The moment Ethan finished speaking, the room fell completely silent. No one reacted, not even with the smallest movement. The tension lingered in the air like smoke that refused to disperse.

Rae, however, suddenly snorted. A laugh escaped her before she could hold it back, sharp and completely out of place in the heavy quiet.

That single sound caught everyone off guard.

Ethan paused, replaying her reaction in his head, and quickly understood what the swollen-faced woman he had just slapped back to normal must have meant earlier. Still, something else nagged at him. Rae did not look or sound foreign in the slightest. Her features were unmistakably local, the kind of face you would see on any native American.

He felt curious, but chose not to ask. There would be time later. From what he had already observed, these so-called angels were a strange international mix anyway. Every ethnicity seemed represented, even people who looked like they came straight out of the Sablon Republic.

Now that he had confirmed most of them were members of the Renegade Alliance from Ethereal, Ethan deliberately suppressed his irritation.

He shifted forms. Tree Form activated, its healing power responding instantly. Two hazy green orbs condensed in front of him, humming softly before drifting forward and smacking directly into the faces of the two fallen angels whose heads were still swollen.

Both of them flinched.

Then, almost comically, their puffed-up faces deflated like punctured balloons. Within seconds, the swelling vanished completely, leaving behind a handsome man and a strikingly pretty woman as if nothing had happened.

The woman touched her face in disbelief, fingers trembling.

"Oh my God..."

Even Rae widened her eyes and instinctively reached up to feel her own cheek.

The result was obvious. Their skin looked flawless, smooth enough to rival a baby’s.

Ethan glanced at them, faintly amused. So that was what a makeover punch looked like. Or technically, a slap.

He noticed Rae staring at him and turned his head toward her.

"Want me to try it on you?"

She stiffened immediately and shook her head so fast it was almost violent. For a brief moment she had actually considered it, until the memory of those two walking around with watermelon-sized heads resurfaced. Whatever healing came afterward, the process clearly hurt.

"Your loss," Ethan said casually, slipping his hand back into his sleeve. Truthfully, he had been waiting for her to agree so he could repay her with two solid hits.

That woman had dragged him here without explaining anything, lured him, secretly hoping someone else would rough him up for her. Looking back now, her timid behavior earlier had probably been nothing but an act meant to provoke conflict.

Unfortunately for her, Ethan was never afraid of trouble.

What she clearly had not expected was that this writ would lead directly to an audience with their King.

The moment Rae heard someone mention that the King wanted to see Ethan, she had frozen completely. Now one realization dominated her mind: the King himself wanted to meet this man. If Ethan decided to crush her on a whim, no one present would step in to save her.

With that understanding, Rae abandoned any remaining thoughts of stirring trouble. She silently followed behind Ethan and the two fallen angels without another word.

Ethan, for his part, did not bother asking why the King wanted him. He assumed it was the usual logic, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Nothing complicated.

They moved through the back corridors of the bar until they reached what looked like an ordinary storage room. The two angels entered first and lifted a concealed hatch in the floor, revealing a basement passage. Ethan had already sensed its presence earlier; what interested him now was why such secrecy was necessary.

Once they descended through the narrow corridor, the answer became clear.

The space matched what his Soul Sense had detected, yet seeing it directly still made his skin crawl. Every inch of wall, floor, and ceiling was covered in layered symbols painted in countless colors. The markings overlapped chaotically, dense and suffocating, enough to make anyone with trypophobia collapse at the entrance.

Even Ethan felt uncomfortable standing there.

The two fallen angels stepped forward and began chanting under their breath. Almost instantly, the graffiti-like symbols awakened. They slithered across the surfaces like living creatures, racing along the walls at astonishing speed.

Ethan watched closely.

The symbols gathered together, reorganizing themselves with deliberate precision. On both the floor and the ceiling, they formed opposing six-pointed stars, perfectly aligned. The structure strongly resembled teleportation arrays used back in Ethereal.

Just when Ethan assumed the formation was complete, the colored symbols continued moving. They peeled away from the surfaces entirely, floating between the two stars like countless tiny sparks suspended in midair.

Only then did the chanting stop.

"You two go ahead. Take this."

The male fallen angel handed Ethan a pitch-black feather-shaped token, while the woman passed an identical one to Rae.

"Rae... about earlier. When you meet the King..."

She hesitated, clearly worried.

Rae smiled lightly. "Lilith, relax. I’m not going to tattle."

She accepted the token without hesitation.

"You’re not coming?" Ethan asked.

"Only two keys work at a time," the man explained, pointing toward the tokens. "Bring them back when you’re finished."

"Got it."

Ethan tightened his grip on the black feather and stepped into the teleportation array.

