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Chapter 32 - Oh, Crap

Flying over the northern sea of the Greensend continent, Keilan slowly approached the Solarian coastal territories. He'd taken care to mask his approach, restricting both his perception and aura so as to avoid detection both from the inhabitants of the sea and the coastal cities he would be passing.

His job was to take away the eyes of the empire—their Diviner. They'd been very careful to shield the truth about the existence of a Diviner, no wonder they'd been very prosperous, as diviners were a mighty boon to any kingdom... not to talk of one approaching spirit lady.

In other to limit the very possibility of cross-passing with any empire battle groups, he and Damien had planned for him to take the northern sea, as the closest and easiest path an empire strike group could take was over the northern forest bordering Gandor; and the forest was the territory of the nature cult—with the whole forest being the demesne of the cult's druidess. He'd had to travel miles to skirt around their territory, entering the Dragon Sea. It had taken him hours to finally approach the coastal territories without being detected.

The coastal territories were more cloudy than usual due to the massive storm blanketing the borderlands, so he used the abundance of clouds to shield himself from monarch scouts; and unlike the capital which he was heading towards, the coastal cities he flew over didn't have the detection capabilities geared towards finding spirit lords, not to talk of ones who were trying to pass undetected.

He flew over military bases, evading their detection formations and equipments. using a very concentrated aura suppression to deter any flying monsters capable of giving away his position, leaving the monsters to fly away in terror instead of killing them and risking their corpses falling and alerting any scouts towards his position.

The empire lands were mountainous and dotted with small patches of forests in between dozens of cities and towns. He reduced his speed as he got deeper into the land, now that the defences were getting harder to avoid.

Eventually, he saw the empire in the distance—or more technically, where the empire was based. A huge mountain range rose to encircle a large valley—with the capital city of the Solarian empire placed within. An opening in between two mountains served as an entrance into the valley—the only one. He breathed in relief as the valley came into view, but his job wasn't done—far from it.

A large fort was placed a short distance from the Valley's entrance, housing both land and air troops with airships lining the fields of the fort—300 feet long constructs of wood and steel, shaped like barges, but with the mouth narrowed for increased speed. Dozens of steel pipes lined the edges, enchanted to deliver devastating elemental attacks.

And that was just the capital's first line of defence. Anything that got passed that were welcomed to face the weapons placed at the top of the mountain range. Large weapons like the ones placed on the airships, but with more devastating powers—with the enchantments and power batteries installed inside meant to deliver powerful spirit lord's attacks. Two large earth constructs were placed on opposite ends of the Valley's entrance. Top monarch constructs meant to be commanded and to work in concert with the spirit lord defenders Keilan knew to be residing in the castle.

Their defences were powerful, but not on par with the attacking constructs. A large dome covered the entire valley, powered by a large formation under the city—the same as other cities. This dome was meant to be one way, nothing in, but anything could leave. Another dome—smaller—covered only the city, serving as a failsafe just in case the first one was destroyed. It was powered by a different formation, to prevent cases of sabotage destroying both shields at once. This was meant to be completely sealed. Multiple defensive equipment were placed on the mountain ranges. Equipments which were enchanted to shoot projectiles meant to destroy incoming attacks.

Keilan didn't have any hope of even passing the military fort undetected, as there were dozens of detection constructs for every deceptive technique the empire could come up with. And that was good because Keilan was immediately detected.

Alarms blared out through the fort, and Immediately troops began rushing towards their assigned stations. Large projectile weapons on the grounds were activated and soon began turning towards him. Giving up on any need for hiding, he dived. Airships quickly began rising to meet him, assisted by the projectile weapons which began shooting at him. Fire spears, lightning spears, large water hammers, stone boulders and cutting wind swords flew towards him.

He waved his spear, and a large gust of wind flowed to deflect all the attacks. A few airships were shifted out of their trajectory but the majority kept on their paths towards him. Replying in kind, dozens of large spears made of compressed wind manifested beside him as he dived. Marking the intended targets, he sent them against the ships. Defensive measures were activated and small protective domes rose to cover the ships. That was unfortunate—for them because those domes weren't meant to defend against spirit lord attacks. His spears tore through them like they weren't there, penetrating deep into the ships' hulls and lodging themselves inside the ships' cores. He unleashed the second technique placed inside the spear. Wind explosions ripped through the ships, unleashing sharp cutting winds that scythed through the ships, shearing through ships and crewmen alike like hot knives through butter. Hundreds of body parts rained down to splatter on the fort, painting the whole fort in deep crimson reds. Large parts of the destroyed ships soon followed, cratering the fields and crushing any soldier too slow to run for cover.

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With the majority of the airships destroyed, a spirit lord aura blazed through the fort— one he recognised.

