Sparks Form A Flame

When the time came to move unto the Wyrm Lord Nation and the True Dragon House's territory, Blauw Ishikyy had been promoted to sergeant from corporal and from sergeant to staff sergeant. She came to lead her more than 100 soldier units when she stepped into the True Dragon House's territory. This step was meaningful for every Blauw Empire's soldier unit. Everyone knew their short history and that there was a worse past, which the current True Dragon House didn't want to walk away from.

And just because of that, the Azure Dragon’s Bloodline divided and weakened while still under the pressure of the top 7 organizations. Looking back, it had rained since the time they spent at their regular schools or learning under a tutor. Now they were at war, stepping on traitorous land, and after having conquered 3 sea and land territories from the top 7 organizations. Their shoulders were firm, as were their hearts when advancing into the place some of their ancestors took as their new home, at the lowest end of the inland territory in the Region.

They felt disdain, at first, when they saw the notoriously poorer quality of herbs and Fauna in that territory. Their eyes would see neglected settlements and low population everywhere they looked. But as they continued marching into the enemy territory, announced their arrival, and finally headed towards the True Dragon House’s last stronghold, they came to acknowledge some things. For starters, the people in this territory believed in the House, not only because of their history of beating every other aboriginal organization here to dust. It was pure loyalty.

However, the inhabitants of this territory weren’t blind and conceited. They could only accept the Blauw Empire’s arrival, albeit with disgust and hate, but nothing that a few wake-up calls couldn’t deal with in the short future. Besides that, the True Dragon House had left small contingency forces behind to alarm the stronghold. Not only to protect it but also to inform it of the situation outside.

Unlike the Sand Emirate Grotto and the Wyrm Lord Nation, the True Dragon House wasn’t just going to turtle and wait for death like a moron. Their Ancestors, Grand Elders, Elders, and Instructors were readying themselves for the time to come. While the Blauw Empire’s ground forces gained terrain, the True Dragon House’s stronghold received information on nearly every move they made. Even the royal princess’s whereabouts and the amount of armored vehicles the Empire’s army moved with.

Similarly, the True Dragon House wasn’t planning to just take their beating and last-stand their lives to the bitter end. The information they gathered from their fearless cultivator teams outside the stronghold, positioned strategically since before the Empire arrived, all around their territory, was sent directly into the top 5 organizations’ leaders’ hands. Information was essentially the key, especially after learning their lessons and understanding just how much more capable their armies became after ‘deriving’ their methods and resources from the Blauw Empire’s practices.

They called it gaining insight, but in Heian Ciemnosc’s head, that was just the beginning of a monumental plagiarism scandal. In any case, with little to no resistance other than having to kill those scouts unafraid of death, the Blauw Empire’s ground forces met their quota and congregated around the enemy’s stronghold. The last before leaving a Blue Emirate Grotto as the enemy’s last defense.

The Sand Emirate Grotto’s last stronghold lasted less than a day, while the Wyrm Lord Nation managed to hold for several hours more before they were bathed in the showcase of magnificent Water manipulation. It wasn’t like the Blauw Empire relayed on only their Azure Dragon’s Bloodline and suddenly became stronger from nowhere. It was a grouped movement between the army’s different divided parties, working together to humiliate and kill the Nation’s last hope of ever recuperating its strength.

On the other hand, the True Dragon House’s last stronghold protective barriers were only up for 2 hours before the enemy deactivated them and went all-out against the Blauw Empire’s army!

It was a surprise and a definitive turnaround… if it was any other force. At that time, the Blauw Empire’s soldier units looked at their fellow ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ as they rushed out of the stronghold with their blood essence already boiling, ready to ignite and send it all out to strike the Empire down a few notches! Instead of feeling confused and now knowing what to do, the soldier units felt their bodies boil in return!!

The officials were dumbfounded, but seeing the enemy launching missiles, they ordered them to hold as they could only protect their troops if they were near the tanks. Thus, as the enemy missiles came crashing down and detonated one after another in the sky, hundreds of meters above the ground level, the officials let the animals go out! And wolf every single enemy cultivator here to the death! It was… what they… deserved! Treachery must never be forgiven!

