Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

There was a flash of light as the Empress was no longer where she previously stood, dashing forward to slam a palm against a shielded Dystopian.

*Bam!*

The Dystopian, having witnessed her mental attacks, knew what was most important to protect and focused a lot on shielding her mind.

Sure enough, the slam to the shield was just a distraction as the Dystopian felt a stab at her consciousness but was properly shielded to resist.

"You must think me a one-trick pony," the Empress said with a sneer just before a wave of cosmic energy spread from her palm and spread all over the spherical shield like vibrations.

*Bang!*

The shield imploded and the Dystopian found herself blasted back by the sheer force of that implosion and the Empress pursued.

Moving at a speed that the Dystopian could not even follow, Harlyn closed in on her and grabbed the front of her clothes before taking to the skies... Flying very high above the Imperial palace... High enough for the Palace to become a dot in the distance despite its massive size that was akin to that of some cities.

There, Harlyn's body began to glow... Getting brighter and brighter until there was a massive explosion.

*BOOOMMMMM!!!*

Despite how high she had gone in the sky, down below, the sound of the explosion was still heard and the massive mushroom cloud of the explosion was visible.

The realization of the destruction that would have occurred if the explosion had happened much closer as well as the amount of collateral damage, was not lost on those battling below.

Slowly but surely, the other saints who were already seeing the impact their attacks were having on the surrounding environs, began to take their battles with the Dystopians higher up through clever baiting tricks.

Thing was, the Dystopian wished to be destructive... They wished to get as many innocent lives caught up in their battles as they could and while they indeed moved their battles much higher up, they still targetted the ground below.

For the more callous Haron Saint, this was hardly a bother as they just remained focused on the task of eliminating as many of the enemies as they could...

For the more sensitive and humane ones though, the antics of the Dystopians caused them to have even more to do than simply battle their opponents... They had to occasionally put themselves in the line of attacks just to stop them from hitting the palace and surrounding grounds.

There were Arrays to be put up but their activations were always interrupted by the attacks...

Anyway, in the sky, Harlyn watched the ashes of the Dystopian she destroyed get scattered in the wind and turned her eyes down at the others when her instincts perked at an incoming attack.

With a burst of light, she vanished from where she stood and evaded the attack only to realize that she had been herded.

Where she had gone to avoid the oncoming attacks was suddenly filled with a network of strings made of a nefarious mix of cosmic energy and Devil energy. 

The strings all formed of a unanimously cast spell sprung at her and as fast as she was, she was unable to outrun them.

They bound her tightly and only then did the masterminds of the attack make themselves known.

They were five Devil Tribe Dystopians who were all at the seventh star of the Transcendent beast realm.

"Impressive" Harlyn said in a calm tone as though she were not trussed like a poultry fowl.

"Five Seven-star Transcendent beasts... Don't I feel special" she said with a chuckle and she gave a bit of a wiggle as though to test just how tightly she was bound.

"How else does one grab hold of a Nine-star Cosmic Saint?" said me of the five Dystopian Devils.

They were all in their Devil forms... Tattoos, wings and all... The purpose was to keep as tight a hold possible on the Haron Empress before they began to siphon her strength and rendered her weak enough to be dealt the finishing blow.

"Ha, of course. It makes sense to gang up on me... But do you seriously believe this is enough? Do you really think you are enough to hold me?" Harlyn asked and despite her smile, there was no mirth in her tone... 

When she stopped talking, she stopped struggling against the bounds... Rather she reached for them and hijacked the mental connection between the strings and the ones who had conjured them.

The strings were filled with nefarious thoughts that all served as a defense mechanism for the strings to keep out this sort of intrusion but this sort of nefarious mental attack was nothing for the Empress.

Her love of books had done more for her than just increase get knowledge and give her a massive collection... Harlyn had the mind equivalent of a Divine Alchemist Or Runemaster i.e the Ninth rank of Spiritual/Astral sense and that was without having any of those two mental senses.

Her mind had been refined, strengthened, and made into her strongest asset on top of her cultivation being at the peak of the Cosmic Saint realm.

