Forbidden region, World of Arcana;
The forbidden region refers to the region that encompasses the three level-5 regions, Knull Island, Hel's Prison, and Mt. Lo.
The three regions were guarded by a powerful barrier that restricted the freedom of the beasts residing inside.
From time to time, some rebellious but powerful beasts breach through the prison barrier and get out. And the guardian's job is to make sure to prevent those monsters from invading the human cities.
As a result, the guardian could always be seen at the zero point, the only official way for experts below the demigod realm to enter these three forbidden regions.
But, right now, the guardian isn't present there.
She was currently resting in the deep region of Knull Island, also called the Forest of Death, leaving the task temporarily to Qridus.
However, as Qridus returned to the clan village for the entire day, he sealed the entire zero point in his strongest barrier technique. He did so in fear that some monster would take advantage of his absence and escape.
As if his fears became true, by the time Qridus and his descendants came to the zero point, they saw more than a dozen giant monsters from three different regions trapped inside the barrier, trying their best to escape.
*Graaa* *Kraaa* *Sceee* *zzzz*
Various types of platinum-grade rank-9 highly intelligent monsters were attacking the barrier, not intending to work together at all for whatever reason.
As the four of them appeared on the portal point, the monsters sensed their presence and swiftly charged toward them as if they saw their favorite food.
Giant monsters, each one hundreds of meters big, charged at the center of the island like a gust of wind, scaring the hell out of Izora and Vesyrn for a moment.
As the husband and wife shivered, Little Affea hugged Azzy's arm, "Chuckee..."
Within just a few seconds, all of those monsters reached the center of the island at the same time, and Qridus quickly acted.
"Preposterous!"
Qridus' roar echoed in the region, unleashing a disc of light energy from his body which expanded at a rapid pace and struck the beasts.
All of their bodies have a huge cut on their bodies as they were blasted away by Qridus' attack and crashed to the shores of the island in different directions.
They dispersed like lightning and reached the floating spirit cores, swallowing them up and merging with the cores to retain their soul skills.
While Azzy looked quite imposing and cool on the outside, only he knew what kind of mental pressure he was facing. He couldn't even speak out anymore, answering his ancestor or responding to his parents, and he stayed in complete silence. But, he didn't show it at all on his face and focused on speeding up the process.
Eventually, within a couple of minutes, the skeletal monsters with the cores glowing up behind their respective ribcages stood on their ground and walked back to their master, who was wiping out his sweat and replenishing his soul energy.
"Master"
A collective greeting came from those undead monsters, upon reaching him. They all bowed in unison.
Azzy finally opened his mouth with a weak smile, "Two of you lead in the front, warning the potential enemies to move away. The remaining will act as guards on all sides."
"Azrael," The clan head, who felt like his successor was disrespecting him by not answering his earlier comment, raised his voice a little bit. "I didn't know you had this ability to retain cores, but even then, you shouldn't have killed them.
In the future, the monsters in this region will become our allies." Qridus didn't get down and rooted in the same floating position he was, about a couple of minutes ago.
Azzy calmly raised his head to stare at the old man, "Your Majesty, first of all, I don't have any sympathy for the monsters that see us as nothing but food. Secondly, I don't know if you didn't sense it or didn't bother to do so. But, I have sensed all of these monsters were connected to someone. They were controlled by an Arcana Master. I had to do this to protect my family."
He expected his ancestor to understand, but the old man still had his displeasure, "If you had known that much, then, you should have already realized that my master is behind this. However, it is not a test for you, Azrael. This is a test for me, who had left this place for a day. Regardless, it is not your place to act when I'm here.
Don't grow so arrogant over your strength that you ignore your elders. I told you at our first meeting, didn't I? Strength and Authority are two sides of the same coin. Displaying sheer strength without authority is nothing but arrogance."
Azzy's eyes widened in surprise and he just fell silent, cussing him inside, "this old geezer. He used to be completely supportive of my actions but ever since I defeated that demigod, he was criticizing me a lot. First, at the Tower of Abel, and now this... Was he uncomfortable that he isn't the most powerful being on the planet anymore or something?"
"No, Azrael. Your ancestor is right," The Reaper's voice echoed in Azzy's head. "You sure grew more arrogant lately."
"C'mon, you can't be serious," Azzy shouted back at the Reaper, "For someone who didn't come to my rescue when I was on the brink of my death, both of you sure love to lecture me."
"Are you still in the rebellious phase or what?" The Reaper scolded him in return. After a brief pause, he added, "I guess you have to meet your equals or stronger beings to understand yourself."
"What does that mean?" "Hey, reply to me" "Here we ago. After lecturing me, you once again cut off my access to Mindscape." "Hey, let me in..." "Forget it. I was doing better without your advice and help lately anyway. Tch..."
Meanwhile, the undead monsters distanced themselves a couple of hundred meters away from the group of four, doing their job, as Azzy and others proceeded toward the island. However, their enormous sizes still cast a shadow on the group, making it seem like the sky is cloudy at the moment.
Affea, despite having the ability to fly with her gravitational manipulation inborn ability, was being carried by Azzy on his back as they flew over the sea. As for the monsters, they could walk on the water. Hence, it is not an issue for them.