"Did he survive...?", Rex mutters lightly.


    Because of the energying from Zaddrass, the ce around him is trashed and destroyed leaving nothing but broken buildings, bridges, and even hardly any water inside the man-madeke spanning the entire sector.


    The energy from Zaddrass is very destructive even before he''s able to gain his physical body.


    It''s horrifying to think what kind of power Zaddrass would possess if it manage to get a physical body, Rex wouldn''t be able to handle the situation then.


    After the smoke and debris receded, Rex looks at the man-madeke again.


    Right in the middle of the man-madeke just below the copsed bridge, Rex saw a personpletely covered with a dark red light.


    "Ryze?", he mutters before jumping into the man-madeke.


    Because of thest explosion that came from Ryze absorbing Zaddrass, the translucent barrier that covered the man-madeke in hundreds of feet gotpletely shattered.


    Nothing is in the way between Rex and the man-madeke,


    Landing just beside the person covered with a dark red light, Rex noticed that the water level of the man-madeke only reaches his ankles which is way lesser than before.


    It''s only a feeble amount of the water level it previously had,


    Rex looks at the person covered in dark red light before he frowned, he notices something amiss, ''This should be Ryze, but why is his body bigger?'', he thought in confusion.


    Ryze is even younger than Kyran, and his body is easily the smallest in their group.


    But the person covered with dark red light right now is at least as tall as Edward, and the person''s frame indicates that the person is muscr.


    Everyone has already evacuated from around here, so there''s no doubt that this is Ryze.


    While waiting for this, Gistended right beside Rex.


    "Master, Is it finished?", she asks while still riling up her energy cautiously.


    Hearing this, Rex pat Giste''s head calming her down before he replied, "It''s supposed to be finished, now we can only wait for this", he points at the person covered with dark red light.


    Thankfully, there should be no casualties from this incident.


    Giste blocking the violent energy helps the damage to the surroundings to the absolute minimum and the work from the Disaster Squad and Edward helps evacuate the people.


    Overall they did a great job here, but there are still matters to attend to.


    "Stay here, I''m going to check on something", Rex said to Giste before he jumped out of the man-madeke intending to search for the unconscious Billy.


    After looking around for a moment, Rex didn''t see Billy anywhere.


    This makes him frown as it seems Billy has escaped, ''I still have questions for you Billy, just what happened to you'', he thought while gritting his teeth.


    Despite the mess Billy made, Rex believed that Billy is forced to do this.


    Out of all the things that he thought were possible, Billy who is very kind and somewhatforting to talk to bes someone like this is simply unthinkable.


    Rex didn''t believe that he did this out of his own free will, more like he didn''t want to believe it.


    Sighing to himself, Rex wanted to go back to Ryze but his eyes caught someone.


    Edward and the Disaster Squad came back after evacuating the people of sector 3B, Edward''s eyes are looking at Rex questioningly before he replied, "He''s gone, he manage to escape"


    "Is it really Billy?", Edward asks still in doubt.


    Although he''s still in doubt too, the masked figure is certainly Billy.


    Rex nodded his head surprising Edward since he also didn''t expect the masked figure turns out to really be Billy, the Billy they know seems to be no more than just a memory.


    This one seems to be more power-hungry,


    While still looking around the ce hoping to see a glimpse of Billy, Rex thought to himself, ''He told me that he needs the power, what is the power for?''


    Just when Ryze was about to start levitating, Billy wanted to go to him.


    There''s an urgent look on his face wanting to take the power of Zaddrass for himself, his method of doing that is unknown but it seems he''s willing to sacrifice anything just to try absorbing Zaddrass'' power.


    If he''s using the same method as what the system instructed, his chance of surviving is zero.


    Even with the powerful runes Rex bought from the shop to strengthen Ryze''s body, enhance the formations, and even tried his all to suppress Zaddrass, the condition of Ryze is still unknown and there''s a chance that he might not survive.


    So if what Rex thought is correct, Billy then rather die trying than not trying at all.


    ''Who did that to you? Are you on the path of revenge?'', Rex thought, but no matter how much he tries he would not find the answer without asking Billy himself.


    But just after he thought of that,


    SHINGG!!


    A bright red light suddenly appeareding from the man-madeke.


    "Disaster Squad, secure the perimeter and make sure that no one is in the area", Rexmanded before the five of them nodded their heads and scatter to the surrounding.


    Having disciplined military men has its perks, they didn''t ask any questions.


