Death... and me

Although Grinha City was the closest city to the entrance of the Lost Star Realm, it wasn't the only city close enough for people to travel from. A few other cities also had teleport formations that could send one directly to the place, and they were all very big and busy, just like Grinha. With that said, one could already imagine just how crowded the entrance to the realm was.

Rean and Roan had arrived at the place from the skies, so they had an even better view. Obviously, Kentucky could see it as well. "Holy shit! There's a sea of people of all possible races down there. Don't you think there are even more people than there were people back in that war between regions?"

Rean shook his head, saying, "Not really. You're talking about when we saw two armies fight each other. However, those were just two of the many, many armies that filled those ten regions in turmoil. If you take all the armies into consideration, then the number of people down there couldn't even be considered a hundredth of it."

Rean also added, "Of course, there are definitely many more people here than during any of the battles we saw back in the war. This place should have what? Two? Maybe three million people? What surprises me is that there isn't a single building at the entrance. At most, you have stalls, barracks, and similar things like that."

Roan agreed with Rean. "There should be a reason to not build them here, most likely due to the Lost Star Realm. Anyways, where did you say you would meet with Hurio?"

Rean then looked around, looking for what seemed to be a big hill. Naturally, there were multiple of them. However, one of them was supposed to not be totally covered in ice, according to Hurio, standing out from the rest. "Oh, there's the one. It seems like it's being protected from the snow by a formation." Rean then asked Kentucky to come down. Of course, he also told the Minokawa to keep quiet from now on.

There was no lack of flying or land demon beasts being accompanied by beast tamers, so no one really cared much about the descent of Rean's group. Not too long after, Rean heard Hurio's voice come from the distance. "Rean, I'm here!"

"There he is," Rean said. "Let's meet him."

Once they met up, Rean introduced the other two heading into the Lost Star Realm. "This guy by my side is Roan, my brother. This one is our demon beast, Kentucky. We will be using him to move around in the Lost Star Realm." Of course, although Rean used their real names, their appearances were anything but that. This was very far from the area where the Croste Clan wiped everyone out. Nevertheless, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Hurio nodded, saying, "No problem. Here, I have already prepared the Soul Binding Contracts. As you can see, it mentions that all Fallen Light Star Fragments shall be shared equally between Rean and me, 50% for each, until the end of our journey. In case it can't be correctly split, I took the liberty to write down that you can have the extra ones. After all, I got that fragment back in the city."

Rean was happy to hear that. However, that wasn't everything written down. It also stated that neither side shall betray the other, nor shall they use any methods to put the other in danger. Of course, that didn't mean one would have to save the other part in case they got into trouble. As long as it wasn't the fault of one party, then one had no obligation to do anything. Well, if it was the intention, one would break the clause of betrayal anyway, so one couldn't do that even if one wanted to.

After confirming everything was okay, Rean, Roan, and Hurio signed the contract. The contract quickly burned before its power entered their foreheads. Hurio didn't have Kentucky sign it for obvious reasons. As a Stage Seven Demon Beast, it was supposed to be under the twins' commands since it shouldn't have sentience. If the twins asked it to attack Hurio, it would once again fall into the contract's terms, and they would die because of that. Yes, Hurio didn't want to leave any breach, so he stated a death sentence if any of them broke the rules.

One could say that Hurio was a lucky guy. Kentucky had its own sentience, and contracts were useless against the twins. It's just that the twins wouldn't do anything wrong as long as the other part didn't try something first.

"Phew… our deal is on!" Hurio was satisfied that everything had worked out according to plan.

Roan then took the opportunity to ask. "You seem to have been planning to enter this place for a while already. Or, to be more specific, that tablet of yours gives me the impression that you're connected to it somehow. Anyway, can you tell us more about the Lost Star Realm? We tried to find more information, but everything we've obtained seemed very vague. It was more like everyone had their own opinions of it."

Hurio nodded, saying, "Very well. I can't deny that the tablet makes me look kind of suspicious. Fortunately, we have the Soul Binding Contracts to work with. What I'm going to tell is what I found myself, so I can't guarantee everything is true or not since this is my first time heading inside. Well, you can probably guess that when you look at my cultivation at the Late Stage of the Saint Realm. Everyone agrees that it's not a good idea to head here before the Soul Transformation Realm at the very least."

Hurio continued, "It's said that some of the things you can find in there could even shake the power balance of our Lanqueas Continent. Of course, such extraordinary treasures are exceedingly rare." Naturally, such things obviously surprised Rean and Roan. Shaking the power balance of an entire continent, even for a forgotten one like Lanqueas, was not something one could take lightly. Nevertheless, the twins didn't stop Hurio from talking. "Of course, it might be just myths spread to gather even more cultivators around.. What really matters in there is what everyone calls Divine Origin Energy."