Eternal Emerald Dragon

A pair of aether children were on the stone floor exhausted after taking the 4th left turn in the endless maze they had found themselves in. The demoness was not much better as the massive glaive in her hands was all that was keeping her upright. Only 1 member of their party seemed unaffected and she was in a pristine white battledress.

The whips at her sides glowed faintly and that glow was why Shoti stood strong. She was scrutinizing the wax candles as they were as identical as everything else but they were clearly draining them more as they moved deeper.

"I hate things like this. Lind or Qing are better at this." She mumbled a lament but the other 3 were too focused on staying conscious as the drain was now affecting them deeply.

Shoti had quickly figured out she was in a maze but a Myriad Maze seemed too tame for the Bastard. She was used to his more vicious tricks and approaches to how he moved but the candles were what she missed.

Still, she had no easy solution. Obviously, the candles were what needed to be dealt with to escape the maze but to reach it would require days or months of going ever deeper while the drain would incapacitate them.

At that point, she believed the Fiend would show himself and collect his spoils as it were. A lack of Qi would not kill them but it would make it harder to do anything, including staying awake eventually.

Their bodies demanded a certain level of energy without any conscious thought and when the dantian could not regenerate faster than demand, they would fall asleep.

Shoti had no desire for such a fate but she had no way to force her way out. She looked at her 3 companions and knew they were far from bad. They had a wild streak to their methods and were instant friends when she approached them.

Still, they had not taken Lind's warnings seriously enough. They thought they could overcome the assault on their skills and new items alone.

She knelt down to the male aether child. His skin was a mix of tan and crimson. His maces were on the floor as he had difficulty breathing. She grabbed both weapons and injected her aura.

Unlike others, she had found her Harmonic Core with ease. A bright white figure stood with 2 whips always swirling around her. She did not understand why others struggled so much with that part of their cultivation.

Because of that, she could help the 3 around her. Lind had Forged the weapons all 3 carried from materials or previous weapons provided. He had explained what they could do but it seemed they had not grasped they could help them now.

A soft glow shimmered across both maces and once she put them in his hands his exhaustion seemed to vanish. He was covered in sweat as his leather armor creaked when he looked up in shock.

She just smiled and moved to the female aether child. She was gold and tan skinned. She had a curved blade very close to a katana as Lind would call it but it was curved more than he would consider in range for that weapon. Still, it was powerful in her hands and she used her light Qi to devastating blinding attacks even if one's eyes were closed!

The weapon did the same for her as the previous ones.

Finally, she saw the demoness click the idea in her head and closed her own dark red eyes. Her pale lavender skin was slick with sweat as her chainmail armor gently clinked. The glaive flashed a bit brighter than the other weapons but the relief was plain.

"This place is the trap. Use the bare minimum aura to keep the protection working. My Beloved's creations are not bottomless wells so we need to ration it as best we can. It is not about quantity but quality here." She knew they could tap out the harmonic reserves with ease if they did not focus on just protecting themselves.

"What–what do we do then?" The male aether child's voice was deep but he still looked pale. Shoti smirked as she took her whips into her hands.

"We stop wandering." Confusion flared on all 3 faces as she began to dance. Shoti focused on her whips but it was not an attack. There were no cracks nor any sound of contact. They danced so beautifully that they mesmerized her 3 companions.

Shoti slowly began to glow white. It was her own harmony coming forth!

She had lost a part of herself long ago. While some of her memories were disjointed, thanks to a Divine Memory in an Inheritance, she was able to get all of herself back. WIth that experience, however, she had become very sensitive to Fiend energy and presence.

She had Annabelle teach her about formations once to see if she had any gift in it but it had been a disaster. Her formations' inscriptions had overloaded or burnt out every time.

Yet, it had sparked an idea. She could connect to her whips and guide them to change directions or increase their mass at sudden times to catch her foes offguard. That same sensation was second nature to her after so long.

Lind had taught her that weapons can be more than their intended purpose. His staff was a prime example of it. It was a weapon but it could also cause miraculous effects to heal or protect without ever being used as a weapon.

Now, she used her whips to find what she wanted. No matter how something was set up, the Bastard had to at least touch it to activate it.

The creator of things like the Myriad Maze had to activate it from the inside so to speak and verify the rules. Once that was done they could leave as they wished being the owner.

Shoti was looking for that trace.

The Bastard could have done it epochs ago but she did not care. She would find him. He had come for her family and hurt Lind so many times. He had to die a miserable death!

Eventually, her whips fed back to her what she wanted. She felt the trace of his aura left behind at the heart of the maze.

She moved down the corridor without stopping. The 3 followed her and she took turns without a pause or consideration. The drain got much worse but all 3 noticed she seemed unaffected.

Shoti was burning through her dantian but thanks to her Harmonic Core being in place, she was much more efficient. If any of them had tried to replicate what she was doing, they would already be passed out.

After endless intersections, the one ahead changed. A massive crystal lattice was filling a room with a small sun. The waxy substance was centered on the room!

The drain was immense but Shoti did not care about any of it. She was locked in on her enemy.

A crack finally heard as she struck first one place then another on the lattice. Its shimmering arms seemed unaffected but emerald flames began to eat away at them!

Finally, cracks appeared and the sun flickered. The arms finally broke like glass and the maze vanished! They found themselves in a massive room with only 1 door on the far wall.

Shoti did not stop her dance. Her whips began to crack so fast that it all sounded like one strike but various small metal objects appeared out of thin air and crumbled to dust.

A scream was heard faintly but none of them registered the source.

Eventually, Shoti stopped and her whips fell to the metal surface. She was sweating but smiling widely.

"I have only done the barest revenge on you for all you have done. I hope you enjoyed the pain." Her 3 companions were unsure what that meant but they were out. They took the opportunity to recover with elixirs or pills.

Shoti recoiled her whips and joined them. She smirked at how far she had come. She was not like Lind or the others. She was not good at direct confrontation, but at being a very annoying and irritating enemy.

She was the bane of sanity!

⬧⬧⬧⬧

Deep inside the heart of his base, the Great One was smoldering from several injuries.

"HOW?! HOW DID SHE REACH ME HERE?!" The others had broken his maze loci and escaped but they had just cut off his artifacts. That thrice cursed woman with whips had somehow found his direct aura marks and imbued emerald harmonic Qi into them!

That had flown back down his connection and seared his dantian and body from the inside! The Qi had then propagated before he realized what was happening and slowed it down enough to stop it!

It took days to heal from one attack and she was not even in the room!

He then checked and noticed more of the mazes had been broken but because of his distracted state they had escaped from the next traps! He was furious!

While some had destroyed his artifacts like that accursed family, many had not even known they were there! They had simply escaped because he was too distracted keeping the emerald Qi from spreading in his body and dantian to do anything!

Free resources were hard to come by and that woman had thwarted him!

"You will burn inside me for a long time. You and Lind Frey will be made to watch as all you love is consumed into me!" He was about to focus once more when a shaking figure caught his eye.

He turned to find the small azure sphere held a laughing Lanbao. She was crying, she was laughing so much!

Anger spiked but he then calmed down. Emotions would lead him to make mistakes. Mistakes would give his enemies an opening. Things had not quite gone as hoped but he was far from the worst case scenario.

In fact, Lind Frey was still trapped in the Myriad Maze. He was getting closer to the locus and would get out but what he would find would be dictated by him, the superior being!

The Great One glanced at some of the others and smiled. There were some people passed out in the mazes. It was time to feast!

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