The Invincible Full-Moon System Chapter 1835: Being Paranoid

"Very well then," Dorn adjusted his stance firmly. "I will begin the task that brought me here."

Rex remained lost in thought, yet he gave a slight nod and signaled Linthia to guide them toward the location of Devo and Amanir. The trio moved off into the hazy distance until their forms faded completely, once more leaving Rex by himself.

With both aptitudes enhanced, his return home would finally be possible.

Preparations were already in place, in truth.

Given the immense power he had gained in this realm, transferring his soul back to the Mortal Realm no longer demanded the same toll. The cost lingered in the millions, yet it hovered perilously close to a billion, precisely at nine-hundred and seventy million gold.

Rex's accumulated gold fell short of even half that necessary sum.

He anticipated the ongoing reward calculations from the System to elevate him closer to the goal.

Should they fall short, however, Varya and the Shade Crawlers had been dispatched to scout and tag monster hordes spanning the region and further near the hideout. Rex planned to descend upon them and reap the final hundreds of millions in gold.

Regarding the requests he posed to Dorn, they aimed at copying his soul and rendering this body everlasting.

Sustaining this form would demand a robust soul.

According to Davina, the Sky People held several potent souls in their grasp. Upon an Elder's demise, a soul remnant persisted, which Elders and Gatekeepers harnessed to amplify their life energy intake, accelerating their aging and surging their power swiftly.

Naturally, a Supreme Elder’s soul represented excessive might.

Yet Rex could fortify his soul via the remnant and employ the surplus to claim this body fully.

Thus, two distinct bodies would operate independently.

The voidal monsters he requested served to amass sufficient energy for crafting binding limiters to impose on the Spirit Realm body. His primary soul required greater strength to command the secondary body's actions and role.

Absorbing the Supreme Elder’s soul had nearly perfected this process.

To ensure the duplicate body couldn't bolster its own soul and usurp Rex's original, the System advised installing limiters. These safeguards necessitated vast energy, drawable from voidal monsters' bodies and souls.

Concerning the portal, it stemmed from Davina’s suggestion.

She raised no protest when he chose to abandon the second body upon heading home to the Mortal Realm. However, she insisted on a single condition: a one-way portal permitting entry from the Mortal Realm into the Spirit Realm.

Rex deemed this demand peculiar.

Logic dictated she seek a one-way passage for herself into the Mortal Realm.

But pride fueled her choice.

She desired his solo return, not hers to him. Linking a one-way portal to Dargena City would serve as a perpetual reminder of her presence. Bound by his vow to meet her lofty expectations, he yielded without recourse.

Crafting the portal independently would entail intricate, laborious setups.

Instead, he opted to entrust the Sky People with the task.

As overseers of the vast Spirit Realm, they possessed ample resources and personnel to construct the portal with utmost haste. With these matters resolved, Rex ought to depart, yet he lingered upon the coffin, immersed in profound reflection.

Moments before, Dorn had revealed Dominar's discovery.

The truth that Chaos pursued him relentlessly.

"Chaos... Could it be Edward reaching out to me via Dominar?" Rex muttered, yearning for that to hold true. Yet doubt gnawed at his thoughts, refusing false optimism. "No, it's likely that vile, writhing curse intent on pulling me into its domain."

The mere notion of that horror made Rex clench his knees fiercely.

His claws sank into flesh, though the sharp pain failed to stir him.

Visions of vengeance consumed him, plotting what torments he'd unleash once capturing that entity.

For abducting Edward, he'd inflict the agonies of Hell upon the beast and revel in its cries.

"Nivellen showed me my true nature," Rex pondered her reminder of his Demigod status in a superior realm beyond the Mortal one. "Kaiser can contact me here without much resistance, drawing minimal backlash as a Demigod. The same likely applies to that monstrosity."

Uncertainty lingered on whether divine rules extended to Chaos entities.

For now, such an assumption seemed valid.

Otherwise, the abomination would have already infiltrated this realm to assail him.

"Kaiser, Ignatius, and now Chaos," Rex rubbed the nape of his neck while rising and shifting back to human guise. "System, why not shield me from the other two so I can tackle one at a time? Where's the fairness in this?"

<Invincibility demands ruthless effort and unyielding resolve>

"Sure, sure. Your fixation on invincibility never wavers."

Rex pivoted and knelt before the coffin he'd occupied, drawing in a deep breath via his keen nostrils. A barrage of aromas assaulted him, but one scent captivated his focus.

"A blessed corpse avoids foul odors. Yet it carries a trace," He stood tall, gaze piercing toward the imposing Angel statue looming ahead. "Locating you will be effortless."

...

Roar—!

An inhabitant of shadows, a pitch-black chimpanzee, howled in agony as a hand speared through its torso like a blade, erupting from behind. Others leaped from limb to limb and plummeted to aid their stricken kin.

