That process didn't last nearly as long as Atlas hoped it would.
As Samuel helped the injured Devin approach the ruined city, both of them found their eyes blinded and their mouths forced closed.
Two Darkstar Chains that Atlas saved from his first pair of chain sickles were tied around their wrists, suppressing their qi. Before they knew it, they'd been dragged far away from their goal.
Atlas allowed Feng Ziran to take care of the torture since she said she was experienced in it. By the ti it ended, he wished that he had taken care of it instead.
'Though, nothing would have changed.'
It wasn't that Feng Ziran was bad at torturing people. It was that the two n were very quick to end their own lives.
Devin had been fighting so hard to reach the city and find a healer, but when he realized that the city had been obliterated, he lost all hope.
He believed that death was already upon him, so he killed himself before the torture even began.
Samuel held on a bit longer. He was mostly uninjured, so he still had the spirit to fight for his life.
However, after seeing his friend's body lt into a puddle next to him and realizing that the enemy was not planning to let him live, he also used the poison hidden in his body to end everything.
"Haa…"
Feng Ziran sighed as she backed away from the two puddles of human fluid.
"It's a sha. We weren't even able to learn their group's na."
The amount of information they could extract in such a short period of ti was small.
"I didn't even get the chance to use this."
Feng Ziran had a vial in her hand containing a strange slug-like creature.
It was a Soul-Searching Slug, a very rare creature that was able to invade one's mind and steal one's mories. The Feng Clan had expended many resources to provide them to the mbers active in Alfros at the mont.
Anyone who could bring back solid information would be rewarded handsoly.
It was good to see that the phoenixes were willing to pull out such thods in order to end the calamity as soon as possible.
"Well, we at least got sothing, so there's no need to be too frustrated. If worst cos to worst, we can find other enemies to use the slug on."
However, their current goal was different.
"What did he say it was in the center of the city?"
"He doesn't know. He only said that it was a monster. Judging from its aura… I assu it's a Divine Beast cub."
"Sorry?"
Atlas had heard her conversation with the two n, but there wasn't any ntion of sothing like that!
"Did you say Divine Beast?"
"I did."
Feng Ziran nodded her head matter-of-factly.
"I think the qi pulse we have been feeling is its attempt to break out of its egg. The teor calamity…"
Feng Ziran sighed.
"So Divine Beasts can only be born in extre conditions. If there really is a Divine Beast cub in the center of the city, then the teor calamity was likely summoned as a ans of facilitating its birth."
Was that the end goal? To hatch a Divine Beast and ta it?
Atlas had to admit that it was an almost impossible task. Divine Beasts had independent consciousness from birth. They had their own characteristics and traits, but there was one shared among all of them.
A desire for freedom. A desire to never be captured or tad by any other.
"When humans or other races try to capture young Divine Beasts, they always fight back and cause calamities. It's usually only after several lives are lost that the young beast is exhausted and contained."
As a Divine Beast herself, Feng Ziran understood it well. This was the very sa fate that the Feng Clan saved her from suffering.
"If there is a Divine Beast Egg in Gearven, then the beast within is already aware of its circumstances. It likely already sees all beings outside of its own race as enemies."
She was certain of her conclusions.
"The mont we approached the city, I felt it trying to suppress my bloodline. It is absolutely aware of our presence."
Atlas frowned.
"I don't believe that this is the main headquarters of their influence."
Rather, the city of Gearven was likely one of their biggest outposts, a place where many of their mbers operated out of.
The matter of this Divine Beast… Atlas didn't believe that it was the main purpose of the organization. He believed that the teor shower they used for other purposes was also used as a ans of awakening the beast in Gearven.
"However, we may not be strong enough to face their main force."
Their main force was likely made up of Immortals, considering how even the highest authorities of the Feng Clan mobilized themselves to deal with the conflict.
Atlas had no choice but to admit to himself that if the two of them ran away now and charged into the enemy's main camp, they'd only be burdens. They would be of no help whatsoever.
'Conflicts at the Immortal level must be handled by Immortals.'
The conflict in front of him was not at that level. It was still at the Mortal level, but at the absolute peak of it.
It was true that there was likely a deeper and more sinister plot at play. However…
'If a beast with an innate hatred for other races and a desire for destruction is born into this world, it will beco an entirely new calamity.'
…rather than focusing on matters that were bigger than him, Atlas felt that his role was to take care of the calamity in front of him.
He looked at Feng Ziran. It wasn't hard to see that she had the sa thought.
'She is also a Divine Beast. Though that beast is clearly hostile to us, she empathizes with it.'
Its hostility was not inbred. Its hostility ca from the fact that it had been kept by villains who planned to abuse it for too long.
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It understood the world through its small mind that was unfortunately able to comprehend all of the words it heard, but not the deeper and more emotional connotations they possessed when it ca to the world as a whole.
It understood that those who were not like it wanted it to beco a slave, and so it believed that all those who were not like it were evil beings.
It wanted to eradicate those beings. Its strong hatred had to co from a source, and if Atlas had to guess, he'd assu that the organization those two n belonged to had done horrible things in front of it to breed such emotions.
'It is able to perceive the world around it, but until now, it has been unable to interact with anything.'
The mont it could interact with the world, it experienced the pleasure of slaughter.
The circumstances weren't good at all, but Feng Ziran wanted to save that beast, and Atlas wanted to stop a calamity.
They reached a mutual understanding without using words at all. Leaving behind two puddles of human liquid, they returned on their path to Gearven.
Regardless of what else was happening in the world, their current roles were here.
They were going to do their parts perfectly, and as everyone else moved to do their parts perfectly as well, what was now a calamity would end before it could beco sothing historical.
Or, at least, that was the hope of all those fighting in Alfros.
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