Heaven, Earth, Me

Estrella and the other children looked at it and somewhat understood how it worked. The dragoness looked at them and saw Estrella shout. "Two!"

Kaleina and the girls in the distance looked over, curious. The rest of the children also gazed over. 

After a bolt that fell from the ceiling, two-year-old Yasenia appeared. Estrella looked at her mother when she was two years old, and she was surprised. Yasenia was taller by more than half a head, and her body looked much more developed. 

Even as a child, Estrella couldn't help but feel intimidated. She looked at Yasenia and asked. "Um… What do I do now, Mommy?"

The dragoness approached and crouched by her side with a smile. "The one in front of you is an illusion of Mommy at your age. Can you see Mommy's and her resemblance?"

Estrella frowned. "I can't."

The dragoness blinked and looked at herself. Then, she realized. Other than her eyes being golden and her hair being long and black, she was not like herself. First of all, her tail was completely different. It was a bicolor tail, with the first half black and the second half golden.

Then, she held a wooden sword, but it was a longsword, not her usual giant sword. After all, she only learned the giant sword fighting style when she was around 5 to 6 years old.

The 2-year-old Yasenia looked more like Yasenia's daughter than herself when she was little. In the distance, Coraline asked. "Hm? Now that I've realized, her tail is a different color."

Ebirah commented. "Something happened in the Secret Realm! When I met her, she had a tricolor tail!"

The rest nodded and focused over.

The dragoness hummed. "Well, that's better. That child in front of you is an illusion."

Estrella titled her head. "Illusion… What was that?"

Yasenia smiled. "She is not real. Usually, an illusion is false. For example…" Yasenia gathered energy and focused in front of herself. Then, an image of Estrella appeared, looking somewhat fuzzy. Estrella exclaimed. "That's me!"

Yasenia commented. "Try to touch it."

Estrella did so, and her hand went through, dissipating the illusion like smoke. The dragoness explained, looking at the bewildered Estrella. "That's an illusion. It looks real, but it is not."

Skye commented. "Mommy, I want to see an illusion of me as well!"

The dragoness looked toward Angel. Angel nodded back with a smile, and she tapped the ground. 

A wave of energy rushed at the children, and a more vivid illusion appeared than what Yasenia created. The children, confused, looked around with interest and did the same as Estrella, dissipating them.

"Do you understand now, baby?"

Estrella looked up and nodded. "Real but not real!"

The dragoness laughed and looked at the rest. "How about all of you, dears? Do you understand?"

The children nodded and answered energetically. 

With that out of the way, Yasenia commented. "The difference with the illusion in front of you is that it can hurt you."

Estrella was confused. "But… Won't she disappear when I touch her?"

Yasenia shook her head. "This one is a bit different. Instead, she will disappear when either of the following conditions is met." The dragoness lifted a finger. "First condition, you deal a lethal blow or manage to make her unable to continue fighting." Then, she lifted her other finger. "The second condition is she does the same to you."

Estrella frowned. "I don't understand."

Yasenia was patient. Estrella was a child, so not understanding was more than normal. "For example…" Yasenia looked toward the stele and shouted. "Twenty!"

A twenty-year-old Yasenia appeared, and the dragoness walked toward herself. The illusion, noticing the aggression, instantly shot toward Yasenia with the intent to kill and use of her acceleration skills. However, Yasenia easily blocked all blows. 

The dragoness turned around, using just her tail to avoid all the attacks of the illusions, and smiled at Estrella. "As you can see, Mommy's tail is clashing with that illusion's blows, right?"

Estrella looked at the blur of attacks and blinked twice. "Um… Yes."

Yasenia looked at the rest of the children and saw that they were dazedly looking at her tail. 'Hm… Is this one too fast?' 

Yasenia quickly decapitated her illusion and shouted. "Sixteen!"

A much younger-looking Yasenia appeared, wearing a beautiful red dress shaped like a flower. When the young Yasenia rushed forward, our dragoness quickly blocked everything. After all, Yasenia was a mortal at this age. 

"Can you see better now?"

The children nodded twice. 

"Perfect. So, the illusion will attack me tirelessly until I do a lot of damage to her. For example, imagine that I do a deep cut in one of her arms." The dragoness's tail flashed, creating a large gash on the illusion's arm that dripped with illusory blood. She asked the children. "Is that wound enough to make Mommy admit defeat?"

As dragon children, their sensibilities were different. Hence, this scene didn't disturb them. Instead, they all felt excited as their faint instincts somewhat activated. Estrella shook her head. "Mommy wouldn't fall with that."

The dragoness, who was blocking the injured Yasenia's blows, laughed. "That's right. What if I do this?" Her tail flashed again, and another large gash appeared on the illusion's chest. Of course, the illusion gritted her teeth and continued forward with unwavering determination.

The illusions didn't have thoughts or feelings, but they mimicked perfectly what Yasenia would do in a life-and-death situation. This meant that the illusions were the Yasenia of that age, fighting to the death with unlimited stamina but limited vitality. 

The dragoness demonstrated with not too gory wounds, and eventually, her tail pierced the illusion's heart. That made the illusion explode in particles and disappear. 

Estrella looked at the two-year-old Yasenia and understood. "So, I need to fight the illusion until it can't continue fighting."

The dragoness smiled, amused. "That's right."

And so, Estrella rushed forward. The two-year-old Yasenia also moved forward. Estrella approached and spun, trying to use her tail to hit little Yasenia's knees. She was using her height disadvantage to deliver a hit that could increase her advantage.

However, Yasenia had been trained by Tatyana and several other Sky Continent powerhouses since she was a few months old. Not only that, Tatyana used the maximum amount of treasure she could while avoiding affecting Yasenia's fate as much as possible. In short, Little Yasenia was in a completely different league compared to Estrella.

The seniors looked on with awe as Little Yasenia tapped the ground, jumping over Estrella's tail swipe, and spun mid air while using her own tail.

Estrella's face received Little Yasenia's tail, sending her flying. "Ouch!"

Estrella touched her face, feeling a burning sensation that made her eyes water a bit. Little Yasenia didn't stop, though. So, after she landed, she shot toward Estrella and used her momentum to do a palm strike toward Estrella's face. That blow would certainly create nasal bleeding. 

"Get away from Big Sister!" Dawn appeared and tried to kick Little Yasenia's side to protect Estrella. The seniors raised their eyebrows, thinking that such a blow would definitely land. 

Yet, to their utter stupefaction, Little Yasenia allowed her leg to slide, doing a frontal split and dodging Dawn's kick. 

A new maid blurted. "Impossible! She is two years old!"

That was not all. Once Little Yasenia touched the ground, she used her hands and spun her body upward, landing a spinning kick on Dawn's back and pushing her against the ground.

Tengliu looked at Tatyana with horror and asked. "What the hell did you teach your daughter when she was only two!?"

Tatyana answered flatly. "Strength. Enough that it has kept her alive until today."

Everyone got silent. Who could refute those words after knowing what Yasenia has gone through?

Meanwhile, Estrella saw Dawn being kicked, and her instincts as a big sister appeared. "DON'T TOUCH DAWN!"

She rushed forward and punched, but Little Yasenia had recovered her posture and skillfully deviated Estrella's punch. Estrella felt her body going forward, and then, her stomach was smashed by the dragoness's knee. 

Bam!

"UGH!"

Estrella felt the strike to her core, making her legs falter. Little Yasenia mercilessly looked down and raised her right leg high, preparing an Axe Kick that would send Estrella to sleep.

However, Little Yasenia's eyes flashed as she pivoted with her left leg and completed the back-kick movement. Behind her, Skye used incredible reflexes to bend backward, barely dodging Little Yasenia's kick. 

Then, from the side, Dawn arrived again and sprung forward, using her leg to make quite a powerful attack. 

Little Yasenia crossed her arms and received the blow, taking a few steps back. Her golden eyes flashed when she felt a leg right behind her knees. She quickly looked sideways to see Aurelia crouched and extending her leg while calmly looking up at her.

However, this was not enough as the Little Dragoness used her hands to flip backward and recovered her stance, looking forward and taking a martial arts stance.

The seniors at the side looked at the five children with surprise. 

On one side, the coordinated and improvised attack created by Estrella, Skye, Dawn, and Aurelia was incredibly smooth. 

On the other side, Little Yasenia's strength at the same age as them was egregious. 

It was Estrella, Dawn, Skye, and Aurelia against Little Yasenia.

Estrella rushed forward first and punched quickly. Little Yasenia deviated from the strike and took a step back with her leg, whipping her waist to flick her tail toward her right side. 

Dawn, who was approaching from the right, barely covered her body with her arms as the tail slap happened.

PA!

Skye and Aurelia overcame Estrella and punched forward. However, Little Yasenia used her tilted position to follow along in a spin and shot an extremely powerful kick toward Aurelia. 

Aurelia's eyes flashed calmly as she used her arms to block. 

Bam!

Her body was thrown backward while her arms tingled with pain. However, Little Yasenia was in a position where Skye could easily sneak in a blow. Skye shouted and attacked Little Yasenia's face with a powerful punch.

Pa!

Little Yasenia ate that punch, making her head whip sideways. However, Aurelia shouted. "Skye, defend belly!"

Even Skye didn't know when she obeyed, but her arms went toward her stomach. Right after, Little Yasenia's punch came and struck there with tremendous force for a two-year-old.

BAM!

Skye coughed as her eyes widened in pain, and she was thrown to the ground. 

Little Yasenia used her hand to clean the blood dripping from her lips and looked at the four children. 

Yasenia smiled and clapped. "Good enough~. Let's stop, babies."

Estrella was confused and looked at her. "Why do we need to stop, Mommy?"

Yasenia laughed. "Do you see Little Yasenia's face?" 

Estrella looked over and saw a very cold expression that wasn't there before. "What's wrong with her?"

The dragoness grinned. "Well, when your Mommy was young, she would not really fight seriously until she received a decent blow. Skye's punch is what I would consider a good blow back then. So, from now on, there won't be just punches, kicks, and tail whips. Little Yasenia will also use attacks like claw strikes to the eyes, bites, and other more hurting attacks."

Skye asked, feeling a bit frustrated after standing up. "And what's wrong with that, Mommy!?"

Aurelia spoke calmly. "Little Mommy might injure us too much because we are not yet prepared."

The dragoness raised the corner of her lips. "That's right. You all are still not at this level. If you want to fight Little Mommy, choose one-and-a-half-year-old. That should be perfect for a team battle. Then, individually, I think that the one-year-old me is good enough for now."

Dawn snorted. "Little Mommy is really strong!"

Estrella humphed. "It's Mommy, after all, of course she is strong!"

The other three children nodded sagely. 

Then, Yasenia turned toward Dianna and Katarina and smiled. "You two will be fighting the 13 Year Old Me, okay babies?"

Dianna and Katarina nodded, their tails wagging.