Waking up shortly, Thomas found himself in the same spot he had been but in his lion form. Looks he couldn't keep his human form much longer after spending all that energy.
Then he pulled out his last change of clothes only to see it was mostly in tatters. "Damn, this were my last set of clothes. I must can find somebody to make something for me to use. Looks like I will have to maintain my beast form a little longer."
It was then he heard the voice of his newly-accepted Paladin.
[Master, we have are done with the Sage. He's pretty quiet now.]
"Great job, I will be going there later."
Looking sideways he noticed the body of Arthorias, or at least what remained of that mass of flesh and Sin Force.
Seeing the body was still there made Thomas sigh in relief and moved towards it. As he got closer, the the Wraith's body burst out and immersed Thomas in a cloud of smoke before it was all taken by his second heart.
splat!
With the body gone, a small object dropped on the ground and Thomas immediately picked it up without a moment of hesitation.
Looking at the red square in his hands filled with runic patterns, his face turned him. This should indeed be the Pathfinder device that stores the coordinates for the planets he now realized he didn't even knew how it works.
This was only a metal square without anything like a display, switch or any other way to turn this thing on.
"It's too much to expect manual for this thing? Kez, do you know how this thing here works?"
[Not sure, this seems to be a new model. Mine was too old, but if it's based on the same OS then it should it used this way...] (Kez)
Following Kez's words, a sequence of five hand symbols appeared in Thomas' mind.
Performing the hand symbols just like he had seen, Thomas waited and the then felt the piece of metal gently humming in his hand.
The humming kept for a couple seconds before Thomas felt a burnt smell and the device suddenly turned off but not before sending out a couple numbers to the air.
Those numbers were all in the demonic algorithms that closely resembled the demonic runes used for incantations and refinement of their demonic artifacts.
[4*8.5**5.112.9*.8746] (Plangonium)
[8*1.3*17.6792.3.444] (Haatlan)
[3*68.***.112.*.279*] (Earth)
A multiple sequences of numbers were written in the air, but he notice all of the coordinates recorded in the decide was incomplete.
[Yeah, the data has been corrupted, maybe during the fall. I also don't think it would be able to protect you in case you open the dimensional rift.]
"Yeah, I thought so too. This thing is useless to now." Thomas threw device into the spatial storage after memorizing all the numbers. If there was one thing to be happy about is that at least he a piece of Earth's coordinates now.
"Let's seen how's everyone back at Xamak, then I'll be going back to the deadlands. It would take more time than I have to fix that ship, but it should give me some ideas." Leaving the ruined plains as it was, Thomas run back to Xamak but to his surprise, the entire mountain was a lot more populous than before.
He was truly hesitant in doing this because he guessed he would be in a pretty messed up state afterwards so in any chance the Wraith survived would certainly spell his end.
New auras appeared in the island, auras that didn't belong to any of the tribes that lived here. In fact he didn't even need to get to close as dozens of birds caught sight of him and dived down and landed.
All of those who landed were pretty large, white birds covered in armor.
"So this is the hero, huh? Looks like a proud and valiant beast indeed."
"He looks very powerful, not inferior to the the ancestor. The emperors truly blessed us with a new tenth grade beast."
"I think, but why is he a lion now?
"Well, everybody in the main continent had seen the monstrous creature and you fight. Our kind is charged of guarding the skies and reporting on the activity of Daemons but we truly didn't expert that kind of creature to rise."
Those armored-birds all came to him, bearing happy faces? as they excitingly jumped up and down around him like a bunch of little kids.
Thomas only stood by those birds feeling completely out of everything when a new shadow landed next to them.
'Oh, it's Lulu.'
He didn't even need to look back to see it was Lulu. The young lioness noticed his somewhat stiff posture before all those strangers looking up to him and softly laughed with transmitting her voice.
[Bro, those are the Sky Kings, the strongest bird-type species here on Zeria. They were formerly ordered to guard the skies and keep an eye on the Daemons together with the Hundred Eyes Beasts. They are not that smart, though. Most only have the intelligence of a ten year old an thousands of years guarding the Archis made them bored and so they left to play around, er, I mean live in seclusion. Since then, they kept away from the matters of the world so few even knows they are alive. Just keep in mind that despite childish, those five are still peak 9- Star beasts.]
