Naela started to weep when she received the grievous news.
Ever since Rex told her that he had already found Kyran and he even promised to bring him back, she was already preparing herself to meet with Kyran as she was even wearing a beautiful black royal dress that her escort left behind back then.
Knowing that he would probably still be weak, she was even prepared to tend to him.
But what she didn't expect was the fact that Kyran came back in an unconscious frozen state, he's not aware of his surrounding in this state. Moreover, Rex told her a bomb that he would only wake up in a hundred years.
Rex didn't say anything right after saying that, which makes her emotions plummet low.
Aside from the first time they met and the way her life core reacted, Nalea doesn't have many memories with Kyran yet a couple of crystal tears rolled down her face. Her emotions are quite all over the place.
In the beginning, she was excited and shy to be betrothed to Kyran.
Soon enough she finds that Kyran was kidnapped which slams her emotion back to the lowest part. Now, she expected Kyran to come back but to only learn that he wouldn't wake up in a hundred years.
Naela finds it hard to endure the emotions and started to weep with Kyran on her lap.
Looking at Naela that seems to be devastated by the news, Gistella can only keep silent and pity her as she's a good person, she didn't deserve all of this. But then, her eyes shifted to Rex's back going further away.
'Rex must be preparing himself to search for a method to wake Kyran up' Gistella thought.
Watching from the side, she already somewhat knows how Rex as a person.
Possibly due to having to lose so many of his close ones, he was very protective of those around him now. Since Kyran is rendered to this state, his mind definitely can only think of a way to wake him up.
It's just who Rex is as a person, the experiences that molded him.
Despite that is what she was thinking, Gistella finds her heart thumping like a war drum.
Even though she also grief for Kyran who has been with Rex before she even got turned into a Werewolf, the feeling of her black heart that was about to jump out of her chest was not for him.
Somehow, she felt that the aura around Rex is odd for once.
Gistella didn't realize it but she was already following Rex, slowly picking up her pace.
Judging from his emotionless interaction with Naela as he gave the news surely shows that Rex is also still dealing with the bad news himself, if not then he would've offered some assurance to Naela.
Since Gistella is with him, there's no situation he can't handle, surely this one is the same.
Coursing through the hallway whilst keeping a distance from Rex who doesn't seem to have noticed her behind him, Gistella finds that he was heading straight to the courtyard and went over his parents' graves.
Peeking from the corner of the turn to the courtyard, she saw Rex standing still.
Many questions appeared in her mind, but from the looks of it, he was really pissed and grieving about Kyran's situation. 'I'll come back later when he's better. For now, I'll leave him alone to grief'
Gistella was about to head back to Naela to comfort her, but she then stopped.
Out of nowhere, the corner of her eyes caught sight of Rex conjuring an intricate spear made of lunar light in his hands. At this sight, she stopped to look, perplexed about what he was trying to do by summoning a spear.
Rex also imbued powerful black lightning to the spear, increasing its power by a notch.
But soon enough Gistella's eyes went completely wide when she saw Rex turn the spear around and pointed the head towards his chest, her confused expression instantly turns pale at this sight.
"S-Stop! Rex!" Gistella exclaimed from the side as she rushes towards him.
Despite her best attempt to move as quickly as possible, the black lighting has already engulfed the place and her words fell on deaf ears. Not intending to give up, she instantly turned into her Werewolf form.
Even though she was trying, Rex already brings the spear higher.
In a trance of the moment, everything slowed down as Gistella witnessed the sight of Rex pulling the spear towards his chest. Her eyes bulged in sheer horror, she was not expecting this kind of escalation at all.
Although she knew that Rex is going through it, this is completely unexpected.
Noticing the first twitch of Rex's arm muscles, signaling that he was about to drive the spear towards his chest with full force, Gistella's body tensed before she shouted at the top of her lungs.
"REX!! STOP!!"
Like a desperate call from the darkness, her voice tries to find a way to reach Rex's ears.
Blitz!
Crack!
Despite the dense black lightning that is already enveloping the entire place, her cries wiggle through them like a reaching hand with the hope of managing to reach Rex in time before it was too late.
But as the spearhead was about to pierce his chest, it stopped abruptly.
Rex stopped his own hands from doing what he was about to do, the violent energy of the spear has already pierced an inch deep into his chest, and blood can be seen trickling down his chest.
Pausing for a moment, he blinks his eyes a couple of times and snapped out of his daze.
Soon enough he looks up at the raining sky as he sensed a powerful aura rampaging around and splitting the sky quite a distance away, that powerful aura was the one that jolted his mind awake.
It was then the arcane black lightning mana around him got sucked back and fades away.
A frown appeared on his face as he pulls out the spearhead from his chest, he recognize that powerful aura instantly, 'It's the Executor, he's making a move right now...' Rex thought with a deep sigh.
Gazing down at the spear in his hands, Rex could only smile wryly at himself.
