66

The women were ready to go, armored from head to toe in their stormtrooper-like plate armor, although reinforced with Tyrant ranked feathers along the arms and shoulders and the sides of their helmets. So maybe more like angels, than stormtroopers.

Pef took out his latest creations, made using that Sovereign ranked axe he kinda had to slice in two.

The first were two punch daggers, that could be summoned into your fist just before you punched, and surprise someone with a Sovereign spike in the face. He gave them to Xie and Ching, as they already had Tyrant ranked weapons.

Then a Sovereign ranked sword, that he painstakingly and carefully carved from the handle of that axe, and tried to sharpen as well, with his neo knife. It was kinda rough and pommel heavy, but very durable. He gave it to Aria, as she only had an Emperor ranked weapon til now.

He also had his own punch dagger made from the handle of his old Sovereign sword, melted by a crazy priest.

Sadly, his Tyrant rank soul wasn't able to soul forge these bones, so they weren't ergonomic, balanced or attuned to the qi of their user. But they were dangerous enough.

"So, do you like them?" the young man asked with some worry. The women smiled and rushed to hug and kiss the hero, even Miss Ching, although she was more reserved.

"I love it, Pef! No one is going to chase me into the forest again!" Aria proclaimed in an imperial manner.

"Well, when you have spare qi, try to forge the weapons, even a little. You'll get stronger and the weapons will get attuned to you, at least." he explained while pulsing some qi into his own weapons, the dagger and the neo knife.

There was immense resistance from the punch dagger, and the knife seemed perfectly immune, its resistance so unfathomable that he might as well tried to soul forge a star.

'Haha, that was very funny, Aspirant. Forging a Legion knife as a lowly Tyrant? Amazing guts!' the glove exclaimed in glee, again wondering how idiots humans could be.

'You're right, my orange glove. I shouldn't waste my qi right now, instead focus on my dagger. I'll try again at next rank.' Pef admitted after a moment of deep thought.

He flew up, looking down in a wide circle, as the city of Jovis was slowly recovering from the bloody revolution.

About a hundred children of noble descent were spared, to be trained as Guardians in the future, but the city would be vulnerable for some time, despite the thick and tall stone walls.

Even evil cultivators served a role, in that they protected their holdings against beasts or some invading army.

Miss Ching flew up next to the Tyrant, and looked around as well. "Just 5 Guardians of Core rank won't be sufficient. The first ranker will take over this place if they find it undefended. And the slaves aren't used to freedom. They will defect and leave, once the threat of our presence is gone." she explained in a soft voice.

"It's 3000 kilometers to Sangria. I can be back in 3 hours." Pef said in a doubtful tone.

"Still not a long term solution, mighty Tyrant. Perhaps another import of rankers from Blue Xi, or a dance of yours..." the oracle mused watching the slow life below.

Fields were being worked, carts and burden animals bringing food to the city. But the slightest mishap would turn into hunger and riots.

Aria and Xie flew up to join them, tying their helmets and looking like Valkyries.

"We're going that way! Use only three fourths of your speed, and I'll catch up!" Pef demanded in a commanding voice.

He flew back and laid his hand on the large stone pillar of the gate. A formation began to arrange, keeping weak beasts at bay and warning cultivators this place was protected. After an hour he felt the range of his weak formation had extended to encompass the city walls and a few meters above, in a soft ceiling.

'What do you say, my glove?' he asked to make sure.

'Large area, weak result. Beasts up to Spirit rank will be wary and not come inside, for a few years.' came the prediction.

'Good enough then. Let's find the girls before they get into trouble.' Pef replied with a shrug.

He pushed his qi to 90 percent, and sped up, catching up with his group in 20 minutes.

The women were getting used to their new rank, plowing directly through eagles or hawks in their way, their superior weapons and strength making it look easy.

Soon, the city of Sangria became visible in the distance, but this time it was under alert, cultivators up in air, guarding the walls and even had a dozen small armies arranged around the city.

On Pef's retina, stars appeared to mark threat levels, 4 more Tyrants and maybe 20 Emperors.

'I should cut off their arms...yes. Such easy ranks for my girls.' the young Tyrant mused inside, choosing a flight path to come from a lateral angle.

As the foolish man dove into combat, Miss Ching pursed her lips in annoyance.

She could smell a trap already, and their group was outnumbered 4 to 1 anyway.

Beside her, the other Emperor ranked women were waiting eagerly to engage, once an opportunity arrived.

And that happened in a few seconds, as two enemy Tyrants sped up to recon and perhaps neutralize the three winged damsels.

