Death… And Me

Rean was puzzled, though. 'Well, if you know that, then you can communicate with him somehow. So... tell him to destroy it. Do that, and Lotar's victory is pretty much guaranteed.'

Iolanda shook her head, though. 'They tried, but there is some kind of protection in place. We need to go and take a look. You know a lot of formations, right? You might be of help.'

Rean didn't mind. 'Then let's go already.'

Their group, which had been watching the battle, then flew away. However, to not catch the Fragment's attention, they initially flew in a different direction. Only after leaving Lotar and the Fragment's sight did they turn in another direction and speed away once again.

"This is kind of meaningless, don't you think?" Kentucky asked.

Rean and Iolanda looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"This thing about leaving the Light and Dark Beast's field of vision. That guy was able to see us and use his weird Soul Power to attack Aelrie when we were still far away from the City," said Kentucky. "So, the moment we turned in another direction, he probably saw it as well. I doubt there is anything in this City that guy can't see."

Iolanda had to admit Kentucky was right.

However, Rean already knew that. "Isn't that obvious?" Everyone looked at Rean, confused, so Rean continued to explain. "Let alone us; I'm pretty sure that that beast also knows Iolanda's Shadow Ferals found the source of energy."

"We are only doing it to make it look like we don't know we are being observed," Rean finally concluded. "As long as it thinks it can see everything without anyone knowing, it will feel overconfident and drop its guard. It might not have much use now, but this deception will show its value soon when we destroy the source of energy."

Rean and Kentucky were right. The Fragment's sentience could see everything inside the City. It saw how they 'tried' to fool it by changing direction, so it just snorted and continued its fight with Lotar. 'Could it be my instincts were wrong?' The Fragment couldn't help but think after Rean's group escaped like that.

With the Space-Time Realm members of the group pulling everyone along, it only took a few minutes to cover all the kilometers between them and the source the Shadow Ferals found. The Shadow Ferals gathered around a huge building near the center of the City, although a good part of it was also destroyed.

Iolanda then talked to them before turning to Rean. "It's inside."

Their group didn't waste time and entered the building. However, the picture of the inside was a stark contrast with the ruined City outside. Everything was spot-clean, with several pieces of equipment in sight. It gave the sensation of being a place built by a much more advanced race compared to the City outside.

At the very center of the enormous room, there was a pretty much identical sphere of Light and Dark Light to the one they had found previously. That made Rean and Kentucky wonder if this one was the real Universe Foundation Fragment or if the Beast fighting Lotar was the right one.

[Don't worry, that Beast fighting Lotar is definitely the Framgnet. This thing in front of you is just a core containing a lot of energy,] said Sister Orb.

Rean was surprised to hear that. 'How do you know? The system can't check the outside world at the moment with Roan so far away.'

[Because of the Equipment,] Sister Orb pointed out. [Look at the surroundings. All the equipment is connected to it, making sure the Core doesn't grow unstable. As for the Core itself, it is releasing energy nonstop. No doubt it is fueling the Fragment outside. Above all, the sentience emerged inside the Fragment, and it is outside fighting Lotar. Everything points out to this place being nothing but a source of energy for the Fragment.]

Of course, Sister Orb tried to cover her ass too. [Well, that's what I think. I might be wrong. Hahaha!]

Rean didn't see the fun in that, and he had his doubts. But in the end, he decided to accept Sister Orb's theory. It wasn't like he had a better idea anyway. "Alright, let's get rid of this thing. What is it that is protecting the source?"

The Shadow Feral, who first found it, changed into his angel form and spoke. "It's right in front of you. It is a barrier, and we can't seem to be able to break it. It seems to protect the whole building, so we can't take the building down either."

Rean shot an arrow of Light Element forward, which did indeed hit the barrier mentioned by the Shadow Feral. Lotar was still fighting in the City, and with this source of energy, Lotar would definitely run out of energy first, so Rean didn't have time to make more tests. He just took out his Dark Star Sword and attacked without holding back.

'Death Style, Stellar Piercer!'

When it comes to pure penetration power, Stellar Piecer was still the most efficient attack. However...

*Clang!*

Rean's Dark Star Sword was bounced while the barrier didn't even tremble, let alone break. "Definitely not something a Space-Time Realm expert can break," Rean immediately concluded, knowing that his full power Stellar Piercer had a power similar to a Peak Space-Time Realm attack when it came to piercing power alone.

"We tried our Feral Flmes too," The same Beast mentioned. "Yet, nothing happened. The barrier seemed to be immune to our corrosive power."

Rean looked at Tugis, who nodded. Other than Lotar, he was the strongest Shadow Feral, so he used his Dark Red Flames to try to break the barrier.

The flames covered a good part of the surface of the barrier, but even after several seconds, nothing happened. Tugis then stopped. "No point continuing. I'm not strong enough."

Rean then changed his tactics. This was definitely a formation, so he began to check it and see if he could find a way to open this thing. "There has to be a way to turn it off... hum?"

It was then he noticed a device in the corner of the room, which seemed to be connected to that barrier. It had several slots on it... and they looked quite familiar. "That is..."

Rean approached the device and was able to confirm. "A Circuitry Formation? There are many runes I can't identify, but this is definitely a Circuitry Formation. As for these slots..."

Rean saw a total of six round slots and six cubic slots on the device, which gave him an idea. "Perhaps..."

He accessed his Spatial Ring and brought out a small Cube with a surface that looked like a mirror. That was one of the Cubes he acquired after destroying the Soul Devices on his way through the Azum Dimensional Realm. Rean then put the Cube in one of the slots.

*Zuuuu...*

The Cube entered, and then the device dragged it down slowly. It was a perfect fit.

Inside the barrier, one of the pieces of equipment connected to the barrier then turned off as a voice echoed in the room.

-Lakata run zou behinte-

Unfortunately, no one knew which language it was. Nonetheless, it is obvious that the Cubes Rean acquired were the key to operating this barrier. He just so happened to acquire six of these Cubes, so the numbers also matched.

Every single Cube got into the slots without a problem, and another five pieces of equipment turned off as the same words repeated in the room every time a Cube was added.

However, there were now six round slots remaining. Rean wasn't an idiot. He immediately turned to Kentucky and asked. "Kentucky, you said you found small Mirror Spheres inside the Soul Manipulation Devices that you destroyed on your way here, right? Give them to me. They are probably the key to open this thing."

Kentucky began to sweat coldly and averted his gaze. "Ahem... I... lost them..."

Rean's mouth twitched. "You... lost them?"

Iolanda glanced at Kentucky and snorted. "Yes, he lost them inside his belly." She was there when Kentucky ate the Mirror Spheres, so how could she not know?

"What?!" Rean's expression turned dark. "You ate them... just like that? Haven't you thought about the consequences?"

"Hahaha!" Kentucky laughed it out. "My bloodline would never lie to me. I could feel they were very tasty, just like any other piece of rare metal, so I ate them. Don't worry, it was not for nothing. They helped me unlock even more of my bloodline."

"Who the hell is worried about you?!" Rean felt like crying. How was he going to open the barrier now?