Whoosh!

BOOM—

Ethan moved first.

A golden aura burst from him like a radiant shield, warm and unshakable, flaring up around Kaelira and blocking the twisted pulses surging from the six-pointed star array.

Kaelira blinked, startled. That shield—its texture, its stability—it was stronger than anything she could conjure herself.

Ethan stepped forward, calm and steady, walking straight toward the center of the array.

Just as his hand reached out to touch the heart of it—

Whoosh!

A figure tore through the array like it was breaking through a membrane.

But it wasn't human.

Its form was a patchwork of smoke and bone, half-transparent, its presence so wrong it made the air feel colder, heavier.

Worse still—its aura wasn't purely from the Dungeon. It reeked of something else, something foreign, like it had been tainted by an outside force.

As it emerged, the runes etched into the floor flared to life, glowing with an eerie blue-violet light—like a thousand eyes snapping open all at once.

Then—

All the energy in the six-pointed array surged inward, condensing into a massive longsword.

The sword hovered in midair, its blade so sharp it sliced the space around it into shards, like shattered glass.

"Well, well…"

The puppet-like figure rasped, its voice cracked and laced with madness.

"Didn't think anyone from Sol'Rakka would dare step in here. Good… Since you've come, let me show you what real power looks like."

Kaelira held her breath.

The killing intent radiating from that sword made her heart skip a beat.

The blade pulsed, swelling with force, then came crashing down toward Ethan with a sound like the sky tearing open.

BOOM!

Ethan didn't retreat. He surged forward.

His power exploded through the underground chamber like a tidal wave, visible to the naked eye, slamming into the sword's energy head-on.

CRACK!

CRASH!

BOOM—

Stone pillars shattered in waves, collapsing with thunderous roars. Debris rained down like a storm of jagged hail.

Kaelira had never seen power on this scale. She could only keep falling back, barely managing to stay within the edge of Ethan's shield to avoid being torn apart by the shockwaves.

But the battle didn't spiral out of control like she feared.

In fact—

As the seconds ticked by, Ethan's aura grew steadier. Stronger.

He wasn't just holding his ground—he was adapting. Mastering it.

The corrupted energy that should've eaten him alive was instead flowing into him, drawn in like obedient threads of silk, and being transformed—woven into his own strength.

Kaelira stared, speechless.

"He's… absorbing and converting Vaedoroth's power? That's impossible—"

BOOM!

Before she could finish the thought, the ground trembled violently.

On the far side of the array, another puppet-like figure clawed its way out of a fresh rupture. It didn't hesitate—it lunged straight at the first one, and the two collided midair.

Then—

They fused.

No struggle. No resistance.

Like two halves of a broken relic snapping back into place.

When the fusion finished, the new puppet was nearly twice the size, its power so overwhelming the air itself seemed to ripple and flinch.

Ethan's brow creased.

The first puppet had already pushed him to the edge. Now—

Two had become one, and its aura surged like a storm pressing down on the world.

There was no way he could absorb that much power alone.

He braced himself, ready to throw everything he had into one final strike—then break away in the chaos.

But just then, a vortex of deep energy spiraled open over his shoulder.

Auri's voice rang in his mind, sharp and urgent: "Father! That thing's aura—it's saturated with Fairy energy! If you can hold on just a little longer, I can pull all of it into me!"

Ethan froze for a heartbeat. Then his eyes lit up.

This was it.

His chance.

Instead of retreating, he surged forward, pouring more power into his attack. His body became a golden arrow, slicing through the dark, aimed straight at the heart of the fused puppet.

The creature hadn't expected a frontal assault. It reeled back, caught off guard.

In that split-second opening—

Ethan's hand shot out and clamped around the puppet's throat bone.

A heartbeat later, the vortex behind him roared open—an unhinged black hole, wild and ravenous. It yanked at the fused creature's core, sucking its immense energy straight into Ethan like a dam bursting in reverse.

Black-violet power poured out of the puppet like a drained lake, rushing into the void.

From across the chamber, Kaelira sprinted toward them, her chest tight, breath caught like a hook in her ribs.

She knew exactly how monstrous that fused puppet's strength had been.

She was just about to intervene when the thing's body crumbled in Ethan's grip—reduced to dust and splinters.

Crack—crack—crack!

And then, nothing but shards on the floor.

Kaelira froze.

Her voice trembled despite herself. "You… you killed Vaedoroth?"

Ethan casually brushed the lingering energy fragments from his hands.

"That wasn't the real Vaedoroth, Your Majesty," he said, voice calm and steady as bedrock. "The source is deeper. If you're willing, we can keep going."

Kaelira hesitated.

Not out of fear—but because she knew her limits.

The deeper they went into the Dungeon, the more twisted and cursed the energies became. Cleansing them would be nearly impossible.

If they truly faced Vaedoroth… she wasn't sure she could even get close.

But Ethan just smiled, easy and warm. "Don't worry. I've got you."

And then—

BOOM!

His power surged, erupting like a pillar of light that punched through the darkness.

Before Kaelira could react, he pulled her into his arms. The force lifted them both, and they shot downward—straight into the Dungeon's depths.

It wasn't just speed.

It was like falling along the spine of the world, like time itself was being torn apart in jagged strips around them.

She didn't know how long they fell.

Then—suddenly—the ground beneath them shifted.

They landed in a place that didn't belong to any normal world.

The floor stretched out in all directions, a sea of molten rock.

But the magma wasn't red.

It was—

A cold, glimmering blue-violet.

Like frozen poison. Like the ashes of a dead fire still pretending to burn.

It flowed, but the chill it gave off was sharp enough to bite. One misstep, and you'd shatter like glass.

Kaelira inhaled sharply. "This… this is the power of the Inversion Zone. Vaedoroth is here."

The entire space seemed to breathe—low and slow, like something ancient and half-asleep.

Black-violet bubbles rose and burst in the magma, each one releasing a stench that reeked of rot and ruin.

And on the surrounding stone walls—

Thousands of ancient symbols.

They wove together into a massive, intricate energy web. Each rune pulsed like a living eye, channeling power toward the center of the magma field.

...