One would think that the final guest of honor Everheart was waiting for would have been one of the two Domination Cultivators, if not Vari herself. But perhaps there were even more of them elsewhere. There had clearly been more ships than ended up at this single location, and the banquet hall seemed far more expansive than required for the thousand or so they had around.
Slightly less than a thousand, now, as people died day by day. Not knowing where there was privacy, the cultivators from Ceretos didn’t make anything but comments indicating that perhaps that was Everheart’s intention.
A few people, fearing they were going to be trapped forever, attempted to return to their ships. That results in their deaths at the hands of the formation as they turned to dust- leaving behind their equipment, of course. Everheart wouldn’t waste good loot like that.
Despite the mutual past between the Domination cultivators to murder Everheart before each other, it was clear that their enmity ran deep. The cultivators from the Citadel of Exalted Light and the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance got into frequent contests of will, and sometimes battles to the death in the arena.
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Different people reacted differently to the situation. Chikere spent most of her time training alone. Tauno somewhat brazenly studied the Domination cultivators, even though they rarely displayed their powers. Vari spent a lot of time cussing at Everheart’s projections. Alva spent most of her time at the archery range, shooting thousands of times per day.
Aconite spent most of her time pacing nervously. Chidi, meanwhile, found himself engrossed by the surrounding formations. He had grown familiar with the styles of the Scarlet Alliance- and his mother. While there was a clear overlap between the styles, Everheart’s was still unique… and it alternated between elegant complexity to optimize the flow of energy and extravagant wastefulness using some of the most inefficient arrangements he’d seen.
But sometimes, layered beneath, there would be something else entirely- alternating between genius, madness, excess, and frugality. Chidi’s body itched with every motion, the formation marking he held inside himself reacting to and shifting the flow of energy around him. He didn’t spend time in the library or in any sort of formal training… but at the end of a year he wished he had more time.
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The announcement startled everyone when it came. “The final guest has arrived. You have three minutes to get to the banquet hall before the intermediate zones collapse into nothingness. Deathmatches and challenges are canceled, have a nice day.”
Ripples of energy from Zaur and Ratna were prominent among the rest. Being forced to wait then ordered to hurry didn’t set well with anyone, least of all those who were used to others waiting on them.
And yet, nobody doubted Everheart’s words about the space collapsing around them. They could feel the instability of the area already, and they rushed towards the banquet hall. People began to pour in, and they were able to see at a hundred other entrances.
“Oh, don’t forget your assigned seating!” Everheart’s voice rang out throughout the main banquet hall. “Just search for a mark of your energy, it will be easy to find.” He paused. “Sitting anywhere else would be rude, and you know how I feel about rude guests.” Thousands of people cursed Everheart’s name either externally or internally at the same time… but he did nothing about it. They did believe him about not being in their proper seat, however.
Two gaudy thrones sat at opposite ends of a central table, and it was clear whose energy they were attuned to. The Domination cultivators approached the central area, while the others in the same holding area as them were placed nearby. The same seemed to be true of the other groups, and nobody had to go terribly far to reach their seat. That said, the entire area was several kilometers across, and the room was rather chaotic.
Chidi followed the feeling of his own energy towards a particular table. He was to sit next to Vari, a few seats down on the opposite side of Aconite. Each place was set with what he presumed were fancy plates and silverware, though he could only feel their shape and general durability. There were also glasses for wine, though no food yet. And there were occasionally differences. In Aconite’s seat, for example, there was a deep bowl and no silverware.
“I’d like to welcome you all to my party,” Everheart said, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere and spreading throughout the hall. “I know that some of you want to kill me. Others want to torture me forever. And a few of you just want my shiny treasures. But today, we’re setting all of that aside. It’s time to eat.”
With a popping sound, food appeared all across the tables, along with carafes of wine and other beverages. The food all looked and smelled exquisite. People couldn’t help but begin digging in. Chidi took one look at his food, and subtly sensed Aconite’s reaction. He could feel her gaze, acknowledging what he thought. And… she still ate it. Well, that was Aconite after all. Chidi was having a hard time resisting it himself, but every time his arm moved to grab something, his nerves twitched.
The flow of energy throughout the banquet hall was chaotic as people ate and celebrated. The food was all extremely high quality, meats from powerful beasts and vegetables from ancient fields. The wine was probably a thousand years old at minimum. But of course, what truly guided people’s indulgence was everything around them. Chidi didn’t think he could stop anything, so he simply paid attention as people consumed.
People continued to consume through multiple courses of the banquet. And then, things finally began to slow down as even cultivators hit the limits of their consumption, stuffed to the brim with their energy overflowing.
“I hope everyone has been having a great time,” Everheart’s voice overrode the low hum of conversation. “That is what parties are for, after all. And I want people to know, even I can be generous sometimes. Do you want to know why? Because I have something to celebrate.”
Suddenly, his voice came from a particular location as he manifested in the center of the room, not far from the table with the two Domination cultivators. And it was either a very lifelike projection, or Everheart himself.
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“What am I celebrating? Well, it’s quite simple. Today, we celebrate death.” He shrugged. “Or did you think I poisoned all your food for nothing?” A wide grin spread across his face. “Oh, and don’t worry if you didn’t eat. I’ve also put trace amounts of various poisons in the air you’ve been breathing over the past year while I made you wait for… nothing.” Everheart paused for a few moments, then cleared his throat. “I believe this is the part where everyone tries to kill me.”
A thousand projections of Everheart appeared within the banquet hall with a great surge of energy, but not just him. There were also three others. Rahayu, Luksa… and to the surprise of many a cultivator with the energy of the Citadel of Exalted Light.
