Velvet wondered how many swings it would take someone like Durff to separate the facility from the planet. Or perhaps someone like a swordmaster would be more suited- it was a straight walled facility so they could probably manage it in five at most. But it was also possible that Durff could have safely broken it away in just as few motions.

It took Velvet a lot more time and effort than someone who was good at breaking objects. She had no intentions of trying to change her fundamentals when she was already in Domination, but maybe she'd practice this particular topic more, since she would be looking for more remnants of the Numerological Compact.

It wasn't the formations that stopped her- she attacked just outside of them. Obviously she had enough power. But neither daggers nor bare hands were a good catalyst for what she wanted. Her other excuse was that she had to keep the entire facility out of the perception of the world while she worked.

That one annoying elder was still outside, and she had to keep shifting him slightly to minimize the differences in his perceived position and his actual location. Eventually she would make a mistake. But she had no intention to let it go that long.

Everything was loose. Now all she had to do was lift it up. Should be easy. The Swirling Swarm lifted every cultivator on their planet with them, and they certainly didn't have any training. She just had to lift one building- without breaking it. Fortunately that meant support from the bottom and sides, most of which was necessary for lifting to begin with.

The elder was briefly put off balance by the facility moving in front of him. Velvet was quite careful not to shake the ground, but he had been in contact with the building itself. Altering his perception there was not her best work, but she just had to hope he wouldn't figure it out. If he thought something was weird later that would be normal, but giving away that the building was there the whole time would be an issue.

Elder Dzana died, incidentally. Velvet didn't gain all that much information from her, but making sure she was gone was more important. Having her around for the released slaves to witness would be very helpful in tying them together in a relatively positive fashion. She wasn't an expert on smooth hivemind transitions, but she was aware of the general cases that had been successful. Perhaps she should bring others with her next time, but it was more difficult to perfectly conceal anything beyond herself.

But if she was going to do it to a building, making her life more efficient by adding just a couple people might be appropriate. Maybe some void ants, but they weren't able to do anything she strictly couldn't. It might just save her some energy.

They were in space. A large number of dubiously conscious individuals and Velvet. And all of the bodies, of course. Dzana hadn't been the only Numerological Compact cultivator in the facility. None of them deserved to live. This wasn't one of the cases where there was any plausible deniability- though of course they may think their actions were entirely justified. Probably by pointing out that all of the people they were using as power sources weren't important- individually powerful. And if you weren't important, were you really a person?

The answer was yes, obviously. The Scarlet Alliance would make sure they knew that.

The facility continued to accelerate outside of the atmosphere. There was nothing to disturb, so Velvet could relax some of her ability. Obviously she had to keep herself concealed, as a Domination signature would give away far too much. However, that came as naturally as breathing. Her anchor at the intersection of the light from distant stars was more of her natural state, and actively revealing herself would take more effort.

Velvet wanted to let people out… but she decided against it. As far as she could tell, they were stable. She would continue to monitor their conditions. She might have to find some way to replace the nutrients that were keeping them alive, but the stores seemed sufficient for a few weeks. Ultimately, she would rather not end up killing a million people because she thought she knew better.

Relatedly, she wasn't completely certain that the facility wouldn't kill all of the people inside if it detected that it wasn't where it was supposed to be. It didn't have to be that specific, either. Just that the area was compromised. But even formations could be tricked- currently, Velvet was maintaining a flow of energy precisely like what she had first observed.

That, and soon moving into subspace… it was a good thing she was a Domination cultivator or she wouldn't be able to keep up. As it was, Velvet was paying close attention to the streams of devotion coming to her. Specifically, that of her friends waiting for her to come back. They might be worried about her safety, but they really didn't need to be. It was everything else that was at risk. But she planned to come back both personally intact and with every single person she had dragged along with her in the same state she found them.

-----

Elder Ogsar had his face buried in the dirt. If anyone perceived that, he would probably kill them. He had no idea what to do until finally his head rose. He had to warn the other facilities. He would tell them that…

They could suddenly disappear?

He had to have something more. But he didn't.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Everything had been normal until Elder Dzana entered. No, until she got deep into the facility. Then… she disappeared along with everything else. Could she have…? If she betrayed the Numerological Compact to go her own way, they needed the warnings even more. Besides, someone had to take over her position. Otherwise, all that effort would be a waste. Yes, he'd make sure that they'd known what happened. And why it mattered.

