Kentucky didn’t fly all the way back to the watchpost. That would have required too much from him in the Celestial Plane. He only flew far enough to make sure the Godly Beasts and Spawns wouldn’t be able to follow them.

On the way, Rean recovered with his healing skill and also took the chance to ask. "I saw the Anchor Gods that came with you, Fonken. But what about the guides? They weren’t there when we arrived to help with the Godly Predator."

Fonken nodded. "They aren’t idiots. They didn’t stay close to us to start with. The moment I appeared with the Godly Predator, no doubt they turned around and ran away. Can’t say I blame them for it, though."

"I see..." Rean understood.

"Anyway," Fonken continued. "I already contacted the watchpost about the take-down of the Godly Predator. We will probably get a generous bonus for the completion of this mission when we return to the Wangamiglia Sect. Of course, we still have the rest of that Godly Creatures group to deal with, plus the other group we haven’t seen yet, so the mainland should send some Anchor Gods to replace those who died. Zuary and the other two aren’t in condition to battle anymore, either."

Rean could usually use his Instant Recovery to help them heal. Unfortunately, the Anchor God limitation, where he can’t send any energy out of his body, made it impossible. "That makes sense."

"This should be far enough," Kentucky said and began to fly down. He landed in an open field, where they would have plenty of time to see if anything tried to come after them.

Fonken then helped Zuary and the other two Anchor Gods. "You three should focus on your recovery. Here, take these healing pills."

Zuary’s group didn’t waste words and immediately swallowed the pills. They went silent right after, focusing on recovery like Fonken told them to.

"You can do the same thing," Rean pointed out. "We can keep an eye out. These big holes on your chest and abdomen definitely won’t get better with you moving around."

"Don’t mind if I do," Fonken also sat down and swallowed another healing pill. However, he didn’t focus entirely on his recovery. He still had his questions, so he also talked during that. "By the way, did you feel the Godly Pressure disappear back then?"

"Disappear?" The twins’ group looked at him, puzzled. "Did the Godly Predator stop using his Godly Pressure at some point?"

Fonken narrowed his eyes as he thought about it. "So you didn’t feel it. Well, it makes sense. It was only for an instant. I’m not even sure if what I felt was real or not." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Celis came up with an excuse. "I saw the moment Roan was about to land a hit. Perhaps the Predator redirected its Godly Pressure at him at that moment, and that’s why you stopped feeling it. I don’t know if that’s possible, though."

Kentucky, Rean, and Roan mentally nodded. ’Nice one!’

Fonken had to admit that was a possibility. If there is one thing Godly Creatures are known for, it is their ability to control Godly Pressure. "That... makes sense. And yes, it is possible. It’s just that since they don’t have intelligence at this level, it is rare to see Godly Creatures manipulating Godly Pressure that precisely."

Fonken still had more questions, though. "But... how come it didn’t notice you until the last moment? A Godly Predator’s sense is quite wide. It reacted too late to your attack."

"One reason I can think of is that it was so focused on finishing you off that it failed to notice our approach. From what we saw, you did cause it quite some damage," Rean commented. "Or maybe it simply ignored us. We are only Anchor Gods, and it might have thought at first we weren’t worth its attention."

Rean saw an opportunity to change that topic. "Right! How did you injure it so much? It had quite a few holes on its body when we arrived to help you."

Fonken pointed at Zuary. "He is an Array Master. He prepared a trap that could even hold a few Godly Beasts for a while. When I arrived..." He explained what happened.

Zuary was still focusing on his healing, but he couldn’t help but smile a little when the proper credits were given to him.

The conversation shifted into the most important question, for which neither side had an answer. How come there was a Godly Predator in that group? From what they know, the effects caused to the Sacred Relic’s Influence can be used to more or less tell what to expect from the Godly Creatures. If it were known a Godly Predator was there, the mainland would definitely have sent a Zone God or at least several Aura Gods.

Unfortunately, they could only wait until they got to the watchpost to ask Woff directly.

They spent a few hours in that place, and when everyone was good to move again, they made their way back to the watchpost. Woff was already waiting for them, and he gave his subordinates the order to help with the injured.

Some time later, still the same day, he brought the twins’ group and Fonken to the monitoring room again. "What you did was truly impressive. It is not like Aura Gods had never killed Godly Predators before, but that is a very rare occurrence due to the difference in power, let alone because Anchor Gods helped."

He continued. "The mainland already sent a message back, saying they are sending more Anchor Gods to replace those who died. There is definitely a huge bonus for it too. Even with the death of seven Anchor Gods, the exchange was a Godly Predator, so as sad as it is, the exchange was worth it. Just be aware, they will want a full report of the Godly Predator you found."

"And that’s what we want to talk about," Roan didn’t lose the opportunity. "What was that Godly Predator? Had things not played out our way, we probably would all have died."

"That’s the thing," Woff scratched the back of his head. "We got the report. The Godly Predator affected the Sacred Relic’s Influence, and we were warned about it... just as you guys started your battle."

"Hum?" Roan and the others got confused. "Why so late?"

Woff looked to one of his subordinates, who nodded and brought back a shining Godly Crystal. Judging by the amount of Godly Energy in it, they all knew it was the Godly Crystal that was inside the Predator’s Head that they brought back.

Woff raised it in front of them. "Pay close attention, especially you, friend Fonken."

The twins didn’t know what they were looking for, but Fonken quickly understood. "Fuck! No wonder we managed to beat it in the end. That shit wolf had literally just become a Godly Predator! Probably no more than a few minutes before we arrived!"

"Uh?" The twins’ group looked at him.

Naturally, Fonken explained, knowing they were new. "When a Godly Creature rises to the next level, its Godly Crystal also changes, becoming more compact. It basically holds more mass and energy without changing the size. If you pay attention, you will see a few cracks, but not because it was broken. Instead, it was just the side-effect of its level-up. Those cracks would disappear in the next few days. And judging by how new these cracks look, and especially how the Godly Energy isn’t escaping from them, it shows it had truly just changed into a Godly Predator Crystal."

In the end, they couldn’t help but sigh. "So... we were just that unlucky..."

Woff didn’t see it like that. "On the contrary. If this Godly Predator had had the time to get used to its new power, it would have been much more dangerous. In a certain way, you were lucky to have caught it at such a crucial moment. It was definitely much weaker than a normal Predator."

"It’s about whether you see a cup half full or a cup half empty..." Rean spoke.

Woff, Fonken, and the others had never heard that saying before, but they quite liked it. "Wise words."

Roan, Kentucky, and Celis looked at Rean. "Wise? Who?"

And Rean had to hold his tears. "You know what? Go fuck yourselves!"