Ethan shifted sideways at once.

He didn’t try to tank it. He flashed to the side, and the lightning over his skin snapped inward, gathering fast. White arcs ran down from his shoulders, weaving together into layered barriers that wrapped around him like armor.

The transparent energy sphere skimmed past along the line of his dodge.

But the aftershock still slammed into his lightning shield.

The instant they touched, ripples spread across the barrier’s surface. Inside the sphere, that corrosive force began eating into the arc structure itself.

Cracks tore through the lightning—several of them at once. The white light broke in uneven segments. His defense was forcibly compressed, shuddering under the pressure.

The impact kept spreading.

The whole sky twisted violently as the two forces ground against each other.

Ethan’s eyes widened.

That shield—woven from white thunder-light—had always been one of his most direct, most domineering defensive methods.

But this time, the moment Dravok’s transparent sphere hit, Ethan’s lightning was ripped apart inch by inch. Fractures crawled through the net of light, spreading fast. The defense that had always felt unshakable was now trembling nonstop, and even the familiar electric hum in the air changed pitch like it was being strangled.

This was the first time his lightning energy had been pushed into something this ugly.

Ethan’s breathing sank, heavy. His gaze stayed locked on the still-expanding knot of warped energy ahead while his mind raced—how do you deal with an attack that mixes spatial distortion with corrosion?

He didn’t get the chance to move first.

A figure swept past him and dropped right between them.

Queen Seraphine stood at the front. Her long hair lifted and flowed in the high-altitude wind. She didn’t look back. Her eyes stayed on Dravok, and when she spoke, her voice was cold as a blade rimed with snow.

"You just mashed space power together with something filthy."

She slowly raised her hand, fingers spreading.

"And you think that makes you impressive?"

On the last word, a light ignited in her palm—so pure it was almost painful to look at.

Not the messy, mixed backlash from earlier clashes.

This was sacred Light Force—clean, stable, absolute.

Golden-white radiance spilled from her hand, first forming a crisp ring of light—then expanding in a blink, surging outward like a tide until it covered the entire airspace in front of her.

Where the light passed, the chill in the air was crushed flat.

The chaotic aura around Dravok—space power, corrosion, and that underworld stench tangled together—began to churn violently the instant it touched the Light Force.

The dark red energy clinging to him looked like black fog being licked by flame, its edges breaking apart again and again. Even the spatial rifts stopped holding steady—under that holy wash, they shrank rapidly and snapped one after another.

Ethan watched from behind, seeing it clearly.

Dravok’s power wasn’t just being suppressed.

It was being countered.

Pure sacred Light Force was the natural bane of evil power. And in Dravok’s arsenal, it wasn’t only space and corrosion—

There was something colder mixed in. Something grim, underworld-deep.

That aura had been hanging over the sky like a slow-spreading death. But the moment Seraphine moved, it finally showed retreat.

The next instant, the wave of light pressed down completely.

Dravok threw up a hand to block. Energy had barely formed in his palm when the golden-white torrent crashed into him head-on.

At the point of contact, a deep boom shook the air, the impact exploding from his chest and blasting backward.

His entire body was launched away. He rocketed across the outer woodland, snapping through more than a dozen trees in a row—branches and trunks cracking in a continuous chain. Wood chips and dust burst up into the air together.

The soldiers who’d come with Dravok went rigid.

They’d been holding the perimeter, clearly treating this as a foregone conclusion—something Dravok would finish with a casual crush.

But now the Third Warlord, who’d been looming in the sky with overwhelming pressure just a moment ago, had been blasted straight into the forest.

Their expressions froze almost in unison. Someone’s mouth fell open. Someone else stumbled back on instinct. Weapons trembled in their grips.

None of them had imagined Queen Seraphine could be this strong.

By tier and raw energy reserves, Dravok was obviously above her.

But once they truly exchanged blows, the situation was nothing like what they’d predicted. That gap didn’t turn into domination—in front of Light Force, it was cut clean in half, and Dravok couldn’t even hold up a decent counter.

And Seraphine didn’t give him a second to breathe.

Dravok had barely stabilized himself in the shattered trees when Seraphine stepped forward. Her body turned into a straight streak of light, shooting toward him.

As she flew, the Light Force around her climbed higher and higher. Golden-white flames unfurled behind her in rolling waves—first spreading like wings, then gathering in the high sky into a massive phoenix phantom.

The phoenix was formed entirely from holy Light Force. When it spread its wings, huge swaths of sky lit up.

Every feather of light burned with pure fire. The radiance poured down, smoothing the twisted air below layer by layer while forcing back the last scraps of darkness around Dravok.

Seraphine lifted her hand and pressed down.

The phoenix dove with her.

Its path didn’t deviate by even a hair. It covered Dravok from above, swallowing him whole in its shadow of light.

And the moment it made contact, golden-white flames raced across his body—devouring the dark red protective energy clinging to his skin first...

Then biting straight into his flesh.

Dravok let out a low, muffled roar—furious, barely contained. Power surged wildly around him as he tried to break free, but the moment it spilled out, the Light Force inside the phoenix phantom crushed it out on the spot.

His body began to melt.

First the edges of his armor, then his arms and chest. That body that had seemed unbreakable moments ago started coming apart inch by inch under the sacred flames—like filth being purified so completely there wasn’t even room for regeneration.

It didn’t take long.

Dravok slipped into true dissolution. His presence collapsed, falling fast, until it was cut off entirely inside that blazing radiance.

Ethan stood where he was, the surprise in his eyes quickly sharpening into clean, unmistakable excitement.

He’d been thinking through how to crack Dravok’s weird, overbearing power. He hadn’t expected Queen Seraphine’s holy Light Force to be the perfect counter—an outright natural enemy.

This wasn’t ordinary suppression.

It wasn’t barely holding the line.

It was a hard counter at the level of attributes, pinning Dravok down with no way out.

From here on, the fight had no suspense left in it.

The remaining soldiers finally broke. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The ones who’d been watching from the perimeter a moment ago now looked ghost-pale, like they’d forgotten how to breathe, fingers barely able to keep hold of their weapons.

Someone dropped to their knees first. Then, like a chain reaction, the rest followed—bowing, begging, their voices overlapping into a frantic mess that didn’t even form complete sentences.

Ethan’s expression didn’t soften in the slightest.

He glanced at them once. His voice was blunt, leaving no space for negotiation as he told Queen Seraphine to clean them all up.

Light fell again.

The pleas didn’t last long. They were erased—cleanly, completely.

When the outskirts finally went quiet, Ethan led the others back toward Emerald Castle’s main city.