Elder Cultivator

“This time a fire guy!” Bear Hug said enthusiastically.

Anton nodded. That was their choice, so that was what it would be. He really hoped that Bear Hug was immune to trauma from sustaining bodily injuries and wasn’t just pushing through negative feelings. It was reasonable to assume plant-based lifeforms would have very different mentalities, but Bear Hug felt so normal in most ways that being incautious seemed like a poor idea.

Even if there wasn’t any mental issue, it was possible that the shock of losing most or all of a body would cause negative impacts on Bear Hug’s cultivation- up to and potentially including death. This was their first time splitting anywhere outside of Klar, so Anton just had to trust them that ‘everything felt alright’.

Unfortunately, it might hurt more to deny his friend the opportunity to try to meet new people. Even if they probably weren’t people, Bear Hug’s determination was sufficient to make Anton almost believe it despite evidence to the contrary.

It was better to try to instill a sense of caution in Bear Hug now, when they couldn’t roam the stars on their own. Anton couldn’t be responsible for people forever. Hopefully he could at least convince Bear Hug to bring along someone like Liberty. Or Briar… if Briar ever settled down some.

Fire was a common cultivation theme. It was the easiest form of primal power for humans to experience. Even in the middle of the void of space, huge fire burned in the form of stars. Anton still didn’t know if these distortion beasts had obtained any of the insights on their own, but their location wasn’t so incompatible as to make the insights useless.

Anton settled on one that felt almost… nice. Like a cozy fire in a hearth. Maybe that was just his own personal interpretation, but if that were in a human Anton would have thought it to be rather normal. Maybe in someone older, anyway, since hearths weren’t really popular in the modern age. There were probably people who cultivated the heating and cooling potential of air circulation units, though.

Baiting the distortion beast was about as simple as before. Not too much energy to be noticed ended up close to any other, and Anton gradually drew it away.

Anton left the distortion beast a bit further away. Bear Hug had rested and regrown somewhat, and would have to deal with it from there. Hopefully, a slow approach would make it more… amenable?

A trunk much like an elephant was the first piece of it he saw stick into real space. Bear Hug’s approach was slow, until that trunk suddenly spread energy throughout the area and pulled.

Bear Hug puffed up, managing to stick across an opening dozens of meters wide. As always, the scale of a distortion beast was massive. “Hey, don’t eat me! Or snort me. You can hug, though. I wouldn’t mind a big elephant trunk hug.”

The words, imbued with fundamental energy, did not seem to produce a response. At most, it was a signal to the distortion beast to amplify its assault. Large antlers pushed against Bear Hug from the rear, trying to dislodge them from the entrance of the trunk. When that didn’t work, the trunk sprayed fire.

Anton hadn’t really seen them make use of their ‘normal’ bodies with their cultivation insights before. Then again, he’d only been personally involved with the previous one Bear Hug tried to befriend. Hopefully, it meant nothing.

Some people thought plants were flammable. Some were. On the scale of plant flammability, one end was dried twigs and tinder. The other end were strong living plants. Bear Hug was one step beyond that, because they had water both within and without.

The unending stream of fire was a bit concerning, though, not least of which because Bear Hug kept trying to ‘talk’ and having chunks of energy burned away.

Bear Hug tried to tangle up the trunk, moving in spirals as it chased them, but ultimately that didn’t seem to matter with the multidimensionality of the distortion beast. Even presuming that the visible shape was the end of things, it could simply withdraw until only the end of what it needed was in real space, moving that instead of the whole thing. That is what it did, though whether it was tactical or instinctual was unclear.

Fire eventually ceased, either because it realized it was wasting energy or because it couldn’t sustain the barrage indefinitely. Anton was certain it still had energy, because he could feel it. Significantly stronger than Bear Hug, but not good at killing them.

“I don’t think this is working!” Bear Hug commented. Presumably, for Anton to overhear. “Can you just… draw it back?”

“This doesn’t mean you get another attempt,” Anton said.

“I know. I just don’t want something I tried to befriend to die, even if it’s very mean.”

“Fine. Try to minimize your presence.” Anton created a bundle of energy, trying to draw attention away from Bear Hug. It slightly worked, though he at first just split the distortion beast’s attention. He ultimately had to cause some damage to the beast, breaking some of the parts of the ‘antlers’ and trunk that continued to pursue Bear Hug.

Once it lost immediate contact with Bear Hug, it was fairly easily led back towards the nest. It got into some sort of half-hearted battle with another distortion beast upon arrival. Anton was pretty sure they both survived, but perhaps there had been more wounds behind the scene he didn’t sense. Even if he was experienced with it, he doubted his subspace sensing was even close to perfect.

“Boo,” Bear Hug said. “I wanted this to be a big, new thing. But it’s just a big disappointment.”

“Sorry,” Anton said. “We can’t usually choose how things happen. Especially where other living things are involved. We certainly can’t force things to be sapient.”

“Okay. But what if they become people? Since they can do cultivation stuff?”

Anton shook his head. “At this point, it seems extremely unlikely. At least as far as we can see, their minds are still simple. Normally, if developing cultivation, simpler energy gathering methods and techniques would come before complex elemental ones. This is leading more towards the theory that they were imbued with these features, somehow. Either by a person, or some particularly special location.”

