The laughter stopped. The air in the small bread shop grew thick and heavy, as if an invisible weight had settled over every surface. Frener’s hand remained frozen, the red destructive sphere still crackling in his palm, but his eyes were no longer fixed on Jack and Elina. They were fixed on Ethan.

Frener studied the young man sitting across from him. He could not sense any cultivation from him. No aura. No pressure. Nothing that would explain the sudden shift in atmosphere. That alone made him uneasy, but his pride as an Eternal Singularity Realm being would not allow him to show weakness. He was a hunter sent by gods themselves. Who could threaten him?

"How dare you laugh at me?" Frener said, his voice low and dangerous. The destructive sphere in his hand grew larger, more unstable. Cracks of red energy spread from his palm like veins. "Do you know what I am? Do you know who sent me? You insignificant worm, I could erase you from existence with less effort than it takes to breathe."

Ethan took another bite of his bread. He chewed slowly, deliberately, as if Frener’s threat was nothing more than background noise. The mocking smile never left his face.

"You think I am joking?" Frener’s anger spiked. The sphere pulsed once, sending out a shockwave that shattered the windows of the shop. Shards of glass fell like rain. Other customers screamed and fled. Jack pulled Elina behind him, his body tensed to protect her. But Ethan did not even flinch.

"You should be kneeling," Frener continued, his voice rising. "You should be begging for your miserable life. I am a hunter of the gods. I have destroyed entire bloodlines. I have turned heroes into ashes. And you sit there eating bread as if you have no care in the world?"

Ethan finally swallowed his bite. He placed the remaining bread on the plate and wiped his hands on a napkin. Then he began to stand.

The movement was slow. Deliberate. Each inch of height he gained seemed to push against Frener’s presence, not aggressively, but with an absolute certainty that something was about to change.

Frener’s instincts screamed at him. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. But his body would not move. It was as if an invisible chain had wrapped around his limbs, not restraining him, but suggesting that any movement would be a very bad idea.

Ethan took a step forward. Then another. He walked around the small table and stopped directly in front of Frener. The destructive sphere was now inches from his chest. The red light bathed his face, casting sharp shadows across his features. His smile was gone now. In its place was something cold. Something ancient. Something that had no business being on the face of someone so young.

"Listen to me carefully," Ethan said. His voice was quiet, but every word landed like a hammer blow. "You dog of the gods. You think you are here to hunt my family? You think those pathetic deities you serve can protect you?"

Frener’s eyes widened. His hand trembled. The sphere flickered.

"I will destroy your entire bloodline," Ethan said. The words were not shouted. They were whispered. And somehow that made them infinitely worse.

Before Frener could react, Ethan raised both hands and placed them on Frener’s head. His fingers pressed against the temples. His palms covered the crown. The contact was firm but not violent. It was the touch of someone who had already won.

Ethan activated his talent. Ruler of Fate.

The world around him dissolved. In his perception, thousands of threads appeared, each one a different color, each one representing a different possible future for Frener Garner. They stretched out in every direction, intertwining and separating, creating a web of possibilities so complex that a normal mind would shatter just trying to look at it.

Ethan looked at them with perfect clarity.

He began to delete.

One by one, he removed the threads. Thousands of paths vanished. The futures where Frener escaped.The futures where Frener returned to his masters in triumph. The futures where Frener lived a long and prosperous life. All of them gone. Erased as if they had never existed.

Only one thread remained.

But Ethan was not finished.

He placed his fingers on that single remaining thread and began to rewrite it. He did not just choose Frener’s fate. He carved it. He wrote every detail with cruel precision. In this new future, Frener would kill every single one of his own descendants. Every child. Every grandchild. Every distant relative carrying his blood. And then, when there was no one left below him, he would kill his ancestors. His father. His mother. His grandfathers and grandmothers. All of them. He would slaughter them with his own hands, and he would do it willingly, joyfully, as if it were the greatest honor of his life. After that he would commit suicide.

Ethan removed his hands.

Frener’s eyes were blank for a moment. Then something shifted inside them. A madness began to bloom. Not the madness of fear or confusion. It was the madness of absolute conviction.

"You..." Frener whispered. Then he stopped. His face twisted into a strange smile. "I must go. I must see my family."

He turned and ran. He did not walk. He did not look back. He burst through the shattered doorway and vanished into the street with a speed that left afterimages hanging in the air. His mind was already consumed by the new fate Ethan had written for him. The urge to visit his family was overwhelming. It defied the will of the two gods who had sent him. It defied every instinct of self preservation. But Frener did not care. He had to go. He had to see them. He had to do what needed to be done.

Ethan smiled cruelly. There was no mercy in that smile. There was no hesitation. When it came to the safety of his family, Ethan was not just ruthless. He was absolute. He would burn entire bloodlines to ash. He would rewrite fate itself. And he would do it all with a calm expression and a piece of bread still warm in his hand.

He turned toward Jack and Elina. His parents stood frozen behind the counter, their faces pale, their bodies trembling. They had seen everything. They did not understand most of what had happened, but they understood enough. Their son had just done something terrible to that man. Something that went beyond normal cultivation.

Ethan walked toward them. His footsteps were soft. His expression softened as well, the cruelty fading away, replaced by something warmer. He stopped in front of them and looked at their faces. He had not seen them in so long. Not really. Not as himself.

"Mother. Father," he said. "It is time to go home."

He snapped his fingers.

The sound was sharp and clean. It echoed once and then faded into silence. Jack and Elina vanished from the shop, not with violence, but with a gentle pull, as if the world had simply decided they belonged somewhere else now. They reappeared inside Ethan’s inner universe, safe and secure, surrounded by the vast expanse of his growing cosmos.