Chapter 1023 Last Step
Instead of going to her bed chamber, or drawing room, Rex went straight to the throne room.
His senses picked up a couple of people in there.
Nearing the throne room, his ears perked up as he could hear subtle discussions from there.
Vampires? Is it the envoy?
Picking up his pace, expecting that the envoy sent by Elder Nolacula to inform him about the progression of the Executor's march has arrived, he walked into the throne room from the left wing and saw three Vampires clad in royal armor, kneeling before the throne.
Calidora lifted her gaze when she saw Rex stepping inside.
"Good work, keep me updated. All of you are dismissed for now" She waved her hand.
Bowing deeper, the three Vampires then stood up to leave.
Seeing that the infamous Rex Silverstar was walking toward the throne, the three Vampires also bowed to him in respect before walking past him and going to the exit. No matter what the current circumstances are, his presence demands respect.
Moreover, technically albeit unofficial, Rex has become a part of the Royal Family.
"Who are they?" Rex said when the Vampires left.
Calidora leaned back to her throne and replied gracefully, "My protectors. I got news from them about the situation of the human army led by the Executor. I reckoned you wanted to know about it, so I assigned them to do that"
Upon hearing this, Rex's eyes flickered.
It was exactly what he needed, and Calidora seemed to have taken the initiative.
Now that he had cut all contact with the others, he also became blind to the progression that had taken place. His sources usually came from the Dark Elf scouts that were sent to monitor what had transpired on the battlefield.
But now, he couldn't talk to them, so he's completely blind.
"Let's move to another room first before we talk about this" Rex said and pivoted around.
Calidora stood up from her throne with a chuckle.
Naturally, she knows that Rex's ego isn't going to let him talk with Calidora who was on the throne, an elevated platform that made her eye level way higher than his, "Forgive me for being inconsiderate, your Majesty"
Rex clicked his tongue in displeasure.
Clearly, Calidora read through him and teased him for it.
Moving on to another empty room, Rex raised his eyebrow, "Where's Mavenna?"
"I think she was spooked by the thing inside of you and left the castle. But don't worry, I told her to not wander too far lest she gets into trouble" Calidora replied, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly as Mavenna wasn't going anywhere.
Judging from her behavior, it doesn't seem like she wanted to go back to her home.
Soon the two sat inside an empty room.
Not wasting a single moment, Calidora instantly conveyed what she had learned.
Based on the Vampires who reported to her earlier, the Executor and his massive army were advancing very slowly and were located about twenty miles away from the Symposium. If no obstacles were in the way, he would arrive around two to three days.
However, it was unlikely for that to happen as he was met with hard resistance.
It was from the Supernatural forces.
So far, only the Vampires and Demons had joined the fray in resisting him.
Contrary to an upfront resistance, clashing against the Executor and his army, they adopted to instead stall him by attacking the supply routes, chipping the split forces, and even as far as destroying the terrain.
Anything they did was aimed at stalling the Executor.
Not being directly involved with the talk of strategy against the Executor's march, Calidora thought that the reason they were doing this was to make more time for them to prepare a countermeasure against the Executor.
After all, killing the Executor is not an easy thing to do.
Killing such an entity would require Origin-level weapons or even forbidden spells.
But Rex knew the real truth about why they were doing that.
Seems like they are sticking with their promise, to give me a chance against the Executor. Huh. I am not naive enough to believe that they gave me this chance out of honor, but it's completely fine. As long as I have my chance.
It was clear that they were stalling to wait for Rex.
During his fight against the Supernatural Elders, he demanded to be given a chance.
A chance to beat the Executor fair and square.
Naturally, given the temporary relationship he had with Elder Nolacula and Elder Tilrith, they were doing this to fulfill their promise. Giving a chance to Rex associate them with no actual risk whatsoever, it was completely risk-free.
If Rex won, then it was good for them. If Rex lost, nothing changed.
From the Supernatural Elders' point of view, Rex's proposition is a very good deal for them.
Since they were doing their part, I can't fail my part.
"What about the Executor? What is his response to this?" Rex asked.
Calidora pondered for a moment, recalling the discussion she had before she replied, "I don't think he seemed troubled with the obstacles. Earlier, he was spotted summoning a creature. I reckon he did that to deal with the skirmishes on the supply routes"
"Since it was vital for their march, he took matters into his own hands" She added firmly.
Upon hearing this, Rex couldn't help but frown.
How many powers does his Chaos element give him? He could suppress Supernaturals with his presence alone, he could corrupt all spells directed at him and return them to the caster, and now he could also summon unknown creatures.
Just the news about the Executor's power alone bears heavily on Rex's mind.
It only gets worse and worse the more Rex learns about him.
Knowing that the Executor's power was extremely versatile and also overwhelming, Rex felt a shiver running down his spine at the thought of other Executors. If the Fifthborn is already so strong, then the others would be invincible.
But he couldn't get sidetracked for now.
He must refrain from thinking about future problems until he secures his future now.
"Based on what you said, I have more time than I expected, more time to become stronger. It should be four or five days max before the Executor arrives at the Symposium, and I need to be ready at that exact time" Rex said, his eyes glistening with determination.
