Morveth froze for a beat—then reacted like he’d just heard the most ridiculous joke in the universe.

"Ha... hahahahaha—!"

He threw his head back and roared with laughter. The sound rolled over the ruins in repeated waves, shaking loose grit and making broken stones rattle and tremble.

Before the laughter even fully died, his power started surging. One blood-red gemstone after another on his chest lit up—like a string of grotesque hearts waking all at once—pumping thick energy into every inch of his body.

In no time, a massive energy sphere condensed in front of him.

At first it was only the size of a head, then it expanded at a visible pace.

Brownish-purple and blood-red forces poured in from his body, from the chest gemstones, even from the air around him, compressing into the sphere over and over.

When it swelled large enough, space began to warp subtly around it. Loose rubble in the ruins even started to lift, tugged upward by the pull of that power.

"You just took a little trip outside and you really think you’ve gotten strong?" Morveth lifted his hand, fingers spread. The huge sphere hovered before his palm, letting out a low, grinding roar.

"Today, I’ll show you what real power looks like."

With that, he pressed his arm down and slammed the massive energy sphere straight toward the ground.

It dropped in a perfectly straight line—fast enough to blur.

As it fell, the air got crushed out of the way first. Broken stones and snapped pillars were ripped up and thrown aside, and even the altar’s few remaining columns—already on the verge of collapse—splintered apart under the pressure.

The girl’s face changed instantly.

But before the sphere could actually hit—

Ethan stepped forward.

His foot came down with a dull thud that made the ground answer back.

Then transparent lightning erupted from his body.

This wasn’t a simple flare of electricity. He forcibly compressed it into an upward-bracing layer—an energy sheet.

Countless fine arcs converged along the same direction, forming a nearly invisible yet terrifyingly stable interception plane, driving up to meet Morveth’s falling sphere head-on.

Boom!

The moment the two forces met, a deafening explosion tore through the air.

The descending sphere stopped.

It didn’t veer. It didn’t blow apart.

It was forcibly held in midair—caught on Ethan’s transparent lightning like it had slammed into a wall that refused to move.

Violent shockwaves rippled out from the collision point in layered rings, making the entire ruin field shudder.

Chunks of stone were launched skyward, then ground again and again by the energy turbulence. Cracks split across the altar’s surface—more than a dozen at once—racing outward until they reached the edges.

Morveth’s body jolted.

He stared hard at the figure holding his attack back, and for the first time real doubt flashed in his eyes.

"Who the hell are you?"

His voice wasn’t pure contempt anymore. It carried weight now—caution.

"The energy on you... you’re not from this world. And it feels... familiar."

Ethan had no intention of playing games.

Power kept boiling out of him, transparent lightning spreading in expanding ripples around his body until he looked like a blade made of thunder.

"I’m the Lord of Emerald Castle."

He lifted his eyes to Morveth, cold filling every word.

"I’m here to wipe out you Varkharr trash."

At the name Emerald Castle, Morveth’s pupils visibly tightened.

He wasn’t unfamiliar with it.

He’d been there before.

Back then, he’d even toyed with the idea of taking the place’s resources for himself. He’d gotten close to the outer region—only to be greeted not by weak prey, but by rows upon rows of terrifying energy cannon warships guarding Emerald Castle’s perimeter.

That time, he’d been forced back by sheer firepower, so battered and humiliated he hadn’t dared linger for even a second longer.

He really hadn’t been as strong as he was now.

Remembering it, Morveth’s expression gradually cooled.

Things were different now.

After devouring the power of two Plane Worlds, his life level and combat strength had stepped into a realm even he would’ve struggled to imagine in the past. He was no longer the thing that had been chased off by cannon ships.

Facing someone from Emerald Castle again, that old instinctive caution was gone.

All that remained was a ferocity that had been compressed for too long—now rebounding viciously.

"Hmph!"

Morveth snorted. Brownish-purple energy rolled over his body while the blood-red gemstones on his chest flared at the same time.

He stopped holding back. His power poured outward almost completely, like he meant to drive this fight straight to the limit.

"The world Emerald Castle sits in is nothing but a third-rate little Plane World!"

He stepped forward, his aura climbing again.

"Even if you had all the energy and time in the universe, you still couldn’t break through to this world’s ceiling!"

A heavier wave of force erupted from his chest. Blood-red light spread until it nearly covered his entire upper body.

"But look at me—!"

His voice rose with every line, building toward a roar.

"I only devoured the power of two worlds, and I’ve already become this strong!"

By the end, he was practically shouting.

"Now I’ll show you what a true higher lifeform looks like!" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"I’LL KILL YOU!"

The moment that final roar hit, Morveth detonated completely.

And Ethan didn’t say another word.

He only snorted, then drove all his power out. Transparent lightning expanded violently in midair and slammed straight into Morveth’s overwhelming surge.

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!

Their powers tangled in the sky—colliding, tearing, grinding against each other. Transparent lightning and that interwoven brownish-purple and blood-red force crashed again and again, each impact detonating a ring of terrifying shockwaves.

Where those shockwaves passed, fine cracks split across the surface of space itself, as if invisible blades were carving reality inch by inch.

The air above the ruins was total chaos.

Light distorted. Rubble got yanked upward, then pulverized into dust by stronger aftershocks. Heaven and earth looked like they’d been dragged into an uncontrolled ripping storm—until even stable space wouldn’t stop warping.

After another violent collision, both forces exploded apart at the same time.

Ethan and Morveth were blasted away as well, forced apart and thrown back a distance each.

But even as they separated, neither of their energies weakened.

If anything, their power kept boiling outward.

Transparent lightning still snapped and writhed around Ethan.

And the blood-red gemstones embedded in Morveth’s chest continued to pulse, pouring out violent light without end.