“I never thought you could stoop so low to attack another righteous sect, Goran.” Lady Evelyn said in ridiculing tone, “It’s hard to believe you two managed to set aside hundreds of years old hatred and joined forces to eliminate the Sacred Order.”
She was not afraid of the upcoming battle and she was not against feeding some blood to her beloved sword. Obviously she couldn’t permanently kill Goran nor his co-sect master Milos since they both were at the Nascent soul stage like her, but a nice exercise of going against the two bastards sounded enticing.
What pained her was the thought of thousands of disciples dying for nothing. It was one thing to eradicate a sect from the corrupt path, but a struggle for power like the current conflict was laughable. Of course, before the Sacred Order suffered terrible losses in the war with the Voodoo sect, no one would’ve dared to attack them, but now the once largest powerhouse of the Aurora mortal realm was about to be destroyed.
“The merge of the Seven peaks and the Soaring cloud was inevitable. We have always been one nation, but were divided by an ancient dispute which has not mattered for the longest time.” Contrary to lady Evelyn, the man called Goran was in a good mood, “Currently with the two Nascent soul stage experts present we have become the true ruler of the Aurora mortal realm and it is only logical for you to step down.”
“Indeed! Please don’t make it hard on yourself, sect master Evelyn!” Milos, the current co-sect master joined in.
Similar to his colleague he was in high spirits – one on one they could never take on the crazed lady in red with the huge sword, but the two of them joining forces was a completely different matter. Even if they compared the numbers of the ‘regular’ of troops – they had over double the amount of Core formation stage disciples and elders the Sacred Order had and while anything below didn’t matter, they still had an ace up their sleeves. No matter how one looked, lady Evelyn was up for an unpleasant surprise.
Of course, everyone knew she would go down swinging, but the losses both sides would suffer didn’t matter as long as the Seven peaks sect acquired the spirit stone mines and took the control of the two teleportation platforms. All they had to do was to make sure her daughter didn’t die and after everything was over let them both move to the Immortal realm. Afterwards the era of the Seven peaks rule would begin.
“You have to face the reality, lady Evelyn!” Milos continued, “The disbandment of the Sacred Order was inevitable, in fact, to show our good intentions we would like to offer you to join us – your sect has proven to be a protector of the ideas of the righteous path for centuries, don’t let it end during your time. And the thought of disciples dying on both sides just because of your private ambitions pains me greatly …”
“Don’t give me that sh*t!” Lady Evelyn barked at him, barely holding back and not cutting the man in halves, “Go home and no one will die in this war!”
“You have misunderstood something, lady Evelyn!” Goran calmly said with a wide smile. In normal circumstances he would’ve been weary of her, but currently she was trapped with no way out, “We are simply taking over. This is not a war – it’s just a minor conflict in the Aurora mortal realm.”
“Minor conflict my *ss!” Lady Evelyn bitterly laughed, “If so, why did you invite the people from the Immortal realm over? Why this circus?”
“You can’t blame us for doing so.” Milos smiled similarly sweetily to his colleague and for some reason looked at Etessa, saying, “Your connection with Sir Delian is a common knowledge and we didn’t want you to break rules in the heat of the moment. We all know how passionate you are ...”
If up until now lady Evelyn felt angry and bitter, then suddenly she got a bad premonition. Etessa being Delian’s daughter was known only to her closest people and Milos’s behavior could only signify there was a traitor within the Sacred Order’s ranks!
“Alright! Enough bickering.” Andren said.
Obviously he knew what was going on and what was at stake, but the Seven peaks sect came to the Mercenary guild and hired them by paying a hefty fee, according to the mortal realm standards, of course, thus he had no choice but to appear. He truly didn’t wish for these simple people to start another massacre, similar to many he had witnessed in his long life, but there was no way around it – the human greed was never ending.
“As much as it pains me I can’t meddle here since according to the laws of the Immortal Alliance the conflicts within a mortal realm must be solved by the inhabitants and by using the means of that mortal realm.” He said, “Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to be present till the end, therefore I’ll leave two of my youngest colleagues, Emile Landry and Kai Thomas, to fulfill the role of neutral observers. No matter which side prevails, they will not engage nor help anyone, but only report to the Mercenary guild when everything is settled. Good luck!”
Monk Andren looked around the two armies consisting of close to ten thousand disciples, sighed, but before leaving turned back to the group of leaders and said, “I hope you all understand that the holy city Avila is not to suffer due to the warfare. If even one civilian dies … I’ll come back personally!”
Seeing his angry stare, shivers ran down the spines of everyone present, even the two Nascent soul stage cultivators from the Mercenary guild. Of course, they were nothing but menial workers in the Golden city and any immortal, even a false immortal like Andren could squish them like ants.
A heartbeat later monk vanished and the two Seven peaks co-sect masters returned to their joyous mood while lady Evelyn’s and her entourage’s expressions grew increasingly grim.
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Seeing Goran was about to make another remark, one of the elders from the Mercenary guild said, “Let’s keep this civil, shall we? If there is nothing else, I’d suggest you ...”
“Sect master! Sect master!” Elder Cross’s distant shout interrupted him.
The group standing between the two armies involuntarily turned towards him and saw the elderly rushing trough the ranks of the Sacred Order’s disciples with a young man, dressed in black clothing following him. While the ones not belonging to the Sacred Order were mostly annoyed by the interruption, it took only a couple moments for lady Evelyn and her elders to recognize the second person, mostly by the huge weapon on his back.
