Death... and me

Then again, Tilte was right about one thing. Erla had to pass the Pressure Realm test or fail by crushing her badge and get teleported out. She couldn’t die in the Pressure Realm.

Back in that same Pressure Realm, Erla had finally recovered her energy after what happened. “I think we can go again. However, I’m having a hard time figuring out the changes my body went through. My flow of Divine Energy in the battle formation will probably be all over the place.”

Rean nodded in response. “That’s to be expected. Don’t worry. Let’s go back to Kentucky and Celis’ group first. We need to fetch Habac since he’s the one with experience in these tests.”

Min couldn’t help but ask, “But how will you even find him? We went our separate ways quite some time ago. I doubt they’re still in the same place.”

Rean smiled in response, saying, “Don’t worry, I know where to find them. We just need to be careful on our way there.”

Sure enough, around two hours later, Rean’s group saw Kentucky and the others again. Well, Rean had the connection with Kentucky, Celis, and Roan, so it was obvious that they found the other party. “Phew… finally caught up to you guys. Hey, Habac. How have you been?”

Habac didn’t look very well, though. It was as if he had been under a huge amount of stress since Rean and Min left. “I-I’m… I’m fine…” During the last few hours, Habac felt the eyes of the demon beasts all over his body. It was as if they would attack him at the very first opportunity. Not to mention that a lot of them had higher cultivations than his own.

Rean smiled in response. “Oh, is that so? Then I guess we don’t need to keep going together. I’ll leave you with Kentucky and the others.”

“No! Wait! I don’t wanna stay here!” Habac immediately panicked.

“Hahaha!” Rean laughed out loud after hearing that. “I’m joking, I’m joking. My group also needs your experience. Plus, we need a fourth member for the battle formation.”

Kentucky didn’t like it, though. “What do you mean you don’t wanna stay here? Didn’t I treat you very well?”

Since Kentucky, the Divine Demon Beast, got angry, all the other demon beasts got angry at him as well. Because of that, they all looked at Habac with murderous eyes. As long as Kentucky gave the order, they would ignore everything and attack Habac.

Habac sweated buckets as he tried to explain himself. “T-That’s not what I meant. I… I just want to pass the test with my own group. I don’t want to be carried by others like what you’re doing. It’s not the objective of the test… yes, that’s definitely it!”

Kentucky’s expression finally got better after that. “Oh! So that’s how it is.” He then patted Habac’s back with his wing. “That’s a good mindset. Seems like you learned a lot while you stayed with my group. Well done, well done. I’ll let you go with Rean.”

Rean didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after hearing that. He could totally tell that Kentucky was messing around with Habac. How could he not tell Habac’s feelings? “Alright, thank you, Celis, Kentucky. We finished everything we needed to do.”

Celis looked at Rean and said, “So, how did this woman suddenly turn into a Divine Demon Beast?”

Sure enough, Celis and Kentucky noticed the power of Erla’s bloodline. They recognized her, but they were sure she wasn’t a Divine Demon Beast the last time they met. 

Rean then organized his thoughts and sent the explanation to those two through a Divine Sense message. 

Naturally, Celis and Kentucky were surprised by what they heard. “So Divine Demon Beasts also have rankings, huh?”

Rean nodded, saying, “Indeed. Where in the ranking do you guys think you’re in at the moment?”

Kentucky pondered a bit as he felt Erla’s bloodline. “Hmm… we haven’t seen many Divine Demon Beasts, so we can’t make a comparison. However, the power of her bloodline is just slightly, very slightly below Celis and me. Perhaps it’s because she has just become a Divine Demon Beast. Or perhaps this is the true power of her bloodline already. Now that I think about it, the bloodline power of the Divine Demon Beast back in the Huring Sacred Land was much lower than mine.”

Celis agreed with Kentucky, continuing, “Kentucky is right. However, it’s possible to make a better comparison. For example, the Divine Demon Beasts back on the Zasfins’ planet had different bloodline powers. The Phoenix and the Black Tortoise were on par with Kentucky and me. As for the Basilisk and the Silver Fenrir, they were definitely below. The Basilisk had the lowest bloodline power between the Divine Demon Beasts I felt so far.”

Celis then looked at Erla, who felt a little nervous. After all, she could tell with a glance that Celis and Kentucky were also Divine Demon Beasts. It’s just that they had been that for a very long time already. “This girl’s bloodline power is above the Silver Fenrir and obviously the Basilisk as well. She is also above the Divine Demon Beast from Huring Sacred Land. But she’s still below Kentucky, the Phoenix, the Blue Luan, the Black Tortoise and me, of course.”

Min was surprised to hear that. “Shouldn’t Erla be a high-ranked Divine Demon Beast?”

Rean shook his head in response, replying, “It could just be that the Divine Demon Beasts we saw so far were all high-ranked ones too.” At the same time, Rean thought. ‘Well, the Phoenix and the Black Tortoise were very famous back on Earth, now that I think about it. The Basilisk and Fenrir… not so much. Could it be correlated?’ Rean wondered.

Erla looked at Rean and asked, “How did you get to meet so many high-ranked Divine Demon Beasts like that, then?”

Rean felt like a spear pierced his heart when he heard that question. ‘That’s because of this fucking system and its Destiny Attraction bullshit! Do you think I want to get in this kind of situation all the time?! Even with you, I just asked to form a group with you because I liked the fact you and Min were a couple! How the hell did it turn into a situation where a continent is at stake?!’ Or so he wanted to say… unfortunately, he couldn’t talk about the system. “Ahem… bad luck, I guess?”