Death... and me

Along the way, Rean used Instant Recovery to heal Malaka and Calina. Although the two girls suffered a lot, it wasn't like they would die even without his help. Of course, if they tried to recover independently, it would take more than just a few minutes. Nothing could beat Rean's Light Element Healing.

After some time, they arrived back at their hidden cave once again. 

Calina and Malaka then looked at Roan with expectation.

"What? Do you need something?"

Malaka immediately asked.

"How did we do? I still haven't heard any complaints from you, so it's making me a bit nervous."

Calina nodded vigorously. She also wanted to hear his opinion about that. Wano, who was watching on the side, couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Hahaha! Of course, you did amazingly. Not only did you block a full-strength attack from a Core and Soul Fusion Realm enemy, but you were also even able to hit her back. There's no way this brother here would complain about their achievements, right?"

Roan narrowed his eyes after hearing that as he said.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Rean then put his arm over Roan's shoulder before he said anything else.

"Isn't that obvious? We all know they did well. There's no problem in praising them a little bit, you know? Illia, Malaka, you two have really surpassed our expectations. That was a great response to the situation."

Roan's expression darkened before he took Rean's arm away.

"Don't touch me. It's disgusting."

Soon after, he looked at Malaka and Calina. He could obviously tell a few points where they could have done better. However, he also had to admit that they did much better than he expected. He was sure that he taught them enough so that they could at least defend against that last attack. But he didn't expect that they would also be the key to killing that woman. The truth was that Roan was expecting them to defend the first hit before he and Rean arrived. After that, the twins would join hands to fight her. 

Eventually, he gave up pointing out the issues for now and began to make his way back to his cave room. On the way, he left a few words behind.

"It wasn't too bad."

Calina's eyes lit up, and she immediately moved in front of him before he could enter his room.

"Do you mean it? Really, really mean it?"

Roan's expression went dark as he asked.

"Do you think I would say something I don't mean?"

Calina completely ignored his cold words and immediately hugged him, much to his surprise.

"Annoying..."

Calina laughed at that, though.

"I don't care. I'm happy that you finally praised me again."

Roan was just about to push her aside when suddenly, she gave him a kiss on the cheek before moving away on her own.

"Thank you."

Wano looked at all of that and couldn't help but ask Malaka and Rean through a Spiritual Sense Message.

'Is this what I think it is? Illia seems pretty straightforward.'

Malaka and Rean nodded.

'It's rather obvious, right? But trust us, the ice block most likely didn't notice anything.'

Wano nodded. He could more or less see that happening.

Calina then turned around and returned to where Malaka was. As for Roan, he simply ignored everything and returned to his room. She was obviously happy.

Rean and Malaka could understand why she was like that. After all, it was a pretty big deal to hear Roan praising them this much. Well, Malaka didn't run over to hug Roan, though.

After that, Rean talked with Sister Orb.

'Isn't Roan being quite nice?'

[Indeed... Since when did ice blocks have emotion? That really opened my eyes... Oh, right, I don't have eyes.]

Sister Orb and Rean didn't try to conceal their mental conversation at all. Naturally, a vein popped out on Roan's head because of that.

'I see. Since Sister Orb has so much time to waste, that means she has already finished analyzing the natural formation and can control it, right? As for Rean, I guess that means he wants me to devise a better set of exercises for his training.'

[Cough, cough... Let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay? I'm just taking a little break, that's all.]

Rean agreed with Sister Orb.

'Same goes for me. I just came back from an intense battle. Naturally, I need to rest as well. Don't worry, the training you devised for me is more than good enough already.'

Roan snorted but didn't say anything else.

Everyone went back to their own cave rooms after that. After all, they needed to spend some time thinking about what they did and recover their energy. Later that day, they came out once again to discuss how things went.

Well, it was more or less Roan telling everyone what they did wrong or not and what they should do to improve their skills. However, Wano also participated and gave quite a few pieces of advice. There were a few things where only someone with much higher cultivation could point out. Surprisingly, even Roan accepted his words and pondered seriously over them.

Finally, there was Kentucky. The Minokawa drooled over the red crystal. However, Rean and Roan prohibited it from eating the thing. It had way too much energy. They didn't want Kentucky to force all of it into their bodies again, which might destabilize their foundation. They first had to be ready for it. One must remember that they couldn't use most of that energy, which was quite a waste.

Rean then made another formation for him and Roan. This one would be focused on the energy entering their bodies. That would help with the energy they got from the red crystal. 

With that, the two allowed Kentucky to eat the crystal. However, he could only eat a third of it each day. That would help the twins refine the energy before taking more of it.

And just like that, another week went by. The Lakure Race didn't take the loss of the red crystal seriously. That was only one of many more they had. A few hours after the twins left the battlefield, another group appeared with another one of those red crystals.

Meanwhile, back in the valley where the natural formation core was located... 

Jana had been watching over the valley to prevent anyone from getting close when suddenly, she received a Spiritual Message from Vueni. His tone seemed serious, so she immediately returned to the formation's core.

"What is it? Did something happen?"

Vueni nodded as he replied.

"It seems like the Sasamil Empire has begun to act against us."

Vueni then looked at the formation's core. Jana followed his eyes and looked at the core as well. At first, there didn't seem to be anything strange about the core. However, she soon noticed a few ripples of energy coming from several points of it. They were very small, but she was sure they weren't there before.

"What's happening here?"

Vueni bitterly smiled before saying.

"They can't surpass the formation's defense, but they can force more energy from it. Simply put, the formation is being attacked from several different points. Although the difference is small, they are indeed forcing us to use more energy."

Jana narrowed her eyes. They were already fighting for time, and now the remaining time was going down faster because of it.

"I need to talk with Ancestor."