Slowing down, he waited as the silver-eyed woman rose to meet him. Elora Darkfang looked different from the last time he'd seen her. The confidence in which spirit lords carried themselves was absent as in her as he looked at the snake. She didn't display any sense of pride or the superiority which she usually showed others. Her expression was only resigned like she knew what the outcome of this battle was going to be.

He nodded in greeting. "Elora."

Elora had been a spirit lady who'd fought against Damien, alongside another empire spirit lord. They'd battled in front of a small city in the desolate continent, destroying half the city in the course of their fight, with the end of the battle leaving Elora crippled spiritually and the other spirit lord dead. Her astral image had been destroyed, reducing her power back to the beginning spirit lord. Her aura was still that of a spirit lady, but she lacked the power that came with the rank. She was still more powerful than a monarch cultivator, but she was now weaker than a full-fledged spirit lord. One could say that she was now half spirit lady. If that was even a thing.

Her expression didn't change as she replied. "You're trespassing on empire territory. Leave now, or you will be destroyed," the voice wasn't any better, her lilting voice now sounded like a drone.

"Wow... Damien really did a number on you," he said.

Her silver eyes flashed when she heard Damien's name, pure hatred radiated out of her. "What do you want?"

If she could have taken out her hatred on him, she would have done it.. and even delighted in it. But here they were, she was far weaker than him.

"Just visiting, I've been wanting to see your capital for some time now, but haven't had the time. Do you think you could clear a safe path for me?" He asked sweetly, smiling and making use of the cute face everybody said he had.

Elora's expression turned more murderous, it seemed she didn't like his cute face, maybe he wasn't doing it very well. "No? At least I tried," he sighed audibly. "Now, let's get this over with," he said, readying himself. Former spirit lady or not, she still had the experience of a spirit lady. It wouldn't do him well to take her for granted.

She flashed forward towards him, daggers raised. Darkness materialized out of thin air to wrap around her for protection.

He moved to meet her, spear pointed up. His speed was far greater than hers, so he got to her before she could take three steps. Brute forcing through her attacks, he stabbed in and out, passing her by.

Turning, he watched as Elora turned to face him, blood leaking from her mouth and from under her armpit. It seems he'd somehow pierced her lungs along with the heart.

There was relief in her expression as she looked at him. A small smile graced her lips before she fell, crashing back down towards the fort's grounds as hundreds of soldiers watched their strongest being killed instantly. Panic roared through them a minute later, and then they began running, leaving the fort to escape deeper into the surrounding forests. Some still tried to take shots at him with the remaining weapons, but they were quickly taken care of, some by him and the others by their fellow soldiers who didn't want the big bad spirit lord deciding to finish them off.

Turning towards the valley's entrance in the distance, he was sure they were already alerted, seeing as the outer dome was now activated.

Approaching the valley, dozens of weapons opened fire on him. Spirit lord-level Lightning spears crackled through the air, lashing out widely with whips of lightning. Boulders of crushing gravity sped towards him, including fire spears that followed, burning through the air. One was enough to leave a bruise on him, and the enchanted constructs shooting out a dozen projectiles per minute. A sound-based attack blared out, releasing disorienting sounds that distorted his vision and nearly made him crash. He oriented himself, shaking off the effects. Looking at the incoming attacks, these were powerful attacks that he couldn't fully avoid as they kept increasing by the minute. And he couldn't just wave his hands and deflect them with his usual attacks.

Steeling himself, he summoned a partial image. A pair of large green wings materialized on his back, buffeting the winds. He stretched them wide open, further riling the calm winds. A massive tornado was summoned, unleashed from his soulspace. It rose towards the skies, stirring the clouds into the beginning a large storm and then it began tearing into the land, leaving large trenches as it moved. Soon, it began consuming hundreds of the incoming projectiles, gobbling them up like a hungry Damien, but more were still being flung; so Keilan directed the tornado towards the valley.

Hundreds of enchanted techniques were shot out into the tornado, meant to unravel it, but this wasn't a normal tornado, so their attacks were just fatting up the natural disaster.

Keilan used the storm as cover to slowly approach the city as attacks were shot out only to be swallowed by the tornado. He avoided any attacks that got close to him, using the strong winds to redirect them, leading them to crash towards the grounds which were soon being decorated with craters.

He was already a mile or two closer to the valley, weaving between one attack and another, when something flashed and the world was engulfed in a massive orange light, blinding him for a moment. When his vision returned, the sky was clear and the tornado was no more, leaving him the only target for the weapons which were quickly turning towards him. They were now accompanied by a small fleet of airships rising out of the valley, Shit, i forgot the inner fort, he thought, frustration lashing him. And that wasn't the only problem. Accompanying and leading the dozens of attack ships was the bulwark—Samon, flying right in the front.

Oh, crap.