"What have they done...", Rex mutters with a darkened look.
Even though the face behind the metallic skull mask figure is disfigured and even skinless, Rex still finds some similarities in the figure's face, frame, and even eyes.
The similarities all point to one person he has never seen for a long time,
One person that he can consider his friend from the military, the only person that even bothered talking to him back then but got separated from him thanks to his violation of military rules.
Billy...
It's the name of the person that Rex never would've thought to meet again.
Back then Billy got taken away while Rex got put into the USR, with the current war against the Supernatural Rex has little to no hope of meeting with Billy again.
The battlefield is bloodied, holding some hope to meet with him again is a due pain.
Kyran who saw Rex unmoving from his spot walks over to him slowly, "Rex, Do you know that person? He's the sniper that attacked us before"
Hearing this, Rex sighs as he didn't answer Kyran's question.
He then notices a pendant on the floor,
'Did Ryze drop this? or is this Billy's?', Rex thought before he reaches for the pendant.
After taking the pendant, Rex inspects it closely.
The pendant is golden and round with weird carvings around it, Rex has never seen this pendant for it to be Ryze's but this kind of thing can be hidden easily.
Under closer inspection, there's a small button on the side of the pendant.
Rex slowly presses on it before the pendant makes a clicking sound, turns out the pendant can be opened and when opened, he was surprised to see an eye with a dark red iris and a narrow black pupil that is staring at him.
It looks like an eye of a creature and it seems to be alive!
Aside from that, Rex also notices a faint string of red energy coming from the pendant that seems to linked to something heading in a direction.
Looking at this, Rex frowned before he scans the pendant with the system.
<Soul Snatching Pendant of Zaddrass>
This pendant is built using a ninth rank sealing formation and also engraved with enhancing sealing abilities, Zaddrass the Lord of Red is sealed inside the pendant for thousands of years. Any person with a weak mentality that wore this pendant will be engulfed with Zaddrass consciousness, it will then snatch the soul of the wearer and finally break free of the seal.
Rex read the description with a frown, 'System, Who is this Zaddrass?'
'Yes', Rex instantly replied.
After agreeing to buy the information, another notification appears in front of him.
<Zaddrass Lord of the Red>
A Mythical dragon that has standing to the Dragonman Race, it has the power of what is known as Fire of Chaos that can even melt anything that it touches. Every flap of Zaddrass' wings drowns everything in its fire and thus giving him the nickname Lord of the Red, a powerful dragon that reaches back to the Radical Era.
Rex was surprised upon reading this,
Although he already suspects that Zaddrass is somekind of a powerful creature, he didn't expect that it's a dragon that it's linked to the Dragonman race and also lived through the Radical Era.
The matters become even more complicated just like that,
'So if I'm not mistaken, the reason for Ryze's sickness is because Zaddrass is slowly breaking the seal of the pendant by using Ryze's body. But still, why did Billy kidnap Ryze?'
'Does he know about this? What is he trying to do here...'
Rex is standing still dwelling inside his thoughts but out of nowhere,
Bang!
Crackle!
Both Rex and Kyran look in the far distance and saw fireworks decorating the night sky with beautiful patterns, the sight stunned them for a moment but Rex's eyes suddenly widen.
"God's Lenience Celebration...", Rex mutters as he remembered the celebration.
While talking to Ryze before, he pays the system for the information regarding the God's Lenience Celebration where Kiamat the King of Flying Creatures died and every couple of years the kingly energy comes and will weaken all winged creatures through sunlight.
Although still vague, Rex feels a bad feeling regarding this.
Even if he tries to find another motive for Billy to kidnap Ryze, he can't find any and the addition of the pendant makes Rex sure that it has something to do with the God's Lenience Celebration.
'If my assumption is true, then this red energy string should be linked to Ryze'
'Although it's hard to say Zaddrass should be linked with Ryze, and during the God's Lenience Celebration every flying creature will be weakened including Zaddrass...'
<Sudden Quest!>
Zaddrass has successfully infiltrated Ryze's mind and slowly breaks the seal, this will slowly consume Ryze's consciousness and eventually result in death and the rebirth of Zaddrass the Lord of Red. Prevent the rebirth of Zaddrass!
