Eleanora Dragon

In a room of a rather luxurious inn in Longxin City, a middle-aged Imperial Han Family member exhaled an exhausted sigh. He took off his shoes and jacket, then dropped straight down on the bed, burying his head in the plentiful pillows. Contrary to others of his kind, there were no slaves welcoming him home, and he was all alone.

"... it should be about time. The bait has been cast, and I have all possible intel. Goodbye, cruel world!"

With a pained, yet relieved smile on his lips, he closed his eyes and nodded off, as if falling into a deep slumber. However, his physical form soon dissipated into a gentle light, vanishing from the spot entirely. The only proof that he had ever been there were the clothes left behind and the depressions on the bed.

Nobody noticed his disappearance until later in the day, when an employee knocked on the door and asked him what he wanted for dinner. Yet, even though him being spirited away caused quite the panic, nobody in the entire imperial court could figure out what had occurred, or stop the soft glow from leaving this world–not that anybody had noticed it, of course.

Travelling through the Lesser True Void at the speed of light, it paused for a moment, as if observing something in the distance, then resumed its journey. Eventually, it descended into another state of this Han Empire and made its way directly towards the biggest active volcano in all of the lands. Diving straight into its crater, it followed the magma-filled tunnels underground, until it arrived at the most central and also hottest spot that the entire world had to offer.

There, a slender figure was sitting cross-legged, completely submerged in the molten rock, yet undisturbed by its tide-like movements. Her long, violet-red hair was floating directly within the magma, yet entirely unblemished, just like the rest of her body and clothes. Despite wearing what looked to be a hybrid of a white dress and silver plate armour, making her appear like a kind of noble warrior princess, her heavenly looks and figure couldn't be fully hidden underneath her garments. It was a pity that there was nobody to appreciate them... as in this entire world–the Gulong State–everyone but her and a few surviving civilians... was dead.

The gentle light continued onwards undeterred, until finally fusing into her forehead, rousing her from her focused state of cultivation soon after. For a while, she frowned in displeasure, a terrifying power welling up inside of her. The minute traces of it which leaked out caused the magma to roil, eventually slightly shaking the entire world. Here and there, some of the volcanoes erupted, raining down destruction and fertile ash upon their surroundings.

Before the disaster could escalate any further, she had already retracted all of her Energy again and had returned to utter calm. Opening her eyes, what were revealed were golden-violet pupils of a nearly diamond shape–the only physical aspect of her which was not entirely like that of a 'regular' human.

'... these vermin always get my blood boiling. Having one of my clones become one of them while he was undercover may have allowed me to learn all that I needed, but it's also crammed many disturbing memories into my mind.'

Shaking her head to disperse the vestiges of regret, Eleanora of the Dragon Family focused on the gains which she had made. Due to having been unable to allow her clone to rise too highly in this Han Empire's hierarchy in a little less than a year, there were naturally some secretive matters which she hadn't even heard about. However, there was still a lot to unpack.

Contrary to what most would have suspected, after wrestling this world from the clutches of the Hans, she had not stayed cooped up in here. Instead, relying on her clones, she had begun to gather information about this Han Empire and beyond. Additionally, many of her plans for the future were already progressing at a steady pace. With plenty of life-saving measures successfully laid out, she could soon move more boldly.

But hadn't her initial battle with the Imperial Han Family been a considerably daring move at the time? Not really. Not only had they never been a real threat, but she had not even acted herself. Instead, she had used her Talent to its utmost to speedily create an incredibly powerful clone, which had then taken centre stage and shocked her hated enemies to the core.

At that time, her true body had still been extremely weak and fragile, exactly like those of other Heaven's Chosen. Yet with everyone believing her clone to be a real person, nobody had even considered that she might have been ever so slightly bluffing. But to be fair, the combat power which she had been able to access had never been a lie–she simply hadn't allowed anybody to learn about the fact that there was a weakness which they could have potentially exploited.

By now, however, all of that was a thing of the past. Even if someone overcame all of her clones, they would find out that she was considerably more of a headache to deal with than them. Coming from a Supreme Pillar–although she was not the most favoured heir amongst her family–she had naturally been taught plenty of Array Formation knowledge. Utilizing her skills, she had gathered a chunk of this world's Energy Veins down here and laid out a massive Compound Array which had allowed her to cultivate quickly and stably, as well as reach considerable heights.

Having just broken through into the Dawning Numen Stage's Tenacity Realm, she had unfortunately come as far as she possibly could before the one-year countdown that she had set for this Han Empire's destruction was up. But like this, currently, there should not be many who could rival her.

'I'm not sure whether to call it good or bad luck, but it seems there might be at least a very powerful Pillar descendant here in this Vermin Empire with me. Depending on who they are, I can either try to recruit them or eliminate them in the cradle. But if it's another Supreme Pillar heir like me... then I'll need to tread carefully. I can at least send a clone to find out the details and make contact–that way, the losses will be minimal should anything go irredeemably awry. It'll all come down to from which family they're from...'

