The Zeke duchy had given Rex a few pleasant moments to bask in, like the rather fun fight he had just a few days ago against the SS class angel, or the rather nice treasures hehad looted from the main vauls of the Zeke family after he had finished taking down the inner castle and then the city afterwards. He had sent a part of his newly formed blood serpents to finish up the remaining settlements of humans within the duchy, having set his sights on the White Peak- home and training grounds of the oracles, located just on the other side of the seperating barrier, within the duchy of Marr.

The Svergi army was remaining in the city, needing a day or two to finalize their own pillage and looting spree, and so Rex had deployed one of his portable gates. He needed a point where his own blood serpents would gather up once the purging of the Zeke lands would finish. And so, with the logistics and mundane tasks planned out and apropriate chain of command established, Rex took most of his blood constructs and with the tide moving at his beck and call, they advanced towards his next objective. The Svergi army would deliver the surviving members of the Zeke family to the capable hands of Mr. Han, once they were done with the looting, and returned back to their home base after.

With all the loose ends tied up and secured, Rex was free to advance, and so he did, spending half a day untill he reached the barrier wall to the Marr duchy, and alongside his ever expanding army easily crossed it. Thanks to the maps he had aquired both before the invasion, as well as some new maps he attained from the vaults of the Zeke family, Rex was much more informed regarding the current state of most duchies, as well as quite deep understanding of both terrain and other natural points of interest within the echlisiarchy.

And on his path to reach the White Peak, he had a couple of villages as well as something called 'Dark Forest' right in the path of his advancement. Since Rex had not gone through the library of the Zeke capital, he had a rather barebones understanding about the forests he was about to enter. Still, most knowledge, or to be precise the markings on his maps he had attained indicated the zone as a dangerous one, with advices to not approach the place.

Still, that was the shortest way towards his next target, and it was quite obvious to Rex himself that no matter what kind of folk tales or dangers lurked within said forest, they simply could not warrant his detour. And so, as he had decided, Rex set his course to pass right through said forest. It did not take much time at all to reach the outskirts of it, even with the army of blood serpents in tow, and slightly spreading the army out, Rex combed through the forest, looking to find whatever it was that warranted the forest to be not only left alone, but also marked as a no travel zone due to its dangerous enviroment.

As his army combed the forest, they sometimes encountered some predators and lesser monsters, though nothing of the sort that could warrant the forests danger rating. And so, the next few days were spent by Rex and his army by combing through the forest on his way towards the White Peak. It was only on the third day, when he was closing in on the other side of the forest, did he found something worth his attention, hidden deep within the forest.

There, in the heart of the forest, well hidden near a rather small cliff outgrowth, was a small village that seemed constructed a few years ago at best, some of the buildings even seemed to still be in the process of making, causing Rex to wonder what was the story behind said village, apparently constructed in a cursed land, for some reason. His curiosity peaked, as expected, Rex slowed down his blood horde as he was quite interested in observing the little village to understand it better.

And so Rex advanced rather stealthily towards it, leaving blood constructs some distance behind him, ensuring his rather unnoticed aproach towards the small village. The fact that a village, no matter how small. was built in what was supposed to be very dangerous and cursed forest within the lands of Echlisiarchy, far away from prying eyes screamed of a story Rex would be interested in learning, and so, he advanced, his hunt on a temporary pause, as his curiosity led him further forward towards the small village.

As he aproached closer and closer to said village, he began to pick up a few humanoid lifeforms, though he could not yet clearly determine if there was something special about them from the distance he was at right now. He reasoned there must be, no other explanation making sense to him as of yet. To ensure he had more chances to explore the rather interesting situation Rex adorned his mercenary cloak, hiding his eyes from the view of anyone who would came face to face with him.

Eventually, once he was some odd two hundred meters away from the somewhat hidden village, he sensed some elevated activity, as well as noticed that a few pairs of eyes were now cautiously eying Rex from several hiding places near the village wall, disguised as part of the stone outgrowth. Mulling over the right way to aproach the current situation, Rex decided to go with a somewhat straight aproach, thus looking towards one of his observers, clearly startling the person in his sights,but not getting them to come out on their own.

"I have a rather short fuse, mind you" Rex spoke in a slightly elevated tone of voice "And I am quite adverse on people spying on me. So, unless you want to start hostilities, either retreat, taking along with you your friends, or come out and interact with me like civilized people would!"

