News of an assault on Xeotov quickly reached Egnos, as the Lower Realms Alliance was carefully monitoring the other system. It was one of the prime combatants in the civil war, after all.
There had been no anticipation or buildup to the sudden event. It seemed like a slightly larger than normal assault at the beginning. Nothing particularly looked different, until the flagship of the Fearsome Menagerie’s fleet fired its main cannon, striking the barrier of the opposing ship. Clearly, the Void Scrying Sect hadn’t anticipated the results either.
The projectile hadn’t seemed particularly special, and while it had a decent amount of natural energy propelling it, the barrier of the ship should have been sufficient to deflect it. But kinetic impact clearly hadn’t been the main intent of the weapon. The shell exploded, releasing a vast amount of spectral energy throughout the area, tearing through the local fleets. And yet somehow, it didn’t harm the attackers. It was possible to control energy in such a way that you didn’t harm allies, but that didn’t appear to be the case.
Of course, they only had the visual and energy recordings of various devices in the area, and a few cultivators who were watching in person from afar. The cultivators weren’t prepared to discern exactly what happened, and the recording devices were tuned to handle natural energy- and to pick up any ascension energy. Spectral energy had been a tertiary concern. As it was part of the repertoire of some Twin Soul Sect cultivators it was included, but they simply didn’t have the necessary level of detail to figure out what happened.
But speculation was certainly possible. They didn’t have much to work off of, but clearly the weapon was tuned to target only their enemies somehow. The question was how. Perhaps it simply recognized the natural energy of their own sects- that would likely be the minimum amount of information required. If it targeted everything else, it could certainly be devastating.
Though they weren’t in immediate conflict, the Lower Realms Alliance had to consider how they would deal with such an assault. Adaptive barriers could work against spectral energy such as that- but they would only be minimally effective unless they could be tuned ahead of time. It wasn’t a small series of attacks, but instead effectively one explosion that destroyed half a fleet.
Even though it was being used against their enemies, this weapon brought some concerns. The main piece of information that mitigated their worries was that they seemed unable to fire the weapon successively- or maybe they just thought it unnecessary, as they won that battle handily with a single shot. Their other ships had taken down another quarter of the enemy fleet as they retreated towards the planetary barrier, and there were few losses on the other side.
Whether or not they could actually use such a weapon continuously, they knew they had to monitor the situation carefully to learn more. Otherwise, they could find Egnos was next, after Xeotov was conquered. Regardless of what they said about staying out of each other’s way, they were still members of the Trigold Cluster. The natives of the lower realms had many grudges against them, and the Fearsome Menagerie and all of their allies should have been a significant factor in their other conquests- leaving them with their current selection of planets plundered from those who belonged.
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One star was not good enough for Anton to be empowered throughout all of the wide region he was patrolling, but that wasn’t his primary goal. Rather than strength, what he needed was information- and it provided a fairly significant area where he could sense powerful natural energy around it. That might not be sufficient for finding any of the packages themselves- but he could hopefully find the people trying to retrieve them, which would be good enough.
Eventually it would be clear that someone was preventing them from retrieving the shipments, but by that time Anton hoped to have stopped a significant number. And if he simply prevented them from coming to get anything at any point, then he was also winning. After all, even if they had figured him out from the very first one he stopped, there were still a couple decade’s worth of shipments that should already be on their way, simply tossed between the realms.
Even if he only stopped half of them from reaching their destinations, that would be a significant impact. Most likely they couldn’t all contain planet or system destroying levels of danger, but a single one of those kept out of the hands of psychopaths who would use them was worth a lifetime of effort. And based on the single thing he’d captured, it was already paying off. He’d stopped a number of materials containing ascension energy from reaching their foes, though it wasn’t quite clear what they were for yet.
Though the arrangement of cargo containers might be random, Anton and others believed there was probably a pattern. If they could figure it out, their alliance could stop the rest of the incoming shipments unless the Trigold Cluster delved deep into the dead zone for them. Even then, Anton might be able to catch them going in or out.
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Naewu was warm and strong, its powerful blue glow filling Anton up. Though he could replenish his natural energy anywhere, he never truly felt full unless he was near a bound star. And from there, he could reach out in all directions, scanning an area that spanned many lightyears of his chosen cross section all at once. He wouldn’t stay long, of course, because he had further afield locations to check everywhere else.
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Now that he’d made a single sweep, he was fairly likely to catch most things passing by. He could sense an area over a lightyear wide even away from a bound star, and if his full cycle took less than two years, he would more or less have that covered. Though of course there were matters of his exact route and how that matched with spherical perception to cover everything. As it turned out, his initial route was decent but not optimal.
