455 Rex

"Rex, it's time for you to come out." Kraft was in the deepest level of the Dungeon Maker with the System's supervision as he unlocked the very last fox which the System had kept.

Aside from Pei who was currently making sure of Jin's condition in his fight against Zeru, the rest of the foxes were present to witness the unlocking of Rex's cell box.

Its outer form was very similar to a giant and very advanced level complicated Rubik's cube. Numerous combinations were unlocked, including Legendary Grade sealing inscription charms to prevent him from coming out.

Pepper's task to discover the properties of the magical living armour plate was interrupted once more, as the System needed her to remove the previously added custom made barrier, the Reverse Aegis. It had been a perfect addition to Rex's holding cell since its property to absorb almost every type of energy in order to maintain its barrier form was a boon for the berserk fox.

After analysing its usefulness in the fight against Orc King Hamu, the System had asked this little girl bellator to incorporate the Reverse Aegis, thereby freeing up 0.5% of its maximum processing capabilities needed to hold onto Rex.

The three ex bellators who were marked as troublemakers by the System, each had a reason why they were deemed as such. Kiyu had always been hailed as the goddess of natural beauty. With a charm which she painstakingly trained, Kiyu could make ANY male fell head over heels for her in minutes, resulting in major headaches for previous Users.

Pei has been at odds with the System for a very long time, and had regarded Kraft as her personal jailer. Furthermore, because of their shared history, to this day, she had not forgiven him and kept regarding him as the Devilman.

And lastly, there was Rex. An ex bellator dangerous to the point that the System needed more than a single leash to stop him from doing the one thing he craved to.

Rampage.

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The desire to destroy everything in his path had not always been inside Rex. Originally, he had been a human just like all the other ex bellators. He had lived a long and in his own regards, a happy life as the one and only right hand man for Zhou Lin.

Together with the Jade Prince, Panda Lord Zhou Lin had commandeered his enterprise to aid the Twelve Clans at the time to the best of their abilities to vanquish the Banned Emperor's reign. He and Rex had overcome countless trials to unite the business world of both Eastern and even the Western regions.

The Western Magic Kingdoms back then had been very fearful of the Eastern expansion, but Rex had been able to make it happen because of his origin. He had been adopted at a young age by Panda Lord Zhou Lin during one of the many revolutions in the Western Magic Kingdoms, yet nothing could hide the fact that he had been a westerner by blood. 

(Regardless of the purpose, Zhou Lin had the foresight to raise a Westerner within his clan.)

Surprised by his discovery that Rex could control both Magic and Eastern Cultivation, Zhou Lin personally tutored Rex, making him on par with Zhou Lin's bodyguards at the tender age of 12 years old. Treating him like a son, Zhou Lin further inculcated values and business decision making into Rex.

Despite the protests of the various Panda Elders stating that as the Panda Lord, he should focus more on his blood related sons who would one day take over his seat in the future, Zhou Lin openly ignored them.

In fact, Zhou Lin had never been one to show favouritism to those who were not capable, even if those happened to be his own children. Thus, he preached meritocracy as the indicator for those who wished to get the seat of the Panda Clan's Head.

Without a doubt, his sons had been jealous towards their adopted brother but time and time again their plots to remove Rex had been in vain because of his knowledge, insight and mere prowess. He could be considered a near perfect human in all regards... except for one distinct weakness.

Their father, Zhou Lin.

Thus, fostered by their hatred towards Rex, and clouded by their own ambitions of becoming the next Panda Clan Head, Zhou Lin's sons decided on the most villainous plan that any child could ever come up with.

Patricide… followed by fratricide. Even Yun as the spokesperson of the System for Jin had never been informed about the whole truth for one of the darkest chapters in the Panda Clan's history.

The children of the Panda Lord had collaborated with the Jade Prince to allow him to remove their father, Rex and any respected Panda Elders opposing their own rule in return for a 50% share of profits after they had won against the Banned Emperor.

