The Invincible Full-Moon System

'He's extremely strong, not through raw power, but through intent' Lyra pondered.

In a chilling silence, Edward gazed at Lyra intently.

As he did that—the skin-tight black armor that he wore that seemed to be alive moved and reached the Executor. Edward gave him chaos energy to heal his injuries, and visibly—Lyra could see that the Executor was recovering.

Before Lyra could say anything, four Shapeshifters made a sneak attack.

Melding with the environment, they appeared behind Edward and launched a series of blows.

Each was aimed to impale and instantly kill Edward.

Realizing what the four were doing, Lyra wanted to stop them but it was already too late.

For a moment there, Edward didn't move a muscle as the four Shapeshifters leaped towards him—but at the last second when their attacks were about to connect, the eerie silver spear on his hand blurred.

Swoosh!

Splat!

In the blink of an eye, the four Shapeshifters got decapacitated as if they were nothing.

Moreover, there were pale tendrils that came out of their headless corpses.

Under Lyra's very eyes, she could see that Edward's spear sucked the souls of the defeated Shapeshifters and devoured them. A visible increase in the spear's energy was detected, as if it got stronger through devouring souls.

Angered, other stronger Shapeshifters blasted with power and attacked Edward again.

"No, stop!" Lyra warned, but the others were not listening.

Harnessing their mutations, the subdermal adaptive mesh—these Shapeshifters' skin turned emerald. In addition to that, each of their aura skyrockets as they cast a spell that turns their arms into an enhanced limb as tough as enhanced diamonds.

Completely in sync, their arms morphed into a crescent blade and raged at Edward fiercely.

Since the Shapeshifters were all very high-ranking ones, this happened in a flash.

Each attack was capable of killing ninth-rank realm entities had it not been the First Breath.

Swoosh!

Clang!!

Attacking from all sides, the Shapeshifters thought that one of their attacks would at least go through Edward's defense and connect—but they were wrong. Instinctively—the black armor twisted and blocked all attacks by creating a cocoon around Edward's body.

Not one managed to reach him.

Realizing that Edward was not an easy target, the Shapeshifters quickly backed away.

Only an exceptional individual could block their attacks that easily.

"Had you not come in time—I would've been forced to unleash everything," the Executor said from the back. "It's good that you are here—fighting these vexing pests would be a waste of energy, I'll reward you after this battle"

As the Passue Matriarch still looms in the shadows, the Executor hesitates severely.

He couldn't use everything he had in case of an emergency.

Now that Rex's forces proved to be more than a breeze in the park, he was still hesitating.

Upon hearing this, Edward's expression tightened.

It caught the attention of Lyra as it was an odd reaction for pure gratification.

Remaining silent as he fixed his gaze ahead, the Executor observed Edward's inflexible focus—noting his lack of response with a raised eyebrow. Suddenly, Edward raised his silver spear aloft, channeling raw chaos energy, and with a primal grunt—forcefully drove it into the earth before him.

Crack!

Finding resistance, Edward poured more power as veins of chaos spread through the area.

In a matter of seconds, a glass-shattering sound reverberated, filling the air as Edward, with his corrupted power shattered the Shapeshifters' Field Spell—dispelling the illusionary world—Rising tall once more, he spoke in a monotone voice, "Allow me to deal with this, master—you can continue ahead"

Even though it sounded like an order, the Executor decided to let it pass for now.

He rose to his feet again and dashed to the Symposium.

Lyra was looking at where the Executor disappeared to before cautiously signaling the others stationed elsewhere in the creek, instructing them to stay attentive as the Executor managed to slip past them with the help of Edward.

But as she did this, Edward slammed the butt of his spear into the ground loudly.

"Focus on me," He declared dauntingly. "Next time, I will make sure you pay for that mistake"

On the other hand, the Exectuor resumed his journey to the Symposium.

Despite the creek being medium-sized at best—and reaching his destination should've been straightforward, it didn't feel that way for the Executor as there were numerous obstacles in the way, trying to stop him from achieving his goals.

Even now, there are still Passues that jumped from the shadows, attacking him relentlessly.

Not to mention, the deeper he goes, the stronger the Passues become.

It was evident, as the Passues here could breathe dark rays, melting anything they touched.

Most of the stronger Passues were the ones responsible for defeating most of the infiltrators in the ancient times while those on the outskirts of the creek served as mere appetizers. Not many had gone through the Passues the Executor was dealing with right now.

Every step would become harder and harder the deeper he went.

Labored after grabbing a Passue and crushing it to pieces, the Executor suddenly frowned.

He lifted up his gaze and turned to his back, noticing something.

"Tch! How can he defeat my Chaos Clone already?" the Executor mused in irritation.

Despite only a few minutes having passed—the Royal Black Prince managed to defeat his chaos duplicate which came as a surprise considering that it was as strong as the current him. But regardless, he trained his eyes forward again.

"Edward came from this way, so this path must be safe,"

Nodding his head firmly, he continued onward, slowly making his way to the Symposium.

Meanwhile, back to Rex.

Flexing his muscles, he dodged the chaos duplicate attack somersaulting to the side.

Almost instantly after skillfully evading the strike, he released his grip on the Amuerus Katana and solely directed his attention to the Blood Devourer. Following that, he inhaled deeply and deactivated all of his enhancements, even his King Marks.

Holding the hilt with both hands, Rex concentrates intently on the blood energy.

He endeavors to wield it effortlessly as his moonlight energy.

Just as he felt the connection with the blood energy, his aura began to flutter.

But as he did that, he also vanquished the blood energy first.

Rex's expression tensed when he reached this new state of being, "Here goes nothing..."

