A few milliseconds after Chief Lupan threw the ball...
During that instant, Umisu stood at the batter’s box in the middle of her swing. Her eyes, which were usually calm, avoidant, and even downright antisocial, were now brimming with a golden light that lit her whole body into a radiant fire.
Above her, a golden mist made out of rotating lights started to form the visage of a giant green egg whose surface was filled with an embossed engravings of natural accents. A storm brewing in the skies, greenery and moss spreading across a field, a vortex forming in the deep seas—all images of the violent and destructive tendencies of nature.
In her heart, the GodForge pieces that lay dormant now pumped out power, spooling out a single thick golden thread that unraveled, each strand beginning to weave around her arms, her legs, her hips—all the muscles she needed to swing a bat.
And when that ball finally came in her direction, the threads that wrapped around her body suddenly tightened, giving her torque and momentum that completely defied the limits of physical reality.
She swung her bat at a speed even faster than the ball, the barrel almost disappearing into a single line.
With complete precision, the bat’s sweet spot clashed with the ball, making it morph to the bat’s outer shape as if it was made out of the softest cushion.
And with a simple follow-through, Umisu sent the ball flying out straight into the skies, quickly shooting through the clouds with no signs of stopping at all.
Chief Lupan’s legs were in the middle of its transformation, fur sprouted, muscles bulging. Burying the shock and surprise in his heart, he unleashed all of his strength into a jump, leaving a dust cloud in the ground as the pitcher’s mound became undone from the mere after effect of his leap.
He flew straight up in the air, hands outstretched as he tried to catch up to the ball.
But it wasn’t long before he realized that he wasn’t going to catch up to the ball.
Letting go of any pretenses, Chief Lupan released the chains that restricted his Dao Heart. His cultivation, which was limited to the 2nd stage for the sake of fairness in this game, suddenly shot up to the 4th stage, 6th stage, and finally at the very peak of the 9th stage Dao realm.
His muscles convulsed, with each twitch of its fibers adding additional propulsion into his flight.
Soaring through the clouds, the Werewolf Chief didn’t care about anything except for catching that ball. Rules be damned.
Finally, he came close to the ball, seeing it destroy the clouds into mist.
Each millisecond, he came closer and closer to making contact with the ball.
And when his fingertips were mere inches from grasping the ball, he suddenly found it moving further away from him.
No... to be exact, he was moving away from it!
His body suddenly started to slow down, having reached the apex of his jump.
Meanwhile, the ball continued to soar up through the high heavens.
And at the moment when Chief Lupan was about to fall down, he remained in the air, floating, as he looked up at the shooting ball leaving his grasp.
He realized that the ball wasn’t decelerating at all. It continued in a straight trajectory, unbothered by factors such as gravity, air friction, and physics.
The ball finally left the world’s atmosphere, turning into nothing but a twinkle in outer space.
Its direction? Straight to the moon.
As Chief Lupan fell back to Earth, he couldn’t help but smile. How poetic. He closed his eyes, his mind thinking back to the demi-human woman who was able to exert such an effort that it reached the moon.
If he had released his limiters before he jumped, then he could have caught the ball in mid-air.
But who would have thought that the Rebornian hitter would suddenly experience an Aubility awakening in the middle of the game—in the middle of a swing?!
And it was a demi-human, no less.
He crashed back down onto the baseball field on his feet with a loud thud. The mere force of the fall would have broken anyone’s legs into pieces, but the Werewolf Chief was able to return his cultivation back into the Nascent Spirit realm, allowing his natural defenses to soak up the damage.
Then, he quickly straightened his posture.
In front of him, he saw the green-scaled Dragonborn look up at her own Diva with surprise and shock. It seemed that even she didn’t know how she awakened.
’The moon has graced us,’ Chief Lupan thought to himself.
Becoming allies with the only two demi-humans surpassing their limits must not be a coincidence. It must have been a gift given to them by their God itself.
He began running towards Umisu, ready to throw her into the air in celebratory euphoria.
But it seemed that her family and friends got there first.
However, his excitement was suddenly sapped after he heard the lackluster responses from the Rebornians.
"Wow, finally huh? Congrats sis," Zion said, clicking his tongue.
"I knew you could do it. You’ve worked hard for this," Sheina said, giving her sister a big hug.
"I mean, not to toot my own horn, but the fact that I awakened mine first without working hard means that training doesn’t matter at all. So when y’all force me to go and train, you know what my excuse will be," said Jaku.
Chief Lupan frowned as he heard this.
Where was the fanfare? Where were the raucous celebrations?
The Brownblood Werewolves threw festivals for something as trivial as someone growing their first fur! But these demi-humans weren’t even cheering after seeing something so reality-breaking!
"Why aren’t you more happy?!" Chief Lupan bursted out.
"I mean... it’s because we expected it," Zion said. "I’m the youngest, so of course I’m going to awaken mine last. Sis was due for her awakening long before this."
’He’s going to awaken his what now?’
"I already knew this would happen," said Sheina. "She’s been working really hard to awaken her Aubilities. Of course, my advice certainly helped her there."
Golden lights rotated above the white-scaled demi-human, forming a visage of a pearl gold Dragon in its infancy. It roared silently, before rubbing its head on Umisu’s green egg Diva.
Chief Lupan’s eyes almost left its sockets.
’Another... another one?!’
Michael walked over towards the malfunctioning Werewolf Chief and gave him a pat on the shoulders.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce you to them. These are the Dragonborns. They’re just like Jaku."
Chief Lupan’s head slowly creaked as he turned to face Michael. "...you... you mean..."
Michael nodded. "Yup. They all have a GodForge piece in their hearts. Right now, all three of them have awakened their Aubilities, as you saw, leaving only Zion left unawakened. But it’s only a matter of time."
These Rebornians talked about awakening their Divas as if it was the most natural thing in the world. But Chief Lupan knew just how impossible it was for not just one, not just two, but four demi-humans safely taking in a GodForge piece in their hearts.
It suddenly made him realize.
Who were these people?!