FAMILY ABOVE ALL: BATTLING AGAINST GODS

In the secret realm.

The small world still basked under the beautiful light of the colorful sky. However, one would notice how the ground constantly shook ever so slightly if one should pay attention. The reason for that was the intense battles currently raging within the third and most dangerous zone. It was just an irony that this zone which was known to be terrifying because of the dangerous beasts it harbored, was now being decimated by humans, and little ones at that.

.....

Surrounded by a barren land of about three kilometers, a lonely figure stood with a speechless look on his face.

Arlo watched the two-meter tail protruding from his back flail about before rubbing his chin affectionately. It was almost like a child waiting to be praised for doing a good job.

Releasing a breath, Arlo finally relented as he broke the silence, "Alright, alright, jeez. I admit that without you I might be a goner by now. Thank you."

As if it could understand him, the tail stopped moving and instead rubbed against his face silently. Speechless again, Arlo could only shake his head at the almost human reaction of his new tail. It was almost as if the tail had a consciousness of its own, and he was sure that it wasn't Seraphina, as she was currently residing within him.

Arlo rubbed the tail's pointy edge and realized it didn't hurt him in the least. Rubbing it, the tail snuggled closer into his palm.

It was only then that Arlo realized something.

'Is my body still my own?'

Old Bro, Anita, his two new summons, and seven other unawakened ones. There was now Seraphina and this mysterious tail.

Arlo couldn't help but feel his body wasn't his any longer, and he could only kiss his dream of a private life goodbye.

Just as he was lost in his thoughts, the sounds of sonic booms exploded from the distance. Raising his head, Arlo noticed the almost conical waves raging from the distance and closing towards him every split second. Three breaths later, he noticed the small figure at the front of the waves and just when his brain registered the person's identity, Zara appeared a short distance before him.

The red aura that had congregated around her had disappeared and the zeal to battle was no longer on her face. What remained was a serious look as she gazed at the now flailing tail behind him with a grave look.

Arlo was also shocked as he watched new flesh regenerate rapidly around Zara's deep brown bones. He didn't know what laws she used to temper her hands, but what truly shocked Arlo was that just a swing from his tail was able to blast the hands of someone as strong as the girl before him into oblivion.

He had no choice but to revise his understanding of his new tail, as he took a mental note to study its abilities carefully when he had some time. After all, such a powerful weapon may become a double-edged sword if not wielded properly.

"I have underestimated you. Would you believe that I was planning to deviate my weapon's path at the last second, but who would have thought that I was the one in danger instead." Zara broke the silence with a wry smile on her face. However, seeing the cold look on Arlo's scaly face, she realized that he didn't believe her.

She smiled wryly as she realized she might have gone a bit too far in her excitement. 'But now that it has reached this point, I might as well just measure his full capabilities.'

Arlo didn't dare to relax his guard in the least, even though he now knew how strong his tail was. Not to mention that his dragon sense was still warning him of the presence before him even with his tail in consideration, and he also couldn't even consciously control it. So he couldn't rely on it, and could only hope it would cover him.

"Mountain lava domain." A huge amount of ki burst out from Zara as she used the power she inherited from her summon.

Slowly, the surroundings were transformed as the barren lands gave way to a fiery domain. The temperature rose greatly, causing Arlo's newly made robe to scatter in heat.

As the last portions of his robe remained, Arlo's full body covered in beautiful scales was revealed in their full splendor. However, Arlo fully noticed a problem. Tracing Zara's eyes filled with curiosity, Arlo saw the last piece of his dragon-patterned robes barely covering his crotch. And even that last piece was slowly incinerating.

With a blushing face, Arlo quickly covered his crotch as he glared at Zara, "Pervert!"

Zara giggled mischievously, as she enjoyed his reaction. Even though she couldn't see his blushing face due to being covered by scales, she could still tell he was feeling shy.

Arlo quickly used his Ki to create another robe around his body. Left with no choice he had to constantly reform the robes as they were burnt off, causing him to divert his attention. However, to Arlo, that was an easy task, and wouldn't affect his battle prowess in the least.

As the sound of bubbling lava reverberated, Zara's slightly serious voice rang in the area.

"Bring out your summon."

"You are looking at it." Arlo pointed at Anita who was at his head.

Furrowing her brows, Zara pointed out, "Your other summon."

Even though she didn't know why, she could tell the slime atop his head was out of commission. And she was also curious to see Arlo's second summon which was able to transform his appearance completely and boost his powers to such a terrifying degree. She didn't show it, but the fact that Arlo who was a six-star warrior could contend on equal ground with her, who had the prowess of a twelve-star warrior, sent her into great shock. But at the same time, it made her excited as she firmly believed he was the one she was looking for. If he wasn't the one, then who else could it be?

"There is no need," Arlo replied casually, causing a deep frown to form on Zara's beautiful face.

