’No, it’s not him… It’s me. It’s been so long since I’ve fought all out like this,’ Emperor Dominar’s eyes glowed. “Don’t underestimate me!!”

His Reap and Sow Echo glowed inside his chest.

It reaped the damage that had been done to him, healing him in an instant, and then fired an invisible wind straight at Rex. Sensing the danger, Rex dashed sideways, but the wind followed him and did all the damage to him.

Splash—!

His arms exploded into splashes of blood.

The damage wasn’t only sown into him, but it was also amplified.

Just as expected, the Reap and Sow Echo is extremely strong.

“That’s it! Let’s keep trying to kill each other! Let blood rain down in this beautiful night!”

Rex laughed. Even with the excruciating pain and the absence of his arms, he laughed. Voidal energy was siphoned into him, and in an instant, his arms grew back. The Parasitic Regeneration passive skill was stronger now.

Blood seeped out of his palms as he created a house-sized solid sphere of blood.

Another Inevitable Death.

Since he now has the Blood Moon Echo, there is no more drawback from using this powerful ability.

He can do it as much as he wants.

Bam—!

Rex kicked the sphere at the emperor and looked skyward.

As he wanted, the serpent and the White Mask were still climbing skyward. At a slower pace due to the beam volleys from the cannons, but climbing nevertheless. They were now five hundred meters away from the Sky People.

Just a little bit more.

But his eyes bear witness to the army of the Sky People descending to intercept them.

Legions of elements poured out like celestial warriors. A hundred of them at least. All are wearing what can only be described as celestial armor. Each element has a unified color, but there are more warriors who emerged from the clouds and strands of golden light.

A more unified legion in comparison to the legions of elements behind, and there are thousands of them.

One legion was filled with warriors made entirely of clouds, and the other made of sunlight.

Paladins.

Rex recalled Devo’s true form from the Cloud Paladins’ appearance, but not as mighty.

Based on what Kaelthar said, there are four things that would block force entry by an intruder.

Sky Watchers, Cloud Paladins, Sun Paladins, and then the Heaven’s Opening.

Sky Watchers are the cannons, and now came the paladins.

Boom—!

Rex blasted skyward using the Voidal Moonflow Acceleration. His empowered physique allowed him to use this skill multiple times without stopping. From underneath, it looked like he was able to step on air without a problem.

Protected by the Law of Misdirection and Minor Law of Foresight, he easily dodged the raining beams.

He overtook the serpent and stood mightily above it, facing the heavens without fear.

His arms were spread. A manic laughter in his throat. And his eyes gleamed with another level of madness.

Above, three mighty figures levitated like deities overlooking the mortal world.

One of them, a woman of pristine white light in a pure white dress and a long milk mantilla overhead, looked down at the bloodlusted Rex. “What is his problem?” She asked. Her voice betrayed the concern inside. It was the maniacal gaze that worried her. “Why is he hell-bent on attacking us?”

“I don’t know,” Another figure, a man with a body of lava, shook his head. “He’s determined, though.”

“He said he is a knight of the Haeltara Empire,” An old man in a black robe answered as he stroked his very long beard. “He also claimed—we took someone important from the empire. Ridiculous. There must be a misunderstanding.’

“Misunderstanding or not, this empire must be really bold for its knight to lash out like this.”

“I agree. We should reprimand them harshly.”

“That being said, this knight is quite formidable. He’s getting closer to us.”

“The Sky Paladins would stop him. He is talented, but he’s reckless. In this world, recklessness would only yield premature death. Even if he somehow survives, the Heaven’s Opening would pulverize him and his empire.”

Another figure flew towards them.

Lightning crackled across his form, and his body was akin to a drifting cloud.

“Gatekeeper Rezar, you’re here for the show, too?” the old man, the Gatekeeper of Shadow, asked with a playful tone. Rezar had been absent. It was a surprise to see him. “I thought you were going to try to push for a breakthrough.”

“What is going on?” He ignored the old man and looked down. “Who is that?”

“A man called Rex Silverstar,” the Gatekeeper of Light answered. “A knight—who was in search of an important figure that he believed we, the Sky People, took.”

Rezar’s face twitched, but nobody saw it.

He looked down and stared at Rex below, sneering at this meaningless attempt.

’Is this the Human he’s been boasting?’ Rezar inspected Rex attentively. ’This is good. I’ll get his head. That’ll certainly crumble his stubbornness.’

On the other hand, Rex bent forward and wrapped his arms over him like he was hugging himself.

A painful growl rumbled in his throat as his ink-black fur swayed and gleamed with a steely sheen. Voidal energy charged his body. Purplish lightning sparked across his body, and in the next breath, he opened his frame at the sky.

From his black furs, countless eyes emerged.

Monsters poured out—like an endless tide of blackness. Oversized black wolves. Thousands of them burst out from his body and charged straight at the descending paladins—like a tide of ink. Each one growled and bared its fangs fearlessly.

He tapped the Monarch of Savage Beast and used it to summon these.

All spread out and charged at the paladins.

Dozens, if not a hundred, died from the Sky Watchers’ barrage.

One paladin could take out ten of them with one swing.

But the problem wasn’t their strength, it’s their number. It didn’t take long for them to overwhelm all the paladins as the serpent slithered through the gap, breaking through the ranks—and reaching the one-hundred-meter mark from the Sky City.

