Death... and me
Chapter 3598: Another One

"Let me guess, to stop the Red Smoke, we need to put our sphere into one of those slots," Roan commented.

"Now you get it," the Camzotz Bat nodded. Rifindio knew him. He was called Grititi, another elder in the Peak Stage of the Divinity Realm back in the Supreme Palace.

Soon, the Red Smoke reached the twins’ team sphere, and the sound of corrosion appeared once again. It was only hitting one side of the sphere, as the dome environment seemed to make it hard for the smoke to spread around. It only managed to get this far into this place because of the gray light line that it used to infiltrate.

"Tch..." Sesahi and Meconth didn’t like it, but they didn’t have another choice. "Let’s do it!"

Once again, they poured their Divine Energy into the platforms, and their sphere moved, following the gray light line, which ended exactly inside the slot made for their own sphere.

The sphere landed on the slot, and countless runes shone under it. All the energy from their sphere was quickly absorbed by the inscriptions inside that slot.

*Zash!*

Then, a flash of gray light went back from where they came, striking the Red Smoke that had managed to invade this space. The Red Smoke was forced out, and the environment was cleared out of it. They were all now locked in this ’dome,’ and everywhere they looked outside, the thick red smoke was all they could see.

Nothing happened after that, though. "So, what now?" Shonror asked the experts from the other spheres.

"Now we wait," a Demon Fish from F955 spoke. "There is still one slot open, and we need one last sphere to slot into it. Until then, I suggest you take the time to recover. As for what will happen next, I wish I knew the answer."

Indeed, there were six slots for those spheres, but only five were being used, the fifth being used by the newly arrived twins’ team. Whether the other spheres’ experts knew what was going to happen or not, no one could tell, and everyone else was an enemy, so no one would tell them even if they knew the answer.

The twins’ team looked at each other. They might not like to be grouped together, but for the time being, they are kind of in the same boat. They all went quiet and started to recover their Divine Energy. Since waiting was the only possible thing to do at the moment, they might do that now.

Celis was a little disappointed. ’We managed to save our energy. Yet, everyone here now has a chance to recover completely. So much work for nothing...’

Rean comforted him. ’Come on. That still means you are much better than them. All hail the god of energy! Hahaha!’

Celis shrugged, but he took the compliment.

Almost an entire day went by. They noticed something else after their sphere got into its slot. Their platforms didn’t accept any Divine Energy anymore. Why? No one knows. Fortunately, this place seemed free from any harmful energies, so it was fine for the moment. They didn’t need the platforms’ shields.

Suddenly, the Red Smoke outside that dome began to dissipate on its own, and the twins’ team could finally see what was outside. Well, truth be told, there wasn’t anything to be seen. It was all a barren land. All they could discern was a faint yellow light over the horizon.

That was obviously the light created by the molten metal ocean. They could see it on all sides, which meant they were probably on some kind of island surrounded by the molten ocean.

"Why did the Red Smoke disappear?" Sesahi couldn’t help but ask.

"From what we know," an expert from a sphere just on their side spoke, "it always appears when someone steps on this Island. It appeared when we arrived, and the others said it also appeared when they got here, too. After that, it always lasted around a day and disappeared."

Meconth pondered a bit. "Could it be some kind of last hurdle?"

Everyone nodded. It did seem like that, didn’t it? They finally got to the end of the molten ocean, and the accumulated energy from their spheres was then used to counter the Red Smoke. They were forced to make their spheres move as fast as possible to reach this place. It was like this region was asking them to do one last push.

If they had the energy, they would make it to this place. If they didn’t, the Red Smoke would eventually make the sphere consume all its stocked energy, and the experts inside would die as a result. One thing became clear as well. They were sure that a lot of teams would or had already perished in the molten ocean.

"How many times have you seen the red smoke appearing?" Roan asked, and that caught his sphere’s team’s attention. Indeed, if it appears every time a sphere arrives at the island, then you could count how many times it happened to know how many teams had made it this far.

Grititi smiled. "Smart. My team was actually the first one to get to this place, and after that, we saw the Red Smoke appearing thirteen times, counting with our own."

Roan and the others went silent. Only five spheres are here at the moment, which means the other eight that came before perished for the Red Smoke. Actually, it might be more than eight since other spheres might have arrived on this island while the Red Smoke was out.

Little did they notice, but the other spheres’ experts were quite curious about the twins’ team. That’s because every single other sphere had thirty members, just like the twins’ sphere, but they were all in the Divinity Realm. The twins’ team, obviously, had Elemental Space Realm ones, like Rean and Roan. The other spheres’ teams found it hard to believe they had enough Divine Energy reserves to get this far. No one said anything, of course. The higher the number of weaker experts, the better for them.

Grititi also commented that he has been here for over a month already. How his team got here this fast, one could only guess. Perhaps they had a way of keeping their experts full of Divine Energy. Maybe they just happened to start their journey over the Molten Ocean a lot closer to the Island than the twins’ sphere did. Who knows?

"Do you guys think everyone will eventually come to this island in the end?" Meconth asked. Even counting the spheres they believed died to the Red Smoke, just thirteen spheres total was nothing compared to the total number of experts who entered the Golden Palace.

"Hardly," The Demon Fish from before shook his head. "I wouldn’t be surprised if there are many more of these islands, and some might already have the six necessary spheres."

"Indeed..." Meconth sighed. There was no way to know.

It took another two days time...

"Hey, look!"

Kentucky suddenly pointed out. Outside that protective dome, Red Smoke once again appeared. "Seems like some other team appeared. Let’s hope they at least make it through the Red Smoke."

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