67

With their leaders dead, and any hopes of victory crushed mercilessly, the Sangria armies surrendered, in last desperate attempt to at least survive.

Xie continued battering the last Tyrant, who kept hanging on to life for hours and hours, even though his body was a mess of broken bones and pulped meat.

Aria secured the prisoners with shackles, extruded and bent from their own spears and carts or nearby firewood.

Pef and Ching explored the city in a wide pass, then took a dive towards the inner sanctum.

Hundreds of Sangela priests and devouts were caught attempting a divine summoning, using incantations around a large basin filled with blood. Pef's senses traced the vein-like blood pipes to their sources, thousands upon thousands of desiccated people being exsanguinated to perform the ritual.

The Water Tyrant wasn't pleased, his actions swift and brutal. The priesthood was dismembered, then thrown into the blood pool to drown, in the blood of their victims, without any limbs to even attempt swimming.

His face was serene and calm when doing this, even chanting a children's lullaby in a distant voice, "Blood for the blood god, and all your skulls belong to me. When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, don't look back. I'm right behind you..."

The oracle watched horrified and also impressed, as the repeating verse was infused with qi, making shallow waves propagate through the blood, distorting the screams into a macabre chorus.

When the counter-ritual was over, Pef's neo knife flew out from his hand, diving into the blood pool, and sucking it dry in a minute of whirling red tornado. The pool became dry and devoid of blood and bodies. Instead, a pile of priestly skulls remained, completely white and grinning a last smile.

In Pef's mind, the glove was yelling, trying to prevent a psychotic or perhaps a psychic meltdown. 'This is not our way, Aspirant! Do not use blood rituals!'

The chief recruit woke up in a daze, conscious of his latest actions but not sorry at all. 'My puppy was hungry. Plus, it would be waste to spoil so many human resources.'

'Moron recruit. It worked this time, but look at the Legion knife! It's getting worse! At least, you didn't touch the blood directly. Fighting off a soul infection would not be easy, with your puny rank.' the glove grumbled and clenched itself in a fist, so tight that the Tyrant's hand bones cracked.

Pef nodded and sighed, warning received. Still, he held out his left hand, waiting for his knife to circle it once and then stab itself into his left palm, landing teeth first.

'See! You're teaching it silly habits too. Hurting your user, is not in your programming my orange glove, is it?' Pef asked rhetorically.

The system stayed silent, comparing and referencing its small database. Indeed, its purpose was to protect the Soldier, not hurt him. It was itself defective, just like the damaged knife. And beside that, the reality checksum of this universe was screwed, the Aspirant kinda peculiar and lack of a command link was worrying.

'I fear we are already deep in the valley of shadows, Aspirant. Use your skill, and brave the Heavens next time. If my conjecture is correct, the lightning will contain software upgrades for me and our knife.' the glove answered after a long minute of deliberation.

The knife flew out, leaving Pef's left hand unmarred, and dove into the glove, just as Pef was going to scratch his cheek and cut off his own head, by accident. Moron human!

The knife would have shunned and laughed out by any Legion system, if it had killed its user by accident. Preposterous!

And this curious user was too amusing to kill yet, anyway. His antics and gullible naivety were endearing, like a stumbling week old kitten mewling at a war hound.

Sharing the meals was nice though. And cuddling into his lung was heartwarming!

Maybe this user will last a bit longer, as a favor to the ugly orange dog house.

The young new user was wrong though. The knife wasn't a young puppy, eager to bite!

It was an old, old hound of war, scarred and battered and sporting only missing teeth and shredded gums. And bitting with his old rotted gums was boring and painful! The knife wanted his teeth back!

"We should go and organize these people, get them on their feet." Pef mused aloud, eying the stunned oracle.

"Yes, indeed...and perhaps less blood rituals, when I'm around." Miss Ching replied in a kinda forced smile. She didn't like seeing her apprentice and protegee get lost in pointless, cruel revenge. Swift justice was better, in her opinion.

"Oh, that! Some old nursery rhyme, it just came to my mind for some reason.' the perfectly normal young man explained with a shrug.

The oracle had never prayed in the last 500 years, but she silently begged the General to be watch over this idiot. Perhaps a Tier 8 had better chances. Her skill hesitated, unsure if a Tier 8 was enough.

Ever since her skill had pointed out the divine tumors logged into the brains of various cultists, used as a conduit to fuel some aberrant godling, Ching had been disgusted by the idea of prayer.

But then, as she waited patiently to die already, this boy appeared, grafted with an 8 dimensional lotus flower growing from his dantian into his brain, and connected to his godlike glove by a mental link.

No energies were being drained by some parasite god, instead all his qi was powering an immensely powerful and efficient method for fast growth and self ascension.

The glove itself was being minutely soul forged by the boy, so slowly only an oracle skill could detect it.

And now, Pef was doing the same to his blade, offering treats and companionship to this monstrous engine of combat.

It was why she decided to risk it, get herself injected with this special type of tulpa, which seemed benign and even beneficial. It had indeed payed off, gaining her ranks and youth and immunities to nearly every kind of infection.

The Legion method was a jealous kind of tulpa, containing and converting other infections into more nearly identical copies of itself, like it did with Aria and Xie. The conduit to Gaia had been severed however, blocking Aria from communing with her goddess entirely.

The fire disciples married to Pef had a stranger relation, his method allowing a minute connection towards the fire god, but blocking off the energy drain.

His wives would grow stronger, but not power up Volcanis anymore, simply allowing them a conduit for advice and spiritual guidance.

Her skill was 67 percent certain that Pef had made some deals with both godlings, possibly in aid with some bigger plan.

While thinking and musing inside, her moves went on on autopilot, organizing this new town into a semblance of order. More cultists being discovered and culled, slaves and prisoners being freed and armed, water and food logistics established with a newly formed regiment.

By next day, when Xie finally completed her ascension to the very peak of Emperor rank, the city state of Sangria was kind of organized and civilized. At least a month would be needed, to root out all the infections and prepare the locals to become self-sufficient.

It would be a failed attempt if left unchecked though. The first malicious trader or cultivator with glorious ambitions would spread out the word, and this city would be taken over by another cult or sect.

A hundred locals could be formed into a new Guardian company, enough to deal with unpowered elements. But an Emperor, or even a Sky ranker...

Well, it wasn't like she would run out of time anymore. And Empress at 600! She was likely the youngest Emperor rank beside Pef's wives, by 4000 years. No wonder the young man was getting infatuated, with her looks and skills.

Though he kinda had other problems right now.

"I had him first! He was even a virgin!" the green haired wife proclaimed proudly.

"Doesn't matter, I'm closer to the peak. I only need like 6 hours." the purple haired one replied calmly.

"Stop arguing, both of you! I'm sure you can figure out a way to abuse my young body, at the same time..." the idiot young Tyrant demanded, kissing both his wives as they argued for their first right at becoming Tyrants themselves.

Soon, the loud trio went away, no doubt to commit unspeakable acts of Tyrannical trio cultivation.

Miss Ching sighed and continued infusing her tea, calming her heart. Why was she the only adult in this group?