Elder Cultivator

The techniques Chikere had available to her to reach the lower realms didn’t involve swinging a sword in any way. However, she was also supposed to wait for the flow of the tides of the world to reach its very peak and basically just pull her along. That would be great if she wanted to arrive with the others, but she had the feeling that the Trigold Cluster wouldn’t want her along for the ride. She also didn’t want to arrive late.

So from the edge of the system on the border of the lower realms she accelerated forward, surging towards a particular tide that should bring her where she wanted. Then she added a bit of her own flare, slicing through a portion of space to properly cross the border.

She was swept up in the flow, upper energy leeching out of her. She could have tried to hold onto every drop of that, but instead she chose to let it go, while at the same time drawing in the lower energy to replace it.

The process wasn’t quick- neither travel nor replacing her energy. Both sped up as she reached further into the lower realms, such that after a week she was almost entirely filled with lower energy. Or natural energy, as she was used to calling it. It wasn’t clear if the energy in the upper realms was any more or less natural, but it was certainly different.

If Chikere had wanted to divert her course, even if she were willing to expend all of her energy she was unsure if she could. The partial techniques put together didn’t give any explanation on how one would wind up in a different flow, so she just let it carry her along.

It seemed there was no particular problem with diving in early. She was being pulled along swiftly and there were no problems until teeth tried to bite her in half. They didn’t come from anywhere, they were just not there, and then present.

Each tooth was like a spear, a full cube of them chomping in on her, the teeth passing through each other as they closed the space around her. Chikere had never bothered to sheathe her weapon after departing on her journey- holding it was comforting. She half drew most of her others by the time she counterattacked with a sweeping strike, her blow not hitting just one side of her but all of them, the pattern replicating itself to each side of the teeth-cube.

Recognizing danger, the teeth pulled back, disappearing. Chikere wasn’t sure if she injured the creature. So to make completely certain, she finished her motions of drawing every blade. The field of blades around her combined their potential into a single slash, cutting apart space to strike at things beyond.

An ocean of black ichor leaked from beyond space, flowing along with Chikere along her path. The creature likely wasn’t dead, but at least it was injured. And she was fairly certain it wasn’t following her. She didn’t let her guard down, though.

The black ichor floated towards her, attracted to the only source of anything within the tides. Cutting liquids was easier than cutting space, so she chopped into the goop, killing its momentum and preventing it from coming along with her. She didn’t want to know what would happen if that stuff touched her.

Further weeks passed. Overall, it seemed that moving ahead hadn’t been too dangerous. A single attack by a void beast? She was honestly expecting worse. Though perhaps the smell of it on her blades warded away the others.

-----

Having transcended an entire stage since the previous time, Anton was able to feel some of the more complex subtleties of the tides of the world. There was one current that passed through several systems, specifically curving around Ceretos, through Weos and to the Sylanis Cluster. A winding route, but it at least touched upon all those places.

Not that they thought it would be any different. News from the upper realms indicated each of the different outposts on Tatera had been gearing up to attack a different location, and though the names for the systems didn’t match, other details did. It did seem that Rutera was outside of the path of the current, though not much. It wasn’t clear how difficult it would be to discern their existence and pick them as a target. Hopefully the Sylanis Cluster would be the third target. It would be interesting to see how each of those systems fared. And if the Trigold Cluster was foolish enough to split their armies between them. It wouldn’t matter how many forces they brought if they had to face the still nearly one hundred Worldbinding cultivators there. And even if they focused on one system, it would only take a matter of a week or two for reinforcements to arrive from the other.

Anton kept at least some portion of his attention on the skies for anomalies at all times, so when he sensed something he was ready to act. Though he was quite surprised at what he felt.

He flew up above the atmosphere, trying to get closer to what he was sensing. A source of power was hurtling towards Ceretos at a great speed. That was fine- they were prepared, after all. They had ships in the skies if necessary, and great barriers over the continents that would devastate anyone who crashed into them. Which was perfectly fine if they wanted everyone to be torn to shreds.

“Eulogius!” Anton just barely managed to shout the proper name as he stretched his energy towards the man to shout at him. “Soften the blow for that one!”

Anton had heard that Chikere was coming. He just hadn’t heard that she was coming months ahead of the rest.

It did see that ‘scholar Eulogius’ heard Anton, because the barrier didn’t counterattack as Chikere fell into the atmosphere. She hit it and bounced several times, Anton striving to keep up with her position where she ultimately landed above Facraona.

“Everything is fine!” Anton called down to those below. “Just an ally arriving a bit earlier than projected!” He caught Chikere as she was slipping down the slightly curved barrier towards the ocean. “What are you doing here already? Why didn’t you send a message?”

“I did!” Chikere countered. “Also hello again, Anton.”

“Yes. Hello. When did you send the message.”

“Just before I left!”

Anton felt a slight pulse on his belt. He pulled out a communication device, getting the message, ‘Coming early’. “... For that to be useful your message has to arrive ahead of you.”

“Oh.” Chikere frowned. “... Aren’t messages faster?”

