The whole way back, the air still carried the scorched, splintered bite of the battle. Out on the perimeter, swaths of land were visibly scarred where power had washed over it.

The moment they reached the main city, Ethan issued an order to raise the outer energy barrier again.

A heavy defensive curtain rose slowly from all sides, linking together high overhead into a new sealed layer. Only when that barrier fully closed did Ethan's expression ease, just a little.

He'd just finished a major battle and brought everyone back to Emerald Castle… and the second they hit the outskirts, they got greeted by a squad of monsters.

That almost never happened before.

Back in the palace, Ethan didn't waste time. He immediately pulled out map after map from the internal archives, spread them across a long table, then grabbed several older charts from the side and began comparing them page by page.

His fingers moved from region to region. His eyes swept over mountain ranges, wastelands, fault lines, and city markings again and again, trying to pin down where Varkharr actually was.

But no matter how long he searched, he couldn't find anything that matched.

His brow was tightening into a knot when the hall doors suddenly opened.

Queen Seraphine strode in, holding an old map whose corners had yellowed with age. She went straight to the table, spread it out, and pressed it down in the center of the scattered charts.

"I've heard of Varkharr," she said, looking down at the map. Her voice was much steadier than it had been in battle, but there was still a weight to it. "It's an extremely evil empire. It survives by corroding and reshaping the energy of other worlds."

She lifted her hand and pointed to a spot on the map.

"Here. This is where they are."

Ethan followed her finger.

The area was marked in a remote region. It connected to territory he knew… and yet it didn't line up with anything in the maps he'd been using.

Seraphine kept going. "That place is like the Infernal Abyss—vile, and unbelievably dangerous. If an ordinary person steps in, the power there will turn them to ash instantly."

Ethan's expression shifted.

Not because he was shocked that Varkharr existed.

Because of the location.

That place was in the Kayaren Desert.

In Ethan's understanding, Kayaren Desert had always been dead-silent. Other than emptiness and decay, there was almost nothing—energy fluctuations were so thin they barely qualified as "existing," let alone the kind of environment that could nurture a massive, brutal empire.

And yet Seraphine was pointing to it without the slightest uncertainty.

Varkharr was hiding inside that desert.

The answer was way outside what Ethan had expected.

He stood there staring at the marked region for several seconds before he slowly adjusted his breathing. His finger dropped onto the map, landing precisely on Varkharr's position, and his voice lowered.

"If you don't come looking for trouble, I won't go looking for you."

"But since they've already sent an army to attack Emerald Castle, there's no reason for us to be polite."

He lifted his head. The anger in his eyes didn't flare anymore—it sank, heavy and controlled.

"Gather the elite forces immediately."

"I'm leading them myself."

"We're going to level Varkharr."

This time, he was genuinely furious.

For a long time now, nobody had dared to take the initiative and attack Emerald Castle.

Varkharr was the first faction in ages to march an army right up to his door. If they'd chosen to do that, then they were going to pay for it.

But just as Ethan was about to give the departure order, Queen Seraphine raised a hand and stopped him.

There was no hesitation in her face, no retreat in her gaze.

"I suggest we don't act rashly yet," she said. "That place is powerful on its own."

"And if you want to enter Varkharr, you have to pass through an Abyssal Corridor first."

Ethan's brow pressed down as he looked at her.

Seraphine's voice dropped, quieter—but even clearer.

"That corridor reeks of death. No matter how strong you are, if you get close… you'll turn to ash."

Her words fell, and the hall went silent for a moment.

Ethan's eyes widened.

He hadn't expected something like that to exist outside Varkharr—something that extreme.

The anger that had been lodged in his chest a moment ago got forced down hard. He knew Seraphine wouldn't exaggerate something like this.

If she hadn't warned him in time, and he'd really led Emerald Castle's army in headfirst… the outcome wouldn't have been a simple setback.

The entire force might've been wiped out before they even reached the entrance.

He fell silent for a few seconds, then spoke in a low voice. "Then what? We just sit here and wait for them to come again?"

A trace of helplessness surfaced on Seraphine's face. In the end, she still nodded.

"For now, yes," she said. "But once Varkharr's people leave their country, their power weakens. For us, that's our biggest advantage."

Ethan stared at the map without answering right away.

The rage was still there. The killing intent hadn't faded. But reality was sitting right on the table in front of him.

It wasn't that they couldn't fight.

It was that they couldn't storm straight in—at least not yet. Varkharr had its nation as a backing, and the Abyssal Corridor blocking the way. The safest move right now was to hold Emerald Castle and wait for the enemy to step out from behind that barrier themselves.

At this point, Ethan didn't have much else to say.

He forced down the urge to charge over there, standing in place and staring at that region buried deep in the Kayaren Desert—waiting, on purpose, for their next attack.

They were still talking when a shrill alarm suddenly screamed from Emerald Castle's perimeter.

The sound punched through the palace's thick walls, pressing inward in layer after layer—urgent, nonstop.

Ethan's eyes sharpened. He didn't even have time to look at the maps again. His figure blurred from where he stood, shooting straight toward the outer sky.

Wind tore past his ears. By the time he cleared the city walls and the edge of the energy barrier, the scene outside was already sharp in his view.

Beyond Emerald Castle, a tall figure hovered in the air.

The man's stance was steady—too steady—but the sky around him wasn't calm at all. A dense aura of death rolled out of him in relentless waves, spreading like a black tide across the heavens.

The light around him was being pressed dim. Distant clouds were stained a heavy gray, and even the movement of the air itself seemed to slow under that power.

Ethan didn't strike immediately.

He released his own energy first. White lightning spread off his body, rapidly covering the airspace ahead, meeting that death aura head-on.

The two forces crushed against each other in the high sky. The air snapped with fine, rapid explosions, like countless invisible cracks opening and sealing shut again and again.