Chapter 711


    At the end of the day, Anton got away with no cultivators escaping the base, and Derpy having survived. He might have preferred that fewer individuals were eaten by sea beasts, as they didnt always think through whether or not they were swallowing a storage bag. Then again, these particr creatures probably had no prior experience with that. It would be a fun surprise for themter, depending on what was inside. Anton kept track of a few higher ranking cultivators bags, as they might have something important like a key to a vault he would have to retrieve.


    He was uncertain if the base was more or less destroyed due to the unexpected interference. Certainly the beasts smashed things up, but he might have had to do worse himself to aplish the same goals. It was a shame he hadnt been able to capture many people, but that was just how things had ended up. Ultimately, they were only being kept alive to find out if they knew where any more spies were.


    -----


    After the first day of falling, Vari was fairly certain she wasnt going tond at any point. It was interesting, because she could alway see and feel herself getting closer to the below. She could even control herteral position above it. But she never got any closer. Nor did she seem to be able to get further away. In short, she was stuck there. Alone.


    Im going to deck that jerk in the face when he shows up, Vari grimaced.


    Whos a jerk? A familiar voice asked.


    Swiveling in the air, she immediately kicked out towards the approximate location the sound came from. A hand reached up and grabbed her keep, holding her in ce.


    You are, Vari huffed. Seriously, how long have you been watching me fall?


    I just got here, Everheart said defensively. Do you think Im so bored as to watch that for an entire day?


    Maybe, Vari said. How did you know it was that long if you werent?


    Obviously my traps are keyed with rms. I was just here to deal with whoever came here.


    You spatially locked this Vari said. Can I assume its important?


    ? Everheart raised an eyebrow.


    Sonuva- is it all an illusion?


    No reason it shouldnt be. You know how much harder it is to make someone fall foreverpared to <em>convincing</em> them that theyre falling forever?


    ... Why didnt I fly out of the area?


    You slowed yourself down to match thes velocity so you didnt smash yourself, Everheart shrugged. Then you didntmit hard enough to flying away.


    Vari folded her arms. There has to be more to it than that.


    Might be, who can say?


    You could! Vari yelled. Ugh, this isnt what Im here for. Well, yelling at Everheart was always its own reward. But she did have other purposes too. Im here as an envoy on behalf of the Scarlet Alliance.


    I havent even dered war or anything, Everheart said. But Ill dly ept your surrender.


    Vari sighed. Thats not it at all. We want you to help us.


    No way.


    She kept talking while ignoring his objections. In return, we will aid you on endeavors that work towards both of our goals. Like bringing down the Harmonious Citadel.


    And why should I?


    Because even with all of this, Vari gestured broadly, Youll eventually just die alone when someone too powerful for you to deal withes around.


    Ive died before, its not so bad.


    Someone who can properly finish you off. Or you can work with us.


    ... And die with other people around to take my stuff?


    Exactly! Vari said. No, wait uh you might not die.


    Hmm nah. Too boring. With a flick of his wrist he sent Vari spiraling away. Which at least broke her free of the illusion.


    Rather than trying to approach him again, or look for another projection, Vari just pondered at the results. Sure, hed t out declined the offer. But for him, that was actually pretty good. At the very least, the seed had been nted and he would be thinking about it.


    -----


    While Inistra figured out what they were going to do with the spies they had, Anton figured he would spend some time looking around the area. Specifically, he wanted to know if there were any neighbors they could eventually make contact with- or ones that they should specifically avoid.


    They were a bit closer to the border with the upper realms, so if Anton found any systems with active cultivators he expected simr results to Inistra, trapped in the cycle that the Trigold Cluster was forcing upon them. Then again, hed encountered more ces <em>outside</em> of that cycle in one way or another. Weos and Ceretos had just recently eradicated thest of the upper realm spies- and won over their invaders in the second invasion after the shorter cycle. While that didnt mean they were forever going to be able to resist the upper realms, the fact that they could defeat Augmentation cultivators and were only getting stronger didnt say much for what the Trigold Cluster could try in five hundred years. But they werent going to get careless. Oh no, they would be ready.


    Still, along with Rutera that had never been a target and the Snis Cluster that had also managed to clear them out with the advent of their Worldbinding cultivators, that was six systems free from their grasp. Ekict managed the same. The twins ultimately seemed to have lost that battle, but survived regardless. The hidden system of Doruma sealed themselves off so they couldnt be found, and Xicil seemed to be doing fine for themselves, disying nothing worth taking. Then there was Gnadus, which seemed to have nothing going for it beyond difficulty and ice. No invaders would be interested in them.


