Ethan spotted it instantly, and his chest tightened.

He didn't hesitate for even a moment. White lightning detonated out of him.

The arcs whipped down his arm and snapped forward, weaving into a net in midair that wrapped the struggling Soulforce tight. The instant thunder-light touched soul power, a shrill, piercing crack rang through the air.

Ethan knew exactly what he was doing.

His white lightning was a natural bane to Soulforce.

And reality proved it.

Once the lightning latched on, that Soulforce mass twisted violently, trying to tear free by brute force—but every collision only shredded it further. The white arcs kept compressing, tightening, crushing—

Until the soul power couldn't hold together anymore.

It burst apart in midair, obliterated completely, not even a final thread slipping away.

Only then did Ethan finally let out a slow breath.

Varkharr was moving too fast.

First Dravok. Then Draevor. They clearly had no intention of giving Emerald Castle a second to recover.

Before, Ethan could still grit his teeth and accept Seraphine's logic—stay put, hold the line, wait for the right opening. But now, after getting hit at his doorstep twice in a row, that fire in him couldn't be kept under control anymore.

He lifted his head, eyes turning cold at a distance only he could see.

At this point, he didn't care as much.

Even if Varkharr really did have that terrifying Abyssal Corridor outside it… he was going to go there himself and force a way through.

Because he couldn't keep hiding in Emerald Castle, letting them come wave after wave and knock on his door like they owned the place.

This time, Ethan didn't take Seraphine's advice.

He issued a direct order—assemble the elite army immediately.

Once the command went out, Emerald Castle snapped into motion.

Energy fluctuations rose all across the city. One after another, elite forces converged toward the front of the main city, war intent and killing aura stacking in the high sky until even the air outside—freshly stabilized only moments ago—tightened again under the pressure.

No one questioned him.

No one dared to say much at a time like this.

Before long, the army finished assembling in full—vast, rolling, ready to march. And this time, Queen Seraphine didn't remain behind. She and her followers joined the formation as well, moving with the army.

Ethan stood at the very front, gaze cutting past the far horizon, pointed straight toward Varkharr.

Then the army set out.

…

Above an endless sea of sand, enormous warships hovered in silence.

Beneath their hulls, energy ripples pulsed outward in rings, one after another, stirring the already scorching, wavering air into something even more unstable.

Far away, the dunes subtly rose and fell under the pressure. Even the light at the edge of sight began to warp, as if the world itself was being gently twisted by an invisible hand.

Ethan stood at the very front of the flagship's deck, staring at the spatial gate ahead.

It wasn't a complete gate. It looked more like a forced-open wound in space, its edges sometimes contracting, sometimes bulging outward, while deep, chaotic fluctuations rolled inside it.

Even through that unstable membrane, he could feel the pressure from the other side—

That was the spatial world where Varkharr existed.

And before they could truly enter it, they had to pass through the legendary Abyssal Corridor waiting up ahead.

If they could cross that safely, they could carve straight into Varkharr.

The fleet continued pushing forward at a steady pace—until something brought it to a hard stop.

The air ahead looked empty.

But when the warships neared that region, the entire space gave a dull shudder, like they'd slammed into an invisible wall.

The defensive light screens around the hulls rippled repeatedly. Everyone on deck felt the resistance too—clear, undeniable, like the world itself refusing to let them pass.

Ethan's eyes narrowed.

He'd known the outer layer of the Abyssal Corridor wouldn't be easy to break through—but only standing here did he realize just how brutal this invisible spatial dimensional wall really was.

It didn't look like anything. It didn't announce itself.

It just sat there—solid, absolute—so firm that even an entire warship couldn't advance an inch.

He didn't hesitate. He lifted his hand and drew on his power.

White lightning streamed along his arm. At first it was just dense arcs, but it grew brighter and tighter by the second, until it condensed into a lump of thunder-light compressed to the extreme in his palm.

A harsh electric whine rose around the deck. Even the fine dust floating in the air trembled under the pressure.

Then Ethan slammed his hand forward and fired.

The bolt tore through the sky and crashed into the invisible barrier ahead.

At the instant of contact, a huge ring of transparent ripples spread out in midair, layer after layer expanding in all directions—like a boulder thrown into a still lake.

But that was all.

That thunder force—strong enough to smash open大片 stretches of space—didn't actually punch through the dimensional wall.

It only made ripples.

Then it was swallowed whole by that unseen obstruction.

For a moment, the deck fell into a tense silence.

And then Lily stepped out of Ethan.

The way she appeared was still jarring.

One moment her power was overlapped with his, and the next it was as if she'd simply separated from the energy itself—standing on the deck like she'd always been there.

At the same time, violent lightning spread from her in a sudden surge, dyeing the entire airspace around the warship a blinding white.

She rolled her shoulder, her tone casual, almost bored.

"Staying inside your body that long really is suffocating."

She glanced sideways at Ethan, the corner of her mouth tilting with an expression that was hard to read—half teasing, half pleased.

"But your body really is a good container. It can hold that much power. If it weren't for that, my body wouldn't have recovered this fast."

Ethan froze for a beat.

He hadn't expected Lily to come out at a moment like this—much less open with that.

But before he could sort out what to say, Lily was already walking forward. Not fast, but with zero hesitation.

She reached the front edge of the deck and struck.

When lightning burst from her palm, it didn't feel anything like Ethan's attack just now.

It wasn't merely stronger.

It was purer—so pure it felt sharp.

The white current didn't scatter after leaving her hand. It speared forward like a real thunder blade. And the instant it hit the spatial wall, the area that had only rippled under Ethan's blow erupted into dense, jagged cracks.

They spread one after another, racing outward like a spiderweb being thrown across glass.

A lot of people on the ship changed color.

Even Ethan stared for a second, caught off guard.

Lily watched the barrier as it continued to craze and fracture, and spoke in an even, unimpressed voice.

"You really are slow." Then, like she was explaining something obvious: "Most of what's inside the Abyssal Corridor is death and ruin. The Infernal Abyss thunder we control is the best counter to that kind of power."

She didn't look back, but her voice carried cleanly to everyone on deck.

"As long as your lightning is pure enough, the energy here will collapse on its own."