The Invincible Full-Moon System

Enervation tightened its grip by the second.

Casting the strongest spell in his arsenal to create the chaos duplicate—the Executor could sense clearly that his stamina was suffering greatly. He was breathing heavily, teetering on the brink of exhaustion as he coursed through the dark creek.

'I'm not a failure, this time, I will make it work!' the Executor pondered inwardly.

Splash!

His steps splashed against the watery ground.

Sprinting through the inclining ground, his path of going forward became harder.

Each heartbeat sent a tremor through him—blurring his vision momentarily. His fortitude was also dwindling rapidly, and even the ambient sounds around him began to fade into a distant hum, leaving only the thunderous rhythm of his own pulse and breath pounding in his ears.

As the Executor dashed through the creek, shadows danced at the corners of his vision.

He could see the shadows twisting and contorting that seemed to mock his every move.

"Leave me alone! All of you, leave me alone!!" the Executor shouted.

More Passues came rushing out of the shadows and attacked him, but he was able to block their advance and kept on running. Aside from the buzzing noises the Passues made—there seemed to be other voices that could only be heard exclusively by the Executor.

It was completely silent inside the creek, but not for the Executor.

Pant...

Pant...

Every step forward felt like wading through molasses, and his eyes became bloodshot.

The Executor could hear whispers echoing in the recesses of his mind.

Despite his attempt to ignore them, to push them back into the depths from whence these whisperers came—they clung to him like tendrils of smoke—contorting into sinister shapes that danced at the edge of his consciousness.

Not having his mind in the right place, the Executor tripped and fell to the ground.

Splash!

Grunting, the Executor clenched his fists and looked up, "Eh...?"

Suddenly, he realized that his vision contorted—the creek stretched out before him like an endless labyrinth. Each ripple is a harbinger of his impending doom. In addition, the voices became louder, and he was forced to close his ears and press his head against the ground.

"I am pure... Like the four of you, I am also pure..." He muttered with a faltering voice.

Pausing a moment, the Executor finally pushes himself up.

He raised to his knee and looked up at the Symposium that could already be seen ahead.

'After I gain Father's weapon, my purity will be complete'

Nodding his head, he resumed his journey towards the Symposium with faster speed.

A few minutes later, the Executor was still sprinting with the Symposium as his pivot—and as he did this, he turned to look to the side, searching for someone—'Where's Edward? He's not dead, so he should've located the Passue Matriarch by now'

He was about a mile away from the deepest part of the Dead Man's Creek.

But even until now, there was no sign of the Passue Matriarch.

If the Passue Matriarch did survive the test of time then she would react to any Human who stepped foot inside the Dead Man's Creek. More importantly, the Executor was now already stepping into her territory, but there was still no sign of her.

Naturally, he could tell that he was in the Passue Matriarch's territory easily.

Just the increase in Human bones scattered around the place indicated that fact clearly.

Receiving no cues from her raised some weird cues inside the Executor's mind.

Edward was sent inside the creek to search the Passue Matriarch as he volunteered to do it himself. Moments ago—his presence could still be sensed amidst the murky darkness of the creek, but now, he had vanished without a trace.

Deciding to take this as a good thing, the Executor pressed onward.

However, as more minutes passed, he came to an abrupt stop and gazed at the Symposium.

"It feels like I'm not moving anywhere, I'm running in place," the Executor mused.

Frowning—he turned to look at the nearby tree to his right and decided to swipe it with his black spear, attempting to destroy it. Instead of the sensation of hitting a hard tree trunk—the Executor felt like he was hitting flesh instead.

Swiftly after that, the tree morphed into pale tentacles and attacked the Executor.

Swoosh!

Upon seeing this, the Executor quickly cleaves his spear again, destroying the whole tree.

"As expected, this is the Shapeshifters' doing," His frown deepens in realization.

It seemed somewhere along the way, the Shapeshifters managed to catch him by surprise.

Meanwhile, Rex was in a heated confrontation and only counted on the Shapeshifters to stall the Executor for him. Had it not for Lyra's persuasiveness and reputation—he would not have left her with the task, but he knew that he could count on her.

Her air was that of certainty and pride, two factors that a dependent person would have.

Clang!

Giving no room to breathe, the chaos duplicate chased and attacked Rex relentlessly.

Looking over his shoulder, he clicked his tongue in displeasure.

At this rate, I wouldn't have the time to do anything.

Resolving that he would need to incapacitate the chaos duplicate first—which was as strong and resilient as the Executor himself, Rex strategized while deftly evading the attack coming his way.

Rex already attempted several plans to lose the chaos duplicate but all failed miserably.

One that almost got the chaos duplicate was when he lured it into a herd of Passues, hoping their relentless assault would overwhelm it and give him time to slip away. However—despite their ferocity, the chaos duplicate emerged on top, it was slowed, but not for long.

With a swift reflex, Rex dodged another strong attack that shattered and quaked the earth.

He landed meters away and waited for the next attack.

It took only a mere fraction of a second for the chaos duplicate to launch another attack.

But this particular time, Rex was ready.

Controlling the chaos energy, the chaos duplicate made a vertical slash with its claws.

Let's try this one, I haven't had the chance to use this one yet.

Upon seeing this, Rex's eyes shimmered with intensity—the shadowy half of his King Mark, it glowed brighter, indicating the invocation of an ability exclusive to the Banished Dark Moon's power. Smiling, he swiftly unleashed another skill of his.

"Moon Ability, Seize of Twilight!" Rex roared as his body burst with kingly energy.

Swoosh!