She herself hadn't brought out her summon when she faced Tron, as she believed she didn't need to. But what she didn't expect was for another person to treat her the same way soon after.

"Is that so?" the red aura returned, this time, five times stronger.

Arlo felt the small rock below him, the only last piece remaining in the surrounding thousand meters, slowly disappearing from the intense heat. He could only use Ruler's Authority on himself to fly into the air.

"I guess I just have to make you..." Zara whispered as she raised her hand. In response, several lava hands thousands of meters high rise from around her before attacking Arlo.

Arlo had no choice but to send out several punches, as the beams of compressed air, destroyed the lava hands before they could approach him.

However, Zara's eyes remained placid, as twice the previous number of hands rose into the air, causing Arlo to give his all to destroy them.

*Boooom!* *Boooom!* *Boooom!* *Boooom!**Boooom!* *Boooom!* *Boooom!* *Boooom!*

Several sounds of explosions resounded in the area, as a small scaly figure streaked across the sky, with mountain-sized hands on his tail. Knowing that he couldn't continue like this, Arlo fell into deep thoughts, while not stopping to fire several breath-like attacks.

'I can't bring out of any of my new summons.'

It wasn't that he was being arrogant, but he simply couldn't reveal his two new summons. If he did, he wouldn't be able to explain the reason for his current appearance, since they would look like nothing like the current him. Old Bro had also warned him to not reveal more than two summons, something Arlo greatly agreed with. In fact, just exposing Anita's identity had taken a great deal of thought and contemplation from him, as he knew just how heaven-defying her existence was. And now that he had two new summons that didn't fall short of her in any way, he knew he had to tread carefully.

'The best thing is not to expose them.' Arlo arrived at this conclusion. Of course, that didn't mean that he couldn't use their abilities. Even if the public became confused by his many abilities, they would never attribute it to the existence of more summons. To them, such a thing was simply impossible.

After making his decision, Arlo didn't hesitate any longer. He stopped using Ruler's Authority on himself, causing his body to fall uncontrollably. As the lava hands quickly closed in on him, Arlo gathered all his strength into his hands only for his action to stall, as his dragon tail beat him to it.

With a wide swing, the air made slicing sounds, as if space was split apart, however, that sound was soon swallowed by sounds of explosion, as all the encroaching massive hands were blasted away.

Under Zara's questioning eyes, Arlo's body drew a colorful vertical streak as he fell to the earth.

'Is he crazy?' Zara didn't understand why Arlo was trying to get himself killed by jumping into her lava domain. Even if his scales could offer a frightening degree of protection, he would still end up cooked from the inside.

What Zara didn't know was that Arlo didn't have a choice. He had already been taught in the academy that to overcome a domain, one would need to overlay a far stronger domain to destroy it.

Arlo didn't have a domain-like ability in his arsenal. He wasn't exactly sure how to classify Ruler's Authority, but he was sure it wasn't a domain. If it was before, he would be hard-pressed on how to overcome this situation, but not anymore, not after awakening his new summons.

As his feet dipped into the scorching lava, Arlo realized he couldn't feel any pain, but he didn't dare to wait to find out how long his dragon armor could protect him. Without any hesitation, he used one of the abilities he just received from his new summons.

Just like with Anita, Arlo received two abilities from each of his two summons. And it just happened that each of them granted him a domain ability.

However, for the domain he planned on using, he had to be in contact with the earth. Only then could he release it.

This domain was from one of his new summons, a nine-tailed shadow fox.

And just like Anita who had the identity of the Universal Devourung Slime, his second summon had one too.

EMPRESS SOMBRA DE LA NONA!

Arlo was excited as he had already learned from Old Bro, just how terrifying his new summon was in the Realm of the Gods. According to him, she was among the absolute strongest among the godbeasts, and truly the two new abilities he inherited didn't disappoint him.

Barely a second after falling into Zara's lava domain, Arlo whispered in a light voice:

"Shadow Territory!"

At the same time that he felt almost all his Ki used up and a feeling of weakness wash over him, a circle of darkness suddenly appeared below Arlo's feet, but in just a breath, it spread out before covering the surrounding thousand meters. The heat in the area disappeared as if a lie and the colorful light cascading from the sky vanished without a trace as they were sucked into the horrifying darkness covering the earth.

With trembling eyes, Zara watched as her domain was forcefully dispelled, only for her to be surrounded by pure thick darkness.

AN: Sorry for the slow pacing, but don't worry, I plan on releasing more chapters this week, as I plan to join the Writathon contest with this novel. I know the last few chaps have been nothing but pure action, and it would stay that way until the end of the Secret Realm arc, which would be soon. I just hope you enjoyed reading the chapters, just like I enjoy writing them. Thanks to all those who are following the novel. I hope we keep it up.