Bonded Summoner

Things went smoothly through completing the second seal, and they were not far away from the third, final seal. The unorthodox cultivators were not far behind. Their first seal was removed not long after they had begun their trek, and the second one was removed nearly in-sync with the Alliance’s.

The Greatwind Sect was now expending additional effort to try to increase the speed of their movement, and now Fhesiah’s shuttle was set to arrive shortly.

Fhesiah was impressed with how well Sati and Ruby were advancing, but realized that the two had been given an excellent environment for it. Continuously feeding treasures into the pill furnace for Sati to consume, and providing plenty of blood from rare enemies had improved their powers rapidly. Fhesiah had even found a special blood-related treasure for her to enjoy, and the happy beast had spent an entire month consuming it within her urn.

Then, there was the Framework providing its odd scaffolding within their Cores. Thanks to this, the two of them were ready for excellent results if they found the right chambers. At this point, Fhesiah was unsure whether they would find the opportunity or not to create their cores.

Demonic beasts like Ruby and energy lifeforms like Sati were different in how this was managed anyway, and they could cross the threshold whenever the conditions were right. A chamber was not necessary for them, but Fhesiah imagined they would be an ideal or near-perfect environment for them.

In a way, Sati was proof that Fhesiah’s dual path was possible. The two flames found harmony within her body of pure fire, the elemental’s body having a unique makeup.

Within the shuttle’s hidden chamber, Fhesiah stirred her bloodline, scales appearing on her arms and hands as her nails grew into deadly claws. On her palm and insides of her fingers, demonic runes were etched in a formation of heaven and earth with Jake’s hearthfire, representing her dual path.

When she closed her fist, it would seal the flames within, the formation guiding the two energies to inhibit and regulate one another as they mixed. Finding the perfect mixture, she would create something new.

A similar formation was drawn within her lungs. A dragon’s breath was part of its pride, and this would be yet another location of creation and transformation. She hoped to, on some level, create a fiery breath of both of her flames–or perhaps, consume and utilize the flames of an enemy dragon.

The sound of a chime rang through the room, letting her know they had arrived. Exiting her room and arriving onto the deck, she was a little shocked. This location was much grander than all previous floating islands.

On this one, over a dozen pillars rose nearly a hundred meters in the air across the platform, like tall monoliths piercing into the sky. The heavenly energy was now extremely thick, to where Fhesiah felt a strong connection to the heavens. The Core cultivators would benefit heavily if they merely used this area for their cultivation, should they shield themselves from the turbulent energies.

The platform for facing the spawned creatures was far larger, and Fhesiah realized that this might lead to a boss battle. It was imperative that they took this final seal seriously.

As far as they could tell, their opponents had not removed the other seal. While the energies in the distance were so turbulent it was like gazing into the mist or the clouds, a red outline of an island still sat in the vast distance.

While there was some haste in trying to move quickly to remove the seals and defeat the spawned enemies, they played it safe. The island’s energies were a bit less turbulent than in the sky they traversed, so the Adventurers could continue to fight for longer periods.

They were fighting a marathon, not dashing to the finish. Unraveling the seals from the pillars took time, and clearing the enemies was risky for the Adventurers. Vast numbers of creatures spawned for their thousand-strong army to face, and she was thankful their people were up to the task.

Enemies of all sizes exited the portal, and they had difficulty preventing all deaths. Giant beasts lumbered across the battlefield alongside nimble and deadly ones with devastating efficiency, scattering and assassinating allies left and right. Dozens in total died, but they still held on.

They were nearly seventy percent done with removing the seals, the challenge reaching the final stage.

What appeared to be three mid-level bosses appeared with many minions, large stone trolls with massive clubs. They managed to defeat one of them and things were going relatively smoothly, until the sky was suddenly filled with red.

A member of the Great Wind sect yelled out, “It’s the enemy! Prepare the antidotes!”

Blood fell from the sky like rain, and dozens of winged beasts swarmed toward the battlefield. The creatures did not appear to be all that strong, but they were numerous. Traversing the turbulent sky had left many of them weak, but with the Alliance already busy with the spawned enemies, handling them would be especially difficult.

A mighty roar shook the air, and a massive figure exited the mist above them. The creature was almost as large as the Naga King they faced on Highlands and it was clear what it was: Argenthrax, the mithril dragon.

