Chapter 891


    The ship rose up from Kunion. The Great Queen indicated it was the one that carried the worldheart, which Nthanda had to ept. It was concealed from her senses, but unless they couldyer beneath that a <em>very</em> convincing replica, the Great Queen would be correct.


    There was but one question to answer. Where do we bring it down? Do we want to secure it? Obviously they didnt want the Void Scrying Sect to have it for whatever purposes they had. But retrieving it themselves seemed problematic as well. It might look like their goal with the war was to acquire a worldheart, and seem as if they were responsible for the systems destruction. And while the Lower Realms Alliance and Shining Cooperative would know better, it was still something to consider.


    Nthandas bow was drawn back to full. There was no way she was going to let the ship escape. She just waited for the Great Queens response, pointing towards a location. Fearsome Menagerie, she signed.


    Nthanda nodded. With the information they had gathered, that made sense. The shapeshifters werent known to have a hand in the destruction of Zunrose, and they should have at least had a decent sized branch there. That should cause maximum trouble.


    As the ship began to leave atmosphere, Nthandas arrow shot around the, making a full circle before it impacted the ship from her intended direction. She didnt have a direct angle to propel the ship in the direction she had wanted, so she made one. It was easier to take advantage of thes own gravitational pull than to adjust the trajectory of her arrow all on its own.


    The arrow was made out of the sturdiest and densest materials she could get, merely so that it could survive the eleration of her bow. The bow itself had a draw weight that only someone with a body tempering focused cultivation could consistently fire. But here, she only needed the single shot to bring down the ship.


    The ships barrier was destroyed, the impact sending the whole thing off course as the impact was spread throughout the hull of the ship. But that was imperfect, the arrow still piercing through itsyers toe out the other side.


    The barriers broken, Nthanda could sense the worldheart. Which meant she could target it. The ship was going down, but it was difficult to make itnd properly in the Fearsome Menageries territory given its previous trajectory. A second arrow went out, the ship unable to respond with the damage it had already sustained. The captain made a brave and ultimately useless sacrifice as he was pierced through, crashing into the mass of worldheart and being sted out of the ship with the metal.


    Nthanda couldnt have lined things up better if she had coordinated with the Void Scrying Sect cultivators. And the reason they were so surprised was because they focused on predicting fluctuations of natural energy. She didnt have overwhelming power that disrupted their predictions- instead a sort they didnt even consider.


    Nthanda was impressed how the unrefined worldheart held up. It seemedpletely unperturbed at her attack, even without proper working and enchantments. She wanted some. Too bad its origins were so foul.


    As it turned out, the kic energy of a piece of worldheart propelled down from orbit was enough to break throughary barriers and sect covering barriers alike- though in fairness, theary barrier was only at moderate power. It was meant to cover widespread bombardments, not focused attacks. And again,pletely without her intention, Nthanda marveled at the perfectly lined up things as a Void Scrying Sect cultivator crashed into some sort of dragon statue in the Fearsome Menageries sect grounds. Just behind the worldheart ore which did the majority of the damage, obviously.


    Nthanda whistled. I was aiming for the center of the sect, but that was even better than I thought. This should be good.


    The Great Queen nodded in agreement.


    Would it matter that the Void Scrying Sect was shot out of the sky unwillingly into the sect grounds? Sure. But not as much as one might think. This was definitely a time that hotheadedness might win out. And the Fearsome Menagerie wasnt known for being calm and collected.


    Nthanda also hoped the void ants shed flung had properly arrived at her other target. That was still uncertain. Shed find outter, as she didnt want to hang around for anyone toe find her above their.


    -----


    The private was not supposed to be among the elite forces the Great Queen had brought with her. No, frankly he shouldnt have even had a rank at all. He was a drone, after all. It was his duty to mate and then die. And yet, he hadnt died. He hadnt <em>wanted</em> to die. So hed torn off his own wings and tried to blend in by lying with his pheromones as much as possible. Hed joined thebat forces, snuck into the lines of a special forces group, and now his job was to not get crushed.


    Oh, and to not let anyone else get crushed. At least he came with the coordination instincts where they could manage that. Each of them were spread out as much as possible as they neared their target. Being elerated to their current speed had been the most terrifying thing hed ever experienced. He could withstand natural energy with the rest of them, but arms simply werent meant to move that fast.


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    It was looking like he was going to get a new most terrifying experience, as they wereing up on the other end. Their bundle of void ants coordinated as they approached their target and they were just a little bit off. Without a proper word between them, half of them pushed off, sending the others just barely into the ships trajectory.


