Marlon fought with absolute seriousness. As the leader, he had taken it upon himself to make sure no one under his command died. The reason wasn’t purely sentimental either. He needed every single one of them alive, especially the Stellar Pathos and Lunar Pathos because of their special abilities.

In this situation, however, the Lunar Pathos were at a severe disadvantage. Their abilities specialized in psychic and spiritual attacks but the colossal stone titans either possessed extremely powerful mental defenses or no spirit at all—likely a combination of both—as not even Orion could pierce their minds.

As a result, the Lunar Pathos could only focus on fleeing and evading the titans’ catastrophic attacks.

And right now, Marlon had to protect them.

"Marlon, behind you!" Orion barked.

At that exact moment, Marlon had just shattered a titan’s axe with a devastating aetheric punch. Reacting instantly to the warning, he spun around and saw a massive arrow only a few meters away from him.

His eyes narrowed sharply.

The attack was too close to dodge. At that distance, avoiding it was impossible, and he was already prepared to let [Prince of Death]’s immortal effect handle the damage.

But just then, a shadow pit suddenly appeared in front of him and swallowed the massive arrow whole in a split second.

A moment later, the same arrow emerged above the axe-wielding titan whose weapon Marlon had destroyed. It retained every bit of its terrifying momentum as it shot downward violently.

The titan reacted but it was a split second too late and the arrow slammed into its right arm and blasted off a massive chunk of stone.

Marlon quickly traced the source of the interference and spotted Nox several meters away. He gave him a brief nod of acknowledgment before charging forward to finish off the crippled titan.

Without its weapon and with its right arm heavily damaged, the titan became far easier to handle.

Several minutes later, the massive axe-wielding titan was slaughtered.

Its enormous body collapsed apart into thousands of massive rocks, as though the force binding them together had suddenly been destroyed. The debris piled into a towering mound beneath Marlon.

[ You’ve slain x1 Terragon.

EXP +79,000,000 ]

[ Death Reaper active. You’ve obtained 3,250,000 Aether Points and 1,300,000 Health Points ]

[ Aether Points: 8,250,000 / 25,000,000 ]

[ Health Points: 2,300,000 / 5,000,000 ]

Marlon glanced through the notifications briefly before turning his attention back to the titan’s remains.

Something was glowing deep within the center of the shattered corpse. Just as he was about to reach in and retrieve it, two titans rushed him simultaneously such that he had to retaliated instantly.

[Beastamina] kept his body active despite the insane strain from attacking, defending, and moving at full capacity. With [Aetheric Punch] active as well, he had no fear of exhausting his aether reserves and could fight completely without restraint.

On top of that, the darkness surrounding the battlefield activated [Lunar Charge], granting him a subtle but effective increase in overall combat ability.

In this battle, he didn’t even need to rely on his absurdly overpowered skill, [Prince of Death], to dominate the fight.

The same could not be said for the others.

Solan teamed up with his fellow solar Pathos as they used their raging flame and heat abilities to fight back.

Liora and two fellow Stellar Pathos had been cornered by a pair of titans. Although the stone creatures displayed no facial expressions, the three of them could practically feel the malicious intent radiating from the giants as they prepared to crush them.

Liora quickly turned toward her teammates.

Using a series of hand signals, she relayed her intentions, and the two instantly understood.

All three of them retrieved different magical crystals from their storage rings before bringing their hands together.

Using a combined [Stellar Infusion], they began creating something capable of escaping their current predicament.

A blinding pillar of light erupted around them and rapidly expanded upward until it rivaled the height of a titan.

A violent gust of wind swept across the battlefield.

Then the light vanished.

In its place stood a tremendous steel creature.

Its body was forged from reinforced steel that emitted a faint glow even within the suffocating darkness of the vicinity. Intricate lines stretched across its entire frame, each glowing with different colors before converging at the center of its chest, where a massive bulging compartment rested.

Inside the compartment, Liora and the others stared at the two titans ahead of them before performing several synchronized hand movements that appeared to issue commands to the giant construct.

[ A/N: Would’ve loved to call it a mech, but I think Forged Titan fits it better ]

Responding to their silent command, the forged titan pulled back its right arm, charged up power into the fist, and unleashed a devastating punch toward the two colossal stone titans, who still seemed stunned by its sudden appearance.

BOOM!

The impact disrupted their footing instantly.

Both titans staggered backward, causing the ground beneath them to quake violently.

Liora and the other Stellar Pathos immediately followed up with another command, prompting the forged titan to press forward aggressively and continue driving the two giants back.

However, a single attack from the forged titan consumed nearly five percent of their total aether reserves.

Because of that, they had no choice but to remain perfectly coordinated, carefully planning every attack before executing it so they wouldn’t waste unnecessary energy.

Even then, defeating a titan with barely two dozen attacks was impossible.

Eventually, just as they prepared to dismantle the forged titan and retreat to replenish their aether reserves, one of the two immobile crowned stone titans casually lifted its hand.

Dark energy spread instantly.

The entire forged titan was swallowed beneath a veil of pitch-black power.

The energy carried an abominable effect.

The forged titan began shrinking. Its massive body rapidly compressed from its original titanic form down to the size of an ordinary adult human.

The moment it became human-sized, a terrifying pulling force dragged it violently toward the crowned titan’s open mouth.

Within the titan’s mouth was a swirling vortex of darkness. The miniature forged titan was sucked straight into it and devoured in a single gulp.

The crowned titan’s eyes glowed faintly the moment it consumed the construct. But only briefly.

Soon, it returned to its original nonchalant posture and shifted its attention away from the Stellar Pathos.

Together with its partner, it resumed watching Marlon.