One streak of light out of many stopped a few miles away from Lilyang Mountain.
Gradually, the brilliant erald light began to dim, exposing a woman with an exquisite black cloak fluttering behind her like a shadow that dissolved into erald energy the lower it got.
Just the cloak alone was enough to tell who she was—Princess Davina.
Princess Davina stopped handling the White Mask and the Voidal Prince when she caught sothing.
A low vibration in the air, not from the growls of monsters, but from a scream instead.
She looked into the distance behind her, eyes flickering with an emotion.
"It seed like he had only realized." She muttered, brows knitting together. "Don’t fight it, Rex. Like you, I will also make sure the mission is a success, no matter what. But I can’t have you save everyone and make this easy. I’d gained nothing if that’s the case."
Princess Davina lingered her gaze toward where Rex was supposed to be for a few seconds longer.
Then, she turned away and blasted away without looking back.
...
Rex bellowed, his voice ripped through the air—pure rage given sound.
He scread at the ground, saliva dripping, eyes bulging, screaming the na of the woman who was behind all of this. Every movent he made, a buzzing sound rang, made from how hard he was pulling on the beams anchoring him in place.
For the second ti, Davina got in the way.
Since the maid insisted on preparing his armor to wear for the mission, he should’ve known that it didn’t co from the House of Castillon, but from Davina instead. He wore it because it was an incredible set of armor, and also possessed a useful ability.
But there’s more to it.
He let down his guard, and now, he was pinned in place.
"DAVINA!!" Rex scread the na again, roaring to the sky this ti. "Why are you doing this?!!"
Countless lives would be lost.
More than four hundred thousand people are at stake, and sohow, Davina did this to him.
Even though he was the only hope for these people, she decided to restrain him.
Why?
Rex repeated that question again and again inside his mind—how could Davina, of all people, be behind this? Sacrificing so many lives was sothing he never imagined she was capable of as a person and a noble, especially after she’d volunteered to handle the Arcalen House’s destruction by trying to find the culprit.
It doesn’t make sense.
But as he exerted his strength, struggling to break free, a realization struck his mind.
Rex recalled what she said to him during the night when the two of them decided to partner.
She wanted Duke Lorcan’s recognition... Showing great performance during a mission that the Empress personally oversaw, it’s a good feat to add to her reputation. And to make it impactful, the mission can’t be mundane.
More casualties would make her look better in the end.
Coming to that realization didn’t make the situation any better.
Rex still needs to keep the damage to a minimum, or else his deal with the Empress would collapse.
Unlike Davina, who was doing this out of her own ambition, he was doing this to save the others.
He wasn’t driven by the urge to do the right thing, the sense of righteousness—but the people he saved didn’t care about his motives. To them, it didn’t matter why he ca to save them. All that mattered was that they were alive and well because of him.
Besides, these people certainly don’t want to be the ones sacrificed.
"Krrgh...!"
Rex grunted heavily, summoning all the strength he could muster to force the wings open.
He strained against the wings that were clamped tightly around his body like a cocoon, their iron grip suffocating and absolute. Every muscle in his fra coiled and shuddered as he pushed with everything he had, his body screaming in resistance.
Veins bulged, organs compressed, and his vision blurred from the lack of oxygen.
But the wings didn’t budge—not even a twitch.
It stayed in place stubbornly as if letting Rex go would be a disaster for the whole world.
Swoosh!
Not giving up, Rex gritted his teeth as life energy swirled around him and seeped into his limbs, igniting them from within. His bones began to creak, then cracked under the impossible pressure. Pain lanced through him, but he didn’t care.
He wasn’t as immune to pain as he used to thanks to the gradual penalty.
But this isn’t enough to break him.
On top of that, the damage done to his body nded by itself, healed by his regeneration, and the voidal energy flooded his lungs with every breath. He could afford to break himself without rcy. Over and over again, if that’s what it took.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
"Just how strong is this damn armor?!" Rex complained through gritted teeth. "It’s so hard!"
"Seriously, System?" Rex hissed. "You explaining it just made everything worse!"
As opposed to making it easier, Rex began losing hope of breaking out.
Attempting to break out of a material with near-unbreakable durability isn’t exactly reassuring.
"Kyaahh!!"
"Raarggh!!"
Rex snapped out of his trance, looked up at the low clouds, and heard the distant screams of people of the bubble beyond the clouds reaching him. All of them were filled with agony as the Special Voidal Knight ransacked their hos.
He needed to move fast, as the casualties were increasing rapidly.
Once again, the number of lives began dropping fast.
It seed the Special Voidal Knight reached another massive settlent above the low clouds.
Just then, Rex rembered sothing.
His eyes focused again as he roared in defiance—activating the Perfect Beast Spirit Genesis.
Swoosh!
Above him, the Aegis of Moon Sentinel Soul Artifact approached him again, then liquified into molten honey, spilling down his body in shimring streams. It coated him, clinging to every inch of his skin, hardening into a radiant, golden exoskeleton.
His second layer of skin was forged by the power of his SSS-grade Soul Artifact.
