Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Now, in all honesty, in regards to cultivation bases, most individuals who were part of the Silva forces were very likely to be stronger than an individual belonging to the Sapphirine Cult military.

Ghan's men were quite formidable...

However, what the military of the Sapphirine Cult lacked in cultivation base, they more than made up for with the abilities they had been given by Hal.

The emissaries possessed the Devil shroud and used it to mentally cripple their opponents with fear along with the use of certain other abilities.

The Blood knights had their blood-curling aura as well as their fiendish fogs that were capable of attacking their opponents.

The majority of the women had been made demons which raised them classes above their opponents.

And finally, the Sapphirine Cult had Ordinance users, especially the Abstract Ordinance wielders.

Both Rita and Melinda stopped pulling any of their punches and as they made their way through the foes, they made good use of their Abstract Ordinances. 

Rita tweaked her own destiny so that she could never get hit by the attacks of any of these fellows. Should they even send a cosmic attack her way or strike at her with a skill, they will always miss.

These fellows not only lacked the strength (cultivation-wise) to override her Abstract Ordinance use, but they also lacked the proper Ordinance use to do so.

Rita did not attack every single person in sight but wherever she stood on the battlefield, whichever enemy stood within ten meters of her environs had their destinies tweaked so that somehow, their next moves would kill them.

There was a lady who had just managed to repel an Emissary and followed up with a cosmic attack except when she let the attack loose, it weirdly struck the ground behind her and while it did not harm her, it did propel her towards the emissary she had repelled and there she stabbed into a blade the emissary had formed with the dark fog that made up their devil shroud.

There was another who tries to leap out of the way of an attack only to leap right before someone who had just thrust a sword forward... The sword pierced through and the dying for was alive long enough to see that the one wielding the sword that sealed his fate was an ally.

There was another who somehow managed to blow himself up with an attack that was meant to be his trump card.

Anyway, you get the idea...

Rita's range was not too wide but all enemies in her area of influence were met with misfortunes... Misfortunes that led to their deaths.

Thing was, this was mostly passive... Rita's actual actions involved once again wielding Essence Stealer and shooting down enemies in spectacular blasts of Lust flames.

Anyone she picked as a target could do nothing other than accept an arrow to the head and explode while giving up their essence to be reaped by her.

There was no evading, no deflecting, and definitely no protection against the arrows which were backed with Destiny tweaking by Rita.

After killing Ghan, a kill that did not really get noticed by the battling forces who all had their survival or body count to worry about, Melinda was struck at by a sword-wielding foe.

She caught the blade of her attacker and just as she pulled him closer to slam her palm against his chest, another come to his aid.

Melinda just grabbed the other one and drained the life out of the duo.

Her Ordinance was the Abstract Ordinance of life and it enabled her to suck the life out of her victims and leave them as nothing more than lifeless husks.

Now, although Melinda had claimed it to be a boring way to kill when she used it on Ghan, that had actually been because she was partial to an explosive death at the time.

Melinda loved her Ordinance... The power was fuelling and stoked her ego massively which was welcome.

She knew she was good and watching her victims' eyes widen in fear as she silently and anti-climatically drained the life out of them, offered its own pleasure.

And yet, this was not even the most incredible part of it all.

With her no longer pulling her punches and using her abilities to the limit, Melinda performed a stroll through the battlefield and any enemy in her vicinity felt the life-draining effect.

She did not have to do anything directly... None of these fellows were on her level... Her life-draining effect just helped the forces of the Sapphirine Cult around her to take down even more enemies who became much more weak and prone.

There was, of course, the occasional stubborn fighter who fought through the weakness and leaped at Melinda to take her down and put an end to her effect on the battlefield and those occasional stubborn fighters gave her sword something to do.

Melinda and Rita were singlehandedly causing the death of so many and the number of foes was thinning but that just made the rest of the ladies more driven.

The war that had been expected to be well contested turned into a one-sided massacre with the commander of the troops being among the very first to die.

And yet, Ghan's men did not attempt escape (which would have been unsuccessful) or retreat (which was vastly unrealistic) and fought bravely while hoping when the slim hope of victory.

The battle was going well for the Sapphirine Forces and while all this was going on, Hal was visiting his in-laws...

...

Silva Duchy Capital...

Dane Territory...

When Hal arrived at the gates, both his eyes looking as they used to look before Infinity, he was of course allowed in immediately as the guards recognized him.

He barely had to ask before a guide was called to lead him to who he wished to speak to; Isabella Dane, The Dane Patroness.

Hal felt he had surpassed the level of Melinda's father Devon and her uncle Damien and that was not arrogance but simple fact.

The strongest of the two, who possessed continental-wide acclaim was the Dane monster, Devon Dane and he was at the peak of the semi-saint realm the last time Hal had any interaction with him, and whatever progress he and his brother had made since then, they were not yet at a level Hal could not handle.

Anyway, his presence in the Dane family territory was likely to have reached their ears already but they did not attempt to hijack and change his trajectory.

When Hal told the one leading him that he wished to speak to Isabella, he had been told he was lucky as she was currently out of cultivation seclusion but was likely to return soon.

Hal just smiled to himself as he was very sure that her being in seclusion would not have stopped him.

If he wanted, he could walk about with no one being able to see or sense him and find his way to Isabella's seclusion room for this important meeting.

Her attempts at breaking through bottlenecks were not as important as what he had to talk about and he knew for sure that the Dane Patroness would agree.

Anyway, the journey to Isabella's familiar residence was short and seconds after arriving at the residence, Hal was walking through the door of her study to find her seated behind her desk with her eyes trained on him.

"Hello, it's been a while," Hal said just as the door was closed and he was left alone with Isabella who had a light smile on her face.

Isabella was as beautiful as ever and there was a glint in her eyes when she laid them on Hal.

"It indeed has been," Isabella said and interlocked her fingers on her desk.

"You've missed me haven't you?" Hal said as he took his seat in front of her desk.

Isabella scoffed,

"In your dreams. I- We have not seen you in over a year but we have not really needed to see you. We have spent all that time building relations, or at least attempting to build relations, with the Doxons.

If you are unaware, things have been going quite well and we might be ever closer to securing them as allies" Isabella said.

Hal rolled his eyes,

"Good job deflecting and avoiding the topic," he said.

"What topic?" Isabella asked with furrowed brows but rather than answer, Hal just leaned forward over the desk and smiled,

"They say absence makes the heart grow fonder... I wonder just how much fonder your heart has become in my absence.

I am counting the days you know" Hal said.

"Counting the days to what??" Isabella asked.

Hal smiled even wider and there was something about his eyes, which Isabella found herself staring into, that caught her attention... It also had her feeling warm and tingly in her crotch.

"Counting the days to the inevitable..." Hal said in a whisper that sounded crystal clear to the Dane Patroness.

She found it all surreal... He had just returned and seemed to have picked up right where he left off the last time they were in this study and the first time he ever flirted with her.

The atmosphere in the study changed and became mystifying as though a perfect location for the cultivation of feelings.

And then Isabella blinked and things went back to normal.

Hal leaned back in his chair with a relaxed pose,

"But that is not why I am here today. I come to you with a much more serious and interesting matter" Hal said with a small sigh.

Isabella cleared her throat and composed herself,

"And what is this matter you speak of?" she asked.

"Simple... I am about to make your dreams come true. In two days at the very most, the Silva Duchy- Nay, Dane Duchy, will be yours- If you do as I say"