"Move the reserve behind them. If that group gets cut off, we won't bring them back." Dareth kept one hand above the battle projection as another cluster of blue markers began separating from the retreating force. Through the command vessel's broad forward window, pale-blue and dark-crimson light spread between scattered starships, repeatedly broken by flashes from Divine Spells striking defensive barriers and domains colliding across the open void.
The distant glow of the Teralis Galaxy stretched behind their vessels, while ahead, thousands of cultivators fought around the Bloodfang supply ships Dareth's expedition had originally been sent to destroy. Smaller groups had spread far above and below the main engagement as fighters pursued retreating enemies through open space, while the formations surrounding the transport vessels steadily compressed as both sides concentrated more strength around them.
Dareth was a Peak Rule disciple of the Azure Ascendant Sect, the Upper Major Sect whose authority extended across twenty-four galaxies. The galaxy Teralis itself was governed by the Stoneveil Sect, a Lesser Major Sect operating beneath Azure Ascendant.
Stoneveil maintained the local bases, transit routes, and supply infrastructure for the operation, while Azure Ascendant had provided the combat disciples now fighting under Dareth's command.
The mission had been well within their expected strength when they accepted it. Bloodfang had gathered supplies and troops outside Teralis to reinforce its forces along this part of the frontier, and Dareth's expedition was supposed to strike that gathering before it became large enough to matter. Instead, another Bloodfang transport group arrived after the fighting began, swelling the enemy force until nearly ten thousand Peak Rule cultivators were now fighting around the supply vessels.
His officer moved a fresh report beside the projection. "The reserve has reached them, but they're taking losses. The fourth transport can't move until its damaged formation is repaired."
"Keep two ships beside it and bring the wounded through their docking passages," Dareth replied. "Tell the reserve to pull back with them. They are there to cover the withdrawal, not hold that position." He glanced toward a message that had remained unanswered for too long. "Any word from the elder?"
"He was coming towards us from the main defensive base back in Teralis, but got interrupted by an Astral from Bloodfang." The officer hesitated before adding, "There isn't another Astral close enough to help us immediately."
Dareth pressed his blue fingers against the table. The elder they requested for help was now stuck against a Bloodfang's Astral. His troops would have to hold until he could get away.
"Send him our latest position," he said. "We will keep moving toward the withdrawal point." Opening a passage within the fighting had failed twice. Enemy authority kept breaking the spatial connections before the transports could enter, and the troops needed more distance before another attempt would be worth its cost.
The officer enlarged a live image beside the map. Several groups of disciples were being driven back around the damaged transport, their pale-blue domains overlapping the crimson fields of the advancing Bloodfang cultivators. A sky-blue disciple turned to help an injured companion, only for a horned Beastborn to catch him across the back with a curved blade. Another swept around them to block their retreat, baring his teeth as the wounded man tried to raise his weapon.
Dareth directed the nearest group toward them. Blue spears crossed the image, forcing the Beastborn apart long enough for the two disciples to be pulled away. Elsewhere, another marker vanished before help reached it. He moved the display and sent the next order without waiting for the officer to confirm the death.
Both fighting forces had mastered Ultimate-tier foundations. Across the crowded areas, their domains overlapped in such numbers that very little authority remained available to any one cultivator. One group tried to stop an enemy's movement while another opposed the change. Unable to hold their opponents still, the cultivators continued fighting with weapons and Divine spells. Whenever the troops spread apart, the balance shifted again.
The expedition had already used its reserves to relieve exhausted groups several times. Now those same disciples were being called back before they had properly recovered. Dareth watched a formation bend around the damaged transport and marked another position for withdrawal when a voice reached him through the observation feed.
"Eternal Continuum."
Dark-violet light spread across the fighting, carrying thin golden currents through the pale blue and crimson. Several advancing Beastborn slowed briefly, their movements falling behind the attacks they had begun. Their domains pressed back against the unfamiliar influence, and within moments they were moving more freely again.
Dareth straightened and enlarged the region where the new domain had appeared. A lone figure floated beyond the edge of the retreating troops, dressed in white-grey robes. He had short black hair and a face Dareth did not recognize. A narrow sword of white-grey energy extended from his hand as he turned toward the Bloodfang force.
"Did headquarters send someone?" Dareth asked. "Check whether he is one of the hired cultivators." His officer was already opening the reinforcement records, but the stranger moved before an answer came.