It had not been too hard convincing the Jade Prince to do so, as it was obvious to anyone that he feared the Panda Lord Zhou Lin as a potential threat to his 'rightful' rule. The Panda Lord had been the one that gathered all the clans to his banner so that the Jade Prince would not be implicated in the long run. If such a man could dispose of one ruler, why should he stop at two?

After gathering of all these power and the vast sums of money in his disposal, the only thing he lacked was prestige, which Zhou Lin could buy if he were smart enough. Despite the many pledges to the heavens by Zhou Lin with the Heavenly Five Elements Tribulation as part of the oath, the Jade Prince was constantly worried due to his inferiority complex.

So the Jade Prince agreed to the Panda Lord's children terms when they came to him. Yet unbeknownst to them, he had something far more sinister in mind. After collaborating for a long time with the Panda Clan, the Jade Prince had already been aware that the sons were rather useless, and understood why Zhou Lin would prefer to choose Rex as his successor who was their exact opposite.

The Jade Prince could already foresee that with the removal of the respected Elders, all their businesses would eventually be devoured by other competitors given their incompetence. While the profit of 50% seemed alluring at first sight, who was to say, they would be content with that amount and not plot against the Jade Prince to backstab him at some point in the future?

If they could do that to family, what little concern would they have for the lives of others in exchange for money? Hence, the Jade Prince decided to put his real trust into the Twelve Clans. He would remove the elders as requested by the children since it was part of the unbreakable oath when the Jade Prince asked for Panda Clan's help. (Both parties agreed to make the oath vague, so there could be leeway with any request done)

Afterwards, the Twelve Clans would dismantle the Panda Clan and absorb and divide their financial assets as their own. The rest of the Panda Clan members were to be branded as traitors.

Initially, the Twelve Zodiac Clan leaders had been very uneasy with such a decision as Panda Lord Zhou Lin had been extremely generous to them. Only because of Zhou Lin, their Clans rose to fame and betraying that man would be a disfavour to him.

Knowing how the clan leaders felt, the Jade Prince used underhanded methods to instil distrust, caused discord within the leaders and even had some of them replaced by their more ambitious clan members. After all the Jade Prince did dabble with a few Western Arts when the Banned Emperor had sent him off as an envoy to the Western Kingdoms. The magical scrolls of influence he bought, enabled his proposition to be more readily accepted by the leaders in exchange for the promise of wealth, power and land.

Following the betrayal of the Jade Prince, the System came into existence and was inherited by the final Panda Elder, who had been hidden in case the Jade Prince would betray them just as he ended up doing.

Understanding their overall situation from the System, he ordered the rest of the clan members and his allies to hide amongst the population as best as they could. For those from the main family, it was no easy task since many were found and killed on the spot.

He also told their other branches and outer families to integrate into the twelve clans if needed. As for the Panda Elder himself, he knew that he needed time to make preparations for a potential comeback.

The System allowed him to grant a part of its own powers upon the various branch heads within Panda Clan with the goal of passing it down as an inheritance for future generations. It was to raise warriors to lead their revolution, thus creating the first iteration of what was called Sub System Users, who would later become the first Bellators when they passed on.

Unfortunately, the plan of this Panda Elder only bore fruit a couple of decades later after he had already relinquished the role of the System User to a new generation. Only then, the new (Panda) Chosen called upon her allies to gather so they could begin their counterattack.

She felt that waiting any longer would result in a further consolation of power by the Jade Emperor and his Royal Zodiac Clans, just as they were promised by the then Jade Prince.

Answering her call were the most promising members of the young generation of Clan Head candidates who had staunchly allied with the Panda Clan despite the emperor's declaration to brand all Pandas as traitors. The following were some of the Sub System Users which the Panda Chosen was being accompanied with.

Pei of the Crane Clan.

Kiyu of the Butterfly Clan.

Evon of the Frog Clan.

Tsu and Kai of the Wolf Clan.

