A great claw slashed down towards the building where the weakest disciples of the Island Tenders were taking shelter. Having Body Tempering disciples participate in the battle would only be a hindrance to their side, and in truth Erin should have trusted in the building’s defensive formations and left it alone. Against a Life Transformation cultivator she would have, but against Manu she couldn’t help but worry. And he knew it, which meant he was able to target an attack she would have to block.

She formed a great dome of protection, a turtle shell that cracked immediately under the attack, then shattered under the next swing of the man. “You’re weak,” he said. “Pathetic. You can’t even properly control your turtle. There is no hope for you to win.”

Erin grit her teeth. “You’re wrong.”

“Am I?” Manu looked down his nose at her, a derisive image he was clearly quite trained to make use of. “You are unable to draw sufficient power from your bonded creature. I will have you defeated in four moves or fewer. This cannot be denied.”

Erin bit her lip. He was right about that. As he drew back his arms, scythelike claws stretchings for dozens of meters, Erin was only barely able to reinvigorate her defense. His arms crossed, sending her staggering back two steps. His claws slashed up and down, creating a cross pattern in her next barrier, though it just held.

The ground trembled beneath them as Paradise fought, the formations being the only thing that kept anything on his back in place. The claws of a true dragon aimed for his head and eyes, tearing apart scales. The dragon circled around for another pass.

“One more move,” Manu said, the long body and tail of a dragon forming behind him. It coiled and prepared to snap forward, no doubt with force much greater than his claws.

“You’re wrong,” Erin said. “Not about me being weak. But… Paradise isn’t my turtle.”

The serpentine dragon had a length of more than a handful of kilometers, though with the way it never stretched out straight it couldn’t be measured properly. It charged towards Paradise’s head, great rivers of blood flowing. Paradise hadn’t been able to hit the creature with his water bombardments, and his limited mobility limited his defensive options. Claws extended and fangs menaced as the dragon approached.

Then Paradise opened his jaws wide, not to spit out another sea sized globule of water, but to make room as his neck extended. He lunged forward, mouth snapping shut around the upper body of the dragon. The dragon was indeed massive, but in truth it might have only stretched a bit longer than Paradise from head to tail. Comparing total bulk, there was no way for the dragon to match Paradise. While that wasn’t necessarily a proper representation of power, the dragon was shackled by his master, his natural energy drawn upon to power Manu’s abilities. Meanwhile, Paradise was completely in control of his own power, Erin and the Island Tenders merely making use of the excess natural energy from the ecosystem he had dwelling on him.

His mouth snapped shut, crushing the body and spine of the dragon. Then Paradise threw his head back, yanking more of the dragon’s body towards him and into his mouth. He chomped down again, and continued the process, the dragon’s skull soon crushed inside him, claws unable to find purchase.

Manu’s attack came at basically the same time, the tail whipping into the center of Erin’s final turtle shell. It snapped, but instead of doing her best to protect herself she used the force to fold the shell inward to the center of the cross, slamming it around Manu as her body was slammed into the building behind her. Her bones shattered, some piercing her internal organs, but she was not immediately dead. Then a wave of energy filled her, offered freely by Paradise. It propelled her to stand up, finding Manu fallen to the ground from her unexpected counter.

Erin didn’t have the ability to perform anything elegant at the moment, instead leaping from the top of the hill she had been protecting onto Manu below. A simple fist with the weight of her fall and the power Paradise gave her pushed him down until he could move no more, Paradise’s shell providing an impenetrable barrier to crush him against. Manu might have been able to defend, but he was suddenly only possessed of his own power, which was only a step above Life Transformation without his bonded creature.

-----

It had to be admitted that the enemy commander was better than Treloar had given him credit for. Even while being pummeled by Naamah, he had maneuvered his forces in such a way that a great number of them had surrounded Treloar. Individually they would be no threat to him, but together they were wearing him down, along with their draconic opponent. Now it all came down to how quickly Naamah could finish off the commander and allied forces could aid him… and how soon she could assist him against the other.

Blood dripped out of numerous wounds that were insignificant on their own, coating Treloar’s body. He could see why people liked to fight against superior forces, though the idea still didn’t particularly appeal to him at the moment. Waves and sand crashed against the surrounding forces while Treloar clashed his blade against enemy claws, hoping to break through scales so he could start dealing real damage. He could sense that elsewhere in the Exalted Archipelago and across Ceretos were similar battles, the shockwaves reverberating throughout the planet.

-----

An arrow of spectral energy pierced the dantian of the man with runes engraved in his body. Anton had already finished with Lev and had quickly come to assist his granddaughter and grandson-in-law. He couldn’t say it was necessarily the most tactically sound decision, but he also couldn’t fight properly if he was worrying about them and their children, and so on.

His shot meant that they wouldn’t get to determine what happened to the man’s personally imbued formations should they be broken apart, as energy quickly drained from the man and then he was consumed by Anish’s flames. Anton would next be finding his way to Aicenith’s west coast, where they were struggling against more of the Worldbinding cultivators.

-----

The battle began everywhere all at once, but it only fully died out after several days. Ultimately, Ceretos proved they had been ready for invasions- and their invader’s insistence on being tens of separate forces instead of a cohesive whole had allowed them to come out on top. The home ground advantage was also significant, allowing their Assimilation cultivators to have the edge, though the Sylanis Cluster had greater numbers in terms of lesser cultivators. And Worldbinding cultivators- they just hadn’t been willing or able to commit all of theirs.

