Venturing into Ofrurg shed light on the situation a little bit at a time. A proper force had been gathered, taking what Graotan could spare. At first there was little to see. Each place they came upon was either destroyed or in the process of recovery. For the latter, the Graotan forces encouraged the various settlements and sects to stay in contact with each other, as they had not encountered enemy forces on the road- or even a long distance away. Even if each only intended to watch out for themself, knowing what was happening could inform them all to be more effective.

Unfortunately, they found more destruction than anything else. Few sects had weathered the invasion, though it also appeared that some had abandoned their land to join forces with others, their fate yet unknown.

The Grasping Willows were not the most prominent or tactically significant allies of the Order, but they were the easiest to reach, not positioning themselves high up a mountain. Just from the status of the sect grounds it was easy to assume the worst, but living disciples could be felt among the ruined landscape.

Large swaths of the forest had been burned quite intentionally, though there seemed to be no purpose to it. The fire would have stopped at the borders of the sect, had its formations been intact. Because they weren’t, the position lost most of its defensive value.

Anton was worried about one thing. He could not feel Lev among the disciples picking through the wreckage. One brave soul ran forward to meet them, exhaling with relief when they sensed allies.

“Where is your sect head?” Anton asked.

“Still up ahead. Near the Grandfather Willow. We are planning to move closer, after this.”

Anton nodded. He couldn’t sense Lev or anyone near the Grandfather Willow, but perhaps there was something he was missing. As they approached it became more clear. When he finally sensed Lev, and others with him, Anton realized they were so much more attuned to the Grandfather Willow that they felt like extensions of it, with Lev being nearly indistinguishable except for the fact that he was in the shape of a man detached from the tree.

The rest of the forces from Graotan generally broke off to rest or find ways they could help, but Anton continued forward to find Lev planting rows of herbs. The strange part was they were nearly grown, not seedlings. “I’m glad you made it,” Anton said by way of greetings.

“Anton,” Lev smiled. “I am glad as well. We almost didn’t. What about Graotan? How bad was it?”

“Better than here, perhaps. We were well organized, and the largest cities were able to support themselves. Five ascension cultivators came for the Order, but we fought them off with all our might… and they ran away instead of killing us. With the time to recover, we eventually managed to kill the rest. What about here?” Anton scooped up some of the herbs, determining they had likely been plucked from the main sect grounds. And given the stylings of the storage bag Lev was pulling them from, these had been recaptured from the invaders. He began to help Lev plant them as he studied the man who still had something off about him.

“Just one ascension cultivator here,” Lev admitted, “But truthfully we were not prepared. It was only by relying on Grandfather Willow that we were able to fight. Even then, it was close.” Lev shook his head slowly. Anton finally realized what was odd. He was used to Lev using his own natural energy to control one arm, so seeing him control all of his limbs the same way almost felt natural.

“It seems like you made some sacrifices.”

Lev shrugged, “I was too slow on some major insights. Perhaps I might have more easily swayed the tides of battle otherwise. But considering we expected destruction, is this not good enough?”

Anton nodded. “It will have to do. It is good to see you made it, but we will have to move on within a few days. We don’t know what’s happening elsewhere.”

Lev looked directly into Anton’s eyes. “Aren’t you going to call upon us for aid? We are allies, after all.”

“That…” Anton grimaced as he looked around at the trampled, burned, and uprooted forest around them. His eyes settled back on Lev himself. “It seems like it would be inappropriate.”

“Don’t make me beat you up and force you to take me along,” Lev said. “I don’t have to be next to Grandfather Willow to cause you trouble.”

“I’d be interested to see you try, in other circumstances. But you would know yourself and your sect best. If you can fight, we do need everyone we can get.”

“That wasn’t so hard was it? Just because things are a little hard for us doesn’t mean others don’t need us. And if none of this-” Lev gestured to the area around them, “-is still here when we get back, so what? It will grow back. Grandfather Willow won’t be going down though. Not without a full army that isn’t attacking. And if we lose him for the sake of the world, I can just grow another.”

“I like that confidence,” Anton grinned.

Though Anton would have liked to spend a decade or two in the area helping put things back together, they had to get going. The next day they moved on, leaving behind the injured and some to watch over them- while beginning to put things together again.

-----

Along the way they encountered more isolated groups, which were precisely the most vulnerable if any invaders should return to the area. Some were convinced to temporarily leave their land to shelter with others, while others were simply looking for a proper cause to join up with. The army from Graotan swelled with forces from Ofrurg.

Signs of invaders were beginning to appear, either markings of their passings or actively sensing them in the distance. Some came far enough within Anton’s range that he could have shot or killed them, but unless they came close enough to get a proper sense of their army he left them alone. He didn’t want anyone knowing exactly how far his effective range was, and he needed to conserve his energy. The last few weeks had been full of intense fighting and a deep fatigue had built up. Even when he recovered to ‘full’ his maximum was temporarily depleted. It should eventually recover or even grow given time, but he needed more rest. He only took what he absolutely needed to and pressed on. He could rest later… or never, if it came down to it.

