Gravis immediately noticed a beast standing just a couple of meters away from him. He hadn't noticed that beast at all with his Spirit, but he managed to see it just fine.
It was a harmless-looking red hawk. It wasn't even a meter tall and looked like the pet of someone. It simply didn't look dangerous at all. On top of that, Gravis felt no danger and no power radiating from the hawk. Yet, this made him nervous.
Usually, Gravis only wouldn't be able to feel the power of someone else if they were either much weaker than him or way more powerful than him. Sadly, the fact that Gravis hadn't noticed the hawk showed that the second case was true this time.
When Gravis had been back in his homeworld, he had been able to feel the power of someone at the Early Nascent Nourishing Realm. By now, he had risen by one Stage, and his Will-Aura had also become more powerful. Yet, he felt absolutely nothing from this red hawk. This meant that this hawk was, at least, in the Late Nascent Nourishing Realm. That Realm would also be called a level four King in this world.
"Why is someone as powerful as you interested in me?" Gravis asked directly.
The hawk only smirked and gently flew closer to Gravis. "You reacted very quickly and noticed my power. Tell me, how powerful do you think I am?" the hawk asked with interest.
"You're probably a level four or level five King," Gravis said with narrowed eyes.
The hawk was a bit surprised. "Not bad. Yes, I am a level five King. Quite impressive that you can place my power with such accuracy. Tell me, how did you manage that?"
"When I was weaker, I was able to feel the power of a level two King once. By now, I have become more powerful, and I guess that I would be able to feel a level three King too. Yet, I can't feel your power. I don't think that an Emperor would come to this place just for me, so you had to be a level four or five King," Gravis explained.
The hawk laughed a bit. "Impressive, really," it said. "I am the Red King, Leader of the Red Kingdom. The two beasts you just killed were part of my Kingdom," it said.
Gravis had a sinking feeling. He had just killed this hawk's underlings. Would it want revenge? Yet, Gravis realized that it could have saved them if it wanted. Right now, Battle-Strength wouldn't help him to survive.
"You wanted to test me, right?" Gravis asked.
The hawk smirked as it circled him slowly. "Yes," it said. "One of our associated Tribes has received some news from a two-headed snake around two months ago. It said that there is a beast leading a Tribe made up of sea and land beasts."
"Originally, I didn't care about that. Let the weaker Kingdoms deal with that. Yet, I was interested in the news about your Battle-Strength. Apparently, you are able to jump two whole levels. Something like that is only possible for some very rare Divine Beasts."
"So, I sent an agent to keep watch over you. The agent noticed a very one-sided fight between you and a wolf. After that, the agent returned to me and informed me of what was going on," the hawk explained.
Gravis narrowed his eyes as he listened. The wolf that the hawk was talking about was the second level three Lord that Gravis had killed. He had fought against that wolf a couple of weeks after he had fought the shark.
Also, in the couple of months that Shira had been away, she had, apparently, not only tempered herself. 'My constant suppression of her probably annoyed her to no end. She also couldn't be sure that she could kill me. So, as a backup plan, she spread some news about me. Like this, I would die even if she failed to kill me,' Gravis thought.
"What are Divine Beasts?" Gravis asked. One of the sharks he had killed had said something about some Divine Beasts too, but the shark hadn't bothered to answer.
The hawk landed in front of Gravis. "Divine Beasts are beasts with an incredible affinity for battle. Additionally, their bodies are around double as powerful as usual. Only the powerful bloodline of an Emperor can create Divine Beasts."
Gravis' eyes shone as he realized several things. "So, Divine Beasts could be considered as powerful, young geniuses. Yet, as soon as they become Emperors, all their advantages would vanish. After all, if their progenitor was an Emperor, they probably already had these qualities in the first place."
The hawk smirked. "Right. Being a Divine Beast is like having a shortcut to the Emperor Realm. Of course, there are still a lot of Divine Beasts out there that will never reach the Emperor Realm."
Gravis listened to the hawk's words and nodded. Then, he looked at it. "I presume you don't want to kill me right now?" he asked.
The hawk only continued smirking. Then, it hummed for a bit. "It depends on how you define 'right now' and how you define 'kill'," it said with a grin.
Gravis sighed when he heard that. He had expected that this situation wouldn't resolve itself that easily. The fact that such a powerful King arrived in front of him showed that it was interested in him.