Rex’s maniacal eyes fixed on the four mighty figures above him.

And his lips curled into a nasty grin.

“In the name of the empire, I will strike you down.”

All four figures snicked in unison.

Then, a glittering wall of emerald formed, separating Rex and the Sky People. It caught Rex off guard as it blocked anything from reaching the Sky People—like a wall. He didn’t see any trace of energy lingering above them. And from the mild surprise on the four figures’ faces, this wasn’t theirs.

Not the Heaven’s Opening.

Rex looked down. It was the emperor.

He couldn’t approach lest getting involved in battling with the paladins or rained by the beams, but that doesn’t mean he was going to back away. For once in thousands of years, he desperately wanted to have something.

And that something was to stop Rex from destroying the empire’s image.

<Notice: the wall is entirely made up of the power of Law!>

<Scanning the Law…>

<Law of Latency was detected!>

Boom—!

The serpent crashed against the wall and couldn’t penetrate through it. The White Mask helped, but the barrier remained. At the same time, a massive golden magic circle appeared underneath the cloud on which the Sky City was built, which has turned into a cumulonimbus cloud.

Energy crackled across its two-mile length and rattled the entire world beneath it.

<Warning!>

<Warning: there’s an excessive amount of energy being aimed at the user!>

Countless red notifications flooded his vision.

The System was evidently warning him that taking this attack would be lethal even for his current state. It would atomize him, the White Mask—and the serpent together. This must be the Heaven’s Opening. The backbone of the Sky City.

Its power was forged over millennia of greedily devouring life and voidal energy alike.

And the result was a one-shot extinction ray.

From the faces of these four deities, it was clear that they wanted to make Rex an example.

Maybe their reputation had waned over time, and people forgot how powerful they really were. And activating the strongest attack that the Sky City could muster—would certainly renew the ancient fear inside their hearts.

But it was still charging.

Such a powerful attack needed time to cast. Time for Rex to make his move.

HONG—!

Rex lowered his stance mid-air and siphoned the blessing from the Blood Moon into his body.

His curving horns thrummed red.

Underneath his feet, keeping him afloat, was the Aegis of Moon Sentinel. He stood on its thin golden edge like a phantom. Muscles across his body bulged as the Red Dawn of Kaiser throbbed with more and more power.

In the face of the Heaven’s Opening, others would cower.

Rex? He was anticipating the look on the four figures’ faces when he plunged chaos into their sanctuary.

Both the Law of Misdirection and Inevitability glazed his dark-steel claws with a pristine sheen. None of the paladins could reach him despite wanting to. And once he was ready, the Aegis of Moon Sentinel tilted and launched him skyward.

Boom—!

Despite the pressure from the Sky City, Rex broke the sound barrier and rose skyward like a rising star.

Rex pierced the sky, keep the chaotic and dense energy in his claws, and kicked back—with the Voidal Moonflow Acceleration to increase his soaring speed. His claws were pulled back as he neared the wall. He condensed the power to his claws, and with a powerful growl, he hammered the wall.

CRACK—!

Under the triple assault, cracks spread across the emerald wall.

And with another collective push, it shattered.

Nothing stood between them and the Sky City now.

But at the same time, the Heaven’s Opening has finished being charged.

All four figures smiled, certain of Rex’s end. Not even they could endure the Heaven’s Opening without risking their lives. For someone at his level, there was simply no chance for him to survive. It was done. This reckless invasion will end after this.

Their smiles faltered when Rex mirrored them with a mocking smile of his own.

He was the one cornered; they were the ones safe.

Yet his expression suggested otherwise.

And for some odd reason, the four figures believed his expression more than their feelings.

“Senior Ignatius,” A murmur escaped Rex’s lips. “It’s time to give my welcoming gift.”

Rumble—!

Colors of the world dispersed in an instant. The entire realm shook. Lava erupted from the ground like it was rejoicing at the arrival of something titanic. Even the four figures felt a cold wind of death run down their spines.

A presence above strangled their very being.

A crushing pressure that went beyond their comprehension.

Stiffly and sweating, they looked up. And it was then that their feeling of horror was given a reason.

From the black silence of the upper atmosphere, a flaming meteor—vast as a mountain range, massive as a continent’s heart—ripped through the sky. Its surface cracks showed the glowing lava in it. And as the first wave of energy washed down from it, the four figures hunched down in surprise.

Out of the four of them, Rezar fell to his knees in absolute shock.

His eyes were wide open in shock.

“What in the world?! Who is this?!”

“I’ve never felt so much power! Does the empire have a new backer?!”

“Impossible!”

“Contact the Divine Saintess! We need her help!”

One of them, the Gatekeeper of Light, reached out to Kei Xun telepathically.

No answer.

The Divine Saintess abandoned them, and they were forced to confront this horror by themselves.

Rex, on the other hand, marveled at the glimpse of power of his next enemy. Ignatius couldn’t involve himself directly in the battle against Kaiser because of the Scions’ custom, but against the Sky People? That’s an entirely different matter.

This is his welcoming gift from a senior Scion.

And for once, Rex felt good about his current situation.

“I never wanted this. I never wanted to go to the extreme. But I was given no other choice,” Rex spreads his arms to the sides, taking in the chaos and destruction around him. “Just like that… I, a usurper, claim the superpower of this realm.”

KABOOM—!!!