Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 353: Celestial Collision

Ethan stared intently. The progress bar displayed large characters: Celestial Energy Accumulation Time.

He estimated it would take at least six minutes to fill completely. Thankfully, he didn’t have to do anything except wait. Every time a star lit up in the sky, a faint thread of celestial energy drifted down, gathering around him. The progress bar slowly inched forward, bit by bit.

Ethan’s eyes brightened. This skill was good—he could still attack while it charged. But the changes overhead had riled up the sandworms. They came surging at him in a furious tide.

All of this quickly caught the attention of the others.

Uncle Jed glanced over. Through his aging eyes, he could see pale silver lights descending from the sky, swirling around Ethan, gathering without dispersing.

Dot clung to her mother, trembling with fear. But even in her terror, her gaze stayed fixed on Ethan, her eyes shining with something almost like awe.

Ethan noticed her look. Though she was clearly nervous, she was surprisingly composed.

’This woman isn’t as simple as she appears... he thought.’

Even Uncle Jed found himself giving her a second look. He remembered when she had arrived at the Butcher Tribe, already pregnant. Her daughter should be about five years old by now. In all these years, she had never stood out. She was just an ordinary woman living quietly among them. For her to stay this calm while surrounded by monsters—that wasn’t something most people could fake.

"Panther Form... activate! Battle Embodiment... activate!"

Ethan realized that using Owl Form alone wasn’t enough. Offense and defense both were falling short against the endless waves. He couldn’t risk canceling Owl Form, or the energy accumulation would stop. So he triggered Battle Embodiment, layering Panther Form on top of it. With both abilities active, he would have the Owl’s perception and the Panther’s speed.

As Panther Form surged through him, Uncle Jed felt the pressure immediately lighten. Ethan blurred into motion, tearing through the sandworms one after another, no matter how large they were. His claws sliced the air in sweeping arcs that seemed to rip the very space apart. Even the worms tunneling under his feet were instantly slain as his restored Soul Sense picked them out.

But no matter how fast Ethan moved, the horde didn’t thin. For every worm he killed, another replaced it. Worse, they devoured their own dead almost as quickly as they fell. Before long, there wasn’t a single corpse left on the sand.

Time dragged on. At last, the energy bar climbed past halfway.

[Ding... System Notification: Celestial Energy has reached maximum capacity. Release now?]

"Release... release it now!" Ethan roared.

The others glanced at him in alarm. Has he gone mad?

"Ethan, what’s wrong?" Uncle Jed called, his voice strained. He knew that the sandworms’ venom could drive men to delirium. Was Ethan hallucinating?

Buzz...

Ethan slashed one last worm apart. The ribbons of celestial energy around him began to spin faster, winding tightly around his body. A crescent-shaped mark glowed on his brow, and a flood of Soul Power erupted from within. In his mindscape, the Energy Pool—only recently replenished—instantly evaporated into a dense white mist. The mist surged out through the gate of Ascension, refilling the power he’d spent.

Ethan’s body lifted clear off the ground. Within seconds, he was soaring a hundred meters into the air.

He was safe for the moment, but below, Uncle Jed, Dot, and her mother were left exposed. Uncle Jed took a desperate gulp from the flask at his belt, the liquid giving him just enough strength to fend off the sandworms clawing toward them. His gaze never left Ethan’s silhouette above. His face was a mix of shock and dread. Dot’s mother clung to her daughter, her own eyes wide with disbelief. Only Dot looked up, dazed and frightened.

High overhead, Ethan wasn’t faring much better. His Soul Power was almost completely drained again. Dizziness washed over him in waves. He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, using the pain to stay conscious.

"For...bid...den..."

"Star...fall... Bar...rage..." he chanted, each word scraped out from the bottom of his lungs.

Boom.

Overhead, a star suddenly ballooned to monstrous size. It looked as if it were falling straight out of the sky. But before it could strike, it smashed into something unseen and exploded with a deafening roar. The light was blinding. The star shattered into a storm of burning fragments, but instead of falling, the shards veered away, scattering into the sky.

Ethan drifted slowly back to the ground, staring upward, frowning. What just happened?

The sudden flare of light made the sandworms hesitate. For the first time, the swarm froze, instinctively shrinking back. They thought the sun itself was rising. Ethan touched down lightly, still watching the sky in confusion.

"It’s the Sea of Death’s barrier!" Uncle Jed gasped, his voice hoarse. "Ethan... did you really summon meteors from beyond the stars?"

The pause in the worms’ assault gave Jed a moment to catch his breath. He turned to Ethan, searching for any explanation.

"Huh? I... I don’t know either!" Ethan stammered. This was the first time he’d ever used the skill. In the game, he’d never needed to cast anything so extreme. If he’d tried it even once, he might have understood how it worked. Unfortunately, he hadn’t—and Ethereal had never forced his hand like this.

Boom.

Another meteor slammed into the invisible barrier, sparking a colossal ripple of light. This time, Ethan could see it clearly—tens of thousands of meters above them, a shimmering dome flickered under the impact.

"Damn it... what kind of ridiculous barrier is this?" he muttered. "I was trying to smash worms, not pound on the sky. Now what?"

Ethan stood there, dumbfounded. Uncle Jed was equally speechless. Dot and her mother could only stare in shock. And as they watched—

Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom...

Countless meteors tore across the heavens. The sky blazed like midday. A furnace heat poured down over the sand. It was as if nine burning suns had suddenly appeared overhead.

Screech—

The sandworms erupted in panic. They abandoned the attack entirely, tunneling furiously into the sand to escape the heat. Ethan shielded his eyes, watching the sky, unable to find any words. Even from this distance, the explosions were hot enough to scorch his skin. If one of those meteors had made it past the barrier, it would have struck with the force of a planet.

This Forbidden skill... maybe it really isn’t something you can use lightly... He had assumed it was a last-resort technique, but the scale of destruction was beyond anything he’d imagined. If even a single meteor had landed, none of them would have survived—not from the worms, but from the impact itself.

Far away, everyone across the Sea of Death witnessed the spectacle. Even the Forgotten City, leagues to the north, saw the blazing meteors hammering the sky. And on the walls of Beastfall City, closest to Ethan’s group, an old man stood staring upward. His voice was low, almost lost in the wind.

"Celestial fire descends upon the dome...

When the ancient barrier breaks open...

Blood King arrives, the Dead Sea perishes...

Only a sliver of hope remains."

He shivered. That old prophecy had lingered here for centuries. No one knew who had first spoken it. Now, staring at the sky, he felt cold dread crawl down his spine.

"This is..." he whispered. A beat passed, then horror flooded his face. "Send word—immediately dispatch the Night Bats. Find out where this happened."

"Yes..." came a reply from the darkness behind him.

Meanwhile, on the scorched sands, Ethan didn’t waste a second. He swept Dot into his arms.

"Run!" he shouted.

The ground had grown blisteringly hot. Everywhere he looked, sandworm corpses were shriveling in the heat, turning to brittle husks. Just moments ago, Ethan had seen something worse—three massive stars, far larger than any meteor, gliding into position behind the last wave. He knew exactly how many there were. They weren’t meteors at all. They were actual stars, blazing with tails of white fire. The first was so big it made the moon look small.

If even one of them broke through the barrier, there would be nothing left.

’This... this is way out of hand’!

This chapter is updat𝓮d by fre(e)webnov(l).com