Chapter 1378: Valric Was Not Alone

Ethan had no time to test him. White energy surged around his body and formed a curved shield.

Valric’s first punch struck dead center.

Boom!

The white barrier caved inward, cracks spreading from beneath his fist. His second punch followed immediately, hitting the exact same spot. The shield lasted less than a second before shattering with a deafening crash.

The remaining force tore through the fragments of white light and slammed into Ethan.

His feet left the ground, and he went flying across the plain. There were no trees or rocks here, nothing but an endless expanse of yellow sand to stop him. Wind roared past his ears as he formed an energy ball behind his back and released its power in the opposite direction.

Boom!

A stream of white energy erupted behind him, and the counterforce finally canceled out some of the impact. Ethan skimmed across the ground before digging in his heels. His shoes carved two deep trenches through the sand before he managed to stop.

The moment he raised his head, the air behind him burst with a sharp crack.

Valric was already there.

A fist shot straight toward Ethan’s back. Before it even made contact, the pressure swept the surrounding sand aside. Ethan spun around and caught Valric’s fist between both hands, stopping it in front of his chest.

The instant they made contact, Ethan’s fingers bent backward. Agony shot through his palms and wrists.

The force was even greater than before.

Clenching his teeth, Ethan used the momentum of the punch to leap back and create some distance. Before his feet touched the ground, he threw another energy ball into the sand below.

It struck the ground without exploding.

White light spread outward from the point of impact, sweeping beneath Valric and past Ethan before closing into a complete domain. The plain, the blowing sand, and the armies fighting in the distance vanished behind the white radiance.

Only the two of them remained inside.

Ethan disappeared with them.

Valric stayed where he was. He didn’t give chase or search around in confusion. Instead, golden threads erupted from his arms, shoulders, chest, and back, extending into every corner of the domain.

They swept across the ground, pierced the walls, and crossed over one another until they had searched the entire space.

Still hidden, Ethan made no move to attack. He observed Valric through his connection to the domain.

Now that they were closer, he could finally see the truth about the armor. The plates weren’t being worn over Valric’s body. They had grown directly out of his flesh. Tiny fleshy growths clustered where the armor met his skin, squirming with every breath. Sometimes they retreated beneath the plates; other times they poked out through the seams.

Ethan’s voice came from every direction at once.

"Who are you?"

Valric raised his head, his golden eyes sweeping over the empty space around him.

"And how did you get inside Valric’s body?"

At the sound of that name, Valric’s entire body went rigid.

The dullness vanished, replaced by rage. Threads lashed wildly from his body, striking the domain walls and leaving golden marks with every blow. Then the outer sides of his arms split open, and two long blades grew along the bones. Their edges glowed gold as he slashed again and again toward the source of Ethan’s voice.

The blades cut through nothing but churning white mist.

As Ethan watched Valric chase a voice that kept shifting around the domain, his suspicions hardened into certainty.

This wasn’t the original Valric.

The Lord Commander who could calculate attack ranges, use the yellow sand to obscure his opponent’s vision, and turn every retreat into bait would never hack blindly at walls just because he couldn’t find his enemy.

Valric slashed several more times before abruptly stopping.

The long blades slowly retracted into his arms, and his golden eyes briefly regained some focus. He opened his mouth and forced a few muffled syllables from his throat.

"Immortal’s..."

Ethan turned the words over in his mind.

Immortal’s what?

Before he could determine what Valric meant, Valric turned and walked toward the center of the domain. The threads spread throughout the space withdrew into his body one after another, then gathered again between his palms.

Valric sat down cross-legged, holding both hands before his chest.

Golden strands floated between his palms, crossing and rotating as more and more golden light gathered at their center. Even the air within the domain began flowing toward that point, drawing the still white mist into long, narrow trails.

Ethan sensed the danger immediately.

Several figures appeared throughout the domain, each identical to him. They all raised their hands as energy balls formed in their palms, then launched them at the center without hesitation.

The energy balls flew in from every direction, sealing off every opening above, beside, and behind Valric.

Valric kept his eyes closed.

The first ball struck his shoulder, white lightning exploding across his armor. The rest followed in rapid succession. Bursts of light piled over one another, their shock waves reverberating through the domain as wide cracks tore across the ground.

When the light faded, Valric was still sitting in the same place.

A few blackened marks remained on his armor, but the threads between his hands hadn’t scattered. The energy continued gathering without interruption.

Ethan fell silent.

Now that another consciousness had taken over, even Valric’s fighting style had completely changed.

Since probing from a distance wasn’t working, Ethan emerged from hiding. More energy gathered in his hand, white light flowing down his arm and compressing into a rapidly spinning sphere in his palm.

He fired it straight at Valric while commanding the surrounding golden threads to bind him.

The threads arrived first, wrapping around Valric’s shoulders, chest, and arms. Ethan closed his fingers, and the golden strands tightened, trying to disrupt the energy gathering between Valric’s hands.

A flash of sword light appeared beside Valric.

The sword the crystal had pierced had reappeared, hovering at his side. The blade retained its original shape, but the hilt was now covered in writhing fleshy growths. They crept slowly across the guard and fused with the blade, making Ethan’s stomach turn.

The sword moved on its own, carving a golden arc from right to left.

The threads binding Valric were severed cleanly. The golden light at the cut ends faded at once, and the strands dissolved before they could hit the ground.

The energy ball reached him a moment later.

The Ethan figures surrounding the domain raised their hands again, launching one energy ball after another through the white mist. White spheres closed in on Valric from the front, above, and behind, leaving him no room to evade.

The hovering sword paused in midair.

Then it swept sideways.

Golden sword light passed through the first energy ball, splitting it in two. The violent power within escaped harmlessly to either side before it could erupt. The slash continued, cutting through each energy ball behind it.

In the end, it sliced Valric himself in half at the waist.

There was no explosion.

The severed energy balls lost their structure and dissolved into arcs of white lightning throughout the domain. Valric’s upper and lower body also separated along the cut, but the moment the wound appeared, golden threads poured from his flesh and reconnected the two halves.

The threads drew taut, pulling flesh back against flesh.

Within a few breaths, Valric was whole again. Not a single trace of the cut remained on either his skin or armor.

Ethan’s pupils contracted slightly.

That regeneration was faster than anything Valric had shown before.

But Ethan’s shock lasted only a moment. He closed his eyes and focused all his senses inside Valric’s body. It didn’t take long to find something unusual.

Valric’s energy was decreasing.

Not drastically, but steadily.

During their earlier fight, Ethan had sent numerous energy balls into Valric’s body. The white lightning left behind by each one was faint, but after enough of them accumulated, it had spread throughout him.

When the sword cut Valric in half, the white lightning near the wound disappeared as well.

Ethan opened his eyes and stared at the hovering sword.

It hadn’t just cut through Valric’s body.

It had also severed the energy Ethan had planted inside him.

That sword had to go.

As for the crystal, Ethan still couldn’t fully determine its purpose. All he knew was that after it entered Valric’s body, the armor, the fleshy growths, and the sword had all changed.

The crystal seemed to be some kind of catalyst.

But there still wasn’t enough information to tell what it had catalyzed.

Outside the domain, Elira finished clearing away the last golden threads blocking their path.

The Divine Sovereign Moth’s wings spread behind her, their runes lighting up in sequence. A red laser shot from the wings, passed the thread steps forming one after another, and streaked straight toward Eldran as he climbed.