Chapter 1170
Acting as a star wasn’t the highest intensity thing Anton had ever done, though that was because he was constraining himself to a single planet. He could have managed that for a while with his Enrichment strength, but a number of years was out of the question. With the power of Unity, he could have kept up the process forever. The issue at the moment was the distance.
As far as Anton could guess, he would be similarly effective where he was next to a bound star directly channeling everything else through his connection compared to if he were physically closer to his intended destination drawing from a distance. That balance might change as time went on, but currently Anton was concerned about approaching too close to the upper realms himself. Projecting his own energy that way might draw less attention than going himself, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way. Having some of his energy annihilated was fine, but having his self annihilated wouldn’t be great.
Bounty wouldn’t make it to the lower realms that way. Anton had a million other things he wanted to do. Oh, and he’d be dead. But that would just stop him from doing all the other things he needed, it wasn’t important in and of itself. Though people who cared about him might argue differently, he intended to continue to live for their sake.
The people of Akrys were great. They just so happened to be the closest to Bounty, and they had been the first to offer their assistance. Unlike Anton, few of them were actively contributing energy at all hours of the day. However, there were always some. It was Anton’s job to channel that energy through their connection to the local star. As more of the lower realms became aware of what was happening- it hadn’t been widely publicized ahead of time- they would contribute more.
Anton reminded himself that this was the hardest things would ever be. Which was good, because he would be dripping sweat if it didn’t immediately evaporate. He wondered how Maheg did it. It probably helped that Maheg was born a star. Still, Anton had connections to approximately two hundred stars. Drawing upon a fraction of their power and the power of their people… Anton still found it difficult.
He wanted the temporary star to be as good as possible. He paid careful attention to the planet ‘below’. The people, the crops, and the oceans. He needed to provide light and heat, but not too much. Blasting away the atmosphere or boiling the sea would ruin what they were doing.
Proper seasons would have to come later. He didn’t have the capacity for anything more complex than a steady orbit of energy. He was already close to needing Anishka to take over again, but while she would keep people from freezing to death, her flames simply weren’t sunlight.
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Despite her hesitancy, Ji-Eun had actually been quite excited to visit Paradise. So much so that she hadn’t considered energy for the ship. It was actually sufficient to leave atmosphere which made her arrival at Paradise almost inevitable but… she couldn’t stop. Ji-Eun tried of course. The ship didn’t have anything left except just enough to power the barrier, but she used her own energy to try to slow things down.