Falling stars rained down from the sky, targeting anything on the battlefield its masters wished. With defensive formations shattered, they were no longer protected from aerial assaults of any kind. Cultivators fell by the hundreds, two forces that would have previously overwhelmed Ceretos and might still, if they could fight on fair footing. Of course, that was never possible- upper and lower energy did not inhabit the same place. Integration cultivators and their lower realm equivalents were merely in the stage following Life Transformation- it was impossible to say how closely matched they actually were. In the actual circumstances of an invasion, the lower realms would have the advantage of fighting with their preferred natural energy.

The upper realms, on the other hand, had the advantage of drawing from a much larger population, many different planets that could move freely between each other. Even if Integration cultivators had been one in a billion like the Worldbinding cultivators of the Sylanis Cluster, there were many thousands of planets to draw upon.

The Harmonious Citadel itself had far fewer than that itself, but it still had a large population under control of one sect. However, while they had brought a reasonable army for invading a lower realm, if they had expected a possible attack by their enemies they had underestimated the forces they could draw upon. Up to that point the Dark Ring and others had rarely engaged in direct battles, and the Harmonious Citadel had done its best to keep the location of the border planet a secret. They had simply missed one thing.

Hoyt had encouraged absolutely everyone who they could to join them- if they had been wrong and Vari’s signal had been for a smaller force of enemies than they currently faced perhaps they would have looked foolish. But that would not have been as devastating to their relationship as bringing insufficient forces.

The varied weapons of the Harmonious Citadel allowed them to cover each other’s weaknesses- when they actually fought side by side instead of in their own discrete groups. However, knowing their weaknesses, it was also possible for cultivators to seek out their preferred opponents among the Harmonious Citadel.

Currently there was only one force of note, a gathering of all of the strongest warriors. Hoyt was tempted to work with his grandfather to continuously bombard them, but together they simply weren’t strong enough to wear down more than a dozen others. He wasn’t sure they could ever be as long as they were in the same stage- and his grandfather had not even reached Integration yet. There was no doubt that Prospero would advance, but he still needed some more time.

Hoyt sought out those devoted to the shield. While he could easily face axes with his own, he was not interested in a match with which the enemy would be familiar. The shield users no doubt also trained against axes, but Hoyt personally found Timothy’s expertise with the shield greater than any of these others. Using it as a weapon was an interesting route, but that led to gaps between offense and defense. Not as much as one would expect, but Citadel’s Downfall was quite clear about the differences- and a couple centuries hadn’t seen any change in that regard.

It was strange to think about sects that had survived for over a millennium. The Order of One Hundred Stars was more than half that age now, but the upper limit upon Ceretos was just shy of eight hundred. Some claimed a longer history, but as all of their strongest cultivators had been wiped out in a former invasion they didn’t really have a legacy beyond a name.

A weighty ball of flame built up speed as Hoyt directed it towards his target, intending it to arrive along with himself. The man he was targeting had a century or two on Hoyt but he still didn’t appear to have advanced beyond the early Integration stage. Hoyt cleaved down with his axe, a wave of flames washing over the man and sending him a step back. The meteor followed up, slamming into the shield with a mass of momentum. The man deflected it with his shield, but imperfectly. He staggered back, the attack not being negated but simply redirected into the allies he was supposed to be defending.

Hoyt took the opening to swing his axe low, chopping at the man’s legs. Of course he was agile enough to bring his shield to bear against something like that- if he was so incompetent as to fall so easily he would likely not have reached Integration at all. But the man was wholly focused on Hoyt’s energy, missing the subtly different signature of Prospero who was also honed in on him. His shield blocked low, and he kept enough defensive energy on the rest of his body to protect him from Prospero’s attack… but not completely. The momentum of the blow finally knocked him off his feet, and Hoyt spun his axe around, chopping in an obtuse arc that slipped past the raising shield, chopping off the man’s leg. It was still the correct choice for him to defend his upper body, because if he’d failed to do that Hoyt would have just cut him in half. But the blow was ultimately fatal either way- it just took him a few swings more to die as his mobility was hampered.

-----

On the other side of the battlefield, Timothy held his own defensive position next to Catarina. “Should I know what you’re doing?” he asked.

“I’m just dismantling their formations,” Catarina commented. “I’m sure they can be used for something better.”

“Right now?” Timothy shook his head. “Of course right now.”

“See that battle formation they’re in?” Catarina gestured. “I intend to disrupt their flow of energy.”

Though their group was responsible for discovering this place, they weren’t responsible for the majority of the military forces. The Order having five Integration cultivators- six if they counted Fuzz they were still a significant force with just them and the disciples they’d picked up on Xankeshan over the decades, but they still couldn’t match larger sects like made up the Dark Ring. That would take time, though there was some potential in the next generation from Ceretos. It was just at the current moment most were more inclined to advance to Assimilation or simply delay their Ascension until after the invasion.

