The Invincible Full-Moon System

Chapter 2012: Activating Bloodline

Lilliana looked over her shoulder and felt a tingle inside her stomach.

She balanced on the very edge of the flat boulder, standing on her tiptoes with nothing to keep her from the void—but the energy strings wound around Rex’s torso. A pull from the bottomless void below was already wrapping around her body.

Had she been even a second too late, she would no doubt be pulled into the abyss with no way back.

Shredded into pieces by the God Realm’s pressure.

”That was really close...”

Rex yanked on the energy strings hard, pulling Lilliana away from the edge and catching her by the waist.

He then turned toward Davina and found her already standing up and approaching them.

”I’m sorry,” Davina said with guilt. ”I don’t know what’s happening with me؅—but this realm is making me sluggish.”

”Don’t be sorry—none of this is your fault. The gravitational force in this realm is chaotic, torn between the void below and the moon hanging so close above. It’s hard to track.” Rex paused and scanned every single direction of the darkened landscape. ”And it’s not only pulling our bodies, but also our souls and energy.”

None of them expected to land that hard earlier.

Jumping from one place to another as hard as they could was nothing new for them.

For them to crash that hard from a mere leap is simply unnatural.

Davina’s mistimed jump only forced Rex and Lilliana to put a bit more effort into saving her from falling—and even then, it could hardly be called her mistake. To the sisters, the missed timing felt like a mistake, but not for Rex.

It wasn’t her fault.

”Besides, your bloodline is activating,” Rex added. ”You’re going to get your other form.”

”What?” Davina frowned in confusion.

But then, her eyes slowly widened, as that would explain everything that she had been feeling from the moment she entered the Great Pale Court. She was completely fine in the Sundial Arch, so the throbbing in her mind felt like it came out of nowhere.

It’s not.

Davina slowly tilted her head up and stared at the gibbous moon above.

”I realized recently that you needed moonlight in order to gain your other form and finally finish your transformation,” Rex explained. He already suspected this—from when Davina showed signs of slowing down, as he remembered seeing moonlight doing wonders to her body. ”Your home realm is covered by the Black Rift, so there’s a lack of moonlight. It’s probably why your transformation couldn’t be entirely completed from the get-go.”

”Congratulations, Davina.” Lilliana hugged her sister. ”You’re entering the group of real werewolves.”

”Real werewolves?”

”In case you forgot, you’re the only one who can’t transform fully.”

”Lilliana, you only had your other form recently. Don’t act like you’re higher than me.”

”You forgot that I became a Silverstar later than you—but got my other form sooner than you. Don’t be discouraged. It only means that I’m much more compatible with being a Silverstar than you.”

”Are you picking a fight with me?”

”Alright, that’s enough.” Rex’s voice cut through the argument—steady and firm. His gaze then settled on Davina. ”For as long as we’re in here, you stay close to Lilliana. Your transformation isn’t complete, and until it is, that sluggishness will keep dragging at you. Stick close if you don’t want to fall.”

He already scanned her with the System and found that Davina was still not quite there yet.

It would take a little more time, but this realm didn’t have anything but moonlight.

So, it shouldn’t take long for her to complete the process.

Once he said that, Rex turned his attention towards the broken Great Pale Court again.

System, scan the surroundings and highlight the path that has the least change in gravitational pull.

Rex watched as the System’s light swept across the shattered realm, stretching as far as his eyes could see. And then, the air itself began to shift, stained in gradients of colour. Some deeper shade of colour, while others were lighter.

He couldn’t be certain, but he was quite sure what the System was separating.

It was marking the darker shade as the places with the stronger gravitational distortion, and the lighter, the weaker.

And he was right.

One by one, the dark shades began to disappear until there was only the lightest one.

Flying through the Great Pale Court was a fool’s gamble. Even in the light-shaded zones, the realm’s pull reached for any energy he commanded—weak, perhaps, but always present. So, he abandoned the idea and chose the rougher path.

Decided to leap from boulder to boulder, where his body, not his power, would carry him forward.

Jumping like that would be dangerous without knowing where the gravitational pull was strongest.

But with the System, that became far easier.

”Rex,” Davina tugged his arm right as he was about to make the first leap. ”I’m going to stick close to you.”

”Hm?” Rex raised a brow, and then glanced at Lilliana. ”What’s wrong with your sister?”

”I don’t trust her to keep me safe.” Davina glanced at her with a dubious look. ”Knowing how she was, she probably would drop me when the chance arises.”

”Very funny.” Lilliana rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. ”Come to me and don’t be a baby.”

”Can I please be with you?” Davina purred.

Frankly, Rex wanted to refuse, as he wanted to go on ahead to scout, pushing right and left to make sure he didn’t miss anything while the two stopped at a boulder to be his rallying point—or landmark. It was the fastest way to scout a big area and find the Goddess of the Greater Moon.

But before the words could leave his lips, his gaze caught Davina’s round and pear eyes.

She bore the gaze that contained a quiet pleading.

It was his first time seeing her using this kind of face.

”Fine,” Rex went down and carried her in a princess-style. ”Hold on tight.”

