### Chapter: 426
A full day had passed in the Divine Realm.
Arthur hadn’t shown up.
Kraush’s face stiffened seriously.
He never thought for a second that Arthur wouldn’t appear.
‘Could something have gone wrong while using the Succession Gate?’
Kraush had felt the pressure himself when he crossed over. Just like when he worried about Arthur back then, he considered this the most likely explanation.
But this was Arthur we’re talking about.
When Kraush first faced her, she was definitely a strong contender, even in his eyes.
It was hard to imagine that anything could have gone wrong for someone like her because of the Succession Gate.
‘Or…’
What if Arthur had encountered some kind of accident on her way through the Succession Gate and got caught up in something?
In that case, he had to find her right away.
Arthur must be somewhere within the Succession Gate.
‘Finding a way to open the Succession Gate.’
Earlier, those weak gods were waiting for the Lower Gate to open.
If anyone knew anything, it would definitely be them.
Or maybe the God of Thieves could offer some insight.
Just as Kraush was about to hurry on his way to look for them—
[ Why are you so flustered? ]
A familiar voice echoed in Kraush’s ears.
“Crimson Garden?”
The voice belonged to none other than Crimson Garden August.
The erosionist he had spent the longest time with.
Kraush was surprised to hear a voice from Crimson Garden in the Divine Realm.
[ Did you not bring the corpse rat? ]
Then it hit him that he still had the corpse rat in his pocket.
The already dead rat had no issues passing through the Succession Gate.
No matter how much pressure there was from the gate, the altered body due to Ebelasque’s necromancy would eventually return to normal.
So, the corpse rat had crossed into the Divine Realm without any problems alongside Kraush.
[ There was a bit of a connection, being in the Divine Realm. ]
That explained why it had been a whole day with no word from her.
It sounded like there was something going on down there as well.
“Crimson Garden, Arthur hasn’t come!”
Kraush quickly relayed his concerns to Crimson Garden.
He figured she might know something.
After a brief silence, Crimson Garden replied.
[ It seems like she was blown to another place through the Succession Gate. ]
“Another place?”
[ Looking at the structure of the Succession Gate, it’s already an unstable setup. It wouldn’t be unusual for someone to end up somewhere else. ]
“So you’re saying she’s fallen somewhere in the Divine Realm?”
[ It seems that way. ]
Kraush clicked his tongue.
It looked like even the God of Thieves didn’t expect Arthur to be following him.
‘I wonder if Arthur is safe.’
The Divine Realm was so much larger than the Middle Realm.
If she had scattered elsewhere, it would be harder than finding a needle in a haystack in a desert.
Moreover, there were surely some dangerous areas scattered about.
“Crimson Garden, can you track where Arthur might have gone?”
[ I’ll give it a shot. I’ve already figured out the structure of the Succession Gate. ]
As expected, a mage was the most reliable!
Kraush decided to leave this to Crimson Garden and stood up.
While the promise made to the God of Thieves was important, finding Arthur was paramount.
To search for her, Kraush decided to start capturing weak gods like before.
They would likely know more details about the Succession Gate.
Kraush began racing across the yellow field.
At the same time, he started extending his heightened senses, which had been merged with the realm’s essence.
His enhanced perceptions had transformed into a new form, sensitively responding to the unique divine auras possessed by the gods.
Each of the gods bore a different divine aura.
Thanks to that, while upper-tier gods might mute their presence, Kraush distinctly remembered the auras of the weaker gods.
He could feel the auras of the weaker gods that had been there.
In addition to that—
‘Heuristic.’
A skill specialized for tracking someone down.
With this skill, Kraush was able to locate the weaker gods.
The problem was he couldn’t find Arthur through this skill at all.
She must be too far away.
‘Where could she be?’
To figure that out, he needed to capture some weaker gods.
Kraush’s speed began to increase.
With Arthur’s life hanging in the balance, he pushed himself.
Soon, he reached a location where he felt a concentration of weaker gods nearby.
What stood out oddly on the yellow plains was a banquet hall.
Inside the piled-up structure, the weaker gods were gathered, chatting away.
There were beings Kraush had never seen before assisting the weaker gods.
They had wings like the gods and flew gracefully through the air, aiding them.
[ They’re known as Celestials. Apparently, there are more species than gods in the Divine Realm and they wait upon the gods. ]
So there were more than just gods in the Divine Realm.
Thanks to Crimson Garden, Kraush learned something new and pressed against the building’s outer wall.
Then he caught snippets of conversation among the weaker gods.
“Lucky for us, the God of Thieves’ kid isn’t chasing after us.”
“Damn, how embarrassing. Being a god and in this state. If any of the others heard about this, they’d definitely mock us.”
Some among the gods felt shame.
“Let them laugh. Who in their right mind would go toe-to-toe with that guy, who could wipe us out completely?”
But even so, Kraush’s strength was real.
If he had fought against any of the weaker gods, at least a few of them wouldn’t have been left to see the light of day afterward.
“Still, we can’t just let this slide. Though we’ve heard the God of Thieves’ involvement in the Lower Gate issue, things are a different kettle of fish now that his kid has crossed over.”
