Ethan was about to start charging the next cycle of the ultimate annihilation cannon when Anya suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Ethan, these guys are disgusting. We can’t let them off that easy."She looked up at him, eyes blazing. "I’m going out there—I’m killing them."

Ethan froze for a beat.

Just a little while ago, she’d been scared by those invisible remnants. Now she was practically vibrating with battle intent, no hesitation at all. The shift was so fast it even caught him off guard.

But before he could answer, Anya moved on her own.

She popped the nearby hatch and turned into a red streak, shooting out.

The moment the hatch opened, violent energy burst off her body. Bright red light flooded the sky around the ship, followed by domineering red lightning that spread outward in wave after wave, blanketing the already-chaotic high void all over again.

Seeing that, Ethan stopped firing and shut down the warship’s weapons systems completely.

He didn’t move far from the fight. He stayed inside the ship, eyes locked on every change outside.

The survivors out there were already terrified beyond reason.

That ultimate cannon blast had been too horrifying. Even without taking the beam head-on, they’d all been hit by the aftereffects to different degrees. Some had split skin and fresh blood still on them. Some had chaotic energy circulation and couldn’t stabilize even a basic protective layer. More than that—every single aura had noticeably weakened, and even their internal cores looked dim.

In that state, whatever power they could still force out wasn’t going to be much.

And Anya had already plunged into the middle of them.

She hung in the void, bright red radiance spreading around her in constant waves.

Residual energy, thunder fluctuations in the air, even the shock aftertremors from the earlier battle that hadn’t fully dispersed yet—all of it got dragged back toward her. In moments, a massive energy vortex formed with her at its center.

It spun faster and faster, grew larger and larger, until it carried a suffocating pressure—and then it smashed downward into the crowd. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Ethan’s pupils tightened.

That thing wasn’t "a ball of energy" anymore.

Bright red lightning coiled around the outer layers, while deeper, heavier waves were crushed into the center—so dense the space around the warship began humming under the pull.

What bothered Ethan even more was what he sensed mixed inside.

A thick, unmistakable trace of Infernal Abyss energy.

If that fully detonated, it wouldn’t just erase the people down there. It might wipe out the entire area with them.

Earlier, he’d only unintentionally assimilated part of Anya’s internal power.

Now he was watching her drive that same power to a ridiculous extreme.

The next instant, the vortex dropped into the center of the group.

No pause.

The red glare gathered overhead sank sharply—then collapsed inward, and detonated outward from the core.

Blood-red lightning burst along the vortex’s rim in stacked rings. Electric current and Infernal Abyss energy mixed together into a near-apocalyptic storm that swallowed the attackers whole.

The first ones caught didn’t even get a full scream out.

The moment their bodies touched the outer edge, dense sparks erupted across their skin. Flesh, bone, protective layers—everything was ground down in layers. A chain of sizzling detonations snapped through the void, like countless tiny thunderbolts striking at once.

Within moments, most of them couldn’t hold on. Bodies shattered into fragments inside the storm, not even leaving complete remains behind.

Light flared in Ethan’s eyes.

He could see it clearly—Anya still wasn’t using everything inside her. She’d only just gotten control; her circulation and output weren’t anywhere near the true ceiling yet.

And even so, the destructive power was already this insane.

If she ever fully developed it... in Emerald Castle, she’d be a real war asset.

But before Ethan could fully exhale, the situation flipped.

The leader suddenly let out a shout.

There was no greed left in it—only the madness of someone staring straight into the end.

Then the blood-red gemstone in the center of his forehead tore free from flesh and floated into the air.

The moment it separated, the surrounding air felt like it got slammed down by something. Then an extremely violent force exploded outward with the gem as the center, crashing in all directions.

The instant that aura surfaced, even Ethan felt his chest sink.

He didn’t have time to think.

His body flickered—gone from where he’d been. At the same time, he yanked the remaining violent energy inside the ship into his hand, compressing and condensing it into an extremely unstable energy sphere.

The moment the sphere formed, dense fracture-lines trembled across its surface, and blinding light kept trying to punch its way out from within.

Ethan didn’t hesitate.

He snapped his arm forward and hurled that unstable energy sphere straight at the blood-red gemstone.

Boom!

The two forces collided head-on in midair.

Anya jumped at the sudden turn.

She’d been standing near the edge of the vortex’s fading blast. The moment she felt the gemstone’s aura spiraling out of control, she retreated several steps and pulled all her power up at once.

Blood-red energy spilled outward from her body, forming a thick shield that wrapped her completely inside.

But the shockwave from the gemstone’s clash with Ethan’s attack was simply too violent.

This wasn’t an ordinary aftershock. It was a layered, grinding wave of destructive force rolling outward again and again.

Anya’s freshly formed crimson barrier held for only a moment before dense cracks began crawling over it—one after another—like it would be torn open any second.

Ethan’s brows tightened.

He immediately split off part of his power. Transparent energy spread from his palm and wrapped around Anya, coating the outside of her blood-red shield in a second layer.

With the two forces pressed together, the spreading cracks finally got forced down. The barrier stabilized again.

Only then did Ethan let out the smallest breath.

But he didn’t stop.

In the next instant, his power surged fully.

Transparent lightning exploded outward from his feet. The warship’s leftover violent energy braided with his own in midair, compressing hard toward a single point—until it stretched into a massive Energy Greatsword in his hand.

It wasn’t physical metal, but it carried more pressure than any real blade.

The sword body was energy crushed to the absolute limit, arcs constantly snapping off its edges. Its white-bright glare turned the surrounding void a cold blue.

Ethan gripped the hilt, drove forward, and—without any flourish—brought the blade down in a single brutal smash.

The edge fell toward the leader’s shoulder.

The man felt it. The terror on his face finally broke through completely.

He’d hoped the gemstone’s eruption would let him flip the table—but when that sword pressed down on him for real, he realized Ethan’s power was stronger than he’d imagined, more domineering, and far more unreasonable.

But there was nowhere left to run.

The leader snarled and forced both hands up, catching the falling Energy Greatsword.

The instant his palms met the blade, heat and current ripped his flesh open. Blood spilled down his hands in sheets, but he still held on, eyes burning red as he glared at Ethan.

"Who the hell are you?!" he practically screamed. "How can the energy you control be this strong?!"

Ethan only stared back, ice-cold.

Then he pushed his output higher.

"You don’t even know who I am, and you still dared to come after me." His voice wasn’t loud, but every word landed like a weight. "You’re tired of living. If I don’t scatter your soul today, I won’t be able to swallow this anger."

As the last word fell, the Energy Greatsword surged again.

The man had barely been holding it back—but as Ethan continued pressing down, the blade still sank into him inch by inch.

First it split the shoulder.

Then it drove into the chest cavity. Violent energy poured into the wound, tearing through flesh and protective force layer after layer.

And then—

It detonated.

The Energy Greatsword, embedded inside him, exploded from within.

Energy compressed to the extreme burst outward through his body. Shoulder, chest, back—his entire swollen frame tore open at the same time.

The blast was too brutal. It didn’t just destroy his body.

Even the soul-wave clinging to that body was ripped apart with it.

In a single instant, the man was erased completely.