Chapter 254: It's Our Fault

SWOOSH!!

Lightning energy blasted from within Rex's body pushing Vashag back,

Rex inspected his body and found that Devo decided to help him, his lightning mana becomes even more destructive after Devo added his power to it.

After pushing Vashag back, the lightning energy creates a cocoon around Rex's body.

The area that is around Rex that was supposed to be covered with mist started to dissipate, it got pushed back by the cocoon Devo created, even the rain got blocked by the cocoon.

'What is this?', Rex asks inside his head.

[It's one of my abilities], Devo replied nonchalantly.

Hearing what Devo said, Rex then suddenly remembered, The system told him that Devo has Weather Control ability.

As the mist got pushed back by the lightning energy,

Rex saw Adhara revealed on the side sitting on the ground, she's still hurt but she then looks back when she notices the mist starting to dissipate.

"Rex!", Adhara called out after seeing Rex.

Rex smiles lightly before he slowly walks towards Adhara.

The cocoon of lightning didn't dissipate the mist completely or even make the rain stop but rather it only pushes the mist away in a circle around Rex and block the rain.

It follows Rex's movement as he walks towards Adhara.

"How can you do that?", Adhara asks while looking around her.

Rex then points at his head before he replied, "The Spirit I assimilated with have this ability"

"You need to reach the sixth rank too, I will tell you how later so remind me to explain it to you", Rex said before he glance to his side feeling something looking at him.

On his right, he saw a pair of red eyes looking at him from the mist.

Because the lightning cocoon pushes the mist away, Vashag seems hesitant to go out of the mist and rather stay in it.

Vashag can only glare at them from the side hoping the lightning cocoon will disappear.

While Rex is helping Adhara to get up, Devo suddenly remind Rex, [You can't maintain this for long, you're still not used to using my power]

Hearing this, Rex immediately picks Adhara up, "Let's find Edward"

Rex then dashes away trying to locate Edward as the lightning cocoon follows him, even Vashag keeps following him from the mist.

The cocoon only uncovers the mist 10 meters around him.

Now that he can see his surrounding somewhat clearly, Rex can see that they're currently on another hill with a spikey top closer to the Bleak Everson Mountain which is the tallest.

Because of the mist before, Rex and Adhara didn't realize that they ran that far.

They're at least half a mile away from Edward's car position, 

After running around while calling for Edward for five minutes, Devo reminds him again that the lightning cocoon won't hold.

Feeling the pressure from the glaring red eyes,

Rex suddenly got an idea as he chanted, "Black Lightning Spell, Black Field Orko..."Although the lightning cocoon helps him in seeing his surrounding, the Black Field Orko spell reach further than the lightning cocoon thanks to reaching the sixth rank so it's better to use it.

The ground around him turn black as it kept going even into the mist, it kept going until stopping at 25 meters mark.

Instantly after Rex activates it, he can feel many presences standing on top of his spell.

'There's one over there', Rex thought.

He then went to the right as he feel someone is hiding there, and when he reaches the place, "AAHHH!", an old woman suddenly shouted.

Looking at this, Rex clicks his tongue because it's not Edward.

"It's okay, I'm not a bad guy", Rex said slowly trying to calm the old woman down.

The old woman looks at Rex and found that it's not Vashag, she just got startled because of Rex's sudden appearance, "Do you know your way back to the village?"

"Y-Yes...", the old woman replied meekly.

Hearing this, Rex then said, "Then go back to your village, you're not safe here"

The old woman then stands up but soon her expression turns pale when she saw the pair of red eyes glaring at them, her legs tremble in fright upon seeing this.

Noticing this, Rex sigh helplessly.

From the looks of it, the old woman can't be left alone.

But then, the old woman suddenly takes out a glowing red flower from her pocket.

"What is that?", Rex asks in confusion.

Adhara who is on Rex's back also looks at the flower curiously.

The old woman looks at both of them before she realized, "You both must be a foreigner"

"As you know we live in this place despite Vashag is also living here, but thanks to this flower we can somehow live peacefully without fearing Vashag might attack", the old woman explained.

Rex stretches out his hand to touch the flower, "May I?"

Looking at this, the old woman gave Rex the flower before Rex scans the flower.

<Vermillion Red Flower>

A fifth rank mutated flower that is the product from an active lava environment, Vermillion Red Flower will glow in red upon activation by twisting the bottom of its stalk and it will glow for 3 days at max. The flower will grant a slight mana boost for Fire Elementalist.

After reading this, Rex gives the flower back to the old woman.

"Normal light attract Vashag greatly and it will be rampage anything that catches its sight, the red light from this flower somehow annoys Vashag that is why the village collects this flower. But Vashag will be immune to the red light after getting exposed to normal light, that is why all of us are hiding until Vashag calms down", the old woman added while looking at the red flower.

Hearing this, Rex then realized what they have done, 'So that's why the woman that meets us freaked out, turns out Vashag is attracted to the light from Edward's car'

Realizing that it's their fault for endangering the village, Rex sigh.

But then suddenly, tears fall from the old woman's eyes as Adhara pinch Rex's back after noticing that the old woman started crying.

Under Adhara's pressuring gaze, 

"What's wrong?", Rex asks lightly, he looks back trying to find Vashag but turns out Vashag is nowhere to be seen.

He thought that the old woman is crying because of Vashag but it doesn't seem like it.

The old woman sobbed lightly trying to hold onto her tears, she held the red flower tightly while biting her lips.

Rex holds the old woman's shoulder lightly and asks again, "What's wrong?"