For some reason lady Evelyn suddenly felt a ray of hope. She didn’t think much of it, but instantly arrived at the side of the two.
“Look, sect master, whom I found!” Elder Cross said, clearly upset. To Leo it almost seemed as if he had stolen elder’s dinner or done something similarly unforgivable, “Clearly my theory was correct, otherwise he …”
Lady Evelyn didn’t listen to him though.
She grabbed Leo by shoulder and asked, “Did you get it?”
Tears sprang in Leo’s eyes from the piercing pain in his shoulder.
He knew the sect master was dangerous, thus without a second thought he fished out the moonstone and said, “It’s good for a couple of uses at best. And it’ll become useless real soon …”
“Good!” She said, “Don’t tell anyone you succeeded, you heard me? ANYONE!”
Then she grabbed the round and lusterless stone from Leo’s palm and the next moment appeared in the middle of the group of leaders.
“According to the Law of mortal realm warfare, section seven, paragraph twenty two, I, the leader of the defending forces, the sect master of the Sacred Order sect hereby challenge the attacking forces of the Seven peaks sect to a disciple duel.” She shot out one word after another confusing everyone present, including her own people.
Then she turned towards her daughter and seriously said, “It’s a lot to ask, but there is no other way – I have to put everything on your shoulders. You’re in charge now, hold out for as long as you can!”
And before anyone could utter a word, she flew back towards the sect turning into a flaming streak of light.
“What the f*ck was that?!” Sect master Milos blurted out what was on everyone’s mind.
“The sect master of the Sacred Order just challenged you to a disciple duel.” Kai Thomas, one of the Nascent soul stage experts from the Mercenary guild said with a sigh, “If you want to become the ruling power of a mortal realm, you’ll need to learn the laws of the Immortal Alliance.”
“Forgive our ignorance, master Kai!” Goran immediately apologized in his colleagues stead, “Would you please enlighten us?”
Even though the two remaining elderly were nothing in the Golden city, they were big shots around here and it was better to not antagonize them, especially since the Seven peaks were on the brink of success.
“In short – if the defending forces are clearly outnumbered, in order to boost their morale they can issue the so called ‘disciple challenge’. Three of their representatives will have to be defeated by attacking side in one on one duels and the real battle will start afterwards.” Emile Landry lazily explained, “In my opinion it’s just a waste of time, but it is the right the defenders have.”
“So they’re trying to postpone the inevitable and boost their morale.” Milos said and looked at Goran. They both widely grinned and nodded, “In that case … elder Willis, would you mind?”
The other heads of the Sacred Order’s divisions looked at their old time friend and colleague in confusion, but the latter shrugged and said, “It’s just the matter of the common sense.”
Then he turned towards the defending army and shouted, “Alright, boys! It’s time!”
The next moment, under the grim looks of the remaining Sacred Order’s division leaders, over two dozen elders, all from the Administrative division lead by elder Willis, separated from the defending lines and casually walked over to the Seven peak’s forces where they were received by loud cheers. The worst thing was that seeing their elders switch sides, hundreds of other disciples from the Administrative division followed their suit and within span of twenty breaths the defending forces were reduced by at least a quarter. It was clear that many disciples belonging to the other divisions were among the traitors and the numbers of attackers currently were clearly more than double compared to the defenders.
“Elder Cooper, I’m appointing you as the temporary head of the Administrative division.” Lady Etessa’s calm and cold voice surprised the small group standing between the two armies, “To the best of your abilities, please note down the names of the traitors starting with former elder Willis. They’ll be trialed after all of this is over.”
Both Goran and Milos would’ve loved to loudly laugh if not for the shivers running down their spines. According to Willis’s earlier intel, this young woman was only a step away from forming the nascent soul, but the instinctive fear they felt was similar to what they sensed when her mother was around.
“Not bad!” Kai Thomas said clapping his hands a couple of times, “You’ll have a bright future ahead of you, miss, if you somehow manage to survive this ordeal. Unfortunately, no matter how much I might respect your talents, you won’t be able to procrastinate indefinitely. You can’t expect us to wait until you imitate administrative work within your sect.”
“I didn’t intend to.” Lady Etessa coldly said, taking off the sword from her back.
No matter which side the onlookers were from, everyone had to agree that the young woman in her signature white outfit with the huge weapon in her hand looked incredibly heroic.
“Oh? In that case, please, choose your first fighter.” Kai Thomas politely said.
“I …” Lady Etessa, of course, intended to go first according to her mother’s instructions, but elder Cross interrupted her.
He said, “Junior sect master, may I have a word with you?”
She, of course, wasn’t happy for breaking her focus, but came over to the elder nevertheless.
The old man nervously looked around, but realizing the Nascent soul stage experts would hear him anyway, said, “Objectively speaking, apart from you we don’t have any talented core formation stage disciples to represent us, thus it doesn’t matter who’ll go first. The morale of our troops is the lowest possible anyway, so please, let me suggest something.”
He took a short pause and then as if gathering his courage, said, “I still stand by my theory that it’s all that jinx’s fault! Look what happened the moment he returned to the sect – clearly he’s here to absorb the luck of thousands of people. I beg you, please send him out first to eliminate our greatest weakness!”