Chapter 71: Ch 71: Gaia

By now, Aegis and Bella had each managed to collect one hundred Sky Crystals.

They wanted more.

However, at that moment, a voice reached their ears.

“Magnificent! Magnificent!”

Aegis turned toward the source of the voice.

A tanned, middle-aged man was walking toward them with a warm, almost harmless smile on his face.

At first glance, he looked ordinary.

Yet the subtle pressure radiating from him did not escape the senses of either Aegis or Bella.

“And you are?” Aegis asked, maintaining a carefully calm expression.

“I’m Gaia,” the tanned man replied casually.

The moment he spoke his name, a small uproar erupted among the surrounding adventurers.

“Gaia… as in the second-rank holder on the leaderboard?”

“Oh my, what are the odds of meeting him here?”

“Yeah, he looks so harmless and ordinary.”

“So low-key. Extremely low-key.”

“But who are that couple that made the second ranker so interested?”

Whispers spread rapidly through the battlefield, curiosity and unease mixing in equal measure.

Aegis narrowed his eyes slightly. This meeting was anything but coincidental.

Aegis and Bella knew what his real identity was. Gaia, The God of Giants’ Heir. His power were unpredictable.

So Aegis and Bella stood alert for his next move. Gaia, however, looked past them, his gaze sweeping lazily over the scattered adventurers in the basin who were now pretending not to stare while simultaneously listening with every desperate fiber of their being.

“Well then,” Gaia said pleasantly, his voice carrying far more clearly and effortlessly across the distance than any normal vocal cord should allow. “I suppose there is no conceivable point in attempting to conceal it any longer.”

Aegis’s eyes narrowed instantly, perceiving the maneuver.

Before either he or Bella could interject or silence him, Gaia turned slightly, his tone light, almost conversational, addressing the entire valley.

“Everyone here should recognize precisely who you are currently standing in front of,” he announced loudly. “Before you stands the legendary Water Tycoon himself. The one who strategically monopolized water resources across the whole Sky Realm and flooded the global market: Skylord Aegis.”

“And beside him, stands the Ice Goddess Skadi. The one who froze entire seas and crushed Earth Titans as if they were mere clay toys.”

Following his revelation, an absolute, crushing silence settled, then instantly an explosion of sound.

“What?!”

“Wait, you mean that Aegis? The one from the rumors?”

“The Aegis who shattered the market and single-handedly topped the global rankings in the past?”

“And Skadi? The actual Skadi? The Ice Goddess who achieved first rank alongside Aegis in the tree of life?”

“No wonder the Titans were dropping like mere flies! They are the legends!”

“They are a Couple? WHO knew?”

The crowd erupted into chaotic noise.

Adventurers rushed closer, their eyes burning with a volatile mix of awe, paralyzing fear, desperate jealousy, and predatory greed. Some instinctively bowed low. Others simply stared, frantically trying to carve their faces into their memory.

Bella’s expression turned cold immediately.

Her earlier, playful warmth instantly vanished, replaced by a glacial, absolute calm that promised retribution.

She turned sharply, her gaze fixed on Gaia.

“You had no right whatsoever,” she said, her voice dropping to a dangerously cold level.

Gaia raised his hands in a gesture of elegant, insincere apology, though his eyes sparkled with irrepressible amusement.

“My sincerest apologies, truly, Bella,” he replied, using her name with casual familiarity. “But secrecy was already a lost cause. Your power speaks louder and far more eloquently than silence ever possibly could.”

Aegis said nothing, his attention fixed solely on Gaia.

He was watching him carefully.

Men like this, Aegis knew, never revealed information of this magnitude without a deep, calculated purpose.

Soon, the crowd’s panicked reaction began to change.

Whispers of terror turned into murmurs of reverence.

“That’s truly Aegis…”

“No wonder he was able to kill a Marquis rank Titan instantly. He’s the Sea God’s Heir.”

“And Skadi… gods, she’s even more beautiful up close than the rumours claim.”

“Are they going to form their own new faction?”

“Are we even worthy enough to breathe the same air as Gods Heirs?”

Gaia allowed the uproar to continue for a few dramatic seconds, then clapped his hands once, the sound sharp and commanding.

“Now, now. Let us not crowd our heroes unnecessarily.” he said cheerfully, restoring a semblance of order.

His gaze returned pointedly to Aegis and Bella, the amusement in his eyes replaced by something serious.

“Aegis, I came here today because I sincerely wish to be your indispensable ally.”

That finally drew a full response from Aegis.

“And why would the second-ranked player in the world want to form an alliance with us?” Aegis asked calmly, but his voice was like a low rumble.

Gaia chuckled, the sound devoid of warmth.

“Because, Aegis, your enemies are already in motion, actively moving against you.”

The mood instantly changed from guarded suspicion to immediate danger.

“Explain what you mean,” Bella demanded, stepping forward.

Gaia gestured toward the scattering adventurers around them.

“Not here. This is not a conversation for an audience.”

He turned smoothly and began walking toward a jagged cliff on the far side of the battlefield, his movements unhurried and confident.

“Come,” he called over his shoulder. “If you truly wish to survive what is inevitably coming.”

Aegis exchanged a brief, weighted glance with Bella.

