Apparently, the relations that Lantilwe had with their current neighbors across the border were benign enough they didn’t have any concerns about Anton’s original purpose regarding coming to the border. It was also significantly less important that he bother, since there shouldn’t be any enemies to probe. Even so, Anton took the opportunity. If nothing else, he could verify their word.
If Anton determined that Caomh had lied to him… he would probably just leave. Not that he expected to prove anything wrong, given that it was a pretty easy detail to check. Well, most people probably couldn’t sense anything that far, so perhaps they would be interested in verifying his abilities.
Anton really couldn’t sense much beyond the border, not without binding a local star. He was nowhere near close enough to that point with Lantilwe. They had been quite welcoming, but friendly and friends weren’t the same thing. Even Bear Hug probably knew that.
The systems Anton sensed were mostly populated, just as he had been told. In his experience most border systems didn’t tend to get a lot of people, though he thought maybe they should. As long as the systems themselves were decent, it provided a nice defensive barrier on one side. The main downside was when it was expected that the opposite realm would want to engage in conflict, which was unfortunately often. More than random neighbors within the same realm, and cultivators were rather notorious for such things.
Each planet was more or less dominated by a single sect, though there were sometimes a few within a system. Anton could feel the overarching aura of each planet, but not all that much more without a proper bond. With sufficient effort he could certainly lock onto a single target, but that was quite unnecessary.
He felt the heavy aura of the Lords of Rock along with the whimsical aura of the Inquisitive Spirit. Anton really would be interested in meeting them during the next cycle… but he wouldn’t be going into the upper realms. Even along the tides, it would be far too dangerous for casual amusement. If they came to visit Lantilwe, that might be different. Presuming they hadn’t moved again by that time, which apparently happened every few cycles. After all, systems did tend to drift, and they needed to be as close to the upper realms as possible.
The upper energy they gathered was extremely thin and diffuse. Anton had considered they might be producing it somehow upon their first encounter, since he hadn’t sensed an obvious source. Obviously there were the upper realms just twenty or so lightyears distant- a bit less at their precise configuration- but energy density fell so sharply between the realms as to be practically nonexistent.
Bounty and Second Gift had spent quite a lot of effort to minimize how much energy they leeched to their surroundings, as they couldn’t get it back for decades.
The area over which Lantilwe was gathering ascension energy was quite broad. Anton hadn’t been aware of it as he approached the system, but they had a number of formations set up on the far side of the system- indeed, even beyond the traditional borders of a system. Even then, they only managed to condense a relatively small proportion of ascension energy into their system. It was enough to feel overwhelming, though.
Bear Hug was quite pleased with Lantilwe. They were teaching some neat techniques to stabilize upper energy among lower energy. Or ascension energy among natural energy. Or upper energy among natural energy, if they used the terms local to the greater concentrations.
It was perfect for Second Gift. Keeping away the pesky and unnecessary upper energy was quite a pain there. But if it could just live happily on Second Gift, things could be even better. “I’m gonna try it on a little grove first,” Bear Hug declared to Anton. “I think I can do that.”
“Glad to hear it,” Anton said. Aside from Caomh, Anton had been slowly introduced to more of the prominent local cultivators. He didn’t feel obligated to meet with them, which actually made him more willing. Being forced to visit wasn’t his idea of a good time, even it had political benefits. “They were open about their techniques?”
“They said it can’t hurt anything. But that’s not true, it totally could! Mostly things that are in a weird spot, though,” Bear Hug finished. “If it doesn’t go well, the larger source of energy still dominates as normal. It could hurt plants and animals, but not fast. It’s not a weapon or anything.”
Anton was certain the knowledge could be misused somehow. Humans were great at that sort of thing. However, since any results would necessarily be far slower it wasn’t a huge concern. Even so, it showed the confidence of the locals. It was the confidence of strength and security, much like Anton felt during his usual travels. The confidence that should anything go wrong, it could be handled.
That made Anton feel a bit more secure in their honesty, but he certainly wasn’t ready to pronounce a true and long-lasting friendship just yet. It would be easy for a powerful group to keep up a facade for a few days. Months or years, even. They just had to see some benefit in it. It probably wasn’t whatever Anton had on him, because if they were going to kill him they probably would have tried sooner. Then again, they shouldn’t be expecting much from the Alliance since they were far away. Even if Anton was vague about the specific locations, he wasn’t vague about the extreme distance.
Anton moved on with an easily gained and rather casual promise to meet again in the future. They were certainly much more friendly than Aretis. Anton didn’t think there was such a large difference in strength, but they were a very significant distance apart. If it was true that the upper realms wasn’t a frequent problem here, it made sense they were less paranoid.
“I think they should be friends,” Bear Hug commented.
“You do realize they’re still hundreds of lightyears from each other?” Anton asked.
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“I’m sure they can figure it out! Aretis and the Alliance can probably finish tech based instantaneous communication pretty soon.”
Anton chuckled. “I doubt that the Alliance will be willing to share detailed information about technology so easily. Aretis even less so.”
