Death… And Me

Chapter 4327: The Moment

Tobao and Arcis immediately made their way toward the airplane, but before boarding, they noticed the rest of the twins’ group following closely behind.

”Wait, wait, wait!” Tobao quickly interrupted. ”Where exactly are all of you going?”

Rean did not stop walking as he explained calmly. ”You two won’t be able to properly operate this airplane. I have to pilot it personally. Kentucky will act as our eyes once we enter the middle of the horde since the sensorial arrays are still offline. Celis will assist as an additional energy sensor, and Roan...” Rean glanced at his brother for a moment. ”Roan is probably the person here most capable of predicting the Raven’s movement patterns while we search for it.”

As he spoke, Rean continued heading toward the prototype airplane.

”Besides, don’t worry too much,” he added casually. ”This airplane was designed with enough room for around ten passengers. As long as the demon beasts keep their humanoid forms, the additional weight shouldn’t slow it down much more than it already is.”

Arcis and Tobao could not really refute Rean’s reasoning. Everything he said made sense logically. Well, they had their doubts about Roan’s role, but didn’t mention it.

Still, Arcis decided to make one thing absolutely clear before proceeding further.

”If the situation becomes dangerous, we will not risk ourselves trying to save you,” Arcis warned coldly. ”We are the only two Law Gods currently protecting the Besgol Region. We cannot throw our lives away recklessly. If necessary, we will abandon you immediately.”

The twins’ group already expected that answer from the very beginning.

”Yes, we know,” Rean replied without hesitation.

Huriu, who had accompanied them until now, suddenly spoke up from behind. ”Senior Tobao, since Rean says this airplane can carry up to ten people, shouldn’t you bring additional support?”

However, Tobao immediately rejected the idea.

”No,” he answered firmly. ”When dealing with Godly Horrors, ordinary experts are practically useless, even if they are Zone God cultivators. If we could bring large numbers of them, that would be one thing. But right now, the Zone God experts are occupied dealing with the Godly Predators appearing on the battlefield.”

Huriu nodded in understanding and no longer insisted. ”Then I wish you all good luck.”

Arcis shrugged casually. ”We might return in just a few minutes anyway. This guy still has no clue whether his airplane disguise actually works or not.”

Everyone boarded the airplane shortly afterward, and Rean quickly activated the Celestial Energy Engines.

The prototype immediately trembled violently before slowly lifting into the air.

Unfortunately, the takeoff looked absolutely terrible.

The airplane wobbled left and right awkwardly, making many of the experts observing from below wonder whether the thing could even survive long enough to reach the battlefield.

Fortunately, after a few shaky seconds, the movement gradually stabilized.

Rean himself looked somewhat embarrassed. This was his first time personally controlling the airplane, so he was still getting accustomed to the controls and responses. Eventually, however, the prototype finally steadied itself and began flying properly toward the battlefield ahead.

It was quite a bizarre sight.

With so much of its outer structure incomplete, the airplane resembled a flying metallic skeleton more than an actual aircraft.

Fortunately, because they remained within the communication range of the Besgol Regional Network, there was no need for any communication arrays or RC-linked systems inside the airplane itself.

Taking advantage of the relatively calm flight before reaching the battlefield, Tobao finally voiced a question that had been bothering him since the beginning.

”So...” he began while looking at Rean. ”Why exactly have you kept this project hidden all this time? Do you even realize how revolutionary this technology would become if it truly works? You could have easily requested support, funding, and manpower for its development.”

Rean simply shook his head.

”Senior Tobao, think about it carefully,” he answered calmly. ”My friends and I arrived in the Celestial Plane less than a year ago. To everyone else, we are merely a group of Middle Stage Anchor Gods. Tell me honestly... if I walked into the Arrays Guild and claimed I had developed a method capable of disguising airplanes as Godly Creatures, would anyone actually believe me?”

Tobao immediately fell silent afterward.

Not because he lacked an answer, but because he knew Rean was completely correct.

How many years had the Besgol Region existed?

How many countless generations of Array Masters, Blacksmiths, and Talisman Masters had researched Godly Creatures and warfare against them?

Naturally, countless people had already attempted to solve similar problems before. Yet despite all those years of effort, nobody had successfully created something like Rean’s airplane.

Under such circumstances, why would anyone take a newly arrived Anchor God seriously?

Eventually, Tobao sighed.

”...Forget I asked.”

Rean smiled lightly afterward. ”Well, we still don’t know whether it works or not,” he reminded them. ”If it fails, then seniors will simply have to rely on whatever method you originally planned to use before coming here.”

Truthfully speaking, if the twins’ group had not cultivated the Orb System technique and learned how to manipulate Godly Pressure directly, even Rean himself likely would never have been capable of developing such technology. The technique was the whole basis of the project.

In that sense, it was perfectly understandable why nobody else in the Celestial Plane had managed to discover this method before. Well, maybe not the entire Celestial Plane, but definitely not in Besgol and the regions Besgol could communicate with.

Arcis soon asked another question.

”Then why reveal it now?” he wondered. ”If you had kept this technology to yourself and unveiled it later, you could have made an absurd fortune.”

Rean shook his head once again.

”That was never the plan,” he answered honestly. ”From the very beginning, I intended to publicly reveal this airplane and its disguise capabilities once the project was completed. I never planned to monopolize the technology for profit. The airplane itself was already enough for me.”

