Death... and me

Back on Rean's side, Duran was approaching the region below the centermost star at an incredibly quick pace. However, other than the demon beasts of this realm, he hasn't found or met up with anyone else. "This place is too fucking big!"

Rean agreed with him, shrugging his shoulders as he said, "Nothing we can do about it. We didn't expect this place to have a dimensional realm to start with." Rean then pointed above as he continued, "In any case, we're getting close. Perhaps you'll find more Zasfins there or maybe some of the Divine Demon Beasts."

Duran didn't like the idea of meeting the Divine Demon Beasts first, but it was still better than not finding anyone.

A few hundred kilometers behind them, Kentucky and Celis kept following Rean, using Kentucky's connection with him. "I wonder what Rean wants to do in that direction. Or maybe it's Duran who decided to go there."

Celis shook his head as he listened to Kentucky. "I don't know. Perhaps they think they can find the Bestial Blood Pond there. After all, it does seem to be the center of this dimensional realm."

Behind them, far, far in the back, Frin and Roan weren't having any issues whatsoever. The demon beasts that saw them would immediately stop anything they were doing and pursue the duo. However, after Roan noticed that, he took his White Star to gather Light Element and used Rean's Light bending skill.

Both him and Frin disappeared from the demon beasts' vision, and it seemed like they couldn't use any other detection method either. "This is good enough. Once we meet up with the others, we can think about what to do with these demon beasts."

All in all, everyone in Rean's group, including Red, wasn't in much danger at the moment, so they were calm. Then again, there was one guy who didn't like what was happening, the crimson-eyed being close to the World Beast Formation. "How can he simply disappear like that? Was there anyone on this planet capable of using such a skill? Although I can feel where they are, the demon beasts can't." However, he wasn't that much concerned. "Anyway, I just wanted to get rid of an annoying fly in advance. It's not like he can find all my Soul Submission Orbs anyway."

The being then ignored Roan and Frin before he looked at the other demon beasts and Zasfins wandering in the realm. "Oh! Now, that's interesting. Hehehe!" The being's eyes shone with red light for a moment as more dark energy left his body. It didn't head to the World Beast Formation, though. Instead, it disappeared in the direction Phex was located. Not only that, but he released two more streams of dark energy that disappeared in two other different directions.

Two more days had passed as Duran and Rean focused on their travel when suddenly, they noticed another city in the distance. Of course, this was the first city they had seen since they arrived here. Roan and Frin were the ones who found the first one. For the two of them who didn't know what to do at the moment, that city was a clue, so they entered it straight away while maintaining vigilance.

Little did Duran know, but Kentucky was right behind him. Kentucky also used Rean's Light bending skill and reapproached Duran and Rean once again, maintaining a distance of twenty kilometers or so from the two. Kentucky was still a Demon Bird and a Divine one at that, so he had excellent vision. Twenty kilometers wasn't anything difficult for him. Without the help of Spiritual Sense, Duran couldn't feel the bird and the tree's presence at all. Naturally, Kentucky saw the city even earlier since he was flying high in the skies. "Rean and that guy are entering the city. What do you think?"

Celis pondered in silence for a bit before saying, "Let's follow them inside. Just keep flying high and use that concealment skill of yours."

However, just as the two groups were about to enter the city, Kentucky and Rean's attention were caught. 'Roan's close!'

You couldn't underestimate a Silver Fenrir, after all. Two days was more than enough for Frin to finally catch up to the group. 'It finally connected again. How's your situation, Rean?' Obviously, Roan asked Rean's conditions straight away.

'I'm fine, but that Duran Hafel caught me. We're entering a city at the moment.' Using that same connection, Rean then explained everything he had found so far.

Roan narrowed his eyes in response, asking, 'Can you see any demon beasts close to the city you're talking about?'

Rean gave a quick look around before answering, 'No, there's none. Why?'

Without wasting time, Roan explained to Rean the problem with the spheres with the red eyes that he and Frin found in the past. 'You should ask Duran to retreat straight away. If I'm not wrong, this sphere doesn't try to take control of humans or Zasfins. It kills them straight away.'

Rean pondered in silence for a bit before a playful smile appeared on his face, saying, 'You said that the soul attack doesn't work straight away, right? I can work with Dark Element to drive it out. Then, I better let Duran keep moving forward. Once his soul gets attacked by that sphere with the red eye, that'll be my chance to escape.'

'By the way, how long will you take to arrive here?' Rean asked soon after. 'Since you just entered the range for our Soul Connection to work, you're still 3000 kilometers away, right?'

Roan went silent for a bit as he calculated the speed they were moving in before answering, 'We can't fly at the moment, so even a Silver Fenrir will be dragged down by quite a lot. At Frin's top speed, it will still take around two hours to arrive where you are.' Roan wasn't opposed to Rean's idea to use the sphere's soul attack to run. After all, Duran might simply change his mind and get rid of a future problem that was Rean.

However, Rean didn't plan to flee after escaping Duran's hands at all. With that, he told Rean, 'I have other plans for Duran. Don't worry, just make sure you catch up to us.'