Lind was a ss. He had snapped at the Immortal Berserker which, while he had poked a sore spot, should not have happened.
The wound was too fresh but he had promised Cyntilla. Her eyes floated in his heart and the pain of knowing her voice and embrace were lost broke him.
He had lost children and been enraged. He had torn apart the tigers that killed his son. He had decimated the powers that threatened Hei and his family. It goes without saying what happened to the Fiends that tried to kill his family.
Yet, as they had advanced and the prowess of his wives' abilities progressed, he grew complacent. He believed in them to survive anything. It was a fallacy and he knew it, but it still happened.
Of all his wives, Cyntilla dying never occurred to him in a duel. A war, certainly, but not a duel.
He felt his heart rage in his chest and the desire to destroy the demon that took her life was powerful, but wrong. She had every chance to pull back but didn't. He could not bla Cutter for that.
The man had lost his body as well as the duel. The person that won the green segnt would essentially be guaranteed a slot in the championship round. His mind could not even dredge up who that was!
The fight on the screens was dragging out and for that he was grateful.
He needed to control his emotions and a heart demon would be the least of his worries. Erratic use of his Dao could unravel the protections of the arena! He had created them and knew their limits.
Sadly, he could not exclude his harmony from the authorized powers list during a fight. It ant his harmony could run rampant if he did not control it to a target. So long as it was fired at soone or sothing, the wards would work.
Ti beca fluid. At one point only a few monts had passed but he blinked and a month had gone by.
The fight had entered the final stages at that point. Both Sovereign Tiers were exhausted but Lind could not see them. The world felt wrong to him and he knew it could not be made right.
[Master, your emotions are affecting us, what has happened?] Haro suddenly spoke into his mind. Even inside the protection of the Throne of Defiance, he could be reached by them. He had their bodies with him after all.
He relayed what happened. He warned all 3 it would be shocking and to ensure their control of the tribulation array was not interrupted.
Dea Arc was about a third of the way through his tribulation. It was horrifying in its power. Haro described sothing equivalent to fighting waves of Divine Realm cultivators!
[Dead?! Big Sis Cyntilla is dead?!] Abby's voice broke but she maintained control. Ember felt in disarray as well.
She had changed drastically compared to before but the wives had always spoiled the nascent spirits.
Haro was better but even he was distraught. He knew how important Cyntilla was to the core of his Master.
[Master, I cannot do anything for you but I may make a suggestion. It may not work but simply focus on your heart. All the mories and feelings Lady Cyntilla holds for you need to be channeled. It will be very difficult, but it may help. I can only pray to the spirits it does.]
His words seed only to equate to calming himself but it was not a bad idea. He broke the connection after sending his own strength to them.
The ti to fully grieve would co later.
He resud his lotus position but did not cultivate. Instead he focused on the beating of his heart. It was faster than normal but steady. Thunder roiled in a storm at the core of him.
His breathing tried to be calm but instead he found himself falling in sync with the heartbeat. His thoughts then went back to the past.
He saw the Ruin again where they t. He saw how flustered he got when she swore undying loyalty to him if his concoction worked for her mother.
He rembered when he found out the puzzles left at his door were from her.
He jumped ahead to when they reunited in the desert. She was nearly wiped out but unbending. She would take her father and the demons from the Blood Empire with her.
He rembered when he went ho and she locked the door behind the 5 of them before telling him he was marrying all 4 of them. Shoti, Qing, and Annabelle had been her allies, even if one of them nearly turned herself beat red from sapphire and gold!
The many spares they shared and the ti he spent recovering in the Moebius Sect all drifted through his mind. His trust in her and the joy that she chose him of all people to be with never ceased to amaze him.
The Floating Isles was a ss at first but then they ca for him with her at the lead. All the expansions of their family were spearheaded by her and Qing.
The mories began to flow faster. His long separation in the Law Binding followed by the happy tis building their own Clan.
The children they welcod happily over that ti from the Heaven Realm to the 1st layer of the Celestial Fields had let them find new sides of themselves to fall in love with.
Her support when Shoti was nearly lost also ca back to him.
At so point he stopped hearing his heartbeat. He heard sothing else. It was like the bellows of an old style furnace. A cavernous roar rather than the beat of a drum.
His rampaging emotions seed to boil. The mories lted with them and the figure of his lost wife appeared in full. Her smile that was ever so slight compared to the others was on her lavender face as her virulent yellows looked gently at him.
{Stop wasting ti. Go out there and be you.}
Her voice suddenly thundered in his head and it was like a switch had been flipped. His Authority slamd down around him as his body transford.
The Immortal Berserker was far across the room as if he expected it. The massive dragon could not be contained by the room but he restrained it by instinct.
His erald eyes blazed as his whole body throbbed with understanding.
She was gone but with him, always. She was watching and he should not disappoint her!
[RRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!] It leapt from him before he could stop it. A roar so potent it shook the stone and tal all around them.
The entire arena paused as every dragon felt it. Pain, anguish, grief, and followed by a promise to rise up. Every dragon and related species suddenly joined in the roar. For a single mont, the arena was silent save the roars of dragons.
All the other races felt it. It was not a chorus of dragons, just a single roar with one purpose.
A call to beyond the veil of life and death. The fallen wife of Lind Frey would hear his declaration of love and commitnt to her to not lose his way.
"Heart of the Dragon. By the spirits, when was the last ti we saw that?" The True Lords were in their own booth but looked in awe for the first ti in a very long ti. The roc True Lord was the one who spoke.
Both tortoise and roc traced back their race mory and found only a handful of instances when they had seen such a phenonon.
"We may not choose our True Lords the sa way, but you have to admit, the dragons do a decent job of it." The stout figure of the tortoise True Lord was right. Other races essentially had trials for those that tried to beco a True Lord but the dragons were the harshest about it.
It was convoluted but the power of a True Lord was too dangerous to simply entrust it to luck.
The roar finally died down and many dragons felt like their bottlenecks or issues with their cultivation had been loosened considerably.
Lind was once more in his human form but compared to before it was like night and day.
Gone was the insecurity, pain, and grief that had plagued him. It was not abolished, but it was under his control.
The Immortal Berserker first bowed in respect and then smiled like a maniac.
Lind looked at him but his erald eyes were vastly different compared to before. The mature True Lord now had seemingly bottomless depths.
"We will fight at full strength. Either you die or I do." Before, Lind had been trying to think of ways to simply incapacitate the man, but with his new perspective he finally understood sothing about the Dao of Bloodlust.
It did not allow those that used it to fall. So long as they drew breath, they would fight. Missing limbs or broken dantian did not matter. The Dao would drive them forward.
Lind had advanced in his grasp of Dao! His cultivation was unmoved but Dao was more than just making progress on his foundation.
The pair sat in what was left of the benches and waited for the duel to wrap up. It was a bit awkward and anticlimactic now, but the pair finally ca to the finish.
It was finally their turn.
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