Though he certainly felt that he was losing, Hoyt tried to focus on his successes. He was getting used to fighting with not only more power but also a minimal amount of gravity. As he became more confident in his personal movements, the bladed rings harassing him felt like less of a threat.

There was still the issue that they were somehow able to take control of his energy. It wasn’t something that was entirely impossible, but it had looked too easy. Then again, he could not know how many years the woman he was fighting against had trained for. Her cultivation was somewhat higher than his own, and she could easily have decades or more on him. Or access to better knowledge from an early age, since the upper realms should have something.

His axe swung in a wide arc, knocking away several of the rings as they moved towards him. His power wrapped around himself, turning him into a ball of fire as he accelerated. His own momentum was a weapon, and though there was not a higher point to jump off to add to his momentum, he began to incorporate some amount of vertical movement. It didn’t throw off his opponent as much as he might want, but he was managing to get closer to the woman at least.

There was still a significant gap between them. Could he incorporate anti-ascension techniques? No, too risky. His hundredth star was fully formed from ascension energy, and he’d felt it incorporating into him. Perhaps he might be able to later modify what he knew to use against others, but at the moment he risked disrupting himself more than his opponent. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he won, but he had to try his best at the moment.

As he moved in for a critical attack, he hadn’t expected the last two rings the woman carried on her to fly out to either side. He knew they could certainly return to attack him from the sides or rear like the others, but if he was fast enough it didn’t matter. His axe swung towards the woman who seemed to have no weapons remaining… only to slow significantly, giving her time to dodge out of the way.

He kept an eye on his back, swinging at the rings whenever they approached close enough to harm him. He felt his movements becoming sluggish, not because he was tiring- though he might soon. Instead, something was pulling on him. His axe, specifically. He was certain of that when he swung to bat aside four of them, and they suddenly stuck to his weapon, expanding in size to wrap around the head then shrinking tight around the handle. At the same moment, the other six rings moved in on him, aimed towards his neck, arms, legs, and the middle of his torso.

Seeing no other options he let go of his axe, but as he tried to move away he found his movements slowed. The first blade touched his neck, then all the others came to rest against him as well. Against him… not inside or through him. Though he was holding them back with his energy defenses, the impact hadn’t been what he thought it would be. With a slight push the blades cleanly sliced through his defensive energy at several points, finding weak spots in his armor as well. But they stopped. He turned to look at the woman.

“You fought well enough, for your first time,” the woman said. “For now, you may live. What is your name?”

“Hoyt,” he said. There was no point in lying… and being alive was good, at least.

“I am Zazil,” she said in response. “Of the Dark Ring, obviously. What sect did you hail from?”

There was no prior history between them, so lying wouldn’t accomplish anything. And a name didn’t show any weakness. “The Order of One Hundred Stars,” Hoyt said. “I would still consider myself part of them.”

“Hmm. Interesting.”

She didn’t say what was interesting as she led him back inside. He wanted to ask, but thought it better to remain quiet and alive for the moment.

-----

Nobody would talk to Alva. Nobody important anyway. She’d been provided with a bare minimum of information and was left to figure out the rest herself. She was given the freedom to move about as she pleased in the public areas, at least. Nobody had taken anything away from her, but she didn’t have any local currency. She knew some of what she had might actually be valuable, but was unwilling to try to exchange anything until she was more aware of how things worked.

And aside from a few quick messages letting people know she was alright, she hadn’t managed much. She had found herself looking for somewhere that truly felt private to attempt to message Catarina. Testing out new gadgets seemed to warrant some caution, and again she had no way to contact her through standard channels. She might have to go on some sort of mission to get contribution points. It wasn’t an unreasonable thought, but she couldn’t help but think of Chikere.

She’d definitely seen her. Alva was sure of that, but she couldn’t find her now. And people weren’t particularly helpful as she asked around. So with little else to do she began to wander. At least she wasn’t in need of anything- she had some food, though she wasn’t sure she absolutely needed it at her current point. Just absorbing ascension energy was invigorating, to the point she barely felt like she needed to sleep ever.

As she continued to wander through the city- it felt like everything was one large city here- she finally found something different. For quite some time all she had seen were cultivators with an odd mixture of cultivations- nearly the same number distributed across Body Tempering, Spirit Building, and Essence Collection- but she finally found some normal looking people. Which was also odd in its own way, because back on Ceretos everyone had been encouraged to cultivate. But ever since she’d arrived here- Rouhiri, if she recalled correctly- it was different enough to remind her she wasn’t at home.

She’d known that they would be going to different planets after ascending. Timothy and Catarina had confirmed that, though the assumption held. It still wasn’t fully clear if they were in the same space, but there was some way to travel back and forth sometimes. And communication worked.

