In the end, pacifying the city of Lamia only took another week, since most of the scumbags were pointed out by outraged women and terminated with prejudice.
Pef Awakened a hundred new Guardians, set up a few defensive arrays, then left, as a continent was too big to waste time.
A dozen smaller liberated camps later, and five more collectible herbs achieved, Pef finally met with a Volcanic Fire army, organized and trained at the Etna firecone, about 300 Earth ranks and 10 new Tyrants leading them.
Pef landed at their fires, saluting the Tyrants while a happy fire sprite.
"Lord Ignited! We're honored to meet you, again." A middle-aged woman with red highlights in her hair exclaimed, and came to offer a hug, unasked.
The Sovereign accepted the hug, since a hug was a hug, always welcome.
"Sorry lady. I don't remember you..." he said after a dozen seconds, as the woman stepped back and blushed.
"It's okay, I'm Lucia. It doesn't matter anyway, Lord Pef. I was at Phobia, and saw you defeat that ugly monster." the woman said with a tone mixing veneration and awe.
"So, any problems so far?" Pef asked more business like.
"Not anymore, Lord Pef. We have Sovereign feathers, and we leap over the defenses to attack the mages. And our injuries heal in weeks now, well those of us, that fought beside you at Phobia, I mean." the woman explained in a shy voice.
Pef looked over their equipment and noticed it was kinda shabby and weak, and would crumble if a stone golem punched any of these people.
" All Tyrants, come here and hold straight for a minute." he demanded while beginning to search through his large inventory of bones and skins.
Once the 10 fire disciples stood in a line, he passed along them rapidly, pating their shoulders and chest with rapid moves.
Then, before the women could blush or comment, he took out a huge Sovereign ranked spider, and started carving its carapace with his knife. In a minute, the outline of an armor was cut out, and he probed it on the first Tyrant.
It fit quite well, although it was made with some room for clothes and movement. In another minute, a smaller back plate was cut out and probed as well.
He then pierced four slits for shoulder and hip ties, and soul forged four ties from a bit of white Polaris fur. In 5 minutes, a Sovereign ranked armor covered the first Fire Tyrant, not quite perfectly, but strong and durable.
"Well, it would take me an hour to armor all of you, if you want me to? But, you'll need to continue forging the armor for years." Pef asked curious.
The stunned women just nodded hopeful. Who would turn back free Sovereign armor?
Aria just sighed, and began crafting various lances and spears for the lower disciple ranks. Nothing complicated, but Emperor ranked spearheads would be effective for a long time, and never get dull.
In an hour, the Fire Disciples got upgraded to the normal Saint continent standard.
Well, just this army, as Etna had a defense army and another division sent the other way.
As they prepared to part ways, Pef took Lucia aside. "My lady Lucia, I already liberated the city of Lamia. But I don't have forces on this continent. It would be great if you'll station a Tyrant there, and keep half a million people free."
"Errr. I would love to, but my orders take me towards Mynos. And in truth, they have magma golems there. Our fire won't be very effective..."
Pef thought for a second then shrugged. A city freed would make this place safer anyway.
He stepped away, and unfolded the transport Anaconda. "Listen up, Fire Disciples! Board my airship and tonight we dine in Mynos!" he proclaimed heroically.
His wives smiled at his antics, but it was quite his style after all.
And an army to secure the city would make the job easier.
Soon, 300 troops climbed into Anaconda Two, and then got pushed at Mach 2 towards their destination, with 11 Tyrants and 2 Emperors riding in style to save on qi. In 2 hours the city became visible on the horizon, but Pef didn't stop yet.
'City state of Mynos. Patron deity: Tangerine. Spiders and golems present in numbers.' the glove warned as the airship pierced through the defensive barriers and arrays, covered in thick water qi.
Pef landed the transport at speed, crashing through a stone temple of some kind, and squashing untold priests or supplicants. Then a dozen hatches popped open and the air desant troops began pouring out.
Fire torrents and wind bursts from Mia targeted any immediate threats, while Aria spread her wood qi and shackled or spiked the lower ranks.