Slowly, he cloaked the energy-less blood devourer with his cursed energy before gritting his teeth—anticipating potential pain that he might suffer. At the stroke of his readiness, he cast the ability he was granted by the Blood Devourer, the Bloodborne Offering Spell.

In a whispering chant, he expanded his senses to the battlefield outside of the creek.

Corpses lay there gruesomely, the remains of the fierce battle.

Nevertheless, Rex wasn't focusing on the corpses, but on their blood instead.

As his eyes gleamed with a reddish light, he controlled the blood splattered on the battlefield as much as he could and instantly pulled them all to him. Surprisingly, only the blood of those he killed directly was reacting instead of any blood he could reach.

Like steel to a magnet, the blood-shot towards him with a lightning-fast speed.

It all gathered and seeped into the blade of the Blood Devourer—forming vampiric runes that emist a sinister air. Following that, a red magic circle appeared before the cross-guard of the cutlass, rotating clockwise slowly.

More vampiric runes glowed one by one starting from the nearest to the hilt.

However, as soon as seven vampiric runes glowed, the entire blade trembled viciously.

A clash happened between the blood energy and the cursed energy Rex had cloaked the blade with earlier—making the entire blade tremble uncontrollably. Keeping the cutlass in place, he tries to control both energies at the same time.

Rex was planning to create an emulsion between his cursed and blood energy.

A reckless plan but might provide him the chance to win.

He could achieve that by casting the Bloodborne Offering Spell into his cursed energy.

As the spell is an Origin-grade spell, and the description also stated that it altered the nature and gave additional effects to an ability, Rex inferred its purpose was to imbue anything that it was cast on to have the properties of blood energy.

Inevitably, the spell would corrupt and alter anything it touches.

One of the biggest problems of using the cursed energy was its resistance to any form of energy other than itself, the cursed energy will reject anything that isn't identical to them which made integrating it impossible.

It's simply not meant to be a source of power that could be combined with others.

Due to that, for Rex—other than the cursed energy providing assistance against others who could use cursed energy, it was almost useless in a fight. He could only integrate the cursed energy with his own power by layering it on top of his power.

Like a second skin to his power which makes his attack unsenseable and unpredictable.

Against those who were at the same level as him, it was quite beneficial.

However, against those who are above him such as the Executor, it was close to useless.

He needed raw power now, skill alone couldn't defeat the Executor fully.

Similar to the weight classes in combat sports, Rex might possess agility and skill, yet in the face of a significant weight difference, such attributes would amount to nothing. At this very moment, he needs strength more than anything.

No... eughhk! Need more blood energy!

In order to reach emulsion, corrupting the essence of the cursed energy with blood energy— Rex needs more blood energy. He couldn't overdo it either as a perfect emulsion would need a perfect amount of blood energy.

Gritting his teeth, he bit his own arms and tore a big chunk of flesh right off.

Using his own blood, he slowly feeds the Bloodborne Offering Spell.

He gauged and paid close attention to the cursed energy's reaction while ruling the spell.

Ngoong!!

As the Blood Devourer quivered, it created this weird buzzing sound as the blood energy and cursed energy began to reach the perfect emulsion. Gradually, the distinct hues melded into a new fusion, tainted by the encroaching influence of the blood energy.

Bam!!

Out of nowhere, the chaos duplicate came and struck Rex hard in his side.

"Gahhk!!" Rex grunted as he got propelled away.

But even then, he kept all of his focus on the Blood Devourer, desperately trying to maintain the two energies to keep doing what it was doing. Blood trickled down the corner of his lips as his eyes bulged while looking at the blade.

Sensing the weird energy coming from the blade, the chaos duplicate moved even faster.

He struck Rex repeatedly, aiming to knock the cutlass out of his hands.

In retaliation, Rex could only attempt to block with one hand as his other hand was busy on maintaining the balance of energies—infusing more and more blood energy into the cursed energy.

Rex began to get pummeled as several attacks connected to his form.

He coughed a mouthful of blood in the process as he was tossed around the entire creek.

Even though he wanted to protect himself better lest he gets too hurt when his body was in a bad state already, his gaze upon the chaos duplicate nearly ruptured the delicate balance of both energies, restarting the fusion process.

Regardless of the pain, he was forced to keep his focus on the balance of energies.

Bam!

Bam!

More and more injuries appeared across Rex's body despite trying his best to defend himself.

He crashes onto the ground, creating a huge crater after receiving a hammer fist.

Despite the searing pain coursing through him, blood obscuring his vision from the left, Rex clenched his teeth and maintained unwavering focus. His gaze remained locked on the core of the cursed energy before eventually, it was utterly corrupted by the blood energy.

At that moment, he instantly stopped infusing blood energy.

It was only then that a creepy smile played on Rex's lips as he gazed at the chaos duplicate.

"Arcane Spell, Final of Life!"

Chanting a powerful spell, the chaos duplicate threw a lance of chaos from above.

Smiling as it believed fully that there was no way for Rex to dodge this attack of his this time—the chaos duplicate's eyes suddenly widened when a booming sound rattled his eardrums, and the lance he threw was nowhere to be seen, only Rex was standing below him.

Weirdly enough, the Blood Devourer was also not in his hand.

However, the chaos duplicate's pupils dilated when he felt something tracing down his lips.

He reached for it and found that it was his own blood.

Upon seeing this, the chaos duplicate looked down at his chest slowly before his eyes flared.

Caught off guard, it found that there was a hole in his chest.

On the other hand, Rex casts a devious grin at it, Oh...? I didn't expect it to be this potent.