Elder Cultivator

Chapter 1088

Chapter 1088

A bad man had just passed by, and he was trying to hide it. But Fuzz had been assigned the very important task of tracking him down. The man had no scent, which was certainly a difficulty, but Fuzz had dealt with worse situations. He could have smelled horrendous, or been trailing caustic chemicals. Simply not having a scent was hardly a big deal.

Technically, it was impossible to track someone with no scent. Scent was very small things that people left behind, and if they didn’t do that, he simply couldn’t follow it. But the bad man had made a mistake. He left nothing behind, but that didn’t mean his passing had no traces. Indeed, the very trail of nothing was what Fuzz followed.

It wasn’t easy, as the surrounding scents had already filled in the area. But he could just pick out the remains of how there were slightly more scents from one side than there should be, and how there were fewer dust particles on the ground from people passing by. Because the man left no scent, anything that touched him hadn’t left. So Fuzz would find him. He began at a desk and rapidly made his way out.

His paws moved as swiftly as he could parse the scent. The first few minutes he barely waddled forward, but he felt himself getting further behind. He also grew more used to the ‘scent’ and was able to move more quickly. He followed the scent out of the compound all the way to a teleportation formation... which was where he lost the trail.

Fuzz carefully sniffed. “I don’t think he came in on this one,” he growled to the people following him. He rushed back along his trail, startling security. It was more difficult to pick up the even older trail from when he first appeared. The scent of nothing further minutes in the past was the faintest thing he’d ever tried to smell. But Fuzz was probably the best at smelling he’d ever been.

The original trail took Fuzz through winding streets, only to end up in... a random alley. “The trail ends here,” Fuzz whined. “No, it begins here.”

Alva had run along after him. “Not gonna lie,” she admitted, sniffing. “I have no idea how you did that.” She reached out her hand. “I do have some ideas how he did this though.”

“Teleportation?” Fuzz asked.

“Well... kind of.”

“I don’t need an explanation if you don’t have an easy one,” the wolf said.

“It’s subspace stuff,” Alva said. “Though I’m only guessing on the exact methods involved.”

A short time later, Catarina had been called over and finished investigating the alleyway. “There aren’t any runes here compromising our defenses, at least.”

Alva nodded. “Good. I suspect he likely used one of his solar orbital stations to break into a level of subspace our formations weren’t ready to block. I don’t know how he got out, though.”

“Likely specific formation flags prepared for such an occasion,” Catarina said. “Either way, I suspect that the ‘Nighstar’ location within our domain might have an activity report. Whether he passed through it or split the difference with the original Everheart system somehow.”

“Can we do anything to prevent further intrusions?” Alva asked.

“We might be able to. But that sounds like an arms race we wouldn’t win. Instead, I’d prefer to try to secretly monitor this activity. At least he doesn’t seem to have stolen anything this time... so once we assess these flaws we might be prepared for his next arrival, assuming we don’t let on that we figured it out. So we’ll do our best to look like we’re locking down an embarrassing scenario- which isn’t untrue. And then hopefully we can use the information he delivered to do something helpful.”

-----

“Simple. I’m going to approach a planet and ask to speak to them.”

“Reasonable,” he said. “But it doesn’t sound... enlightened. Then again, if you could explain your insights you might have already mastered them.”

“You’re right. That’s just the surface. But that’s what you should expect. I expect they'll attack, at which point I’ll retreat and you and the fleets can do as you please.”

Once expectations were set for the fleets, they made their approach. It didn’t seem that this particular system was ready to defend their whole domain, though the individual planets clearly had their own defenses.

Aerona moved in front, with Devon supporting her. Before she even got terribly close, enemy ships were already departing her chosen planet. That didn’t dissuade her, however. Her aura spread out, much as one would usually do when projecting their voice through empty space. But Devon could tell that wasn’t all that was happening.

“People of the Exalted Quadrant, why must you bring war?”

Before any sort of audible response, Aerona recoiled. She looked crestfallen, but not defeated. However, she withdrew her energy and shook her head.

“That’s all I’m going to be able to do for now,” she said to Devon. “Though I’ll wait for their response nonetheless.”

The commander of the fleets soon responded. “It’s the only logical response for those who don’t understand the glory of the Exalted Quadrant.”

“Damned fanatics,” Aerona said, though without sending her words towards the approaching fleet. She turned to Devon. “You’d think they’d at least be a little hesitant with you here.”

“Should I try to be intimidating?” Devon asked. He’d just been keeping his energy fairly neutral.

“Just wipe out the ships. Nothing will happen with them anyway,” Aerona said.

“Very well,” Devon said. Then he projected his voice to the fleet. “Prepare to engage. Negotiations have fallen through.” If they could even call it that. He understood the aggressive response, given they approached with fleets... but that didn’t mean these people had to throw themselves into battle.

Several ships from the Lower Realms Alliance chose the same target- specifically, the ship of the enemy commander. At the current distance only the more powerful ships could attack, but they certainly did. One was Gabriela’s ship, clearly prioritizing the strongest cultivator felt among the enemy. The second was the ship of Byron, the first true Confluence cultivator. The third was one of the larger hivemind ships.

It was impossible to say if it was even necessary for two of the ships to attack together, but all three together were clearly overkill. The barrier of the ship lasted only a single instant before crumbling, then the entire vessel was annihilated. The commander was only a Life Transformation cultivator, after all. Even with the power of the ship and crew, they were gone before they could even make a single flash of light to counter.

The rest of the fleet was rapidly annihilated... but Devon had the feeling that they hadn’t seen the limits of what their enemy could do. Fanaticism was one thing, but the enemy had not displayed the numbers or any sort of secret that would give them the confidence to launch an attack, knowing that the upper realms failed in their invasion. Perhaps that was it. He would suggest Aerona bring up them being lied to, in case they thought otherwise. But Devon had the feeling they were simply hiding something, and while it was just a feeling, as a cultivator he knew it was unwise to ignore such things.