Chapter 1105: Change of Target
He could see the air around the Passue Matriarch seemed to crackle with ominous energy, it was able to send tendrils of dread to course through his veins. Her form was stirring, none in the new era could match her otherworldly presence.
It was obvious that she was the testament of absolute power from the ancient time.
Even the gleaming white scythe she was holding doesn\'t seem normal.
To think that she was created was baffling for Rex.
For someone to create something as monstrous as her, that person must be stronger.
Just the sharp air coming from her alone could suppress Rex\'s energy, he could feel a heavy pressure bearing down upon him, as though his very soul was being pressed. Similarly, Lyra, Edward, and the Shapeshifters were experiencing the same sensation.
But fortunately for all of them, the Passue Matriarch shouldn\'t be aiming for them right now.
She would aim at the Executor until he was dead.
Not wanting to jeopardize that dynamic as that would give them the best edge, Edward was also placed at the very back and covered by the dark energy from the Shapeshifters so that the Passue Matriarch wouldn\'t turn her attention towards him.
Giving the illusion that Edward was not as strong as he was should do the trick.
While the others stall the Passue Matriarch, I\'ll deal with the Executor.
Affirming his plan, Rex nodded inwardly before he lowered his stance and prepared to move.
He was about to send a command to the others but he abruptly stopped.
To his absolute shock, instead of resuming her attack on the Executor—the Passue Matriarch suddenly glanced over her shoulders and bore her piercing white eyes into Rex\'s very soul, it caught everyone off guard as her attention turned to Rex instead of the Executor.
In that instant, Rex could feel a suffocating aura locking him fiercely.
Each one of his nerves tingled with an acute sense of danger—sending serious signals to his brain that triggered his primal fight-or-flight response, flooding his bloodstream with intense adrenaline through his beating heart.
Instantly alerted, he also felt the System respond in kind.
Frenzied, the System manifested a warning for him through a flurry of urgent notifications.
<A member of the previous System\'s owner, the Passue Matriarch is detected!>
<Last updated position: 13th position>
<Warning, the Passue Matriarch bore murderous intent towards the user!>
Upon reading the notifications, Rex had a couple of questions in mind that he wanted to ask.
However, he didn\'t have the time to do that as the Passue Matriarch fully pivoted her body to face him, showing her menacing appearance clearly. Boring her eyes into Rex, she pointed at him with her lethal index finger, "Divine energy..."
Listening to her whispers, Rex instantly frowned in utter confusion.
Countess, is it attracted to your divine energy?
[No, it\'s not my divine energy—she\'s attracted to yours]
My divine energy? I don\'t have a-
[Did you forget? You gained a Minor Oustification, you are basically a Demi-God]
Rex\'s frown deepens as he forgets about the Minor Oustification he gained from breaking the Rastrikan Demon\'s very essence completely—giving him a sliver of divine energy and making the Countess stronger.
Then again, he never thought that the Passue Matriarch would be attracted to that.
As he pondered about the situation, Rex started to make sense of it all.
Considering that the Passue Matriarch was the bane for any Ancient Humans that dared step foot inside the Dead Man\'s Creek—he shouldn\'t be surprised if she was wired to also grow in strength to match the Ancient Humans\' growth.
If she stayed in her realm and never got stronger, then she would be outmatched eventually.
Since she was the ultimate guardian, it doesn\'t make sense to be like that.
Now that she was attracted to divine energy, she must be able to become stronger with it.
Just then, the Passue Matriarch summoned and entered a portal.
Upon seeing her disappearing into the portal, Rex\'s eyes widened as he was instantly alerted—the Passue Matriarch\'s existence was wiped out completely, there was no trace of her—no scent, no sound, no aura, no nothing.
Even though she went into another dimension, Rex\'s senses are simply too acute.
His intuition should be able to warn him where she was.
Just like the time when Flunra tried to run away, Rex was able to locate him.
But at this moment, he couldn\'t locate her, and could only blindly guess where she was.
Responding to the Passue Matriarch\'s disappearance, Lyra commanded the Shapeshifters to make a circle formation around them. It was apparent that Lyra was using them as bait, all of them would become a shield so the Passue Matriarch couldn\'t attack them directly.
Despite that heartless command, the Shapeshifters didn\'t question her and did as she said.
A trait possessed only by an army who respected their leader.
Scanning their eyes around, they waited for the Passue Matriarch to reappear.
A shiver ran down Rex\'s spine as he felt a sudden chill—prompting him to whirl around. To his surprise, the Passue Matriarch emerged from the ground behind them. She rose directly from the earth itself without the need to summon the portal like earlier.
It effectively wiped out any time to react properly for Rex and the others.
Her form is astral, she got out of the portal inside the ground so I couldn\'t sense her energy!
Making a cleaving swipe with her scythe, Rex reacted swiftly and raised the Blood Devourer.
Reacting as fast as him was Edward who also aided Rex in blocking the attack.
Clang!!
Even though the two were ready to receive the scythe, the sheer force behind the blow sent both Rex and Edward toppling to the ground—overpowered by the Passue Mariarch\'s power that surpassed their expectations.
Also, in the moment of the clash, they saw white essence knocked out of their bodies.
Rex and Edward exchanged glances in mutual astonishment.
Locking eyes as they lay on the ground with numb arms—both of them questioned what the white essence was before their attention was abruptly pulled to the side. With dilated pupils, they beheld the terrifying sight of a curving blade descending upon them in a deadly arc.
Crash!
Dodging by rolling to the side, they managed to save themselves from another attack barely.
