Alm and Bruno stared at him as they slowly landed on the ground. Corin, Maelik, and Ruri appeared, surrounding him. Ruri quickly moved and pulled out an object hidden in his clothes. It was the core of the spatial formation.
"What are you talking about? Don’t try to be funny," Kakarotto said dryly.
Suddenly, a green screen appeared in front of them, catching them by surprise.
[Celestial communication received.]
[Accept?]
[Yes / No]
"What?"
"Yeah, it’s you!" the elf said excitedly. "It’s me, Mihkriel. Remember me? You saved me in the underworld." (Chapter 366)
Alm and Bruno were speechless. This kind of message could only be sent by a missionary, confirming his identity.
"Mihkriel? How did you recover your soul so quickly?" Kakarotto asked, staring at him.
"I got lucky. I reincarnated in a universe where a strange deity ruled. I simply managed to steal everything from him," he replied with a slight smile. But seeing Kakarotto’s cold gaze, he sighed and explained further.
"I had no memories and became part of the religion. I was completely converted and ended up meeting a human woman who was a missionary for that deity. After proving my devotion, she recognized me and gave me a strange mark. That mark connected me to the base of the believers’ power, and that energy had a bit of soul power in it."
"This naturally nourished my soul, and I sought more and more, until my memories became clear. Then, I stole the deity’s mark from that missionary and used all the power of that god to restore my soul."
Alm and Bruno listened in silence. Human missionary, strange deity, faith mark...
Bruno remembered something and sent an image to Mihkriel. It was a human woman with a physique similar to Ruri’s. Mihkriel saw the image and widened his eyes. "Wait... that’s her, the missionary. You knew her?!"
Bruno sighed heavily. "That’s Sayqi... so, it was you who destroyed my mark on her and even stole my power?!" (Chapter 286)
"What? Wait... you were the deity? But... that doesn’t make sense. The statues were of a strange race, kind of like a round ogre. I remember you being round and demonic in the underworld, but that was very different. The statue also had a small figure on its back, resembling a young human girl. People called you ’Protector of Defenseless Girls’... but to me, it looked more like a pervert with a girl..."
"ENOUGH!" Bruno interrupted furiously.
Mihkriel saw the intense anger in Bruno’s eyes and took a deep breath. "So it was you? Well... sorry. So, you’ve saved me twice. I know I took something without permission, but I can make up for it."
"What happened to Sayqi and the people of that universe?" Alm asked quickly.
"Hm? After I removed her mark, I just hid, and she could never catch me. After giving up, she tried to continue the religion, but without the mark’s power, people’s faith slowly weakened. The religion probably ended on its own. As for the woman, I don’t know what happened to her," he said quickly.
Alm and Bruno sighed. Sayqi was part of the group they saved from the Heavenly Realm. That’s where they reunited with Corin and met Sesel, Leafar, and Ervly.
After being returned to their universes, they all had the mission to spread the whale’s faith and received a faith rune to easily create followers. Without this rune, it was very difficult to convince people to worship a deity they had never seen or that had never done anything for them.
There was also a dwarf named Oria, but she died after the heroes invaded her universe; the others faced the same issue, but chose to destroy the runes in their bodies to survive.
Oria died, but those three appeared in the Queen’s universe, though Sayqi’s fate was a mystery. Not anymore.
"You ended up doing me a big favor," Bruno said, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "Her universe probably wasn’t invaded because of that."
Bruno looked at Ruri, who was listening to everything with trembling eyes. "Sayqi, in the end, was the only one who managed to live free. She probably lived her life to the fullest naturally. Maybe she got married and had kids. But the main thing is that she lived... and that’s great."
Kakarotto let go of Mihkriel and gave him a slight stare.
"So, I ended up doing something good? Excellent," Mihkriel said with a sarcastic smile.
"Well, it doesn’t change the fact that you stole something from me. But, let’s say you got lucky," Alm said indifferently, then stared at him. "Now that we’ve reintroduced ourselves, let’s get to the point. What the hell are you doing here? And why did you do all this on this planet?"
"Hm? This is my mission, from Heaven’s Will," Mihkriel replied calmly. "I was brought here and reincarnated many times until I could move the pieces on the board into the right position. Now that you’re here, it’ll be faster. We’re going to kill everyone in the Three Empires."
Bruno narrowed his eyes. "What? What exactly is the goal of your mission?"
"Free the souls from the false reincarnation cycle. What about yours?" he asked casually.
Alm and Bruno thought quickly. "Master the Anima Cultivation and save the Nine Star Tree. Our goals are different, but not..."
"You’re going to free that weird tree? So you’re gonna destroy everything, and I’ll just be doing something small in comparison?" Mihkriel interrupted, clearly frustrated.
Alm ignored Mihkriel’s thoughts and asked, "How do you plan to handle this?"
