Before long, Ethan realized something was wrong.

The Titan Sovereign’s power was assimilating into the world around them.

The air stopped moving freely. The currents in space—those invisible flows that usually followed natural rules—started shifting direction with his will. Energy that should’ve been dispersing outward was forcibly twisted, and the space above the battlefield seemed to turn into a giant hand, squeezing in on Ethan from all sides.

Ethan’s heart clenched.

He retreated fast, whipping the lightning swords through the air as he moved.

The two blades crossed in front of him in a rapid slash. Transparent lightning spread instantly, layering into a massive defensive barrier.

But the pressure coming from the world itself was too heavy.

The shield had barely formed before it started caving in from every direction, crushed inward like thin metal under a press.

Ethan’s bones began to crackle with fine, rapid pops. His shoulders, arms, and chest took the brunt of the compression, pain spiking in sharp pulses.

If this dragged on, he’d be crushed—literally pinched apart—by the space the Titan Sovereign was controlling.

Right as he couldn’t find a clean way out, a voice sounded from deep inside him—cool, scornful.

"It’s just a petty little Titan Sovereign. And he’s pushed you this far?"

Lily’s voice, dripping with undisguised disdain.

"Looks like you haven’t improved much at all."

Ethan’s mind jolted.

Before he could answer, a brutally domineering surge of white lightning erupted from the deepest part of his body, swallowing him whole in an instant.

The moment that power appeared, the crushing space around him was forced open—just a little. Lightning ran along his bones and through his flesh, propping up his body until the near-collapse reversed and he managed to steady himself again.

Lily kept talking.

"This one’s power is extremely special. If you can absorb all of his energy..."

Her tone turned almost casual, like she was explaining something obvious.

"...you might be able to become a new Titan Sovereign."

"And then you’d be able to control all of their power. Everything."

Ethan’s eyes sharpened.

The Titan Sovereign in front of him was already beyond 35 Tier. In a straight fight, even after fusing Idra, Auri, and Nysera, Ethan still might not come out on top.

But Lily’s words cracked open a completely different path.

Before he could chase the thought further, that overwhelming white lightning sank fully into his body.

Then Lily’s presence folded back into silence.

She vanished.

But what she left behind kept climbing inside Ethan like a rising tide.

Transparent lightning. White lightning. Infernal Primordial Power. The strange state granted by black particleization—

—all of it was seized, combed through, compressed, and fused by that power, as if an invisible hand had finally forced every piece into alignment.

The aura rolling off Ethan surged in steps, breaking through his old limits.

It didn’t stop until it slammed into the peak of 35 Tier.

The sudden weight of it made his head go briefly blank.

He’d never imagined he’d be holding this level of power on a battlefield—ever.

The world snapped into focus.

Sounds around him became clearer. Energy currents became distinct lines instead of noise. Even the trajectories of the Titan Sovereign’s space-manipulating flows became trackable, readable.

The Titan Sovereign noticed too.

He didn’t wait.

His figure blurred—and he shot forward.

Violent force rushed in from every direction, trying to pin Ethan down while his power had just spiked and hadn’t fully stabilized yet.

But this time, Ethan raised his hand faster.

After fusing Lily’s power, he’d reached an unprecedented peak.

Between heaven and earth, he condensed a domineering sphere of energy. Inside it, transparent and white lightning braided and snarled. Along its outer layer, tiny spatial cracks even began to appear, as if the ball was heavy enough to fracture the world just by existing.

Ethan snapped his arm and smashed it toward the Titan Sovereign.

That sphere was dozens of times stronger than before.

As it flew, it tore a long gash through space itself.

The instant it touched the Titan Sovereign’s body, it detonated.

White lightning erupted from the blast center—like countless blades—shredding through his defenses.

Chunks of flesh were ripped away by force.

"AAAH—!"

The Titan Sovereign let out a pained roar, his body jerking backward in midair. A huge wound had been torn open along the side of his chest, and the light around the red gemstone thrashed wildly, flickering like it might burst.

He glared at Ethan.

For the first time, the shock in his eyes was impossible to hide.

"That’s impossible!"

"What did you do?" His voice dropped, tight with disbelief. "How did you suddenly become this strong?"

Ethan didn’t answer.

He only raised his hand.

Transparent-and-white energy gathered again in his palm. One energy sphere after another formed at speed—arcs snapping along their surfaces, while inside, violent power churned so hard it felt one breath away from going out of control.

The next instant, Ethan threw them in rapid succession, launching them from different angles to slam into the Titan Sovereign.

The first one hit his shoulder.

The second hammered into the side of his chest.

The third crashed into his abdomen.

Every impact detonated in a burst of white lightning and clear electric current, ripping through the Titan Sovereign’s surface defenses by brute force.

That body—once so hard it felt nearly unshakable—began to crack under the continuous bombardment. Flesh rolled open. The glowing energy patterns on him were blasted into broken, stuttering segments.

It didn’t take long.

The Titan Sovereign was already a bloody mess.

And the excitement in Ethan’s eyes only grew.

This was the first time he’d truly held power at this level.

Every time he moved, the world answered. Every time his energy erupted, it forced the Titan Sovereign back another step. The strength pouring out of him didn’t slow, didn’t thin—just kept coming, wave after wave, until Ethan could feel it in his bones:

He’d stepped onto ground he’d never even touched before.

He didn’t hesitate.

He pressed forward, raising his right fist slowly.

This punch gathered everything he had.

Transparent lightning. White lightning. Infernal Primordial Power. And that deeper, fused strength still lingering inside him—

—all of it flooded down his arm and compressed into his knuckles.

He hadn’t even thrown the punch yet, and the surrounding space already couldn’t bear the pressure. Thin cracks opened one after another. On the ground below, loose stones lifted into the air—then were ground into powder by an invisible weight.

Then he drove the punch down.

"W-What?!"

The Titan Sovereign’s pupils blew wide.

His face changed completely. He didn’t dare hold anything back anymore. He threw his own fist up to meet Ethan’s strike head-on, golden and red power surging out of him and winding around his knuckles in thick coils, trying to block it with sheer force.

The two fists collided high in the sky.

Boom!

For a split second, the impact point went unnaturally quiet.

Then—

The Titan Sovereign was launched backward like a cannon shot, his body carving a long, blood-red streak through the air. The space around him shattered in layers where he slammed through it, cracking and collapsing like brittle glass.

The recoil force drove straight through his arm and into his chest. Clear fractures spread along his entire arm, ugly and visible, as if his body had finally hit its limit.

"That’s impossible!" The Titan Sovereign’s voice finally slipped into something close to loss of control. "You’re nothing but a human—how can you wield power this monstrous?"

His gaze locked onto Ethan, frantic now, searching for an answer he could accept.

"Did you obtain the energy core of The Infernal Abyss?"