After the enemy launched those missiles, they rushed in every direction, outwards, with the intention to die killing! There was no formation and no array formations activated on both sides. If the Blauw Empire’s side wanted to activate them, it would give them enough time to respond to the enemy, so it wasn’t a problem, but… It’s not what they wanted!

Only the elite groups among these already elites in the Empire activated their array formations, sticking together in formation before traversing the battlefield, supporting everywhere to reduce the initial charging momentum the enemy held and putting some sense into the Imperial Guards' and citizens’ minds. Little by little, as both sides’ corpses lay everywhere, lights started turning on, and the Empire’s troops commenced slaughtering the enemy cultivators, leaving none to breathe.

It took a while, and the Empire’s side array formations gradually lighted the battlefield as dusk arrived, and evening loomed from a still far-away distance. Thus, as the lighted array formations moved back and forth, eliminating the purple clothes with the True Dragon House’s emblems and their vassals’, the battle taking hundreds of thousands of lives, especially from the enemy’s side, was coming to an end.

Anyone could see, as the evening was already accompanying their backs, which bent and twisted to move and annihilate yet another low-spirited enemy cultivator, the House’s Ancestors and Grand Elders sighed and looked into the sky. Each was from the Azure Dragon’s Bloodline, as they now even called themselves that, as ironic as it might be. Meanwhile, Elders and Instructors wore pale, dull expressions with lifeless eyes.

When have they ever thought such an outcome could ever happen? And like this? Without a proper response, without a fight to the death, like the Dragon and Serpent meeting at the end of the world. Yet, all there was… was just the ‘abandoned’ side facing the ‘spineless’ old family. The True Dragon House didn’t show something the other 2 organizations’ territories didn’t doubt to expose: cowardice and helplessness.

They fought, really fought to the end, and caused the Empire more than 10 times the losses they suffered in the other 2 territories added together. But it was the same, most likely, outcome. The True Dragon House’s upper echelon lowered their heads and gazed in the same direction as their eyes and teeth started morphing. It wasn’t anything new, as any enemy Azure Dragon’s Bloodline showed this similarity to the original Bloodline, albeit slightly more twisted and crooked than the Blauws from the Blauw Empire.

However, at that time, despite growing used to differentiating the traitor’s transformation and that of her people, even more so thanks to her personal Imperial Teacher kidnapping a few teenagers and forcing them to transform back and forth until she was used to it and could differentiate them without any Spirit Sense or Soul detection. Thus, when she felt her instincts feel it again, and her neck numbed while her pores opened and her skin stood her hair on ends, she barely looked towards her upper left when a series of figures entangled just a meter before her.

At that time, she didn’t understand it. Blauw Ishikyy only came to realize that as she was barely being pulled backwards by a royal guard when another came rushing towards her left and clashed with an Ancestor. The mere shockwave nearly sent her unconscious and with her nose, eyes, ear, and mouth bleeding, were she not timely protected by another 3 royal guards who used their Neutral Energy, a couple realms above her cultivation base, to protect her from a Dantreulity realm enemy cultivator’s remnants from a clash with one of her strongest royal guards immediately near her.

She watched as the royal guard faced that one Ancestor single-handedly but was quickly besieged and bombarded with endless all-out attacks from everywhere, energy and physical, as she flew backwards with her collar grabbed from the sides and behind. The royal guards there were bleeding from every orifice from their heads, but they rushed away at full speed as other royal guards lined up wherever they went, like a trail.

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Blauw Ishikyy watched as those royal guards fought the chasing enemies, which was every upper echelon present and all higher-ups from the True Dragon House. Only a few Ancestors managed to cross through the line formation unscathed, avoiding the other royal guards who focused on dealing with those of their same level, or that they could at least deal with, above their cultivation base.

