Spellheart 9: Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Amisra was the only one I could push all the way to the sorcerer realm, but my other women all benefited from my guidance. I still remembered what it was like to imprint myself on Amisra like I had thought. I’d never climaxed that hard before. I could hardly wait till some of my other women were strong enough to make an attempt. Maybe I could repeat the experience.

The battle picked up the next day as soon as the big dragon came into sight again. The rest of us would have to join the fight again, though the battle never stopped for the demigods battling the six dragons in the sky. Their fight had lasted straight through the night with no signs of stopping. I cast best wishes to all my allies and companions up there, hoping the battle was going their way. They only needed to hold the enemy off, not slay them.

“Heads up, here they come!” I shouted as I spotted the first of the incoming wave of dragons streaming down from their mother’s body. Slavering mouths flapped in our direction by the thousands while under the protection of both their mother overhead and their older siblings battling the demigods up above.

The planetary defense array had also stayed active through the night, and the mother dragon continued to battle the many laser beams being fired at her from all the defense arrays in orbit. To my surprise, she was destroying quite a few of them in her retaliatory attacks.

Those defense platforms were the only thing that protected the World of Sanctuary and Serenity from Immortal Ascendant-level threats. If this dragon was destroying the platforms, eventually, none would be left, and the world would be vulnerable. I hoped I would be an Immortal Ascendant long before that happened, but how had this planet survived until now? That was certainly a mystery, and it was one I would have devoted a great deal more time to solving if Comela wasn’t currently charging a true mage level dragon head on just off to my left.

“Hyaaaaaaa!” Comela screamed in a pitched battle cry, bright golden hair streaming behind her as golden beams of light extended from the tip of the spear in a charge that probably looked very heroic.

I rolled my eyes. I already told her I’d handle everything at true mage and above. She’d just have to satisfy herself with the mage acolyte level dragons.

I flicked my finger, and a sharpened rod of steel flew through the dragon’s skull and passed out the other side. Its ferocious roar was cut short, and it started plummeting out of the sky long before my daughter could reach it.

Everyone got in on the action, but the show’s true star was Amisra. I wondered why she’d hid her new cultivation for a while. But when Tivana was off helping one of the other clans hold and the Royal Family was left to fend for themselves, she entered.

A sorcerer level dragon was flying straight toward them. If this was yesterday, I would have needed to rush to their side, which would have left the Hearthwood’s factions vulnerable. But I knew Amisra was holding back for this moment.

Her power blossomed all around them, and the heads of royal guards turned left and right in shock as they sensed a new sorcerer in their midst. The firey beam of destruction the sorcerer-level dragon was trying to hit them with was stopped in its tracks, and with Amisra absorbing the bulk of the blow, the rest of the royal family could start taking chunks out of the dragon’s hide. They brought the beast down before Tivana even returned to join in on the fun, much to the cheering and celebration of everyone involved.

While dragons loved to consume powerful elves, that relationship went both ways. Every part of a dragon was a valuable alchemy and crafting ingredient, and that one fight had earned the royal family quite a haul.

But they would still have a long way to go to catch up to all the Hearthwood had won so far. I checked my Dimensional Storage, where the people back in the Hearthwood were hard at work processing two sorcerer-realm dragons. Sava was going to be a very busy alchemist.

And for every sorcerer realm dragon slain, we had a hundred wizard realm dragons. And for each of those, we had two hundred true mage dragons. I was going to get used to dragon steak because we were going to be eating it for the next couple of decades. Mac was already busy constructing entire storage complexes for the broken-down dragon part everyone was taking apart.

In that regard, we were quite lucky. Few other factions had the logistical supply chains put together to do what we did, and none had access to my Inventory. I would offer the royal family and the clans of Deania a hand transporting and processing their haul... for a small fee, of course.

The next week of battle happened much like the first two days. We fought, bled, and then retired to my Personal Chambers battered and exhausted. The fighting was intense, particularly for those at true mage and below. Sava rotated in, as did the Whitewood Matriarchs. That let most of my women get in a day off, and a few of the true mages who sustained heavy injuries returned to the Hearthwood. Some of Deania’s royal family also took me up on my offer of transport back home through my Pocket World passage.

Every night when we retired to my Personal Chambers, all my lovers practiced their dual cultivation techniques again. Tivana was still far and away the best, but this sort of hands-on practice was helping the others bet better quickly. Before too long, we could put the technique to full use. Several of them even made cultivation improvements throughout the constant fighting.

The fighting lasted a week, and I was fearing it was going to go on forever. We’d settled into our routines, but this much fighting was starting to wear even on me.

But then it happened.

I wasn’t sure what triggered it, but it probably had something to do with the big fight going on overhead.

The dragon with an entire planet on its back roared in defiance after a particularly lucky shot from one of the defense array systems struck it in the eye.

Something shifted in the dragon’s posture and the zeal flowing through its body. Up until now, it was just casually swatting aside defense platforms whenever they came too close or struck too hard. While the sheer scale and continuous nature of the attacks and all the sorcerer-realm golems were no doubt annoying, the massive dragon wasn’t using all her power to fight back.