Thus, they were doing what they could with the forces under their control while the center of the battle was left to others- but with their progress elsewhere around the battlefield, everyone would converge on that point soon enough.

Timothy swept his sword wide as a bundle of pesky cultivators came to attack his wife. When they were attacking separately they couldn’t match him, and when they combined their efforts properly he simply had to bring his shield to bear. A great wall formed in front of him, their attacks rebounding towards each other or those behind them. There might be a few handfuls who recognized that a person calmly picking apart ‘destroyed’ formations was doing something important, but Timothy could handle them. The only annoying one was an archer who’d taken notice, and he had to keep close to Catarina to block those. But Fuzz and therefore Alva and others had taken noticed of that situation, and he expected it to be handled.

Catarina, meanwhile, contributed nothing to the fight. Not because she couldn’t, but because she fully trusted Timothy to deal with things… and she really did need to focus on how she was ripping out chunks of blessed iron. She would have called it enchanted, but the Harmonious Citadel was adamant that their methods were blessings. And she was going to show them what a proper ‘blessing’ could do when dropped into the middle of their formation with the right modifications. Technically, what Catarina was doing would actually amplify the effects of the enemy group. And explosions were just amplified campfires.

She hefted her prize, gesturing with her sword- while also swinging it at a Life Transformation cultivator who tried to slip past Timothy. “Alright, now escort me over that way!”

Their path took them through the group with Fuzz. Catarina remembered when he was a cute little wolf, dying from an infestation of moss. Now he was so much bigger, and cuter! It helped that the flames around him burned away the blood that would otherwise be covering his mouth and paws.

“Vari, if you could help escort me closer to that grand combat formation,” Catarina said, “And when I say, stop drawing upon the energy of the others.” She nodded.

Spikes came along as well- though Fuzz held back so that he didn’t drag Alva to where she could be surrounded in melee. She was capable of skirmishing like that, but staying around the outside was better.

The earth itself, courtesy of Spikes, moved to shove people out of the way, with Vari and Timothy blocking each side. Catarina took care of her own defense, but with one arm carrying a huge chunk of enchanted metal she was a bit less agile than normal. Fortunately, they didn’t have to get within the large group of Integration cultivators- just nearby.

“Now,” Catarina warned Vari as she tossed the chunk of metal over the heads of a wall of spearmen and shield users. They took note of it, but only the same way they would unaugmented bits of metal. A mountain could have fallen on these cultivators without harming them unless there was upper energy involved. If they took note that it was a bit of ‘blessed’ metal they still wouldn’t have found it had any power. And on its own, it didn’t.

When it landed in the middle of them, their battle formation pulsed with energy, the connections between them augmented. That was normally a good thing… but when it came out of the blue, suddenly everyone was drawing more on everyone else than expected. They were unbalanced for only a few moments, but even small openings could be taken advantage of. Vari, Timothy, and Catarina descended on one dagger wielding cultivator who dashed slightly too far forward.

Then a moment later the metal in the middle of the formation melted to slag, whipping people back in the other direction as it channeled more energy than it could handle. Ultimately, the gambit caused more than a handful of the enemy Integration cultivators to be injured or killed within a span of seconds, and the shift in dynamic allowed for the surrounding attackers to push for more. Soon enough another five fell, and within a matter of minutes the battle was basically over- not solely due to that moment, but it sped it up by a step or two.

-----

Word of battles in the upper realms kept reaching Anton’s ears, and he was quite glad for that. It was unfortunate that he could currently do nothing from his position. He could not attack the upper realms- and even if he could, it would have only been practical from stars on the border.

Thoughts occasionally passed through his mind- if he Assimilated stars upon the border he could patrol the area. But how many would he need? Ten? A hundred? More?

And that was a pointless attempt anyway. If they didn’t have to stop in any of the systems, they could simply go around. ‘Above’ or ‘below’ if nothing else. Even if he controlled an entire ring of systems around another, the vast majority of the space around it would remain uncontrolled. Though if he could actually attack between systems, he might have something to work with.

“I can’t believe you agreed to provoke them,” Everheart said to Anton.

“Got a problem with that? Scared?”

“I’m…” Everheart clutched his hands to his chest. “... So proud of what Ceretos has become. This might be the best trap I’ve ever been part of.”

“Is it a trap if we intend to overpower them in a weakened state…?” Anton tilted his head.

“I think you answered that question for yourself. Of course it is.” Everheart grinned, “But can we make them even weaker than just the transition to natural energy? That’s the question. If you’d let me dismantle a planet for resources-”

“You’ll have to make do with the myriad of asteroids.”

“But they’re so far apart!” Everheart complained. “I have to go to each one and figure out what bits of it are good. Ah well. I’ll do what I can. Dismantling an entire planet would be kind of inefficient anyway.”

Anton just smirked. At least Everheart was enthusiastic about causing trouble for the invaders. Though he still didn’t know if the man would stay and fight if there was risk to himself.