“Rex?!”, the leader shouted in shock.
Upon seeing Rex entering the room makes his skin crawl, the day when he fought Rex slips past his mind as he got sent crashing to the wall with a punch.
He got punched by Rex in front of every student in the university,
Many of the students thought that he will put up a fight with Rex, but no,
Nothing of that sort happened that day, and the leader can still see the disappointment on everyone’s face upon realizing that he can’t hold a candle against Rex.
And it is the most hurtful and embarrassing day of his life, he got humbled by Rex.
The leader then can hear the low whispers from the students praising Rex’s power, absolute power that he can’t reach up to.
But that’s not what makes him mad,
When he looks back at Rex, he saw him leaving the university with his secretary without even the slightest bit of encouragement.
Rex’s stoic expression still stuck in his head, his expression even almost look bored.
This hurts the leader’s pride greatly, and the condescending gaze from Rex’s secretary added a pinch of salt to the wound he just got.
One thing for sure,
There’s no remorse or expression on Rex’s face that day, he didn’t even look at the leader as if he’s just an ant.
But this time, the expression on Rex’s face gives him the chill.
Rex saw blood leaking out of Edward’s mouth, and his tattered clothes indicate clearly that he had just got beaten up by these people.
He also saw a blackish bruise on Edward’s body which makes his blood boil.
“R-Rex, I-It’s not what it looks like”, the leader said with a pale expression.
Hearing this, Rex glares at the leader who is already stepping back subconsciously seeing the murderous gaze from Rex.
The air becomes colder, and the leader’s back is wet in sweat.
Rex then walks slowly towards him, “I remember you”, he said squinting his eyes.
Although he didn’t recognize the leader’s face, Rex still clearly remembers the scent of this man in front of him.
Because of his heightened senses, he never fails to remember someone by their smell.
“The Supernatural is knocking on our doors and yet, instead of training and getting stronger you decided to assault my friend just because I beat you fairly?”, Rex said emphasizing each and every word that came out of his mouth.
The leader falls to his knees feeling the pressure coming out of Rex’s body.
Bleak aura came burst out of the leader’s body as fear gripped his heart, “Give me one good reason to not cripple or kill you right now”, Rex asks while standing towering in front of the leader.
“P-Please”, the leader stammers in fright.
But then, Edward intervenes them, “It’s not worth it, we better check on Kyran right now”
“Kyran? What happened to him?”, Rex asks with a frown.
He then looks to the wailing guys on the floor and widened his eyes in shock, ‘What happened to them? Black Ash?’, Rex thought in confusion.
While looking at the guys on the floor, Rex’s eyes then fall to Edward.
Seeing Rex’s questioning look, Edward nodded his head confirming that he’s the one who did it.
“Where is he right now?”, Rex asks.
Edward then answered while walking towards him strugglingly, “He’s still inside the room, we should go right now”
After that, Rex takes one last look at the leader.
In a fraction of a second,
BOOM!!
Rex punched the leader straight on his face sending him crashing away to the wall, it happened so fast that the leader didn’t have time to react.
He got planted on the wall and immediately went unconscious.
‘I need to make him an example, there are certainly more people like him’, Rex thought.
Although the punch looks devastating, Rex makes sure that he held back a little to not injure the leader too much.
But nobody knows it, What the watching eyes see is Rex punching the leader brutally without any mercy.
After doing that, Rex and Edward left the place.
Not long after, they got back to the VIP room and saw Kyran still unconscious on the floor.
Rex hurriedly ran towards him but as he stretches out his hands to check, a black barrier suddenly zap him.
This caught Rex off guard as he didn’t expect something like this to happen.
“What happened here?”, Rex asks.
Edward leans on the wall weakly before he replied, “I’m helping Kyran absorb the Dark Orb just like you said, but then suddenly Kyran screamed in pain”
“I try to take the Dark Orb off of Kyran’s hand but the Dark Orb spread to me, then I dropped the Fire Orb while trying to break free which makes the Fire Orb splash onto us. I blacked out after that, and when I woke up I find Kyran in this state”, Edward explained.
He then activates his element as his hand burn with Dark Fire, “This also happens”
Looking at the Dark Fire, Rex widened his eyes in shock.
Edward’s explanation is relatable because Rex and Adhara also felt the same pain as them, it is normal but it all turns into a mess when Edward tries to disturb the process.
This results in this happening, and Rex doesn’t know what to do.
‘System, What is happening to Kyran’, Rex asks while touching the black barrier.
The black barrier stings Rex’s hand trying to make Rex let go but he held on, and not long after, the system finished the scanning process.
<Dark Element is one of the Pillars of Element and mastering it need enough understanding and willpower. Kyran is in an enlightenment state, it’s a special bonding process for a person who is compatible with the Dark Element>
Reading this, Rex is still confused, ‘It usually didn’t take this long, Why is that?’
<The Enlightenment State is a state where a person’s soul undergoes to achieve the height of compatibility with the associated elements. For Dark Element, the Enlightenment State will require the person to comprehend three functions Corruption, Destruction, and Consumption. It has one more function than the usual two of Main or Advanced elements>
‘Based on what you said, doesn’t that means me and Adhara should go through this process too when using the high-affinity orb?’, Rex asks.
