Formation experts from throughout the lower realms were gathered together rapidly to deal with the ship captured from the new system. The Runic Complex from Vrelt met with others from the western parts of the Alliance at an empty compound on Rutera.

“Well this is quite interesting,” commented Ashildr of the Runic Complex. “Quite interesting indeed. I don’t believe I’ve seen anything like it.”

“A fascinating break from tradition,” commented Naid Conaire of the Worthy Shore Society.

Third among those with direct access was Ingeborg from Weos. “I believed our discoveries concerning combined energy usage on ships were exceptional, but this is another generation more advanced.”

“If you could, stop marveling for a moment,” Devon interrupted them. “Can you safely remove these people from their restraints?”

“Of course,” Ingeborg said. “They are clearly made to prevent escape, but when subdued like this it’s easy enough to suppress the systems and remove both controller and victims.”

“Then I would appreciate that being done sooner rather than later,” Devon commented. “As will all of them, I imagine.”

“A thorough investigation was warranted,” Ash added. “Direct removal without circumventing the formations would have resulted in a repeat of what you experienced earlier. We will begin with properly detaching the controlling cultivator, as that will prevent the ships destruction sequences.”

To several formation masters, a process that they deemed ‘easy’ still took several hours, though Devon believed some of that was an abundance of caution. Either way, they had soon separated the woman controlling the ship, capturing her and restraining her in their best shackles. Given that they were unfamiliar with these particular enemies, she was also to be placed under constant watch of an Assimilation cultivator.

While her cultivation might be matched with Assimilation, the guard would not be alone in the facility- they were simply meant to watch in case the energy suppression was insufficient and the woman managed to start manipulating formations. They had no reason to believe her personal expertise was responsible for her own ship, but they had to maintain proper caution.

Her detachment was the part that Devon was least interested in. Instead, he cared about the hundreds of enslaved individuals. It seemed that certain sorts of keys were required for their proper release- not physical keys like would fit in a lock, but something that matched the frequency of the formations. The combined work of formation masters produced a formation for the particular ship within the day that freed one room at a time.

The freed cultivators were ushered off the ship, the confusion evident on their faces rapidly diminishing as they were escorted outside, replaced with a more subdued bemusement at their odd surroundings. Rutera had quite different architectural styles than traditional cultivators, so they would react to the large visible differences first.

Then there was the lack of restraints as they were moved along. The compound itself was still guarded but not everything would be obvious to energy senses.

Devon saw a few stubborn individuals not wanting to follow the others. He could understand, of course, but he still remained ready in case they did something foolish. The people guiding them, however, resolved the situation fairly quickly.

“You’re not going to follow along?” an older man questioned a group of a few stubborn individuals.

They crossed their arms. “You can kill us if you want, but we won’t be shoved back in those contraptions.”

“I understand your concerns,” the man said while the rest of the group continued onward. “However, you will miss the information on how to get to the dining room and your bunks.” The man didn’t even address their paranoia- they would either see for themselves, or they wouldn’t.

One of them appeared about to complain, before his stomach rumbled. “Fine, but we won’t let ourselves be taken down easily.”

Despite the tensions, the majority of individuals were easy to direct and the rest weren’t so foolish as to act up. Devon remained nearby, just letting his existence wash over the compound without hiding anything. He was able to take on their combined energy, so dealing with them as individuals would be simple. Cultivators would be able to recognize that.

It was clearly difficult for some of them to accept that they had been rescued, but they should adapt quickly enough once they actually experienced it.

-----

Over the course of several weeks, the freed individuals were provided with food, shelter, and opportunities to cultivate. Devon was a constant presence during the early days, something to remind people of the events that brought them there.

People were also questioned about their home system and the circumstances surrounding their presence on the ship. They were given the option to speak in private, as part of a group, or even not at all. There were sufficient volunteers to provide a clear picture of things, so they didn’t really need each and every testimony.

It was through such questioning that the name Turilia was properly revealed, the name they called their system themselves. They also learned a number of other important details, like the sect the two ship controllers were from.

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The Numerological Compact was technically registered in their databases as a member of the Exalted Quadrant- though only indirectly due to data from the upper realms. There had been no prior encounters with them on any Exalted Quadrant occupied world, and they were generally considered one of the smaller sects. A formation focused sect lacking in notability, by most accounts.

But their presence on Turilia provided a more complete story. By the accounts of the oldest Life Transformation cultivators the Numerological Compact’s current abilities were a more recent development- within the last few centuries. While none of them could precisely explain the cultivation advancements required, it was clear to them that the Numerological Compact had reached the next step of cultivation, another branch of Assimilation.

