Thales Miray is no more…

"THALES" Beatrix screamed, tears immediately fell.

Thales was guessed, and Sahib mercilessly shot his brother shattering him to pieces.

Conceptual pieces, fragments not even time could recover.

Thales last words were to chase the unknown to his dear friend Beatrix.

"In the end that is all you resulted to, how boring" Sahib said boastfully.

Beatrix cultivation had returned she was livid, but not irrational enough to fight the venerable Sahib who bested Thales without his real power.

Beatrix searched for an answer, this was unreal to her, to the fairy tale girl with her head in the clouds and she couldn't believe this true death was a sham to her.

She pulled out her item, "Wish upon a star"

But it had no effect.

How can it restore something that never was?

She held her head she broke down, kicking and screaming.

She said why to her God, but her God was silent.

"Well I am missing a spot with Epicura's death, so how about you join me, I would prefer when Jugal cleans up, that the other fields remain spotless, if you can aid them you are welcome with me, out of respect to the fun I had, battling an opponent, Thales my brother"

She truly despaired, she had no idea what to do, but she had to move forward, she had to chase the unknown.

She still sobbed but she slowly gathered herself, she tried to stand up, but she fell.

"Take your time, I can't relate but I'm sure loss of a friend is unbearable"

Sahib said acting as if he hadn't ended the boy once called Thales Miray.

A man walked through the jungle; he heard his name called on a sensor.

He snorted.

He was here for someone, that someone saw him.

"Oh it's you; sorry you gave me a startle"

"Took you a while to arrive, were you caught up with something?"

"Just passing and collecting information, the cloaked man responded."

"I guess the body is an important vessel, people should take better care of it, can't believe he died, he he"

"Who died?"

"Doesn't matter, guardian"

"Can you leave here?"

"No I am basically already dead, I am fated to die, so I will die if I leave."

This man was Zeno returned to his prime.

"That's a shame I was hoping we could walk together again."

The man thought, "Although we really haven't walked together"

"Its fine, this would be of more use"

Zeno pulled something or rather someone out of his mind palace

It was an undead soldier formerly known as Naveen kamil.

"My guardian is the Eternal Sage, Solon "Heaven's edict" of the six sages. This is a present from him he apparently did business with another Sage. The result was this chemical composition "turn undead" it can raise the fallen as long as the soul remains, obviously not as they were"

"If you have any more fallen do come back, I'll be here until the end…"

"Nah" With a flick of his finger an incredible energy, a chaotic wave submerged Zeno and reduced him to a pile of meat.

"Your cultivation is very useful in my opinion and I don't feel like coming back, what if this place gets conquered while I am gone"

He then did the unspeakable and moved on.

Where was he heading to?

Only time would tell.

In a perfect world two forces met.

Who were they?

Their names were Jugal Kinsley and Celica Giovenetta.

However Celica was accompanied with her guardian, a nobleman Lucius Neuronal.

He in this world could be called a man, by a western earthly custom, is that true?

Probably not

He was not remarkable in anyway, but he had a tinge of madness in his eyes I mean what noble would willingly risk their life in a game that had no direct benefits or certainty of victory for them, especially considering he is a guardian of someone not even expected to win, but merely hold a participation trophy, which from a siblings perspective is better than other outcomes.

Of course he was still a cultivator as he showed now, it was destructive in nature he had a wooden sword that was set ablaze without burning, a flame sword.

Such an item shows cultivation was the bare minimum to make it.

"Any last words before I cut you open and burn your innards, cur" Lucius said this with a look of disdain.

Celica herself had been holding off the man known as Jugal Kingsley.

Celica had blonde hair, red eyes and was a finely sculpted woman.

Jugal Kingsley he had ravens black hair, absolute confidence and shining hazel eyes.

He adorned the robes of a king.

Celica wore clothes you would perhaps find on a pilgrimage.

Why?

Why else she needed no other, for her cultivation allowed her to be physically invincible.

What was her secret?

She simply said to master oneself allows you to be invincible, for though you were mortal your soul is everlasting.

She had cultivated a way to directly draw energies from the soul and used her beliefs to maintain such a system, nothing short of a genius rank heart and life path cultivator.

"Hmm I am in trouble an invincible women and her partner, I don't have any physical way to bypass it and so I will not"

"What are you blabbering about cur" Lucius lit stones on fire with his blade and started hurling them.

"Oh a question from a savage, sure I'll humor myself by answering through experience."

"It would be a shame if a venerable such as me loses to two unsavory characters"

Jugal revealed the profoundness of his prior words and unleashed something of highly skilled cultivation.

If cultivation is growing wisdom to paint onto the canvas of reality, then could the next step be to create the very canvas itself.

"Here it is, House of the wise, The Academy"

A magnicificent construction it was.

