Concentrated rays of sunlight shone with great intensity onto a tree that had only just started to look like something more than a sapling.

“Are you certain about this?” Anton asked. “The tree could very easily overheat and dry out.”

“No worries,” Lev said. “This lady’s tougher than that, and she’s got plenty of extra water in her. What she really needs is something to push her towards her true potential.”

“A lady, huh?” Anton asked.

“That’s right. Well, grasping willows aren’t necessarily one or the other, but it’s all about personality. And this little lady here is a stubborn one.”

As he spoke, leaves poked out of branches, unfurling. The trunk thickened, and the tree grew taller by a hand’s breadth in only an hour.

“As tough as she is,” Lev admitted. “That should be enough for now. The soil needs some work, and we could use a good breeze to filter out the air around here.”

Anton released his concentration, letting the sun return to its normal intensity in the area. “So, how is it?” Anton asked.

“How is what?” Lev replied.

“Your path to Enrichment. There aren’t many of us. As an outsider your path looks quite spectacular, but I can’t judge it for you.”

Lev nodded, “It’s good. All around, more trees are growing. I doubt I’ll ever have as expansive of a domain as yourself, but wherever they strike near here I’ll be ready.”

“I’m always glad to hear that,” Anton said. “Though I have concerns about Enrichment cultivators in general.”

“In what way?” Lev asked.

“I just wonder if it’s the right path. There are so few of us, compared to Augmentation cultivators in the upper realms. Or is it that we encouraged too many of our talents to leave us?” Anton shook his head. “Of course, I wouldn’t want to stifle anyone’s growth. They made the right choice for them.”

“I thought you were supposed to be the old man,” Lev said. “What happened to your patience?”

“Bah, at this point I’m hardly older than you,” Anton said. “And I’m willing to wait. I just wonder if we can stand up against the enemy’s Augmentation cultivators, let alone… well, anyone in Domination.”

“We last fought an Augmentation cultivator before anyone was even close to Enrichment,” Lev pointed out. “Don’t forget, this is our territory. Just as you can’t go to the upper realms, they shouldn’t be here.”

“It would be nice if they die more quickly, then,” Anton said.

“I guess we’ll have to manage that ourselves. But at best a small fraction of them will be native to the lower realms, and even that would only minimize their vulnerabilities. They won’t be able to recover Ascension energy. I imagine any of us could take down an Augmentation cultivator without trouble now. More than one, probably. And we’ve still got plenty of time for another whole wave of Enrichment cultivators.”

Anton nodded slowly. “I suppose even those of Akrys have the chance.”

“Exactly,” Lev replied. “Not to mention the void ants. The Great Queen could probably take on any Augmentation cultivator.”

“And if they send a Domination cultivator?”

“For each one they send, we kill one,” Lev declared.

Anton chuckled. “I like it. Too bad we can’t warn them without giving away more than we want to let on.”

“Anyway, I wouldn’t worry about Domination cultivators. Unless the upper realms commit literally all of their forces to wipe us out… in which case our friends in the Scarlet Alliance might be able to make sure they don’t have anything to come back to.”

“They still have many more systems under their control,” Anton reminded Lev. “A vast number of people.”

“And what have they done with it? Hardly more than the Scarlet Alliance has done in half a cycle. “ Lev looked at Anton closely. “You didn’t really doubt anything, did you? You just wanted to test my resolve.”

“Who knows?” Anton shrugged. “Even old men like me have our moments of worry.”

“In that case, you should drown yourself in practice. Speaking of which, I’ve seen some of your training. I dare you to try to hit the Grandfather Willow from here.”

“We’re in the wrong system, you know.”

“Isn’t that the point?” Lev asked. “You can hardly shoot between realms if you can’t manage two little bound systems.”

Anton began to stretch, clutching his bow in one hand. “People are going to be upset.”

“Think of it as a test of local readiness,” Lev replied. “People need to be able to handle it. And nobody sheltering under the Grandfather Willow will be worried.”

Anton nodded. “You’d better be prepared for it to leave a mark.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Oh? Talking like that, I’d be insulted if you didn’t,” Lev replied.

There was something itching in the back of Anton’s mind as he took his shot. Frankly, he had sufficient practice that shooting between bound systems was actually more than reasonable. His arrow and thus his self pierced through subspace, breaking the effective speed of light by many orders of magnitude. He passed out of Rutera’s system and towards Ceretos, ready to weave around anything in his way should anyone be so unlucky as to be directly between two random points in space.

The only real issue was satellites around Ceretos, but they were spread out enough that it was easy to avoid them with negligible course correction. The planetary barrier over Ceretos should have blocked Anton, but the Grandfather Willow reached up and out towards him, stretching higher than a mountain into the sky. Anton met the challenge head on, using what energy remained to pierce into a limb.

Lev breathed out slowly. “Not bad. I felt that. You know, it wasn’t that long ago that you could only vaguely tap a planet at that distance.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Anton agreed. “Now then, you should make sure to keep growing your forest. Otherwise you might slip right back out of Enrichment.”

“No chance,” Lev said. “I have some mighty fine forests elsewhere. Vecesta has just been a little stubborn.”

-----

By some standards, Devon was the third and final Enrichment cultivator of the Lower Realms Alliance. His status as an Enrichment cultivator wasn’t in doubt. Somewhere between everything with Nidec and Vrelt and then the whole war with the Trigold Cluster, he had gained enough insight to naturally slip into Enrichment. He could truly chain up a planet if he wanted to, and it wouldn’t just be for show.

