The Invincible Full-Moon System

Gistella panted heavily, pushing herself to save the two innocent Elves from earlier.

But she stopped mid-way when the ground underneath her feet trembled.

Another explosion resounded in the distance, it wasn't as powerful as the one from the main beast core earlier, but strong enough to tremble the ground underneath her feet. It was very close too, half a mile at best.

She crouched down to protect her wounded torso as the shockwave blew past her.

A sharp whistling wind that fluttered the leaves and cracked the trees.

Recovering from the blast, she raised her gaze and continued onward.

It took a painful ten minutes, for her—to reach the center of the explosion, and when she did, she could only turn her gaze away. As expected, both Elves came back when at the sound of the first explosion.

However, along the way, the black lioness' head containing the small fragment exploded. Your next journey awaits at empire

Gistella saw what remained of them, two statues of black goo.

Both died instantly the moment the explosion happened, death energy corrupted their flesh.

"Mmhphh..."

Still burning in pain, Gistella moaned and sat down, leaning against a tree.

Looking down at her wounds, she frowned in contemplation.

"It's stronger than normal, perhaps even stronger than Death Knights..."

Despite sensing that it was indeed death energy—the concentration was higher than normal, Gistella even deduced that it might be a little bit stronger than the death energy belonging to the Death Knights who were supposed to draw death energy directly from the Netherworld.

As previously an Undead, she was quite confident in her deduction.

Coughing a couple of times, she leaned her head back.

"Must be because of Shadow's Elemental Order, the Death Order..." She mused whisperingly.

Fifteen minutes passed, and Gistella was still recovering.

Even Flunra was still nowhere to be seen.

But soon, Hastios alongside the other sentries arrived.

All of them instantly felt a chill run down their spine when they saw Gistella's condition.

"Healers! Quick, help her heal her wounds!"

"Yes, general!"

Not wasting a single second, three seventh-rank realm Elves worked together and began the process of healing, with the help of nature. As Gistella was being healed, Hastios, decided to look around the place.

He was quite sure that this had something to do with the minion.

Just from the aftermath, the death of the floras around made him reach that conclusion.

"Emghh..."

"My Lady!"

Hearing Gistella's moan, Hastios quickly approached her.

"My Lady, what happened here? Who did this to you? And where is Lord Flunra?"

"Find Flunra first, he must've been hurt..."

Upon hearing this, Hastios nodded and gestured to the other sentries to look around.

Getting a pouch of water, he went to Gistella's side and helped her drink.

She was dehydrated because of the explosion.

Gistella gulped down the water to satiate her thirst before feeling way better than before.

Even though Hastios was in a state of panic—sweating from the sight of Gistella's condition, and wanted to know the situation badly, he didn't pressure Gistella and let her rest. She was in a bad condition and needed that.

But even then, the state of not knowing was completely eating him inside.

On one side, he was worried that Gistella—and Flunra got permanently wounded and on the other, he feared the minion was stronger than expected and was still roaming around. It was crippling for Hastios to be in this state.

Fortunately, the Silverstar Pack is not weak.

Soon, the regenerative ability kicked in, and the wounds began closing up rapidly.

Gistella recovered her strength and raised her gaze, a newfound light shimmered in her eyes.

"No need to fret, general, the minion is dead..." She finally said.

Seeing the fear and panic behind Hastios' hasty eyes, she decided to give him some solace.

"How did the minion get killed?"

"Just like how any other normal mutated animal was killed"

"Did my Lady clash against the minion?"

"No, it got killed easily"

Hastios frowned, he became confused.

"So what happened? How did my Lady get into this state if the minion is easy?"

"Killing it is easy when it gets cornered. As harder, no... in fact—easier than most ninth-rank realm mutated animals I reckoned. But its intellect... we need to be careful against it"

Gistella decided to tell Hastios what had happened entirely.

She told it in front of the other sentries—who stayed behind, and all of them had their faces drained from all colors, at her story. Mutated animals should be motivated by feral instincts, spite was not among its characteristics.

Of course, some mutated animals bore spite like this.

But none reached this extreme degree.

In the face of death, as opposed to thinking of a way to survive—the minion, accepted death and aimed to make Flunra and Gistella regret killing it. Such a thing was unnatural—and quite frankly, scary the more one thought about it.

"We were about to go hunt the other one, but this happened..." Gistella sighed. "Also—I could not reach those two in time. I apologize. Send my condolences to their families, I should have expected this"

Upon hearing this, Hastios turned to the remains of the two Elves.

"No, it is not your fault—my Lady. Expecting this, when we barely know what we were facing is basically impossible, there's no need for you to apologize. Besides, those two volunteered to become sentries"

Gistella nodded, but she then looked into the distance.

Glancing over his shoulder, Hastios checked what she was looking at.

Seeing several burly green creatures approaching, he smiled.

"Ah... right, the Orcs have arrived and were dealing with the other minion."

"I already smelled them before they arrived. I wasn't looking at them"

"Hmm...? Then what are you looking at, my Lady?"

"I'm sorry but can you help me stand? I'll try to appease him so you won't be blamed"

Hastios frowned, he helped Gistella to stand while still looking at her questioningly.

She then nudged her chin to Hastios' behind.

"The Emperor, he's here..."

"W- What...?"

As soon as Gistella said that, Hastios felt a cold wind brushing against his back.

Hastios felt his entire being freeze.

His breath caught in his throat as a deep, primal instinct warned him something was behind.