Calidora nodded her head and stood up, "In that case, let's not waste any more time"
"Where are we going?" Rex asked, seeing her standing up.
Giving him a peculiar smile, Calidora's eyes glowed, "What else? To hunt, of course"
...
A moment later.
Since everything to prepare has been completed, the only thing left to do is to increase Rex's epiphany to the required realm. One might think that it's impossible for him to reach the ninth epiphany with him now only being at the fifth.
But anything becomes possible with enough grit and dedication.
Especially when now the time to reach the appropriate epiphany has been expanded.
Rex and Calidora went east and onward.
"So what's the plan here, Calidora?" Rex asked while walking side by side with her.
Upon hearing this, Calidora explained, "We would be aiming for weaker creatures until you reached the seventh epiphany to avoid any injury to your fragile cursed source that might make you unable to progress further. It's better to be safe than sorry"
Although it would probably take longer, Rex couldn't rebut her plan.
If he lost his cursed source, it would be game over.
Relying on his elemental prowess and King Marks wouldn't be enough to defeat the Executor.
Like what Calidora said, it would be better to take the safer route.
"Are you taking me to a similar place to the Humming Damned Forest, teeming with abundant cursed creatures?" Rex inquired once more, recognizing that finding a place like that was not going to be as easy as finding another forest.
Oddly enough, Calidora shook her head with a mysterious smirk.
It made a frown appear on Rex's face.
"Who said we're hunting cursed creatures...?" She replied, her smirk stretching wider.
Since Rex has always been hunting for cursed creatures in order to gain more cursed energy and advance his epiphany, he initially thought that it would be the same with Calidora. But it seems that was not the case.
Trailing her eyes forward again, she explained, "I'm sure the Witch doesn't know about this,"
"As the Witch of Chaos, she holds every knowledge of curses through her grimoire. However, her understanding of curses remains largely theoretical. She doesn't have the experience of all previous Witch of Chaos. In practice, if you want to increase your cursed epiphany faster, you would need to actively provide your curse with the sustenance it craves"
Rex listened to this attentively.
But at the end of it, he raised one of his eyebrows, "Sustenance it craves? What is it?"
"Yes, a sustenance that the curse desires" Calidora nodded.
Glancing sharply at Rex, her purple eyes gleamed with a mysterious luminescence, "In our case, I already deciphered what our Eternal Curse wants. It wants Life Essence, it feeds on the Life Essence of living being..."
Upon hearing this, Rex frowned in contemplation.
However, following that, his expression turned fierce, "Who did you kill...? And how many?"
Calidora reached the ninth epiphany with blazing-fast speed.
According to her explanation earlier, then she must've absorbed a massive amount of Life Essence, and that sustenance could only be taken from living beings. Rex could guess that it would take a lot to reach her cursed epiphany.
Naturally, there was concern in Rex's mind.
For all he knows, Calidora might've killed a lot of innocent people, especially children.
Regardless of whether they were Humans or Supernaturals, it would be crossing the line to do that consciously and unprovoked. Rex would not approve of that. In his case, he always has no choice but to fight.
But for Calidora, she was doing this for power, and that's different.
Seeing the strong reaction, Calidora chuckled.
"You know, I can charm animals..." She replied, a daunting smile playing on her lips. "A single cry from me, and all animals would come to me. No predatory animals can resist my charm, and sadly, they became my prey instead"
After saying that, Calidora pointed to the surroundings.
Both of them were a mile or so from the castle, surrounded by dead and hardly alive trees.
"Can you notice anything from the surroundings?" She asked lightly.
Rex scanned his eyes around their vicinity, trying to see what Calidora was talking about.
It didn't take long for him to take notice of something.
Since he had a lot in his mind, he was not focused on the surroundings. Now that he did, he instantly noticed that he could sense any living being for miles in radius from the castle. Not even a single normal or mutated animal.
Calidora nodded, noticing that Rex had already realized what she meant.
"I obliterated the mutated animals and animals around the castle and also two forests in the Elven Kingdom. I'm sure if Aunty Shanaela knew, she would be furious. But until now, she hasn't said a word, so she must've been busy" She explained nonchalantly.
Life Essence doesn't have higher scaling from one living being to another.
Due to that, there was no difference between the Life Essence of animals and other beings.
At the end of the day, it was the same, and Calidora exploited that.
"Aunty Shanaela?" Rex muttered questioningly.
In response, Calidora waved her hands in hubris, "My mother is close with Queen Shanaela, so I'm used to calling her aunty. What? Do you think only humans could have a relationship like this? How condescending of you, Rex"
"What? I didn't even say anything like that" Rex retorted in aghast to Calidora's conclusion.
He was only asking that out of curiosity.
Both of them argued jokingly and even played chasing through the landscape.
Even though the atmosphere started to melt between them, and in accompanied each other, nothing seemed to matter, deep down, both of them knew that the storm would only keep on brewing faster and bigger starting from now.
And their little argument and joke were only their ways to lessen the burden.
It was only a matter of time before the black cat came, bringing catastrophe alongside it.
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