Ethan didn’t answer.

He stood in the center of dust and crackling light, the killing intent on his face no longer something he could hide. Emerald Castle was his turf—his base, the core he’d built up step by step. And these people had the nerve to launch an attack on this scale?

Not far off, Kaelira rushed over.

She was covered in blood. Fresh stains smeared her sleeve and the corner of her clothes, not even fully dry yet. But her eyes were frighteningly bright—no fear, no hesitation. Just the kind of murderous focus you got when a fight lit something up inside you.

When she reached Ethan, her fist was still clenched tight, energy churning restlessly around her like it wanted out.

"What the hell is going on?"

Ethan stared at her, eyes sharp enough to cut. His jaw ground so hard it clicked.

Kaelira snorted, rolling her fist like she was itching to swing again, her expression vicious.

"Just a bunch of ants. Not worth stressing over."

She said it while drenched in blood, yet her breathing wasn’t even ragged. If anything, the battle hunger in her eyes was worse. She didn’t look like someone who’d just crawled out of a brutal fight—she looked like someone who hadn’t gotten enough.

Ethan glanced her over, then let his aura roll outward in a slow, controlled wave.

"How’re you holding up? You need to pull back and rest?"

Kaelira immediately shook her head.

"Killing these people is like crushing ants. I’m not tired."

Ethan nodded and didn’t argue.

He stepped forward and lifted off the ground, floating higher. Transparent energy spread from his body—first swallowing the area within a few dozen meters, then pushing farther, pressing down until the chaotic dust and lingering energy were forced into place.

The enemies still charging nearby felt the shift and hesitated on instinct. Even a few small aircraft in the middle of exchanging fire drifted slightly off their original trajectories.

"Who are they?" Ethan asked.

Kaelira lifted a hand and pointed into the distance, murderous intent spilling off her without any attempt to hide it.

"The Valgari." Her voice turned icy. "Their Plane World’s resources are dried up. They’ve had their eyes on our Emerald Castle for a long time."

Ethan followed her finger.

In the far sky, the enemy’s main force hovered in place. A dense mass of units formed into multiple layers—countless individual figures on the outer ring, flight devices and small ships in the middle, and deep in the back... large battleships.

Those ships were broad and heavy-looking, lined up with a crushing sense of presence, like a pack of steel behemoths hanging overhead.

Ethan narrowed his eyes and opened the system immediately, bringing up a scan of their status panels.

A glowing screen unfolded in front of him. Information poured out in blocks, updating as the scan dug deeper. And the longer Ethan looked, the clearer the picture became.

This race’s tech level was absurd.

In this force alone, there were close to a hundred large battleships. Every hull was etched with complex energy patterns, and the power bleeding from their cores was intense—mixed with something stranger layered inside it: an eerie kind of dimensional energy.

It didn’t feel like ordinary attacks. The fluctuations ran deeper, with stronger penetration, constantly interfering with the structure of the surrounding space.

Ethan read the system feedback, his expression sinking by degrees.

Even with what Emerald Castle had now... it still might not be enough to overpower them.

Ethan adjusted his breathing, just a little.

The roar of the battlefield pressed in from every direction. The sky around Emerald Castle’s outer perimeter was packed with artillery fire, energy beams, and jagged cracks where space itself had been torn open.

Far away, the Valgari battleships loomed like a moving shadow bank, hanging across the high air. Dimensional energy flowed over their hulls in constant streams. Every time it flickered, the space around them bent—just slightly, but unmistakably.

Ethan raised a hand and gave a small, almost casual wave.

The motion was tiny.

But the moment it fell, Emerald Castle answered.

Deep inside the defensive barrier, power that had been building for who knew how long surged like a gate had been thrown open, racing along the energy lines embedded through the castle’s outer structure.

Warriors on the ground. Guards in midair. Even the ships farther out that were still adjusting their headings—everyone felt the same thing at once.

Ethan’s order.

This was it. The decisive battle.

Kaelira stood at his side, eyes practically glowing. She stared at Ethan’s back, excitement straining at the edges of her expression like it was about to spill over. Her fingers cracked as she clenched and unclenched, and the purple-red energy around her pulsed in restless waves.

Right then, a cold furious shout cut through from the distance.

"Die!"

Queen Elowen hovered above another section of the battlefield, both hands lifted high. The temperature around her palms dropped fast. Ice-blue energy went wild, converging from all directions, then solidifying over the Valgari ground troops into a massive iceberg.

The instant it formed, it slammed down with crushing wind pressure.

Boom!

The iceberg hit, and the ground shuddered.

Valgari soldiers who didn’t retreat in time were flattened on the spot. Their shields flared as they burst—light holding for only a brief moment before the weight and the cold ground them down together. Shards of ice and twisted metal sprayed outward, and for a heartbeat a huge patch of the battlefield was simply... cleared.

Ethan flicked a glance that way, then pulled his attention back to the front.

"How long has it been like this?"

Kaelira didn’t look away, her voice still riding on that battle-high edge.

"Three days already. But they haven’t launched a full-scale assault, so it hasn’t been hard to hold them back."

Before the last word even finished leaving her mouth, a heavy, grinding boom rolled up from inside Emerald Castle.

A large Sky Fortress rose out of the castle zone, forcing its way through smoke and dust as its enormous hull climbed into the air.

The propulsion array under its belly lit up. Gunports along the outer frame unfolded one after another. Then, in the next instant, dense firepower poured down onto the Valgari on the ground.

Beams. Shells. Compressed energy—wave after wave smashing into the enemy line.

The Valgari reacted fast.

Faced with the Sky Fortress’s heavy suppression, they didn’t panic. Instead, they almost all raised shields at the same time.

The barriers were different colors, but they all carried the same kind of dimensional ripple. For brief moments, the shields even linked together, bleeding part of the impact into nearby units and spreading the load. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

When the barrage ended, the smoke gradually thinned.

Ethan’s brows drew together.

The Valgari line hadn’t been broken at all. Casualties were laughably low. Their soldiers had only been pushed back a short distance. Cracks webbed across the surfaces of their shields—then the barriers stabilized again as if they’d never been close to failing.

To hold up like that under Sky Fortress firepower...

These weren’t ordinary enemies. Not even close.

"Issue the order. Full force—rally and assemble."

Kaelira didn’t hesitate for even half a second.

"Got it. I’ll tell everyone."

She turned and ran, purple-red energy detonating under her feet as she shot toward the deeper part of the battlefield.

"Ethan! I’m helping too!"

Anya hurried up from behind. Bright red lightning still clung to her body, not fully faded yet. Her eyes were steady—she clearly had no intention of standing off to the side and watching.

Ethan glanced at her and nodded once.

"Go with that big sister from earlier. Be careful. Don’t get hurt."

"Okay!" Anya answered, and her body immediately turned into a streak of red lightning, chasing after Kaelira in a straight line.