With every planet the Scarlet Alliance had to give up, they lost lives and access to resources. The latter they could presume would mostly return once the Exalted Quadrant withdrew… but whether or not the Scarlet Alliance itself would be standing at the end of things was another question. Perhaps the biggest loss beyond lives was the disruption to development and growth of those planets, which would most likely take decades to get back on track even if the war were over in the next year or two.

Their new tactics proved fruitful, and they were causing more damage to the enemy fleets than they were sustaining themselves. Even so, they were still outnumbered and had yet to destroy enough troop carriers to actually slow their enemy’s progress to any significant extent on its own.

The enemy’s invasion had started widespread, but it could be seen that their focus was narrowing. That was good for the Scarlet Alliance, as they had fewer locations they needed to defend… but ultimately it was clear that the flow of the war was still in the hands of the Exalted Quadrant. They could at any point choose to target any of dozens of planets, diverting from their expected course.

But until then, they seemed focused on approaching Lonkeon. And why wouldn’t they be? It was no secret that they were using it as their forward base of operations. Their commanders not on the frontlines and most of their reinforcements were present on Lonkeon. If the planet was taken out, they would have to retreat all the way to Xankeshan. In fact, the conditions under which they would retreat were important, as they didn’t want to get cut off and foolishly die away from their fortified capital.

While they were certainly on the back foot, experiencing a significant portion of the Exalted Quadrant’s might for the first time, their tactics weren’t entirely shattered. They were learning how to best deal with their enemies, and they thought they were adapting more quickly. Only time would tell, of course.

-----

Hoyt and Prospero found themselves dealing with the Disciples of the Beyond more often than not. The reason for that was quite simple- they were more capable of combat in open space than many others. And as it turned out, distortion beasts were quite problematic for most fleets. Even fake ones.

At first, a sect centered around summoning distortion beasts had seemed like a rather limited field. After all, distortion beasts couldn’t be everywhere, could they? Hoyt had certainly thought that. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

Oh, it was obvious that they made use of projections more often than not, but some information the Alliance had learned indicated that was more for their own safety- or for time efficiency. Regardless of how many there actually were, the number actively interested in a particular area of space was quite limited.

Still, Hoyt found their regular tactics quite effective. The Disciples of the Beyond could display strange abilities when acting individually, their attacks often traveling through subspace, but it was their combined techniques that really put them in the spotlight.

A few thousand Disciples of the Beyond together could make a moon sized projection of a distortion beast, complete with all of the difficulties that came with fighting such things… like figuring out what could even be attacked to begin with. And the Disciples of the Beyond didn’t leave themselves vulnerable either, instead folding space around themselves and almost molding their own bodies into the projections.

There was something about the chaos of being assaulted like a creature that was only mouths or tentacles that was unsettling, as distortion beasts eschewed all concepts of how creatures should function normally. Though as a projection, Hoyt actually thought it wasn’t as bad. It was just a construct of energy that attacked in odd ways. No need to think about how it digested things without a stomach, or how its body parts seemed to overlap with each other.

It was still a massive pain, though. But at least when attacks came from nowhere, Hoyt could be on fire. At the very least he would eat away at some of the enemy’s energy stores every time they attacked him.

Projections of distortion beasts were also imperfect, and either way Prospero and Hoyt found themselves exceptionally suited to the task. Pieces of an enemy appearing and disappearing was problematic for most people, as they would put a great amount of effort into an attack only to find their target wasn’t there. While they could recoup some of that energy given they didn’t strike a target, longer range projectiles were often lost.

The orbital version of Falling Stars, however, allowed for great sweeping attacks that didn’t need to aim at specific parts of a distortion beast or a projection of one. Hoyt and Prospero had trained to lose only a small fraction of the energy as the attacks remained in orbit. The biggest weakness was if the attacks hit an unimportant part of the enemy, as the whole attack would generally be wasted when one of their ‘stars’ exploded. Fortunately, proper distortion beasts didn’t seem to have the intelligence to do that on purpose for the most part and the projected ones were controlled by humans who had their own flaws.

The same combining of energy into one large mass that allowed them to create the dangerous projections in the first place also meant that finer points of control were often lost. Even if a portion of them wanted to trigger the Falling Stars to detonate, they rarely actually managed to assume control of the various parts necessary.

And it wasn’t just Hoyt and Prospero against all of the forces of the Disciples of the Beyond. They just represented one of the biggest threats. They still had fleets and other cultivators to call upon, even if getting the necessary experience meant an unfortunate number of pilot losses.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Planetary defenses were actually also highly effective. Computerized orbital platforms were getting more common closer to the core of the Scarlet Alliance, and for projections of distortion beasts they could be tuned to take advantage of the unintentional patterns that the Disciples of the Beyond employed.

