Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 837: The Monsters Watching Ember City

On the other end of the line, Donovan fell silent for a brief moment after Ethan’s question, the faint static stretching just long enough to set his nerves on edge.

"It’s nothing serious," the old man finally replied, his voice rough but threaded with reluctant respect. "Ran into an old monster here in Ember City. Nasty one. We traded blows, and I shattered half his damned skeleton before he slipped away. Still... the bastard was strong. We had him cornered with hundreds backing us, and he still found a crack to crawl through."

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly. He knew the Ninth Granduncle’s strength well. For someone to wound him, even lightly, and then escape such an overwhelming net spoke of a level of danger he had not expected to find in the so called mundane world.

Beside him, Lyla’s expression tightened with quiet worry, but she said nothing, instinctively respecting the weight of the conversation.

Ethan noticed immediately. Without interrupting the call, he slipped an arm around her waist and drew her close, a silent reassurance. "We’ll see him soon," he murmured, not bothering to mute the channel.

Donovan’s tone shifted at once, brightening with unmistakable amusement. "Is my little girl with you on this crusade? Good, good. You’d better hurry up and grow strong, girl. This old bag of bones is getting tired of all the excitement. Once this mess is over, I’m retiring. Or better yet, you two hurry up and give me a great grand child to spoil. At least then I’d have a reason to stay home."

The sudden turn caught Lyla completely off guard. Her face went crimson, and she buried it in Ethan’s shoulder, mortified.

Ethan, utterly lacking in shame, laughed outright. "Don’t worry, Ninth Granduncle. We’re working on it."

Lyla’s elbow drove sharply into his ribs, twisting with intent. Even with his enhanced durability, the blow forced a sharp breath from his lungs.

"Ha! That’s the spirit, lad!" Donovan roared, his laughter crackling through the speaker before the line abruptly cut.

Still burning with embarrassment, Lyla wriggled free of Ethan’s arm and hurried toward Amber and Rainie. The three women immediately clustered together, whispering furiously. Lyla shot exasperated looks between them, stamping her foot as Amber grinned far too knowingly. Within minutes, the dynamic shifted. Lyla’s eyes widened in shock, Rainie flushed bright red and swatted at Amber, who danced out of reach while laughing.

Then Lyla slowly turned back toward Ethan.

A primal alarm blared in his mind.

’Oh hell no. Time to disappear.’

"Shields up! Evacuate!" he shouted, purely for dramatic flair.

Clank clank clank. His Combat Mech armor erupted from dimensional storage in a flash of light, locking into place around him as the thrusters flared to life at full output.

Whoosh.

He shot skyward like a meteor before anyone could react, vanishing into the clouds and phasing seamlessly into Shatterstar. By the time the rest of the team processed what had happened, he was already gone.

Shaking their heads, they took to the air and followed his trajectory back to the cloaked vessel.

Inside Shatterstar’s main hangar, they found Ethan already sealed inside a pilot pod, its status lights calmly indicating simulated standby.

Lyla was the last to enter. She walked up to the pod, gave it a light but pointed kick with the toe of her boot, and snorted. "Hmph."

From within the immersive interface, Ethan saw everything. ’Phew. Made it out just in time,’ he thought, a wicked grin spreading across his face. ’Note to self, stop procrastinating. The girl is clearly ready, and possibly feeling left out. Time to be proactive.’

With that realization firmly in mind, he took manual control and plotted a course back to Ember City.

The flight itself passed without incident, but the moment Shatterstar entered the airspace above the sprawling metropolis, Ethan activated the ship’s sensor suite, using it as a massive amplifier for his own Soul Sense.

What he detected sent a chill through him.

Several colossal energy signatures lay scattered throughout the city like dormant volcanoes, their presence heavy and oppressive even at rest. More unsettling still were the voids, areas where his perception simply slid away, encountering nothing but absolute darkness. Whatever occupied those spaces was capable of shielding itself from a scan of this scale.

Among the presences he could clearly identify was Donovan Silverwood’s familiar, storm charged aura. Nearby was Matriarch Whitmore’s sharp, disciplined signature, as well as two others of comparable, ancient strength. Without a doubt, they were other lineage heads of the Noble Eight.

The moment his amplified sense brushed over them, the powerful entities reacted. Their awareness snapped toward his position, and he felt the pressure of multiple invisible gazes locking onto Shatterstar high above the city.

This was the first time Ethan had ever swept an entire city so openly with his Soul Sense. In the past, bound by secrecy and the danger of exposing himself as a Soul Wielder, he had limited its use to brief, careful bursts. After returning from the Silverwoods, he had been constantly on the move, shepherding his people toward the relative safety of the Whitmore family’s Hidden Territory and the Sea of Death.

Coming back now with Uncle Jed and Regis at his side had changed his mindset. For a time, he had felt untouchable. Then Ascension Isle happened. Alaric’s avatar, a being even Regis had hesitated to confront, had shattered that illusion completely. It was a harsh reminder that the world still hid ancient, terrifying powers in its shadows.

His renewed confidence rested on a single foundation: Shatterstar.

The ship was a technological marvel far beyond anything else on the planet. Uncle Jed had admitted that even in his Battle Embodiment state, he doubted he could survive a direct hit from the vessel’s main weapon. Ethan had witnessed that firepower himself, watching it erase half a world, a planet the size of a star, from existence.

’In Shatterstar, I’m a mobile fortress,’ he reasoned calmly. ’Untouchable on this world.’

His own senses might be detected, but the ship itself could mask its position with ease. Let the so called ’old monsters’ glare into the sky. They would find nothing but empty air and scattered ions.

With the scan complete, Ethan now had a clear understanding of Ember City’s true landscape. The supernatural presence here was not numerous, but each one radiated power far beyond anything they had faced in Harbor City.

A predatory smile curved his lips. Perfect. I need the practice.

They landed at their villa compound shortly after. The upscale neighborhood, once serene, now felt unnervingly empty.

The moment their boots touched the ground, Ethan issued a single, quiet command.

"Purge."

No explanation was necessary. Everyone knew what that meant.

The team began to spread out, but Ethan raised a hand, stopping Lyla, Rainie, Amber, and Meatball. "Uncle Jed and Regis can handle the perimeter."

He was right. Within minutes, the two older men returned, calmly brushing dust from their clothes. The intruders here had been stronger than those in Harbor City, but against veterans forged in the Sea of Death, they had never stood a chance.