    After the Disaster Squad left, Rex looks at the man-madeke where the dark red light glows brighter before slowly dimming as time passes.


    Rex and Edward went into the man-madeke again,


    Instead of a person covered with a dark red light, there''s a man that seems to still be unconscious beside Giste which makes both Rex and Edward frown.


    Both of themnded beside Giste and inspects the person,


    The man looks to be around in histe twenty or early thirties and ispletely naked with a muscr body almost as good as Rex''s, his skin is brown matching his short brown hair and there''s a distinctive tattoo on the man''s right peck the shape of a dragon with eight wings.


    From the looks of it, the dragon should be Zaddrass the Lord of Red.


    "Who is this guy?", Edward mutters from the side.


    Hearing this, Giste also looks at the man curiously since this man came out of nowhere.


    Rex then suddenly realized while looking at the unconscious man, "It can''t be... this can''t be Ryze right?", he mutters surprising Edward and Giste as both turn their heads toward Rex.


    While still in disbelief, Rex touches the man before scanning him.


    <Alma Ryze>


    Race: Heavenly Dragonman


    Power: Sixth Rank (Early) - Lord of Red


    Mental: 271


    Strength: 640


    Agility: 478


    Endurance: 861


    Intelligence: 0


    Looking at the man''s stat, Rex widen his eyes in utter shock as he realized that the man turns out to be Ryze who somehow turned like this.


    It''s almost as if he got aged more than 20 years,


    The features that this body has doesn''t have any resemnce to Ryze''s original body, he turned into apletely new person but the system is definitely not wrong.


    Rex stands back up while still looking at Ryze and his new body.


    Both Edward and Giste are looking at Rex waiting for him to say something, and when he did the two of them were also taken aback, "This is really Ryze..."


    "What?! You''re saying that this man here is Ryze?!", Edward eximed from the side.


    Hearing this, Giste immediately looks at Ryze that somehow turns into this monster of a man, "But Master, he doesn''t look and even seems like Ryze at all"


    Just as they are surprised, Adhara and Kyran arrived at the ce.


    "Rex, we have handled the Rirgas Family. But there is a slight problem, the masked man killed off many Awakened from the FAA, their corpses are scattered there", Kyran points at the direction where he met with the corpses.


    But seeing that Rex didn''t react and kept looking at an unconscious man, he frowned.


    Adhara who approaches the unconscious man looks at the man before her eyes nce at Rex, "Who is this? Where''s Ryze at?", she asks in confusion.


    The silence of Rex, Edward, and Giste makes Adhara even more confused.


    Rex, Edward, and Giste kept staring at the unconscious man with a look of disbelief, and connecting the dot, Adhara slowly widen her eyes in realization, "THIS IS RYZE?!"


    A momentter,


    With the others utterly confused by the situation, Rex decided to exin this to them.


    Rex exined to the others that Ryze''s consciousness has been taken over by a dragon called Zaddrass because of a pendant that he kept, and in order to save Ryze he decided to force Zaddrass to be devoured or absorbed by Ryze.


    The only option besides that is Ryze bing a mentally disabled person,


    Upon hearing the exnation from Rex, the others can''t help but look at Ryze whopletely changed into his new body after absorbing Zaddrass power.


    From the stats, Rex also finds that Ryze is no longer human.


    "So basically, Ryze now is not a human anymore?", Edward asks from the side.


    Hearing this, Rex nodded his head as the stats from the system stated that Ryze''s race have turned from human into Heavenly Dragonman.


    Adhara who is frowning on the side then added, "Will he be the same Ryze like before?"


    "I don''t know... we''ll just have to find out", Rex replied before he looks back at the unconscious Ryze waiting for him to wake up, hoping that he will be okay and still the same.


    Since the Disaster Squad is keeping a lookout, they have some time before the ce is crowded.


    While the others went to find a ce for them to sit, Kyran stood on his spot while looking at Ryze who is unconscious with an unreadable expression.


    It went on for a couple of seconds,


    Not long after he does that, Kyran averts his gaze and follows the other.


    After a moment of waiting, Rex looks at Ryze before deciding to just bring him back to the mansion since it looks like he won''t be waking up anytime soon.


    But then suddenly,


    "Hahh!!", Ryze suddenly jolted awake.


    All eyes immediately nced in Ryze''s direction, they saw Ryze is already sitting up.


    Ryze opened his eyes revealing his now permanent red eyes that don''t look human-like anymore, it''s more of a creature just like the pendant he wore before.


    Feeling confused, Ryze instantly stands up making the others nervous.


