Staring up into the sky, Velvet had long lost track of Anton’s energy. Unlike the archer, her senses were trained to focus more on what was closer. Though she still acted as a scout, the distance she focused on was a more modest few kilometers. She knew that what happened was quite unlike ascension- while she felt him, Anton had been moving at a relatively modest speed. He didn’t step through a rift in space or otherwise disappear directly.

She waited a day for his return. Then two. After a week, she finally had to give into the urging of the others and go to sleep. Even Kseniya herself had lost track of Anton not long after. “He’ll either succeed and come back, or not. There’s nothing we can do,” Kseniya pointed out. “Except to continue what he expected of us. I don’t know if whatever he’s up to can succeed, but he said it shouldn’t be ascension. Which means Catarina and the others could still use a good archer up there. I should still be first, though Marcio and some of the others have a chance to follow in a decade or two.” Kseniya shrugged, “If my cultivation speed was as quick as my archery progress I should have been there long ago, though resolving some flaws in the technique and completing it has obviously helped.”

“What about here?” Velvet asked.

“There will always be more of us here,” Kseniya said. “You don’t have to hurry off to ascend, of course, but don’t miss a good opportunity if it comes up. Make sure you’re ready.”

That didn’t actually resolve anything happening with Anton, but cultivation would be a good distraction. Velvet hadn’t trailed all that far behind the others with Anton’s guidance, but she had a couple stars she still needed before she could try to ascend. A few years each, then she could sort out what the best move was. Hopefully by then those already ascended would have managed to meet up.

-----

“I have to admit,” Hoyt said. “I expected to be dead or… significantly more restricted.”

“I’m surprised you had a pre-formed opinion on us,” Zazil said. “You ascended from a lower realm, didn’t you? Yet you’re not from one of the big sects, or you wouldn’t have ended up out here.”

“Is that so?” Hoyt asked.

“That’s right. They have drawing formations that bring in those attuned to their particular cultivation techniques.”

“That’s… unexpected.”

“Is it?” Zazil asked. “Or do you mean me giving an honest answer?”

“Both, I suppose,” Hoyt admitted.

“Look, I know you’ve probably heard that we ambush and kill people… and we do,” Zazil said.

Hoyt waited for the ‘but’ that never came. “Uh, yeah. That’s it?”

“What? You thought there was more.”

“It felt like there should be.”

“If there’s more… everyone’s doing it?” Zazil grinned, “That good enough?”

“I’m confused,” Hoyt admitted. “You’re not killing me, but you’re also not trying that hard to recruit me.”

“I don’t need to. You wouldn’t believe me anyway, so you can just talk to our guest.”

“And who is this guest?” Hoyt asked.

“The other one from your sect,” Zazil grinned. “They should be here soon.”

-----

The casual way they stepped onto a ship and left a planet left Alva feeling like a country bumpkin. Sure, she had been one a century ago but after that she’d been a cultivator, seeing and doing the most amazing things. Yet this wasn’t something she’d anticipated, though she had heard about interplanetary ships. They were just like skyships but more.

And like most ships, they were kind of cramped and lacking in space. Back home Alva could have gotten some sort of priority in her placement, but here she wasn’t considered important enough. In fact, there were even some Life Transformation cultivators in nicer rooms. Sure, they had probably shown loyalty to the Harmonious Citadel and Alva hadn’t yet… but this wasn’t the way to get loyalty.

But maybe they didn’t care. They already had so much with people like Vari who would not shut up about how great the ‘saints’ were. Alva got they were powerful cultivators, but so what? They deserved respect, but worship was something else. Especially since all they’d done was monopolize the resources on the world Alva happened to show up on. There wasn’t another sect to work with- the Harmonious Citadel was it. Though she had gathered that there were a few different factions within them that didn’t necessarily get along as well as advertised.

With nothing to reference against except the stars- which were not really changing- Alva couldn’t tell how fast they were moving, but they were certainly covering absurd distances when the few stars that moved were taken into consideration. They moved past a couple, and some planets. Alva was fairly sure of that, though she couldn’t stay up on decks to watch since she was ‘in the way’. As if anyone was doing anything up there. What, were they going to run into unexpected winds out in the void?

… Would they? Alva honestly didn’t know, but she really didn’t want the ship to fall apart and dump her out in the void. She could swim, but she didn’t imagine that doing so in the void was particularly easy. It did have a nice amount of ascension energy everywhere though- which seemed to be drawn in through the ‘sails’ to power the ship.

Alva got the vague feeling they were slowing down as they approached another star, and when they started passing planets she was certain. There were some big ones with rings of rocks around them. She thought her grandfather would like to see them up ‘close’, though she barely had time to take them in as they passed. Eventually they got close to what had to be their destination.

It was a normal looking planet. Normal to Alva, anyway. Since this was the first one that had oceans she’d seen since they left, maybe it wasn’t normal? It had some trace amounts of natural energy mixed in too, something absent out in the void.

