Chapter 1186: Where Wolves Gather
Ethan never took his eyes off Sylvarion.
The moment that massive Sylvan Magic energy sphere finished taking shape above the valley, every vine and branch around it surged toward the same point, like the whole forest was being dragged into orbit. A deep green glow bled through the sky. On the ground, newborn roots crawled over the cliff faces like living things, clawing for purchase—trying to pry open the sea of fire Ataneya had used to seal the valley shut.
Sylvarion was about to go all-in.
Ethan caught the shift instantly.
He didn’t give him the chance to push his power to its peak. The lingering snow-white lightning, the transparent lightning, the golden runes, and that Infernal Primordial Power inside him all flared at once. Multiple currents surged up from the depths of his meridians and blasted out through both arms.
Lily was no longer inside his body—but the portion of power she’d left behind still sat heavy in Ethan’s core.
It wasn’t something he could fully control. But it was enough that, even facing an existence above Tier 36, he wouldn’t be crushed so hard he couldn’t fight back.
Ethan stepped forward.
His body became a streak of lightning that tore the air apart, a tidal wave of energy following in his wake. Transparent lightning led the charge, golden runes chased behind it, and the remaining snow-white thunderlight sat at the absolute center—compressed into a spear-sharp point that drove straight for Sylvarion’s chest.
BOOM!
The impact hit Sylvarion head-on.
The Sylvan Magic sphere he’d just formed shuddered violently, its deep green surface instantly thrown into chaos. Ethan’s strike punched through the outer wall of vine defenses and slammed into Sylvarion’s chest, ripping open a massive裂口—an ugly, yawning gash that split his torso wide.
The purple gemstone’s glow dulled in an instant.
Sylvarion arched backward, a strangled, suppressed roar forced out of his throat. Deep green energy poured out of the wound—only for the transparent lightning to shred it into ragged clouds of broken light.
Ataneya, of course, wasn’t going to waste that opening.
Her figure flashed within the firestorm. In the next heartbeat she was right in front of him. All twenty tails snapped open at once, scarlet energy dripping from each one like molten threads—twenty burning whips that sealed every route of retreat around Sylvarion.
An endless torrent of flame erupted from her and crashed down.
The first wave of fire hammered into the裂口 in his chest, burning straight through the outer layer of Sylvan Magic.
The second dove into the wound, crawling deeper along the path Ethan had carved.
The third fused with Shadow power and forced its way into his bones and energy core, incinerating the green streams that were trying to stitch his body back together—burning them to ash in one brutal sweep.
A crackling chorus of bone snapping and flesh tearing shrieked through the air at the same time.
Sylvarion’s body couldn’t hold anymore.
The裂口 expanded fast—ripping from shoulder down through his waist and belly, then spreading into his limbs. Scarlet force detonated from inside. The deep green energy was completely suppressed. One purple gemstone after another shattered.
In the next instant, Sylvarion’s body was torn into chunks of meat.
Flesh, gemstone fragments, and shattered Sylvan Magic sprayed in every direction—only to be stopped almost immediately by Ataneya’s flames. The whole valley blazed with firelight. And the vines that had been growing like they’d gone mad shriveled the moment they lost their master’s power, collapsing into black ash.
But Sylvarion came from The Infernal Abyss.
Even with his body destroyed, that eerie Infernal Abyss energy inside him hadn’t fully dissipated. From the scattered gore, a shadowy soul-light rapidly condensed, carrying the lingering scent of those purple gemstones as it shot toward the sky—trying to slip out of the valley in the chaos.
But the instant his soul lifted—
Snow-white lightning dropped from above.
Lily stood in the air at a distance, her fingertip lowered, thin arcs of thunder hanging from it like threads. The snow-white bolt didn’t waste a single motion. It struck Sylvarion’s soul-form dead center and wrapped it tight.
That tyrannical energy contracted inward.
Sylvarion’s soul twisted violently inside the lightning, fighting to break free—only to realize his Infernal Abyss aura couldn’t even stay intact under that snow-white current. The lightning pierced layer after layer through his soul-body, grinding the remaining will inside into powder, then ripping open the outer structure like it was paper.
It didn’t take long.
Sylvarion’s soul shattered completely.
The deep green glow in the valley finally faded away.
Ethan finally let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding for days.
But he didn’t stop to rest.
The way one powerful enemy after another had shown up was proof enough—resources in this world weren’t going to sit there politely and wait for them to mine them. If they’d won, then they needed to cash out that victory while they still could.
He issued orders on the spot, pushing everyone in Emerald Castle to speed up and strip the area clean of every energy ore they could carry.
The goblin engineering teams went back down into the underground fissures. Powered Combat Armor units took over hauling the massive chunks. Fallen Star Guard locked down the airspace and the entrances to the valley. The Sky Fortress hovered overhead, its cannons trained on every direction anything might approach from.
A campsite that had just survived a war turned into a high-speed ore transfer hub almost immediately.
Three days later...
Ethan finally threw together a crude little city between mountain ranges packed with mineral deposits.
It wasn’t much to look at yet. Most of the walls were slapped together from freshly cut ore blocks and metal framework, and plenty of sections still showed raw stone underneath. But it had the essentials—basic defenses, storage, and teleport capability. Enough for Emerald Castle to have a stable foothold in this world.
The camp was built inside the city as well.
In the wide central grounds, newly constructed Creature Dwellings were everywhere. Energy nests, temporary barracks, summoning structures—each one laid out along the nodes of the ore veins. Every dwelling drank in power from the minerals below, steadily nurturing new units.
This world was nothing like the other small worlds.
Not just because it was unusually independent, but because it was crawling with factions. Every group here had real strength, and their noses for ore veins, energy cores, and special resources were frighteningly sharp.
In just the three days since Ethan started building, all kinds of organizations had arrived in the surrounding area.
Some sent envoys, hoping to talk cooperation.
Some didn’t bother with greetings at all—just dispatched scouts to snoop around the veins.
And a few were even worse: they hung in the distant sky and kept sweeping the city’s outskirts with energy detection, practically advertising that they were testing Emerald Castle’s bottom line.
If Emerald Castle weren’t strong enough right now, those bastards would’ve already tried climbing right onto their heads.
That day, Ethan stood on a mountain peak, watching figures dart back and forth in the distance. His brow tightened.
They weren’t attacking yet, but they weren’t leaving either. Like predators that had caught the scent of blood, they prowled along the mountain perimeter—studying the city’s defenses, mapping the ore transport routes, and probing the Sky Fortress’s firing range.
"Master, they’re seriously getting on my nerves."
Ataneya stood beside him, a scarlet aura flickering over her fingertips. Her temper was more direct than it used to be. The swirling energy vortex inside her kept her perpetually brimming with power, like she was one spark away from detonating.
"Just give the word," she said, voice flat and sharp. "I’ll go over there and wipe them out. Right now."
She had every right to say it.
Ataneya had reached a level she’d never touched before—and she’d fused with power from The Infernal Abyss. If all she had to do was clear out those probing factions in the distance, then once she moved, it wouldn’t take long before she burned every last one of them into ash.