Zeritha slapped at the flames on her clothes, patting them out in a panic. Her face twisted with fury.

She flicked her hand. Fresh, bright-red blood surged out of thin air—streams of it, like rushing currents—spraying in from every direction toward Phoenix Queen Ignara.

Ignara only gave a light, amused smile.

She lifted a long finger.

A crisp phoenix cry rang out.

"What—?!" Zeritha yelped.

She saw it clearly: the blood she was controlling started to evaporate the instant it got close to Ignara.

The crimson streams were cooked into blood mist midair, but even that mist couldn’t push any farther. Around Ignara, it was like an invisible domain of fire existed—an unseen boundary that blocked every shred of blood power outside it.

"Burn."

Ignara spoke the single word softly.

The next second, the blood mist across the sky ignited one after another.

Flames sparked from inside the mist—first scattered pinpricks of red light, then in the blink of an eye, it all linked together into a single blaze.

Zeritha’s own blood power was devoured from the inside out. It didn’t disperse—if anything, it condensed—until it formed a huge phoenix of raging fire hanging in midair.

Another phoenix cry tore through the battlefield.

The blazing phoenix spread its wings. Scarlet fire rolled over the entire area and swallowed Zeritha and Varik together.

"AAAHHH!"

Their screams burst out at the same time.

But they didn’t last.

The inferno cinched inward. Firelight churned and folded. Inside it, Zeritha’s and Varik’s bodies collapsed—fast—until they were nothing but ash, scattered by the violent battlefield wind.

Ethan watched it happen, his spine going cold.

That wasn’t normal fire.

Phoenix flame didn’t just burn flesh—it burned the soul. Zeritha and Varik couldn’t even keep screaming for long. As their bodies turned to ash, the last traces of their soul-waves were incinerated too, wiped so clean there wasn’t even a fragment left behind.

For a moment, the battlefield fell quiet.

Ignara hovered amid the drifting embers. Then she turned slowly and looked at Ethan. The corner of her mouth lifted—almost a smile—but the chill in her presence didn’t soften at all.

The flames around her parted with the motion, sliding away to either side. The air still stank of scorched heat.

She walked up to Ethan, her tone carrying a hint of playful provocation.

"Lord. You’ve gotten stronger."

Ethan shook his head, not rising to it.

"Now’s not the time. This is urgent. Whatever you want to say can wait until after the war."

Ignara’s brows drew together slightly—clearly unhappy with his reaction. But artillery still thundered in the distance. The Dominion still loomed overhead, crushing the sky with its shadow. And the Valgari army still hadn’t stopped advancing. At this point in the fight, even one extra sentence could cost them a window.

So she didn’t press.

Crash!

Another violent boom rolled in from far off.

Draxor was still trading blows with Elowen. Fists and ice collided head-on again and again—raw, heavy force shattering ice spikes, only for the cold to flash-freeze over his arm a heartbeat later.

The area around them had been beaten into a wasteland. Split ice crusted the ground in jagged sheets, and deep craters punched out by the shock of his punches pocked the battlefield.

In the short term, neither side could put the other down.

Ethan glanced that way and made the call immediately.

"Ignara—go help Elowen. If you can, kill him in one strike."

Ignara didn’t ask questions.

The flames on her body abruptly spread outward. Undying fire surged from her feet, behind her shoulders, and from her fingertips all at once—blazing red light sweeping in every direction.

The temperature jumped instantly. Even the frost still clinging to the battlefield began to melt, hissing up into white fog.

"Elowen, I’m here!"

She shouted it, and her body turned into a streak of fire, shooting straight toward Draxor.

Phoenix flames erupted across the air.

Vmmm!

ROOOOOOM—ROOOOOM—ROOOOOM!

Hearing Ignara’s voice, Elowen immediately understood what she meant. She didn’t look back—just raised both hands again.

A huge ice-blue ring reappeared behind her. Cold light flared inside it, and countless razor-sharp ice spikes poured out, packed so tightly they turned into a storm as they shot toward Draxor.

Draxor had only just managed to fend off Elowen’s last wave. He hadn’t even had time to reset his stance before the spikes were already on top of him.

He couldn’t dodge.

"Agh!"

One after another, the spears punched into his body—through his shoulder, his arms, his abdomen. Frost raced in along the wounds, drilling into flesh and blood, and his movements slowed all at once.

The pain forced him to throw his head back and roar, but his fist couldn’t drive out a full, clean blow like it had a moment ago.

In that instant, Elowen and Ignara met each other’s eyes.

The next second, phoenix fire swept in.

Vivid red flames followed the ice spikes into Draxor’s wounds, burrowing into his body—and then Elowen’s cold and Ignara’s heat detonated at the same time.

Two forces that should never have shared the same space tore at each other inside his flesh. One side froze. The other burned. Draxor was caught between two extreme worlds, crushed in the middle.

His screams turned even more shrill.

They didn’t last long.

Phoenix flame swallowed him completely. The firelight rolled a few times, and Draxor’s massive frame began to collapse.

First his skin and muscle burned through. Then his bones disappeared into the blaze. In the end, even the last flickers of energy he’d left behind were incinerated by Ignara’s fire—clean, absolute.

When the flames finally dispersed, there was nothing left.

Everyone stared at the empty stretch of battlefield, stunned into silence for a beat.

Ethan, watching it, couldn’t help clicking his tongue.

"Tsk, tsk."

He knew how strong Ignara and Elowen were. Still—seeing what happened when they combined forces up close was something else.

One was absolute cold. The other was phoenix fire. Together, they barely left an enemy room to struggle.

"Brother!"

Anya’s voice suddenly rang out behind him.

Ethan turned immediately.

"What is it?"

Anya sprinted over, her small face tight with a kind of panic he almost never saw on her. Even her words came out fast and jumbled.

"The ground—there are a ton of huge things down there!"

At that, Ethan exchanged a quick look with the others.

No one hesitated.

They followed Anya down toward the ground at once.

When they reached the lower level and finally saw what was slowly advancing on Emerald Castle, every face changed.

In the distance, marching straight into the harsh sunlight, rows upon rows of gigantic humanoid machines were striding in from the far end of the battlefield. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Every step made the earth shudder. Heavy metal feet crushed rock like it was brittle crust. Massive mechanical arms hung at their sides. Complex energy patterns glowed across their outer plating, and bursts of compressed air vented from their joints with each movement.

There were a lot of them.

Each one looked like a moving fortress of steel.

The pressure rolled outward as they approached. Even the outer defenses of Emerald Castle trembled under the vibrations. Everyone craned their necks up at those towering shapes, and for a moment it felt like even breathing lagged, half a beat too slow.

Ethan’s gaze hardened.

"This... this is Valgari tech?"

The words came out low, almost to himself.

But the shock only lasted a heartbeat.

He forced himself back into focus.

Now wasn’t the time to stand there and stare. The Valgari had pushed their heavy ground units right up to Emerald Castle. If they kept sitting on their hands, the outer line would get crushed sooner or later.

Holding Emerald Castle—nothing mattered more than that.