Slowly, he turned his eyes to the periphery.

No one else seemed to notice—the Orcs or even the Elven sentries remained focused on the wounded Gistella, oblivious to the suffocating presence, that had just arrived. Only he, could sense it, the overwhelming aura of something incredibly powerful and terrifying.

It was like the arrival of an apex predator.

Or rather, the arrival of the apex predator.

Responding to this thing, the world around him fell into a haunting silence.

Even the constant buzz of insects and the gentle rustling of leaves—all of it remained quiet, terrified to draw the attention of the entity that now stood in the shadows behind him. Even though he knew who it was, he barely dared to breathe.

Despite being separated, the tragedy suffered by the Humans reached their ears.

Hastios knew the rain of blood that happened due to the Humans' negligence.

Millions died and he feared that would happen to his people too.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he turned to look.

His heart pounded in his chest—and a chill ran down his spine when his gaze landed on the figure behind him. His body trembled violently. A dark silhouette loomed in the shadows, its form cloaked in otherworldly darkness, and approached slowly.

Two glowing crimson eyes pierced through the gloom, staring directly at him.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

In an instant, Hastios' legs buckled as he crumpled to the ground, collapsing to one knee.

He lowered himself when he realized that Gistella telling the truth.

As she said, the Emperor really did come himself.

Sweat poured down his skin as he kept his head as low as possible, trembling under the gaze of the figure emerging from the shadows. Seeing what Hastios was doing—the Orcs and also the Elves frowned.

But upon hearing the steps, they turned and saw a figure walking past them like a ghost.

A crowned figure draped in a lustrous black cloak.

Despite being slow, they soon realized that it was the Emperor and followed Hastios' gesture.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

In a union, all of them greeted out of respect.

Seeing Rex come himself to see what was going on, Gistella also sweated profusely.

"It- It was my fault, they have nothing to do with th-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Rex raised a finger, armored by the fingerguards.

He gave Gistella a warning look, gesturing for her to be quiet.

Upon doing that, Rex slowly gazed down at Hastios on the ground, his face emotionless.

"Hastios, is it?"

"Y- Yes, Your Majesty!"

Hastios answered, still keeping his head down, not daring to lift his gaze at all.

"Have you read the letter I sent to your queen?"

"Yes, I've read it..."

"Do you remember what it said? Or should I remind you?"

Despite desperately wracking his brain to think of what was written—that could make Rex mention it like this, Hastios couldn't recall the exact words. He only remembered that Lord Flunra and Lady Gistella were going to be sent to help regarding the Order Beast.

Other than that, he didn't remember the content.

Naturally, the lack of attentiveness made him sweat even more, he was struggling.

Seeing this, Rex scoffed, he was disappointed in the Elven General.

"I told your queen that my pack would come to observe, to gather information regarding the new Order Beast, its dominion and its abilities, not be directly involved," Rex said, his tone— laced with sharpness.

Scanning his eyes around while making a circling motion with his finger, he smiled.

"I don't know about you but this doesn't seem like observing," Rex added.

Upon hearing this, Hastios bit his lower lip.

"But Your Majesty, our people... more will die if we gain no help"

"Do you think this is the end? Killing this supposed minion, is that the end...?"

Hastios was pressed, he knew that killing the minion wouldn't be the end of the situation.

As long as Shadow is alive, the situation will not cease to exist.

Rex bent down to close the distance between his mouth and Hastios—to make Hastios hear what he was about to say clearly, "What if when the minion was killed—it multiplied? What if when the minion died, the Order Beast became angry and attacked? What if the minion died—it exploded and killed both of my pack members? Have you thought about that, general?"

Listening to this, Hastios' heart sank, he didn't think this through.

He shouldn't have answered like that.

"Tell me, Hastios. Perhaps do you think you're more qualified to be the Emperor?" Rex asked.

Seeing that Hastios was shuddering in fear, Gistella decided to step in.

It was mostly hers and Flunra's fault for offering to help.

Had they not given the Elves that offer, the Elves wouldn't be enticed to accept.

"Rex... It's mostly our fault, me and Flunra sh-"

"Address me properly, Lady Gistella..."

Rex glared at her through cold eyes, halting her mid-sentence once again.

"Your Majesty..." Gistella corrected, her tone becoming lighter. "Me, and Flunra shared most of the faults, the punishment should be on us, not them. The Elves are only stressed due to their losses and it was us who offered to help"

"No..."

Suddenly, a voice interrupted.

Queen Shanaela emerged, she rushed to the scene when she received—the news that Rex, had come. She was hoping that nothing went wrong but it seemed like that wasn't the case—and she needed to step in.

Approaching gracefully, Queen Shanaela stood beside Rex and bowed.

"It's my fault, I should've been more careful and didn't foresee this. I apologize," She said.

Upon hearing this, Rex turned towards her.

Before he could say anything, Queen Shanaela continued.

"But I know Your Majesty wouldn't accept—an empty apology. Please, if there's anything you want me to do to show and confirm my sincerity, do tell..." She added sincerely, she has a lot of debt to the Silverstar Pack and this is an unacceptable blunder.

Rex nodded in approval, she seemed genuine.

Nevertheless, she needed to show that her sincerity was true.

"Neglect is a dangerous luxury, Elven Queen," Rex started—towering over Queen Shanaela. "a queen must be able to see all. You have two eyes, but you failed me, perhaps with one—you'll focus better."

As he said that, Rex extended his hand, "Hand me your eye, you can choose left or right."