"Damn it! I swear it hurts even worse now!" Pef complained as he sat in mid-void to heal and repair his injuries, mostly the electrocuted soul and the damaged mental maze.
The Blade Fairy smirked beside him, as she kept watch for any more goliths, while Pef cursed and regrew his eyes once more. "You wanted to be a big hero. It comes at a price." she observed with a teasing voice.
"Yeah, yeah. Just shut up, Sunny." Pef muttered while forcing himself not to cry. The Tribulation was so much painful now, as if mocking his new Elder God rank and his efforts to protect an entire universe, by inflicting even more pain on top of his combat injuries.
"Or what? You're going to drown me in tears?" the Blade Fairy mocked him carelessly, while fanning herself with a new Godbeast-feather fan.
He just couldn't get through the damn narcissist fairy. And glove kept asking for patience and humility!
Pef clenched his fist and opened his new eyes, then scanned around for potential enemies. The galaxy seemed clear, at least of goliths. The normal injustices and lawlessness kept going as usual, since nobody in the wider multi-verse cared too much about imposing the rule of law.
Those with power had it all, and those without...well. It was the same in Legion space, but at least they didn't have so much corruption or lack of laws.
Plus, promotion on the battlefield was encouraged and even necessary for Legion Soldiers.
"How many left?" he asked instead, glancing at the fairy with a frown.
"Three in the next galaxy over. And that's it. You murdered 65 goliths in 60 days. Even broke my own record!" the fairy acknowledged with a wide grin.
"Because you're lazy and just sip tea while your people die!" Pef countered with a tired voice. War was exhausting, not simply the big fights but cleaning up the aftermath as well.
"I do my part. See, I even resettled all the locals to new words, and eliminated the smaller infestations! And all while you mopped around and drank your own tears." The Blade Fairy said with a smile, then sipped more tea quite elegantly.
Pef sighed inward, and decided to listen to the glove and not punch the bitch, not yet anyway. He just pointed towards the next fight and was smoothly yanked away and deposited in the last galaxy infested with goliths.
Two of them appeared to be regular monsters, the ones called Red Menace by the glove. The third however, was the stronger variant, designated Orange Menace on his inner map.
The glove had a sense of humor, though rarely the right kind of humor.
"Keep the big one busy for an hour, if you will." Pef asked in a polite tone and then flashed into combat, hurling Voidswords and Voidcutters at the weaker goliths, while flaring his Dao Domains to obliterate the weaker beasts in his path.
The Blade Fairy sighed in a lazy mode, then casually swiped her red feather-fan at the last golith, gouging a hundred eyes and leaving thousands of deep gashes into its corrupted flesh.
Immediately, the bigger monster focused its attention on her, then retaliated with a swarm of golith stings and larger tentacles.
She kept sipping her tea without care, simply willing her invisible Voidswords to harm the monster, but not too much. Pef might cry again if she 'stole' his kill. Damn crybaby.
All around Pef, 3000 Avatars emerged to launch their own Voidcutters at the goliths, while an army of fused clones rushed ahead to bodily block the tentacles before they could restrict movement. Even so, clouds of golith stings flew from the two goliths engaged by Pef, and then converged without fail towards their human target, somehow ignoring the Avatars despite their identical appearance.
'I still can't mask whatever signature they use to lock down on me!' Pef complained inward, while the glove provided constant targeting data and danger warnings.
'Because you're weak. The General can do it, and many of her Captains too.' the glove answered in a careless tone, just as Pef's Lightning Domain engulfed everything for a million kilometers, burning through most of the incoming stings or at least reducing their targeting accuracy.
Another Blink, and then the Heaven's Tribulation bolts began crushing down onto Pef's Voidshield, thousands at a time.
The shield held for a few seconds, then wobbled and ruptured under the tremendous energy, and thus Pef just Blinked once more, right next to the nearest golith.
"It hurts you more than it hurts me, damn omelet!" Pef shouted out loud, mostly for comic relief. Thousands of golith eyes exploded from the Heaven's punishment, just as Pef own eyes exploded. Luckily for Pef, he only had two eyes so the damage was indeed much reduced.