When he upgraded his lightning affinity to high, he didn’t feel anything just like when he became a Lightning Elementalist for the first time.
Adhara also didn’t take long, they both are done absorbing roughly at the same time.
<Adhara did go through this process, but her Purple Fire has only two functions which are Destruction and Jealousy which she comprehended easily. The user on the other hand didn’t need to, the system help the user comprehend every function in an instant and the Black Lightning has three functions as the Dark Element>
Reading this, Rex nodded his head after knowing what’s going on.
In short,
Although Kyran has the Dark Orb which will turn him into an Awakened with high compatibility to Dark Mana, he still needs to go through this to achieve it.
This Enlightenment Process is the way, and it will take as long as Kyran takes to comprehend it.
“There’s nothing to worry about, he will wake up after he controls the Dark Element”, Rex said while standing up.
Hearing this, Edward’s eyes bulge realizing what Rex said.
“Doesn’t that mean he will be an Awakened?!”, Edward shouted in shock.
Rex glance at him with a smile before he replied, “Yes, Kyran will be a Dark Elementalist…”
~
A moment later,
Adhara gets out of the UWO headquarter office with a sigh,
The meeting she had with Vargas didn’t quite go well, and she even wanted to turn back time to redo the meeting but it’s simply impossible.
When she got out of the office, the night is already late.
Now that her nervousness is gone and got replaced by helplessness, Adhara notices the slight difference in the sector’s street.
In many other sectors, including the 3E sector where Faraday University is located.
The city street is filled with shops and houses on the side of the street, and they’re close to each other making the streets look packed.
Traffic also sometimes becomes a problem, and many walking people filled the street.
But this sector is not like other sectors,
Adhara looks in front of her and saw the buildings are far separated from each other, and there is no houses anywhere around here.
The street is also almost deserted if not for the cars that occasionally pass.
It looks more like a business district, an elite business district to say the least.
Adhara already called Rex to pick her up, and Rex and the others are already on their way.
While waiting for Rex and the others, Adhara walks towards a street bench right outside of the UWO headquarters while playing her phone.
She opens the news app and scrolls on it briefly,
Nothing catches her eyes when she suddenly stops at a piece of news, the news is about missing people in an orphanage that suddenly disappear.
The FAA found a track of the people in the orphanage, and it’s heading outside of the city.
But even after getting the lead that the people in the Orphanage went out with their own will, the FAA didn’t manage to find a single trace of them outside.
It’s like they magically disappeared.
While she’s reading the news, a commotion suddenly interrupts them.
“YOU CAN’T DO THIS! WHAT PROOF DO YOU HAVE OF MY COLLUSION!”, A shout can suddenly be heard from the side.
Adhara glance to her side and find a man there,
The man wears the UWO uniform but he’s currently restrained by a handcuff filled with mana, and there are two other guys holding both of his arms.
It seems that he’s being arrested while trying desperately to defend himself.
Both guys that are guiding the man to a van wear a white cape, and there’s an FAA badge on their chests which means the crime the man has done is an Awakened crime.
And by the looks of things, it’s pretty serious.
These people came out of the office, and Adhara saw a woman following them from behind.
“Thea please, we’ve been working together for years so you definitely know that this is bullshit!”, the man shouted pleadingly.
But the woman can only look at him with a troubled look.
She then said, “Take him away”
Hearing this, the two FAA members pull the man to the van while the man struggles desperately trying to free himself.
“You don’t understand, that bastard is angry because he knows I’m right! This is a false accusation! Thea! Thea!!”, the man shouted as he got pushed towards the van.
After that, the two members closed the door, start the engine, and leave the place.
This all happened in front of the woman who the man called Thea, and a tear came flowing down her left eye before she quickly wipe it off.
But when she’s about to go back inside,
“Excuse me”, a woman called out to her from the side.
Thea looks to her side and finds Adhara standing with a smile, “Yes?”, Thea politely said.
“Hi, My name is Adhara and I’m just passing by and saw the thing that happened”, Adhara said trying to create small talk.
Hearing this, Thea frowns and said, “And?”
“I’m just wondering what did that man do, it looks serious”, Adhara replied lightly.
Upon hearing this, Thea squints her eyes while staring at Adhara before she turns her body around intending to leave.
But Adhara was not about to let her get away,
“Sorry if I offended you in any way but the thing is, I’m a top-ranker from Faraday University and my dream is to work for the UWO. So I’m just curious, forgive me if I offended you”, Adhara said while bowing slightly.
Thea’s body stopped as she turns to look at Adhara again.
She then said, “First and obvious tips in order to work with the UWO, Stay away from the SCO”
After saying that, Thea gets inside the office.
But her answer makes Adhara frowns, she then walks to the bench again in thought, thinking about the man that got arrested before.
“It’s that bad huh”, Adhara mumbles while leaning on the bench.
A couple of minutes passed, and Rex and the others finally arrived.
“You got some explaining to do”, Edward said after opening the driver seat’s window.
Rex then added from beside Edward, “Just get inside, we’ll talk on our way back to the university”
“Okay”, Adhara replied before she gets inside the car.
Edward looks at the UWO headquarter office for a moment before he stepped on the gas as the car speeds through the empty streets.