The world fell into an unnerving calm, as if the turbulence had never occurred.
But... if anyone had been present, they would have witnessed the colossal black egg shatter with their own eyes.
And there were witnesses. Regis and his n were there.
From another vantage point, two more figures observed.
Though, to be accurate, they were essentially one and the sa: Alaric’s true form and his single-minded self obsessed Avatar.
The mont the blinding flash erupted, Ethan shut his eyes. His Soul Sense, however, remained unaffected.
The egg was gone.
In its place stood a bizarre creature.
The mont it manifested, it lunged for Ethan. A massive, clawed paw swiped down at him with world-shattering force.
BOOM!
Ethan was ready. His Twilight War Spear t the assault head-on. He channeled energy through the spear, executing a flawless Pathfinder’s Guidance. The spear-tip t the center of the creature’s claw.
The resulting explosion of force sent Ethan’s body flying backward like a snapped puppet string. He streaked through the air like a teor before crashing into the ground.
THUMP.
His body didn’t just hit; it plowed into the earth, carving a trench hundreds of ters long before finally skidding to a halt.
"Ghk—Cough!"
The second he stopped, a torrent of blood erupted from his mouth, speckled with dark fragnts of what could only be internal tissue. Deep within him, the Tree of Life flared with a violent erald light. The vortex of seeds within his Energy Core, saturated with power, spun into a frenzy. The thunderous runes he’d absorbed earlier were now being violently pulled into that swirling maelstrom.
But the attack hadn’t just been physical. A torrent of annihilating lightning had traveled up the shaft of the Twilight War Spear and into his body, wreaking havoc on his systems. Even the Tree of Life’s intense radiance could only achieve a precarious balance against this destructive force. His body was a battlefield, and healing was not imminent.
"Cough... cough... Tree Form—Now! Rejuvenation! Healing Touch! Wild Growth! Lifebloom! Swift Healing!"
His face was pale, fighting back the blackness threatening to swallow his vision. He triggered his fourth form.
HUM—
The mont Tree Form took hold, the utterly devastated landscape of Ascension Isle reacted. Faint green motes of light seeped from the scorched earth, streaming toward him from all directions. While the surface had been obliterated by the first wave of the thunderstorm, the root networks of the island’s forr lush flora still survived underground. Now, their boundless life energy was drawn to him, answering the call of his transformation.
He layered the healing spells over himself, one after another. Finally, the stalemate inside him broke. The scales tipped in favor of the Tree of Life. At the very least, he could stand.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, a cold shock settling in his gut as he stared at the lightning-born behemoth hovering in the air.
"How... how can it be that?"
He wasn’t the only one stunned. The sa words were muttered by Hank and the others who had accompanied him to the Blood Clan world.
The creature before him was a monstrosity of coalesced lightning. Its body was studded with bony protrusions. It was humanoid, yet bestial, and neither at the sa ti—a grotesque fusion of multiple species. It had eight arms, plus two legs, making ten limbs in total. Its head was half-man, half-fish, and its four-fingered hands and feet ended in claws that looked sharp enough to shred reality. Aside from being composed of crackling lightning instead of blood-red flesh, its form was a perfect replica of the Blood Clan’s Supre Being.
It glowed with the power of the storm, a massive thunder rune etched into its back as if branded there.
The sa bastard Ethan had vaporized with the Shatterstar cannon.
After swatting Ethan away, the creature didn’t pause. It lunged for him again, its speed defying belief. It was in front of him before he could even blink.
"Screw this... Spirit Embodint!" Ethan roared, unable to muster his compression technique in ti. He activated the exclusive weapon skill of the Twilight War Spear.
In the ga, this skill required a three-second cast ti, unleashing sixteen abilities of his current form in sequence. Here in reality, it channeled the power of all sixteen into the spear at once, bypassing the need for compression.
"Die!" he bellowed, the sound a thunderclap of defiance. He gripped the spear, holding it low and behind him, then charged forward with unstoppable montum, aiming straight for the lightning-born copy of his old nesis.
The monster reacted, all eight arms swinging to et him. Just before the claws could connect, Ethan pivoted, spinning his body and whipping the spear around his waist like a top, sliding past the creature’s flank.
SHHRRRIP—
The spearhead sliced across the thunder beast’s form countless tis as Ethan spun. Dozens of lightning runes were flayed from its body, dissipating into the air.
As Ethan passed it, the creature instantly turned, lunging to bite his back.
"Rear-Guard Lance!" Ethan shouted, halting his spin and using the centrifugal force to thrust the spear backward from his hip, aiming directly for the beast’s head.
BOOOOM!
The monster brought all eight of its arms up in a layered defense, protecting its skull. Ethan’s mastered technique, learned from Jed, struck true.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Ethan felt his spear punch through three layers of resistance before its force was spent. The recoil sent him flying back again, his arms numb, the flesh of his palms torn and bleeding.
The creature’s raw power was terrifying. But a weight lifted from his shoulders. This thing, while strong, was nowhere near the level of the true Blood Clan Supre Being his mother had fought.
’Thank god,’ he thought, a grim smile touching his lips. ’If it were as strong as the real one, my only option would be to run. And my chances of that would be less than five percent.’
The thunder beast, though it had repelled Ethan, was in worse shape. When it uncurled its protective arms, Ethan saw with savage glee that three of them were gone, vaporized. Only five remained. The three barriers he’d felt his spear break through had been its arms exploding.
"ROAR!" The injury didn’t cow the beast; it enraged it. It spread its five remaining arms wide and roared at the sky, a sound of pure fury, as if proclaiming its dominance over the mortal who had once destroyed it.
And in a way, that was true. Forged by the heavenly tribulation, it was a perfect copy born from the "cause" of Ethan obliterating the original. Now, Ethan was here to reap the "effect."
"Roar this, you bastard!" Ethan snarled, flicking his wrist. A strange, pistol-like device appeared in his hand—spoils from his fight with the galodon Clan King, a product of the Divine Sea Temple.
His finger danced on the trigger.
ZZZAP—ZZZAP—ZZZAP—
A rapid-fire sequence of bizarre energy beams shot out.
POP.
He’d pulled the trigger so many tis in that split second that the small weapon overheated, smoked, and then let out a pathetic pop as it blew apart in his hand. The first beam was just reaching the thunder beast’s chest, all the subsequent ones piling into it to form a single, concentrated line of destructive force.
"...Well, shit," Ethan muttered, staring at the smoldering remains of the gadget in his stinging hand. His cheeks flushed with embarrassnt.
’Damn. And I’m not even single anymore. Where the hell did that speed co from?’
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