Rex's eyes widened, he was given no other choice but to stare at what was in front of him.
Standing a couple of inches away from his face was Calidora's bewitching eyes.
Aside from the unexpected encounter with her today, the two of them have only met two times and each one is not a fun encounter, at least for Rex. It has never reached his attention to inspect Calidora's eyes so closely.
But now that he was forced to look at them, he was somewhat put into a stupor or haze.
Inside her deep crimson eyes are black patterns, swirling around her pupils like a wreathing black serpent. Its movement was slow yet every turn is precise, almost as if it knows the purpose of its existence.
Unlike other living beings that don't know their purpose, this inanimate existence does.
Nothing aside from the ruby eyes seems to be inside his mind right now, Rex can't help but wonder how exactly this power came to be because of him. As of right now, he still doesn't know what he did to make Calidora like this.
Somehow, that keeps on being a mystery, and he somewhat fears to learn its truth.
While he was scrutinizing the pair of eyes in search of any sign or cue that she was lying, Rex saw a change happening in her eyes, the deep crimson color slowly melted away, replaced by a sharp mulberry color.
Clenching his jaw, Rex averted his gaze away reluctantly.
"See? I think you realize yourself that I'm not lying, and you probably know that if I really did, I would've rubbed it to your face just to get a reaction from you, no...?" Calidora said teasingly, leaning to the side to be in Rex's line of sight again.
Rex didn't say anything, he only turns around and leaped away.
It feels weird for him to be anywhere near Calidora, there's still much to process with this.
Upon reaching the spot where Gistella should be at, he saw that she was already gone, Delta should've taken her earlier. As their instinct is somewhat connected, he can call Delta almost like an unnatural telepathy.
Putting both of his hands on his waist, he sighs deeply and rubs his face harshly.
'I already told Adhara to not come back, the matter with those two cursed creatures is resolved for now. But I still feel uneasy, the Witch wanted that curse for a reason, is it the right thing to let her be right now?' Rex thought to himself, undecided.
But he then shakes his head, there's no need for him to think about that now.
As far as he was concerned, there was no real animosity from the Witch as he hasn't attacked her even once. On the other hand, the Executor injured her. If she gained some sort of power from this, then she would definitely aim for the Executor first.
Just as he was thinking, Gelmar came running before stopping in front of him.
"Lord Rex, we've spotted a visitor approaching the castle. From the banners their convoy is bringing, they should be from the Elf Race" Gelmar reported, the guards tasked at the top of the castle said that to him earlier.
Rex frowns when he heard this, he was not expecting any visitor this day.
Earlier this morning he was dealing with Giana and Prof. K, and now he has gotten yet another visitor. 'It's enough for today, I need to absorb Giana's spirit cores and also keep on training. No more today'
"I've come with them, Aunt Shanaela gained a message from the Dark Elf about you"
Glancing to the back at the sound of the voice, it was Calidora.
Upon seeing that Calidora shifted her eyes to Gelmar, he instantly looks down as beads of cold sweat run down the side of his face. Albeit not know who she was, the blood energy coming from her is so thick that it's suffocating.
Clearly, this Vampire is a very powerful Royal Vampire that he didn't know about.
"Don't be scared of me, Elf. If you're his subordinate, then I will not hurt you. At least not now..." Calidora said with a light smirk, rubbing her claws against her lower lip. It was a gesture that increases the intimidation Gelmar felt about her.
Rex ignores her and intends to tell Gelmar to decline the Elves for now, but he stopped.
'Hmm... Gelmar is probably not a good pick to confront the Elves, he might be too nervous to meet with his former Queen. I'll handle this myself' Rex thought before he nodded inwardly. "How much time until they reached the city's gate?"
"I believe it will be around fifteen minutes before they arrive" Gelmar replied.
Upon hearing this Rex nodded his head, he wanted to check Gistella a bit before he meet with the Elves and decline their visit for now. "Call Dindora and Linthia to meet with me at the city's main gate, they'll need to be exposed to this kind of situation and get used to it"
Not wasting a single second, Gelmar bowed before he leaped away.
Although it's only been a short amount of time, Rex can feel Gelmar's power increasing. It's a good thing to see, he seems to be working hard albeit the lack of strict control and monitoring from his side.
With that out of the way, Rex went over to the castle first followed by Calidora.
In front of the castle, he can't help but glance at Calidora that is marveling at the castle's exterior. Making a Royal Vampire in awe with the exterior of the castle is no small feat, considering that she's probably pampered with richness from birth.
"What are you doing here? Wait for me at the city's gate" Rex said in annoyance.
Despite him knowing that he needs Calidora so that he can start his path on curse powers, he's not comfortable enough to bring her inside the castle. At least without a proper event for it.
Before she can answer, Rex then added, "If you try anything inside the castle, you're dead"
"Don't think that your little curse power can help you stop me, I am the sovereign of the castle. If you stepped into the castle, it's the same as if you're surrendering yourself to me"
But Calidora simply smiled, "What's wrong with that? Are you going to kill me?"
