Elder Cultivator

Claws with the weight of planets struck Tauno, carving into the pieces of fallen foes that Tauno wore as armor. They would last another few blows at most.

The voice of a dragon growled. “What do you gain from this battle?” Yann asked. “Do you seek an end to your meaningless life?”

“If you have to ask…” Tauno said. “I must wonder how you ever reached your current status.”

“Hmph. You are here then to protect your companions? Your allies?”

“No. I’m here to kill a dragon.”

“How arrogant. What do you even know of Domination?”

Tauno shrugged. “What does anyone know of cultivation? I thought about it and…” He pulled from a storage bag a spear made from the leg of a beetle that was larger than his whole body. “I decided my style was working for me.”

The massive form of Yann stretched and twirled around Tauno, completely cutting him off from the outside world as the coils of a great dragon tightened. Fangs chomped down towards Tauno as his spear stabbed up.

There was the slightest flaw in Yann’s form, amplified at the moment Cynbel’s power faded. Tauno’s spear pierced his defensive energy and stabbed into his upper palate. One of the fangs pierced through his whole body.

“However you think justifies your death.” Blood trickled out of Yann’s mouth, the spear not having quite reached his brain. Tauno was satisfied with that, and the incoming attacks that the coiled dragon couldn’t dodge.

-----

Hoyt and Prospero lacked confidence that they could kill Yann, especially without Tauno. However, he had focused on a single target for long enough that they built significant momentum into their attacks. Enough that together they struck with force at least resembling a Domination cultivator. Their combined Falling Stars cracked scales on Yann’s body, breaking through his defenses. Hopefully, their fleets could manage to take advantage of the situation as the cultivator reeled for a few moments.

-----

“Are you ready, dear?” Catarina asked.

“For what?”

“To stand tall and fearless.”

“Absolutely.”

“Good. Because I am going to fearlessly stand next to you. I finally managed to lock onto him.”

A few moments prior, ripples had gone through the battlefield. Cynbel’s energy suddenly faded after Everheart performed a strange attack. Yann took several wounds, small though they were. A perfect moment for the morale of the Scarlet Alliance.

Catarina carved several small runes into her arm, adding to the formations built throughout the system. The concept of blood sacrifice had no bearing on her decision, it was merely the most practically available and defendable location she could manage. ȑáＮỐ𝔟ĚⱾ

Another Domination cultivator’s energy rippled through the area, to interesting effect. The attacks of Yann, the Swirling Swarm, and even Everheart all ceased. Koronis didn’t quite realize how vulnerable she was until her trembling energy was carved away by the roots of the Forest of Death. With a burst of flame, she retreated back to a position among friendly forces.

-----

“Found him,” Durff said, charging towards Shelach the instant he appeared. The Domination cultivator didn’t seem particularly perturbed that he was revealed. He barely reacted to the charge, stepping aside at the last moment while stabbing a needle into Durff’s shoulder.

Chidi’s blade slashed forward, cutting at the energy in front of him. He managed for a single instant to negate the energy around Shelach, preventing him from launching further attacks- but also freeing him from the need to defend himself.

Then Durff hit Shelach from behind. The power of a Domination cultivator was sufficient to protect the man from any harm, but he didn’t manage to negate the momentum imparted unto him. He was knocked far closer to Chidi, who was standing with his empty eyelids open and his face blank. Aconite floated limply at his side.

Needles flew ten at a time, cut out of the air by Chidi in perfect arcs of his sword. They needed no energy to pose a threat, as the poison would incapacitate him- or likely kill him, even with Aconite’s attempts at immunity training. Chidi himself was aware he was decades short of anything like proper immunity to the selection of what they had displayed.

But he found himself able to negate Shelach’s power, so it was a fair fight… to some extent. Shelach rapidly adapted, redirecting needles far around him to circle back towards Chidi from every direction. Moving his body in such a way as to catch all of the incoming attacks was like a bizarre dance.

Shelach continued closer, unafraid. Once he got close enough, he added powders into the mix. Chidi imagined they would seep through his pores. He cut apart the very clouds, his blade not merely drawing a line down the middle. Even without energy, he could alter space to such a minor extent. During momentary lulls in Negation, his energy pushed him towards Shelach to cut the man down.

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Durff joined the attack as well, harrying Shelach with his enhanced body, a single swing of his hammer being sufficient to turn a body to pulp. The poison flowing through his veins didn’t completely bring him down, and he refused to yield. Shelach made only slight movements to avoid the attacks, but found it difficult to pierce Durff’s flowing armor consistently.

Conventional weapons were launched at Shelach, but moment by moment his energy returned, wiping away everything around him before immediately being brought to a neutral state by Chidi. That was the only thing keeping the Augmentation cultivators alive.

Chidi could feel how far he was from his target still. If he took the time to cut open a spatial rift, that single moment might be enough for Shelach to retreat half a system. He had to keep him contained while slowly approaching.

