Rex stood near the teleportation formation with a book in hand.
He was waiting for Naela to come back while reading the Basic Book of Combination—he got from the System. As he was reading the book, his mind wandered elsewhere as he called out Devo from within.
In a crackle of black lightning, Devo manifested beside Rex with his arms crossed.
"Nothing was happening, I'm surprised you called me out," He mused in ridicule.
Despite having a spirit and awakened relationship, Rex never calls him out if it is not for a fight or other things. A spirit might be assimilated by an Awakened, in order to go past an Awakened's limit, but they are also living beings.
Sometimes, spirits need a break from all the fighting and pursuit of strength.
"How old are you again?" Rex asked nonchalantly, his eyes still glued on the book. "Aren't you too old to be sulking like this, Devo? If you wanted something, then you should have said it to me directly"
Upon hearing this, Devo scoffed as it was no use arguing with Rex about this.
Even then, Rex decided to also summon Amanir out.
"Go and play, the adults are going to have a talk," Rex mused, letting Amanir do whatever.
Amanir's forced out a fuming smile when he heard this, he was annoyed that Rex was saying it like that when he was way older than Rex and even his lineage. Regardless, Amanir did not retort and flew away, cursing Rex in his mind.
"Say it, what do you want to know?" Devo impatiently asked.
Rex flipped a page in the book before he replied, "I'm planning to increase your aptitude"
Despite his earlier complaint, Devo's eyes widened when he heard this.
It was so shocking that he did not realize his jaw was already hanging on the floor—guessing Rex's next move was an impossibility, he always came with something insane, "Are you in the mood to listen to me now?" He asked again.
Devo cleared his throat, recovering from the shock—he was clearly tempted by this.
"As you might know, I have other elements that are stuck at the peak of the fifth-rank realm, but assimilating with more spirits is a hassle for me. I couldn't even begin to imagine, having four more spirits like Amanir, so that's why I'm going to increase yours and Amanir's aptitude to sustain more elements," Rex continued, explaining his strategy to Devo.
Upon hearing this, Devo nodded in understanding, "But how are you going to do that?"
"Are you going to use your weird power to summon a miraculous item again?" He questioned.
Rex shook his head, Devo was referring to the System.
But the System itself had already advised him the way to increase their aptitude.
"No, I'm going to pit both of you against other spirits and have you devour them" Rex replied.
At the realization of what Rex was trying to do, Devo's eyebrows dipped into a frown, he was not expecting Rex to know about that, "In order to do that—the challenged spirit needs to be as strong as me and Amanir and a Spirit Adjudicator must be present to witness the fight. Do you even know who will be the Spirit Adjudicator?"
"Yes," Rex nodded, the System already told him. "I'm going to meet with the Spirit Emperor"
"What?!" Devo gasped in shock when he heard that. "Are you insane? He's going to kill you"
Knowing that Devo would react like this—Rex glanced over to him, with a serious gaze, "Ah... so that's what I should be expecting. Is it wrong to ask him to act, as a Spirit Adjudicator? I'm going to have him do it, no matter what"
"It's like a peasant asking you to be present at a small event, it's disrespectful!" Devo replied.
Out of everything he could think of, Devo was not expecting this at all.
Rex might be strong, but the Spirit Emperor is an absolute overlord of the entire Spirit Realm.
Going to his realm and disrespecting him would not be a good idea.
"Just think about this again, you would be crushed if you really do that. Even if somehow, the Spirit Emperor did accept to become a Spirit Adjudicator, I don't know if I would triumph over the fight, not to mention Amanir..." Devo muttered, shaking his head—this was a bad idea.
Listening to this, Rex put on a cheeky smile, "Is that fear I hear in your voice?"
"Fear? It's rationality, you moron!" Devo barked back in anger.
Sensing that she was about to say something unnecessary, Rex glared at her and raised the leash in his hand, signaling that he would unbind Mavenna's collar, if she acted up. Mavenna trembled at this sight, the suffering she felt from having the collar removed, was still fresh in her mind.
Evelyn looked at Rex and squinted her eyes, "Did you touch her?"
"Huh? Where did that even come from?" Rex was taken aback, speechless at the question.
Despite Rex being confused, as to where that question came from—it was natural for Evelyn as Mavenna was wearing, extremely revealing clothes. Her womanly goods are practically in view to anyone.
Pivoting away from Rex, Evelyn stared at Mavenna, "Did he touch you?"
"No, Master Rex hasn't touched me yet. I'm still a virgin," Mavenna replied innocently.
But this answer turned Evelyn's face crimson, fuming in anger.
"Since when did you ever call me that? And what do you mean by 'yet'?!" Rex commented.
Mavenna never called him 'master', that never happened.
Additionally, she was obviously playing around as he was not planning on doing anything.
Upon hearing this—Mavenna tilted her head in confusion, "I thought the tattoo you placed on me was meant to bind us both as master and slave? Is that not the case? Hmm, odd—I swear I remember you want me as your slave"
Listening to this, Rex was cursing Mavenna in his head.
He could feel Evelyn's fiery gaze burning through his skin after Mavenna said that.
It was more annoying when Rex saw a glimpse of Mavenna's smirk as Evelyn turned away.
"Rex—I know I told you to have anyone other than Calidora, but that was before Calidora was in the fray..." Evelyn uttered—her voice was anything other than sweet. Additionally, the fiery aura began to ablaze as the group took an abrupt pause. "And now you already set your eyes on another one, a Succubus no less?"
Seeing this, Rex shook his head and sighed, "Fine, let's get this over with..."
BAM!
Moments later.
A vivid—hand-shaped red mark could be seen, on Rex's cheek, the outline of slender fingers clearly imprinted on his skin. He had gotten a vicious slap from Evelyn, even though he didn't do anything wrong.
But since the two had only made up, he decided to suffer through the slap.
Of course, that doesn't mean he was going to let this side for Mavenna.
Glancing over, he stares daggers at Mavenna who puts out her tongue in response.
If Evelyn wasn't here, I would already activate your damn tattoo.
Cruising through the wet grassland with the help of demonic horses that Mavenna was able to summon, the group of four eventually reached a half-submerged massive statue of some sort of a knight.
Upon seeing this, Rex then looked over to Catherine who had her senses entirely blocked.
Other than the demonic horses, Mavenna could also do this.
Signaling for Mavenna to take down her spell, the pinkish influence in Catherine's eyes began to dissipate until it disappeared completely. Only then that Rex ask, "You said that you have a way to contact the others, how would you do that?"
"I- I need to be high in high grounds to do that..." Catherine replied meekly.
Rex squinted his eyes, remaining silent for a few seconds.
Feeling uncomfortable and nervous, Catherine added, "I swear, I'm not lying!"
Seeing that she didn't seem to be lying, Rex nodded and turned to a rock formation ahead.
"Okay, let's go there," Rex pointed at the rock formation before the group moved again—but as he was heading towards that rock formation, his eyes, scanned the surrounding place. "It seems Calidora is doing great. She might be pregnant—but the power of her eyes, are really something..."
On the other hand, Evelyn looked at him from behind, her gaze was troubled.
'I came here because I'm worried, but what could I do even if I'm here with him...?'