Along the way, even before Kyran had gone berserk, Rex already had a change of plan.
He would need to et with Iris to continue with their attempt to coax the Tabaxi race to in a way, refuse the Angels from passing through their bridge. Due to that, he separated from the group, leaving behind his clone with Agatha and the Feral Phantomclaw Pack.
By now, all of them should've been in Dargena City already.
Rex was within the Dark Elf's territory when the notification from the System, notifying him of Kyran's berserk appeared. Before doing what he initially ca here to do—Rex went to check on Kyran and what made him go berserk.
As he cuts through the wood, he deliberately lets out his aura to notify the Dark Elves.
Because of that, Iris intercepted him in the middle.
Making an abrupt stop, Rex turned to the side.
Iris ca from behind a tree, she was already donned in dark blue light battle armor with a thin chainmail that hugged her athletic curves. She has a beautiful dark blue bow strapped behind her, its string was humming with moonlight energy.
"Your Majesty..." She greeted, making a curtsy gesture as a sign of respect.
Rex crossed his arms with an eyebrow raised, "What's with the armor? Expecting a fight?"
"I will be escorting you to the location—I'm sure you're here to find Lord Kyran, correct?" She assud, drawing her bow from behind. "I'm afraid because of the Knights in the area, so mutated animals would still attack you so I'm sent here to escort you"
Upon hearing this, Rex nodded his head.
He knew from Queen Shanaela's map that there were Order Beasts in the Dark Elf's territory.
Most of them are still Knights, not as powerful as Shadow who is nearing the Lord-rank.
"Do you think I need protecting?" Rex mused in hubris.
"Of course, not," Iris giggled, covering her mouth demurely. "but Your Majesty couldn't really expect us to let you, an Emperor—go through unguarded, right? It's our territory, and even if you don't need to be escorted, this is natural"
Rex nodded, it was silly of him to ask that.
But then again, his ti as Emperor is an infant at best.
"Oh," He suddenly recalled sothing. "How do you know I'm here for Kyran?"
"I'm in charge of the sentries, and I was reported that Lord Kyran went berserk because Lady Naela was hurt," Iris explained—recounting the report she gained monts ago. "Co, I will lead the way"
Both of them cuts through the forest with relative ease.
As she explained, there were a lot of mutated animals in the area attempting to attack them.
Casting his Alpha Bearing skill would probably be enough to scare these mutated animals but Rex didn't need to lift a finger, as Iris dealt with them all with ease. She was a master in using a bow, the arrows that she fired were akin to guided missiles, splitting and hitting their marks with ease.
Rex bore witness as Iris made acrobatic maneuvers nimbly as she took down the animals.
Her body twisted and stretched with deliberate intentions.
Coupled with her sculpted feminine body, it was hard not to watch her battle.
...
Race: Moonlight Dark Elf
Status: Nervous, Happy, Excited (...)
Power: Ninth-rank (Peak) - Perennial Moon Arcana (3)
ntal: 25,250 ( 10,000)
Strength: 270,000 ( 30,000)
Agility: 915,000 ( 90,000)
Endurance: 250,000 ( 50,000)
Intelligence: 400,000 ( 400,000)
...
Scanning Iris' stats from behind, Rex sucked in a cold breath, "She's... strong?"
Even though he knew that Iris was a Marchioness of the Dark Elf Kingdom and also an elder who had awakened recently, he did not know that she was this strong. Heck, he was inches away from her and he didn't sense any abnormal energy coming from her.
Iris kept her power at bay and had it not for the System, Rex wouldn't realize it.
She was abnormally strong.
It was obvious that King Jorik was able to utilize the item he gained from Rex—and establish his strength in the Dark Elf Kingdom, so he might also be at the peak of the ninth-rank realm but Iris? He has no clue.
What's up with her intelligence stat?
Rex checked his intelligence stat and found that it was resting at 343,000 points.
As the Second Breath settled, his intelligence stat now began coming back to him, and his Awakened power is slowly returning to its original strength. But even then, Iris' intelligence was still very high, it was still above his original intelligence stat at 390ish thousand.
Not to ntion, the equipnt she wore doubled her intelligence stat.
Since she seed harmless during their initial encounter, Rex didn't check her stats.
He didn't expect that he would be working with her but now that he had checked her stats, it was clear that there was more to Iris, than ets the eye.
Naela said her origin was doubtful, and now I know her last na is Thalendra so she's not a Khuurtid. Hmm... interesting.
"Is there sothing wrong, Your Majesty?" Iris glanced over her shoulder and asked.
She cleared the mutated animals already but Rex was slowing down.
Snapping out of his trance Rex shook his head and smiled, "Nothing, I was only praising your archery inside. It was my first ti seeing soone of your level, with a bow—have you tried a gun? I can see you have success with guns"
"You flatter , Your Majesty," Iris gracefully accepted the praise. "I will try it if you say so"
Eventually, the pair reached a stream with a short waterfall at one end.
"Is this it?"
"It is said to be where Naela was found severely wounded, soone attacked her"
"Soone did? One person? Who?"
"We're still figuring it out"
"It's your territory, so the attacker must be yours. Who else would be here?"
Rex turned towards Iris, his expression sharp and calculating.
Upon seeing this, Iris swiftly waved both of her hands and shook her head.
