Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1267

Technically, the Domination cultivator Ramil was not asleep. Practically, it made no difference. He was in a state of meditation where he had some level of awareness, but Boarding Team 002 simply had to manage those expectations.

It was rather difficult for a number of ants to instantly kill a human. There were no ants of particularly monumental size or great combat insight among them. Some were larger, of course, as appropriate for soldiers.

They climbed along the outside of his clothing, balancing on the folds so that their additional weight wouldn’t be noticed. Each soldier moved to her own place, mainly positioned over the man’s dantian. However, a few climbed onto the pillow, prepared to assault his scalp, as well as others that climbed onto the neck of his robe, their target to be the vital points there.

As the most critical point was the void ants above his dantian, they initiated the assault. They had to work their way through enchanted clothing, but they could reach his energy just barely, tearing it out and opening the way for further carnage. The others waited for the energy fluctuations of Domination energy being forcefully ripped out of the man, poised to strike. Then they too launched their attacks- some dropping from the ceiling onto his face.

Ramil’s reaction was instant, calling upon his energy to explode outward. However, even if he could direct it nearly instantly to any point of his body, the flow was already disrupted at its core. Normally, void ants would ignore the effects of energy. Here, Domination energy sprayed chaotically, piercing as many holes in the ship’s hull as it killed void ants- but certainly, all of those directly struck perished.

Instead of a perfect pulse of energy, however, Ramil only managed a wild mess. The void ants twisted his own energy within his body, digging as deep as they could. Some bit at his jugular. Some attacked his ears. Others went for his eyes, nose, or mouth. And of course, some dug at his dantian more directly, the flesh torn open by their wild grasp in his own energy.

The whole incident lasted mere seconds. However, the void ants never ceased their attack, even as the vacuum of space threatened to pull them away. Nor did they bother fighting against the other cultivators rushing into the room, as they couldn’t threaten them. What were they going to do, punch their leader?

Or their leader’s corpse. It was important that he be a corpse, however. A funnel of Domination energy still flowed through him, indicating he might still be alive. Boarding Team 002 continued to tear at his energy as a few fools did in fact actually attack them.

Humans were so good at causing wide scale damage.

The ship dropped out of its subspace journey as various critical pieces were torn apart by Ramil’s energy and others. The denizens aboard weren’t treated to a comfortable transition, as the formations responsible for that were quite damaged as well.

A few things ended up inside other things. Some were void ants that ended up overlapping with Ramil’s body, other cultivators, or the bed or walls. All of them did their best to continue chomping their mandibles, but it was difficult to say how much good it did. A moment later, a final burst of energy tore Ramil apart.

Several of the sturdiest void ants were vaguely aware of other ships dropping out of subspace far beyond them, and of being hurtled through space. Their own ship was doubtless eviscerated in that or previous blasts, but they didn’t care.

The one thing they could confirm with certainty was Ramil’s death. That would be felt in the surrounding systems- including several systems of the Little Alliance.

Nobody would know it was Boarding Team 002 who did it, and none of them cared. It could have been Boarding Team 001, 100, or anything in between. Very few of them had even adopted names of their own.

One thought it was funny to name herself Dies in Space at the last moment. She didn’t know that another void ant had chosen the much more impressive name Eats Domination at nearly the same moment.

As the strain of interstellar space got to them, even through their carapaces, the void ants only had one true experience they shared. Satisfaction. Very few people could say they accomplished their life’s purpose, but Boarding Team 002 had done it.

-----

Despite being the furthest from the battlefield, Anton was perhaps the first to feel Ramil’s death. Or it could have been any number of other cultivators who were paying close attention to the direction he fled.

Anton didn’t choose to let him go, but once he began to retreat Anton fairly quickly determined he wasn’t going to cause any further wounds of significance. Thus, it was better to focus his attacks elsewhere, on the battles that were still happening.

Those ended with far more casualties on the enemy side, though for no real benefit to anyone. That was war, most of the time. Death for the promise of power in some manner. If he wanted to be generous, the Little Alliance got some amount of spoils of war- and combat experience that might help some of their cultivators grow. But it likely wasn’t worth the deaths.

If that had been all, it would have been an acceptable victory. About the best they could expect, really. But Anton hadn’t realized how much certain denizens of the Little Alliance had made preparations to kill Ramil.

“I’m pretty sure Ramil just died,” Anton said.

Bear Hug looked confused. “Didn’t you say he got away?”

“He was outside of my practical reach, on an allied ship. But his energy exploded outward in a way I can’t believe was a fit of anger.”

Anton had extended his energy towards the exact area at significant effort, but his assessment didn’t change. Ramil had exploded. That sort of thing didn’t happen by accident. The Alliance might not know everything about Domination cultivators, but that much was clear. They were generally quite stable… while alive.

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“Should I tell anyone?” Bear Hug asked.

“Do you have anyone in the eastern systems?”

“Nope.”

“Well, perhaps you should ask the western systems to look for odd energy fluctuations.”

“I’m supposed to be specific,” Bear Hug said. “Unless you want me to say vague things. I assume to Runa?”

“Right. Tell Runa to set sensors to be on alert for Domination energy fluctuations to confirm an incident.”

“I can do that,” Bear Hug agreed.

