Death... and me

"This..." Zandolf didn't know what to say. As a Divinity Realm cultivator, he was privy to certain pieces of information. It was indeed true. Because of the Essence Race's affinity to the world, they were indeed extremely strong, even though they were extremely rare. 

However, never did the other three powers think that the Devils would not only succeed in taking down the Essence Race but also completely dominate the Northeast side of the Realm of Gods. In the end, it took up to this point for the chance to retake those territories to appear.

Huban continued. "What? Did you expect me to jump in happiness? Take all my Essence Race members and go out to help the Realm of Gods to eliminate the Devils? Alright, then, what happens next? Will your three powers leave and give our territory back?"

Zandolf kept silent. He had no way of guaranteeing such a thing. The war against the devils obviously wasn't just to get rid of them, but also the territorial gain for the three powers. Would everyone really just give up everything after the Essence Race appeared to help? No! They wouldn't!

The situation was already way out of Zandolf's expectations. He didn't even know if he could find a living Essence Race being, let alone an entire city with them. Not only that, but they have three Peak Divinity Realm experts. As for Huban himself, the Essence Race expert who almost succeeded in surpassing the Divinity Realm. 

He could already imagine how the other three powers would take the information in, and none of the outcomes seemed very interesting for the Essence Race.

"Hehe!" Huban could tell what Zandolf was thinking. "Since you don't want to talk, I will tell you what the possibilities are. The first one is that they would ask our help to take down the Devils. Fine up to this point. However, they would demand us to join their powers while they would divide the territories. We would become some kind of vassals."

"The next option is that if we insist on not giving up our land, the three powers will simply leave! They will leave us to deal with the entire Devil Race on our own and wait for us to be wiped out before they finish the job. In the end, we would need to go back to them and accept their terms."

"These two options aren't all that bad. That still leaves us a path of survival. The third option is the one that bothers me the most. With this many Essence Race beings still alive... wouldn't the same fear as the past resurge? Instead of trying to help us, the Demon Beasts, Humanoids, and Spirits would immediately join forces to get rid of us before we could recover our previous power."

Huban then looked at Zandolf with seriousness. "Now then, tell me, Zandolf, which of the three options do you think your three powers will take? And before you answer, I wish you to take a look at Joju, Trulo, and Landeau on your side. The three Essence Race beings that brought you here to talk to me."

Huban continued. "You saw our city, right? It does have a lot of Essence Race beings, but it is nowhere near the millions we had back before the Devils' invasion. Still, with just this many, we were able to give birth to three Divinity Realm Peak Stage experts. I might as well tell you that we have another four Essence Race beings in the earlier stages of the Divinity Realm that are cultivating in other parts of this city. It shouldn't be anything hard to guess, after all."

"I..." Zandolf wanted to say there was a fourth option. Unfortunately, he wasn't an idiot. The third option was most likely the one that would be chosen by the three powers of the Realm of Gods. As for the first two options, even he finds it hard to be given in the first place. 

However, Zandolf immediately noticed something weird. "Wait... Senior Huban, if you have seven Divinity Realm experts, why are you still hiding in this place? That is definitely a force strong enough to at least contend against the Devils here in the Realm of Gods."

"Hehe!" Suddenly, a small, cold laugh echoed. However, it wasn't Huban who laughed, but Roan instead. "I ask you to repeat your question once more and analyze why it was a question which the answer has already been given."

Zandolf was taken aback for a moment. Yet, Huban and the other Essence Race experts didn't seem surprised, as if they also thought that question to be meaningless. Nonetheless, Zandolf couldn't see what was wrong with his question.

Seeing that, Roan shook his head and explained. "The Essence Race has seven Divinity Realm experts here. However, the Devils definitely have more or less the same amount in total, and that is not even considering the Elder Devils back in the Underworld."

Roan continued. "Alright, let's consider the actual situation where the Devils in the Underworld can't help the Devils in the Realm of Gods. It wasn't the case before, but it is now. It would still leave a similar amount of Elder Devils and Divinity Essences. What could possibly be the outcome of a clash between the two?"

Zandolf finally understood. "Mutual destructuion..."

Roan nodded. "Indeed. And the Essence Race beings are in an even worse situation. After all, their numbers are so low that they would be helpless against a spread attack from several sides. But let's consider for a moment that the Essence Race somehow wins. The outcome would still be the Essence Race losing most of its experts, once again nearing extinction."

Roan then shrugged his shoulders. "Now then, what do you think the Realm of Gods Demon Beasts, Humanoids, and Spirits would do after their fight is over?"

"They would attack and make sure to eliminate the rest of the Essence Race," Zandolf answered as he gritted his teeth.