Nearly a month after the Gathering of Heroes the Fiend Army, under the direct command of the Great Fiend made its move. After the stifling losses of over half of its ships and soldiers; the Great Fiend escalated his production of new ships and the training of new Fiend soldiers.
General Ag personally trained the new recruits and boosted the fighting strength of the army by having all of the already trained soldiers consume Fiend Stones. General Ha Va provided a countless number of Fiend and Harmony Stones after strategic raids against the Dragon Empire's strongholds and research installations. Even the Dragon Empire's heavily defended Shipyard and Armament facility were robbed of their Stones.
Out of all of his warriors, the Great Fiend was the fondest of General Ha Va. He even began referring to her as his daughter and General Ha Va called him Daddy. It was a weird relationship, but soon everyone realized the second in command of the Fiends wasn't General Ag. It was General Ha Va.
Currently, the Grand Fiend Army was made up of twenty-seven thousand and three hundred and forty-two soldiers. The Destroyer, the Grand Fiend's command ship, and fifteen attack ships each about the size of Kal N'Dar's attack frigate. There was a total of two thousand five hundred fighters, four hundred and fifty Walking Tanks, and five thousand Fiend Mechs.
The lowest level of cultivation for the Fiends was Void Emperor. Each of the Generals had a cultivation of Ascended Immortal. Although General Ag wasn't the second in the command he was the second strongest in the Fiend Army. Only the Great Fiend was stronger than him. General Ag reached a level called Transcendent. Anyone reaching the Transcendent level would immediately ascend to a higher spiritual realm.
Beings such as the Great Fiend and Master River were full-Transcendents but they came down to the lower plane from a higher one. These beings were called Descenders. They were under certain rules as the natural universe laws wouldn't allow them to output all of their power because it was possible their strength could destroy the lower plane. The Dragon Empire was an Empire stretching through multiple universes but these universes were on the lowest spiritual plane.
Master River ascended to the higher realm millions of years before and chose to descend to the plane to see how the Wu Di Clan was doing. He wanted to develop some promising seeds and guide them up through the higher planes. He was also worried about the Fiends invading the Wu Di Clan's newly adopted home in the Dragon Empire.
It was unfortunate, but Master River had achieved a much higher level in the upper spiritual planes than the Great Fiend, but due to this he was even more restricted than the Great Fiend. Master River explained all of this to his students and the Dragon Emperor.
The Great Fiend could exert ninety percent of the strength of a Full Ascendant level cultivator. Master River could only exert fifty percent of a Full Ascendant level cultivator. Master River couldn't defeat the Great Fiend, but the Great Fiend couldn't hurt Master River. Even though the exertion of his strength could be constrained, the natural durability of his body could not be reduced.
The Reason Master River's strength was more constrained than the Great Fiend was because of his passive-strength. If a power output of ninety percent were combined with a high-level Transcendent's body, the strength of the power output would be one hundred times greater than the Great Fiend's power output. Such strength could easily destroy the low spiritual plane Dragon Empire universe.
The Great Fiend was ready to set out for the Imperial Throneworld. General Ag commanded the forces to advance. General Ha Va sat in a smaller throne next to the Great Fiend.
"Are you ready for some killing?" The Great Fiend asked General Ha Va.
"Always, daddy." General Ha Va smiled evilly.
"Oh, I have a present for you I picked up recently on one of my little adventures," said General Ha Va.
"Oh? What present?" The Great Fiend asked. He knew if his daughter said she had a present it would be something good!
With a nod from General Ha Va, two of her Fiend Guards disappeared and reappeared with a sack containing something wiggling. The sack was unceremoniously dumped before the Great Fiend.
The Guards opened the sack and poured out a young gold horn dragon man.
"And who is this?" The Great Fiend asked General Ha Va.
"This, daddy is one of those annoying little Dragon Squad members. He's the twin brother of a female gold horn dragon. I believe his name is Pianzi. The interesting thing is gold horn dragons are rare, but you know what's even rarer?" asked General Ha Va fiendishly.
"What," The Great Fiend asked, getting more and more interested in his daughter's present.
"A Gold Horn Dragon twin! It's said dragon twins have special powers. I also heard if you kill a dragon twin it will create an enormous spiritual backlash against the other twin." said General Ha Va.
The Great Fiend smiled evilly. This was an interesting present!" Do you think I should kill him?" asked the Great Fiend.
"Only if you kill him the right way," replied General Ha Va.
"There's a right way to kill a dragon?" asked the Great Fiend.
General Hava pulled a jade crystal from her spatial ring and handed it to the Great Fiend.
"What's this?" asked the Great Fiend.
"The right way to kill a dragon," smiled General Ha Va.
The Great Fiend took the Jade Crystal and let the information on the crystal flow into his mind. The Great Fiend started laughing sinisterly as the information finished engraving itself upon his mind.
"A technique for transferring the powers and strength of a dragon into another cultivator. What a useful way of killing someone" laughed the Great Fiend.
"I gave you the Earth General as your underling didn't I?" asked the Great Fiend.
"Yes," responded General Ha Va.
"Have him come here, we'll perform the ceremony on him," the Great Fiend informed her.
"You don't wish it for yourself?" asked the general a little disappointed.
"I don't want it for me or for you. You may not know this now, but if you have any hope of climbing up among the ranks of our Fiend Empire you must keep yourself absolutely pure. Only pure Fiends are allowed to become the true power behind the Fiend Empire." The Great Fiend whispered the little-known secret to her.
