Elder Cultivator
Chapter 1318

Inside the cell with Anton and Bear Hug were Felicitas and the interrogator Janer. The latter had asked about Anton’s intentions, and he’d explained simply. He was just passing through, and certainly hadn’t expected to run into… this.

A powerful group that had technology that could even subdue Ascension cultivators… at least to some extent.

“Where are you from?” Janer asked.

“Ceretos, and the order of One Hundred Stars.”

Straightforward answers were best. Anton had no reason to lie about that.

“Can you be more specific?” the man asked.

“Our alliance begins hundreds of lightyears to the west.”

There were many basic questions, mostly reconfirming things he had voluntarily told to Felicitas, trying to get her to talk.

“How would we contact your Alliance?”

“I could contact them with one of our communicators,” Anton commented.

Janer nodded. “I presume that is in your storage bag? Does it work via subspace transference?”

“It’s mixed tech,” Anton said. “At this distance, it would take some weeks to get a response.” Anton had the feeling the man wanted to ask to see it. However, perhaps he knew that Anton would have refused. He wasn’t interested in turning over their technology, especially not to people that might actually be able to compromise it.

As far as he could tell, their scanners hadn’t been able to penetrate into his storage bag. Though that was probably due to the enchantments more than any lack of ability on their part. Anton had done his best to monitor what precisely they were observing.

Eventually, Janer had exhausted his immediate questions for Anton. “Your friend here can speak?”

“They won’t be able to while restricted by your technology, because they have no lungs or ears to speak and hear without energy.”

That was the most untrue thing Anton had said so far, but it was still true. Bear Hug could speak now, but that was because Bear Hug wasn’t fully restricted by their technology. That said, Anton didn’t have any ill intent. If Bear Hug was even temporarily released, he could more or less predict what would happen.

Anton was interested in how Janer would interpret his words. Would he notice the deception, such as it was? Did they already realize the limitations on their restraints? Anton should hope they at least suspected something, otherwise they had some need to work on expanding the breadth of what their sensors could pick up.

Janer pondered for a few moments. “They will talk if we let them free?”

“Absolutely,” Anton said. Bear Hug wasn’t fond of talking, but they were fond of people.

“Felicitas. Retrieve the key.”

The guard nodded, retreating out of the chamber. This was the point at which Anton would take Janer hostage, if he was going to do something like that. He was significantly weaker than Felicitas, and Anton could easily overpower him with his energy restricted while also dealing with whatever reaction the cell would have.

But if he was going to force his way out, Anton would have done it a while ago. They could still have a peaceful resolution. As long as nobody hurt Bear Hug.

“Don’t worry,” Janer said. “I won’t be separating you from your friend. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have placed you together in the same cell.”

“You wouldn’t have been able to,” Anton declared. It wasn’t a threat, just an observation. The truth of his words might still make the man uncomfortable, but getting Janer used to the fact that Anton had the power and didn’t use it was part of his intention. Though he wasn’t as advantaged in power as he was sometimes. Otherwise, he would have smashed his way out of that spatial cage on his first attempt and they wouldn’t have gone down this route.

The fact that they didn’t bring the keys in with them meant that there was some understanding of risk, but Felicitas soon returned from outside with the key for Bear Hug’s shackles. Presumably. It appeared to be some sort of electronic key, which was reasonable. Even an incompetent cultivator could pick a physical lock with half baked senses and a bit of natural energy. That was why if he had to react Anton would have just directly destroyed the shackles as his first move.

Felicitas moved forward after getting a confirmation nod from Janer. Then she bent down towards Bear Hug’s little pool, releasing their shackles.

Anton’s prediction about what would happen was only half right. Instantly, long strands lashed out and wrapped around Felicitas. She tensed, unable to call upon her defensive energy in a timely manner. Bear Hug was close to a full phase ahead of her, far beyond what she usually had contact with. There was no escape.

“Hi! I’m Bear Hug! I’m called that because it is my favorite greeting.” Bear Hug released Felicitas. “... Do you not like hugs? You looked like you needed a hug. Don’t worry, we can still be friends even though you threw us in jail.”

Anton had a half smile. Here it was, Bear Hug unleashed. Nobody could be prepared for this. Not really.

Felicitas slowly stepped back slowly and cautiously. “We are not here to discuss being friends.”

“We could be! Anton and I usually become friends with everyone everywhere we go. It’s one of our favorite things. He likes making places work good slightly more, and I like people slightly more. But we both like all the things you need to be good friends!”

Janer didn’t quite know how to react. That was obvious to Anton. The man had been a moment short of launching some sort of attack to ‘save’ Felicitas, but now he was being bombarded with enthusiasm. Every time Anton saw it, he got to observe people feeling the effects for the first time.

Finally, the man composed himself. He was externally composed the whole time, but Anton had sensed the internal disruption just fine. “So, Bear Hug is it? You should really… warn people before you do that.” He gave Anton a side eye at that. Truthfully, Anton thought Bear Hug might be more restrained there.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Surprise hugs are more fun! And I’ve been sitting around doing nothing for like, a year!”

“It was just a couple days,” Anton said.

“Oh. It felt longer.”

Janer cleared his throat. “Right then. Would you like to add anything to the questions I previously asked Anton?”

“I don’t know,” Bear Hug said. “I couldn’t hear at the time.”

Janer patiently went over every question, with Anton repeating his answers precisely. It was simple enough for a cultivator to remember a conversation perfectly, with Janer no doubt also being aware that Anton was precisely the same. Plus their recordings later.

