With this fight being over, the youngest of the siblings became the big sister of the group. Yersi was not interested in leadership, but Aris wasn't ready yet to take over. Yersi had been right when she said that her Battle-Strength was weaker than Aris. If Aris hadn't taken her lightly and used everything he had, he would have most likely won.
The strongest should take over the group's leadership, but Yersi didn't want to be under someone that let emotions and arrogance dictate their actions. Her fight had given Aris a wake-up call, but she still wanted to be sure that he had changed.
The group continued hunting for prey. Sadly, there were not that many High-Rank Divine Spirit Beasts in the area. Because of that, Yersi took most of the prey since she still needed quite some food to become a High-Rank Spirit Beast herself.
Yet, the area also wasn't completely empty of Divine Beasts. In the coming weeks, both Aris and Cera managed to fight one and consume it. Both of them became High-Rank Spirit Beasts, and only Yersi was left.
Yersi didn't mind hunting weaker prey since she knew that there would be plenty of opportunities to hunt more powerful beasts in the future. She had seen the outside world, and she knew that they were only at the bottom regarding power.
Two months after the group had met up, Yersi also became a High-Rank Spirit Beast. By now, all of them were ready to leave the area and enter the real world.
"We are ready to leave this area," Yersi shouted into her surroundings. She was sure that someone was listening. Some seconds passed where nothing happened, making the group furrow their brows.
Whooosh!
Suddenly, all three of them started flying involuntarily. Cera and Aris were a bit nervous since they had only heard of the outside world from Yersi. The feeling that there were so many more powerful beasts still hadn't settled in for them.
The group flew upwards into the sky. They broke through the cloud layer as they continued ascending. The sheer height made them nervous since they had never been so high up before.
Whoop!
They broke through the cloud layer and saw the clouds sprawling below them. Then, they also noticed something particular. There was a small ball of lightning hovering some distance away from them.
All of them became fearful as they saw this powerful ball of lightning. They all had an incredible affinity for lightning, and because of that, they felt the sheer power of the lightning. It not only had way more Energy inside it, but they also felt its quality. This lightning had an incredible destructive power.
They involuntarily flew closer to the ball of lightning, and their fear increased. Now, even Yersi felt unsure. Were they being brought up just to be harvested by this ball of lightning? Yet, around a hundred meters away from the ball of lightning, they stopped.
Whooom!
The ball of lightning transformed into a black, massive beast. The three of them had a height of about 40 meters, but this beast was 400 meters tall. Yet, they had seen bigger Spirit Beasts before in their area. It looked imposing, but they were used to beasts being that tall. The size of this new beast was not as monstrous as these godly beasts that guarded the areas.
The eyes of the three of them widened as they took in Gravis' looks. He looked exactly like them! Was this another of their siblings?
Gravis smiled at them. "Aris, Cera, Yersi, I am your father, Gravis," Gravis said with kindness.
The three of them felt shocked. Their father? They had had several thoughts about where they came from, but they weren't sure. They had never even thought about meeting their parents.
"You're our father?" Yersi asked to make sure.
Gravis nodded. "Yes, I have watched over the three of you while you grew up. It was also my doing that allowed you to enter the next area early by convincing the responsible Kings."
Then, Gravis looked closer at Yersi. "It was also me who convinced the King to let you leave the area after your first fight against a Spirit Beast."
The surprises just didn't stop for them. Their father had watched them all this time? Why had he never talked to them?
"Why are you only showing yourself now?" Aris asked with narrowed eyes.
Gravis sighed. "If you knew that you had me watching over you, you might think that I wouldn't allow you to die. This would take the feeling of danger and fear out of your tempering. I'm sure that you're experienced enough by now to realize that this would only hurt you. The feeling of danger forces your mind to come up with a solution as quickly as possible. That is important," Gravis explained.
Yersi recognized the sense in Gravis' words. Aris still wasn't thrilled with meeting his father. Aris had gotten his power all by himself. It would only take some time for him to become even more powerful than his father. Cera didn't know what she should think right now. Her emotions were a mix of wonder, skepticism, and uncertainty.
Gravis then explained to them the workings of the areas. They had discerned a couple of the rules by themselves, but not all of them. Of course, in order to explain the areas, Gravis also told them about their mother.