"Physically I am a sitting duck but with a house fit for my duty to learn, I am only sitting, not a duck, sitting as your lives scatter to the wind"

Without action, only thought

Jugal unleashed cultivation from this grand house

"Cultivation are eternal truths, these are known by the soul and remembered by the body have a taste of this maxim and call yourself invincible and say your stick burns eternally."

He unleashed it its range outstanding Celica was no longer invincible and therefore she had no means to even hit Jugal's fortress.

Lucius was hit by the consequences of his cultivation, if the fire burned but the stick was no longer immune, then he would now burn with it.

"EEEGGHH" Lucius shrieked.

He was rolling around trying to put the fire out, but the fire kept burning.

This was not even a huge battlefield.

Lucius very painfully burnt to death, swallowed up by hellfire.

Celica had given up, she wished to retreat. She had no regrets.

Skillfully with great finesse however, Jugal used his Mind Palace made reality to merely think itself to disappear and remanifest onto Celica, crushing her into a bloody pulp.

Jugal Kingsley had won the day, with words of victory he said. "If Sophie wanted to take candy from a Venerable that coward should have come herself." Sahib was now king…

Chapter 26: The cloaked man builds a sandcastle.

"The jungle of Karma is not my cup of tea personally Zeno, so I am grateful chronologically the sands of contemplation are my real target"

"Oh yeah you don't have much to say when you're dead"

"What do you wish of me master…" Zeno grunted out in his prime form but undead, a sorry turn of circumstances for the man.

This cloaked individual journeyed with two zombies Zeno and Naveen, with them and his own strength he planned to subjugate the sands that provided the only good resource point in his eyes.

"Sophie is attempting to ascend to the citadel through the Mountain of harmony, isn't my luck just amazing, all I have to do is to kill some goons and I'll be ready to devour my prey, who would be so kind to get into one place together"

Elsewhere in unknown regions a man with an otherworldly presence sat observing a chess board in front of him intently.

His name was Solon Samesh. He is one of the six eternal sages, he thoughtfully rested one hand under his chin and the other played with a chess piece.

He had a shrewd gaze, short dark hair, adorned a robe of black which covered his red military wear. Possibly an illusion.

He spoke to himself.

"Well he is dead then, yes good, my predictions bore fruit, but now ripples are on my board, or rather off them, that makes the future uncertain, for me to say I don't know is a rare occurrence, but aside from that, all is according to plan"

He watched the fire crackle he thought many things, he thought this potential that would be nourished through great chaos would let him achieve results, when it was Solon's turn personally and when he is done; chaos would be discarded and order and harmony would remain.

He gazed through the fire, into the distance.

It had been a few days, a few cold days.

Beatrix had been left to cry in a ball by Sahib in this realm she didn't even deserve to be in, it seemed to be a waiting room of sorts.

A place where the king would attempt to claim their right to the throne, it's assumed if you conquered a place or had relations to a conqueror you had the right to stay here.

To survive she accepted Sahib's request and felt awful, dried tears softly ran down her cheeks and color was drained from her face.

Sahib said he had a job for her, he could freely teleport people to any domain if they were with him, since he was the king of the labyrinth of wisdom. The winner, as much as it pained her to be reminded

She wobbled to her feet once more and attempted to tighten her resolve, he said she was to reinforce his forces in either the jungle of karma or the sands of contemplation, abandon the mountain for his forces without him had no hope against his dear sister.

She shuddered at the thought of the jungle it had unknowns there, like the Tyger as much as she seemed unbothered by it at the time, then again if that being could be believed he wasn't supposed to be there and had left.

The sands was a definitive no, that was just courting death despite the venerable not being present it supposedly had an extremely beneficial resource point.

Sahib claimed he wanted to have fun so he didn't bother directly while Sophie could not be in two places at once.

This meant lone wolves and both factions would clash there.

Sahib gave Beatrix an insignia that said she was his property and teleported her to the Jungle when she made her decision.

She could immediately move to round 2 the garden of deeds in the jungle it was lush, a beautiful garden, but what could the garden do?

We look back at the cloak man.

"Well even though I didn't have to journey through stages to get here, this place is quite unique there are no direct places to clear like the labyrinth of wisdom, however it is dangerous none the less human dangers and obstacles, I must find the resource point."

Under his covered mask he licked his lips, fired up ready for spice.

There was sand, a sea of sand.

The sand stretched far and wide, but constantly shifted.

By no means an easy terrain to traverse

He saw figures approaching.

A handsome man, short blonde hair, baby blue eyes and a sword that looked like a choking demonic aura was embedded in it.

The man next to him he had a sailors type of hat, a magicians robe, he looked very eccentric.

There was a women too and another man.

The women she was familiar, it was like they had history.

The man was unknown next to her though, he had a suit, grey hair, not that memorable, but he looked like he had a scholarly gaze about him, so why was he on a battlefield.

 "Hello Zeno old pal, who are those guys with you?"

Zeno did not respond the man did not know why?

"You a little stiff since we started then"

"You know me, William blade, I'm like the only sword singer in the family apart from father, and don't you recognize me?"

