After Ren had purified Khalos some of the memories of the New God flowed through him. The memories he received were that of the New God's childhood. In those memories, he could feel what the New God Khalos felt at the time. He now had a better understanding of the hardships new Gods had to endure. Not accepted by the Old Gods, feared by the mortals, they were pretty much outcasts. The only ones who truly had any sort of affection for the New God Khalos were his parents, but even then his father eventually left him, and his mother died of old age.
This New God Khalos might've sounded proud and overbearing but he was just trying to prove himself. So for every battle, he won against peers and against even some of the Old Gods he felt incredible joy and pride.
The battle against the Strongest Mortal Soul was supposed to be the one to prove once and for all that he was worthy, that he was not some half-breed monstrosity. Yet in his final battle, he wasn't even the one in control of his body. It was not the battle Khalos yearned for nor was it the battle Ren wished for.
For a brief moment Ren was overcome by sadness as the memories he gained from the New God had actually made him shed a tear. The final memory he received was what Khalos felt at the end. Khalos was actually grateful to Ren and was a little sad that despite dying he would never be able to reach the same place as his mother.
...
After paying his respects to the fallen warrior, Ren started to look for any signs of life or at least a source of water.
Despite his body already achieving a state that no normal human could reach, he still needed nutrients like food and water. This was one of the few weaknesses of the Strongest Mortal Soul. Even though he looked like he had transcended humanity he wasn't. He was in the end still a mortal, and no matter how powerful he gets he could never go beyond that line. Unlike all the other mortal beings who had the potential to shed their mortal coil, Ren wasn't allowed to transcend it, as this was his promise the original incarnation made when he started his journey of reincarnation.
...
It was a good thing that it started raining after his battle. The water he drank was able to quench a bit of Ren's thirst, so now he could at least last a few more days. Still, despite Ren dashing around at least a thousand kilometers from his initial spot, there was still no sign of any other life.
Ren who could easily sprint around the entirety of the world he came from in a day was now unable to escape the desert area he was in, despite running for two days straight.
"What is this place, how come it's so big? I've been running for so long and I can't even get out of this desert." Hearing his question the original incarnation decided to answer him.
"The higher planes is a separate dimension from the lower planes were planets, galaxies and other such things exist. Here in the higher planes, there is no out outer space, there is only the sky and the ground that you see before you. If you try to fly upward you might not be able to see the end of the clouds. Here you can connect to all other universes which are separated by the so-called endless sea. In here several million kilometers is still considered near. The measure of distance in the higher planes is in light-years."
When Ren heard what the original incarnation had to say he was surprised and stopped moving for a second.
"Damn, if this place is that big then how long would it take before I can escape this barren place?"
"With your current speed, I guess if you continue to run at full speed for three more days without stopping we should be able to at least find some other life form. If you're lucky you should be able to meet a town."
"Huh, people live in this place with no water or food?"
"Most beings in this place have already transcended such worldly things. The only things the people here consume are spiritual herbs and pills."
"So you're telling me I won't get to eat real food?"
"No need to worry about that, there are demon beasts here that you could eat. Heck if you want to you could even eat those so called divine beasts. Also even though this place is the higher planes, were deities live, the most numerous are still the humans and sub-humans. In fact, there are a lot of descendants of our various incarnations who live here."
"Oh is that so... Then since there are numerous humans here then it shouldn't be as hard to defeat the Gods as I thought it would be."
"You better stop thinking such naive thoughts. Even though the humans in the higher planes are numerous they are not united. There are even those humans that are allied with the Gods. Oh right, allied is the wrong word, there are humans that are enslaved by the Gods. There are even humans who sold their fellow humans to the Gods. So it would be nearly impossible to unite the humans under a single banner. Even back in my time, the only reason all the humans came together was because we were on the brink of extinction."
"I see... Well, I guess that's just part of human nature. It was our imperfections that pushed mortal men to try and grasp the things beyond their reach." Ren sighed as he shook his head no longer continuing the conversation.
...
As Ren sprinted forward non-stop the original incarnation kept him company. It took Ren two days of continuous running to finally see other living beings. There was a group of humanoid figures fighting a large beast that looked like a mix of a dragon and a centipede.
Based on the aura being emitted by the humanoid figures, what they were using wasn't mana nor Spirit Aura.. It felt similar to mana but was much much purer, in fact, it was at this very moment Ren finally noticed that the atmosphere in the higher planes was not emitting mana but that unknown energy, which for some reason felt rather familiar to him.
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