As they got closer, Alva realized the planet was tiny. She could tell, because her senses stretched to cover a significant portion of it- probably less than a tenth, but that meant the circumference of it had to be a few hundred kilometers. Alva hadn’t exactly realized that there was fake gravity under her feet until she felt real gravity again… and as they got closer it grew stronger. There was something off about this place, because she actually felt heavier. She didn’t really study much with her grandfather, but the Order all learned at least some about planets and gravity. Smaller and with greater gravity was weird, though carrying a few times her own weight didn’t really concern Alva.

“Alright everyone!” A man Alva had come to know was in charge- named Rahmi- said as they approached the surface. “Remember, this planet is under occupation of vicious bandit forces. Be careful. We’re setting down near one of their fortresses to begin our assault.”

Alva could sense it, though she wouldn’t have exactly called it ‘near’. Then again, what was a handful of kilometers- or a few handfuls? Especially for cultivators of their general power. It would probably be dangerous to be much closer.

“The crew will remain here to defend the ship. The rest are with me.”

Alva certainly wasn’t part of the crew, so she made her way off with the others. Shortly after she did, Chikere briefly caught her eye. She held a finger up to her lips as she glanced towards the bandit base, but Alva wasn’t sure what for. She hadn’t said anything about Chikere so far and didn’t plan to change that, though she was curious. And she definitely didn’t have secrets about the bandits.

Battle started with a sudden blade of energy cutting their forces in half. It wasn’t a precisely calculated move meant to split them apart, but simply a powerful attack aimed right in the middle. Most managed to avoid it, though some were simply too slow. The preparation time for such an attack had simply been too short.

Then they were fighting. Alva’s instincts told her to pick out targets among the rapidly approaching enemies, and combat lines closed in on each other quickly. She began to shoot arrows at the enemy group, missing her familiar allies. And Fuzz, because she was much less effective without him. Her range was decent enough, but having to focus more of her energy on moving and less on her shots made her less effective.

The forces weren’t arranged in a way that Alva could tell how they matched up, but she could tell that the leader of the enemy forces was strong. He should only technically be in Integration like herself, but the man’s sword cut down anyone who got near him- with ‘near’ being a not insignificant range. At least a hundred meters. Several Integration and twice as many Life Transformation cultivators fell, though in other parts of the battle things were going the other way.

Alva tried to focus on the battle as a whole so she wasn’t surprised by anything, but something made her stop on Chikere. The woman was using swords in either hand to fight off her opponents, but she wasn’t looking at them. Her eyes were fixed on the swordmaster cutting people down, though she made no move to approach. She did lick her lips, however.

There were a few things Alva was learning about the battle. First, random disorganized cultivators were much less effective than anything she’d been a part of in her entire career as a cultivator. Was the Harmonious Citadel trying to get some of them killed? She hadn’t exactly planned any tactics either, but she’d kind of thought they would figure things out. At least she was an archer who could stay towards the back. Even the bandits were more organized.

When she glanced over at Rahmi, he seemed hesitant to lead more people towards the swordmaster. Something about that one… was a secret? Alva didn’t know what, because she didn’t know anything about them. Except now that she thought about it, maybe she had seen him before? Which was odd. Then she realized. It was Swordmaster Rahayu. They’d never been well acquainted- he’d ascended fairly quickly after she’d arrived on Aicenith- but she was familiar with him through seeing him vaguely a couple times. Just not in combat.

Maybe she’d been missing out. He was amazing, though he was also on the wrong side of the battle. That did make things awkward. And though he’d ascended almost a century prior, Alva was surprised at how strong he was. Fortunately, it seemed that Rahmi was as well.

“They have someone on the verge of Augmentation! We need to pull back to somewhere more favorable.”

While there was nothing technically wrong with those orders, could anyone really afford to turn their back on Swordmaster Rahayu? Alva was able to retreat, but many others were in a poor state for it.

Fortunately for them Chikere was walking towards him. She’d been his disciple for a time, so maybe she could talk him into letting them retreat? Alva didn’t really care about any of those present, but she still preferred for her allies not to die.

Chikere got close, and her eyes locked with Rahayu. She put the tip of her blades in the ground. Rahayu momentarily stopped, and Alva breathed a sigh of relief. Then Chikere turned out her storage bag onto the ground, creating a small mountain of swords which flew out of their sheaths in unity.

Alva sighed again, but with significantly less calm. Of course that was what Chikere was going to do.

A moment later the ground began to split apart around the two swordmasters, and the forces from the Harmonious Citadel seemed as if they might rally- but just because Rahayu was being held back didn’t mean the rest of the battle was going well. And nobody seemed concerned about abandoning Chikere.

Alva might have done something about that, but if she tried to stop that fight… she imagined Chikere would never forgive her. Besides, Rahayu wouldn’t kill his student, would he?

As a rift was slashed in the ground next to Alva she threw herself to the side. The attack hadn’t even been aimed at her- she just happened to be behind Chikere at that moment. Yeah, she’d leave Chikere to that whole thing. In any other circumstance she wouldn’t leave a friend behind, but this was a special exception.

As Alva retreated with the others, she had to wonder about the whole situation. Rahayu might not have been universally beloved, but he had been a decent fellow, hadn’t he? Honorable, at least. Not a bandit. Those thoughts led to others which all made Alva uncomfortable, and unfortunately she didn’t know of any way to get easy answers. But as long as she was alive and safe, she could figure something out.