Progress [1]

I woke up again feeling that I just had a deep sleep. Knowing that I died, I instantly surveyed my surroundings with my Mental Power.

Just like last time, my head is laying in Aria's lap. is now residing in my body as well.

'Master! You're finally awake! You don't know how shocked I am!'

'Little Xue?'

'You directly turned into ashes after escaping! That's the first time!'

'Right.'

My sight headed towards the panel indicating that I've surpassed the ten-times limit. I admit, I am careless when I used the . If I guessed it correctly, it should be at the Half-Creator Realm, the realm higher than the Deity Realm.

Master mentioned it to me a few times as well. Moreover, I found out that the origin of Master's is from this technique.

To put it simply, it's a downgraded version of it.

has the power of , which is capable of distorting the space-time. When I utilized this technique, I directly attacked that cyborg zerg's past self from the present. With his past self dead, there's not much meaning for his present self to exist, thus he turned into dust. This is different than the that only placed an 'distortion' to the attack, allowing it to hit faster than what the opponents had sensed.

However, its repercussions are too heavy. When you distort the space-time, you'll have to bear its consequences. After using my <36 Heavenly Constellation Steps> to bring Aria away, I lost my consciousness.

'When you turned into dust, we make sure to not let a single one out!'

'Alright, alright, thanks. What happened when I lost consciousness?'

''It was pure power harassment! When you left the planet, a couple of Deity Realm uncles appeared. Thanks to your Master's attack, we were able to escape successfully.'

Phew. Thankfully, the worse never happened. I guessed that some Deity Realms would be waiting outside due to Luminous getting sealed off to the entire world. If they find out that even Deity Realm combatants couldn't even break through the barrier, they'll definitely find something suspicious.

According to Little Xue, 34 Low-Rank Deities, 10 Mid-Rank Deities, and 2 High-Rank Deity were present. When everyone escaped, they wanted to invite them for questioning. However, Aria knew that it'll be bad for her after knowing that they targeted her bloodline. I told it to her before we went out, just in case that old bastard is present somewhere.

Naturally, I told her the advantages and the disadvantages of her bloodline being revealed to the dragon race. Though, the disadvantages far outweighed the advantages. I asked her not to reveal it as well.

When that happened, she tried to breakthrough. She had no chance of doing so, thus she was instantly put into a difficult situation.

'She got into a difficult situation? Damn it. I'm still weak enough.'

Sensing the threats, my circlet and Aria's necklace activated.

'It was a real mess!'

Little Xue told me so.

Master's peak sword attack directly obliterated the space along with the Deities. When the High-Rank Deities moved, around a third of the Low-Rank Deities with them died.

They were angry, of course, thus they launched an attack on Aria. Too bad for them, 6 more attacks are stored in that necklace. Coupled with the protective barrier and the Artifact Spirit that appeared through his circlet, it was all in vain.

After 4 of Master's attacks along with the countless beams that the Artifact Spirit had sent, most of the Low-Rank Deities perished while the rest are incapacitated. Then, we were able to successfully escape.

'I thought that betting our lives on the Space Tear is the worst option, but it seems that both of the options that I planned are the worst.'

Still, those plans seemed very reasonable in my eyes. Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but I would rather we go through those two than stay on that planet any further.

When I got the vision of the 'Perilous' disaster, I saw someone shocking. When I got my first vision back then, I faced the Half-Creator Realm zerg and got killed. Later on, Master told me that he's someone from the 12 Seats, the absolute powerhouses of Zergs.

This time, I saw yet another one of them. As soon as I saw him, I immediately chose those two options. Perhaps, we would've been caught if not for Aria's insistence on breaking through the encirclement.

After all, the member of the 12 Seats that will come shortly after is none other than the "Fate Overseer", Solomon.

Originally, he's a native of the destroyed world of the zergs. Seeing the imminent fate of their world, he knew that they wouldn't stand a chance against them. With that, he surrendered to them.

To know of this information, a High-Rank Deity who countered Solomon's divination was killed thoroughly. He only noted his information before he died. Of course, all of them are valuable information.

One of them even included his weakness!

"Lugh."

"Aria..?"

I didn't notice her waking up right away due to me thinking about the dangers that we've faced.

"I'm sorry. Making you worry and placing you in danger is not something that I should've done."

I couldn't look her in the eyes right now. Even though it's the best course of action, it still put her in danger. There's no more explanation for that.

"Lugh."

She held my face and made me look straight at her eyes.

"I trust you."

Those words.. Aria..

I should become stronger. Strong enough to not place her in those situations.

I swear. Even if I die, she will live.

I got carried away in my thoughts, to the point that I could not even react as to what happened next.

"Ar-?!"

Her face drew close quickly and our lips touched. Complex feelings boiled inside me. Happiness, sweetness, longing..

It's as if time stopped at this moment.

Good things don't last forever, so we separated after some time. She blushed as she avoided my eyes.

I then got up from the lap pillow. With me in a kneeling position, I sat in front of her.

"Surprised?"

"Yes."

Our surroundings regained its silence in this instant. Both of us aren't willing to speak due to awkwardness, thus this happened.

To break this silence...

"Mmph?!"

I took the initiative to give her a kiss. This time, it lasted much longer.