'It's been a while since I'm hurt, so I'm thinking of jolting my mind awake. But now is not the time'
Rex was about to put the spear away and see try and find out what the Executor is trying to do, if he's making a move then it should be something major. Even as of this moment, the energy of the world started to increase.
But before he could do that, the spear suddenly got taken away from his hand.
Upon his spear getting taken away suddenly, he looks back down and finds Gistella is the one that grabbed his spear. Rex can't see her face quite clearly as she was tilting her head down, yet the aura around her seems to change.
"Gistella? Since when are you here?" Rex asked in surprise.
Despite the fact that he was surprised that Gistella is here, Rex is now worried that Gistella might've misunderstood what he was doing, and it was very likely from the way she looks, "Why aren't you with Naela? She should be devastated by Kyran's con-"
Slap!
Out of nowhere, a solid slap landed on his face, forcing his eyes to slightly widen.
Reaching out to his burning cheek, Rex looks back at Gistella and saw a completely different side of her. Even he was surprised when he saw Gistella's eyes which are always soft and tender turn this fierce.
None of her submissive traits can be seen, her expression was stern and vicious.
It was a different side of her that he didn't even know exist.
"Be with Naela? Do I really need to be worried about Naela instead of you?" Gistella replied with a sarcastic tone, she even kept strong eye contact which is rather out of her character.
Upon hearing this, Rex was at a loss for words to answer her.
Even if he tries to come up with something to de-escalate the situation right now, she probably wouldn't believe him as it was written clearly on her face. It was not but a moment of carelessness, he let his intrusive thoughts win.
'I'm not going to do that yet though, there's still so much thing for me to do before that'
Lately, he has been receiving numerous losses against his enemies.
The Executor had completely overpowered him, showing that their strength was far apart by a wide margin, akin to the sky and the ground. Soon after, Gistella was afflicted with a curse that left her weak and ill. And now, Kyran is forced to hibernate and he doesn't have anything that can alleviate the situation.
Rex didn't even know it himself, but those losses takes a toll on him mentally.
At the time, for a brief moment, he thought that his mind was not sharp and in need of some stimulation in order to be more aware and protect those close to him. Losing one more might be too much for him to handle.
If that happened, then the thought of dying is better than the pain of losing someone again.
But now he hasn't reached that state yet.
Seeing the expression Gistella is wearing right now, he was surprised that she was this devastated by the misunderstanding, and cursed himself for not realizing that she was watching from behind.
"What are you doing, Rex...? If you had all this pain, then why would you hide it in you?"
Gistella's voice was monotone, but in there hide a million emotions.
Even the shock and frustration can be seen in her clear silvery eyes, "I know what you had lost, and I know that you are afraid of losing more. I know you're frustrated, worrying about us all the time. And I know that we're still too weak to support you"
As she said this, her tone started to increasingly get more aggressive.
With each heightening of her tone is a clear emotion that backed it up, Rex can feel that what he did earlier hurts Gistella deeply. It was not intentional, but his mind was too occupied to realize that Gistella is following him.
Pausing for a moment, Gistella grabs Rex by the collar and pulls him closer roughly.
Looking straight at Rex's red eyes, almost glaring straight into his soul, she then added with the exasperation inside of her reaching its peak. "But if you consider us as families, then let us help you! Don't hold it in yourself..."
Gistella loosens her grip on Rex's collar as her hand slowly slides down to his bleeding chest.
"Please... be open with us. Even a born Undead knows that there's more than power to a person. If you let us, we could help you with that..." She added, her voice began to break, and tears dropped down to the ground.
Upon hearing her words slowly fading away, guilt started to creep in.
It wasn't supposed to be seen by Gistella, or anyone around him. But now it was already too late, she misunderstood his intention earlier and Rex doesn't know how to tell her that it was a misunderstanding.
Due to that, he could only reach out his arms and pulls Gistella tightly into his embrace.
"I'm sorry for letting you see that" Rex said gently in an apologetic tone.
But this makes Gistella even more annoyed, with tears still rolling down her face she pushed Rex away in exasperation, "See that?! You shouldn't have done that regardless if I saw that or not!" She exclaimed.
Out of sheer anger, Gistella glared at Rex again with a puffed face due to crying.
Wiping her tears while still glaring at Rex who could only smile in guilt, she grabs his hands and pulled him away roughly, "Wait, where are you taking me? Didn't you sense that energy earlier? The Executor is making a move, and I need to know"
"I don't care, damn that Executor, you're staying in the castle today" Gistella replied harshly.
Glaring back at Rex who is trying to stop her from pulling him, Gistella shows an unbreakable gaze, warning him that he doesn't have any say in this. "You're going to reassure Naela that everything will be fine before we're going to the bed chamber to sleep. If you even as much as try to resist, I'm going to tell Adhara and Evelyn about what you did today"
"Do you understand? Nod your head if you understand me" She added fiercely.
Upon hearing this unexpected threat, Rex has no choice but to nod his head in understanding before he lets himself be pulled away by Gistella. 'Is this really Gistella? Why is she so scary when she's angry?'
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel