The preparations to fight the Abyssal Human were not swift. Since they had time, Tatyana and the others moved to prepare.
Tatyana, Angel, and the other maids worked on formations.
Kali made sure to create anti-corruption pills through alchemy with Valeria's and the maids' help.
Andrea, Evelyn, and Yasenia worked together with Blacksmithing, Tailoring, and Transmutation to give their extra gear anti-Abyssal energy qualities.
Cecile, together with the non-profession maids, gathered everyone's skills and prepared a battlefield, Mirrory helping as the advisor and leader.
This time, they put absolutely no brakes on their planning. If they had it, they were absolutely going to use it.
Moreover, Tatyana basically kidnapped the eight guardians. She was fearful that their ego would cause trouble, so she "kindly" escorted them out and placed them in comfortable houses. In essence, it was imprisonment. She was not going to leave anything to chance.
The guardians were somewhat offended at this. While their strength might not be high, they had the Guardian Marks, and they could also guide all 12 remaining Golden Guardians. There were 15 at first, but Yasenia destroyed two, and the girls destroyed another. So, only 12 were left.
Yasenia tapped the Transmutation Cauldron, and a bow jumped out, illuminated by a mysterious golden color. Looking at it, she waved her hand and sent the bow into her spatial ring. Her job was to use Transmutation to perfect their equipment.
"With this, all equipment is finished."
She stood up after a grueling five months of constant work without stopping the Transmutation Cauldron for even a second. She stretched her voluptuous body, her tail twisting as she groaned seductively.
The maid, who had come to check, could only stare blankly at the spectacle of Yasenia's curvy body stretching. As she released a sigh that could weaken someone's knees just hearing it, Yasenia looked sideways languidly. "Oh? You've come. Here, love, the bow."
The maid's fox tail wagged, her face blushing as she took it. "It feels perfect in my hands, Young Miss."
Yasenia laughed and hugged her tightly, burying her face in one of her ears. "Ah… I am healing with your fluffiness."
The fox maid's tail wagged rapidly, her throat making cute noises as she obsessively sniffed Yasenia's body. Hearing her deep-sniffing as she dragged her nose across her skin made Yasenia laugh. Separating a bit, she looked down and gave her nose a kiss. "Let's go. Preparations are done."
The fox maid buried her face between Yasenia's abundant bosom. "Hehehe. Young Miss… Young Miss~...."
Both of them walked out, Yasenia's fingers lovingly caressing her ears.
"Madam Yasenia."
Yasenia's pleasant mood plummeted. Even if five months had passed, her resentment had not calmed down in the slightest. On the contrary, it had only grown. Each day she spent here was a day less she spent back with Asterion.
The maid, noticing, glared over coldly with her fox eyes. "Young Miss has just stopped working, Lady Murong."
She was politely telling her to disappear because Yasenia was about to go to rest. Murong Xianyu spoke softly. "I won't take long, Madam Yasenia. Could we speak?"
Yasenia looked at her for a few seconds and spoke. "Come with me."
She didn't release her golden-furred fox maid, sitting on a chair and placing her on her lap. Her tail gently coiled around the maid's waist, as her fingers caressed her across her tail's fluffy and smooth fur.
The maid closed her eyes, becoming Yasenia's perfect hugging doll.
Murong Xianyu looked at them for a moment and then got to the point. "We want to participate."
"Denied." Yasenia didn't even hesitate for a microsecond. Looking up with cold, golden slit eyes, Yasenia spoke. "We've already prepared. Your participation will only become a hindrance. I don't care about your Guardian Mark, I don't care about your trump cards, I don't care about your golems or whatever. Anything you can do to help can't even compare to the problems that would occur if any of you fail or cause trouble."
Murong Xianyu asked, confused. "How can we become a hindrance? Even if our strengths are low, you've seen that our Golden Guardians are good front-line material."
"They are good frontline material," Yasenia admitted, but then added. "If our opponent didn't feed on Heavenly Matter to become stronger, that is. If the Abyssal Human had fallen to an Abyssal Nightmare, its devouring power would become infinitely crippled. So, those things might've helped. However, what we are facing is an Abyssal Human, albeit a quasi one. Even then, the quasi is temporary. One death, and that quasi prefix will be gone."
Yasenia had fought an Abyssal Human. Back then, it was a hard battle, one of the hardest. Moreover, the Abyssal Human she fought had just arrived and was beginning to prepare the invasion. One of the weakest types of Abyssal Human. This thing was sealed, but only after it caused a disaster in a high-level world.
If we were to compare, Yasenia fought an infant Abyssal Human, while the one in front of her was an adult one.
"So, the answer is no. I won't allow any of you to even come close to the seal. We will deal with that thing ourselves. We will then kill its pet. And then, we will leave."
Murong Xianyu looked at Yasenia with a frown. She couldn't accept it easily. She had lived her entire life for this. Practicing, going through trials, mastering Fate energy, and becoming one of the strongest in the entire place. She received a duty, a divine revelation, yet now the dragon in front of her was blocking her from actively participating in the duty she dedicated several tens of thousands of years to.
