They breathed heavily, their bodies exhausted from the rather lengthy sprint – it was a journey that would normally be made over a day, at least, yet they crossed it in about an hour.

It wasn’t hard to guess where the dragon’s forces had gone, but the fact that they were left completely alone, with nobody to oversee them, meant that there was only one person that would be keeping an eye on them, and that someone emerged not long after, arms crossed, her expression looking like she’d been up for a year without sleep, in other words…

‘Tired as fuck… and her cultivation has definitely dropped,’ Bianca couldn’t help but note.

Long Shiyi had seen better days. Her dull grey eyes were bloodshot, there were bags under them, and she looked like she could fall over with the slightest breeze… and yet, there was an obvious aura of power radiating from her, making it feel as though they could all be killed in an instant.

“Xue Yaling… and Huang Su? I had thought that the rumours were… exaggerated, but you’re really running around with this brat?”

“This brat has a name.”

“Indeed. I have no illusions about the kitsune being here to aid me… nor do I expect the so-called Phoenix to be on my side. What are you doing here?”

“We were… planning to just go around, seek out something that’s to the north,” Bianca replied, being deliberately vague.

“… You’re not seeking the remains of the Dragon of Song, are you? Fools,” Long Shiyi shook her head, smirking when she spotted Bianca’s eyes widening in response, “You make it far too easy… You won’t find it. I had seen the clash in my youth, the Dragon’s Fangs form… and the hordes of humans running off to find the treasures lingering after, only to return with nothing. You’ve wasted your time.”

“If you say so. So, what now?”

“I have no time to fight you. As much as I would like to, Huang Su would waste a little too much of my energy if we fought… so the only thing I can do is leave you be.”

“Just like that?”

“If you need me to kill you, I can, just get outside and I will kill you alongside the Exarch’s army.”

“That… that won’t be necessary, thanks.”

“Then go away. Chances are, once the walls fall, anyone close to them will die, so… hah. What a day. One of the last dragons in the Eastern Continent, forced to fight a living rag that was once her… ah, never mind.”

“Wait, you knew the Exarch prior to, well… you know.”

Long Shiyi looked her over, up and down, before shaking her head, “It’s ancient history to humans like you, so it hardly matters. The human the Exarch once was, is gone. The only thing that remains is that Heart of Dao, an endless desire for control and domination that will swallow us whole, if nothing is done about it…”

The dragon’s eyes got hazy, as though she was peering into the distant past, gazing upon what the Exarch once was… and into the future, witnessing the horror she described come to pass.

In that moment, her youthful body could no longer concealed the fact that she was old, having lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Her body may not have aged much, but all those memories were sure to be weighing on her, especially now that a potential end approached.

It only lasted a few moments, and soon the dragon returned to standing tall and mighty, if drained from the continuing conflict.

“Now, it is time for my fate to come to pass. I won’t attempt to force you to fight for me, as that will just end poorly… so do as you wish. If you must, you will probably be able to witness my end from the back of the camp,” Long Shiyi turned away, “Goodbye, foolish demon.”

She stepped away and leapt into the air, her form suddenly transforming into a gigantic serpentine dragon. Dozens of metres long, with metallic scales that looked dull, as though they hadn’t been polished in millennia.

However, Bianca didn’t stick around to watch, instantly turning and gesturing to the others, “We need to get away, before we end up involved in the fighting. Go!”

 

On the walls, the defenders were met with the sight of a massive force, countless experts from the Exarch’s army gathering near the front, their energy so potent that it caused distortions, the world around them seeming to bend and twist as all kinds of archetypal energies clashed.

However, none of them was as significant as the Exarch, an imposing figure that towered over most of them, nearly 2 metres tall, and with only a blazing sigil burning underneath the hood.

On the other side, however, a dragon soared into the air, tall and mighty, roaring so loudly that it shook the earth. For a moment, it looked as though a dragon in her prime had arrived upon the battlefield, a seventh realm powerhouse that could flatten everyone in moments… but that majestic aura was obviously flawed, like a painting cracked and worn from age, the paint flaking and sundering, the colours fading, leaving only a hint of the original prowess.

Nevertheless, despite the drop in her cultivation, the echoes of a far greater prowess yet remained, and there was another power at play, revealed as Long Shiyi’s jaw opened, and a strange object flew out – a talisman, carved upon some kind of rock, with a peculiar symbol at the middle of an endless number of intertwining lines and shapes.

“If it is conflict you wish for, then I shall give it to you! By Yahui Xue’s mastery, I shall fight you at full strength!”

