An unknown amount of time has passed beyond the wall. But within, nothing changed much.
The concentration of mana can be seen by the naked eye swirling inside like a subtle wind, stirred from different points of the castle. On top of the swirling mana, absolute silence covered the inside of the castle.
It was so silent that if there was a pin drop then it would be the loudest thing.
Sitting at the stairs leading to the courtyard is Naela who seems to daydream, she has just finished meditating and now is helping Gistella walk here to ease her boredom by playing with Delta who is also in the courtyard.
For once, the castle is in absolute peace and the walls look even more sturdy than before.
"Naela... I think it's going to happen again, can you help me bring the medicine?" Gistella stopped playing abruptly while touching her sweating forehead, she can feel clearly that the hallucination was about to kick once again.
But this can be suppressed, Qonvale sent medicine a couple of days ago for her.
Naela snapped out of her daze and quickly nodded her head, she went over to a decorative desk near the hallway before she poured a cup from a teapot that is glistening with a green hue. It's the medicine that is supposed to be able to suppress the curse inside Gistella.
It works wonderfully as Gistella's hallucination has been reduced greatly.
The medicine acts as a barrier, dampening the effects of the growing curse that has taken root within her body. It would block most of the links between her condition and the growth of the curse, stopping her condition from worsening too quickly.
Although Rex was not able to check if it was safe or not, Gistella decided to trust it for once.
Gistella refuses to disturb Rex who is currently training right now. On top of that, Qonvale seems to be a trustworthy person so she decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and drink the medicine.
But as it turns out, the medicine works perfectly and she's glad she didn't bother Rex.
With the cup of medicine in her hand, Naela went back to the courtyard and give it to Gistella who is already sitting on the stairs. She drink the hot medicine slowly until there was nothing left and put it to the side.
Closing her eyes a moment, she can feel that the medicine is taking effect.
Upon opening her eyes, Gistella caught sight of Naela's absent-minded look as she stares into the void. It's obvious that there's something bothering her mind, "Are you still thinking about, Kyran...?" she asked.
"Eh...? Y-Yes" Naela replied, knowing that lying is useless.
Looking down to the ground with a solemn look. She then continues, trying to make sure that she knows the situation right, "So Kyran is not kidnapped by the humans, but rather by the Witch of Chaos?"
"Yes, that's what happened. At least the clue we have led to that" Gistella replied.
Both of them then look up to the bright sky before sighing dejectedly, the current situation of the world is a mess and it's going to be worse and worse from now. It will not get better until the Executor and the Witch of Chaos are destroyed.
"The Witch of Chaos, huh... I don't remember her being this capable" Gistella mutters.
Glancing at her who is still gazing skywards, Naela tilted her head and raises her eyebrows, "Do you know about the Witch of Chaos? I've only heard her name from Qonvale one time, but I don't really know what kind of creature she is..."
Gistella looks at Naela in surprise for a moment, but then she realized that Naela is young.
Due to her young age for a Supernatural, only a few hundred years old, Naela is probably considered a juvenile by most Supernaturals and also treated like a kid because of that. It's not that surprising that she doesn't know about the Witch of Chaos.
"I haven't actually met with the Witch, but I know that she is a prodigy of curse" Gistella said.
Reminiscing about the old past when she was still learning from the High Undead lords about the world, she goes on to explain, "The title Witch of Chaos is passed down through generations to a selected human. She may not be especially powerful like the Ancient Humans, but her strength lies in defense and making a fortress unreachable. During my great grandfather's time, the Witch of Chaos was a staunch ally of the Ancient Humans, yet had never achieved anything truly remarkable"
"But I think she's trying to change that in this era where ancient humans are none"
Upon hearing this, Naela nodded her head in understanding.
Although the Witch of Chaos is not someone powerful back in ancient times, there's a possibility that she was trying to change that recognizing the chance that presented itself in this era for her.
With no Ancient Humans, she probably reckons that she has a shot at the absolute top.
Naela thought about this for a moment before she asked, "But the Executor has awakened, so there should be no chance for the Witch of Chaos to keep on continuing her attempt lest she becomes the enemy of the Executor"
Listening to Naela's naivety, Gistella chuckled a bit as she was indeed still young.
Even though Gistella is not as old as Flunra that has seen through and survived the Radical Era and makes his name a legend, she's still quite old compared to Naela. "When someone starts an objective that big, usually they already prepared so much, and turning back is not an option"
"And that is what I'm afraid of..." she added with a troubled voice.
Naela beckons for her to keep on going through her curious eyes, and this made Gistella looks skyward again with a light sigh, "I'm afraid this will be a four-way-battle, and that would be destructive to the whole entire world"
~
Meanwhile, inside a room at the back of the castle near the courtyard.
Not a single piece of furniture can be seen inside the room as it's supposed to be empty and has no function. But now, the room is covered with glowing lines that formed into a hexagon with a circle at the center where a topless man is sitting with his eyes closed.
