The Invincible Full-Moon System

Chapter 1644: Troublesome Enemy (2)

Empress Morgana chose Rex for his brutal and domineering fighting style.

His fiery temperament in battle—along with his innate ability to regenerate could scare the monsters of the void. Not to mention, despite not being immune to pain, Rex didn’t hesitate in getting bloody, taking on attacks with unnerving closeness.

From the eyes of the voidal monsters, he was extremely menacing.

After all, the voidal monsters banked on their innate advantage provided by the Black Rift to regenerate from any injuries. Be it a mere cut to something grievous like losing a limb, the voidal prowess allowed them to regenerate, some even needing seconds.

Generally, spirits didn’t have that kind of advantage.

All of them fought carefully, relying on their Soul Artifact more instead of clashing outright.

Seeing another spirit with the same regeneration prowess as them forced them to look in the mirror, and that was scary—coupled with the sheer fact that Rex became stronger and more forceful with each hit he takes, it went from scary to outright devilish.

Rick could see how the voidal monsters—other than the reaper and its phantoms—looked at Rex.

It was a blatant fear that made them move away.

Compared to clashing with Rex, who wouldn’t scream or squeal, but get stronger every time they landed an attack, the voidal monsters preferred to fight the soldiers instead. At least with them, one successful strike would cause them to stagger, scream, and grow weaker.

But being focused on Rex was a mistake.

Crash!

”It can phase!!”

Rex’s scream reverberated through the air like a warning bell.

He plummeted like a comet to stomp on the Faceless Reaper, but his feet struck the ground instead.

It snapped Rick out of his daze as his face turned ashen.

But then, panic settled in.

”What?!”

Rick glanced to the side and saw the three phantoms that were too far away from him heading towards the wall with a maniacal glee. All three of them moved with lightning-fast speed, so fast that they looked like they were gliding through the ground.

And to his horror, the three phantoms turned translucent, astral, and phased through the thick wall.

”Damn it!” Rick cursed, body moving to intercept the others. ”It has a Unique Echo!”

Considering that he couldn’t feel the Echo activating, it was clear that the Faceless Reaper had a Unique Echo, and it was a powerful one at that, too. Lower, weaker Echoes emitted a trace of energy that spirits and voidal monsters alike could sense.

It was a flaw that made it easy to anticipate the person’s or monster’s forte.

Although it was also the same as a Unique Echo, the trace was lighter, and it was non-existent on the stronger Unique Echoes. For the Faceless Reaper’s Echo to be this suppressed, it was clear that it had at least a Unique Echo from the 100 Long Lost Catacombs.

Crash!

Before Rick could move, he was tackled from the front.

Another phantom tackled him, throwing his back against the wall, pressing its scythe-arms against his sword. Seeing this, Rick gritted his teeth and tried pushing the phantom back, but another one came in hot, faster than he could react.

”Raagghk!!”

Rick glanced at his other hand.

It was pierced through the palm by the other phantom’s scythe-arm.

Blood painted the wall and drizzled down to the ground as he was pinned there helplessly.

On the other hand, Rex saw the original Faceless Reaper turning into blood and seeping into the ground.

”Tch!” He clicked his tongue, frustration flashing in his ruby eyes as he tore his gaze from the Faceless Reaper and fixed it on the phantoms that were phasing through the wall. Nobody was standing between them and the people if they got past the wall. ”System—damn it! You never said anything about it being able to phase! I asked about its Echo earlier!”

”Huh?! You always tell me the rough ideas of anything I ask, but you didn’t mention the phasing!”

Reading this, Rex paused for a fleeting moment—stunned.

”What...? Then it has two Spirit Genesis?!”

Rex cursed aloud and immediately rushed to stop the other phantoms that were moving quickly.

Too quickly to his liking.

He didn’t expect the Faceless Reaper to have more than one Spirit Genesis.

Since its Soul Artifact was the Pouch of Slaughter, which should be the pouches on its waist, the beads of blood to create the phantom earlier should be a Spirit Genesis. And the Faceless Reaper used its Echo to multiply the beads of blood.

As long as Rex pays attention to the beads of blood, he should be fine.

But turns out, the Faceless Reaper has more than one Spirit Genesis.

Crack!

Upon taking his second step, Rex could feel his foot oddly sinking into the earth.

He glanced down to check, only for his breath to hitch as four beads of blood shot upward, boxing him in from all sides. Rex’s instincts roared in alarm, warning him of danger as, at the same time, the beads burst in unison.

Not with an explosion, but each unfurling into a sweeping blood-forged scythe that slashed toward him.

Since it came from all directions, there was no room to escape.

However, the Faceless Reaper underestimated him too much.

Reacting in a heartbeat, Rex snapped his right leg up to meet the scythe rising beneath him, stopping it with the sole of his foot while his hands shot out to seize the twin blades scything in from either side—bare flesh clamping down on blood-forged edges, heedless of the pain tearing his palms.

But there was still one more that was coming straight towards his head.

No limbs were free, and the scythe was roaring to decapitate him.

Clang!

Despite the dire situation, Rex didn’t panic—he opened his maw and clamped down on the last scythe.

His teeth caught it mid-swing, stopping it completely.

In that moment, he lifted his gaze and glared at the phantoms seeping through the walls.

