Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1204 - 1203 - Traitors Within

The thrall had not given good news but it was not unsurprising. The Fiends did not rely just on the soulless but also their usual long term planning.

Thralls had been sent to each tower on the border but his arrival had made them consolidate them. In a few decades, they had planned to simply wipe out the towers as it would push the limits to rebuild them in the current age.

They had been built before the Sovereign Tiers took all their descendants and related powers to the 4th layer.

The Great One had actually used the restrictions of Heaven and Earth to keep them out of the battle. All they could do was pull people away!

He urged his speed onward as he was truly worried about the central tower. If it fell, the Whisper Peaks were essentially lost. There were no thralls there as they were constantly screened.

There were, however, artifacts placed by agents over the centuries. No risk was taken as the plan was formed. The thrall knew of a few other plans but they were both too vague and far for him to do a damn thing about them.

The good news, if you could call it that, was Lind was making them desperate. His destruction of the Realm Refiner and the Sifter had been noticed! The fact he ascended directly afterward and was able to actually kill the soulless monstrosities, told the Fiends all they needed to know.

The one thing the thrall could not answer was what Lind most wanted to know, of course. The location of the Fiends and the source of the soulless.

According to him, he was already an agent and simply woke up as a thrall one day. He doubted that was true but it might be from the man's perspective.

It was far more likely a soulless or other agent drugged and took him somewhere. There were a myriad of pills and elixirs he could list off the top of his head to pull off such a result.

The rest was pure Fiend long term planning. Despite knowing of it, the problem was they could be so damned patient that even a million years was not enough to think one safe from it!

Peace was something allowed by them in many ways to buy time!

Anger surged in his heart but he pushed it aside as days passed. He was pushing his speed now and exhausting himself too much. He downed one elixir after another but the few he had in his bracelet for Immortals at his level ran out quickly!

He was still not even in range!

"No choice!" His harmony flared as space was torn asunder. The very instant he did it, he felt millions of auras lock onto him. They were vile and made even him balk in his current state but the other end of the tear showed a tragedy unfolding.

The central tower was huge and black smoke billowed upward from all the windows and openings made in it.

The sky was black with moving shapes that turned as one to face him. The hordes were huge! Such a massive force was let through by a single tower?!

Others must have fallen outside that thrall's knowledge!

"No time to admire the scenery. Eat this!" He grew in size until his sinuous body filled the sky. Flames built in his throat and swept like a beam. It opened up a massive swath of the horde filled skies.

He wasted no time and shot through it as the creatures tried to encircle him. There were 6 moves to go!

He switched back to human form and nearly collapsed on the rubble filled top of the tower. His flight and attack had wiped him out. Still, his body still had strength to spare.

He summoned a blade that glowed with silvery light. He had Forged it from better materials but it was not his best work as it only had one function. It sliced up a soulless like tofu.

They were not stopped like his harmony could do, but they were turned into pieces that could not heal as easily. It was the best he could do as the demons needed breathing room.

He became a whirlwind of silver and emerald death. Demons that were on the verge of defeat suddenly found their foes reduced to spare parts! Soulless had no blood in the conventional sense but there were plenty of them covered in the bluish blood of demons.

Time became subjective as all Lind could do was keep going. His stamina as a dragon was nearly bottomless but even he had limits. The main thing was to allow his dantian time to recover and he did get at least a fourth of it back in shape in time to for one more attack.

[Anyone in the sky, I am sending out my attack. Try not to die.] He gave a warning but did not wait for a response.

Three spheres appeared around him of elemental Qi to make the harmonic flames. They were not as powerful as he would like but in a pinch, they would do!

Violent beams swept outward in all directions bringing death to the soulless at last. The horde tried to scatter but Lind refused to let them slip away so easily!

[DIE!] He gathered his one flames once more and added a final beam until all his Qi was exhausted. The horde finally slipped away but at least half of it was wiped out!

The central tower still stood but only just. Flames were raging as smoke obscured the total damage. He had no elixirs left at the moment to recover and could only slide down the soot covered wall as he collapsed from pure exhaustion.

