"But don't you want to hear my secret?" Silas said sarcastically.
This immediately woke Red up. He shook his head, then hopped up on a nearby rock to get even level with Silas.
"What is it?" Red had never been more curious in his life. He had always known everything about Silas—well, he at least thought he did—but now, all of a sudden, there was a large secret Silas had been hiding.
"Alright, I'll tell you, but you can't tell a soul," Silas said. He had thought long and hard about this, but he finally decided if he couldn't tell those closest to him his secrets, then what would be the point of having them? There was also the fact that Red would always be with him, and Silas was bound to have to use his [Grim Reaper's Eye] eventually, so better to explain it now to save the poor bird from so much worry and to finally explain why his body was so damn tough.
Plus, he just really wanted to tell someone.
"I swear it on my soul," Red said, and he meant it. He would rather die than betray his brother.
"Alright, well, look at this," Silas said as he opened his [Grim Reaper's Eye] for the first time. When it wasn't open, not a soul—not even the single other Grim Reaper King—could tell there was an eye there, but now that it was open, it was hard to miss.
Red at first thought, 'What could it possibly be?' Then he watched in surprise as a third eye appeared on Silas's forehead.
He didn't know what this eye was, but he could sense pure death and destruction from the thing, almost like his soul was going to crumble from a mere gaze.
The eye was large, about the size of a golf ball, and it was grey with a dark black pupil. There were also random streaks of black that spread throughout the eye, originating from the pupil.
"What… what the hell is that?" Red said in slight fear, unable to calm himself.
Seeing how scared Red was actually made Silas a little excited. 'This thing must be as deadly as my inherited memories and system suggest.'
"It's my innate talent—the Grim Reaper's Eye," Silas explained.
"Innate talent? Why would you have an innate talent? You're a human," Red asked.
Only some beasts at the higher ranks would have innate talents, and while some were stronger than others, there was none stronger than the innate talent and divine ability of a Divine Beast.
"Remember, you promised to keep this a secret," Silas said, asking for confirmation.
Red quickly nodded his head. "Of course, I won't tell anyone."
"Alright, well, to be honest, I'm not really a human. I don't know why," he lied about this part, not daring to bring up the system to anyone, even his big brother Red, "but even though both my parents are human, I'm actually a Divine Beast…"
"Divine… divine… divine beast…" Red started to mutter. He wanted to say Silas was crazy and full of shit, but then again, that eye that was currently staring deep into his soul told another story.
"Yes, I'm a Divine Beast. From my inherited memories, my race is called the Grim Reaper King. I'm the second one in existence," Silas further explained.
"You're the second… in existence…" Red couldn't even properly comprehend how strong a Divine Beast was. His limited inherited memories of a common beast didn't include such information, but he could somewhat start to tell how strong and talented such a being might be when there were only two to ever be in existence.
"Yep," Silas nodded his head.
"This is why I'm not worried about ranking up to Transcendent lifeform. It should be really easy for me to rank up. As a Divine Beast, I was supposed to be birthed naturally from the heavens as at least a Transcendent lifeform, if not higher, but somehow I was birthed by two humans, so I've been stuck at Mortal," Silas said.
"Also, as you can see, my innate talent—the Grim Reaper's Eye—is very powerful. It allows me to kill anyone with a single look, as long as they are the same rank as me. So, once I become an early Transcendent lifeform, even peak Transcendent lifeforms will have to walk softly around me," Silas said with a laugh.
"But remember, you can't tell anybody. If someone powerful were to find out, how quickly do you think they would capture me, either to dissect my corpse or make me their beast companion by force?" Silas reiterated. There were two types of beast companions: those like Silas and Red, who were in a bond of equals, and those who were essentially slaves who couldn't go against their master's will.
After a few minutes went by with Red pacing, he finally somewhat calmed down.
"I still can't believe this. You're actually a Divine Beast," Red said.