On the other hand, Lyra was quick to respond too.
"Go and crowd her! Keep her at bay even if it costs your lives!" She roared commandingly.
Upon hearing this, the Shapeshifters sprang into action, wielding their powers to subdue the Passue Matriarch. Vicious mental assaults that aimed to separate the Passue Matriarch from, reality while others elongated their limbs into countless tentacles to ensnare her form—these faceless entities did everything they could to distract the Passue Matriarch.
Having to stand idle, away from the battle, the Shapeshifters were rigorous.
Despite laying low inside the creek—it didn\'t mean that they weren\'t watching the battle.
Seeing how the Vampires and Demons were basically spending everything they had to follow Rex\'s command and win the fight—the Shapeshifters were under the pressure to not lose out to the other\'s performance.
It would be a disgrace if they weren\'t able to do their part in this battle.
Even though their attacks were synchronized and lethal, the Passue Matriarch was stronger.
Swish!
Flashing her gleaming—eerie white eyes—the Passue Matriarch repelled the mental assaults launched by the Shapeshifters easily. She then proceeded to brandish her scythe, cutting all those who got caught in its path.
She was unaffected by the tentacles that were ensnaring her in place.
Slash!
Splash!
Roar!!
Rex and Edward observed briefly as limbs and blood were flying into the air brutally.
Both of them could see that the Passue Matriarch was not only a created monster—but was also an expert in combat, displaying the ability to use martial arts. Even from seasoned eyes like theirs, there was only a small gap of weakness in her fighting style.
Additionally, the Shapeshifters that were killed didn\'t only die from her strike.
Each one of them suffered a fate worse than death.
Not only were they killed but their souls were also devoured by the Passue Matriarch.
Like a conduit of water, the scythe seamlessly absorbed the fallen souls.
One who was surprised the most was Edward.
He too has a weapon that could absorb souls—his Soulreaver Lance given by the Executor is a weapon that absorbs souls to become stronger, but unlike the Passue Matriarch\'s scythe—it didn\'t automatically absorb the souls.
In order to do that, he needs to use its special ability before absorbing the harvested souls.
Not to mention, there was a limit on how much he could do that.
On the other hand—the Passue Matriarch\'s scythe is harvesting souls as if it were harvesting blood from the enemies. She was truly the suitable depiction of the Grim Reaper itself, not to say that her appearance wasn\'t a dead giveaway already.
"She\'s way stronger than expected, the Shapeshifters are falling like flies," Edward mused.
Judging from the pace of things—it wouldn\'t take long for the Passue Matriarch to defeat all of the Shapeshifters. Rex agreed with that claim and he couldn\'t let this go on, so there was only one thing to do.
Rex casts his attention to the side, squinting his eyes.
"We can\'t let the Shapeshifters frontline, let\'s put it the way it was earlier," He said lightly.
Channeling his power to the maximum, Rex\'s aura soared skywards.
Feeling the new height of power coursing through him all due to the corrupted cursed energy that his body is utilizing right now, Rex assumed his battle stance—gripping the handle of the Blood Devourer with both hands and raising it to eye level beside his right eye.
Looking at the stance, Edward\'s eyes flickered as Rex was going serious instantly.
Pausing for a moment, he quickly realized what Rex meant by that.
In response, he quickly shattered the Shapeshifters\' power that suppresses his aura to make it seem like he was weak, and let his chaos energy go rampant freely. Also doing the same—he shot his aura skywards, piercing the clouds.
Boom!!
Purple energy cascades Edward\'s entire form, engulfing him with immense power.
Almost instantly, the Passue Matriarch\'s attention was pulled towards him.
Gazing at Edward and Rex with pity inside her teary eyes—the Passue Matriarch easily broke through the Shapeshifters\' ranks and charged toward them. Phantom in—her figure distorted into a blur.
Deciding to not be defensive, Rex and Edward also charged straight at her with power.
KABOOM!!
Upon the collision, the very earth beneath them was peeled.
A powerful shockwave flattened the surrounding trees over a vast distance, and without any pause, the trio clashed three more times in the span of a second, turning into streaks of light in the eyes of most Shapeshifters witnessing the battle.
From the observer\'s perspective, their powers are about equal.
Rex and Edward\'s combined powers were more or less equal to the Passue Matriarch.
Boom!
Gauging how they fare against the Passue Matriarch for the second time, the two then made their way deeper into the creek—leaving behind the Shapeshifter Army. As Lyra was viewing this from the back, a telepathic message rang inside her head.
\'Follow me and help from the sidelines, and also allocate more people for the Human Army\'
It was Rex giving her a command.
Nodding her head, she did exactly that before advancing with the remaining Shapeshifters.
Meanwhile, deeper inside the Dead Man\'s Creek.
Upon blocking the strike from the Passue Matriarch—the Executor got hurtled away but he quickly recovered and focused on reaching the Symposium. He was clutching the Supreme of One in his hand firmly.
\'Keeping the advanced Gladiator Form takes a toll on me, I need to be faster,\' He mused.
His aura might almost double, but it costs immense energy to maintain this form.
Due to that, the Executor decided to move faster before fatigue caught up to him.
Along the way, he could feel Rex\'s power closing in.
But in addition to that, he could also sense Edward\'s power, so he was a little bit relaxed.
\'Good, Edward should be stalling him for me," he pondered with a smirk.
As he thought of that, the Executor lifted his gaze to look at the Symposium, its building was now within close reach. His soul rejuvenated as if he saw an oasis in a desert, \'Just a little bit more and I will become a God of the new era!\'