Pak!!!
As soon as Rezen appeared, a crisp sound of a slap rang around. His hand mercilessly slapped Claude on his handsome face to the point that he left a deep red palm print on the man's cheeks
He almost caused Claude's vision to blur due to that slap but while his action was quite rude, it did help in restoring the realm's chosen mind to normal
"Move!" Rezen said coldly. What he wanted to see was the realm's chosen and the outsider fighting to the death to the point that even a mage below the 7th rank could outsmart them
Rezen didn't expect that the tables would almost be turned all because of the Serpentine Empress's appearance
Even right now, Rezen seems to have already forgotten the Empress's beauty but he knew that that woman is beyond beautiful
It's like the Empress's beauty is not something that a mortal's mind could register
Claude glanced at Rezen with suspicions, even he doesn't know how the latter was able to appear like this
By now, Claude is already aware that Rezen does not possess even a hint of origin energy. And without origin energy, it was impossible to possess the means that Rezen has while he was still inside the broken earth realm
Rezen has become an enigma in Claude's eyes but there was still something more important than the mystery that Rezen showed
As soon as Claude's mind recovered, except for momentarily glancing at Rezen, the only thing he did was chase the Serpentine Empress
Claude recovering this fast was out of the Serpentine Empress's expectations. She was just starting to collect the origin energy of the earth realm and there is still a long way to go as such, she cannot let Claude get in her way
Since the Serpentine Empress loses both of her arms, she simply created limbs made out of black snakes, and with it, she threw a red ring
The earth realm trembled once again, yet another treasure that breached the limit of the realm has appeared and was used
As soon as the ring appeared, cracks already formed on it yet even then, the ring still expanded greatly
Claude tried to dodge but the ring moved too fast. The ring that is now large enough has wrapped itself on his torso and forces him to stay in his position, unable to move even an inch
The Serpentine Empress continued, slivers of the golden origin energy slowly entering the gourd she has. Even the gourd was not something that the realm could tolerate as cracks also spread all over it
At this point, the Serpentine Empress hasn't collected even 1/4 of the origin energy when she heard the sound of something breaking
When she turned her head, she saw Claude destroying the ring that stopped him from moving
"STOP!" Claude shouted loudly. His voice echoed like a thunder
One side of his body was engulfed by deep darkness while the other side shone with a brilliant white light as he approached the Serpentine Empress who once again threw the treasures that she possessed
However, this time, Claude uses his strength to destroy or send those treasures flying. He was still delayed but not as delayed when the ring wrapped around his torso
When all the treasures that the Serpentine Empress possessed were used up, the origin energy that her gourd was able to steal was already at 2/3. She was only missing a third and she could finally escape the broken realm but she still lacks time
The Serpentine Empress was about to attack Claude when the latter already made a move
The realm's chosen sent a long beam of intertwined darkness and light. The target was not the Serpentine Empress but rather the gourd that stored the origin energy
Crash!! Bang!! Crack!!
The beam of energy crashed on the gourd, destroying a large part of it and causing the origin energy to leak out
The gourd was already heavily damaged because of the realm's suppression yet it was even attacked by Claude. It didn't take that long before the gourd exploded into fragments
As soon as that happens, despair befalls the Serpentine Empress's face
"N-no!! No! NOOOOO!!!" She wailed miserably as she saw her only treasure capable of stealing a realm's origin energy exploding into fragments
Her beautiful face was painted with deep anger and despair yet despite that, she was still as pretty as before
"C-Claude!!! CLAUDE PRESTON!!!"
Out of all the people living in the earth realm, only the Serpentine Empress knew of the despair that comes from previously living in a perfectly intact realm and then suddenly being plunged and forced to live in a realm with broken laws
Not only was the realm's citizens' path of magic blocked, but even an outsider also cannot use power above what the realm could tolerate. The Serpentine Empress can't even heal the injuries she has that force her to stay in such a broken realm
And since she cannot heal her injuries, she is unable to leave the broken realm using her own power, forcing her to try and steal the realm's origin energy
However, with her gourd broken, how was she supposed to escape this filthy broken realm now?
As such, the Serpentine Empress's despair was to be expected as well as her deep fury
p1ease visi(t) n0ve1b(in).ne)t
"AAAAHHH!!! CLAUDE PRESTON!!"
The Serpentine Empress's voice seems to ring all throughout the earth realm. Her fury causes the fabric of space to tremble in fright as he crazily attacked Claude
Despite the fact that this moment is Claude's victory since the Serpentine Empress has lost her means to steal the origin energy, things are still not that simple
He was already exhausted and now that the Serpentine Empress was attacking him crazily, it was hard for him to focus on trying to take the origin energy that was rightfully his
Thousands and thousands of black snakes materialize out of nowhere. These black snakes have their jaws wide open as their intent to bite Claude to death was very evident
Their eyes were bloodshot, almost bleeding as if they reflects the emotions that their maker has right now
Even Claude was having a hard time dealing with these snakes. He constantly condensed whips of light and darkness that smashed these snakes into pieces
However, after killing one snake, two more would appear and the cycle would continue
Claude was being overpowered by the snakes. His surroundings were literally filled with them and the more time that passed, the more ferocious they have become
He could only passively defend himself as he knew that as soon as the Serpentine Empress left a small opening, he would be able to make use of it
The origin energy he badly needed is infinitely close to him. As soon as he was able to gather them, even the Serpentine Empress would be nothing in front of him
As such, Claude took his time defending himself as he is still wary of the Serpentine Empress. He was afraid that once he carelessly moved to gather the origin energy, the Empress would use another card that he cannot even fathom
The stalemate continues for quite a long time. One side ferocious attacks while the other side passively defended himself
The two were busy fighting each other and that is when space once again twisted and from it, Rezen came out
Of course, with the senses of the realm's chosen and an outsider, both of them sensed Rezen but they don't know what he is up to, that is until he showed them
Rezen's farm revealed itself. At first glance, it looks like a Blessed Land but it wasn't. It was something else, something that they cannot explain
As soon as the farm appeared, the slivers of golden origin energy were automatically sucked by it
The rate at which the farm absorbs the origin energy was way faster than when the Serpentine Empress did it
"STOP!" Claude shouted angrily. He didn't expect that Rezen, a person that he thought was kind would actually try to steal the realm's origin energy
Turns out that Rezen is no different than the 7th rank mages. He too was selfish to covet the realm's origin energy
Because of Rezen, Claude turned from being a passive defender to an active attacker to erase all the snakes on his path
However, at this point, the Serpentine Empress's anger for Claude has already reached the limit
She recognized Rezen and she is angry at him but it far paled in comparison with o the anger she has for Claude
Rezen merely insulted her but Claude cut off her means to escape the broken realm
She would rather see Rezen obtain all those origin energy than let Claude Preston have them
Because of that, the Serpentine Empress even helped Rezen. Her snakes moved even more aggressively than before
Previously, the snakes wanted to kill Claude but now, they merely want to delay him which was an easier thing to do and they succeeded