Ching waited till the last second, then pulsed her qi into a beam of light, blinding one Tyrant for a split second, and giving Aria the change to strike. Her Sovereign sword floated like a feather, and sliced through the first Tyrant's open mouth and then his spine, while Xie clashed with the other one.

The second Tyrant blocked the 10-meter actual feather that Xie used as a weapon, and smirked in contempt seeing his opponent try to punch him in the nose. He was well-trained, and sharply lowered his forehead, to shatter this presumptuous woman's fist. The last thing going inside his brain was a spike from a Sovereign punch dagger.

Both of Pef's wives cheered at once, as their qi rank rose sharply from these early victories, from early to medium Emperor rank in a single second.

Meanwhile, Pef was carefully disarming the other Tyrants, and sent a short qi pulse towards Ching.

The oracle would have normally sighed and muttered something clever, but there will be time for that later, if they survived.

She spun in mid-air then sped up, her sword strike bouncing off a Tyrant's chin. Then, she used the recoil to spin again and punch the disarmed man in his lower spine, and then again in back of his head. Her punch also summoned a punch dagger, if you didn't guess yet.

As Ching's qi surged to signify a kill, a dozen Emperors converged on her position. Somehow, they were all enveloped in a mist cloud, which stuck to their heads but left the necks visible. The oracle sighed audibly, this time, as the totally normal suitor was clearly showing off.

That didn't stop Lady Ching from exploiting the momentary advantage, her Tyrant ranked sword perfectly capable of decapitating the leadership of Sangria, in a dozen quick bursts of sword qi, six more than she had just a few second before.

When Ching scanned her surroundings, she found Aria displaying her meager sword kills on the remaining Emperors, and disregarding defense for offense, cutting through Emperor ranked weapons and armors and bodies, while taking hits in turn.

Xie had switched to her other persona, eyes glowing silver through her visor while she drummed on the last remaining Tyrant with her long feathers, and making no progress except huge noise.

The oracle rushed to help Aria, again blinding her opponents and giving her a couple easy kills.

Pef flitted around, collecting the falling bodies while complaining about short legs for some reason.

Ching rejected the skills eager rush to interpret the mysterious crazy muttering of their male companion. 'He wants longer swords, thanks', she mused inside while using the skill more efficiently, to estimate her chances of survival again. From 4 percent to 96 percent in 30 seconds.

Totally normal when Pef was around, for some reason. Then again, the young Tyrant had both the glove and his new knife.

'Consider those two items are allied tier 3 divinities, dear skill.' she asked herself.

The chances changed again, from 96 to 99.95 percent. They were much more powerful, but Pef wasn't strong enough to use his god tier artifacts to their potential. But for even ranked encounters, survival was pretty much a given.

Miss Ching surveyed the remaining defenders, ignoring the disarmed Tyrant. Pef gave his damaged wife a free rank, it was clear now. Aria was still in the lead as qi reserves, but once the mutilated Sangela exalt was terminated, that would change.

Pef turned towards her, and rose an eyebrow. The gesture wasn't visible through the helmet, but she knew. She could always read this boy, like an open book. 'My move, and try to look smart.' she whispered to herself.

Smart wouldn't work yet. What she needed was sheer terror, to make the surviving armies surrender, before Pef squished them into a lake of blood, and stole their bones.

There were 64 Sky ranks and 233 Earth ranks, likely completely infected with Sangela's tumors or tulpas. Perhaps a thousand Spirit ranks, mostly corrupted as well.

The oracle's qi condensed, draining all available light around, and then spread out, spears of yellow light aimed at the hearts of her selected targets, even if kilometers away. The Sky ranks survived, but were shaken pretty bad. The other targets burst into light, and soon evaporated in pained screams.

The strange possession inside Xie blinked and glanced at her in surprise, but her hands continued slamming hit after hit into her target. That man won't die so easy though. It would take thousands of hits to batter him down to his last breath.

"Hey, don't steal all the kills, Miss Ching! Nevermind, you left me the chess pieces...and...checkmate!" the former druid demanded, waving her sword at the 64 wounded souls. A verdant green qi spread out like a plant growing at super speed, and germinated inside the Sky rankers.

One after another, they fell from the skies, spewing blood and cringing in pain. By the time gravity made them crash, they were dead, and Aria climbed in rank a bit more.

"Sorry love, these weak offerings were still not enough for you. I'll try to make it up to you with my dual cultivation. I gained another rank in it, and I can now use the inverted phoenix with my lovely wives." The Water Tyrant apologized to Aria, in a shameless manner, making the wives giggle, the oracle blush, and a few of the nearby enemies spew blood in outrage.