As the night continues, one of the doors leading to an empty room inside the Silverstar Pack castle was opened earlier than expected. Coming out of the darkness to step outside, Rex looks along the corridor with an intense gaze.
It's only been a couple of hours since his training, yet he decided to come out.
<Progress to reach eighth-rank realm in the user's lightning elements: 11%>
Reading the prompt from the system, Rex sighs as he was still far away from reaching the eighth-rank realm for his lightning side. In mere hours, many would find his growth terrifying, yet that's considered normal for him.
Considering the resources he has in his hands, this kind of growth is as expected.
'What the hell is going on, is there an army nearby? I can't concentrate...' Rex thought with a clear frown on his face, the last hour was filled with notifications from the System, showing the partial experience points that he gained.
It was shocking because the System's prompts overflowed his vision completely.
Even though he has his eyes closed to focus on breaking through the next realm, the notifications can still be seen and disturb his concentration. Under the sheer amount of notifications, he was unable to continue his training.
Rex finds it very hard to ignore when it's clear that something is going on.
With still the same frown on his face, he turned his face and gazed at the end of the corridor for a brief moment. 'How many humans have they killed...? Definitely in the tens of thousands' Rex thought, but then he looks down with a troubled look. 'I still need time.'
Raising his gaze back up, he then started to make his way toward the great hall.
Along the way he didn't sense anyone except for Gistella and Naela in the other room, the others seems to not be inside the castle. Upon reaching the great hall, he glanced to the side and finds a figure standing near the entrance to the castle.
Gelmar was there, he seems to be standing on guard inside the castle.
Moreover, his eyes lit up when he saw Rex walking into the great hall. It seems he was also tasked here to report the situation to him when he came out of training, the others must be dealing with the problem right now.
Fixing his gaze on Gelmar, Rex approached him and asked, "Where are the others?"
"Lord Rex, a couple of hours ago we received a visit from the Dark Elf and Dwarf. Both bring news of grave concern, the humans have already made their move, bringing their forces into the Supernatural territory. Armies of humans have been sighted heading toward both kingdoms. Lady Adhara hasn't returned yet, while Lady Evelyn and Sir Flunra have gone out to help the Dark Elf Kingdom" Gelmar quickly reported, he can see that Rex doesn't want to waste time with small banter.
Upon hearing this, Rex looks at the wall of the castle in deep thought.
But as he was thinking, Gelmar then added a crucial piece to the story, "It's been said that there's a couple of weird Black Hand amongst the army, powerful spells bounced off of their bodies"
"Hmm...? Weird Black Hands? How powerful are the spells?" Rex asked again in confusion.
Many already categorized the Black Hands are weird, they are after all people that have unique powers that came from a serum developed by the SCO. Yet, deflecting spells as mentioned, Rex has never heard of someone possessing that kind of ability.
Remembering the conversation he heard earlier, Gelmar then replied, "Sixth-rank realm"
"Because of these weird Black Hands, Lady Evelyn and Sir Flunra decided to find out more about them. Like your reaction, they too find this finding weird" he added, he was there so he knows.
Although it's slightly worrying, Rex didn't find the need to check on them.
Out of everything, the most important thing that he needs to be worried about was just one entity, "Is the Executor or other ninth-rank realm Awakened attacking alongside the army? Or is it just regular army?"
"I didn't hear any mentioning of the high-rank humans amongst the army" Gelmar replied.
Since he was there listening to the conversation about the news brought by the Dark Elf and Dwarf, he can confidently say that the army should be a regular one as there was no mention of strong Awakened.
Only the weird Black Hands, the main center of the conversation.
Upon hearing this, Rex gives a nod to Gelmar before he turns around and heads to the throne while still pondering the situation. 'I don't need to worry too much, Flunra is with them. Also, the two of them have broken through to the eighth-rank realm, they are unbeatable aside from against the ninth-rank realm'
As he thought of that, he then sat on the throne and rest his arms on the arm handles.
'Now, the problem that remains is the purpose of this attack. If I have to guess at the top of my head, if the Black Hands are special enough, they might be attacking to test their powers' Rex thought.
It was the only logical guess if the Black Hands are really the main star of the attack.
But even though that is the case, Rex knows that he can't be jumping to conclusions without positive indicators that lead to his assumption. 'If it's the Executor's plan, then I need to be more careful'
While he was thinking about this, his mind then went back to a couple of hours ago.
Rex was training inside the room to reach unification with Devo, and he was disturbed for a brief second by a faraway jolt of energy that sent a cold shiver down his spine. Instantly, he accuses the Executor of this sudden wave of energy.
Out of the existing entities in this era, only the Executor can make him alert like this.
Even though Rex is about 80% sure that the wave of energy belongs to the Executor, he also senses a sliver of cursed energy. If he was not focusing on the source of the energy, he wouldn't be able to sense it as it's very pale.
'Are they fighting against each other too...?' Rex thought, rubbing his chin in thought.
For all he knows, the Witch of Chaos is a being from the past too, probably as old as the Executor. The worst case scenario was the two of them working together, which would result in a higher realm of difficulty.
