I stand by the border of this special realm, a hazy mist of blue and grey exists here that would normally killing people if they touch it yet as I run my hand through it,

It’s no different causing my hand to melt away into nothing.

I still run my arm through it, a feeling comes over my body as it’s absorbed in this impure spatial storm space. A turbid space of reality where nothing can exist yet…

I develop some glowing lights on the end of my finger to manipulate this space, I flicker through the threads of reality and come across the one I’m interested in focusing on it before grabbing it with my hand and yanking it.

A portal for it comes into existence but I am drawn to something going on behind me, a large commotion before a gigantic explosion followed by an even larger sound of something collapsing.

The temple structure begins to sink into the ground causing me to frown, I manipulate my portal a few more times while looking up in the sky.

A bunch of cracks have appears meaning this place is collapsing, it could be related to what he did but it’s likely related to what these people did, there’s likely an exit method that will eject everyone out of the realm before it collapses.

I modifying this slightly and jump through the portal and arrive at a darkened room with a couple of dim lights in the corners, the portal I arrived through collapses instantly but another one opens up a moment later.

An unconscious person has been delivered on the table but I don’t worry about that too much as I walk forward and look around the room, it’s a dusty place but people have clearly been here recently.

I turn a corner and spot a group of people, they’re holding weapons but upon seeing who it is keep them held, I shake my head and stand still looking behind them spotting who I need.

“Tabi.”

“K?” she responds.

I nod my head to her question, she parts way in the crowd and walks over to me looking at me for a moment in a questioning manner.

I reach forward and grab at her butt but she dodges it with a smile, “Ok. It’s you. We need to work on a system to confirm your identity.”

“Just call me K.”

“But…”

“You have a cute butt, now come here.”

I grab at her ass, I nearly grab it but she dodges at the last moment.

“There’s lots of people looking at us, so why are you here? Why did you send us here?”

“Oh well I sent you guys here because it’s safe. The only options were here or something called the gaping maw so it made sense.”

“Gaping maw?”

“I think it’s what is happening outside, a swallowing force able to dispose of anything under the creator… Something that is against the heavens, only created in these sorts of special realms.”

Gabi nods her head, her short black hair dislodges from her head and dangles before her face.

I try to reach up but notice my missing arm reminding me of the situation, “We need to go but first…”

I take out a treasure, the largest piece of the treasure that landed on the ground and place it on Tabi’s chest.

She immediately coughs up blood but I don’t let up, I continue apply pressure forcing it inside.

She grits and bears it for a moment before the treasure digs into her chest, I pull it away from her chest in confusion as she kneels over with blood dripping from her mouth.

She looks up at me, “What was that?”

I pass the item to her, she touches it pensively before taking it and looking at the glowing piece of crystal.

“It’s a treasure, try to fuse with it. The more the better…”

“Try to fuse with it? Why don’t you hold onto it…”

Tabi tries to pass it back to me but I don’t take it, “You need to take it back” she pleads.

I don’t respond to her request, “It’s easy and you’ll gain lots of power from it.”

A tear falls from her eye, “Why?”

I look at her stunned for a moment, I don’t know how to react to this sudden shift of behaviour but I reach out to her, bringing her in for a hug so I can speak to her quietly.

“You can handle it. I don’t need it because…”

“That means you’re leaving though, isn’t that right?”

I pause my words before nodding my head, she leans into my shoulder causing me to hiss at the pain but I hold it there and bring my arm around.

“You are strong, much stronger than I met you. You have gained two treasures from me that will propel your strength massively…”

She hugs me tightly, “But… how can I do that stuff?”

“You can.”

“I’ve lost my father figure and now I’ll be losing you, why can’t you stay?”

“I can’t stay because this place doesn’t have what I need besides, who knows what will happen in the future. You just need to remember what I have given you.”

Tabi softly sobs for a moment, I spot Razia but she seems afraid to come closer to me. I don’t say anything and wait for Tabi to settle down before softly speaking to her in my arms, “You just need to keep up.”

Tabi pulls away from me and looks deeply in my eyes for a moment, I’m about to say something further but a crack in the wall comes into existence, I shout out.

“The collapse is happening, head to where you guys appeared and I’ll make a way out.”

Tabi looks at me for a moment, I speak up, “You need to look after the girl at the portal, she might be a good help in the future. She’s Geni.”

Tabi nods her head and walks back to Razia, I walk over to the other side of the room where everyone is gathering, they let me through as parts of the room crumble into nothing. They’re seemingly calm as I raise my hand.

No one question why I don’t have both as I gather the energy into my finger tips and create a portal between them, I hold my hand there before looking at them.

“Go. I have to hold it.”

They rush through, Razia is carrying Geni outside while Tabi runs over to me and gives me a quick kiss on the lips. I can see that her expression is still teary but I have to push aside any feelings that have developed and let them get stronger by themselves.

Everyone disappears through the portal, the space behind me cracks a few more times.

I look at it briefly before dismissing it, I quickly return looking at it as I look through the crack.

“I guess this space contained something.”

I walk in the direction, a hole has appeared in the wall revealing a new gigantic that contains a giant statue.

I arrive there before the winged figure, it towers over me not allowing me to approach closer to it.

I pause for a moment and spread out my senses, my innate senses spread out and attempt to capture the essence of this statue yet I cannot, it repels me outright.

I frown and try again, this time jumping through the realm layer. This is a small special realm so it can only go so far, I look inside and am stunned as the statue is able to jump across all piece of reality.

I suddenly feel annoyed, a statue is mocking me not allowing me to touch it.

