Rex sucked in a cold breath as his eyes rounded.
It was the same for Iris but he was the one who was shocked the most.
He couldn't see the figure's face, it was darkly distorted and now, the System informed him that his Perfect Nocturnal Sight passive skill, the skill that allowed him to see through—any kind of darkness was somehow overpowered by this figure who appeared out of nowhere.
Something like this has never happened before.
Not once did he have any trouble in seeing through a darkness fabricated or not.
From the moment the figure appeared, Rex knew that he was nothing but trouble.
And now, his suspicion was correct.
<Notice: the user can't see through the figure's face due to an interference spell!>
An interference spell?
Rex wanted to check the figure's stats.He wanted to assess the figure but changed his mind when his danger sense kicked in.
Going on with his instinct alone, he gritted his teeth and reached out his hand—pushing Iris off of the black panther right when the figure's first attack came. He did right in time as the figure suddenly pulled out a weapon from within his robe struck.
Crack!
Swoosh!
In an instant, the figure moved with lethal precision.
His blade cleft downward in a swift and deadly arc.
A dark golden energy surged along the blade's edge, igniting the air as it descended.
Rex had no time to dodge as the energy wave erupted from the blade—a devastating force that sliced through—the mutated black panther, splitting the beast cleanly in half. A painful growl escaped the black panther's mouth before it died instantly.
Its severed body spewed blood everywhere.
On the other hand, Rex was no better.
Due to pushing Iris out of the way, his right arm was extended and exposed.
It got hacked by the energy and was severed as if it were nothing more than parchment.
Despite cutting through them, the energy wave roared forward, unstoppable.
It carved a deep, flawless fissure into the frozen earth.
Its trajectory ended in a deafening explosion, obliterating a rock formation—and scattering shards of stone and snow like shrapnel. Rex was thrown to the side, falling on his back and sliding through the snow with a groan coming out of his mouth. ṟåꞐöᛒƐ§
He quickly recovered, slamming his hand against the ground and propelling himself back to his feet.
At the same time, he activated his red force and King Marks without hesitation.
Glancing to the side, Rex used his red force to pull Iris towards him.
He created a wall in front of her and controlled that wall to drag Iris to his side.
"Are you okay?" Rex asked, keeping his gaze dead straight at the figure.
Iris nodded sheepishly.
Had Rex not pushed her out of the way, she wouldn't be able to react in time and dodge that attack.
She escaped death that almost reached her at that moment.
"Who is he?" Iris scowled, looking at the figure with hostility. "And why did he attack us?"
Upon hearing this, Rex narrowed his eyes and inspected the figure who was now holding what seemed to be a staff with one sharp point that he used as a cane. Not expecting anything, he noticed that the figure was humanoid in appearance.
Having four limbs and any features a Human would have.
However, it doesn't seem like this figure was an Awakened, the energy he used earlier wasn't mana.
Rex also didn't understand why the figure out of nowhere attacked them especially when the people earlier basically recognized him as the Emperor due to how he and Iris looked and how he was treated by the Zahara Consortium.
Rex could not fathom why the figure had attacked them out of nowhere, especially when the people earlier had clearly recognized him as the Emperor. His striking resemblance to Iris and the deference shown to him by the Zahara Consortium left little doubt about his identity.
Going by that fact, it was clear that this figure is someone who wasn't afraid of Humans.
Or perhaps, someone who wasn't afraid of Rex.
…
<Stelios — ???>
Race: Dark Archangel - ???
Power: Tenth-rank realm (Pseudo) - ???
Mental: 52,000 (+52,000)
Strength: 2,200,000
Agility: 2,850,000
Endurance: 1,950,000 (+150,000)
Intelligence: 600,000 (+600,000)
Danger Zone: Knives.
…
Given the time to breathe, Rex instantly checked the figure's status window.
As soon as the stat window was revealed, he was instantly in fighting mode.
A Dark Angel? So I was correct, there was a Dark Angel who was monitoring the Twin Rulers.
It marked the first time Rex had ever encountered—a Dark Angel, and seeing the stats this figure, Stelios had, he couldn't help but sweat a little. Not only was Stelios on par with him but there were also stats that he took the lead over Rex.
However, the thing that disturbed Rex the most was the fact that this was not Void.
Another Dark Angel but it was on par with Rex.
Such a realization was a punch to his gut, the Dark Angels were becoming stronger rapidly.
Not to mention, the Danger Zone section also troubled Rex.
Knives? What knives? I don't see him carrying any knives on him.
Just as he thought of that, he snapped out of his mind and focused on Stelios ahead.
"Rex Silverstar, the continent's finest warrior," Stelios suddenly said as he took off his robe slowly, revealing a set of holy light armor underneath accentuated with golden sigils. "The World's Anomaly, a Human and Werewolf Hybrid, an Emperor… I heard you are the one who killed the Fifthborn,"
As he said that, he lifted his staff and looked at the blood coated on its sharp edge.
"But from our first exchange…" In a savage act, he licked it. "I really doubt it"
Despite being taunted, Rex didn't succumb to his anger.
Instead, he straightened his back while his severed right arm was still recovering.
He ignored the blood dripping down to the ground and fixed strong eye contact with Stelios, this Archangel, who came out of nowhere, seeking trouble, "Archangel Stelios, you saved me time. I was going to search for the one behind all of this anyway and here you are"
Upon hearing this, Stelios was slightly stunned.