Before anyone on the Exarch’s side could do a thing, the dragon bit down on the stone, and an endless wave of power suddenly washed over the battlefield. In the distance, seemingly beyond the edge of the world, the Exarch’s forces could see the faint shadow of something vast and mighty… instinctively, they knew it to be a clock.

Three main hands and countless more besides, but all of a sudden they stopped, and as though someone grabbed the thinnest clock hand and forced it back, it began to move in reverse, ticking with each number it passed, moving faster and faster…

And with it, Long Shiyi, too, was brought back, her scales beginning to shine once more, her eyes turning more vivid, her cultivation surging back into her body.

From the first stage of Marked Core, up to the ninth in seconds, then with a surge of metallic light, she stepped back into the Linked Channels realm. All the experts on the Exarch’s side leapt into action at the first sign of this, but the few remaining forces on Long Shiyi’s side were committed to the cause, dedicated to the fight. They fought back fiercely, even as they saw that the Exarch, too, did not remain still.

Spreading its arms, the cloaked being’s energy poured out into the earth, the grass becoming scorched as its influence spread, and soon the shadow of its sigil appeared on the earth, growing more and more vivid until it burned with flame, the full sigil being more than twenty metres across.

As it glowed brighter, so were the attacks and skills of its forces more potent, and soon the walls were broken down, though that only brought on the wrath of the dragon. The instant Long Shiyi’s aura returned to the peak of the seventh realm, she opened her mouth again and unleashed a vast breath, metallic shards flying out amidst a surge of iron-coloured energy.

It tore into the earth, easily killing several cultivators at the fourth realm and below, and the endless shards lodged into the earth rose up under the dragon’s command, soon filling the air with metallic pieces.

They were so densely packed that it was challenging to fly past, and with a single thought Long Shiyi sent them soaring at those that were the biggest threat. Despite seeming to small and insignificant, they were able to tear through even fifth realm cultivators with ease, and the few fighters in the sixth realm that were on the Exarch’s side were forced to use all their might to withstand the onslaught.

Such was the power of the seventh realm, Oblivion Halo. Even without a dedicated seventh realm skill, using the raw power of a dragon, Long Shiyi could hold back an army that would’ve otherwise crushed her camp in moments.

With one… well, the many shards she unleashed suddenly formed up into larger fragments behind her, pieces of enormous blades floating behind her draconic form, first one, then four, then easily over a dozen. Each one radiated with the intense power of an artefact, despite being mere pieces of metal, and looked distinct from one another, as though completely separate blades, pulled from the echoes of history.

Even the Exarch seemed to go on guard, its energy surrounding it, a vast anchor slamming down behind it, the front burning with the very same sigil that was now emblazoned in the earth behind it. Reaching out with one hand, the sigil beneath its hood suddenly flared up, and Long Shiyi froze up, one of the dozen blades behind her disintegrating in an instant.

The dragon roared, sending all remaining swords at the Exarch, forcing it to activate that skill again and again, though even as it did so, more metallic shards assembled into pieces of blades behind Long Shiyi, refilling her arsenal about as quickly as Negate Authority was able to dismantle it.

Nevertheless, it left Long Shiyi open for attack by the others. In particular, Mo Shu, with Boundless Edge unleashed, was able to burn through countless lingering shards with a single swing, flames spreading out throughout the battlefield, warding off some of the weaker defenders through proximity alone.

It forced Long Shiyi to split her attention, but any edge given to the Exarch left it with plenty of opportunity to strike, and it did so without hesitation, a wave of purifying flame bursting out from beneath the cloak.

It was, superficially, similar to regular flame, even to the one used by Mo Shu, but its effects were anything but. It scorched not just the ground, but the very air itself, burning existence and searing its will into the world. Everything it touched, even the air, was irrevocably changed, transformed in some subtle way.

The air became more oppressive, the ground darker, and even the bodies of the defenders it clashed with were emblazoned with the Exarch’s sigil, appearing over their foreheads.

While that may seem to be insignificant, it spread its influence, with every body marked, every bit of land and air polluted, its power over the land grew, and Long Shiyi’s immense presence was supressed, bit by bit.

In truth, though, it wasn’t even necessary to defeat the dragon outright. Most of her forces were falling, slowly but surely, and the talisman she had used to return to full strength couldn’t be permanent. Nothing that powerful existed in the world, and if it had, there would have been no reason for Long Shiyi to take this long to use it. Any reasonable person would’ve employed such a talisman at the first possible opportunity, and then supressed the Exarch with all their might.

