Ethan saw it, and his eyes lit up.

The Dragon God’s power worked on this guy.

Not only did it work—it was hitting harder than Ethan had expected.

Caldrath might be an Abyssal Dragon, and he might be a terrifying 36 Tier, but as long as his essence was still dragon, there was no way he could completely ignore the pressure of the Dragon God bloodline. That thick barrier around him... it wasn’t really to block Ethan’s attacks.

It was to fight off the wobble in his own bloodline instincts.

Ethan pushed his Bloodline Power higher.

The Dragon God phantom’s claw slowly opened. Golden light spread from its palm, and the already-shattered space around them continued collapsing backward, as if reality itself was making room.

Above the city, Korvath and the soldiers all looked up, faces locked in disbelief.

They saw Caldrath trembling.

And they saw Ethan—using nothing but a bloodline phantom—forcing that terrifying existence to raise a defense.

Ethan was about to pour out every last drop of Bloodline Power he had left—

When Caldrath’s aura exploded.

The heavy barrier swelled outward from the inside. Storm and Venom surged free first, then Forest, Wrath, Chaos, and Demonic Power followed, spilling out in a rolling wave. Six forces twisted together across the sky, wrapping around the half-formed energy sphere above, and swallowing Caldrath’s massive silhouette.

He wasn’t just trembling anymore.

Greed—lunatic, starving greed—flared in his eyes.

"I really didn’t expect this."

Caldrath lowered his head, staring at the Dragon God phantom in Ethan’s hand like it was the only thing left in the world.

"You... actually have Dragon God power this strong."

His voice turned thick and distorted, like a dragon’s roar fused with a demon’s whisper. Each word hit the air, and space shuddered in response.

"If that’s the case... then I’ll be taking your Bloodline Power for myself!"

The moment the words left his mouth, Caldrath fell completely into madness.

Power poured off him in an endless flood, almost blanketing the entire sky. Storm became a rolling tempest. Venom dyed the surrounding energy streams sickly green. Forest ripped life-force straight up from deep underground. Wrath and Chaos tore open massive cracks in midair. And Demonic Power coiled behind him like black fire, licking and twisting around his back.

Those forces didn’t scatter.

They orbited Caldrath, spinning tighter and tighter—until they all pressed down toward Ethan’s position.

The sky was sealed shut.

Caldrath stared at Ethan, the hunger in his eyes now stronger than any anger. He wasn’t just trying to kill Ethan anymore. He wasn’t just trying to reclaim the battlefield.

He wanted to steal the Dragon God bloodline inside Ethan.

Ethan froze in midair, his pupils contracting inch by inch.

The six forces Caldrath had unleashed kept surging overhead—Storm churning the clouds, Venom staining the flow of power green, Forest dragging life from the earth’s depths, Wrath and Chaos shredding the edges of space, Demonic Power winding around that colossal energy sphere like black flame.

The pressure was crushing.

Ethan understood it too clearly: if Caldrath fully drove that sphere down, the city, Emerald Castle’s army— even the spatial passage they’d only just stabilized—could all be dragged into catastrophic energy turbulence and wiped out.

He didn’t have time to hesitate.

Ethan forced his mind steady. Translucent lightning surged out from every part of his body. Violet runes flared along the wings on his back. The leftover golden glow of the Dragon God bloodline was compressed into his palm.

The different forces gathered fast in the air, condensing into a massive energy sphere of his own.

Inside it, power churned violently. The outer layer was translucent lightning. The middle was braided with violet runes. And at its deepest core, Infernal Primordial Power throbbed—heavy, dark, and ready to break loose.

Ethan lifted his hand and slammed it forward, hurling the sphere straight at the one Caldrath had condensed.

The two energy spheres collided high in the sky.

The explosion didn’t erupt right away. Instead, an insanely distorted layer of energy formed at the point of contact—like the air there had been kneaded, twisted, and crushed into a single trembling sheet. Caldrath’s Storm, Venom, Forest, Wrath, Chaos, and Demonic Power pressed downward without pause, while Ethan’s translucent lightning and Infernal Primordial Power tore outward from the inside.

