Ethan tucked the willow strands away and let out a slow breath.

At this point, he didn’t have a choice.

He didn’t care where this guy came from or how many elements he was juggling—if he kept letting him pour power out like that, Emerald Castle’s army and the entire battlefield around them would get dragged in.

So Ethan had to take him down first.

Power began surging out of Ethan’s body. White lightning flared along his arms, and the shattered deck under his feet kept sinking under the pressure of it.

But right as he was about to move, a lazy voice drifted up from deep inside him.

"Didn’t expect to see a servant of The Infernal Abyss in a place like this."

The tone was familiar—slouching, casual—yet it carried a thrill that was almost impossible to hide.

"This thing is a huge meal for both of us. Hand the body over to me. Now."

Ethan’s eyes flicked.

He didn’t even have time to answer before Lily’s power flooded out from his core.

It didn’t clash with his white lightning.

It simply spread—riding his meridians, sinking into bone and blood—then seized control of his body like it had always belonged there.

Ethan’s awareness stayed awake. He could still sense the world.

He just couldn’t command his limbs anymore.

In the next instant, the aura around him changed completely.

The white lightning that had been swirling around him turned purer—cleaner—yet it picked up a cold, alluring, almost demonic edge. This wasn’t a normal power-up.

It felt like the same body had been occupied by a different soul.

Ethan’s eyes went lazy. The corner of his mouth lifted. Even the way he stood shifted—suddenly elegant in a dangerous way, the kind of calm that made your skin crawl.

The expert in the sky changed color.

He’d been ready to slam the strange stone’s power down, but the moment that abnormal aura rose off Ethan, his arm froze midair. The elemental halos under his feet stuttered out of rhythm.

He stared at Ethan—

then actually backed up several steps.

"That’s impossible." For the first time, his voice held real uncertainty. "How does a little human like you have this kind of power?"

Ethan lifted his head.

More accurately, Lily—wearing Ethan—lifted her head.

Snow-white lightning slid off his shoulders and looped lazily around his wrist. Lily looked at him the way you’d look at spoils that had finally been delivered to your doorstep.

"You’re just a minor servant of The Infernal Abyss," she said in Ethan’s voice, but the cadence was entirely different—drawling, lazy, and laced with an icy superiority. "You don’t get to talk to me."

She tilted her head slightly.

"I’ll give you two choices. Hand over your power yourself... or I kill you and pull out your energy core."

The man’s pupils contracted.

He clearly hadn’t expected the Ethan who’d just been trading blows with the willow man to turn into this in the span of a breath.

And the pressure wasn’t coming from raw energy output.

It was deeper than that—like a gap in rank, in existence itself. Even the power inside the strange stone in his hand became sluggish the moment that snow-white lightning appeared.

Before he could pull his elements back together, Ethan’s figure vanished from where he stood.

Snow-white lightning ripped through the air, skipping the distance between them like it didn’t exist.

In the next instant, Ethan appeared right in front of him and clamped a hand onto his shoulder. Where Lily’s fingers landed, the elemental light shattered instantly—and a crisp cracking sound rang out from deep inside the bone.

Violent force poured through Ethan’s palm and into the man’s body.

"AAAH—!"

A piercing scream tore across the sky.

The man’s mixed elemental powers tried to surge up in retaliation—

only to be ground to pieces layer by layer by the snow-white lightning, then forcibly stripped away.

Flames died.

Cold scattered.

Storm-wind was shredded into thin, broken currents.

That heavy earth-yellow glow dimmed rapidly, like someone had blown soot across a lamp.

Deep in his chest, his energy core began to thrash. Fine fractures raced across its surface, one after another.

His body folded forward, trembling. Both hands clutched Ethan’s arm, but he couldn’t pry it loose.

"What... are you?" he gritted out, his voice warping under pain. "That’s the power of an Infernal Abyss king—how the hell do you control it?"

Lily didn’t answer.

Snow-white lightning surged out of Ethan completely, flooding down the man’s shoulder into his chest, then spreading from the chest into his limbs like a tide.

The remaining elemental power inside him was crushed back toward his core. In the next instant, the lightning detonated from within—

and his body was blown into pieces.

Flesh and splintered energy-light scattered across the air.

Ethan’s hand snapped forward. From the exploding wreckage, he forcibly tore out an energy core.

It was a snow-white crystal.

Its surface was pristine, almost too clean, but an eerie power flowed inside it. It wasn’t like an ordinary core—bright and straightforward. This one carried a deep, sinking pull, like if you stared at it too long, your mind would slide right in.

Ethan immediately opened the system and scanned the white crystal.

The data popped up fast.

What this crystal contained was pure Infernal Primordial Power.

No wonder Lily had been so excited.

Ethan had barely finished reading the system’s result when Lily—still controlling his body—lifted his hand and slammed the white crystal hard into his chest.

The instant it touched, the power inside it was fully triggered. Snow-white light burst from Ethan’s chest and spread outward, flowing through flesh into every limb and bone.

A force so dense it felt almost sticky poured into him.

Ethan could feel it clearly—the Infernal Primordial Power was filling every gap he’d burned out in the fight, patching the hollow places he’d just emptied.

It carried that familiar sense of danger.

And yet it fit him with frightening precision, like a weapon he’d once wielded being returned to his grip.

Lily’s voice sounded again, this time thick with satisfaction.

"So damn good... been a long time since I’ve felt that."

Her tone turned even lazier than before—yet somehow even more thrilled.

"Go find them. I want as many of these gems brought in front of me as possible. I’m going to sleep for a while, but I’ll leave my power with you..."

She paused, like the decision bored her.

"Use it however you want."

As the words faded, Lily’s presence began to retreat.

When Ethan finally regained full control, the snow-white light in his chest was still pulsing. That power remained inside him—it didn’t vanish with Lily’s withdrawal.

He clenched his hand.

Snow-white lightning slipped between his fingers. It brushed the air, and fine, hairline patterns split open—like the world’s surface had been lightly scored.

A thrill rose in Ethan’s eyes.

This wasn’t his first time holding this kind of power.

Last time he used it, he destroyed an entire world.