Ethan’s gaze darkened, and a storm rolled through his chest.

He’d known this Stone Golem wouldn’t be easy. But now that they were truly trading blows face-to-face, the power it was showing still overshot his estimate.

That black gemstone in its chest really was constantly spilling Primordial Death Energy and a destruction aura. But in the brief instant of their exchange, Ethan had already pulled up the system and completed a scan.

The panel’s conclusion was painfully clear.

The real energy core wasn’t in its chest.

Ethan’s eyes snapped upward, locking onto the Stone Golem’s forehead.

A tiny, dull yellow stone was embedded there—muted in color, small in size, nowhere near as eye-catching as the chest gem. If the system hadn’t pinned it, most people would’ve overlooked it completely.

Yet inside that "ordinary" little stone, the energy churned with terrifying violence—purer than the black gem in its chest, and far more dangerous.

The corner of Ethan’s mouth lifted, slow and sharp.

In the next second, he vanished from where he’d been.

Not retreating. Not sidestepping.

He lunged straight into the energy storm that hadn’t even fully dispersed yet.

Transparent lightning stretched off his skin and surged forward, hugging his body as it tore a path through the chaotic shockwaves ahead.

He moved so fast he left nothing but an afterimage. In just a few breaths, he was already in front of the golem’s head, his transparent lightning coming up in one smooth motion—pointed straight at that yellow stone.

The Stone Golem’s pupils contracted.

It clearly hadn’t expected Ethan to spot the flaw in a single exchange—let alone lock onto its most hidden weakness with that kind of precision.

In a rush, it mobilized everything it had. Power from the black chest gem, the yellow forehead stone, and the currents running through its rocky body surged at once, spreading across its surface and condensing into a thick barrier around it.

The barrier formed, and heavy stone patterns rose across it, shot through with flowing black sheen, sealing the golem at the center.

But Ethan didn’t pause for even a fraction.

The instant his transparent lightning struck, the tightly compressed radiance expanded outward. Dense arcs skittered wildly across the surface, like countless razor-thin blades cutting again and again.

The Stone Golem’s barrier was thick—no question.

Yet the moment it met Ethan’s lightning, the outer layer started to shudder, and the energy inside it began tearing apart under relentless pressure.

Ethan’s lightning wasn’t the crude, violent stuff it had been at the beginning.

After purifying it again and again, refining it, compressing it, the transparent lightning he released now was pressing up against the limit of what this world could even endure. If his Tier climbed one more step, that power would sharpen into something even closer to the edge.

The Stone Golem realized it, too.

It didn’t dare keep tanking it head-on. It retreated fast, heavy feet pounding the ground in several steps—each stomp shaking nearby boulders into hopping chaos.

As it pulled distance, it reached down and grabbed two unremarkable stones from the ground, then smashed them together with brutal force.

The instant they collided, a boom detonated.

The rough, ordinary rocks lit up at the same time, the dormant energy inside them snapping awake.

Two forces twisted together at the impact point—interlacing, compressing, fusing—while the stone structure rebuilt itself in a blink, expanding in its hands into a massive stone shield.

As soon as the shield finished taking shape, its surface crawled with dense runes.

Layers of runes embedded themselves across the stone, linked together, shining continuously. As they brightened, the energy between heaven and earth got tugged toward it, pouring into the shield in an endless stream.

The heavy shield hovered in front of the Stone Golem, its edges pulsing with thick ripples. The entire space began to hum along with it.

Ethan’s expression hadn’t changed—right up until he saw those runes clearly.

His eyes stopped on the shield’s face, and even his breathing caught for a beat.

He’d seen that kind of rune before.

This wasn’t some basic reinforcement script. It was an infinite rune—the kind that could hook into the world’s ambient energy flow.

As long as that rune existed, the shield could keep drawing power from the sky... and it could even tug on this world’s Primordial Core force, funneling it into its defense.

Meaning: that shield wasn’t being supported by the Stone Golem’s own strength alone.

Behind it was the entire world.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly as he floated back a short distance.

He didn’t rush in. Instead, he widened the gap, clenched his right hand in front of his chest, and pulled his violent power inward again. This time, it wasn’t just transparent lightning.

A more tyrannical white lightning tore out from all over his body—like thunder-veins being forcibly ripped free. In midair they tangled, coiled, braided together, and finally poured into his palm.

His arm pressed down.

A sky-filling sheet of white lightning slammed from above, roaring as it ripped through the air, crashing straight into the stone shield.

A sneer had already crept onto the Stone Golem’s lips.

It knew exactly how absurd that shield’s defense was. It also knew the infinite runes on its surface didn’t just reinforce it—they could absorb an opponent’s energy.

In its eyes, Ethan compressing power and smashing it down head-on wasn’t an attack at all. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

It was Ethan voluntarily delivering his own energy right into the shield.

It was practically ready to watch Ethan get eaten by his own backlash.

But the moment it raised the shield, a sudden numb, stinging pain shot through its palm.

Not from the shield’s surface.

From its own hand.

The Stone Golem’s mockery froze.

It looked down—and saw that the transparent lightning that should’ve been stopped by the shield had somehow already slipped around the edge along a different route. Like an invisible, razor-sharp electric serpent, it wrapped straight around the hand gripping the shield.

The current speared into its arm from the palm, jerking its entire body in a violent tremor.

"That’s impossible!"

The Stone Golem’s voice finally cracked.

"Even if your lightning is stronger, there’s no way it could penetrate the shield and hit my body!"

Ethan stood not far away, his face perfectly calm—only the chill in his eyes deepening.

His internal power climbed again. Transparent lightning and white lightning churned around him at the same time, to the point that even the space beneath his feet began to warp continuously.

"You think you’re the only one in this world who can control rune power?"

His voice wasn’t loud, but it pressed down hard enough that even the surrounding rumble seemed to drop a notch.

"I can control it, too."

As the words fell, a flood of golden runes rippled out of his body.

They didn’t blast out in a messy burst. They spread, arranged, and morphed in midair with terrifying speed.

Each golden line carried a clear trajectory, linking to the next—until, in the blink of an eye, they became a surging river of rune-light.

More and more gathered. The glow sharpened and intensified, until the entire sky looked like it had been draped in a golden mesh.

Then every rune slammed down at once.

No delay.

The instant the golden runes touched the stone shield, the infinite runes on its surface started to quake violently, the previously stable energy circulation forcibly disrupted.

The shield began to shudder. The outer stone layer fractured at speed, cracks racing from the center to the edges.

In less than a heartbeat, the entire shield exploded with a booming roar—bursting into a skyfull of powder.