Rex knowing his name was something that he hadn't expected.
It was their first time meeting and yet, Rex somehow recognized him instantly and knew his name.
"You're the one who was sent to be here, you're the one responsible for blackmailing both Serevia and Serevan," Rex continued, conveying that he also knew about Stelios as Stelios did to him. "I supposed it was also you who attacked Naela, is that correct?"
Surprisingly, Stelios' expression twitched when he heard the last part.
Not that he was surprised by Rex knowing about that but it was something else.
Something that Rex didn't know.
"Go on," Rex demanded, stretching his hand palm up. "tell me why you're attacking me"
Considering that Rex hadn't done anything to harm the Dark Angels directly, this attack was completely unwarranted. Even if he suspected—or heard his discussion with the twin rulers, attacking Rex like this without a strong plan seemed reckless.
It was only Stelios here, there were no other Dark Angels around.
Upon hearing this, Stelios chuckled.
He tilted his head with an unreadable expression, covered by the distortion, and replied, "I'm sure you're almost undefeated here, perhaps the strongest. But times changed. It was the Dark Angels' time to rule over the world—the world owed us and now it's time to pay"
"Big words," Rex smirked in hubris, taking Stelios' words as nothing but a farce. "You people could only barely push back the Demons, what makes you think you can also stop me? I'm sure many people had advised you not to go against me, and I am suggesting you listen to them"
Just then, Stelios laughed a loud.
His laughter burst out of his mouth, taking Rex's arrogance as something amusing.
"I was sent here to watch over these lowly Tabaxis, yes," He nodded, confirming Rex's suspicion to be true. "And I'm also tasked to kill any messenger who dared to come here to bargain. At least, that's what my formal answer would be if you ask why I'm attacking you right now. I was not expecting you to be the one who came here though.
Rex frowned, "What do you mean by that?"
Beside him, Iris also frowned as she could feel there was something wrong with this Dark Angel.
"Personally," Stelios continued as a red liquid-like aura began to seep out of his body, a wave of killing intent that could only be possessed by someone who had killed hundreds of thousands or even millions. "the reason I attacked you was because I wanted to see how you fare against me…"
Swoosh!!
Boom!
Both Rex and Iris were struck by a torrent of deep golden aura emanating from Stelios.
Rex almost lost balance and he grabbed hold of Iris so that she wouldn't be thrown away.
In response to this invite to battle, Rex turned into his Werewolf form.
He fought back, charging his energy and exerting it outward to battle Stelios' aura.
Splash!
A powerful friction between two roaring energy splashed upon impact.
Exerting his King Marks and also his red force put him about equal with Stelios.
I can't use my mana and spirit energy. In this battle, I might need to use a Moon Order skill.
Acknowledging that Stelios wasn't an easy foe, Rex prepared himself to use the Moon Order skill if the need arose. He could not get badly hurt with his departure to the Spirit Realm—so near so he needed to be really careful in battling this Dark Angel.
"Support me if you know you're safe, trust your guts" Rex muttered, warning Iris.
Knowing that she was capable, she could help.
However, she must look after herself as she's not as resilient as Rex who could even fare against Gods.
"Okay," Iris nodded. "I'll trust my guts"
Just then, once Rex focused back ahead, his eyes narrowed at the sight of a ring appearing above Stelios.
It wasn't a ring but a halo instead, a deep golden halo.
Swoosh!
Almost instantly after that halo appeared, another blast of energy struck Rex and Iris.
But this time, a warning from the System followed.
<Notice: the user's mental stat is not high enough to block the Halo of Blades!>
<Halo of Blades has successfully affected the user!>
Upon reading the notifications, Rex instantly felt the effect.
He looked down to his right arm and found his arm stopped healing.
Initially, he thought the Halo of Blades was capable of stopping his regeneration ability but it wasn't like that. Instead, the energy it exuded kept attacking Rex's body, tearing the new flesh as fast as it could grow.
Swish!
Out of nowhere, Rex tilted his head to the side a little and dodged a glistening object.
He could feel a sting on his cheek, grazed by the flying object earlier.
Did that Dark Angel cause this?! What did it throw? It's so fast I couldn't see it!
Focusing back ahead, Rex's shocked eyes inspected Stelios and found nothing.
Only his staff was gone but there was nothing in his hands.
Rex sweated a little as Stelios was more dangerous than he initially thought. Explore stories on empire
"In the past, the Angels were the symbol of good but that doesn't mean there was no bad side," Stelios suddenly explained as he strode ahead slowly, his aura climbing with each step. "I am one that was a part of that bad side. You might think there were only low, mid, and high-rank Supernaturals but there was one other rank above them. A rank that only sat by Ancient Humans, Demons, and Angels—the superpower rank"
"As one of the superpowers, we have Werewolves working under us. And animals like them can most of the times… be difficult to reason," He continued before looking back at Rex. "No matter how much we talked to them, sometimes, they wouldn't listen. And at those times, we showed our stick"
Pausing for a second, Stelios continued with haunting words, "Guess who got sent to deal with them?"
"It's me…" He pointed at himself proudly.
Just then, Stelios flipped his hands, and revealed deep golden knives on his hands, "The Archangel of Knives is the stick for the Werewolves. In other words, I'm your enemy… I'm your natural hunter—Rex Silverstar…"
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter