Divine Emperor of Death

"This isn't good…"

"Yes. I'm beginning to notice as time passes, the number of spheres in our surroundings begins to increase…"

"At this rate, we'd all explode and fail…"

Isabella, Frostrose, and Flamerose commented. Their expressions did not look good.

Isabella took a step back and watched a sapphire soul sphere shoot past her head. It was almost as though it was targeting them, but she once again confirmed their movements were just random but fast.

"Careful. If we get hit, it might invoke a chain reaction on us…" Frostrose warned, her expression solemn.

"The smaller spheres aren't a problem. Their crimson clouds don't extend past one meter in diameter. But on the other hand, the fist-sized one extends up to five meters in diameter while the big one extends up to ten meters."

Isabella shared her findings. Frostrose also nodded, "That's true. However, the smaller spheres are way greater in number, so don't underestimate them. The chances of getting hit by the smaller spheres are way higher than getting hit by the other two spheres."

"Right."

Isabella agreed.

She was about to move to that unlucky person and investigate how he subdued a ruby martial sphere which she was the most obsessed with right now as it denied her victory when suddenly a man appeared beside him and sank a icy blade right into his forehead.

"…"

Isabella didn't know what to say.

She saw that the owner of the icy blade's expression turned unsightly. He actually turned to look at her as though blaming her for not announcing such a penalty.

Isabella smirked and shrugged with her hands raised and spread, causing veins to appear on his forehead.

However, he didn't dare approach her and slipped away.

Frostrose could only shake her head. The number of Candidates participating in the Fourth Hidden Pagoda has decreased to thirty as far as she could tell but that ice cultivator sure did suffer a big penalty similar to Isabella, having lost half the energy in all three cultivation systems.

This was a big blow to defending oneself against others and the spheres.

"Isabella, why don't you try subduing the sapphire spheres and white spheres? We'll teach you."

"Thanks~" Isabella turned to look at them, "But I refuse to back down from a challenge. If I fail, I'll leave it to you guys to win for us- oh, I guess you two would be inclined to take these rewards back to the Auraflame Clan or use them on yourselves. Rest assured, I don't have a problem. I won't plunder it from you two if you were to win since you healed me many times, and even if you didn't, I wouldn't dare offend Shirley~ Aha~"

She made her thoughts clear to them and left, leaving Flamerose and Frostrose a mess in their heads.

They couldn't really tell where they belonged.

The Auraflame Clan was their home but in truth, they were sacrificed despite being geniuses even in terms of magical beasts. They were also not opposed to sacrifice themselves for the clan as it was considered a heroic feat full of glory. On the other hand, they were treated nicely in an Anarchic Divergent's home, felt happiness and sadness.

Of course, they had also been biased against an Anarchic Divergent, thinking they were evil but after having spent so much time with Shirley and her family, they were forced to rethink their biases.

They saw no evil.

Should they stay with Shirley, who took care of them with respect, or return to the Auraflame Clan? However, if they returned alive, there was a good yet horrible chance that they would be branded traitors, even more so since they had accompanied an Anarchic Divergent.

It was all a mess in their heads. They couldn't make a bad decision, especially after they have another chance at life.

Nonetheless, there was no time to mull over this issue. They quickly returned to subduing the spheres.

The Candidates felt pressed for time despite there being no limit for the same reasons Frostrose derived as well as knowing that that each chance they used up trying to subdue a sphere cost them a quite a bit of energy and their health.

They rarely had the time to be worried about other Candidates other than spying on them to learn more about the newly emerged fist-sized and head-sized spheres.

Isabella walked away from the Phoenix twins and looked around.

Many spheres were swarming around her. She was thinking about how to go about it when her eyes spotted a head-sized ruby sphere going away from the group.

Isabella narrowed her eyes, noticing that it had gone out of its explosion zone.

No ruby spheres were present within ten meters of its range, which made it so that she wouldn't receive any consecutive damage from other ruby spheres.