The royal guards holding her were somehow faster than those Dantreulity realm Ancestors. That was when she realized their blood essence was exhausted, and their scales were flying into the sky like kits whose strings were cut off at the worst timing possible, but they kept their speed, and the chase continued. A few seconds later, Blauw Ishikyy watched as the royal guard to defend her against the True Dragon House’s oldest-looking, seemingly strongest Ancestor was beheaded by the claws of several Ancestors and many Grand Elders.

They didn’t stop there and dismembered his body, getting stuck with his golden armor and their claws as the body was left all scarfed within it because they couldn’t easily break through the strangely resistant non-Earth grade royal guard armor. Then, they looked back at her, causing Blauw Ishikyy to gasp in fear. They were tens of kilometers away, but it was like there was only 10 meters between them.

However, and timely so, royal guards at the Dantreulity realm appeared, 3 of them to be exact. They appeared before the royal princess and eliminated the immediate threats chasing her with Water techniques that surpassed what she knew. When she was temporarily safe, the 3 royal guards gazed at the dying other 3, keeping Blauw Ishikyy safe before exchanging information through Souls.

Those 3 dying royal guards were about to bring her away with the same speed as the Dantreulity realm royal guards had already flown towards the remaining Ancestors and Grand Elders. Fearlessly facing dozens of the same cultivation realm, but weaker than them regarding cultivation base’s stage. She pedaled hard and demanded to be left on the battlefield because this royal princess would never abandon a battlefield, even if she could just blink her eyelashes.

Thus, after the 3 dying royal guards confirmed the other 3 fighting the remaining Dantreulity realm enemies and became entangled at the same level, they returned Blauw Ishikyy to the battlefield, but kilometers away from the battle between Dantreulity realm cultivators. When she landed, her 3 royal guards’ limits arrived, and they lifelessly landed on the ground behind her. After carefully picking their corpses in the Supreme Covert Space bag her personal teacher told her to only keep her most valuable stuff in, she rejoined the battlefield and met up with her Squad.

The battle from thereon was simply cruel. Led by the royal princess and the fact she was attempted to be murdered, the Empire’s troops massacred any living being belonging to the True Dragon House and its vassals. After the True Dragon House’s territory was struck down, and only its upper echelons, trapped in several dozen array formations in an unbreakable, multiple cage with the 3 royal guards, the Empire’s troops moved every armored vehicle towards the True Dragon House’s every affiliated organization and settlement. It was time to pay.

Unlike in the previous territories they conquered, and contrary to what they are advised by the regulations, the Empire’s forces burned down every settlement with a strong link to the True Dragon House, even if only one person in that settlement was related to them in any way. They didn’t kill the people but forcefully tossed them out before bombarding, attacking, and flaming the entire settlement, home to many families, to the dust and even lower than at the ground level.

Blauw Ishikyy didn’t stop them and even led her Squad to annihilate any vassal organization. They dared to enter the war. They dared to fight so they could die without bringing retribution to the Second Step cultivators from the Empire. Under this procedure, they could even massacre civilians affiliated with the True Dragon House. It was naturally justified. But doing and not doing, yet deciding not to do, was true nature.

The True Dragon House fell sooner than any other inland territory so far, but the casualties and cost they caused to the Blauw Empire in armored vehicles, ammunition, and resources were thumping compared to the rest in its totality.

In the end, the last Ancestors and all Grand Elders were killed in return by the 3 royal guards, detonating their bodies, energy, and Souls to the maximum. Even with the protective array formations placed to trap them, the royal guards’ self-detonation blasted everything away at once and expanded several kilometers before stopping. They were high in the air, so it only caused the snow to halt for a couple days, surrounding the epicenter.

The royal guards couldn’t just detonate and form an all-out, devastating blow to all enemies so they could kill them. And the Ancestors and all Grand Elders were strong, each. Just 3 royal guards in the Dantreulity realm weren’t enough. Were it not for some royal guards having better speed, reaction, and Soul to protect Blauw Ishikyy in different ways under the Dantreulity realm, it might’ve been difficult to rescue the royal princess from being severely injured, half dead even.

