Finishing the deal he had inside the Symposium of Upper Divinities, Rex walks out and travels along the Dead Man's Creek once again. But compared to earlier, his expression is paler and he seems to be drained to the core.
If anyone were to look at him now, then they might mistake him for a ghost.
It had taken him more than half an hour to go to the Dead Man's Creek earlier, and now his journey out was proving to be even longer and more difficult. He was exhausted, barely able to take a full breath in his panting state, almost as if he were hyperventilating.
Using the trees as a support, he slowly makes his way in the cold and silent night.
Just as he was going through the Dead Man's Creek, his eyes caught sight of creatures gazing at him from the abyss, their bodies moved left and right in a waving manner almost like dancing.
Rex has seen them earlier, and they were the Passues.
Compared to earlier when he first goes through here, the Passues seem to be passive and only watch him from the shroud of darkness. But weirdly, at this moment, there seems to be an oddness in their movements.
It was almost the Passues were uncertain whether they need to attack or not.
Just then, one of the Passues dashed forward and stands right in front of Rex, still moving its body in a wavy manner. At this sight, Rex's heart started thumping rapidly as he knows that he was not a match for this creature.
Even if he's in full power, he would've been obliterated by this Passue.
Leaning forward and tilting its head, the Passue inspect Rex with its one glowing red eye.
'Oh, no... M-My weakened state might not give out the scent of a Supernatural right now, I need to go back to my Werewolf form' Rex thought in worry, he was exhausted of his energy and the Passues might deliberate whether to attack him or not.
Even in his human form, Rex has the scent and energy of a Supernatural.
But at this moment thanks to being exhausted of his energy, the scent was the only thing keeping the Passues in check, and one of them might decide to attack as he doesn't look like an actual Supernatural and instead looks human.
Gritting his teeth, Rex slowly transforms into his Werewolf form.
Knowing the strength behind these Passues, he's better to take the safe route or be sorry.
Crack!
Bulge!
Rex felt transforming into his Werewolf form right now is similar to the first time he transformed, the process is really slow, and the moving of his bones and strengthening of his muscles becomes even more vivid to feel.
It forces him to let out a couple of grunts and moans before the transformation finishes.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtPanting heavily under the pain that his body is going through right now, Rex looks at the Passue and finds it gone back, slithering into the shadows of the place again, disappearing from his sight.
Breathing easily, he decided to lie prone to the ground to recover his strength first.
"I really shouldn't be torturing myself like this..." he mused to himself.
Just earlier, he asked the System for a teleportation item to leave this place quickly.
But the System told him that the area around the Symposium of Upper Divinities, as well as the Dead Man's Creek, prohibits the use of teleportation. If he wanted to leave through teleportation, then he must leave the Dead Man's Creek first.
Of course, there are some ways to bypass that restriction but it will cost so much more.
Rex, being a calculative person as he is doesn't want to spend more gold for that.
Getting up from the ground once again to find that the wound on his chest is still bleeding, Rex groaned and stands up before he continues his journey. "It's the second time now, I really need to do something about this"
It was not that too long ago that he was in a similar situation such as this.
Now that it's already the second time already, he will really make Delta stronger and use her as a mount to go anywhere to avoid this kind of situation. "With the corpses, the Elves' brought, that shouldn't be a problem"
While walking through the Dead Man's Creek, Rex stopped when he spotted a figure.
Putting his guard up and instantly forcing himself to stand upright while ignoring his pain, the figure who was leaning on the tree came out. Upon recognizing the figure, Rex could sigh in relief as she was not an enemy.
"Need a hand...?" she asked.
Rex pauses for a second before he then asked the System, 'Did she get near to me earlier?'
<No, the System didn't detect any living being around the Symposium of Upper Divinities>
'Okay, if you say so...' he nodded his head.
Fearing that someone might saw what he did inside the Symposium of Upper Divinities earlier, it's natural for him to be paranoid. Chuckling weakly to look at the figure in front of him, he then asked, "Are you stalking me, Calidora? Or are you missing your parents?"
"No, and no. Figured that you might need help so here I am" Calidora replied nonchalantly.
Knowing that it's Calidora, he doesn't need to worry about letting his guard down, she couldn't kill him either way so he's practically safe with Calidora, "If that's the case, then I'll gladly take the offer"
Just like that, Calidora supports Rex before she flaps her wings away.
"Since you're bleeding already, can I take a sip?"
"What do you think I am? A juice? No."
"Tch! I'm just asking, why do you need to be so mean about it"
~
Meanwhile, Dargena City.
Ever since the First Breath happened, the Supernaturals inside the city have been severely weakened and couldn't lift a finger. None of them were out and was forced to stay inside their respective homes.
Only Gelmar, Linthia, and Dindora are out doing something in the city square.
In addition, each of the Silverstar Pack members is also doing their own thing. Adhara and Evelyn were outside of the castle while Gistella, Delta, and Flunra are inside the castle in their respective room.
