In the end, Three-Frog City held.
It held against treachery, against poison. It held against cunning and magic and artifice alike--the fierce blows of the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect falling like rain upon the extended shields of the 302nd as their skill and courage grew in the attacks. It held with the aid of the poisons of Magnus, the valor of Maria, the might of Yan and Zeno--but all of these were as dust against the true foe.
Ling Dan the Butcher, Elder of the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect--raised in secret in the many years since the last incursion--pulled quickly to Core Formation so as to serve as a secret weapon against the Golden Devils who dared claim their lands and bounty for themselves. With three terrible blows from his meat hammer, three great breaches were rent in the walls.
None among the defenders could sport a Core of their own--the collapse of the Golden Devil Elders in the previous Trials decisive--none could be spared for minor fronts that no enemy Cores could be seen at--not when there were greater battles abroad to be committed to.
All that stood between him and the innocents of Three-Frog City was the newly raised Legate Rina Callista, first among the Golden Devils since time immemorial to reach the Thirteenth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation--and then to surmount the Great Tribulation to enter Single-Pillar Foundation Establishment. The light of the ethereal bronze ring at her back a beacon of hope to her friends--and an oppressive
weight of disregard to those who would seek to pass her shieldwall.
She rose with the dawn, standing against the Butcher--her spear danced against his maul, the incredible strength of her Pillar just barely enough to match the inhuman might of a completely formed Core. Her
[Halo] the battle flag of the defenders. For six hours did they fight--six hours were the breaches held and the Blood Cannibals kept at bay.
Six hours did it take for the Butcher's patience to run out, and commit to his full strength against the junior who had stymied him so long--unaware of his own quivering foundation, exposed so long to the
[Dao of the World-Lord], that when he raised his meat hammer for the final blow--he found his muscles seizing up, his will crumbling.
No amateur, he was quick to seek to abort his strike--it saved his life, as the spear stroke that would have bisected him instead merely rent an arm from his flesh. But even as he shored up his crumbling Foundation, he recognized the battle was lost--even if he could keep up with one arm, he needed time to return, meditate, and repair the cracks in his Foundation before he could risk drawing deeply from his Core again.
Ling Dan the Butcher quit the field--and with it went the hopes of the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect to win the day. When the slaughter after the rout was ended--only then could news of the greater war come through the encirclement--and the wildest hopes of the defense were realized.
The War was over, the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect was all but broken in the Battle of Shadow-over-Sun and the humiliating defeat levied upon Sun Diaxiang by Old Gold's strategem. A partitioning of their former lands between the Jingshen Clan and the Golden Devils leaving Rina's clan with the lion's share of Cannibal territories, and a guarantee of two hundred years before the Old Cannibal could return to the desert.
A heroic victory, by any definition of the word. The great gambles taken from the past two centuries paying off in spades--the future of the Golden Devils seemed--if not completely secure, at least finally getting their heels dug in--and if even
one of the current crop of Talents could make it to the peak of the Region...
Things will be good.
But where one chapter closes, another one inevitably opens in its place. With the Great Desert locking into a new bipolar arrangement between the Jingshen Clan and the Golden Devils, immediate open warfare was not likely to be in the cards compared to endless suppressions of bandits and consolidation of land.
The next chapter of Rina's life began with a knocking on her door...
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"Shit's fucked" Millet snapped out when Rina opened the door. "Pack your things, we've got to start moving to the Great Battlefield."
"I thought you hated that place?" Rina asked, frowning as the prophetess-and-seer muscled past her, packing all kinds of things lying around Rina's apartment in Pleuron. "I do, but that was before I had a shiny golden leg to hug and before all of my divinations started screaming that it's reaching a pivotal moment there." She opened a cabinet and began grabbing fistfuls of Spirit Stones, shoving them into the large bag she was carrying around. "The absolute
last thing I want is the bullshit in the Battlefield spilling out down here, and if things keep trending the way they are, that's only a matter of time. The Tyrant Star is currently forcing the Paragon Star into a death gate, and that
always leads to an upheaval."
"And upheaval always benefits the Blood Path, right." Rina nodded, turning to the other half of the room. "I'll get this side, you get the other?"
"I've got it on lockdown--have you managed to flex your way into an Interspatial Ring yet?" Millet asked--grinning as Rina waved her left hand back, the ancient ring with the symbol of the 302 inscribed upon it. "Nice~"
"Capacity's not the best, about a hundred square meters, but it's been a boon to keeping my things organized given how much they've had me running all over the place." Rina explained, tapping a hand on two of her shelves--the objects within disappearing. "But being a Legate has its perks after all."
"As does being a monstrous lunatic." Millet chimes in. "How's that Single-Pillar treating you anyway?"