    Since Ryze haspletely turned into a different person, the others feel the need to be careful around him, Ryze''s body now is like a stranger to the others.


    Rex gazes at Ryze before he slowly approaches him, "Ryze, Do you remember me?"


    "R-Rex? What happened to me?", Ryze mutters feeling an evident change in his body, he now doesn''t need to look up as much to see Rex''s eyes as before.


    Their level of height is almost the same although Rex is still taller,


    Seeing that Ryze is confused and also afraid, Rex tries to approach him, "Calm down, you''re okay... nothing is wrong with you", he said trying to calm Ryze down.


    But instead of calming down, Ryze bes even more stressed.


    "What is this body? This is not... what happened to me?!", Ryze shouted as his eyes glow red, the others stepped back sensing that Ryze is unstable.


    Instead of Rex, the others create a distance from Ryze.


    Feeling that something is weird with his body, Ryze looks down at the reflection of him in the water before his eyes slowly widen, "This is not me...Who am I?!


    "Let''s go back first, then I will exin everything to you", Rex said softly.


    The way Rex is talking right now it''s almost as if he''s talking to a person strapped with a bomb, he needs to be very extra careful if he doesn''t want the bomb to explode.


    But the confusion overwhelmed Ryze as his eyes glows red even brighter.


    "Rex... I think I''m going to throw up", Ryze mumbles while covering his mouth.


    Upon hearing this, Rex frowned seeing that instead of throwing up his insides, a scorching hot fire started to crawl up Ryze''s neck before turning his mouth fiery.


    Before Rex can even warn Ryze about it,


    "Raaarghh!", Ryze opens his mouth feeling that he was about to throw up, but blood-red fire came out of his mouth like a methrower instead that even catching himself in surprise.


    Seeing this, Rex jumped out of the way but the edge of his elbow got hit by the fire.


    ''Even with my resistance to fire, this fire hurts me a lot'', Rex thought with a frown.


    There''s no doubt that this is the Fire of Chaos the system talked about, it even manage to hurt Rex even though he''s way stronger than Ryze.


    It''s not a normal fire, his fire resistance might not even work against it.


    Rex then saw instead of closing his mouth, Ryze opened his mouth wider making the blood-red fire even stronger. His emotion is unstable from realizing that he''s in an unfamiliar body.


    Imagine waking up in someone else''s body,


    If it happened to adults, they might be able to handle the situation with calmness but not Ryze.


    The others also jumped away not intending to get hit by the blood-red fire that emits a terrifying heat, even Rex is hurt by the fire so they need to be extra careful, especially Edward.


    BOOM!


    Ryze can''t control the fireing out of his mouth,


    A spiral of blood-red fireing from his mouth is just like a spark in the night, it hits the surrounding buildings, and everything it touches melted almost instantly.


    "Ryze! Stop!", Rex shouted trying to stop Ryze.


    Weirdly enough, while dodging the spiral of fire Rex saw that Ryze starting to lose more control and got engulfed by his dragon side the more he breathes the blood-red fire.


    <o>,m It''s like his mind bes even more clouded the longer he breathes this blood-red fire.</o>


    ''This is going to be bad if it goes on'', Rex thought in concern.


    After dodging the fire breath that is following Ryze''s head direction, Rex somersaulted beforending near Ryze again, "Ryze! Calm down! You''re going to burn the ce down!"


    But instead of listening, "RAARGHH!"


    BOOM!


    Ryze attacks Rex with his fire breath as his eyes glow red brighter.


    Dodging another attack from Ryze, Rex grits his teeth seeing that Ryze is already drowned by his new dragon side, he then turned into a streak of ck lightning before grabbing Ryze by the neck stopping his fire breath.


    "That''s enough!"


    BOOM!


    Rex''s eyes also glow red exposing his Werewolf side, a powerful shockwave of aura sted from his body snapping Ryze out of his daze, the suppressing aura is too much that it even makes Ryze''s glowing eyes turn back to normal.


    It''s still not normal but they didn''t glow red anymore,


    Even with him bing a Heavenly Dragon race, the sight of Rex''s predator eyes suppressed even the dragon side of him making him whimper.


    Just like a dragon meets a wolf only find the wolf is even bigger than itself.


    Ryze grip Rex''s arm trying to retaliate to no avail,


    The curving back horns started to appear on Rex''s head amplifying his aura, even more, his eyes are looking directly at Ryze whose confusion slowly turning into fear.


    "It''s enough..."