The instant his foot crossed the boundary, a tearing sensation spread through his entire body as if space itself were pulling him apart. His heart skipped.

A gentle energy suddenly flowed from the feather, wrapping around him protectively.

Behind him, both fallen angels gasped.

Ethan had stepped into the array without activating the key first.

Normally, that mistake was fatal. The array would shred an unprotected traveler into nothing. There were stories of people who had done exactly that, reduced to atoms before they even understood their error. Even those who activated the key properly sometimes arrived at their destination as nothing more than a pile of dust while the key remained intact, faithfully protecting a body that no longer existed.

Yet Ethan vanished in a flash of light, completely unharmed, leaving three stunned fallen angels staring at empty space.

"That strong?" one muttered.

They exchanged uneasy glances.

Rae inhaled slowly, realization settling over her like cold water. Everything she had done earlier suddenly felt like suicide. She had been provoking someone who could have ended her life at any moment without consequence.

Light and shadow twisted around Ethan as the teleportation began in earnest.

He found himself moving through a narrow passage formed entirely of shifting light. His body accelerated beyond comprehension, faster than anything he had ever experienced. Judging by instinct alone, he was traveling multiple times the speed of light. The surrounding space looked empty, yet countless images flashed past in blurred fragments.

Even his powerful Soul Sense could only capture pieces.

"This teleport..."

Shock crept into his voice.

The first clear image he recognized was Earth itself. The next appeared before he could fully process the first: a vast ocean of stars scattered across the universe.

"We left Earth?"

So the so-called headquarters they mentioned earlier had merely been a transfer point. The true fallen angel base was no longer located on Earth at all.

Minutes passed as the scenery continued racing by.

Glancing backward, Ethan spotted Rae far behind him within the same passage. She was moving slower, maintaining a constant distance as if locked onto a parallel track.

He tried to slow down and wait for her, but the pulling force controlling the teleportation ignored his will entirely.

A troubling thought surfaced. If something interfered from outside, could he be ejected from the passage? And if that happened, where would he end up? How would he ever return home?

Before, he could have relied on Shatterstar’s positioning system. Now he possessed the control interface but lacked any way to contact Shatterstar itself.

Unease crept in. He scanned the passage carefully. Everything appeared stable. He exhaled, forcing himself to relax.

Boom.

The entire teleportation corridor shuddered violently.

"You’ve got to be kidding me..."

His pupils shrank as realization struck. The moment he relaxed, disaster arrived.

Ahead of him, the channel distorted. A pure white hand suddenly punched through the wall of light, tearing open the passage itself.

The instant it appeared, an overwhelming force dragged Ethan straight toward it.

"Battle Embodiment, activate!"

"Bear Form, activate!"

"Panther Form, activate!"

"Heavy Strike. Shred. Break!"

There was no time to think. Ethan triggered every transformation simultaneously. Power surged through his body, Heavy Strike compressing into his left fist while Shred gathered into his right.

He threw both punches forward. The collision exploded with a thunderous impact.

The hand had been reaching to seize him, fingers curling closed. Ethan’s strike landed squarely on the middle finger.

Crack.

The finger snapped clean off.

He thought he heard a distant scream echo through the fractured passage.

Momentum carried him through the opening left behind as the massive hand recoiled. But the impact knocked him off trajectory. He slammed into the glowing wall of the teleportation channel and passed straight through it.

Everything stopped as the teleportation collapsed around him.

"SON OF A..."

As he was flung into open space, he saw Rae sliding past within the corridor. Their eyes met for a brief instant. Hers were wide with raw terror before she vanished into the distance.

"Who the hell just jumped me?!"

Fury replaced Ethan’s earlier calm. His relaxed demeanor shattered instantly. Someone had deliberately intercepted him mid-teleportation. He had destroyed one finger, yet he was still thrown out of transit.

Silence answered him. He looked around.

Endless space stretched in every direction. Stars burned quietly in the darkness of the cosmos.

’You have got to be kidding me.’

He had no idea which universe he was in, let alone how to return to Earth. Survival was not the problem. He could endure the vacuum easily. But drifting through space forever?

That was a different kind of death.

Waiting for Rae to reach the destination and send help crossed his mind, but he dismissed it almost immediately. Rae was not strong enough, and even if she wanted to help, there was little chance she could accurately remember the exact point where he had been expelled.

Worse, he still did not know who attacked him.

What if this entire situation had been a trap from the beginning? Lure him into the teleportation array, intercept him halfway, strand him somewhere beyond reach.

The possibility felt disturbingly real.

After all, this was their teleportation network. How had an outsider known precisely when and where to strike?