Upon hearing this, Rex gritted his teeth before he sighs as it seems he was too transparent in front of Calidora's eyes. She probably senses the feeling that he can't afford to kill her, or maybe she's confident because of the Eternal Curse binding them.
Inside the castle, there's no one that can match Calidora aside from him.
So with the lack of entities that can threaten her inside, she's this comfortable exposing herself to danger. Considering that Rex literally can't kill her, she has the right to feel that way.
Rex opens the castle's entrance with a wave of his hand and stepped into the throne room.
At the stairs of the throne was Gistella, she was still a little bit pale.
Since her soul was almost extracted alongside the curse inside of her earlier, it's understandable that she's weakened like this. Beside her was Delta, giving her comfort to the best of her abilities.
Despite her weak body, the sight of Rex still makes her muster up a smile.
Going over to her, Rex crouches beside her before taking out another elixir from his inventory. It was pale in color. Without even saying anything, he puts some on his fingers before he rubbed it on Gistella's forehead.
In a moment, a chilling sensation travels throughout her body, like a wind of cold ice.
Although she doesn't know what it is, the refreshing feeling makes her closes her eyes to enjoy the sensation fully. "Delta, bring Gistella to her room and accompany her there. I'll do more checkups on her later"
"Where are you going?" Gistella asked lightly.
Rex puts the elixir away before he replied with a comforting tone, "The Elves, they are approaching the city. I'll be back in a bit, if you feel any sort of pain tell Delta to come to me. I'll be there instantly"
Smiling lightly, he then caresses her silver hair gently, "Rest for now, I want you to recover"
"Okay, I'll do that..." Gistella replied with a sweet smile.
But as she said that while enjoying the warm and somewhat comforting feeling that Rex's hand brought to her, Gistella's eyes suddenly caught sight of Calidora standing at the center of the throne room with her eyes fixated on her.
It was then she felt her throat becoming dry as Calidora's eyes flickered from purple to red.
Despite she was putting on a smile that doesn't contain any malice whatsoever, the flickering eyes makes Gistella feel uncomfortable, and even her back started sweating for some reason which is odd.
"Lord Rex, the Elves are nearing" Calidora suddenly said, using an appellation for Rex's name.
Upon hearing this Rex was surprised, he didn't bother telling her to refer to him with 'Lord' knowing that she probably doesn't want to and it would be a pain to force her to use that. So he didn't say anything.
Glancing over his shoulder, he then nodded his head and stands up. "Get some rest"
Rex then turns around and heads to the castle's entrance, his mind is occupied with many things as the attack from the two cursed creatures showed that he's still lacking in some parts and needed to make sure that it won't happen again.
While striding over to the castle's entrance, he walks past Calidora in the process.
Ignoring her, he opens the castle's entrance door with a wave of his hand.
Unknown to him, the air behind him was somewhat silent and choking. Even as he reaches the castle's entrance, Gistella feels huge discomfort in her chest as Calidora keeps looking intently at her with repeated, sadistic silence that alludes to violence.
It was unclear what was in her mind, but it doesn't seem to be good.
Gistella tries to keep a positive thought as her mind might be biased as Calidora is an outsider, yet she can't shake the paralyzing feeling that she felt from the sharp gaze of those pair of purple eyes.
Delta bares her fangs and lets out a baritone growl, showing her hostility at Calidora.
But this snapped Calidora as she turns sideways while still keeping her eyes on Gistella, it was nearing the end that she smirked a little before she turns around and went out of the castle, following Rex to the city's main entrance.
"What was that...?" Gistella sucked in a deep cold breath before she uttered to herself.
~
Meanwhile, somewhere inside Ratmawati City.
In a particular corner of the third sector there, was quite a popular night club, people are crowding and lining up in the front, and there are a couple of expensive cars parked outside, the highest-class of night clubs in this part of sector 3.
Although it's quite popular, it doesn't explain why there are dozens of Awakened in the area.
Just then a black Jeep abruptly stopped in front of the nightclub, boasting its screeching tire to the people around. From the inside, a woman in a business suit walks out, wearing black sunglasses.
The Bouncer didn't even try to stop her as she walked into the nightclub with wide strides.
Upon entering the nightclub, she instantly makes her way to the private rooms at the back, scouring through normal people, dancing on the dance floor that is trying to enjoy the night and forget the horrors that are looming over them outside.
Reaching a private room, she can see two sixth-rank realms Awakened standing by the door.
"How is he?" the woman asked.
One of the Awakened then replied by shaking his head.
Seeing this the woman can only sigh before she knocks on the door a couple of times lightly and walks into the room. Closing the door behind her, she then bowed slightly at the man sitting on the sofa while looking at the ceiling that is flashing with disco lights.
Not even saying anything, the woman grabs the bottle the man is holding and puts it aside.
"President Sebrof, I believe this is not the time for you to do this..."
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om