    The private was among thetter by sheer luck, though he would not have begrudged anyone had he been in the alternative group. This was important.


    The impact of the ship broke many of them, and even the private had one leg dangling uselessly. But enough of them survived, now one with the ship.


    It was to their great benefit that formations were used to make up for ack of perfect air tightness. Ruteran technology had no such ws. Perhaps different, unknown ws, but not <em>that</em> w. Many tiny wires that were easy to bite might count there.


    Either way, the private was one of many who dragged themselves through small cracks in the joints of the ship, working together to get all who were mobile through. Finally, they could allow their bodies to function properly again. Many of those on the outeryer had frozen and lost thest of their air. Unlike the Great Queen, the rest of the void ants couldnt survive in empty space for indefinite periods. Sustaining themselves on only natural energy wasnt sufficient. Though they couldst quite a while.


    As one, they moved towards the greatest sources of natural energy. First were the formations, which they slipped through and then began to dismantle. None of them were formation masters, so they didnt fully know which ones were for barriers, or which ones were for powering propulsion. They were mostly interconnected anyway, so they just began taking things apart until cultivators began rushing over.


    Then the private ended up on the end of a chain of void ants that swung down from the ceiling. Along with a few others, hended on a cultivator and began aiming for all of the most vulnerable points around the head and neck. Upon realizing that their natural energy wasnt crushing the attackers, they began to smack at their own body- sometimes propelled by natural energy. But the void ants were trained about the best ces to move in such circumstances. Most of them survived. And that cultivator, along with the others, fell to their loss of blood from opened veins and to a lesser extent self inflicted wounds.


    More void ants died than cultivators, but there were more of them to begin with. It was an eptable trade. And the private yet lived.


    He was drawn into a mobility formation, a mesh of ants rolling along. He automatically began flexing his limbs to contribute to the momentum at key points. They were headed deeper into the ship, towards the inner formations concealing <em>something</em>.


    There, they found sealed containers filled with many ss vials. The void ants worked together to destroy the vials in any way possible. Unfortunately there was very little natural energy in the substances. Some of one of them washed over the private, and he could feel it eating away at his carapace. Dangerous. But a necessary risk. He only had so much time left, so he charged towards another vial, crunching through the enchanted ss. More substances spilled over him, washing away some of the previous chemicals. But these too were unpleasant.


    Again and again, he and the others broke apart everything they could. The private noted how some ate away at everything but the ss. Others, however, felt rather refreshing as they poured over him. Like pure water. He continued to stagger forward, one bad leg and some partially melted carapace. There was yet more to be done. They didnt need to know what these were for. Only that their enemies saw fit to conceal them.


    Eventually, he reached his limits and consciousness faded but he was left with the satisfaction of a job well done. He wondered if void ants got to do the reincarnation thing that humans did. That might be nice. He would like to live, so he could do more.


    -----


    Zunrose was a system used to heavy traffic, but ever since the destruction of the system very few passed through- even though there was no more danger. Or rather, Varghese wasnt going to destroy ships simply passing through without reason. Not because he had pity for his enemies, but to conceal what he could actually do with the distorted neutron star that remained.


    He felt something entering the system once again. He casually paid attention, until he determined that the trajectory of the handful of ships was aimed towards him. Towards the star.


    If they were simply intending to observe, he would have humored them. But the moment theyunched something towards him, he reacted. His instincts had already been on edge, as they told him these werent curious observers or truth-seekers.


    He drew upon the power of the star andshed out, string thin whips of extremely dense matter slicing through ships and causing them to copse around those very strings as they passed through. A pulse of energy pushed the capsules away from the star, as he was unwilling to simply assume the heat of the star would properly consume them. Not if they were intended for something involving it.


    He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what they were after. He sensed Void Scrying Sect cultivations, and a few more. And he realized that while a worldheart was highly valuable, it might not be sufficient for them to act so brazenly.


    He felt it within the star, when he hadshed out. The core of its power, denser even than the rest of the neutron star. If the heart of a world was of great value, how much more the heart of a star? That might be worth betraying a whole alliance for. Or perhaps it was simply an experiment from those in the upper realms, who thought nothing for those who shared their names down below. Or at least those of other sects.


    Varghese could see either option being the case, and neither option was better than the other. Either way, they would not achieve their goals, and not just because he wanted to protect a chunk of his cultivation.