Is this really a Game?!

"What's going on?!" One of the Tier IVs asked in shock as a wolf jumped at him, only for the latter to punch the wolf, breaking half of its body and sending it flying.

"It seems our abilities and control over mana are somehow sealed here, but our physical strength is still the same," Siggurd said as he charged forward and started slaughtering the wolves as each hit was enough to annihilate them.

Even without mana, comparing the strength of a Tier IVs body to normal animals was pretty much impossible. The difference between them was the same as the difference between an ant and a human being, even if hundreds and thousands of such wolves were to attack a single Tier IV who couldn't use mana, the wolves would all be slaughtered.

Their fangs would break if they tried to bite a Tier IV, as would their claws.

It only took Siggurd and the others a couple of seconds to kill the wolves before looking around themselves.

"We got separated," Alistair said with a heave expression on his face.

"Yes, I just don't know if it was something that was done on purpose or not," Siggurd told Alistair, prompting the young man, as well as the others, to show solemn expressions on their faces.

"You think the artifact did this?"

"It could very well be the case," Siggurd said as he nodded his head before looking around the forest they had found themselves in.

There was light coming from above as the high ceiling looked like the blue sky. Honestly, if not for their strong perception and great eyesight, maybe even Siggurd and the others would believe they had somehow been transported somewhere else.

The sky was seemingly static, however, and upon looking more carefully, one would notice how the sun was a crystal that was hanging from the ceiling while the sky was the ceiling itself as the dark rocks had changed into light blue rocks that made the illusion of one being outside.

They all looked around them before moving.

They knew that simply standing in place and waiting for something to change was not going to give them any results, so they were going to explore this place, and hopefully, find Reign and the others.

In the jungle inside the same layer…

"It has to be the artifact." Reign said calmly as he looked around the dense jungle they had found themselves in. Exotic trees and plants could be seen wherever they looked, and many small animals could be seen as well.

Just like with the forest Siggurd and the others had found themselves in, there was a blue sky present here, although it was a bit difficult to see it thanks to the dense canopy above them. A 'sun' was also present, but Reign and the others were able to notice that it was fake as well.

"What do we do now, there's only 6 of us here, the others are someplace else." One of the Tier IVs that had fallen with them said with slight apprehension as Reign glanced over at him.

"Yes, there's only 6 of us compared to over 60 people who are in the other group, but thankfully, sir Basred is with us, so I think we'll be fine."

"Furthermore, I'm pretty sure the artifact is what separated our group like this, it seems like the artifact wants us to be alone when we locate it."

"So you think the artifact has a consciousness, a spirit?" Basred asked Reign who nodded his head.

"It's an artifact that was once used by a Saint millions of years ago, I'd be more shocked if it didn't develop a consciousness by this point." Reign's words made Basred and the others nod their heads as they agreed with him.

They were all in the leveling realm, and the little information they knew about those in the realms above them mostly came from the system, as well as the Transcendents that had come to the planet long ago.

With the increasing invasions of the demons and the constant loss of territories, fewer and fewer Transcendents chose to stay on the planet, and currently, only three regions had a Transcendent present.

Those three had decided to stay and bet everything on the people here. If they were able to help them out enough to start pushing back against the demons and take the world back, the system would reward them greatly, and they would be able to drastically improve themselves in a short period of time, but that was a big if.

It was a risk almost none would take, and the three Transcendents were the only connection to the universe they now possessed.

They didn't even have enough power to call mercenaries from different worlds anymore, which was something they had done multiple times in the past.

Of course, Basred and the other leaders, as well as the vice-leaders like Liara and the others were the only ones that knew about that.

If they were to tell everybody just how dire their current situation was, chaos would ensue and there would be many that would betray humanity and side with the demons in order to survive.

Reign and the others ventured deeper into the jungle as Liara once again showed them where to go. Compared to Siggurd and the others who were unable to use mana right now, Reign and the others faced no such issues and were able to do everything they normally could.

They moved through the jungle and faced no opposition. There were some wild animals they came across, but none dared attack them.

They even came across some gorillas, but with the presence and help of mana, any of them could kill a gorilla with a single punch, and it seemed like the gorillas knew about that since they simply stared at them and didn't move a muscle.

"You know, so much time has passed since the system arrived on my planet that I kind of forgot how it was before that." Reign said as he glanced at a tiger that had appeared a couple of meters from them.

"These animals, they were once some of the strongest and most dangerous in the entire world, animals that no human could hope to defeat without using modern weapons, and now, any of us could kill them with a mere slap."

"Wait, you're saying these animals are from your home planet?" Basred asked Reign who looked at him with confusion.

"Yeah, I mean, that's a tiger, that's a silverback gorilla, that's a-"

"How are they here?" Laura suddenly asked with her eyes wide open as Reign stopped talking and did the same.

"Sir Basred, you guys, you didn't have these animals on your planet before, didn't you?" Reign asked Basred who nodded his head with a solemn expression on his face.

'Aethion, the kobolds, ask them about the area filled with greenery they had visited in the past, did it have any of these animals?'

"I already did that the first time I noticed the animals, and no, none of them had ever seen such animals in the past, not even once."

'So, these … these animals are new here, but how is that possible?'

"You remember just what power Drayce's artifact had back then, so why is it so shocking to you that an artifact used by a Saint in the past can create living beings in a short period of time, it probably scanned you in a way and placed animals you are familiar with here."

'Wouldn't it need to look through my memories in order to do that?'

"No, simply getting your mana signature can be enough for a powerful artifact, the animals here are not real, they're not true living beings like you and the others, they might even possess a soul, but  it's not a real one either."

Reign suddenly glanced over at the tiger that widened its eyes before suddenly losing consciousness.

Reign looked at the soul that came out of the tiger's body.

He had extracted it.

Taking out the soul of a being below Tier I was incredibly easy for him, and upon looking at it, Reign was able to determine that it truly was different from a normal soul. It was made out of pieces of different souls that were forcibly fused together in order to become one whole soul.

"The artifact is playing tricks on us, this entire place has been created in a short period of time." Reign suddenly said.

"The artifact seems to be what caused all those monsters to die, it took their souls, created this area, maybe a couple of more, and then created these animals and used the souls of the dead monsters to create brand new souls that it placed in them."

"Everything here has been artificially created by the artifact, I just don't understand why." Reign stated as he looked around them with vigilance.