Supreme Lord: I can extract everything!

Michael would have loved to keep watching Alice. He hadn't seen her for eons and missed her dearly. Seeing her stride through a wide hallway, greeted by unfamiliar humans, was confusing, especially the men and women staring at her with obvious interest and some even with lust, but that mattered little.

Watching her for several days showed Michael that Alice Zenovia was fine. That she wasn't injured physically and that she wasn't mistreated. Other than the Blood Incursion, the Supreme Human Alliance didn't force anything onto her. Unfortunately, the Blood Incursion was where the problems started. The Blood Incursion worked stronger on Alice than on Zeke. She was loyal to the Supreme Human Alliance now and wouldn't abandon them in the future either.

That was more than just a little frustrating, but Michael chose to abandon his ill feelings and focus on the pieces of information he could obtain from watching Alice. He learned a lot about her daily actions, location, and with whom she interacted often. Interestingly enough, Lincoln and Alice met up occasionally. They didn't talk much, but the duo sat silently beside each other. Neither had anything to say, but some sort of connection forced them to meet up now and then.

Rumors about their relationship appeared, but Michael could see and feel what Lincoln Piedra and Alice Zenovia saw and felt. They had no romantic feelings and were only connected because of…him. His friend and lover had forgotten about Michael, but that didn't mean that the deepest parts of their existence had forgotten that something or someone like him existed. The problem was the Blood Incursion and how it worked on their minds and souls. They knew something was off, but Blood Incursion forced them to forget about it whenever they had too many thoughts on that topic.

'Maybe we can help them faster than expected. That would be great.' Michael thought while both Jormungandr and Fenrir pointed out the issues of his territory in the Untamed Jungle. The Beast God Curses had been bothering him for a few days now, but Michael was too busy ensuring his friend and lover were doing fine.

Now that he was sure, Michael's focus finally returned to the task ahead. He was in the middle of an endless body of water – or some other liquid that felt like water – but he could breathe just fine. The body of water showed him images of everyone and everything important to him. Michael was certain it was related to the name of the third Trial. "Heart's Choice."

The Sacred Desert was important to Michael as well, but there were no issues with anyone or anything in there. Everyone in the Sacred Desert was more or less at the peak of happiness. That was good, but it was unlikely that the residents of the settlements in the Sacred Desert were related to the Heart's Choice trial. The troubles in the Untamed Jungle were more likely to be the core of all issues.

'The Dragys found my territory… They're not yet moving…but prepare for an all-out war against me and my people…' Michael swallowed hard.

Hiraku deployed enough scouts across the True Untamed Jungle – closer to the Dragys than the other Lords of the Untamed Jungle – to check them out. Some Dragys found a few scouts, killed them, and deployed their scouts to locate the Untamed Jungle. Hiraku managed to discover the scouts before it was too late. He and the other Untamed Awakened gathered their forces and killed the scouts before they managed to return. Unfortunately, two scouts arrived too late at the scene. They retreated when they saw the Untamed Awakened and their shocking prowess and fled from the scene before anyone could follow them.

Sun Demos notified Hiraku, but since the High Awakened couldn't understand what the tamed monkey said, it was impossible to find the remaining Dragys Scouts. Once they returned to the Pentagon Forts, Tatjana translated what Sun Demos said, and chaos ensued. The Dragys learned about Michael's territory. They had yet to locate it, but Icarus and his family spectated their actions from the air… It was easy to tell that the Dragys had stretched their forestry actions to the south now.

They were still at war with some other Lords of the Untamed Jungle, a small alliance that formed to weaken and possibly eliminate the Dragys, but it was only a matter of months before the alliance would be shattered. More than half of their strongest forces had already been eradicated, burned to a cinder.

'The Untamed Awakened shouldn't attract the Dragys' interest. There are no Divine Lifeforms among them. They wouldn't bother changing their plans so drastically to attack me!' Michael cursed, rubbing his temples in frustration.

[They might have sensed the Temple of the Forgotten.] [The energy it released to teleport you to the first trial might not have been a lot, but it's not impossible for the Dragys to perceive something. We don't know how much energy the Temple of the Forgotten uses to throw you into the different trials, but some seem oddly customized. I can tell that the Heart's Choice fits perfectly for you. Or they're curious about the Red Dragon, which emerged out of nowhere. Or they just don't like having an enemy with powerful High Awakened in their back.] Jormungandr released a long his.

'You can tell what the Heart's Choice trial is about?' Michael frowned deeply. He had an idea but it felt wrong no matter how he looked at it.

[Not yet. I have an idea, but it is the same idea you have.]

'The trial scans my heart, my emotions, whether I regret something, what I'm guilty of, and it determines if I'm worthy of entering the next trial according to the decisions I make inside the Temple of the Forgotten. That the Dragys discovered my territory and prepared an attack is an odd coincidence, if it is a coincidence, in the first place.

[The trial should be all about your heart, yes. And the Dragys' discovery seems to fit perfectly into this. The trial wants to know what you will do.]

[It's all about sincerity.]

Michael cursed. The answer was obvious. He would give his utmost to help his people to deal with the Dragys. But for that, he needed strength to escape the Temple of the Forgotten. A trace of his subconscious told Michael that he had to stay in the Temple of the Forgotten to grow stronger, strong enough to deal with the Dragys. After all, the Dragys were strong enough to eliminate a small alliance of Divine Lifeforms, Lords, who'd acquired enough strength to become powerhouses of their races.

They had been strong but died nonetheless at the hands of the Dragys and their Lordess.

What was he supposed to do now? If he left the Temple of the Forgotten now, everyone – including himself – was bound to die at the Dragys' hands.

[Even if you want to leave the Temple of the Forgotten now, you have no idea how.] Fenrir scoffed.

'Don't act like you know how to leave this place.' Michael commented.

[I do know–...]

'Without destroying it, obviously,' Michael added, silencing the wolf.

'That is what I thought.'