How could she accept it? It was like having your life's work completed by a random person because they insisted you were unqualified. There was basically no one who would be comfortable with such intervention.
Looking at her expression, Yasenia's eyes chilled even further. "If you participate, I won't participate. Instead of dealing with the Abyssal Human, I will use all my effort to break this place open from the inside. Even if I have to use a sacrificial formation made of all your people, I will do it."
'Either way, once I am done, I will erase whatever this civilization has built. They will become part of the Death Dunes forever.'
Feeling the truth in Yasenia's words, Murong Xianyu didn't say anything else and stood up. As she left, Yasenia hesitated. '...Should I just kill them?'
But she couldn't. Since that day, Yasenia had wanted to kill the eight guardians so they didn't do anything stupid. However, Tatyana stopped her. The reasoning is that they don't know how the seal formation will react to their death.
Even with Tatyana's monstrous expertise in formations, the one used to seal the Abyssal Human is far too complex to decipher in just a few months. If Tatyana had five years, she might've been able to do it.
However, they couldn't wait that long. Aster had been recently born, and Yasenia had already been away for far too long. Five years of absence was too much for Aster's current age.
A finger gently caressed between her furrowed brows, relaxing her muscles. Looking down, the Fox Maid smiled gently. "Do not worry, Young Miss. We can do it."
Yasenia blinked and chuckled, lowering her head to rub her cheek against hers and tighten the hug. "Thank you."
The fox maid's happy tail wag was sufficient of an answer.
***
An incredibly vast white room with nothing here.
In the distance, the edge of the seal was visible because they had marked it with a long black chain. This chain was nothing special. Something Andrea created by using an automatic furnace and some black rocks on the roadside.
The amount of Heavenly Energy it had in its entirety was less than a drop of blood from Yasenia.
Yasenia stepped forward, looking very different from usual. Her entire body was clad in a heavy, form-fitting, draconic armor. In her left hand, Yasenia carried a giant shield shining with Draheart's core at the very center. In her right hand, the war flag fluttered with her movements.
Behind her, Soluna and Dramel stood silently, their faces serious.
In this fight, after much discussion, Yasenia was going to take the absolute front line. Some of them were against it, not because of practicality, but because they didn't want to risk Yasenia.
However, Yasenia was the individual with the most powerful defensive ability amongst all of them. Draheart's form change to create an almost indestructible shield, her scales that could coat her body like heavy armor, and Yasenia's personal bodily strength.
In terms of raw defense, Yasenia's ability was unmistakably top tier.
With her armor, Yasenia looked incredibly large; each step was heavy, and golden light beyond the thin slit of her draconic helmet leaked from the sides, like gas.
The girls couldn't help but feel chills. This was probably the first time they had seen Yasenia take something so seriously after reuniting.
Tatyana looked up at her and spoke. "Are you ready, love?"
Yasenia's voice came out distorted from the gaps of her draconic helmet. "I am ready."
"Good. As planned, you will rush forward and use almost all your buffs. Once you get the Abyssal Human's attention, everyone else will step forward."
Yasenia nodded and took a deep breath. The feeling of her breasts pressing against the cold and hard scaled armor brought her a sense of calmness. "Alright, Abyssal Human. Let's start."
The armor's plates clung to her dragon tail, also covered in blue-scaled plate armor, swinging her behind. As she leaned forward to dash ahead, Yasenia looked more like an armored beast than a human.
In that position, Yasenia used all her buffing skills one after another.
First, her defensive buffs.
"[Celestial Dragon Body], [Heavenly Firmament Sanctuary], [Celestial Cosmos Dress], [Crystalline Moon Dress]."
The last two skills were woven with the armor, further increasing its already monstrous defensive power.
Then, Yasenia's strength-boosting skills.
"Dramel, start playing. [Heavenly Constellation Steps, Second Sky: Ursa's Grap], [Immortal Breaker Body], [Celestial Tyrant Soul Unshackled], [Firmament Soul Sword], [Everlasting War Calamity Battle Flag: Endless Slaughter]."
The world around Yasenia's body bloated, space cracking into pieces as black lines stretched around her body.
Inside her body, her constitution, bloodline, dragon core, heart, and the treasures in her dantian began rotating as well.
Her already monstrous strength further multiplied, causing the world to scream as it couldn't resist the sheer pressure currently unleashed by the dragon woman.
"[Fairy Moon Steps], [Pegasus Gallop], [Star Pierce]."
Yasenia's leg muscles bulged up, beautifully pressing against her skin, and with a tremendous stomp, Yasenia pointed her flag forward and locked onto the Abyssal Human in the distance.
The instant she did, the abomination of flesh turned around to look straight in Yasenia's direction.
SCREE—
"Shut up."
Yasenia tore through distance itself, appearing right in front of it, her flag raised high as her golden draconic eyes looked down onto it with brutal, murderous intent. "Today is your death day, abomination. [Sun's Crushing Blow]."
BOOM!!!!