(Lian Li POV)
I stood by Guiying's side as Elaria rode her horse towards us, reining her horse in a few feet away before dismounting it.
"Elaria, splendid timing." I greeted her. "I had feared we would need to lose this battle to the Dong dogs."
"There were a few complications on the way, roads were a bit rough for the trucks and we had a few breakdowns. But I came here as soon as I could!" She reported merrily.
Guiying was about to bow her head but quickly stopped herself at the last moment, remembering her position, "On behalf of the Royal Family, I thank you, Miss Lindulf. We would have been in extremely dire straits if you had not chosen to assist us with your… Ahem… Calvary."
I followed Guiying's gaze, watching the machines that were still mopping up the stragglers of the Dong army even as they fled.
All of them were already in full retreat, some had thrown down their arms and surrendered themselves to us. Guiying had initially wanted to show them no mercy, but I managed to convince her that giving them to us would be a better idea.
They will make good converts and will definitely help in our counter invasion of the Dong dogs in the future.
Guiying watched Elaria's tanks blast another division of the Dong army to bits, not even giving the chance to fight back.
She turned back to us, "If you want to claim BeiYang for Master, just tell me. I will gladly offer all of it to Master willingly."
"Oya? Is the princess… Sorry, is the Queen worried that I would turn my weapons on you?" Elaria giggled. "Worry not, these will only be used against my Onii-sama's enemies. As long as you are one of us, we won't do anything to make you sad!"
She smiled, "Oh no, I believe that since my senior sisters trust you that much and you're also Master's little sister as well, you would not do something like that. It's just that I do not have much confidence in myself to actually lead this country with my current experience."
I placed my hand on her shoulder and gave a reassuring smile, "You need not worry. You are now one of us and we don't leave our sisters behind."
She chuckled, "What about senior brother Brendan?"
"He is a special case."
Manami and Kiyomi joined us, looking none the worse for wear.
"Ara, ara? Impeccable timing, Elaria. Our thanks for coming in our time of need," Manami greeted, her tails waving about behind her.
Kiyomi turned to me, "Are we going to kill the captives?"
I shook my head, "They can be useful to us, we'll bring them back to be converted and put them to work."
"Then what about the rest of them? We're going to let them run?"
"For now. It matters not, we don't have the manpower nor the ability to chase them through the caves anyway."
The fox sisters nodded at my words.
Cai Hong showed up a moment later with Diao Chan in tow, the dragoness still in her teenager form. It still feels weird to see our loli dragon look like this, but it's a sign that she is growing more accustomed to her powers.
It's still a shame that she still can't transform into her dragon form freely, or else facing this army wouldn't be too much trouble either. Not that it would be desirable in any case since that would draw undue attention to us.
We have already attracted enough attention with the revelation of our army, no need for them to know that we have a dragon on our side too.
"Are you feeling well, Diao Chan? You were quite out of it after casting the barrier," I asked.
She gave me a weak wave, "It will pass… I just… I just need a bit to catch my breath… Never attempted two big… Spells in a row before…"
I nodded in understanding, it was actually impressive she could pull the last Spell off when she did, seeing how winded she was after the one she casted before.
Master really did know how to train her, making her go through all that training just to increase her stamina so that she could handle the bigger Spells. Before this, we all thought the only drawback for Witches was the long chant time but apparently it also draws on their stamina as well.
I had no doubt that even Diao Chan herself thought Master indulged in her… Nightly activities… Just because she wanted it. Who would have thought it was part of her training too?
"Yo! We all 'ere eh? Where's in da blazers is Brendan?" Eris called out, leaping towards us from one of the roofs.
"He's still at the field hospital," Manami answered helpfully. "Gamma is helping him with the transportation of the wounded. He'll be quite busy for the next few hours."
Eris nodded before stretching her arms, "Hmm, never had this much of a workout ever since Master went serious on me that time, I think I need to lay down somewhere."
"Is Father still missing?" Cai hong asked, a pout on her face.
All of us looked at Manami who immediately raised her hand to her head to activate her Technique.
Before anything could happen though, there was a huge explosion in the distance that rocked the earth beneath our feet, sending a few people sprawling onto the ground.
Everyone turned towards the North, just in time to see a particular mountaintop within the Death Mountains disintegrate into pieces.
There were two pillars of light emanating from that destroyed mountaintop, both of them fading away as time passed.
We watched on with open-mouthed awe as a giant rock broke out of the clouds above said mountain, the rock's size bigger than the entire town itself.
We thought the meteor would crash down on the mountain unhindered but a beam of light had shot out at the last moment, piercing through the rock and somehow breaking it into tiny pieces.
The pieces floated in the air for a moment before all of them converged back onto the mountain, crashing down on top of it and creating a dust cloud visible even from here.
Just as we thought that was the biggest thing to happen, a second meteor appeared, even bigger than the first one. This one, however, remained looming overhead the mountain without moving an inch.
Manami hurriedly activated her Technique, her face going from calm to fear in seconds.
"Master is there…" She declared, her arms dropping to her side.
My eyes widened, "Then we must go there and hel--"
"No," Manami interrupted me. "Master told us to stay, to run. We would only be caught up in the crossfire."
I cursed my powerlessness under my breath.
Eris grasped Manami's hand, "Who is he fighting?"
She shook her head, "Master did not say… I can only assume… The Dark Sect managed to summon that Lilith person."
"Father… Father is there?" Cai Hong muttered, her eyes suddenly glowing. "Father… Father is hurt!"
Oh no.
Her form shifted as she leapt into the air, transforming into her true form of a giant dragon.
A ball of energy gathered in her mouth as she aimed it at the mountaintop of where Master is.
"Stop it Cai Hong! Master will get caught in it too!" Diao Chan screamed.
Realizing her mistake, Cai Hong quickly diverted her mouth away, her beam blasting into the mountains in front of the town.
We covered out ears and shut out eyes as the beam exploded in a blinding white light, vaporizing the mountain range in front of Cai Hong.
It took a full five seconds before the light subsided and Cai Hong fell back to earth in her child form, Kiyomi catching her before she hit the ground.
The mountains that had been in front of us were no more, leaving a large gaping valley towards the Dong empire. The Dong army that had been retreating through the caves were also gone without a trace, not even ashes were left in that smoldering crater.
Oh no… I hope Master doesn't ask about this....
