enemy, but there were various beasts that could contribute to battle.

Specialized anti-ascension equipment was redistributed from those injured or killed to those who could still make use of it, bolstering sects who were not prominent enough to arrange for their own such equipment.

And then there were ants. Their ability to consume energy was useful in any battle involving cultivators, but especially where it involved formations. The distributed energy of a formation was more difficult for them to interact with than that of cultivators, but they had already begun climbing up from the southwest to harass the barriers- though not before the main armies were in position. Several decades of growth and expanding to new colonies had allowed their numbers to grow significantly, but alone they would be vulnerable to the enemy once they figured out how to fight them. A single cultivator could crush hundreds of them at once, and if they were not occupied by other concerns and could simply focus on the ants they would be only a fraction of their potential effectiveness.

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-----

A lone young man nervously stepped into a tall pagoda that was one of the few structures that had already been in place when they chose their current location. It was undignified to have to set up in the remains of a long destroyed or abandoned sect, but the young man certainly wasn’t going to mention that. Everyone already knew, and as he was already delivering bad news he didn’t want to make things worse.

Step by step he made his way up the stairs. It wasn’t fair that he’d drawn the short stick, but that was what he got for coming from a smaller sect. He knocked carefully on the door where the Integration masters waited.

“Come in.”

He opened the door carefully and stepped inside, bowing deeply. “Great Integration masters, enemy forces are approaching.” He refused to look at the large table around which sat more than twenty Integration masters, representing more than a handful of groups combined together.

“We know,” boomed an annoyed voice. “What else do you have for us? Stop wasting our time.”

Of course they knew. But he had to deliver the information anyway. If he left anything out, they’d simply be mad about that instead. It wasn’t his fault that this expedition to a lower world was a disaster, but everyone weak had to deal with the consequences. “Our scouts have observed the various groups and assessed their threats, just as they have been observing us. Along with the previous information, troubling news came. Among other things, there are… void ants.”

“Ants?” One of the women scoffed. “They are of no concern to us.”

The youth cringed. He could only report the information, and had no control over it. Fortunately, one of the other masters was on his side. Or at least they were happy to take advantage of the woman’s ignorance.

“Void ants are no laughing matter… if there truly are any. But there can’t be. They were wiped out two cycles ago. It was confirmed in the previous cycle as well… and by all of the reports leading up to this cycle.”

A heavy pressure fell on the messenger, making it difficult to speak. More than just the thought that he might get killed for no reason, that was. “Scouts confirmed it, and they even captured one of the larger specimens to verify. They ranged between highly resistant and completely immune to the effects of both lower energy… and upper energy.”

“Preposterous,” the woman continued. “Exaggerated myths, no doubt, and sloppy investigations.”

The youth kept his eyes away from any of the masters, to limit what they could intuit of his thoughts. It would not do for them to guess he wouldn’t care if they were the ones swarmed by ants and eaten alive as long as he didn’t have to be there.

“Is that it?” one more asked impatiently.

The messenger held out a sealed report. “There is also this missive. I don’t know what is inside, of course.”

“Then leave it behind. Go.”

Upon receiving permission, the young man nearly ran. But he was more dignified than that, and slightly more cognizant of how that would make him a target instead of the piece of paper sitting on the table.

-----

“Look, look,” Chikere waved her left arm about. “I’m healed!”

Vasu rolled his eyes. “A full recovery will take several more months, even for cuts as clean as you had. Just because you have not had to personally undergo such surgery before now doesn’t mean you should be unaware of the specifics. However,” Vasu shrugged, “I won’t begrudge you the choice to fight as you please.”

“See, this way I can hold number one in my hand,” Chikere said, lifting the sword aloft. “I haven’t gotten to swing this guy yet.”

“... please keep that sheathed,” Timothy said with a grimace on his face. “I’m not concerned about that boulder you just sliced in half, but it has an uncomfortable malice.”

“Fair enough,” Chikere nodded. She tilted the point of the sword to match one of the gates in the distance, and the aura focused in that direction. “Better?”

“I suppose I’m fine now, but are you sure you should be amped up for a battle already? We’re still quite far.”

“Pfft, we could be there in like a minute.”

“We could. But it will likely be an hour before we’re actually present and set up enough to begin the assault. And you really don’t want to be the one running in first.” Timothy then sighed, remembering who he was talking to. “Well, it isn’t safe anyway.”

“Never is! But I won’t be going in alone.” Chikere looked around, “Where’s your wife? I thought you usually fought side-by-side.”

Timothy nodded, “When we can. But that’s not always the best idea. She’s currently conferring with the other formation masters. They’re going to attempt to set something up.”

“All the way out here? Is it just to protect the giant slings?”

“The trebuchets will make good use of defenses, yes, but there’s more to it. It’s just… even Catarina isn’t sure it will work. They don’t want anyone to be depending on a slim possibility.”

“A new technique half developed and first used in a battle? I like that,” Chikere grinned.

“It’s more than half developed. Catarina just said there are some factors missing if it’s going to work. I don’t really know more than that, except that of course she’ll influence things to make those factors happen somehow, if it’s at all possible. Though first I believe they formation masters will be working on taking down the outer defenses with the rest of us.”

The forces were approaching from the north, but they shifted slightly west. Since they were already approaching the level of the peaks, the terrain wasn’t much more difficult and they could begin to circle around somewhat. In some ways the terrain favored them from the northwest, but more importantly the enemy’s distribution of their forces and the weaknesses in the structures seemed to coincide vaguely in the area- plus they would be closer to the main force of ants if they needed to assist.

Some people had trouble hinging part of their plans on an army they literally couldn’t see being in place, but everyone from Graotan which had the first of the ants- and still the majority of the nests- were quite aware of how effective they were. Yet nothing was perfect on its own, and even with all of their preparations it would be a difficult fight. But they wouldn’t allow these invaders to escape the consequences of their actions.