“Maybe their scans of me will let them make it on their own, then,” Bear Hug shrugged. “They have neat stuff. I think they can do it.”
Anton wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about Aretis’ future development, not because he didn’t think they would hit a limit but because he was still uncertain about them as a group. On the other hand, they were far enough from the Alliance that there would be no sane reason for them to cause conflict. Their supply lines would be so drawn out that Anton could probably completely collapse them on his own.
Their technology seemed quite powerful, but he doubted they had limitless power and he further doubted their ability to counterattack when he was lightyears away. Then again, it was possible they had something and simply had thought it was excessive when he first appeared in one of their systems. They still had no reason to believe he would be a threat from outside their system. Anton intended to keep it that way for a while.
Though on this trip back, they were going to visit. “I can’t wait to see them again,” Bear Hug said.
“It’s still most of a year,” Anton pointed out. They were moving along the northern border, but would fly down to the region when they got close. For the moment, Anton was trying to survey what was across the border. So far the systems had appeared empty, and those that were occupied didn’t seem to be part of the Trigold Cluster. At least, not any prominent sect.
Anton didn’t expect to find any of them until much closer to Aretis, but their actual size was rather nebulous. He was also kind of hoping to find a great power that might go to war with them. Contacting them would be rather troublesome, but it would provide opportunities. Mainly, against the Swirling Swarm. They were the biggest problem remaining. The most persistent problem, as they didn’t seem to be concerned about loss of life. Nor of powerful cultivators.
Even if sects gained a grudge from a loss, they would usually not cause trouble for a time as they nursed their wounds. Otherwise, they would just lose more. The Swirling Swarm didn’t seem to operate in that manner.
Anton and Bear Hug were playing ‘guess the people’. Bear Hug had suggested it, and it did give them something specific to do every couple weeks. For a few minutes.
“Umm…” Bear Hug tapped their forehead to demonstrate hard thought. “Tiny people that run around with bows!”
Anton couldn’t really give Bear Hug many points there. “You do realize that the vast majority of people are standard humans, right?” Obviously they were just guessing, but still. “They don’t seem set up for great mobility, but I do believe they are prepared to engage in ranged combat. One point.”
Bear Hug didn’t seem to mind getting the minimum amount of success possible. Perhaps if they went for logical combinations they would gain a slight advantage, instead of whatever they felt like at the time. “Do another one!”
Anton did find another sect that he could make out well enough. He just had to use more energy than he passively recovered for a short time, but what was the point of having power if you didn’t use it? “Alright,” he said. “I found one.”
“Humans!” Bear Hug said. “Really boring ones. But, but! They stab people with knives. And heal them.”
“Mhm,” Anton nodded. “Is that your guess? People with… surgical skills?”
“There’s a name for that?”
Maybe not the way Bear Hug was thinking, but Anton had to be a bit generous. As for the actual sect… “One point.”
“Because they’re humans? Yes!”
“Well, since you mentioned tiny humans for the others… no. Because this group kind of is. They do seem to have… medical intentions. Just not surgical.” He happened to sense a battle happening. It wasn’t fully clear to him, but he thought they were cauterizing wounds with fire.
“I want to swap my guesses!”
“That’s uh… still only one point each time,” Anton said. “You’d just be completely wrong about what kind of sects they are.”
Well, points weren’t worth anything anyway.
Anton was not pleased with what he was feeling at all. At least near the border, the Trigold Cluster was sprawled out at least fifty lightyears further than previously predicted. Anton had to bind to a local star to probe more deeply, as he required his full power to sense much beyond the very border systems.
As he probed deeper, Anton felt Swirling Swarm cultivators scattered around more than a handful of layers into the upper realms. There were other occupied systems interspersed with them. Potentially enemies, potentially smaller Trigold sects. He saw a few skirmishes, but that didn't prove anything in either direction. The Swirling Swarm weren’t known as good neighbors, or even tolerable neighbors.
It was still useful to learn what he was learning, but the greater extent of influence was problematic. Dealing with the Swirling Swarm could be a war of attrition, and the more systems they controlled the worse that might be. The Alliance certainly wasn’t willing to continuously throw away lives.
If only they’d had an obvious anchor nicely placed along the border. That would have been nice. Anton would have been able to take his time blowing it up. Maybe he would exhaust all his energy one day, then come back the next month and do it again. If he could manage the local ascension energy wanting to annihilate him, he was fairly confident in his success. Alas, there was none. Anton also wasn’t feeling up to killing trillions or quadrillions of Swirling Swarm cultivators one planet at a time. It would be pretty awful if they somehow adapted to his energy or he triggered an early war or something.
He might be able to draw away some powerful cultivators with the right timing, though. It was also better to know how far they stretched than to be uncertain. Sadly, it was even further east than Reneden and Aretis.
Anton retracted his energy. He didn’t want to give away how he was probing so far away. They might cause trouble for other locals after the next cycle, if they thought there was some sort of collusion. Then again… it was better for the Swirling Swarm not to make it to the next cycle, if they could somehow manage that. They did have time to work on it. More than five centuries still, since the cycle had only just begun.