Rex shattered the blood scythes with his raw strength and quickly charged the Red Dawn of Kaiser with his life energy. But he stopped mid-way, changing plans and charging his life energy to his throat instead, activating the Inevitable Death.

Blood from every part of his body heated up and burned into life energy.

And all of it gathered on his throat before he unleashed through his mouth with a howl.

Aooouuu!

His howl unleashed a soundwave that expanded throughout the entire battlefield.

Since his life energy was limited, unable to influence every single monster within the area, he dismissed the voidal monsters around him, trusting the soldiers to handle them as he focused the Inevitable Death entirely on the phantoms.

It worked as expected.

All of the phantoms were stunned the moment the soundwave rippled through them.

Good. But I need to take them out now.

Even though the phantoms were stunned, most of them were already a few inches away from the wall, and some of them were battling the influence from the Inevitable Death. Out of a few dozen, about half of them were fighting back, while the other half were losing strength rapidly.

On top of the resisting half, the other half would die a slow death.

Rex needed to end them.

He could use the Dark Auctoritas Echo to slow them down even further—but dealing the final blow to them would be better. I don’t think I’ll reach them before they break free. I have no other choice. I have to use it again.

Crash!

In retaliation, Rick’s body exploded with power, pushing the two phantoms that were on him.

He broke free and immediately attacked.

His sword broke into a few pieces and launched itself at the phantoms, stabbing their bodies.

Once the shards pierced in, Rick drove them mercilessly through flesh, shredding organs from within like a meat grinder. In moments, the two phantoms ruptured—into sprays of blood, leaving him free to turn on the other stunned phantoms.

Rex watched Rick attacking the stunned phantoms, dealing the final blow one after the other.

But it wasn’t enough; there are still many others.

”Spirit Genesis: Inevitable Death...”

For the second time, Rex charged the Red Dawn of Kaiser with life energy, boiling his blood in the very process, and launched a cleaving arc straight ahead. Even if the phantoms were at peak strength, they wouldn’t be able to block the arc.

Now, in their stunned condition, they had no chance.

Swoosh!

Rex watched as the cleaving arc stretching for a hundred meters flew ahead, distorting the air like heat.

I can only use the Inevitable Death a few more times before the strain would be too much.

As he thought that, his eyes stole a glance to the side.

Not to mention, I have to be careful when using it. No blood to neutralize its flaw.

Most of the dead voidal monsters’ blood was pulled into the soil, disappearing completely as it seemed the Faceless Reaper was channeling the spilled blood towards it—to restock beads of blood. None was left behind for Rex to neutralize the Inevitable Death’s limitation.

It was sheer bad luck that he fought a voidal monster like the Faceless Reaper.

Clang!

Just then, another phantom emerged from the ground and intercepted the cleaving arc mid-track.

One look was enough to tell that it was the original Faceless Reaper.

From the looks of it, its scythe-arms were charged with all the blood that was spilled on the battlefield, causing them to hum with an enormous amount of power. And with them, it swung hard, attacking the cleaving arc head-on.

Rex watched in surprise as the cleaving arc was stopped mid-way.

Somehow, surprisingly enough, the Faceless Reaper has the strength to match it.

Friction of energies flew everywhere as the arc and the Faceless Reaper struggled, each side aiming to overpower the other. But, with another glow from the scythe-arms’ sharp side, the arms sliced through the arc.

Kaboom!!

An explosion thundered across the area.

Rex gritted his teeth and charged another Inevitable Death.

He could see clearly that the Faceless Reaper was hurt from blocking that arc head-on like that.

Another Inevitable Death would seal the deal.

”I got you now...” Rex smirked as the strands of crimson life energy reached the Faceless Reaper that was still recovering from the earlier attack. Then, a heart made entirely of life energy formed on the palm of Rex’s hand. ”Now you die.”

Rex waited for the heart to form impatiently.

As it was nearing completion, however, a violent throb assaulted Rex’s heart.

Deg!

”What...?”

Rex’s eyes widened in shock as the heart vanished from his grasp.

An instant later, a sudden searing sting lanced through his chest—then blood surged up his throat and spilled violently from his mouth. The suddenness stole his breath, leaving him choking on the metallic flood.

Only as blood poured did the truth strike him: he had been struck by the limitation.

Just like the description of the Inevitable Death, there’s a chance that he’d get phantom pain.

Since he aimed for the Faceless Reaper’s heart, his heart was the expense.

Before he could even register the drawback, Rex’s pupils blew wide as the Faceless Reaper lunged with feral speed, its scythe-arms cleaving down. The blade-tip carved a brutal line across his chest and sent him flying—his body crashing and bouncing across the ground before skidding to a halt like a discarded ragdoll.

Crash!

Rex slammed against a boulder and sprawled there with his arms spread and blood spewing out of his mouth, chest heaving up—and down weakly. He looked skyward at the dark sky, realizing that the sun was still up.

He had been too reckless in using the Inevitable Death.

As strong as it was, the drawback was insanely bad.

”Not strong enough, huh... even with Sonanta’s doll head,” He muttered inwardly with a low chuckle. ”Figures. My anger can’t push this human form any further... but I’m guessing yours might. Your turn, Invincible Apparition.”