I thank David Salter for his Patronage! The gray path be with him!

Changing Travel

Alice’s POV:

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After our wonderful love-making, we left our own world. As we advance further, not only our souls will grow but even our own world! We can also cultivate in our own world as long as we allow the Universe Energy to flow into it.

Cultivators above the fifth level have different auras. The distortions around our bodies are present thanks to us, having our own worlds. Our world is supposed to have only a single entrance, but ours has two because it has two owners.

Wherever we are, once we enter our own world, our auras are going to stay at our original positions because that is the connection between our own world and the outside world. If we were to die, the world we created would stay at where we died and at that time, anyone could enter it. Probably Hiro’s Earth was in such a world. If the treasure that guy was searching for was a key to enter the world, the Earth is in, then it must have been a dead cultivator’s world.

That would also answer the question why there wasn’t any Universe Energy. If its owner shut the Universe Energy out before dying, then it also explains the Earth’s situation. Of course, these are only speculations. Now you probably think that this is a way for us to escape at any given moment, but that’s not true.

Since our auras stay where our original bodies were, anyone passing by can attack our world with soul attacks. Of course, we can sense such things from inside of our world and we can also defend ourselves. This is also the reason why cultivators below the fifth level have zero chance to resist even a single attack of ours, or anyone else’s who is above the fifth level. If we want to kill a cultivator below the fifth level, then all we have to do is to attack that person’s soul, which is so weak that even our simplest attacks could kill them.

We used our mind powers to notify Poirlion. Feeling our mind powers on the border of his world, he appeared in a moment before us. “Good morning.” He said with a bright smile. He too was about two meters tall, just like Hiro, which made me feel small. I’m only a hundred and sixty-five centimeters tall, which is very small compared to them! [But you are big enough at the right places~] Hiro remarked upon hearing my thoughts and we also greeted Poirlion at the same time.

Poirlion’s weird smile, which reason of we knew all too well, only made our situation awkward. “Hm~ The good smells are gone! It seems like her highness was satisfied! Shall we go?” This stupid dragon shamelessly remarked on our private life feeling that I wasn’t reeking from my pheromones as much as before.

“Stupid Poirlion…” I said with a pouting face as I pulled on Hiro’s hands and flew into the air. Hearing my words, his face became pale as he said with a despaired face. “M- My goddess! Please don’t get offended! I was only looking out for your desires! As your mate, it is his responsibility to satisfy you!” He shouted shamelessly as he flew up and arrived next to us.

“Would you mind not shouting out our desires and private life?” I said as I turned around in the air and stopped for a moment.

“E- Eh? I’m sorry…” He said as he realized his mistake and then he questioned me with raised brows. “Where does her highness intend to go to?” I frowned slightly upon hearing his words.

“Firstly, you don’t have to call me ‘her highness’, just call me Alice, like everyone else, does. Secondly, we decided with Hiro to look back into the abyss. We are curious what it has become after the battle. I’m sure that they have left already. Sending in a clone is all it takes for us to know…” I finished my thoughts while Hiro kept caressing my head and my hair.

“Oh? That’s a good idea. I’m also curious about that. I mean, I lived there for quite a long time,” Poirlion said with an equally curious face with his excitement visible. At the World Realm, our lifespans increased to ten thousand years and we’re going to gain another five thousand years after each stage, reaching forty thousand years at the ninth stage. Our lifespans are going to increase explosively from this point on, along with our physical strength.

While we were struggling to gain even a single Crypt of strength before, upon reaching the fifth level, it grew to fifty-five Crypt immediately and we would gain an additional of twelve Crypt after each stage, reaching a hundred and fifty-one Crypt at the early ninth stage. Of course, this was only our case as True Divine Beasts. Normal cultivators had only fifty Crypt at the first stage and they would gain only ten Crypt after each stage.

(AN: I’ll mention them if necessary, but this time as well, their strength in their battle forms is *1,1 and in their monster forms is *1,25) Since we were at the early first stage, we could punch with two hundred forty-seven thousand and five hundred tons of strength. Just imagining it is mind blowing and this is only the beginning! We quickly flew towards the entrance of the abyss. Now that we knew where it was, it wouldn’t be hard to find it again.