He crossed toward a dense enemy group beside the supply ships. Dareth followed the white-grey streak until it changed direction sharply, passing between two crimson barriers. A Beastborn's head separated from his shoulders and began to turn in the void. Beside him, another cultivator's raised arm separated at the elbow before a second stroke opened his chest.
The figure was already beyond them. He passed through the next group, reversed his direction, and cut across the fighters approaching from below. Dareth caught brief glimpses of a robe sleeve and the glowing blade, but most of what the feed showed was a streak moving through bodies that had not yet begun drifting apart.
"No one matches," the officer said, looking up from the records. "The elder hasn't sent anyone, and there are no hired cultivators assigned to us."
Dareth barely heard the end. A line of Bloodfang disciples turned together and raised their weapons toward the stranger. Crimson attacks crossed the space he had occupied, meeting each other beyond it, while the white-grey streak appeared along their flank. Three bodies divided before the rest managed to face the new direction.
"An Astral?" Dareth said, watching another enemy formation collapse.
He had seen Astrals cut through Rule cultivators before. The stranger's speed alone placed him far beyond the people surrounding him, and every attack was directed only toward Bloodfang. Whatever reason had brought the man here, he was giving Dareth's expedition the first genuine opportunity to survive since the reinforcements arrived.
Dareth opened the force-wide channel. "Recover the groups near the fourth transport. Everyone with strength left, attack the enemies beside them. Keep the route behind you clear." His hand moved across the projection, directing two formations toward the gap the stranger had opened.
The retreat slowed as the orders reached his disciples. Cultivators who had been covering the transports turned back, driving their opponents toward the broken groups behind them. For the first time since the enemy reinforcements arrived, Dareth could see a path by which the entire remaining force might escape.
His shoulders eased, but his attention returned to the stranger when white-grey lights began appearing around him. Spheres gathered above his shoulders and farther along his path, forming directly in the void. More appeared as he moved, until thousands hung between the scattered enemy formations.
Dareth's hand stopped above the map. The spheres shot outward together, passing toward separate targets while the figure continued deeper into Bloodfang's force. A Beastborn raised a shield before the nearest sphere reached him. The shield vanished around the point of contact, followed by the arms behind it and the rest of his body.
There was no explosion. Farther away, another sphere struck a cultivator across the shoulder and erased his upper body, leaving the lower half drifting through the fading light. Whole groups disappeared beneath the crossing white-grey lights, leaving empty positions among the crimson domains. Several enemy spells vanished with the people maintaining them.
"What is he doing?" Dareth leaned closer as another spread of spheres formed around the moving figure. "He could have broken their advance with far fewer spells. Does he intend to spend all his mana here?"
The officer stared at the image. "They are trying to pull back."
"I can see that. Keep our people together." Dareth returned one hand to the command display, though his eyes remained on the barrage. "What if another Bloodfang force arrives? He'll have nothing left if he keeps spending like this."
The stranger gave no sign of slowing. White-grey lights continued crossing the void, and between them his blade flashed through the groups trying to reach the supply vessels.
…
Adrian drove his Source Blade through a Beastborn's chest and pulled it free as he turned toward the next group. He wore Aeon's face, his mana signature altered beneath Origin's white-grey robes. Around him, another set of Starbreakers separated from his moving figure and flew toward the enemies farther ahead.
After settling his departure with Hestia, Adrian had left his willforce clone behind with the people at home and travelled into Azure Ascendant's region. The war stretched across so many galaxies that even he had initially struggled to decide where he should enter. He could not simply appear within the central battlefield where the three allied Upper Major Sects were confronting Bloodfang's main forces.
That region was tightly controlled by all four powers, with movements, reinforcements, and spatial routes constantly observed. An unidentified cultivator suddenly entering those fronts could draw the attention of people far more dangerous than the Rule and Astral cultivators fighting here, including the very Weave-stage beings Adrian had travelled to observe.
He had come to this war because he needed to understand Weave and eventually remove the threat Bloodfang represented, but beginning by forcing a confrontation with a Weave cultivator would accomplish nothing.
And the broken memories he absorbed from the horned beastborn didn't give Adrian all the information he needed.
So for now, Adrian needed time to understand the forces involved, observe their stronger cultivators, and learn how the war functioned before openly placing himself against the people standing near its highest levels.
Teralis had therefore become his first destination. The galaxy lay farther from the central fronts and was only one of the regions contributing resources and troops to Azure Ascendant's war effort. Its local ruler, Stoneveil, was a Lesser Major Sect beneath Azure Ascendant rather than one of the four Upper Major powers directly controlling the war.
After arriving, Adrian found reports circulating through the local networks concerning an ongoing battle near one of the frontier supply routes. He followed the expedition's position into the void and found Bloodfang's reinforcement force driving the Azure Ascendant troops toward collapse.
Now Bloodfang's cultivators were retreating before him. A broad-shouldered Beastborn swung a heavy axe toward his neck, gathering dark-crimson essence along its edge. Adrian turned past the weapon, cut through the man's waist, and continued forward while the two halves separated behind him.
He could feel the enemies trying to gather their authority against his movement. Each attempt needed concentration, and the cultivators responsible were still turning toward him when his blade reached them. A group farther away managed to spread out before he crossed the distance. Starbreakers met them along their separate paths.
He had spent years refining these spells alongside his other training. The structures settled quickly beneath his intent, drawing Source essence through familiar paths while he chose their targets. His consciousness followed the separate attacks without losing the movements of the enemies around his body.
Against these Rule stage cultivators, he could have spread his willforce across the fighting and attacked their minds. That would have ended this entire battle in a mere instant, but Adrian closed on another group with the blade in his hand, feeling the resistance of a weapon break beneath his next stroke.
Lara's voice from the Fate reading still returned whenever he thought about leaving home. He remembered Hestia gripping his wrist to stop him from forcing the vision open with the Source. He remembered Crimson Vital's disciples trapped inside their own station. He remembered the tailed Beastborn escaping directly in front of him while the foreign Will of a Weave cultivator slowed his intentions until he could no longer act with the speed he needed.
Even after seeing a Fate reading that showed the coming months at home remaining peaceful, Adrian had not completely relaxed. Fate had shown only one possible future, and choices or events they never anticipated could alter it at any moment.
Only when those days became the actual present would the remaining tension finally disappear. For now, Adrian was using this battle to release some of his tension.
His fingers tightened around the blade as a crimson spear passed beside his shoulder. Adrian caught its shaft with his free hand, pulled its owner closer, and cut through his neck. Another attack approached from behind, but a Starbreaker met it before he turned toward the caster.
The blue-robed disciples were advancing behind him now. As their opponents died, crimson domains vanished and the restrictions holding them back weakened. Adrian kept his spheres directed toward the deeper enemy positions, using his blade when he passed through places where the two forces were still mixed together.
The tightness in Adrian's chest began to ease as he accelerated again. His shoulders moved freely through the next swing, and a breath escaped him when his blade broke a raised weapon and passed through the body behind it. He crossed beneath a retreating supply ship and drove through the cultivators gathering along its hull.
Beyond it, the last organized group tried to open a passage while its remaining fighters held their weapons toward him. Starbreakers struck the defenders from either side as Adrian reached the man maintaining the opening. His blade passed through the Beastborn's chest, and the unfinished passage closed as its caster fell away.
…
"There are no more groups pressing the transports," the officer reported. Dareth checked the display himself. The fourth vessel had begun moving, and the disciples who had been trapped beyond it were returning with their wounded. Other formations had pushed well past the positions he had ordered them to abandon.
Only a few minutes had passed since the unknown Astral appeared. Bloodfang's force had collapsed so quickly that several of Dareth's earlier withdrawal orders were still marked beside places where no enemy remained. He cleared them and called the advancing groups back toward the ships.
His disciples had killed perhaps a fifth of the enemy force throughout the fighting. Most of the remaining thousands had fallen beneath the stranger's blade and those white-grey spheres. Dareth watched the final hostile markers disappear, then turned toward the officer beside him. "Where is he now?"
The live image moved beyond the Bloodfang supply ships, following the direction of the stranger's advance. Broken weapons drifted between severed limbs and bodies still turning from the blows that had killed them. Farther in, the feed found a patch of white-grey among the remains and drew closer.
The man floated with his back toward them, his sword lowered beside one leg. A headless Beastborn drifted past his shoulder, while divided bodies and bloodied weapons turned at different distances around him. Beyond his white-grey robes, the remains of the force that had nearly destroyed Dareth's entire expedition filled the open void.