No, the quibble was regarding other potential candidates. There were no traditional cultivators just yet, but Paradise’s power was hard to ignore. He wasn’t exactly an Enrichment cultivator, but it was also difficult to say he was not. And there was one more, the most dubious of all- the Great Queen’s strength was almost impossible to measure, but if she got her jaws on anyone but Nthanda they would be toast.

Right now, Devon was once again reprising the role of Aerona’s bodyguard. He liked it, not being directly in the spotlight but still helping things get done. And while sometimes he had to use his power to remind people how things were, it was a relatively easy job. Devon wasn’t lazy, of course, he just didn’t want to burden himself with pointless intensity.

Currently, Aerona was helping to strengthen the security of the Lower Realms Alliance via negotiations with the Sylanis Cluster. Their war was practically ancient history at this point. No, four hundred years was long enough that it was ancient history. Cross pollination between them and the Alliance had resulted in slow but significant changes to the Sylanis Cluster’s culture. As far as candidates for a defensive alliance against the upper realms went, they were at the top of the list.

They’d already contributed Ascension cultivators to the upper realms- though at first those people had been ones who disagreed with the general way the Sylanis Cluster worked. But as direct neighbors of the core part of the Lower Realms Alliance, they really needed to go beyond simple peace.

One of the most unlikely but important contributions had come from Paradise. Or at least as a direct result of his actions long ago. That was the phoenixes, the few that had been saved from the demise of the Ultimate Phoenix Sect. After Paradise moved his home to the sea among the stars, some of them chose to rekindle their connection to the Sylanis Cluster- and the Reborn Phoenix Sect.

They were actually cultivators working from cultivation manuals that had remained at the end of the war, not at all affiliated with the original Ultimate Phoenix Sect. They had used the principles available and the slow exchange of shared knowledge between systems to develop the techniques into something better. Rather than drawing upon the lifeforce of Phoenixes, they had instead learned to share lifeforce between them.

While in some ways it could be looked at as a weakness- the connection made all of those linked together in a battle vulnerable- it was also their greatest strength. The shared lifeforce meant that unless enough damage was dealt to them as a whole, nobody would perish. The weakness was that if they lost they would all die. But if the enemy could overwhelm them so much that they were battered down entirely, would not all of them have perished anyway? At least they could all remain functional until the end.

Of course, Devon’s knowledge of their abilities was mostly theoretical. He had sparred against two or three of them bound together, and any wounds he inflicted were more or less distributed among them evenly. Though he had the feeling that if he managed to overwhelm one with a fatal wound in an instant that they could truly die as an individual. Whether that would kill the others or break the connection he didn’t know, and obviously he didn’t test it. While their position as proper allies was still speculative, it seemed like a great way to sour relations.

As for the actual phoenixes… they had indicated their intention to cultivate together with the Reborn Phoenix Sect. Devon had heard that they had developed a form of speech, but he’d never personally seen it. They were a proud people, and perhaps that meant not speaking to those they didn’t respect. Devon kind of admired that… especially since that meant they weren’t all about pure strength.

Or maybe they were just rude. But that was not his job to worry about. Instead, he kept watch while Aerona introduced them and the Reborn Phoenix Sect. The way the human cultivators actually resembled phoenix energy so closely was quite impressive, especially considering they’d been detached from them for centuries.

“Do you think they’ll actually join together?” Devon asked Aerona when they were alone.

“I imagine so, but it doesn’t matter either way. Whether friends or rivals, as long as they are not true enemies it will bring us closer. And then maybe we can learn more about the systems they know to the west.”

“Oh, you think they know of more inhabited systems?”

“Absolutely,” Aerona said. “More than a few. Some of them have already been revealed to us, but their higher ups assuredly have more kept secret.”

“So will we be visiting them next?” Devon asked.

“Perhaps,” Aerona shrugged. “I would go wherever my heart leads. Or where I am called, if needed. But I would always prefer the former.”

“It is indeed better if everyone can choose their own path. But that can be a bit difficult, the further you go.” Devon scratched his chin. “What do you think about the Shining Cooperative?”

“Reasonable allies. However, they came to dominion over their region rather forcefully. It’s not exactly optimal. Then again, many of the worlds were plagued by the upper realms so they couldn’t do much else without leaving them to suffer,” she shrugged.

“I have to admit you’re better informed than me in that regard. Or most, really. Ultimately, it seems to me making them officially part of the Lower Realms Alliance is unnecessary.”

“Indeed. Pressuring them into being part of us likely wouldn’t go well. And we can rely on them to act favorably, both against the upper realm and the Adamant Federation upon our eastern border. Though perhaps that latter situation might result in more conflict. Others are monitoring the situation.”

Devon shook his head. “If they’re truly cut off from the upper realms, then it would be better to conserve the lives. I have the feeling the end of this cycle will be more than just a simple setback for us if we lose.”

“I agree,” Aerona said. “Though I doubt they will be able to plan for the full expanse of our alliance. Until now, they’ve mainly been dealing with isolated systems who at best had Life Transformation cultivators. And then there was the short cycle…” she shook her head. “I heard about the difficulties, but three systems is far removed from what we have now.”