Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

The good news with the involvement of the reinforcement of dual cultivating partners was that their numbers were limited. The Officials had ruled in favor of the Sapphirine Guild as best as they could and claimed that not all partners in the Sensual Guild headquarters could compete in the battle.

The number of partners to get involved had to correlate with the active members who had actually been inside the Dome and had been involved in the battle.

The situation remained tough for the Sapphirine Guild but it was a tad better than it could have been if the officials had let every single one of the partners within the building to get involved.

The Dual cultivating partners were of both genders as there were quite a number of female experts in the ranks of the Sensual Guild.

All that being said, the battle was over and the Sensual Guild had lost and as he walked over to Nicole and left Atricia's to be tended to, Hal's thoughts went to the battle at the Jade Foxes Guild where Melinda had long defeated the leader of the all-female Guild, Cornelia Akene.

...

Jade Foxes Guild Headquarters...

The battle between Melinda and Cornelia had been relatively tough but once Melinda had her attacks locked in, there was only so much that Cornelia where do as she was quickly forced into the defensive here she tried not to get burnt to a crisp.

As her body was not a charred mess on the ground and was only sporting dangerous and terrible-looking burns that she would eventually fully recover from, she could be said to have succeeded.

With Cornelia knocked out and so badly beaten, Melinda's dominant prowess could in no way be in question and she smiled when a wild Sassy yelled out and called attention to her Victory and subsequently the entire Guild's victory.

From what Melinda noticed, Sassy and Valerie had fought side-by-side a lot.

With the battle over though, and their victory announced, they had to wait, and had no problem waiting, for the Domes to be taken down.

With the Domes down at both Guild headquarters, the still-conscious members that had been outside it flooded in and beheld the destruction and utmost defeat of their Guild.

Many of them stared at Hal/Melinda as well as the entire measly force of the Sapphirine Guild that had been involved in the battle with annoyed frowns and frustrated expressions.

They felt the outcome would have been different if they had been involved but that quickly changed when they looked upon their defeated leaders.

If their leaders, at the absolute peak of the Cosmic Pagoda realm could not defeat the monsters that were Melinda and Hal despite being an entire cultivation realm superior, then what exactly did they have hope of doing.

Regardless of their frustrations though, the battle was over and the Officials would not allow retaliations as the Guild leaders had been solidly put down.

The Sapphirine Guild put aside their weapons and cheered while they helped their injured up to lead them away from the headquarters and back to theirs.

With the use of communication talismans, they quickly learned that their victory was not the only one to have been achieved and that the other half of the Guild had also been successful.

Major victories had been accomplished today but they all knew there were still two more of the top Guilds to put down and knew that Melinda would believe even more in overall victory with these two simultaneous wins.

Just then, at the Jade Foxes Guild Headquarters, claps sounded.

Out of the mass of Jade Foxes Guild members who moved over to their lieutenants to offer assistance, walked a tall young-looking man with golden eyes dressed in green robes and having golden flames stitched on his chest.

With him were four others who also had flames sewed on the chest of their robes and it was not hard to identify them all as members of the Flame Guild.

The one leading them was named Eder Dane and was the leader of the Guild.

Even as he walked toward Melinda, he was radiating power deserving someone at the peak of the cosmic pagoda realm and once he was clearly in view, Melinda retrieved Mending pills from her spatial and quickly swallowed them.

Eder looked all about and eyed the destruction made by the Sapphirine Guild but mostly focused on the defeated body of Cornelia before he sighed,

"Impressive. Truly Impressive. Just as I would expect of the daughter of the Dane monster. You are truly living up to your father's illustrious reputation."

"Thank you," Melinda said with a slight smile... Having no issue taking a compliment.

But Eder was not done,

"But I doubt even the Dane monster would have thought up this kind of plan. Taking on two top guilds simultaneously. An ambitious plan that screams of an eagerness and impatience to get crushed... But somehow you pulled it off" 

"Is this going somewhere? My Guild and I just worked our butts off for this victory and I really don't have time for any nonsense" Melinda said with about it impatience.

Eder chuckled darkly,

"Nonsense? You made an enemy of the top Guilds and surely you can see that by successfully taking out two of them, you are just about weak enough to be taken out by the other two.

What would you and your Guild do if we challenged you right now?" he said and for emphasis on what he was talking about, he looked and waved his hand around at the weakened members of the Sapphirine Guild who did not look like they had another fight in them.

When his attention returned to Melinda though, he saw her smiling without a hint of worry on her face,

"Is that... Officially a challenge?" she asked and Eder was taken aback.

"What are you...?" he began but Melinda was quick to interrupt,

"There is no rule that the venue has to be the headquarters of any of the battling Guilds. So how about we settle it right now. Let's end the Guild war... Me against you, Guild leader against Guild leader.

If our Guilds fight, the end of the battle would be determined by the defeat of either one of us anyway so why not skip right over to the end. This way, no one else gets hurt and we make things as personal as we want." Melinda said with a grin while she cranked her neck and then cracked her knuckles.

Needless to say, Eder was surprised at Melinda's proposal back but even then, he smiled,

"You are right, that is indeed no rule that says we cannot fight right now," Eder said before flicking his wrist and retrieving two gauntlets from his spatial ring which he strapped to his forearms with a grin.

He was surprised that Melinda was actually proposing the fight despite being so obviously weak after her fight with Cornelia.

That said, today was the day he and the flame Guild were planning to challenge the Sapphirine Guild and win by capitalizing on their weakness, so nothing had really changed.

'Does she really think swallowing a bunch of mending pills gets her in shape to fight me? Just how much does she underestimate me?' Eder thought as he activated the gauntlets that were joint Pagoda grade Artifacts.

Melinda smiled and summoned her sword Cosmic Armament while members of her Guild eyed the battle about to commence with widened eyes.

Eder was right.

The mending pills did not return her to a completely refreshed and unfatigued form and she was still feeling tired from her battle but she knew that Eder would challenge her regardless and only spoke first to beat him to the punch.

This scenario was expected.

She knew that at the moment, Hal was likely facing the leader of the Silver Ax Guild as well and it was also expected.

Eder Dane had a bit of a personal agenda against her and they both planned to eventually face each other but what Eder did not yet realize was that it did not matter in what state he met Melinda, he would still be defeated.

Her harnessing of Divine energy and mixing that with the will of Sariel the Primeval Virtue Queen within her made it so that Melinda could replicate the presence of the progenitor of all Danes.

She could replicate a sliver of the presence of the goddess, to whom, the entire Dane Bloodline owed the use and implementation of their Golden flames.

That coupled with her Ordinance of flames and her Dominant Dao made it so that Eder was about to be in the worst possible match-up.

He was about to face a woman whose entire skillset seemed tailor-made to render him powerless.

Melinda was sure that he had guessed the nature of her white flames by now and had planned a way to make his own bloodline flames stronger, probably with the use of the gauntlets he now wore on his forearms.

What he did not know though was that Melinda did not need to be completely fatigue-free as this battle would be very much easier for her than her battle with Cornelia Akene.

If anything, Hal probably had the more challenging match-up with the leader of the Silver Ax Guild.