Endless Leveling Done Right!

Chapter 474: The Terror Of An Oathbreaker [Part 2]

Lex had only managed to overcome the corruption and madness of breaking his oath by going to Slime Paradise.

The natural powers of the place had been enough to suppress the rot and decay of Lex’s psyche. Over time, Slime Paradise purified Lex of that corruption.

Now that he realized that his Prince was still alive, the power that he had gained from becoming an Oathkeeper and Oathbreaker merged together and allowed him to reach the peak of Rank 8.

Very few individuals in the world would be able to defeat him now. And, those who could would have to sacrifice themselves in a pyrrhic victory too.

”I will now all bind you with an Oath,” Lex said coldly as a dark-red mist oozed out of his body. ”Break it and your souls will cease to exist.”

The dark-red mist then forced itself inside the teenagers’ bodies, making them squirm on the floor and clutch their chests.

”From now on, all of you will serve my Master, Alex Stratos, with your entire being,” Lex declared. ”You are not allowed to harm his friends or acquaintances whether directly or indirectly.

”Any and all of his orders will be carried out without fail. If you fail to do that, you will slowly wither until even your bones break apart into dust. Any attempt to free yourself from this oath will result in your soul becoming my slave for eternity.”

With each word, the teenagers felt as if their souls were being hammered by nails, embedding Lex’s ultimatum into them and binding them to him even after death.

Throughout this, Alex remained outwardly calm.

In reality, he had to fight the urge to shudder because he didn’t expect that the carefree, outgoing old man that got along so well with Dim Dim and Chuck had truly turned into a demon after he had broken his oath all those years ago.

Still, the pained groans of all the teenagers were music to Alex’s ears.

He had tried to come up with ways to avoid conflict with the Demon Worshipers, but he had eventually realized that no matter what he did, they would still come after him out of spite.

Since that was the case, he decided to flip the table and fight back.

He wouldn’t allow them to take the initiative. Instead, he would actively hunt them down.

In order to not implicate Evangeline and Eleanora in this mess, he decided to just capture his fellow students and extract all the information he needed from them.

That way, even if this news reached their higher-ups, the two ladies would not be suspected and interrogated.

A few minutes later, the groans of pain stopped as the teenagers fell unconscious.

Lex turned to Alex and bowed.”I’ll deal with the guards outside, Young Master. Are you sure that you don’t want me to kill them?”

”There’s no need to do that,” Alex replied. ”Just hand the guards directly over to the Headmaster.”

As Lex could contact the Headmaster directly and Professor Rowan could instantly travel from Frieden Academy to Solivane, dealing with these captives was not a problem.

Also, the Headmaster might be able to extract some useful information from the Demon Worshipers. There’s no point in killing people who were more useful alive than dead.

An hour later, the teenagers started to wake up one by one.

They gazed at their comrades before shifting their attention to the young man that was still seated comfortably on their chair and looking at them with amusement.

”Since all of you are now awake, use any means that you have to recover,” Alex ordered. ”We have a curfew, so we must wipe out all the Demon Worshipers here in Solivane and get back before ten so Princess Xenia won’t nag our ears off.”

Left with no choice, the teenagers took out some potions from their storage rings and drank them to recover.

All of them had the strong will to survive, so they decided to put up with Alex for now and listen to his orders.

The young man then questioned them about the identities and hideouts of the Demon Worshipers in Solivane.

After getting a list of names and locations, Alex took out a few masks from his storage ring and tossed it to his new subordinates one by one.

Each of the masks represented an animal in the Chinese Zodiac.

”Now that you have your masks, I will refer to you guys as the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig,” Alex declared. ”These will be your new identities during our meetings and all of you will be known collectively as the Zodiac. Do you have any questions?”

”Why do I get the pig mask?” Chris P. Bacon asked. ”I’m not even fat, just chubby. Who wants to swap masks?”

The others moved away from Chris because none of them wanted to become the Pig.

Alex only chuckled internally because he had given Chris that mask on purpose. How could he possibly not get it when his surname was Bacon?

”I only prepared your masks for now, but I will make an attire just for you guys,” Alex said as he stood up. ”Don’t worry, like I promised, nothing much will change from your way of life aside from becoming double agents.

”Although there will be occasions where you need to carry out orders from me, I will do my best to ensure that these orders will not force you to endanger your lives for my sake. None of you here will be used as cannon fodders.”

After hearing the young man’s declaration, the teenagers were finally able to breathe a little more easily.

However, they still felt a bit complicated about having to betray their comrades.

”Now, we still have work to do.” Alex walked towards the exit of the basement. ”Zodiac, let’s move out.”

That night, Alex, Lex, and the Zodiac raided all the hideouts of the Demon Worshipers.

None of them were able to escape this operation that started shortly after midnight. Alex asked Lumi to inform Princess Xenia that he and his fellow schoolmates had decided to explore the city’s night life and might return in the morning.

The Princess was left fuming at the news. Poor Lumi had to try convincing her that Alex and the other students were simply bonding with each other.

When the operation ended, Alex and the members of the Zodiac returned to the Hotel because they didn’t want to be there when Lex called for the Headmaster.

Half an hour later, the old knight finished dealing with the rest of the Demon Worshipers and called the Headmaster using a crystal ball. After receiving that call, Rowan immediately travelled to Solivane even though it was in the middle of the night.

”How did you manage to do all of this?” Rowan asked as he casually tossed the unconscious agents into his personal domain.

”A pig told me,” Lex replied.

Rowan wanted to roll his eyes, convinced that his friend was hiding something from him.

Although he wanted to ask more questions, the Headmaster knew that it would be like squeezing blood from a stone.

”Don’t cause too much trouble here, okay?” Rowan warned. ”If people know that you’re still alive, the Empire might send someone to ask you to return to their service.”

”Good luck to them.” Lex shrugged. ”My ties to the kingdom were severed the day they hunted down Aetherius. They are not worth my allegiance.”

Rowan had also cut ties with the Aetherion Empire, so he understood Lex’s position. He saw no need to convince his friend to change his mind.

”Goodnight and sleep tight,” he said before taking his leave.

Lex watched him go calmly before making his way back to the hotel.

He could have told the Headmaster about Alex. But he decided that the fewer people who knew about Alex’s identity, the safer the young man would be from those who had demanded his death.

”Sleep?” Lex muttered softly. ”There’s no rest for the wicked.”

The old man might have lost his sight, but his senses were sharper than usual. He understood that there were many challenges ahead.

Lex hadn’t even asked Alex if he wished to return to the Aetherion Empire to reclaim his birthright.

However, no matter what the young man chose, Lex would stand by his side and make sure that the tragedy that had happened many years ago would not happen again under his watch.