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“Do you think that person wanted them to be friends?”

“That’s… extremely unlikely.”

“Oh.”

-----

Trahern- the assistant who had a name even if Alin Kato might not have known it- looked at the calculated route. They only needed a few more samples to determine conclusively which direction the nest was propelled from. “It could be both,” he said.

“Both what?” Alin asked.

“Sent along by something, and attracted by something else. They wouldn’t even have to be the same faction. Or even both thinking.”

“An interesting theory, but unlikely. I think it far more probable that it would be one or the other.”

Trahern shrugged. “Still worth considering.”

“Yes.”

That was about as much acknowledgement as Trahern ever got. At first, that had annoyed the hell out of him. Eventually, though, he realized that Alin barely even responded to most people. If they said something stupid, they didn’t even get reprimanded. They just… stopped being included. It wasn’t even clear if it was intentional.

So a direct, verbal acknowledgement was sort of like praise. There were worse things in the world than having a sometimes unenthusiastic boss, and for the sake of studying exotic oddities like distortion beasts it was worth it. Plus, the Alliance really needed someone to interpret Alin’s results for normal people. He could explain things, but that didn’t mean he would if he didn’t think the questions were good enough.

Plus he was fun to pester.

-----

“I don’t understand what’s so difficult about my request,” Alin Kato complained. “We have deep space probes, do we not? We could even secure some for use in the upper realms, if necessary.”

“Yeah,” the assistant said. “But that’s like, half of what we need right? Because it’s not going to be in either of those places.”

“There… might be some form of energy at the destination. No, there surely must be.”

“It’s still crazy to ask to send someone beyond the galactic plane.”

“Humans are more responsive to unusual circumstances. Purely mechanical scouts are limited in their operations, especially outside of communications range.”

“Would you go?”

“What? Don’t be daft. I’ve too many things on my plate.”

“Other people are busy too. Imagine if the supply chain for coffee broke down.”

Alin frowned. “Well obviously we wouldn’t be sending one of them. That’s why I wanted a scout.”

“People still have important things to do. Anyway, there isn’t something that does what you want.”

“I’d hope we both want it.”

“Yeah,” the assistant agreed. “I’d love to see whatever might be drawing this nest in from so far away.”

“I’ll just build one,” Alin said.

“An… unknown beacon?”

“Don’t be daft. That would throw off the path of the nest. I just meant a new scout.”

“You’re not really a… mechanical guy.”

“I’m sure it can’t be that hard,” Alin commented. “We just need a long range transmitter. Some guidance systems. Subspace capabilities…”

“Power restoration. Oh, and it all has to be pure tech.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“None of our energy sources are going to work. Whatever systems they’re part of will become dead weight, or worse.”

“But we already know something meant to survive the trip,” Alin said simply. “So I propose… a biological alternative.”

“... You want to tame a distortion beast and have it carry a camera?”

“That would be nice. But a bit impractical, I fear. However, we can take inspiration from their properties. Come now, you’re not going to give up at this stage, are you? We won’t be outdone here.”

“Outdone by who?”

“Obviously, whoever imbued distortion beasts with cultivation insights. I imagine we shall have to find some free roaming, normal specimens to work with. But we should be able to implant them with something. And if we can amplify the signal, it’s bound to follow it.”

“That’s… going to take some work.”

“We’d better get started, then!”

And so, Alin Kato and his assistant began a very special project. It wasn’t the sort of thing that would be accomplished in a few short years even if they had everything they needed ready somehow. Adding to that the time that might be required for a distortion beast to travel, they might not see any results for centuries, aside from basic things like putting implants in a distortion beast and keeping them from being destroyed- intentionally or otherwise. Though even that simple stage might be a difficult one.

-----

Aerona was assigned to the Origin Cycle to convince them to join or at least befriend the Lower Realms Alliance. Normally, replacing a powerful cultivator with an even more powerful one might have seemed intimidating… but in terms of battle prowess Aerona was absolutely in the opposite direction from Ty. He bridged the gap from Assimilation to Enrichment in one direction, and she was pretty much the other. That did not mean her power was insignificant or even less useful- she just wasn’t going to be able to kill people.

After that, she just had to convince people she wasn’t there to mind control them. Fortunately, her aura was extremely relaxing. Only the most paranoid individuals would maintain their guard around her long term- though for Aerona, she didn’t mind if that was a few years or a decade.

Her primary contact was Makinia, though unlike Ty she was trying to distribute her attention among each planet. His presence could have been a disaster, but he’d ultimately ended up preparing a decent foundation. He’d displayed the power and technology of the Alliance, and now people didn’t have to deal with him. Nekesa and Uzochi were some of the exceptions to the general rule, of course. As his friends, they’d rather see him, though even they would have to admit that Aerona was better at figuring out how to balance both sides. The Origin Cycle was still concerned about their isolation, and what might happen if they were revealed. That was a legitimate concern- though perhaps it was already too late for them. Either the distortion beast nest or Ty’s arrival could be enough.

Her current goal was to convince some of them to tour the Alliance. There wouldn’t be an exchange of technology until later in the process, but simply seeing the various systems spoken about and returning safely would be a good start. And if they chose isolation, they would be well informed. Though even in that case, the Alliance might need to help them with more multilayered formations, especially as it involved subspace.