Chapter 1216: Old Hatred Descends
Ethan’s eyes widened again.
The power rolling off Catheryn was several times stronger than before. Those snow-white gemstones in her orbit were obviously terrifying energy cores. One gem had been enough to let Ethan adapt to the canyon’s corrosive laws—Catheryn had far more than one.
Before Ethan could even finish processing it, Goddess Catheryn was already floating in front of the purple-haired woman.
She lifted her palm and pressed down lightly in midair.
A tidal wave of force answered her.
Power drawn from the snow-white gems gathered from all directions and surged along the line of that simple downward press, slamming straight into the violet projection. Wherever Catheryn’s energy passed, the purple light was forced back, and the warped cracks in the sky shook violently, like they were about to tear wider.
The woman’s expression flickered with shock.
She retreated a step at once, sweeping her own energy forward. Violet power rolled up behind her and rushed to the front, meeting Catheryn’s pressure head-on. The two forces hadn’t even fully detonated yet, and the surrounding space was already being squeezed into dense, hair-thin fissures.
The woman’s gaze turned icy.
"Catheryn," she said, voice sharp with malice. "Never thought you, you filthy bitch, could still escape."
Her lips curled.
"Fine. Then I’ll see whether you’ve improved all these years... or rotted."
Catheryn gave a cold laugh.
She stared straight at the woman, eyes empty of warmth. Then she pulled out a sapphire-blue stone and tossed it forward.
"Velyra," Catheryn said flatly, "you worthless whore. Today you die."
The sapphire stone cut through the air, leaving a clean trail of light. Catheryn’s energy flared in the same breath—snow-white gemstone power surging out and linking into the sapphire’s core. Velyra didn’t retreat either. Violet energy burst from her, turning into a heavy wave that collided head-on.
Their powers crashed in midair.
Boom!
A terrifying explosion tore outward from the impact point, ripping the surrounding space into a web of fissures. Purple light, snow-white energy, and sapphire radiance tangled together, slamming against the sky over the canyon in relentless pulses. Below, the rock walls couldn’t take the backlash—large sections caved and burst, rubble raining down into the battlefield.
Ethan flinched hard.
He staggered back several steps, energy surging out as he raised a thick barrier around himself. Transparent lightning crawled along its surface, barely holding back the pressure crashing down from above. Every hit made his arms vibrate, and fine cracks spread under his boots as he fought to keep his footing.
His breathing turned sharp.
He honestly hadn’t believed anyone in this world could unleash power like that.
Before he could steady himself, Catheryn and Velyra were already trading blows in the air.
Neither of them held anything back. Catheryn drove the power of the snow-white gemstones and that sapphire-blue stone, wave after wave crushing toward Velyra. Velyra responded by pushing violet energy until it tore the surrounding space open again and again—then used those cracks to release even stranger forces back at Catheryn. Each clash detonated into messy light overhead, shaking the canyon with continuous thunder.
Back and forth, they poured out everything.
It stopped looking like a duel and started looking like an execution attempt. Catheryn’s hits grew heavier. Velyra’s counterstrikes grew more vicious. Violet rifts and snow-white surges tore at the sky, sapphire light slicing through the middle—each flash leaving new wounds in space.
Time blurred.
Eventually, the energy radiating from both women began to dim.
But they still didn’t stop.
Once the sky-ripping power started to fade, the two of them lunged at each other anyway. They tangled up at close range, grabbing hair, wrenching arms, choking shoulders—brutal, ugly, nothing like the godlike presence they’d had seconds ago. Every yank and slam carried years of hatred packed into it, neither willing to let go.
Ethan stared so hard his eyes felt dry.
He couldn’t even guess what kind of history could make two women hate each other like this. One moment it was world-cracking energy. The next it was raw, almost feral grappling. The whiplash froze his expression.
And then—like the battlefield couldn’t afford to wait—
The middle-aged man had recovered some strength.
His eyes locked onto Ethan. Corrosive power still churned around the broken stump of his arm, but his aura had gathered back into something coherent. Violent energy spread from him, crawling outward along the ground.
In the next instant, he charged Ethan.
He barely got moving before Seraphine shot across.
Her presence slammed down. Divine Power burst from her and struck the man’s corrosive force head-on. Holy radiance became a thick wall across his path and knocked him back outright.
He was forced to stop, his face twisting darker.
Seraphine stood in front, disdain obvious in her eyes.
"You still haven’t learned," she said coolly. "My Divine Power is your natural counter. And you’re still charging at me like a headless fly."
She let the words hang, then her aura rose again.
Divine Power surged into the sky, forming countless massive projections between heaven and earth. They stacked layer after layer, hovering overhead like a holy array. Sacred light poured down from them, crushing toward the man’s position. With each projection that appeared, the canyon’s corrosive tide was forced to roll back another step.
The man’s breathing turned ragged.
At this point, he didn’t dare delay. He raised his remaining hand and hammered his fist into his own chest.
A heavy thud echoed through the canyon.
A moment later, the power between heaven and earth began to swell violently. Something extremely strange erupted from above—different from the man’s corrosion, different from Seraphine’s Divine Power. It churned in the sky for a breath...
Then turned into countless energy entities that rained down.
One after another, they dropped into the battlefield.
Each body pulsed with a bizarre force. Their outlines weren’t fully stable, like they’d been forced into shape by some external will. The most striking thing was their foreheads—
Every single one had a gemstone embedded there.
Ethan watched them fall, his expression tightening.
They were refined from this world’s unique energy—no question.
And the moment he truly saw them, his heart lurched.
These weren’t the same tier as the earlier energy entities. Their bodies were condensed from strange power; even with unstable outlines, they felt heavier, denser, more lethal. Every time one landed, the rock beneath it cracked under the weight. And the gemstones on their foreheads kept spilling pure core energy, steady and relentless.
That energy was too clean.
Too concentrated.
Ethan stared at the light flowing inside those gems and immediately understood why these things were so much stronger. They weren’t just corrosion-stacked monsters. They were combat bodies supported by core energy. As long as the gemstone remained intact, their bodies would be continuously replenished.
If Emerald Castle’s army had to fight them head-on in a full-scale war...
They’d be dragged into a meat grinder.
And it could end with the entire force wiped out.
Comments