"I-It's just that, I just realized the other villagers will also activate their flower. Each of them has one for their safety, and then it hits me when I remembered that it's my husband's turn to restock the flower for the villagers", the old woman said as her tears burst.

Looking at this, Rex frown in confusion.

Seeing that Rex is slow to figure the situation, Adhara then asks, "Where can we find these flowers? We'll help the villagers restock the flower"

Hearing this, the old woman's eyes lit up in delight.

She then stands up before she said excitedly, "It sprouted in a valley not far from here, the place is filled with mutated bears"

"Mutated bears?", Rex asks again.

He then glances at Adhara on their back after realizing that the mutated bears must be the Grisly Mist Bear which is one of the things they came here for.

Rex then finally said, "Don't worry, we'll help to restock the flowers"

After agreeing to help the villagers, the old woman goes back to the village while Rex and Adhara keep looking for Edward.

They find many other villagers that are hiding around the place in fright.

All of them already activate the Vermillion Flowers fearing that Vashag will come after them.

Rex told them to go back to the village knowing that Vashag has already calmed down, he didn't sense any pair of red eyes glaring at him anymore.

Not long after that, Rex and Adhara found Edward hiding on a small crack.

The woman that is brought by him also hiding with him inside, and his expression lit up when he saw Rex and Adhara.

"Woah, What is this?", Edward asks after looking at the lightning cocoon.

Rex ignore Edward before he said to the woman, "Vashag already calmed down, you can go back to your village now"

Hearing this, the woman scoffed and wanted to leave.

It is clear that she's angry with Rex and the others because of attracting Vashag and endangering the village, and Rex didn't mind it at all because it's their fault.

But before the woman can leave, "We're going to help you restock the Vermillion Flowers"

The woman stopped on her track and looks back at Rex with a slight surprise, Rex then added, "It's our fault for attracting Vashag, so the least we can do is to help you guys to restock the flower"

After hearing what Rex has to say, the woman widened her eyes before turning back again.

But Rex stopped her again, "Do you know the way to Lountain City? We're a bit lost and don't know which direction to go?"

"After you restock our flowers, then I will tell you the way to Lountain City", the woman replied coldly before she left.

Edward approach Rex before he asks, "It's our fault? How come?"

"The light from your car attracts that monster, so it's our fault for not preparing ourselves better and putting their village in danger", Rex explains while shaking his head.

But then suddenly, "Rrghh!", Rex grunted.

[Times Up!], Devo said as the lightning cocoon around Rex crumble.

Instantly after the lightning cocoon dissipates, the mist covers their vision again while the rain follows making their already wet clothes wetter.

Looking at this, Adhara asks in concern, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I can't maintain it for long, so we have to make do with this", Rex replied calmly.

Rex then added, "Follow me", he said before he dashes in a direction followed by Edward.

~

Meanwhile,

Stuart brings the big bag with the maid's corpse in it out of the room.

Many people gaze at him curiously with such a big bag, but upon noticing that Stuart is the butler from Rex's room the curious students didn't mind him anymore.

The students of Faraday University consider Rex to be their role model and star.

So they expect nothing like doing illegal things, or even killing an Awakened and instructing the butler to dump a corpse.

Because he's carrying a corpse inside the bag, Stuart already put something on the bag.

The smell of a corpse can surely be smelled even only from walking past it, so he did something to cover the corpse's smell.

He then arrived at the elevator,

The elevator is not the elevator used by the student but rather it is a hidden elevator in a small hallway, it's completely hidden because Stuart needs to open a door to access the elevator.

After entering the elevator, Stuart presses the fourth floor.

If what he's doing is supposed to get rid of the corpse, then he should go to the ground floor.

But instead of going down, he went up instead.

The elevator door opened on the fourth floor,

Stuart looks around the place and finds that the floor is almost devoid of students because the day is just starting, and students are currently in class.

He then walks out of the elevator cautiously.

Stuart follows went straight to a door not far from the elevator, he knocked on the door in a pattern lightly before the door opened.

A woman greeted him from the inside,

If Rex was here, then he will instantly recognize the woman, Linda.

Linda opened the door and saw Stuart in front of the room with a big bag on his back, "Ms. Linda, I brought you something"

Hearing this, Linda steps aside signaling Stuart to come in.

After Stuart comes in, Linda poked her head out to see if anyone is watching before closing the door lightly again.

Inside the room, Stuart takes out the corpse from the big bag.

"Did Rex do this?", Linda asks with a frown.

Stuart shakes his head before he replied, "No, it's Kyran that did this"

Linda then go on her knee before inspecting the corpse, her expression changed a bit because of the rotten smell from the corpse but she kept looking.

"I can't identify which family she's from", Linda said before standing back up.

Stuart then said with a frown, "Whichever family this woman is from, it's clear that she's trying to do something and Rex caught up to it"

After a moment of thinking, Linda got a thought in her mind.

"How did this girl manage to get inside Rex's room?", Linda asks.

Stuart recalled the event before he said, "I think she blackmailed Clarice the maid, that's how she can get inside the room"

"Bring Clarice here", Linda commanded before sitting on her desk.

Hearing Linda's command, Stuart bowed slightly before heading towards the door.

But when he's about to leave, Linda suddenly stopped him, "Didn't Rex just make an alliance with the Reed Family?"

"Yes, Ari is guarding the university and his room", Stuart replied.

Linda then frowns for a moment before her eyes widen in realization, "Then where is he when there's an infiltrator inside Rex's room?"

Hearing what Linda said, Stuart froze in his spot.

Both of them look at each other and realized that they just found a lead, "I'll tell Vargas about this", Linda said before she takes her phone and dialed a number.