Queen Shanaela looked at Rex's clone curiously, it was a pleasant surprise to see him using a bow—and managing to hit a pinpoint target—at a high-speed fall. Even some Elves under her other than the Nature's Guardians would find it hard to make that kind of shot.
But Rex did it easily, he didn't seem to be struggling.
"I was once a human weapon, I can use any weapon," Rex's clone replied nonchalantly.
He was taught traditional weapon wielding in the Noob Box.
Hand-to-hand was his best trait, sword was his second, and he was good at other weapons.
Even though he wouldn't call himself an expert in using a bow, he was good at it, since it was a requirement to be able to use any kind of weapon. Queen Shanaela put away her bow once again while looking at Rex's clone with a peculiar look.
Bows are the signature weapon of Elves, she respected Rex more knowing this.
Hastios got down from his mount and stepped forward, "Your Majesty, what do you mean by what you said? Isn't it better if you destroyed—the powerful artifact? Letting Shadow keep it would be saving trouble for the future"
"Destroying it will be foolish, Hastios," Queen Shanaela intervened.
She spared him a glance, disappointed, as he should've known the answer to that, "Shadow has shown, that it was very intelligent—since its minions could even be petty. Destroying its dear artifact would only give it another reason to come back to us""Grazing it, however, would make it busy protecting the artifact," She explained.
Upon saying that, Queen Shanaela turned towards Rex, asking for confirmation.
And she was more or less correct.
Rex's clone saw that the artifact's durability was very low, and with the graze from the arrow, the durability, dropped to 2 out of 100. Considering that other mutated animals would attack, Shadow, it would be extremely busy.
It wouldn't have the time to find a way to get back up, at least for the time being.
"His Majesty also took the shot himself so that it would hate him, not the Elves,"
Coming from behind Rex's clone was Flunra—he suddenly intervened.
Queen Shanaela and Hastios turned to Flunra—both their eyebrows were raised in surprise.
"Shadow was already hating our pack with Lady Adhara's, and Lady Gistella's help, but if an Elf took the shot, it would've lessened that hatred by splitting it into two. So His Majesty did the shot himself," Flunra clarified.
Upon hearing this, the Elves who overheard gasped in surprise.
None of them expected there was a hidden agenda behind tonight other than the obvious.
Recognizing the looming danger the Elves faced without their Elders, Rex resolved that luring Shadow into his own territory would be a far better solution for everyone. Shadow could fight the cursed creatures in the Humming Damned Forest for all he cares.
It wouldn't break through the barrier and could be easily taken down if it was there.
And what better way to accomplish that than by ensuring Shadow hated the pack?
Queen Shanaela turned towards Rex's clone.
She didn't even need to ask as what Flunra said was very much the truth.
"Be grateful for His Majesty's kindness, we go through a lot of trouble for this," Flunra added.
As he said that, Rex's clone raised a hand, "Stop it and let's go, the wounded need our help"
Now that Shadow was taken care of, they could now go back to the battlefield, there were a lot of wounded there that needed help. Even though Shadow was handled—the death mana that inflicted them wouldn't go away.
Not even the Elven healers could heal wounds inflicted by death mana that powerful.
It was clear that the System would be needed at this kind of time.
Moments later, Rex's clone and the others were helping the wounded, minimizing the death mana on their wounds—before being brought back to the capital city to be treated. Most of them were Werewolves so it was quite fortunate.
As the Demon Moon was still shining above, their regeneration would hold up for them.
Just then, bad news blew against the wind.
Rex's clone looked to the side and could feel the chill brushing against his skin.
And soon enough, an Elf emerged, sprinting in their direction.
She ran to Queen Shanaela, and whispered something to her, a report—and once she heard the report, her eyes instinctively turned toward Rex's clone. That alone was enough to tell— that the bad news was for him.
Similarly, Flunra could also sense the dark fangs of misfortune approaching.
Stay tuned with empire
Queen Shanaela paused for a second before she approached Rex's clone.
"Your Majesty, there's something you need to hear"
"Speak, don't dance around with words. Not a lot of thing could faze me anymore"
Upon hearing this, Queen Shanaela nodded her head and delivered the bad news.
...
Moments later, Rex, Flunra, Queen Shanaella, and a convoy arrived at a destination.
All of them arrived at a place near Lightdune Village.
Seeing his arrival—the Elves as well as the Awakened stationed here went down to one knee, beads of cold sweat drizzling down their faces. Stopping mid-track, Rex's clone turned to the side as he smelled the scent of a familiar person.
"Nadia...?" He muttered in utter shock. "What is she doing here?"
He didn't expect to meet Nadia here in the Elven territory.
Rex's clone turned to the left and saw an Elf leading Nadia forward—she seemed to be hurt, there were scratches along her arms and dirt dirtied her clothes. Nadia approached him and stood in front of him, unable to meet his gaze.
She stood there, playing with her hands like a kid who had done something bad.
Instead of asking her the important questions, Rex turned to Flunra.
"Look after her, I'll handle this first"
"Yes, Your Majesty"
Upon saying that, Rex went over to the center of the place where a group of people stood.
From the looks of the place, a fierce battle happened here not too long ago.
Probably a battle against the second minion.
Seeing him coming in their direction, an Elven Captain turned towards Queen Shanaela—her eyes were asking, whether she should say something right now, or not. But Queen Shanaela shook her head gently, telling the Elven Captain to stay put.
Rex's clone walked past these Elves and headed over to a woman behind the crowd.