The first to reach him was Half Oink, the modestly sized warthog. The people of Akrys were the most unfamiliar opponents for human cultivators, for they looked like beasts but fought like them. Mostly. Half Oink had two needles in her chest and one in her eye, and she refused to stop. One of her tusks just barely clipped his leg.

That provided an opportunity for Aconite, her forgotten fangs nipping an opposite thigh. She was not dead, as Shelach had expected, her energy merely dormant. She was used to that, as she fought alongside Chidi regularly enough.

A sharp blade appeared in Shelach’s hand, driving into her back. She adjusted just slightly so that he would strike some of her pouches of poisons. They burst outward into the vacuum, clinging to her- and to him.

Some were meant to be inhaled. Some were caustic. Others would seep in through the pores, just like the sort he’d thrown at Chidi. In fact, several weren’t like those. They were the very same poisons, refined carefully by Aconite’s paws.

-----

Timothy wondered if Shelach even noticed the process beginning around him. Perhaps not, with flashes of energy being all that could be experienced in reverse.

Timothy and Catarina knew their son very well. He was best able to fight in a confined area where he could use Negation to neutralize all of the energy around him. That meant that was precisely the conditions they needed to create to kill another Domination cultivator.

Now, Timothy was a barrier just on the edge of that space, slowly shrinking. The size of the barrier he created actually had little to do with its durability and strain, but it was merely a precaution for when Shelach tried to run.

For some reason, some of the Domination cultivators seemed to dislike that they were taking care of the greatest threat to them. Everheart thankfully wasn’t interfering- he was looting corpses while he fought through Exalted Quadrant cultivators. That still left the most present Domination cultivator of the Swirling Swarm, Yann, and Koronis.

He couldn’t have resisted the attacks from the three of them, let alone their sects, all alone. He had by his side Catarina, who was modifying the flow of energy throughout the system to suit their own needs. Then he had all of the Scarlet Alliance- and not just those who were physically present in the battle. No, he also felt the support of those in the lower realms, even if they wouldn’t have even received a message about the assault having begun. And to the west, a lesser but still significant number of individuals- from the Chaotic Conglomeration, presumably.

Timothy held his shield high. He was not afraid of Shelach. That was something he truly believed. He was more afraid of what would happen if they didn’t kill him, not so much the man himself.

Attacks rained down on him. Where he could, he reflected energy back into the diminishing numbers of enemy cultivators. The Domination cultivators wouldn’t go down. Perhaps if he were fresh and several centuries more experienced, he might try. For now, all he could do was continue to hold his defenses to perfection. They would hold, until he had nothing left.

-----

Shelach might have been yelling something, but in a vacuum with no energy to project his voice nobody would be able to tell. Chidi certainly couldn’t read his lips.

Relief had flooded through him that Aconite wasn’t dead. He had hoped, but she couldn’t be immune to everything. Shelach was probably pulling out every poison he had. There were no moments to spare.

Chidi continued his forward trajectory, his sword twisting to slice apart needles- how many thousands had Shelach prepared?- as well as to alter the flow of energy to maintain Negation.

He had faced the strength of a Domination cultivator before. Now, he was more- and his enemy was as well. But long before Shelach had even been a scribbled note given in secret, Chidi had been training to fight him. Or someone like him. He might have preferred if the man wielded a sword.

Any longer, and Aconite would die. It might already be too late. Could his sword reach? Chidi believed it could.

He thought back to the feeling of the Citadel of Exalted Light’s core planet. How it had felt after Chikere conceptually cut it in half. That had been a good strike, he knew even having come far after it was struck. Chidi doubted he could replicate it, as their styles had diverged so much. But he had confidence in his own strength.

His sword chopped forward. His intent was to cut Shelach in half, but he wasn’t even certain that was possible, even if he was getting close. He might be confident in himself, but he didn’t have to count on just that. He would do better to pave the way for victory.

A vertical slice, to achieve Negation for a longer instant. A second, half a second, a tenth? It didn’t matter, it just had to last. The area was small enough, shielded by protection from his father, that Chidi had a perfect reading on the area around them.

For an instant, Shelach stopped- or kept his relative momentum in a particular direction. Either way, his movements were unable to be changed. His arms flailed slightly, throwing needles at a speed barely better than a mortal. Stabbing into Aconites fur… and barely piercing.

Chidi didn’t even know what killed Shelach. All he knew was that it wasn’t sharp. Later, he would find out that one of their perfectly normal ships had finally been able to lock onto him with a laser at close quarters. That was probably the first thing that hit him, though his body was annihilated to a fine dust moments later so nobody could tell. Most likely, some of that dust was horrid poisons.

And thus, the cultivator that was most terrifying to the upper realms- if not truly the strongest- went out without even a sound or a ripple of energy. Only careful review of recordings were able to confirm that Shelach was even present in the remaining matter.@@novelbin@@

But the battle was not over. Not quite. A number of foreign Domination cultivators remained in the Scarlet Alliance’s territory, and they still had their forces.