Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 897: Golden Wings Falling

Back on the surface, inside the dimming purple barrier, the children and the massive black dog waited in taut silence. The protective barrier that had shielded them for so long was slowly thinning, its glow paling with each passing hour. The lake had changed as well. Not a trace of the milky-white mist remained. The water was now clear and transparent, so still it looked like polished glass.

Above it hovered six angels.

They did not glance at the children. They did not shift position or show impatience. They simply floated in formation over the lake, as if whatever mattered lay beneath the surface.

Half a day earlier, one of them had descended into the depths. He had not returned.

Ethan had not resurfaced either.

The so-called experts from the Dark Web, who had once crowded the area to watch and speculate, were long gone. A few hours after the angel went down, they had withdrawn all at once. At first they had remained out of fear, worried that the angel squad would eliminate them to erase witnesses. But when one bold soul quietly slipped away and the angels did nothing, hope replaced fear. Within minutes, the rest scattered like startled rats.

Why linger in a place where forces far beyond them were clashing? Compared to the beings hovering above the lake, those self-proclaimed experts felt like minnows drifting in the path of whales. Staying any longer would have been suicide.

Half a day had passed since they fled. The area was eerily quiet now, save for the distant rumbling of Blackie’s ongoing battle elsewhere. No one inside the shield spoke. All eyes remained fixed on the lake.

As the water grew clearer, their anticipation intensified. If the mist was gone, if the source below had changed, then Ethan had to be coming back soon.

When the angel descended earlier, fear had gripped them. But the big black dog had scoffed, claiming the feathered freak was merely delivering dinner. The children had clung to that strange reassurance.

Ethan himself might not have recognized where the dog came from at first, but the kids had seen it happen. The creature had burst straight out of the branded mark on his arm, the one that always looked like an old burn scar. They had once thought it was nothing more than a symbol, but when it flared and split open, a massive black hound had stepped through as if crossing a doorway.

It bore the mark of an Infernal Hound, yet it had not taken the form of some towering hell beast. It simply appeared as a giant black dog. Its presence alone, however, radiated strength that left no room for doubt.

They remembered the Sea of Death, remembered how Ethan had signed a contract with an Infernal Hound. Back then, the creature had aided him once, mostly because Ethan bribed it with sausages. After that, Ethan had never summoned it again. He had likely forgotten the contract entirely.

But this hound had not forgotten.

It had tracked him across dimensions on its own. No one knew how old it truly was, how many realms it had crossed, or how much it had seen. Compared to the children, it felt ancient.

If it said the angel who went down was just delivering dinner, they believed it.

After all, if Ethan had died, the contract would have snapped. The hound would have been forcibly dragged back to the Demon Realm. The fact that it remained here, lounging within the shield, meant Ethan was alive.

They waited.

Then the dog’s ears twitched. It lifted its head and spoke in a low, certain voice.

"He’s out."

Right then, the lake exploded.

Water blasted skyward as a figure shot up from below like a missile. In his hand he held a milky-white sphere, solid and smooth. From a distance it almost resembled one of the angels’ heads, sculpted in pale stone.

Ethan had seen the six angels hovering above long before he breached the surface. The moment he emerged, they reacted, moving in unison to surround him.

He did not waste a second.

"Catch."

With a casual flick of his arm, he hurled the white sphere at one of them.

That angel had already raised his golden greatsword, prepared to strike the instant Ethan appeared. But when he saw the object flying toward him, he adjusted instinctively. He halted his swing mid-motion and reached out to seize it.

The instant his fingers closed around the sphere, Ethan’s lips curled.

The explosion was instantaneous.

The milky-white head shattered into powder, erupting into a dense cloud that engulfed the air like a bag of cement torn open mid-flight. Visibility vanished.

At the very moment it detonated, Ethan moved.

From outside the cloud, all the children heard were screams and the heavy thud of impacts, followed by the unmistakable splatter of liquid striking the lake below. Golden droplets rained down through the haze.

The chaos inside the cloud did not last long.

When the dust dispersed, two angels fell from the sky.

Their bodies struck the lake and disappeared beneath the surface without resurfacing.

The powdery cloud thinned and vanished. Four angels remained, suspended before Ethan.

He hovered in midair as if the sky itself supported him. In each hand he gripped a severed wing, feathers soaked in luminous gold. Blood dripped steadily from them, staining the lake below with shimmering streaks.

"Wow! Brother is so strong!" Luna bounced in place, her eyes sparkling.

The other children could barely contain themselves. Even Yaya, usually quiet and gentle, was smiling so brightly she looked ready to leap into the air.

A loud slurp cut through the cheers.

"Hey, kid. Those wings for me? I want to eat them."

The massive black dog tilted its head up and shouted shamelessly.

Ethan heard him clearly. He glanced down and laughed.

"Still such a glutton. Fine. I’ll grab you a few more. We’ll roast them properly."

He flung the two wings like spinning discs toward the shield.

"YES!"

The dog burst through the fading purple barrier without hesitation, leaping high and snapping both wings out of the air in one clean motion. It landed heavily, already chewing.

Ethan shook his head, amused. The brand on his shoulder had vanished completely. The connection was undeniable now. This was the same gluttonous Infernal Hound from before, just wearing a more restrained shape.

"I’m helping too!"

Luna darted forward. As she ran, her small body transformed mid-stride, light bending around her until she became a spear of brilliant silver, streaking toward Ethan.

He extended his hand.

The Twilight War Spear shot to him faster than thought, as if space itself had shortened the distance. It slammed into his palm with perfect alignment.

For a brief moment, he simply stood there in the air as the surrounding space seemed to tremble faintly.

"Huh?"

Even Ethan frowned.

He looked down at the spear. Something was different. He could not immediately define it, but the weapon felt heavier in his grip. Before, it had always been lighter than a feather to him, perfectly balanced, almost weightless. Now, despite his body having grown far stronger, the spear carried a subtle heft.

He had no time to analyze it.

He had just ambushed and eliminated two angels in seconds. Four remained.

One of them stood out.

They were all two-winged, their blood golden, their exteriors pure white. But this one bore a single golden stripe running through each wing, like a mark of rank. The aura around him was steadier and denser.

Obviously their leader.

"You feathered freaks," Ethan began, tightening his grip on the spear. He had intended to demand the location of their nest or whatever their base was called..

But before he could finish the sentence, all four angels froze and their movements halted mid-air.

Their eyes turned that same sickly yellow-white he had seen underwater.

It was the sign of death.

"What the hell?"

Even Ethan was caught off guard.

Below, the Infernal Hound stopped chewing and barked upward urgently. "Don’t just stand there! Grab the wings! No wings, no dinner!"