Chapter 1389: Real Men Don’t Look Back

Ethan had no such concerns.

White energy spheres flew from his hands one after another, cutting off the old Witch’s escape routes to either side and below. Explosions lit the gloomy sky and blasted the pouring rain into chaotic clouds of mist.

The old Witch swung her staff and blocked an energy sphere coming straight at her.

White lightning spread along the shaft, and the impact threw her arm back. Before she could steady herself, a second sphere was already upon her.

She barely managed to deflect it.

Then Andona’s golden energy sphere burst through the rain from below.

Sensing another force closing in, the old Witch hurriedly looked down. Golden light had already illuminated her aged face.

The sphere had survived an entire round of combat without exhausting its power. The Divine Power packed inside it was far beyond anything she could withstand in her current state.

Ethan stopped a short distance away.

As the brilliant golden light drew closer, white energy gathered in his palm again. If the old Witch blocked this attack, he would hit her with another immediately.

But she couldn’t.

The golden sphere struck her head-on, knocking her staff aside before exploding against her chest. Divine Power tore through her defenses, and the impact sent her plummeting from the sky.

As she fell, the headless phantom behind her began to fade. Its massive body dissolved inward from the edges until it disappeared into the rain.

Ethan watched where she had fallen, unease growing in his mind.

That had been too easy.

He threw another energy sphere down after her anyway, then drew in his power and dove along her path.

The moment Ethan landed, the world around him changed.

The wet swamp vanished.

In its place was a pink bedroom. Tables and chairs stood neatly arranged along both sides, while the walls and floor were almost unnaturally spotless. A plump bed occupied the center of the room, curtains hanging on either side as a red light blinked slowly overhead.

Ethan stopped.

The blanket shifted.

A small head peeked out from behind it, staring directly at him.

Ethan didn’t ask any questions or move closer.

He simply released the energy sphere already gathered in his palm.

White pressure expanded through the room. The tables and chairs shattered first, followed by cracks spreading across the walls. The pink surroundings peeled away from his vision in layers, like sheets of paper being torn loose.

The illusion couldn’t withstand his power. It collapsed completely.

The wet smell of the swamp filled his nose again.

Ethan was back in Gloommire Marsh.

The figure lying before him was no longer the old Witch, but the young girl from the illusion. She lay in the muddy water, coughing up blood. Her face was pale and haggard, and the hand gripping her staff had gone limp.

Ethan walked over without a word.

A white energy sphere formed in his palm. Bending down, he gently placed it beside the girl, then turned and walked away.

Real men didn’t look back at explosions.

A weak, furious voice came from behind him.

"Are you looking down on me?"

Blinding light erupted at Ethan’s back.

Boom!

The explosion shook the entire swamp.

White energy collided with the golden force crashing down a moment later, creating a pale gold shockwave. Before Ethan could brace himself, it lifted him from behind and hurled him through the churning mist, dropping him beside the others.

The landscape had completely changed.

Huge sections of ground had collapsed, and entire trees had been uprooted and erased. The river that once ran through the swamp had been severed by the explosion, its water spilling down both ends of the broken channel. Ravines covered what little land remained, leaving almost nowhere untouched.

Ethan pushed himself up and turned toward the others.

"Did you do this?"

Andona descended from the sky, a golden energy sphere dense with Divine Power still hovering above her palm.

"We heard you were trapped in an illusion."

She calmly surveyed the devastation.

"We were curious, so we decided to end the battle as quickly as possible."

The others nodded at once. They crowded around Ethan and inspected him from every angle, only relaxing once they were sure he hadn’t been injured.

What Ethan hadn’t seen was that the entire swamp had sunk several yards while he was trapped in the illusion.

Kaelira’s power had wiped out every nearby creature and enemy. If a single hostile life-form could still be found, it would be an insult to Queen Elowen.

After the explosion, Elowen transformed into the Queen of Everfrost.

Ultimate ice swept across the swamp from beneath her feet, freezing the shattered earth, muddy water, and lingering energy to prevent any soul from escaping the battlefield.

Ataneya’s twenty-five tails joined in.

Infernal energy spread from their tips, burning through the frozen area and erasing everything that remained.

Even Auri did her part.

Fairy energy flowed into the earth, restoring some of the damaged plants and animals and returning a few patches of green to the lifeless region.

If Ethan had escaped the illusion a little sooner, he might have found nothing but an empty plain beneath a bright, unobstructed sun.

Kaelira came to his side and looked around at what was left of the swamp.

"My lord, perhaps we should go somewhere else?"

Everyone else shot her a look of contempt.

Kaelira had been the most ruthless of them all.

Ethan surveyed the devastation, idly playing with a strand of white lightning between his fingers. At last, he nodded.

He was about to announce their departure when Seraphina transformed back into a dragon beside him. She lowered herself to the ground, waiting for everyone to climb onto her back.

Ethan paused.

"Uh... let’s go!"

Once they had left, silence returned to the swamp.

Deep underground, an otter was still alive.

It woke from its sleep and crawled through its burrow toward the surface. Just as its paws reached the exit, a crack opened in the space beside it.

A slender hand emerged.

Smack!

The hand slapped the otter across the face.

Before it could react, a second slap landed. The hand struck it several more times, only retreating into the spatial crack once the otter’s eyes went unfocused and it passed out completely.

The crack closed.

Silence returned underground.

On Seraphina’s back, Ethan sensed a familiar spatial fluctuation.

It lasted only a moment, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember where he had felt it before.

"Did any of you sense—"

Before he could finish, the others answered through their actions.

Elowen was idly playing with a piece of ice.

Namyanna was using streams of water to wash the mud from everyone.

Ataneya had her head down, grooming her twenty-five fox tails. She clearly wasn’t paying attention to anything behind them.

Ethan waited, but no one responded. Eventually, he gave up and looked ahead.

"So, where should we..."