Ere they neared, earthen tendrils erupted from the earth and skewered them aloft.

A fierce tug followed, ripping their forms asunder.

In the shadowed, oppressive woodland that seemed to constrict around her, Morgana withdrew her arm from the chimpanzee's cavity with a slick pop. Crimson droplets trailed from her digits as she surveyed the environs intently.

She stooped low, seized the beast's skull, and wrenched it savagely.

A sharp snap resounded amid the foliage as she felled the largest foe.

These chimpanzees ranked as voidal knights, save for the fallen one, a voidal prince.

Sensing vulnerability amid the woods, she hastily produced a holy feather, its pure hue now flecked with crimson. A radiant pulse ensued, disintegrating the surrounding cadavers into energy motes absorbed by the feather.

Morgana dropped to one knee and pressed her palm to the soil.

Her finger's ring pulsed with verdant light, then faded to quiescence.

This wasn't the intended course.

"Hmm?" Her stare lingered on the ring, turmoil surging within, on the verge of eruption. Even her cheeks flushed crimson. "Despite everything that's transpired, I hoped you'd endure a while more. At least until I resolve my affairs..." She gnawed her lip until blood welled. "Pathetic weakling."

With a sharp tsk, Morgana rose once more.

Despite the relentless assaults of recent days, her reserves demanded further bolstering.

Accumulating vast energy remained essential to safeguard her destiny.

The ring formed a cornerstone of her ambitions, bestowed by Dominar and harboring a sliver of the Reap and Sow Echo—pilfered from him and concealed through potent suppression. Yet the echo lay silent now.

This silence heralded Emperor Dominar's demise alone.

An emperor who once reigned supreme now fell.

Devoid of the ring's aid, amassing a formidable voidal monster horde proved daunting.

Morgana relied on the Reap and Sow Echo for effective hunts.

Forced to proceed without it, her energy yield would plummet drastically from prior rates. Utterly inefficient. Thus, she ended her efforts for the day and ventured from the somber woods, craving time to plot her path forward.

She traversed the Black Rift at a measured pace.

No urgency to hasten and invite detection by foes or voidal beasts.

Roughly an hour passed before she alighted in what appeared a bog.

Moisture permeated all here. Subtle vapors twisted among the grotesquely curved trees, dense enough to confound any traveler. Indigenous voidal knights prowled the fog, wielding the aberrant might of Eternal Spirit rank.

A single misstep would provoke their assault.

Not long past, Morgana knew only luxury—silken fabrics, ease, and heated chambers. Regal existence. Plush bedding. Sumptuous feasts.

Now, she endured a quagmire.

Filthy, sodden, with opaque waters weaving through sludge like sinews beneath flesh.

Certain spots seemed shallow, yet plunged to profound depths.

Luck favored Morgana, enabling flight above the liquid and life energy to preserve her purity.

Her noble, imperial stature rendered concealment in such a squalid bog unexpected. Prior to reaching her sanctuary, she wandered the mire circuitously for nearly thirty minutes, scanning for pursuers.

En route, she paused repeatedly.

Though subdued in the royal palace, idleness never defined her.

Volumes from the imperial archives had schooled her in myriad disciplines.

Fortification ranked among them.

Visibility spelled doom for Morgana, so she transformed the swamp into an impregnable bastion. Minute bees and fireflies dotted critical zones, vigilant for interlopers.

Thousands dispersed across the expanse.

Scattered haphazardly on bark or surfaces, subtle trap arrays lay in wait.

Any bearing life energy—save Morgana—triggering them by tread or passage would activate. Not crafted for lethality per se. Merely to hinder. To injure. To inflict excruciating torment, granting her escape.

Death might result, admittedly. But hindrance was the intent.

Moreover, should intruders wield Laws or Spirit Genesis for ethereal traversal, Morgana sowed roughly one hundred blue roses in the swamp's heart.

These disrupted ability deployment and induced mental fog via aroma.

Disorientation struck instantly.

Furthermore, the swamp's voidal monsters gained physical enhancement from the roses' influence, growing fiercer. Barring Emperor Dominar or elite Sky City figures descending to hunt her, detection remained impossible, even at close quarters.

Satisfied with her safeguards' inspection, she eyed the central stunted peak.

By sheer intent, ethereal wings unfurled from her back, propelling her skyward.

Angelic appendages, feathers tinged rosy with scattered scarlet flecks.

A local formation barred life energy use, necessitating the wings.

The rock face gleamed icy and sleek.

Ascending some fifty meters, Morgana spied a modest, disc-like ledge on the slope—her cache of belongings and temporary abode. ’This hardship ends soon.’

Wings beating, she touched down on the platform.

Yet as her eyes lifted, her pulse faltered.

A silhouette loomed ahead, facing away from her.