1794 Twilight

"The battle seems to be going poorly," Hao Ya said as she and Liz made their way to the final of the 8 consoles.

Liz looked to the sky, a worried look clear on her face. She had seen people dying above her, a lot of them soldiers from the Southern Continent. She had seen Hannah and Alex go fight who she now understood to be the Dragon Emperor and then get caught within a group of strong opponents, seemingly unable to find a way out.

Multiple times throughout the day her heart sank in her chest and a cold tingle passed through her spine, but thankfully the kids were still alive.

But for how long would that be? She didn't know.

Minute after minute, more and more soldiers were arriving to aid the Dragon Emperor, while the people who came to aid Alex were few and far in-between.

They needed help.

They needed her and Hao Ya to do their job quickly.

"Finally, there," Hao Ya spoke as they came across the final console. Within seconds, Hao Ya was kneeling before the console, working on it as fast as she could.

There was nobody who was free enough to search for them, but Liz still kept hold of the three talismans in her hand and looked to the sky where the battle continued.

The terrible battle rained upon the world blood and death that anyone had rarely ever seen before, if not never for the past 5 thousand years.

Death was on both sides of the war as well as the cries of the survivors. Some lost their hands, some their leg. Some were missing eyes and ears, and some had a hole through the side of their torso that they tried to fix by eating a pill.

It was terrible all around.

All except for the Dragon Emperor. That man stood in the sky, watching over the entire battle without actually taking part in it.

Why would he? If things continued like this, he was definitely going to win.

Liz cursed the man with all her heart.

Time was slow for her at the moment, both her and Hao Ya. She had been constantly keeping a field of slowed time around her using her Dao, which no one was able to sense at all.

Using the slowed time to their advantage, Hao Ya had been working a lot faster than what it would have normally taken her to complete this whole thing.

What felt like a few minutes passed for Liz while the battle above them continued all the same.

She could see her daughter fighting an older woman who attacked with frost arrows from far away. She saw Alex fighting someone who used some sort of fire artifact.

Her brother fought off to the side against someone as well and seemed to be somewhat struggling with it. There were wounds on his body, but he managed it for now.

Even the young man, who she was starting to come around to as being her Son-in-law, was busy fighting some weaker fighters far away.

"How much longer?" Liz asked.

"A few more minutes," Hao Yao said without breaking focus. "I'm right about done with this."

Liz continued waiting.

Just as Hao Ya requested, a few more minutes passed, with each minute getting them closer and closer to completing the entire thing.

As she did that, Liz suddenly sensed a strong energy up above her and turned to look.

In the sky, an explosion of some sort was sending ripples toward them.

Hao Ya had to force herself to stop as well and looked up to see the source of the ripple. There were many clashes that caused explosions and sent shockwaves, but this one was very close to them.

And this one was made by Immortal attacks.

When the shockwaves reached Liz and Hao Ya, they were forced to instantly put up everything they could to protect themselves.

As neither of the two were in the Saint Transformation realm yet, the force that rained down on them was strong enough that if they weren't careful, they would die.

Liz could only put up the most basic of defenses, but Hao Ya was different. A small palm-sized flat ring appeared on her hand which she quickly threw out before them.

The ring suddenly expanded as it moved away from them and the four quarters of the ring moved in four different directions, creating a beautiful golden barrier at the center.

The force of the shockwave hit the artifact and suddenly vanished as though completely made inert by the artifact.

The two girls were safe, but in protecting themselves, they had revealed themselves completely to anyone who was paying attention.

There were quite a few people who were mostly free in the battle. All they were doing was staying next to someone in an array to empower just one person.

One of them noticed their treasure and his senses came down toward them.

Hao Ya and Liz were still, but this time the person was looking for them. In a teleportation field that was supposed to be completely empty, they stood out like a sore thumb.

The man pointed toward them and shouted something that was completely drowned by the various explosions. Within moments, several other people noticed them as well and a group of people split off from the array, coming down for them.

"They found us," Liz said urgently to Hao Ya.

Hao Ya looked up with a frown. "I'm so close," she said.

"I'll handle those who I can," Liz said, putting away the talismans. There was no point in holding to that anymore. "Make sure to keep yourself safe."

Hao Ya nodded.

Liz stopped the Time Dao she was using on Hao Ya and fully focused on herself.

She took a deep breath and pulled out her sword. It was a thin blade, similar to her daughter's, but the handle of the sword was slightly different as it was carved to look like a curved hourglass.

Twilight.

Liz activated her Time Dao to speed up time for herself such that everything else appeared very slow.

Then, she took off.

The Dao of Temporal Stagnation was the first Dao she had ever learned of the three Time Daos and was the one she was most proficient with.

As such, she liked using it much more than any of the other ones.

Time seemed to come to a relative stop for everyone but her as Liz flew through the sky at what the others perceived to be near instantaneous movement.

Liz arrived right in front of the first person, and even as he pulled up his sword, hers was already upon him.

She carved through the man's chest, leaving a large gash behind. The man screamed out in pain from the wound, and as Liz moved away, his voice grew distant and slow.

Unfortunately, she was a little too weak to kill him in one strike.

Fortunately, she wasn't done just yet.

Liz quickly turned back around and drove her sword through the back of the man, forcing the blade into the man's heart as his screams came into sound once again.

The man coughed a mouth full of blood, and as Liz pulled the sword back out, he slid away from her, falling down slowly as Liz moved away from him and went for the others.