Chapter 637: 637. When I Was About The Kill The Demon Lord. Pavillia Gave Me A Good Reason
Rex stood over the trembling mess of a man, the golden light of his mask dimming just enough to allow his predatory eyes to lock onto Mordecai’s tear-streaked, filth-covered face. The silence of the courtyard was broken only by Mordecai’s pathetic, hitching sobs.
Rex let out a short, derisive snort, a sound of pure contempt. He raised his heavy, gore-stained gauntlet, the metal still humming with the residue of the EX Class slaughter.
"Take a long disgusted fucking look at you right now," Rex rumbled, his voice dripping with a cruel, mocking amusement. "The ’Great Demon Lord’ of the Underlayer."
"You spend your nights praying to little glowing icons and rolling dice, hoping a digital god will save your pathetic skin..."
"You dress in silk and talk of diplomacy, but the moment the real blood starts flowing, you turn into a whimpering, snot-nosed brat in the dirt."
Rex leaned down, his shadow swallowing Mordecai whole. "You didn’t win the rebellion, you fucking bum."
"Yes, the reconstruction indeed can be called a purge or war, but still... the winner is already sealed right in front your fucking face."
"You didn’t even survive it... You just sat there and watched a real man do the work you were too cowardly to even imagine."
"You’re not a demon lord; you’re just a lucky bystander with a fancy toy."
"Stop... please, just stop..." Mordecai blubbered, his face red and swollen from crying, his dignity long since buried in the mud.
"Why? Because the truth hurts more than the Void Eater’s claws?" Rex’s grin turned shark-like. "I think it’s time to end the farce."
With a sudden, violent motion, Rex swung his gauntlet downward in a crushing arc, intending to smash Mordecai’s skull into the dirt like a ripe fruit.
CLANG!
The sound of metal meeting something unyielding echoed through the courtyard. Rex’s eyes widened slightly.
He hadn’t hit bone; he had hit the sharp, reinforced heel of a boot.
Pavellia had stepped between the predator and the prey. She stood there, unmoved, her expression as cool and impenetrable as marble, her foot acting as a literal shield for the broken king.
Rex didn’t pull back. Instead, he straightened up, his golden aura flaring dangerously.
He turned his gaze toward her, the light from his mask casting long, menacing shadows across her face. The air around them began to crackle with the threat of an immediate explosion.
"Careful, Pavellia," Rex warned, his voice dropping to a lethal, quiet register. "You’re still useful for the future of my plans and the Underlayer."
"Don’t get in the way of a man finishing his business."
"Do you want to share his fate? Do you want to find out if your composure can survive being crushed into the earth along with him?"
The survivors held their breath, expecting Pavellia to either flinch or fight. But she didn’t even blink.
She looked up at the godlike man, her eyes calm and analytical.
"And lose the only man who can provide the resources to sustain this kingdom?" Pavellia asked, her voice steady and cutting through Rex’s intimidation like a knife. "Temper your fury, Lustful Villain."
"A demon lord of the underlayer is a heavy burden, but he is a necessary one... Mordecai is a coward, yes, and a fool, but he is a fool with a Gacha System."
"Without his summons, without the luck of his rolls, this kingdom is just a graveyard waiting to be filled..."
"He is the engine of our survival. Let him live... for the sake of the system."
Rex stared at her for a long moment, the tension in his massive shoulders slowly uncoiling. "Huh...?"
He looked at the weeping, pathetic man in the mud, then back at the composed woman. A slow, huffing laugh escaped his throat.
"The Gacha System," Rex repeated, shaking his head in disbelief. "You’re telling me the fate of the world rests on a man who cries when he sees a shadow?"
He lowered his gauntlet, the golden light fading back into a simmer. "Fine."
"Keep your lucky little puppet. But tell him this: the next time he cries, make sure he does it somewhere far away from me."
Rex turned away from the whimpering demon lord, his interest in Mordecai evaporating as quickly as the steam from his skin. He walked toward Pavellia, his heavy footsteps echoing with a sense of purpose.
He wasn’t concerned about the politics of the courtyard or the terrified stares of the survivors; he only cared about the objective.
"Alright, Pavellia," Rex said, his voice regaining its commanding, authoritative edge.
He stood before her, a towering wall of muscle and divine energy. "The demon lord is a pathetic mess, but if he’s the key to the ’engine,’ then tell me plainly..."
"What exactly is my role in this underlayer after this? Why are the gods of this realm playing games with a man like him?"
Pavellia met his gaze, her eyes reflecting the fading golden light of his aura. "You think you’ve just been fighting a war, Lustful Villain, but you’ve been performing a necessary surgery."
"The reconstruction of the Underlayer wasn’t just about rebuilding walls; it was a purge..."
"The old guard, the corrupt, the weak—they were all cleared away by your hands."
"You didn’t just kill enemies; you cleared the field."
She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a more confidential, strategic tone. "Mordecai’s Gacha System doesn’t just pull from thin air."
"It draws from the essence of the fallen. Every soul you’ve sent to the afterlife, every monster you’ve pulverized—their residual energy becomes the fuel for his next roll."
"By destroying the old, inefficient forces of this realm, you have paved the way for him to summon a new, much more potent army... A force worthy of the coming storm."
Rex narrowed his eyes, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face. "So, the more carnage I cause, the stronger his summons become?"
"A symbiotic relationship of destruction and creation."
"Precisely," Pavellia continued. "But there is a catch."
"The system is volatile..."
"The energy he pulls is raw, chaotic, and often too much for a mortal soul to stabilize."
"That is where you come in... You must use your energy manipulation to act as a conduit..."
"When he rolls, you must reach into the flow of the summoning and refine the energy, tempering the chaos into something usable."
"You will be the blacksmith, and he will be the forge."
’This fucking peacock woman... he knows everything, huh? Rex thought. ’He knows about my energy manipulation, and... I can tell that he’s fucking suspicious of me, but so far... she has helped me provide a lot of good information.’
’Killing her here won’t give me any benefits... I need to use her more so that she can keep impressing me with her knowledge and wisdom.’
’But the weird thing is... her desire level didn’t appear since the start until now.’
’Is she some kind of a different thing or something...?’
Rex let out a low, appreciative hum. The idea of being the architect of a new, invincible legion appealed to his ego perfectly.
"Refining the chaos... molding the raw power of the fallen into a weapon."
"That sounds like a job meant for me."
"It is more than just a job, Lustful Villain," Pavellia said, her expression turning grave and intense. "It is the only way we survive."
"Everything you have done—the purges, the slaughter, the sheer devastation you’ve wrought—it was all a prelude. All of it was necessary for the singular goal: the war against Aethelgard."
Rex laughed. The mention of Aethelgard brought the fire back to his eyes, a familiar, burning hunger for conquest.
That was his true north. That was the reason he had descended into this realm, cutting through the bullshit of local lords and monsters to reach the core of the conflict.
"Aethelgard," Rex whispered, the name tasting like iron and glory on his tongue. "The final threshold."
"Yes... that’s why I’m here."
"The war won’t just be fought with steel and magic," Pavellia warned. "It will be fought with the sheer, overwhelming weight of an army that shouldn’t exist."
"An army born from the blood you’ve spilled and the energy you’ve mastered."
"If you want to crush Aethelgard, you must first help this coward build the hammer that will break them."
Rex looked back at Mordecai, who was still trying to wipe snot from his nose, and then out toward the horizon where the distant shadows of Aethelgard loomed. A dark, triumphant laugh erupted from his chest.
"Then let’s get to work," Rex declared, his gauntlets igniting with a fierce, purposeful light. "Let’s build a goddamn apocalypse."
"But first... let me give another speech for them all!"
