CHAPTER 748: IT’S OVER?

The High Lord raised his holy sword high.

His mask tilted just enough to reveal a pair of eyes—cold, detached, utterly devoid of mercy.

He began to chant, low and deliberate, like invoking some forbidden rite. The words were ancient, their cadence heavy with power.

Then—

He brought the sword down.

BOOM—!!!

The moment the blade fell, the world cracked open.

A force of apocalyptic magnitude tore through the air. Space itself split in two, a massive rift ripping outward across the battlefield.

The shockwave hit like a tidal surge, hurling shattered fragments of space like glass shards spinning through a hurricane.

And Ethan—

Was pinned beneath the weight of it.

The pressure crushed down on him like a collapsing star.

Crack—crack—crack—!

His bones screamed, snapping one after another under the strain. He hadn’t even been struck yet, and his body was already on the verge of being pulverized.

Worse still—

The spatial force unleashed by the holy sword had locked him in place.

He couldn’t move. Not even a finger.

Meanwhile, the Emerald Castle forces were locked in brutal combat, overwhelmed and scattered. No one could break through to help him.

This was the 98th floor—

And the entire battlefield was spiraling into catastrophe.

In the instant before the sword struck, the air froze—burning with heat, yet utterly still.

The High Lord’s voice cut through the silence, flat and final:

"—It’s over."

Ethan drew in a ragged breath.

He forced the last dregs of power from his body, igniting it like a volcano on the verge of eruption. The energy surged outward, forming a massive barrier around him.

The sword came down.

BOOM—!!!

The barrier shattered in layers, like waves crashing against a cliff—each one breaking faster than the last.

It lasted less than a second.

Then it collapsed completely.

The impact slammed Ethan into the ground with such force that the entire floor of the Sky Citadel seemed to buckle.

But the High Lord didn’t stop.

He raised the sword again, golden light swirling around him, power gathering like a tsunami ready to break.

Ethan’s breathing was ragged now, uneven.

That last shield had drained everything he had left.

One more hit like that, and he was finished.

And the worst part?

The High Lord wasn’t even fighting with his own strength alone.

The entire Sky Citadel was feeding him.

The energy in the air, the runes etched into the ground, the tremors in space itself—

All of it was his to command.

Fighting the High Lord wasn’t just fighting a man.

It was fighting the Sky Citadel itself.

A battle no one could win head-on.

Whoosh!

The sword came down again.

Ethan twisted his body with the last flicker of reflex, just enough to dodge.

The golden blade grazed his shoulder as it struck, tearing away a chunk of flesh in a spray of blood.

He’d avoided the killing blow—but barely.

And now, he had nothing left.

Feylora, drained from channeling too much energy, slipped from his back and collapsed to the ground, her breathing faint.

Auri and Idra were forcibly ejected from his body, their forms flickering, too weak to even stand.

And the battlefield?

It was a massacre.

The Sky Citadel’s forces, fighting on their home turf, were drawing strength from every inch of the realm.

The Emerald Castle army, by contrast, was faltering—growing weaker with every clash.

More than half their number had already fallen. Their lines were breaking.

If this kept up—

They’d be slaughtered to the last.

Ethan panted hard, lungs burning, vision swimming.

With trembling fingers, he reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a small, crystalline orb—clear as glass, but pulsing with a violent, unstable light.

It was a core crystal, forged from the essence of multiple dungeon worlds—collected, refined, and compressed into a single bead of raw destruction.

He clenched his jaw, locked eyes on the High Lord—

And hurled it with everything he had.

BOOM!!!

The explosion detonated midair, a blast of chaotic energy ripping through the battlefield. The shockwave slammed into the holy sword, knocking it back with a jolt.

For the first time, the High Lord’s attack was interrupted.

He didn’t flinch. Just sneered.

"Desperate flailing."

He raised the sword again.

Power surged into the blade like a flood, brighter, heavier, more suffocating than before. The pressure it radiated was enough to crush stone.

If this strike landed—

Ethan would be split in two.

His breath came in ragged gasps. His knees buckled. He could barely stay upright.

But then—

He forced his system interface open, fingers twitching as he triggered a scan on the High Lord with the last flicker of his consciousness.

Data streamed across his vision in a blur.

Then—

A red flag.

An anomaly.

Dozens of fine golden threads—barely visible—were woven around the High Lord’s body, stretching upward.

Ethan’s eyes widened.

They weren’t just decorative.

They were conduits.

Power lines.

And they all led to one place: the 99th floor.

That was it.

The High Lord’s strength wasn’t self-contained. It was being fed from above.

The true source—the core—wasn’t here.

It was on the 99th floor.

Destroy that, and the High Lord would be cut off. Powerless.

It was the only shot they had.

Ethan sucked in a breath, forced Auri and Idra back into his body, their weakened forms barely holding together. Then he grabbed Feylora, who was still barely conscious.

"Hold on."

And then—he ran.

No, launched.

He became a streak of lightning, tearing across the battlefield toward the passage to the 99th floor.

The Sky Citadel soldiers blinked, stunned for a heartbeat.

Then the laughter started.

"Hah! He’s lost it!"

"Does he even know what’s up there?"

"That place is a sea of raw power! Even we don’t dare step in!"

"He thinks he can absorb it? What a joke!"

"He’s dead the moment he sets foot inside!"

They didn’t chase him.

They didn’t need to.

As far as they were concerned, Ethan had just sprinted into his own grave.

So instead, the Sky Citadel army turned their full attention to the remaining Emerald Castle forces—

And launched a full-scale assault.

...

Meanwhile—

Ethan crossed the threshold into the 99th floor.

The moment he stepped in, the world twisted.

There were no grand halls here. No towering architecture. No open space.

The entire floor felt... compressed. Crushed inward by some invisible force, like the air itself had been vacuum-sealed.

And in the center of it all—

Floated a massive golden sphere of energy.

It hung there, silent and still, like a miniature sun.

Its light swallowed the entire floor.

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

Before Ethan could even process what he was seeing, the pressure hit.

It slammed into him from every direction—

Scorching. Violent. Merciless.

It was like a thousand suns igniting inside his body all at once.

His skin blistered. His bones screamed. His soul felt like it was being peeled apart.

...