Wait is over...?

When the trio saw the beast appear in front of them, their expressions turned ugly because it was the same black panther which forced them to flee last night.

Step! Step!

Leon took two steps back and was ready to flee when Aiden and Charyl frowned. "Hm?"

They then glanced at Leon. Charyl didn't say anything but Aiden looked at him in disdain and said, "You don't have to flee. This isn't the same beast."

"Huh? It isn't?" Leon instinctively asked, before looking at the beast. 

Sure enough, he also realised it wasn't the same beast they encountered last night because it wasn't as big as or as fierce looking at that and not to mention it didn't have that intelligent glint in its eyes.

This made Leon's face to turn green in shame and he inwardly seethed, 'Fuck! Now I have lost all the chances I had of courting Charyl.'

Ignoring him, Charyl prepared to rush at the beast when Aiden stopped her and laughed, "What do you mean by this, miss Charyl? Do you think I'm some coward who don't have guts to fight a beast?"

"Hm? When did I—" Charyl cast him a confused glance before she understood why he was saying that and shook her head.

Normally, Aiden was well behaved and didn't speak much if it wasn't something important, but it seemed he couldn't endure Leon's cowardice any longer.

"Y-You…!" Leon's constipated expression turned uglier when he heard his remark.

"What? Do you have something to say?" Aiden asked, looking confused.

Leon gnashed his teeth in anger and cursed him in his heart. 'Damned bastard! If only you weren't stronger than me, I would've taught you a lesson for insulting me like this.'

Clenching his fists, he growled, "If you have something to say, say directly to me like a man. There is no need for these roundabout insults."

"Alright then." Aiden nodded before glancing at Charyl and said, "Miss Charyl, I'm not a coward like Leon, who would first think of fleeing upon encountering danger instead of facing it. So, please let me handle this beast."

Hearing this, Leon couldn't endure it any longer and shouted out, almost ready to attack him, "AIDEN! DON'T GO TO FAR OR YOU'LL REGRET IT."

"Mm?" Aiden narrowed his eyes dangerously and stepped toward him, his right hand reaching out for the sword on his back. "I'm curious. How are you going to make me regret it?"

Seeing Aiden's deep gaze peering at him and his hand clutching the sword hilt, Leon felt chills run down his spine. However, he couldn't retreat now or he won't have any shred of dignity left.

Just as he was about to reach out for his weapon, Charyl, who couldn't endure it any longer, snapped at them, 

"Enough!"

Halt!

Hearing her shout, Aiden stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath, and released the sword hilt.

Seeing this, Leon secretly let out a breath of relief, his tense body relaxing.

Aiden gave him a last look, turned around while saying, "I'm letting you go because of miss Charyl. But if you dare threaten me again, you'll know why I'm nicknamed mad demon."

Leon's face expression hardened when he heard this. He obviously knew he got the 'mad demon' nickname when he annihilated a 100-member strong bandit group single-handedly and returned to the sect, covered in blood from head to toe, his whole being emitting mad killing intent.

Aiden walked with slow steps toward the beast, which was letting out low growls at them. It seemed it could feel this group of three was a threat, but didn't want to leave either.

Roar!

When Aiden was only ten meters away from him, it took a step back, roared and lunged at him, its mouth opened wide and paws outstretched.

Aiden didn't even flinch at this. He calmly reached back for his sword and,

Swoosh!

Slashed out. His sword drawing and slashing speed so fast that Charyl and Leon only saw a blur before his sword was already sheathed. 

'So fast!' Leon exclaimed in his heart and couldn't help sweating cold sweat thinking what the outcome would have been if Charyl hadn't stopped them from fighting a moment ago.

Roar~!

The panther roared, its eyes widening in horror as it flew past Aiden, who calmly ducked down, and crash landed behind him.

Thud!

The panther let out low, pained whimpers as its dark red flowed out and pooled beneath it, the light in its eyes gradually vanishing. Within a few moments, it was dead.

Gulp!

Leon gulped audibly, walked over to the panther and moved its body to reveal almost half a foot deep wound that stretched from below its neck to all the way to its hind legs.

Rustle! Rustle! Rustle!

Just then, the sound of leaves and bushes rustling in the distance—which quickly drew near—entered their ears and before they could react,

Whoosh!

An enormous figure leapt out of the forest and landed right in front of them.

All three of them froze when they saw what it was. It was the black panther from yesterday. 

Leon shook his head, closed his eyes and opened them again, hoping to see some difference between the two, but unfortunately, there was none. It was really the same beast which almost killed him in one attack and forced them to run for their lives.

To make things worse, unlike yesterday, it seemed to be utterly furious, its gaze fixated on the dead panther beside Leon.

Noticing this, their faces turned pale and Charyl shouted out, "RUN!!"

ROAR!!!

However, before they could react, the beast raised its head, looked at them with its red eyes and roared, almost rupturing their eardrums.

Whoosh!

It then lunged at Aiden and Leon, who were closest to it.

---

"Mm?" 

Eric's eyelids twitched as he regained his senses and opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the dense foliage cover above him, which blocked most of the sunshine from coming down, but some still managed to find its way down to the ground, illuminating the area.

Hu~!

After staring at the 'sky' for a few seconds, he took in a deep breath of the fresh air, and remembered everything that had happened yesterday.

'I wonder why that beast didn't kill us.' He thought and couldn't help but shiver upon remembering how it was toying with them.

Hu~!

Taking another deep breath, he stopped thinking about it and slowly moved to hands to see if he was still feeling any pain and found out that although there was some stiffness in his joints, there wasn't any pain.

He then tried moving his legs, and encountered no difficulty except some stiffness. 

Sighing in relief, he slowly sat up and looked behind him to see Liam and Jake laying there, still sleeping.

Propping himself up, he walked over to Liam and Jake to wake them up so they could leave the forest lest they encountered some other beast and lost their lives.

However, he suddenly froze in his tracks because suddenly a mechanical voice sounded in his mind.

[Godly Demon system integration complete.]

[Commencing host scan…]

[Error! Host scan failure…]

[Detecting problem…]

[Problem detected… system damaged, insufficient energy… the system will shut down now.]

Eric was first bewildered, then he grew ecstatic when he realised his 72-hour wait for the system to being working was finished. 

However, when he heard that the system was damaged and didn't have enough energy to work and was going to shut down, his mind went blank. All his dreams and wishes, which he thought he would fulfil with the system's help, started crumbling down.

"No, no, no! This shouldn't be happening. No, it can't happen…" He mumbled, shaking his head.

Just then,

The small furry creature resting a few meters away from him opened its eyes. 

Whoosh!

It seemed to sigh and then turned into a beam of light and drilled into his forehead.

It happened so fast that Eric couldn't even notice it.

Then,

[Ding! 1% energy replenished. Commencing host scan…!]

When Eric heard this, a look of bewilderment appeared on his face.

However, before he could think what may have caused this, the scenery in front of him changed, and he found himself in a golden palace, looking at an amazingly beautiful woman.