Death... and me

To make sure the same thing wouldn't happen again, the Armored Salamander focused its ability on the area around the twins' group. If it was already hard to move before, then it was just plain impossible now. Naturally, Rean and Roan tried to access the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm after that. However, they were unsurprisingly restricted as they were obviously in a dangerous situation.

'What do we do now?' Rean could not help but ask.

'Nothing. There's nothing we can do at the moment. Considering that Salamander's power, even burning our Divine Souls won't help,' Roan replied with a dark expression.

Hurio and Lilia were at a loss as well. Hurio was already having a much harder time as he was protecting Lilia from the Fire attribute imbued in the Salamander's spatial ability.

However, the Armored Salamander didn't attack straight away. Instead, it seemed to be paying attention to the twins for some reason. No, to be more specific, it was looking at Rean. At the moment, Rean was using his Light Element to heal the burning injuries that the Salamander's presence was inflicting on everyone's body. If a chance to escape appeared, they had to at least be in condition to move.

The Salamander's enormous head, bigger than Kentucky's whole body, then stopped right in front of their group. It was possible to feel the temperature increase by several degrees, with the lava still falling from its back. Its breath could be felt up close, making their situation even harder to bear. It was then that an ancient voice echoed in their group's ears as the Salamander's mouth moved.

"Do... you... have... Light... Affinity...?"

Everyone was taken aback, not expecting the Armored Salamander to speak at all. From what they heard from Hurio, the ancient beasts in the Lost Star Realm shouldn't have intelligence, so how come this one can speak? Could it be that it wasn't an ancient beast?

However, Roan also noticed something strange. 'If it only acted on instinct, it wouldn't have let Celso's group escape. Instead, it would have definitely tried to stop them as that elder was much stronger than us. But instead of that, it simply gave up and didn't show any reaction at all. That's not the behavior of a wild beast.'

Rean, of course, immediately answered, "I do have Light Element Affinity, sir."

The Armored Salamander's enormous eyes narrowed in response. Rean wasn't an idiot and used even more of his Divine Soul Power to gather Light Element and use it for healing. Only someone with Light Element Affinity like him could do so much like that. Whatever the reason was for the Salamander to focus on his Light Element didn't matter. What mattered was that it wasn't attacking them because of it.

The Salamander seemed to know that Light Element Affinity beings were able to heal others, while those who used Yang Energy to control Light Element couldn't. At least, that's what Rean thought since the only thing he showed was his ability to heal others, and that's why the Salamander stopped.

The Salamander watched as Rean continued to use his Light Element to heal Roan and the others from the burnt injuries caused by his Fire Element. Eventually, it seemed to have reached a conclusion before its ability from before changed into the simple spatial restriction. The Fire Element in it disappeared, and the Salamander retreated a little as it could see that its own body temperature was also affecting Rean's group.

After that, the Salamander looked in the direction of the volcano it came out.

*Roooooar!*

Rean's group was much closer to it now, so just the roar alone made the Divine Energy in their dantians go out of control. If not because the Salamander was holding them in place with its spatial abilities, they would all have fallen from the sky already. Well, one couldn't fly more than twenty meters in this Lost Star Realm, so they wouldn't suffer any significant injuries with their cultivations anyway.

A few seconds later...

*Roarrr!*

Another roar came out of the volcano. It's just that this one was much milder, with little to no effect on Rean's group at all. Following that, a small ball of lava shot out of the volcano, appearing beside the gigantic Armored Salamander.

*Bang!*

The lava then kept falling down as that small ball began to spread open, just like the Armored Salamander did. It turned out that it was a much smaller Armored Salamander. The same white and red scales as the big guy, but miniaturized in a way. Of course, considering the size of the bigger one, the small one was still bigger than even Kentucky. It's just that it looked like a kid when standing beside the bigger one.

However, Rean immediately noticed something wrong with it. A huge chunk of its back armor was nowhere to be seen. Two of its four legs were gone as well, while one of its eyes had a clear mark of penetration. Rean found it quite hard to believe that it was even alive at the moment. One didn't need to be a doctor to tell that this small Armored Salamander was feeling a lot of pain.

The bigger Salamander then looked at Rean before using its spatial powers to bring him close to the smaller Salamander. "Help... him... I'm... mother... help..."

Rean didn't know that the big guy was, in fact, a girl. Nevertheless, he had to use this opportunity. "Will you let us go if I help?"

The mother seemed to have some difficulty processing Rean's words. It was obvious that she didn't have that much intelligence. However, after a few moments, her enormous head nodded. "Yes..."

It was hard to tell if the mother had even understood Rean's meaning or not. Then again, seeing how they were all at the Salamander's mercy, he could only trust that it did and that it would keep its words. As for a Soul Binding Contract, it would be useless against such a being. "Alright, I'll help him as well as I can."

With that, Rean touched the kid's body, who didn't seem to like it at all. It even tried to attack Rean. But after its mother roared at it, the small Armored Salamander became as docile as a puppy. Rean couldn't help but let out cold sweat, though. Since he was touching the kid, he could naturally tell its cultivation. 'So small, yet it's already at the Peak Stage of the Transition Realm. Just how strong is the mother then?'