We appeared there in a moment. That big and ancient looking doorway was still standing there in the cave, with its surroundings being creepily silent. That black mass was still swirling inside the doorway and it seemed really threatening. Hiro quickly made a clone and I started looking through its eyes.

His clone put its head through the doorway and what appeared in front of him, made our mouths agape. Since we were at the World Realm, we were able to project images into the reality by using our World Energies quite easily, so I was also projecting what he saw to Poirlion. Where were long tunnels, cliffs, and hard stones before, now only stood a big emptiness!

It felt so cold and silent. Not even a small scream or grunt could be heard. The area inside was dark and all we saw through Hiro’s eyes were swirling streams of energies, which were flowing through the cracked holes in space. It looked like as if a mirror would have been broken. The reality had cracks on it and streams of energies were flowing in and out of it. It was gray.

That energy was the same kind of energy which devoured anyone who touched it. The matter beyond space! Hiro looked downwards and only a gaping hole was all he saw, with thick mist covering everything below. [Should I look down? It’s not like I’d lose anything other than a clone and it would also regenerate in at most a day.] Hiro thought, which wasn’t too much to my liking.

I didn’t want to see him jumping down into that cold and cruel world even if it was only his clone. But before I could protest he was already falling downwards naked; only his scales covering his body. He fell into the mist clouds and he was barely able to see past twenty meters, which was equal to being blind at our levels.

Luckily his mind power was able to get past that mist and he was also able to at least slow down his fall! It seems like we’ll be able to fly at the upper levels of the Abyss after advancing to the fifth, maybe sixth stage. Suddenly a pair of ten meters wide and four meters tall red eyes appeared in front of Hiro. Those eyes moved slightly upwards and in place of them, a gaping mouth appeared, which quickly bit on Hiro’s clone. Hiro’s original body turned around with a shrug of his shoulders as he said. “Well, that was it… I guess it isn’t wise to fly or nosedive in the Abyss even if you can… This was the second time that we were eaten…”

Poirlion nodded slightly as he said. “Yes, although I am able to fly at these higher levels, but I never dared to. Crushing the Abyss stone is hard for ‘low-level’ monsters, and the truly powerful ones are at unimaginable deepness, so as long as you stay in the tunnels and caverns, you can get by. Except if things, such as last time happen…” He shook his head sideways as he finished his sentence.

“Alright, let’s leave this planet and go towards a more lively place. I’m sure that the real battles are still going on, even after a month.” Hiro said with another shrug of his shoulders with a helpless look on his face.

“You can bet on that. I’m sure that the new and old clans are having wars with each other for the good spots for numerous reasons, but you’re going to learn about them in the future anyway…” Poirlion said with a smirking face while he was imagining the ongoing wars and battles.

“And where should we go? Thanks to the map in our heads, I know where we are, but the closest planet is weeks of travel from here…” I said with a small grunt, feeling unhappy. Do we really have to travel for such a long time?

We don’t need spaceships anymore because we are quicker than them anyway. We would have suffocated before, so that was the reason why we weren’t able to travel in space. But now that wasn’t the case because we had air in our own worlds, which we could use to breathe anytime. Although we can hold our breaths for many hours, but traveling in space might take days. We flew out of the atmosphere of this planet and arrived in space, which seemed to be infinite.

There were millions of shining stars as far as our eyes could see. I looked a slightly bit upwards and I saw a smaller galaxy, swirling there in a circle. Star clouds, galaxies and who knows how many more things were out there and it was waiting only for us to explore! The only problem with this was that we would have to travel at least for a week before reaching the closest planet…

“M- My goddess-” Noticing my look, Poirlion stopped saying what he wanted and continued with an unwilling face. “...Alice… I know that it would be very disgraceful considering your mightiness, but if you don’t want to travel for too long, then I could take the both of you on my back to the next planet in a shorter time,” he finished his sentence while he kept pulling his neck as if fearing me slapping it.