Pef grabbed Pela and flashed ahead, his sword qi coursing through his wife and her Sovereign feather, decapitating or eviscerating enemy rankers, a dozen Emperors and some 100 spiders, then a pair of Tyrants and lastly bouncing off a magma golem.
He used his water domain to safeguard Pela from being burned alive, while calling out his neo knife.
'You know what to do, dear puppy. Or no more meals!' the Sovereign recruit thought inward.
The knife wasn't too happy, but killing a magma golem would be a nice trophee on his resume.
It slid into Pela's hand, barely nicking her hand, just to get a genome scan.
Then Pef circled back, and sliced five times, his white qi toppling the golem, reducing it to a molten boulder, without arms or legs or even its head.
As Pef sped away, the boulder exploded in a furious firebomb, but only incinerated some of its nearby allies.
The brand new Water Tyrant was deposited next to the Fire Disciples and in Aria's care, then Pef took Mia with him for another fast ranking.
The neo knife grumbled a little, already knowing another female would get to hold it in her hand, for a minute or less.
But this Mia female had given the user a small human puppy, so she was family. It won't be so bad then.
And indeed, this wife even had a tiny bit of teeth for herself, which was amazing for such a low ranked recruit.
Pef flew through the political and religious center of the city, while Mia screamed with joy and excitement.
Her husband sliced and diced, killing a hundred high ranks in a minute, while his water qi was spearing through the lowest ranks with ease.
Then Pef burst into a huge terraced pyramid, following the glove's target tracking and reached a Sovereign priestess, giving birth to a burning homunculus, and surrounded by a hundred adepts and disciples.
"Glory is thy name, holy be your child, Tangerine!" the cultists yelled in demented prayers.
Pef spun once at hyperspeed, Mia and the knife flashing white, shutting all adepts up, as they couldn't chant without heads.
The Sovereign conduit convulsed one more, dropping the half formed golem out and then flashed a purple spike towards Pef.
Our hero jumped and sliced down hitting both targets with one burst of sword qi, then landed badly with his new wind Tyrant ranked beside him. He felt a strange pain in his legs, and so he checked.
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He should have looked up. Below his groin, there was only the stone floor, his legs evaporated completely.
'This sucks, my dear glove. I'm half the man I used to be.' Pef remarked in deep agony.
The neo knife flew from the female's hand and came to observe the user. The meat was being corroded and infected, so the knife did a fast decision, as the user did cut a hand before in a similar situation.
It sped forward and cut away the diseased flesh, then flicked it away.
Pef wasn't happy at all, since the cut was perfectly straight and left him with half of his prized lovespear. At least it didn't bleed out anymore, just like all the Legion knife cuts, when it didn't intend for lasting damage.
'Now you're half the man you used to be, Aspirant.' the orange glove commented wisely.
Mia held her left hand up in horror, as her fingers were melting in a purple foam for some reason.
The puppy was well-trained though, and politely discarded the useless arm. Then it did a proud round and dove back into his glove.
The glove collected the infected limbs though, since analyzing the infection might be crucial later.
Comparing how it affected men and women was of interest as well.
Anything that could overwhelm the Legion immunizations was dangerous, and this Tangerine had the purple qi of a Divine beast, just like Xia had warned the user.
In a few minutes, Pef got himself under control, and dragged Mia back towards their backup.
They made a pitiful sight, a Sovereign without legs and a Tyrant without an arm.
"Don't worry guys, it's just a flesh wound." Pef quipped with a grimace.
"I hope the other guy looks worse..." Pela said in a soft whisper.
"It was a crazy woman birthing some lava monster, dear sister. You should go and store her bones though, I kinda forgot..." Mia said in a pained gasp.
Pef nodded and pointed at the stone pyramid. Then he passed out.
It seems losing half his manhood did him in, after all.
He woke up next day, feeling a bit better. The puppy came out and gave him a loving kiss, then Mia did the same, almost fighting with the knife for the honor.
"You better heal up, hubby. But if you need some time, I can wait a couple of years." Mia whispered while checking his groin for damage.
Pef sighed, not really amused. Being a three legs amputee drained all the fun from life.
But he still had hands and lips, so he made it up to Mia, for her kind words.
Aria entered the medical recovery room and just stared for a second in disbelief, having caught the cultivators in the act.