Its body appeared to be made of thick steel, a western dragon flapping its wings as it moved through the sky. Powerful forearms were separate from the wings, giving the dragon many deadly options.

Cries of fear and alarm sounded out across the battlefield, as this was already a difficult challenge without the enemy showing up to tip the scales. This was a risky undertaking, but it was also an excellent opportunity.

They now had a chance to take out the dragon without the vampire around.

She signalled the forces her intent–she would take on the dragon herself for now, and the forces should continue working on the seals and the enemies. They had removed over seventy percent of the seals, and this meant more and more enemies would spill out of the portal–even if they stopped removing the seals.

It would be difficult for the Alliance to back down now. Too much time without unraveling seals, and they would be empowered by the energies from the unsealed portal. Their second attempt would be all the harder, and even fleeing off the floating island would be a difficult challenge.

Many of the Adventurers would die without a cultivator protecting them from the turbulent energies in the sky, even if they had some method of flight. This meant if they fled, they may not have the strength to complete the challenge.

Thankfully, Fhesiah had been dancing with her fan for some time. The dance of the moon caused her bloodline energy to stay near its peak of strength, her tails dancing behind her as she spun and twirled. Stirring her bloodline further, the moon was nudged the last bit to its peak.

The dragon’s first action was obvious–which was why Fhesiah could not delay. Gathering up nearly half of her Qi stores, she drew up a giant ball of kitsune flames echoing the truth of her path in just a few seconds.

The orb of swirling black, purple flames was nearly the size of an Earth SUV, and she sent it at the silver dragon as it halted itself in the air and drew its head back. Absorbing in the Qi of the surrounding area, an energy grew in its chest.

Fhesiah continued her dance, her torch and lantern already out and she was fully clad in Ophelia’s crafted armor. She dashed toward the dragon’s position, her tails continuing their movements. Her goal was to take on the enemy where it could do the least collateral damage against her allies, while forcing it to face her.

Sati and Ruby were facing the many enemies, and Ruby was doing well in managing to absorb much of the blood from her foes.

Her ball of flames neared the dragon, just as it released its breath attack. A silvery storm of blades looking like a large tornado of blades exited its large maw, crashing into and shredding her flames.

Some of her flames persisted to crash into the dragon’s body, her path manifested by her will causing them to cling and begin consuming its draconic flesh. Meanwhile, while the storm of blades was dispersed somewhat, many blades cut into alliance members, killing them outright.

One blade even sheered into a pillar, and the nigh-indestructible structure had a large swatch cut into it. The dragon’s breath was indeed powerful.

The dragon did little more than grunt as her flames washed over it, and it only took a few seconds of her flames burning it before a shimmering white aura covered him and snuffed out the flames.

Finally, Fhesiah had reached near enough to the edge of the island, making sure she was away from her allies, so their fight caused as little collateral damage as possible.

Argenthrax swooped down, landing a distance away from Fhesiah–with anger in its eyes as she continued to build her attack. As the dragon neared, she felt its bloodline bearing down on her–but she pushed back with her own, ready for this.

Some of her own draconic bloodline surged through putting a pressure back on it, though she doubted the mithril dragon would understand how it could be feeling both, the mixture confusing it. It watched her with narrowed eyes, scanning her with her Divine Sense.

Fhesiah added her Curse of the Moon onto the dragon. Glyphs formed on its silver scales along with the black and purple haze covering it, burning into the dragon’s body and weakening it slightly. The same shimmer from before covered it as the dragon roared in anger, but the curse wasn’t removed.

The Divine’s powers passed down to a Champion were that of a higher Tier, which resembled a lingering intent of a higher Tier cultivator. While her kitsune flames had a hint of Bastet’s energy, it was only the Curse of the Sun and Moon that enabled her to bring out the most of it. That, and summoning the goddess herself–something she might just do momentarily.

After all, she had spent nearly half of her energy, and yet Argenthrax’s aura had barely shrunk from its breath attack. Thankfully, the dragon’s flight across the vast, turbulent sky likely didn’t come without a cost–energy had to have been expended for such a large creature to travel such a vast distance. It was for this reason that the flying blood beasts didn’t appear to be all that strong, weakened from their flight.

Tainted blood had rained down on her allies and the creatures sought to wound and infect, but rather than cursing them, her allies were prepared with antidotes and preventing themselves from being cursed in the first place.

