Well, for clarification, it worked just a little.

At least the wings stabilized and continued to carry us upward slowly.

“I hate to say it, but with this speed, we probably end up in the middle of the mountains, and be stuck there forever. The imitated wings won’t last that long.” Rene said.

He was right. These mountains were literally skyrocketing cliffs. Without wings, there was no way we could climb down by hand.

“Rene, can I just tell you something, but you promise me to stay calm.”

“Say it, what can be worse than now.”

I hesitated for a brief moment, but finally found my words.

“I don’t have a holy pearl.”

Rene remained silent like he heard nothing.

I thought the wind was too loud and he didn’t hear me, so I repeated the same words once again.

“I am not deaf.” He said calmly.

Then soon after he burst into laughter. “Oh stop joking when we are already in such a situation. Don’t tell me if you are from out of space, and somehow you end up in this place and trying to survive like an idiot!”

“Em…..How do you know?”

Rene was silent again. After a couple seconds, he made a long sigh.

Seeing that he didn’t speak a word, I tried to lighten up the mood.

“I should have told you earlier, but I can't find a good chance to do that. Rene, I am very sorry. When we are out of here, I will explain everything. Are you still mad?”

Rene smiled, “Nope.”

“Oh, I thought you were mad, then why so quiet earlier?”

“I am just glad.”

“Glad?”

“Yes, glad that you trust me enough to tell me this. It’s probably your deepest secret hidden from everyone. Nana sis, I don’t really care where you come from, and who you are. All I know is that you pulled me out of the dead’s hands.”

My eyes were blurry, which made the view below hard to see. We had flown quite far away from the base now, it was impossible to tell where Zen was.

Just as we thought it was safe to make it out of here, there were countless sharp weapons pierced through the air and headed our directions.

“They are thorns!!” Rene shouted in full voice, “Hurry and dodge away! The imitated wings are easily damaged!”

Every nerve of mine tensed up and tried to control the wings with willpower, but without a holy pearl, it was obviously too difficult to do. All I could make sure was to maintain the stability. Rene used his thunder to burn off some of the coming thorns, but he was already exhausted earlier, and couldn't hold on too much longer like this.

“These thorns are coming from Dax! It’s his earth element characteristic! That bastard won’t give up shooting us down!”

The thorns were sharper than arrow tips. They pierced through the imitated wings like metal through paper. Rene was mainly using his magic arts to prevent the thorns hitting my body, but couldn’t expand enough energy to the wings. Soon the pair of wings were battered and the movement got jerky.

I could no longer control where the wings were going. We were like a baby goat carried by the eagle’s claws. It was just a matter of time before the imitated wings completely failed.

We were dropping fast, flying all over the place.

“Rene, I am sorry…..If only I had the holy pearl, we would have already escaped, not even giving Dax a chance to attack.”

“I won’t……”

Rene seemed to be biting his teeth.

“I won’t let it happen.”

While we were dropping toward the ground, Rene’s silvery hair seemed to glow in light blue, and slowly his whole body. I was extremely worried, not understanding what was going on.

Now we were closer to the ground, we could see the gang again. Zen was still in the midst of a fight with a huge group of men, not able to interfere with Dax.

Dax’s ugly smirk was clear.

“You two are not going anywhere!”

Countless thorns shot out from the movement of his arms at lightning speed, right toward us! The thorns burned through the wings, and at that same moment.

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The wings stopped flopping.

Almost in a blink of an eye, the pair of wings burst into dust of golden sparkles!

COMPLETELY GONE!

All I could remember was that we fell toward the ground so fast that I didn’t have time to think about anything. I closed my eyes, waiting for the moment when we met the end. All my memories flashed through the mind. They were both clear and vague, far and close, in and out, but nothing that I could describe.

Rene………

He was still too young………too young to die……….

“I won’t let it happen…….”

Rene was whispering the same words ever since earlier. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but the falling speed was so fast that I lost my verbal ability. Right before we hit the ground, a strong blue flash brighter than thunder surrounded the whole place.

I was damn serious.

It was literally lighting up the whole place.

The blue flash of light covered us, and extended toward the whole base and even the sky.

—------FLOP!-------- FLOP!---------FLOP!----------

A huge pair of wings full of zipping thunder appeared in front of my eyes. The thunder wrapped around my waist and held me upright.

“It’s the AWAKENING-----------------!”

The crowd exclaimed.

Rene glowed in blue thunder. His eyes were no longer naive like before, but replaced by determination and majesty. What was more unbelievable was that his missing left foot was upgraded to a robot one. The metal glowed and glittered with remarkable details, nothing you can make with plain craftsmanship.

