Ethan noticed the change immediately.

He moved at once, flashing to the spot in the small city where the energy reaction was strongest. Translucent lightning spread slowly across his palm as he released his power, reaching out to touch the new energy that had formed from the fusion of the two mineral forces.

The instant he made contact, Ethan’s eyes lit up.

This power was clearly born from two different vein energies, yet its aura was unusually gentle.

It didn’t attack the body. It didn’t corrode an energy core. Instead, it felt like a dense, nourishing layer—something that slipped inside and, over time, reinforced muscle strength, reaction speed, energy circulation, and even mental stability.

Most importantly...

It could invisibly, massively boost a person’s combat capability.

That was ridiculous.

Ethan looked down at the faint motes of light-dust drifting over his palm. The excitement in his eyes hadn’t even faded yet when a strange sound rolled in from the outskirts of the city.

It started as a vibration through the distant ground, then spread along the line of the walls like a ripple. A heartbeat later, a heavy roar shook the world. Far away, dust churned and billowed upward—like a huge army was closing in.

Korvath’s face changed on the spot.

He spun and barked orders, throwing the entire garrison into the highest alert.

Defense arrays on the walls lit up in rapid sequence. People who’d been helping move ore dropped everything, grabbed weapons, and ran for the ramparts.

Ethan frowned and walked over.

"What is this?" he demanded, looking at Korvath. "Did you piss off another faction?"

Korvath let out a helpless sigh.

"Our city keeps to itself. We don’t go looking for wars."

As he spoke, his gaze tracked the dust cloud drawing closer, his expression dark.

"But the other Castles don’t think that way. Every so often they band together and attack. They want the ore under our city."

Ethan gave a cold snort.

He’d thought that old fox was shameless enough—turns out this world was full of the same type.

The moment people saw mineral resources, they reached for them, no matter whether the owner wanted a fight.

"Since our forces are allied now," Ethan said, lifting his eyes toward the city gates and the choking dust beyond them, "then you don’t need to worry about the rest."

He glanced back once, voice flat.

"Leave it to me."

As the last word fell, translucent lightning erupted from his body.

Electric light shot into the sky, rapidly interweaving into a massive thunder net.

The web spread over the city like a canopy, its edges expanding outward without stopping. Every arc carried a suffocating pressure. The defenders on the walls looked up—and saw the heavens carved into countless sections by clear, crackling lightning.

In the next instant, Ethan launched himself straight up.

Outside the city, the enemy army had already pressed close.

At the front, a man stood in midair with a huge saber in his hand. The blade was thick and heavy, dense energy flowing along its surface. With a casual swing, he sliced a long tear into the air itself.

When he saw Ethan rise from the city’s direction, his brows drew together.

"You don’t look like you’re from around here," he said, lightly rolling the saber in his grip. Contempt dripped from his eyes.

"No need to wade into this mess. Get out of the way now... and maybe I’ll leave you a whole corpse."

Ethan didn’t answer.

He just let out a short laugh, then lifted his arm.

A pair of enormous violet wings unfurled behind him.

Along the edges, rings of golden runes lit up one after another. The symbols spread down the feathers, pushing layer after layer of violet energy up into the sky.

The space that had been stable a moment ago twisted violently. Even the air outside the city was crushed hard enough to pop with continuous sonic booms.

The golden runes kept spreading.

Violet light rolled out from behind Ethan like a heavy tide, pressing straight toward the enemy army.

Across the line, soldiers who’d been advancing abruptly slowed—then stopped. Quite a few weapons started to tremble in their hands.

The contempt vanished from the leading man’s face.

His eyes widened as he stared at the massive violet wings behind Ethan, his fingers tightening around the saber’s hilt, knuckle by knuckle.

He hadn’t expected this outsider to explode with power like that.

He was still staring, the last traces of scorn not even fully gone—

And Ethan was already in front of him.

Translucent lightning condensed in Ethan’s palm into a heavy arc. With a shriek of thunder, it slammed downward.

Along its path, the air split into a straight fissure. Violet energy chased behind it, warping the surrounding space under sheer pressure.

The man’s face went white. He retreated instantly.

He threw his broad saber across his body, energy surging madly over the blade as he tried to block the strike.

But even before contact, he felt the crushing oppression inside it.

This wasn’t ordinary lightning.

It was Infernal Abyss lightning—something that could rip through energy defenses and drill straight into a body from the inside.

Behind him, his two deputy commanders recoiled at the same time.

When Ethan had rushed out of the city, he’d already used the system to scan their data panels.

The strongest among them was only early 35 Tier. That level might let you run wild somewhere else, but in front of Ethan right now, it didn’t even qualify as a real fight.

The translucent lightning came down.

The man barely managed to swing up his saber to meet it—yet the moment steel and arc touched, the energy coating the blade was torn open. Violet power surged through the gap, making the entire saber scream with a piercing buzz.

His arm went numb. The impact drove him back again and again, and even the air under his feet cracked into rings of bursting fracture-marks with each forced step.

Ethan didn’t stop.

The violet wings behind him flexed lightly. Golden runes flared along their edges.

Translucent lightning and violet energy spread together, forming a vast curtain of thunder that pressed down over the enemy formation.

The people who’d been charging the city like they owned it a second ago immediately fell into chaos under that pressure.

Their shields were sliced open by electric light. The energy on their weapons was forcibly shaken apart by violet runes.

The front line tried to brace into a defensive wall—

And the ground beneath them blew open with a web of cracks from Ethan’s lightning.

The rear ranks tried to cast ranged attacks, only to find the energy flow in the air had already been disrupted. Their spells and strikes hadn’t even fully formed before the thunder net in the sky shredded them into sparks.

Fear spread fast.

Faces that had been twisted with aggression a moment earlier now looked like cornered animals. They kept backing away, step after step.

Some tried to flee the battlefield outright. Some shoved behind their comrades. Some just turned and bolted toward the direction they’d come from.

An army that had marched here to sack a city was reduced—under a single round of Ethan’s suppression—to a pack of panicked strays.

Korvath stood on the wall and watched, slowly tightening his grip on his weapon.

He’d known Ethan was strong.

He just hadn’t known he was strong enough to crush a combined Castle force into a routed mess in only a few breaths.

Then, right as the enemy fully broke—

A bizarre figure appeared between heaven and earth.

The man stepped out from warped space in the distance, wrapped in a layer of energy-flame woven from crimson and dark gold.

The instant he arrived, the soldiers who’d been scattering like ants found a lifeline. Their disorderly ranks pulled back together. The collapsing energy in their formation was forcibly pressed back into shape.

"You bunch of trash."

The newcomer swept a cold glance over them, anger dripping from his voice.

"He only released his aura, and you’re scared into this state?"

He took a step forward. Under his foot, flame-like energy burned a ring of crimson ripples into the air.

"With me here," he said, voice flat and heavy, "what the hell are you afraid of?"