So, no excess force was needed to take Long Shiyi down, only time… a matter that was difficult to ignore, as the enormous echo of a clock still remained far to the north, and currently the hands were still, but the instant they shifted forward yet again, it would spell the end for Long Shiyi’s Warband.

 

Bianca and the others ran to the back of the camp, but the fighting quickly spread out to them. Even at the back, they saw the vast clock emerge in the void beyond the world, the enormous dragon facing off against countless mighty warriors, and the breach of the walls at the front.

Soon, even as they tried their best to escape, they were surrounded by fighting, forcing Huang Su and Bianca to use their defensive methods. Bianca guarded their front using the Abyssal Shield, while Huang Su’s flaming feathers kept the rest of the aggressors at bay… though it was obvious that if the fight truly came to them, they’d be powerless to resist.

“Any ideas?”

“Kneel down and plead for mercy?”

“I know you like being on your knees, Yaling, but that’s not helpful!” Bianca snapped back, exploiting her recently gained ability to hold up the Abyssal Shield without needing to keep her hand raised.

“Mistress, ideally, we would escape the camp before the end of the fight. The Exarch wouldn’t let us go, nor would the generals in its army,” Huang Su responded, “However, trying to get past all the chaos…”

“Fuck… Yaling, are you familiar with the camp’s layout?”

“I was about a year ago. At this point… Hm, looks like the south hasn’t changed too drastically, actually. Anything in particular you’re looking for?”

“Some place to escape, obviously! Surely there’s some kind of hidden passage or tunnel, or even just a place to hide out somewhere around here,” Bianca struggled to see past the smoke-like barrier of the Abyssal Shield, not to mention the ever-growing numbers of fighters around them, so her ability to discover such a place was limited, “Know of any?”

“No, it’s just a camp in the middle of a field, it… hm, if there was any place where we’d find such a thing, it would be there.”

She pointed to the largest tent of them all, and it wasn’t hard to recall that this was the dragon’s tent. Indeed, thinking about it, that would be the only place where such a thing would be most likely to be found. It wasn’t guaranteed, given that Long Shiyi was a dragon that could fly off at any moment, not to mention that she must’ve expected to fall in this battle. Why bother setting up an escape route when death was a matter of ‘when’?

Still, it was worth a shot. Other tents may have moved about, but this one had remained in place since the camp was set up, however long ago.

So, the only issue that remained was actually getting there. Fighting surrounded them, people from both sides clashing with all kinds of skills and techniques… to put it in Orbis terms, it was akin to being in the middle of a firefight, with bullets flying everywhere, grenades, explosives, rockets and what not detonating all around them.

To simply go out into the middle of all that would be equivalent to death, so they had to advance slowly, and carefully, moving under the full protection that Bianca and Huang Su could muster.

Amidst a sea of planar energy, manifested into all kinds of skills, they pushed through towards Long Shiyi’s tent, and broke in from the back, slicing through the cloth before sealing it up behind them. They hadn’t drawn too much attention, as every fighter on the battlefield was pre-occupied with those that were actively threatening them, but leaving an obvious opening for others to peer into would only be inviting danger.

However, once they were inside… they found the dragon’s abode to be rather simplistic, and empty. There was little for them to explore, but more importantly… no escape.

“Ah, fuck. Uh… any more ideas?”

“Mistress, it’s okay, we can defend ourselves in here! It can be like our own fortress!” Song Ming suggested, though it was obviously only to lift their spirits.

While the tent was more sturdy than may be typical, it was still a tent. Anyone attacking it from the outside would be able to get in with ease, not to mention the likes of the Exarch. That floating cloak would be able to crush them even if they had a thousand tents like this between them, so…

“I feel like going the other way might’ve been smarter. If we could’ve gotten onto the walls, or through them, we could’ve just-”

Suddenly, something fell through the top, tearing the huge tent and crashing down onto the ground, flames still burning around it… or rather, her.

It was Long Shiyi, in her human form once more, and visibly injured. Her cultivation was still in the seventh realm, though rather than the peak, it had fallen down to the fifth stage. Furthermore, one of her arms was clearly limp, too damaged from the fighting, making her look incredibly vulnerable at a glance… of course, as long as one remembered that she was actually an ancient dragon that had endured the onslaught of a full army for at least a dozen minutes, any thought of being able to take her down even in her current state was far too unreasonable.

And yet…

“You again… Hah… well, what will you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“The Exarch will be here soon, no doubt… Will you stand around, escape…”

“…” Bianca stared at the dragon, and the most outrageous notion came to mind as she suddenly raised her sword, “Or take you on.”

“Hah… Fine. If you want, I’ll kill you all!”