Other than providing him with a golden exoskeleton that hardens the angrier he becos, his tendency to beco angry also doubled. He beca more beastly than man, and as soon as the Perfect Beast was activated, his rage doubled or even tripled, boiling over until it turned into wrath.
Ability-wise, the Perfect Beast gave him no strength boost—only durability and anger enhancent.
But with the blood of a Werewolf coursing in his veins, the rage increased his strength too.
Strength surged through him like wildfire, primal and boundless.
And under the stress from his strength, the wings finally shifted a little, although barely.
Even then, this movent showed Rex that he almost got the strength he needed to force them open.
Seizing the mont, Rex let out a snarl and heaved, wrenching one wing back with a clawed hand while planting a foot against the other. His limbs trembled from the effort, muscles tearing and knitting in the sa breath.
But one hand was now freed.
Rex wasted no ti and reached for the armor clinging to his chest.
He tried to rip it off with one violent yank, but it wouldn’t yield.
Sothing within or engraved on it made it impossible for him to take off the armor.
Another idea by Princess Davina, he assud, knowing that he possessed things beyond logic.
Especially after she saw him knock the Voidal Prince and survived an encounter with the White Mask.
But her idea backfired.
Rex’s frustration twisted into sothing monstrous.
A guttural growl escaped his throat, low and savage as his eyes burned with inhuman light.
He summoned one final, desperate surge of power—one that split the earth beneath him and thundered through the air like a war drum. Crimson life energy blazed from within the suffocating grip of the pair of wings until at last, they cracked.
Boom!
"RAAGH!"
Rex shattered the wings back into fragnts of energy.
Both were shredded into smoldering fragnts as he broke free of their hold.
Shards rained down like feathers on fire as he stood amidst them, panting, glistening in molten gold and void-tinged breath. Once he was freed, he shook his head, trying to get rid of the red haze in his vision, but couldn’t.
But he realized that there was no ti to waste.
It seed that breaking through the pair of wings took a lot longer than he thought.
He thought it had only been a minute at most, but the pain and struggle distorted his perception of ti.
"Grrgh... How much ti has passed?" Rex gritted his teeth and imdiately darted forward.
Upon nearing the foothill, he saw that the man from earlier was already buried under rubble, dead.
Even with the Special Voidal Knight being above the low clouds, aiming at the people beyond, the lucky survivors weren’t safe yet. Until the serpent was slain, there would be no kind of peace for the Xintarin Bubble—in fact, in re monts, there might be no Xintarin Bubble at all.
As Rex climbed the hill, his eyes noticed blinking lights around him, following him.
His brows knitted together in confusion, but he quickly scanned them with the System.
Before the result ca, one of the blinking lights shot towards him.
It burst with a whip that tried to catch him.
Rex reacted swiftly, avoiding the whip a second before it reached him.
His senses were extrely sensitive right now, and his reflex was already ward up to the point that he wouldn’t be able to be caught even if that whip was two tis faster than its current speed. "Tch! The star shards embedded in the armor."
Even after he broke the restraint, the armor was relentless.
All shattered fragnts returned to their original form, star shards, and were now trying to catch him.
Rex twisted and darted left and right—gliding along the steep incline as he slipped past the lashing star shard whips with practiced ease. Within monts, he broke through the low clouds—only to be greeted by the spectacle unfolding above.
Above the clouds, the peak was adorned with soft lights twinkling like a crown.
Suspended walkways crisscrossing the surface like veins were now destroyed.
Hos, houses built around the hill were flattened, leaving behind a single temple at the very peak of the hill where the remaining survivors were running towards—while the Special Voidal Knight chased after them.
Had it not been for the fact that the hilltop was slippery, Rex would be far too late to help.
Those who were too weak had their internal organs crushed by the serpent’s sheer presence.
So of the stronger ones were crippled, waiting to be crushed.
Only those at the Immortal Spirit Rank could run away and climb to the top.
Boom!!
Rex’s form exploded with life energy, trying to catch the Special Voidal Knight’s attention.
He succeeded.
But the serpent only glanced towards him before focusing back to the top.
"Coward!" Rex gritted his teeth. "Fight soone at the sa rank! Don’t target the weak!"
Bang!
Bang!
Instead of heeding Rex, the Special Voidal Knight banged on the barrier separating it from the temple at the very peak. It charged its head repeatedly. Each strike unleashed a powerful shockwave that rippled through the air.
Even with the Seeker of the bubble’s help, the barrier wouldn’t last long.
Several Seekers tried to create rockslides to trip the serpent, but it barely did anything.
Crack!
After another charge, the barrier cracked, and a smile curled on the serpent’s lips.
Knowing that the survivors were now cornered, the serpent opened its maw to use its Spirit Genesis.
Rex rembered the beam from the Special Voidal Knight earlier in the Insarka Bubble.
And he knew that the beam would blow off the hilltop completely.
Rex roared at the top of his lungs, making his way up as fast as he could.
But the hilltop was slippery for the serpent, and that goes for him, too.
And as his step slipped, he knew that he was too late.
"NO!!"
Kaboom!!
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