Rex spoke with quite the authority, ensuring that there were no possible excuses his stalkers could take to imply he was just paranoid and spoke to the forest, hoping to flush out whatever was locked onto him. Normally they scouts would stay hidden, clearly still observing the target, but Rex had closed any such probability off, or so he liked to think. Even so, he had to wait for a while, even going so far as to making him snort, picking up a rock, on the smaller size, and then proceed to lightly trow it over to the spy he had locked his sight on before, with said rock landing at the observers feet.

"Next one will not be aimed at your feet, nor thrown in nearly such a friendly manner, so do us both a favour and come right on out, your friends including. Do so, and we might still have some amicable interactiosn between us."

This time around, clearly understanding the person wandering up to their home was perfectly aware, the offenders slowly, but surely, started to slowly get out of their hiding places. It was three people in total. Two boys, and one girl. Yes, Rex did not wrongly classify his stalkers. None of the trio looked anywhere near their late teens, with the oldest looking somewhere between ten to thirteen years of age, though to be honest, the other two did not look much younger either.

They all had a rather worn out spears in their hands, clearly too big for their lacking frames, and Rex could not help developing a smirk on his face at the funny scene. Three children holding upon spears that could be said to be using the kids as the accesories, not the other way around. Though what was the most interestin in this whole situation was something else. And was Rex suprised when he noticed the rather glaring deviation on each of the kids faces from normal human apearance. Indeed, behind unrully locks of hair, everyone of the trio currenty looking at him had, a somewhat hidden, and at the same time not, uniquely colored and morphed eye.

"Archons." Rex spoke the word, causing the trio to flinich and get on an elevated level of alertness, gripping their spears ever tighter, going so far as to raise the tips pointing in REx dirrection.

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"L-leave this place and never come back. The Radaduk will soon come by, and if it does, you wil not escape its ever hungering jaws. Run while you still can." spoke one of the trio.

"And miss out on the obvious juicy tidbit I have come across here? I would rather not. On the contrary, if it comes to that I will simply kill that Radaduk, or whatever the hell it is. Now, the obvious question I have right now is quite important. Are there more archons inside that small village of yours, or are you special in some way, seeing as you are out here, and not in the warmth of the village, as much as it can provide that is."

Seeing the still on guard children, Rex decided to give them some slack, removing his own hood, revealing his own inhuman eyes to the sight as he was close enough for the kids to actually notice them, should they focus in on the eyes.

"As you can see, we are kind of similar." Rex spoke in a calmer, much more friendly tone, that seemed to relax the kids ever so slightly, but his eyes, now those did wonders, causing the kids not only to lower their weapons but to get excited as well, more than Rex would expect as well, all things considered.

"Buck, Zor, look, he is like us!" The girl excitedly called out, breaking the somewhat tense atmosphere. "Did sister Adriana sent you here too? She helps us hide from the bad men out there. Did she hide you too?"

"Mimi, shush! We dont know him yet. Dont go telling everyone aabout sister Ariana!" The girl was quickly reprimanded by one of the tow boys, Zor, if Rex guessed right from the earlier glances of Mimi towards he r companions.

"Yes Mimi, you should be carefull who you give such important information to, it can be easily turned into weapons that can harm both you and those you hold dear, should it fall in the wrong hands."

Mimi frowned a bit, then almost glared at Rex, and action he could not help but consider cute, then asked him a question in return .

"Do you plan to use it to harm us?"

"He he he . No, not as far as I am aware as of right now." Rex replied with a little chuckle "Though nothing is ever trully set in stone. That little girl, always take to heart. People and motivations can change, they often do, so dont go and cling to some very convoluted and old rules and lawas that just dont work, or worse still endanger you and those close to you."

As Mimi was mulling over the tidbit ok knowledge, the third kid from the group spoke up.

"And what are you doing here in the first place?" He asked as he looked towards Rex with suspicion, not entirely sure how he should adress their starnge visitor.

"I just stumbled upon this place on my way to the White Peak, since I was unwilling to take a detour to reach it, and was somewhat interested in the reason this forest was considered a cursed place. I am still looking for it, though no success so far. Maybee this Radaduk creature is the cause, so I hope it comes soon." Rex replied in a calm manner.

"Silly, there is no Radaduk. Buck made it up." Mimi giggled and spoke as Rex entirely serious words caused her to be amused, and giggle a tiny bit.

"What?" Rex visibly and with obvious theatrics placed a hand over his heart as he reeled back. "Treachery I say! Treachery!" Then he smiled slightly, as he dropped his theatrics, seeing the children all smile over his small joke.

"Though I would like to hear more about this sister Adriana. Would hate to harm someone in this god forsaken nation who actually has some heart to them, I suppose."

