Runes made of precious gemstones inset into carefully carved rocks filled the floor. Layers above and below repeated the same pattern, a cylinder with inbuilt spiderweb patterns. Someday it might be a giant tower. If it were buried underground, it would be like the Harmonious Citadel’s formation upon Rouhiri, where Alva first arrived in the upper realms.

Such things were slow to build and massively expensive in both time and resources. Add on the additional power usage, and only large sects could afford to use them. The entire alliance that worked with Catarina was not as much as the Harmonious Citadel, but someday they would match them. And before then… they could take advantage of specific connections they had, and their communications with the lower realms.

It was unfortunate that the formation couldn’t yet grab everyone ascending- on the other hand, that was only because of the high frequency of ascensions from Ceretos… and now Weos and Rutera.

Currently the formation could only be tuned to a few styles at a time. The ability to exchange more complex information such as full techniques between the upper and lower realms was the only thing that made that possible- or Catarina would have only been able to set it for the Hundred Stars and maybe a couple more. They didn’t exactly have a flood of people coming in, but retuning took about a week for each component it was trying to find.

Currently, Catarina was expecting someone from Rutera- sometime in the next few days. She checked the available power levels. Xankeshan was producing a good amount of power now, but it also had to expend much of that power for the sake of the formations surrounding the planet. The current iteration of the arrival zone only lasted a few months at a time- which was barely enough to get a handful of specific individuals. First, they had to predict their ascension- which wasn’t always possible. That might have a month of variability especially if one considered message travel times. Then once they actually ascended, it could take a month to arrive. The last was just some leeway on the back end, and to account for multiple individuals.

It was amazing how such a relatively small formation took so much power, but it did have to sweep a vast region of space and bend individuals towards its own location. Even then it only worked because of the special circumstances involved with ascensions.

“This is boring,” Catarina sighed, “I hope he arrives soon.”

“You know you don’t have to constantly watch it, right?” Timothy asked.

“Sure, but he should be coming soon and I need an assistant.”

“I’m pretty sure Uzun isn’t coming to be your assistant. He’s supposed to lead the technologizing efforts.”

Catarina shook her head. “He’ll need to work with upper realms formations, which means with me, which means he’ll have to be my assistant.”

“On some matters, sure,” Timothy shrugged.

-----

Enes Uzun found that the novelty of stars whipping by faded quickly after the first day. They should really come up with a faster way to do this. Unfortunately, the process of Ascension wasn’t always peaceful, so they couldn’t just stick people in a pod and line it up with the landing zone. Supposing that people only did it once, it wasn’t that bad.

The only real change had been the transition from the lower realms to the upper realms, and then a tug shortly after that which redirected him towards his current destination. There was a whole lot of time to think.

And then he appeared in a room. He didn’t land, because there was no deceleration. He was simply yanked out of his position into a room full of formations. He vaguely recognized some of it, but there were deeper complexities that he’d only gotten rare glimpses of anywhere in the lower realms. Usually things made by Everheart, though nobody liked that guy.

“Hello?” he looked around.

“Engineer Uzun?” two individuals at the mouth of the room began to approach him.

“Yes, that’s right,” he nodded. These two guards… powerful. No, perhaps that wasn’t right. Certainly, they were more powerful than him- but they were simply Integration cultivators who hadn’t just broken through. Enes stepped forward, “I’m supposed to meet Formation Grandmaster Catarina?”

“She will be here shortly,” the guards explained.

Enes nodded, “Alright. Should I wait somewhere or-”

The doors swung open- only their design kept them from smacking into the wall. The woman who burst into the room didn’t have an imposing demeanor- and the child on her shoulders didn’t change that. However, he felt a restrained power from her. “Engineer Enes Uzun, you finally arrived. I hope your trip wasn’t too boring?” She grinned, “Just kidding, I know there’s nothing to entertain you.”

“He’s weak,” the child on her shoulders said.

“That’s rude, Chidi.”

“It’s true though.”

“Regardless of whether or not it is true, one should not make such comments about people to their faces,” Catarina said. “Apologize.”

The child bowed his head, eyes still closed. No, that wasn’t quite right. Eyelids closed. There were no eyes to speak of, that was simple enough for Enes to sense. He wasn’t going to mention it though. “I’m sorry, mister.”

“I accept your apology, young man.” The kid was just a kid, and there was no reason to be insulted. From Chidi’s perspective, he might actually be weak. Compared to many he met, at least. Especially with his parents being who they were.

Catarina set down her son, “Chidi, go to your father please. I need to show Engineer Uzun around.”

“Can I go to auntie Alva instead?”

“Sure,” the mother said. “She’s also nearby.” Then the woman turned back towards Uzun, “Sorry about that. We couldn’t know exactly when you would arrive, as much as we would like to.”

“Maybe we can figure out a way,” he pondered, “But I suppose there’s a lot to do before that.”

“That’s right,” Catarina nodded, “Today I’ll be showing you the location set aside for you. It’s a bit remote, but there is plenty of transport available and we expect you will prefer to have as much space as possible. It is likely we’ll build up around there as things develop.”