Itori, Ixel and Ixa of the Grizzly Bear Clan.

All of them gathered at the behest of the Panda Clan's Chosen with their rank and file, as they were all aware that the power they wielded partly came from the 'one' behind her. From what they were told, disobeying the Panda Chosen meant losing a huge chunk of the power they had gained so far.

However there was one more candidate that did not stand out in the open, but orchestrated most of what had to be done from the shadows

Kraft of the long lost Fox Clan.

He had obtained the powers by previous Panda Elder through an incident of opportune. The Panda Elder used it as a chance to revive the fox clan who had bravely fought beside the Panda Clan through the years. He was the one who had influenced the new Panda Chosen to convene with the rest and came up with the intricate plan of attack.

The general idea was that they were to infiltrate their enemies' camps and learn every detail of the Jade Emperor's activities. If needed, blend into the daily routines of the Jade Palace.

Be it a chef, cleaner or prostitute. Everyone was clear of their objective. Only then, the rest could ambush them under the guise of the forgotten Fox Clan.

Coincidentally, the Fox Clan was also one which Panda Lord Zhou Lin used to have close ties to, since his paternal grandmother hailed from them. Unfortunately, the Chosen did not care as much for that bond, but not for the last surviving member of the clan. (He had other plans in mind.)

The whole plan was to eventually destroy the Twelve Clans and have the Panda Clan start anew again with no dirt on their name and with everything else getting pinned onto the foxes. But to Kraft, that was how the Fox Clan should regain its reputation as the clan of trickery and deception.

During the constant skirmishes, the spies had learned that the Jade Emperor had constructed a tomb in which he housed the remains of the Panda Lord and his only filial (adopted) son Rex. (For the emperor's trophy sake.) With the System issuing a mission the Panda Chosen could not ignore, the Foxes were forced to infiltrate the palace and recover these remains.

But not without heavy losses.

A forbidden ritual initiated by the System sacrificed the lives of many rank and file including the Chosen's very own two children, allowing them to revive Panda Lord Zhou Lin.

The betrayed former Panda Head swore revenge against the Twelve Royal Zodiac Clans and promised to use whatever he needed to do to bring them down. Together with Panda Lord Zhou Lin once more, Rex was revived in order to handle the main objective of removing the Twelve Royal Zodiac Clans. Thus, Rex became the very first one to be deployed as an official bellator under the System.

Panda Lord Zhou Lin did keep his promise of revenge. He had done many things which on the surface appeared as if they all were in the best interest of the Panda Clan, but the justice that Zhou Lin served was suffering to both the common folks and Royal Zodiac Clans.

Yet his hunger for power only seemed to grow more and more. Eventually, he even usurped the authority over the System from the Panda Chosen who had resurrected him, turning her into a useless rank and file cultivator.

Rex was furious about what his father's wrongdoings, and felt unjustified of what he had been contributing to. The repeating acts of terrors by Panda Lord Zhou Lin had made Rex doubt whether this was the very same person he had decided to accompany into the very depths of hell. Still, he followed him with a heavy heart knowing that Zhou Lin had a reason for all this.

Eventually, it had reached the point that the Panda Lord's actions could no longer be overlooked. It happened when Zhou Lin had personally executed some Panda Clan Remnants. They, who were ordered by the previous Panda Elder to hide by marrying into the Twelve Royal Zodiac Clan had been branded by Zhou Lin as traitors.

All the Sub System Users had agreed to rebel against him.

Ironically, Rex had been the first one to get killed by Zhou Lin even though he had been the only one who had refused to join their side. Unfortunately, when the System had been the one to inform Zhou Lin about the Sub System Users' transgression, the Panda Lord first severed the head of his loyal right hand.

This particular action had in turn sparked the internal coup d'état against Zhou Lin. What was now only known to Kraft and the System; when the coup happened, the Sub System User's overall Grade had dropped for some reason.

