CHAPTER 561: NETHORA

BZZZZT!

The moment Ethan re-entered the Graveyard of Legends instance, he was dropped into a desolate mountain valley.

The air was thick with the same death and decay he’d grown used to—dark energy clinging to everything like rot. But Ethan barely flinched. With a casual wave of his arm, he dispersed the miasma around him like swatting away smoke.

Then—boom.

A violent surge of power rippled through the air not far off, setting every nerve in Ethan’s body on edge. His eyes snapped toward the source.

Floating midair was a nearly transparent jellyfish, its body pulsing with an eerie, ghostly blue glow.

Dozens of glowing blue rings shimmered around it, rising from its gelatinous form like smoke before being flung outward in all directions.

Ethan could feel it—those rings weren’t just for show. They were laced with a deadly cocktail of poison and raw energy. One touch, and even someone like him would be toast.

But what really made his stomach tighten was the creature’s power level.

Tier 14. SSS-rank. Peak form.

"Shit," Ethan muttered under his breath, narrowing his eyes.

He scanned the terrain quickly, taking in every rock, slope, and shadow. Then, without hesitation, he unleashed his own power, locking onto the jellyfish with laser focus.

...

The thing was massive, and from the way it shimmered, Ethan could tell it wasn’t fully physical—it was a soul-form. That meant it wasn’t operating at full strength, probably not even half. Still, those glowing blue rings were a serious problem.

Time to end this fast.

Ethan’s energy surged, crackling around him like a storm. In a blink, he condensed it into a massive orb of raw power. Then—flash—he vanished, reappearing midair and hurling the energy sphere straight at the jellyfish.

The orb exploded on impact.

SSSSSSHHHHHHH!

"RAAAHHHH! RAAAHHHHH!"

The jellyfish let out a piercing, otherworldly shriek as it reeled from the hit, its body sagging in the air. But instead of going down, it went berserk.

Suddenly—

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

A barrage of those ghostly blue rings shot out from its body, slamming into the ground like meteors. Everything they touched—rocks, trees, even the dirt—melted into nothing, erased from existence in an instant.

Ethan’s eyes widened. "Damn... those things are no joke."

But then he noticed something.

Aside from the rings, the jellyfish didn’t seem to have any other attacks.

That was its weakness.

Without wasting a second, Ethan blinked again—whoosh—and appeared right above the creature. The energy orb in his hand compressed into a razor-sharp disc, and he slammed it down.

THUD!

BOOOOOOMMMMMM!

The black energy disc sliced through the jellyfish like a hot knife through butter. Being a soul-form, its outer defenses were paper-thin, and its insides? Practically nonexistent.

The attack tore through it from the inside out, detonating its core.

The massive jellyfish exploded in a burst of light, its body unraveling into pure energy.

That energy surged straight into Ethan’s body, flooding his veins with power.

But that wasn’t all.

The blue rings—the ones that had been so deadly just moments ago—followed the energy stream and entered him too, disappearing beneath his skin.

BZZZT!

BZZZT!

BZZZT!

...

At first, Ethan instinctively resisted.

He’d seen firsthand what those glowing blue rings could do—how they melted everything they touched into nothing. If that kind of power turned inward, started eating away at his own body from the inside? That’d be game over.

But to his surprise, once the rings entered him, they didn’t destroy—they merged.

They fused seamlessly with his energy, threading into his flesh and blood like they belonged there.

Fssshhh... fssshhh... fssshhh...

He raised his palm slowly, summoning a fresh energy orb. This time, it shimmered with layers of those same ghostly blue rings, swirling around it like a halo of death.

"No way... I actually absorbed them?" Ethan’s eyes lit up, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

That meant from now on, those deadly blue rings were his to command.

BOOOOM!

A wave of raw, terrifying power erupted from his body, shaking the ground beneath him. In that instant, his level surged—he’d officially hit Tier 14, the absolute peak of an SSS-rank Crimson Ultimate Hero.

Just one step away from Tier 15.

So close he could practically taste it.

"Perfect," Ethan muttered, nodding in satisfaction.

He opened his system interface, activating the scan function to check where his team had been scattered after the teleport.

That’s when he saw it—Elira and Ataneya had been sent to a region crawling with soul-forms. But these weren’t the weak, half-formed spirits he’d seen before. These ones were nearly solid, and the energy readings coming off them were off the charts.

He zoomed in on the map.

The destination was marked clearly.

Nethora.

"They got sent straight to Nethora? Shit... that’s not good." Ethan’s expression darkened.

Sure, both Elira and Ataneya had reached Tier 15, but Nethora was an unknown world—uncharted, unpredictable. Who knew what kind of monsters were lurking there?

If they ran into something stronger than them...

He didn’t even want to think about it.

"Whatever. I’ll just go see for myself." Ethan narrowed his eyes, making up his mind. He was going in.

The Graveyard of Legends and Nethora were connected—he knew that much. There were plenty of portals between the two worlds, and they weren’t exactly hard to find. It didn’t take long before he stood in front of one, the air around it shimmering with spatial energy.

He reached out, feeling the pulse of power coming from the rift.

Then stepped through.

In an instant, the world around him shifted.

The landscape transformed completely—Nethora was unlike anything he’d seen before. The energy here was strange, almost untouchable, like it existed just beyond the edge of perception. It was powerful, yes—but also... elusive. Mysterious.

But Ethan didn’t have time to admire the scenery.

He locked onto Elira and Ataneya’s coordinates and took off.

...

In a massive field of shattered stone and jagged boulders, Elira and Ataneya sat lazily atop a pile of rubble, looking thoroughly bored.

Surrounding them were dozens of soul-forms—powerful ones—but they stood silently, obediently, like well-trained dogs. Whatever fight had happened here, it was already over. These spirits had been conquered.

One of them stepped forward nervously. "My ladies... is there anything else you require? Just say the word, and we’ll do our best to fulfill it."

Elira stretched her arms above her head with a yawn. "Mmm... most of our allies are still stuck in the main world of the Graveyard of Legends. If you can bring them here, maybe we’ll consider your little request."

The soul-forms exchanged uneasy glances.

Nethora was vast—most of them hadn’t even explored a fraction of it. And now she was asking them to cross into another world entirely?

That was... a tall order.

They looked completely lost.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, the air shimmered.

A ripple of space tore open—and Ethan stepped through.

The moment they saw him, both Ataneya and Elira lit up like fireworks.

"My Lord! You’re here!"

"We were just about to come looking for you!"

...