If the Great Queen were present, Anton had no doubt she would attempt to slay Otakar herself. If she was successful it would instantly resolve the most troublesome point of the war… and a failure could lead to a disaster. From what Anton could tell, the void ants were currently in a state of flux, whether most of them understood it or not.

But the Great Queen was not present, and they couldn’t afford to wait months for her arrival even if it were to be deemed the correct option. Ekict was preparing some sort of counterattack, and while their alliance would have an advantage if fleets fought against each other it would involve greater focused risk to the alliance cultivators overall, as well as inevitably leading to the death of tens of thousands of cultivators from Ekict who really didn’t have a choice. Potentially hundreds of thousands or more, depending on how many ships Ekict had available.

With the planetary barrier down, Anton was able to get general ideas of what they had available in any particular place, but he couldn’t survey a whole planet at once. Nor did he intend to focus solely on that task. Among other things, he had to watch out for his granddaughter. Or rather, great-great-granddaughter. Anishka was doing an excellent job of turning cultivators against the leading sects, though most really didn’t take much nudging. Whether it was one, five, or ten at a time she was making an impact. And those people might spread the word, though there was as of yet no overarching structure or plan beyond agreeing to stand against the great sects… eventually.

But even mutterings of discontent placed people in danger. More than normal in an unbalanced cultivator society, that is. Anton couldn’t watch everything, but he looked wherever he could, searching for flaring energy. An Essence Collection cultivator drew a blade against a few in Spirit Building. It was much more difficult to ‘hear’ the conversation than simply sense the forms of individuals, but he could surmise the general details. An arrow of light crossed the intervening distance before the blade could approach any of them, knocking it away. The small group turned and fled while the one retrieved their weapon, then looked around in paranoia for the source of the attack. But they simply didn’t have the ability to detect Anton, thousands of kilometers away in space.

He kept aware of anything around him in case anyone was attempting to approach. Just because most people wouldn’t be able to sense him didn’t mean he was totally hidden.

Sometimes, Anton had to make difficult decisions. A fruit stand was robbed, and he only watched as the livelihood of an individual was half stolen, half destroyed. But killing the cultivator involved would simply be a death sentence for the individual in question unless he could commit to watching over them forever. Or at least the rest of the war. But as they trudged home, they at least got a pair of birds for supper. It would not fully reimburse them for their woes, but Anton could not solve everything himself. Nor was he interested in such anymore.

Anton didn’t limit himself to small scuffles either. When he found elders or high ranking disciples of any of the larger sects away from protective barriers, he was not above shooting them down unceremoniously. These were only the sects that seemed to have knowledge of Transferral or were otherwise organizing the war efforts. He also did his best to make sure that they died only in the most public situations where there was nobody to blame but him.

If he was allowed to continue like that indefinitely, he could change the course of the planet in just a few months. But inevitably fleets were organized to patrol around the planet, forcing him to stay on the move. That made him only half as effective… but he could pick off some of their ships as an alternative. There were only a few he would actually have to flee from. Fortunately, Otakar didn’t seem to be interested in chasing him down at this exact moment. But Anton still made sure to move to cover different areas, so that his location in ‘orbit’ couldn’t be predicted ahead of time.

After only a few days, Anton rarely found activity taking place outside of protected barriers, with the exceptions of drafted cultivators who were being relocated. The enemy fleets also began to fly in formations specifically designed to make it difficult for him to take any of them out, and Anton was quite happy to let them believe their tactics were effective to some extent. Not that regular ships could respond to his attack patterns if he was serious.

It was impossible for Anton to commit to anything because of Otakar, and a few of the more prominent individuals gathering would also be an issue for him. But the Otakar situation was still being discussed.

-----

“How go the repairs?” Anton asked general Gabriela.

“Full repairs would take months in a proper dry dock, but it is expected that the Wayfarer will be able to participate in fleet combat should the occasion arise. We can’t deal with that Augmentation cultivator, however.”

Naid Conaire took a few moments to consider his words. “They likely know that as well, and we may be able to use it to our advantage.”

“How?” Gabriela asked. “Do we try to draw him into an ambush?”

“Or simply away from another engagement. As long as you can handle any other opponents…”

“I would be more confident in that if we did not have so many missing hull panels,” Gabriela admitted. “But with our barriers adapted to Aoibhin, we have a decent chance of defeating her should we come into contact again. As long as we can keep him out of the picture.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Perhaps this ‘weakness’ might also lead us to another option,” Ingeborg suggested. “Specifically, if we could draw him towards the sun…”

“We would have to burn maximum fuel to pull away from Otakar at all,” Gabriela admitted. “But it might be possible. I’d prefer to have further calibrations for our barriers before that, so he can’t simply melt us with a single strike.”

