Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1279 - 1278 - Sovereign Tier Pressure

Firella was working with Mira to organize supplies for their group. The 2 mothers had come far from the Heaven Realm Lands as friends but the human had left the older demoness behind.

Firella had been helped by Lind a lot to fully recover and truly consolidate her foundation but her forced progress had her stall out at the Shard Tier.

As such, when she answered the call from her daughter, she knew her role would be more support than the direct conflict she preferred. Still, she had learned many tricks in the thousands of years living in the Frey Clan.

Aside from Qi stone, elixirs, and weapons, she was a trap master. She had, in fact, noticed that Annabelle had mimicked her traps to an extent. They were flawed but she corrected that.

Her blue streaked hair was tied back neatly as she carefully set a few formation plates at the base of the walls.

"You expect trouble so soon?" Mira was not even looking up as the cauldron steamed in front of her. Her hands carefully infused Qi and Laws into whatever pills she was making.

Firella had always found her work amazing, to be honest. Only Lind surpassed her when he was making elixirs in the midst of battle or doing other activities.

"We have all been so focused on the Fiends until recently that I think you forgot what it was like at the beginning. Drakmor Kingdom was many things, but it was not a place of peace. Sky Realms were always a possible threat and they are nothing compared to Sovereign Tiers." The demonic kingdom had been about battle from start to finish but it was hardly unique.

The battle for resources, lands, and even pride were a fact of life to Firella for centuries until Lind came along. He changed everything.

Unlike the others, however, she saw the changes for what they were. A shock to the system. The elemental theories, integration of Laws, and even the massive changes to the derivative professions was just too much all at once.

Cultivators were a stubborn bunch, even demons, and they did not adapt well to change. War was chaos, but it was predictable. Kill your enemy and live, or succumb and die. It was a pattern they could get comfortable with.

The Fiend War had raged without much change aside from shifts in land. It was easy to adapt to it.

The Cataclysm was the last true drastic change but it had wiped out so much that survival was all that mattered to everyone.

Lind changed the fundamental foundation from the ground up and brought one consequence after another that could not be ignored.

It allowed for shifts in power, even peace for a time unlike any the cultivation world had ever known.

The return to the Celestial Fields also was just too massive a change for cultivators to return to any sense of normalcy.

For Firella, it had been a dream, but one she knew they had to wake from. She spent the thousands of years learning and preparing. She was only 1 woman and she saw the shift back to the norm come faster than expected.

The 1st layer quickly became more than just Fiends versus the rest of the world. The 1st layer was just too vast and powers that never knew the Fiend War wanted to grasp the secrets of what they perceived as weaklings.

The Frey Clan had risen to the challenge but it just became a constant assault on all fronts over time. It was her traps and strategies that helped shift them to mitigate the various attacks.

They had lost precious people in the time it took to stabilize the situation and oddly the Fiends had helped with that. When the Fiends went crazy for the Frey Clan for some reason, it revealed the true terror they were capable of and the power of the Frey Clan.

Even as they lost people, they rose up against the Fiends like a mighty dragon!

Those powers that had been acting against them were wiped out only by being in the same proximity! Where they lost millions, the Frey Clan only lost thousands!

Firella knew, though, nothing could prepare them for the current situation.

Deal with equals was one thing, but a Sovereign Tier was the peak of the Immortal Realm. Only the rules of Heaven and Earth protected them from a direct assault.

That still left the sheer numbers of Radiant Tiers and peak grade 7 or peak Law Grade artifacts and weapons could be brought to bear against them.

It was actually what she had been waiting for for so long. She just had not expected it to jump straight to the peak of the Immortal Realm.

Firella had been hoping for simply an ancient power like the Heavenly Maiden Sect to challenge them, not a Sovereign Tier!

The number of Radiant Tiers in the Endless Peaks were bad enough on their own!

It would be a lie to say she did not feel the pressure of what was to come. A Sovereign Tier was a bit more than she had planned for!

The pair looked up as Qing and Annabelle came into the room. Firella smiled to see the young girl in better health than what she had heard. Honestly, Lind was an idiot for losing her.

