Chapter 932

Chapter 932

Of the various candidate trees that Lev had planted on Vecesta, Lev wasnt really taken with any of them. It wasnt that he wanted it to be exactly like the Grandfather Willow, and indeed in some other locations hed begun focusing his resources on certain candidates. But even with Paradises help, the trees on Vecesta simply werent enough.

Perhaps it would simply take longer. Even a few decades was a short period of time to change the atmosphere of a planet, unless it was done recklessly. Maybe a new batch of seedlings would find one of good stock. Or perhaps he simply needed to pick one and tough it out.

Lev still found value in tending to his burgeoning forest as a whole. The trees werent raised for consumption so he couldnt directly get energy returns on his invested energy, but the grasping willows helped build up the atmosphere and the soil, along with other things.

Lev did consider trying another variety of tree entirely, but he decided against it. While he would have no objections if someone else took up the project- either within the sect or outside of it- he wasnt interested in such variety himself. He had his focus and was happy to stick with it.

Feeling ripples of natural energy, he looked up in the sky. Must be time for Paradise to make another delivery. The turtle had been occasionally coming by with material of various sorts to help build up the planet. The process was nearly done, but Rutera found no reason to expend their own resources when there was a willing volunteer keeping things on a good schedule.

Paradise was easy to spot from a great distance, even with all of the atmosphere in between. The turtle had only grown bigger since his origin of swimming through space, though for him another fifty years was perhaps hardly enough to grow another few kilometers long, at most. Even so, he was far more massive than even the largest Ascension-class ships, and there were only a few orbital platforms that could rival him and they were stationary.

The turtle began to orbit around the planet, letting it pull away waves of water and other material as he passed. The torrential rains it caused might have been one of the factors that limited the growth of the grasping willows, as a sudden infusion of moisture could be a shock to the system- but Lev knew that the impact was overall positive. Vecesta and the trees needed the aid.

With the material came an exchange of energy, Paradise sweeping up some of the stagnant natural energy and replacing it with his own. Lev began to guide the energy into some of his forest.

However, a moment later claws began to tear through the energy, grabbing onto it from nowhere while gouging huge furrows out of the ground. The attack seemed to come from nowhere. No, it did come from nowhere, and it returned to it.

Alarms rang out in the Ruteran bases as the claws passed next to them. Vecesta was still relatively near the beginning of its settlement, but there were various scientists studying the development of the planet and sect cultivators who appreciated the opportunity as well. The camps werent mutually exclusive, either.

But relevantly, none of them were particularly strong. There were more than a few in Life Transformation, a respectable achievement but against a distortion beast that could cause such damage with a single sweep of its claws they were in a shaky position- and any buildings or people directly in the path were already gone.

Paradise reacted just before Lev managed to. A loud groan shook Vecesta as Paradise concentrated some of the small ocean around him into an orb that he shot forth. Lev couldnt deny its power as it curved around the planet, his only concern was the attack actually connecting.

The distortion beast withdrawing didnt suddenly make everything on Vecesta better, however. Indeed, the atmosphere was barely holding together and the new seas were sloshing around the planet wildly.

Lev found himself tossed about in the wind and waves, his remaining energy used to protect his body rather than to control his limbs or to do anything but weather the storm. Some of the Ruteran formations were able to hold up against the great fluid force flowing around the planet, but others were swept away.

Lev clutched onto the power of the Grandfather Willow back on Ceretos, drawing on it as he could- but it was nothing close to being in its presence. He also reached out for any local grasping willows but he felt nothing around him. Not until he was tossed about another hundred kilometers more did he feel the faintest hints of any of his planted forest.

When he did, it was a single solitary tree. More of a sapling, really. The various conditions involved meant that not everything grew evenly, even when planted at the same time and in relatively similar environments and soil. Perhaps it had been a bad seed. Except when Lev reached out for it, it reached back, catching him with a strand of energy. It didnt have the power to calm the tumultuous surroundings, but it did have enough to hold onto him.

Over the course of the next few hours, the seas retreated and the winds began to settle. Paradise had returned, sending ships from its back to help those on the ground. He had also been partially responsible for the reduction in the force of the water, crashing back and forth around the planet.

Lev found himself sitting down next to a small tree as the sun rose on that part of the planet, beginning to dry him off. He looked around him at the disturbed landscape, which also included several claws sticking up like hills and rivers of blood or ichor or whatever foul substance the creature had in its place. His little tree had been soaked in it, even, and its leaves and bark were stripped away.

Reaching out mentally, Lev offered some of his flow of energy to the little sapling. He didnt recognize it at the time as the rest of the terrain was gone, but later he would come to recognize it as the one that had survived the initial accidental frosts that Paradise had brought with him. And while on the surface, it still wasnt much its roots ran deep.

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Vecesta had been unfortunate to be attacked by a distortion beast of that magnitude. It was unclear exactly what had drawn it in. The developing planet might have looked like a tasty treat, or perhaps it was Paradises infusion of energy- though it would have had to be close to react as it did.

Either way, failing to detect it was problematic for the entire system, as Vecesta was still within Ruteras main system. Even if the turtle had accidentally enticed the creature to follow him, he had moved along approved flight paths with appropriate levels of spatial awareness. Ever since the first encounter of Weos and Ceretos, people had taken precautions to avoid attracting them as much as possible.

After the initial damage from its caustic fluids, the remaining portions of the beast were determined to be only minimally toxic, though having kilometer wide hunks of rotting flesh wasnt exactly pleasant for the locals. Chopping it up and mixing it into the soil was deemed to be the best solution, and Lev aided with the project. The environment hadnt totally collapsed, but Lev had to plant new saplings on a majority of the planet.

The one little survivor, however, drank deeply from the air and soil around it, as well as Levs donated energy. He admired the little guy, not just for helping him out at the end but for surviving so much. It wasnt really a choice so much on his part as something that just happened. This was the one he was going to focus his efforts on. Maybe it would never grow large. Grasping willows did have some utility with greater size, so it wasnt simply an aesthetic concern, but perhaps a durable one would be best. And beneath the surface, Lev saw its roots were many times larger than expected- a good basis for its growth into the future.