On the outside, it was quite similar to other communal cultivation advancements like Vincent and the subspace planet Aipra. Akrys was making use of Aipra’s knowledge to do something much the same as well. The prime difference was of course the willingness of the participants, though the reliance on formations was an important aspect as well.

Information from their captive corroborated the same details, though it was obtained through quite different methods, especially the application of truth serums and the like. Torture was both morally repugnant and unreliable, so while mental manipulation on any level was generally discouraged, gathering information from enemies was an acceptable use.

And enemies they were. It was another clear instance of unacceptable intrusions by the upper realms. If the Numerological Complex had simply developed their formations down the path of combining the energy of many individuals, they might find themselves a valuable part of the local populace. Instead, they seemed to be little more than local despots.

The vast majority of those who had been enslaved to empower the captured ship had no excuse given for their abduction- and Devon didn’t find those who were sentenced as criminals to be much more compelling. It was still enslavement, as there was no circumstance where anyone could be expected to be freed after atoning for their crimes. Not that Devon was necessarily a fan of such a structure of punishment to begin with, even if it had been implemented fairly.

With the information the Lower Realms Alliance had gathered, there was no question of if they should do something about Turilia. It was clear from what they had gathered from the captured ‘captain’ that the attacks on Devon and his ship weren’t a random unfortunate circumstance. Instead, it was policy of the system to attack any ‘intruders’. They simply hadn’t anticipated something that could defeat them, and the first skirmish had reinforced that idea in their minds instead of weakening it.

Of course, with two ships gone they would most likely take any threats much more seriously. With time to inspect the ships they were determined to be capable of interstellar travel- if only slowly- so leaving Turilia isolated simply wasn’t an option even if they were willing to overlook things.

Although they had very little data, the ships already encountered seemed to match the minimum standards of an Ascension-class ship, though they required specific cultivators as well. Their captive did not easily share what information she had about their total numbers- partially because she didn’t actually know- but it had to be at least hundreds throughout the system just to guard the borders.

The specs of the Independence, first of the Ascension-class battleships, was still greater than the ships encountered but not by as much as the Lower Realms Alliance would have liked. Even so, they had many generations of technology and great cultivation advancements as well. They weren’t concerned about matching up against such ships either with vessels of their own or Assimilation cultivators. However, doing so while keeping the people on board alive would be a trickier prospect.

Then there were the more powerful ships. Their captive didn’t know much about them, except they were quite obviously larger- incorporating more cultivators as power sources. There were limits to what the core formations could handle, though how much was left unknown. It was theorized that those ships could stand up to strong Assimilation cultivators or the better Ascension-class battleships. They also seemed to control several systems, though the Turilia system was their origin system

With the main limiting factor not being cultivators who had surpassed Life Transformation- indeed, even great amounts of Spirit Building and Essence Collection cultivators were made use of in the two ships they had seen- the total capabilities of Turilia were yet unknown. However, they did have an almost entirely intact ship. While there were contingencies to destroy the ships upon the loss of the controller’s life, they clearly had not expected anyone to be able to overwhelm the systems like Devon did, preventing the cultivator from acting while still keeping them in the command seat.

The formations of the captured ship fortunately normalized the energy from the many cultivators carried, so they only had to deal with the edge effects of combining hundreds of sources of natural energy. Tuning their barriers would likely have been impossible otherwise. Yet the Numerological Compact would also rely on that standardization to gain the quality of power they produced- otherwise they would have a chaotic mess of many individual consciousnesses attacking together. That was ignoring the unwillingness of the cultivators involved, of course.

The Lower Realms Alliance didn’t intend to immediately rush to war. They wanted to be fully prepared, and it seemed unlikely that retaliation could come swiftly. Testing would be required to confirm that the subspace drives were slower than their own, but even if they were the same speed they would have several weeks notice before any ships could arrive. Turilia was somewhere around ten systems distant, so their scouts should be able to report anything long in advance.

That was, of course, if there were no additional extraordinary formations that the Numerological Compact had created. While the ship they captured didn’t appear to have any significant stealth functionalities, they also didn’t expect they had everything figured out. Even if they were beginning to understand the complexities of the formations on this singular ship, there could be more advanced or at least more specialized options.

Bigger ships could also tend to squeeze more subsystems into them, and that would be true of both technological ones and those that were formation based. They also seemed to have solved the issue of energy sources, even if it was in a completely barbaric manner.

If not for the matter of unwilling participants, seemingly only natives of the lower realms, a straightforward assault would have been quite reasonable. But because they had to fight with their hands tied, it complicated things. While they could accept some casualties in a war, it was more complicated when casualties on the other side were something that you wanted to avoid as well. Little good would come if they simply annihilated every ship they came across. Yet they also didn’t want to let their compassion be used against them. Thus, there was much to consider.