The forces tangled, ripped, devoured.

Neither side managed to overwhelm the other immediately.

The sky above the city was forced lower and lower, as if the heavens were collapsing. On the walls, the soldiers had to hunch over, planting their weapons into the stone just to keep from being driven to their knees. Korvath stared up at the deadlocked mass, his face going pale. He could feel it—if those two powers lost control, the entire city would be torn apart.

As the stalemate deepened, a cold jolt suddenly shivered through Ethan’s body.

It wasn’t something he’d called up.

A bizarre presence woke from deep inside him, like something sleeping in the dark had opened its eyes.

Then—

Snow-white lightning burst from within him, exploding outward and racing across his arm, his shoulders, his chest, and the wings on his back.

Caldrath’s pupils snapped wide.

The six forces he’d spread across the sky dimmed noticeably. Even the massive sphere he’d been forcing downward hesitated the instant that snow-white lightning appeared.

"The Infernal Abyss... imperial power?"

For the first time, Caldrath’s voice shook.

"How do you have something like that?"

Ethan didn’t answer.

Not because he didn’t want to—because he couldn’t.

He’d lost control of his body.

Snow-white lightning wrapped him completely. His translucent lightning was dragged inward, compressed, then fused into the snow-white current little by little. Ethan could still feel his own consciousness, still see and hear everything... but it was like he’d been shoved deep inside himself, forced to watch as that power took the wheel.

"Heh."

A laugh—cool, ruthless, and overflowing with dominance—rolled across heaven and earth.

"You brat... you got this strong already." Lily’s voice rang out, amused and sharp. "Looks like you didn’t waste the time I gave you."

The instant her voice landed, the entire sky seemed to answer with a roar.

Caldrath’s breathing turned ragged. The greed in his eyes vanished without a trace, replaced by fear he couldn’t hide no matter how hard he tried.

"Impossible."

He stared at Ethan, now cocooned in snow-white lightning, and his massive frame actually backed away.

"How can a tiny world like this... have power like that?!"

Ethan’s gaze started to blur.

He could feel Lily’s strength climbing inside him, rising in waves. Before, the lightning she released had been a stark, harsh white—cold, razor-edged, carrying the pressure of pure destruction.

Now it was brighter. Cleaner. Snow-white.

And inside that snow-white glare, there was a faint softness.

But it wasn’t weaker.

It was terrifying—several times stronger than before. It wasn’t just destruction anymore. It carried a deeper sense of control, like it could decide what should exist and what should be erased. The translucent lightning in Ethan’s body responded to it, as if it had finally found a higher source, and willingly fused into the snow-white current.

A power unlike anything before spread outward.

The sky was drowned in snow-white thunderlight.

Caldrath didn’t dare clash head-on anymore.

His aura detonated to its limit as he turned and fled, his huge body retreating in a blur. Storm and Chaos tore at space behind him, ripping open an escape path. Demonic Power wrapped around him like a cloak. In the span of a blink, he was already racing toward the horizon.

He was about to break out of the area covered by thunderlight—

When an invisible barrier appeared in front of him.

Caldrath slammed into it.

The barrier didn’t break.

The snow-white lightning clinging to it drilled into him from the impact point, burrowing through his scales, his flesh, and his energy pathways. Caldrath convulsed violently. The Demonic Power around his chest was ripped open into a gaping hole, and even his Storm and Venom were cleaved apart, their flow instantly destabilized.

"You trash that crawled out of the Infernal Abyss."

The voice came again.

This time it carried Lily’s chill—and Ethan’s presence layered beneath it. The two overlapped into something domineering enough to make the whole world tremble.

"You’re nothing but a stray dog."

"And you still dared to come here and play king?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?"

Caldrath’s arrogance evaporated.

His power began to collapse. The six attributes that had blanketed the sky were crushed bit by bit under the snow-white lightning. Storm stopped churning. Venom was purified into dull gray-green smoke. Forest’s life aura was severed at the root. And the rifts torn open by Wrath and Chaos were sealed shut by the thunderlight, welded closed as if they’d never existed.