Many knew Harlyn to be a scholar and that was true but it had not stopped her from having abilities to make her formidable in combat.

She was not a weapons expert and not a Cosmic skill expert but she would always be a force to be reckoned with.

The five simultaneously felt her attack on their minds and hastened to block her out... They failed!

The strings fell off her body and Harlyn was free once again but she paid it no mind while focussing on the five whose minds she attempted to break.

*Zwooooooommm!!!*

*BANG!*

Just then, an attack came from behind her and it broke Harlyn's concentration which freed the five who quickly moved out of her range while an almost innate fear of her lodged in a corner of their brain.

Harken waved her hand and conjured a shield of cosmic energy to protect against the attack.

The one who attacked her was a Dystopian Devil as was made clear by his horn but Harlyn knew immediately that he was a new arrival.

This man was not among the Dystopians that had previously charged out of the portal to level the battlefield after the arising of the Haron Saints.

The manner in which the newcomer stared at her told Harlyn that he had been specifically sent to take care of her... Keep her out of the equation while the Dystopians continued their attempts at drawing the Emperor out.

The New arrival did not speak and the moment the five Dystopians left them to join the battle below, he flew towards Harlyn while the pressure of his cultivation oozed to reveal he was a star short of to Empress.

It was a wonder if there was an end in sight or if that infernal portal would just keep spitting out Dystopians.

The first contact that Harlyn had with the new arrival resulted in a massive shockwave...

The two did well countering one another with their different area of expertise.

The Dystopian Devil, who was obviously much higher up in hierarchy compared to many of the other Dystopian Devils present, was all about physicality... All about overpowering his opponent with his incredibly sturdy body while Harlyn aimed at crippling him mentally.

The fact that he was one star short of her did not seem to make a difference as he got to land good hits on her and despite her defenses with cosmic energy as well as spells cast with the bloodline energy of her Haron bloodline, the attack still hurt her a great deal.

The Dystopian would never let up after landing a hit and always aimed to not give her any time to breathe or recover any bit of strength or coherence in attack.

While he did this though, he was constantly putting himself in range of her mental attacks. 

He was doing his best against those attacks but they made impacts nonetheless and always caused him to become sluggish which would always give Harlyn the opportunity to turn things in her favor.

However, it was never constant... Their struggle for battle dominance was always shifting in favor of one of them only to shift in favor of the other sometime later.

They were taking advantage of each other's slip-ups.

Down below, the battle continued and the Haron Semi-Saints were more or less condemned to fighting the monsters as all actual Dystopian experts were Transcendent beasts that they (the Haron Semi-Saints) did not have a chance of facing and defeating... They just left them to the saints of the Haron family.

The members of the Emperor's Harem should have of course been present at this battle and while a few of them were, the majority were absent because the majority were not exactly of the battle mind.

Tanya charged up the faiths she could harness with the Nexus Stone and in a fit of rage at the seemingly never-ending horde of monsters, she flew up with her disc artifact and let it loose along with a loud battle cry,

"Ahhhhhhhhhh"

The attack was like a rumbling storm that rolled over the horde and whichever monster it touched, it destroyed.

The attack was impressive and the fact that it had been from the Semi-Saint Princess made it all the more incredible... Sadly, she did not destroy the entirety of the monsters... Not even close.

There was no need to worry though, her father had decided to finally make an appearance.

"You have some nerve!"

Amador Haron appeared in mid-air and raised a hand while his eyes flashed with intense anger and hatred for the Dystopians who dared step foot on his territory. 

One attack was all it took and that hand raise was the activation of that attack.

Green pillars rained down from the sky and began to strike down every single one of the monsters... In fifteen seconds, every one of the thousands of beasts was destroyed. Not one of them survived the rain of Haron judgment.

Then Amador slashed his hand in a diagonal pattern and a green scythe struck out and cut down at least a dozen Dystopian Saints before they could even blink at the destruction of the monsters and before they could wrap their minds around such a grand appearance.

"Not one of you all will leave here alive," Amador said to the rest of the Dystopians while preparing another attack.

They believed him.