Ethan lowered his gaze to the metal tag in his hand, then looked back at her. For once, a trace of awkward hesitation crept into his expression.

He clearly wasn’t good at handling this kind of moment.

After a short silence, he finally spoke.

"How about this." Ethan scratched his cheek, keeping his tone as gentle as he could manage. "From now on, you come with me to Emerald Castle. I can’t give you a princess title... but there, you can live like a princess. Free. No one telling you what you’re allowed to be."

Anya froze.

Then the light in her eyes flared so bright it almost hurt to look at.

She didn’t overthink it. She lunged forward and hugged Ethan, fast enough that even he stiffened for a second.

"Thank you!"

Her voice shook with excitement and happiness, and she couldn’t quite hide the leftover tears.

"You’re really a good person! You helped me get revenge, and you’re willing to take me with you... I don’t even know how to repay you!"

Halfway through, she suddenly looked up, deadly serious.

"Then... from now on, you’re my big brother."

Ethan opened his mouth, then closed it again. In the end, he just gave a helpless little smile and let it go.

But right as he was about to take Anya and leave—

The energy between heaven and earth changed.

It wasn’t the normal echo of an aftermath.

It was something strange. Something brutally strong—pressing in from high in the distance like a wall dropping out of the sky.

The air tightened first. Loose dust and rubble moved without wind. Even the traces of leftover power in the ruins—already settling—got stirred up and forced into motion again by that new pressure.

Then a tall figure appeared on the horizon.

Humm—

He didn’t do anything dramatic. He simply hovered there.

And his presence alone made the entire ruin field feel like it sank an extra layer into the ground.

Space quivered under his aura. Even the sky that had just calmed down twisted visibly, as if reality itself didn’t quite want to hold its shape around him.

"That’s..."

The moment Ethan saw him, his pupils tightened.

He genuinely hadn’t expected that in a place this ruined—this close to barren—there could still be an existence this strong.

The other guy hadn’t even attacked yet, and Ethan’s nerves were already pulling taut on instinct.

Ethan didn’t hesitate.

He evened out his breath and forced his power up again.

Transparent lightning spread outward off his body, and in the blink of an eye it laid a clear energy net across the sky above. Then Ethan rose, floating upward until he faced that towering figure from a distance.

"Who are you?" Ethan demanded, voice low but sharp, refusing to give an inch.

The man didn’t answer.

He only lifted a hand and tapped his chest.

In the next instant, a sapphire-blue stone floated out from his chest and hung quietly in midair.

The moment it appeared, an almost terrifying pressure rippled out from it in layered waves—like a tide—covering everything in all directions and forcing the whole world to bow under it.

Ethan’s pupils constricted.

The tall figure attacked with almost no warning. Power was ripped open in the air like something heavy had been dragged out from a deeper layer of reality by sheer force.

As that aura came down, the air changed first. Dust and ruin-debris got shoved outward, and a clear vacuum ring formed in midair.

Ethan didn’t have time to hesitate.

He compressed his energy fast, drawing it in through his limbs and core at the same time, then packing it into an extremely dense point in the center of his chest.

In the next breath, he released it.

Transparent energy blasted out along his arm, carving a clean path through the air as it met the descending force head-on.

The instant the two energies touched, space felt like it was being squeezed by invisible hands.

A screech of electricity exploded at the contact point. Air tore open and sealed again in rapid cycles, ripples spreading outward in rings.

Broken walls and scattered stone in the ruins began to float, then got pulled into the warped airflow, rotating slowly.

Then—

The collision point collapsed.

A deafening boom detonated in midair. The shockwave blasted across ground and sky at once, and the entire ruin field was lifted like it had been kicked from beneath.

Ethan and Anya were almost thrown at the same time.

The shockwave lifted them off their footing, and for a moment they completely lost control—tumbling through the air several times before they barely managed to stabilize.

When the impact finally faded and they regained their balance, the towering figure across from them was still hovering there.

No retreat.

Not even a shift in posture.

Ethan’s breathing hitched.

In that head-on clash, he’d felt it clearly—his force had been stopped cold. The energy inside that giant was like a single compressed stratum of bedrock, unmoved in the slightest.

This was a dead world. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

He hadn’t expected to run into something on this level in a place like this.

He was just about to close in again when the giant suddenly spread his arms.

Rumble—!

The ruins below began to shake.

Cracks raced across the ground. Loose rubble was lifted by an invisible force, and then the entire ruin field felt like it was waking up again.

Dark, heavy energy seeped up from underground, surged through broken structures and shattered debris, and flowed upward—until it all funneled into the giant’s body.

The instant that energy entered him, his surface began to swell.

Muscle and bone expanded. His already enormous frame grew larger still, and dark red lines appeared across his skin—like power being forcibly pumped in and rushing through internal channels.

"Ah... this is incredible..."

The giant’s voice echoed through the air.

"An abandoned world, and it still has power like this left behind."

He lowered his gaze to the ruins, then curled his mouth into a cold smile.

"From this moment on, all of it belongs to me."

The energy kept pouring in. His body continued to swell—slow, relentless.

Anya’s expression changed instantly.

She didn’t hesitate. Her figure shot upward, charging straight into the air as her power burst out at the same time—spreading like an expanding field as she forcibly pressed down on the "connection" between the ruins and the giant.

"You’re going too far!"

Her voice cracked across the sky.

"Everything here is mine. Get out—right now—or I’ll rip you apart!"

The giant looked up.

His gaze locked onto Anya.

He didn’t answer. He simply took out a yellow gemstone and tossed it.

The moment it left his hand, the air compressed.

Violent energy leaked from inside. Space around the gem warped, and the power drove forward along a straight, brutal line—slamming toward Anya like a cannon shot.