Eternal Emerald Dragon

Dark metal and darkness replaced the candle lit stone of the maze. Lind did not even have to call out a warning as Chu moved.

Her dark claws severed spheres from thin air and they burst into emerald black flames.

"Primitive, but effective little things." Lind quickly identified the spheres as Relay Eyes. Normally, they were just used as the name indicated. They extended the range of the controller to see to any corner of a structure they were set up in.

Yet, the broken pieces were clearly modified to absorb vitality. The Bastard always had to put a dark twist on things. Still, they were not like the Myriad Maze. These were far more complex artifacts.

Further, the metal corridor was closer to a ship than a building. There were no lights either for anyone but Fiends. Fiend fire coursed in very fine crystal strips along the ceiling.

To anyone else, it would be harmful to look at, but Lind just transformed the Fiend fire into something else to actually brighten the space near them. He noticed no one else appeared in the corridor but relative space did not matter in Myriad Maze.

It was entirely possible to have dozens of them in the same room. That concentration of people, however, was not something the Bastard would want. There were only so many places and with so many entrances some overlap had to exist.

Lind quickly downed elixirs to recover and power flowed from his dantian to his limbs. The group moved down the hall and were cautious after the strange spheres had been waiting for them when they appeared.

Yet, despite the cold metal all around them, nothing happened. There were no doors nor any sign of traps. Lind found that deeply suspicious.

He summoned his staff. His Dao Weapon had been upgraded to Mystery Weapon over time. Unlike the Dao Weapon, however, the Mystery Weapon required a careful balancing act.

The final 3 Mysteries were just too powerful to easily integrate. Instead, he had parsed out what he needed from them and fused them into his staff.

Now, he had found the staff had transformed once more. Instead of 9 Mysteries bound by his harmony, the dark wood of the staff was solid with the inscriptions shimmering with the Path, Intent, and Essence that made up himself.

It was a true extension of himself and had one other effect in the space they were in. It was devastating to Fiend materials by its presence alone!

Sizzling was heard as the metal seemed to become vapor just by moving the staff near it. Lind swung hard and rather than wood on metal, they saw the wall melt like ice. It would not even let him hit!

They emerged into a dark place between corridors. There were no doors but he could see it was a hollow space quickly. He also saw inscriptions on the outside that made it clear what they were in.

"A hunting ground." He then raised his staff up and streams of emerald light shot out in discrete bursts. Screams quickly followed before dark figures flew away. More thralls had been destroyed but the numbers were impossible to confirm.

"How many are there?" Qing asked but Chu was the one to answer.

"Thousands. Not as many as I expected but they are not like the Fiends before. They all smell the same." Lind nodded. He knew what they were.

"He took in trillions of Fiends over many timelines. Just as he changed the Fiends in our Divine Lands, he likely has manifested others. They are not the individuals they were but his true puppets." The Bastard would not trust the Fiends to act in his interest knowing their ultimate fate. Their bodies, however, were still useful to him.

A Divine Realm Fiend was still enough to handle his direct aura if modified to his needs. Lind felt sick just thinking about how little life meant to the Bastard. To extract life force, it was enough.

The Myriad Maze was to make easy pickings by exhausting them. The spheres afterward were to catch any that escaped if possible but then the true trap was the corridor themselves.

After escaping all that, they were in the equivalent of a loop. The corridors extended into the darkness with no end in sight. It was likely they were bare of any escape and just waiting for a thrall to activate the formations to take the life force from unsuspecting targets.

A 3 layered trap that he admitted was effective. He then proceeded to crack open one corridor after another. Some had withered husks while others had survivors looking in fear at fallen comrades.

Days passed until he finally found the rest of his family. He smirked as the dead thralls had been laid low by Fey and Shoti with ease.

Ethry had simply burned them to ash but the effect was clear. Still, the thousands that had come to destroy the Bastard had been cut down by over a third. Such devastation brought home how horrifying their enemy was.

After some reorganization, Lind showed them how his conjured staff was anathema to the entire structure. Ethry and Fey were able to replicate his effect but not even the modified weapons he made could do it.

