Chapter 1214: Thunder Learns Corrosion
At the same time, the fight in the canyon had fully boiled over.
Emerald Castle’s army and Mournvale Abyss’s forces smashed into each other deep in the gorge. Energy from both sides hammered, ripped, and detonated without pause. Fresh cracks spiderwebbed across the rock walls. Stones tumbled from above, only to be ground into dust before they could even hit the ground—pulverized by shockwaves sweeping the battlefield.
Advancing became brutally expensive. Every step forward cost blood.
Ethan stood on the edge of the chaos, teeth grinding so hard his jaw ached.
He’d never fought a war this suffocating.
Outside, his transparent lightning could tear through anything. Here, it felt like some invisible rule had dulled its edge. Every time he released power, before the lightning could fully bloom, the corrosion flooding the canyon would weaken it—erode it—swallow it. That black energy would crawl up his attack like a parasite, gnawing away the outer glow of the transparent arcs until his once-tyrannical force could only land a fraction of its real impact.
So he kept getting forced back.
And his injuries kept piling up.
The withered scar on his shoulder from earlier corrosion hadn’t recovered. Now his arms, chest, and side were torn up too. When the corrosive force bored into a wound, it wasn’t just pain—it dragged down the flow of his internal energy, turning every movement sluggish. Ethan could feel his body growing heavier by the minute, his breaths shortened by the pressure hanging in the canyon air.
If this continued, he really could die here.
Catheryn wasn’t doing much better.
She was covered in wounds. That unique power of hers—once wild enough to sweep the battlefield—was now barely holding together. The energy still floated around her, but it wasn’t stable. Each time it brushed against the canyon’s corrosion, it was forced to shrink inward a little more. Her face had gone noticeably paler, and her breathing had turned heavy, laboring.
Ethan stared at the middle-aged man ahead, his breath coming faster.
As long as that bastard stood there, they’d never truly take the canyon. Emerald Castle’s army was locked in place. Catheryn couldn’t keep suppressing him. Ethan’s transparent lightning was being crippled by the corrosion. Every advantage they’d had was being ground down by this terrain, leaving nothing but rising exhaustion.
While Ethan’s thoughts slipped for a fraction of a second, Catheryn moved.
She pulled out a snow-white gemstone and shoved it into Ethan’s hand.
The moment it hit his palm, a pure, clean power seeped out. It wasn’t sharp like corrosion. It wasn’t domineering like his lightning. It was steady—dense—like a core compressed until it couldn’t possibly be more stable.
Catheryn’s voice was tired, but it cut through clearly.
"This place’s energy isn’t that special," she said. "The reason you’re getting eaten alive is because when you entered, you didn’t receive the blessing of the world’s energy here. That’s why the corrosion can invade you."
Ethan looked down at the gem, eyes tightening.
Catheryn continued, "This gemstone contains an extremely pure energy core. Fuse it into your body and you’ll adapt to the corrosion. You’ll even be able to draw on the canyon’s power."
The moment those words landed, the pressure in Ethan’s eyes snapped into something bright.
At this point, he didn’t have another option.
Ethan didn’t hesitate. He drove the snow-white gem straight into his body.
The instant it sank into his chest, a violent wave surged up from deep inside him. It rushed through his meridians into his limbs—then reversed, rolling back inward and crashing into his transparent lightning.
His entire body jolted.
And the aura between heaven and earth responded.
The corrosive force in the canyon no longer simply tried to invade and destroy him. It began to circle him instead, flowing around him. Ethan could feel it clearly—the energies that had been rejecting him were being rethreaded, reorganized, by that pure core inside the white gemstone.
Transparent lightning rose off his skin.
Then the canyon’s corrosive power was pulled in too, weaving together with the lightning. Two completely different forces collided above his palm—spinning, grinding, merging—pounding the air with a deep, muffled thrum.
Ethan lifted his hand and gave the air a light, almost casual slap.
Violent energy detonated.
A massive lightning sphere condensed into existence between heaven and earth—heavier than anything he’d thrown before. Transparent lightning rampaged through the inside, while the surface was wrapped in the canyon’s corrosion. Electric light and black energy locked teeth, biting into each other, forming a pressure that made the air feel like it was about to crack.
Ethan pressed his palm down.
The huge sphere dropped like a hammer, aimed straight at the middle-aged man.
The man’s eyes went wide.
He clearly hadn’t expected Ethan to be able to command this place’s power. What shook him even more was that the falling sphere contained not only transparent lightning, but Mournvale Abyss’s corrosive force—fused together in the same attack, not repelling, not fighting... just cooperating under one crushing will.
He raised his hand to block.
But this time, he was half a beat too slow.
The sphere slammed into his shoulder.
At the moment of contact, transparent lightning tore his protection open first. Corrosion followed through the breach and chewed the shield apart from the inside. And then the full weight of the sphere dropped.
Crack!
One of the man’s arms was smashed cleanly apart.
Flesh, bone, and shattered energy erupted together. The impact drove him backward, step after step. Each retreat carved a deep crater under his feet, until he finally forced himself to stop—his shoulder still snapping with leftover lightning and corrosion, popping and hissing as it ate at him.
A wave of stunned gasps rolled through Emerald Castle’s ranks.
They’d just watched Ethan’s attacks get swallowed over and over. They’d watched him forced back again and again. And now—one strike.
The man who’d been pressing down the whole canyon had just lost an arm.
But Ethan didn’t press the advantage.
When he released that move, he misjudged it and dumped everything he had into it. The lightning sphere hit like a nightmare, but the cost was immediate. The moment the power left his body, the inside of him went hollow. His limbs felt like the support had been yanked out of them. Even standing upright became hard.
His body dropped straight into weakness.
Catheryn saw it and lifted a hand to her forehead, like she was fighting the urge to scream.
She clearly hadn’t expected Ethan to be this reckless—he’d only just adapted to the canyon’s energy, and he’d already thrown it all away in one shot.
Ethan gave her a sheepish smile.
Then his legs gave out.
He slipped from the air and fell. At this point he couldn’t force out even a thread of power. He couldn’t even gather transparent lightning in his palm anymore. But the snow-white gemstone had already fused into him, and he could feel the connection—him and this world’s energy finally linked.
He could recover by absorbing the canyon’s power now.
Across from him, the middle-aged man let out a cold laugh.
He’d lost an arm, but his aura hadn’t collapsed. Corrosive force surged out again, black energy roiling around the severed stump and spreading outward. He lifted his remaining arm, eyes locked on Ethan, clearly intending to strike while Ethan was down.
But in that instant—
Seraphine flashed in.
She stepped into the gap, her body blocking the line of attack, and flung out Divine Power without hesitation. Holy radiance burst from her palm, forming a bright impact that smashed into the man’s chest. The moment it landed, the force spread outward, shaking the corrosion around him into a violent churn.
The man was hurled back dozens of steps.
His feet gouged two deep scars through the ground as he slid, only stopping when he hit the far side of the canyon. When he looked up again, his eyes were wider—and the hatred in them had thickened into something uglier.
He took one step back and gathered power fast.
Corrosion rushed in from all around the canyon and compressed in his palm, condensing into a massive energy sphere in an instant. Its surface rolled like boiling tar, black aura spreading in layered waves. Wherever that aura brushed, the ground and the rock walls darkened with fresh corrosion scars.
The sphere continued to swell in his hand, heavier and heavier... as if he was preparing to wipe everything in front of him off the map.
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