Ethan’s fist drove toward the Titan Sovereign’s chest at the same moment the Titan Sovereign’s knuckles crashed down toward Ethan’s shoulder.

Neither of them gave an inch.

They stayed glued together in brutal close-quarters, trading fists, elbows, knees, shoulders—every strike carrying energy compressed to the absolute limit.

In the span of a blink, they’d already crossed hundreds of blows.

With every collision, the world let out a low, vibrating hum. Space itself was ripped open by their movements, then forced to stitch shut again before the next hit arrived.

Golden energy and transparent lightning kept detonating in tight bursts. The aftershocks swept across the upper sky, forcing every nearby warship and powerhouse to pull back and widen the distance.

And down below, the battle between the two armies had fully tipped into a white-hot frenzy.

After all this time of growth, Emerald Castle’s overall strength was no longer what it used to be.

Everyone’s level had jumped an entire Tier. The battlefield felt different because of it—heavier, sharper, meaner. The warriors charging in Powered Combat Armor moved faster and hit harder, and the beams from their energy weapons were denser and more refined than before.

Even when they slammed into The Valgari’s heavy corps, they didn’t scatter in a single impact. They bit down and held, grinding out a line on the ground through sheer refusal to break.

Desert Queen Kaelira showed the most obvious change.

Her Tier had reached the early stage of 34 Tier. When that purple-red power erupted out of her, the air around her warped like it was being roasted alive.

Once she punched into the enemy formation, she didn’t slow for even a heartbeat. Fists, flame, and phantom phoenix shapes burst in rotation—like a red-hot blade ramming deep into a dense formation.

Valgari shields cracked one after another. The joints of massive machines were hammered apart by force. Whole chunks of the enemy line were butchered until their formation buckled open.

Wherever she went, she carved a bloody corridor.

Over on Namyanna’s front, it was even uglier.

She hadn’t brought many people with her, but the enemy pressing down on her position outnumbered them by a full thirty to one.

Valgari soldiers and heavy machines advanced in layered waves, almost ready to drown that stretch of the line completely.

But Namyanna didn’t retreat.

She lifted a hand and pulled the surrounding water element into motion. Tidal ocean force rolled up from the low ground of the battlefield, then—drawn by extreme cold—hardened into ice walls, ice blades, and ice chains, barely keeping the enemy locked out.

Every time the enemy punched through her curtain of water, she sealed the gap with frost.

Every time heavy artillery shattered an ice wall, new water surged up from the broken edges.

The most ferocious of them all, though, was Elira.

The little girl spread a pair of enormous Divine Sovereign Moth wings and kept slipping through the chaos. She was insanely fast. Wherever her wings swept, fine specks of light scattered—and then enemies fell in sheets.

Sometimes she dove from above. Sometimes she skimmed low across the ground. Her small figure flashed back and forth through The Valgari ranks, weaving through them like a needle through cloth, and the number of bodies left behind her had long since become impossible to count.

But Ethan didn’t have time to take any of it in.

All of his attention was crushed down onto the Titan Sovereign in front of him.

And beyond that, he had to spare part of his focus to keep an eye on The Dominion overhead.

The massive warship still hung under the sky’s canopy, golden energy flowing across its surface. It could drop another shot at any moment—one powerful enough to flip the entire battle.

Whether it was The Dominion or the Titan Sovereign, both carried strength above 35 Tier.

If either of them cut loose completely, it would be catastrophic for Emerald Castle.

Ethan understood that better than anyone.

He had to finish the Titan Sovereign as fast as possible.

And if he could... he needed to seize control of The Dominion, too.

Otherwise, the outcome didn’t bear thinking about.

He adjusted his breathing—just enough.

Then the energy inside him erupted at full force.

Transparent lightning surged up from under his feet in a spiraling rush. White arcs gathered along his arms, converging between heaven and earth until a gigantic sphere of energy took shape.

It hung in front of him, compressing and spinning nonstop. The power packed inside was so dense the surrounding space began to cave in ever so slightly, like the world was bending away from it.

But Ethan didn’t throw it.

He lifted a hand and slammed that energy sphere straight into his own chest.

Boom!

The instant the power poured into his body, he shattered—his entire form breaking apart into countless grains of black, particle-like matter that vanished into the air.

The Titan Sovereign’s eyes snapped sharp.

"Black particleization!"

For the first time, real surprise colored his voice.

"I truly didn’t expect you to have an ability like this!"

As the words left him, an extremely eerie barrier surfaced around his body.

It wasn’t a normal energy shield. Inside it was terrifying origin power—mixed with something domineering and twisted. The second the barrier formed, the space around him felt sealed shut, like it had been locked. Even the airflow stopped moving.

The black particles that were Ethan seeped in from every direction—

—and the moment they neared that barrier, they were forced back, blocked hard.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

The grains slammed into it again and again, and each impact rippled out a deep, muffled wave.

Power kept rising along the Titan Sovereign’s skin. The barrier pulsed outward with it, shaking as it shoved the particles away over and over.

Rumble—rumble—rumble!

A violent surge spread across the barrier’s surface and blasted outward, scattering Ethan’s black-particle form far, far away.

Ethan tried several more times.

Front-on penetration, slipping in from the side, even hunting for a gap along tiny spatial tears—none of it worked. He couldn’t get into the Titan Sovereign’s body at all.

The bastard clearly understood black particleization inside and out. He’d even built a defense specifically meant to counter that form.

If he couldn’t get in...

Then he’d do it another way.

Ethan condensed back into a solid body and backed off a few steps. The next instant, the power on him detonated—transparent and white lightning twisting together into a savage impact that slammed straight into the Titan Sovereign.

Bang!

The Titan Sovereign was driven back dozens of steps in a straight line.

Before he could stabilize, energy flared again between Ethan’s hands.

Two long swords of transparent lightning condensed into existence in his grip—slender, bright blades with white arcs snapping along their edges nonstop. Ethan locked his hands around both hilts, flashed forward, and charged in.

A trace of gravity crossed the Titan Sovereign’s eyes.

He hadn’t expected Ethan to get blocked on black particleization—and then instantly switch into this level of close-range pressure.

At this point, he didn’t dare slack off for even a second. He retreated several steps in quick succession, and at the same time, a violent sphere of energy formed between his hands.

"Kid," the Titan Sovereign said, staring Ethan down, his voice heavy with pressure, "when it comes to black particleization... I’m the one who started it."

He lifted his chin slightly, cold and contemptuous.

"You think you can use that trick to enter my body and take control of me? Keep dreaming."

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

Rumble—!

Rumble—!

Rumble—!

Violent energy rolled off the Titan Sovereign in endless waves. Golden and red light interwove and spread across the sky like a burning tapestry. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

He hung there, still in his shrunken form, but the oppressive force coming off him was even worse than before.

Power kept pouring out of him into the world around them, as if he meant to pull the entire stretch of space into his own domain.