The losses varied greatly by sect, and quality of opponents. The Grasping Willow Sect had mostly superficial damage, though they were not without loss of life. Western Aicenith had lost several important figures, including potential Assimilation figures from Marvelous Rabbit Mountain. Damage to the Exalted Archipelago was less personally important to Anton, but still frustrating- and one of the few individuals he actually cared about was heavily injured. Treloar was still holding on, but he might sustain permanent damage to his body, cultivation, or both.

Western Brogora would have been in deep trouble with Nthanda away, but the Great Queen had contributed greatly to their defense. The members of the Sylanis Cluster most familiar with her were already dead- first the patriarch of the Ultimate Phoenix Sect and then the Ivory Maw. Recognizing her threat a few moments too late meant the most powerful enemy was wiped out with little struggle, though ironically most of the rest of the invading forces were personally of a similar threat level to the Great Queen. Even so, Ambati could deal with cultivators from Spirit Building through Life Transformation- and likely they would have overcome a Worldbinding cultivator through great sacrifice.

There were tense days waiting for news from the other systems. Had Rutera and Weos been attacked? If they had to face against even half as many forces, they might not make it. The information from captured individuals was of little use, as most were uninformed and those who might actually know had been too dangerous to capture. Nobody was interested in sparing any Worldbinding cultivators, either. There had been warnings given already.

It was unclear if Everheart had participated in the defense, though several Worldbinding cultivators could not be accounted for. Anton thought he sensed a bit of fatigue in the man, but he would not admit anything either way. Perhaps he thought he would be forced to share in his spoils, or perhaps he really did nothing, either way his defensive formations had limited the enemy’s actions sufficiently that his contributions couldn’t be ignored. Those had been made honestly, and at only material cost- expensive, but not so much as it could have been if Everheart was interested in charging for his great expertise.

No messages came from either system, so they had to wait for responses to their own, the first reports of enemies approaching then the reports on the aftermath. After a frustrating period of silence, Weos and Rutera both responded. They had seen no attacks. Either they weren’t coming, or they would now be prepared, for as much good as that would do. Anton hoped it was the former, especially for the next stage of the plan. He wanted to retrieve Nthanda and The Independence, but he would make do with Devon and the Great Queen alone if necessary. Iceheart Ocean had made an appearance in the invasion, though without Carlitos. They were at the top of the list for retaliation, then all of the sects involved in the invasion itself. Some were located in Azoth, which made it unwise for Anton to go there… but if he was part of a larger force and stayed safe on The Independence, he could at least contribute to some extent.

-----

The frozen oceans of Atania suddenly began to boil on two sides of the planet, a small amount of its actual surface area but located around important facilities, ice instantly melting under rains of sunfire arrow and the main laser of The Independence. Rutera had been willing to risk danger for offense. Against anything more than one or two Worldbinding cultivators The Independence would be insufficient regardless, so sending it with the offensive force was justifiable.

The icy seas, full of more than just frozen water, rose up to fight, but Carlitos was just one cultivator. Atania wasn’t fully recovered from the previous assault, temporary formations of cheaper cost filling in the gaps. They were only good enough to slightly delay the inevitable.

Then, the oceans stopped acting. Anton made his way towards Carlitos, who was being carried by his belly, an unseen force acting on him from below. The Great Queen’s mandibles were pierced into his dantian, cutting off the flow of his energy but not quite tearing it apart and causing permanent damage.

Anton stood over him, using his aura as a blunt force to make the man respond with something. “What do you have to say for your actions?”

The man only stared up at Anton, wide-eyed. “How are any of you still alive?”

That was sufficient. Anton saw no speck of compulsion within the man. He’d made the choice to go against the ultimatum, and he would pay for it. His head fell to the ground a moment later.

Anton stretched his energy out, only able to encompass less than a tenth of the planet, even with something simple. Even so, the majority of the population was in the area where he projected his voice. “For breaking the ultimatum set forth by the trifold alliance, the lives of every cultivator of Essence Collection and above, as well as any in the roles of elders of Iceheart Ocean, are now forfeit along with all the resources belonging to the sect. Anyone choosing to aid them will likewise perish.”

Anton could personally fulfill that declaration- nobody would be able to even reach him to attack him, not without Worldbinding cultivators involved. Some might say that they didn’t deserve death, but they had to be aware of enough of the situation to have made an informed choice. If they didn’t accept what Carlitos was doing, they could have fled the planet. If they surrendered Anton would hear them out… but he doubted many would change his mind.

As for the rest… without the resources of the sect and Carlitos’ control over the freezing planet, the weaker cultivators might not be able to survive such a harsh environment. There were sufficient ships for them to be transported off planet, however. It would be cramped and uncomfortable, and they would have to beg for asylum on another planet, but it wasn’t a death sentence. Already, Anton was being several steps more merciful than he felt like. He’d considered cracking the planet in half, giving up not just because of the extreme effort required but because it was probably slightly excessive. Though it would have been good for future intimidation.

He would carry Carlitos’ head around with him until they returned, though, and show it to everyone along the way as a reminder that he had chosen his fate.