Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 180 - 179 - The Voice

The Aether Sect had always been treated with disdain except for a few honorable members.  Sage was the most well known but Raistar was not far behind him in fame either.  They raised aether children to be more tolerant of the world and to leave their revenge behind.

The results were good.  Aether children that were not resentful or blindly raging against the rest of the world made the ancient banditry of the Aether Sect fade from memory.  However, the foundation had always been laid in anger.

Kelvin's death, while all that witnessed it affirmed he was possessed, was treated like a massive betrayal.  Lind Frey was made out to be a supreme monster by them, especially Lord Rain.

However, his antics lead to groups slaughtering many slavery rings that led back to Cimmeria.  While slavery was not endorsed as an end all solution for crime or other social issues, it was acknowledged it was abused quite often so raids on them were ignored to a point.

Sadly, the groups from the Aether Sect took the bills of sale and began burning down powerful cultivator's residences and taking their slaves alive if aether children while kiling the rest.

The barbarous acts were met with verbal warnings and a few prisoners were killed as well as an example but it only got worse.  The cycle began to spread to the other continents.  No one knew the Aether Sect had spread so wide.

Sage had made a decision at that point.

It was 2 years after Lind 'died' but he had Raistar take those willing to enter the Heavenly Maiden Sect and the Divine Sword Sect.  There were many powers that condemned the Aether Sect as a whole but thanks to the messages from Lind to the 2 great powers, they left their doors open.

Only a third took the chance offered to them.  Most of them knew Lind, but could see where things were going.  Others simply refused to give up their dream of a sect devoted to aether children.  More than a few had shifted back to the other side of the division in the sect due to the ruthless response by outside powers.

Sage and Raistar were saddened but did not leave the sect.  They would die with it when the time came, but it took longer than expected.

A little over 6 years after the incident with Lind dying, Lord Rain was begging the skies for forgiveness.

The Sky Realms had left.  They had stayed out of it and had finally reached the end of their patience.  The wider cultivation world had no place for the petty vengeance driven by Lord Rain and his companions.  It would create heart demons much as Kelvin had one so easily developed.

Unlike Lord Rain, they had felt the karma shift and recognized it.  Heart demons were a common obstacle to cultivation and Sky Realms were more than familiar with them.  The fact a World Realm brat had lost to his was sad, but using it as an excuse to destroy the sect's reputation forever was too much!

While some had come from that side of the sect it had been much more mellow back then.  Raids were done on true criminal organizations or confirmed abuse of aether children, not simply because they wished to.

With the Sky Realms gone, the other powers no longer had to hold back.  Death had come for the Aether Sect.

The formations were flickering as Gold and Diamond tier humans and demons from across the world assaulted the valley where the sect was placed.  The Silver Peaks were now tainted with blood and death on a scale never seen before.

"Why?  Why did they abandon our true way?"  Lord Rain was insane.  He had lost all grasp on reality long ago but when the Sky Realms left, it was like the final straw keeping him coherent snapped.  He sat like a puppet with its strings cut and glass eyed look on his face.

"Lord!  You have to help us!  They are ripping the formations apart!"  A young girl was screaming at Lord Rain but he acted as if he could not hear her.  Her blue scales and black skin were very pretty on her light form but blood and sweat now covered her robes.  So many had died already.

"Have the spirits abandoned us?  Were we wrong?"  She whispered the words but then felt a jolt in her chest as she looked down.  A hand was protruding out of it covered in her blood!  It was not a human or demon, but Lord Rain himself!

"We are not wrong!  We are never wrong!  The world is wrong!  They tell their lies about equality and freedom but enslave us for their pleasures or as cauldrons!  None of them can exist with us!  They must all die!"  Lord Rain was ranting as the skies began to darken with a storm.

He was very good at storms, she recalled.  Her body was getting cold as tears fell down her face.  At the end she finally understood.  He was mad.  He had no grip on reality and never did.  Lord Sage had been right, they should have worked on cultivating and healing their wounds.

Her regrets carried her into oblivion.

That small moment was happening between more fanatics that saw the end of their lives coming and could not accept their actions brought it on themselves.  Heart demons were spawning at a frightening pace that even the assaulting forces were growing worried.

"They have gone mad!"

"Kill them all, quickly before they unleash hell on us all!"

"Leave nothing behind, smash through!"

While some yelled more inspiring words, the plain greed in their eyes was obvious.  It was not known that a powerful Relic had been hidden from the world by the Aether Sect as well as deep mines of Qi stones up to the peak of Diamond Tier carefully mined over the millennia.

All had come for backlash of their actions but it was just an excuse to pillage the sect.

Many regretted the dead aether children as they were good resources for those stuck in their cultivation.  Others simply thought it a waste of good looking women and men.

There were no righteous people in that battle and only horrified witnesses in the looming palaces.

"The spirits bless those lost this day and guide them to a better life in the cycle to come."  Sage said a prayer as Raistar wept next to him.  They could have fled.  Even now, their faces and reputation were not tarnished as they had been involved in battles to try and stop the raids on the humans and demons.

Still, they stayed and many older cultivators understood.  There came a time when you cannot abandon your path even when death was the only conclusion awaiting you at the end.  Cultivators defy fate but they accept death if the path they chose took them there.  They could be unreasonably stubborn.

