Chapter 1380: The Crimson Roar
Valric looked up at the figures in the distance.
Threads surged from his back once more, weaving into a pair of wings that carried him into the sky. At the same time, the power stored within him poured outward. Crushing pressure descended over the entire mine, driving the fine sand across the ground away from him.
Once he had risen high enough, Valric looked down over the Bingling Mine.
Crystals along its edges glittered in the sunlight, their scattered reflections shining in his eyes. Open greed gradually filled those mindless golden pupils.
Then he threw back his head, his chest expanding.
"ROAR—!"
The sound tore through the sky and spread across the plains.
The mine trembled. The piercing, heavy roar bored into everyone’s mind. Even after Valric closed his mouth, it continued echoing through their consciousness, making it hard to breathe.
Hidden among the black particles, Ethan quietly observed him.
Just one roar?
That was it?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when cries of agony began rising from across the plains.
There were only a few at first. Then more and more joined them. They came from every direction, some deep and others shrill, but all eventually turned into mindless howls. The overlapping voices sounded like a horde of beasts awakening across the plains.
Elsewhere in the sky, Eldran was still advancing through Elira’s attack.
The laser gathered before her chest hammered against his defenses, melting through layer after layer of golden threads. Higher above, Andona maintained her shield against the spear Eldran had thrown, allowing Elira to focus entirely on her attack.
It wasn’t long before the agonized howls reached them.
Eldran stepped onto a newly formed thread stair, then paused. Beneath his armor, his eyes began to change. The pupils that had still held some reason were gradually swallowed by gold.
Elira’s laser bore down on him from the front.
Eldran dropped his defenses.
Every thread making up the shield scattered, and the red beam struck him without resistance. His armor rapidly turned red. Several joints melted apart, exposing flesh that broke down under the intense heat.
Eldran didn’t dodge.
He raised his head and roared just as Valric had. The blast of sound burst from within his armor, snapping the nearby thread stairs. At the same time, both his armor and the threads in his hand began changing color. The gold rapidly faded as a darker, heavier shade spread across their surfaces.
The same transformation was sweeping through the main battlefield in the distance.
Emerald Castle’s forces had already driven the Immortal Kingdom’s soldiers into a narrow area. Shields and weapons closed in layer by layer, forcing the enemy toward the center of the encirclement.
But the moment Valric’s roar reached the battlefield, every trapped soldier froze.
They lowered their heads as their shoulders and arms began trembling uncontrollably. Bones shifted and metal buckled inside their armor. Their heavy breathing gradually turned into growls.
One pair of eyes after another became dark red.
The Immortal Kingdom’s soldiers dropped their spears. Their empty hands began to deform. Armor and flesh split together as sharp blades grew from the outer edges of their forearms.
Then they counterattacked the Emerald Castle lines.
Their arm blades struck shields and weapons, and the impact forced the front ranks backward. The tightened encirclement was torn open, shifting the balance of the battlefield.
High above, Valric watched with satisfaction.
The golden threads extending from his arm had turned completely bloodred. They twisted together and continued to lengthen until a barbed crimson whip formed in his hand.
A dark figure re-formed behind him.
Ethan emerged from the cloud of black particles and hurled an energy sphere the instant he appeared. White lightning raced across its surface as it shot toward Valric’s back.
Sensing the energy behind him, Valric turned and lashed out with the crimson whip.
Crack!
The tip struck the center of the energy sphere with perfect accuracy.
The white sphere split in half, both pieces streaking past Valric on either side. But the divided energy didn’t dissipate. Each half rapidly condensed into a smaller sphere.
The two spheres changed course in midair and converged on Valric again.
Valric swung his whip, intending to repeat what he had just done. But as the tip swept toward them, both spheres changed direction. One rose while the other dropped, slipping past the attack before closing in from opposite sides.
When his strike missed, Valric simply stopped paying attention to them.
Watching from a distance, Ethan was almost speechless.
Several golden threads extended from his fingers, connecting him to the two energy spheres. Splitting them hadn’t cost them any power. One sphere had merely become two.
The two white energy spheres struck Valric one after the other.
Neither exploded.
Their energy seeped directly through his armor on contact, spreading inward through the plates and flesh. A few tiny arcs of lightning flickered across Valric’s body, but otherwise, nothing seemed to happen.
A smile gradually appeared on Ethan’s face.
Valric still didn’t consider the energy spheres worth his attention.
Good.
Now that the energy was inside him, his body no longer belonged entirely to him.
Valric looked down at Ethan, his contempt undisguised. He raised an arm, and the crimson whip unraveled into countless threads, all their tips pointing downward. The sword floating beside him also shifted direction, then dove toward Ethan alongside the bloodred threads.
Ethan made no attempt to dodge the attack descending from above.
One hand remained in his pocket. He raised the other and pointed his index finger at Valric. The white energy inside Valric responded to his control, swiftly spreading through his limbs.
"Get down here!"
Valric’s wings stopped beating.
Without their support, his body was dragged downward by an irresistible force. The bloodred threads descending on Ethan also froze in midair. The floating sword lost control as well and hung motionless off to the side.
Valric plummeted straight toward the ground, but there was little panic on his face. He turned his head, still looking into the distance with the same indifferent expression.
Ethan formed an energy sphere in his raised hand and waited patiently beneath him.
The moment Valric fell into range, Ethan stepped forward and drove his lightning-wreathed fist straight into him.
Boom!
The punch sent Valric flying sideways.
At the moment of impact, the energy sphere in Ethan’s palm also sank into his body. The white energy above the mine immediately responded. A bolt of lightning plunged from the sky and struck Valric directly.
Before the first bolt faded, a second followed.
Lightning rained down in rapid succession, pursuing Valric along his flight path. A line of scorched craters erupted across the yellow sand as the impacts rolled over the plains.
Before Valric could steady himself, the energy inside his body contracted again.
His trajectory was forcibly reversed, pulling him back into Ethan’s grasp. Ethan seized his armor with one hand and pressed the other against his chest. Golden threads shot from his palm, piercing Valric’s body one after another.
White lightning clung to every thread.
Energy flowed along them into Valric’s limbs and torso, extending Ethan’s control even further. Once that was done, Ethan thrust his palm upward and launched Valric into the sky.
Valric had barely risen when Ethan blocked the sunlight above him.
He was already overhead.
White lightning wrapped around Ethan’s fist as he smashed it into Valric’s back. The punch compressed the air into a descending column, sending Valric plunging toward the ground. Before the impact even reached the surface, the yellow sand below rolled outward.
Ethan stopped high above and raised an expanding energy sphere in both hands.
White arcs of electricity leaped from it, and the compressed air shuddered continuously around him. Holding the sphere, he dove. His speed climbed with every moment until his entire body left a straight white trail across the sky.
The ground below had vanished beneath the dust.
But Ethan didn’t need to see.
Valric was directly beneath him.
At least, that was what he had assumed.
On the other battlefield, Eldran’s body was already covered in wounds. Elira’s laser had burned through his armor, while Andona’s Divine Power continued eating into the exposed injuries. Yet each time a wound appeared, bloodred threads flooded into it and reconnected the severed flesh.
Destruction and repair repeated without end.
Andona finally completed her charge.
The Angel behind her raised its Greatsword. Golden light pushed the clouds apart, and a column of holy light far larger than the previous one descended from the sky, completely engulfing Eldran’s position.
The moment the beam struck the ground, the mine began to shake.
The destructive force within the holy light pinned Eldran at its center. The surrounding air warped in layers, and even space bent beneath the pressure. Golden light poured into the main beam from every direction, all of it crushing down on Eldran’s body.