Flying over the northern sea of the Greensend continent, Keilan slowly approached the Solarian coastal territories.

  He'd taken great 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, going so far as to cut down any spy who so much as unraveled her identity and significance to the Empire. No wonder they'd been very prosperous. A Monarch realm Diviner was a mighty boon to any kingdom, and the one the Empire employed was stated to be nearing the realm of Spirit lord

  In order to limit the chance of coming in contact with any of the Empire's patrol groups, he and Damien had planned for him to take the northern sea. Sure, it was the closest and easiest path an Empire strike group could take if they were intent on a swift strike on Gandor, but the border between both Kingdoms was separated by the northern forest, a stretch of greenery that 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, encroaching on the Dragon Sea in the process. It had taken him hours to finally approach the coastal territories without being detected.

  The coastal territories were more cloudy than usual, likely due to the massive storm blanketing the borderlands. Keilan used the abundance of the gathering dark clouds to shield himself from Monarch scouts. Luckily for him, the cities he was flying over didn't have the detection capabilities geared towards finding Spirit lords who were simply cruising across the skies, not to talk of ones who were trying to pass undetected.

  He flew over military bases, evading their detection formations and equipments. Keilan used concentrated aura suppression to deter any flying monsters capable of giving away his position, leaving the creatures to fly away in terror rather than attacking him and ending up dead. He didn't want to risk their corpses falling and alerting any defender below towards his position.

  The Empire's 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 tighter and growing harder to avoid.

  After a few more hours, Keilan glanced the Capital in the distance—or more precisely, where the city was situated. A huge mountain range rose in the distance, mountainous peaks reaching into the sky.

  From what their scouts—the alliance—had managed to glean, it was said to encircle a large valley—with the capital city itself situated within. An opening in between two mountains served as the only entrance into the valley, an entrance that was said to be guarded more tightly than all the cities under the Empire combined.

  Keilan breathed in relief as the valley came into view, but his job wasn't done—far from it.

  A large fort stood a short distance from the Valley's entrance, housing both land and air troops with airships lining the fields of the fort—three hundred feet long constructs of wood and steel, shaped like barges, but with the mouth narrowed to pierce through air resistance. 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 was welcomed to face the dozens of constructs lining the top of the mountain range. Large weapons like the ones placed on the airships, but with more devastating dishing powers. Some were rumored to have enchantments and power batteries installed inside capable of delivering attacks powerful enough to crack through even a Spirit Lord. Keilan spied two large earth constructs located on both sides of the Valley's entrance— Top monarch constructs meant to be commandeered to work in concert with the Spirit lord defenders sure to be residing inside the castle.

  Their defences were powerful, but not on par with the attacking constructs. A large invisible dome was said to cover the entire valley, stretching from one end to the other. Powered by a large formation under the city, this dome was stated to be one way—Nothing in, but anything could leave. Another dome, smaller, covered only the city, likely serving as a failsafe just in case the first one was destroyed. It was powered by a different formation, Keilan had been informed, to prevent cases of sabotage destroying both shields at once. Both were airtight protected, completely sealed to prevent sabotage, the alliance had learned painfully. Multiple defensive equipment were fixed on the mountain ranges, equipments enchanted to shoot down projectiles and destroy any 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.

  Which wasn't surprising when he was instantly detected.

  Alarms blared out through the fort, loud enough that they sent flocks of birds flapping out of the nearby tree lines. The fort became a busy hive immediately, troops rushing in an—admiringly—orderly fashion towards their assigned stations just as the large projectile constructs on the grounds activated and swiveled dangerously towards him.

  Giving up on any need for hiding, Keilan dove.

  Airships quickly soon rose to meet him, assisted by the projectile weapons that began unleashing powerful attacks at him. Fire spears, lightning spears, large water hammers, stone boulders, and cutting wind swords flew towards him.

  Keilan smiled as he casually waved his spear, a gust of wind rousing to sweep aside all incoming attacks. A few airships were shifted off course, but the majority kept on their paths towards him.

  Keilan replied in kind as dozens of large spears made of compressed wind essence manifested beside him, hovering beside him as he gazed down at his would-be attackers. In the blink of an eye, he'd marked his intended targets, sending the wind spears against them just as he dove.

  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 inside the mechanisms powering the constructs.

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  The wind did not like being contained, restrained like a caged animal. It showed its fury when Keilan let go of them. Dozens of ships tilted sideways as a sudden explosion rocked their bowels, their hulls erupting outwards as the wind ripped through them, unleashing sharp cutting winds that scythed through the ships, shearing through wood, metal, and crewmen alike like hot knives through butter.

