Saving Derek

"You can speak?" Derek was surprised and asked the slime in front of him. The slime was transparent so it didn't have any color, inside it was a ball which was most probably its core.

"I am not a slime from the Lower realms." The blob spoke back.

"Huh? So you came from the Celestial Realm?" He asked curiously.

"Celestial Realm?!" The slime scoffed. "Celestial Realm can't even measure to where I came from."

This time Derek looked at it with wide eyes, some realm higher than even the Celestial Realm?? He knew his master was amazing, to be so smart.

'Just like I thought! Master is just too amazing!'

He was oblivious to the domain in front of him as everything looked normal. Suddenly the sky went grey and the ground, black.

'Huh? What just happened?'

"Where I am?"

He started to observe his surroundings...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHGGHHHHHHH!!!!"

....in front of him was the guest from before who was wailing in pain. He noticed that some black humanoid figures were pouring some kind of liquid on his little brother.

Tilting, he saw a woman was sitting on an iron throne, enjoying the view.

Derek immediately felt like puking when he imagined himself in the guy's place.

The woman was staring at him with a vicious smile, perceiving that smile, he turned around to leave from where he came from. Unfortunately, there was no exit.

"Young boy... there is no exit..." He turned his gaze towards the woman who was giving out a scary smile.

"Weren't you the young boy who was with that silver hair pretty boy?" Ishtar asked in a gentle tone.

Derek gulped his saliva and nodded, he didn't understand why she was asking about Rael.

"If you win against my slave then I will let you leave alive. After all, you are the companion of that handsome boy, and handsome men only know how to break the hearts of maidens."

Ishtar's lips curled up into a bitter smile as a melancholic expression came upon her visage while she started to inspect the human.

"Alive? Alive doesn't mean that you or your slaves won't hurt me..." He replied, by now he knew that she was the person who was with the Devils, he already knew about the contract as his master had told him about it during the auction.

'Never let anyone else choose the agreements.'

She glared at him for a second with anger and then chuckled, "Ok then...you will lose anyway..."

She waved her hands to make the black humanoids stop torturing the devil. Then she snapped her fingers and looked at him with pity.

But the pity wasn't because she was feeling bad but because she wouldn't be able to torture him for a while.

"Mind blank!" She flicked her wrists before saying that.

Instantly the previous eyes of the devil filled with extreme loyalty, overbearing determination, and never-ending will were erased to become dead.

His red hair started to dye black, his previous tan skin started to turn into a porcelain pale color.

"You are now my slave." She announced looking at the devil in an imposing voice.

The devil nodded, he was no longer Griles, his personality was dead, he didn't exist anymore all that was left was an expressionless, emotionless person who would only listen to his Queen's orders.

"Your Highness, I await your orders." His transformation was still undergoing, instantly his wrinkles disappeared and were replaced with smooth skin.

His entire old demeanor was now full of energy and youth.

He had changed not just in his mentality but also in his appearance and power!

The black-haired woman started to chuckle, 'I never knew that this ring had such an interesting ability.'

"Teach that brat a lesson." She commanded her slave in an imposing voice.

~

While Derek was going through a life and death battle, Rael and Shi were also fighting with the many zombies coming for them.

Zombies are usually a specialty of the Undead Realm, they often use them as cannon fodder.

They are told to have infinite regenerative capabilities, it's just that they are very slow and are mostly mindless unless it is a high-level one.

Both Shi and Rael noticed that the zombie in front of them was a higher tier than before. They didn't know the tier completely but could feel strong vibes coming from it.

The Zombie leader was leading all the Zombies in their direction only to get slaughtered.

Roots erupted from the ground, immobilizing all of them. Rael quickly used ice deviant element magic and all of them froze.

Their teamwork was simply amazing! Rael took out his second faith sword which he had been using all this time.

An ethereal blade came out in thin air, glistening in the moonlight and shining transparently. This was the first time in a while that he would use his 'heaven-splitting techniques.

[SECOND FAITH SWORD!

Property of heaven!]

He combined his heaven-element faith sword with his heaven-splitting intent. Both of them had a good affinity for each other and fused immediately.

Immediately the atmosphere was filled with divine energy. Rael himself had not used heaven-splitting intent in a long time, plus it was not fully formed because he was still in stage one of his spiritual core.

He quickly started to execute the first form of ghost phantasm with the heaven-splitting faith sword.

*Swoosh! *

Just like a Japanese anime character he passed through them all, after what they all split into two pieces, still frozen....then bursting into divine flames.

