Elder Cultivator

“I don’t get it,” Everheart said. “There weren’t even any people there!”

“First of all, there were hundreds of people from the Sylanis Cluster,” Anton corrected him.

“Are you saying you don’t approve of me killing them?”

“... Second, it was completely unnecessary to destroy a whole planet for that.”

“Medao was a dwarf planet at best,” Everheart shrugged. “If we need another pile of rocks in space I can toss one together.”

“... Do you break everything you touch?” Anton asked.

“Yes. But it was going to happen eventually anyway.”

“Planets don’t just fall apart.”

“It’d go out with the sun,” Everheart shrugged. “In like… a few billion years or some crap like that.”

“I fail to see how an event that will happen far beyond your lifetime excuses just smashing things that aren’t yours.”

“First of all, I’m planning to be here when the sun goes out. Well, not here here.” Everheart shrugged, “I’d watch from the edge of the system, maybe, unless I was busy. Just because you’ve accepted being mortal doesn't mean I have.”

In a way, the admission was disturbingly comforting. At least it implied that Everheart would be sticking around and keeping most planets intact, unless he wanted to hang around in an empty system. “Sure, fine,” Anton shrugged. “But consider this. Now Medao doesn’t exist for those billions of years. I hope you enjoy your Worldheart.”

“Pfft,” Everheart waved Anton off, “A tiny, energy lacking place like that doesn’t have a Worldheart. Anyway, I still argue that blowing it up was the most efficient and nothing important was lost.”

“I’m just worried about where you draw the line… if you have a line.”

“I totally do,” Everheart said. “I won’t do something like that if allies were present,” Anton nodded- too early, apparently, “Unless there were at least like, twice as many enemies in terms of total combat power.”

Anton put his head in his hands. “Whyyyy.”

“They’d probably die anyway.”

“Or you could help them. The normal way.”

“Wow you pansy. Fine, I’ll shift it to three to one.” Anton’s eyes narrowed. “... Four to one?”

Clearly, this was a topic they weren’t going to agree upon. Though ultimately Everheart settled Anton down by pointing out that he couldn’t efficiently destroy a bigger planet, and wouldn’t destroy something with enough value for allies to bother holding. And though Anton wanted to complain more about what Everheart had already done, it was useless and he was at least partly correct. No real harm was done, and stopping the Sylanis Cluster from setting up a foothold was valuable. Though the fact that they seemed to think they could get away with it was concerning, Everheart assured Anton nothing else had slipped into the system at the same time. Hopefully, the same was true for Rutera. And now Anton had to check. He really didn’t enjoy the idea of patrolling thousands of space rocks.

-----

President Park preferred to keep eye contact with those he talked with. It showed he was listening, empathetic, a reasonable politician. He liked to think he was, but it was hard to interact with something alien. Across from him on the table of the meeting room stood an ant. A very large ant that President Park had been informed had killed a Worldbinding cultivator. That didn’t seem physically possible, given the video they had of Anton and now Nthanda. General Nicodemo’s prescense was reassuring… and if negotiations went as they should, President Park didn’t need to worry about whether or not this particular individual could kill him. He just wished it had a readable face. That she had a readable face.

It didn’t help make him less nervous that next to her on the table were a hand and some toes. Nicodemo was acting as the interpreter- somehow, even with his busy schedule the man had learned the void ant’s sign language. President Park, meanwhile, had found himself busy with other things and had kind of assumed he didn’t need to know it anyway. An assumption he was regretting. He trusted Nicodemo’s interpretation was accurate, but requiring a translator weakened his bargaining power.

“The Great Queen says that due to her valor in battle and assisting Rutera with their foes, the void ants should be allowed a small colony upon Rutera- with full rights as humans. The tokens she brought are from a Worldbinding cultivator.”

President Park almost said something that would have weakened his position, but he remembered that just because he didn’t speak the void ants sign language, that didn’t mean the Great Queen didn’t speak Ruteran. Understand it, rather, since she didn’t have vocal chords.

“That… we would not be entirely opposed to a larger void ant presence upon Rutera,” President Park said cautiously. “But a full colony is a big step.”

The Great Queen signed further. Nicodemo didn’t immediately interpret, instead turning directly to the president. “My apologies, President Park. I made a previous deal with the Great Queen to campaign for the void ants presence should the Great Queen slay one of their Worldbinding cultivators. I think it’s only fair to say that while her efforts were not yet fully successful, she has still provided a great service. I implore you to consider her offer.”

“I see,” President Park nodded, addressing the Great Queen directly. “I personally have no problems with such a presence,” except for the fact that void ants and the Great Queen specifically were terrifying. “I think I could say the same for the vast majority of Rutera, if they know anything about your people. However, in times of war such as this, undergoing too many other great changes might be unwise.”

“She requests a small diplomatic compound, with no breeders. That might get people more used to the idea.”

“How large?” President Park asked. Did the embassy have the funds for a new building? Or the space?

“Just enough for ten thousand individuals, she says.” While President Park had a minor heart attack, Nicodemo continued, “They would require ten kilograms of food per day- energy rich- and ten square meters of space.”

“So that’s, what…” President Park frowned. He hated doing math during diplomacy, he always screwed it up somehow. “A square kilometer of land?” he finally arrived at. “That’s pretty significant.”

“Ten square meters total,” Nicodemo clarified.

