The Invincible Full-Moon System Chapter 1830: Almost a God (2)

Tranquility enveloped this expansive golden woodland.

Each tree gleamed with rich gold, stemming not solely from the sun's rays, but from foliage that oozed with pristine, radiant honey essence. The luminescence came from a constant inner glow. The leaves and stems shone as though infused with boundless divine vitality.

A profound, warm golden tint filled the atmosphere.

Straight trunks ascended high and uniformly, creating organic columns. No shade in this place appeared random.

Slicing through the verdant gold stretched a dirt path littered with golden gems, dispersed and lodged along the route like tributes. Strange bees stabbed their stings into them, injecting nectar that caused them to expand.

A large bee heading toward a close crystal got seized by two fingers mid-flight.

It wriggled desperately as it neared the golden werewolf's jaws.

Yet resistance proved useless.

She tightened her grip and squashed the bee, lapping up the honey with her tongue.

Meloriana swallowed the nectar and licked her lips, savoring the intense sweetness that overwhelmed her senses. Silence, harmony, and natural abundance defined her domain, just as she desired. Restoring her spirit worked best within her personal realm.

In contrast to the aggressive Lunirich Gods, she and two others bore distinct responsibilities.

Her domain focused on providing power, so she stayed in utter security.

Yet peril managed to infiltrate the unseen fissure.

Swish—!

Meloriana whipped her head upward, fixing her stare on the dense overhead foliage. A ripple caught her attention. It pierced even the sacred barrier of her territory. "Odd..." She murmured—Even aware that no intrusion should occur, concern etched deep creases across her brow. "Someone is fighting again?"

She ascended gently and burst through the woodland's ceiling.

In an instant, the pitch-black heavens confronted her.

The woods alone appeared to soak in daylight, while beyond lay perpetual darkness.

A enormous full moon loomed overhead, the Honey Full Moon—and orbiting it were lesser full moons. Eleven in total. Luminous limbs linked the golden full moon to the surrounding ones, though one limb pulsed erratically, throbbing and slowly fading.

That limb tied her to the Blood Full Moon.

It bound her to Kaiser's domain.

"Kaiser is drawing in excess energy," Meloriana's eyebrows furrowed in concern. Without delay, she ventured into Kaiser's domain, dissolving into specks of light before slipping through a crimson gateway, where shallow blood liquid awaited on the far side.

Upon entering Kaiser's domain, an unprecedented scorching heat assailed her.

Fury, yet fiercer than usual.

"What is going on...?" A lump formed in her throat. Something terribly amiss hung in the air, and she hesitated to uncover the details. Especially not alone here with Kaiser. "I don’t like this at all."

Meloriana scanned the distant horizon.

She spotted the peak directly beneath the Blood Moon, Kaiser's supposed location.

But an urge pulled her elsewhere, as the disturbance originated away from the peak.

Transforming into golden moonlight once more, she headed opposite and halted over a settlement.

Kaiser's followers—werewolves and beasts he nurtured—now formed a ring around their cherished blood city. Their numbers were vast. The metropolis sprawled enormously, a wound of scarlet glow and shadowed metal etched into the ground for leagues.

Four immense peaks surrounded it like regal summits.

A tiny blood moon floated above every summit.

Not one noticed Meloriana suspended in the air, which defied their keen perceptions. Yet it was real. It took her a moment to grasp that they all faced one massive peak and shed tears.

Sobs weren't their way of mourning.

Many flailed wildly and struck the shallow blood liquid.

This stemmed from the tiny blood moon over that specific peak flickering.

Meloriana sensed its strength ebbing away.

"Something is siphoning its divine power...?" She gasped in disbelief, observing as the fiery veins covering that mountain dulled. Driven by reflex, her form sparkled with golden flecks before she unleashed her own divine force from her palms.

Only then did those below detect her arrival.

All recognized the Lunirich Goddess of the Honey Moon had arrived to aid them.

Her divine force slammed into the mountain, shrouding it completely.

Meloriana recoiled from the feeling but pressed on, probing every part of the giant mountain with her divine awareness to hunt the offender. Yet despite covering it all, she failed to locate the cause.

She scanned the whole mountain repeatedly, yielding identical outcomes.

Frustration mounted.

From below, myriad eyes gazed up in desperation, pleading for her to halt it.

But she remained powerless.

A vexed cry burst from her as she darted away, speeding toward Kaiser's position.

Meloriana lingered over the summit, directly under the Blood Full Moon. Beneath, Kaiser raged like a feral beast. He butchered his own conjured creatures—wallowing in their gore to unleash the seething wrath ready to explode from within.

Now, the fur at his neck had lengthened, thickened, and flowed like a fiery crest.

She understood its significance.

