Looking at the long slash he engraved on the World Tree. Arthur proudly smiled and said

"Is that all you got?"

His question was met with silence, an eerie silence that even made Arthur a bit uneasy. He didn't unsheathe his katana and instead held it with both of his hand while raising his aura indicating that he's not giving up.

The more time he waited, the better it was for Arthur to recover some of his Mana and think of some measures in case the World Tree goes all out.

"..... It is always said that curiosity killed the cat, so tell me mortal, don't you fear death? Or are you foolish enough to die because of the stupid thing you call curiosity?"

"Hahahaha, it's true that curiosity killed the cat but it's also true that satisfaction brought it back."

"... What you'll experience may not kill you, but sometimes.... the truth can be deadlier than a blade in the heart. Are you still sure you want to be foolish and learn how insignificant you really are?"

Arthur just shrugged his shoulders and stored his katana away. It didn't seem that the World Tree was angry on wanted to still fight. He didn't know what it will show him but he was intrigued and wanted to know what all of this was about.

Very soon, a green light covered Arthur, who was about to resist but was stopped by the voice.

"Do not resist, let it enter you."

Albeit a bit hesitant, Arthur tsk'ed and didn't activate anything, leaving his body exposed.

'If this a trap, I'll cut that tree, I swear!'

The feeling was pleasant and in just seconds, Arthur felt his mind calm down and a wave of serenity cover him. He could no longer move and found himself in a white world with only him and a blue blob of light floating in front of him.

"What you're about to see is... what I am and... what happened."

The white blurred and the surroundings warped becoming a mix of gray and red until Arthur found himself in an extremely large broken ship. A fog was all around it and the atmosphere was gloomy with some ghostly wails emitting from its inside.

Seeing Arthur becoming cautious and trying to activate Dark Barrier, the World Tree, which took a form of a blob of blue light, spoke

"You do not need to worry, we're only viewing events of the past, whatever you do will not affect what's happening, neither can anyone see you or feel your presence."

'Anyone?'

No matter how much Arthur inspected the surface of the ship, he could not see a single living being except the few ghostly and creepy wails coming from the inside.

Two shadows suddenly appeared a few meters away from Arthur, the distance was close and albeit the presence of the dog, he could see their features.

One was an old man holding a purple box in his hands, he had a thick black and white beard and wore a black robe. The other person was a middle-aged man with a long red staff. He had a domineering presence and a long brown-hair, sword shaped eyebrows and a pointy nose. What's special about this man is that he had three horns sticking out of the back of his head, each had a unique color.

Arthur's knowledge about races was quite fast due to the enormous amount of corpses he possessed, he was not one hundred percent sure but he had a strong guess that this man was from the Demon Race.

Most of them had pale white skin and an appearance very similar to Humans but some strong Demons have horns which are a way to show off their powers. He only knew that the Demon Lord on Astria had one horn, as for two horns, he never saw or heard of anyone like that.

"Ha... those ugly beats were sure a pain in the ass.... it's all thanks to you, Zodiak."

The demon patted the old man's shoulder and then shifted his attention to the insides of the ship. He held his staff in both of his hand and the weapon was instantly emitting a red luster and in some weird way, it began stretching and bending around but at a second glance, it returned to its normal appearance.

'Zodiak?'

Arthur assessed this old man who had the same name as that skeleton. There cannot be such a coincidence, he never saw Zodiak's real appearance so he was confused. The robe was not the same so he couldn't ascertain his guess.

The two of them began marching to the interior of the ship when a flash of light brightened the surroundings and three extra figures appeared.

This was not the end, to the other side of where the flash of light appeared, the air was split apart by something and a hand stretched out from the starry sky. It was actually a bald man with a monk attire. He also had a golden staff in his hand and a small white beard.

"Ah.. it seems I was not late."

The monk scratched his bald head as he gazing around the ship. His gaze passed the demon and Zodiak and fell on the three other figures.

These three were exactly similar to what an angel would look like. Majestic aura, long white wings made from pretty feathers and an appearance that would make anyone jealous. Two of them were men and the last one was a female.

"Filthy Demons! You're still trying to steal our treasure!"

One of the angels, a man with long blue hair and a long spear who appeared to be the leader, stepped forth and angrily stared at the demon with disgusted and enraged eyes.

"Your treasure? Don't make me laugh! I passed the trials successfully and arrived here by my own effort, not like some narcissistic, weak-looking, sissy angels."

"What did you say?! We, the angels are higher-beings blessed by God himself! Not corrupted beings like you who only live to do evil things?"

The Demon sharply stared back at the blue-haired angel and pointed his staff at him whilst rebuking

"You say we do evil things yet you, who follow a lord you never met are but stupid and ignorant beings. Evil isn't the real threat to the word but stupidity is."

The demon no extra word, he just vanished and suddenly reappeared in front of the angel, slamming his bending staff at him.

The angel was not weak, to begin with and his senses were on high-alert since the moment he appeared here so when the attack came, he was ready to block. He swept forth with his long spear and the two weapons soon clashed, creating a strong shock wave. If Arthur was here, he was sure he would not even be able to withstand the shock wave, much less an attack from one of them.

Seeing the two of them engaging in the fight, the bald monk watched the show with a funny grin for a couple of seconds before he turned around and headed for the interior of the ship.

One step... two steps.... three steps....

His advancing was stopped by the two other angels who block his front and back, they raised their weapons and pointed them at the old man.

"Don't move. You may be from the Thousand Buddha Sect but this is a matter of our Universe."

Unfazed but what he heard or their actions, the monk picked his nose nonchalantly and gazed at the beautiful female angel with him with a lustful. When he realized his own thoughts, he shook his head furiously and repeated

"Calm as water, emotionless as Buddha. Calm as water, emotionless as Buddha. Go away go away lustful thoughts, go away go away large boobs.... you should not exist.... calm as water..."

The monk slowly walked onward while repeating this chant continuously, the two angels were both confused but didn't have the time to think about it. With no hesitation, they rushed at him and pointed their spears at his heart and the back of his head, aiming for the skill with no mercy whatsoever.

The bald monk stabbed his golden staff to the ground and in a very blurry yet slow manner, he performed a roundhouse kick that not only crushed the front spear, it also sent the woman flying, you could even hear bones cracking.

With the same mysterious technique, in a way which seemed slow and visible to the eye yet it was way faster than any attack Arthur has ever seen, the bald man backflipped and palmed the angel aiming from the back of his head. The palm attack didn't emit any strong pressure or aggressive aura, it seemed like a simple palm attack but the back of the poor angel was crushed as he was flattened on the ground, unconscious with foam coming out of his mouth.

"Calm as water, emotionless as Buddha...go away go away, filthy thoughts, go away go away.."

While continuing his chant, the monk picked his staff and resumed walking toward the interior of the ship. As for the demon and the angel. Their fight was reaching its climax as the bending red staff and the long spear clashed multiple times in just a second, creating one shock wave after another but it was visible that the demon had a slight advantage.

No signs of Zodiak could be seen as he seemed to have disappeared since the others came, as for the bald monk, he was completely oblivious to their fight as if it didn't exist, for him, all of this was a child's play.

......

In a room inside the broken ship, Zodiak was performing dark seals in the air and creating several dark talismans while a gray nebula was twirling around him. A couple of centimeters in front of his face, a small green seed was floating and emitting a blue luster. The talismans were neatly positioned around the seed and the gray nebula linked between them, by the look of it, Zodiak was trying to either suppress it or get his hands on the seed.