Chapter 1218: Meteors Over Emerald
Just then, an extremely strange energy rippled through heaven and earth.
It came out of nowhere—first lifting a warped ring of distortion at the far end of the sky, then expanding outward fast. A figure abruptly appeared on the horizon. The moment it manifested, the violent power rolling off it crushed down in every direction, tearing countless fissures into the surrounding sky.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
The figure stood high above, and its voice—heavy with oppressive force—carried down.
"Velyra. You really are useless. With that many seals and restrictions, you still let her escape. Fine. I’ll lend you my power."
The instant those words hit, the entire battlefield seemed to freeze.
In Emerald Castle’s ranks, faces drained. Even the soldiers still fighting slowed for a heartbeat on instinct. No one had expected Velyra to have something like that behind her.
In the next moment, Velyra’s aura detonated.
Violet light surged from her body and gathered toward the figure in the sky. That figure’s bizarre energy poured down as well, connecting with Velyra’s power. As soon as the two forces fused, the aura around Velyra turned feral. The violet energy that had already started to dim roared back to life.
Power flooded out in an unending surge, condensing countless energy spheres across the sky.
They hovered overhead, dense and sprawling, each one compressing a lethal amount of force. Their surfaces trembled, energy pushed to the edge of detonation. Below, the canyon gave a deep, muffled groan under that pressure, and the fractures in the rock walls continued to spread.
Ethan’s eyes went wide.
If those spheres exploded, the entire canyon would be swallowed. That kind of power wasn’t something he could face head-on in his current state. He didn’t hesitate—he barked an order at Emerald Castle immediately.
"Fall back! Everyone, fall back!"
The command raced through the formation. Emerald Castle’s troops withdrew fast. Frontline soldiers raised shields as they moved, the rear ranks shifting with them, everyone trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the field of energy spheres hanging overhead. Even the remnants of the enemy force—already pushed into a corner—broke into fresh chaos under the returning pressure.
Ethan turned to retreat too.
But the instant he pivoted, another bizarre wave rippled through the world.
It wrapped around his body, lifted him off the ground, and shoved him upward. Before Ethan could break it, the power inside him was forcibly tugged into motion.
Snow-white lightning erupted around him.
And a familiar voice snapped through his mind.
"Didn’t expect you, kid, to actually control the power here," Lily said, her tone sharp with greedy satisfaction. "I’ve wanted this abyssal energy for a long time. Perfect—I’ll use your body to pull it all in."
As Lily’s voice fell, violent power surged again.
Ethan’s blood went hot—pure, dizzying exhilaration.
The moment Lily spoke inside him, Ethan could feel it: his control over the canyon’s energy had been shoved up to a whole new tier. The deep abyssal power that had been heavy and stubborn now poured into him in steady streams. Guided by that snow-white lightning, it became something he could shape—compress—release.
His aura climbed without end.
Air was shoved back by the pressure. Loose stones on the ground began to tremble, then lifted inch by inch, orbiting Ethan as if caught in an invisible field. Snow-white lightning crackled off his body, laced with abyssal energy, gathering between his hands into a massive energy sphere.
Ethan raised his arm and hurled it.
The sphere tore through the air, leaving a blinding white scar of lightning behind it as it shot straight toward Velyra. Along its path, space popped with fine explosions under the pressure. The remaining corrosive haze was shredded and rolled aside.
But Velyra had already fused with the power lent to her.
Her aura was savage beyond reason. The energy between heaven and earth flowed toward her like it had found its true owner. Violet light surged behind her. Corrosive power from the abyss itself was dragged up as well, tangling with the bizarre force pouring from that dimensional rift.
Velyra’s expression twisted into something ecstatic.
She lifted a hand slowly.
Violent power erupted from her body. The energy spheres hanging in the sky trembled in unison, their surfaces lighting up with crack-like pathways. Then they fell—blanketing the canyon like a storm of meteors, smashing toward Emerald Castle’s position.
Boom—!
Boom—!
Boom—!
Sphere after sphere crashed into the mass of troops, their shockwaves scything outward. Shields flipped backward under the force. The ground was blown open into massive craters. Soldiers on the edges of the formation were thrown into the air, and the ranks immediately descended into chaos. Black and violet energy spread outward, and even rock was eaten into deep pits wherever it passed.
Ethan’s eyes widened further.
At this point, he absolutely couldn’t allow Emerald Castle to take more losses. The earlier fighting had already bled them badly. If they got hammered by this bombardment, even a victory would come at a cost they couldn’t afford to pay.
He forced down the surge in his chest and pressed his palm forward.
Violent energy blasted out. Snow-white lightning spread rapidly through the air, fusing with abyssal power he’d pulled in. Those forces wove, expanded, and finally condensed into a gigantic barrier over Emerald Castle’s army.
The barrier caught the falling spheres.
The first energy sphere slammed into it and exploded into a ring of violet-black shock. The barrier shuddered violently—but held. Then the second, the third, and dozens more smashed down in rapid succession. Layered shockwaves piled up until the sky itself warped under the bombardment.
But Ethan’s barrier stayed up.
More than that—its snow-white lightning struck back.
Electric light crawled along the barrier’s surface, then reversed course along the lingering trajectories left by the falling energy, surging upward toward Velyra. The lightning shot through the air, shattering several spheres before they could fall, then kept going, lashing toward her.
Before long, Velyra was wrapped in lightning.
Snow-white arcs bound her arms, shoulders, and waist, forcibly interrupting her control over the barrage. Violet energy poured out of her, trying to tear free—only to be hammered down again and again by Ethan’s lightning.
Ethan didn’t dare relax for even a heartbeat.
He moved—becoming lightning again—and shot upward. In the next instant, he was in front of Velyra. He grabbed her, snow-white lightning pouring from his palm to further suppress the power rolling off her body.
But Ethan’s eyes never fully left her.
He kept watching the rift in the sky.
The power pouring out of it was violent, heavy, unnervingly pure—clearly different from the canyon’s native energy. Ethan could tell the rift likely led straight to the Infernal Abyss. Its edges warped constantly, waves of power spilling outward like something deeper was staring through it at the battlefield.
The problem was Velyra was too strong.
Ethan had to pour most of his strength into keeping this insane woman pinned. He couldn’t spare attention to investigate the rift itself. The second his pressure loosened, Velyra’s violet energy would surge back—and the first ones it would threaten were the soldiers below.
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