“If you were able to draw him in,” Naid looked to Anton, “Would you be confident in defeating him? Or at least occupying him for a time?”

“From what I have seen, I do believe I could generally avoid him. However, I have no guarantee he couldn’t put on a greater burst of speed than we have seen and catch up to me. If he was foolish enough to chase me onto the actual surface of the sun? I could beat him. But I believe he has at least a basic understanding of my connection, so he likely wouldn’t get that close. Nor do I think I could put on a convincing play of weakness along the way, as I wouldn’t be willing to risk holding back.” Anton shook his head, “I’d need some other factors to help take him down.”

“I doubt he’d just let us gather all of our fleets to attack him,” Ingeborg said. “But if general Gabriela and the Wayfarer could draw him away, we could spare the both of you for the efforts. However long he could be avoided would be sufficient for our other forces to make significant progress. At the moment we have an approximation of the speed he has displayed, arriving anywhere around the planet in less than an hour… but we can presume he would be faster flying through space, especially now that he wouldn’t have to contend with planetary barriers restricting his movements much.”

“Would it be possible for some of Weos’ ships to gather further data first?” Gabriela asked.

“I suppose we should,” Ingeborg admitted. “It’s about time we made another coordinated assault regardless. We need to give you enough time to complete your repairs.”

-----

Ascension-class battleships were not particularly modular, but rather uniquely constructed. It wasn’t as if Rutera had a large number of them sitting about. Thus, taking bits and pieces of the ship wasn’t exactly the same as popping an energy cell into a socket. At least the same design principles and connectors applied… though given that some of the pieces were never meant for removal, there was a lot of cutting and welding involved.

It was a good thing that some of the crew were focused on repair cultivation- Gabriela never knew how important it was to seamlessly fuse wires together until they began moving the main cannon.

Gabriela sighed. The first flagship had gone from a relatively intact retrieval to a floating wreck, and the Wayfarer hardly looked much better. It wasn’t in the most stable configuration either, with half of the Independence’s power systems gutted and clumsily hacked onto the front of the Wayfarer. But it wasn’t her who had pushed for the main cannon, but rather Neven. And the techs hadn’t been reluctant to try, though they didn’t promise anything would work past the end of next week.

“It’s what he would have wanted,” a voice suddenly said from next to her. Gabriela jumped, swearing profusely. Her instinct to attack the sudden arrival was stifled by her simply not being strong enough. Instead, the blade at her side- with augmented energy generators- was caught between the fingers of an old man. “I sure hope your subordinates don’t sneak up on you.”

“Of course they don’t! Also, how did you do it?” she asked Anton. “Why can’t I sense your energy?

“I’m not even hiding it,” he pointed out.

“All I feel is- oh right.” She half-glanced towards the sun- but even as a Life Transformation cultivator she wasn’t willing to stare at it from barely some thousands of kilometers away. “I- uh, why are you here?” His sudden appearance startled her, but Anton always made her relax, perhaps more than she really should. It was so easy to just talk to him like any old grandpa.

“I came to make sure all your banging didn’t shove this thing off course. Your engineers did a good job, by the way, but the Wayfarer isn’t equipped for finer pushing maneuvers.” The two ships were practically pressing against each other, since they could only move the very large and heavy pieces slowly. If they wanted them to stop at the other end, at least.

“Right. Do you really think he’d be okay with us destroying his legacy?” Gabriela shook her head.

“He’d want you to win. This? This is just a ship. And yes, it was his ship. But just like him… it has passed away.”

“It could have been kept intact,” Gabriela said.

“Without him, it’s just the worst Ascension-class battleship,” Anton said. “But if you’re really bothered, I’d say you should lean into it. This is general Nicodemo coming along with you to fight,” he patted the ship.

“I do feel somewhat better,” Gabriela admitted. “Thanks for coming. Though I have the feeling… you’re also here for something else.”

“The ability to read people is an important quality for a leader,” Anton said, smiling. “It’s true. I thought I’d come here and… survey the battlefield, such as it is. But it’s mostly just empty space. Looks like I’ll have to be flying laps around the sun.”

“Could be,” Gabriela said. “Would anything actually help?”

“How about a massive, unbreakable cage that I could shrink around him?” Anton asked. “Got any of those?”

“Only if you want to build it yourself out of asteroids.”

“Shame,” Anton grinned. “I left mine at home. And I was never much of a smith.”

“Well, we don’t have time to make and enchant such a thing either,” Gabriela gestured to the busy workers climbing about the structure of the ship. “And while I don’t like to get in their way, I also need to check up and make sure everything’s running smoothly, especially at our chokepoints. Also, don’t you have a battle to be at today?”

“I was just making sure to top off,” Anton said, gesturing at the star. “Same as your ship.”