[Proto Dragons, tear the roof off this cave and fill it with fire.] Cain ordered.
Half a second later, the room was filled with falling rock, bouncing off hastily erected barriers, as Cain surrounded his one ally in the room with a simple shield since it wouldn't fall to the Dragon Fire from his own group members.
The effect was much like standing in a volcano or a blast furnace. The rock walls glowed red, then white, then melted down into puddles as the ground everywhere except under the cultivators turned to a pool of lava with rocks floating in it where their barriers were.
Then the smaller rocks under the Elders sunk, and the barriers they had erected began to fail as shrieking filled the air.
There was an enormous battle going on outside, as the Disciples trying to save the Elders had signaled the rest of the Summons to attack while the bonded Dragons were hanging back at the edge of the Sect, trying to fight off the spells that would force them to suicidally join their masters in this battle.
Half the Elders fell to the Proto Dragons and were buried in the magma puddle, while the other half used escape skills to get free and join the battle outside.
The Dragons outside roared as they launched themselves at the Cultivators and were met with energy attacks that blew away their breath attacks and shredded scales. Most of the attacks were entirely ineffective against the Immortal Realm Dragons, and screams were coming from everywhere as the whole Sect joined the fight.
Then the Turtles charged into combat with Kone and Su backing up the lines, regenerating the lines of Summons faster than they were being damaged and forcing the humans into smaller and smaller defensive pockets.
That made the breath attacks even more effective and the area spells even more deadly, forcing the humans to focus even more on defense.
"Just stand right here with me. The battle won't last long with these numbers, and it would be a shame to lose the one person in the room with any common sense." Cain informed the Elder at his feet.
The man looked up at him with tearful eyes, and Cain began to relent. He always did have a soft spot for pleading eyes.
[Fine, let the ones that want to flee the battle live.] Cain amended his orders.
"You can keep the ones smart or cowardly enough to flee. The rest who choose to fight to the death against these odds are too dumb to live." Cain informed the Elder.
The battle was beginning to look hopeless for the Humans when a new presence entered the area. A True God or some high-level Divine Realm Cultivator had come to see what the commotion was as soon as the wards around the Sect failed.
"Call off your Dragons. This Sect must not be destroyed." The new arrival demanded, wiping out a whole section of them in an instant.
That was a bit more than Cain could deal with, so he dismissed the rest, letting the humans recover while he stood on an island of calm amidst the ruins of the Sect compound.
"Explain yourself, Dragon. The powerful human demanded.
"They stole from the Black Matriarch and broke the Pact. With the Pact no longer active, I was well within my rights to attack when they tried to make me a mount." Cain insisted, making it up as he went along.
"Is that true?" The man asked the Elder at Cain's feet.
"Yes, Divine One. I tried to make them see sense, but they insisted." He replied, sounding forced.
Cain checked his status and saw that a spell [Forced Truth] was active on him. With a thought, Cain recorded the new arrival before he forgot. That spell alone could be fun later.
"World Dragon, leave this place. You are not welcome here. I will speak to the Matriarch and renew the Pact before her Dragons rampage again." the God insisted.
"As you wish, I will leave the mountain range immediately." Cain agreed and took to the air, letting the Elder defend himself once the shield dropped.
[This should be a show worth watching. The Matriarch hates that guy's guts, and he's not powerful enough to defeat her.] The dragon that Cain flew in on informed him as he began to fly away.
[Feel free to watch. I am pretty sure that the human who bound you is gone now.] Cain agreed.
[Yeah, he melted. Using the building as a furnace to have Immortal Fire burn through Demigod Shields was ingenious. I will have to remember it for later.] The dragon laughed, taking to the air with dozens of other dragons to follow the human toward Dragon Peak.
"Good luck with the cleanup. I would stay and clean up my mess, but you know." Cain called to the man on the ground.
"I will be happiest if I never see you again. No offense." The Elder shouted back as Cain soared over the peaks and toward the coast where they had been heading, to begin with.
A few hours later, Cain landed and let everyone out of the Battlefield, transforming back into his human form and noting that Luna had naturally returned to human as soon as the ward was broken.
He wondered what was wrong with his [Modify] ability that it didn't fool the ward. It might be the power level difference since everything else that he had come across would have considered them both as humans. The only other time he had come across a similar effect had been at the Auctions, and that spell was specifically designed to reverse the effects of active System Abilities.
Perhaps this was similar. Only it didn't force the change until you were past the barrier.
"How did it go? We can't sense the outside from in there." Penny asked.
"I Summoned Dragons to melt the meeting hall and then started a big fight before an angry guy showed up and told me to piss off." Cain summarized the interaction.
"So, we are back on our way and not prisoners of the Sect anymore?" Jen verified.
"Correct. I'm not sure how much Sect is left. I roasted most of the Elders, but there is at least one left, and some disciples for sure since the battle stopped in the middle."
"So, we are fleeing an angry god, whose Sect you melted with Dragon Fire, and whose Elders you killed, while we search for a way off this planet and onto one that has your wife?" Penny asked.
"You missed the part where we are going to find some time to practice so that you all can perfect your skills before we run out of places to visit. Fortunately, the God never saw me in human form, and he doesn't know about all of you, so he might not notice us right away if we come across him again." Cain added.
"There is a nice village in that valley. Maybe we should stop in there?" Luna suggested, pointing into the distance.
Cain let his eyes shift to the World Dragon's golden orbs, and zoom in on the village, which turned out to be a Sect compound.
The Crushing Mountain Sect. That was perfect.
"Alright, everyone, onto their flying swords. Let's go see the Crushing Mountain Sect and see what they have been up to lately. Their Elder a lot of fun the last time I met one." Cain agreed.
They glided at a sedate pace above the trees, clearly visible from the Sect, so that they couldn't be accused of trying to sneak up on anyone and approached the grounds of the Crushing Mountain Sect.
Unlike most, it wasn't a hidden Sect. It was out in the open where anyone could see it, and they just set defensive wards to keep out intruders.
"Who are you? The Dragon Lords' Guardian Divinity flew through here only moments ago, and the Sect is on high alert at the moment." The patrol Disciple informed Cain as the Sect approached.
"It is Sect Master Cain and the Forbidden Treasures Sect, passing through on our way to the coast. Your Elder at the city of knowledge suggested that we come to visit if we were in the vicinity, but I understand if now is not a good time." Cain informed them.
"Please wait for a moment. Do you know which Elder I should approach?" The Disciple asked.
"I am bad with names. The one with the new Axe that I made him. Roughly the size of the mountain the Sect is built next to." Cain shrugged.
"Oh, that's easy. I will be right back."
The young man flew away, landing in the training grounds at the center of the Sect and talking animatedly to someone, then nodding and flying back up.
"He practiced himself to exhaustion, and he is sleeping at the moment, but you are welcome to come in and get cleaned up while you wait." The Disciple offered.
"We could go visit your smiths if he isn't awake when we are cleaned up if you don't mind. The short Elder seemed interested in my Smithing techniques as well." Cain agreed, bowing politely to the Disciple.
"Of course. The Forbidden Treasures Sect is always welcome in the Crushing Mountain Sect."
The Disciples who were in the city with the first group were back at home now, and the enthusiastic waving that they did when they saw the Forbidden Treasures Sect arrive assured all of the Elders that these were not imposters but the real Sect traveling off the main roads and straight across the mountains.
"Here you are. There are two shower rooms and a bedroom if you require rest before socializing. Feel free to make yourself comfortable. It will be winter in the mountains in only a few weeks, and not many choose to travel once the blinding snows start flying."
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)