Death... and me

Kentucky sighed. "These two are the cultivators who destroyed Sunkan Planet. You said you had a deal with someone, but I thought it hard to believe that someone would willingly attack you."

Roan finally understood Kentucky's point and was quite surprised the dumb bird thought about something like that. "I see... If the people you made a deal with knew you were here, they would definitely know how much of a terrible idea it would be to destroy you. You must have taken countless years to gain sentience in this place, right? I'm sure you are aware of just how much destruction it would cause if you were suddenly destroyed. Who would be crazy enough to destroy Sunkan Planet and stay close to it?"

"So you are saying the people who destroyed this Planet didn't even know about my existence?" The Crystal asked back.

Roan and Kentucky nodded. "Exactly. You thought we were related to your enemies, and we thought your enemies were someone else. Seems like there is a fourth part involved in this mess."

The Crystal was still suspicious. "So what? Does that prove you are not related to the ones who fooled me?"

Roan sighed. "Don't you understand? Since the people who destroyed this planet are not the ones you made a deal with, that means whoever you made whatever deal with didn't fool you. Most likely, they were just as shocked as we were when they found out the planet was destroyed. Simply put, this fight for revenge has no sense since there is no reason for revenge to start with."

Eagon shrugged his shoulders. "Well, there is definitely someone worth taking revenge, the two members of the Vruve Organization. However, it seems like neither you nor us have anything to do with them either."

The Energy around the Crystal began to recede, but not completely. "Fine! I'll believe for now that you are not involved in anything like this. But that doesn't mean I trust you either. Why are you here? How did you find me?"

Eagon quickly explained. "We saw the moment the planet was rebuilt. However, you were the only part of the entire destroyed mess that wasn't broken when the planet reappeared. That's why we saw you. We want to know how you managed to trap all the souls, rebuild the planet, restore all the living beings' bodies, and put their souls back. Time was also frozen during the time the planet had disappeared, yet it doesn't seem like you have any time power of your own."

Roan and Kentucky obviously knew why. It wasn't the Crystal but the Soul Gem System instead. It's just that they wouldn't tell anyone about it.

Sure enough, the Crystal was just as lost, but not completely. "I don't know how the planet was rebuilt, especially the fact all the bodies were restored with such perfection. You were right. I have no time powers of my own, so I also don't know how time was frozen. All I know is that I was trapped and pulled into a different dimensional a split second before the planet met its fate."

He continued. "However, the time stop didn't happen straight away. I was powerless to do anything to escape that dimensional, but I sat the moment all the souls were dragged into the dimension with me after they died in the explosion. I didn't know if they were going to be destroyed in that dimension or not. At the same time, I could feel how the time around me was becoming slower and slower. Before I completely lost my capabilities to the frozen time, I pulled all the souls into my body so they could be preserved."

Roan's group couldn't help but ask. "Why would you go that far for a bunch of souls you don't even know?"

The crystals didn't agree with them. "The correct term is that they didn't know me, but I know them all. I've been inside the core of this planet for millions of years. I've watched all the lives and deaths that happened and have never intervened in anything."

"However, if I had let all the souls go at that moment, wouldn't that mean there was a good chance I would lose everyone I know? I just couldn't do that, so I helped them. It's that simple. My idea was to let them go once I escaped from that frozen time dimension and let everyone go to the underworld to reincarnate. Simply put, it was more of a sentimental decision. Yet, who could have thought they would all be revived. In this regard, I'm as lost as you all."

Roan scratched the back of his head, knowing that he had to change his view of the Crystal a little. After all, that also meant the Crystal's decision to take all the souls saved his mother in this world. The Crystal was right. There was no guarantee that all the souls would be kept intact even in that frozen space. However, it seems like the Crystal's insides are just perfect to hold living souls. 'We owe this thing big.'

Rean, who was watching everything through his connection with Roan's memories, agreed straight away. 'That we definitely do.'

"Still, I'm impressed you can hold billions of souls inside yourself. Are you okay?" Kentucky asked back.

"Hmph!" The Crystal didn't mind. "For me, such a thing is as easy as using World Essence. The energy that souls are made is a type of essence, after all. I just had to be careful to not damage them until the time finally froze completely."

Roan looked at Eagon and asked. 'Have you ever heard about anything capable of holding billions of souls like this guy did?'

Eagon shook his head. 'Not really. The only thing that gets close to this description is a Soul Devil. Yet, Soul Devils are a fusion of countless dead souls. This guy was able to keep them separated, so it isn't the same thing. Well, perhaps it was also due to the fact that time stopped moving once he rescued all the souls. I don't know what could have happened if he had to keep them inside his crystal body while time ran normally. In any case, this guy is a one-off.'

Eagon then asked back. 'Alright, it matters little. How will we capture it? I need its energy for cultivation. I believe it is the same thing for you.'

Roan narrowed his eyes. He didn't really need the Crystal before, and now that he knew what the Crystal did, he had no intention of letting the Crystal become a big divine stone for someone else.