Time Limit: 3 Hours
Quest Reward: Immunity to Fire, 7,000,000,000 Exp, Teeth of Red, Chaos Fire Rune
<Sudden Quest!>
Ryze has been taken by a masked figure that the user has recognized as Billy, a long-lost friend of the user from the military! Find out what Billy is planning and rescue Ryze before Billy is able to do his plan!
Time Limit: 3 Hours 10 Minutes
Quest Reward: 2,000,000,000 Exp, 100,000 Gold, and Ethos of Red Force
Upon the appearance of the two Sudden Quests, Rex was surprised since this is the first time two Sudden Quests appeared at the same time.
But from these two Sudden Quests alone he knows that Ryze is in danger.
Rex clench the pendant in his hand before he looks at the red energy string, he then glances at Kyran on his side, "Call everyone and meet me in front of the mansion"
"Bring the Disaster Squad too", he added with a dark look.
Hearing this, Kyran realizes the urgency of the situation from Rex's look, he nodded his head before he went to call the others just as he was instructed.
A moment later, Rex is standing in front of the mansion waiting for the others.
Some of the Awakened that are guarding the mansion got knocked down by Billy, some of them are even at the sixth rank but somehow Billy manages to be able to knock them down.
The ones that are not knocked down didn't even realize the mansion got infiltrated,
Everything has been done very smoothly that it's almost as if Rex never knew Billy from the start, the infiltration he did was done perfectly as if he's an expert.
This makes Rex frown as he never remembered Billy being this strong,
During the time he had with Billy inside the military, Rex knows that Billy is just like him, a normal human that is serving the military for the better good of humanity.
Nothing is special to Billy, he's even considered one of the weak ones in the military.
For him to knock down sixth rank Awakened shows that he's not the same Billy that Rex knew, something happened to him especially since even his face is disfigured.
'Just what happened to him, did he got forced to become a lab rat by the military?'
It's horrifying to see Billy's skinless and disfigured face, it's almost as if his skin got melted down, and also he got beaten black and blue resulting in that disfigured face.
But Rex shakes his head as he realizes there's no point thinking about it,
All he needs to do now is find Billy to ask him directly about this and also save Ryze, he's still a friend even with the state he's currently in so Rex has to know.
Rex looks up to the night sky before he thought, 'It seems the rebirth will be exactly at dawn'
Based on the Sudden Quests' time limit from the system which is three hours from now, the rebirth of Zaddrass will be exactly at dawn when the sun reaches the sky.
If he were to prevent the rebirth of Zaddrass, he will need to act fast and reach there.
Not long after, Rex heard footsteps before he turns around.
Everyone including the Disaster Squad came out of the mansion ready for combat, all of them are already wearing combat outfits with weapons strapped to them.
Rex was impressed by how fast they are to ready up,
He scans the Disaster Squad and finds that all of them have reached the third rank realm except for Tandu that already reaches the peak of the third rank.
Their growth is super fast and that is all thanks to the affinity orbs,
Aside from that, Rex has also given them items to upgrade their elements to get rid of the bottlenecks a new Awakened would've had.
But this is not the time to be impressed, Rex glance at each one of them and explains the situation, "There's something urgent came up, a disaster will happen during daybreak and we're going to prevent that from happening ourselves"
"If we fail then many people will die, including Ryze..."
Hearing this, Adhara and Gistella were surprised as they were not aware of the fight.
After saying that, Rex's eyes fall to Edward who is still in the mansion to look after the Disaster Squad, "Is it true?", he asks with an expression of disbelief.
"The sniper... Is it really Billy?", he added demanding an answer.
Tandu who heard about this looks at Rex with a frown, "Billy? I've heard that name before"
Rex and Edward look at Tandu questioningly as they are curious how did Tandu know about Billy, he's not from the Noob Box so Tandu shouldn't know the Billy they're talking about.
"Oh! I remember!", Aldo suddenly exclaims catching everybody's gaze.
After he realizes that everybody is looking at him, Aldo clears his throat and said, "I've heard Billy through a quite booming news inside the military, it's about a project gone wrong"
"The news didn't specify the name Billy but I heard it from rumors spreading around"
Hearing this, Rex grits his teeth before signaling for Aldo to stop, "Let's focus on the task on hand first, we'll ask Billy what really happened to him", he added before they all dash away.
