Chapter 1210: Trusting One Above

Eira slowly nodded.

Phei folded his arms while staring into the storm. "He might actually be the weakest person in the army he’s bringing with him tonight."

That statement still sounded ridiculous after all Danton was a Saint Stage cultivator, already around ten stages beyond Phei, and somehow he would still be entering this operation surrounded by beings vastly stronger than himself. The Chained World Transcendents Eira had sensed stood another terrifying distance above even that.

"But you taught me raw cultivation isn’t everything," Phei continued. "Danton has something those World Transcendents probably don’t."

"Experience," Eira answered. "An obscene amount of it."

Another frozen meteor tore through the clouds.

This one struck much closer, the entire world flashed blue-white.

Phei’s flowing robe snapped violently in the pressure wave as an impact several kilometers away threw a colossal crown of shattered ice into the sky. Fragments began raining over the wasteland moments later, pieces ranging from fist-sized shards to enormous boulders crashing into the plains and exploding into frozen powder.

One particularly large piece fell directly toward them; Consort looked up.

The ice mass was easily the size of a mansion but she did nothing even as it descended with a scream.

Then, several hundred meters above them, some invisible pressure touched it and the entire frozen boulder was split cleanly down the middle. Both halves crashed harmlessly to either side of the trio, sending enormous waves of powdered snow rolling past them.

Consort lowered her eyes again.

Still bored.

Phei glanced at her.

Yeah.

Bringing her had been a very good idea.

"Danton has been alive for hundreds of thousands of years," he continued, "possibly millions. He’s fought people stronger than him, weaker than him, smarter than him, stupider than him, and probably survived enough betrayals and wars to make our current problems look like a mildly inconvenient weekend."

Eira’s lips tightened slightly she knew Phei too hated giving Danton credit, she knew that which made every word he said even more important.

"Power can be dealt with," Phei said. "At least sometimes. Experience is harder. Danton knows how people fight. He knows how they panic, how they adapt, where they expose themselves when they think they’re winning. He’ll be watching everything while the others attack and fight with us."

The wind screamed around them again, dragging sheets of snow across the plain.

Far away, an entire glacier collapsed beneath another meteor strike.

For several seconds, the horizon disappeared behind rising white ruin.

Phei’s eyes remained fixed upon it: "He’s crafty enough to attack exactly when I’m occupied with someone stronger. I could be trying to touch one of those World Transcendents, and Danton could come from somewhere I’m not watching. Or he could realize what I’m doing after the first one goes down and start directing everyone else around my abilities."

Eira understood immediately.

The World Transcendents were swords but Danton was the hand deciding where the swords fell.

Phei finally turned toward her. "I know you know why we need a World Transcendent on our side even without me explaining, Eira?"

She nodded, of course she did! Consort hadn’t appeared where Phei was by mistake or just because she was watching him for her Mistress: "Yes, Master." she said like she had nothing to do with it.

Her gaze shifted toward Consort.

The Head Maid remained several meters away with her hands still akimbo, staring toward the white abyss stretching across the horizon. Another storm front was approaching behind her, a wall of snow so vast it looked capable of swallowing mountains, and yet she appeared more inconvenienced by the conversation than by the climate.

The short kimono still barely covered the full, heavy curve of her ass, the thin fabric straining across her breasts with every unhurried breath, pink hair whipping behind her like a banner that refused to acknowledge the end of the world.

"She would indeed be a very useful card hidden up our sleeve," Eira admitted. "If Consort occupies Danton throughout this whole ordeal, he loses the freedom to interfere with you. She is stronger than him, so she can keep him busy, pressure him and pin his attention on herself without killing him while you deal with the World Transcendents."

Phei nodded slowly.

That was exactly the idea.

He did not need Consort to defeat Danton even if she could, or maybe she couldn’t it, who knew?

He only needed her to remove him from the board.

If Danton spent the entire battle defending himself against someone at the World Transcendent Realm, then he would have considerably less time to study Phei’s antics and shenanigans to, expose Phei’s weaknesses or interfere at precisely the wrong moment.

Consort could become an enormous wall between Danton and everything Phei intended to attempt.

Which was important because Phei already had enough absurdity scheduled for tonight.

Trying to use Lust Reality on World Transcendents was dangerous enough but trying to Void Step between them without becoming an elegant red stain across the Coffer was worse.

Doing both while Danton watched from the side and waited for the exact instant Phei committed too deeply to escape?

That sounded like a marvelous way to become a cautionary tale taught to Young Dragons later.

Eira looked toward Consort again.

The fairy’s expression changed.

"But can we even trust..."

Phei shook his head before she finished: "I understand."

Eira looked back toward him.

"I understand your concerns about trusting Consort." Phei’s gaze drifted toward the Head Maid.

Consort must have heard every word.

She gave absolutely no indication that she cared a violent gust rushed through the wasteland, carrying thousands of tiny ice shards between them. Phei’s Void-Ice stirred automatically, causing the fragments approaching him and Eira to lose their momentum and drift harmlessly around them.

"Don’t get me wrong, my sweet fairy," he said. "I don’t trust her."

Eira’s brows rose slightly.

"Or her Master."

That earned the smallest movement from Consort.

Her eyes shifted toward him.

Only briefly.

Phei noticed.

Naturally.

His lips curved faintly.

"But do you know what I trust?"

Eira thought for a moment.

Around them, winter continued trying to murder a world already thoroughly dead. Another chain of frozen meteorites crossed the sky, each enormous enough to leave blue-white scars behind the clouds. Glacial cliffs broke in the distance, their fragments tumbling into bottomless ravines while the approaching blizzard finally struck the wasteland and swallowed everything beyond a few dozen meters.

Within that raging white hell, Eira looked up at her Master.

"The One Above?"

Phei shook his head.

"Yes and no." He turned his eyes toward Consort before looking once more into the storm.

"I do trust One Above’s grand scheme whatever it is, so much for Consort to no antagonize us or do anything against us."