Right now, Gravis was so incredibly weak in front of this hawk that he could probably only act as a toy for the King. Gravis gritted his teeth in frustration. He had no control over his life right now. This meant that he was being suppressed, and he hated being suppressed more than anything else.
"What do you want?" Gravis asked with annoyance. He knew that it wasn't the smartest choice to sound rude, but the lightning inside of him was angry, and it didn't care about the power of the other party.
The hawk only grinned. "I like that aggressive tone of yours. Maybe you can entertain me some more." Then, the hawk leisurely flew to a big stone and stood on it. "You're probably interested in the reason why I've come so far just to watch you fight, right?"
Gravis only nodded.
"Well, you see, my associated Empress is very interested in peculiar and powerful beasts. You could say that's one of her hobbies. If I bring such beasts to her, I will be rewarded. So, as soon as I heard about you, I grew interested. The Empress would love to have you."
Gravis gritted his teeth again. The Red King was looking at him like he was some slave or commodity, and he absolutely hated this feeling.
Meanwhile, the hawk continued speaking. "So, I sent two of my soldiers to test you out. Of course, they didn't know what the reason for their mission was. As far as they knew, they only needed to kill you."
"And what if I died?" Gravis asked.
The hawk laughed a bit. "Then you would have died, but I was pretty sure that you would survive," he said.
Gravis narrowed his eyes in skepticism. "How?" he asked. He wasn't even sure if he would win, so how could this hawk, which didn't even know him, be so sure that he would survive?
"Because you search for fights against Lords that are two levels higher than you. This means you see a good chance of victory in such fights. So, I wanted to see how powerful you would be under genuine pressure."
Gravis remained silent as he listened to these words. Had he truly grown complacent? He had managed to kill two level four Lords, but he had only wanted to fight one of them. Yet, hadn't he managed to survive against two of them anyway?
Gravis released a sigh. Then, he turned to the hawk and slightly bowed. "Thank you. You have made me realize that I have unconsciously grown complacent. I have searched for a beast that was two levels higher than me but have tried to avoid fighting anything more dangerous. I think, deep inside, my fear of losing my life has taken priority over my desire for power. Thank you for showing me this weakness," Gravis said.
Gravis wasn't acting. He actually meant everything he said. He still remembered how he had pushed Morn, Silva, and Orpheus into an incredibly dangerous fight. Yet, he had avoided fighting such a dangerous fight himself. Gravis felt like a hypocrite right now.
The hawk was quite surprised when it saw Gravis' actions. Then, it started laughing loudly.
"Great!" it shouted. "Then, it seems like we have similar goals right now," it said with a smirk.
Gravis frowned again when he heard that. "What do you mean?" he asked.
The hawk laughed some more. "Simple. I said I came here to see how you would fight under genuine pressure, but I haven't seen that yet. When you fought my underlings, there was a certain absence of despair and fear. In the beginning, the fight had been good, but later, you seemed to take control of the fight."
The hawk shook its head. "A fight that's under your control isn't what I would call genuine pressure. So, I still need to see such a fight."
Gravis took a deep breath. "This fight wasn't dangerous enough for you?" he asked.
The hawk grinned. "No, it wasn't. As I said, it depends on how you define 'right now' and 'kill'. So, let's see if this meets your definition."
GRRRRRRRRRRRR!
An absolutely apocalyptic amount of fire came out of the bird and shot into the sky. The clouds immediately got vaporized, and as far as the eye could see, no clouds remained. Even from a hundred-meters-away, Gravis still had to protect himself from the heat.
The gigantic pillar of fire raged on for around ten seconds. After that, it vanished like nothing had happened. Gravis had been protecting his face with his arms, and as the fire disappeared, he put them down.
Nothing had changed. The bird was still sitting atop the stone, which, surprisingly, wasn't burned in the slightest. Now, Gravis was confused, but that confusion quickly cleared up.
On the horizon, Gravis could see a beast coming closer. It was a five-kilometer-long snake-like thing with arms, legs, and horns. It was completely golden and had impressive spines. Additionally, long whiskers danced in the wind as it came closer.
Meanwhile, the hawk grinned excitedly. "Meet your opponent. How fitting for you to ask about Divine Beasts earlier because that will be your opponent now. This is a Divine Beast called the Golden Dragon! He's a level four Lord that can take on level five Lords."
Gravis gulped.
The hawk smirked.
"As I said, it depends on how you define 'right now' and 'kill'."
