“...You know what happened to me?” Gaia said. But there was a nearly imperceptible crack in her voice which caused Eridel to inwardly smile with glee. However, when he thought of the fake compassionate expression he pulled off earlier, he quickly humbled himself. She might have been using the same trick back on him to fake a sign of emotional weakness.

“You didn’t die just for fun did you?” Eridel said with a slight mocking expression.

Actually, it was a fair question. Eridel was pretty sure that there were some people who would actually choose to reincarnate for fun if they could. Reset their souls and live new lives. There was also the benefit of acquiring an extremely talented body or cultivating an impeccable foundation with your past life experience, but you didn’t need to do a full on reincarnation for that. Body possession was much quicker and far less dangerous.

Eridel calmly stared at Gaia as a vicious light appeared in her eyes, but on the inside he was laughing quite rambunctiously.

In truth, with Eridel’s question, he had just indirectly confirmed that he knew of Gaia’s exact predicament. It was more than likely that she was thinking that all this time they spent talking, he was assuming that she was an Immortal that had possessed a mortal body, and therefore still had her Immortal Soul, and a semblance of defence. He had only addressed her as an ‘ex-immortal’ after all. That was why she hadn’t been too shaken up by his acknowledgment of her previous Immortality. If the enemy thought that she had a line that shouldn’t be crossed, then she was relatively safe.

But now, Eridel had admitted that he knew she was a reincarnator! It would be a deep, deep lie to say that she wasn’t worried for her future.

However, Eridel continued on as if he didn’t notice. “Reincarnation isn’t a joke and those who had the means would normally use it as a last resort. I do not know how you got your technique but I do not care for it. However, I want to ask you this… are you okay with your current situation? Are you okay with knowing that whilst you stay grovelling in a pitiful World like this, your enemies are getting stronger and stronger? And even if by some miracle you manage to make it back, do you think that you could defeat them as you are now?”

Whilst being a Dragon of Creation was really impressive, in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t much. All of those that reached the grand stage of Immortality had similar levels of talent and Gaia’s enemies were sure to have the same.

“But if you were a god, a Dragon god of Creation with the ability to chase them anywhere they would try to flee. Which one of them could stop you? Which of them could defend against you…? Do not let this opportunity fly away, Gaia.”

There was once more a bout of silence as the 2 stared at each other.

“What would you do if I said no.” Gaia asked.

“Hmm…~ I’m a very vengeful person, you see. I might just be tempted to forcefully read your memories and gift the same opportunity to your greatest enemy.” Eridel said whilst looking up to the sky with a cheeky smile.

“That isn’t funny.” Gaia said coldly, then paused for a moment before continuing. “Why… why don’t you just do it? Forcefully read my memories, I mean. It has become abundantly clear that you know that my Soul is mortal, just like my flesh.”

Eridel then looked down at her as if he were looking at an idiot. “Because you will be a future partner of mine of course”

“A future partner? You didn’t say any-” Gaia began but was quickly interrupted.

“Gaia. Let us not do this.” Eridel said as he covered his face with his palm in exasperation.

Gaia stared at him for a long moment. She wasn’t foolish. She could clearly understand that the reason why Eridel was offering such a great opportunity for a mere map of the Galaxy, was because she was probably being expected to use that power for him.

But she didn’t know how he was going to enforce that? A soul contract? Or maybe a blood contract? There were all sorts of binding contracts that were used in deals nowadays and some of them were downright malicious. However, she didn’t believe that he would use such a thing against her because if so, then it would ruin the point of him being civil about the deal.

And… she really needed that power.

“Haah… I accept.” Gaid said.

“Mmh, you won’t regret it.” Eridel said indifferently “Now, as you know…” Eridel said as he held out his hand and clicked his fingers, restoring colour and motion to the World as the hold on time was released.

“To become a god, you would need to acquire a lot of Faith Energy from the residents of the World before establishing a contract with the World itself.” Eridel said as he walked towards Gaia.

Gaia narrowed her eyes, not expecting to hear about the conventional World-god contract. Wouldn’t that mean that she would be tied to this World?

“I can help you with the contract, but I’m sure that with your experience as an Immortal, you’re more than capable of acquiring Faith Energy on your own. Now I know what this sounds like, but I can assure you that so long as you can acquire your Faith Energy and convert it into Divine Energy, you will become a god with the ability to leave the Planet.” Eridel said as he stared directly into Gaia’s eyes.

“I see…” Gaia replied, scepticism clearly in her voice. At the very least, she was finally allowing emotions to colour her voice and facial expressions. A slight show of trust.

When Eridel arrived in front of Gaia, he immediately crouched down without pause and pressed his palm against the floor.

SHWIIIING!