However, the System actually played on both sides of the coin. While it could have stripped the Sub System users of nearly all their powers, the System had decided against it. Instead, it treated the whole infighting as something akin to a test for the Panda Lord.

In case Zhou Lin was unable to deal with his own faction then it meant that he was not strong enough to remove the Twelve Royal Zodiac Clans. In such a case the System planned to wait for however long it would take to find someone suitable. However, if Zhou Lin managed to remove Kraft, it would listen and grant Zhou Lin complete access of all its abilities no matter the cost to itself.

Against all the System's expectations Kraft managed to revive Rex with the help of Pei. By performing what would later be improved as the standard of resurrection, the drive that kept the betrayed aide alive was seeking justice from his injustice. (Resurrection was not available until much later when the laws of nature were changed.)

In the end, it was not Kraft but rather Rex that enabled the rebellion to go smoothly. His burning rage became the backbone of the Sub System Users to defeat Zhou Lin aside from the weak points that he suffered.

But it was no easy battle. All of the Sub System Users were eventually killed and later revived by Pei into bellators. When the Panda Lord knew that it was Pei who managed to restore them as bellators, she became his one and only prime target.

Tsu and Kai who protected her fiercely were maimed by him. And regrettably, they were just the first two on the list of her dead guardians. Eventually when Pei was killed, the remaining bellators thought all was lost if not for an emergency backup plan by Kraft who had unwillingly allied with the Demon Exorcists. Otherwise, Pei could not have been resurrected as a bellator for Kraft too.

However, Rex was proven to be more dangerous than Kraft anticipated. When Zhou Lin was defeated after permanently losing all their Sub System Users turned bellators, only Kraft and Rex remained.

Sadly, Rex was not satisfied just seeing the corpse of what was once the man he regarded as his father. To make sure that there would never be a repeat of such a case, he decided to consume Zhou Lin's dantian. "AFTER EVERYTHING I DONE? ALL THE TROUBLE AND HARDSHIP WE HAD BEEN TOGETHER? THIS IS HOW YOU TREATED ME?!!" Rex managed to eat half of Zhou Lin's dantian before Kraft stopped the man who had become like a brother to him.

Lamentably, that was also when Rex had killed Kraft who tried to stop him. But with his dying breath, Kraft used the remaining of his commanding power he had over Rex after his resurrection to change him into a fox and sealed him.

At that point in time, the System placed Kraft in a time stasis and offered him a deal. The latter could swear allegiance to it, in exchange for resurrection as a bellator with immense power, including a limited ability to bring back those who had died similar to Rex.

Kraft ultimately agreed, yet unfortunately without Pei, he was unable to resurrect his former comrades as humans, and could only provide them the forms of foxes. The Original System made sure to cage Rex up before he could do any further damage to the world and to the dantian of the Panda Lord.

To the System, the ex Panda Lord was still a valuable subject for the future.

-----

"I hope your anger has quelled over the centuries, Rex." Kraft greeted him with a sad smile. Surprisingly Rex did simmer down after that long period of inactivity, especially when he finally got a chance to vent his anger towards Peppers' Reverse Aegis (It had helped a ton)

"If those old pencil pushers allow you to take me out temporarily, that means it's something important. Speak and then leave me alone." Rex sent fiery chi out when he spoke. Kiyu quickly hid behind Kraft while Ixa, Ixel and Itori came forward defending Kraft from that attack.

"I guess hearing you call me Little Brother once more, is too much to ask... Please lend me your powers, I need you to increase my abilities so that I can track something down for the current User of the System. I hope there comes a day when I can get you to meet him. You should like him. It appears he is a bit like the one you really referred to as Father." Kraft explained and Rex was a bit surprised at this information.

He looked at the rest of the foxes, who unanimously agreed that the User was not unlike the Panda Lord Zhou Lin in legends but of his memories.

"Hmph, Ten minutes, after that, I am returning to my cage," Rex replied and Kraft was delighted.

"Ten is a miraculous amount. Thank you! Big Brother..."