".. And I am a champion of Destiny." Responded Daniel while taking a few deep and slow breaths, and wrapping his right arm around his stomach in an attempt to ease the pain he was feeling. While the effect of the blood poison had vastly lessened, it was still powerful enough to make a cultivator at the godhood stage wince in pain. It was only thanks to Daniel's mental fortitude that he could maintain his composure.
Unfortunately, that was not the same for Daniel's captors, who, after hearing the words 'champion of Destiny', had rigidly taken a step back and gasped in surprise. "ROSE! DO IT NOW!" Shouted the young woman with straight black hair to Daniel's guardian, who was holding the only two beacons that were left in their possession.
After noticing Rose's lack of reaction to her friend's words, the young woman with brown hair tied into a ponytail decided to join in by saying, "Rose, if what he said is true, we don't know what his powers are. We might die before even knowing how. I agree with Lilith, you should just do it."
"Calm down, you two!" Rose barked out to the two of them. She then pointed her left hand towards Daniel, and said, "Can't you see that he is injured? He can barely maintain his consciousness by meditating. This is the right moment to ask questions." As she finished speaking, she once again turned towards Daniel. "If you are who you say you are, how did you reach this universe? There is no way you'd have been able to enter through the main portal without being noticed." She said with suspicion. In her mind, she was not sure whether Daniel was trying to scare them with a lie, or whether he was truly one of the most infamous kinds of cultivators in the multiverse.
Unfortunately for her, Daniel had no intention of answering this question. Instead, he shook his head lightly, and said, "You should ask me why I have brought you here, instead of asking stupid questions."
"You don't seem to understand in what position you are in." Said Rose before raising her left hand, and tapping her middle finger against the empty space in front of her. As soon as her finger retracted, the barrier created by lightning essence started to shrink, focusing its entire power into a single point which increased in brilliance to a point where it looked no different from one of the stars visible in the sky. Then, once nothing but a small yet extremely brilliant spark of light was left, a thunder bolt split the space that separated it from Daniel, and struck him cleanly on the chest.
"Mhhh.. That was not nice." Said Daniel as the lightning essence moved freely into his body, causing his muscles to twitch while doing close to no damage.
"How did you fool the Ancestor into believing you had brain damage? Is that the power of your gift?" Asked Lilith, who more than anybody else wanted an answer to the questions that more than any other she believed to be absurd.
The lightning essence within Daniel's body dissipated as soon as this question was asked, allowing him to respond. However, instead of responding, he shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Look, we are about thirty million light years from your sect, which means that whatever is following me, and is now you as well, is not going to take long to arrive. Even if you call someone from your sect, they'll arrive too late."
"What do you mean with 'following us too'? Wasn't that blood cultivator after you?" Asked the young woman with short red hair with worry.
After seeing the worry in her eyes, Rose approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. She then said with a reassuring tone, "Don't let him fool you, Cassie. He is just trying to avoid answering our question." She then turned to look at Daniel, and added, "And if he is truly following us, then it means that he must have something that the Blood Sect wants. What is it?" She asked, moving her fingers in a threatening manner.
"That is a question I can answer.. I have killed the Murderous God, and stolen the legacy of the Blood Sect. Something they call the last passage of the path of blood." Said Daniel casually, uncaring of how absurd these words must have sounded to the four young women.
"Just use the beacon, Rose. He is trying to gain time by lying." Responded the young woman with the ponytail, who had gotten tired of listening to what she believed to be absurd lies.
If he had to be honest, Daniel could not blame them for not believing him. After all, they were all at the bottom of the food chain of Competition's domain, while Daniel, someone who had a cultivation similar to their own, had just claimed to have killed the apex predator.
Rose, similarly annoyed by Daniel's behavior, tightened her hold around one of the two beacon talismans and shattered it into a thousand pieces. In her mind she could not help but feel disappointed. This was her chance to contribute to the sect, but she wasn't able to gain anything of importance.. And while she could have tried more, she knew that if the young woman with the ponytail was right, and Daniel was just bidding for time in order to forward an escape plan.. If he managed to escape, she would be in a world of trouble.
"That was not a good idea." Said Daniel with an unbothered tone. He then uncrossed his legs, and rose into a standing position. "I have taken you here because you found out about the blood cultivator that had infiltrated the half moon sect. His objective was to take me back to one of the disciples of the Murderous God, whom I assume is hiding in this universe. If I hadn't taken you, you would have died before reaching the sect."
As he finished speaking, Daniel casually dusted his clothes a few times before adding, "The moment the blood cultivators who are hiding in this universe realize that you've reported to your elders, they will attack the Half Moon sect before going back to hiding. They will then lay low, waiting for the next chance to capture me while your domain will be left wondering what your sect's connection was with the members of Sacrifice's domain. Were you spies? Were you enemies they had a grudge against?.. But that won't matter. Ultimately, they will not deem the loss worthy enough to start a war, and let go of the matter."