"A bottomless pit of money to be honest." Rina shrugs as she vworps her favorite bed into the ring. "If I wasn't regularly doing Great Circle level missions and some of the easier Core level ones, I'd be regressing by now. This isn't the Plains."
"No it isn't, it's much nicer if you can get over all the sand." Millet finishes shoving the rest of Rina's consumables into the sack and tosses it over--a gesture from the young Legate pulling it into her Ring with the rest. "Expensive, but nice. We going to be able to bring your goon squad in with us?"
"Not right away, no." Rina shook her head. "I'm going to issue a rally and standby order on the Contribution Board before we leave, but a full mobilization is dependent on getting approval from the Strength Purity Sect and our own Council--the latter's more a formality than anything else, the current entente with our Battlefield neighbors is the place we want to be in with Jingshen making noises--but the former needs us to get our little political flimflam up in the air if they're going to avoid censure."
"Right, the whole 'Get hitched' plan" Millet grins mischievously. "It's usually the man who goes to save the damsel in distress than the other way around, not the other way around. Ahh, the drama of politics--I don't miss being in the thick of it, but it's still a grand spectator sport."
"Doesn't really matter who has the most saves--it's not about keeping score." Rina muses as she thumbs her Interspatial Ring, withdrawing a badge from it and tossing it over to Millet. "It's about being good partners, if he needs help, I'll come running--the idea is that it works both ways."
"It's a nice dream, but it doesn't happen as often as it probably should." Millet shrugs, then catches the badge, looking over it with a raised eyebrow. "What's this?"
"An
Auxillarius Badge" Rina explained, tossing the last of her furniture and clothes into her ring. "Means you're officially in my employ as a foreign mercenary under the auspices of the 302nd Legion, gives you guest-access to the Contribution Board and access to certain restricted facilities and supplies."
"The big-fancy Golden Devil Logistics chain, how scary" Millet chuckled, pinning the badge on. "This come with anything?"
"I've drawn a suitable sum from my own accounts and imprinted it within. We'll be stopping by the Board on the way out, if there's anything you need, place in an order and we'll pick it up at the border." Rina does one last sweep for anything she misses, and gestures to the door. "Techniques, Spirit Stones, Medicines, anything you need."
"Heh, I'm an expensive girl, you sure there's enough in..." Millet started to joke as she sent her Will into the badge, and then trailed it off. "Oh, that's a big number."
"I
did manage to cripple a Core Formation Elder and secure his arm as
salvage" Rina smugly smirked. "
Points are not something I've ever really lacked for."
"Oh." Millet said--and her own confusion turned to a conspiratorial look. "Oh... Ohohohoho... I'll take you up on this--I've got
loads of things I can do with this kind of budget..." Her grin grew sharp and toothy. "They call me witch will they... I'll show 'em how a Witch weaves her evil plots, yes I will..."
Some might find giving a former Holy Daughter of a feared Demonic Sect a large budget and access to a Great Power's reagent gathering infrastructure to be a bad idea.
Rina was sure it'd all be perfectly fine though, Millet was a good person after all--even if she could get carried away from time to time.
The Great Battlefield loomed ahead--and Rina was no longer a Qi Condensation Junior. She had already seen that her strength now was on the level that could influence--however lightly--the movement of behemoths.
And it's hardly like she would be alone either--she would gather her friends together, summon her Legion and those who would follow her from the Clan. It has been a long time since the Golden Devils were in a position to act beyond curling up in their fortresses and praying they could hold.
The coming era was one where the Clan could cast off the shackles of untold ages of punishment for a crime so far in the past that even myth had faded into the distance. That the refinement of thousands of years of suffering had polished the clan's heart to a level that none could match.
The only way to begin walking from the gentle shadows that shielded them from the behemoths above, into the golden light of the dawn was to show why you deserved to stand there--no random chance, no sudden bout of mercy. Growing not just
ethical, but
heroic required strength beyond measure--to grow so mighty that one could afford to be magnanimous and virtuous.
The Golden Devils weren't there yet.
But they were closer than they had ever been since being driven from the mountains into the desert.
To encourage righteous behavior required righteous action, and if Rina Callista led the charge into the Battlefield, she could show all those who came after her how to do it right.
It wouldn't wash away their reputation in a single move--it wouldn't get the Heavens to release the shackles placed on the Clan. But just because it wouldn't solve all of the Clan's problems in one grand gesture didn't mean that it shouldn't be done. A world couldn't be changed in a day, that was absurd. But you couldn't make a better world by just waiting for the perfect opportunity.
So you did what was right, when you could, and make up for the rest with courage and diligence. It would be enough--she'd make it so.
