As Arad relaxed and let Matilda have her fun, he closed his eyes for a moment and split his consciousness between four incarnations. There were many things that he had left unfinished, and the ruined city in Limbo was just one of them.

One of the incarnations went outside to check on the city, and one had to find Gojo and discuss what they should do with Limbo. The third one is the one who would remain in the private quarter, tending to his wives. But what Arad cared about the most was his last incarnation. His wives had said that everyone was in the bath, but that wasn’t true. Two were missing, and he would go check on them.

With one cast of Vorvadoss’s magic, Arad’s last incarnation disappeared, fading into the endless threads of space. It flew through the mortal world, reached a great tree, flowed through the roots, and under the shadow of an oak tree, he emerged.

A part of him was in the bath, one was in the city, one was with Gojo, and the last one was here, the one he should focus on the most.

The air around him was cold, and the sun had just emerged from behind the snowy mountains. Looking at the trees and emerald grass, Arad took a step and expanded his senses as far as he could. Ninety kilometers north, a group of people was caught in a deadly fight.

Arad could already smell five corpses and many more injured.

It wasn’t bandits, and it wasn’t a war or a feud. He frowned as those people were mere students, killing each other over a single jade crystal full of power. "What the hell are they doing there?" He sighed and took another step, teleporting through space and time to reach the battlefield.

As the fight grew harsher and harsher, Tina backed away and rolled behind a large boulder, landing beside another girl. This one was younger than her, barely in her twenties. A beautiful, red-haired lady of a noble family, a ruler of rubies and fire, stuck here with a bunch of useless commoners.

"What are you doing here?!" The noble lady growled as she saw Tina land beside her. "You’re supposed to be out there distracting them! If you useless fools can’t keep them busy for a minute, I won’t be able to wipe them out." She pointed at the fight.

Their plan was straightforward. Everyone else would rush in and create a distraction, which would allow the noble lady to use her most powerful attack, a summoning ritual that would call upon the ancient power of an undying flame bird. They could then retreat and let the bird finish off the enemy.

"I’m a ranged fighter!" Tina showed her the rifle she carried. "I can’t charge blindly. Besides, they have figured out our plan and won’t let us enact it." Tina snuck a glance from behind the boulder and was almost blown away by a fireball.

"They know you are our trump card. We need to relocate." She glared at the noble lady, and got a glare back. "This is our territory, and that jade is ours. Do you know how much it is worth?"

Out of everyone here, Tina knew the value of that jade best. Since she was an absolute failure when it comes to cultivating, she ended up consuming more spirit crystals than everyone else due to her high failure rate.

"I know! But two people already died! I doubt it’s worth people’s lives." Tina growled, and the noble lady shouted back. "If we let them steal our resources each time, the sect would be starved to death. It isn’t about this one jade; this is our land, and we can’t let them come and steal from us!" She stood, and her body sparked with crimson flames.

"If you can’t keep them bound, I’ll go and do it myself!" She flew away with a burst of fire, leaving Tina back in the dust.

A voice rang inside Tina’s head. ^Haaa, hasty as ever. Should I help?^

Tina looked around, trying to find a spot to perch on and snipe. "You just stabilize my aim." And with that, she ran into the battlefield. "Peara! I’ll pick the weak ones!"

Peara looked back and smiled. "Well, at least you aren’t lazy." She flew between their allies and enemies, trying to find the strongest of them all. She had to kill whoever was breaking their formation to make it easier for the commoners to assist and buy her time, but this was risky.

"Lady Peara! As hot as ever!" A guy flew from the ashes and fire, thrusting a sword at her head. "You are an eyesore, so how about you just drop dead?"

Peara slapped the blade away and threw a kick engulfed in flames. "Get out of our land!" She heard of the bastard’s name before; he was called Leon of the Flame Legion. Ages ago, they separated from her family to form their own territory, thus dragging the Ruby clan’s name through the dirt.

"Your land? We hail from the same blood. I’ve got the same right to this land, and you’re not stopping me." He dodged her kick and smacked her with a punch to the guts, and immediately dropped his sword at her neck.

BANG! But before he could slash Peara’s head off, a bullet came flying and knocked his sword out of his hand. His eyes shifted, and he could spot Tina in the back. "Such aim with a commoner’s weapon?" His eyes flashed red and the sword burst into flame, turned around, and flew right at Tina.

Since the sword was thin, Tina missed three shots and had to reload, effectively making it impossible for her to shoot the sword down. She can try to hid behind a boulder, but the blade would most likely just curve around.

As Tina was out of options, Doma was about to help her, but it was then that a man flashed past her and kicked the sword around. "LOVELIES!" The young man was tall, blond, and had two glowing red eyes. His fancy golden robe reflected the sunlight, and his hair danced with the wind as the sword clanged on the ground.

"You dare attack our ladies! Shameful, shameless, Leon! You disgrace all men more than you disgraced your family!" In Tina’s eyes, this was the most annoying guy in her class. A loud, obnoxious, narcissistic, reliable bastard.

His name was Noah, and everyone hated how he could always back up his obnoxious claims.

Noah’s eyes flashed red, and he disappeared, leaving a burned hole in the ground. All of the members of the Ruby clan were masters when it came to fire, and Peara was especially skilled. Noah, on the other hand, was an illegitimate child of Peara’s father, making him a commoner.

"SISTER! MESS HIM UP!" Noah flew between the enemy lines, burning and kicking them with all of his might.

"I’m not your sister!" She growled with a smile, dodged Leon’s attack, and now that he was unarmed, she could hold her own better. She punched him in the guts, the face, dodged a kick, then unleashed a barrage of flaming fists at his face, charring him from head to torso.

With the enemy’s leader down, the fight should end quickly... CRACK! At that moment, something came crashing down, and Peara was struck down with enough force that everyone heard her bones shatter.

She hit the ground, coughed a mouthful of blood, and could feel that her shoulder bones had turned to dust and one of her lungs had already collapsed. She only has seconds to live if she doesn’t get healed quickly, but sadly, that was impossible now.

The one standing above her was Leon’s father. "You’re cheating." She growled, and the man glared down at her with indifference.

"You kids aren’t taking this seriously enough. It is war." He lifted his spear, ready to bring it down.

Peara’s eyes opened wide, and she started tearing up, bringing the man a smile. "At death’s door, people’s true nature shows up. You were nothing but a weak crybaby hiding behind her family’s power."

But it was then that he noticed that Peara wasn’t looking at him; in fact, everyone had stopped fighting and were staring in his direction... no, they were looking behind him.

"If it is kids training, I won’t get involved. But if you came out to kill them." The deep, rumbling voice shook the ground, and when Leon’s father turned around, he found himself staring at Arad’s groin. He couldn’t even reach his belly in height.