"I see..." Thomas listened to her and understood those guys should one of the most formidable beasts in this planet. Well, he indeed felt the existence of a couple powerful beasts across the world when his body was one with divinity.
Thomas returned to Xamak with Lulu and the birds where the beasts prepared a huge banquet for him.
It was a night of happiness, good food and great company but Thomas didn't felt like partying. In fact, he truly wanted to find some new clothes so he could return to his from.
Well it's not like he couldn't use his human form right now since beasts wouldn't find a it strange, but he couldn't accept walking around naked in a world full of talking animals.
At that time he was having some fruit juice while chatting the three five sky kings.
The elders of the five brothers, Havul waved his head feathers time and time again while listening to Thomas talking about the demon domain and how they evolved from the Daemons who escaped this world.
"So those guys really survived. Gosh, Uncle Lion Emperor was right when saying those mutants wouldn't die that easily."
The youngers one and also the only female of the five, Riola was happily eating from a blown of thin fruits similar to grapes. She sounding surprise as she spoke, "To me the fact they have now conquer hundreds of worlds as big as ours is much shocking than their survival. How could they grow so much in this short timespan while our world only declined."
"It's simple." Thomas intervened. "As you may know, the purity of the beasts' bloodline decreases with each succeeding generation and if that isn't bad enough. The reproduction of beasts is also very slow, with the eighth and ninth beast series having only one or two offspring in a lifetime."
"Demons on the other way have evolved in a similar way as my species. My kind can reproduce very quickly and instead of getting weaker in each passing generation. Female demons are very fertile and can bear at least one demon a year or more depending on the clan."
"Look at the Demon Prince that came to this world with me. His mother is a demon queen of the bug clan and alone she bears one hundred children per year. If even one of those her children grow up to be the same, how much more children would they be making?"
Despite wanting to keep a secret before, he was quite happy meeting those five recluse experts.
The five brothers turned quiet and they eyes even showed some fear. They knew Thomas was right, and the only reason they are still alive is because the demon domain has lost the location of Zeria otherwise they would be conquered just as easily as the other worlds.
"One last thing that I would like to speak is that while no one knows what happened to the great ancient demon emperors, I don't think they are dead. But given they all dominated Sin Force millennia ago, it is expected they would have all left the material plane behind and went ahead to live in greater dimensions.
They knew this very well because calling themselves brother and sisters, the five sky kings were really born of the same parents and only called themselves like this because they were of the same species and grew up together. Planes, Dimensions , it was all too much for them to completely understand, but at the very least they recognized what a treat it would be if after all that happened their greatest enemies are still alive and more powerful than ever before.
Looking at those five reclusive experts finally showing a some of their serious side made Thomas relived that at least they were able to see the bigger picture.
Their appearance in here in fact was very fortunate since it spared him the effort of looking for this worlds experts he knew existed to warn about he demon domain. He believed those five should at least know a few other reclusive beasts around their level, if they can at least be prepared in case more demons appear...
And despite living for at least thousands of years, none of them ever had children and have only heard how difficult it was for beasts of their level.
Three days later, Thomas picked up his things and left for the continent with Lulu tagging along.
A giant lion flew across the ocean carrying a smaller lion cup in it's back. Wherever it passed the wind would blow the water away leaving a huge trail.
Thomas was using his divinity to propel himself forward so fast it seemed like flying, but inside he was still sad he couldn't travel through shadows across the ocean.
At that moment, Lulu gave a tap of his head while hurrying him. "Brother, go faster it's too slow."
"Shut up, it's not you who has to fly carrying us both." Thomas shrugged off his tail, but contrary to his words he speed up make the small cub almost fall off his back.
"Is this fast enough?"
She opened her mouth to feel the wind blowing her fur as she held tightly to his fur. "T-this is great. Brother is the best."
While neither of them said anything, Lulu knew the something had gone wrong with the thing he needed to get back home otherwise he would have already left. At the very least, she was very happy to have her new brother with her for a little longer.
Seeing this funny lion cup enjoying the wind on his back, Thomas was also satisfied as he kept towards his destination.
The initial reason for his despature was to find a great expert and the only one of her species, the Five-Colored Jade Spider.
He heard from the five Sky Kings that her webbing is of the best quality, is greatly resistance against water, fire and sharp weapons as well offer a protection against impact.
She also works as a seamstress so as long he could get her help it would be possible for him to make some quality new clothes all so he can finally return to his human form.