Elder Cultivator

There was a lull in the battle as the forces of Brogora took stock of the situation. They were now moving into what had been the outer walls of what they thought was a large area of land occupied by the invaders. They had been half right, as they had kept control of the area… but large portions of the stone had been dug out to great depths. The land had been quarried for some of the valuable stone while various passageways snaked out in all directions to mine any found veins of metals.

No care had been taken to what the area might look like after they left, and while the cultivators of Brogora had at times gone to extreme lengths for resources they at least took some consideration for the structural stability of the area. Now it looked like everything might fall apart if they stepped in the wrong place, though unfortunately the central spire where the large pagoda and other ancient buildings stood seemed quite stable.

One other piece of information quickly came to the forefront. At the unfortunate sacrifice of their tiniest companions, the ants discovered that the formations in the center of the area were actually able to affect them, scorching the first group to attempt to breach the area. Previously certain formations had been capable of preventing them from passing through easily, but to actually burn a whole company in a retaliatory attack was unheard of. Though it was only the weakest of their members, it seemed likely that older and stronger members would still be in danger.

The local formation masters were scurrying about everywhere, trying to take stock of the inner formations and how the outer formations might still affect them. Though the effects had been condensed into the center of the area, nobody wanted to begin an attack and then find they were suddenly subject to a suppressing effect or other dangers.

Nor did the idea of being in the area if everything collapsed sit well with anyone. Cultivators could survive falls from great heights, but combining that with falling rocks crushing them from every side it was far too dangerous for the majority of the cultivators present. Even an Essence Collection or Life Transformation cultivator didn’t want to have to dig themselves out of rubble.

The Black Earth Clan was currently surveying the stability of the area with some of the others, much more carefully now that they realized how much damage there was to the area.

If that was all then the attackers would have still been at a significant advantage. If they were able to set up and entirely surround their enemies, co-opting their formations would ultimately be possible. Unfortunately, power was building up in the center. It was difficult to pick apart exactly how many Ascension cultivators were present, but it was not insignificant. No individual group had come more than five ascension cultivators among their ranks as far as anyone was aware, but this was a combination of many smaller groups of invaders. They had more than just ten or twenty, though their numbers likely didn’t exceed fifty. Even so, it was a worrying amount even with somewhere around half of the continent’s forces arrayed against them.

Whatever they were gathering power for had to be stopped- yet a direct siege was extremely dangerous. It might even be exactly what they wanted, a tight gathering of attackers to destroy all in one fell swoop. Yet the local cultivators didn’t have the luxury of waiting around to see what might happen either.

Those with longer ranged attacks organized as quickly as possible to begin another bombardment. That included the trebuchets, with new operators changing shifts with the first group to maintain optimal levels of power. Whatever they were doing in the center it should be harder to do while under attack. The rest of the troops were poised to move into melee if they had to, but remained at the outer ring atop or around the walls. The area between the walls and the inner section was almost completely drained of natural energy by the formations pulling in power, but more was coming from inside. Much more.

Catarina and the other formation masters began to dismantle pieces of the outer formations in the most efficient way possible- by completely destroying the parts of the walls that had previously sustained the defensive formations. They targeted key points while keeping certain portions that formed an interconnected weave throughout the area. They already had plans for what to do with the formations if they broke through, and though those had to be modified now they still had a basis to act on.

What exactly they were doing was a secret, even from the majority of the army. It certainly couldn’t be explained now where they were close enough to the invaders to potentially be overheard, no matter what precautions they took. Instead they gave orders to people, having them topple certain sections of walls.

“Anton!” Catarina ran up to her grandfather. “I need you to cut these runes into the far side!” She showed him the runes and was able to designate a precise spot they should go. Obviously she didn’t intend for him to walk over to the other side or she could have done it herself. Instead, he made use of his archery skills. He might not have been up to his granddaughter’s level of experience with formations but he had worked with her before. In the first of Everheart’s tombs she had organized their group to deal with formations, and while his position had mostly involved destruction or destabilizing attacks at that point he was now capable of more. He was able to make each shot in just the right spot and to just the right depth, but he could see the actual formation masters were dealing with much more complex problems while some like Catarina organized the others.

The invaders didn’t just allow them to move freely. While they didn’t have a great number of cultivators able to attack from their position in the center they certainly weren’t without some options. While the might find it difficult to kill any of the formation masters, they were able to attack the walls. Especially without formations holding them together the walls were shoddy workmanship at best. It became the job of the majority of the local armies to protect the walls, except where the formation masters said they could let them fall.

The pulsing energy in the pagoda continued to increase, waxing and waning slightly but ultimately growing stronger and stronger. The formation masters moved frantically but with purpose, trying to complete their own designs before the enemy finished.

Then news came from the east. A small detachment of soldiers from Facraona charged up the mountain, mostly Essence Collection cultivators that had not been involved in the main attack. The news they brought was… worrisome. Great power growing in the east that could be felt from the base of the Cragtooth Mountains where they had stood as a deterrent force. The source was fairly easy to pick out as they had felt it many times in the recent days. Paradise.