”I can’t believe this...” Lilliana threw her arms up in complete disbelief. ”The Graceful Starfall actually resorting to puppy eyes to get what she wanted? If your soldiers back home saw you like this, they most likely would laugh until they forget how to salute.”

”Lucky for me—none of them were here,” Davina smirked tauntingly.

Not even heeding the sister’s banter, Rex already walked to the edge and leaped to another boulder.

”Follow my path exactly!” He shouted as he continued.

For the next four long hours, the three of them scoured the Great Pale Court—leaping from one floating boulder to the next in an endless rhythm. Each jump carried them deeper into the black wilderness, and each suspended moment above the blackness sent a jolt through Davina’s stomach.

A small, instinctive flinch born from the memory of Rex’s earlier warning.

The gravitational force here was chaotic. Unpredictable. One wrong step could send them plummeting into the ink-black void below. But as the hours wore on, and with each successful jump, the fear dulled. The lurch in her gut faded from a spike to a murmur, and she began to trust Rex’s movements.

Trust every single thing he does with something close to certainty.

He could sense it. The gravitational distortion. Or at least, he moved as though he could.

It was frankly unbelievable.

Had the pull been born of natural forces like the core of a planet, she might have felt it herself through her bloodline. After all, she is the Heiress of Moon—and Stars. But this gravity belonged to none other than the God Realm.

A force higher than the Gods, woven into the very bones of this place.

She had no gift for that. No authority over it. No one did.

And yet Rex sailed from boulder to boulder without hesitation—his crimson eyes scanned the horizon with a focus that suggested he saw something none of them could. She did not know of any ability he possessed that granted such a sense.

But then again, Rex was never easy to explain.

The search yielded nothing.

Even the landscape did not change.

Great white boulders, pieces of something whole in the past, stretched in every direction, identical and indifferent, suspended in an abyss of pale nothing. It felt as though they had not moved at all—as if the realm itself was a treadmill, swallowing their progress and giving nothing back.

Across the entire way, Rex had scanned the entire area with the System.

And yet, it still came up empty.

Its echoes returned hollow and useless—nothing out of the ordinary or even different than boulders.

Where in the world is she?

Slowly, the hope in Rex’s chest began to gutter. The possibility that the Goddess of the Greater Moon was gone—truly gone—grew heavier with each empty hour. Perhaps she had merged completely with her realm, dissolving into the pale stone and the silent gravity until no physical body remained.

Or perhaps there was nothing left to find.

Either way, it was not looking good.

Crash—!

Rex landed on a wide slab of cracked marble and slid over its smooth surface until he coasted to a stop.

He straightened, scanned the endless white horizon, and sighed. The sound was small—swallowed by the vastness, but Davina heard it clearly. It was clear that the Great Pale Court was vast—and the chance of finding the Goddess was really low.

”Have some faith,” Davina said, rubbing his heaving chest. ”We’ll find her.”

Even though Rex didn’t really say it out loud, she knew that finding the Goddess was important.

More important than meeting the Warden.

Just by the fact that he had suggested coming to the Great Pale Court first showed that clearly.

Meeting the Goddess must be strongly tied to winning the Purgation Duel.

Lilliana landed behind them—arriving a few seconds later than them, and then looked around, too. Her eyes scanned the area as a frown crept to her face. ”I think there’s no point in going further. I doubt her home is still intact. She must already be gone.”

”Wait...” Rex’s eyes shifted to her. ”Say that again.”

”No point in going further?”

”No, after that.”

”I doubt that her home is still intact?”

”Yes... Yes, that’s it.” Rex’s eyes flashed with realization as he slowly turned his attention skyward. He stared directly at the massive moon above. ”If her home is already destroyed, shattered by the blackness, then she should relocate somewhere safer. Somewhere that gave her a sense of control.”

”The moon,” Davina whispered, and also looked skyward. ”She’s on the moon.”

”Huh? The moon?” Lilliana also lifted her gaze skyward. ”In that case, how do we get there?”

”Isn’t it obvious?” Rex placed Davina down and smirked. ”We ask the moon to bring us up there.”

Rex walked away, stopped, and then lowered his stance without hesitation.

He then slowly crossed his arms in front of his face.

Slowly, he summoned every ounce of energy within him, drawing it from the depths of his core—and circulating it faster and faster until his blood sang with the pressure. Sizzling steam began to rise from his shoulders. His body burned from the inside, and the great marble boulder beneath his feet fractured under the strain, cracks spiderwebbing across its pale surface.

Then a mark bloomed on his forehead—his King Mark.

Red and black, with a sliver of yellow at its center, burning like a brand.

With a violent motion—he flung his arms wide and unleashed everything. A guttural howl tore from his throat and rolled across the Great Pale Court, shaking the void, scattering silence, and rippling through the floating stones like a declaration of war.

ROAR—!

His crimson energy rose skyward like a vapor.

Despite the pull from the void underneath that was persistent and strong, it kept climbing higher and higher as Rex poured everything into it. Pushing his body past its limit. And soon, with great struggle, it finally reached the moon.