-----

Daria didn't appear to be anywhere within the territory of the Holy Stars. Specifically, Xaliima expected to find her among the Purified Wardens, but she didn't. But along with the Burning Hearts, she found others among most of the large sects they had already faced. Specifically, she became aware of five more in addition to Daria- though one she only confirmed. Xaliima's crew wasn't the only ones scouting the Holy Stars, they just happened to be able to move deeper and with greater speed without compromising their safety. Benefits of her recent advancement and how it affected the crew as a whole.

Six. At least six. But the Lower Realms Alliance had three Unity cultivators. Daria was absolutely biased towards her own people, but two-to-one odds seemed a bit harsh. On the other hand, it appeared that most of them were not on the offensive, at least at the moment. The numbers brought something unfortunate to mind, however. There might be more. Daria was likely ready to attack to restore her image. Others could already be on the way to attack the Alliance.

Xaliima couldn't do anything about that. She could only do her job- gathering information. What was ultimately done with it would be up to others.

-----

"I think I can take three myself," the Great Queen said.

Anton shook his head. "Unlikely. I can't imagine they would allow you to get anywhere close to them."

"Like they'd have a choice," she clacked her mandibles- she was large enough to actually make a sound unenhanced humans would hear. She was still barely the length of Anton's palm, but that was quite massive for where she began, closer to the length of a fingernail- which would have already been considered full grown.

"You can't move that fast," Anton said. "So, I imagine you could take down one. But the others would be watching for you."

"They won't find me. Alternatively, I'll grab their perceptive energy and pull myself closer with it."

Anton pondered. "I suppose we could practice that maneuver, to see how fast you can go."

"Yes," she said. "Then we will take them down, and I can join the war in the upper realms."

Anton smiled. The Great Queen was nothing if not ambitious. He found it quite unlikely that she could actually lose to anyone but Nthanda- without the benefit of natural energy, crushing her would be a truly difficult task. And even pure tech weapons wouldn't easily hit her- or maintain a lock. Then again, the Alliance hadn't gone too deep into developments like that. If the Great Queen betrayed them now, there would simply be no way to predict that. It was a waste of effort for anything except potentially more void ants controlled by the Exalted Quadrant. And even that effort was only to save their own side's void ants from casualties- they would certainly win through experience and even numbers.

Anyone paranoid about void ants after a millennium was frankly not worth considering. Caution was fine, but they void ants had been as steadfast of allies as humans. Perhaps more, by some metrics.

Anton found himself strangely calm at the news. He thought about what would happen if they faced six divinities with their three Unity cultivators and the Great Queen- plus whatever forces they could rally to the area. His mind wandered to how they might lose. But ultimately, it was pointless to consider.

If that battle happened, they would just have to figure out a way to win. Anton had a few thoughts. It was absolutely true that Unity cultivators would be stronger defending their home systems. To the death, if need be. But of course they couldn't be careless about that. Who could say if there were more like the Holy Stars out there?

Anton wasn't going to leave the Alliance behind if he could help it. Most likely, he'd focus on people other than Daria. For two reasons. First, she was difficult to kill. Second, it would annoy the hell out of her.

Maybe the individual from the Burning Hearts. They had enough information about that sect for Anton to be confident that he could use spectral energy to take one out. It was a good thing he'd only displayed that ability to a very slight extent.

Devon would be good against Daria. He had been quite confident that he could just… hold her. Even if that suppression wasn't sufficient to make her vulnerable, taking her out of things would be good. The only issue was that it would also occupy Devon, and going one-for-one might not be good.

Other options were having him hold any of their greatest foes for the Great Queen. If they could angle a major battle to somewhere where Lev had a great willow, it would be best. Without losing too many border worlds, of course. Normally, 'too many' would be any, but with the threat they were facing Anton was aware there would have to be some losses. He would be killing the attackers until everything was over, though. The Alliance wouldn't abandon their people. But they couldn't just evacuate hundreds of worlds- or more- just because they might be a target.

There simply weren't enough ships. And moving planets was hard.

A proper spatial distortion would be nice. If they could force the Holy Stars to a particular region, even if it wasn't a single system, they could control so much. Unfortunately, it was difficult to adapt to the lower realms. They also were missing Catarina. There were many talented formation masters in the lower realms still, but most of them were centuries behind in terms of experience. Numbers could make up for it, but ultimately the issue was they hadn't considered it a high enough priority.

Maybe the Holy Stars would pull back on their attacks for a century or so. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

But that was unlikely. So they would just make them leave. Or preferably kill them. Anton wouldn't accept a threat to his people, and he knew many others wouldn't either.

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