"Wooooo. That was kind the trip, the feeling of pain without death..." For some reason Thomas didn't feel scared even after recalling all he just did. His body was full of vitality yet exhaustion made his body feel as twice the weight.
Thankfully the Shroud of Immortality lives up to its name, in those few minutes he truly felt like nothing could kill him. All the pain he would have felt was still transmitted fully to him though.
Strange was that it didn't feel as bad once, instead all the pain and risk of betting his live on that skill brewed a weird emotion he's never felt before.
"I'm really changing." Said Thomas as his eyes glanced upon the night sky. Compared to himself a couple months ago, he could see his attitude towards multiple things began to mutate.
Beasts shouldn't all be killed as they indeed possesses a mind of their own. Each and every beast had dreams and aspirations, fear and difficulty just like everybody else.
If the past him was put before a crowd of beasts he would never spare any when he knew it could prove dangerous to the city and the rest of humanity.
Now he sympathized with the beasts and see common points between both sides. Some of which he could even form friendships with.
While thinking of all of this, Thomas was about to take the road back to Aaron when he stopped. The Twilight and Water Lions must have gotten that boost in strength from Arthur, if so then how many others have allied themselves to him.
No, it's not safe back there. Specially now, without my demonic physique and with the Shroud of Immortality in cooldown I would be seeding myself to certain death.
While he was told only Arthur's family knew of Earth's coordinates, Kez was able to get in there somehow as well others vassals of the Sonad. If even the low rank demons could invade through the rifts, Thomas had no way to assure the stronger Demons would be oblivious to all of this.
As one of the ten thousand demon clans, the Sonad still aren't all that powerful, maybe a little stronger than the beast tribes existing here.
Through the memories he shared with Kez'Ganak, he knew the top ten demon clans should the strangers passing at least two or more Demon King and one Demon Emperor. Even if the Sonad are part of the ten thousand demon clans, they are just at the lower bottom of the list. Even their greatest experts are only a dozen Demon Lords with powers stronger than general peak Master Adepts but still a little bit weaker than the mysterious Adept Kings.
At least this is what Ganak told him, Thomas had never seen what a Adept King could do so he could only wait for the Demon Lord's memories to reach that point.
The pearl tech incident, humans conspiring with demons, experimenting on humans, the sky breach's mutation...
Then beasts similar to demonic beasts living in a world of their own who also shared a mysterious relation to the demon race.
He may have though of his arrival in this place as a accident, but now he was starting to think there was something more in this place.
Thomas gathered in his body before slowly taking ten steps before dropping to his knees. Using his lifeforce to open the spatial storage he found the little his combat watch and made it run a overhaul scan of his body.
Pi!Pi!Pi!
The noisy little device swiftly scanned his whole body before presenting the results on a hologram. The hologram was a representation of himself following by multiple graphs and readings.
'My vital signs are great. No broken bones or any kind of internal injury. Yet my exhaustion is over the charts, if it goes on like this I may collapse without ever getting down the mountain. Well, I should have guessed that sort of skill would demand it's price. Now I find a refuge to rest, and fast.' Using the remaining vigor he had left, Thomas slid through the snow before throwing himself into the nearest pit.
His body fell over three meters straight before landing on cold stone. As soon he recovered from the fall, Thomas found himself in a shallow pit.
"Good, I should rest a little then it's time to think about my course of action....." Thomas barely finished his line of thought before falling in deep sleep.
.....
Massive braziers illuminated the grand yet hallowed corridors. The unadorned stones on the arched ceiling danced filled to the brim with painting that on one side showed the majestic holy beasts of the Ninth Grade like the Lion Emperor, Insect Progenitor, Four-Winged Skyworm.
While on the other side pictures of vicious creatures hiding among the darkness and feeding upon innocent beasts was showed.
Carved images and statuettes of giant, collossal beasts decorated the walls. Some of which were as big as a whole planet.
Inside the ancient hall filled with knowledge of old, stood a young man. Long golden hair falling down to his waist and dressed in white armor endowed in golden lines like a holy saint.
Compared to atmosphere of decampment and death, this "holy" figure stood out like a sore thumb, something that didn't belong to that place at all.
Only the pair of pure golden pupils filled with malice proved it was the opposite.
"So this is the Underground Temple beneath Glama don City Hall, very pretty. This is not the architecture I would expect from inferior creatures." The Demon Prince, Arthorias Sonad Daglares, gave a good look at the entirety of the temple. " No one has stepped in here for quite some time. These pictures... "
For the first time in his life, great amount of excitement filled his eyes as he recognized some of the painting. "Well, at least this journey hasn't been pointless. In fact, I should thank that Mera boy for allowing me to come to this place. This is really it, isn't it. This island, no, this world... is Zeria. The birthplace of the Demon Race."