The relationships between the numerous Supreme Pillars were rather complex. Each of them had their own nemeses, various ones that they were moderately hostile to on occasion, some fair-weather friends and opportunistic associates, as well as true, steadfast, eternal alliances. Obviously, every individual would also have their own thoughts, therefore simply because one's families were extremely close, that didn't mean that their descendants wouldn't be at each other's throats. However, it was at least a good baseline to root one's initial judgements of the situation in.

'That observer in the Lesser True Void is a bit more troublesome, as it implies the involvement of another Supreme Pillar heir and their people... or that of someone who lucked out and got such a Talent. If it's the latter, then it won't be an issue, and they could even be beaten into submission. But the likelihood of the former is far higher. I should prepare some more clones and spread them out in a wider net, just in case.'

Having not one but two individuals which could potentially threaten her in her immediate surroundings this shortly after the first round's beginning made her want to fall speechless and complain about her bad luck. Yet, she knew that doing so was a complete waste of time. There was still a chance that things weren't as bad as she suspected them to be–but even if they were, she didn't need to be afraid.

She had never been one to back down from a fight and was rather confident in her chances of making it to the end of the entire Heavenly Succession. Winning it would be a different matter, but eking out some sort of survival until then should be in the cards, even if she didn't join under anyone's banner.

'... I've decided. I'll send a clone to... the Chulong World. Out of all of the three, it seems to be the best location to set up a base.'

Naturally, she wouldn't do anything as outrageously stupid as dispatching one of her clones to each of the three other worlds which had 'fallen'. After all, that would directly expose a part of one of her trump cards–why would she do such a thing?

Instead, the one that she would reveal would be indistinguishable from the real her, to further disguise the true nature of the aces up her sleeve. If she was wrong and the one who had taken down the three worlds wasn't in the place she suspected, then she would simply spend a little bit more time to knock on the doors of the other two worlds.

'As much as I want to get rid of this Vermin Empire, I'll need to ascertain the attitudes of those on the sidelines first. The one who took down the three states shouldn't be opposed to the eradication of the Hans, but for anything other than that, we'll have to wait and see. As for the stalker in the void...'

A bloodthirsty grin stole itself on her lips, causing the world to shudder once more. By now, the plentiful clouds of ash had made vast parts of the landscape fall into darkness.

'There is no need to be polite. I'll simply get rid of their 'eyes' here first, to send a message and see how they react. Depending on how many locations that they pay attention to, I may not even meet them this round.'

Gathering herself again, she returned to a tranquil state and closed her eyes once more. Focusing to the extreme, a warm, soft glow was exuded from her entire being, slowly converging together and forming an egg-like shape in front of her. Eventually, the egg 'hatched', revealing an exact replica of herself, down to the very soul.

Opening her eyes at the same time as her clone, the two of them looked at each other, before exchanging a confident smile. This second her was perfectly aware of her role, and of the fact that she would return to be a part of her real self again once her mission was complete. There was no danger of a clone supplanting the original, because not only did one originate from the other, but it would also return to it. There was no new, separate identity, and no loss of it upon coming back into the fold.

Nodding at her true self, the clone rose to her feet and rushed upwards, expertly navigating the labyrinthine magma veins. Seconds later, she burst out of the mouth of a volcano, then rushed to the furthest boundary of the Gulong World. Stopping right in front of where the Lesser True Void would begin, she recalled the specific Energy signature of the observer which she had sensed, then slapped out her hand and sent a brief surge of light into the separator of worlds.

Contrary to the warm and gentle one from before, this one exuded a scorching heat akin to a supernova and was condensed to close to a singular, nanoscopic point. For some reason, even the Lesser True Void could not hinder its progress whatsoever. As if it knew directly where it needed to go, it homed in on Hercyna's Void Sentry, despite the fact that it had long moved far away from where it had been previously.

Seconds later, a golden-haired Celestial Fox paled a little, before hurriedly contacting her Young Mistress to report this development. At the same time, a slight smile lit up the face of Eleanora's clone.

'With that taken care of, it's time to meet my neighbour.'

Setting up a complicated Compound Array centred around its teleportation capabilities with relative ease, about an hour later, she was ready to hit the road. Having properly put in the coordinates, she set them directly to where she knew Chulong City's original Teleportation Array to be.

With a slight wave of her hand, she sent a surge of Energy through her creation, yet she didn't initiate a transfer. Instead, she utilized it to transmit a signal commonly used by Pillar Families and above to make contact via their Arrays.

In layman's terms and putting it as straightforwardly as possible: It was the Array Formation expert's equivalent of knocking on their peer's door, carrying no hostile intent. It also bore a seal of the Dragon Family, which was impossible to fake.

For a minute or two, she patiently waited in silence. Then, there finally was a response.