    On the other hand, besides Rutera all of them seem to have <em>had</em> problems with the upper realms. The various systems shut themselves off for a reason. Perhaps there would be more like them. The lower realms might be undergoing a massive revolution. Or perhaps Anton would find more worlds caught in the cycle. But with the right push, he might let them get beyond. He did keep in mind Tenouna and Shrenn. The Trigold Cluster wasnt above scouring a world if they met with too much resistance. Which just motivated Anton to do even better, and with more than five centuries he felt confident that he and others could be a catalyst that catapulted systems beyond what the Trigold Cluster would expect. And the more that were sessful, the more they would harm their enemies in the upper realms as they did so.


    Anton had already visited some of the nearby stars. With a few months of travel, hepleted his initial survey. In all directions, including above and below rtive to the gctic ne, the closest systems seemed to be uninhabited. That covered an area more than ten lightyears from them, and a few dozen star systems.


    From that point if he were to try to expand out in a circle, he would quickly overwhelm himself with systems. Even if he took no time at all to explore a system- which wasnt actually urate- it would take days or weeks to reach each one. He could easily lose a year or two for just a slight increase in his explored radius. So he continued with his n to focus on a narrow band to the north, towards the upper realms. He had some chance of identifying an upied system from its neighbor, if they were powerful enough to create arge effect on the systems natural energy.


    Anton surveyed the different types of stars. At this point, hed seen almost everything with rtion to stars. No doubt that wasnt actually true- there would always be interesting differences to discover, if he looked at simr things often enough. But at least as broad categories of stars went, hed visited many kinds and bound as much variety as he could while keeping a few open for emergencies. Over thest few decades hed attuned himself to a few stars of various sizes and temperaments, though most didnt have anything he could consider unique properties beyond their star type.


    The most notable exception to Antons list was a proper red supergiant. The twins had allowed him to bind to their blue supergiant- its radius more than a couple dozen times that of Ceretos star- but red supergiants could be even more astounding. Hundreds of times the radius, in fact. It was already hard toprehend the size of <em>any</em> star- with the exception of a neutron star like Azun- so being evenrger was just mind boggling, even if he was used to stars in a broad sense.


    Then, of course, there were things that were no longer stars. ck holes, for example. Anton had no intent to seek them out, and the closest ones that seemed to have been detected were still several times the distance from Ceretos to Inistra. He would <em>eventually</em> make the trip, but considering they didnt produce light or heat, he wasnt willing to consider them a star. His cultivation essence was about growth, and he doubted that consuming power would help with that. Still, seeing one might prove interesting.


    Anton had all of these thoughts during his long treks between systems. Other than that, he could only focus on his movement and cultivate the energy drawn from his bound suns, making sure he wouldnt exhaust himself in the middle of nothing. As it turned out, space was mostly empty so the chances of just running into anything were rtively low. Which was why he was surprised to discover well <em>anything at all</em>.


    He first noticed it because of its energy, making it stand out starkly from thepleteck of it anywhere else. He was almost past it by the time he reacted, as its path crossed with his and his own speed was immense. He could have very easily missed it. No, he <em>should</em> have missed it. Because he was not even traveling in normal space. Anything less than a star should have hardly registered.


    But he felt it, and because of that he immediately began to chase after it. Which is to say, he noted its trajectory as he hurtled past, and hoped that it wouldnt change significantly in the time it took him to redirect his speed. Star Steps allowed for nearly instantaneous changes in momentum, but only when traveling in normal space and not nearly so severe.


    It took him three days to catch it, during which time he should have already arrived at his destination. For the majority of that time, he was second guessing his senses. But there it was, just sitting there. Floating along almost casually, without a star. Anton knew that rogues existed, but hed never visited one. This one was a step more odd, as he approached it in subspace.


    He was careful in his approach, uncertain of why it radiated so much natural energy. He also didnt want to risk drawing the attention of distortion beasts to it, should it actually be inhabited.


    This time he knew he was going to encounter it and was already moving in the same direction as it so matching its speed was an easier task. Then he had to make only slight adjustments to his speed to slowly approach.


    The first thing he noticed were lights. Many of them, standing out withparison to the nearck of light Anton otherwise experienced. The light of stars was vaguelyprehensible within subspace, but this was more real?


    Anton orbited the small several times. It wasnt <em>tiny</em>, but Anton couldnt help butpare to Ceretos. By that metric, it was somewhat small. As for the lights, unless he was greatly mistaken he knew what they were. He would recognize those patterns anywhere, that of cities at night. They were nothingpared to Rutera with its pervasive technology, but even Ceretos before it developed such technology had energy lights at night. This was closer to that, Anton thought.


    Cities. And the patterns of people. He approached, cautiously. This shouldnt be here, and in a way neither should he. He didnt want to end up on the wrong foot, or causing some sort of disaster. So he wasnt going to justnd somewhere. Instead, he needed to observe more.