"No, it can't be us Dark Elves. I can assure you, Your Majesty"
"How could you be so sure? Kyran ca and punished your kingdom on my behalf and I am sure soone wanted revenge"
"You overestimate our bravery, Your Majesty. We wouldn't dare do this after that incident"
Despite Rex's path of thinking was logical, he was still unsure.
And as Iris said, with how vicious Kyran was to them, it was unlikely to be the Dark Elves.
Averting his gaze away, Rex scanned the area with his senses.
He could tell that fresh blood drenched the ground—not too long ago—the scent of iron still lingered in the air. On top of that, there were traces of Kyran's energy here but there was no trace of the other person.
"No corpses either, only their blood remains here" Iris added.
Rex's eyebrows dropped into a frown when he heard this.
If there were no corpses then it could only an one thing,
Did Kyran devour them...?
Ever since the battle at the Bloodstone Crater, Rex knew that he had broken his fasting and was inclined more to his beast side. He would've felt a lot better if he was alone but he was not, the others were there watching him.
Kyran was there and he might be following his lead.
I was about to test what eating raw at would do to but Kyran beat to it.
His purpose of telling Kyran to hunt was exactly that and now Kyran might be ahead of him.
Just as he was inspecting the area, he sensed a surge of energy from the side.
Rex saw Iris was casting a spell, her entire body glead, with moonlight—swaying her dark blue hair. Soon, the moonlight energy left behind by Kyran was pulled towards her and in the next second, a figure made entirely of moonlight appeared.
"What is this spell?"
"A spell to recreate the incident by gathering traces of moonlight energy"
As Iris said that, the moonlight figure moved, throttled back, and lay on the ground.
But instead of making contact with the ground, it levitated as if it was lying on a platform. Find exclusive stories on empire
It re-acted how Kyran was dealing with the sight of Naela at death's door, and ended with him climbing the short waterfall—and rushing to the distance. Rex watched the moonlight figure attentively, he wasn't worried about Kyran being hurt.
Since if Kyran did, the System would've notified him.
Despite watching this over and over again, Rex couldn't tell who attacked Naela.
He simply couldn't make a guess with the small evidence he had.
"Should we move on? Last report ntioned Lord Kyran attacking a human colony but I'm not quite sure," Iris continued, dispersing the moonlight figure. "Lord Zyrkan—Lady Naela's father would explain to us in detail as he witnessed the whole thing"
Upon hearing this, Rex couldn't help but frown even further.
He didn't expect this but he nodded and let Iris lead him to Kyran.
Human colony...? President Sebrof didn't tell anything about a human colony.
Rex was completely caught off guard by this.
Despite not wanting Kyran to beco feral in his pursuit of power, sinking his fangs left and right like an animal, he wasn't really worried as the attacker deserved it. But eating Humans—on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.
Especially when the Human colony was innocent and was only unfortunate to cross Kyran.
Picking up their pace, Rex t up with the Dark Elf called Zyrkan, Naela's father.
He was sitting against a tree with a mutated black panther beside him, both were wounded.
"Where is he? Where's Kyran?" Rex instantly asked, his face etched with worry.
Realizing that it was the Emperor, Zyrkan wanted to stand but Rex raised his hand, telling him to not bother doing that. He sat back down, and answered, "He should be several miles north from us. I tried my best to save the Human colony but I couldn't, I was intercepted"
Not wasting a single second, Rex dashed ahead.
He only wanted to make sure.
At this mont, he couldn't sll Kyran's scent but he could sll the scent of blood.
And from Zyrkan's words, it seed the scent of blood was where Kyran was.
On the other hand—Iris stayed behind and knelt beside Zyrkan who was really suffering from a brutal slash to his stomach, and also his severed left arm. She could see that if the slash on his stomach was half an inch deeper, he would've been disemboweled.
Putting a hand on Zyrkan's shoulder, Iris asked, "Who intercepted you?"
"I don't know," He answered, breathing hard. "She has wings like an Angel but I don't know..."
"What do you an you don't know? If she has wings then she is an Angel"
"It's the way she fights, I tried to force her to show her power, but she didn't. I was about to succeed but more ca—and attacked from behind. I lost because of luck, the scent of Human blood distracted and I survived only because they were called back"
Iris frowned, she could understand why Zyrkan was skeptical.
Not a trace of Angels were here so an Angel popping out of nowhere is quite suspicious.
"Can you go back on your own?"
"Yes. Don't worry about , I can hold my own"
Nodding her head, Iris dashed away, catching up to Rex ahead.
anwhile, Rex arrived at the scene and was greeted by a horrendous scene of gore.
He saw mangled dead bodies scattered everywhere—all of them were Humans, and they were here in military vehicles, and trucks. Just from this alone, he was now certain, these Humans weren't from his empire.
All of them seed to be from the Human side.
"Sebrof needs so explaining to do..." Rex muttered with a frown.
Just then, he heard the disturbing sound of flesh from the side.
He approached the source of the sound, behind a truck that was knocked down.
Upon reaching there—Rex's frown deepened as he saw Kyran crouching while devouring the leg of a person. Sensing that he was being watched—he turned and t Rex's gaze. Despite his berserk condition, he recognized Rex.
Even through thick bloodlust, the Alpha's presence was still clear in his eyes.
Smilling with blood and torn flesh dripping from his mouth, Kyran extended his hand.
He offered the Human leg towards Rex.
"It's good that we stopped fasting, the taste of flesh is, how could I put it... appetizing!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers