Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The elite troops of the Ironwood, Crow and human followers had already felt the crushing despair of seeing Beast King Corva’s severed third eye in Morven’s hand. They had seen the Lord of Foresight return from the Void completely unblemished. This implicitly confirmed the death of Sovereign Terris. And they had seen the two pillars of humanity dragged through the dirt in dark iron chains.

Panic swept through the invading ranks. The remaining enemy generals screamed orders to retreat, abandoning their formations and scattering toward the jagged horizon like frightened insects. The massive warships that were still flying were desperately trying to turn their heavy hulls and pushing their flight arrays to the point of combustion.

The Demon Lords, however, did not believe in the concept of allowing for retreat.

"Leave no survivors!" Ignis roared with her voice echoing with the wrath of a ruler who had almost watched her city. Despite missing both of her legs, the Sovereign of Flame unleashed a tidal wave of fire that swept across the fleeing warships. It incinerated their hulls and boiled the crews alive in seconds.

Morven, roaring through the agonizing pain of his injuries, summoned a hurricane of acidic rain that melted the fleeing ground troops into the ash.

It was not a battle anymore. It was an extermination. In this realm and many others, showing mercy to an invading force only guaranteed that they would return. Within minutes, the sky was clear and the ash choked earth surrounding The Eternal Crucible was painted in the blood of thousands of invaders.

Li Yu landed lightly on the cracked ironstone pavement. Malos was the first to reach him. He grabbed the young man by the shoulders and his Sovereign senses swept over Li Yu’s foundation. He was searching for cracks, foundational rot, lingering soul damage or what he feared most was that Elara had somehow taken over him.

He found absolutely nothing.

"I saw the fisherman before when Asha was cured." Malos whispered. "I knew your soul was crazy. But Li Yu... Elara’s lantern strike was fueled by so much. It was a localized apocalypse. How are you completely unharmed?"

Li Yu offered a modest and slightly sheepish smile. "I was lucky, Malos. My constitution has a unique way of digesting foreign energy. It seems soul attacks fall into that category."

Malos stared at him for a long moment. He knew "luck" had absolutely nothing to do with it but he also understood the unwritten rules of cultivators. A cultivator's deepest secrets were their lifeline. Li Yu had stepped into the jaws of death to save Malos’s children when he could have easily hidden. That was all that mattered.

"Then I am grateful for your luck, my friend," Malos said softly while squeezing Li Yu’s shoulder before stepping back.

Sovereign Ignis and Sovereign Morven approached next with their respective generals rushing forward to offer support. However, the Demon Lords waved them off. They were horribly maimed and their foundational Qi bleeding into the air but their eyes held gratitude for the human standing before them.

"Brother Li Yu," Morven breathed with an exhausted grin. "When I saw you fall... I swore I would grind the heavens to dust to avenge you."

"I apologize for the scare, Sovereign Morven," Li Yu bowed respectfully. "I needed to ensure more time by causing confusion and playing dead seemed the most pragmatic way to avoid drawing further attention."

"You absorbed a strike that would have crippled three Sovereigns and slaughtered my people," Ignis stated as her fiery eyes locked onto Li Yu. She did not ask how he did it. As an apex predator of the realm, she knew better than to pry into the foundational secrets of another. Especially one that had just helped her. "The Aegis of Flame owes you a debt that cannot be measured in spirit stones. Thank you."

Li Yu nodded while accepting the gratitude without pushing for rewards.

Finally, Thorne approached. The old farmer dragged the heavy iron chains holding the paralyzed forms of Elara and Jareth. The two betrayers looked up at Li Yu and their eyes filled with rage but also surprise. The boy who had ruined their ultimate strike was just standing there and exchanging pleasantries.

"You have my deepest thanks, Li Yu," Thorne said with a weary voice. "Your warning and your intervention prevented a massacre. It prevented who knows what might have happened next."

Thorne then turned to the three Demon Lords.

"I am taking them back to the human domain," Thorne declared while gesturing to the chained Pillars. "They are human. I must extract the truth from their minds and I must uncover the full extent of the rot within our own ranks."

Morven growled back. He had heard this from Thorne before. "I claimed his life, Thorne."

"And you shall have it," Thorne promised as his hollow eyes met the Lord of the Violet Deep without an ounce of fear, only weariness. "Give me a few weeks. I will return them to you and I will give you the answers you are owed. You have my word."

Ignis placed a stabilizing hand on Morven’s remaining arm and nodded slowly. "Three weeks, Thorne. At most. If you do not return, the ashes of this war will fall on your sanctuaries."

Thorne bowed his head in grim acknowledgment. He grabbed the chains and with a sweeping motion of his weathered hands, tore open a rift in the shadows and stepped through. He was taking the two broken traitors with him along with his disciples.

With the vanguard annihilated and the betrayers gone, the grim reality of recovery set in.

The grand wedding, which was supposed to take place the following morning, was officially delayed for another month. The Eternal Crucible needed to rebuild its shattered arrays and more importantly, the bride and groom needed to regrow their limbs.

Ignis and Morven immediately entered absolute seclusion deep within the highest and heavily warded chambers of the inner palace. They consumed more healing pills and entered a state of regenerative hibernation to coax their Sovereign foundations into rebuilding flesh, bone and scale.

The city, meanwhile, fell into a frantic but organized rhythm of repair. Lana and Tuwark emerged from their hiding places in the palace and were overjoyed to find both their father and Li Yu alive. Tuwark immediately volunteered his services at the local forges and was helping the Ash Guards repair their shattered armor. He was making a name for himself while there. Lana used her keen merchant mind to help organize the massive influx of logistical supplies needed to rebuild the city. She took Asha with her so she could get experience.

One week had passed since the battle concluded. The heavy stone doors of the eastern recuperation chamber ground open and Sovereign Morven stepped out.

The Lord of the Violet Deep looked significantly paler than usual and a jagged scar of lighter blue scales stretched across his chest where he had lost his ribs. But his left arm had returned. It was slightly thinner than his right but was working well. It would soon be normal after some use.

His first order of business was not to address his generals. He sought out Li Yu.

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Morven found his sworn brother sitting in a quiet courtyard and was calmly sipping tea while reading a jade slip. The massive Demon Lord didn't say a word; he simply sat down heavily on the stone bench opposite Li Yu and poured himself a cup with his fanged smile returning. He was genuinely happy that the human was okay.

But Morven had not spent the entire week just sleeping. Even while his body was comatose, his mind had been directing his surviving generals through communication talismans.

"My abyssal fleets have already breached the borders of the Ironwood," Morven casually mentioned while downing the tea in a single gulp.

"General Karr led the Ash Guards into the Crow’s roost two days ago. Terris and Corva brought their elite troops here to die. Their home territories were more or less undefended by any kind of real force. Besides what they had on them, we have already emptied their vaults as well. We are taking over their lands, either for ourselves or to sell off to others. The spoils are currently being transported back to the capital."

Li Yu raised an eyebrow and was impressed by the sheer ruthlessness of the counter offensive. "You do not waste time, Brother Morven."

"Mercy is a luxury for the dead," Morven laughed aloud while clapping his newly regrown hand on his knee.

Another week then passed.

Sovereign Ignis finally emerged from her own seclusion. She walked with a slight, almost imperceptible stiffness. Her new legs hidden beneath a flowing robe of woven firesilk. The apocalyptic heat of her aura had stabilized.

After a while she summoned Li Yu to her private gardens. She didn't offer grand speeches or parades. She poured him a cup of wine and clinked her jade cup against his. A sign of respect she rarely paid to someone of his level.

"I am glad you are whole, Li Yu," Ignis said softly while her fiery eyes carried a depth of gratitude. She looked at him, her Sovereign senses probing the edges of his dense foundation, but she respectfully pulled back before crossing any boundaries. She wondered deeply about the secrets housed within his soul. That was the only reason he could still be alive now but she kept her questions to herself. He had earned his privacy a thousand times over.

Finally, the third week arrived.

The sky above the grand plaza darkened as the shadows lengthened unnaturally in the midday sun. Thorne stepped out of the void and his stained linen robes looked even more ragged than before.

He was not alone. He dragged the heavy iron chains behind him. He was pulling the broken, pathetic forms of Saintess Elara and Lord Jareth onto the ironstone pavement. They were barely recognizable. Their foundations had been systematically dismantled and their minds laid bare by Thorne's merciless interrogation.

Ignis, Morven, Malos and Li Yu gathered in the plaza to meet him.

"It was relatively straightforward," Thorne spoke to them. His voice carried an immense and hollow exhaustion. He looked incredibly old right now.

"There was no grand, cosmic philosophy behind their betrayal. It was just greed. The centuries of holding the line for humanity wore them down. They grew tired of the constant vigilance and of the lack of resources. Terris and Corva offered them a way out. Alliances forged through marriage and schemes to carve up the continent for their own comfort. They traded our people for themselves."

Thorne looked down at the two traitors. Internally, Li Yu could see the agonizing conflict in the old farmer’s eyes. These were his oldest friends. They had fought back-to-back for centuries to keep humanity from going extinct in this brutal realm. A large part of Thorne wanted to execute them himself and to bury their bodies in the human domain out of respect for the centuries of service they had rendered before the rot set in.

But Thorne was a Pillar of humanity. He knew that if he kept their lives, if he denied the Demon Lords their vengeance, Ignis and Morven would inevitably turn their wrath toward the human sanctuaries. To save the many, Thorne sacrificed the few and he sacrificed his own heart in the process.