"Really?!" General Ha Va was shocked. If she had cultivated this technique as she originally intended, she would have gained a temporary boost to her strength but would have remained forever removed from true power. She was relieved she chose to present this opportunity to her 'daddy' as a present. Not only had she increased his favor of her, she had avoided a calamity!
"Yes, we'll have that Earth Fiend perform the ceremony. It should be entertaining, and Earth Fiends are a little stupid anyway. Little daughter, you have given me a truly marvelous gift. I'll have to think of a good way to reward you!" said The Great Fiend.
Soon, the new General Pr'th Vee, the Earth Fiend General appeared before the Great Fiend and his General Ha Va. Bowing deeply, General Pr'th Vee was ready for orders. This General Pr'th Vee looked just like the last one. Segilo was right to notice how interchangeable the Fiends were to the higher-ups. All it took to move up or down in rank was the right name tag.
"General Pr'th Vee take this jade crystal and learn the ceremony. I'll have some servants prepare the materials you'll need. I'd like to see you perform the ceremony here," The Great Fiend said to this new Earth Fiend General he didn't care about.
"Yes, sir!" General Pr'th Vee responded respectfully.
Everything was quickly prepared, and General Pr'th Vee began the ceremony. Pianzi laid silently on the altar created for the ceremony. Pianzi regretted everything leading to this moment. He remembered he was so inspired by the actions of the Dragon Squad. He was especially inspired by Captain Kal. He was everything Pianzi wanted to be.
It wasn't like Pianzi was just some young brat. Before his capture by the Zimwarn Emperor, he and his sister were both in their thirties. This was their third reincarnation and in total, he had lived for nearly one hundred and twenty thousand years. In all three reincarnations, he was accompanied by his sister. They always took care of each other no matter what.
However, after being around Captain Kal, he wanted something for himself for the first time in his life. He wanted his own adventure. He wasn't content to just be his sister's twin. He wanted his own bragging rights. As a result, he put together a plan. He would stop the Fiends who kept raiding the secure locations and stealing the Empire's Fiend and Harmony Stones.
Pianzi determined where he could launch a surprise attack. He was right! Unfortunately, he overestimated his strength and underestimated their strength. He was captured and now he was about to die. Worse, he would become the strength of this Fiend. He hated himself right now! Yet he also felt absolute despair. There was nothing he could do.
The ceremony began. The main point of the ceremony was to absorb the strength of the dragon. This meant not only his physical strength but even his soul. General Pr'th Vee connected all of his energy points to Pianzi and activated the special devour technique. This would be a devouring of both body and soul. When he was done, all that would be left would be the burnt husk of the body and the skeleton.
After making the final connection, General Pr'th Vee could feel the strength of the Gold horn dragon flow in his body. It was amazing, he felt pure ecstasy. Pianzi's body burst into flames and fell to the ground as the last bit of essence was absorbed into the body of General Pr'th Vee.
A metamorphosis began in the body and soul of General Pr'th Vee. At first, he screamed in agony, but then his size doubled, and two golden horns grew out of his skull. His yellow eyes became shiny and golden.
The fingers and toes of General Pr'th Vee turned into sharp and mighty claws. A dragon beard grew on the face of the general. The general's body began to float in the air. Now, the general was screaming, but this time he screamed like a conqueror.
"Hahaha, I did it, I thought I was going to die! The power, it's amazing," General Pr'th Vee screamed. After a few moments, the general came back to himself. He suddenly realized where he was and who he was before. Realizing this he bowed to The Great Fiend and his mistress.
"Thank you for this great favor! I will serve you with great vigor!" said General Pr'th Vee.
"Fine, whatever, go clean yourself up and get back to your business." The Great Fiend said.
"Yes, my Lord." General Pr'th Vee looked towards General Ha Va and nodded respectfully. Afterward, he left just as the Great Fiend commanded.
After General Pr'th Vee left, the Great Fiend continued to look at the lifeless body of Pianzi. Making a grasping motion, Pianzi's body floated up. The Great Fiend gently blew some wind and the charred fleshy remains blew away leaving the golden bones of the former dragon twin.
"Excellent, here's the real treasure my dear daughter. Dodanto, send these bones and this," a blue gem flashed from The Great Fiend's storage treasure. General Ha Va's eyes grew incredibly big. "Give these materials to General Dhaatu and tell him I want everything finished before we arrive at the Throne World. He'll know what I want." said The Great Fiend.
Dodanto quickly left with the materials to perform the task assigned by the Great Fiend.
Across several universes, Congming sat in Kal's War Room with other members of Dragon Squad. They were discussing strategies for upcoming missions. Congming worried about her brother. He mysteriously disappeared and never told her where he was going. Even she didn't know where he went. Kal said t they didn't have the time to track down Pianzi right now. He was sure he would turn up eventually.
Suddenly a feeling of death and despair overcame Congming. She screamed and then fainted on the ground. Everyone in the room ran over to her. Zhihui was the first to reach her.
"What is it, what's wrong little sister?" asked Zhihui.
"It's Pianzi, he dead! He just died. There's nothing left of him!" She shrieked and cried. Zhihui didn't understand what was going on. However, Congming was clearly hysterical.
"Pianzi! Pianzi! Where did you go, who killed you!" she screamed and then fainted suddenly. It was then she suffered a backlash. She fainted completed and was in a near-death state. Everyone circled her and shook their heads in sadness. Just as they were about to talk Kal walked over.
,
"Zhihui, please take Congming to medical," Kal said solemnly.
"Then come back as quick as you can so we can figure out how we're going to survive," said Kal with a heavy heart.