Ethan's gaze snapped to the old man.
"You know them?"
The old man hesitated, then finally lowered his head.
"Only… legends," he said slowly.
"At the very deepest part of the Nether Sea, there's a race that never contacts the outside world."
"The Thalaryn."
"They don't fully belong to the land… and they don't fully belong to the sea."
"They can survive in the deep ocean, and they can also walk onto land."
"But what made them a legend wasn't their bodies." The old man lifted his head, staring at the corpses with sothing like reverence. "It was the power they control."
He swallowed.
"They possess a kind of ore."
"Worldheart Crystal."
That na made Ethan's pupils tighten.
"It's said to be a power that can shift the balance of an entire world," the old man went on. "And that's why no race dares to provoke them."
"They don't need to rule the Nether Sea."
"Because they already stand above it."
Ethan didn't speak.
But his eyes turned even deeper, colder.
If this race really existed…
If they really controlled the Worldheart Crystal…
Then Noctyros going silent wasn't an accident.
It was contact.
Maybe even—
conflict.
The mont that thought finished forming—
BOOM!!!
The surface of the sea detonated.
A massive pillar of water blasted into the sky.
A black figure got violently launched out of the depths like it had been hit by a cannon.
Noctyros.
His chanical body was webbed with cracks.
The outer plating was mangled.
And the most fatal damage was at his chest—his core energy gem.
The core that had once run steady was now spiderwebbed with fractures, the light inside flickering on and off like it could die at any second.
The entire shoreline fell into dead silence.
No one spoke.
No one even seed to breathe.
Because everyone felt it—
beneath the waves, sothing was rising.
The water parted slowly.
A figure erged from the deep.
He hovered in midair.
Like the will of the ocean itself given shape.
It was that strange man Ethan had seen before.
Seeing the strange man chase up from the depths, Ethan's pupils narrowed.
Not from fear.
From opportunity.
The Thalaryn.
The guardians of the Worldheart Crystal.
The true ruling race of the Nether Sea.
And now—
they were Noctyros's enemy.
Ethan's mind ran the numbers in an instant.
Noctyros ca from Nexaris—a high civilization capable of creating chanoid lifeforms.
And the Thalaryn had clearly already clashed with him.
If Ethan stepped in right now and helped the Thalaryn kill Noctyros—
then he wouldn't be an outsider anymore.
He'd be an ally.
Maybe even—
a partner.
The thought lasted less than a second.
The next mont—
Ethan moved.
Boom!
Air exploded under his feet.
His body beca a black afterimage, crossing hundreds of ters in a blink and appearing right in front of Noctyros.
Noctyros clearly sensed the danger.
His cracked chanical head lifted slightly.
The core in his chest flared wildly.
[WARNING]
[CRITICAL DAMAGE]
[Combat Capability: 18%]
[Ergency Protocol Initiated]
His body began to liquefy.
Trying to escape.
But it was already too late.
Ethan's fist was already coming down.
That punch carried almost all of his Primordial Force—mixed with a thin thread of dark energy from the Infernal Abyss.
BOOM!!!
His fist connected.
Noctyros's head caved in on impact.
tal buckled and warped.
Silvery-black fluid sprayed everywhere.
Even the air—no, the space itself—seed to shudder.
But Noctyros didn't stop moving right away.
His core flashed like it was going to burst.
[Ergency Counterasure Activated]
His body swelled violently.
Energy condensed in an instant.
He was trying to self-destruct.
Ethan's pupils shrank hard.
No hesitation.
A second punch.
A third.
A fourth!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each strike carried outright annihilation.
Noctyros's body kept splitting apart, his liquid structure losing stability by the second.
Until—
Ethan grabbed him by the chest.
His fingers punched into the tal.
Then he yanked.
Crack!
A core glowing with a weak blue light was ripped out by force.
Noctyros's body went rigid.
[Core Integrity Lost]
[System Failure]
[Mission…Failed]
His voice faded out.
His body fully collapsed, breaking down into a heap of lifeless silvery-black wreckage.
Silence returned to the air.
Ethan stood there, breathing a little hard.
His fist was swollen red.
Cracked, too—like the skin couldn't hold up anymore.
Blood trickled down his knuckles, dripping slowly to the ground.
He lowered his gaze to the core in his hand.
A barely-there glint passed through his eyes.
This thing—
was worth more than he could even put a number on.
Just then, a figure approached from the distance.
Thalorien.
His face was still pale.
The fight just now had clearly burned through a huge chunk of his strength.
He stopped in front of Ethan.
His gaze flicked to Noctyros's remains, then back to Ethan.
His expression was complicated.
"Why did you help ?"
His voice wasn't as cold as the first ti they t.
This ti, it held a genuine question.
Ethan shrugged, calm as ever.
"Deep sea belongs to the Thalaryn."
He pointed toward the distant ocean.
"I won't interfere."
Then he pointed down at the land beneath their feet.
"But this—"
"is my territory."
He looked at Thalorien, gaze steady and unshaken.
"He trespassed on my land."
"So I dealt with him."
Thalorien fell silent.
He studied Ethan—like he was truly looking at this human lord for the first ti.
A few seconds later, he nodded slowly.
Then he held out a hand.
In his palm, an unusual crystal appeared.
Worldheart Crystal.
It hovered quietly, giving off a soft, gentle light.
Ethan looked at it.
But he didn't take it.
Instead, he lifted his head and t Thalorien's eyes.
"We've t twice," he said. "But I still don't know your na."
Thalorien paused, just slightly thrown off.
Then—
for the first ti, he showed an expression that actually felt… human.
"Thalorien," he said.
"Prince of the Thalaryn."
Ethan smiled.
"Ethan," he said.
"Lord of Erald Castle."
For the first ti, the tension in the air eased.
Thalorien held out his hand again.
This ti, what appeared in his palm was a more complex crystal.
Countless points of light glittered inside it.
Like a whole world condensed into a thumbnail.
"The Nether Sea is larger than you know," he said.
"This contains its complete map."
He paused, then added—
"And…"
His gaze dropped to Noctyros's core in Ethan's hand.
"I accessed fragnts of his mory."
His voice turned grave.
"Nexaris is coming."
The air seed to turn cold in an instant.
Ethan just smiled.
Then he pulled a silver wristband out of his storage space and offered it to Thalorien.
"This is Powered Combat Armor," he said.
"With this wristband, you can summon the Powered Combat Armor onto your body. It will amplify your energy."
Thalorien took the wristband.
He could feel the power sealed inside.
His pupils tightened.
This was—
technology even the Thalaryn couldn't produce.
He looked back at Ethan.
This ti, there wasn't only caution in his eyes.
There was respect.
"Then from this mont," he said,
"The Thalaryn stands with Erald Castle."
…
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