Chapter 81: I will kill him.
Strax was reacting in a way no one expected. He was simply quiet...
His mind was replaying various childhood memories with Beatrice, moments when he had started to feel a certain affection for her. These memories didn't seem important now, but they painted a full picture of his feelings. Some might see Strax as foolish for accepting a woman who had simply tolerated his past behavior towards her. The accusations had merit; he should despise Beatrice.
But the merging of minds caused by his reincarnation had created something different.
Not only that, but the [Harem System] also seemed to have influenced his mind. Still, this didn't matter now.
Strax was an extremely possessive man. Knowing that one of the women he loved was sad already drove him mad—her being kidnapped?
Kidnapping the woman he loved wasn't just crossing a line; it was devastating to his moral, his persona, his character.
Strax was in a bad state, a very bad state indeed, and the System wasn't helping at all. He tried to unlock everything he wanted, tried to ask for a GPS, a route to Beatrice...
But nothing—this System was just useless, and it had already been not just one or two hours, but about a day. Everyone had blocked his exits. Even Cristine was no longer by his side; they were all with Xenovia, who decided she wouldn't let him leave, and this frustrated him.
His lack of information, his not knowing how Beatrice was—everything was confining to one thing: a desperate rage.
"Hey, let's go," Xenovia said. Strax looked at her, his eyes glowing red with pure anger. "Where?" he questioned, his voice rough but sharp. "We've found leads," Xenovia said. This time she seemed more inclined to be cold with him; her voice had a very superior tone.
"Don't talk to me like that," Strax said, getting up and following her. "Calm down and I'll explain everything properly. Until then, I'll talk how I want to and to whomever I want," Xenovia said as she continued to walk, extremely serious. They passed through the living room of Strax's mansion. Monica and Samira, sitting on the sofa, glanced at Xenovia and nodded silently.
"Let's go," she said, opening the door and stepping out ahead of him, where he saw Apocalipse and Xenovia's white horse waiting for them.
"We're heading outside the city," Xenovia said, mounting her horse and waiting for Strax to do the same. He approached Apocalipse and stroked her neck, not saying a single word, but the horse already sensed his turbulent emotions and neighed at him. "I know, girl, I know."
"You talk to the horse?" Xenovia asked; she had never seen that. "Only when necessary," he replied and mounted her. "Where are we going?" he asked again. "You don't need to know," she answered.
Strax let out a long sigh. "Alright, do as you wish," he said, and Xenovia smiled at him. "Come on, I'll show you something," she said, and they set off.
The journey was long and silent. The dirt road stretched endlessly ahead of them, and he was tired. Strax couldn't sleep or even relax until he found the woman. The sun was setting, painting the sky a deep orange, while the shadows of the surrounding trees danced like specters.
Strax followed Xenovia in silence, without asking anything, the sound of the horses' hooves echoing in the silence of the night that was beginning to fall.
Xenovia maintained a steady pace, her gaze fixed on the horizon but occasionally casting a worried glance at Strax. He was a ticking bomb, each second without news of Beatrice fueling his fury.
"I need to contain this," she murmured to herself. With Xyn's constant warnings, Xenovia had done everything to contain his anger. If he exploded in a place with people he loved, everything could go wrong, and he might even harm those he cherished. She didn't want that, so she followed this advice. She tried to direct all his rage directly at the Vorah family.
If he was to explode, it should be within the family so he could be stopped by strong people, something Xenovia didn't understand at first. But Strax was indeed getting stronger solely based on his rage.
They continued their path, and after about two hours, Xenovia finally stopped in front of an old abandoned farm. The structures were crumbling, covered in vines and moss, and the air was filled with the smell of rotting wood and damp earth. There was no sign of life nearby, not even animals.
"It's here," said Xenovia, dismounting her horse. Strax did the same, his eyes scanning the place for any sign of Beatrice, noting the mana traces all over the environment. His keen eyes missed nothing.
Xenovia led the way, and they entered the main house, a wooden structure that creaked under their steps. It reminded him of when he was a child and entered Xenovia's mansion with her. The interior was dark and gloomy, the furniture covered in dust and cobwebs.
But among the abandonment, there were signs of recent activity: footprints in the dust, a fallen chair, and remnants of a meal hurriedly abandoned, as well as sturdy chains that had been removed and lay in strange positions.
"She was here," murmured Xenovia, picking up a piece of torn fabric from the floor. Strax recognized it immediately—it was a piece of the dress Beatrice was wearing. The fury within him reached a new level. He clenched the fabric in his hand, his knuckles white from the force. "Where is she now?"
"We don't know... the trail ended in the forest. We tried everything, but... Ah~ we found this." Xenovia handed him a torn letter, with only one readable word...
"Darius," he said, his entire body filling with hatred, his red pupils flaring even more intensely. The aura around him became so tense that Xenovia stepped back, quickly amplifying her own aura to counter the effect. Even as a Grandmaster, she almost fell to her knees; her legs wobbled, but she stood firm.
"Xenovia," he said. She looked at him, frightened. "Could she still be alive?" Strax asked, for the first time confronting the possibility that Beatrice... might be dead.
Xenovia hesitated, afraid to make things worse, but she nodded. "I believe she's alive... not in a good state, but alive. Our brother doesn't kill without reason... he wants to use her to stop you." Xenovia analyzed, her dead eyes revealing more than her words; she was deeply unhappy too.
Xenovia had spent hours deciding whether to tell Strax or not, while sending all her subordinates and knights after Beatrice... but she told him, because she knew suffering in silence would be worse. And seeing his reaction... Strax was furious... so furious... that his aura was slightly cracking the furniture around, but he?
He noticed nothing, only staring at that piece of dress...
"I'm going to kill him," Strax said, turning toward the exit. "You can't—" she tried to say, but he cut her off, "I do what I want." Strax's aura... instilled fear in Xenovia, as if... death was hovering around him.
Strax turned, each step he took setting the ground on fire and extinguishing it with cold... His two elemental powers were mixing in his steps, the air around him trembling as he walked...
"Let's go home," Strax said, his eyes never meeting Xenovia's—not out of anger at her or anything, but because he didn't want her to see his face. A dark shadow with red eyes, large dark circles from lack of sleep, disheveled and messy hair, he mounted Apocalipse without another word.
Strax had surpassed the limits of his restrained emotions... The System... was going haywire...
[Restriction Broken]
[Restriction Broken]
[Restriction Broken]
[Restriction Broken]
[Restriction Broken]
The System's limiters were breaking, one by one, with each step he took. Numerous messages began appearing: "Mission Advanced," "Restriction Broken," "Mission Completed." Was Strax going mad? Even he didn't know, but at this point... nothing mattered, not even his own life.
"Strax..." Xenovia tried to say something, but she knew he wouldn't listen. His shell was about to crack, and she didn't understand this feeling; it was as if... "Be careful with that man," Xyn said in her mind, and Xenovia mounted her horse, noticing he had already started moving, silently.
"What happened to him?" Xenovia asked Xyn.
"It's not hard to imagine... his world revolves around the people he cares about. I don't know how a man can love a woman that much, or rather, how he can love so many women... it almost seems like a curse... the only thing I know is that those two swords... were trembling with anticipation when he found out about Beatrice..."
"You mean that..."
"Yes."
[Restriction Broken]
[Restriction Broken]
[Restriction Broken]
The system continued to get crazier every second, reacting with the twisted mind of a man who felt he was on a tightrope, Nothing and no one would stop him and the System, was going into Collapse, breaking several restrictions that he imposed on Strax .