The Celestial Nekomatas targeted the creatures in the sky with their beams of light, and the Earthforged and Fhesiah’s fire spirits protected those on the ground, lead by Sati.

Ruby was tearing through the oncoming horde of blood beasts with ease, consuming their blood as fuel. She was even gathering the blood that had fallen like rain, and was using them as blood spears to pierce into any available enemies. Cultivators slowed their seal unraveling for a moment, dumping powerful attacks onto the spawned trolls to clear out the battlefield. Another one quickly collapsed after a rain of fire and ice blades, giving the Alliance Adventurers a bit more room to breathe.

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While the fallen tainted blood appeared to be meant for taking control of the spawned enemies on the battlefield, this only made it even easier for Ruby to deal with them.

Argenthrax observed her dance for a moment, before it snorted with its eyes narrowed on her. It began building up for another attack, and Fhesiah was not going to let it.

Gathering her Divine energy and all of her remaining Kitsune flames, she called upon Bastet. The moon within her spiritual temple took on a holy light, and an apparition of the same appeared in the sky above her.

Those under the Framework and following a path more yin focused, were covered in the special light. The Blizzardblade clan’s ice became more frigid, and the nekomata’s blades of moon and shadow cut more deeply.

Fhesiah’s several prepared foxfires took on this same quality, blasting onto the dragon’s body and consuming, transforming its scales. It roared as it swiped at her, sending a powerful wave of silver energy in her direction.

But she had already dashed out of the way, the full moon shifting her presence ever so slightly. A dragon’s mind, especially that of a cultivator, would be far too difficult to trick with a full illusion. Shifting her presence was about all she could count on–and that was only possible thanks to Bastet’s moon.

She continued her dance of the moon which now only required her tails moving, sending more fox fires to feed into her curse of the moon. It was burning especially bright, but she also worked on her second goal: gathering flames of both types within her formation in her modified lungs.

The dragon’s tail whipped at her, once again missing by mere inches thanks to her minor illusion as she ducked under it. As foxfires flickered into existence behind her, she sent them as flaming darts onto the dragon’s gigantic frame.

Several swipes of its claws were next, each attack missing her much smaller body. Her tails danced behind her, a smirk on her lips as she continuously barraged the dragon with darts of black flames, the mana drawn from her hearth and torch slowly giving her an edge against the much larger being.

Having spent much of her kitsune flames, she stirred her draconic bloodline and willed her moon to set.

Bastet’s moon began to lose its luster at the same time.

Argenthrax’s scales were now burnt all over its body, blackish purple flames marring and covering its flesh. In truth, she had only weakened the scales, her fires not burning into its dense, heavenly energy infused body.

It roared in anger as it narrowed its eyes at her–seemingly understanding what she had done.

It drew back its wings covered in the silver energy, and Fhesiah triggered one of Jake’s spell scrolls as she withdrew her shield. A dome of white light, Runic Magic: Sanctuary, covered her, just as Argenthrax flapped its monstrous-sized wings.

Many blades of light were sent over the battleground, though the attack was mostly focused on Fhesiah. Immense dual vertical blades of silver light cut through the dense ground before it slammed into the barrier, and sheared through it with the attack weakened somewhat.

Crouching down with Ophelia’s crafted shield, she filled its runes with mana and even filled it with her Claw of Alchemy dao. The two blades slammed into the shield at the same time–and sent her flying through the air.

It felt like she was hit by Bloodberri’s maul, her shield having slammed into her body–it was a good thing that, thanks to her enjoyable tempering with Jake, that she was sturdy.

Her body tumbled across the ground as she was battered and bruised and her shield flew away. While this sounds horrible, Argenthrax huffed in anger, noticing the truth–its attack which was meant to kill her, barely harmed her. It stomped at her in pursuit in a rage, though Fhesiah knew it was probably about to use its breath weapon again to finish her off.

However, as aggressive as Argenthrax was, he still froze when the moon became a sun, and her body finished its transformation. Draconic claws grew out of her gauntlet, and wings grew from her back as her three tails combined into the single, draconic tail.

The sun began to rise as it took on a holy light, and now, the curse of the sun was added to Argenthrax, her no longer hiding her dual nature. Blazing red runes began to burn into its steel flesh, noticeably becoming red-hot and starting to melt. The curse of the moon had already weakened and heated its scales, and now the sun was increasing the heat further.

