Chapter 1150: Dawn (3) A flurry of activity began underneath the dome of the nameless grand city, as billions of Blood Blessed, following precise instructions from the one million Elder leading them from each branch to complete the fortification that would be used for their defenses. Due to their unique manufacturing processes that needed no raw materials or precise toolings, the process of building these massive structures went by lightning quick, and it was a marvel to behold such a grand sight appearing from thin air like a collective dream being brought to life, and this was the best method to describe what they were doing. Being this close to the dome, the effect of the red sun was more pronounced, but their collective Aura as they worked together brought about a harmony of spirit that shielded them from the majority of the detrimental impact from the glow of Hate. For the more staunch of heart among them, this glow became fuel for the refinement of their bloodline, and the work on the fortifications was being constantly briefly delayed by multiple Blood Blessed reaching a higher level in their cultivation. In nine hours, the one hundred fortifications were complete, and they all resembled a seven- petaled flower, clustered heavily around the center of the city with the Ascension Spear at the center. There were barely two hundred million Blood Blessed below in the valley, mostly women and children whose combat power was low. They were not idle, as they were making medical supplies in case of drastic injuries that the bodies of the golden giants could not easily heal from. The difference between life and death could be a slight margin, and if they could contribute in any way to shift the odds towards life for even a single Blood Blessed, then they believed nothing of their work was wasted. The decision was made to concentrate all the available resources to guide only a small area of the city, disregarding the rest, only concentrated in a small area could they make any meaningful impact, and in a short while, everyone had settled into their position and without any further instructions, they began to create. Nearly two years of practice meant that every Blood Blessed knew how to hold firm mental imagery in their heads and the mental fortitude to push through distractions and endure pain. Every Blood Blessed, man, woman, and child, sat down cross-legged, and in front of them, a tiny golden flame appeared that slowly began to grow as it was being fed with creation grass. The creation grass was slowly inserted into the flame with fierce concentration because the flame was not burning the grass, the grass was becoming the flame. The nature of this flame was wild and it would take everything inside of every Blood Blessed, not just to create the flames, but also to preserve and grow it. This would test them like nothing has ever done before, but failure was not an option. The flames had barely grown to the size of an apple before the weakest among them, which were the children, began to bleed from every orifice in their heads. They fought on, the restorative properties of their bodies ensuring they could last far longer than any of them had the right to, but after three hours of this, they began to fall into deep unconsciousness, they had used every iota of resources in their bodies. However, the moment they were about to lose consciousness they would carefully pass their nurtured flame to the person next to them, doing this with care and reverence. "This is as far as I can go." "It is enough, I shall carry on in your stead. Your sacrifice brings us closer to victory." It was with a smile that these children fell into unconsciousness, they had played their part, and they believed in the strength of their people. R This golden flame was none other than the unique bloodline flame that could be summoned when the Blood Blessed transformed into their golden giant form. During the battle with Storm Hammer, the Blood Blessed had discovered two properties of their bloodline that were both offensive and defensive. What made these attributes amazing was their versatility and sheer power that exceeded their present level, and they were regarded as the core ability of their bloodline. The offensive portion of this discovery was the Golden Flame. Even the weakest golden giant was physically stronger than any Ascendant, but all that strength was useless if they could not affect these spiritual beings, as they had soon discovered when they fought Storm Hammer, but there was something inside their blood that seemed to be able to affect anything, and that was the golden flame. Their bodies produced a finite amount of these flames, and the stronger a golden giant became, the more flames that could be naturally generated by their flesh. Against Storm Hammer, it would not have mattered if there were a billion golden giants there with her, without those flames, she would hardly have lost any Core Aura during the battle. The battle that took hours would have gone on for millions of years before they would have been able to slowly chew through Storm Hammer's Core Aura. Upon reviewing Rowan's memories of the event, Lost realized that these "golden flames" were not flames, that was a rather simplistic method of looking at this energy, instead, they were the greed of the Primordial Ouroboros being expressed in its most limited form. A form that only the bodies of these Blood Blessed could contain. The Blood Blessed were truly exceptionally lucky in a manner because when Rowan was killed by this World's Will, his bloodline went dormant, which made it easier for the mortals to integrate with them. With his awakening, so too did his bloodline, but Rowan deliberately slowed this process in order to give every Blood Blessed the chance to be the true children of the Primordial Ouroboros. From the mortal state to becoming a golden giant was a constant refinement of their bloodline and bodies to accept higher forms of energy, and when they had completed the seven-pointed star in their hearts, they would be able to fully merge with their Primordial Ouroboros nature and their flesh would become Empyrean, Rowan's Empyrean. Lost had discovered this secret as he assessed Rowan's plan as he had watched these golden giants in combat. Like the universe, Rowan was creating his personal Empyreans, and the Blood Blessed were his first candidates. Any normal species in the universe would not be able to follow this process to become stronger because Rowan's bloodline was too domineering. Yet the unique nature of the bodies of the mortals on Doom Star that gave them the capability of transforming into spiritual beings at their ascension, gave them the capability of enduring the transformation into an Empyrean. The Primordial Ouroboros had the ability to devour everything, even Concepts like darkness, and so too was the greed inside the body of the Blood Blessed. The plan was simple, if they could create enough of these golden flames, they could eat the attack coming towards their city. This could work, but the scale and power behind the attack were enormous, and congregating all the Blood Blessed in one region was to help activate the second part of their talent, which was their body's innate force field and their rather peculiar ability to resist the effect of Time.