“Hmm? Oh, that’s a good idea. I don’t care about such things,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t tell him that I’d sit on any dragon’s back happily… Heh- making a mount out of my subjects would be quite interesting~ [You are so evil…] Hiro remarked with furrowed brows, but he didn’t mean it. After a few seconds, he couldn’t hide it any longer. An equally evil smile slipped onto his face, meanwhile, we were also listening to Poirlion’s thoughts.

Yes! Her highness selected me as her mount! Hahaha! If I meet Igron Flameheart, then I’ll be sure to brag about this! Not to mention, that I will be her first mount! Hahaha! Stupid plebeian dragons! Now you’re all going to be below me! I’ll be sure to gain her love and favor for myself!

[Oookay… That’s quite weird if I do say so myself. They are fighting to sit under you, of course not in the way I do…] Hiro remarked with a small chuckle as he grabbed onto my tail cruelly. “Akyun~” I moaned upon feeling his surprise attack. Poirlion smiled evilly at me and after a nod and a high-five with Hiro, he turned into his dragon form.

“Stupid males! You are conspiring against me! I’ll be sure to punish the both of you!” I shouted angrily while shaking my hands.

Poirlion made a laugh like sound, while Hiro openly laughed upon seeing my tantrum. We sat on Poirlion’s back and he sped away from Wuetis planet. It took only two days on his back to reach the next planet, not counting our night times, where we had to stop. Luckily for me, Poirlion stopped by himself and said that ‘I have to rest a bit,’ but of course, we all knew that he was only being considerate of our desires and feelings. It’s hard to not do it when you are connected with your other half. Not even a day can pass by without it!!! That’s my law!

Upon reaching the next planet, we were met with something unexpected. My mouth turned into an evilly smiling one, upon seeing the planet that appeared in front of me. It was the planet we were born at!!! “HAHAHA! I’LL BURN DOWN THOSE FORESTS! I’D NEVER FORGET MY WORDS!!!” I laughed madly upon seeing it.

I jumped off of Poirlion’s back who entered the atmosphere and turned back into my mighty true form without restricting my huge size! I was probably like a huge monster invading a planet, but I didn’t care. I quickly charged towards the ‘Forest of Evil Spirits’ and the ‘Forest of Pure Elementals’. It was still so clearly in my head how we sucked because of it when we were little! While I was flying towards it, Poirlion transformed into his humanoid form.

Through Hiro’s eyes, I saw a line of tear flow down on his face as he said out aloud - “H- How beautiful! That’s the epitome of dragons, the Dragon God herself in her true form! She- She honored me with showing her true form in front of me! HAIL THE DRAGON GOD!!!” He shouted loudly at the end as he kneeled down in the air. Hiro slowly moved further away from him, fearing that he would be affected by some kind of virus…

Even I stopped for a moment as I turned back. I made the weirdest face I could with my dragon head. [This guy is crazy…] I remarked in my thoughts. Hiro appeared next to me in his monster form, while he was chuckling in his mind upon seeing Poirlion’s behavior.

[Which one do you want to take?] He questioned me as he turned his seven heads towards me. Now he had seven heads, hearts, and minds, while I had three heads, hearts, and minds! Fufufu~ I’m a three-headed dragon!

[I don’t care, let’s just pick one.] I said, answering to Hiro’s question as I dived down and sprouted flames from my mouths and covered the forest of evil spirits in fire. Hiro has done the same with the forest of pure elementals. Seeing the whole forest burning down into ashes, made me feel happy. Of course, I love nature so I wouldn’t leave it like that… The ground quickly turned black thanks to the high-temperature flames and only ash could be seen on the ground.

Although it’s been more than twenty years, but I still sensed many elemental monsters in the forest, so I spared no effort to destroy them! Not even a single elemental monster was left alive!

Afterward, we used nature magic and grew two forests on the two sides of the roads, which were as lush as before. Life would return to it, in the form of monsters and the new monsters would cultivate in the right way, so everything is going to be better for the humans as well. A group of humans who were at the eighth stage of Foundation Realm rushed out of the city, where we spent our first night at, with sleeping, that is.

