Gaia inwardly flabbergasted by the strange existence before her. The man wore white robes that blended with his long silky-like hair, and had golden eyes that appeared to see right into the depths of her soul. On top of that, he was surrounded by a divine golden light that made her think of those bastards from the Heavens Supreme Region.

For a split second she even thought that he might have actually originated from there, but then immediately wrote it off as extremely unlikely. Out of all the Regions in this Galaxy, it was the bastards from Heaven Supreme that bullied and harassed the Immortals from the Desolate Region the most. Whenever she or the other Immortals from the Desolate Region visited the Mithril Region to buy precious goods, they would always be met with contempt. And if they ever met those from Heaven Supreme, it would always turn into a depressing situation.

Remembering the humiliating acts that she was forced to perform, Gaia had to blink away her anger.

Such people… would not even be caught dead here. They considered the entire Desolate Region a disgrace, and sometimes even insulted each other by calling the other a ‘Desolate loving scum’ if they were caught indulging in the bodies of those from Desolate, or ‘Desolate Dweller’ if they were low in talent.

This man before her, although arrogant in appearance, did not possess the disdain or disgust that those from Heavens Supreme never bothered to hide when looking at anything that came from the Desolate Region.

“Who are you?” she finally decided to ask, unwilling to participate in a battle of patience that other Immortals liked to do. She was planning on pretending to be an overly arrogant Dragon who’s ego was over inflated by their natural talent, instead of the Immortal that she actually was. If she was caught, she was caught, it mattered not.

The man before responded with a wider grin that genuinely made the World seem brighter, and made the plant-life around them grow. It was a wonderful sight straight out of a fairy=tale. Coupled with the man’s divine looks, it was enough to make almost any girl or even man lose control of themselves. But the only thought that came to her mind was:

‘Mere parlour tricks.’

“Me…? Hmm, you can consider me as… the Guardian of this little World~”

Even his voice was sublime, it touched her in places she very much rathered it didn’t, and even caused her to briefly, very briefly, think of the 2 of them doing things in a different scenario and different location. And that was when she knew she was in danger.

“Stop it.” She said quietly, but her voice was filled with all the killing intent that she had managed to gather in the tens of thousands of years she had spent alive. The gloves were off and she was throwing away her plan of false ignorance before it began.

She couldn’t allow the man to continue speaking like that.

The man's eyes lost a bit of its light for a single moment. and even if the grin remained, she knew that she had shocked him. But unfortunately, the light came back even stronger than before, possessing a beguiling property that threatened to befuddle her senses.

“Whatever do you mean little Dragon~?” the man said, and it was almost a physical thing. The voice billowed over her like an illusive mist and caused a shiver to run up her spine.

Trying her best to ignore the way her mortal body was reacting to his voice, she decided to come up with a different plan. Even though she wanted to scream at him to stop, it was already proven that threatening him was redundant, and even counter-productive. She needed to either attack him where it hurt, which was impossible, or somehow convince him to stop.

On anyone else, there was also the option of using his emotions against him, but 1, she didn’t know which way the man's morals swung, so something like crying might excite him instead, and 2, she did not believe for a second that he would lose control of his emotions. But even if he apparently did, she was sure it would be a trap.

It was then that it came to her.

“I will not proceed with any deal, if you keep using the Laws of Sound against me.” she said with a cold voice.

Recalling that the first thing he said when he had come here was a request for a deal, she decided to use it against him, happily feeling like she had gained a slight upper hand. But she didn’t let it get to her head and prepared for the man to threaten that if she didn’t comply, it could get worse, with a reply that if he did so, she would self-destruct. From there it would become a battle of wills.

The light in the man’s eyes shot up in intensity as the grin on his face morphed into a frown. His aura flared out and the World around them began shaking from the pressure it was unable to withstand despite its recent evolution. Beasts of all kinds launched themselves into the air or stampeded in every direction with fear, clearly sensing that if they were to remain in the vicinity, they wouldn’t even know how they died..

The man looked like a very, very angry god.

But she knew it was all a facade, he was merely displaying his displeasure and portion of his power. Basically giver her the threat that she guessed was coming, but in an indirect manner.

‘Bastard…’ she inwardly thought before giving him a glare of her own. Filling her eyes with the experience and indifference of a long-lived Immortal.

This lasted for 5 minutes that felt more like 5 days with each second raising the intensity in the man’s indomitable aura more and more. But when the first sound of a tree cracking was heard, the pressure and aura sputtered out like a mortal machine that had lost electricity. Bringing peace to the land that had become silent.

But even then, Gaia didn’t let her guard down.

The man continued to glare at her, but all the fanfare had vanished. The lights in his eyes, the golden aura… even his shiny clothes and hair had dulled. He looked like an ordinary mortal man, albeit, an impossibly handsome one.

But just when she thought she had one, the man began laughing.

“Pfft- hahaha…~ HAHA-HAHAHAHAHA!”

!!!

Gaia felt dazed as she looked at the man flopping to his back and stretching out his limbs in a spread-eagle position, laughing like a boy that found something amusing that no one else knew about. The sound was… arguably one of the most beautiful things she had ever heard in the entirety of her life, and she was unable to resist as a grin pulled itself from her lips.

“Haha…hoo~ Sorry, sorry… My name's Eridel. What’s your name?”