Defeating the Executor is a hard task already, and if they work together, it will be impossible.
But it seems that is not the case, coming from the same era doesn't mean harmony. In fact, Rex suspects them to have a history with each other, something that might make it hard for them to work together.
'Then again, this is still just a guess, I'm still traversing blind here' Rex thought.
Speaking of the Witch of Chaos, Rex's mind began to travel back to the underground canyon near the Faraday University, Rurvi the Evil One's Lair. 'I need to learn more about why the Witch of Chaos wants the curse inside Gistella, the ancient drawings inside that canyon must have some relation to this considering Rurvi was also desired by that damn witch'
Rex has a strong feeling about this one, if only he could get there to check it himself.
Although that is what he was hoping for, the fact remains that he can't get there, the underground canyon is not only inside the human territory but also inside Ratmawati City. It's impossible to go there without slaughtering his way.
Moreover, he would be running straight to the Executor if he did that.
Even though he has definitely gotten stronger from the last time he met the Executor, at least on his Awakened side, he would still not be a match against the Executor. Every sense of his body remembers that night.
A pressure that surpasses his imagination, he's still not in that realm yet.
Just as his mind was rapidly analyzing the situation to better understand the threats he was up against, Rex lifted his head when he sensed two familiar figures approaching the castle from the distance.
One of them was instantly recognized, while the other puts a frown on his face.
'Huh... I don't know how this happened, but I think they just got us a ticket to get all of the intel we need' Rex thought excitedly, the corner of his mouth quirks up into a smile that keeps on blossoming.
If it's not lady luck being on his side, he doesn't know what is as this is good for them.
~
Meanwhile, inside the Humming Damned Forest.
"What's with the long face, Green Messenger? Haven't you seen cursed creatures before?" Flunra asked mockingly as he sliced through the glade quickly, cutting the mutated animals and cursed creatures that got in his way.
Right in front of him is Prof. K, also dashing through the forest.
Although the others including Flunra believed that Rex has the capability to erase the memory of Prof. K or at least induce a preventive measure to Prof. K regarding the location of the city, Flunra didn't want to take that chance.
With that in mind, he decided to use the teleportation rune like he use in the human territory.
Flunra cleaned the rest of the human army alongside the Dark Elves before the two of them teleported into the Humming Damned Forest. In his hand was an enchanted black rope, given by the Dark Elves that tied up the weird Black Hands that he wanted to study.
Knowing a bit about them, Flunra decided to bring them back.
None of them were conscious at this current moment, and there are only five of them, the other five were weaker so he end up killing them instead of bringing them back with him to the castle.
Prof. K looks around the place and can't help but frown.
It was not on a large scale, but there are specialized divisions that were tasked to locate the Silverstar Pack. Yet none of them managed to produce any results, and now he knows why they can't.
Considering this forest is filled with cursed creatures, it's understandable.
Moreover, the mutated animals inside this forest were at the very least inside the sixth-rank realm, and it's a common occurrence to find small poisonous seventh-rank mutated animals here which is quite terrifying.
Anyone below the seventh-rank realm would die very quickly inside this forest.
Upon traversing through the forest for about ten minutes, Prof. K saw that the trees around them are starting to get fewer, and at the end of his vision can be seen the end of the forest that leads to an open space.
But as soon as he emerged from the forest, his eyes went completely round.
"W-What is this...? A city?" Prof. K mutters in absolute disbelief, his eyes bear witness to a majestic moonlight city that seemed to be blessed by the moon itself. A thick layer of energy can be seen seeping out from the towering wall that reaches quite high.
Walking past Prof. K that seemed to be in awe, Flunra heads over to the gate of the city.
Looking at the guards at the top of the wall, gazing down at him, Flunra waved his hand before the heavy door slowly opened from the inside. It was manual, through a lever that is a part of the expansion blueprint.
Considering the weight of the gate, manually opening it would be impossible.
Flunra and Evelyn have already tested before, and the material that the city was built in is very tough. It also has a self-healing ability, using the moonlight from above. Even for someone like him, opening the gate manually would probably be very hard.
Not even saying anything, Flunra went inside and walk through the beautiful pedestrian road.
Upon seeing that he was being left behind, Prof. K quickly pick up his pace. At this point, he can't escape as he can already feel the overbearing pressure coming from the center of the city, 'It must be him. The pressure got stronger, my legs are shaking'
Scouring through the road under the citizen's gaze, Prof. K kept his gaze down.
Despite not intending to cause any ruckus inside the city, he already made a mental note that the city hosted not only the Silverstar Pack but also other Supernaturals. It seems a change happened to Rex's mentality.
It didn't take long before the two of them reaches the castle, and walks inside.
Prof. K looks to the pit beside the bridge and finds a huge menacing white serpent hissing at him, it even tries to attack him but was blocked by a barrier covering the surface of the pit that kept the white serpent inside.
But then, his heart started thumping faster as he stands in front of the castle's entrance.
Slowly, the castle gate opened before Prof. K raises his gaze to see the inside of the castle. It was then his pupils trembled when he saw the scene beyond the castle's entrance, a sight that many would consider the throne of a God-King.
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