Thinking about my feelings at that time for Hiro, I pulled my draconic mouth into a smile. I didn’t know at that time that I’d be so strongly bonded with him. I liked his personality, but I’d have never thought that our bond would tie us together this much. I don’t mind my decision. I can only bless my own mind for not fighting against him. I’m the happiest woman in the universe! He flew next to me and started rubbing his heads against mine. Hehe~ It felt weird...

The humans on the ground were trembling with their sticks in their hands. I turned back into my human form and appeared on the ground in front of them, in a flash, with Hiro at my side. They stepped back in fear. Not the usual reaction upon seeing me… but I liked this better! Scaring these little shrimps always felt good. ARGH! These are again my instincts, but I can’t help it. Even if I think otherwise, even if I want to do it otherwise, it’s still inside my bones. The feeling of wishing to scare the beings who are weaker than me. I want to scare them, to crush them!

[Yes, you are a terrible and evil dragon!] Hiro though with a joking tone. Whenever I thought about how would I feel in their place if I or Hiro were to be threatened by such beings, I always had to realize how terrible I am. That’s because of the hierarchy, the feeling of being a predator.

It creeps into our mind, into our subconscious and reaches its deepest parts. We know that it’s there, we know that it’s bad, but we can’t escape from it. It overtakes our mind, like a virus and writes itself into our personality. That’s how the instincts of divine beasts work. If we rely too much on them, then we’ll turn into mindless monsters. That’s why, although we should listen to our own instincts, but we also have to fight them at other times.

Instincts are perfect for saving our lives, for saving us from many trouble, but otherwise, usually, it’s better to fight against it. Every divine beast has this problem and usually, it happens at the later stages of the fifth realm, but it seems like I will have to fight it back earlier... When this happens, we turn bloodthirsty monsters who just want to kill and if we can’t win over our instincts, that’s the end of our consciousness, so this was very dangerous! I felt exactly that at the moment...

“H- Hello… You don’t have to fear us. We only cleared out those stupid elemental monsters.” I said awkwardly, while I was looking sideways. I feared that if I were to look into their fearful eyes, my instincts would overtake my mind. It seems like they also learned the right way to cultivate, though it’s no wonder as the Universe Energy was quite abundant, thanks to us.

Hiro had much better self-control as he has lived a life before, where he was able to practice it very much. I, on the other hand, barely met with a few noteworthy people. “H- Hello…A- Are you telling t- the truth?” One of them, a guy, who stepped slightly forward, questioned us while stuttering heavily. So cute~ I want to eat him… Noo~! I can’t!

[Hahaha~ alright, you are getting out of hand. I’ll stop you, okay?] Hiro said, having enough of my little battle in myself. He grabbed onto my tail and squeezed it strongly. Feeling a little pain and something else… my head quickly cleared out, but it’s not going to hold for long!

[Thanks, now it’s much better. When I see weak ‘food’, I always feel like crushing and eating them. I don’t like to be like that…] I explained myself, though I have no idea why, since he also knew about it. Hiro fell through this even earlier than me. Probably because he was a reincarnated person, but thanks to his powerful will and mind, he didn’t have any problem with fighting his instincts back. My husband is so unfair!

[I know, I know. I too had that feeling. When I reincarnated, I kept battling in myself about numerous things. Am I human, am I a monster, a Hydra? What makes me into a human? Should I hold onto my humanity, or should I let myself get overtaken by my instincts completely?]

[In the end, I decided that I’ll be half this and half that. My human side also had good points along with the new emotions, which I’ve gained after becoming a Hydra. I’ve never minded that I’ve become a Hydra, nor am I going to mind it in the future. My battle was all about who I want to be and how I want to be. In the end, you can see the person, standing beside you.]

[My personality did change in a few things compared to my past self, but in the end, I’ve decided to mostly stay the same. Why would I want to change myself? I’d rather change my instincts, my world, my surroundings to my liking! I decided to not fall victim of others’ wishes, feelings, the norms of communities. What do they matter if, in the end, I have to feel good in my own skin? And I can’t do that by listening to others, can I?]

[My path is to walk my own path in a way I wish and only death can stop me in that, but I believe that not even death can catch me as even my race is helping me out! Hehe~] Hiro fell into sentimentalism as he started thinking about how he became the person he was. Although his thoughts were long and maybe boring, but it helped me a lot. His emotions while he was talking, his feelings penetrated my soul as I started understanding my own way.