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The Avatars focused onto the injured golith, and intersecting Voidcutters minced the monster into thin slices, stopping the golith from escaping. Thousands of Voidswords continued the butcher work, while even more Void claws and palms ripped the remaining golith slices into much smaller bits until no more recovery was possible, and the golith died.
Pef regrew his eyes and turned towards the second golith, which seemed to hesitate now. "Oh no! You're not running away with my experience points!"
All his summoned forces converged on the Red Menace Two, some clones even grappling physically with any wiggling tentacle just to keep Pef's prey from running away.
Soon after, more Voidcutters struck the golith and began chopping out eyes and limbs, while a few Avatars rushed ahead and entered the wounds to prevent them from closing.
Three more Voidcutter waves and the second golith followed the fate of the former, Voidswords now operating independently while Pef struggled to resist the increasing pain left behind by the golith stings, their mind attacks and the subsequent erasure via Tribulation Lightning.
As if by accident, Pef's mind shield and maze climbed into the next rank as the lightning bolts kept falling, and the wave of mental pressure eased slightly, along with the pain.
'I got better!' Pef exclaimed inward while gulping some Godwine for a bit of battlefield recovery.
While Dao insights had nearly stopped after he reached Tier 6, there was still a noticeable effect in qi regeneration as well as a little soul strength. Only a little, but even a mosquito had a bit of flesh.
The orange glove declined to comment on the obvious, instead marking the Orange Menace as a priority target.
And just as well, since the Blade Fairy had vanished somewhere, leaving Pef to face the menace alone.
"It is you and me now. Are you going to run away, from a mere Tier 6?" Pef shouted in provocation.
In truth, he couldn't make these stronger goliths stand and battle, not if they wanted to run. The last golith stood still, while his wounds closed rapidly.
Pef waited as well, while circulating his qi and pushing through exhaustion and pain for this final fight.
In a minute, his Voidshield regain full strength, while the fused clones moved to englobe the Orange Menace from all sides.
Sadly, the goliths also had a Recall skill, which allowed them to simply teleport away, perhaps even cross universe boundaries.
And that's exactly what the last golith chose, turning into a thin line and then vanishing completely.
"Damn it. Such a coward!" our big hero shouted while waving his fist at the void.
A big chunk of experience was lost, because the damn fairy declined to help for a minute longer.
Pef sat down in mid-void and just closed his eyes, while going over the last fights beside the glove logs. Errors in strike timing and accuracy were marked for later analysis, as were clone mismanagement flaws and comparisons with previous fights.
'They are learning to fear you, Soldier. I suspect their leading intelligence has updated your threat status. We won't get anymore easy fights, from now on.' the glove offered in a level tone.
'Was it really that easy?' Pef wondered inward.
'Did you cry a single tear recently?' the glove asked rhetorically.
Pef blinked and checked his memories, but indeed...it had been much easier this time. Something had changed.
'You're right. I have become dangerous now. You think they have stronger goliths somewhere? Maybe a Blue Menace?' Pef asked with a frown.
'Yes, for certain. Our General couldn't be kept under siege by weaklings like these.' the glove replied decisively.
Pef scratched his cheek in deep thought, just as the Alchemist arrived beside him. "We should go back and start training the troops. Plus I miss my wife."
Rejin just shrugged and patted Pef on his shoulder. "Where to then?" he asked with a faint smile.
"The Mausoleum. We will flood it with Veritas recruits, all of them. We'll give them adamantite weapons and the Legion method. Survivors, we will reward with pills and Godwine." Pef decided with a grin. Why waste such a perfect training environment?
The Alchemist nodded and took Pef into the next universe, while inside his inner worlds billions of cultivators were being told of their new future adventure and all the riches they could find inside.
Some of them even seemed happy to enter that cursed graveyard.
Rejin shrugged inward, as he has learned to detach himself from minor problems. At least they would have a fair chance in the Mausoleum, unlike with the goliths.