Ire had overwhelmed him. Thankfully, it hadn't crossed the threshold yet.

Invoking her divinity anew, she directed it at Kaiser, encasing him fully—and soothing him with honey's gentle allure. Kaiser resisted, but she subdued him before his might escalated.

A snarl ripped from Kaiser's maw as he whirled toward Meloriana.

"What is going on here?" She demanded. "What is wrong with your realm?!"

Lucidity flickered in Kaiser's gaze. His thoughts sharpened, grasping Meloriana's query, though replying proved challenging. His fury burned so fiercely that forming words was nearly impossible.

At last, a single term slipped out, "Mortal..."

Meloriana reeled back at the revelation. Disorder or an assault from another deity exploiting the widening vulnerability among the Lunirich Gods first crossed her mind upon witnessing the chaos.

Wherever it arose, ambition and dominance always left their mark.

But this defied belief.

"The Royal Black Prince...?" She pressed, reading confirmation in Kaiser's eyes. "The Royal Black Prince did this? We are Gods, and he is a mortal! This is impossible. I refuse to believe it. Someone is playing a trick on us!"

Even uttering those lines, conviction eluded her voice.

Her thoughts flashed to when Rex broke free from the God Realm's bonds.

Mortals paled beside the vast might of deities, mere droplets against an endless sea. No torment or resistance should let a mortal impact Gods. Yet this befell them. She couldn't pinpoint Rex's uniqueness, but he consistently achieved the impossible.

'How...?' Meloriana's mind whirled in confusion. 'How can he reach us and render us so vulnerable?'

To drain power from Kaiser required an access route.

The other Lunirich Gods guarding the borders ought to detect intrusions.

Yet none reported a thing.

It resembled a theft void born solely from Rex's intent.

"No, wait..." Meloriana's eyes bulged. "If he’s stealing directly from you, doesn’t that mean—"

Kaiser roared in exasperation.

He surrendered to the fury, pounding the earth with his enormous fists.

Blood-water erupted upward, triggering a crimson downpour.

"I have scoured through the Gate of Divinity to the end of the void!" Kaiser bellowed. His wrath quaked his frame, unleashing tremors throughout the domain. "I’ve used everything, even sacrificing divinity to ask who is behind him, but nothing! NOTHING!!"

Crack—!

His explosive, anguished cry thundered, shattering the summit into gravel.

Meloriana stood frozen in shock at her dawning insight.

For Rex to siphon such a vast share of Kaiser's divinity that a domain pillar started to dissipate signaled one truth: He ascended toward Godhood. By this point, he probably navigated the Demigod stages.

And that spelled dire peril for the Lunirich Gods.

Kaiser drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs to the brim, then unleashed a yell.

"WHO?!!"

His cry lingered until his throat ached and his voice grew rough.

"What are you going to do now?" Meloriana shook off her daze—and inquired. "Are you going to let him keep getting away with this? He has an entity supporting him from the shadows, yes, but does that matter?"

Facing her words, Kaiser paused his breathing. His form rigidified like stone.

"No," He murmured softly.

No trace of fury in his timbre. No hint of the typical animosity from the Blood Moon. A sharpness edged his speech. Meloriana sensed a shift inside him—something absent for ages.

Numerous deities feared the Lunirich Gods for their diversity.

For Kaiser, his wrath served as the blade that could wound fellow immortals.

But Meloriana understood him beyond the surface rage others mistook for his core.

That blazing temper wasn't true anger. It marked his baseline instead. When genuine ire emerged, the antagonism froze into sharp clarity. Now, Meloriana witnessed the real fury rising. It had taken time, but it surfaced.

Kaiser stood tall, straightening fully.

The crimson mane at his neck extended further. Like strands, it lengthened to his lower back.

"No matter what he did, the plan is still moving," Kaiser extended his vivid red talons and dragged them over his torso, slicing his sacred flesh and spilling divine blood. He lifted the talons to his nostrils and inhaled the scent.

Fetid. Just as expected.

Kaiser directed his blood-smeared talons toward the Blood Full Moon.

It vibrated and brightened.

He shut his eyes and let the shining blood trickle into his mouth.

Reacting to an enigmatic force, his coat rippled as if buffeted by gales. With that, an inner essence stirred. Kaiser reopened his eyes, the depth in them now intensified. Free of any chains.

Kaiser pivoted and regarded Meloriana.

The sight brought a grin to her features.

"The entity supporting him didn’t even consider us at all," Kaiser stated. "We do not need to hold back."

...

Rex channeled the surging energy within, letting it surge outward in a dramatic blaze.

Rex gazed upward. The storming force in his stare mirrored pure wrath and loathing. His feet left the soil behind. They floated above, as though the land deemed itself too lowly to bear him anymore.