They walked for months before they finally found a way in the dark. Lind had to recover twice before they came to a wall that was not metal nor stone. It was closer to resin from the way it felt but the clear fact was it was not a Fiend material.

His staff had no direct effect but damaging it was also very difficult. The material seemed able to disperse most forces used against it. The few that could succeed, which included Fey, only chipped it!

"What is this?" Goldthorn tapped it with his gnarled knuckle but only a dull thud was heard. No one spoke at first but then Violet Cloud turned pale.

"I think–I think it is a piece of Sacred Heart Eternal's hold." The instant she spoke that title, the Eternal Realm cultivators went dead silent. Lind quickly scanned the data he had been given but the name did not ring a bell.

Goldthorn, however, looked like he was about to boil over in rage.

"HOW DARE HE?! WHERE IS HE?! I WILL TEAR HIM APART MYSELF!" The old man had a temper and was cantankerous but Lind had never seen him explosive like that.

Lind turned to the old woman and she was crying.

"A close friend?" She nodded before holding up a simple charm. It was not a true artifact but even he could feel the powerful Intent infused into the object. It was a flower set in a slender branch shaped not by nature but by manipulation of energies.

It was a defensive charm that would put any of his creations to shame with similar power but far simpler construction.

"She was with us a long time and had a lovely hold. She was a plant but not one of the dryads or others. She was a tree that had been nurtured as a guardian for the humans under her shade. She grew stronger and the intent fused into her to make her something more." Lind felt the sadness in her voice.

He looked at the resin-like substance and a dark thought came to him.

"What is this?" She shook her head.

"I only recognized the quality of it. She could create things like this charm that disperse attacks rather than direct confrontation. I noticed how young Fey could barely scratch it. Her power has very few counters." Lind slowly nodded but he became grim.

Plants get larger the higher the realm they reach. A being that could create such powerful items could not do it from nothing. He looked at his staff and very gently touched it to the surface.

He was not attacking it. He was sensing it.

The scream finally came to him. It was a scream he had heard too many times and it was always drawn out as the person inside was aware of what was happening. It was the scream of a being that had been ripped apart into a yawning chasm as food.

They had been partially eaten and then their husk of a body was repurposed into a shield for their predator! Lind felt his rage rise.

It was always the same! The Bastard just used the living as tools and had no care for the hell he put them through. He had turned a living being into a barrier for his fortress!

His harmony flared and his Path was right there. He was about to reach out when he froze.

The Bastard knew him well. Even if he was not the same as previous versions, there were things that had survived from one attempt to another. The rage, the need to protect, and the fact that people were not things.

The current trap was not for anyone else but him and he had almost walked into it willingly. His aura was flaring around him and his face was struggling to contain the emotions raging in him.

He could not just leave her like that but if he acted, the result would be defeat!

His fists cracked as blood began to flow down his fingers to the floor. He was stuck in a loop with no way out that would not affect his foundation!

"Lind." A gentle voice and cool hand reached out to him. Qing was looking at him and no words were needed. She understood the pain and rage he was trapped in. Fey and the rest looked on as they understood what he had.

"I–I–I can't–" He could not even finish the words. He had sent so many people to die but they had chosen to follow him, to fight. They had chosen to risk their very existence. The woman trapped in her body was just a piece of her and he could do nothing!

He then did something he no longer thought was possible. He pulled on a power only a being under Heaven and Earth could use.

A twinge came from his dantian and he grasped it with all his will. Blood spurted from his mouth and nose instantly.

People called out to him but he did not care.

[You stood aside and this is the result! You know what he is doing and now you cannot stand aside anymore.] His body changed and his aura shocked every beast in all directions.

{TAKE HER HOME!} The 3 words nearly tore him apart but the sound of metal tearing drew all eyes. A massive black limb exposed the outer world as a beast unlike any they had ever heard of simply touched the resin.

A simple white figure was pulled out. She was incomplete but the scream had stopped. She looked confused before she smiled innocently at Goldthorn and Violet Cloud.

[Bye bye, I get to sleep now.] It was a childish voice but the horror was clear to them all.

Lind was falling as the sound of shattering glass was heard. The barrier was down and the assault could begin!

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