The cackling of black lightning can be seen traversing through the entire room.
At every edge of the hexagon-shaped formation that is glowing with vibrant energy, there was a pile of lightning stones there. It was the source of power that activate the formation and channeled the energy to the man at the center.
Compared to normal meditation, the energy flowing to the man is ten times faster.
On top of that, the endless supply of energy from the piles of lightning stones also makes meditation more efficient than before. About three-quarters of the piles of lightning stones have already been sucked dry, exposing no glow whatsoever.
Every single drop of mana inside the lightning stones was used by the man at the center.
The man is meditating topless at the center of the room, the glowing linings on the ground creep to his torso while a cloudy spirit with golden chains on its wrists behind the man is also meditating and channeling the man.
A connection can be seen connecting the spirit core inside their bodies together.
In each passing second, the connection between the two spirit cores is slowly becoming thicker and sturdier. Not only that, but their bodies are also getting closer and closer as if they were about to merge into one entity.
Rex and Devo have assumed this position for quite some time and didn't move whatsoever.
Since they are already nearing the realm of eighth rank before the closed-door training started, it was not a surprise that the connection between their spirit cores has already become this sturdy and it only needs a little bit of time before it was fully developed.
But when the last lightning stone was stripped from its energy, Rex opens his eyes.
Looking down at his chest, he can find that the link is at the door of breaking through. It's a devastatingly fast-growth thanks to the Ultimate-grade Lightning Stones that he used for this training session.
Rex is close to a breakthrough, but it'd take years for an Awakened to finish it.
Most of the Awakened would just give up if they know Rex can almost finish the link in mere days, he doesn't know exactly how much time has passed but it should be almost a week from the first day he started his training.
It was devastating if someone know the speed of his Awakenedpower growth.
Although that is the case, the most effective method that allows him to be this fast is the Ultimate-grade stones which are very rare minerals produced by rare phenomena like the Eye of Elemental.
On top of that, he also bought a formation and an elixir to enhance his growth process.
Without every single item that he bought from the system and is used for this current training session, it's impossible for anyone to reach this kind of speed. Not even the most talented individual can be this fast.
To put it in comparison, before training his lightning element, he already trained the rest.
Each of his new elemental affinities such as fire, water, earth, and wind elements already reached the third rank in as short as three hours. A God-like speed that can put any self-proclaimed geniuses to shame.
Amongst the four, he evolved his water element into Grey Water of Radiant.
Grey Water of Radiat is an early ultimate-rank element that has a potent effect of an amplifier, something that attracted Rex's attention earlier. Now that he can focus on his elements, he doesn't need to hold back on creativity.
This element will complement his lightning greatly and create powerful combinations.
Since he has sky-black lightning as the main element of attack, he decided to cultivate his water elements so that he can make his lightning element stronger. Rex now is at the peak of the fifth-rank realm for his water element.
After cultivating his water element for the day, he then focuses on his Lunar Light element.
Rex doesn't show what he was feeling much, but deeps inside he was quite sad that the Amuerus Katana which has an unbelievably unique ability and sturdiness was shattered by the Executor leaving him weaponless.
When he escaped from the Executor, he stored the fragments of the katana in the inventory.
Knowing that he has the system, he intends to repair it. But he now learned that in order to repair the Amuerus Katana, he needs weapon forging proficiency that he doesn't have. It's quite expensive too and he doesn't want to waste gold.
Despite having plenty, he hasn't considered all of the things that might cost him gold.
Throwing away gold without thinking much would be a bad move for him, and thus he decided to keep the gold for now. Instead of repairing the Amuerus Katana, he decided to learn an Ultimate Lunar Spell.
It's a powerful spell called Seven Legendary Lunar Armaments.
<Seven Legendary Lunar Armaments>
A mighty lunar enchantment capable of calling forth seven distinct melee weapons; Sword, Spear, Dagger, Mace, Halbnerd, Warhammer, and Axes created solely out of lunar light. Each weapon has its own unique trait. These weapons will float around the caster to act as protectors or can be merged together to create a single weapon for the caster to wield for increased power.
Rex decided to buy this in order to have a weapon even if his actual weapon broke.
Something that he can do to adapt when his weapon shatters just like the Amuerus Katana did when he clashes against the Executor. Although he still needs to think of fortifying these lunar weapons, this is a great start for him.
Upon realizing that the lightning stones have dried out, Rex stands up slowly.
Cracking his stiff neck from assuming the meditative position for days, he went over to the edges of the formation to change the lightning stones. But he has a feeling that this would be the last time he did it before he reached the eighth-rank realm.
Glancing back at Devo, Rex then asked with a light smile, "Ready for a breakthrough?"
"Of course, I'm going to boast my Gladiator Form's power to you once we reached the eighth-rank realm," Devo replied with a smile, seemingly confident that his Gladiator Form will shock Rex.
But this instead makes Rex smiles even wider, "I'll look forward to it"