"I brought them back," Thorne said with a voice devoid of emotion. He kicked the chains toward Morven. "Their judgment belongs to the Aegis of Flame and the Violet Deep. Do with them what you will."

Ignis stepped forward with her flames flaring. "You have kept your word, Thorne of the Shadows. We recognize the honor in your actions."

"We vow upon our nations." Morven added while his voice boomed with absolute sincerity. "The armies of the Aegis of Flame and the Violet Deep shall never march upon the human domains you protect unless provoked first. Your sanctuary is safe from our wrath."

Thorne nodded slowly. He didn't offer a polite farewell. He simply turned around and stepped back into the shadows. He vanished to return to his fields to carry the weight of humanity entirely alone now.

The execution was brutal, efficient and entirely pragmatic.

Morven and Ignis did not bother with torture or grand speeches. They executed the two betraying Pillars instantly. But here, the bodies of beings such as Elara and Joreth were not simply buried.

They were literal reservoirs of condensed Qi and foundational laws. To a Demon Lord they were the ultimate panacea.

Morven devoured Jareth’s core and physical essence. Ignis did the same with Elara. The betrayers were erased from existence and repurposed as cultivation resources to strengthen the very people they had tried to kill.

The following day, the spoils of war were laid out for division.

The grand plaza was filled with literal mountains of wealth. The entire contents of the Ironwood and Crow vaults had been transported to the capital. There were high grade spirit stones, crates of old spiritual herbs, ingots of various metals, weapons, armor and natural treasures.

The three Demon Lords stood before the staggering hoard to divide the wealth. As the primary victims of the invasion, Ignis and Morven took the lion's share of the territorial deeds and the strategic resource veins. They were going to expand their new empire across the continent.

But Malos was the one that slain Sovereign Terris in single combat. He was given the first pick of the physical vaults since he stayed with them to help. Without Malos, Ignis and Morven would most likely not have won. If they did somehow win, the cost would have been great.

Li Yu stood quietly near the back of the plaza and was observing the Lord of Foresight. Ignis and Morven watched with approving nods but were surprised as Malos bypassed the supreme level artifacts and what they considered to be the more valuable objects. They assumed he was giving them "face" and taking lesser items as a gesture of goodwill and modesty to solidify their political alliance.

But Li Yu knew exactly what Malos was doing.

Malos walked through the piles and his eyes were keenly scanning the loot. He selected a massive crate of deep earth iron, raw star metal and a highly specialized but powerful forging hammer that radiated extreme heat. He then moved to the alchemy section. He was claiming dozens of rare pill recipes, crates of old flora and a mountain of high grade spirit stones perfect for establishing merchant trade routes.

He wasn't giving face to the Demon Lords. He was shopping for his children. He most likely didn’t value things that much or at least nothing in the vault could really catch his eye.

Li Yu couldn't help but smile because of his actions. A warm expression crossed his face as he watched Malos meticulously curate a care package that would set Lana and Tuwark up for the future.

Finally, Morven waved Li Yu forward.

"Brother Li Yu," Morven boomed. "Your actions saved the core of our command structure. You are entitled to a share of the spoils. Take what you need."

Li Yu stepped forward. He felt the eyes of the surrounding generals and the Demon Lords upon him. This was a dangerous moment. If he was greedy perhaps he would incite a reaction. Most likely not as he had a decent relationship with the Demon Lords behind him. However, Li Yu didn’t need the objects that would be considered important to the Demon Lords.

Li Yu remained perfectly grounded in his pragmatism just in case. He walked past the grand weapons and the glittering armor.

He approached a pile of high tier demonic and beast cores. He was selecting a modest amount of them for cultivation. Next, he selected a few incredibly rare natural treasures. A piece of thousand year abyssal ice and a perfectly preserved core of dark magma materials he could use to refine his body further. He wanted to make sure he grabbed some things of value so they would not say that he was looking down on them either. Trying to walk what he thought was the right line.

Finally, he stopped at the Ironwood’s collection of captured human martial manuals. He sifted through the jade slips and his eyes lit up as he found two ancient looking but damaged texts detailing the esoteric applications of the Laws of Life and the Laws of Destruction. He could use them as references for his own techniques.

Li Yu stepped back while holding his modest selections. "I am satisfied. Thank you."

Ignis and Morven exchanged a look and knew what he had done. They didn’t question it either. Both sides were giving the other face and everyone was happy. The human was powerful, secretive and entirely devoid of the greed that usually plagued cultivators of his level.

With the war concluded, the traitors executed and the spoils divided, the heavy atmosphere of The Eternal Crucible finally lifted. The crimson and blue silks were re-hung across the city. The music resumed and the smell of roasting meats replaced the stench of ash and blood.

The month of delay was over. It was time for a wedding.