“Through a massive phenomenon that reshapes the flow of energy between the upper and lower realms? One could presume there are some difficulties there.” He took note of Chikere’s missing arm. “I heard you were going to regenerate that. It doesn’t feel like it’s growing back. Did something go wrong?”

“Nope!” Chikere said. “Catarina needed it for something so I made her eat it.”

Anton frowned. “Strange. I hadn’t heard about her sustaining any injuries.”

Chikere shrugged, “Me neither, but she was looking for it before I even asked about the thing.”

A powerful presence approached. “So this is the swordmaster Chikere,” Scholar Eulogius smiled. “Good to meet you. I’ll adjust the barrier to allow you. It seemed wise to blanketly prevent anyone above Life Transformation we did not vet.”

“Yes this is here,” Anton nodded. “Scholar Eulogius, this is Chikere, swordmaster of… oh, I don’t know quite what title would be appropriate. Chikere, this is-”

“Everheart,” Chikere said, suddenly drawing her blades, dozens of them instantly floating around her. They all angled towards him.

“No this is-” Anton tried to salvage the situation, but he should have known better given those involved.

“You know me and dare to draw a blade against me?” Everheart suddenly had a spear in hand, pointed back towards Chikere.

Anton did his best to conceal the situation from those below, covering up the ripples of energy. “Can we please just-”

“Uuuuugh,” Chikere’s jaw hung slack. “Really? A spear? Didn’t you steal like, a trillion sword techniques? Use a sword or it won’t be any fun, old man!”

The barrier cracked as Everheart exploded with anger. “Old, am I? Fine, I’ll show you how to use a sword, brat!” Though he said that, his first move was to toss the spear at Chikere. It pierced through the air behind her, scraping over the continental barrier to end up in the ocean, stabbing into the ocean floor below. Then Everheart drew two long, curved blades. Then he drew more, and even more, as he split apart into a dozen projections. “Don’t blame me for this, I’m just trying to match the number of blades.”

Anton just backed up and sighed. Obviously nothing he said would help. He did make sure his bow was readied just in case he could actually do something helpful.

It didn’t even take a moment for space itself to begin to strain as hundreds of sword moves began to cross each other. Some movement on Anton’s shoulder reminded him of the presence of the Great Queen. He saw her sign something.

“No, I don’t think you need to interfere… yet. Chikere wants this, and I’d really like to have Everheart alive for the war. I can’t imagine him stopping from a small wound, or you surviving if you didn’t directly go for the big moves.”

The Great Queen nodded. She could still be cut apart or crushed- it was simply that the great power of cultivators, their natural energy, would be only minimally effective.

Anton did his best to transmit messages to everyone who would be concerned about this sudden outbreak of battle. He could at least try to keep things calm. And he was fortunate the two were edging out over the ocean, either on purpose or by coincidence.

Chikere didn’t seem concerned about the dozens of blades, matching each with her own- parrying and counterattacking as she saw fit. Surprisingly, neither side had gotten any wounds in the exchange.

Even more surprising was that Everheart was sticking to sword techniques. He wasn’t the sort to actually focus on one thing, and adaptability was his greatest strength. Perhaps that was why Chikere was still alive. Anton also had to readjust his understanding of Everheart’s power. Either he was fully recovered from his injuries instead of mostly recovered, or he was a step stronger than Anton anticipated.

“Ten Thousand Sword Stances. Basic, but good,” Everheart said as they exchanged blows. “And do I detect the style of the Million Sword Vault?”

“Of course,” Chikere said as she thrust with her single sword, intent on piercing through his heart. Only a particularly excessive use of Star Steps that instantly changed his motion saved Everheart from some sort of wound there. “I sense Swords of Heaven and Earth, the Harmonious Citadel, and something else. What is that?”

“I imagine you’re talking about Flickering Moonlight. Impressive, isn’t it.”

“Yes,” Chikere nodded. “Except-” at the same time, each and every one of Everheart’s projections was pierced through the heart, one of the two swords Chikere was matching each of them with slipping past their movements. She used the same move against Everheart, her blade scratching his cheek. Then she looked down at her chest, where a blade had slipped between her ribs and pierced her heart. “Oh.” She managed to speak that single syllable. “A feint.”

Then she fell backwards, Everheart not following up his move- though that blow was sufficient to kill most people. However, it was a clean cut, his energy not exploding out to tear her apart from the inside.

“Don’t worry,” Everheart said, “I don’t intend to cut off the geniuses of the younger generation.”

Anton, with his bow drawn fully back carrying the maximum amount of stolen Ascension energy he could maintain, just looked at him.

Then Everheart was blasted into space by an entire lake’s worth of water as Paradise interjected his own thoughts on the matter.

Anton sighed and moved to catch Chikere, doing his best to keep her blood inside her body as he rushed to the nearest teleportation station, so he could get to Aicenith and take her to the Million Sword Vault. They would be the best equipped to fix the nearly bisected heart, at least of those he was familiar with.

He couldn’t say things had gone too far- not by Chikere’s standards at least- but it sure felt like it. Anton could only hope these two combatants would be as eager to battle the invaders.