"Noooooooooo!" A voice screamed in an ancient tongue.

The sheer force of wind from the vocals ripped the clouds gathered in the sky apart.

The pillory binding them all crumbled, and the Death Zone skill dissipated.

In a flash, Vamel was already at the position Seth was meant to be.

He moved so fast he left a trail of pure vacuum in his wake.

He stared at the gap in the soil still reeking of grim essence, his eyes trailing to the deeply entrenched footprints.

His eyes twitched, green veins bulged, his graceful armor clattered as his essence roiled in fury.

Why did they leave? It didn’t make any sense.

He played the part perfectly, he was careful — too much so. So why in the hell didn’t they try to retaliate?

It was common sense to stomp on your foe while he’s down. He just couldn’t comprehend it.

The loss stung deep, especially when the image of Seth came to mind.

’that guy definitely had a Monarch-grade gene.’ he lamented inwardly.

He felt the billow of power from him, and though he only used one gene skill — and it seemed to be the rare enhancement type at that — Vamel was sure it was Monarch grade.

He was so close, and now...

His eyes trailed to the blood splashes around the area, his eyes burned. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

’I’m not giving up!’ he declared inwardly.

Shaine appeared silently in the area Elaine had just been. Her slender finger brushed against a still fresh puddle of blood.

She licked her lips. Though she seemed calmer than Vamel, she felt as much fury, but her cold calculative mind had already started working a way to get what she wanted.

’now if we could get this to a Sigrid race gene expert.’ Her eyes burned bright at the thought.

The ground began to rumble, as a silver horde of Viagra bulls barreled forth from various directions.

But none of the six Treants seemed to have any more interest.

It was like getting an opportunity to win a million dollars, while someone else flashed a thousand-dollar bill in your face.

Disdainful — that’s how they felt when looking at this hoard.

Suddenly the quest event wasn’t so appealing any longer.

...

Back on Earth...

The brilliant glow of the Origin Gate simmered.

And four individuals appeared in the very same living room they had vanished from.

Due to the activation of the Origin Gate, there was a rule that implied deactivation of all abilities and skills the moment the gate was triggered.

Seth’s armor diffused back into his inventory, and he collapsed exhausted on a sofa nearby.

"Ahhh man, so close." He sighed as he sprawled comfortably on the cushion, letting himself relax.

Suddenly he felt the gaze of three pairs of eyes burning into his figure.

Vamel was right — Jack, Elaine, and Uriel never planned on escaping. The thought never even crossed their minds.

To them, that was a rare opportunity to test their mettle. And just when they got all riled up, they suddenly found themselves back on Earth.

Naturally, they were discontent, livid even. As for who triggered the Origin Gate? It was no-brainer who the culprit was.

They gazed at Seth in discontent, their expressions demanding an explanation.

Seth felt the burning glares. He opened a single eye as though to peek at their expressions and then sighed.

"I really had no choice. We were nearly snared into a trap." His fingers tapped rhythmically on the armrest of the sofa as he began to explain.

Brows raised in curiosity. The three weren’t really mad at his call; they were mad at his inaction of informing them first.

Now that they thought of it more deeply, how was he able to activate their Origin Gate without their explicit awareness or consent?

Naturally, Seth found this easy to do, since the moment he anchored his will to them, it so happened that during their evolution the Origin assimilated his will residing in their bodies.

This allowed him some degree of access to the Origin Gate residing in their sea of consciousness, though this access was restrained by distance.

"You guys still haven’t seen things clearly, have you? Well, it’s not that you are to blame — even I made the same mistake." Seth shook his head helplessly as he spoke.

"You see, I don’t want to drag this topic, but before I go further, you need to understand our inherent flaw."

Uriel was the first to sit. He could already tell this was going to be a long talk, and he was inclined to listen. "What flaw?" he leaned forward as he asked.

As a meticulous perfectionist, he was averse to the idea of flaws. Though it was a given everyone had them, he wanted as few as possible.

"I’m naturally speaking about our egos. We might not be the only ones who will fall prey to the sinister mindset called the MC complex."

Seth didn’t need to enunciate more; their minds already deciphered the information.

"So you mean we are too confident?" Jack asked with furrowed brows.

Seth shook his head. "No, actually confidence is good. But the ingrained mentality that we have — that things will always work out for us just because — has to change."

"I made that mistake of dragging you all into danger right away because my mind was wired to this mentality.

And that almost cost us. You have to understand the world doesn’t revolve around you, neither does it revolve around me.

We are flesh and blood. We can’t always win against the impossible."

Elaine blinked. "Naturally we are aware of that." She tried to defend herself.

But Seth still shook his head. "If you guys were aware of this, you wouldn’t be dissatisfied about escaping six fucking possibly peak-rank Awakeneds."

"Like seriously, what were you guys doing? Why did you think I went so far to bind them?

I was trying to create a gap for our escape. But you guys..." he eyed them up and down.

"Really were trying to retaliate, huh?"

The three remained silent, realizing the problem. No one could argue.

"I mean, think about it. The Origin Realm is a dimension even I have lacking information of. We don’t know who to avoid, we don’t know what to avoid.

Heck, we don’t know jack shit! For all we know, these guys might be part of a supreme race of some kind with an equally or even more overpowered racial trait."

The more Seth berated, the more realization and shame set in. Back then they were filled with adrenaline; they didn’t really think of things like this.

Seth continued.

"I mean, those guys might have been in the first zone of the Origin Realm for how long?

Compared to us? Do you even know the stat limit of an Awakened grade?"

The three shook their heads.

"Nine hundred and ninety-nine! And we were facing figures that possibly had maxed out stats. We naturally had to run. Heck, we were lucky we could run!"

Seth pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a sigh in exasperation. "You might not have sensed it, but the truth is we never had them cornered. They were just waiting for us to make a move. The moment we were in full attack mode and had no chance to activate the Origin Gate, God knows what they had in mind to do!"

Hearing this, the trio couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spines — even the frosty Elaine.

Just at this moment, the door flung open. Maya happened to step in.

Her eyes lit up with glee. "You guys are back!"

But she quickly realized something. The numbers she was seeing weren’t adding up. "Um... where’s Brandon?"