She began gathering her yang flames in her lungs. Fhesiah had been gathering her yin flames in her chest for quite some time now, a decent sum of energy stored.

Her new lungs were a strange organ, having the two sacks for air and energy to enter like normal, with her draconic sacks for storing her dragon flames for breath attacks.

But now there was an additional tubing, or passageway, that connected the two lungs and had a path out of her chest with a valve to open it. It was a little freaky, having what was almost like a mouth on her chest, but she kept it covered with a flap of cloth when it wasn’t in use.

She had to modify her armor to cut this hole in her chest, but reasoned that this would be necessary later anyway–for when she became a Hearthian.

The inner chamber was where she would mold together the two flames into one, something she began doing. The two formations began to light up within her lungs, her chest drawing in heavenly energy from the surrounding area–an advantage of being a dragon in the first place.

Bloodline flames of kitsune and dragon mixed within the inner chamber, and she wrapped the chamber in her new claw dao. The flames mixed, but she stopped before the compression resulted in something truly new–because she knew that this would result in an explosion that’d harm her a lot more.

She breathed the flames out at Argenthrax through the hole in her chest. Like a baseball sized comet with a spiraling trail, a blast of the two flames twirling around another slammed into the dragon’s shoulder, exploding on contact. Red and purple flames washed over the giant dragon, and it roared in anger.

Fhesiah then drew on her Draconic Might, and used most of what was left of her stored mana in her hearth and Torch for now. She grew until she was nearly four meters tall, her body covered in scales as she charged the much larger dragon.

It was a shame the dragon wasn’t more harmed. While the explosion tore deeply into its flesh, its muscles were like steel chords. Many of them had snapped and a chunk of its metallic skin was missing, but it was already re-knitting its wound closed, even as some of the steel chords were melting.

Filling her claw with her dao as she drew up more flames into her lungs in preparation for a new attack, she targeted Argenthrax’s other shoulder. The two traded blows as she prepared, and as strong as she was, she came out the loser of the exchanges.

Despite deflecting its much larger body, the metallic aura that surrounded the mithril dragon cut into her armor and flesh alike, sending her blood into the air as lines were cut into her.

She added her bloodline flames into her claw strikes, adding onto the cursed flames burning into the dragon, melting and weakening its flesh. Bastet’s Sun continued to rise, and Sati, the Radiant Flame Sect and Great Wind Sect members benefitted from the aura given off by it. It wouldn’t be much longer until the portal opened and the enemies would stop spawning.

Argenthrax narrowed its eyes at their army, none of which had become tainted.

The air surrounding Argenthrax changed, its weight on reality increasing. A primal dread filled Fhesiah, as her cursed flames were snuffed out. This was likely the Intent of this dragon’s parents, an inherited energy that drove its own mastery and progress with the element.

This energy would be limited, and likely unable to be restored once used–much like her Divine Energy.

Argenthrax’s body finished reknitting itself, and even the charred scales were returned to their original shiny luster. The only consolation was that its body had shrunk in size about thirty percent, but that wasn’t enough to feel like she had accomplished much. The dragon was preparing its breath attack, after all.

Fhesiah realized it was now or never. Either she managed to create the flames of her desired path, or she might just lose the battle and need to flee. While she could call Jake now, she needed to keep an ace for the next fight with the vampire.

She mixed the flames of her family within the two chambers in her lungs, the two formations splitting the flames where they belonged within.

Argenthrax released its mithril breath, a tornado made of blades flying right at her. But Fhesiah didn’t return it with a breath attack of her own just yet. Instead, she breathed in. At first, it didn’t seem like the breath attack was reacting to her pull–so she willed her remaining Divine Energy to act, enhancing her Draconic Fire Plunder ability.

The blades became a near-stream of energy, as she pulled them into her lungs. The blades still cut and scraped inside of her, but the lungs held as the heaven and earth formations began inhibiting and restricting the new energy as they were pulled in.

The flames mixed inside, melting and merging with the mithril breath. Drawing up the last of her Divine Energy, she mixed more of her own in as well as she merged the two in the third, central chamber. Adding the three daos of her path, she compressed the numerous energies together, transforming them all into something more.

