"Focus..."

His voice cut through the chaos barely, but enough. He clenched his hand. Reality paused: single point of control.

He anchored himself not in power, but in identity. Ethan, husband, father, emperor. The one who chose, not the one who drifted, not the one who consumed everything.

"I decide..."

The chaos slowed slightly.

"I define..."

The expansion halted, not completely, but enough.

"I am Origin."

The words settled, heavy, and absolute. The Fifth Ascension didn’t reject him. It accepted him, but not fully. Not yet. His body stabilized barely. Cracks of light still ran across his form, his aura still unstable, his power still far beyond what he had intended to reach, but he remained standing, floating, existing, and breathing.

Ethan exhaled slowly.

"That was reckless."

Silence followed.

Then a faint smile bloomed on his face.

"Again."

Because, despite the instability, despite the danger, even though he had just forced his way into a level he wasn’t ready for, he had touched it. The Fifth Ascension.

And now, there was no going back, only forward.

...

Fafnir’s eyes glinted with barely restrained power and anger. He had felt it... the advancement. Even in the current stagnant world covered in void creatures, someone was still advancing in power. Ethan was still growing powerful, and he hated it.

Fafnir’s grip tightened on the armrest of his throne. Stone, ancient, reinforced, enchanted by generations of dragonkind, cracked beneath his fingers like brittle glass. The entire throne hall trembled... from him.

"Again," he muttered, his voice low, heavy, rumbling like distant thunder. "He’s done it again."

The pressure in the room thickened instantly.

The rulers below him stiffened, their instincts screaming as the Dragon Emperor’s aura leaked. It was suffocating, ancient, and dominant. Fafnir leaned forward slightly, his golden eyes burning with something far darker than simple anger.

He had felt it, not just a rise in power, not just another ascension.

No!

This was wrong, unnatural, unacceptable.

"Fourth Ascension..." he whispered, his voice laced with certainty.

His eyes narrowed.

"No."

Silence fell.

"He broke through."

The realization settled like poison.

"Fifth Ascension."

The word echoed, not loudly, but it carried weight, because every being in that hall understood what it meant.

That level was not something one simply reached. It was something that required time, centuries, millennia.

It required refinement and perfection, and Ethan had forced his way into it.

Fafnir’s lips curled slightly, revealing the edge of his fangs.

"Arrogant."

But beneath the word, there was something else, something he would never say aloud.

Concern.

Because he understood something others didn’t. Power gained too quickly was unstable, and instability at that level did not destroy kingdoms. It erased realities. The air around him heated subtly with pressure.

"He plays with things he does not fully understand," Fafnir continued, rising slowly from his throne.

The moment he stood, the entire hall seemed to shrink as if it could no longer contain him.

His long black hair shifted slightly, his golden horns catching the dim light as his presence expanded just enough to make every dragon present lower their heads instinctively.

"Origin..." he muttered.

The word tasted bitter and foreign.

"I do not know what he has touched..."

His gaze lifted, as if piercing through the very layers of the world.

"But I know this..."

His voice dropped, cold and certain.

"If he stabilizes it..."

A pause, one that stretched just long enough to make every dragon in the room uneasy.

"He will surpass me."

Silence.

No one spoke... no one dared, because this... this was not a statement of possibility. It was inevitability. Fafnir exhaled slowly, his expression smoothing out, not calmer, but colder.

It became more controlled and more dangerous.

"Then I will not allow him that time."

His gaze snapped downward, locking onto the rulers beneath him.

"Sol and Aokuruyu are already moving toward the border," he continued. "They believe they are reclaiming land."

A faint, humorless smile formed.

"Let them."

His eyes gleamed.

"War accelerates growth."

He began walking down from his throne, each step echoing with quiet authority.

"And if Ethan wishes to grow..."

The air twisted slightly around him.

"...then I will force him to grow in my direction."

One of the rulers hesitated before speaking.

"Your Majesty... do you intend to..."

"Yes."

The answer cut through the question instantly.

Fafnir stopped and turned slightly. His gaze alone was enough to silence the room completely.

"I will move."

The declaration landed like a hammer. It was not a suggestion, nor a plan.

It was a decision.

The Dragon Emperor was entering the war. Power surged faintly around him, just enough to make the very space distort.

"Prepare the legions," he ordered.

His voice was no longer restrained.

It carried beyond the hall and beyond the empire.

"Mobilize all forces near the Anbord border. I want every path, every sky, every approach watched." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

His eyes burned.

"And if you see him..."

"Do not engage."

That alone shocked them. Fafnir noticed, and his expression didn’t change.

"Because when I meet Ethan Kael’Dri again..."

The temperature in the room dropped.

"...it will not be a repeat of the past."

His hand flexed slightly, and the air cracked.

"I will not lose twice."

Silence swallowed the hall... Absolute.

Because this time, Fafnir wasn’t reacting. He was preparing, and somewhere far beyond the Dragon Empire, a newly ascended being struggled to stabilize a power that could reshape existence itself.

Two forces, both growing, both inevitable, and the space between them was shrinking fast.

...

A pair of dark eyes glowed in the void as a faint chuckle broke out.

"I believe my job is done. Hopefully, my cousin won’t come to hate me..." Light seemed to flicker faintly around the being who talked, exposing a man with long red hair and very pale skin.

"Lord Hades!"

"Tell the others to retreat. Our job is done. I will revive the ones who fell in battle. Soon, the Debranlith will gain an Overlord and become one of the higher worlds. It’s about time."

"Yes, my Lord..."

Hades looked into the void with a faint smile, his eyes peering through the barrier of worlds, and looking at Ethan directly. He saw Ethan turn slightly, and their eyes met.

"Monstrous... as expected of this family."