The hatch leading further into the arid planet had a defensive force behind it, waiting. Discerning just the surface of their cultivation methods, Anton felt something strange- more than a few felt like water cultivators. That seemed like it would be extremely limited in such an environment, but perhaps he was seeing a period of drought. There could be significant rainy periods… but the life in the area didn’t seem like something expecting rapid change.

Since they didn’t come out- there was little point in having a defensive barrier if one simply opened it- Anton projected his voice inward. “Greetings.”

Most of the cultivators drew back- while it was easier to slip the relatively weak power of voice past a formation, it could still be expected that it would block it. One man retained his position towards the front, responding. “Who are you? What clan are you from?”

Just like projecting his voice in, Anton had to pull the sounds out of the barrier. “Anton. I’m not from any clan.” He had descendents, of course, but they could hardly be called a clan. Especially not since he suspected this man meant something specific.

The man spoke with bravery- which was to say, Anton could sense the fear behind his voice and he still chose to respond. “If you do not have the backing of a clan, we will have to refuse your entry. We don’t accept exiles.”

“I am not an exile,” Anton responded calmly. How should he say it? Well, the direct manner was easiest. “I am from off-planet.”

The man stiffened at that response. “Even if that is true, we will still have to refuse you entry.”

“I understand,” Anton said. “Do you know of any who would be willing to speak to me?”

The man hesitated for some time, before responding. “No.”

Anton had the feeling he meant that, though he might have been considering sending Anton to some enemies. People did not build security where they expected no danger. Anton couldn’t think of anything else to say that wouldn’t sound like and perhaps even be a threat, so he just turned to leave. “Goodbye.”

His luck was much the same elsewhere, and while there were regional variations the entire planet still remained extremely lacking in moisture, just as he had felt from above. He didn’t detect anything buried beneath the surface either, though he didn’t probe terribly deep as he passed by various locations. No more than a kilometer or so, where he would have expected to find anything.

He did find something interesting that was not water. In several places, concealed by exterior camouflage and stored deep beneath the surface, there were ships. He only recognized them for what they were because of the Ruterans. They didn’t particularly share many similarities, being constructed in large part from glasslike materials, but the main feature was they were different from typical cultivator vessels. Not that he expected this planet to be able to put together wooden boats, unless they were skilled at knitting together scraggly branches.

Those vessels should at least be able to fly, and perhaps more- though he couldn’t do much without inspecting them up close, without barriers blocking him.

Anton didn’t find the locals to be friendly… but at least they were not overly aggressive. He ultimately left without seeing anyone face-to-face, even when he went to the other side of the planet where it was warming up from the cold nights instead of at its overheating phase. People had to go out at some point, but it seemed they all noticed him ahead of time. He was tempted to rush as quickly as he could to catch someone out, but that seemed like it could cause more trouble than it was worth. Perhaps he would come back later and someone would change their mind about further interactions.

-----

Everyone expected Anishka to be an amazing cultivator- even Anishka, at first. Her parents were Assimilation cultivators, the peak of the world. Most of her older siblings were elders of the Fire and Ice Palace, and if they weren’t they would be eventually.

It wasn’t an issue of talent- whatever that was. Anishka found she could control the elements of the sect with ease, though she had tried some things that were too hard early on. The stories about her father had been an early inspiration. The same with her grandfather. Or great-great-maybe-more-greats grandfather.

Ultimately, however, Anishka didn’t want to be a cultivator. She didn’t know what she did want to be, but it was something else. Of course, everyone was a cultivator. Whatever she was going to do, she would be better at it if her body was tempered by flames and ice and her mind flowed with power. So she would still be a cultivator, but she wouldn’t be a cultivator cultivator. Fighting was… uninteresting. She had no desire to delve into forgotten tombs or manage resources.

Nor did she have any desire to tell anyone any of that. How would she even do that?

So she just silently continued, ice and fire alternately flowing through her meridians. It was surprisingly comfortable, heat coming to warm her about the time she thought she would freeze, to be replaced by coolness when she was on the verge of overheating.

When she was finished she was met with a relaxed mental clarity that brought a strange thought. If she didn’t actually know what she wanted, maybe nobody else did either? A terrifying thought.

-----

Anton continued to pass through new systems, but he found himself growing fatigued. Distance wasn’t supposed to be an important factor once he was out of a system, but he found that being away from Assimilated stars for a long period of time as well as being the furthest distance he’d ever gone- now somewhere over a hundred light-years- he simply felt empty.

He didn’t want to get in the habit of choosing random stars to Assimilate, but he had to make use of his available connections eventually. Perhaps that was another factor as well.

