Ethan hoisted Feylora onto his back again.

Power surged through him like a golden tempest, the energy from the core roaring down his veins. It poured into the 98th floor battlefield in a relentless cascade, a divine flood that refused to stop.

And just like that, the tide turned.

What had been a one-sided slaughter flipped in an instant.

The Sky Citadel forces were crushed in sweeping waves, their formations shattered. Meanwhile, the warriors of Emerald Castle not only recovered to peak condition—they surged beyond it. Across the board, their Tiers spiked, the entire army ascending as if lifted by unseen hands.

Their strength now felt endless, like a well that would never run dry.

"I'll kill you all! I'll kill every last one of you!!"

The High Lord, blasted back to the 98th floor by the backlash of power, had lost all control. He swung his holy sword in a frenzy, fury erupting from him like ten volcanoes going off at once.

But then—

Vmmm—

Vmmm—

VMMM—!

A beam of golden light shot skyward, blinding and pure.

Andona.

After receiving the golden core's energy, her Angelic gift had evolved.

Wings of radiant gold and white unfurled behind her, layer upon layer, each feather gleaming as if reforged in sacred fire. The aura spilling from her was so holy, so overwhelming, it made even battle-hardened warriors want to drop to their knees in reverence.

When her wings beat, the shockwaves alone crushed the High Lord's power beneath them.

"This is impossible… You're a low-tier Angel—how could your power rise this high?!"

The High Lord's voice cracked with disbelief, his eyes wide with a terror he'd never known.

Meanwhile, on the 99th floor—

Ethan felt it too: a pull so vast, so bottomless, it seemed to tug at the fabric of reality itself.

He ran a system scan.

The results made his breath catch.

Andona was undergoing rapid transformation. Her Tier had already rocketed to the peak of Tier 24.

If she kept absorbing energy at this rate… she'd break through to the mythical Tier 25.

Ethan couldn't help but grin, wide and wild.

"Hell yes! Keep going! You're killing it, Andona!"

If Emerald Castle grew strong enough, he could seize Sky Citadel in record time.

So he stopped holding back.

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

BOOM—!

Ethan synced completely with the golden core. Power poured from the 99th floor like a golden hurricane, slamming into the 98th with every pulse. The battlefield shook with each wave, the ground itself groaning under the pressure.

Andona alone was now enough to suppress the High Lord.

And the rest of Emerald Castle? They were rising with her, their strength climbing in perfect harmony.

As for the golden energy sphere itself—

Its density was terrifying, almost unnatural.

Ethan was drawing from it like a madman, but it didn't weaken. Not even a little. It didn't shrink. It didn't flicker.

It just kept giving.

At the same time—

His fusion state with Idra and Auri surged higher, driven by the golden core's momentum. Their combined aura now brushed the threshold of Tier 25.

And behind him, Feylora kept feeding him power like an endless spring.

The force Ethan was unleashing now? It defied measurement.

He steadied his breath.

Power rippled off him in crashing waves—

And in the next instant, he vanished from the 99th floor.

…

98th floor.

The battlefield was a hellscape of blood, fire, and steel.

Both sides were locked in a brutal deadlock, eyes wild, blades slick with gore. The golden energy had stopped Emerald Castle's retreat, but they still couldn't break Sky Citadel's line.

Then, in the middle of the stalemate—

BOOM!!!

A golden pillar of light slammed down from above.

Ethan crashed down like a thunderbolt.

The moment he landed, the air across the battlefield froze solid.

The High Lord barely had time to turn his head—

"You—"

He never finished the sentence.

BOOM!!!

Ethan was already behind him, and his fist slammed into the High Lord's spine with the force of a tectonic shift.

The impact detonated like an earthquake. The High Lord's body shot through the air like a ragdoll, smashing clean through a massive stone pillar. Debris exploded outward. The shockwave rippled through the ground.

CRACK!!!

Before the dust could even settle, Ethan stepped into the heart of the wreckage.

"It's over."

No hesitation.

No mercy.

He raised his fist. Golden energy poured down his arm like a waterfall.

And then he brought it down.

BOOM!!!

The High Lord's skull shattered into a burst of radiant mist.

His core gone, his power unraveled in an instant. His body dissolved into smoke and light, vanishing without a trace.

—The High Lord was dead.

The warriors of Sky Citadel stood frozen, stunned.

They'd believed Emerald Castle was a minor threat—an upstart faction barely worth their notice.

But now, their supreme commander had been obliterated, reduced to a cloud of light and dust.

And the enemy army? Still growing stronger by the second.

In that instant, arrogance gave way to fear.

"Kill them all!"

"We've won!"

The warriors of Emerald Castle roared, their voices raw with triumph and bloodlust.

Ethan gave a single command:

—No survivors.

The battle tipped into a slaughter.

Sky Citadel's remaining forces collapsed like a breached dam, their lines crumbling, their will broken. One by one, they were hunted down and wiped out.

…

When the fighting was done, Ethan returned to the 99th floor.

The golden energy core still blazed like a newborn sun.

He reached out, drawing purer, more refined energy from it, channeling it into every Emerald Castle warrior.

But soon, he noticed something was off.

Each soldier had reached the absolute limit of what their bodies could handle. Any more power, and they'd rupture from the inside out.

So he shifted tactics immediately.

He summoned everyone together and led them into the Creature Dwellings of Sky Citadel—vast, arcane structures designed to house and amplify summoned beasts.

Using the architecture and the energy diffusion systems as a summoning nexus, he began laying the groundwork to rapidly expand their forces.

Sky Citadel had fallen. For now, there was no immediate threat.

But Ethan knew better.

The real enemies were never just the ones in front of you.

With this rare, unmatched source of power at their fingertips, they had to grow stronger—fast.

Because the next war was already on its way.

...