My eyes narrowed down at the woman who stood in her spot unflinchingly. I could see a whirlpool of mana surrounding her and entering her so-called ‘avatar.’

“What I am trying to say is that ever since you entered my planet, I’ve been having one problem after the other, and this is especially the case after you revived yourself!” She sneered, her anger audible in her voice.

By this time, Blanca had regained her cool-headedness, and instead of shivering on the ground like a coward, she had finally stood, her eyes no longer locked onto the figure of the woman before her but instead onto me.

“Revived? This world? What is she talking about?” Blanca asked, her voice still shaking due to the after-effects of her fear.

“I’ll tell you later…” I replied, my words left open-ended.

“No! You keep saying things l-like that, but you still don’t tell me anything about you!” Blanka shouted and tried to say her words with intimidation, yet the crack in her voice and the slight stutter in her words broke the visage, showing her true colors of being a scared child who knew no better.

‘A child, huh… She really does remind me of my little sister even though she is several times older than me.’ I let out a soft sigh and looked back at Blanca, yet a realization hit me before I could say anything.

My head turned towards the woman again before asking the question that lingered in my mind.

“Wait… You’re Gaia?” I asked.

Her eyes slightly narrowed at the question while her eyebrow twitched in anger.

“Wow. Well done. Now you know the face of the person who’s territory you have invaded.” She snarled before a mischievous smile appeared on her face as her head turned towards Blanca.

‘I wouldn’t usually do this, but having a human on my planet is a dangerous path to tread on. This is the least I can do… At least for the inhabitants of my planet…’

Sensing her intentions, I instantly released all my killing intent before shielding Blanca, and in the same instant, I created ethereal claws made out of my blood energy._-.

“Do not worry, child, I would never hurt a true inhabitant of my world, especially when they did nothing wrong other than being completely ignorant to the truth.” She spoke, her voice now soft as her gaze lingered on Blanca.

“You may not understand your mistake now, but I’ll inform you anyway. The boy who is currently shielding you is a human…” She said, her voice booming through the silent forest even though she did not raise her voice.

“A human?” Blanca asked, even more confused.

“Yes. The human race. Well, technically, he is a true human, one of the most adaptable races in the universe, and the one that happened to terrorize your species and many other species before and after it. It is the reason why the white snake species even lives on my planet and is also the reason why I allowed your Cosmic realm patriarch to live on this planet, of course, with certain restrictions.” She informed Blanca, who could not help but leave her mouth wide open in surprise.

“That race… The monsters?” Blanca asked while taking a step away from me, an action that surprised me to my core yet simultaneously made my heart squeeze in pain.

“Yes, those monsters. There isn’t a better word to describe them. A race that destroys everything they touch.” She looked at me again, her warm gaze disappearing and being replaced by one of contempt.

“And one of them dared tread on my planet… Ever since he entered this planet, he treated the animals with no sympathy, slaughtering them as if they were nothing but food and training dummies to the likes of him.” She sneered.

“Dared? You think I chose to come to this-” Yet before I could finish my sentence, I heard a sentence that would send pains through my heart for years to come.

“Then why didn’t you kill him?” A feminine voice asked one that sounded very similar to Blanca’s, yet I did not want to believe such a thing. Blanca wouldn’t betray me, right? She wouldn’t indirectly ask for my death, right?

My eyes eventually trailed off the woman in front of me as they looked behind me, shock evident within my eyes as I still could not understand what was happening.

Yet to my dismay, the eyes I met as I turned around were not those of a random stranger that happened to walk into the area we were in, and instead were the contempt-filled eyes of the person I trusted most in this world—the one person who I had spent most of my time in this era with. The one person I saw eventually growing closer with in the future and even continuing our current adventures with.

“Blanca?” I asked as if uncertain of who was speaking.

“Why you ask? Because I can’t… But you can. You can rid this world of this filth. You can eliminate this burden from the face of Earth and allow this planet to prosper.” Gaia spoke nonchalantly before continuing-

“You can get rid of him and finally get revenge for your parents. Didn’t they fight and die in the war after fighting a person of his race? Didn’t your father fight to make sure you and your mother got out of the planet, and even then, due to your mother’s injuries, she had to choose between giving birth to you and surviving herself. And to think your mother and father would have been alive if it weren’t for the likes of him…” Gaia said, her voice filled with pity, yet even within her voice, I could sense a tinge of uncaringness.

Yet even after both of us heard what Gaia said, none of us moved. It was as if the simple act of moving a muscle was forbidden…

‘She wouldn’t… Betray me… Right?’ I asked myself, my expression still as blank as ever.

“If you aren’t doing anything because of the contract, no where does it state that you cannot kill him during your contracted period. The only time you can’t-” Gaia’s voice halted as her eyes slightly widened in shock.

A horrible dread overcame me, but due to the direction and speed it had come from, I did not have enough time to react.

