Chapter 651 Ascension Trial: Hazardous Climb

'I have the power to lift a mountain, but this is unexpected...'

Since he learned earlier that he can't cheat through the process and jumps up to the peak of the mountain, Rex is now climbing the mountain like a regular man. With his kind of strength, it should've been really easy to climb a mountain.

Even though he doesn't have any experience in rock climbing, his strength should make up for it.

But contrary to his expectation of easily climbing to the top, Rex finds that there's a huge pressure pressing him down from above. Due to that pressing force, climbing the mountain is hard enough that he actually needs to hold on tightly to his grip.

Rex's arms are bulging with muscles, he gazes up realizing that he's not even a quarter of the way.

Without a doubt, the second obstacle that he needed to go through is climbing the mountain. Rex can feel that his body becomes heavier the higher he got, and he can't imagine how hard it would be when he's near the top.

Shaking his head, Rex started climbing the mountain again, fighting back the pressing force.

At a quarter of the way he was forced to turn into his Werewolf form, it was simply impossible to keep on climbing with his base form. Climbing the mountain wall relies more on his fingers, and his Werewolf form is firmer due to the claws.

Upon reaching halfway through the mountain wall, he activated the red force and Berserker's Curse.

But that was not all, something happened when he reaches the halfway mark.

"Rrrghh...!", Rex grunted feeling that the pressuring force was amplified by an enormous amount of bloodlust that fixed onto him, he slowly turn his head upwards and saw a vision that made his eyes widen and his pupils expand.

From above he can see a waterfall of blood, spilling from the peak of the mountain.

Rex immediately looks back down before his head and shoulders were powerfully hit by the waterfall of blood that is gushing onto him, it made the mountain wall slippery and also made climbing the mountain wall becomes heavier.

Imagine climbing a steep mountain as a normal person with water being poured onto him.

That is what Rex is feeling right now but the pressure from the blood pouring on him can definitely crush a normal person's body, even a ninth-rank realm Werewolf like him can feel the pressuring force much less a normal human.

Being hit by the blood gushing onto Rex right now would mean instant death.

Pushing through the tidal of endless blood coming from the peak of the mountain, Rex keeps on climbing but he's way slower than before. Without even looking up, he keeps on stabbing forward showing his unyielding will.

Huff... Huff...

While under such immense pressure, Rex stopped to take his breath for a moment.

Not only does the blood gushing onto him was relentless and powerful, but it also contains bloodlust that seems to choke on his neck. If the Werewolves that he killed earlier has close to, similar to, or surpassed a little of his bloodlust, this time it surpassed his own bloodlust greatly.

In order to gain this kind of bloodlust, one might need to take out nations. Completely baffling.

Rex now is certain that the entity at the top is definitely the Kaiser of the Scarlet Garland, the bloodlust that is infiltrating his body and making breathing quite hard definitely doesn't belong to any living creature.

Simply put, there are not many living creatures to kill to have this kind of bloodlust.

Upon gaining his breath back, Rex's body started to be covered with a liquid red substance that constantly sucks the blood that is gushing onto him. It was his True Werewolf King Blood Physique skill that he got from copying King Baralt, his body now got rejuvenated as he continues his climb.

From the foot of the mountain, it only takes about ten minutes to reach the halfway mark.

But upon the emergence of the waterfall of blood and also the thick bloodlust infiltrating his body and senses, his climbing speed suffers greatly. It's been ten minutes already, but he hardly moves from his spot, proving that this is no small feat.

Just then, a cackling voice can be heard laughing at him from above.

"Give up... you are just an anomaly, and your existence is frowned upon. No Werewolves are able to clear the fifth level, and yours are simply impossible to clear. Die in peace so your bloodline will be passed to another that is worthy of it"

"Oh yeah?! Watch me, fucker!", Rex shouted as his body burned with motivation.

The voice definitely belongs to the Kaiser of the Scarlet Garland, and knowing that he's being looked down on by the Kaiser made him even more vigorous. Rex can feel the urge of proving him wrong increase, his back is already against the corner, and now it's the moment of do or die.

Clenching his jaw tightly, he forces his body to move against the current and pushes upwards.

Slowly and surely, Rex climbs the mountain wall by stabbing his claws forward and lifting himself up. It was a hazardous process, and the pressure is so powerful that his skin started to tear but his regenerative ability kicks in and closed it again.

Like a perpetual motion, this keeps on happening until he's near the top.

At this point he doesn't know how long he fought against the current from above, half an hour? an hour? or even three hours, who knows. But he did almost reach the top of the mountain due to his unyielding spirit and sheer will.

Crack!

"Grrgh!!", the wall crumbles as he falls down before stopping himself by stabbing his claws again.

Rex feels the frustration climbing in but his body is burning with anger wanting to prove to the Kaiser that he's not just any other Werewolf, he has the system and that alone should differentiate him from the rest.

'I don't care if they're the Lunirich Gods, if they stand in my way I will drag them down!'