"What the hell, guys! Invite me too, if you get frisky. And kinky..." she demanded in outrage. Then she sat to wait for her turn, as the silly husband wouldn't be going anywhere, without legs.
A minute later, Pela came in with some stew and tea, and set them on a table with a loud bang.
"I'm never invited, to the fun parts..."
Pef smiled a bit awkwardly and gestured her closer. "It's only the first reward for Mia's promotion, my lovely Tyrant. But you're right, as a fair husband I must take care of you all. Aria, you are wasted here though. Go secure the town and punish whoever is guilty. Okay?" he said in a soft voice.
"Yeah, okay. But let's eat first. You'll need your strength, my midget husband." the green haired woman said in a wry voice.
To the joy of everyone, the meaty parts grew back the fastest, so by next week the half-Sovereign was back in action. In bed, but back in action.
His legs took a month to grow back though, but even that was faster than Mia's arm, who hadn't taken a Red pill yet.
As it happens, the strange Tangerine priestess did have some more ingredients for Yellow Meridian Pills, in her storage rings, so when Saren Xi arrived at Mynos with his wife, Pef was able to convince him to craft some pills.
Three Black pills and five Yellow pills, plus a Red pill for the injured wife, meaning Mia.
A week later, both Teria and Aria crossed into early Sovereign rank, Teria first after ingesting the Yellow Meridian Pill,
and Aria after ingesting her Yellow Pill as well, in separate days.
However, Pef kept the last two Yellow pills aside, for Yuan and Lia, as their qi clones would be much more potent.
Aria's wooden clone was much stronger than Pef's water clone even though his rank was a bit higher.
But a Monarch ranked fire clone or a sunlight clone would be powerful as well, perhaps even more.
Pef now had 6 meridians open, which made cultivation a lot easier, coupled with both his circuits opened.
And so, although the Yellow continent and its many cities would take more time to liberate, Pef decided to return home for more practice. With Saren and Teria both Sovereigns, they should be able to clean it quite fast, plus they had armies and reinforcements.
Pef left Lucia a Monarch ranked ring with the Anaconda Two, along with a metal stove for air heating or cooking and more spider shells to forge.
At 300 meters, the airship fit right in the new ring, and so the Fire Tyrant could move her army at speed, instead of marching them for months through rough and dangerous terrain.
She was the one who wondered about the pain at Phobia, but now there wasn't anymore doubt. Lord Pef gave his legs to liberate these poor people, and must have hurt horribly. She couldn't do less, could she?
On the Blue Xi continent, there was a major beast invasion as well, from sea and land.
But Ventu and Hestia worked well together and fried the beasts on the beaches, while a dozen new Xi Tyrants, resulted from the gifted White Pills and armed with full sets of Sovereign armor and weapons butchered the stupid beasts and equipped their regiments with new sets of bones or even meat for those who copied Pef's cooking.
The Patriarch appeared as well, sometimes using an unknown woman as a mace, and crushed thousands of beasts in mere hours.
The new tactics and formations at the Blue Wall worked great, reducing casualties and increasing the ranks of the defenders, as for the past 7 years the Guard's Majors had been called to craft weapons and armor for their regiments, instead of leaving them to fend for themselves. Emperors were called to craft for their Majors, while the Tyrants did whatever old monsters do, since nobody dares to ask.
However, with two Sovereigns and 14 Tyrants, the Patriarchy was not weak at all, even if the second Sovereign was a strange woman always wearing armor from head to toe.
In truth, Sovereign Hestia was weaker than any of the real Xi Tyrants, but she had wide area fire spells which worked great to clear large and concentrated beast waves, leaving only the higher beast ranks to be killed by the sword qi of the Tyrants.
The Wall Command thus issued a directive to search and train any fire qi cultivators, regardless of gender or noble or priestly birth. They were rare, but thousands of such cultivators did exist, even if not yet inducted in the Guard.
When Pef returned home, he did much the same, conscripting all the fire qi users, namely the Fire Disciples, and Awakened them at once, doubling their strength in a single month, and then upgrading them in a horrific but undisclosed manner.
Another year passed, while both continents weathered massive beasts attacks, but they only became stronger.