At that exact moment, I felt something in my chest… No. To be exact, it wasn’t just a feeling. It was…

‘Pain?’ I said inwardly and phrased it as a question even though my voice was monotone and emotionless. I could not understand what was happening, yet I could link this feeling to one of my earlier memories. A memory of this world, yet not one from the same era as the one we lived in today.

“Please, Julia. I loved you! Why are you doing this?!”

Those words echoed in my mind as I slowly understood what was happening.

“I wonder…” I finally spoke out, a trickle of blood leaving my mouth and moving down my chin before dripping from its end.

“I wonder if this is how he felt when she betrayed him?” I asked myself, a week chuckle leaving my mouth.

Turning slightly, I could see a familiar woman extending her hand out, an energy blade forming at its end and penetrating right through my heart.

The woman stood there, an expression of betrayal as tears soaked her face.

“You didn’t hesitate?” Gaia asked, still slightly shocked by the resolve that had been shown in front of her.

“I-I… I’m… I don’t. Why did I? I don’t understand. Why?” She instantly retracted her energy blade before falling to the ground and sobbing her heart. After Gaia saw this, she could not help but sigh and walk over to the girl before crouching down and beginning to caress her hair with a gentle smile.

“Do not worry. The monster boy will no longer live. The monster boy has died by your hands, and therefore I shall reward both you and your clan.” Gaia said, her voice encouraging.

Standing right behind them with a gaping hole where my heart was supposed to be, I could not help but look down at them with regret. Yet, besides my regret, another feeling was boiling deep inside my soul. A feeling that would permanently engrave itself into my very soul.

“Haha… Hahahahahahahaha…” I laughed, a tinge of self-mockery in my voice as it echoed through the silent forest, causing the two of them to look at me, one seeingly sobbing while the other visibly irritated.

“I understand now. No matter how much you love someone and how much time you spend with them, one will always choose their race and species before choosing their lover or best friend. Blood beats these flimsy relationships after-” *Cough*.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, I looked at Gaia and Blanca with a grim smile, my teeth bloodied due to my wound.

“End him…” Gaia turned to Blanca with an annoyed gaze.

“B-But… I can’t… I don’t want to hurt him anymore. I don’t even know why I did it… It wasn’t his fault that-” However before she could finish her sentence, she was cut off by Gaia’s voice.

“So you want him to die a slow and painful death? I understand you built a relationship with him in the past half a year, but you must understand that this will only prolong his pending death.” She said, her voice emotionless as she helped Blanca up, supporting her due to Blanca’s shaking legs.

“Also, look at him. He is a monster.” She spoke again, the disdain in her eyes only increasing after every word.

“He is the same monster that killed your parents. Will you allow your parent’s revenge to end in someone dying of blood loss, or will you end it yourself?” Gaia asked, causing the hesitation on Blanca’s face to lighten.

“I’m doing this for him… And my parents, right?”

“Of course.” Gaia gave Blanca a warm and assuring smile.

‘How naive…’ I thought, blood filling my mouth while my grim smile remained on my face, yet instead of falling to my knees as most people would have due to the amount of blood lost, I did not allow my knees to shudder for even a second.

“So I’m the villain here, right?” I asked, but before anyone could even try answering my question, the grim smile on my face only grew more prominent.

‘Buy 10 mana stat points.’

“Then if I’m going to die anyway, why not just fit the role?” I asked again.

Gaia’s eyes widened but not in surprise at my actions, but instead in surprise at the mana fluctuations she felt exploding out of me so suddenly.

With a flick of her wrist, she moved Blanca over 500 meters away in an instant before thrusting her hand towards me, trying to end it all before it even began.

*Thud*

She widened her eyes as her arm suddenly fell to the ground, but before she could comprehend what had happened, a powerful surge of mana exploded out of me once more, but this time in the form of a skill, or what they knew as spells.

[You have experienced your first real betrayal]

[Your rage shall be quenched]

[Blood energy is beginning to run rampant within you]

[You have created a temporary combination of your skills]

[Weak Blood Energy Manipulation + Earth Control]

[You have created and can use the skill Crimson Earth Spear for 30 seconds]

Gaia could have sworn she had seen a crimson shadow as well as a hundred eyes flicker behind me, but that feeling was quickly overshadowed by the powerful earthen crimson light that radiated from the spear I held within my hand.

The spear bolted towards her in an instant while shattering several sound barriers. Gaia understood what was happening, but due to her only using an avatar and also concentrating on a million other things around the globe simultaneously, she could not react in time to my sudden attack.

*BOOM*

The forest shook violently while everything before me had become nothing but ashes and destruction. There I stood, my eyes listless as the blood kept pouring out of my wound uncontrollably, yet unlike before, I was not breathing, thinking, or moving…

I stood there, my eyes becoming increasingly grey by the second while my skin began to crack and crumble.

I was dead.