Ruina stiffened slightly, every draconic instinct screaming a warning of caution and deceit.

Pyro bounced once on Aegis’s shoulder, then settled down, ready.

“Do not trust him, Arlan,” Bella murmured quietly, her voice barely audible.

“I do not,” Aegis replied, his own voice just as soft, deadly calm.

Yet he stepped forward, his curiosity and strategic mind overriding caution.

“Lead the way, Gaia.”

They followed Gaia through a narrow, winding pass between towering stone formations. The noise of the distant battlefield rapidly faded behind them, replaced by the eerie sound of grinding rock and lonely wind.

Eventually, they reached a secluded, deep ravine surrounded completely by broken, towering cliffs. There were no Titans here. No adventurers.

Only sheer stone and absolute silence.

Gaia stopped at the center of the ravine.

He turned, his expression finally losing every trace of its casual, charming warmth.

“Ann,” he said.

The name alone carried the pressure of the mountain god’s power.

Bella’s pupils immediately contracted.

“The Mountain God’s Heir,” she confirmed, her voice cold.

Gaia nodded once, grimly.

“He has been laying extensive groundwork and preparation since this event began. He requires neither your presence nor your power. He wants both of you unequivocally dead.”

Aegis’s expression remained utterly unreadable,

“And why, Gaia, should we accept any of this as truth coming from you?”

Gaia did not answer immediately.

Instead, he crouched down and pressed his palm firmly against the ground.

The stone rippled beneath his touch.

An image formed on the rocky surface, shimmering like a memory etched into the earth.

A massive encampment appeared: dozens of high-ranked, organized adventurers. Titans were shown chained and half-dissected. Intricate, sinister ritual arrays were carved into nearby mountainsides.

At the very center of the image stood a broad-shouldered man with stone-like skin and eyes glowing fiercely amber—Ann.

“He’s systematically hunting Heirs and all God-linked figures. Your names are currently at the very top of his execution list.”

Bella clenched her fist, frost instantly forming on her palm.

“And you?” she asked, her suspicion returning. “Where exactly do you stand in all of this complex mess?”

Gaia straightened, meeting their gaze directly.

“I stand where survival dictates,” he replied evenly. “Ann is not content merely with power. He craves absolute dominion. He wants to wipe out the current hierarchy and replace the old gods with his own rule.”

Aegis finally offered a smile.

It was thin. It was cold.

“And you genuinely believe helping us is inherently safer than simply joining his rapidly rising faction?”

Gaia met his cold gaze without flinching, his expression resolute.

“I know it is,” he stated simply. “Because Ann fears you and your combined, unpredictable power.”

That statement earned a faint reaction from Aegis.

“He has immense strength, yes,” Gaia continued, pressing the advantage. “But he lacks one crucial thing that you both possess.”

“And what is that?” Bella asked, intrigued despite herself.

Gaia glanced briefly between the two Heirs.

“Unpredictability.”

Silence settled back into the ravine.

“I do not trust you, Gaia,” Aegis stated plainly, leaving no room for negotiation.

Gaia nodded solemnly.

“I wouldn’t trust me, either, in your position.”

“Then why come to us at all?” Aegis pressed, his need for clear motivation absolute.

“Because I do not wish to die crushed between two warring gods,” Gaia replied with brutal honesty. “And, if I’m being entirely truthful, because I genuinely admire the sheer destructive elegance of what you two are doing.”

Bella scoffed softly, unconvinced.

“How perfectly noble of you.”

Gaia smiled wryly, acknowledging the cynicism.

“Selfishness, Bella, is often the most honest motivation there is in this world.”

He gestured toward the jagged mountains beyond the ravine.

“I know precisely where Ann’s forces are currently gathering. I can guide you directly there.”

Aegis did not respond immediately.

Inside his mind, the gears of strategy turned with blinding speed.

This man was undeniably dangerous.

Smooth. Calculated. A consummate survivor.

But he was also, critically, useful.

Aegis lowered his gaze slightly, as if coming to a profound, internal conclusion.

Then he nodded once, decisively.

“Very well, Gaia,” he stated. “Lead us.”

Bella looked at him sharply, surprise in her eyes.

“Aegis—”

He raised a single, authoritative hand, silencing her.

“Let him. If he is lying, we simply kill him. If he is telling the truth, we use him until his usefulness expires.”

Gaia’s triumphant smile returned, brighter than before, confirming that he had read Aegis perfectly.

“I was hoping you would say that, Aegis.”

They moved again, traversing narrow, perilous ledges and sharp, jagged slopes as the mountains rose higher and steeper around them.

From behind, Ruina leaned in closer to Bella.

“Master, he smells like nothing but absolute trouble.” she added with a low growl.

Bella’s eyes never left Gaia’s broad back.

“I know, Ruina,” she replied softly, her own gaze hard with calculation.

Up ahead, Gaia began humming a light, carefree tune as he walked.

None of them noticed the faint, rhythmic tremor beneath the fractured stone.

Nor the shadow that shifted far below, deep within the winding ravine.

And Aegis, walking calmly behind his new, self-proclaimed ally, already knew one thing with absolute, chilling certainty.

He would never, under any circumstance, turn his back on this man.

Not even for a single, fatal second.

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