Their next goal was the Glorious Flame Palace. No doubt that as one of the major sects they would have been hit harder, but no word had come from them to any of the places they had yet visited. Some cultivators relayed how they had sensed the descent of Ascension cultivators and other invaders in that direction- something that even the weakest cultivators were able to feel from afar- but nobody could say if the numbers they had sensed had all converged on the Glorious Flame Palace or what had resulted from it.

The slopes of the mountain where the Glorious Flame Palace dwelled were difficult to traverse. If they did not have the weaker cultivators with them the trip could have been cut short by several days, but the longer and smoother routes took more time. They got close enough for Anton to sense the general area long before they arrived, given their winding route, but Anton couldn’t really tell what was happening.

Glorious Flame Palace encouraged the volcano they lived on to be more active, creating large amounts of heat useful for their training with fire. It could be directly controlled or simply studied for their training in fire. Yet Anton couldn’t sense the heat. On the other hand, he couldn’t sense much of anything. Formations of some sort were still intact, which hopefully meant their allies were holding on. As for enemies… they were likewise unnoticed.

When they finally got close enough to see the area with their eyes, Anton wondered if perhaps they had somehow stumbled upon the wrong mountain. Instead of an orange glow, Anton only saw ice covered peaks. Not some sort of seasonal snow, either, but a solid and reflective covering of ice.

The area began to become colder as they approached, cold enough to freeze even Body Tempering cultivators to the bone. With an army working together to fend off the cold it was merely an inconvenience that sapped their energy, but walking up icy slopes made them much slower. Even so, they approached the entrance to the Glorious Flame Palace… and almost died.

At least, the first to step foot close to the entrance felt that was as they went from freezing cold to burning heat. The core of the formation was still further inside, preventing them from sensing anything, but a small group of cultivators showed themselves a moment later. “Welcome to the… welcome,” one of them said, bowing his head. “The Glorious Flame Palace and Frostmirror sect welcome our allies.”

The situation made more sense with that information, though Anton couldn’t help but wonder what led things to this place. He had been aware of the preparations the two sects had been making up to the point of the invasion, and at no point had anything like this been suggested.

Eager to get out of the cold, the army slowly advanced through the wide corridors. The initial blast of heat was greatly toned down after the first, and the inside was generally determined to be too warm instead of deadly hot. That would have been normal, except that the ice continued inside without melting. Was it an application of the ability to burn only what was intended? That would require some impressive formation work, though Anton was aware that both the Glorious Flame Palace and Frostmirror sect had formation masters of their own. Some were even on par with Catarina.

Once they were deep enough inside Anton was able to sense everyone, he could tell that the numbers of both sects were greatly depleted. It seemed the Frostmirror sect had lost nearly half of its members, while the Glorious Flame Palace was missing nearly a third of their number. There were scars of battle inside- recent ones, given the damage to the ice and underlying stone.

Yet despite all of that- or perhaps because of it- they were throwing a feast. And they quickly invited the entire army to eat with them. Since they would have had food to last a long siege if it came down to it, Anton wasn’t surprised at the possibility, but the amount of fresh and rare looking food was unexpected.

His unspoken question was answered by the people he had been subconsciously wandering towards, those he was most eager to reunite with. It wasn’t any of the most powerful elders of the sect, but instead Annelie and Anish… along with their children.

“We took it all from the invading group,” Annelie grinned. “Some of this meat… belonged to their mounts. Yet they also had tons of fancy stuff, as if they were going on a picnic.” She shook her head at that. “Come, sit down. You look like you need it.”

“So does everyone else here, seems like,” Anton said as he took a spot. There wasn’t a plate, but someone from the Glorious Flame Palace threw one from the kitchen. This was no formal dining, but an exuberant celebration. “What happened?”

“Basically what you might have pieced together,” Annelie explained. “We were here for the invasion. There was an initial battle where we repelled some invaders. Then the Frostmirror sect arrived, more hot on their heels. This arrangement,” she gestured to the ice not melting in the heat, “Was sort of set up impromptu. Anish and I helped synchronize things.”

Anton was reminded of the presence of more than just those when Josephine, the pair’s oldest child, spoke up. “There was a lot of fighting, but the transition from cold to heat to cold made people weak. It kind of happened all at once.”

“It kind of just fell together,” Anish admitted. “We pushed to hard towards fire then ice several times- fortunately focused where the enemies were pushing their way in- before achieving this balance. Though it’s only balanced for those who are permitted in the area. I hear those marching at the front almost became a bit crispy.”

“I have full confidence Catarina would have warned them if the formation was not already being altered to allow our entrance,” Anton grinned. “But what do you know about the rest of Ofrurg?”

Annelie shook her head. “This isn’t the time for that. This is a celebration. Everything else, we’ll figure out later.”