Some of those who worked with mathematics were able to improve his area coverage by fifty percent by planning a new route. Beyond that point, they determined that the route complications would increase dramatically for a relatively small benefit.
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With the sudden uptick in damage to Void Scrying Sect Fleets, the plans for the next assault by the Lower Realms Alliance and the Shining Cooperative were moved up. Egnos was stable enough for the moment, and they couldn’t miss the opportunity to strike at more important figures. Xeotov had some of those enemies, but the civil war was stronger there. Instead, focusing on the next most populated planet controlled by that same faction brought them ‘northeast’ of Egnos, to a system called Anrade.
Actual travel time was only about a week, and the mobilization only took one more week- which was impressively fast for the size of assault they were undertaking. Slowly over the course of the war, they had gathered more of their combined forces, and now they had enough firepower in their foothold to directly assault a planet. And there were few locations that could provide a significant force to back up Anrade.
Unless the civil war happened to end and both factions worked together against them, they had plans that should lead to minimal losses. The Trigold Cluster was only weakening, and while they had taken some damage their Assimilation cultivators provided a significant advantage. The destruction of Zunrose had been more damaging to the Trigold Cluster by far, and the attempt on Egnos’ star actually resulted in no deaths at all. Though it could have potentially taken out Egnos, In’istra, and Poriza. Or perhaps even further, if the resonance somehow echoed through Anton- though Varghese didn’t think that was a feasible scenario.
It wasn’t that he thought Anton was perfect… but he was the strongest cultivator in their alliance, at his weakest a full stage beyond anything the lower realms Trigold Cluster could muster. And anything from the upper realms would have to use ascension energy, which broke down quickly.
The plan wasn’t much different from the assault on Egnos, except that Varghese would be approaching Anrade’s star with a small fleet than before, and a significantly smaller proportion of their total. He didn’t have to get as close, and if they actually chose to focus on just him then the rest of their system would lose out. Especially as they had even more powerhouses around now.
The strike was quick. Whether or not the enemy could send a predictive response, they were prepared to fight. Even if the enemy had an unexpected weapon of some sort, there were contingencies in play to reduce the potential damage that they could sustain.
The enemy fleets delayed leaving the safety of the planetary barrier as their own poured into the system. There were a few defensive bases around, but with the freedom to approach from any direction they could only cover so much with the range they had available. Varghese made his way towards the star without worry, reaching out towards it to begin familiarizing himself with it.
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Devon approached a small moon that was harassing the passing fleet. Targeting larger ships was easy enough, but attacking someone of his size required great precision. There was an attempt, but it barely managed anything before he got close enough to do his thing.
He reached out, chains stretching from his arm towards the moon and then splitting into the intersecting patterns of his World Encompassing Chains. This time, however, he wasn’t looking for information. They had other uses, and on a smaller planet like this one he was able to show maximum effectiveness.
The chains created a barrier that stopped the artillery fire. In fact, it did more than halting it in its tracks, rebounding it back below towards the artillery themselves. The sudden change was quite a surprise for them, but they reacted quickly enough to stop firing before they all wiped themselves out. Just a quarter of them, perhaps.
But Devon wasn’t done yet. He collapsed the size of his ability, squeezing down on them. That provoked a reaction of various attacks from below, all around the moon. It was sensible of them to assume that a concerted effort from their many cultivators could overcome a single individual, but there was a catch. The chains were there to redirect energy. Attacks on one side of the moon counteracted the force of attacks directly opposite. There wasn’t a perfect balance of individuals all over the moon, but Devon only had to sustain a relatively small portion of their firepower.
And then their own forces were close enough to land on the planet, those apportioned for this particular base at least. Fighting within the World Encompassing Chains, the enemy would be restricted while Devon’s own allies would be bolstered. And they had a few other Assimilation cultivators among the assault forces. Needless to say, it didn’t take long to bring down the single base.
Efforts elsewhere in the system were going smoothly as well. There wouldn’t be any local forces that could flank their fleets as they began the true assault on Anrade. The only true issue was from Varghese, who relayed a message only among the highest ranking officials, mentioning that there was something preventing him from binding to the star.
That was concerning, but Devon wasn’t worried. There were no signs of Assimilation equivalent cultivators among their enemies, nor any other particularly large energy signatures. In addition to that, they had Nthanda and the Great Queen who were both capable of overcoming traditional cultivators in unexpected ways, beyond the normal level of what void ants could do.
Still it was a bit worrying that they had yet another way to affect stars. Varghese hadn’t indicated any danger just yet, but their fleets remained alert for any issues that arose- either from the star, the main planet, or potential incoming reinforcements. The Trigold Cluster may not care for their subordinate’s lives, but that didn’t mean nobody else did.