"Ha! That was a good show!" A husky voice said aloud.

Both Shi and Rael turned in the direction of the voice.

It was a seven-foot giant with rotten skin falling off his body and regenerating again. When someone turns into a zombie, they don't have their precious memories and are born anew.

Especially so for creatures with high tiers, they have a just for battle. It's just like the 'mind erase' used by Ishtar.

"A Zombie Lord!" Shi gasped, his expression wasn't grave but curious instead.

"It seems like these zombies are eating humans to evolve, by the end of the night, they all will have evolved!" He spoke to Rael without looking at him.

'This is bad! I need to call backup from the Cross Realm Security Force right now! We need many trainers or adjudicators!' Shi thought worriedly.

Rael simply ignored him and dashed to the horrendous creature.

He quickly wanted to test his prowess before his spiritual energy would get over, it would take some time to regain it, and also it seemed like he was short on time.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands, now was no time to fight this stupid creature.

Before the sword closed in, the sword formed an Ice lotus in the air to strike against

*Clang*

The ice lotus was ground into pieces in the violent sword wind. However, it did not falter just like this, but instead transformed into countless solid chunks of ice, and rained down towards the stupid humanoid being making a storm.

In an instant, the storm carrying the shattered ice lotus swirled around the two, as if sweeping up a tornado of ice and snow.

*Clang..clang... clang.. clang!*

Amidst the string of colliding and breaking sounds, the dispersed ice flakes were blown away by the Zombie lord.

However, the cold energy that these ice flakes contained was heavier than even Rael had imagined; after the Zombie Lord blew away all of the ice flakes, both of his hands were already thoroughly flushed red from the cold and only fully recovered after two breaths of time.

Rael moved back half a step and said with a slight smile on his face.

He suddenly appeared below the belly of the Zombie lord and slashed his sword across his belly to right inside his skull, drilling it from inside out.

Shi looked at him flabbergasted, "You didn't even listen to what I told you and just rushed in!"

Rael ignored him again.

Shi gritted his teeth with an imaginary cross sigh coming up on the side of his forehead.

'This guy.....he likes to ignore a lot! I'll also ignore him next time!'

They walked and walked and walked.....defeating many zombies on their way before finally reaching the mana source.

"I am sure that this is the source of mana!" Shi exclaimed but frowned seeing that there was nothing to be seen in the surroundings.

"I can feel that my disciple was here..." Rael said, he could still feel that his disciple was nearby but where?!

He subconsciously uttered out the word, "Domain..."

~

"I have already informed the Cross Realm force about the abnormalities happening in this realm...hey you listening!" Shi screamed looking at me.

"Can you please shut your mouth for some time?" I requested the screaming idiot.

The surroundings were totally empty, it was too quiet.

Silence is always a bad sign....not even zombies were near which was weirder because the place we were standing at was the center point from where the contract mana was coming.

There is only one possibility left,

"Domain..."

I activated my spiritual sense immediately as this possibility came to my mind.

With the help of spiritual sense, I could surely find the loophole in the Domain to enter.

*Cough!*

Fuck. Such intense miasma

Blood started to spurt from my mouth as soon as I activated my spiritual sense.

"Hey! Are you okay?? Why did you suddenly cough blood?!" Shi rushed to me in an effort to comfort me.

I simply stood up from the ground oblivious to his efforts, I knew that he was a scheming bastard. He just wanted to know why I coughed blood there were no sentiments behind it.

I can read emotions and intentions easily due to my experience of betrayals, shameful tactics, etc.

"Nothing much...I know where my disciple is.."

"Oh, where is he?" A glint appeared in his eyes, it seemed like as if he was chasing after something with intense greed.

"It's a Domain."

Immediately, his expression crumbled, and he started to mutter under his breath.

"Domain?" He asked with some fear. He himself was just a low-level Domain user.

"Yes and that too it's a high-level Domain..."

Expressionlessly he fell down on his knees, it was pretty easy to make out that he wanted to profit something from this entire nightmare.

"I am going to rest for a bit and regain my energy to enter the Domain..."

He looked at me aghast!

"Are you crazy? It's a high-level domain! You won't even be able to last a moment against the person inside!"

I simply ignored him, in my last life, I had no objectives and only wanted to live a peaceful life which was totally ruined!

This life of mine....is supposed to be peaceful and the best one of them all... however-

-if can't even save my first disciple who looks up to me as his master that too with utmost loyalty, I would rather die!

Everything happens for a reason. I believe that there is a reason to why I was reincarnated.