As Alva looked at the ‘normal’ people around her, she wondered why they wouldn’t cultivate. But the answer was pretty obvious with a moment of thought. How could they cultivate? Natural energy was required for that. Lower energy, if she were to use the rather arrogant terminology common here. If they could control it, of course, then ascension or upper energy would catapult them along the path of cultivation… but that would be like jumping headfirst off a cliff into rocks during a storm to try to learn to swim. It was simply too much. Alva stopped for a moment, sensing around her. Without other cultivators the fluctuations in energy were less, and she was able to sense a small amount of ‘natural energy’ among the flood of power around her. But not much.

“Do you need something, lady cultivator?” asked a nearby woman.

Alva looked over. The middle aged woman wasn’t a cultivator, so she shouldn’t have been able to tell Alva was one. Except of course who else walked around in armor with a bow strapped to their back? “I just need somewhere to be alone for a moment,” Alva said. “Is there a park nearby?”

The woman shook her head. “No parks here. But an hour that way is a stream, if you’re up for the walk.”

Alva focused her senses in the direction indicated. “Oh, so there is. Thank you.”

She made her way there, finding it to be more isolated. Nothing seemed to say she was disallowed from going there, and she felt less watched there. She wasn’t sure if she was actually out of range of the senses of some cultivator or other, but at least she didn’t feel a constant press of others. Nobody had really been rude about it, but there had been so much. The Order had many cultivators, but they were somewhat more spread out. Though Alva was beginning to think there really weren’t that many, with how many she’d sensed around them. Some tens of thousands, maybe? At least a few times as many as the Order.

And an uncomfortable amount of Integration cultivators as well. Having only been around them in the context of battle, everyone felt like a threat- even if Alva was now one of their ranks.

The stream was quite nice when she arrived. Peaceful… and isolated enough she felt comfortable trying to contact Catarina, as well as sending more detailed messages.

-----

Lacking many of those he would normally confide in, Anton found himself alone with Velvet. She really should have ascended already, but she had remained. That was her choice, of course.

“I should be happy,” Anton said. “Most things are going well. The only trouble is with Hoyt. I’m certain he can handle himself but…” Anton shook his head. “I can’t help it. And yet, somehow that’s not what worries me.”

“I understand,” Velvet said as she looked around. There wasn’t much to see- just a comfortable sitting room that could handle around a dozen people, more if additional chairs or the like were crammed into the room. A modest place, since Anton wasn’t given to hosting large social events. She wasn’t really looking at the room around them, though, but instead generally looking to the world beyond. “I feel there’s some sort of danger here. Not… around the Order, necessarily. But with people ascending, our power is at best stabilizing, maybe dropping. That’s why I stayed.”

“You felt this danger?” Anton said.

“I wasn’t really sure about it,” she admitted. “I’m still not. It could be paranoia.”

“I would hope so,” Anton said. “But it’s not far from what I feel. Things aren’t quite right. And as cultivators, we must trust our instincts. Though I’m not sure where that leaves us.”

“We have to remain vigilant. Beyond that… I don’t know. Maybe whatever you’re working on will help.”

“What do you mean?” Anton asked.

“Your cultivation thing. Whatever your alternate for ascension is. You’re closer than you let on, aren’t you?”

“Perhaps,” Anton said. “I still have to achieve the ninety-ninth star first. After that, my chances of success,” he shrugged. “I don’t want to rush things.”

“And you shouldn’t,” Velvet said. “I… wouldn’t want to lose you. Or any of the others. But we both know it’s inevitable to some extent. Vandale, Ivarsson, McAlister… they’ve all passed on. But here we are, taking their place.” She sighed, “I’m not very good at this I guess. I just want you to know that even if something happens to you, there will always be more of us around. You should trust us to take care of what happens, instead of not trying whatever this is.”

“I’m not delaying on purpose,” Anton said. “Though perhaps… it does not need to be conscious. Cultivation relies on the heart, after all.” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I really can’t try anything without reaching the very peak of Life Transformation. But your insights might be correct. I could be subconsciously hesitating a step before that. If I don’t reach the next star within a year, I’m sure you can reasonably accuse me of dragging my feet. Though I’d hope that with you and others supporting me I will steer away from that.”

“I really don’t intend to rush you,” Velvet said. “It’s just a feeling that I thought we should speak about.”

“Don’t worry. I agree that it was the right choice. And perhaps it’s time I made a trip to another friend.” Anton stood up. “Lev… might be doing something I could learn from.”

He took a look vaguely off into the skies. The most bothersome part was feeling like he couldn’t do anything to influence the circumstances of those he cared about. But if nothing else, he could make sure they didn’t have any reason to worry about him in return.