Zeno was silent.

"Hello I am Zeno's guardian, he pretty much said if we encounter siblings tell them to scram or die, this other guy is a temporary alliance mate until he finds his guardian"

The masked man said apparently speaking for Zeno, Zeno did not deny his words.

"Yeah Zeno, so you look a little different we start the game and now you're better than us, maybe being a lone wolf hasn't been so bad for now, but it may get bad when I cut you to pieces"

William blade unsheathed his weapon.

The magic man pulled out a gun.

The masked man and his zombies prepared for a battle.

Or rather the masked man took several paces back. And ordered his zombies to show him what they can do.

William had charged forward attempting to rend Zeno from where he stood.

"Great duke Allocer; Demon of the heavenly sky"

He sung his technique, his blade in his hand, his song dancing in the sky he truly wanted to reap Zeno.

The zombie Zeno simply used his tortoise heart, William sword danced out of the way of the recoil, smiling.

Naveen pulled out his artifact the divine mind.

He wanted to use this on William blade, but the magician man apparently called Roger Ham.

He had directly sent golden light balls out of his "Wand" around 3

 Shooting off Naveen's arm

William danced and danced with Zeno.

The woman and the masked man watched.

The grey haired man was not watching however, he had been setting up a device.

He asked William to defend him.

The masked man had moved back already.

So William pressured Zeno further attacking from the sky laughing wildly.

William's associate Roger had confusion in his eyes, because he watched Naveen shrug off his attack and then put his arm back on as if it was never lost. No regeneration as if it was a biological fact of his being, the reason Roger was confused was because was this not a wisdom cultivator?

He had no time to think further because this time Naveen got off the divine mind, chains strangled roger, he screamed desperately for help.

"Help this is no man this is a monster"

The man named Biruni said not to sweat it because his preparations were complete, the machine leaked an azure glow and it was like a magnet.

It didn't do anything to Naveen immediately, so William stopped fighting Zeno for a moment sending a slash at Naveen, cleaving him into pieces.

Freeing his guardian who gave him thanks.

The guardian wiped his brow, barely escaping death, but watching in horror as the monster he thought was finally slain started putting itself back together.

The chains immediately become one with roger again.

William was confused but didn't have time to ponder it for he was being pressed by Zeno.

The women and the masked man watched silently assuming each other were only support class fighters.

Suddenly to the sands a fiery rock with a face it had low intelligence, and had pure rage baring its fangs.

"You brought a god eater here?" William exclaimed.

It resembled an asteroid it was big, apparently only a baby.

"Good on you even if it is only an infant."

It prepared to crush both Naveen and the masked man who was not far away.

Prior to that two things happened.

William had rescued Roger once more, this time Roger quickly shooting golden light beams at Naveen putting holes in him while he was torn to pieces again.

The ravenous beast however did not come to find its mark for the masked man had finally moved.

He leapt into the air unseen and slammed his foot into the asteroid.

It disintegrated on impact, the showers of its body raining upon the man who foolishly summoned it.

"No wait-"that man was crushed.

While this happened, Naveen reformed and caught roger off guard while in shock at what happened.

He bit a chunk of flesh out of roger. And was ravenous, that would of course not satisfy him.

William was in shock, he did a maneuver. Cutting distance between him and Zeno preparing to escape it seemed.

"What kind of guardian do you have was he laughing at us from up there, on us insects"

The women had acted she was indeed a healer; she attempted to repair what was left of her comrades which showed great talent in this aspect.

But unfortunately for her, she had no one to save herself.

The masked man slowly appeared in her vision; perhaps he did this on purpose.

He was silent until he said "Well Eir, I don't really care for you, but you have something of mine don't you if that got in the hands of someone else that would be bad, I was going to find you and kill you, thanks for making it easy."

The masked man brutally ripped the woman's head off, allowing his minion to finish off Roger and smashing Biruni back into remains of a man.

William had brought forth a creature known as an ultimate thereon; it was a beast hulking, huge, scythe like claws, mammoth like but also sloth like in appearance if we had a reference to earth.

Good on him for taming it but he knew it was not for combat in this situation, but rather to escape faster than he could, what was an animal to a god eater even if a baby, he was not a prime example of his species, he could not casually prey on even an infant god eater.

So he hopped on the beast and ran, trying to traverse away, to get back to a resource point to warn Sophie that there may be a monster that could fight her.

The masked man thought, he did not pursue immediately even though he was capable of killing him from where he stood.

He did want to conceal his abilities but letting this panicked man lead him to the resource point, an oasis in this desert, seemed like a good payoff to him.

The masked man laughed, he had something to do, collect the spoils of violence.

He chuckled.

"Run rabbit run" he said with the thrill of the hunt.

Returning back to Beatrix due to the time passed it seemed no one was in the garden what was laying here for her?

She was a guardian, she felt like a traitor to her core.

But she needed purpose to say it was ok to live.