I look at in anger, energy gathers at me feet.

Red energy filled with screams and wails gathers beneath my feet, my shadow extend thousands of metres in different directions indicating the power gathered inside me.

I step forward and find myself still pushed back, I glare forward and pull my fist back.

“Fuck off.”

I punch forward, the fist travels forward hitting an invisible barrier cracking it. A thick layer of energy disappears into tiny fragments allowing me to walk forward for a few steps before it reforms blocking my progression.

A cold glint enters my eyes.

This statue has severely pissed me off now, I gather my energy again this time not holding back gathering a good portion of the remaining power into my body. A cold energy surrounds me sending a chill in the chair.

My frosty breath exhales ignoring the ghastly wails and screams of the deceased.

The statue’s head seemingly moves to look at me, as if it’s casting judgement on me from high on above. I return the stare before breaking the tense scene with a smile.

“You’re a fragment of the power left over, a fragment of the next levels power so this will be a good test…”

A silver sword within a sheathe appears before me, I reach out to grab it causing all the coldness to disappear inside of it, the scene becomes silent while the sword begins to radiate energy.

I slow my breath and look up at the statue, I have no idea if this will work but this is my ultimate strike… the strike that was able to keep me alive all this time when faced with countless enemies above my level.

This time though, it’s facing an opponent far above it… a whole two realms above its usual opponents.

I pull the sword out of the sheathe, a slender looking blade about half the length of my body, my eyes look at the statue who has moved again, an arm has thrown something drawing my attention to it.

I raise the sword to intercept the giant spear made of yellow light, slashing down leaving a trail of energy in the air.

A loud explosion happens in the air as the spear collides with the energy trail, I don’t have much energy left so send out another slash.

A trail of black red energy trail through the air from the sword, a scream can be heard in the trail of destruction that travels to the status.

I pant and kneel down on the ground, this shot had much of my netherworld energy so if it cannot strike down a statue of heaven realm power…

The slash doesn’t stop getting larger, the statue raises its arms to intercept the slash yet suddenly a crack comes across the realm.

A giant crack in the realm has occurs above us splitting everything including the statue in half, I attempt to absorb it but the crack has spread until nothing is left of the realm leaving me with no option but to reach the next opening within the subspace realm of nothingness.

I appear inside a dark space, I feel around and can feel that I’m inside a small narrow horizontal tunnel, I can either go forward or backwards.

I opt for forward and crawl for several dozens of minutes and comes to a blocked end, I bang on it a few times with my fist but there’s no use. I resist the urge to use power and crawl down the bottom of the tunnel and find an opening.

I crawl out of it and look around spotting it overlooking a large open area, I look down and spot Tabi walking somewhere next to several people, she seems to be alright as Razia and Geni are next to her. There’s even that other girl from the bandit camp, all the other people are fine too….

A strange sensation comes over my body as I look at this scene, why would I feel ok that they’re fine? I should just move on.

I gather my energy into my hands and reach before me, a portal forms that I step through leaving a loud banging sound behind.

The women look up in the section I was hiding and spot the remnant energy, each one of them takes their own meaning from this but I will never know this until I meet them again…

I arrive at a point nearby and begin to walk, I walk without a care and truly don’t care, I just need to think about the things that are required by this realm and what I was told that battle with the angel.

This was brings me many insights yet one of them is becoming a bigger and bigger problem, a lack of power.

Right now my power has mostly relied upon my store of netherworld energy.

This energy is easy to use and I have many skills that are suited to use this yet to gather it in this realm, you either need to connect somewhere to the netherworld or kill a massive amount of living beings.

Unfortunately my first encounter with the city led me to a situation where I developed some feelings to them, not allowing me to utilise the full extent of my powering and leaving me weakened overall yet…

It’s during these weak phases that I’m able to connect to people in ways that I never expected, this first visit brought many unexpected surprises and as I look at where I have arrived I don’t doubt they’ll provide many more.

A large wall stands before me but where upon it scans me, it disappears allowing me entrance revealing a large road leading to an expansive city with countless people in the distance. This is one of the interior cities that has millions of people contains inside of it yet all of this advanced machinery and light don’t mean anything, the lives around here seem so basic and mundane yet now that I’m here and using these bodies will I become trapped in a cycle of this?

I look around and spot a person nearby, a young man his broad shoulders and muscular body suggest he has been working out all his life while a strange energy from him blocks a closer view of everything else ultimately drawing more attention to him.

I don’t have many other options at the moment and this person will most likely know something about the area, I walk over to the man who instantly notices me coming over, a shimmer of energy comes from his body and disperses over mine but disappears as soon as it appears. Whatever that was seems to have been ok for the young man as he smiles and looks towards me.

“Hello Sir, you don’t have a god and seem to be rather hurt. Would you like the chance at being saved?”

“I have a question for you.”

“Yes?”

“Where does the god implant your ritual icon?”

The man points to his head, “Here is where the Lord’s blessing grace me constantly, you too could be–

*SPLAT*

The headless body disappears leaving behind the head itself, the man’s eyes roll for a moment while his jaw goes flaps once before never again. I store away the head and continue to walk inside the city, not getting hassled at all as I ready myself another drink prepared with a sample of DNA.

TiK

So that was interesting I think... arc 1 is done and while the secret realm might never show up again, the people and groups involved probably will. We'll meet all the girls again soon while also meeting some new ones too, I felt bad for giving their characters so little exposure.

Spoiler

We'll spend like 3/4 of next arc in female body too but lots of people don't seem to like futa/yuri genderbend...

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