Elder Cultivator

The ape that tried to chew pieces out of Bear Hug found itself with suddenly rigid spikes of algae stabbing into it, followed by a sudden flow of blood. Bear Hug shook off the liquid, even though it was brimming with natural energy.

The horde of beasts was flowing past, many not even noting their fellow’s demise. When they did, they treated the ape as anything else- a source of food. Bear Hug was still on that list along with Anton, but some carefully placed arrows were molding the situation.

It wasn’t just one cluster of creatures that had dropped down on them, however, but many more at other places on the planet. Anton was monitoring the other sapient individuals he knew of- including, reluctantly, the briar patch.

Spike rather handily dealt with the wave of beasts, a few exploding fruit opening up a break in the flow and keeping the tree safe. A few beasts turned to attack the trunk of the tree regardless, but they found that it was a lot less pleasant to chew on than literally anything else. Not that they had long to regret their decisions as the tree’s natural energy extended the trunk’s spikes through them.

Liberty was overlooked for being quite small, and the slightly mobile tree also actively hid the natural energy within it. The pitcher plant that trained in ice was still up in the mountains, which were safe for the moment.

Anton had decisions to make. He didn’t want to disrupt the local balance, but he wasn’t certain if this was a normal part of the way things were. He took a few shots back towards Helix, toppling some approaching beasts and leaving their ivy friend with at least one good standing tree.

He also shot down more swarming towards him, coming in all shapes and sizes including forms that didn’t seem suited for living in an atmosphere. Some were large and billowed like jellies, but outside of the sea they appeared particularly slow. Yet even they managed to catch some other members of the swarm when they approached a moment of vulnerability.

Ultimately, the first wave faded out at a similar pace to how it had first begun. Some swarms remained a cohesive whole, tearing whole chunks out of the ecosystem before they had their fill. Others split up as groups of individuals, leaving smaller trails of destruction. In that way, they appeared little different than the briar patch. Except the invasive beasts didn’t just eat, but many also became food for the locals.

Bear Hug didn’t seem willing to consume anything directly, but the briar patch was sitting on a selection of butchered corpses, providing a fearsome visage that kept others away.

“Have you seen anything like that before?” Anton asked Bear Hug.

“Hungry bitey fish,” Bear Hug commented. “Swimming down river.”

“I meant more coming from the sky,” Anton explained.

Bear Hug shook their head. “Flocks of birds are less.”

As some of the groups sank into a lull of inactivity, Anton wondered if he should cull their numbers. Having too many predators could devastate an ecosystem, but so could too few. He simply didn’t know enough to make an informed choice. Killing a handful here or there really wouldn’t make that much difference with the total numbers.

Anton expanded his senses, trying to figure out where they had come from. There was another planet passing nearby- at least on the system scale. It would still likely require months or years of travel, but the whole thing was odd to begin with. There was no way that all of the beasts could fly or easily survive in the vacuum of space.

He managed to pick out several groups still making the journey, and was slightly encouraged. This might be devastating to specific ecosystems, but on a planetary scale he didn’t think it would be apocalyptic unless the beasts returned to their rampant devouring.

As for the beasts, it seemed they had a chunk of atmosphere with them, clinging together inside a film of natural energy. Trying to trace that back to its source, Anton could only sense a connection to the planet in question. Exactly how it came to be was a mystery, but it certainly involved a vast quantity of energy.

Watching the more distant groups, it was strange that they were peaceful. Then Anton saw one beast strike out at a nearby target, impaling it upon a spike. An instant later, the aggressor was attacked from all directions. Yet instead of starting a chain reaction, the beasts simply fed on the single target. Perhaps their instincts of self preservation somehow warned them of the possibility.

Swarming behavior was a phenomenon that vastly changed the behavior of a group, but it didn’t usually apply to anything so large- or to diverse creatures. Normal swarms gained an advantage of lower risk for individuals and access to food resources, and Anton had seen that the potential was there for these diverse groups, but it was still odd. Something about the energy that carried them along must be influencing the beasts.

As Anton watched, those individuals that seemed to be native to space that had already satiated themselves slowly tried to fly away. Some of them managed it, while others didn’t have the power to break free from gravity. Not on their own. These were the most vulnerable individuals, often picked off by the local occupants as they were caught outside of their natural habitat.

The other beasts that appeared more terrestrial in nature seemed to begin to fit into their environment, or search for one that fit. Of course, that came with a significant amount of territorial conflict. Ultimately, it didn’t seem like they gained much except one particularly big meal, so Anton couldn’t quite understand why it would happen.

But he supposed the issue was that he was looking at it as if the behavior was intentional. Anton let his senses wander to other planets, trying to pick out a similar phenomenon, and he eventually found something.

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He couldn’t be certain it was precisely the same thing, but on one planet there were large pockets of natural energy building up. Those pockets drew in both terrestrial and spacefaring beasts, eager to absorb the energy. The energy was so abundant that there wasn’t even that much fighting over it- if observed at scale, at least. There were always at least a few tussles happening, but when speaking about a few out of thousands of individuals that level of conflict was fairly minimal. How that would develop into the situation he had seen was still a matter of conjecture for Anton, as he’d apparently missed this particular event building up.