He looked at the unresponsive jade stone in his hand and felt sadness deep in his bones.  He had lived for over 4 centuries and seen the worst of the world for most of it but he had met light so bright it burned.  Lind Frey had been a beacon.  He was so much what he wished cultivators could be, but the horrific battle was the true cultivator world.

Death, greed, pretense, and, ultimately, a sea of corpses stood behind almost all cultivators on their path through life.  Sage was about to drop the jade when a flicker came from it.  He thought he was seeing things but then the flicker came back stronger than before!

It couldn't be!  He was not abandoned by the spirits yet!

Sage was about to sink his senses into the jade when a suffocating aura suppressed the various techniques in the air.  It did not seem to matter how powerful the Gold or Diamond Tiers were, their abilities were scattered.

The mountain peak rumbled until a massive fissure formed far to the east of the sect proper.  The Relic!  Something was happening at the Relic.

"What is that?!"  Raistar was pulled out of her grief but before anyone could answer, a massive storm roared out of the fissure like from a god!

Emerald clouds rushed across the peaks and surrounded the Aether Sect.  Thunder rumbled and all felt fear looking at the storm.  The earth began to shake as cyclones began to fall among the assaulting forces.

Inside the formations, lightning bolts struck down many of the possessed.  Sage also felt like the lake area was distorted somehow for those in the Diamond Tier and Gold Tier that could resist the lightning were lost in mazes only they could see.

How profound!  The techniques seemed similar to some World Arts Sage had studied but he could not place the tier of what he was seeing as he could identify all 6 elements before shock flooded his body.

Emerald clouds!  Spirits blessed emerald clouds!  His Qi clamped on to air Qi and followed it towards the now open fissure in the Silver Peaks.  On a flying artifact, he could just make out 6 bright streams flowing into a single being.

Tears fell from his face as dirty blonde hair flew in the wild breeze while a young man looking very pale but well muscled stared in anger towards the sect.  His dark green eyes blazed with righteous rage while Sage could make out sadness in his face.

"LIND!  IT'S LIND FREY!"  Sage's shout was carried on the winds and echoed across the valley as all looked floored at the storm above them.  The knowledge that his harmony was an emerald flame made them realize what they were looking at and what it meant.

World Realm.  All 6 elements being used by a World Realm!

"Sage, please enhance my voice, I cannot spare any more Qi."  The jade flashed before Sage felt the message enter his mind.  He nodded and swiftly moved to guide the winds around Lind.  It was harder than he expected but the Gold Tier was still more powerful in air Qi than anyone alive.

Once the flows were set up, he saw Lind take a breath before emerald light lit up in his eyes.

"I AM LIND FREY.  I AM RETURNED!  I AM HIGH STONE TIER BUT I CAN STOP YOU ALL!  CEASE AND DESIST ALL ATTACKS!  THE HEART DEMONS HAVE POSSESSED THE GOLD AND DIAMOND TIERS I HAVE TRAPPED IN A VERSION OF LABYRINTH."  His words carried to them all and some who had met or heard him were stunned.

The clouds were slowly dispersing but all noticed the formations had been healed in that time, yet Lind made it sound like he wanted help from the crowd, so how was that going to work?

"I AM SPEAKING TO YOU SKY REALMS!  HEART DEMONS DO NOT DISCERN FRIEND OR FOE!  I AM A LOW GRADE 4 ELIXIR MASTER, PLEASE ASSIST ME!"  His words brought an explosion of Qi in the blue skies as floating Sky Realms appeared to the stunned fighters.

Why were they here?  Sky Realms could not interfere in this battle, so why had they come?  Suddenly, one of the demons felt the blood drain from his lavender face as he recognized the pristine white robes of the women and dark gray robes of the rest.

"T-the Heavenly Maiden Sect and the Divine Sword Sect!"  All the minor and major powers below felt their blood freeze.  The rumors of Lind being alive had been persistent and now the proof that voice was not a trick was clear.

They had come for him!

"YOU HEARD MASTER FREY!  LET'S GO!"  The Divine Sword Sect was hot blooded and they had received a call to stop monsters.  Swords gleamed in the sunlight as they dove into the Sect.  Sage quickly manipulated the control nodes and the sky opened to allow the Maidens and Swords to descend.

The battlefield below was even bloodier despite the illusions Lind had used to slow them down.  The tragic scene broke Sage's heart but he saw a floating artifact arrive that felt far more profound and he noticed several aether children fueling it while others were passed out on its surface.  It was essentially a giant disc but where had it come from?

"Land quickly, you can't keep this going any more and neither can I."  Lind was pale as a ghost as the disc landed awkwardly in Sage's lower courtyards.  The boy smiled up at him before nearly falling over but a Maiden appeared to catch him with pale blue skin and golden reptilian eyes.

"You made my little sisters cry, boy.  You will pay for that."  The rictus of a smile looked horrifying but Sage could make out that the Maiden was truly happy to see Lind.  Sage looked back at the fissure and wondered what happened to the Relic but at that moment he felt all the air Qi flowed into Lind like a river.

He had hoped for Lind to return but the dramatic fashion brought many questions that suddenly froze in his throat.  He could feel Lind's cultivation and had met 6 elementals that had clawed their way into the World Realm but what he felt from Lind was a very stable and near perfection foundation.  It was far stronger than normal High Stone Tiers but the stability was the more stunning part.

How was that possible?  How had he done it?  He had done it!  Lind Frey had successfully broken through to the World Realm as a 6 elemental!