"Lady, you aren't being cool now," Cultivator shouted, intending to retaliate when his heart thumped in pain all of a sudden, causing him to remain on the defensive. Every time he thought of attacking Zamuria, his heart ached, making him wish to cry all of a sudden.
The feeling was just too strange. After all, he hadn't ever felt something like that before. Just as he was worrying about his mysterious feelings, wondering if Zamuria had a passive ability that was capable of this, he noticed the killing intent of the other party intensify all of a sudden.
"Lady? Brat, did you seriously just call me that? Where's your sense of respect?" Zamuria exclaimed in response, increasing strength on the scissors as Cultivator began to grunt in response, noticing more cracks form on his body.
Suddenly, the stone forming his hand increased in girth, barely pushing back the blades of the scissors a bit as he ducked while thinning it back to normal, finally dodging the blades. Immediately, he retreated, increasing the distance between the two as he kicked up a dust cloud, intending to obscure his presence first.
He was feeling weird, and it was concerning as he was unable to even retaliate. So, he first wished to buy some time before trying to understand the reason as to why he felt this way. However, no sooner had he evaded did a spear of light impale him, intending to penetrate him.
Then again, Cultivator defended against the attack without suffering much damage. As for the cracks on his body, they had vanished, as if it had healed instantly. With that, he constantly defended against the attacks, seeking on evading all the time while he tried to understand the reason why his heart was behaving strangely.
During this time, Feifei solely focused on Krune, increasing the rate of healing as she placed a concentrated Water Essence in his mouth. She flushed it down into his belly as she focused more of the healing effect on his stomach.
This way, she wished to kickstart the digestive process in Krune's body and help speed things up a bit. Within a couple of minutes, his stomach had recovered to the extent that it could begin the digestion process.
The moment this began, Krune's rate of recovery spiked exponentially as his body regained its girth rapidly while his skin recovered its prior radiance. An hour later, Krune woke up with a start, now fully healed as he could feel the energy brimming in his body.
Surprisingly, the side effects that had been persisting in his body for more than eight years seemed to have tempered his body a bit, causing his abilities to develop a bit more, reaching the limit of strength allowed by Layer 2.
As he woke up, the miasma moved away from him, as if it was scared of his presence. Without bothering about it for now, Krune laughed, grabbing Feifei in a bear hug as he apologized to her, "Sorry to worry you."
"Idiot." Feifei shed tears, making eye contact as she looked up, telling her husband, "You've matured a lot, both physically and mentally."
"Living as a mortal sure is tough." Krune sighed in response. "Spiritual Energy is so convenient. At least, it prevents our minds from ever becoming as weak as our current mortal selves."
"I've come close to committing a sin that I would regret for the rest of my life many times." He shook his head as he muttered, "Thankfully, I didn't do anything. But, that's only because I had lived for so long that I was able to control myself."
"I understand." Feifei nodded. "That's the weakness of being a mortal human."
She then pinched his ear as she continued, "Though, it's good that you didn't commit a sin. Otherwise…"
Her aura changed to resemble a bloodthirsty volcano. "I really would have become a widow."
"I was just joking, haha." Krune hurriedly waved his hand in a fluster, trembling under Feifei's killing intent. "You know me better."
As he fluttered around, trying to ease up her heart, Krune couldn't help but think, 'Her killing intent is so dense. It's beyond anything I've ever felt. Just what sort of life has she led up to this point? She's suffered a lot.'
"You know..." Krune gently scaled Feifei's check with his thumb. "I have been thinking about this for some time now."
"And that is…?" Feifei asked in curiosity.
"The reason we had been separated after arriving at the God Realm is so that we wouldn't slack on our cultivation. But…" Krune frowned as he continued. "Was it really worth it? I've been close to a mental breakdown numerous times in the past four decades. In fact, I might have lost it quite a few times as well. And after this long, even though I understand it had been done with our best interests in mind, I couldn't help but…"
"Develop hatred for Soren and Luvile."
…
"Huff…puff…" Zamuria panted as she slumped on the ground, grunting as she gazed at Cultivator's intact form. Their fight was somewhat intense, causing her to expend all her energy to fight. Unfortunately for her, she was still unable to inflict any grave injuries onto Cultivator.
"I guess I don't have any other choice," Zamuria muttered as she took out a Tier 5 Blood Essence Crystal and swallowed it, immediately getting up as she absorbed all the miasma, recovering to her peak soon after.
"Damn it. Please give it a rest." Cultivator groaned as he got up. He, too, had exhausted all his energy in defending himself, so he was unwilling to fight anymore. Or, to be more specific, as he had been unable to retaliate, he had to expend even more energy to defend himself, burning through his safety energy rations that he had brought with him.
He then noticed a hole form farther to his right. Peeking out from it were Black Demons, numbering five. At the same time, groups of Black Demons exited the ground at various locations, attracted towards the height of battle.
Cultivator also noticed Krune and Feifei rushing towards him, concern plastered all over their faces. However, right as he thought of that, an energy blade slammed into him, containing power beyond what was previously present in all of Zamuria's attacks. Only now was she revealing her true strength.
"Enough!" Cultivator shouted, left with no other choice but to resort to his trump card, causing his body to shine with a green radiance. For a moment, he caused the world to pause as he lifted his index finger, gently touching the energy blade to shatter it into numerous fragments. However, the power behind his gentle touch was too great that a mysterious power slammed upwards, causing a crack in the sky.
The dimension of the Sub-Realm itself had been damaged from his attack.