"Our mother is an Emperor? How powerful is an Emperor?" Cera asked. It seemed like she was interested in their mother.
"You are Spirit Beasts right now," Gravis explained. "As soon as you eat enough food, you will become a Lord. After five levels, you will become a King. The beasts responsible for keeping an eye on the areas are Kings, so you have met a few of them. After another five levels, you become an Emperor. Emperors are the most powerful beasts in this world."
Wonder and shock appeared in their eyes. There were so many levels and Realms above them? Everything almost felt unreal.
"Then, how powerful are you?" Yersi asked.
Gravis scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "I'm a level five Lord," Gravis said.
Immediately, skepticism appeared in their eyes. They had just been told how powerful an Emperor was, and their father, a mere Lord, managed to mate with an Emperor? How was this possible?
"What did you do to convince our mother to have children with you?" Aris asked with narrowed eyes. "By what you have told us, your levels are too far apart. In front of her, you should only count as an ant."
Cera glared at Aris. Their father was still many times more powerful than them, and Aris shouldn't say such things. Meanwhile, Yersi remained silent as she fell into thought. She knew that, at first glance, this reeked of some sinister plot that their father had pulled off. Yet, would such a powerful beast as the Empress fall for something like this? There had to be more to this.
Gravis sighed again. He knew that Aris would react like that, but it still hurt him when he heard his own child disregard him to this degree, but he answered the question anyway.
"That's because I have the most powerful Battle-Strength out of all Lords living in this world," Gravis explained.
Aris wasn't impressed by that since he was also the strongest in his area. How big could the world be? Additionally, his father had just explained that the powerful beasts they have fought were the offspring of Emperors, the most powerful beasts. This meant that they all already faced the most powerful beasts in the world for their Realm.
Cera was uncertain as she heard that. To her, it also felt a bit underwhelming.
Yet, Yersi had seen parts of the outside world. She knew that Gravis was probably very powerful.
"Aris," Gravis said after a while. "Yersi has already shown you that arrogance can be your downfall, but I think you still haven't realized how big the world is. What do you think, how many Lords exist in this world?"
Aris only sneered. "That's not hard to find out. Our area is already quite big, and I assume that every area has around 10,000 beasts. The outside world is probably much bigger, but Lords still require a lot of food. So, a generous guess would be like 50,000 Lords."
Gravis shook his head. "There are billions," Gravis said.
All three of them were taken back. Billions? They hadn't even heard of that number, but since voice transmissions conveyed concepts and not words, they understood how big that number was.
"Just the number of Divine Beast Lords is over 50,000. All of these beasts are descendants of Emperors and have a body just as powerful as yours. In your area are only 37 right now. The true world is vast," Gravis explained.
"I don't believe you," Aris said with disgust. "There couldn't be that many powerful beasts."
Aris' pride didn't allow for him to recognize that he was weaker than billions of beasts right now. He refused to accept that so many beasts could kill him if they so wanted.
Gravis shook his head again. "Your arrogance will be your downfall in the future," Gravis said. "Today, I will show you something that might help you in dealing with that problem."
"I don't need your help," Aris said with disdain. "I have managed to become this powerful without your help, and I don't need it now."
For the first time in their presence, Gravis smirked. "You have no choice in that regard."
WHOOOM!
All three of them shot towards the earth outside the area but stopped shortly before hitting the earth.
After this short fright, they noticed another Gravis standing in front of their landing zone. Yet, this version of Gravis felt pathetically weak. Additionally, this Gravis was only two meters tall.
"This is one of my copies," this new Gravis said. "Right now, this copy is a Low-Rank Spirit Beast. Additionally, I am not a Divine Beast myself. This means that your body is around six times more powerful than mine."
Gravis cracked his neck and back casually. "I will be fighting you with the same Battle-Strength I had when I was on your level, but with a way weaker body. This will be plenty enough to show the distance between you and me."
Aris was a bit taken aback as he heard that. Then, he became enraged. This so-called father of his thought that Aris was so weak that he could defeat him with such a level gap? Aris was the one who fought several levels above himself, not his opponents! To him, this was an insult!
Aris snorted. "Don't cry if I beat you to a pulp."
Gravis only smirked.
It was time to fulfill his fatherly duties and teach his child something!