She was kneeling beside a corpse, tears streaming down her face hard.
Despite Rex's clone standing behind her, she didn't seem to realize.
An Elf went over to her and held her gently before telling her that Rex's clone was behind.
Hearing this—the woman's sob paused for a second as a wave of panic washed over her.
Just knowing that Rex's clone was behind petrified her.
But even then, the woman turned around and kept her head down in shame.
"Y- Your Majesty..." She greeted with a hoarse voice.
Upon hearing this, Rex's clone tilted his head, "Do you have any explanation for this, Linthia?"
Linthia gulped harshly, she was devastated as she wasn't useless, but still became a burden during the fight, causing Dindora's death. Caught off guard by the minion's fluke, pretending to target Linthia, Dindora got her throat pierced.
Another bone also pierced her chest, almost stabbing her heart.
Now she laid there with her hands clasped above her stomach.
Her skin was ghostly pale and there was no sign of life coming from her, she was at peace.
Seeing that Linthia wasn't able to answer the question—Rex walked to her side, and kneeled to check on Dindora. He reaches to her head and scans her with the System to see if there's anything he can do.
But there's nothing he could do.
<Scanning complete!>
<No life signs were detected, the subject is deceased>
Reading this notification, Rex rubbed his face hard, he lost a captain with immense potential.
Is it possible to bring her back to life?
<Affirmative, but the user's gold is not sufficient to purchase the item>
Is resurrecting others very expensive?
<Resurrecting normal beings would cost 500,000 gold—and the cost to purchase items—to resurrect stronger beings would only increase. Since the subject is at the peak of the ninth-rank realm, the cost to resurrect her would be 300 million gold>
<Additionally, with the influence of peak ninth-rank realm death mana, the cost surged>
<To resurrect the subject at the expense of her power would cost 400 million gold>
<To fully resurrect the subject while retaining her power would be 800 million gold>
Rex could only sigh, it was very expensive.
He has never even stored that much gold, it was too expensive to resurrect Dindora.
What about keeping her body and resurrecting her at a later date?
<It is possible but there will be a limit and the limit from death by death mana is very short>
How long?
<Calculating...>
<Completed!>
<Limit for Dindora's resurrection: 24 hours since death>
Even though he was hoping that there would be a chance, the System's answer shut that down completely. Rex was hoping that the investment he made in Dindora wouldn't go to waste as other than her strength, she was also loyal.
Some of the forces from the 25 Golden Crest Families also reported praising her.
She did a very good work with Gelmar helping the Humans.
But it seemed it was her fate to die here, there's nothing Rex could do.
Rex's clone massaged his forehead as this shouldn't have happened.
It was true that the Order Beasts were giving a lot of trouble but Dindora shouldn't die.
"Punish me, Your Majesty! It was all my fault!"
Suddenly, Linthia went down to the ground prostrating and apologizing.
She pressed her forehead hard against the ground, tears streaming down her face.
"I authorized Naela to come here to search for a spirit and she unfortunately crossed the last minion! I... I managed to save her, and buy enough time until Dindora arrived but the minion... it got to her! It was all my fault!" Linthia confessed through sobs—she was devastated and in no way she was going to forgive herself for causing this.
Upon hearing this, Rex's clone's face soured.
As he expected, Linthia was the one who authorized Nadia's visit.
She was the only one who Nadia knew so it must've been her.
Just then, Nadia slipped from Flunra's grasp and ran towards Linthia.
Flunra was about to stop her but Rex's clone gestured to let her be.
Making a firm stand, Nadia stood in front of Linthia.
"It was my fault! I begged her to come here!" Nadia said—she was also beginning to cry.
Surprised by this, Linthia grabbed Nadia's clothes from behind.
"Don't defend me, Nadia. It has got nothing to do with you, this is my own failure!"
"No! If I hadn't begged you, this wouldn't have happened!"
"It was my duty as the captain to regulate this and I failed, I'm not worth defending!"
Both of them argued—and Nadia was surprisingly stubborn as she would not budge from her spot no matter what Linthia said. Frustrated and sad, Linthia used her power to control Nadia and forced her to go back to Flunra.
Gazing at Rex with tear-filled eyes, she patted her chest, "Kill me, I'm not worth living!"
"Dindora is way better than ten of me and I killed her!" She wept, the guilt was too strong.
Upon seeing this, Rex's clone raised a hand and shook his head.
I promised Nadia a spirit and I haven't had time to give it to her, it's partly my fault too.
Had he given Nadia her spirit, she wouldn't be here searching for spirits.
Rex's clone turned towards the Elven Captain, she seemed to have something to say.
He called for her while Linthia wept in front of him.
Knowing what Rex was asking, the Elven Captain, recounted what had happened in detail, all the things that happened—which led to this situation. He learned about the battle—and how Dindora died.
Based on her explanation, Rex's clone could see now why Linthia was blaming herself.
It was only then did a thought came to Rex's clone's mind.
System, I can't revive Dindora but can I somehow use her to strengthen Linthia?
<Yes, a Dark Fairy and a Dryad have similar links to nature>
<Transferring Dindora's power to Linthia is highly probable depending on the compatibility>
Upon reading this, Rex's clone nodded, this was the only thing he could do.
"Get up—Linthia," Rex's clone said with a stern voice. "you caused Dindora's death and now you're embarrassing her and also me by being like this? Stand up, and act according to your rank. Or are you going to continue being weak and waste Dindora's death?"
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