With the thought that by having this power he can protect the others completely, he feels the anger erupting inside of him since the Kaiser is trying to block him from attaining his power. Something like that is unacceptable, not after what he had lost.

Crack!

Like being injected with adrenaline, Rex started climbing quickly with the help of his anger.

Soon enough he was about to stab his claws once again to only find that he reached the top, he grabbed onto the edge with both hands as he lets out a struggling roar. 'Just a little bit more!! I need more strength!', he exclaimed inside his head.

Every energy started to swirl violently around his body, trying to garner more strength.

Just like a machine that is switched to overclock mode, the red force, the kingly energy, the enhancement skills, everything started to violently circulate around his body trying to fight the pressuring force that is ten times greater than when he was still halfway through the climb.

The veins across his body started to bulge as Rex puts everything to go through this last push.

'I still need a little bit more or I'll fall down again! I can't go through that for the second time!', Rex shouted inside his head, feeling the pain striking every inch of his body as his skin is ripping and healed at a rapid pace compared to before.

But then he remembered something, he still have one more thing that can help him.

Since it's not quite effective due to how low the boost is compared to his other skills that can scale with his Werewolf form, this will help him squeeze a little bit more power to reach the peak of the mountain. It was his Sky Black Lightning element.

During the intense moment, he forgot that he's also an Awakened aside from being a Werewolf.

Blitz!

Rex's entire body slowly emanates black electricity, it chaotically coils and covers his entire body like a serpent trying to choke its prey to death. Soon his eyes also started blitzing with black lighting before he finally chanted.

"Flash!"

Swish!

Blitz!

With the boost from his sky-black lightning element, Rex burst through the gushing blood.

At last, he finally reaches the top and crashes with his back against the ground, he saw the beautiful sky and the crescent moon symbol glowing above him which made the corner of his mouth quirk up into a satisfied smile.

"I did it...", Rex mutters, the blood and bloodlust instantly vanished when he reached the top.

Just as he was celebrating being able to succeed in the second obstacle of this trial, Rex's eyes were attracted to the corner as he saw something staring at him. Slowly turning his face to the side while still lying on the ground, his eyes widened before turning serious in the next split second.

Sitting back up while still facing the side, a frown appeared on his face, "I finally see your true form"

"Kaiser of the Scarlet Garland..."

~

Later that night.

With the others doing their own thing, Adhara was left alone in the castle with Gistella.

A couple of times she has been going to Gistella's room to check on her to see if she gets any better or simply to have company. Aside from that, she spent the rest of her hours meditating to reach the seventh-rank realm in her fire element.

It's the fastest way to get stronger right now, she doesn't need to use the moonlight energy.

Knowing that Rex would give her the Herald Mark due to the fact that she's the female Alpha of the Silverstar Pack, she decided that it'll be best to just train her Awakened power to supplement her power when she received the Herald Mark.

Now she's inside the great hall, looking at the red gate portal to satisfy her worry.

"No change... I don't know when he will come out or even what's going on in there. But as long as he's alive, the portal wouldn't disappear, right?", Adhara mutters to herself, trying to justify anything to ease her mind.

Sighing to herself, she glanced at the throne in the middle of the great hall.

During the first few days that the castle was built, Rex has been sitting there in silence while looking absentmindedly at his parents' wind coffins. It's clear that he's grieving then, and his parents were finally buried by Flunra and Kyran.

Rex wanted to do it at first, but he finds that he can't actually bury his parents.

Although he has been carrying his parents throughout their journey here, when it comes to burying his parents he finds his body trembling uncontrollably. Due to that, Flunra and Kyran take over and do the honor of burying his parents.

On the throne, he's clearly grieving but Adhara also feels like he's thinking about other things too.

Looking at the throne with a hint of hesitation in her eyes, she decided to  ascend to the throne and stiffly sits on it. Feeling the sensation of the throne, a place where only the worthy is allowed to sit.

Gazing at the entire hall from the throne, Adhara can feel why a throne is so special.

Now she knows why only the mightiest and accepted are allowed to sit on a throne, she instantly feels way more powerful just by sitting on the throne. It's quite a new sensation that she has never felt.

But aside from that, her heart also beats faster by just sitting on the throne, she feels unsafe.

Even though the throne is a sign of status and power, there are also responsibilities that the one sitting on it needs to bear, and Adhara is not ready to bear or even feel those responsibilities on her shoulder.

Wanting to stand up from the throne, Adhara suddenly frowned and looks to the side.

Just when she was about to stand up she suddenly sensed something from the west of the castle, it was not a sound or anything but her senses just feel an uncomfortable feeling coming from the west.

Adhara didn't waste any time and instantly heads over to the second floor and ascend the tower.

Reaching the very top she looks out of the window to check what she sensed earlier. When she left the throne, the ominous feeling from the west disappear but she decided to check it anyway lest something is really approaching.

But her hope that everything will go smoothly crumbles when she looks out of the window.

"Why in the world are they all heading this way..."