'It's all or nothing…'

Isabella exhaled a deep sigh as she clenched her fist.

Since she couldn't take down the pigeon egg-sized spheres even after so many tries, she decided to test her luck on the biggest ruby sphere. It was slow, as though it didn't have a care in the world, allowing Isabella to be near it and stand beside it without letting it escape.

Her actions suddenly caught Frostrose's attention, and Flamerose became worried about her.

However, Isabella was a cultivator. They couldn't discourage her when she stood before a challenge, even though it didn't seem like a bright idea. Flamerose and Frostrose looked at each other, readying to heal Isabella. If Isabella failed this, they guessed her blood essence would be down to around seventy percent, and all four of her limbs might explode, leaving only her head and torso.

Abruptly, their eyes widened.

"Wait- she's using her full power!?" Frostrose became shocked.

"Stop!"

Flamerose also shouted. This was clearly suicide.

However, Isabella acted like she didn't listen.

She pulled back her arm, brownish-golden immortal martial energy covering her fist and her entire right arm. After pulling her fist back all the way, she pounced and unleashed a terrifying punch at the head-sized ruby sphere with a mountainous momentum.

*Bang!~*

Her fist made contact with the head-sized sphere.

But despite her overwhelming power, the head-sized ruby sphere didn't move one inch.

"…!"

This made Isabella's eyes widen but a smile overcame her lips as she became confident in her own self.

"There's no one who could beat me in pure force except my Emperor!"

She yelled out with extreme conviction as veins erupted all over her forehead. Her fist roared at the sphere as a dragon head manifestation enveloped it within its razor-sharp fangs, causing it to shudder.

This almost made Frostrose and Flamerose jump as they saw it could expand and explode. However, the ruby sphere canceled out the force and dropped down to the grass, rolling on the ground like an ordinary crimson ball children use to play with.

"S-She subdued it…"

"Unbelievable…"

Flamerose and Frostrose's lips parted. They looked dumbfounded as they saw Isabella reach out her hand and pick the head-sized ruby sphere and looked at it with pride oozing out of her gaze.

'I thought so… my theory was right. The pigeon-egg-sized spheres require tranquil force. The head-sized spheres require absolute force, which leaves the fist-sized spheres possibly requiring optimal force…'

Isabella's lips curled like that of a cat's.

She had been quite down that her fist didn't work on a martial sphere, but now that she confirmed that her absolute force was undefeated, she overflowed with confidence.

"Frostrose, do you know what this is?" Isabella turned to look at them and asked.

Frostrose and Flamerose came near. The former opened her mouth.

"A head-sized ruby martial sphere…?"

"No, it's called a nuclear bomb~"

Isabella grinned before she took off somewhere with the big ruby sphere in her hand.

The twin phoenixes watched her dash towards a direction, and at the end was a man who flinched and turned around to escape.

"Die, Girias!"

Isabella quickly caught up as she used her Earth Dragon's Overlord Rush. Her legs were encased in a layer of brownish-golden immortal martial energy, allowing her to cross a certain distance in a short amount of time with the greatest speed she could muster.

"…!"

Girias's scalp turned numb.

He was lying await at a safe distance in order to take advantage of Isabella's failure but she instead passed. Just as he wondered if the trick was overwhelm the bigger spheres, she abruptly chased after him.

He was one step too late even as he tried to cast an escape technique.

Isabella's eyes were focused. Her fingers almost sank into the head-sized ruby sphere as she pushed it ahead with her palm.

A big ruby sphere smashed into Girias' back, causing his eyes to turn bloodshot, "Fuck!"

*BOOOM!~*

The ten meter diameter from the point of contact was instantly covered in a crimson gas cloud. Subsequently, all four of Girias' limbs of had exploded into a meat paste as though crushed and burst into a fountain of blood.

"Aaaghh!"

He screamed out in pain but, more importantly, humiliation as Isabella stepped on his head and planted his face on the bloody grass. She kept him suppressed, dragging his face through the dirt as she slid down the slope.