Death… And Me

Rean flashed for a moment and reappeared on Tabbris' side, puzzled. He then looked ahead and could see the stain of blood floating in the air. Not surprisingly, the stain of blood was at the same height as Tabbris' head. "Did you hit a wall?"

Tabbris tried to focus as he nodded. "I definitely hit so-something... senior. Ouch..."

Rean pressed a finger on Tabbris' head and activated his Instant Recovery Skill. In a second, Tabbris was back to normal. Rean just ignored him, though. Instead, he stepped forward and moved his hand. Only then was he able to feel some kind of invisible barrier preventing his hand from going forward. "Seems like you hit this thing."

Tabbris didn't quite like to see his blood there, so he used his Divine Energy to clear it before touching the barrier as well. "This is weird. I didn't sense we passing through this barrier before."

Rean agreed with him. "Me neither. Say, when you found that Nascent Soul Light Beast and started fighting it, did you cross this point, or were you further back?"

"I was much further back," Tabbris understood what Rean wanted to say. "Because of that, I can't tell if this Barrier was already here before or not."

Rean pondered a bit and turned his attention back to the Mirro Globe in the distance. Right after, he turned his attention back to the barrier. 'Let's see how strong is this thing.'

Rean pressed his hand against the barrier and silently circulated his Sky Energy inside his body. At the same time, he used as much strength as his Starlight Body could muster. Without holding back, the area began to tremble... and the barrier began to move backward. 'Seems like it isn't strong enough to fight against my power... Is it bending to try to compensate for it?'

"Senior!" Tabbris then called Rean's attention as he pointed to Rean's back.

"These ones are quite stronger than the previous beasts. My Wind Blades should have easily killed anything below the Saint Realm with ease. Yet, seven of these beasts survived. That shows they have a power equivalent to an Initial Stage Saint Realm Angel Beast, more or less."

"Initial Stage Saint Realm?!" Tabbris's heart skipped a beat after hearing that. Such strength would be enough to kill him ten times over.

Rean summoned a few more Wind Blades and quickly finished the job before telling Tabbris. "Well, aren't you lucky? The Light Beast Cores inside these ones should have even more Light Element and Divine Energy. You should go ahead and collect them."

Tabbris' fear instantly disappeared. How could he still feel fear after hearing that? "Thank you, senior."

Rean nodded and simply walked to the Mirror Globe. Stopping in front of it, Rean pressed his hand forward, touching the surface. Yet, it wasn't like a liquid anymore. It was now solid, seeming very resistant. 'Such a weird thing... First of all, is this really just an Illusory World? I would have felt some differences by now, yet everything looks 100% real to me. Sister Orb, what do you think?'

[As far as I can tell, you look very much alive to me. But then again, you and Roan are too far from each other. My senses of the outside world barely work at all. The only thing I can confirm is that your soul is fine. There is nothing harmful happening to it.]

'I wish I could use the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm now...' If Rean could, he would simply send this Mirror Globe into the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm and examine it there. 'Well, it is not guaranteed I would be able to do that either...' he thought.

Rean then used his Divine Energy and grabbed Tabbris, who had just finished collecting the cores. He put a Divine Energy barrier to protect the young angel and raised his Dark Star Sword. 'My sword came with me, so I'm more inclined to think I'm not an illusion but the real deal. For now, I will face this place like this.'

Finally, he thrustted his sword forward, not holding back at all.

'Death Style, First Form, Stellar Piercer!'