“Good. I’ve got a whole factory in my pocket waiting to be set down,” Enes grinned. That wasn’t quite true, but it wasn’t quite wrong either. It was in a storage bag, and he would need some things made locally. On the other hand, he also had many complete machines to begin his work. Hopefully his theoretical assistants had learned what they needed to from the information sent.

They walked along at a quick pace- Enes was a cultivator so he was capable of keeping up, but he was used to Rutera where they would have taken some sort of machine, even with the rise of cultivation starting slightly before Enes was born. Enes knew he would have had a place on Rutera for his technical ability even without cultivation, but with cultivation his mind worked so much more quickly, allowing him to absorb so many more topics. And being young past the age of one hundred was also great for expanding his capabilities. It was a lot of pressure to be the lynchpin of a massive undertaking like this, but he hoped he was only the first of many. He might have enough knowledge, but he certainly couldn’t teach everyone everything necessary and do any actual work.

After getting on a ship, Enes couldn’t help but comment, “I see what you mean. These designs are simply ancient.”

“Is it that different from Ceretos?” Catarina asked. “These aren’t much different from the skyships.”

“... it’s obvious you’ve been away for more than a century,” Enes said. “Most are much more modern, vessels properly designed for flight instead of seafaring. None of the interstellar ships keep the old designs unless their designers were going retro.”

“Well, I’ll admit I missed the majority of the technological boom,” Catarina said. “I basically just have what I’ve read, and I haven’t had the time to attempt to develop any of it when pure cultivation works for what we need.” She shook her head, “Don't get me wrong, I understand the benefits it can have, but since I don’t personally need it I didn’t bother.”

“Don’t you have to travel?” Enes asked. “This ship could be so much faster…”

“If I were not with you, I would not be using the ship,” Catarina pointed out.

Oh, right. Pure cultivation types were like that, huh? And she might really beat out a good jet.

Enes just watched the planet pass by beneath them. They were high in the atmosphere to avoid friction, but he could see that most of the planet wasn’t occupied. A few large population centers, but the rest didn’t even have roads for the most part. Except for a few places, but some of those led between ruins of some sort. He thought he saw a giant leg from a statue that must have been immense. As for the location picked out for him, it wasn’t much to look at. Just a giant empty field, surrounded by other giant empty fields. Which was, in fact, exactly what he needed.

“Looks good,” Enes nodded. “I was kind of hoping for a foundation though.”

“We can have one set up for you by tomorrow,” Catarina said. “Just indicate the dimensions you need.”

One day? That was fast, even for… actually, since there didn’t seem to be an abundance of people doing construction projects, perhaps it made sense. Everyone who was getting anything done probably had the work decades prior. And it wasn’t like there were billions of people living on this planet. Not yet, at least. Maybe in another century.

-----

The engines of a nearly flat ship pushed it forward at an astounding speed. Yet it wasn’t limited in mobility, able to turn one direction’s momentum into another’s. Chikere knew that well, and she prepared her blade accordingly.

Her thrust extended forward several kilometers, and the ship twisted away from its intended trajectory, where its wings would slice her in two. It was, after all, just another kind of sword. She could control that and its wielder in the same manner.

A moment later the ship circled back, attacking from another angle- though most were equivalent in the void of space. However, there were subtle distances due to the flow of energy and the gravity of the planet nearby. In a large scale battle, the orbital defense platforms would be involved as well as a greater number of combatants overall.

A hundred swords sliced apart a continual barrage of weapons fire. Each bullet was like the deadly thrust of a sword, though each could only carry so much behind it. They were a potential danger, but alone they would never touch her. The ammunition and the wielder’s energy would be exhausted long before that point. After all, he was a swordsman. He just also happened to be a pilot.

This time, the ship maintained no steady orientation to her, rolling so that she couldn’t know what angle the wings might be when they arrived, and thus where she might have to defend from.

Chikere could have forced him back again, but she wanted to finish the battle. Her swarm of blades rushed out in front of her, swinging as one and deflecting the vessel ever so slightly off course. If she had been in atmosphere she would have felt the wind of it passing by her as she chopped her blade at its belly. From there she could have cut it in half, but she did something harder. The force of her weapon passed through the vessel, leaving only a small but important mark and securing her victory. It would have been shame to destroy such a fine blade, though perhaps she could have sliced through the cockpit. But damaging a friend’s Assimilation target seemed rude.

After they landed, Ty Quigley came to see her, a small dot of blood on the tip of his nose. “Well, you got me again. Not that I’m surprised.”

“It’s difficult to make up for a hundred years of experience,” Chikere said. “Though as I cannot make use of Ascension energy here, you might have a chance.”

“If I can keep learning from you, perhaps,” Ty nodded.

“Of course. It is a delight to interact with any devoted disciple of the sword… even if their chosen form is a bit abnormal.”

Ty shrugged, “What can I say? I was a pilot first. Then I met elder Intan, and this is how things developed.”

“Good,” Chikere nodded. “You should always follow what feels right.”

“Anyway… maybe in another decade I can take you down,” Ty pondered. “Except your arm will be done by then.”

“I’m willing to take you on as much as you wish until I ascend again. Perhaps you can catch up after that point,” Chikere said. “I will likely be here another… century or two. Before I can ascend again.”

“You’re confident you can?” Ty asked.

“Most assuredly,” she nodded. “I just need more practice.”