The archers Alva and Kseniya were of great help as well, specifically making use of techniques passed on by Anton to fire their own shots into subspace. That not only allowed them to target vulnerable parts of distortion beasts, such as things went, but also to target the actual cultivators every once in a while.

However, the Disciples of the Beyond had their own Augmentation cultivators as well. One of them by the name of Zhelyazko was able to fight on his own as if he was a modestly sized distortion beast- though that could still stretch to many hundreds of kilometers. More than that, he was less predictable than the lower ranking cultivators, not focusing on individual targets or even always attacking in sane manners. Rumors were that he had been devoured by a distortion beast in training and gone insane… but he was still deployed onto the battlefield by the Disciples, so he was clearly able to be directed to some extent.

Wherever Zehlyazko appeared on the battlefield turned into a massacre… though at least it appeared that it wasn’t only Scarlet Alliance cultivators that fell to him. A small comfort in a war where countless lives had already been lost over just a few years.

-----

Information. That was key in a war. Velvet knew this, and so she did her best to watch the enemy. Having advanced to Augmentation, she was extremely difficult to detect. Her experience still kept her cautious as she looked for secrets.

She wasn’t quite certain what she was looking for. Exact numbers of enemies would be nice. Future plans of attack would be valuable, though they could mostly react to enemy movements on the fly. It was unlikely she would come across a list of enumerated weaknesses of their Augmentation cultivators- indeed, she would find such a thing highly suspect.

If she found a good opening, she might assassinate some key figures as well. If she could take out an Augmentation cultivator away from the battlefield- with a high assurance of her success and ability to escape- that could help shift the war. Even the Exalted Quadrant would grow hesitant if they lost a few Augmentation cultivators.

Currently, Velvet was following a trail of information to one of their border planets. Occupied by the Exalted Quadrant, certainly, but still part of the Scarlet Alliance. Espionage on planet was much easier than spying on a fleet- finding her way onto the wrong capital ship could be a deathtrap. Velvet could move through space on her own, but the formations of a ship could potentially be tuned to keep everyone inside if she was spotted, and her freedom of movement was the most important feature she had to keep herself safe. She was capable in direct combat, but it was always safer to avoid it, especially alone.

So far the string she was following had proven useless. So many things turned out that way, and Velvet would not let it get her down. But she had found a few mentions of someone important staying with a particular rear fleet, and there had been a number of small shipments that didn’t seem to be carrying anything important. Just random luxuries.

And if Velvet knew powerful cultivators, they loved their luxuries. Especially the worst ones. Sadly not worst in terms of power, but attitude. Sadly, selfish cultivation styles tended to be similarly effective to altruistic ones, or perhaps even more effective as far as a single cultivator went. It wasn’t crazy, of course, but if the only methods to cultivate were purely cooperative the world most likely would have turned out far better.

Velvet walked down the streets towards her destination. The best part about infiltrating conquered planets was that the enemy had to either accept whatever defensive formations remained or put up their own temporary and thus exploitable ones. Slipping into the city had been easy, and she was already inspecting the flow of energy on her target building. It had a serious gap right where there was an open window. An easy trap… but she’d inspect it properly up close.

Velvet kept her cultivation tightly drawn in as she passed many individuals who didn’t have any inkling she was there. Most were those occupying the planet, but this was a city where people lived and worked. While they wouldn’t want to be out on the streets, sometimes they had to. Avoiding them was equally important as avoiding everyone else, as an odd reaction from random civilians could set people looking about.

The window was safe. Velvet determined that properly, but she felt an odd flow of energy inside the building, past the formations. It was difficult to describe it, but that seemed like just the sort of thing she should investigate. Cautiously. Before she entered, she took a look around the outsides for entrances and exits.

She climbed through the window and into the building. Doors were annoying but something she could deal with, projecting a sense of them remaining still while she opened them and slipped through a small crack.

Velvet kept in mind the various windows of the building, should she need to run into a room and leap out one to escape. That knowledge also gave her a good picture of the internal structure.

As she was walking down the hallway towards the source of the disturbance, a cracked door opened directly towards her. Eyes landed on her, piercing into her soul. Even with his energy restrained, the man practically glowed.

Velvet’s immediate reaction was to do nothing, which was much harder than it seemed. No sudden intake of breath. No change in her heartbeat, as much as she was able to control it. Her energy remained tightly under her control as the man looked at and through her.

She wanted to run, but that would only be worse. If she hadn’t been spotted it would likely reveal her, and if not… it was already too late. She stood in awe for a few moments as the man turned away. Up close his energy was not as well concealed as from a distance… and she could feel the power of a Domination cultivator. And unless the Citadel of Exalted Light had two of them, it should be Zaur Beridze himself.

What an unfortunate piece of information to confirm as truth. But all the more important that she report it as soon as possible. Sometime when she was away from the man himself, obviously. And probably the planet. She would be taking the long way back, it seemed.