Still, she saw the bond forged between the wives was still holding for the moment. It would not be the first harem that had collapsed but it would be the saddest in her eyes.

"Mother Firella! Mother Mira!" Annabelle called them and ran over to be hugged. The Ethereal Fairy title was sometimes applied to Annabelle but Firella always felt Pure Heart Fairy would be better.

Just seeing her smile made a person feel like the world was a better place. She would do anything to guard it!

She had not been kind to Lind when she confronted him. She owed him a great deal, so she had been willing to listen. She applauded his lack of excuses. He accepted he was wrong and had to face what had come without flinching.

As a demon, it was the most honorable thing he could have done. She let him leave the trap filled tower after a few months and a lot of punches later.

The fact he occasionally ran into a nearly lethal trap sometimes was a pure coincidence.

Her daughter had made her scale back a bit after nearly breaking a precious teleportation array.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Mira looked gently at Annabelle but she could see the pain in both their eyes.

In many ways, Mira was truly her mother. Aether children had no parents, so when she married Lind, Mira had been happy to have so many daughters to dote on.

"You need to eat more." As if reading her mind, Mira spoke just like a mother! Firella did not disagree either. Annabelle was too thin.

She left the 3 alone as she moved on to her next task. There was too much to get done to face what was coming.

She heard the sounds of battle and saw Cyntilla and Shoti sparring with the others. Kora and Ilyria were not as battle oriented in their human forms, yet they did fairly well. It was not bad to keep their edge.

They had heard word that Tal and Lysanna were arriving tomorrow! She looked forward to seeing them but the newly added member, Chu, was coming. Firella did not have a full grapes of her abilities.

By the time the Frey Clan arrived in the 2nd layer, a kind of peace had settled over most of the land. Some Fionan Empire and Rubyfire Empire had nearly fought over taking them in!

It was the damnedest things that Lind left in his wake sometimes.

She emerged into an open courtyard and frowned as her instincts did not like it. The illusions were perfect. They showed a fountain and many plants but it was slightly off.

The water did not spray like it should. It would reveal the deceit instantly for any invading force. She found the formation plate and saw it had weakened in 3 of the inscription lines.

She could not fix a natural Qi formation but she quickly swapped it for a new one. Annabelle still gifted them more formation plates than any of them could use in a lifetime.

She kept reworking the traps and kept thinking. There had to be a way to be more proactive against the current foe. She did not like being so weak!

[You are hardly weak, Mother.] Ethry's voice entered her mind. Firella looked around but did not see her.

"It is rude to peak in my mind, my favorite glutton." She felt a spike in irritation but affection too. "Are you still patrolling?"

She asked it quietly but felt confirmation in her head. The Divine Dragon was a symbol of pride to all dragons. When she moved, others followed. Yet, when Ethry explained what she was doing, the other dragons became unsure.

After nagging her for so long, they suddenly pulled back. Only Amares and Serat came with her but gave strict instructions to their respective dragon clans to stay away.

The prospect of facing the Sovereign Tier was that powerful. Even dragons were not so foolish as to fight them head on!

[We found some pests. They are gone now. Yet, I feel eyes on us. They are increasing as time passes. Tal and the others will be the last to arrive.] Firella frowned at that. Their force was powerful but only a little over half were Radiant Tiers.

Even the weakest Sovereign Tier commanded hundreds of Radiant Tiers.

"Can we win?" She spoke the question aloud but a new voice spoke to her that made her jump.

"We will slaughter them all, Grandmother Firella." Fey stood near the entrance and for the first time, the worry in her heart calmed down. She loved her daughter Cyntilla with all her heart and was proud of her prowess in the Wolf Fang Arts, but Fey was a monster.

If a Radiant Tier thought they could fight her alone, they were already dead.

"Then I suppose I need to stop slacking off!" She resumed her work but now pushed her thoughts in a new direction. It was not about buying time. It was about killing her foes in the sneakiest ways possible!

Firella was only a Shard Tier but her traps did not care about that. Dead was dead, no matter the power used to do it!

They would fight and they would win!