The Grand Fiend Army reached the Throneworld of the Dragon Empire. The Dragon Emperor and his grandfather stood shoulder to shoulder dressed in Imperial armor. The Dragon Army was positioned like an army of immortals. The more than one thousand stalwart Heavens' Legendary Heroes stood between the Dragon Army and the Emperor and his Grandfather. Big Bear was at the back.
In the very front was Kal N'Dar, Master Rel, and the other Dragon Squad members. The Fighters and the attack frigate hovered above the palace. Congming was still unconscious. Ever since she experienced the backlash from her brother's death, Congming was in a coma.
The civilian population of the Imperial World was evacuated months before. The Dragon Emperor knew the final battle would be here. The Imperial Palace was protected by super shields powered by the Harmony Stones. Massive cannons and smaller guns were mounted along the walls of the palace.
Earth Dragon (E.D.) tanks designed to immolate a dragon had a long tube main body and the opening resembled the intimidating open mouth of a dragon. The long tube could be used to either anchor the tank or it could curl around structures, crushing them as it advanced on the battlefield. E.D. tanks were coiled in ready position for the battle to come. Some of the tanks had burrowed into the ground to launch surprise attacks. Fighters flew through the skies, and gunner cars sped through the terrain on their impressive tires. The gunner car tires were designed for mobility even on hard terrain. The tires were two meters in diameter and a meter wide but the tread was so thin, it looked almost like a layer of paint on the rim. The tread was molecularly similar to diamonds so it could cut through or crush whatever it was ran over. Sometimes the gunner cars were used to clear paths in hard terrain for other tactical equipment.
General Long walked up next to Kal. His daughter, Kal's wife, was protected in the palace. "The Grand Fiend army breached the atmosphere and they are flying to our location. They should be here in just a few minutes." General Long said to his son-in-law.
Kal nodded, no tricks would save them today. He couldn't run and hide. Although, he had prepared a few tricks to slow the forces down. It was those tricks that were causing the Grand Fiend Army to take minutes and not seconds to reach the Imperial Palace.
Eventually, the Grand Fiend Army arrived. It was clear they lost several of their forces through the hands of the Húlí Móshù Shī or the Fox Magician as he was called. There were fewer ships. Some of the friends of Lorne received special divine armors from Big Bear. The Dragon Princess was one of them. She proudly stood next to her father looking as invincible as he did.
Kal, Master Rel, and General Long were given specialized weapons and armor. Benton examined the armors and weapons and went to Big Bear to ask him to take him as his disciple. Big Bear agreed and presented him with his own armor.
Kal's armor and weapons were suitable for such a trickster. The helmet was covered in expertly crafted faces. Each face showing a different emotion. The largest face was a confused looking one. Given Kal was a member of the Dragon Empire now, the helmet had two golden dragon horns at the top sweeping towards the back of his head.
Kal's armor was light but had powerful defenses. Like Lorne's armor, the gloves held various spatial compartments to hold weapons. Kal's weapons were unique. There were certain armaments like swords, spears, and other traditional weapons, however, there were also things like illusion spheres psychic stunners, and soul confounding water guns. The water guns shot high concentration water pellets which exploded on contact and released a soul confounding liquid.
There were also larger trickster arrays and Kal could store his ships in these compartments. Kal also had a couple of nice arm cannons for firing strong quick blasts of energy. The Armor cape with an imperious cape holding other secrets he hadn't yet had time to completely figure out. Kal loved his armor.
The Fiend Army finally arrived. A shuttle was dispatched from the Fiend Destroyer. Landing near the city, a ramp extended from the shuttle. Out of the shuttle walked the five generals. In their midst was an averagely sized Fiend wearing a tight blue and purple armor and rounded helmet. As he walked the ground thunked as it was struck by a long golden staff. At the top of the staff was a golden skull with curved gold horns of a young dragon. The golden staff and skull were the remains of Pianzi.
Kal saw the staff and knew instinctively what happened to Pianzi. His eyes turned red as rage and sadness fought for control of his heart and mind. Master Rel saw the change in his brother. Kal had raised Pianzi from a young age. Sure, the kid was reincarnated, but Kal knew his parents, he'd come to view Pianzi as his own nephew. Kal always gave the kid a hard time, but he did this from a place of deep affection. He was glad Congming wasn't here right now to see this.
The Great Fiend came to a stop before the edge of the barrier standing directly in front of Kal. With an evil mocking grin, the Great Fiend spoke, "Thank you for this gift." He lovingly touched his staff. I needed something to compliment my armor and to show my majesty and dominance, and you were kind enough to send it to me. This young dragon, Pianzi, died well. He made a good meal for one of my men." as he spoke the Great Fiend motioned forward with his fingers as General Pr'th Vee stepped forward with an even more evil smile.
Kal recognized this man and was absolutely shocked. He had killed him in his death trap.
"You're dead!" Kal yelled.
The Great Fiend smiled and looked back at General Pr'th Vee and then turned his attention forward. "The Fiends are eternal. You can't kill us," The Great Fiend mocked.
The fury of the Dragon Empire was riled up when they realized the young dragon lord, Pianzi, was captured and refined into a staff. Kal stared at General Pr'th Vee continuing to look stunned.
General Pr'th Vee grinned and continued staring evilly at Kal.
"My Lord, may I have the honor of starting things off?" asked General Pr'th Vee.
