It was only a few weeks before they returned to the Eternal Glamour Sect, but they had already finished repairing their wall and renewing the formations. An impressive feat. At least, that was how it appeared. Given their abilities with illusions, however, Anton was not willing to accept that at face value.

Not that it would matter. They had sealed their fate when they remained instead of fleeing to be sheltered by others in the Archipelago. Perhaps they thought they could weather another attack. With allied fleets in the area, reinforcements would arrive in short order. Less than half an hour, most likely.

If they had to lay siege to the place, there was no guarantee of it being quick… except for certain mitigating factors. Most notably, Scholar Eulogius- Everheart.

Riding atop Paradise, a mobile island comparable in size to the one the Eternal Glamour Sect called home, the man fearlessly approached. A massive turtle head ignored the attacks raining down on it as it approached. Instead of moving towards what Anton suspected was still a hole in their defenses, Everheart approached from the rear. He had not signaled for the attack to begin yet, so Anton conserved his energy.

Everheart wielded a spear as he stepped up to the walls, thrusting once, twice, three times. It looked like each attack was repelled… and then Paradise lifted his head, a stroke of his powerful fins sending him forward dozens of meters. The tip of his chin crushed the walls, the buildings behind them, and those upon them who were too slow to avoid the movement. No formation reacted.

Now, Anton could only feel a formation in one corner- the part they had destroyed. Deciding that Paradise was enough of a signal, Anton began to launch his own attacks. It was simple to target any point of the sect from where he was, so he chose a particular panicked individual using some sort of communication device. No doubt they already had a message through, but inspecting what they had might let them intercept enemy transmissions. He had been assured that such a thing was possible.

The person in question lost a hand, while whoever had been maintaining the illusion in the one corner of the sect dropped the pretense once other portions of the wall began to fall. People began to flee, but they were far too late. They thought they would be safe, but clearly they were not. They were simply too weak. Someone had to know that. Perhaps they were bait? But if so, Ceretos had been underestimated once more. Or perhaps it was more reasonable to say that nobody expected Everheart to be present and capable of bringing down a formation in a mere few moments.

The only one who seemed as if he might actually be able to get away was the sect head. As soon as everything began to fall apart, he split into a dozen separate bodies, all fleeing in different directions. Anton had to admit that they all felt real enough, such that discerning which one was real in the heat of combat was nearly impossible.

So he didn’t. He had more than enough capability to shoot them all. There was a small chance the man was none of them, simply invisible, but Anton should be able to discern that before he got far. Maybe a kilometer, maybe ten… but he could certainly not pass one hundred.

Spirit Arrows formed of light shot into each of the illusions, arriving in practically the same instant. Each shot was sufficient to slay a Life Transformation cultivator- but the man was an Assimilation cultivator, if a new one. He would not perish so easily. Each arrow targeted a different body part- head, heart, shoulder, thigh, wrist, and many more. Only one stopped its motion. The other targets reacted- but too slowly. The arrows weren’t quite properly the speed of light, but they still moved at hundred of thousands of times the speed of sound. They lost a bit of impact for the speed, the density of power within them limited.

The man wasn’t particularly injured, his defensive energy protecting his shoulder. But the following hail of arrows filled him with holes, targeting limbs, joints, and his stomach. Or more specifically, his dantian beneath. The illusory copies fell, though Anton did not fail to continue sweeping the area with his senses just in case the man managed to pull off something with his lesser cultivation. But there was nothing, and the real sect head fell to the ground, unable to move. Energy bled from him, held back only like water in a sieve- which was to say hardly at all.

But the man was not dead. He would live, for a while yet. Until he could be interrogated. Then executed as an enemy of Ceretos. There could be no other option for those of the Exalted Archipelago who chose to be part of the war.

After that, the Eternal Glamour Sect was quickly razed- Anton noticed that Everheart got into the vault somewhere around the time that the sect head fell, barely into the attack. But whatever he took, his contributions likely were more than worth it. They didn’t have time to properly level the place, instead destroying the most important parts and then they were on their way, not having brought sufficient forces to engage the whole enemy fleet.

-----

After the defeat of the Eternal Glamour Sect, more members of the Exalted Archipelago withdrew into their theoretical safe zone. That left the path clear for Anton to reach the Hardened Crown Sect with a small group that wouldn’t be easily detected. They didn’t entirely conceal themselves, revealing their energy to the sect itself. Sensing their approach, Sect Head Naamah came out to meet them.

“I noticed your people have not attacked ours,” Anton said. “That is appreciated.” Naamah merely nodded in response. “I come to offer a chance to join us against the invaders, and the rest of the Exalted Archipelago.”