I closed my eyes and started to circulate my spiritual core at a fast rate.

1 cycle!

4 cycles!

25 cycles!

100 cycles!

Spiritual wisps entered my body and all the toxicity escaped. My depleted spiritual energy core started to recover at a horrific speed.

All the spiritual wisps in the entire area, came at one point, just like a black hole! I felt like I was alone in the world and everything existed only for me!

Slowly cracks started to form on my spiritual core emitting a divine light...

Stage 1: Level 2- Breakthrough!

Stage 1: Level 9- Breakthrough

Stage 2: Level 1- Breakthrough!

Stage 2: Level 4- Breakthrough!

Stage 3: Level 1- Breakthrough! Enter!

A surge of power was excluded from my body! I jumped from level 2 of Stage 1 spiritual core to level 1 of Stage 3 immediately.

~

Shi looked at Rael with a weird expression, he was also sitting in a lotus position to gain his depleted mana back.

Rael opened his eyes, they shined with an ethereal glow, it felt like they were out of this world. His expression was nonchalant without care.

'This kid...he is excluding a different aura! What is he?....'

"Are you coming?" Rael asked Shi with a questioning gaze.

"O-of course! How can I let you a kid, go alone!"

Rael said without looking at Shi.

"I have already found the flaw in the Domain... let's enter!" Rael said without looking at Shi.

He looked at Rael curiously, he had doubts about the domain, just how did this kid in front of him find the Domain? How did he even detect the domain?

He hardly recognized the kid as an amateur, even though his mind was different, because of what he treated him the same as he would treat his friends.

"Follow me!" Rael ordered him.

Shi simply stood up from the cross-legged position and stretched his body. All his depleted mana capacity had fully recovered.

They were both now ready to break into the Domain.

Rael and Shi walked towards the center of the Area, a golden glow excluded from Rael's body as he touched something in midair.

*CRACK!*

A rift formed in the air, an intense aura leaking out of it!

There was a crack in the middle of nowhere and an entirely different space inside it!

Shi gulped his saliva as he turned his gaze to Rael, who was expressionlessly standing in front of it, inhaling and exhaling air.

"Let's go!"

Both of them stepped inside the rift crack causing it to widen a bit. After they walked inside it, the crack automatically closed up.

They started to observe their surroundings, it was totally grey! The floor was a great black liquid, at least they could stand in it but they occasionally felt like they would fall into it.

A horrifying scent of death caught their nose! They followed its direction and saw a bloody human lying down and on top of him sitting a handsome man with long black hair and empty eyes.

"Derek...." Rael muttered with empty eyes.

He had to know the situation first, before lashing out in anger. Without thinking before fighting causes death.

"You finally came....."

Both Rael and Shi turned their heads in the direction of the voice...

A curvaceous woman was sitting on a throne atop a hill. She had long black hair and the fairest skin they had ever seen! She was wearing a veil that covered her face so they couldn't see it.

Her eyes were looking down at them with curiosity but more like as if they were insignificant bugs.

"You know, he believed that you would come right until the very end.... it seems that he was right....unfortunately you came a bit too late...he is already on the verge of death." She smiled gently and pointed toward Derek.

Rael simply stared at the woman right into her eyes

He wouldn't lie, he was indeed angry but losing many of his friends, and sworn brothers had already hardened him quite a bit.

His anger was like the ocean, but it was not raging like a storm but instead, it was the calmest it could be.

It was lull.

A wry smile broke onto his face, as he looked at Ishtar as if she was amusing.

'Nobody has ever managed to make me this angry for a long time....when was the last time I was this angry? Must be when the world leaders sent gay men to marry me.'

Rael is a hypocrite, a selfish guy, filled with greed but also a guy who knows about limits and what is right and wrong.

As a King, he would never let his judgments be clouded by emotions unless absolutely necessary or if he is extremely angry.

He ignored the black-haired woman and crept towards the man who was sitting on Derek.

The lady herself was expressionless and in disbelief!

'What?...Shouldn't he feel angry?? Why is he smiling....'

She looked at Rael curiously and gestured the expressionless puppet man to stop sitting atop the human and get away from him.

She wanted to see what Rael would do.

"You know right...that whatever you do it will not work? He is fated to die..."

He simply ignored her and walked towards Derek.

An unnatural gust of wind blew in the area making everyone shiver as an ominous vibe floated in the air.

Rael sat near Derek. One hand was placed atop his chest while the other was on the forehead. Lowering his face slightly he whispered lightly.

"You no longer need to be bound by the chains of humanity...."