Death... and me

The old man then gathered Divine Energy around his hand, which he used to crush the crystal ball. Naturally, the Foundation Fragment fell once the crystal ball it was enveloped in broke apart. Following that, the old man threw the fragment at the twins, which Roan caught in midair.

The twins looked at each other and back at the old man. "What's the meaning of this? You should know just how important this thing is. Demons and angels, as well as experts of the Realm of Gods, would wipe out entire continents for this fragment."

The old man nodded in agreement. "True. In fact, I wouldn't mind destroying a few continents to get this fragment either. However, the reason I'm trying to gather them was so that I could meet you two again. Since you're already here, there's no need for that anymore. Whatever you want to do with it, whether you give the fragment to the demons, angels, or anyone else, I don't care. If you want it for yourselves, then that would be even better."

Rean and Roan were truly puzzled, but they also understood that the key to all these events was linked to the old man's identity. "Just who are you?"

The old man smiled before answering, "Both demons and angels call me Crazy Old Man Larks."

"Dad!" How could the twins not understand after hearing that name? No wonder they felt that the man was familiar. "But... how?!"

Sure enough, the old man nodded in response to their exclamation. He was Turen Larks, the twins' father. He then got up and patted the twins' shoulders, telling them, "That's my question, you know? How did you survive that? Everyone died after we were attacked by the Vruve Organization."

"Vruve Organization?" Rean and Roan obviously remembered that name. It was the name of the organization from where Soul Gem came from. However, they didn't expect that his organization would be the one to attack in the end.

Turen was surprised by the twins' reaction, showing that they knew something about it. "Have you heard of them before?"

"They were the ones who tried to stop the Extinction Sphere, and the formations used for that were partially developed in this place," Rean answered. That part was probably common knowledge in the high ranks of the Realm of Gods as well as for those among the demons and angels.

"So you found out about it, huh? Say, do you have any connection with Soul Gem?" Turen asked back.

Roan narrowed his eyes as he replied, "Before that, how about you explain your situation first? Also, can you prove that you're Turen?"

Turen was taken aback for a moment before laughing out loud. "Hahaha! Sure enough, Roan hasn't changed a bit. Very well, let's start with my identity. Ask me anything that only me, your father, could only answer. Other than that, I can't think about any other way of proving it to you."

The twins nodded and started a few rounds of questioning. Naturally, Turen did the same thing to confirm that the twins were really his twins. In the end, both sides could answer everything, showing that they were who they said.

"It really brings back memories..." Turen couldn't help but sigh after all of that. "Anyways, let me start with my side. To be more specific, I did not die in the explosion of Sunkan Planet."

"What?!" Rean and Roan were taken aback. They thought that their father in front of them was a reincarnation, just like Rana and Havek. How could he have escaped without something like the Soul Gem System?

Turen saw the confusion in the twins' faces and continued, "Well, the body I used back in Sunkan, the vessel for a part of my soul, was definitely destroyed for sure. It's just that the real me, the one you see in front of you at the moment, had never left the Temporal Gap."

"A... clone? Are you saying that you were just a clone back in Sunkan?" Roan asked straight away.

"Not a clone," Turen clarified. "An avatar. That's what we call our copies. It carries a small part of our souls and can share memories simultaneously. Simply put, I was living my life in Sunkan as Turen while my real body stayed behind. That's why I could even have children of my own. That was obviously you two and Rana."

"That was quite unexpected," Rean mentioned.

Roan shook his head, though. "It explains why he's this strong. Just how long would it take for someone to reach his level? Sunkan Planet hasn't been destroyed that long ago. Now my doubts about our father's cultivation were answered."

"That's true..." Rean had to admit Roan was right. "Then again, that doesn't explain why you would live a life like that, dad. You were just a Gray Color Talent, and your cultivation had never shown any signs of growing fast. With your knowledge, shouldn't you have become a huge expert, even though you had poor talent?"

Turen then noticed a mistake in his words. "Oh, right! I told you that we shared our memories, right? However, this is only a one-way connection, not a two-way one. I did indeed live my life as Turen back in Sunkan, and my real body obtained all of the memories of my time there. However, my body there did not have access to my real body's memories. You could say that I knew I wasn't normal, but there wasn't anything I could do with it. As for why that happened, it was because I created that avatar to be that way."

Rean and Roan were confused to hear that. Eventually, one of them asked, "Could it be that you wanted to experience a common life?"

Turen nodded, replying, "That's correct. Otherwise, I wouldn't even create an avatar to start with. To create an avatar, you have to give up some of your original body's power to keep it alive. That meant I had to become weaker. It's simply not worth creating an avatar at all. Fortunately for me, my Temporal Gap was completely safe, thanks to the fragment I have there."