Chapter 1279 On My terms
'It's cold and silent...'
Time slows to a heartbeat's pause in this place—a realm of bleakness.
An uncharted place where a few souls wandered, the veil between life and death.
No sound could be heard except the lonely thoughts of a soul.
'Is this, death...? Am I dead?'
Under the bleakness of this place, unable to see, hear—or even feel—the soul was confused, it didn't know what was happening but it could hear its own thoughts. Its last memory was its death and in the next second, it was already here.
Even though the soul was oblivious to what was happening, its memory became hazy.
But there was a man that lingered in its mind.
'Rex...'
Just as the soul uttered that name in its mind, its dull senses suddenly felt a pull from behind.
It was as if the man answered its call instantly.
Suddenly, the pull became a powerful sucking force that pulled the soul down—and as it fell, its senses, began to come back. As opposed to feeling relief, the soul was greeted by pain, a sensation as if its body was being quenched into nothing and reconstructed.
A pain so bad that the soul was screaming as this process continued.
Despite feeling like the pain had been going on for an eternity, reality said otherwise.
It has only been a few tormenting seconds.
Once the soul reached the ending point, it gasped as its bodily function returned, but unlike the bleak place from earlier, a place where nothing existed except pale whiteness—the soul was now greeted by complete darkness, "Where am I...? Hmm? My voice came back!"
Squelch!
"I touched something slimy just now, where the heck am I?" the figure questioned further.
Just then, however, the portal to the world was opened.
Brak!
"Oww..." the figure grunted, falling to the rough snowy ground suddenly.
Before the figure could realize what was happening, a voice called, "Welcome back..."
"Though I was hoping there was something wrong and you died in there" the voice added.
Upon hearing this, the figure, Adhara frowned as she recognized that voice.
Raising her gaze she found Calidora sitting on a small rock with a canvas before her, she was painting some kind of room with a brush between her fingers, "If you're done with your death lag, the others are waiting for you. I suggest you hurry, time is not on your side"
On the other hand, Adhara panted heavily, still trying to adjust to her surroundings.
Growl...
An extremely heavy, baritone growl suddenly spooked her from behind.
Adhara turned around and was greeted by a massive creature with an odd appearance, its head alone was multiple times bigger than her body, and it was looking directly at her with its curious eyes.
She crawled back away from the creature with her eyes opened wide.
"What in the heck is that?!" Adhara exclaimed, horrified.
Calidora clicked her tongue when she heard this, "How rude of you, it has feelings"
Growl...
"Hmm? Of course not, you're nothing short of outright adorable. Don't listen to her," Calidora continued—smiling and pampering the massive creature, with her love. "After I am done with painting this, I'll paint you next, how about that?"
Responding excitedly, the massive creature blinked lovingly.
"I can also understand it, how could this be?" Adhara muttered in utter confusion.
Despite the massive creature talking only through growls, she could understand every single word it spoke and that was very weird. But then Calidora answered, "Of course, you can. It is the tenth member of the pack, and also the one who saved your life. Rex hasn't even given a name for it as I expected, but I called it Gloomgloom because it was gloomy all the time"
"Gloomgloom? That's cu- what?! The tenth member?!" Adhara's tone changed mid-sentence.
Moments earlier before the duel, she sensed a new connection.
So that must be when Rex makes Gloomgloom the tenth member.
'Then did I come out of Gloomgloom's tummy...?' Adhara thought with a wry smile.
Just as she thought of that, however, Adhara remembered about the massive explosion from before that surely came from Rex. She looked around and found that she was within the land of Dwarves, she knew this landscape.
In the distance, she saw the others were preparing something.
"Go, Flunra should finish activating the formation right about now," Calidora muttered.
Upon hearing this, Adhara stood up, intending to rush towards the others.
But then she stopped, "Are you not coming?"
"Unfortunately I couldn't participate in this fun but I knew the result already so there was no loss for me being there, other than some fun," Calidora replied—smiling meaningfully before she continued painting.
Nodding her head, Adhara sprinted over to the others.
'So this is why he was telling us to die, he already turned Caraptaros into Gloomgloom. If that was the case, what's stopping us now? The Scarlet Banes Kingdom would undoubtedly kneel at his feet' She smirked, Rex has always pulled through no matter what.
Even now, Adhara was ashamed that she didn't trust him fully and did as he told her.
But then again, Rex had been unreasonably hard at her earlier.
Arriving at the others, Adhara became the center of attention instantly.
Since she was killed last, she was the last one to be revived.
"It's ready," Flunra said, making a few strokes at the rune at the center, causing it to glow.
Upon hearing this—the others who were still shocked at what they experienced glanced at Adhara for confirmation. Adhara then smiled and nodded—this would be the ending phase, "Let's go, let's go help Rex and give a big surprise to that annoying pack..."
Moments later, back to the Bloodstone Crater site.
Kaboom!
A series of explosions assaulted the battlefield, striking the legion of Werewolves in surprise.
Vivian, who was caught and was now caught by the Werewolves, looked at these explosions with a wide grin, on her face. She was the one who planted the connective runes to help the others be teleported here.
It was the task given by Rex.