His next stop found himself around a tiny- though nowhere near as tiny as his target- lone star. A red dwarf with no planets surrounding it, less than a third the radius of Ceretos’ star and thus proportionately much more miniscule. He named it Zed. Anton didn’t think it had been cataloged from Ceretos, and if it was it hardly mattered. The name only mattered to him, and if it didn’t he could have pushed for his name over another.

Binding to it didn’t take particularly long- Anton was already familiar with the process, and he was able to be as close as he wanted. Since he’d even bound to Rutera’s star at least partially from the neighboring system it was simple enough.

Surprisingly, Anton didn’t feel that this star, despite being smaller and dimmer than others, was any less powerful. However, as he pulled away he felt it faded away more quickly, giving it a smaller area of influence. Not that it mattered terribly much. Anton felt refreshed after a short time near a bound star, replenishing his body and spirit before he moved on.

Anton continued, impatience driving him forward to the end of his journey of more than a year. Finally he reached his destination, though it was only once he approached the star’s influence that he was certain he hadn’t gotten off track. The star had no planets, and he couldn’t currently see it even with his exceptional vision.

He approached closer and closer. He could feel the power of the star, and soon enough he was nearly touching it. Or rather, where it would have been if it had the same radius as Ceretos’ star. Power vibrated through Anton, yet he couldn’t even make out the star without augmenting his eyes.

Azun was a star less than twenty kilometers across, smaller than some sects, and nowhere close to matching a planet or even other stars. Discovering it, even after centuries of searching the stars, had come down to Rutera’s advanced telescopic technology and people like Matija. They called it a neutron star, formed from the death of a much larger specimen.

Its properties had been uncertain except for some typical features- and its massive density. Simply approaching it was filled with great danger, as its rotation spewed a massive amount of power from its poles. However, approaching from the correct angle had brought Anton to where he was now, and he felt like his body might rip apart not from gravity but instead the powerful magnetic field. He had stored his bow as he approached, leaving everything actually metallic inside his storage bag.

Anton had wanted to get closer, but moving any further was risky without binding it to him. Anton very carefully ‘sat’, meditating in a comfortable position and focusing on the power in front of him.

If he simply opened a channel of power he could easily see himself being torn apart. First he had to understand this. Still a star, but not a star. A dead star, yet filled with more vigor than many that truly lived. Not collapsed into what appeared to be nothing like a black hole, but filled with a strange mystery.

Anton meditated, feeling the spinning density and the great power, significant amounts of radiation spewing out of the poles at any point. Cultivators could be quite resistant to radiation, but Anton had no qualms imagining that he could withstand it for long. It was much less than what would happen during a supernova- the event that could lead to their formation- but it was enough to detect hundreds or more lightyears away despite the phenomenon being miniscule in size on an interstellar scale. The magnetism formed a great field on a scale Anton hadn’t felt before.

This time Anton reshaped himself before the connection was formed. If he had tried to describe the process of acclimatizing himself to unfathomable amounts of magnetism, he would have lacked the words. It was simply a matter of becoming part of it.

Slowly and intentionally, he drifted closer to Azun. It was not particularly hot- on the level of stars- where he was, but he could feel its surface was hotter than any of the suns he had visited, once again by a great many times. This was great power packed into the smallest spaces imaginable.

Insights drove Anton, bringing him ever closer both internally and externally. By the time he touched down upon its surface, he was part of it and it was part of him. It took more than that understanding for him to not be incinerated, but it was simple enough to counteract with that power.

It wasn’t limitless… in fact, Anton was much more aware of how such a thing was fading, even if only on massive timescales. It was simply a matter of extremes. If an Augmentation cultivator were to challenge Anton here, next to the neutron star Azun, Anton wouldn’t fear them even if they had their full expected power in the upper realms. But of course, he would only maintain a small part of that power further away. At the more familiar radius of a star it was both more and less powerful. At what Anton had come to judge as the edge of the system, it was much the same as anything else. Just… different. The magnetism was one thing, but the beams of radiation might also add power to Anton’s arsenal. Power he wasn’t sure he needed.

Well then. Time to set up all of the machines the Ruteran scientists had pressed onto him. It would be a shame to come all this way and not get measurements ‘up close’. None of them would survive anywhere close to that absurd magnetic field, but he could certainly get something usable. Certainly even his own observations would be better than what machines could measure all the way from Rutera. Though they would be filled with far fewer numbers and measurements. Rutera was going to be simply flooded with measurements when he returned. Maybe before, if the communications devices worked here- something Anton would absolutely not bet on. After setting them up and making sure that at least the lights were green- though the devices had no external readout other than that- Anton began to familiarize himself with his new abilities and wondered how he might include them in his abilities elsewhere.