Shira and I forcefully descended through the barrier after we have finished killing all of the demons.The barrier cracked and broke under our combined weight as we made our way toward the planet's surface.This place was filled with yellowed-out trees, small jungles, and a few deserts, the oceans that were supposed to be more prominent were already quickly losing water as drought was seemingly being unleashed onto the planet by a superior force.I frowned as I could feel that the hand of the devil fragment was at work here, the fragment had two ways to awaken, one, take the seven sins from the demons that had gotten their paws on them while he had been sleeping, which most of the time wasn't possible since the demons wouldn't let their powers be taken willingly.The demons respected and listened to the devil's orders, but if the orders went against what they wanted/needed to do, the demons might refuse them.Unfortunately, for the devil, a fragmented consciousness that wasn't fully a
Shira was slowly realizing something as her red eyes stopped trembling and her crying stopped.She used both of her hands to clear her eyes from tears as she looked up at me and said slowly:"I-I- understand now, I understand why you want to reach the ultimate level of strength, you felt stifled once, just like me now, you wanted to control your fate, you didn't want to feel that sensation of powerlessness ever again!"I nodded at her words, even though my situation was certainly way more dangerous, and life-changing than hers, I was sure that she was slowly molding into a more serious version of herself after this event.It was impossible to go from being determined to do something to being dead-set on that certain thing after one setback like this one.Even though Shira had been quite angry at the loss of the natives' lives, this wasn't anything too important in the big scheme of things, thus her 'loss' could only be considered quite small, but at least with this experience, I hoped
The familiar cold aura came from Hanzo, the leader of the Ice Palace... We had refused his invitation to his sect one year back, and I wasn't sure if he held a grudge for that.At the time, he truly looked like he needed someone to inherit his mantle as leader of the sect, and our refusal should have put him in a tough position, especially since Malavai had injured him in that brief fight they had.He was approaching our position at a quick speed along with tens of what seemed to be his subordinates.I wasn't sure since I couldn't poke with my soul sense too close, or they would be able to realize that I was spying on them.However, they were already coming quickly toward our location, meaning that they should have found out about us already.Hanzo might have even sensed my soul sensing, but he didn't seem to say anything to his subordinate, he just looked forward as he flew through the space in front of him, making his way toward our location as his subordinates followed behind him s
The tall fellow was quite slow in his approach, Hanzo even glared at him, making his flying speed quicker as he felt that a hole was being created in his back due to his Patriarch's gaze.He stood a few meters away from me as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly before cupping his fists together and saying:"I greet this big brother. Could I ask for you to go easy on me?"This guy had the body of a strongman but the heart of a scared cat, it was obvious from the way he shifted his eyes and rubbed his hands, his personality was quite different from how he looked.I didn't say anything as I did a slashing motion with my hand, creating a metal law string that immediately went ahead to cut this big fellow into two pieces.However, the attack was quite slow, which gave Hanzo's man enough time to slightly dodge to the side, but the right side of the body was still grazed because he was such a big target.A layer of fat was cut free from the tall fellow, he gritted his teeth and froze
Hanzo's mouth split into a wide grin as he understood my approval.He couldn't help but grab my hand and shake it before saying:"You won't regret that you decided to help me in this time of need, but just like you are a little paranoid of me, I would also like you to create a vow that you won't betray me, just so we can have a mutual understanding in this business relationship we have made just now, ok?"It wasn't anything too troublesome to do, I could honor this vow as there was no reason for me to betray Hanzo at all, he looked like an understanding fellow with his head on his shoulders, and he could be a helpful ally outside of the Regulator's Alliance.Having allies both inside and outside of the alliance was the best thing that I could do right now.Sooner or later, the devil would undoubtedly gather all of his armies in one attempt to awaken his main body, things had been in a stalemate for too much of a long time, and I could feel that the devil got tired enough of waiting.A
The gigantic door slowly opened after Hanzo simply waved at it.There were a few guards there to welcome us, they bowed down at the waist the moment they saw Hanzo, they had some inquiring gazes when their eyes set on me and Shira, but they didn't say anything considering that Hanzo most likely recruited disciples pretty often.We entered the Ice Palace, the interior was pure white, runes inlaid in the hallway that we were in, making the surroundings extremely cold, but also very clean.Quite a few disciples were walking back and forth between some rooms, or trying to get out of the palace for different missions or the like, they all bowed deeply when they saw Hanzo, showing that he was quite respected in the sect.We walked into a wide room where an ice throne was located amongst other things such as ice armor, weapons, and other miscellaneous things that were piled around the throne.There was no one in the room at first glance, but I could feel gazes plunging into my body as they a
The bald elder couldn't help but tremble as he asked:"How... how did you know?!"A red light made its way to my eyes as I released a little bit of my cannibal aura, making the man flinch as he realized that I was one of them.He gritted his teeth and attempted to attack me, but I shook my head as I conjured a wave of water that enveloped him, the water transformed into ice, transforming him into an ice sculpture that I shattered using a hard-rock fist that I used to cover my hand with.The body broke into pieces as blood and organs spilled on the floor near the other elder.And since these two were cannibals, I couldn't let their bodies go to waste, so I opened my mouth wide as my sharp teeth let out a small glint while I went in, devouring all of the scraps on the ground while making sure that no one was aware of what was happening behind the ice wall.The ice wall rapidly melted after I was done, letting the 18 elders see that only I was the one left on the other side, their eyes w
Shira closed her eyes and slowly melded with the barrier's powers, getting familiar with the ice and water laws. Unfortunately, her primary attribute and law was fire, which was the opposite of what she tried to learn right now, weakening her slightly in the process.This was a problem that could be fixed with time, but did she have the time to fix it?She shook her head silently as she called all the eighteen elders back into the room while saying:"We are being invaded, the enemy is at the door, the patriarch and my husband are currently training, and we need to keep the enemy off our important territory until Minato finishes his earth law comprehension, do you all understand?!"The elders didn't like taking orders from Shira, but could they even refuse in this current situation? They knew that Shira wouldn't lie to make them obey, and from her serious expression, they could guess what type of enemy was waiting at their gate.However, one of them still couldn't help but ask:"Who is