79

The final push towards Phobia resumed after breakfast, with a Saren Xi back in action and leading 200 Fire Tyrants from Volcanic Fire sect, the Lord Druid and his daughter in support as emergency medical backup, with their mount Hawkeye to serve as search-and-rescue.

Pef and his wives hovered above the fog line, the concealing array of the Arachne disciples. During the past month, Pef and Yuan had destroyed dozens of anchoring formations, forcing the defense perimeter to diminish from 100 kilometers to merely 5 kilometers, like a half sphere of dense whitish fog, filled with spider webs and deadly traps.

"Pef, I sense something strong inside...perhaps another Monarch." The Lady Ignited whispered while trying to pierce the fog with her soul scan. The fog resisted, not being made of water vapors, but from qi particles arranged in layers and walls.

Pef nodded, having seen something similar before.

A yellow line with a triangle in the middle appeared on his retina, the glove's way of marking a target for his skill.

"I'll be vulnerable for 5 seconds, most adorable fairy. And a bit weak for a minute after." he said in a wary voice. A Monarch rank enemy would possibly resist his skill, unless he could draw out the real blade of his knife.

But unlike other occasions, this time Pef had strong allies to depend on. He had worked hard to raise and prepare them, after all.

The Legion knife appeared in his gloved hand, and started to glow. Its thin blade thrummed with power, gathering sword qi for a strike. His hand drew back, arming itself for the skill.

Just then, a hundred Sovereign ranked spiders flew out from the fog, shooting webs from their spinnerets and yellow beams from their eyes. The battlefield froze, and the Cutting skill busted forward, slicing a dozen spider mounts by accident, then evaporating the fog, and impacting the distant target.

Yuan split dozens of firestreams, white-hot and curving in midair, burning and incinerating multiple spiders at once.

From the siege perimeter, hundreds of weaker fire jets and streams joined the attack, adding more heat and qi energy to stop the Sovereign ranked spiders, not very effectively, but at least vaporizing the riders on top, and making the spiders fall to the ground and hesitate for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, Pef sped forward, right toward the angry and hissing screams coming from the center of the fog sphere.

There, he found a smaller black spider queen, hovering a few meters above the ground, and missing half its legs and torso.

The cutting skill had separated the first four legs and all the abdomen away, leaving it with four back legs and an intact head. "You sssmall Xiii, sssily" it tried to say, as Pef lanced forward and sliced at the turret-like spider head.

If you every saw a spider raise an eyebrow in contempt, that's what our Xi Sovereign saw, just before his knife bounced off and nearly flew from his grip. It would have flown away from his grip, unless he wore a Legion glove. But he did.

The black spider snort amused, and shot Pef with a yellow beam, a form of qi and soul attack combined.

Pef parried it with his neo-knife, also covered in sword qi, and stayed alive, if barely.

His right arm broke and flayed away, bones and muscles exploding like firecrackers.

Luckily for Pef, he still had a left arm, and his water domain to cast an instant ice cast around the useless right arm.

He clapped with his left hand, in a zen manner, and transferred the glove and knife to his other still functioning arm.

Then flickered down, then up again, stabbing its knife through the unarmored torso, just as the heavenly punishment fell from the sky.

He pierced perhaps a single millimeter through the raw flesh of the black queen, but it was enough. The angry heavens struck the spider first, then the knife and glove, and lastly Pef and his foolish brain.

Pain and energy comparable to a meridian cleansing pill coursed through Pef and his qi pathways, a minuscule amount being deposited in his dantian as a reward, and the rest wasted as ionization and heat.

But it was enough. The energy awoke a single tooth in the old war hound, and it bit through the ugly spider with raw enthusiasm, shredding the target into small slices and even a set of armor, just like the red-headed wife had taught it.

It didn't take the knife an hour to do it though, only a single second.

Then the energy vanished, leaving Pef gasping beside a small mound of neatly cut chitin and meat, which the glove stored for later use, just before it crashed on top of the user and squashed him like a bug.

'Well, this worked better than I thought it would...' the glove mused serenely, assessing user damage and the whole battlefield. Saren Xi and wife Yuan were still hard at work, dismantling the last Sovereign ranked spiders, about a third of the Fire Disciples had died, but still leaving their sect 10 times stronger than any other on the planet.

And if the ones that died happened to be included all those without Legion upgrades, it was surely a coincidence.

Everyone knows spider bites can be deadly, and Sovereign spiders are only more deadly.

The fog began to disperse, signaling the military phase of the siege was over. From here on, just triage and justice, exterminating the accomplices and rescuing whoever was still possible.

Yuan and Yen arrived next to Pef and the lower half of the black queen one after another, both worried and elated at their husband's victory. The Monarch lady took in the sight with a grim face, and stored the remains of the other Monarch, as she could now try forging herself and her family real impregnable armor and weapons.

Pef was still spasming and convulsing from the heavenly electric punishment, but he felt much stronger, perhaps at the mid of his rank already.

"Can you heal our husband?" Yuan asked in a soft voice, as Yen was digesting what she saw.

"He...he killed a Monarch!" the druid exclaimed in awe and disbelief.

Yuan laughed a bit, although the situation was still a bit grave. "Of course he did. Today is Tuesday." the Monarch virgin replied in an amused voice.

Green Blossom cradled her husband and prayed that Gaia wasn't busy today. After a few seconds of communion, an amused goddess repaired the shattered hand and gave the young hero another fertility boost.