“No,” Naamah said immediately, without consideration.

That was somewhat unexpected. “Why not?”

“Some of those you fight against are our brothers in battle.”

“So you will fight against us?” Anton asked, keeping a sensible distance and speaking through the amplification of voice.

“No.” Naamah said, “We will not support their current actions.”

“I see.” Anton frowned, “If you will not support us against them, I am afraid we cannot trust you, despite our personal friendship. You will not be able to remain on Ceretos.”

“You will force us away?”

“You can bring with you everything you please, from the buildings to the ground beneath your feet. But you will have to leave and never return. During the course of the war you will still be able to join our side- or commit suicide by attacking us, which I would not recommend. Afterwards, you would have to depart.” Anton turned away, “I hope you will change your mind for the better.” Though he said that, he knew the Hardened Crown Sect was not known for changing their minds. More importantly, earlier messages to them should have already informed them and given them time to think through their options. But they truly could not be allowed to remain neutral, not and remain upon Ceretos for a later chance to betray the planet.

-----

Tiarhogo still had a great many ships going in and out, even during the war. It was an important time to continue trade, even if there was some risk. Supplies of all types needed to move about, and the teleportation formations were far too expensive for most uses. But they were at war, which meant constant patrols to keep away attackers, and inspections on everyone entering port.

Elder Paula found herself on inspection duty, and it was immensely boring. Unfortunately, while there were others more qualified for the parts where they were reading papers, having her present was still important.

“You may pass,” she said. “Everything is good.” The next person. “Your papers are out of date. Check in at the office for a more thorough inspection.” More and more, as she swept her senses over people and their goods. One was nervous, and trying very hard not to show it. “This is probably the stupidest time to smuggle drugs into the country,” Paula noted. “Guards!”

The poor fool didn’t bother to resist. He would rot in jail unless he could provide information on someone higher up in the chain- which he would, if he was smart. Usually, they weren’t. Even though any threats to life or family were easily dealt with, if the right people were just told a name or two.

Next was an older man. “All your papers look good,” Elder Paula said. “Very neat.” As the man passed by, she twisted, supporting herself with one hand as both feet lifted from the ground. Her toe kicked the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord while her other foot found its way to his lower back, her energy blasting into his dantian. He’d have internal bleeding, but she didn’t care. “Men, take him in. I’m inspecting the Blue Swan personally.” Honestly, despite how well the man hid his cultivation… did he really think a member of the Twin Soul Sect would get past her in her own domain? Then again, he likely didn’t understand Assimilation cultivators. There was going to have to be a thorough sweep after the war. Fortunately, Marvelous Rabbit Mountain had kept up with their training, even with no members of the Twin Soul Sect on the planet in a century and a half.

-----

The continental forces continued to have more victories than defeats in the coming weeks, but Anton felt it wasn’t enough. With Rutera, they would definitely win the war. There was no question of that. However, they had hardly taken out any more Integration cultivators. Juta’s injury level was unclear, and Fajra was still able to suppress most of their army if they had a head-on confrontation.

Their victories were only forcing the enemy to consolidate their remaining forces- something they would have done eventually anyway, but it had been hoped more damage would be done along the way.

The upper realms truly had limitless numbers, if they could afford to send such forces to invade them. But Ceretos had not overestimated itself. They would win, even if their losses would take decades or centuries to recover.

Without the Exalted Archipelago, the Trigold Cluster’s forces would have been defeated already. They simply could not fight at full strength in the lower realms, and that grew more and more obvious. But the Augmentation cultivators were still a problem.

At least they had one of their own- and one with much more development than Fajra. Everheart himself. After watching Paradise, Anton had determined why the turtle would choose to call upon a former master he almost certainly hated. The answer to that was… Everheart was strong. More than that, Paradise didn’t spend a single instant attempting to defend the man. Strong and expendable. That let Paradise focus on supporting the Island Tenders and the void ants during battle.

Speaking of the latter, the void ants had not yet been able to display their full capabilities. Since the enemy forces hadn’t made their way onto the continent, the various colonies there had little to do- though there had been a few exceptions, and some very surprised cultivators. Even if the Exalted Archipelago knew about the void ants, they’d never really worked with them, so they didn’t fully understand.

And though Anton was quite certain the Great Queen could take out Fajra or any specific enemy, she was not invincible. To make the best use of the void ants they had to be in a pitched battle with overlapping battle lines, where the void ants could join the fight unnoticed- or at least not be bombarded with attacks from range. They were very resistant to energy, but they could still be killed. Soon, though, their opportunity would come.