She was told to find a suited location to attack and plant these connective runes.
Glancing back to Eira who was as surprised as the other Werewolves by these powerful and sudden explosions, Vivian spat the blood in her mouth, from being tortured—and smirked at her, "You're in trouble, Eira. If I live through this, I'm coming after you!"
Upon hearing this, Eira looked at her, lost for words as she couldn't believe this.
But then, she gritted her teeth and bared her claws, aiming for the kill.
"I better kill you now, then!" She roared and prepared to slash Vivian.
Just as she was about to do that, however, the ground trembled and she staggered back.
Before she could recover, a violent shockwave struck them.
Half a mile away from her position was the source of the explosion—and emerging from the smoke was a small figure of a teen, with four azure eyes. Kyran scanned the battlefield with his eyes and registered everything he needed to know.
Seeing that he would be taking care of these Werewolves, he turned sharply to the side.
Through the distance, his eyes bore into Adhara's eyes who also noticed his gaze.
'I can go all-out, right?! This is the time, right?!' He asked, desperate for sheer violence.
Upon hearing Kyran's voice inside her head, Adhara smirked and gave him the final nod.
'Show them no mercy, Kyran. Go crazy' She replied.
Almost instantly after she said that the air around Kyran instantly changed.
A low growl escaped his mouth, vibrating through the air with a menacing resonance.
Kyran turned slowly, his gaze locking onto the Werewolves around him whose formations had been shattered by the explosion. Shock was etched across their faces but Kyran's eyes were gleaming with a menacing glint.
Rumble!
Gradually, the ground beneath him began to rapidly tremble.
It was reacting to the violent surge of power swelling within him on the verge of erupting.
His azure aura swayed violently from his body, growing stronger by the second as his body shapeshifted, into his Werewolf form smoothly—taking only three seconds to complete. He towered over the others, his massive stature imposing, his fangs more vicious, and sharper than any Alpha's.
Four azure eyes now pierced through the dim light, adding a terrifying weight to his glare.
As his aura reached its peak, the Werewolves around him, even those of the ninth-rank realm felt an overwhelming instinct to flee—their senses—screaming in terror. But they were far too late to act upon their instincts and get away from the scene.
Suddenly, the wild, swaying azure aura behind Kyran was rapidly absorbed back.
ROAR!!
Kyran inhaled deeply, and with a fierce scratch to his own chest—he flared it dominantly and unleashed, a deafening roar. What followed his deafening roar was destruction, a soundwave that he produced peeled the ground around him.
And the tremor was followed by an earthquake of ice spikes that erupted from the earth.
It widened by the second, stabbing through every Werewolf in proximity.
Each ice spike impaled one or more with merciless precision, killing them instantly.
All that was left behind was a frozen wasteland of shattered bodies.
Seeing that Kyran was already starting, Adhara also did the same—she turned, into her beast form and unleashed a battle cry. Unlike Kyran who summoned rows of ice spikes, she blasted a translucent shockwave that instantly exploded the eyes of the Werewolves around her.
Fighting a legion of Werewolves, the power of the White Omicron inside her reigns supreme.
Not only did it explode their eyes, but it also froze the Werewolves in place.
In the Werewolf society, a White Omicron means death, and Adhara, is the representation of that deathly being. Coming from the other side—Flunra stood upright with his gaze forward, scanning the place with an elderly air around him.
As opposed to becoming a rampage, he turned into his Werewolf form and walked calmly.
Naturally, the Werewolves tried to attack him, but none were able to touch him.
It took only a glance from him to stun the incoming Werewolves.
Despite his changes, ever since becoming a member of the Silverstar Pack—he still bore the characteristics of his old self, and many of the old Werewolves noticed him and gained some form of confidence to attack.
But that was the wrong move.
Flunra's murderous intent was honed throughout many battles, and his gaze alone and also his status as someone—who came from the first generation of Werewolves were enough to mentally scare the incoming Werewolves.
Even so, his eyes were trained ahead, at a figure in the distance, Cassia.
On the other hand, Rex saw that the others had arrived.
He paused for a moment, waiting for any notification to appear but there was none.
A smile then blossomed on his face at this realization.
Upon gaining the Pack Duel Quest from the System—Rex was burdened as the System also provided a countdown until the Pack Duel started. It seemed the time was fixed to be at the Honey Moon.
Moreover, the place of the duel, he couldn't change it.
Since he was the one with a time limit, he had to abide by the challengers' duel place.
He had no control over the time and also the place, which was a problem.
However, as he was creating the plan he realized that he was not as hopeless as he thought.
A countdown to dictate the time and thus I can't choose the place, but it seems this will be the first time I outsmarted you, System. I can tell, you gave me a countdown to force me to play by their rules in the hope that I would be ambushed, didn't you?
It's all you care about, to put me in a spot and test me as a candidate of Invincibility.
Unfortunately for you, I'm more way of you than them.
You set me up against the Fifthborn through the Pack Quest so why should I trust you again?
Of course, this way might still make me end up fighting them but I am happy enough to know that this time, it was on my terms. I win this one. Now watch comfortably as I crush them and satiate this hunger I'm feeling.