Rex didn't forget to tell the other Awakened guards to follow him,
If they somehow fail to prevent the rebirth of Zaddrass then it will be disastrous to the normal people, so Rex needs all the help he can get to evacuate the normal people.
'But I can't bring too much, It'll get messy if I ask help from other families', Rex thought.
Although asking for help from other families will be great since the evacuation can be done faster if he did, there's a chance that it will not end well, they might decide to turn Billy in or even Ryze if he got saved.
So he can only rely on himself and those who he trusts,
Rex realized that what he's doing is selfish since he knows that if he fails then many people will die without the help of other families, but he wants to know what happened to Billy.
He's his friend after all, the first one to be exact.
Since the Disaster Squad is still too slow, Rex told Gistella to help them.
Gistella established a newfound fear since the day she beats up the Disaster Squad, she's now given the nickname the Beautiful Beast by Aldo.
Of course, Gistella didn't like it so she beat Aldo some more at that time.
Using her bluish energy, Gistella creates a bubble around the Disaster Squad entrapping them inside before they all dash with Rex leading them.
Rex is holding the pendant in his hand following the red string,
With their movement, it takes about two hours to reach the destination which brings them back to sector 3B which is where the Rirgas Family mansion lies.
Arriving at the place, Rex finds the entire street is filled with people.
This should be the last day of God's Lenience Celebration thus explaining the crowded street, during the last day people will keep celebrating until the sunrise, but this becomes a very dire situation, if Zaddrass manages to break the seal here then all of these people will die.
"Tandu, lead your squad to evacuate all of these people", Rex instructed.
He then glance back at Tandu before he added, "Your squad, Gistella, Edward, and the Awakened guards will be tasked to evacuate the people here as far as possible"
"How are we going to gather their attention?", Tandu asks in confusion.
Just from roughly counting there are more than a couple of thousand people roaming the street, and all of them are chattering with food stalls, game stalls, and many others.
It will be difficult to attract the attention of such a crowd,
But Rex ignores Tandu as his body started blitzing with sky black lightning, he then sets his eyes on the bridge in the middle above the man-made lake, "Ether Blink!'
CRACK!
BOOM!
Rex's body disappears in an instant before a lightning strike descends onto the bridge,
The sudden disappearance shocks the Disaster Squad since this is their first time seeing Rex like this, all of them realized that he's really not the Rex they have known before.
Some of the normal people on the bridge were shocked upon seeing the lightning strike.
They all got pushed back from the shockwave a bit but it's not that hard, Rex already controls the lightning strike so it doesn't hurt anyone near the bridge.
Upon seeing Rex, they were all dazed as they didn't expect his arrival here.
"Everybody! Leave this place this instant!!", Rex shouted.
His shout reverberated to the entire place as even some of the Awakened got attracted by his violent mana, the bustling street becomes dead silent in an instant.
All of the normal people glance at Rex on the bridge in confusion,
But seeing the normal people didn't move at all, Rex's body started blitzing with sky black lightning more violently as he shouted again, "LEAVE RIGHT NOW!!"
"Come on! Everybody leave this place!"
"Let's go! Move!"
"If you want to keep your lives then get on with it! MOVE!!"
The Disaster Squad started helping Rex as they help the normal people evacuate the place, all of them were confused but they all saw the serious look on Rex's expression.
Without having no other choice, they all scurry away with the help of Rex's side.
After the people here started to evacuate, Adhara and Kyran landed beside Rex who is still on the bridge while looking at the pendant in his hand.
The red energy string disappears which makes Rex frown, but the pendant glows red lightly.
"Where are they?", Adhara asks.
Hearing this, Rex also frowns as he didn't know where they are.
Kyran looks around the place putting his senses to the max, he possesses the most terrifying senses amongst them so he should be able to locate Ryze especially since he's a Werewolf.
With how much time he spent with Ryze, he remembered Ryze's scent perfectly.
"Let's stick together and search the entire sector, they should be around here", Rex instructed as the three of them stuck together passing the still evacuating normal people.
They scour through the entire span of the man-made lake before stopping at a bridge again.
But then suddenly, the pendant glows brighter.
Seeing this, the three of them looks around as this change in the pendant should indicate that they're close to Ryze.
Kyran scans the place again before suddenly, "WATCH OUT!"
BOOM!
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