“Nadzeya.” Zaur’s eyes landed on her, and she lowered her head. But paying attention to a single pairing was not something anyone could do as a moment later many thousands of enraged cultivators leapt into battle- thought not all of them went after Everheart.
The table with the cultivators from Ceretos were a bit more conservative, though they looked ready to act at any moment. Chidi hopped over the table and crouched next to Aconite. “So… how much of what he said is true?” he whispered.
The wolf growled in response. “I’m attempting to determine that. I’m afraid he’s… mostly truthful. My concern is…” Aconite looked around. “I don’t think this poison is going to kill anyone?” she tilted her head.
A projection of Everheart came flying past them, crashing through the table. Vari stepped forward and stomped on his chest. “What kind of party is this, huh? Poisoning people?” The projection just shrugged and accepted his fate of being kicked to death.
“People are acting irrationally,” Aconite growled.
“Well, that one was normal though,” Chidi reminded her.
His mental focus drifted towards the battle happening less than a hundred meters away, between two Domination cultivators and Everheart himself. He could feel the way formations were interfering with their movements, strings wrapped around and through them. And yet, those strings were snapping and breaking. They were suppressed by the formations, but formations could only go so far against overwhelming power. Once they broke through, most people would not be able to withstand the shockwaves of their battle.
There was another battle happening nearby that was much more interesting to Chidi personally- it was of course Chikere versus Rahayu. It was difficult to tell if it was a spar or a battle to the death… well, with the two of them there wasn’t much difference. Rahayu had the immediate disadvantage, not being in Augmentation yet- but Chikere didn’t seem interested in finishing him off immediately. There was no hatred between them, just two serious sword cultivators who didn’t care if they died along their path.
Chidi shivered as Rahayu’s power spiked. He was beginning to get an idea of the true purpose of this place. Rahayu was not the only one to suddenly break through to Augmentation- or Integration, for those gutsy Life Transformation cultivators.
“Not going to participate?” Aconite asked. “Worries about tainting your cultivation?”
“Well, there’s that,” Chidi admitted as he watched the battles- Tauno and Vari were sheltering their group from most of the danger. “But I also don’t think this would put me on the right path. How’s the poisons?”
“New,” Aconite said. “I’ll be purging these for at least a decade.”
“That’s great,” Chidi said. “I think.”
The hall trembled. “Everheart!” Zaur said, glowing nearly as bright as a sun. “This is where you die!”
A cackle came from Ratna. “Indeed. I must thank you for the tip but… it doesn’t make up for our personal grudges.”
Light streaked forwards towards Everheart’s true body while a sense of nothingness came from behind. They clashed together in the middle, sending shockwaves that pushed the vast majority of cultivators- including those in Augmentation- out towards the edges of the room, those tables which had not already collapsed in battle cracking under the stress and piling with everyone else.
When things cleared a moment later, Everheart stood shakily on his feet, his robes torn and his body bloodied. “But… I haven’t even said… what the party… is actually celebrating…”
“Hmph,” Zaur said, standing in the center of the room with just Ratna’s vague presence and Everheart. “You said it was our deaths, but it will be yours instead.”
“Can you believe… I lied?” Everheart grimaced. “You dumbasses.”
Chidi was still picking himself out of the mass of bodies and rubble when he felt the ripples of energy throughout the system. “... Dammit,” he grumbled.
Everheart stood up straight, smiling. “We’re here to celebrate my advancement to Domination.”
“You might be able to fool others,” Zaur said. “But a true Domination cultivator can tell better. Showing yourself here was a mistake.”
Everheart held up his finger and shook it. “No no no. I wasn’t saying I’d done it. I’m saying it’s happening. Right now. And all thanks to you fools. Your souls will all be mine, and I will become unstoppable.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”
It was interesting, witnessing an event he could vaguely comprehend but not stop. Chidi found himself quite calm, given the situation. Was it Vari’s presence? She certainly looked angry, but not worried. And while there was indeed panic among the people… cultivators who could reach where they had didn’t give up so easily. Which was probably the whole point.
The flow of energy throughout the banquet hall unified into two streams, focused through Zaur and Ratna. Nearly a hundred thousand cultivators launched attacks together, though the two of them determined the main flow. Or at least, they probably thought so. An incomprehensible amount of energy filled the area, focusing on Everheart. An explosion filled the whole hall, cracking through the walls and sending people out into the void of space- there was never room for the various facilities to fit around the banquet hall. Not for so many of them.
The energy collapsed a moment later into a black hole, pulling in Everheart and leaving behind only his right leg. There was a brief moment of silence before the black hole failed, and combined with what had been many layers of spatial distortion people found themselves at the edge of the Everheart System moments later- the two Domination cultivators across from each other. Those who had been a thousand times closer to the epicenter than the rest, and seemed to have sustained some collateral damage.
Somehow, the combined might of Vari and Tauno had kept the Ceretos cultivators together. Except for Chikere, who was still fighting Rahayu off to the side without a care. Until Rahayu lowered his sword. A hundred blades of blood pierced into his skin a moment later. “Next time,” he bowed his head.
“You can try,” Chikere said. Then she looked around. “Oh. Is everyone done?”
“It appears so,” Rahayu said. He swung his sword, cutting open a slight hole in space. Various ships began spilling out. “I suggest picking yours up quickly, in case the system collapses.”
Chidi grimaced. He could feel it, held together by formations both drained of energy and overcharged in the same moments. They really needed to go… not least because the Domination cultivators were unleashed.
That certainly hadn’t been what he had expected, which was in a way the only thing consistent about Everheart.