That was, in theory, a good thing. In practice… it was a danger. Normally Paradise’s attacks had been swift and powerful- even if he spent a minute or so gathering a mouthful of water it was still quite rapid for the volume of water he produced. Only rarely had he built up for a larger attack, such as when their new and yet unnamed inland salt sea had been formed. It was fairly certain he intended to target the invaders, but the potential for collateral damage was not something they could ignore.

After having it pointed out, Anton could feel the power building up. Soon other people would be able to feel Paradise there, well outside even Anton’s normal range. A single point hundred of kilometers away, and a great cause of uncertainty.

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The same young man sat nervously at the base of the pagoda where the Integration masters were gathered. He knew they had some plan to wipe out the enemy forces, but he couldn’t help but wonder if it would be of any help to him in particular. Even so, he couldn’t do anything except provide his own energy to assist them, of specific interest being his ascension energy. That power was what set them apart from the cultivators here in this lower realm, for all the good it had done them.

The locals weren’t supposed to be this strong. The Integration cultivators had assured everyone they had a solution when they came here, and maybe they had been right. But a solution that kept them alive inside their fancy pagoda might not say anything for the rest of them. When the enemy forces began withdrawing he almost wondered if they could even do that. Except with such a powerful buildup of energy, it hardly mattered if the armies from the lower realm got a little distance. Though he was worried about that strange thing to the east.

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The first to be sent away were any Body Tempering cultivators or those in Spirit Building. Riding along with them went the ants, as they were slower than any of the others. Whatever was going to happen, they weren’t needed anymore. And if anything went wrong… they were most likely to die in the disaster that followed.

Essence Collection cultivators went next, and moments later Life Transformation cultivators began to pull away. The formation masters had finished their work, such as it was. And even if they hadn’t, it was too late. The pulsing energy in the pagoda seemed to be sticking to a peak instead of fading now, and a burst of energy from far to the east set them all moving. Lines of energy connected from their modifications and additions to the outer formations, hundreds of formation flags having been set into the ground along with stone pillars like those used by Heavy Mountain Gate.

The rush of energy from Paradise strangely enough seemed to go straight into the air rather than approaching them. That meant the immediate consequences of the attack weren’t felt, but the invaders in the Pagoda were ready.

It seemed the local’s formation wasn’t, though. As ripples of energy spread outward it began to reflect them back but then its energy faded for a moment. And if all of the formation masters had fled like they were supposed to, that would have been the end of that. A huge wave of energy began to flow in all directions, threatening to overtake the fleeing cultivators. But suddenly the huge masses of ascension energy twisted in on themselves, momentarily battering against the Pagoda instead of spreading out from it.

At the same time, a giant wolf and its rider tumbled away from the area, having barely resisted a few moments of the wave of power. The figures quickly found their feet and the wolf moved with blinding speed that would soon overtake the trailing cultivators.

Even for a formation that had been planned out ahead of time, it was impossible for something put together in a timespan of less than a day- and optimally weeks or months- to resist such a huge wave of ascension energy. Even if it was able to capture that energy for itself, nothing was able to withstand the force. The energy wave began to ripple out again at the point the Essence Collection cultivators were starting to overtake the Spirit Building cultivators, kilometers away from the central point. But none of them would be far enough.

Then a column of water flowed from the sky, not forgotten but difficult to track even with its immense power. The arrangement of the energy was much different than the ascension energy, but it somehow managed to match to a certain extent.

The column of water did not rain or fall atop the area, but instead hammered down on it. There was no spreading out as one would expect from such a mass of water being hurled through the sky, and instead it was held tightly in its shape by the power flowing through and around it. In the end it came down in a ‘small’ area less than a kilometer wide. The flow only lasted for a single instant but it dragged some of the surrounding ascension energy back to the center of the area where the failing formation was trying to contain it.

The outer ring continued to expand, unaffected by Paradise’s attack.

Though it was quite possible for all of the strongest cultivators to continue running and perhaps try to outpace the wave of energy, they did not. In such a case it might have been expected for them to simply protect themselves, or those from their sects… but everyone was disorganized in their hasty retreat.

Even so, as the wave reached the rear lines they stood together. The slowest cultivators had been the first to go, and subsequent groups had mostly caught up to them. Everyone got as far as they could, then combined their energies to resist the radial attack.

Fire and ice twisted together with earth, the power of the sun, energy shaped as giant vines, and even mists of blood. The force of the wave of energy pushed over and through the combined barrier… but as it continued to expand it also lost its density of power. More importantly, it lost any form of control turning it into deadly power.

Even the brief collision had been dangerous. Many were injured, some died… but compared to what might have otherwise happened the group of cultivators was far better than they could expect. They were alive, and though it wasn’t completely clear through the fog of energy in the Cragtooth Mountains it seemed that the invaders were not.