CHAPTER 184: MAGNUS

In front of Lord Magnus’s territory, Ethan stood like a wall of inevitability.

The morning sun barely lit the snow-covered valley surrounding the fortress-city. Jagged towers and black stone walls loomed above like a crouched beast, prepared to strike. The air buzzed faintly with defensive enchantments and buried mana sigils waiting to be activated.

Ethan paid them no mind.

His long coat fluttered behind him as his presence alone made the air heavy, oppressive. The dirt beneath his feet had cracked just from the pressure of his mana.

Moments later, the heavy iron doors opened, and out stepped Lord Magnus himself.

Cloaked in indigo battlewear lined with silver trim, Magnus was a large man with sharp features and colder eyes. His aura was controlled, steady, befitting a high commander and ruler of one of the mightiest territories in the first sanctuary

His frown deepened when he saw Ethan.

"To what do I owe the visit, Lord Ethan?" Magnus asked, arms crossed, voice clipped but not yet hostile.

Ethan didn’t waste time.

"I’m here to fight you," he said, tone direct, dead calm. "To the death."

The stillness of the valley grew tense. Magnus didn’t respond immediately. His lips twitched once in thought.

"There is nothing that will stop me," Ethan continued. "Do you want to duel, or do you want to fight me with your followers?"

Magnus exhaled slowly, then gave a low, sharp whistle.

The very stone beneath the fortress shifted.

"You killed her, didn’t you?" Magnus asked quietly, his tone now devoid of pleasantry. "Seraphina. That’s why you’re here."

Ethan didn’t answer. His silence was answer enough.

Magnus closed his eyes for a moment and muttered under his breath, "So it’s true. I hoped I was wrong."

Then he opened his eyes, and the softness was gone.

"CODE BLACK!"

The shout echoed like thunder.

Immediately, a cacophony of gears, mana hums, and explosive sigil activations erupted behind him.

Buildings that had been disguised under illusion spells twisted and transformed, revealing towers of infernal flame, lightning cannons powered by core crystals, and gravity stabilizers that compressed the battlefield to hinder fast movement. Floating constructs took to the sky, buzzing with anticipation like sentient insects. Mana shields activated across every visible surface.

It was a city transformed into a war engine.

It had never been breached. Not once.

And now it aimed everything at one man.

Magnus stepped back into his territory, melding into the heart of his network. "You want war, you’ll get war, Brandon."

Although he sounded confident, he was anything but that. He just wanted to increase the moral of his subjects

Yet Ethan didn’t move.

He stood still, watching as the towers charged their cores and tracked his vitals. Dozens of enchanted lenses locked onto his head, chest, heart, mana core.

Still he didn’t flinch.

Not until the first wave launched.

A volley of flame beams scorched the sky, lighting it red as they screamed toward him. At the same time, kinetic force cannons sent piercing shockwaves. Elemental traps beneath the ground exploded, sending spikes of ice and lava through the surface.

But Ethan’s body vanished.

When he reappeared, he was already above the towers. Wings spread wide, coated in black and green energy from his Night Monarch form, he crashed down like an executioner.

BOOM!

The first tower exploded in a storm of elemental backlash. Metal fragments flew in every direction. Ethan hadn’t used a weapon—just his fists, coated in condensed yin-yang entropy.

"Zone Suppression!" shouted Magnus from the core.

The ground twisted under Ethan. A gravity sink pulled at him, forcing his body down with ten times normal force. Mana chains erupted to bind him in place, while mental distortion fields scrambled his ability to concentrate.

But none of it worked.

Ethan pulsed once with bloodlust. The gravity field cracked. The chains disintegrated.

He raised his hand—and the wind screamed to obey.

A storm of crystal shards, pulled from nearby ore veins, rose into a spiral and shot forward like a thousand arrows. The towers struck tried to shield, but several were overwhelmed, crumbling in place.

"He’s inside the inner perimeter!" screamed one of the core guards.

"No, he’s—" Magnus tried to reply, but Ethan appeared behind the tower he stood in.

Crash.

The tower fell. Shards of enchanted glass rained like falling stars.

Magnus leapt out, shield active, sword in hand. He was fast, and strong. He didn’t hold a high position through luck. His sword burned with molten silver energy as he swung at Ethan, who caught it with one hand.

"You’re strong," Magnus admitted, struggling to pull free. "But what you’re doing—it’s wrong."

"I don’t care anymore," Ethan replied. "You’re strong enough. That’s all that matters."

He drove a knee into Magnus’s gut. The older man choked and flew backward, tearing through two defensive walls.

Ethan gave no reprieve.

With a blast of wind at his back, he launched forward, closing the gap again in the blink of an eye. Their fight escalated, and the entire territory bore witness to it. Buildings collapsed. Soldiers ran in every direction, trying to stay out of the shockwaves.

Mana beams from defense towers continued to target Ethan, but he ignored them. His defence was too powerful for the towers to even scratch his skin, let alone injure him.

In the span of a few seconds, Magnus fell to one knee.

His sword was broken. His armour cracked and melted in several places. His body bled from cuts that wouldn’t close.

"Why?" he whispered again.

Ethan stared down at him.

"I tried for two years," he said coldly. "Monsters didn’t help me evolve. Time didn’t help. The tower’s end gave me no answers. The only thing that will help me grow... is humans. Strong humans that have ascended the tower."

"You’ll destroy everything at this rate."

"Maybe," Ethan said. "But if that’s what it takes to get home... so be it."

With one final surge of mana, Ethan thrust his hand forward. Yin-Yang entropy flooded Magnus’s chest.

A moment later, it was over.

The body collapsed in silence.

As the remaining towers deactivated, recognising their master’s death, the territory fell still.

The surrounding was destroyed, and thousands had died in this war that lasted seconds.

In fact, this wasn’t a war. It was an execution.

Ethan didn’t raise his arms in victory. He didn’t even gloat. Instead, he walked to the ruins of the territory, stood over Magnus’s body, and closed the man’s eyes.

"Rest well, warrior."

Then, like with Seraphina, he devoured the talent.

His aura surged once more. Another wall broken. Another step forward.

Ethan turned his gaze to the corpses. It would be a waste if left, hence he passed by them all, devouring all of their talents. His talents had already encompassed most talents, so they just upgraded his existing talents. There were many diamond-rank fighters who helped with that.

He vanished moments later, leaving a grave behind.

Ethan knew very well that the path he was going down was a steep one, and he was going to kill many to reach his goal, but that didn’t deter him.

These people weren’t his friends, they weren’t his acquaintances. They were enemies; this sanctuary was built for people to kill each other.