The war council room was pin drop silent as Shoti presented her findings. The analysis of the bridge material had a further breakdown but its highlights were bad enough.
Various beings had begun to believe they had ti to train and win over the Fiends.
One move from the Great One had shattered their hopes. Only 1 faction in the room was unaffected.
Lind stood at the head of his family and dragons. He had hoped to avoid that particular material but he knew of its existence.
Karu had highlighted several major threats and while that material had topped the list, it ca with a massive caveat.
The sheer volu of lifeforce limited its effectiveness and production. In order to make a single short sword would be at least 10,000 lives. Those energies could be put to far better use in the Fiend army.
He had never anticipated sacrificing a continent to make a bridge. The energies would still be there afterward. In fact, it was the safest place to store those energies.
His harmony might have an effect but he was flat out too weak to simply cut up the structure. He might be able to put a scratch into it if he went all out.
He had to give the Bastard props. It was an effective move. It was lethal to anyone wanting to stop it and would only get more fuel if they tried.
The sheer number of Divine Fiends, finally on display, also brought a blow. The billions of Fiends killed with his forces that ca to the various lands had made people think they had driven them to the brink.
The truth was, there were always more. The Fiends in the lower worlds simply needed lifeforce to ascend. Lind may have cut off the Bastard directly but that would not stop existing Fiends from coming up.
It was inefficient but it worked, much like the bridge.
The more ti passed, the more it was clear the Bastard had the advantage. Lind knew it in his heart but to be confronted with the move even frustrated him.
"Can–can we still win?" No one knew who spoke but it was the question on everyone's mind. Lind did not answer right away. He would not give them false hope.
He sighed before nodding.
"The bridge will take several years to complete. We have ti and it will not stop an invasion of the continent. It will, however, complicate it imnsely." He then manipulated the image until a schematic appeared.
The over 50 nodes surprised many but his ship could not be hindered by Fiend arrays.
They then saw connections flowing back into the barrier and landing on complex structures that directly tapped into the Eastern Continent.
"Despite the power of the material, it is highly inefficient. They have to break down and convert the lifeforce of the land which takes considerable ti. There will co, however, a tipping point." The schematic showed the bridge at a third the distance suddenly sped up.
"Quantity overcos quality." A murmur from the crafters made many heads nod. It was true that quality was supre in many aspects but it could be matched by enough quantity.
The bridge was the sa. Once it reached a certain point, the foundation would stabilize and be able to more quickly grow.
Lind estimated no more than 3 or 4 years before it reached that point. It would still take a full decade to reach the Southern Continent.
The direction was not random either. There was a bulge of land sticking out from most of the coastline. A bluff. It was said Master Tiers had fought there and changed the landscape drastically.
It no longer mattered but the point was the bridge only had to touch a single spot on the Southern Continent and they lost everything.
Lind agreed with Shoti's assessnt and had Divine Lord Aristrossa flying back to the Northern Continent while Sun took stock of the Western Lant.
There would be no more bridges but that did not an other nasty surprises could not be put to use.
[Divine Lord Frey, can you break that thing?] A transmission entered his head but he doubted anyone was not thinking the exact sa thing at that mont.
Lind pondered out to answer. He knew withholding the truth was unwise but the reveal would break many spirits.
[Understand that the quality of that material dictates its abilities. If a Journeyman Tier made it, I could crush it openly with my fists.] Lind did not need to test that theory. Karu had told him he had done exactly that.
An army of Fiends had turned millions into weapons of the stuff to speed up the harvest. Lind had not only been immune but broke them like glass!
If his Fusion Dao self could do that then, his Defiance Dao self would only treat them like a joke. Unfortunately, that did not hold true for what he saw in the scans.
[The Bastard is the source of that bridge. Only another Master Tier can break it.] The implication was clear. Lind had a handful of years to beco a Master Tier. He would have to shatter every record to do it.
Even with ti dilation, it was impossible but Lind refused to give in.
He felt like had grasped sothing. Between the revelations with Starweaver and the Sage of Artifacts to his encounter with Shu Oda, he had touched on sothing.
It was like he had a word on the tip of his tongue and if he could just say it, everything would make sense.
Still, there was another path. It was just that the Bastard definitely expected it.
The schematic glowed in red at the base of the bridge.
[An alternative is sothing anyone can attack. The platforms are artifacts no matter the source. Break enough of them and the bridge will collapse.] That perked so up but even a child could see the issue.
There was just no way the Bastard would leave such an obvious weakness unprotected.
Lind could not see anything obvious but he would study it. His weapons, the normal harmonic ones, would easily break sothing like that. So why were there not more defenses?
He was about to swipe it away when Karu called out.
"Lind, wait!" She flew down and looked pale. She moved the schematic behind the wall and pointed at the connection points. "I have seen those before!"
She quickly transmitted what she recalled and his own pallor did not hold. That Bastard!
He looked at the recording once more and saw it clearly! The war council lood over them but waited.
[I was wrong, those platforms were a trap.] He manipulated the schematic to show an attack. At first, it seed to go well but then the barrier moved! It swallowed the attackers whole and the energy flowed into the bridge!
The energy flowed into the top areas of the pipes leading from one side of the barrier to the other. Many paled as they recognized the addition to the transfer pipes.
The Fiend farms had them when they reduced living beings to lifeforce!
The extraction arrays had been incorporated into the barrier!
Lind trembled in anger. He had almost fallen for it. If not for Karu, he would have led millions to a fate worse than death.
Each avenue of attack was just a fatal end for all but him. Their plans of attack were now also useless. They had to change them entirely.
Thankfully, attacking remotely had been on list list of options to his weapons were not in a bad spot there. The issue was the effectiveness would drop out like crazy.
A direct strike would take 1 to 2 hits if they skillfully hit the Fiend's dantian. The weapons could hit from afar but it would take far longer to kill them. Worse, it would likely give the Bastard far more ti to be aware of what was going on.
"If he had such thods, why has he not used them before?" An older man with pale gold scales on his skin spoke up. He was an ancient flood dragon but he had been able to reach the peak of the Journeyman Tier without improving his bloodline.
Lind shook his head as he broke it down.
"That material stores the lifeforce. It is no longer available to him and if I can find a way to destroy it, he will lose it." That perked up quite a few. Lind stayed grim. His face made them all beco solemn. "The trap works the sa way. He would not use it because it would an delaying his ascension. We have pushed him to do this but it is still highly effective against us."
It was little consolation to know it was a desperate plan because the Bastard no longer took them lightly. Even the desperation plan was devastating to them!
Lind knew he had been cornered down to one path that the Bastard knew was impossible in the ti remaining.
Lind could reach the Master Tier. He knew it now, yet the ti needed was unknown. Further, Karu had confird he could survive the fall of the Divine Lands and still ascend. She had never explained how that worked but it had.
That would still be doom. If he won down that path, the original Bastard would swat him like a bug. It would all be for nothing.
[Here is how to use your weapons remotely. Begin to practice as we try to find ways to draw them to you. The war cannot be avoided. We have no retreat.]
His words were final and they could not argue it. They were going to die, it was just a question of how and if their soul would be made into food for the Bastard.
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