The world changed.

The instant Kyrian fully unleashed the power of the Bone of the Heavens, he felt something impossible to describe, a sensation that transcended any previous experience.

It was as if his consciousness had expanded.

As if he no longer existed solely within the limits of his body, confined by flesh and bone. As if his boundaries had dissolved, allowing his perception to spread beyond his skin.

The fire. The heat. The magma. The fiery Qi spread across miles.

All of it seemed to be part of him. Or perhaps it was the opposite. Perhaps he had become part of it.

His spine pulsed violently, not the calm and rhythmic pulse from before, but a powerful throbbing, like the heart of an ancient beast awakening from a millennia-long slumber.

Each beat sent invisible waves through the surroundings. The air trembled. The ground vibrated. Even the light itself seemed to distort around Kyrian.

Around his body, absurd quantities of fire Qi began to gather.

They were not entering his meridians. They were not being absorbed by his cores. They were simply... orbiting his body.

Like stars around a sun. Like servants gathering before a king. The air became heavy.

So heavy that the four leaders found it difficult to breathe.

Every inhalation was an effort. Every exhalation was a relief. The pressure surrounding Kyrian was so intense that it felt like an invisible hand squeezing their lungs.

The old spear-wielder widened his eyes.

His spiritual sense screamed danger. Mortal danger.

The Qi gathered around Kyrian was so dense that it already surpassed the presence of any one of them individually.

No. It surpassed all of them combined.

It was like witnessing a mid or high-stage Spiritual Awakening cultivator, one of those figures none of them would dare challenge.

"That’s impossible..."

Muttered the axe-wielder, his voice faltering.

The swordsman was pale, so pale that his cheeks seemed to have lost all color.

The saber-wielder gripped the handle of his weapon so tightly that his knuckles turned white, tendons bulging beneath his skin.

Then...

The volcano roared.

’BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!’

The sound seemed to split the heavens.

The entire mountain shook, not a light tremor, but a violent earthquake that sent rocks tumbling down the slopes and opened cracks throughout the ground.

Gigantic fissures appeared around the crater, spreading outward like cosmic spiderwebs. Some were several meters wide. Others dozens.

Seconds later...

The magma erupted.

A colossal pillar of lava shot upward, not dozens of meters, but hundreds. The flow surged toward the sky like an incandescent spear, illuminating the entire region with a red-orange blaze.

The sky turned crimson instantly.

Molten rocks flew in every direction, some the size of fists, others the size of wagons. A rain of fire began to fall upon the region.

And then came the second explosion. Then the third. Then the fourth.

The Great Volcano erupted. Completely.

Like an ancient beast awakening from a millennia-long slumber, hungry, furious, alive.

The sea of magma began overflowing down the mountainsides.

Descending the mountain like rivers of fire.

Devouring everything in its path.

Rocks melted. Ash ignited. The very air seemed to burn.

The four leaders felt their blood run cold.

Because the lava was not flowing randomly.

It was not following the natural pull of gravity, spreading in every direction as it should have.

It was moving toward them.

Like an army obeying orders. Like a living tide.

’We can’t wait any longer!’ the old man immediately transmitted through his spiritual sense, his mental voice filled with urgency.

’Kill him now! Use everything you have!’

’If we give him a few more seconds, we’ll die!’

The other three agreed instantly.

None of them were fools. They had all seen enough.

That young man was not normal. Perhaps he never had been. Perhaps from the very beginning they had provoked a monster.

But now it was too late. Only killing remained.

The four figures vanished.

Movement techniques activated simultaneously, each leader using his finest movement art, the one reserved for moments of life and death.

The ground exploded beneath their feet, craters opening where they had stood.

Their speeds doubled. Then doubled again.

The old man charged from the front, his black spear glowing with compressed Qi, crimson runes pulsing along the shaft.

The axe-wielder came from the right, his twin blades spinning in a deadly pattern, every rotation slicing through the air with a sharp hum.

The swordsman attacked from the left, his straight sword shining with a bluish light, a precision technique capable of piercing any defense.

The saber-wielder came from behind, his curved blade covered in crimson flames, the heat distorting the air around it.

Four perfect attacks.

Four different angles.

No openings.

No possibility of escape.

Kyrian saw everything.

His eyes, those orange eyes with crimson flames dancing within the pupils, analyzed every movement.

But he also understood something.

He would not be able to dodge. The four attacks covered every direction with a speed far beyond anything they had used before. Kyrian could not evade that speed.

There was no room for a sidestep. No room for a jump. No room for a spin.

Nor could he block.

Four Spiritual Awakening specialists. Four high-quality spiritual weapons. Four synchronized attacks.

Even with his reinforced bones, even with his enhanced resilience...

He would not survive taking those strikes.

But he was not worried.

Because at that moment...

The world was his ally.

The four attacks were about to reach him.

The old man could already taste victory, his spear mere inches from Kyrian’s chest.

The axe-wielder was already smiling.

The swordsman was already planning his next move.

The saber-wielder was already anticipating the impact.

Then...

Kyrian’s body vanished.

Simply vanished.

There was no movement technique. No burst of speed. No spatial displacement.

One moment he was there.

The next moment, he was not.

The leaders’ eyes widened.

"Where?!"

The four attacks struck only empty space.

The resulting explosion, the collision of four Spiritual Awakening techniques converging upon the same point, was cataclysmic.

A shockwave spread in every direction.

Dozens of meters of the mountain were destroyed. Rocks were pulverized. Craters opened.

Ash spread like a deadly cloud.

But Kyrian was no longer there.