For a moment, everything held. A golden energy was born, before it fluctuated. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, she opened the vent in her chest, and it exploded outward–the baseball-sized hole releasing a tornado of bronze-colored flames and blades.

Argenthrax covered itself with its wings, roaring as its body was surrounded by what remained of its aura. The tornado of flaming blades shredded the dragon, its wings and body providing nearly no resistance to the immense power.

Limbs were torn, and silver blood was splattered as multicolored flames erupted all over the dragon’s body, and the massive creature was sent flying backwards. Fhesiah dashed to follow and landed near–and breathed in again.

Argenthrax weakened, the energy spilled out of what was left of its mouth and face unbidden, very little Intent remaining. Continuously drawing in the breath as the dragon roared in outrage and terror, the heavenly energy contained within its body was drained, and built inside Fhesiah instead.

Argenthrax’s soul was the last to leave its body as its core was emptied, its soul being added to her mural within her spiritual temple. The whole temple shook, as such a powerful dragon soul was added.

She was proud of her success, and thanks to her efforts, the Alliance had managed to balance the battle and were poised to remove the final seals. However, a worry had grown.

Despite everything she’d done, she was still missing something. She had even used the flames of her family, which wouldn’t be present within her core.

And it still wasn’t enough. Had she vented just an instant later, the flame likely would have exploded in her chest, killing her. The resulting energy was enough to kill Argenthrax, and it was powerful. However, a core built on these elements likely would not work.

Thankfully, she had proven that she was closer. At the very least, practicing with her claws and lungs she could produce amazingly powerful attacks.

Her musing was interrupted by silver blood being drawn through the air–into Ruby’s mouth. The blood badgerdillo’s aura rose as the unique blood of the dragon entered her body, the fuel enhancing the bloodline Fhesiah had given her.

Fhesiah could tell this would be quite advantageous. Ruby’s aura solidified to become even stronger, the mutated badgerdillo ready for entering the next Tier.

She joined the removal of the final seals, the scaffolding looking as complete as she imagined it could ever be. The portal eventually opened to stop the spawning of enemies, a prompt appearing.

[Alliance First in Removing Seal. Portal to Celestial Nexus now open.

Advantage: Arrival in Celestial Nexus Inner Sanctum.]

With the dragon defeated, only one more obstacle remained. While the enemy’s gambit appeared to be to convert Fhesiah and her allies into tainted blood slaves and halt their progress, this had failed thanks to her efforts.

Hopefully, this portal advantage would be enough for them to earn their victory. It was now a race to enter the castle, and they now had what should be a large advantage–the opposing force’s seal was still present.

Xara and Weiyan landed next to Fhesiah. The two’s eyes shone with respect and admiration, and Weiyan said, “Truly amazing Senior. That one could be a kitsune but also a dragon–and a hero. The enemy was formidable, but you triumphed.”

Xara noted, “That was the power of the goddess, Bastet? If not for that, we would have lost even more. However, that won’t be available for when we face the vampire, will it?”

Fhesiah shook her head. “It is a bit worrying, but fear not. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

Ruby finished her meal, and Fhesiah scanned her divine sense over the dragon, her eyes gleaming. She retrieved the dragon’s core, and couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps with her technique, she could transmute it into something suitable for her own.

Her Core materials for her yin and yang flames were top-notch, but the claw material she had obtained from the auction was not quite what she was hoping for. It was with great pride that she stowed the core away. Only–she noticed something else. What looked like a small clasp around the large dragon’s nose, was actually some form of nose ring–and storage device.

Retrieving it, her score skyrocketed as she reclaimed much of the materials it had pillaged from the other forces it destroyed. Snorting, she stored the dragon’s corpse inside its own ring, putting it alongside all the dragon’s other treasures. She was sure the dragon’s horns, teeth, and claws would be quite valuable.

Now, her score was far greater than the vampire, and she was poised for victory.

Aria came limping over, the large nekomata groaning in pain. “Congratulations on your victory, but we could use a little help, Senior. My brethren are in need of aid.”

Looking over their forces, Fhesiah grimaced. Nearly a third had been lost in that battle, and many were injured and would need to spend time healing.

Preparing her torch, she would need to spend a fair amount of time healing anyone before they entered the portal. They would only enter early if the other seal was removed, but for now they would prepare.