Snake 22, Year 8693 of the Grand Wulin Era, Hou Minzgzhou

Aelia screamed, apparently extremely upset that her opponent had tried to cripple her dominant arm. The Phoenix Manifestation cloaking her screamed too, and the two voices made a weird, unpleasant harmony. As she did, the flames around her got thicker, seeming almost solid, and the eyes of the phoenix began to resemble hers, glaring at Regulus with a gaze full of intense hate. The wound on her shoulder began to slowly heal, the flesh visibly crawling as it did so.

"Why do you keep fighting, Regulus Septimus,when you know you cannot win? Even if you can keep wounding me like this, I can cripple or kill you first. Unless you use that move that you were still experimenting with last I saw you, you can't win. The power of the Phoenix strengthens both my fire and my healing abilities more than it used to, so if this drags on I will win."

n response, the lightning cloaking Regulus shaped itself into another bird, the Thunderbird of the White Tiger Continent, far to the west. The Thunderbird and the Bennu seemed to fuse, like the the lightning and fire on his swords had. From how powerful these manifestations were and how they'd fused so effortlessly, he must have studied Thunderbirds and Bennu a lot, and have a high level of insight into Fire and Lightning Dao. A lot of time and energy had gone into a sword art like this, especially since he had created it himself.

Aelia floated up into the air, the flames around her sword shaped themselves into two phoenixes , and the swords themselves were glowing white-hot, somehow managing to not melt under the intense heat. It looked like a pretty scary attack,and it was pretty flashy, but could she hit him with it? As I thought about that, she reached the peak of her flight and began to dive, the Phoenix Manifestation making her vaguely resemble an actual phoenix diving down to attack. Regulus flew up into the air to meet her, the weird combo-bird aura surrounding him shaping itself onto his swords as well. His flight was slightly unsteady, as he hadn't yet practiced it after his breakthrough to the Mana Sea stage, but it was enough that it didn't weaken his attack. as the four swords met, and lightning, fire, and the pure power of physical strength and mana met, the resulting reaction was an explosion that forced Aelia back so far she slammed into an unfortunate tree at the peak of Mist Sea nearby, shattering a large hole into its trunk and catching it on fire. Regulus ended up smashing into another, unfortunate tree, but that one got off a little better, 'cause it didn't start burning.

They were both covered in bark, wood, and sap, and honestly looked ridiculous. Both parties were stunned a bit by the sheer force of the explosion and the collisions with their respective trees, so they both took a little time to gather their wits and catch a breath. They both extracted themselves from the trees, not noticing that the other fights were all over by now.

The Warriors Ted and Kellan had faced had given up, understanding that these two Magic Beasts were too strong for them to handle, and the two Mages had surrendered, and were chatting with Dmitri about the finer points of spellcasting. Avarius was currently trying to cool down the poor burning tree with a blast of ice, while Alex was preparing some nature and healing magic to heal the trees and enable them to survive the battle. Everyone kept their eyes on Regulus and Aelia's fight, but it seemed like nobody was going to get involved unless absolutely necessary, as their clash was something intensely personal and private. They flew up above the trees, almost to the border of where my Divine Sense could reach, but not out of sight. As they flew up, the sap dried and the bark and wood on their bodies began to burn away from the intense heat surrounding them.

They clashed again, with fairly similar results but instead of hitting trees they created human-shaped craters in the ground, with the walls and bottom of the craters superheated into glass. Well,at least partially glass, cause I think the heat vaporized the organic parts of the dirt they'd slammed into. They rose out of the human-shaped craters, ascending rapidly, covered in dirt and ash. They were both battered and bruised, the sets of armor they'd worn mostly destroyed by the explosions they'd managed to survive, and the clothes underneath not doing much better. They had used a lot of mana and energy in those intense strikes, and they were starting to tire out. Both of them were looking for openings, trying to make a decisive strike. Smoke had begun to fill the clearing from all the fire that had been thrown around, but it didn't inconvenience us, as cultivators, as much as it would normal mortals, as our bodies were a lot better at filtering the toxins out of the smoke before they could damage things like lungs much. Similar things to that were also why things like poison had to become even more toxic and sneaky to hurt powerful cultivators.

They charged at each other again, the flames and lightning seeming a lot dimmer than before, and the swords in Aelia's hands had cooled to a red-orange color. Even their respective bird manifestations seemed duller and less defined, as is they were about to break apart into more of the smoke that surrounded us. They both seemed to decide that this would be the last clash, and charged towards each other, one sword each aimed at the other's neck and the other at the waist. Regulus knocked away the sword aimed at his neck, and the sword aimed at his waist managed to stab into his stomach as he knocked her other sword flying, the edge of his own sword, no longer surrounded by electricity or flame, pressed against her neck. Just enough for her to feel the edge, not quite enough to draw blood. He was severely injured, but one move from him and she'd die, even if he had to die with her.

As they silently stared at each other, a man who looked about 30, dressed in the armor of a General of the Sol Magna Empire, appeared about two feet from them. His body radiated a terrifying aura, one I knew from having seen Alex's parents fight before to be the aura of the stage above Shard Formation, Crystal Soul. He waved his hand, and as the sword flew out of Regulus's belly, the wound, and the others on his body, rapidly closing and healing as we watched. The sword on Aelia's neck left Regulus's hand and flew back to the sheath on his back, as Aelia's flew into the hands of the man. The wounds she'd taken during the fight closed rapidly too. The two were forced about 30 feet back, so that they couldn't lunge at each other.I had no idea who the man was, but from their expressions, the two who's fight had just been stopped did know him, and neither seemed very happy to see him.

"Grandpa, you saved me! Thank you, but can you capture that damned traitor Regulus Septimus for me?" Aelia said, put ting on a cute & sweet face, as if she wanted to trick the old man into thinking she was in the right.

The older man, who I now realized was General Quintus Maximus Optimus of the Sun Striders, the general who'd allowed Regulus's life to be ruined, glared at his granddaughter.

"Shut your lying mouth, little girl. It has already ruined 40 lives and chased away a very promising young officer, I will not have your brattiness and entitlement hurt others any longer. We're going home, and you're gonna learn some lessons about humility, compassion, love, empathy.. you know, those things you're normally good at faking when I'm around or your parents are?" The old man's eyes and tone of voice carried the severe disappointment he was feeling towards his wayward granddaughter.

"But I didn't do anything wrong! He deserved it, and they all deserved it for helping h-" Her mouth suddenly closed, and she looked terrified.

"I said to shut up. You're going to learn how to be a better person, but first we must decide what is to be done with the people in these interesting walnuts and with young Regulus, who our whole empire has let down."He paused, then turned to Regulus.What do you think, Regulus Septimus? The families of you and those who left with you are safe and doing well, hidden from the wrath of my foolish offspring."

Regulus sat there for a while, thinking. It looked like he had a lot to say to General Optimus, and he seemed to be crying?

"I have a lot of thoughts, sir, if you will honor them by listening." Regulus said, staring at General Optimus.