For a moment, President Park had forgotten that, though large, these were ants. “Oh. Like, a room? We can absolutely spare a room or two.” And with that, proper negotiations began. President Park knew there would be future headaches in the future. Even integrating with the cultivators from Ceretos and Rutera had been difficult, and they were human. But President Park had prepared himself for diplomacy with aliens since their space programs ramped up. He just hadn’t expected them to be so alien yet also not. And for the first ‘aliens’ to just be more humans. They’d really been lacking critical information about the wider galaxy.

-----

“... You were right, this is much better,” Merve admitted to Anton. “I… places of power were very restricted previously. Rutera didn’t seem particularly much worse than what I was used to.”

At the current moment, the two of them were present at the Order of One Hundred Stars, at the peak of the mountain where some energy naturally gathered more densely- though the difference was not as significant between the peak and down below as it had once been. That was because the overall energy density was higher everywhere. The latest generation was adapted to areas rich in natural energy from before birth, though certain areas were still uncomfortable for those of lower cultivation.

“How did you even reach your current cultivation if Rutera was not that much worse?” Anton asked.

“By consuming energy rich resources… earned through service to the powerful sects, of course. The rewards were not so generous as what you offer here, however. Not for people like me.”

“People not born into clans or powerful sects, you mean,” Anton nodded. She’d previously explained such things. “It’s generally better here.” Even the worst sects recognized that meritocratic advancement gave them stronger cultivators. Some were just hesitant to let people grow too quickly for fear they would break away once they felt strong enough. The Order dealt with that by doing their best to assess the character of the individuals they recruited- both before them joining, and during their development.

People were free to leave if they so chose, but there was little benefit to that. The Hundred Stars was a sect that paved the way to ascension- there was little better on offer, for those who could follow the sect’s rules. They were not particularly onerous, either, but not everyone fit into the mold. Some were directed to other places that better fit them. Some were rejected. Others, generally those who had committed crimes and tried to conceal it, were dealt with. Nobody was arbitrarily killed, but there were laws in place for a reason. And these days, going from country to country to escape criminal consequences was becoming less and less useful. The two continents were closely tied, and even the Exalted Archipelago worked with them on such matters. And some sects were actively helpful in general.

“How do you like it here?” Anton asked Merve.

“I… still have trouble believing that any of this is real,” she admitted. “I have a few friends, I think. But I’ve just barely accepted there was one decent person like you. So many people also seeming that way together makes me think they’re hiding something. Even if I trust you that this is all legit.”

“... the Sylanis Cluster seems awful,” Anton said for perhaps the hundredth time.

“I can’t say everyone had the same experience as me, but yeah. It was garbage. Can’t you get that Scholar Eulogius guy to blow up some of their planets? He seemed into that idea.”

“No. For numerous reasons.”

Merve sighed, “Yeah, I get it. I appreciate that you purged the Ultimate Phoenix Sect. They were some of the most prominently visible garbage. Did you know there used to be like, a dozen phoenix sects before I was born? They ‘merged’ with the rest… which basically meant killing anyone who wouldn’t join them and enslaving all their phoenixes.”

“The Ivory Maw seems worse,” Anton pointed out.

Merve shuddered, “I spent most of my life operating on the assumption that they were boogeymen. Something made up to scare kids… and adults.”

“Yeah, sorry. It seems they’re real.”

“I had a list, you know,” Merve said. “A mental one, of people I wanted to get revenge on. The funny thing is, most of them died unrelated to me. And now I just don’t want to see their faces again. I get to sit here not worrying about anyone killing me and striding closer to Ascension.”

“You made your choice, then?” Anton asked.

Merve shook her head. “I don’t know. I just always defaulted to that idea so that I could get away from everything. Plus, Worldbinding cultivators have to be exceptional. If not, they get chopped up by the others pretty quick.”

“Is that why there are only a hundred in the Sylanis Cluster?” Anton asked. “Because if Ceretos had those numbers we’d have… more.” If it scaled proportional to population, Ceretos might have four hundred? They had eight at around two billion people, and the Sylanis Cluster was said to have about a hundred billion. And that wasn’t mentioning that Ceretos had less than thirty years of this, while the Sylanis Cluster had centuries. “I’m hoping we can take more advantage of that. Get them to fight each other.”

“I wish I was engaged enough in politics to make suggestions,” Merve shook her head, “But you already know what I do. Open hatred doesn’t really last long, and I have no idea about secret grudges.”

“Well, that’s fine. We’ll just deal with what we have.”

Anton didn’t have to have a reason to return to the Order, like he was now, even during war. Rutera needed him, but this was his sect. Even so, Anton didn’t just leave them alone. Nthanda and the Great Queen were there. And he was working with the official policy right now. They weren’t just planning to let the Sylanis Cluster keep staying on the offensive, but the trifold alliance was in a moment of internal focus and rehabilitation. Weos had their new Assimilation cultivators still settling into their power, everyone on Ceretos was training, and Rutera was definitely not about to unveil their new secret battleship. In a couple years, maybe. That thing was taking forever to build, so it had better be good. It would have been finished already, but they kept coming up with more improvements and loftier ambitions as they realized just how strong Worldbinding cultivators were and what they needed it to be able to withstand if it wasn’t just going to be an expensive pile of junk after one battle.

Not that anyone had told Anton all that. Officially.