Death... and me

Kafan shrugged his shoulders. "Why wasn't that enough? The reason was very simple. The higher their cultivation realm, the more Dead Souls they needed. What is the number necessary to reach the Divinity Realm as a Soul Devil? I can't even imagine, but I'm certain just a few billion is far, far from enough. Just like that, our Universal Transition Organization's Death Energy continued to expand."

Kafan sighed and decided to finish the story. "In the end, it took a total of three hundred and forty-three thousand years for our Death Energy to cover this entire side of the Universe. Our Divinity Realm Death Spirits of that time were dispatched to get rid of the Space-Time Realm Devils who, in the end, couldn't get enough Dead Souls to reach the Divinity Realm."

"Of course, by that point, such Soul Devils had gotten quite smart. They hid, fled, left traps behind, etc," Kafan explained. "It was easy to find them when they were causing havoc in the lands of the living. But when they decided to hide, even we had a hard time finding them. To be honest, even to this day, I'm not entirely sure we got rid of all Soul Devils on this side of the Universe. After all, it is just too big to search."

Kafan wasn't disappointed, though. "Nonetheless, one thing is certain. We have assured our control of this side of the Universe. If a Soul Devil comes out and tries to kill the lives of any planet or land, we will immediately know. Our organization's system had come a long, long way in these millions upon millions of years, after all. You remember it yourself. Our intelligence is truly well spread."

"Phew..." Kafan stretched a little before continuing. "And this is how everything played out since the time when the Universe was split into two sides. The information you got might be of some use to you in the future, or maybe it won't. Nonetheless, I'm happy that I could finally tell you everything."

Roan nodded and went silent for a moment. He had to admit that was a very long tale, and the Death Spirits truly had gone through pretty hard times to reach the position they are today. Some might consider their usage of Dead Souls controversial, but Roan felt it to be just logical and the most optimal choice. "It is good that you told me all of that. Now I have a picture of everything that happened both here and on the other side after the events of the extinction sphere."

Of course, Roan knew it wasn't over yet. There were many things he still had to know from Kafan. "Alright, time to jump into the next topic."

Kafan didn't mind. "Sure. Which one do you want to know first?"

Roan thought about it. He still had to hear about the Pseudo-Temporal Path. Why the Vruves seemed so adamant about finding it, and if they knew it would bring them to this side of the Universe. He also wanted to know which connections Kafan had with Soul Gem. Not to mention that Rean's father was from this side. Somehow, Roan believed Kafan would know something about that, too.

Roan pondered a bit and decided to talk. "First, you need to know one thing. Before we arrived here, the Vruve Organization seemed dead set on using the Pseudo-Temporal Path that we used to arrive in this place. I don't know if you have met them before or even if the other visitors you talked about when we arrived are them or not."

"But first, I guess I need an answer about the Pseudo-Temporal Path. You commented that after the split, this side of the Universe had no more Pseudo-Temporal Paths. Yet, my group used exactly it to get here. How come? Does it have something to do with the Vruves?"

Kafan shook his head. "The first thing you need to understand is that the Pseudo-Temporal Path you used to get here isn't common. The Pseudo-Temporal I was talking about, the ones I said didn't appear anymore, were Pseudo-Temporal Paths that connect the Living Realm to the Underworld and Heavens. The one you used was obviously different."

He continued. "Now that you know they are different Pseudo-Temporal Paths, you also need to know that the one you used was not the first one to connect both sides. There were a few of them before, although the only ones who ever used it were the Vruve Organization. It was quite surprising to me to see that you ended up here as well. I even thought for a moment that you had joined the Vruve Organization, but that doesn't seem to be the case."

Roan obviously shook his head. "If anything, Rean and I were almost killed by them once. They destroyed an entire planet, trying to get rid of Soul Gem's system."

"I see..." Kafan narrowed his eyes. "They are quite bold to try to kill my disciple... well, they probably didn't know about you to start with, so it is quite complicated, too."

Roan immediately asked. "From what you are telling me, this was not the first time you had deals with the Vruves. Are you part of the Vruve Organization now?"

"No," Kafan gave a flat answer. "However, we do have a deal with them. That's also why the Vruves see these special Pseudo-Temporal Paths with such importance. They even developed a method to find the general location of these paths every time they open. That's how you ended up meeting them."

"A deal?" Roan was curious about it.

Kafan nodded, but he did not elaborate. "That has nothing to do with you and your group, so I'm not able to tell you about it. However, you don't need to worry. I have absolutely no intention of doing anything to you or your group. And on this side of the Universe, my words are law, so you are in no danger here."

Roan nodded. "I'll take your word for it then." It wasn't like he could do anything else anyway.

"However, one thing seems weird," Roan didn't forget another point. "You told me that to you, at this moment, it wouldn't be a problem to go to the other side of the Universe. I believe the Vruves have someone at your level for sure. So, why would they take these paths so seriously? Couldn't their expert, the one at the same level as you and Huban, simply come here and have this whatever deal between you two?"

"Hehe! As if it was that simple," Kafan laughed at that question.