Mostly, Bear Hug said that things were correct. “I’m from Klar though. I don’t have a sect but I’m part of the Alliance. Do you want to come visit the black hole with us?”

Anton grinned at Felicitas, who rolled her eyes. Anton was quite pleased to get a reaction.

“I do not believe we will be doing so,” Janer said. “I must also remind you that for the moment, you are within our custody.”

“That’s okay, you’ll let us go,” Bear Hug said. “You’re not bad people.”

Very few people actually thought they were bad people. Half the time, those people were actually closer to being good people because they considered their actions. Still, Anton tended to agree. This wasn’t a foul region. Their interrogation techniques might be more cautious because of the unknown power factors involved, but Anton could hope they would be reasonable with everyone.

Anton noticed that the scanners were more active since Bear Hug was released. It would be of great interest to them to scan a proper Assimilation cultivator, after all. Or… whatever Bear Hug was.

Anton only barely heard the sound coming into Janer’s ear. His comms device transmitted the sound almost directly into his ear. However, Anton’s senses were quite focused at the moment, and even passively he could pick up tiny details.

“Could you explain the spatial anomaly around you?” Janer asked.

“Umm…” Bear Hug thought for a moment- briefly making hands and a chin they rubbed to show body language. “I could but that’s a big cultivation secret. So I won’t unless we become friends. Then it will be alright.”

“You would trust friends with your deepest cultivation secrets?” Janer asked.

“You wouldn’t?” Bear Hug retorted. “You need better friends. If you have good friends they can tell you if you’re doing something stupid, and maybe you’ll do it anyway but be better informed. Sharing knowledge makes people strong.”

Janer kept a strongly neutral expression that indirectly told Anton he was shocked. Anton couldn’t tell if he would share such secrets with close friends, or if it was some sort of judgment on outsiders. The man was capable enough in that regard.

“How did you come to exist as a… plant cultivator?”

“I don’t know,” Bear Hug said. “It’s like you trying to remember things before you were a baby. I don’t think I existed before that. Without energy, I’m just nothing.”

Janer’s frown was nothing more than the slightest twitch of his eyebrows and subdermal muscle movements. Anton still noticed. “Why would you put on energy restricting shackles, then? Were you certain you wouldn’t be perfectly suppressed?”

“I probably wouldn’t die immediately!” Bear Hug said. “I’m sure you would have let me out. Or Anton would have saved me. But the robot probably would have, right?”

“... We had no intention to cause your death,” Janer said. That didn’t imply any active effort to save Bear Hug, but Anton could accept that. “You are quite confident in your friend.”

“Anton is super strong. He helped me move Second Gift!”

“What is Second Gift?” Janer asked.

“A planet we gave to a friend. It’s so hard to keep a planet alive between systems!”

“Indeed. Now then, we will move on to other topics. These questions are for both of you.” Janer likely had a list of things memorized, though he made a show of checking his notes. Maybe he was trying to get Anton to admit he was reading the device, given the mismatch. “What do you know of the sects of the upper realms?”

“Lots of them are really mean!” Bear Hug said. “But some aren’t. All the ones who attack people during the shift in the Tides are terrible. We killed a whole bunch of them this last cycle.” Bear Hug looked at Anton. “Did we get all of the ones that crossed the border?”

Anton shook his head. “Not even close. But their attacks on our Alliance were completely unsuccessful. Do you have questions about particular sects?” Anton asked.

He did. Eventually, the Twin Soul Sect came up.

“Annihilated, as far as I know,” Anton said. “Though I heard about a recent resurgence for a few decades.”

“I never met any,” Bear Hug commented. “The Alliance wiped them out before I joined. They didn’t sound like good friends at all.”

Janer nodded. “I don’t believe they were. How about the Swirling Swarm?”

“Killed a bunch this last cycle,” Anton said. “Our Alliance has recently been coming into greater conflict with them.”

“Yeah, they just attacked us! Really mean.”

“At the turn of the cycle?” Janer asked.

“After that.” Anton couldn’t have honestly expected Bear Hug to keep complete track of things. Even if they had discussed not revealing their connections to the upper realms, something would have likely come through. They’d done well to get this far. “They crossed the border and then we killed some Domination cultivators, but maybe they weren’t. They’re dead now though.”

“They crossed the border after the end of the Tides?”

“This was in the upper realms!”

There it was. But stopping Bear Hug would have been worse.

Janer looked at Anton with clear suspicion. “You have connections to sects in the upper realms?”

Anton nodded. “The Lower Realms Alliance regularly produces Ascension cultivators. We do our best to maintain contact and advance mutual interests.”

“How often is regularly?” Janer asked.

“Throughout the whole of the Alliance? I’m uncertain,” Anton admitted. “It should be several thousands.” Anton decided to be forthcoming. “Per year.” It could be far more than that. They had a very robust population that just kept growing. With new systems joining or being colonized, even if only a small fraction of individuals reached that level and many chose Assimilation, they would still have a great many Integration cultivators.

Yet once Ceretos had only been one success every few years. Or at least, that had been the ‘widely known’ knowledge, which could have absolutely been incorrect. And it was before they managed to become more consistent, while their population was low.

“I… see,” was all that Janer finally replied. He didn’t have an immediate question to follow up.

Anton decided to take the opportunity. “What could you tell us about the Swirling Swarm?” Anton asked. “Since we’ll likely have further conflict with them.”