Ethan’s gaze snapped toward the source of the sound.
Out on the dim, ashen plain, the ground had sohow filled with black creatures—so many they looked like a living tide. Their bodies were the color of charred coal, their shells crisscrossed with jagged cracks. Inside each fissure, unstable black energy flickered, like sothing trying to claw its way out.
They resembled enormous ants, but their heads were grotesquely twisted. Two massive, curved horns jutted from each skull, the surface of those horns writhing as if alive.
Every ti the horns quivered, a bolt of pitch-black lightning ripped free. It tore through the air with a shriek, slamming into the sky hard enough to make the entire space shudder.
The air grew heavy. Breathing turned difficult. Almost instinctively, everyone began channeling their power.
Thalorien moved first. He raised his staff, and the runes at its tip flared to life. Deep blue energy poured out, condensing into a beam that crashed into the ground below. At nearly the sa mont, the warriors of Erald Castle unleashed their attacks. Countless energy blasts split the air, falling like a storm of teors into the swarm of black ants.
What happened next was unexpected.
For all their violent presence, the creatures were shockingly fragile. The instant the first beam struck, one ant convulsed violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across its carapace. Then, with a dull pop, it shattered completely—bursting into countless black fragnts that dissolved into the air.
More ants were hit in rapid succession. Their bodies collapsed like hollow shells, breaking apart at the slightest impact. Not a single intact corpse remained.
But Ethan’s frown only deepened. His eyes never left the disintegrating remains.
He could clearly sense the residual energy lingering within those fragnts. It didn’t belong to this Plane World. It carried a familiar—deeply unsettling—aura.
Without hesitation, he activated the system’s scanning function. An invisible wave spread outward from his consciousness, sweeping across the battlefield.
The data that returned made his heart sink.
The energy structure within these creatures was completely identical to Nexaris’s energy system.
A chill ran down his spine.
This world wasn’t as isolated as it appeared.
So hidden connection was quietly linking it to Nexaris—and their arrival may have already disturbed sothing that should never have been awakened.
"This place isn’t right," Ethan said under his breath. His voice wasn’t loud, but the urgency in it was unmistakable.
He rose higher into the air. Heavenly Demon Lightning began to coil around him, white arcs slithering along his arms like living things. The air buzzed faintly under their influence.
In the next instant, he thrust his palm downward, compressing his power to the absolute limit before releasing it.
A pillar of pure white lightning exploded from his hand, crashing into the earth like a falling star. Blinding light swallowed a massive stretch of land.
When the radiance faded, more than half of the densely packed ants were gone—reduced to slowly evaporating black residue.
Ethan dropped back to Thalorien’s side, white lightning still orbiting him, poised to erupt again at a mont’s notice.
"Finish them. Then we leave. Imdiately," he said, his tone heavier than ever. "This world’s been exposed. If we drag this out, we might not get the chance to leave."
Thalorien didn’t question him. He clearly felt the mounting pressure in the air as well.
His staff flared again, power surging out without restraint. It rged with Ethan’s white lightning, forming a sweeping storm of destruction that blanketed the battlefield.
Under their combined assault, the remaining enemies were wiped out in short order.
Silence returned to the plain—brief, uneasy, and far too fragile.
The silence lasted less than a few seconds.
Then the sky split open.
It wasn’t a normal spatial crack. It looked like sothing had clawed the world itself apart.
Inside the rift, darkness churned—thick, bottomless. A suffocating pressure poured out, as if so colossal being were forcing its way into existence.
A voice drifted from the depths. Cold. Venomous. Not loud, yet it rang clearly inside every mind present.
"Well now... I didn’t expect anyone to find this world."
As the last word faded, a massive warship descended from the tear in the sky.
Its hull was smooth as obsidian, polished to a black sheen. Intricate runes covered its surface, each one pulsing with an unsettling energy. Beneath it, weapon systems unfolded in precise sequence. Dozens—no, hundreds—of energy cannons rotated into position, locking onto the figures below.
The air warped under the pressure. Heat rippled. Space itself seed to bend.
Then a figure appeared at the bow of the ship.
A heavily built man hovered in midair, completely untouched by gravity. His gaze swept across the crowd below, slow and deliberate, eyes filled with naked contempt—as if he were inspecting livestock.
"I thought I’d see soone impressive," he said with a cold sneer, his voice cutting and sharp. "Turns out you’re just a pack of nobodies."
His eyes settled on Ethan and Thalorien.
The corner of his mouth curled into a cruel smile.
Another figure descended from the warship and landed respectfully at his side.
"Lord Rak’tharion," the man said in a low voice, "they’re the targets. We can’t let them leave."
Rak’tharion let out a deep, rumbling laugh. It rolled through the air and sank into bone, sending a chill through everyone who heard it.
"Targets?"
He slowly raised one hand. Power condensed in his palm, dense and violent. The air couldn’t withstand it—it shrieked as it tore apart around him.
"I don’t need an army."
His gaze locked onto Ethan. Killing intent spread outward, thick enough to feel.
"I alone am more than enough to wipe you out."
...
Ethan didn’t waste even a second.
He hovered above the Nether Sea, eyes fixed on Rak’tharion. His breathing deepened, steady and controlled, filling his chest in slow, asured pulls.
Then the power inside him awakened.
Heavenly Demon Lightning surged to life like an ancient will stirring from slumber. It erupted from deep within his bones, racing through his ridians and flooding every inch of his body.
White lightning burst across his skin.
It wasn’t just energy anymore. It felt alive.
Arcs of pale electricity coiled and slithered over him, circling his limbs, humming with a low, dangerous resonance.
The air changed instantly.
The calm space around him began to distort, like reality itself couldn’t tolerate this level of power.
Each flicker of white lightning sent tremors through the atmosphere. The air quaked. Even the light bent and warped.
High above, the sky seed to sag inward—
as if it were slowly collapsing.
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