"Yea, that's why my body couldn't be harmed by Thea once she ranked up." Silas explained. He himself couldn't even quite comprehend how much stronger his fiendgod body was compared to other lifeforms. Not only was his fiendgod body just naturally stronger and more durable, but the divine ability [Reaper's Immortal Husk] was also truly a top-tier divine ability. Unless one was a Divine Beast that specialized in defense, one could at most tie him in body strength and durability but not beat him. The gap between himself and others would only continue to increase the stronger he got and the longer he cultivated.
"So is that it? No more crazy secrets?" Red said.
At this point, the sun had already come up, which was what Silas had been waiting for. He was finally going to bring his Divine Beast companion into the world, and he wanted to do it during the day.
"Well, there's one more thing…" Silas said with a pause.
"Well, what is it?" Red asked.
"You can't ask how, but I have the ability to birth a second Divine Beast, and I'm about to do just that," Silas said.
"Another divine…" Red at this point was almost too shocked and confused to think.
Silas then started to interact with the system.
[Would you like to create the Godeater Rat now or wait for later?]
'Create now,' Silas said.
[Loading…]
[Creating…]
[First, answer a couple of questions.]
[Name of the beast?]
'Kai Armstrong,' Silas said. He had long decided on a name.
[Gender of the beast?]
'Male.' He hadn't thought of this, but he wanted another brother to travel with over a sister.
[How should the beast refer to you? Father, brother, son, uncle…?]
'Uhhh,' Silas began to think.
'He should call me second brother, and my big brother Red should be called first brother.' He quickly made up his mind. He even added Red in there so that Kai would naturally think of him as a brother as well.
[Creating…]
[Spawning…]
Silas then spawned the second Godeater Rat in existence.
There was now a rat sitting on the rock beside Red.
It was dark, parts of its fur looked like a shifting shadow, while other parts looked like darkness personified.
Kai was currently looking around at its surroundings, and then after determining that it was in a safe place, it looked over at Red curiously and then over at Silas.
"First brother, second brother," Kai said with a nod.
"Did he just call me first brother?" Red said, a little confused but also with a hint of pride.
"Yeah, I told him to consider you his first brother since you're the oldest, and I'll be his second brother," Silas said.
"So, you're his brother, not his father?" Red wanted to clarify.
"Yeah, I didn't really create him. I more or less just spawned him in, so I'm going to be his brother," Silas said.
"Why are you two talking as if I'm not here?" Kai asked.
"Oh, sorry, Kai," Silas quickly answered.
"There's no need to be sorry amongst us brothers. I was just curious if you two knew I was born with the intelligence of a 16-year-old since that is your age. I was even granted access to some of your memories," Kai began to explain.
Silas was surprised by the system's ability, but then again, if it could make a normal human a Divine Beast and create a second one out of thin air, why couldn't it share some of his memories?
Silas then began to get a better look at Kai and tried to identify him. Instead of the normal information it gave him, he got something more similar to his own status.
Name: Kai Armstrong
Race: Godeater Rat (Divine Beast)
Innate Talent: Soul Devourer
Qi Cultivation: Early Transcendent
Body Cultivation: Early Transcendent
[Path of Shadow: Lesser Dao of Shadow Movement (Touched)]
[Path of Darkness: Lesser Dao of Darkness (Touched)]
[Path of the Claw: Lesser Dao of Grasping (Touched)]
'So he's a Transcendent lifeform from birth,' Silas thought with a mix of surprise and delight. He had been a little worried that Kai would be born like him as an early Mortal and have to start from scratch, slowly catching up to him, but that didn't seem to be the case. It now looked like he was the one that would have to do a little chasing.
'He's also already touched the Dao,' this surprised him even more. He was still thinking about reaching Cosmic Resonance, and his new little beast companion was comprehending the Dao since birth.
'This must be the true talent of a Divine Beast,' he thought, while also thinking it would sure as hell be nice if he was granted this gift by the system. If it could give it to Kai, it could surely give it to him as well.
"Alright, let's go. You two have some training to do—you're both so weak," Kai said with a laugh as he jumped down from the rock and disappeared before their eyes. Seconds later, he appeared again 10 meters in front of them. He turned around and waved them on. "Come on, guys."