Chapter 1089
Even with the enemy fleets defeated, they still approached the planet with caution. Too much was concealed behind formations, but the enemy wasn’t going to give them the luxury of time to try to peer through carefully. Devon had his World Encompassing Chains, but that wasn’t particularly great if people were coming to attack him. Instead, he needed his presence to be unknown.
They still approached with caution, their large ships beginning their bombardments of the planet below. The combined energy of thousands of cultivators struck repeatedly, giving them a better picture of how to break through the barrier. They could just wear it down, but seeing how it reacted to assault and adapting was more efficient.
Devon was waiting for further trouble. Perhaps fleets from the other planets would be the greatest risk factor. However, soon it was revealed that there was more they hadn’t anticipated. So far, they hadn’t seen any cultivators beyond Life Transformation… but a sudden surge of energy appeared.
Not natural energy, though. Ascension energy, from the upper realms. Even as Devon was making that connection, a vast beam of light shot towards their fleet. Dozens of smaller ships were caught up in the blast, but most critically the Wayfarer was the main target. Gabriela and her crew reacted instantly, not only fortifying their forward barriers but also jumping the ship a quarter of its width out of the line of fire. Even with that, their barriers were shattered and a portion of the ship disintegrated. The casualties wouldn’t be as great as a ship carrying a Confluence cultivator, but the loss of life and material cost were still not trivially ignored.
Devon felt the energy begin to build up again, but he could tell it wasn’t from a cultivator. The planetary barrier hadn’t recovered from their own assault, leaving him free to extend his chains down towards the planet- and towards the great cannon angled up towards them. Did they have more of them? Most likely, as a planet wouldn’t be well covered with just one. But how did they store so much ascension energy and even create a device that could release it in the lower realms?
Rather than directly battling the energy, Devon’s chains merely sealed parts of the formations. He didn’t quite know which ones to target, but he figured that every part was necessary for such a thing- and he was right. He’d intended to capture the cannon so they could study it, but instead it exploded. One moment it was charging up… and the next thing he knew, one side of the planet was disintegrating.
The explosion also rose towards the fleets, but the cannon was not placed directly beneath them. They caught only the edge of the blast, with enough time for the fleet to form a single larger barrier, anchored around Wayfarer, a second Ascension-class battleship known as the Stellar Redoubt, and the Resolute Heart captained by Byron the Confluence cultivator. Together, their energy deflected the blast.
As Devon saw that one face of the planet was rapidly turning into a crater, the fleet called for a retreat. No matter how much the damage was to their enemy, the Scarlet Alliance couldn’t afford to casually remain where such absurd quantities of energy were being stored.
Devon wondered if it would have been better or worse to have his grandfather present, given how ascension energy felt about him. Well, Anton would have been fine as he wouldn’t have been within range of the attacks or the accidental blast. But whether or not he would be particularly good or particularly bad against such a thing, he was involved in another war on the far side of known territory.