Phoenix Rebirth (B-), Death

Cassius arched his brows. "Although I only received two level-ups after killing so many of them, the latest level-up finally took my Skill Box level-up rewards into the Gold-Rank, which should correlate to the B-Rank."

He smiled, realizing that he might soon obtain another trump card.

Cassius originally planned to save the Skill Box openings for after he cleared this Gate, but when he felt a volcanic eruption of energy appear in the east, he quickly changed his mind. Without wasting any more time, he popped open the Golden Skill Box. He needed all the power he could get at this time.

At approximately the same time the question mark-covered Box lid flew open, a magnificently splendiferous existence crossed absurd distances in an instant. Moving at a speed that the human could not even begin to register, the Tyrant God zapped above him.

Its grayed, emotionless eyes briefly glared at the human, then its right hand blurred.

KABOOOOOM!!!

Cassius had just turned his head away from the Skill Box that had slung open with a new B-Rank Skill when, suddenly, he found that he no longer had his head connected to the rest of his body…

The Tyrant God had hit him so hard and with such ruthlessness that his body shot forward like a cannonball, and it did so at a speed that made it impossible for his head to keep up. Like a bobblehead, Cassius's head sailed through the midday sunny sky, with his eyes still in the process of widening.

It was also in this moment that he saw the Tyrant God's apathetic gaze, who was in its humanoid form—an enchanting ashen-haired woman with charcoal-colored horns protruding from her porcelain facial features.

'...Sexy…?' were the last words muttered inside Cassius's shameless mind before his consciousness faded.

It was also at this time that an annoyingly smug voice resounded.

*Ding~!*

[Acquired B- Skill 'Phoenix Rebirth']

{[Phoenix Rebirth (P) (B-)]}

—[The inferior version of the S-Rank Skill 'Supreme Nirvana Rebirth']

[Effect 1 'Rebirth':]

[If the user dies, he will be brought back to life, but will be depleted of all energy, stamina, and anything that sustains the User's body.]

[Effect 2 'Once a Day':]

[Skill only works once a day, with a 24-hour cooldown applied every time the Skill is activated.]

[Effect 3 'To Become Immortal':]

[Every time the Skill is used, the User will gradually evolve and take on the traits of an Ordinary Phoenix.]

[Current Ordinary Phoenix Transformation Rate: 0.09%]

OOOM!

Cassius felt his consciousness return to him, with the information provided from the recent system notifications being processed by him in record times.

After understanding the gist of how he was still alive, he looked around. It became immediately clear that he was burrowed at the end of a tunnel of sandy rock. That was when his eyes fell on his shirtless and pantless body and how he was planted into a hard sand wall.

Zooming out, Cassius saw that he was buried under a similar chasm to the one he had seen earlier. Presumably, this was where the Tyrant God had slapped his torso to.

"Luckily, I didn't reincarnate at the head part…" Cassius heaved an unusually relaxed breath of cold air before forcing his way out of the sturdy sand wall.

From the beginning of his rebirth to now, he remained calm, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he'd been blasted into oblivion and came back to life. Maybe rebirth came naturally to him because he had already been violated by a truck in his past life? What difference did a second time make?

"Hmm…" Cassius began to walk through the tunnel he had dug out with his rocket-like body, wondering why the Tyrant God hadn't attacked him again. "Does it not realize that I haven't died? Well, I guess it would be more unusual if it thought I could come back from something like that…"

He continued his march through the tunnel. Then, after nearly 30 seconds of casual walking, he glimpsed a large source of bright light radiating from the tunnel's entrance. At first, he assumed it was the sunlight produced by the blazing sun, but after exiting through the light, he realized it was not sunlight but the residual golden flame energies left behind by the Tyrant God's laid-back attack.

For tens of miles in a straight circular direction, raging golden flames surged. Those flames spontaneously burned the edges of the deep crevice dug out of the ground, appearing like a divine meteor had just fallen from the sky. Above, faint golden embers bristled in the air.

Cassius shifted his icy gaze across the mass destruction, and only after soaking in the scenery did he understand just how weak he was compared to the Tyrant God, which was likely only a weak A-Rank organism. Yet, rather than despair over a mountain that seemed impossible to climb, a wide smirk formed on his devilishly handsome face.

He vanished from his spot, his attention fixated on the massive aura signature he couldn't even see from where he stood.

"The Tyrant God and the other Sand Devourers have already returned to waiting; every bit of their focus is concentrated on what I assume to be the cracking of the Gate, as they are sitting by the exit I came in through," said Cassius, his voice dancing through vast expanses of space as he circled around the Sand Devourers all congregated in a single location. "If I make my reappearance, I'll certainly wind up receiving the same grim fate as before, but this time I won't return to the world of the living..."

"However, it's also not like I can just uselessly idle and wait for Hoshito to be overrun by monsters."

Cassius knew that, if the Tyrant God escaped the Gate, not a single person in Hoshito would be able to combat its absurd level of strength. The most optimistic outcome would be the scarce B-Rank Hunters holding it off until reinforcements from Shibuya or Tokyo arrived.

Though, that would be very optimistic…