The Invincible Full-Moon System

Chapter 1391 Soul Cleansing

elder tilrith gazed ahead at rex and was stunned.

she could feel rex's fingers trembling slightly as he gripped her shoulders.

and from the way rex avoided making eye contact, keeping his gaze down to the soil below, it seemed he was serious. just then, elder tilrith, shook her head, recovering from her daze, "having to fight you, i didn't expect you to use this kind of trick. but i saw through it, you will not fool me"

instead of answering, rex tightened his grip on her shoulders, "let's abort this"

"i changed my mind, i'll take my chances" he added while trying his best to remain calm.

"eh...?" elder tilrith was stunned again. 'is he being for real?'

despite her skepticism, that was washed away once rex lifted his head up to look at her.

having lived for thousands of years, the art of reading people was only among the basics an entity, as old as her naturally knew. seeing rex's shaking pupils, her instincts were riled, and she believed that rex was being serious.

initially, she thought that he was playing tricks on her.

he must've wanted to draw her attention away by pretending to be weak.

perhaps, he wanted to hide his real weakness to be found.

but that doesn't seem to be the case.

rex was actually afraid and hesitant about being here, there was no doubt about it.

because of that, she turned her gaze to the surroundings as the gears in her mind worked.

doing something like this wasn't the first for elder tilrith.

many forces in the past had asked for her help—as a high-ranking succubus—with a delicate control over her energy, like her was rare. she might be one of the best succubus to properly heal or clean souls.

elder tilrith was knowledgeable regarding this—rex came to the right person.

in cleaning a soul, the person must confront their fears, regrets, or other negative aspects.

a soul is an intangible object, untouched by the laws of the world.

some powerful spells or abilities could harm the souls but in normal circumstances, the soul was separate from the world—and the only thing that could harm them was also something, intangible but real such as trauma, emotions, and such.

and the only way to clean that was to conquer them.

'most of the time, the soul suffered from something personal that happened in the past'

elder tilrith scanned the place again, a frown forming on her face.

'but his... his soul isn't suffering from the past'

normally, in a case of cleaning the soul, elder tilrith would create this space for the one she was helping—a space, that lies between the crack of the mind. due to that, the space could take the shape of anything depending on what was inside the mind.

it could be a garden of mirrors, a forest filled with memory trees, and such.

inside this space, there would be the representation of trauma or bad memories.

usually, it was stark and easy to spot.

and the trauma or memories that were still troubling would be marked by the mind.

for instance, inside the garden of mirrors, the floating mirrors were the representation of the trauma, while the cracked one was still troubling the person. it was straightforward and very easy to spot.

if the person still has regret, anger, or loss, the memory would become a plague in the mind.

left for too long, the soul would start to be influenced by it and deteriorate.

cleaning the soul would be the person to re-live that trauma, and do the right thing, it could be overpowering the opponent, forgiving themselves, or simply letting go if something can't be done in that situation.

elder tilrith scanned the place and identified each one.

in rex's case, as he was a person who has battled throughout his life—the space was a gory and endless battlefield that stretched ahead. multiple trenches could be seen—sinking deep into the ground.

surely, these trenches were the representations of rex's trauma.

eventually, rex nodded stiffly, "okay, i'll allow you to do it..."

upon hearing this, iris smiled and bowed in appreciation before turning to elder tilrith.

seeing her ice-cold look, elder tilrith clicked her tongue and went to the side.

"it doesn't matter who did it as long as he'd go through with this" she muttered in irritation.

elder tilrith stepped aside, positioning herself beside mavenna, her gaze fixed on iris as she drew a deep breath and approached the nearest trench. on the side, mavenna was puzzled, she glanced between elder tilrith, rex, and iris, "what's going on? i am completely lost. can you explain this to me?"

"are you pretending to be slow like you always did?" elder tilrith hissed suspiciously.

but mavenna shook her head quickly, "no, i'm not! i'm really lost!"

"sigh..." elder tilrith shook her head, she could not believe a rosadonna succubus' bloodline was passed down to her. "the prince's past was not hurting his soul, he had already more or less conquered his past. it was his current self—that was deteriorating his soul. a byproduct of his trauma lived in him and it could be that he couldn't let go of the past"

"it brewed inside of him and after a while, it was able to rekindle his trauma" she explained.

elder tilrith glanced at the plumes of smoke rising.

because of this byproduct, rex's trauma was revived again into an ember.

"from the way he was acting, i am sure it has something to do with him not being open—to anyone. i can even guarantee that none of the silverstar pack knew his past exactly, maybe glimpses of it but not all" elder tilrith continued, squinting her eyes at rex.

rex kept it all inside, never talking about his past and troubles.

he conquered it all, he could accept that what happened in the past happened for a reason.

but a byproduct was created and that caused a strain on his soul, causing it to deteriorate.

"so for him to mend his soul, he needs to allow someone to peer into his past? but—i'm quite sure he wouldn't allow iris to see everything" mavenna commented, he finally understood the situation.

upon hearing this, elder tilrith nodded, "yes. but for now, let's see what'll happen"

as she said that, the representation of rex's soul appeared above her.

she would be keeping an eye on it while iris peered into rex's past.

if what they were doing was correct, the cracks should be healed a little bit.

iris slowly walked towards the trench, she didn't know what to expect once she looked down.

knowing that every single powerful entity in the world has a powerful drive—that made their thirst for power, insatiable, iris could feel her heart pounding inside. she wasn't only helping, she was going to see a glimpse of the drive that pushed rex forward.

a powerhouse that was revered and feared in the new era.

for rex to reach his position, he must have a powerful motivation that was downright scary.

it could be anything but knowing rex's reputation, it must be something painful.

arriving on the edge of the trench, iris stopped and looked down.

a shallow trench greeted her but it was bottomless, falling to complete darkness.

"prepare yourself, dark elf," elder tilrith warned from the side—with her arms crossed. "you'll feel what the prince feels and you can be overwhelmed, and instead of helping, your soul will be wounded instead. if you want to change your mind, now is the time"

upon hearing this, iris shook her head, "no, i won't give you an edge over my emperor"

"suit yourself..." elder tilrith replied, her tone laced with disdain.

ignoring her, iris firmed her heart and leaped down to the trench.

darkness swallowed her whole, it felt like she was drowning in a black sea of emptiness.

but soon, a glimmer of light appeared and she regained her vision.

not her vision, but the vision of rex inside this trauma of his.

looking around, she couldn't make sense of where she was until a voice whispered to her.

"kill her and bring her to me. she will be the replacement..." a baritone voice commanded.

and as soon as that voice echoed, iris felt a stab in her heart.