The Great Fiend was a little surprised but when he saw the way Kal continued to stare at General Pr'th Vee he realized what an entertaining idea this was.
"You may." responded the Great Fiend.
"My lady, General Ha Va would you mind helping me in a little demonstration?" asked General Pr'th Vee as he extended his hand towards General Ha Va who was standing next to the Great Fiend. General Ha Va was a little surprised, but she understood General Pr'th Vee wanted to utterly humiliate the Dragon Empire soldiers and bring them endless despair.
"Of course," responded General Ha Va with a smile. The general gently placed her hand into the palm of General Pr'th Vee who then closed his hand.
General Pr'th Vee smiled brightly and evilly before he disappeared running like lightning towards the Dragon Empire's barrier. Everyone was shocked by this action. What was he doing? No one was more shocked than General Ha Va who was being dragged behind. She tried to let go of General Pr'th Vee's hand but found her hand was in an iron vice-like grip.
She saw they were about to run into the barrier and suddenly started shouting trying to get General Pr'th Vee to stop before he killed them both. Unexpectedly, the two didn't crash into the barrier but went through it. General Pr'th Vee came to a stop next to Kal. He hoisted General Ha Va up by the neck and looked at the Great Fiend.
"Hahaha, Fiend I know this is your favorite little pet." Saying this with a laugh, General Pr'th Vee crushed General Ha Va's neck killing her. She never understood what happened when she died.
The Great Fiend was completely shocked and confused. 'What just happened?' He wondered to himself.
Discarding the remains of General Ha Va, General Pr'th Vee continued to laugh.
"For our next trick, we will cause General Pr'th Vee to disappear, and call back our friend Pianzi from the great beyond!" Kal laughed as he winked at General Pr'th Vee. With that, Kal grabbed the corner of his cape and flung it to completely cover General Pr'th Vee. After a wave of his hand, he removed the cape and instead of General Pr'th Vee, Pianzi stood there once more. Looking just as he always did.
The Great Fiend was shocked, how could this be? He killed this youth himself. Weren't his bones and skull the materials used to make his staff? The Dragon Empire soldiers shouted in celebration as they saw the young lord Pianzi standing there with a dashing smile.
"Why do you look so shocked Great Fiend? Do you not realize who you stand before? You stand before The Fox Magician and Pianzi, the trickster! Do you think you could win over us? Thanks to you I know all of your secrets. Oh, and I must thank you for the ride back to the palace," mocked Pianzi.
"You didn't really think you had captured one of my men did you, Great Fiend? I sent him to you as a spy and you were so accommodating. You even gave your most valuable person over to us. Don't despair, you will be reunited with your daughter soon enough. She is waiting for you in hell," laughed Kal.
All of the Dragon Empire soldiers were rejoicing and mocking the fiends. The fiends were shocked and many of them were scared. They knew this Pianzi was killed by a ceremony carried out by General Pr'th Vee before the Great Fiend himself. Still, the man stood before the Great Fiend mocking him and laughing!
The Great Fiend even felt a little scared. This man set up all of this? How he did something so impossible? How did he accomplish this? Did the ceremony kill General Pr'th Vee and this Pianzi playing dress up the whole time? It couldn't be, he would notice!
No matter how hard the Great Fiend tried to understand the situation he found he couldn't. This whole thing was just too shocking.
Only Kal and Pianzi knew none of this was planned. The ceremony really did kill Pianzi, but the ceremony involved consuming Pianzi's soul. But who was Pianzi's teacher? It was Master River, a man whose understanding of souls far surpassed the Emperor of the Zimwarn empire. This soul and essence stealing technique used by General Pr'th Vee to steal Pianzi's body and soul to aid his advancement would normally be considered a heaven tier technique.
What no one, including Pianzi, counted on was he was a student of Master River. Pianzi knew how powerful Master River was, but he never dreamed the things he learned had strengthened his soul so much when the devouring force of the ceremony was activated; his soul was easily able to resist it.
It's true his body was consumed, but when Pianzi realized his soul was fine he simply extracted General Pr'th Vee's soul and threw it into the devouring force as he took over the body. He immediately had access to all of the memories of General Pr'th Vee. He understood the plan and knew how instrumental General Ha Va had been. In some ways, she was more dangerous than the Great Fiend. She was just too good at her job.
That was one reason why he made sure to kill her as quickly as possible. The other reason was he knew it would really upset the Great Fiend who had 'adopted,' her.
The other question most would have is since he was in the body of General Pr'th Vee; how was he able to suddenly transform back into his original body. This part was simple. When Kal and Lorne were having the stare down they were actually communicating with each other telepathically.
At first, Kal didn't believe it was really Pianzi, but after he revealed his plan. Kal knew it was him without a doubt.
Pianzi wanted Kal to create a copy of his original body in the rebirth chamber. Once it was ready, Pianzi would enter it. That was the original plan. When Pianzi explained what he wanted to do, Kal took the opportunity to alter it to give a psychological edge to the Dragon Empire. This is what happened.
Still, the Great Fiend wasn't going to wait forever. The Great Fiend finally recovered and vowed to kill both of them for their magic trick. With this thought in mind, the Great Fiend raised his staff in the air. The jaw of the skull opened revealing a blue gem. Energy erupted from the Gem as it shot out against the shields.
Everyone was shocked as they felt the whole palace shaking as if they might fall apart at any moment. The Bloody battle against the Great Fiend, had finally begun.