The energy from the awakening created a gigantic hurricane above the heads of everyone, that many of the men fell onto the ground.

A lightning speed of blue thunder shot through the air and hit right onto Dax’s chest, so fast that he didn’t even have a chance to react. He was thrown off to the ground fifty feet away.

There was bewilderment and panic in everyone’s eyes. Firstly, they didn’t expect a disabled little kid was able to awaken to become an Aniesian. Secondly, they were probably worried that this kid would take revenge for what they had done to him. Even the way Dax and Leo looked at Rene was different now.

It was then I realized that the slave mark on Rene’s face was gone. This was definitely an upgrade of appearance - a brand new mechanical foot and the erasing of the slave mark.

Dax and the rest of the gang backed up a couple steps, as Rene flew closer to the crowd. I thought he would attack those bastards for revenge, but he was more mature than I expected.

He didn’t waste a single word with them, but flew back up while carrying me away.

“Well, kiddo, you sure have a forgiving heart.” I teased Rene.

He smirked.

“Those guys are too pathetic for me to waste a damn word. Being a slave is enough to drive them nuts. What’s more is that before any higher authority comes over, we are better off now.”

As we were getting farther away from the crowd, I noticed the tall figure among the rest. That Iceberg was tall, just a glance would be enough to spot him. His eyes were cold and calm as usual.

The wind was cool and soft against my hair.

This was the first time I actually felt that we would be free at last, as we flew away from the base and headed toward the other boundary mountains.

I couldn’t describe the feelings inside.

It was neither happy or sad, more like a sense of awareness and wonder about the future ahead.

Where were we going?

How could I change my fate as a human without the ability to cultivate like the rest of the demons with holy pearls?

Why did Zen suggest that we headed toward the west, and what was the Wununu Tribe?

“Are we really going to the west?” Rene asked.

I nodded.

“Although I don’t know much about Zen, there is no reason for him to trick us. It’s not like we have any use to make his life better. Perhaps he will meet us again, so we better wait for him there.”

But then I second doubted my words, “Do you think he can really make it out alive?”

Rene chuckled.

“Don’t underestimate that sleeping tiger’s abilities. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about that.”

“I wasn’t worried at all, just wondering.” Of course I would not admit it.

As we flew higher, I got a better view of the geography of the continent. The boundary mountains outlined the shape of an eye, surrounding the Land of Ruins. No wonder demons living in the Land of Ruins had no way out of the place, unless they gained their wings.

Rene noticed my curiosity on the scenery beneath.

“Yeah, these mountains suck, but at the same time they separate the two kingdoms apart, so they don’t easily interfere with each other. There was actually a myth spreading among the living, that hundreds of years ago when the war occurred between the two kingdoms, there was a marvelous cultivator who moved the boulders deep beneath the ground and created this boundary line. Just imagine all of these mountains were built by the power of magic arts. If that’s true, that cultivator must be super powerful.”

Rene then pointed with his forefinger.

“That is the north kingdom, ruled by the Wang royals who mainly exercised the element of water. I am not from the north, but I have heard some crazy rumors about them, not sure if they are true or not. The south is ruled by the Darkomi family possessing the element of fire, and that is where I was born. Other than these two giants ruling the continent, there are a few other tribes who managed to survive on their own. I have never heard of the Wanunu Tribe, so we still have to find the location.”

The imitated wings were nothing compared to Rene’s real wings. The speed was so crazily fast, that it didn’t take long to fly over those majestic mountains and headed toward a land of greenery.

I hadn’t seen so many shades of green for a long while. It really reminded me of the beautiful rural area on Earth.

At last the land was no longer barren.

I lightly touched the side of my face, feeling the scar from the slave mark.

Yes, I was about to be free finally, but this scar will be there forever.

How in the world can I get that off, when I couldn’t even cultivate?

Rene saw my worries, and reassured me.

“Nana sis, relax alright. We will figure out a way to get rid of that damn mark. This world is huge, there is always a solution to the problem.”

I smiled warmly, not believing that pessimistic little boy who once complained so much about life now took his turn to comfort my worries.

“When we get there, let’s eat a lot of meat until we are too full to even move a finger.” I said.

“Yes, at least twenty drumsticks!”

“Uh-um, thirty would be just right!”

We joked and laughed like two idiots as the new land appeared closer to our eyes. The sun rose above our heads, shining golden rays onto all living things below. The air was getting warmer, giving a soft sense of welcoming.

Wanunu Tribe, just wait.

We sure will be there in no time.