The last words do draw a bit of attention to them, though not from the trio Rex was interacting with them. The fourth person had approached Rex and the children, as well coming from the little concealed village. Rex was obviously well aware of the one closing in, though did nothing to either reveal his knowledge or prevent said person from aproaching. Soon, they left the foliage that the newcomer was concealed by, standing in front of the children since they had moved together as they interacted with Rex.

The new arrival was a girl around the age of seventeen, most likely one of the few adults in the hidden village, since she had come, instead of anyone else. She was also rather protectively holding the kids behind her back, suspiciously glaring at Rex.

"Sheesh girl, thats some hostile glance you have there. A friendly advice from one archon to another. Dont show open hostility towards people whos strenght you cannot measure. Could cause you a disaster worse than death." Rex hummed for a second "Though I suppose you must have been taught that life lesson already, have you not?"

At his words the girl visibly shuddered, clearly terrifying memories flashing past her mind, still, neither her stance nor expression changed, though she finally spoke.

"How did you get here, and what do you want?" Her tone rather cold, suspicious and Rex can almost feel agressiveness, as though a smaller predator mother is doing her level best to scare the larger one away from her cubs.

"Could it be you think I could be some sort of an infiltrator for the nutcase inquisitors, and not a real archon?" Rex asked a question that had somewhat surfaced in his mind as a possible explanation towards her agressive stance. And seeing another small flinch, confirms his guesses. Thus, with the knowledge at hand Rex just lightly laughs, shakind his head in dismissal.

"As I said the trio here before your arival, I was on my way towards theWhite Peak and was not interested in the least to take the detour that would I be forced to have if I avoided this forest. In addition, I was a bit curious why they call this forest cursed. I asumed there must be some nasty beasts, but more than likely is the probability of a unique archon ability coming from bloodline that started the rumor and over time solidifying the no go zone status of the place."

"And what need does and archon have, that brings him to the White Peak, or rather, the Echlisiarchy itself. The place is no good for our kind after all."

"I could ask the same question to you, seeing as you have made a permanent residence here. Though my reasons are simple. Destruction and enslavement of the residents there, since I have a bone to pick with the nation itself. though depending on what this Adriana has done on behalf of archons, I might just give her a pass on that."

The four of them just stood there for a moment, blinking confusedly, then the young woman started to laugh and quite heartily at that.

"You are quite insane, are you not? Just what did they do, to break you so soundly. Even after getting away, you are just straight up marching back to your death?" She spoke once her laughter calmed down a few moments later.

"You and what army is going to take the Whitye Peak. And even if you could siege it, the Dukes would not stand by and ignore the siege. They would be here in a week, some even in just a few days. The oracles are too important for their rule."

"You dont know, do you?" Rex smiled, as calm as he was before, not in the least unnerved or disturbed about the girls frantic response. "The counties have all been laid to waste. All eight of them. Zeke duchy as well. Their cities and villages burnt down to nothing, pillaged and looted. The natives either slaughtered or taken as slaves. All at the behest of yours trully." Rex smiled as he made a small bow with arms to the side. "So I am quite sure that the White Peak will be not that different. So, come and tell me about this Adriana. She deserves a chance to defend herself before I decide on her fate."

"She is a good person! Please dont harm her." From behind the young lady exclaimed Mimi, whose words were enforced by the cries of the two boys as well.

"Well, I will see that, isn't that right. now, come and tell me more about her. Full name, her looks, demeanor? Maybee her official position in the White Peak, or Echlisiarchy?" REx was willing to give the woman a fair hearing, as fair as he could get himself to suffer through. He was no bleeding heart. No, he was the judge and executioner for the most part, but that did not mean he was a monster through and through, just mostly, and only towards those that had earned his ire.

As Mimi and the two boys spent the next few minutes talking about Adriana, The young woman that had arrived later was eyeing Rex like a hawk, still on full alert. So it was no wonder that she noticed the couple blood serpenst that arrived near Rex, though just a bit out of sight of the children. And her alertnes rose even more, as she debated if she would be capable of grabbing the three kids and runing with them away to their village .

"Those are my constructs, Thet act only on my will, and there are thousands more further back. THAT is my army." Rex spoke as the kids finished their recount of Adriana Arten. The nice lady who saved them all and brought here.

"By the way, do you want to stay here, or gather your belongings and move to a city where you would not be isolated and scorned by merely existing? I could even offer you jobs there to ensure you can earn an honest living. And if this Adriana passes my assesment, you can even bring her alongside you, since there will be no safe place thats near a civilization in this nation soon enough."