The Legion soldier would need lots of love to ascend, and she was tired of waiting. As for combat, she didn't need to arrange anything. The glove would make sure Pef got plenty.

Only Practice would take time, but for that nobody in the universe could help. Pef himself would need to train and train, and master his qi and soul, until they became one.

When Pef recovered a bit, he found only his druid fiancee by his side, while his wives were busy scouring the city of Phobia for disciples and fertility clinics, the arachnid kind.

The young Sovereign did a quick scan and inner check, but his right arm was restored, only the flesh still frayed a bit.

'Tchhh, stingy goddess. I'll need a whole day to repair my arm completely.' he muttered inside, while circulating his qi and adding his spirit water to hasten the healing.

'She wants a Monarch druid, Aspirant. Ask your uncle for a Red pill and indoctrinate your pillow already.' the glove replied in a sarcastic tone.

Pef rolled on his back and opened his arms for a hug. "I was great today, right? Worthy of a hug!" he demanded with a wry tone.

Miss Blossom agreed and jumped on top of him, even offering a few extra kisses, from the goodness of her heart.

A few minutes later, they felt a bit warm and horny and blushed at once. "Perhaps, we should continue this...in private. The smell and screams of burning men are kinda disruptive." the druid whispered in fake secrecy.

Pef nodded sagely. "Those must be Jian and Qin. These Fire Disciples are too merciful and kill the bastards before throwing them on pyres."

The flash and detonation of a gigaton yield explosion covered the city and the surrounding area in radiation and shock waves, nothing harmful enough to injure Tyrants or Sovereigns, but more than enough to snuff out any lower life and traces of forensic evidence for hundreds of kilometers.

'Damn it, Arachne had a sleeper agent in the city. There will be no survivors now.' Pef said inward with gritted teeth, while rolling to protect his Green Blossom under his body and armor.

'These godlings are the jealous type, Aspirant. If they can't have it, nobody else can. Fourteen more armed devices detected. I suggest you avoid bathing in radiation too much as it may impede fertility...'

Pef took off at speed, carrying Yen in his arms, while qi pulsing warning messages for the wives and the perimeter forces.

Flashes of light and radiation marked the end of the Phobia siege, while the combined allies retreat to a safer distance.

"Everyone hold here, and douse yourself with water. And bury your old clothes and armor. We carry a deadly toxin on us from Phobia, let's not make everyone sick in Vesuvius." The Xi Sovereign yelled in a qi infused voice, once they arrived at the fallback point, some 500 kilometers away from the red sky still erupting in the distance.

Decontamination took a whole day, but with Pef's water domain it wasn't difficult, only a bit awkward.

Especially when Pef had to bathe all the Fire Disciple survivors, most of them women. It somehow took repeated showers, a dozen for each woman, to make sure their skin and hair were clean.

The mount hawk didn't like water that much, and Yuan had to hold it still for its bath.

The druid Lord also had water as his spirit, and helped his daughter and with the male survivors, while the irradiated clothes and armor were burned and then buried.

A day later, the Fire Circle convened again, in Vesuvius, and stared at the Monarch spider remains that Ignited Yuan dropped out of nowhere.

The Lord Sovereign touched it with a wary finger, before entering communion with his god. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes a bit surprised. "God says this black queen was a messenger of Arachne. It was sent and manifested in the real, upgrading a Gold Spider Queen and giving it new powers. If it wasn't stopped yesterday, a plague of Sovereign spiders would have flooded over the planet. But now, that shameless goddess is weakened greatly, having lost a tenth of her energy with the dead messenger. She still has a dozen bases on various continents, but none as strong as Phobia was. It's a real victory!"

Cheers resounded from the Fire Disciples, while Pef's group and the druids were more circumspect.

The five Fire Sovereigns poured some liquid and lit up a red crystal bowl then invested Pef and his wives with the Ignited title, by holding their left palms over the holy fire and getting a flame tattoo on their palms.

Jian had a white aura, just like Pef, so their sprites were kinda small and had a red-yellow color, while Qin's aura was red.

Her sprite was twice as large and was yellow-white in color, just like Yuan's sprites, if not quite as bright and hot.

The Fire Circle bowed a little, and muttered some chants towards the newly Ignited.

The three new Fire Sovereigns were a bit dismayed, as their god passed them by for this honor, instead rewarding three strangers, and doubling Lady's Yuan reward.

Still, their sect's new strength, manifested in five Sovereigns and 150 Tyrants more than made up for it. And it was mostly Pef's work that made it possible. They had taken grievous loses, but now the whole continent would be theirs for the taking,

without having to be cautious of spiders or other sects, too much.

Pef sat in midair and peered deeply through Ardent's Hestia's veil, musing inward of a course of action to heal and restore the beauty of that woman. It made him sad, but in the end, it would be her choice.

"Lady Hestia, are you happy now?" he asked in a profound voice, while playing with his new fire sprite.

The woman hesitated, as the White Meridian Pill that gave her the new rank came from Saren, and thus free of any hidden clauses. Then again, the veil didn't hide beauty now, only scarred flesh. She closed her eyes, descending in quick communion.

"I'm happy with what my god demands of me, Lord Ignited. And he says I need to pay for my hubris, for 20 years." she replied a minute later, in a convinced voice.

Pef sighed and flew away, nodding to the Druid Lord in passing.

His wives flew after him, leaving the assembly to finish their planning without them. Green Blossom glanced at her father with a kind smile, and flew after her husband.

A few minutes later, they sped through the basalt tunnel and away, heading towards the Blue Xi continent for more adventure and practice.