Swiping his claws with powerful force, the chaos duplicate was surprised when his right arm began to fade as it approached Rex's body—and ultimately vanishing upon striking him. The chaos duplicate could still feel that its right arm was intact, but it appeared to have vanished from its sight.

It causes him to miss completely, his attack was unable to reach Rex.

On the other hand, Rex was standing dauntingly and ready in front of the chaos duplicate.

Giving it a light smirk, he didn't waste a single second to launch his own attack.

"Moon Ability, Brutal Impulse!"

Crack!

KABOOM!!

Akin to a fighter jet at full speed, the chaos duplicate hurtled through the air, uprooting over a hundred trees in its path before thunderously colliding on the opposite of the creek—quite far away from Rex and the battlefield.

Not stopping at that, Rex reappeared right before the chaos duplicate in a frenzied blur.

Bam!

Landing an uppercut with his weapons, he sent the chaos duplicate flying in the air.

Following that, he leaped and delivered a powerful kick—all strengthened by Brutal Impulse.

"He'll recover from that, but I got time now," Rex muttered and landed back down.

But as he was about to pivot around, his countenance showed a frown as he looked down.

Even though he was strong and skillful enough to use the Brutal Impulse with the training he had inside the Twilight Dimension with the Countess—he couldn't spam it in one setting else he risk injuring himself.

If his arm exploded right now then recovering it would need to take a long time.

Due to that, he opted to capitalize on the Blood Devourer to cast the Brutal Impulse ability.

Since it was an Origin-grade weapon—it should be capable of enduring the strain the Brutal Impulse skill put on it. Rex could avoided the backlash of spamming the ability. He might be using 5% of his kingly energy in each strike, but that could still pose a strong backlash to his arm.

However, contrary to his expectation, the Brutal Impulse's strain was worse than he thought.

On the edge of the Blood Devourer, there was an evident dent.

Regardless of the Origin-grade cutlass, it still couldn't endure the Brutal Impulse skill.

Guess I should use my own arms directly to use it.

Fearing that the Blood Devourer would break which would make him lose a lot of boosts, Rex decided that he would use his own arms directly whenever he used the Brutal Impulse ability—it would be risky starting from now, but he could only hope his body could endure it.

Inhaling deeply, he was about to head to the Human Army before he suddenly stopped.

At the corner of his eyes, he could see a figure standing not far from him.

Glancing in that direction—he found a stranded young Awakened who seemed to be running from the Passues chasing him and somehow stumbled across Rex—who had only just struck the chaos duplicate and sent it crashing away.

Upon seeing Rex's figure, the Awakened was stunned and slowly looked up to his eyes.

Meeting the deep ruby eyes fueled with unfathomable power—the Awakened took a fearful step back as he realized that the figure standing in front of him was Rex. He was running in the hope of preserving his life only to meet the worst of fate.

Swaying with windy power, the Awakened tried to flee but was easily caught by Rex.

Crash!

It happened so fast, but when the Awakened realized, he was already pinned down.

His chest was pressed tightly by Rex's hand.

Not focusing on the fearful expression of the Awakened, Rex looked at the layer of energy on the surface of the Awakened's skin—fighting back against his own power. Rex inspected and frowned when he could see that even his kingly energy couldn't pierce through.

Devo, Amanir, do you know what kind of energy this is?

[It's similar to runic energy, but I don't think it's the same—this one is more profound]

[I thought that too! Nevertheless, it's definitely runic energy]

Rex frowned when he received their answers.

Despite Devo and Amanir seeming to be fixed that this was runic energy, it doesn't bore any resemblance to the ancient runes that Flunra used. If he had to say the difference, then this one feels more denser and profound.

Countess, what about you? Do you know what this is?

[You are strong, yet your analysis needs depth. This is runic energy but corrupted by chaos]

Listening to this, Rex frowned as he could've guessed that.

[It contains the very essence of chaos, the Executor must be cultivating it throughout his journey to reach the battlefield. Be warned, it's highly durable and very much hostile, you wouldn't be able to pierce it]

[It's not nascent, best for you to wait for it to disappear]

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he retrained his focus on the Awakened. With a grim determination—he enveloped his claws in an eerie energy—harnessing the Unholy Claws of the Reaper skill, tapping into the primal force of Origin energy.

Locking eyes with the Awakened, he drove both hands towards the Awakened's chest.

Clang!

A clash between Rex's claws and the corrupted runic energy begins, creating flying sparks.

Pressing with more power, his ruby eyes burn even brighter.

Now that you said that, I have no choice but to prove you wrong, Countess.

Sinews and veins began to swell across Rex's form as he exerted more pressure with his own claws against the corrupted runic energy. With each passing moment, his strength increases, cracking the ground beneath the Awakened.

[It's futile, you're wasting your energy]

"D- Don't kill me, please..." the Awakened begged, fearing for his life.

Upon hearing this distress, Rex glanced at him, "Don't worry, your life won't be wasted"

Crackling with intensified power, forcing his kingly energy, red force, and elemental mana to rampage—Rex managed to breach the corrupted runic energy, driving his hand a quarter of an inch inside.

Grasping at the crack with his other hand, he strained to widen it further.

Additionally, he now also infuses his chaos energy.

"Rrrghh..." He grunted, his veins stretched and were about to explode. "RAARGGHH!!"

Crack!

Splash!

At the horrified gaze of the Awakened, the layer of energy coating his entire body was ripped open by Rex, shattering like glass. Meanwhile—Rex was smirking at this sight—there was not a single thing he couldn't do if he set his mind right.