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The rate at which a Domination cultivator’s energy spread upon death only partially broke the speed of light. Certain elements did, others would be felt long into the future. For example, certain traces of Sudin’s death many centuries ago wouldn’t have even reached all of the Exalted Quadrant yet.

But the exact mechanics of how much people would feel it and when really weren’t important to the Little Alliance. Nor was that the case for those surrounding them. They were fortunate that the panic response was for people to turtle up, closing themselves off instead of launching waves of assaults on them. Because with enough people, they really could have wiped them out.

Obviously that wouldn’t have been worthwhile for anyone, even their enemies, but people didn’t always make rational decisions. And those with greater power sometimes made even more irrational decisions, despite the supposed wisdom that came with cultivation.

Another Domination cultivator fell at the hands of the Alliance. Or the mandibles of void ants, as far as anyone could tell. That was one of the plans, though it was difficult to say the details for certain. They could find some remains of the ship floating in the void- the explosion was clear enough. In fact, the Alliance even picked up a few bits and pieces of Ramil, still infused with old traces of his Domination energy. But finding individual void ants in the depths of space just couldn’t happen, especially with them arriving hours late to the scene.

Everyone believed it, though. One or more of the boarding teams had made it. The Great Queen organized a ceremony to honor all of them- including the ones that returned alive, regardless of the success of their individual ventures. Though humans who were paying attention would note that few void ants returned alive, and even fewer did so without having accomplished an objective. That was just how void ant culture worked.

The humans weren’t all that different. They were just less likely to sacrifice themselves for something they didn’t believe would work. On the other hand, the void ants had been certain enough and ultimately succeeded. The humans failed to kill Ramil, even supported by void ants. But that was in direct combat.

Emotions were high in the following days. Even with the deaths, survival against powerful foes and an ultimate victory were uplifting. But the troubles of the Alliance were not over- one merely had to look on the opposite side of their core.

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Ratna could feel the energies of two Domination cultivators finally approaching. Timucin and Sevinc. Hopefully, those two were the only Domination cultivators the Tilki clan possessed. Timucin was older, and the one who had previously been confirmed. But Ratna had observed Sevinc long in the past, and she could confirm that this was the same woman by the way her energy reacted. Clearly in Domination.

With Zazil, she could fight two on two, but she wasn’t happy about it. Domination battles didn’t usually result in one side or the other dying, at least not until the Alliance came around, but that was because they were ultimately cowards. Including her. Some people sought immortality because they were afraid of death. Ratna wasn’t confident that even Domination cultivators were immortal, though.

Well, ageless. Clearly they weren’t actually immortal. She knew that for herself before she witnessed deaths. As for her own lifespan, all she knew was that it would be extremely lengthy should she not be killed.

The problems were their combat styles. From what Ratna remembered, Sevinc had been an inspirational force on the battlefield- a proper one, empowering allies. That was long in the past before she reached Domination. If she were capable of providing similar effects to another Domination cultivator, things could be quite difficult. And whatever small fleets the Scarlet Alliance had smuggled to her might not be enough.

Perhaps they might lend her Prospero Vandale as well. It was a bit much to ask, given she was only a single Domination cultivator. Though in some ways, that might not be the right way to think about if. If they could send two Domination cultivators to fight alongside her, both were more likely to survive and also the chances of killing one of the enemy Domination cultivators increased.

She wasn’t even paying them to begin with. It was a true alliance, where all she had to do was come aid them in the future. So it wouldn’t hurt to ask… but it was still difficult. And she might have already waited too long. If she’d been certain they were sending two, she would have buried her pride and asked earlier. Even if the core alliance denied her because they needed to defend her own territory, she should have asked.

Then again, she wanted to prove herself worthy. So what if she had only a new- if talented- Domination cultivator by her side? With her own forces and the fleets of the alliance, she could at least hold them off.

She did ask, though. It would be foolish to be stubborn about it. The method even came with an instantaneous response.

“She says that they’re almost here.”

“I-” Ratna cut herself off. She was going to insist that she already knew that. But Bear Hug was not always clear on such things, and there was no point in being mad at them. “Who says who is almost here?”

“Catarina! She says that… Chidi and Aconite are almost here.”

Technically, they hadn’t sent any Domination cultivators. But Ratna wasn’t going to complain about getting someone who had killed one. Or two, depending on how one counted things. Likewise, Aconite was still an Augmentation equivalent, but Ratna could always use more strong allies.

“Ask her how they knew to send them.”

“She says it was a lucky guess. And also that they absorbed some divination sects a while back.”

Divination wasn’t always reliable, especially as it concerned more powerful cultivators. Then again, merely predicting two powerful presences might actually be the easiest thing that could be done. Not that Ratna was an expert. Somehow, Ratna believed they would have sent more support anyway.

She needed to be worthy of their support, and her strength was the best option. Rather than thinking about how she could defend her own things, she should be thinking about how to best serve the Alliance. Most likely by killing at least one of these Domination cultivators now… and maybe training some of her disciples up to that level later.

It was strange, to think about the possibility of that death so easily. “Another Domination cultivator’s death is on the horizon…” Ratna commented. “What strange times we live in.”

“Oh. How did you hear? I hadn’t even told you yet!”

“What?”

“About Ramil dying? I was going to tell you but you looked so busy.”

She was busy. And now she couldn’t decide if she should be more or less afraid of dying herself.