Kyran is the only one not doing anything because of his condition.
As the elves settled themselves inside the city while they wait for Rex to come back, some of them are tasked to bring the corpses into the castle. Gistella is now absorbing the corpses brought by the Elves inside her room, seriously trying to increase her power as much as possible.
Dozens of corpses can be seen scattered inside her room, but she didn't care.
Even though the rotten stench filled her room and stick to the walls, she didn't mind about it as she was previously an Undead, she was already used to this kind of scent. Gistella keeps on absorbing corpse after corpse through her black heart and making herself stronger in the process.
Remembering what Rex did, she wasn't going to sit around despite still feeling weak.
'I'm going to be dependable and share Rex's burden. No, I don't want him trying to do that again... I must become dependable and stronger' Gistella thought, her eyes flashing with determination, hoping to make up for the time she lost for being sick.
Similarly, in the courtyard, Delta is doing the same, devouring corpses left and right.
It was a part of her instinct to become stronger, a natural part of being a mutated animal. On top of that, it was the First Breath already, and there was no time for Gistella and Delta to idle around in their realm of power and not get stronger considering the resources are right in front of them now.
Adhara and Evelyn have already reached a new realm, so they also must do the same thing.
On the other part of the castle, Flunra is cramped inside his room.
Flunra is doing something about the Slave Mark on his back, meticulously engraving ancient rune after ancient rune. Each time he did it, most of the ancient runes broke when they touches the Slave Mark. But he kept changing the ancient runes he engraved.
Clearly, he was doing a trial and error to learn more about the notorious Slave Mark.
As a part of Rex's plan in taking down the Executor involves the Slave Mark, he needs to start doing his part and crack the mystery open. It's the only thing he needs to be doing right now.
Meanwhile, outside of the castle, Adhara is currently inside the forgery.
She heard from Rex about the stuff he was doing in the forgery from Gelmar, and she decided to bring Queen Shanaela as well as her trusted right hand to the forgery to discuss ranged weapons.
Diversity is needed in an army, so she decided to use this opportunity to discuss.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmElves are known for their ranged weaponry, and Adhara hoped that she could get some insight to help Rex make a blueprint for ranged weapons such as bows or guns. Out of the three captains, Adhara was planning to let Dindora be the one focusing on ranged weaponry as she's a Dryad.
It's a thought that came to mind, but she's quite sure Rex would agree with her.
Gelmar also thought that her idea is good, and she was allowed to do anything she wants as it doesn't need to be said that she was the second in command here. Even Queen Shanaela knows that and gives her the respect she's due.
Of course, the fact that Rex is confronting the Supernatural Elders is an addition to that.
Queen Shanaela knows that even with the second awakening of the world happening, and there will be more Elders that awaken, Rex's position will still stand and there wouldn't be many entities that could go against him.
Considering that Rex also showed her mercy, she's determined to be loyal to him.
Being in the gray is not the answer right now, and she knows it.
While Adhara is dealing with that point, Linthia, Dindora, and Evelyn are currently at the city's spacious square at the center. Evelyn seemed to be instructing them as the three draws something on the ground.
Judging from the looks of it, the three should be drawing a formation.
During the time when Giana and Prof. K left after being turned into Werewolves, Rex gave her a blueprint to draw an advanced teleportation formation. He entrusted this to her because he has a lot of things he needs to keep in check.
It'll be good if she could handle this instead of himself.
Although Adhara could also do this, Rex trusted Evelyn's judgment more to assess the situation fairly and objectively considering she was one of the descendants of the 25 Golden Crests Families before all of this.
Problems always came to her back then, so she could definitely handle this better.
'We need to draw the formation quickly to connect it with the one at Emham Forest, the First Breath must cause panic to those people. Prof. K and Giana must be hurrying themselves to finish their business in Ratmawati City and teleport the people here...' Evelyn thought to herself.
Because of that, she's not preparing for the teleportation formation in advance.
Rex gave the two as much time as possible to finish the lists of what he wanted them to do. But with the First Breath, Evelyn suspected that the people will want to be teleported away from the human territory.
Even regular people know that there's a huge war coming, and they need to leave.
Due to that, Evelyn decides that it's best to set the teleportation formation now in preparation for those people being teleported here. Linthia and Dindora also already prepared the resident for them to stay.
It's only a matter of finishing the teleportation formation.
Putting both of her hands on her waist while looking at the near-finish teleportation formation, Evelyn nodded her head before she looks to the far distance, "Rex is in extreme pain right now, but I hope he's okay" she mused to herself.
Just then, she remembered something and looks around.
"Now that I said that, I didn't see Calidora anywhere. Did she go after Rex? Most likely... She's awfully spending a lot of time with Rex, I don't trust her and I don't like this. She must be onto something..." Evelyn mutters in suspicion.
No matter what, Calidora is an outsider, and she seems to be attempting something.