The more Daniel talked, the more the expressions of the faces of the four young women fell. Even if Daniel had lied about killing the murderous god, they would not be able to argue against his logic, as what he had described was exactly what they believed would happen if their sect was wiped out of existence.
As they came to the conclusion that Daniel was right, the four young women began to show different expressions ranging from dismay to anger.
"It's your fault! Why did you have to pull us into this mess?!" Shouted the usually calmer young woman named Cassie. In the corner of her eyes two droplets had formed, and were threatening to stream down her cheeks at any moment.
As he heard these words, Daniel raised his hands above his shoulders in surrender, and while moving his eyes towards Rose, he said, "Don't look at me. I didn't bring you into anything.. And before you call me a liar again, why don't you try to ask your friend whether I am telling the truth or not."
The three young women turned towards Rose with confusion, only to see her look down in shame. "I am sorry.. I approached you guys because I needed to blend into the outer circle.. For a task assigned to me by the patriarch.." She said before any of the others could ask, revealing to them that they were nothing but a cover for her mission.
For a whole month she had acted as a big sister to these three new students, whose life in the sect had revolved around her.
"Is this why we always ended up bumping into him? I thought he was the one following us.." Cassie in realization.
While the three young women wanted to speak their mind to the one whom they had believed to be their friend, they couldn���t. After all, they were still outer disciples, while Rose was an entity within the sect that was only inferior to the elders and the patriarch himself. They could only swallow their disappointment in silence.
Rose noticed as the hearts of her three companions drifted away from her, and could not help but feel guilty. After all, throughout this month, she had grown to like these three girls, whom she now considered friends.. But, alas, her mission came first. "This doesn't change anything. We are in this situation together. We just need to wait for the patriarch to arrive.. He'll know what to do."
"Oh, no. If you want to wait and die, you are free to do that.. But I won't be accompanying you." Said Daniel before advancing towards the multiple layers that were entrapping him, which dissolved as soon as his body approached them.
Shocked by how casually Daniel had walked out of the cages she had created to trap him, Rose immediately tried to detonate the residual power of each of the formations in an attempt to at the very least injure him, but her efforts were in vain, as it only took Daniel a simple wave of his hand to send the elemental concept contained in these traps into chaos, turning them into useless clouds of disorganized elemental essence.
"I only need one of you to lead me to the portal to the multiverse. The rest can do whatever they want. I have already pulled you out of troubles.. I have no obligation to do that again" Said Daniel as his eyes scrolled past each of the four young women.
After a few moments spent looking at one another with uncertainty, the young woman with the ponytail took a step forward, and said, "My name is Dawn. I will show you the way.. But we will all come with you."
Seeing that at least one of these young women was cooperative was a relief to Daniel, a feeling that he lost immediately as she came to the second part of what she wanted to say. "I have already saved you once. Can't you manage on your own from now on?"
"If what you've said is true, then multiple blood cultivators are on their way here, and will arrive before any of our elders can come here. Those of us who will stay here will die." Said Dawn with a matter-of-fact tone.
Daniel wanted to respond to Dawn's words by saying that he was likely to attract the attention of the blood cultivators, but since he needed one of them to accompany him momentarily, he chose not to share that detail. What was worse, he wasn't sure whether the blood cultivators would follow him directly, or inspect the places in which he had spent time in, like this small comet.
While quietly rubbing his forehead with his right hand in an attempt to anticipate the headache he felt coming, Daniel tried to find a way to refuse Dawn's proposition, but in the end, he could not bring himself to do that.. After all, if not for his appearance, these four young women would have spent the past month training peacefully and without any danger.
"Fine.." he muttered before once again scrolling past the faces of the four young women with narrowed eyes. "I agree with your request.. But before we go, there is something I need to do." Said Daniel before stretching his arms outwards and opening his hands, from which came out an immense amount of his personal essence. This essence quietly seeped into the ground around him before taking the shape of various elemental formations filled with perfect comprehension of water, wind, metal, and spatial essence which surrounded him completely.
Once finished, Daniel turned to look at the four young women, and before taking a deep breath, he said, "You might want to take a step back.." He then activated all the formations at the same time with a snap of his fingers.
Right after the clicking sound began to resound outwards, from each of these formations came out uncountable blades made out of solidified space, sharpened metal, frozen water and fast winds which landed on Daniel's body as if he had stepped onto the most terrifying of traps. Each of these blades landed squarely on his body, slicing and cutting, piercing through, and separating his skin and flesh from his bones.
What were initially simple sprays of blood quickly turned into a red mist that engulfed Daniel's body before being carried away and into open space by a constructed breeze.
The four young women looked in horror as Daniel mutilated his body again and again for several minutes, until nothing but a clean skeleton was left.. After which the attacks finished, and Daniel's remains fell lifelessly on the ground.