That changed now. The dragon roared far above the sky. It was beyond the world’s atmosphere, so there should have been nothing but silence on our end. But somehow, the tremendous sound traveled across the void to our world, where a deafening sound rang out across the entire planet. Every elf and monster on the entire world of Sanctuary and Serenity stopped what they were doing to cover their ears and shudder in terror.

The spite and anger in that ferocious roar made tingles run up my spine. It was like my subconscious knew a hungry beast was hovering right over my shoulder, and there was nothing I could do about it.

A moment later, the sky lit up with thousands of explosions. The dragon used some manner of Immortal Ascendant power to destroy every defense platform and golem overhead simultaneously. The attack was so powerful and so absolute that I didn’t even sense the zeal being used. Perhaps the attack didn’t rely on zeal at all and was merely an expression of the concept of destruction.

Whatever the case was, fear gripped my heart as I realized the World of Sanctuary and Serenity had been left utterly helpless before this terrible beast.

“To the Pocket World Passage, now!” I yelled, voice growing hoarse. If the planet’s defenses had truly failed us, the best I could do was evacuate everyone I cared about to The Wanderer. After it was done, we’d need to scout for a new planet to live on. That would be painful, but I was already preparing for the worst. The glowing blue barrier surrounding the planet shattered like broken glass, and the only thing keeping that thing out in the void was gone.

But then the World of Sanctuary and Serenity replied to the dragon’s ferocious attack.

A voice echoed throughout the entire world, just as loud as the dragon’s voice. It was dry and mechanical, perfectly calm and collected in the face of the monstrously powerful dragon’s overwhelming might.

“Threat exceeding passive defenses combat rating detected. The Planetary Defense Array will now enter active mod.”

For a moment, everything turned black and white. The sky shuttered, and the stars winked out. Everything was terribly, eerily still.

Then light shot up in great pillars from the planet’s surface, and from those pillars, new defense platforms emerged one after another. The orbital stations were being carried upward on those beams of light like they were riding a reverse waterfall. Those energy beams must have been some sort of magic-powered space elevator.

All those in the sky that had been destroyed in the battle so far were replenished instantly, but they kept coming after that with no end in sight. The question I had when this fight began was finally answered. Now I knew why the World of Sanctuary and Serenity had never run out of defense platforms. When their numbers grew too thin, the Planetary Defense Array simply made more.

More sorcerer-realm golems emerged as well, just like the one Argona had taken control of. Some of those stepped into the beams of white light and rode them up into orbit. But not all of them took the ride upward. Others emerged early and landed on the planet’s surface, locking what passed for their eyes on the nearest dragon. The golems pounced on those dragons, regardless of level, and attacked them without hesitation.

Those dragons at the wizard realm and below died instantly under the assault, but those at higher levels lived long enough for the golems to unveil a type of attack I’d never seen before. They piled onto the dragons and turned their bodies into an amorphous blob of clay. That clay wrapped around the dragon, binding it in place.

Under just one such attack, a sorcerer realm dragon might break free, but at the rate, these golems were emerging one after another. They were soon facing two or three of the at a time. When all of them piled onto a dragon together, they could engulf the giant fire-breathing lizards entirely, binding them until not a single scale shone through the earthen-colored clay. When the pile of heaving earth went still, I knew the trapped dragon was as good as dead.

The golems and defense platforms were just the beginning. A few pieces of bright, shining pieces of metal emerged one after another, each looking like a flower pedal. They hovered in the air until enough of them accumulated. They formed together into something akin to a lotus leaf big enough to cover a country the size of the Rakaren Queendom in shade. In the center of the metallic flower, a glowing sphere of crimson energy came to life. Beams of red light shot down and swept over the earth, purging every dragon the light beam came across.

Besides the flying lotus machines and the armies of extraordinarily powerful golems, I also witnessed magical artillery firing from nearby mountaintops that I never would have guessed concealed ancient buried weapons. They fired upon the dragons, cutting down a number of them in moments that would have taken us hours to slay.

When all the dragons of our caliber were slain, those same guns pointed upward at the six dragons the demigods were battling. A barrage of attacks struck all six of those ferocious beasts, and I watched Sam, Dean, and two of the elves put the opportunity before them to good use. A crimson dragon they were battling had to defend against an incoming barrage of missiles and erected an energy shield before itself, but Dean shattered that shield with a swing of his axe.

The energy beams struck the dragon again and again. The wounds healed within moments, at least until Sam waved his hands and reversed the dragon’s own healing to make the wounds appear again. The two elven demigods attacked from either side while Dean went for the head. All the while the dragon desperately fought to erect the energy shield meant to protect it from the barrage of magical artillery.