It could also be that Dantreulity realm royal guards just stay directly beside her, but that would let the enemy concentrate the firepower and attacks in one sole place, allowing them to have an easier time focusing. Thus, the Dantreulity realm royal guards in charge of her acted slowly but were dutiful in their response and protected Blauw Ishikyy from any pain, giving their lives, and continued escorting her as she fought without them in her or her enemies’ sight.

The Empire’s ground forces and navy had already started getting a hand over the reality of their situation and were no longer as slightly carefree and overly confident as before. They were still people and had their ambitions, passions, and longing. But their training and duty balanced everything to gain the best outcome, no matter the difficulties.

Thus, the True Dragon House became a sudden player that had a shot to make a big turnaround… but failed even before nearly achieving it. It was a release and clench of heart for the top 5 organizations but a source of ire and growing fire within the Empire’s core. It's people and royalty!

After the battle ended, with the Empire’s slight victory, the command to stabilize the situation and start amending the damage done to the Region’s south kept the available soldier units busy while the injured were treated and the dead were brought to their home. Meanwhile, before taking her role in the semi-reconstruction, as there were seemingly no orders to keep the march northwards, Blauw Ishikyy bid farewell to the lives dead for her safety and well-being.

Heian Ciemnosc was there with her to witness her growing older as she tapped the wooden log before her, attached to the shore, breaking the ribbons and chains attached to it. They broke with her right leg’s force. The wooden long went underwater as the corpses from dozens of royal guards and the ‘air’, which was the last piece she could gather from the remains of other royal guards, sailed to the sea while a little, ordinary flame sparkled their rafts.

But Heian Ciemnosc didn’t show himself and kept his body hidden from her Spirit Sense as he covered his body from hers with his Spirit Sense. He was once going through what she was going through, now. Only she was slightly older than him, but they were both pretty young when it happened. And while it was the first for her, the war wasn’t over. But she still had Fernanda in her Squad to accompany her through this demanding journey.

Heian Ciemnosc didn’t plan to let her become accustomed to being comforted by someone else, even if it was himself or her mother. Thus, the young girl stood with the sun landing behind her as the superficial suns left the Blackotia Kingdom, and in came the shade of the night, coloring the night beautifully and contrasting the burning lights and totems sailing into the sea, sinking into the water like sinking into the darkness above.

. . .

Today was the 24th year, 10th month, 1st week, and 6th day since the new Change. It had been nearly a month since the True Dragon House was routed from their territory, just like with the Sand Emirate Grotto and Wyrm Lord Nation dogs.

After the battle at the True Dragon House’s last stronghold, the last of each of the top 5 organizations was left sheltered in the Blue Emirate Grotto’s territory. Meanwhile, the enemy’s only sea territory had been retreating, passively letting the Empire gain some dominion, but the Empire remained at their new sea territory without advancing.

Nonetheless, the top 5 organizations no longer fought it out with the Empire and silently exchanged glances with each other from a far distance. Just the same. The inland had kept quiet while the Empire addressed the situation in their land territory. The process when the war was still raging on without stop was slowed for the need to notify the settlements but immediately ended as soon as the battle was fought and won by the Blauw Empire.

The only slight trouble from the 4 was the True Dragon House’s ex-territory, whose unfavorability increased after the conflict where the royal princess’s life was attempted. However, it was only a slight distraction-leveled situation, nothing that could threaten the stabilization of the zone. Thus, it was still calm and quiet, like the other 3, and was gradually integrated into the Blauw Empire. Although the current state of the integration could be said to be at its infancy stage, there was no need to be hurried.

Now, however, the Empire’s army and navy welcomed many improvements, especially in the promotion and recuperation of warships and Fighters.

For starters, Blauw Ishikyy passed to be a Warrant Officer, whose status could’ve been that of a Chief Warrant Officer if it wasn’t because she once again abandoned the battlefield without a medic citizen or Imperial Guard escorting her. The young girl noted it down and let it pass to her royal guards’ minds so they could remember to pick Fernanda up with her next time. If there was a next time. However, she was also charged with the responsibility of training her Section with all she could… It came with her promotion… and a slight hint of something else, something real damn good!

…