Anton had to wonder if there were any sapient individuals that ended up as part of this phenomenon. If so, it would be nice if he could speak with them- but that wasn’t exactly something that would happen quickly, even if he immediately found them. He might be able to observe it happening again soon enough, if he kept watching.

When estimating the arrival locations of some of the still-incoming groups, Anton saw one of them taken out in its entirety by a massive orb shaped creature, over a hundred meters across. Its maw contained circular rows of teeth like a worm, but they seemed to lead directly into a central portion where everything it consumed was crammed together.

Anton didn’t think it was wise to swallow whole hundreds or thousands of still-conscious beasts, but clearly this floating orb didn’t care about that. It merely wrapped around the whole group before collapsing. Anton realized that the teeth continued onto the inner surface of its ‘stomach’, impaling those on the outside while crushing those on the inside against each other. Then a great flood of natural energy began to dissolve what remained, freeing yet more natural energy from the bodies that was absorbed back into the creature.

There was no way such a creature was sustainable if this phenomenon was unique. Even if the vacuum of space in Klar was quite populated, it simply didn’t have the density for such a massive beast to feed. Anton supposed it could also attack other larger individuals, but it seemed eerily suited for this particular purpose.

-----

Bear Hug had seemed upset shortly after the battle, but quickly went back to their joyous state with a bit of rest. In fact, they were eager to continue the journey. “Someone might need help! Or maybe one of those who came down can think and speak. What do you think?”

“It’s possible,” Anton admitted. “But I certainly couldn’t pick them out from the masses of energy.”

None of them had been plantlike at all, so Anton would have been more familiar with the traditional arrangement of energy that showed active cultivation in animalian bodies, but Anton would still likely have to individually inspect his potential targets. With vast numbers distributed throughout the planet and now mixing in with the local populace, Anton wouldn’t know where to start.

Then again, Bear Hug liked nothing more than looking at any individual thing in front of them and trying to determine if it might be a future friend. “I found a snail!” Bear Hug said, indicating the creature. “What do you think?”

“Well…” Anton frowned. “It does have abnormally high natural energy.”

“I’m naming it Rocky,” Bear Hug determined, placing an arm in front of the snail. It took a few minutes, but it crawled up onto it. “Look, we’re friends!”

At least it wasn’t trying to eat Bear Hug. Actually, that was quite strange. Even the fish had nibbled at Bear Hug. “If you carry it, make sure to feed it.”

“Okay! Rocky, can you speak?” Bear Hug said. “I’m sure you’ll get a handle on it. You’re my second friend from the sky, after all.”

“We don’t actually know that-” Bear Hug suddenly gave off a very sad impression. “I mean, Rocky could be- definitely came in with everything else. Yep.”

Was it lying? Technically. Anton couldn’t really discern a difference in natural energy, but all the planets actually felt quite similar. The main component of everything came from the same star, after all. It was only then transformed by the local populace. Now that Anton thought about it, it was rather odd that every planet was so similar in feel given their vastly different terrains, but he had subconsciously written that off as related to the permeating field of natural energy that rested between the planets.

-----

Over the course of years, border planets shifted control between the Chaotic Conglomeration and the Exalted Quadrant. That was how it had always been, so the planets along said border were rarely properly settled. Crossed Antennae knew they set up buildings to last decades at most, repairing them as necessary. That was quite short term for cultivators.

But because humans were there, void ants had to be as well. Not that the humans all knew that. Some were more aware that they were being monitored than others. Either way, the border planets were the riskiest. It was where information was most likely to slip to the wrong people- either factions that hadn’t agreed to the terms of the Scarlet Alliance, or the Exalted Quadrant themselves.

Crossed Antennae had to train her daughters in the most important points. First was secrecy. It was better for individual pieces of information to be given up than for the void ants to be revealed. Few things were so critical that it could have a greater impact than void ants appearing on the border worlds. The Exalted Quadrant would obviously wish to annihilate them, and the Chaotic Conglomeration wasn’t necessarily above joining in. After all, they had just as much to fear as any other cultivators.

And perhaps even more if they realized how smart these ones were. Which was why Crossed Antennae made sure that any activity would go unnoticed. Most people wouldn’t recognize void ants at a glance. They could appear as ordinary black ants, as long as nobody was carefully inspecting them with energy. An ant that had no cultivation wasn’t all that different from a tiny little void. Most people would just ignore it.

Except sects that worked with bugs. They were most likely of anyone to be friends with the void ants, and conversely also most likely to be enemies. Anything but neutral, so they simply had to avoid them.

Secrecy was important. Which was part of the reason Crossed Antennae was worried about planets falling. She’d held back from the border worlds at first to avoid such situations, but among other things the border had shifted.

A world with some of her daughters had been captured, and now Crossed Antennae was worried. Worried that they had died, and worried that maybe they hadn’t and could still be discovered. She didn’t know which one scared her more. She was probably supposed to be more worried about the goal than any individual offspring of hers, but associating with people long term made her more aware of individuality. How annoying. And also extremely useful.

Hopefully, the twins would be able to get her a chance to inspect the planet. Maybe there were some remaining who needed extraction. For all the ‘void ant tech’ that they’d been trying to develop, interstellar abilities were still a bit lacking. Especially if it was supposed to be bidirectional.

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