In the end, the combination of attacks was just too much for the dragon. Its kin turned to flee, abandoning the lone demigod dragon to its fate while the human and elven demigods ganged up on it. Even with such a sharp advantage in numbers, it took the demigods a while to put the dragon down, but when it finally came toppling out of the sky and crashed to the earth, our forces cheered loud enough that for a moment our voices could be heard over the noise of the battle in the sky overhead.

The awakening of the Planetary Defense Array’s full capabilities turned the battle against the dragon matriarch. Whatever trick she’d pulled before to wipe out all the available defense platforms wasn’t something she could pull a second time, and she swerved to turn away. I hoped that meant she would be off looking for easier prey elsewhere and that the World of Sanctuary and Serenity would be safe at last.

“Did you see that, father?” Argona yelled, abandoning her massive golem to land by my feet now that the fighting was over. “Those arrays appeared out of nowhere and kicked that giant dragon’s ass!”

“Yes, it did, dear,” I nodded. “But hop back in your golem! We’re not done yet!”

“But all the dragons are running, father?” Argona asked.

I grinned. “And leaving their dead behind. There are thousands of zeal crystals’ worth of dragons laying there! We can’t let the other clans harvest them all first!”

After all, too many dead dragons in the hands of the other clans would drive the market value of the Hearthwood’s haul way down. There were lots of people in the Hearthwood counting on this little expedition turning over a pretty penny, including Sava.

Argona hopped back into her golem, and I directed the Hearthwood in looting every dragon up for grabs. This was something my family and I had practiced many times before, so we were a lot better versed than the other clans. Between the number of uninjured fighters we had, the extra experience, and the help of my Dimensional Storage, we easily gathered ten times as many dragon corpses as the other clans. Even the demigod factions would walk away with far less loot than we had.

For a while, I was worried the demigods would compete with us, but Sam, Dean, Tivana’s mother, and everyone else was all focused on the one demigod level dragon they’d killed. They spent half an hour arguing over who got to what cut of it, which the rest of us happily spent cleaning up the rest of the continent. I did note with sadness that a few of the settlements on this continent I’d spotted from the air earlier had been destroyed.

The strongest matriarchs in those settlements were only true mages, so all it took was one stray dragon wandering across them to devour half the town. For the average elf, the only saving grace was that the dragons were too busy devouring matriarchs to hunt down all the heartwielders cowering in fear.

The dragon corpses around their village might be useful to them in getting new matriarchs, but they wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to use them. Still, I felt a bit bad stealing their good fortune, so whenever I spotted locals near dragons we were harvesting, I tossed out a handful of zeal crystals and spellhearts.

“You’re now in the employ of the Hearthwood Clan!” I shouted at them. “Help guide my people through your forest while they look for dragons, and there will be more where those came from!”

Most rapidly turned from terrified to bowing and groveling once I started throwing riches their way instead of threats of annihilation. I suspected most of them just wanted shelter after seeing their entire tribe or village get wiped out, and I was giving them a foot in the door with a group of powerful strangers capable of slaying the same monsters that devoured their matriarchs. We’d probably get a few of them sneaking back to the Hearthwood with me, not that I minded. Though I favored my family, the rest of the Hearthwood was a meritocracy. We gave no handouts, and those willing to work could do very well for themselves there, and any criminals would be quickly executed before they could cause too much trouble.

I was happy to see the larger city I pointed out earlier had been evacuated, even if so many of the smaller villages had been too numerous to bother with. My earlier efforts hadn’t fallen completely on deaf ears.

Soon I’d finished bringing the last true mage dragon home to the Hearthwood. There were plenty more at the mage acolyte stage worth harvesting, but those had hardly even been dragons at all. In fact, the Universal Analyzer had called them drakes, and I hadn’t even bothered to kill them during the fighting. I left them to my subordinates then, and I left harvesting them to my subordinates now.

I returned to find Sam and Dean with grim looks on their faces, drawing a sharp contrast to my own exuberant smile.

“That was some light show, wasn’t it?” I chuckled. “I didn’t know the Planetary Defense Array could do that!”

Sam’s voice was hoarse and full of exhaustion, brows lowered as he stroked his chin and sighed. “They can and do. It happens ever so often.”

I felt my smile fall from my face. “I take it from your expression that it isn’t a good thing.”

Sam shook his head. “No, quite the opposite. This happens every few hundred years. We usually call it the end of a golden age.”

<Note>

Alright, I'm 99% sure we're on the seventh golden age right now, so this would be the end of the seventh and into the eight. We are diving into book 2 worldbuilding here, which I wrote four years ago at this point. I may have to do an Amazon Apocalypse chapter next week or something, because we're touching on stuff that I'm going to have to read through the early books for a day just or two just to make consistent, and that's going to take some extra time.

Normally I'm able to do all this prep work toward the beginning of the book and hold most of it in my head while drafting, but writing three active books at the same time is starting to tax the limits of my brain (I think forcing myself to write this book super slowly is also making it harder too.)

I'll see if I can pause for a few days during the week to get like four or more Spellheart chapters done at once. That will probably be easier than writing them one at a time on Saturday nights.