  Red stained the sky as hundreds of chopped body parts rained down to splatter on the fort, painting the whole fort in deep crimson gore. Large parts of the destroyed ships followed shortly behind, cratering fields and crushing any soldier too slow to find adequate cover.

  Keilan guessed the death toll was too much for whoever commanded the fort to bear, because a second later an aura flared outwards. He sniffed at the faint sense of Monarch realm power that wafted off of it, and was confused when the other half gave off the whiff of a peak early tier Spirit lord. Keilan recognized the aura though.

  Slowing down, he waited as the silver-eyed woman rose to meet him. Elora Darkfang looked much different from the last time he'd seen her. The confidence with which all Spirit lords carried themselves was absent as he looked at the snake lady. There was no sense of pride or the look of superiority that she lorded over others. Her expression was simply resigned, like she knew already what the outcome of this battle was going to be.

  He nodded in greeting. "Elora."

  Elora had been a Spirit lady who'd made the unfortunate mistake of going up against Damien, alongside another Empire Spirit lord. They'd battled over a small city located in the Desolate continent, wiping out half the city in the course of their fight and leaving the rest in ruins. The end of the battle had somehow—courtesy of Damien— left Elora crippled spiritually and the other Spirit lord dead.

  Her astral image had been destroyed, to the shocking and terrifying surprise of the Spirit lord community, 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 realm. She was still more powerful than an ordinary Monarch, but still weaker than a full-fledged Spirit lord. One could say that she was now a half Spirit lady—a pseudo Spirit lord, If that was even a thing.

  Her expression didn't change as she laid eyes on him. "You're trespassing on Solarian territory. Leave now, or you will be destroyed." The voice wasn't any better, her lilting tone now sounded more like she was droning.

  "Wow... Damien really did a number on you," Keilan blinked.

  And at last, he got a reaction out of the woman. Her silver eyes flashed at the sound of Damien's name, pure hatred radiating with a touch of dread that she tried and failed to hide. "What do you want?"

  If she could have taken out her hatred on him in Damien's stead, Keilan would bet his hair that she would have done it... and taken joyful delight in it. But here they were, she the far weaker one of them both.

  "Just visiting," Keilan responded sweetly, flashing his white teeth. He'd been told it worked wonders for the ladies. "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?"

  Elora's expression turned more murderous. Hmm, were his teeth not white enough? Maybe he wasn't doing it very well. Oh well...

  "No? At least I tried," he sighed heavily. "Now, let's get this over with."

  Former Spirit lady she might be, she still had the experience of a Spirit lady. It wouldn't do him well to take her for granted.

  Elora flashed forward towards him without giving him time to call, daggers raised. Darkness materialized out of thin air to wrap around her for protection.

  Keilan sighed as 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 between her left arm.

  There was relief in her expression as she looked at him. A small smile graced her lips as Keilan watched the light vanish from her eyes as she fell, crashing back down towards the fort's grounds.

  Hundreds of soldiers were present, all of whom had watched as their most powerful defender being died by his hands, with seemingly no effort on his part.

  If the sight of airships fallen from the sky had been a cause for panic, then the sight of the dead former Spirit lord falling back to the ground seemed to awaken a primal dread within them. Keilan watched the terror soar to the surface of their faces, all sense of resistance fleeing out the window as the soldiers immediately followed after.

  Most fled into the surrounding forest— the sensible ones—but there were still those with a lack for common sense. Those unfortunate souls moved back to the weapons still in working condition, attempting to take shots at him. 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 all 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, shining a gleaming gold under the sun's rays.

  Approaching the valley, dozens of weapons opened fire on him. Spirit lord-level Lightning spears crackled through the air, lashing out widely with smaller whips of lightning. Boulders of crushing gravity sped towards him, including fire spears that followed behind, burning through the air. One was enough to leave a bruise on him, and the enchanted constructs were 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 to the ground. He oriented himself as he shook off the effects.

  Looking at the incoming attacks, these were powerful techniques 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 tricks

  Steeling himself, he summoned a partial image. A pair of large emerald 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 wings. 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. In a few seconds it has already consumed hundreds of the incoming projectiles, gobbling them up like a hungry Damien. But ut 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, turning the tornado into a shield that gobbled up the incoming attacks. 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.

  Keilan 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 that took away his vision for a brief moment. When it returned, the sky was clear and the tornado was no more, leaving him bare in the open skies, the only target for the weapons which were quickly turning towards him.

  Moreso, they were now accompanied by a small fleet of airships rising out of the valley, Shit, i forgot the inner fort, he thought, as grim resignation wormed into his mind. And that wasn't the only problem. Accompanying and leading the dozens of attack ships was The Bulwark himself—Samon, leading the charge right from the front.

  Oh, crap.