[I’ll support you in anything, my dear husband. I know that you’re also going to support me in anything. Two halves become a whole. Hehe~] I thought happily as a small smile slipped onto my face. Listening to his monolog, I've gained something! I was able to overcome and suppress my instincts and I forgot all about these humans. This meant that I wouldn’t have to worry about turning into a mindless monster in the future! I don’t know if Poirlion has fallen through this already or not, but I’m sure that we are going to find out in the future.

“C- Can we help you w- with anything?” The humans in front of us asked while they were still shaking in fear. Thanks to finally overcoming this little hurdle, I didn't even react to their fear. I didn't have that feeling of wishing to crush them.

“No, we are done here..." I answered the human in front of me in a much better mood and after some thinking, I offered him a little thing.

"Hey, I've just thought of something. Thanks to your fear, I’ve gained something, which is worth more than you think. Since it’s like that, mark my words and remember them. If you need a little help in the future then break this stick," I said as I used nature magic to grow a little stick and then filled it with my soul force. Upon breaking it, I would sense it and the accurate position as well, making it possible for me to find him.

I continued as he received my present. "I’ll help you out. Believe me, it’s rare that someone would gain my favor out of nowhere… by the way, my name is Alice, the Dragon God!” I said with a small exclamation, without the slightest bit of arrogance. I felt much better now that my raging instincts were gone. They started flaring up when I was only at the Domain Space Realm. Now that I was able to fight them back, I don't have to worry about them anymore.

“A- Alice, the dragon god? A- Alright…” He said as he gained a bit of courage and stuck out his chest, but he was still stuttering.

“But don’t become arrogant because I’ll kill you myself…” I threatened him while frowning at him and then I continued - “Also, please don't call for my help for shitty things... and by the way, why did you come here? Could it be that you wanted to fight against us? Hehe~” I asked jokingly, but unexpectedly, sweat started pouring down on their foreheads.

“What… did you seriously want to battle against us? It’s brave, but it’s also stupid, you know? You should be more careful in the future." I advised while shaking my head as I realized that they indeed wanted to do such a thing. Well, it was quite obvious thanks to the spears in their hands, but I didn’t want to believe their stupidity. This is why true warriors were stupid. I respected their courage, but they were still stupid. After standing there all mute, a question came to my mind.

"Were you also teleported into a dark space not long before?" I questioned him as I tilted my head to the side. All of them made confused faces, making it clear that they weren't and that they had no idea about my question. I guess mortal sectors and planets weren't affected. They can’t leave these planets either, so they had nothing to do with this whole universe mixing.

Seeing that, I shouted that we are leaving as I turned around and jumped out of the atmosphere. A moment later, Hiro appeared beside me. I looked back and by using my mind power, I was able to see them fall onto their knees. I guess it took a lot for them to stay standing in our presence, but I soon realized that we forgot something… We forgot to restrain our auras… which probably felt like as if a whole world would be pressing down on them. Ehm… Oops? I can only feel sorry about that, though it doesn’t matter anymore.

“Her highness~ I think that we should move on because this planet has nothing on it. It’s probably a new one, so we should leave. We are still on the outskirts of a galaxy, I guess…” Poirlion said with an expecting face, but upon realizing that he didn’t know where we were, he finished his sentence with his head downcast.

“Yes, this is the planet we were born at. Both of us grew up here and we became closer and closer to each other as we kept growing, until reaching our strong.unbreakable.and powerful.Love~” I explained to him and then I said word by word the last five words as I put my hands on Hiro’s chest and gave a kiss on his lips. We were back to our battle forms, obviously…

“Your high- Alice… Were you born here? We should renew this planet and move it to the center of the galaxy in the future. It should become a capital!” He started his bullshit, but seeing my looks, he corrected himself, only to say another kind of bullshit. What does it matter where I was born? What matters is where am I now!

Poirlion turned back into his dragon form and we sat on his back once again. It was time to travel deeper into this eternal darkness. I can only wonder what is space, what is this reality. Can we break it? Can we overwrite it? I’ll be sure to find out~