Naturally, Rean also believed this technology might eventually help prevent the collapse of the Besgol Region itself, even though they still had no clue what would eventually cause that disaster. They only had the system’s description until now.

Tobao and Arcis still found Rean’s attitude somewhat difficult to believe, but neither pressed the issue further.

After all, in the Besgol Region, protecting the region itself was considered more important than personal gain. Perhaps Rean genuinely shared that same mentality.

Eventually, Tobao changed the subject.

”So then...” he said while looking around the incomplete cabin. ”How exactly does this disguise/concealing array work?”

Rean immediately smiled faintly before waving his hand.

The next instant, several Godly Spawn and Godly Beast Crystals flew out and inserted themselves into various slots positioned throughout the cabin. Moments later, the slots sealed shut around them.

”The principle itself is actually pretty simple,” Rean explained. ”Although creating the runes necessary for it was annoying as hell.”

He pointed toward the crystals as the airplane continued flying.

”As you know, Godly Creatures produce Godly Energy by combining Celestial Energy and Godly Pressure together. What my array does is simply separate those two forces apart again. The extracted Celestial Energy is redirected to power the airplane and its systems, while the Godly Pressure gets concentrated and released around the airplane itself.”

Rean continued his explanation naturally.

”And since I possess Light Element Affinity, I already had experience creating light-bending techniques back in my Great Void. I developed skills capable of distorting visual perception directly. I could become invisible or even make enemies perceive completely different images.”

He then lightly tapped one of the glowing runes nearby.

”As an Array Master, adapting those principles into runes wasn’t difficult conceptually for the light-bending array. Concealment arrays and illusion arrays already exist in the Arrays Guild Network anyway. I simply modified the concepts using methods I was already familiar with.”

Rean then shrugged helplessly.

”And naturally, the remnant Celestial Energy extracted from the Godly Crystals powers the visual disguise itself. The final version of this airplane shouldn’t waste any energy at all...” His eyes wandered toward the incomplete walls around them. ”...Unfortunately, this prototype is leaking energy everywhere.”

Although Tobao and Arcis found the method impressive, they still remained cautious.

Once they saw Rean inserting the Godly Crystals, they had already guessed he planned to use the Godly Pressure inside them somehow.

Still, Tobao quickly pointed out another issue.

”Separating the Godly Energy back into Celestial Energy and Godly Pressure is already incredible enough,” Tobao admitted. ”But merely releasing Godly Pressure around the airplane shouldn’t be sufficient. Have you truly studied how Godly Creatures identify one another?”

Rean immediately nodded.

”Of course.”

He then explained calmly.

”Godly Creatures identify each other through the unique characteristics of their Godly Pressure. Their senses toward it are absurdly sensitive. They can identify one another across huge distances, and every Godly Creature possesses a distinct Godly Pressure signature.”

Rean then looked toward the two Law Gods.

”If I simply released the Godly Pressure extracted from these crystals without modification, we would actually become even more suspicious. After all, the airplane would emit the pressure signatures of many different dead Godly Creatures simultaneously.”

He lightly tapped one of the crystal slots.

”The Godly Pressure inside every crystal still carries the original creature’s identity. That’s what you’re worried about, right?”

Tobao and Arcis nodded immediately.

”Exactly,” Tobao answered. ”So how did you solve that issue?”

Rean shrugged. ”I didn’t do anything overly complicated. If the array functions correctly, it will simply merge all those Godly Pressures together into a single new signature before releasing it.”

He smiled afterward. ”At worst, the airplane will appear as some strange Godly Creature species nobody has seen before. But that shouldn’t attract much attention. Whenever the Godly Creature Hordes gather to attack the Besgol Region, it’s completely normal for unfamiliar species to appear among them.”

Arcis and Tobao exchanged glances afterward.

Honestly speaking, Rean seemed to have an answer prepared for every single problem that had prevented other Array Masters from developing similar technology before.

What they truly could not understand was how Rean’s mind even worked.

Naturally, Rean had no intention whatsoever of revealing that the twins’ group themselves could directly create and manipulate Godly Pressure.

So he wisely remained silent.

”Oh,” Rean suddenly said while looking ahead. ”We arrived.”

The battlefield had finally come into view.

Without wasting another second, Rean immediately activated the main disguise arrays.

The Godly Crystals began shining brightly as streams of Godly Energy flowed into the various runes spread throughout the airplane. More and more arrays activated in succession, illuminating the entire aircraft with layers of glowing symbols.

Soon afterward, everyone inside could feel dense Godly Pressure beginning to spread around the airplane.

Unfortunately...

That same Godly Pressure was also affecting everyone inside the cabin.

Tobao frowned immediately as he felt his body becoming slightly weakened.

”...Was this part of the plan?” he asked slowly.

Rean scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

”Look, I couldn’t really do much about that yet, alright?” he complained. ”Just look at what we’re flying right now. This thing is basically a flying skeleton held together by runes and hope. Did you seriously expect me to already develop a perfect isolation system capable of blocking the Godly Pressure from affecting the passengers too?”

He then crossed his arms.

”Be happy the thing works at all.”

And just like that, the moment of truth finally arrived.

Now they would discover whether Rean’s prototype could truly blend into the Godly Creature Horde... or whether they had just flown directly into the enemies’ mouths.