"That... makes... no sense," Lucien stuttered. "How is he walking around with this amount of mana..."

Without realizing it, he took a step back.

Some of the men behind even turned and ran. The others hesitated, but the fear had already taken root.

Because this was wrong. Mana was supposed to reflect strength and give a sense of scale.

But this... This gave them nothing.

Ethan’s mana was vast, endless, and completely detached from anything they understood.

And then, as if to make it worse, Ethan whispered, "Come."

From his right, Nina stepped forward.

From his left, Arael followed.

The half-dragon and the angel took form beside him as though they had always been there.

Casper’s smile wasn’t even there anymore. "Heh... am I hallucinating..."

He had fought Ethan and his summon before. He knew what he had faced back then.

This was not the same, not even close.

His composure cracked.

"Boss... call those people to get us out of here," he said quickly, already stepping back, then another step, and another.

Then he turned.

Lucien stepped back as well. His eyes were still fixed on Ethan, but he already understood that there was no winning this.

At this time, the others scattered.

Ethan watched them go, even Lucien had joined too.

There was this amusement still lingering in his expression.

Then he adjusted in his grip on Nina’s flaming sword and tossed it toward her. She caught it cleanly by the hilt, lowering her head slightly in acknowledgment.

Ethan’s voice followed.

"Kill every single one of them."

Both summons vanished instantly from sight, tearing through space as they shot toward the fleeing me at blazing speed.

Nina specifically went after Casper, as though she still held a grudge from last time, appearing above him in a sudden descent.

She slashed down her sword as she dropped in from the air.

Casper barely reacted in time, stepping sideways at the last instant.

The blade missed him by a fraction, but Nina had already adjusted into a follow-up that came immediately.

Her sword swung in a wide horizontal arc, too fast for the space between them to matter. The correction in her movement was unnatural, yet seamless, like her body had already predicted his escape.

Casper threw both arms up instinctively, bracing in front of his face. His best defense had always been his raw durability.

The edge of the blade carved through the bones of his arms, spilling blood instantly as the impact shattered through his arms and sent him flying backward through the glowing terrain.

He hit the ground, bounced once, then forced himself back up halfway, only to realize Nina was already there. Right in front of him.

Her flaming sword was raised upwards and fully primed.

Casper’s eyes widened. As it came down, he muttered a word.

"Fuck."

Meanwhile, Arael reached the skies as Ink spilled from her skin and split into condensed spear-shaped constructs, each one carrying the light element property.

They shot downward at the six fleeing men who never had a chance to react. The spears pierced through them from behind in an instant, pinning them before they could even register the attack.

One spear had also been angled toward Lucien who sensed something moving so fast towards him.

He adjusted himself mid-air, forcing his body into a turn as he brought his sword around in a desperate deflection.

The impact knocked the blade clean out of his hand, spinning it away into the void.

The shock rippled through his arm, breaking his balance completely and forcing him to crash into a halt, disoriented and suddenly without his weapon

Seeing that Arael was closing in on him, Lucien triggered a transformation.

The ground beneath him trembled as a sudden eruption of bluish mist swallowed his position.

From within the haze, A skeletal monstrosity emerged. Bluish-gray in color, its frame was wrapped in red samurai-like armor plating that reinforced its structure.

The last time, Lucien had been protected within its ribcage, but this time, he had become part of it.

The fifty-foot skeletal samurai raised its new blade. A weapon nearly thirty feet long, came crashing down toward Arael.

Arael continued forward through the descent, unmoved by the size of the strike.

Ink surged from her, expanding outward into a massive construct of her own. It grew rapidly, matching the skeletal monstrosity in scale and size.

Arael’s gigantic ink sword collided with the other blade, forcing the skeletal monster back as the impact broke its momentum.

She then raised her hand.

The sword, now imbued with light, moved under her telekinetic control. It accelerated in a single continuous motion, cutting cleanly through the skeletal construct’s arms.

Without pausing, she flicked her fingers again.

The blade swept through the entire body of the construct, splitting it apart before it could recover or regain balance, and sending it collapsing under the weight of its own destruction.

—

Ethan’s attention had moved from the battlefield, where his summons continued their rampage.

He was now focused on the mark on the surface of his left hand.

Anton’s imprint didn’t feel like something that could simply be washed away or healed over.

And more importantly, Ethan understood to some certain degree that the mark was the conduit for forced displacement.

The reason he had been pulled here in the first place.

Any marked target could be moved at will, either between marked points or into Anton’s pocket dimensions. That was how he had brought them to the hidden house, and now to this place.

It was a multifunctional ability.

Which meant one thing. As long as the mark existed, Ethan was never fully out of reach.

His eyes narrowed at the mark as he already decided what needed to be done.

And it was going to hurt like a bitch.

He extended his left arm forward, exposing the mark fully.

Then he carved Ragnarok through that precise point on the upper layer of skin where the mark was placed. The pain made Ethan scream for a short moment.

Then his regeneration kicked in to restore the damaged tissue. Ethan exhaled in relief, watching the healed skin closely.

"Looks easy to get off at least," he muttered.

Then he moved his gaze turned towards the skies. He closed his eyes, borrowing and extending the supernatural awareness skill across the dimension.