Death... and me

Duran and Frin quickly noticed several shadows in the distance heading in their direction. Not only that, each one of them moved extremely fast, showing their high level of cultivation. "We need to leave!"

Duran and Frin immediately used their best attacks, forcing Xaon and Darian to retreat. Following that, they turned around and dashed away. Frin knew that Duran's help would be necessary for the future, so he allowed him to jump on his back once again. "I'll focus on running away. You use your skills to open a passage through their encirclement."

Duran nodded straight away, responding, "Alright. They haven't converged yet, so don't stop. Xaon and Darian are not as fast as you on the ground, so they shouldn't be able to catch us. However, if you stop even for a moment, the situation will turn out incredibly different. Just trust me."

Frin didn't like the idea very much. After all, Zasfins and demon beasts didn't really trust each other. However, if both of them wanted to escape, that was the only choice. As for Rean and Roan... 'Those two are really slippery. No wonder they didn't stop running even after they jumped off of Frin's back. They knew they needed extra time to escape on their own.'

That wasn't all. Since Spiritual Senses were blocked in this realm, the demon beasts couldn't see where Rean and Roan were walking. Roan also made sure their footsteps wouldn't catch the attention of the demon beasts passing by them.

In any case, Duran placed those thoughts behind as he immediately focused on the demon beasts ahead. Frin wasn't an idiot, so he moved in the direction where there were fewer of them. He also took quick peeks behind, making sure that Darian and Xaon really couldn't catch up to him. After all, one wouldn't be so sure if someone was holding some secret skill capable of disrupting them.

Naturally, Darian and Xaon were running right behind them. Those two wouldn't have fallen into the trick Frin and Duran used so easily in normal circumstances. However, because their sentience was already gone, they couldn't react as fast to the changes in the battlefield as they did before. That's why they fell behind. Well, Darian was even more behind than Xaon since he was a Black Tortoise. He was forced to turn back into his human form to run faster.

On Frin's back, Duran accumulated Spiritual Energy and Soul Power in his hands. Wind and Lightning Element gathered around those energies, creating a terrifying vortex. Duran didn't hold back at all, condensing everything as much as possible. At the very next moment, just when Frin was about to collide with the demon beasts head-on, Duran released his skill.

'Thunder Gale!'

*Vhuowwwwwwww!!!*

Something that looked like a tornado but in a horizontal line swept everything in front of Frin. Even the few Stage Nine Demon Beasts, some of which Duran or Frin recognized from the past, were thrown out of the way with sheer raw strength!

There were, of course, some who did resist Duran's attack. However, Duran didn't mind. His objective was to create space for Frin to pass, and that's what he had achieved. It was already impressive that Duran took so many of them out of the way in one attack. Seeing the empty spaces between those who resisted Duran's attack, Frin's eyes lit up. 'As expected of the strongest Zasfin, I guess? He doesn't lose to the old Fikin at all.' 

Frin finally saw the chance to use his movement skill, which helped him avoid most of the attacks coming from the sides. After all, Duran didn't focus on killing or injuring, only escaping. The demon beasts who landed far away obviously used their ranged skills to try and stop Frin and Duran.

Duran then intercepted any skills that could affect Frin's speed or life, creating an almost perfect combination of speed and defense. 

All of that took some time to explain, but no more than a few moments passed in the real world. That's what one would at least expect from Stage Nine Demon Beasts and Transition Realm Zasfins.

*Bang!*

With great momentum, Frin and Duran escaped from the encirclement created by the red-eyed being. From that point onwards, Frin simply couldn't be stopped anymore. A Divine Demon Beast focused on speed was simply too fast.

Back in the place where the red-eyed being was dwelling, one could see a nasty expression on his face as he inwardly cursed, 'How can that be possible! It's all because of that black-haired kid! I don't know how, but he can definitely feel the energy inside my puppets!'

However, it was then that the red-eyed being noticed a problem. 'Wait! Only beings from the Underworld or the idiots from the Realm of Gods could identify this kind of energy of mine. How can a puny human be able to do that?' He then continued with his train of thought, inwardly muttering, 'Now that I think about it, aren't the Soul Submission Orbs also susceptible to that? The only thing connecting them is my energy.'

'Could it be that he's also from the Underworld? No, that doesn't make sense. He's definitely a human. For that to happen, he would need to reincarnate, which is obviously impossible. No being born in the Underworld can ever use the path of reincarnation. Their Soul Would be destroyed in a second,' the red-eyed being thought.

Little did he know, but Roan wasn't the same type of being from the Underworld as himself or any of the others in this half of the universe. Besides, Roan had the protection of the Soul Gem System while passing through it.

'Thinking about it won't get me far. For now, I better put a lot of protection around the Soul Submission Orbs. I don't like to keep the demon beasts too close to it exactly because they're fragile, but it seems I have no choice now.'

Half a day later, somewhere near one of the empty cities Rean's group found, Rean, Roan, Duran, and Frin had grouped up once more.