He saw many demons and a few aether children in his vision that were withered. Sadly, some were only partially consumed. He did not even have the strength to end their suffering.

He simply closed his eyes and focused on his own recovery. The fact the image took a while to fade from his mind was not something he focused on. Annabelle had shaken his control and he did not like it!

He slowly opened his eyes to see at least a day had passed as many of the corpses were cleaned up but no one had bothered him. There was no guard either as they had learned he did not want one.

He slowly got up and saw the stairwell nearby was totally burnt out so he crossed the still damaged roof level over to another doorway that was not singed. He saw demons moving around but more than half were injured.

He descended until he found a large room where various samples were strapped to slabs. The demon and aether child noting things down paused as he entered and bowed before resuming their work.

The aether child was dark and azure skinned but the demon was scarred heavily. His arms were exposed and a large scar made it clear his arm was hard to use.

Lind nodded back and examined the samples. The thing he was currently checking was anything that might remain that hid such a massive number of soulless from any sight before they arrived at the central tower.

"Nothing, not even a trace." He had likely missed the window for his usual analysis but the aether child actually perked up.

"Lord Emerald Immortal, I have an analysis of all Qi traces here." He passed a jade slip that Lind happily took. He frowned as he found traces that made him concerned.

Fiend Qi was a given for obvious reasons but there were shadow and air elemental Qi showing some kind of hybrid protection from both races.

It also confirmed the traitors were deeper than the thrall had told him. He had said the soulless only went by, not that they hid them from detection.

It was also a fact they had not been hidden when they entered the Whisper Peaks previously. He quickly called up the map of the peaks and noted the inner ring of towers before reaching the central one.

"More traitors it seems." The pair nodded as they came to the same conclusion. "Anything else of note?" The aether child seemed to think but the demon was the one who answered.

"There were 4 confirmed towers that were gutted by thralls but only the one you found was saved. It was the last we heard, anyway." Lind actually stumbled at those words. There were only 50 towers total but over time that had shrunk to 25 so losing 4 more was not good!

It would make open paths the soulless could use to shortcut to other areas!

The Fiends got most of what they wanted but he knew they were not done. The central tower still stood, after all so they would be back.

"Thank you for your work." He handed the slip back and left the room. He swept back up to the roof but a demoness stood in his way at the top of the stairs. She was missing her left leg that had been replaced by an artifact.

It was actually very good work so he suspected it was an injury from before the current age.

She was a mid Radiant Tier. There was some corruption on her body to show she was following the demonic path before switching to the pure path. He wondered what she called her realm but her fierce look of liquid gold eyes left no doubt she wanted to lecture him.

He did not care and tried to move past her but then her legs became a blur. He simply caught the metal leg with ease which seemed to shock her.

"I may not seem as strong as you but I am actually stronger. Unless you want to lose this leg, let me pass." Her lavender face became flushed with rage when shadow and blue flame Qi sliced like a blade through the air at him.

A wave of his hand dispersed it with ease. The flawed elemental foundation made him far stronger than even a peak Radiant Tier but numbers could make up for it easily.

One on one, however, was no threat to him.

"You nearly killed half my forces! Do you actually fight for us?!" He narrowed his eyes and there was the sound of metal straining which seemed to truly shock her.

"Would you have preferred that battle to go on? I did what it took to drive them off. They will be back so we should get ready for that!" He tossed her aside and leapt into the air.

He had no desire to be pestered and went to make his own cave. The disturbing whispers were still there but just as he was about to start digging he froze.

All the hairs on his neck stood on end as he whipped his eyes down into the hidden depths.

For a brief moment, he felt something looking at him and it was far more powerful than him. What was that? Why had he felt nothing until then?

{The Hungry One wakes soon. Run!}

A sudden whisper filled his ears and echoed over and over. His eyes narrowed but then it stopped as quickly as it began. He had a lot to think on and elixirs to make. He would also repair the sword as it likely had a lot of damage now.

He sighed as he was growing tired of the endless battles but he was getting closer to understanding them each time. He would eventually find a way to destroy them forever!