“If the upper-tier gods find out, we’ll definitely face punishment.”
The weaker gods trembled as they expressed fear of upper-tier gods.
There existed an insurmountable divide between the weaker gods and middle-tier gods.
And the thought of facing real punishment from one of the upper-tier gods was utterly unimaginable for them.
“Not that we can solve this problem on our own,” one god said.
As he spoke, many of the weaker gods had already fled.
It seemed so desperate that some even ran away to avoid Kraush instead of returning to the banquet hall.
They clearly felt the gap between themselves and Kraush.
“I’ll take care of it. Luckily, I had a middle-tier god buddy I asked for help.”
In that moment, one god raised a hand, stepping out.
The other weaker gods turned to him, and their faces lit up with relief.
“With someone from Partes heading out, we’re all set!”
“Yeah, with a member of the Five Great Gods!”
The Five Great Gods.
Kraush recalled the War God, who had been possessed by a bizarre entity he previously faced.
Even in the Middle Realm, he had shown enough power to take on two divine beings single-handedly while using the body of that bizarre entity.
Now that he was in the Divine Realm, he must have been even more powerful.
‘If I come across him next time, I’m toast.’
After all, we’re talking about an upper-tier deity.
If there’s a chance of running into one in the Divine Realm, avoiding them would be wise.
‘But if it’s Partes…’
One of the other Five Great Gods known as the God of Death.
Getting involved with him wouldn’t be good for Kraush.
From the conversation, however, it was clear that they were well-informed about the Succession Gate.
In that case, Kraush had no reason to hesitate.
He urgently needed to find Arthur.
Just as Kraush was about to draw his sword—
KABOOM!
A sudden explosion rang in Kraush’s ears.
He whipped his head around.
The wall on the opposite side, which he hadn’t even touched, had crumbled down.
“Who’s there?!”
“C-Could it be him?!”
The weaker gods panicked at the sight.
Had Kraush already found them?
Sorry to disappoint, but contrary to expectations, Kraush was outside the banquet hall.
His eyes filled with curiosity as he gazed beyond the shattered wall.
Then he saw something moving through the cracks.
It was an entity, and on its ears were wings.
A Celestial.
‘So fast.’
The figure wielding a long sword reached the weaker gods in an instant.
Then it threw something from its embrace.
“What?!”
The orb that landed before the weaker gods glinted before exploding simultaneously.
The startled weaker gods quickly wrapped themselves in divine power to shield against the blast.
But some weaker gods, caught off guard, ended up tumbling down.
Watching the situation unfold, Kraush was convinced of one thing.
Regardless of the other gods, the ones present now were all lacking in skill.
It seemed they had lived all their lives relying solely on their own strength.
One Celestial charged toward a weaker god who had been caught in the chaos of the explosion.
Kraush felt the fury in the eyes of the Celestial wrapped in a cloth on its head.
Clearly, something had gone wrong with that weaker god.
Just as the Celestial’s long sword was about to pierce the neck of that weaker god—
CLANG!
It got blocked.
The god from earlier, claiming to be aligned with Partes, appeared in the way.
The wind stirred up by the gods swirled unpleasantly, catching the Celestial’s attention.
“How dare you, slave, raise your blade to your master?”
Upon seeing the Partes deity, the Celestial’s eyes widened.
In that instant, a fierce starlight began to emanate from the blade of the long sword.
The sword cleaved through the divine wind, and the Partes god’s eyes widened.
“Is that…?”
Seizing the moment, the Celestial lunged forward to assault the god.
The other weaker gods didn’t remain idle, rushing to assist.
“Who do you think you are?”
“This is not your place to crawl in!”
Unlike Kraush, there was a certain eagerness among them for battle.
Taking a hit from a slave they had once catered to was quite the blow to their pride, it seemed.
Accosted by the overwhelming number of weaker gods, the Celestial found it increasingly difficult to evade capture.
In a desperate attempt to escape, the Celestial tried to flee, but the weaker gods had surrounded it by then.
“You scoundrel.”
“You seem ignorant of your own life.”
As the moment to unleash their divine abilities approached, the Celestial shut its eyes tightly, drawing starlight from the long sword at the cost of its life.
KABOOM!
In that moment, another explosion like the one earlier rocked the banquet hall, causing the outer wall to fall down.
Enraged by the repeated explosions, the weaker gods turned to glare.
“Another one?!”
“That slave is causing chaos again!”
They assumed a comrade of the Celestial had appeared.
However, they slowly began to stiffen.
Between the smoke, as ash-colored hair fluttered down, they gradually realized what was happening.
“Sorry about that.”
Beneath the ash, vibrant red eyes filled with malice flickered ominously.
“Just a different one.”
And the moment Kraush grinned, the weaker gods gasped in terror and scattered in disarray.
THUD!
But as the swirling dragon energy flowed from Kraush, it completely imprisoned the space within the banquet hall.
The faces of the trapped gods turned pale with fear.
The Celestial looked on in confusion, unaware of what was unfolding.
Kraush ignored the Celestial’s gaze and made eye contact with the gods.
Sorry, but he had no intention of letting them off the hook this time.
“Now then, let’s have a nice, long chat.”
Time for a little interrogation!
