This went both ways. Just like the creature sensed and coveted the divinity inside him, he could also sense the divinity inside the creature.

And despite the wrong, corrupted and much more subpar nature of it, he still coveted it.

Not just that, he could even say he needed it.

Finn released a breath and got into a ready position, tracking the creature's movement with intense focus.

Casmir still failed to land any hits with his Space magic. Thalia could've, Finn was eighty percent sure of that. Her Order magic was very likely to at least hold the creature in place, but she didn't make any major moves, only passively attacking as if she sensed Finn wanted to do something.

Within a few seconds, the creature was upon him, leaping into the air at the last steps.

Finn dashed forward to meet it with his hands held up in a block, watching for the moment of contact. They clashed with a thud and immediately Finn felt the contact, he cast [Invalid].

His body phased through the creature's, and with precise timing, he immediately turned and punched the head of the creature while willing an inversion of all the brain matter within.

The creature's head popped like a balloon, violently spraying the brain contents in a small explosion that took Finn off guard.

Huh?

He watched as the creature's body staggered forward, headless.

Then suddenly, it began to twitch and spasm violently, an involuntary response to the sudden cessation of a functioning brain… or more aptly, a post-mortem spasm.

The body twitched violently for approximately four seconds then dropped to the ground with a thud.

"...Well that was anti-climatic," Casmir muttered in the distance.

Even Finn, who had killed the creature, was kind of shocked at how easy it had been. He'd expected… more. Especially because of the divinity he had sensed within the creature.

Right… The divinity!

He squatted slowly as if assessing the creature's corpse so as not to draw any suspicion from the other Transcendents. Then made sure his body blocked their view from what he wanted to try.

Carefully, he placed his hand on the creature's body and closed his eyes, trying to latch onto the divinity he felt leaving the creature's body and… trickling into the void?

Finn frowned.

For a second, he considered what was on the other end of the line… what was siphoning this creature's divinity. Something had seeded this minor divine creature here and was now reclaiming what remained. The thought should have terrified him. Should have made him pull back immediately.

But instead, he grit his teeth and latched onto the stream of divinity anyway.

No matter how little, who knew when next he'd get more of this. He still didn't know how to make use of it, but he sure as hell knew he'd need every bit he could get. Especially considering what the existence of this creature signified.

Gods.

Well, maybe not Gods yet. But this was a start.

In fact Finn suspected that the other end of the line did hold a true God.

From how easy he had killed this creature, he quickly classified it as a minor divine creature. A beast that simply had divinity and was tied to a greater divine entity.

Shit. Should I keep going?

Finn could feel the meagre divine essence struggle against his pull. It wasn't to the point where it was a tug of war. If Finn gave a real pull, he would devour the divine essence easily.

But that was because this siphoning wasn't conscious. If Finn made a sudden move to steal this divine essence, he feared he'd trigger something greater. Draw the attention of the one on the other end. Something he wasn't ready to face — something no Transcendent was presently ready to face.

So with an unwilling expression, he let the final traces of divine essence funnel into the void, just as Casmir, Thalia and Deacon walked up from behind him.

"What did you find? Is it familiar to you?" Thalia asked.

Finn nearly answered instinctively, ready to tell a casual lie. But thankfully, he held back at the last moment, realizing Deacon was also there.

He sighed.

"From what I saw from your attempts to stop it, I thought it would be harder to kill," Finn leaned into his true feeling of surprise at the ease of the creature's death. "You're right. It was kind of anti-climatic."

"That thing had an ability similar to yours…" Casmir frowned with seriousness. "A Transcendent ability."

The short young man looked at the others' faces.

"You all know what this means, right?"

Deacon still had his eyes on Finn the whole time, but he glanced away to respond to Casmir.

"Yes," he nodded. "It seems our world didn't birth Transcendents just to deal with breaches…"

"...The inhabitants of the breaches are the threat themselves," Keeva suddenly materialized and finished the train of thought.

"What. So we'll find more breaches with Transcendents within from now on?" Finn asked, chipping into the conversation.

"We're going to have to step up our game," Casmir hissed. "This just got a whole lot more dangerous."

Suddenly, the breach that had refused to close previously, rapidly began closing.

Casmir immediately warped everyone the short distance to the breach and they all quickly exited just as the breach sealed behind them.

"Woah!" Finn held up both hands in surrender at the sight that greeted him on the other side.

Lyris, who had stepped through the portal earlier, had her killing intent directed at the point then as they stepped out.

And not only her.

Grade 1 Master rank Arcanists in droves had their magics — elements, enhanced fists, beasts, and artifacts — primed and pointed at the Transcendents that stepped out of the breach.

"Stand down," Lyris called with relief evident on her face.

"What happened in there with you guys?" She stormed towards her boyfriend, Casmir, with a worried, yet miffed expression on her face.

Finn watched their exchange with a weird expression.

Casmir genuinely seemed to like Lyris, as his eyes softened despite the urgent calculations running behind them. For a few seconds, he seemed to put the implications of the "Transcendent creature" behind him and attend to her.

Well, it's a good thing they're both short and petite. Finn thought, turning his eyes away as they became more open with their display of affection.

His eyes moved across to Thalia.

Imagine she was his girlfriend… There's just no way that could look right.

Thalia suddenly frowned at him, as if reading his thoughts, and Finn quickly looked away.

"Casmir. We need to report this to the Crown," Thalia urged, already moving towards one of the large tamed magic beasts. A bird built for speedy flight.

Casmir nodded, pulling away from Lyris and returning to his usual seriousness, holding her by the hand.

"We'll go ahead. Meet us there." The space around him and Lyris warped and twisted for nearly ten seconds. Then suddenly, they were gone.

Finn lifted a brow.

"Couldn't they have taken us?"

Deacon walked past him, answering as he headed towards another high-speed aerial magic beast.

"For that kind of distance, two people is already pushing it for Casmir."

Hmm…

Finn filed the information away.

It turned out Casmir was still not as close to anything related to time-control like he thought.

The guy was extremely proficient in certain areas, but in others, still somewhat lacking for what Finn had seen of his fragment bearers in the future.

Finn turned towards another magic beast that was being prepared, intending to board it as Keeva moved to the last one.

"Arros," Deacon suddenly called out. "Ride with me."

The Truth-bearer smiled lightly, staring at Finn with those golden eyes of his.

Shit…

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