"I’ve mastered and cultivated a Dao called: Dao of the Celestial Parasite. Basically, I can create spiritual or physical runes or mimic any kind of law to invade and parasitize everything. I’ve spent many lifetimes in this place, studying the reincarnation cycle that the Queen created. Slowly, I managed to infiltrate it with my parasites," he explained, huffing, clearly displeased.
"My plan is flawless. Essentially, we just need to kill everyone, and their souls will return to the cycle. Then, I’ll destroy the entire cycle. It’ll be like a dam breaking: the souls will be freed, and Heaven’s Will can take them away quickly."
Alm asked, "Why did you become a Divine Inquisitor and take the golden box from this empire?"
"The three sacred places in the three empires are like three seals of the formation that keep the reincarnation cycle functioning. When a Divine Inquisitor appears, they’re the only one who can naturally interact with the place. It’s designed so that they have the chance to prove their worth and take a box. I could only infiltrate the cycle through this tiny opening."
"So, you’d have to destroy all three places at once?" Alm asked quickly.
Mihkriel nodded. "Like I said, everything is perfect..."
"You can’t do that," Alm retorted, spitting out the words. "If you do, all of the Queen’s people will go mad and investigate right after. It’ll ruin my plans and make it impossible for me to act."
"Hm... true. But it’s not a problem. I was only going to destroy everything because I could. I can free them all without breaking everything, just by removing the shackles. When you save the tree, the place will destabilize; it’ll be like the castle around them collapsing. All the free souls can leave afterward. My goal is just to free them from the cycle, not from this place."
Mihkriel replied, and Alm nodded in understanding. He really did have a solid plan, but then... Alm stopped his thoughts when he saw Ruri’s gaze on him. ’Shit...’
Bruno took over and asked, "For your plan to work, does everyone in the empires have to die?"
"Yes," Mihkriel answered flatly. "It’s a small thing compared to the real freedom they’ll gain. Let’s just finish this place off..."
Bruno gently interrupted, "No, your method is a huge waste. The nine races here are treasures, and the people living inside the cycle have lived countless times in these races. They can manipulate bloodlines perfectly. If they could leave this place and cultivate normally with Qi, their power would be unimaginable."
"I noticed that too," Mihkriel agreed. "But it’s not worth the effort. My plan is 100% guaranteed. Trying to do that would carry a huge risk of failure. Besides, how would we hide these people from the Queen afterward? I’ll just turn them into souls, and then they can reincarnate elsewhere. Unfortunately, these nine races can’t be taken out of here."
Bruno shook his head negatively. "Did you forget the ultimate goal? We have to kill that bitch to end it all. Every resource and opportunity needs to be seized, no matter the risk. You’re trying to cut down the tree just to take a few leaves, not even the fruit."
"What’s the point? They’re just regular people who learned to live with a powerful bloodline. Even if they could cultivate outside, they wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things," Mihkriel replied coldly.
"That might be true for most of them," Bruno said calmly. "But if they reincarnate normally, they’ll never get another opportunity as good as this to become truly strong. They deserve a chance to fight against the ones who enslaved them."
"Hm? That doesn’t make sense. The power of those bloodlines is impressive, but it’s not worth the risk. Besides, like I said, they’re not like us; they’re just random extras, and we’re the main characters. They were born to be mediocre, and they’ve never affected our war."
"The risk is big, true. But that’s the difference between us. I prefer to take the risk and save them," Bruno said, huffing. "I’m not good enough. I’m imperfect in many ways, and if I don’t have people to cover my weaknesses, I won’t get far. That’s why I want to give everyone a chance, so I benefit too."
"What? You’ve got to be kidding. How could an extra do anything? They’re just dead weight, useless and pointless," Mihkriel said, clearly confused.
After taking a deep breath, Mihkriel said heavily, "Well... it seems we’re very different. But I’m not going to risk it for something useless. With the rewards from this mission, I’ll take a step beyond my past self. My plan is perfect, so I’ll follow through with it, and good luck with yours. I’ll have to do it all alone... but that’s how it is."
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"Wait," Bruno said flatly, staring directly at him.
Mihkriel sighed. "You saved me before, but I paid my debt back then. Now it’s different. I need to complete my mission, and a failure could ruin everything. I’d rather play it safe, and just kill everyone..."
He stopped as he looked around. The three of them had drawn their weapons, staring at him as if he were the greatest enemy they’d ever faced.
Mihkriel was underestimating all of them, to the point where they had never felt so furious. They lived to fight and pushed themselves to the limit to be useful. And now, this loser who had to be saved before dared to be so arrogant and dismissive?
"Such grand words. Let’s see if you’ve got the guts to fight to the death and show who the real useless extra is," Ruri said, glaring at him coldly.