Brent's greatsword was already covered in cracks. He had never felt such violent power before. His weapon was on the verge of breaking, yet he seemed to have inexhaustible strength.

Looking at Beckford, who was close at hand, Brent wanted to raise his weapon and cleave him down fiercely.

That seemingly inexhaustible power suddenly became uncontrollable, and his legs instantly lost strength. If not for the greatsword in his hand supporting him, he would have almost knelt before Beckford.

"Don't resist. Haven't you already felt it? That power that surpasses human limits! Don't you want to truly possess it?"

Beckford stood before Brent, his head held high, looking down at him with a condescending gaze.

"Kneel, and surrender to me. You will possess near-endless life and power far beyond what you felt before."

Brent certainly did not want to surrender to Beckford, but his consciousness grew increasingly hazy. His entire mind felt heavy, and his once strong and powerful legs seemed not to belong to him. Only by leaning on the greatsword did he avoid truly falling.

He could not hold on much longer. The ground in his line of sight was getting closer and closer, and the cracks on the greatsword in his hand were multiplying, ready to shatter into pieces at any moment...

At this moment, the weapon that had accompanied him for many years finally shattered completely. Brent, who had lost his support, finally fell. In the final moment, he used his hand to brace himself, preventing him from falling directly onto the ground.

But this way, it looked as if he had truly knelt before Beckford.

A chilling energy filled his entire body. Brent felt his consciousness becoming increasingly blurry, and an urge to destroy all living beings grew stronger and stronger.

If before he was desperately trying to stand and not fall, now he was desperately resisting the urge to stand up again.

Once he stood up again, he would completely lose control of his body. Even if a trace of consciousness remained deep within his heart, he would turn into an undead creature that would engage in a frenzied slaughter of his companions.

"I... will not... surrender... to you..."

Brent used his last ounce of strength, plunging the remaining broken sword in his hand toward his own head.

If his head was turned into mush, perhaps he would not be converted into an undead. Although he knew this idea might not be correct, he could not think of any other way.

He absolutely could not accept becoming a killing tool to slaughter adventurers.

"In the end... it has come to this..."

He knew he had still fallen into Beckford's trap, but he had no way out. Now, he could only place his hope in the surviving adventurers.

"It's up to you... Ethan..."

Crack!

The broken sword, reduced to only a hilt, plunged fiercely into Brent's forehead. The remaining energy from the magic stone on it erupted, and fierce flames almost engulfed Brent's upper body. But when the flames dissipated, Brent's head was unharmed, and the remaining broken sword in his hand was only a scarred hilt.

"Have you felt the power that surpasses human limits? Rise, my warrior, and use that great power to clear away all obstacles before me."

Brent looked at the greatsword in his hand, which was now only a hilt. He had no options left, but accepting orders from Beckford was absolutely unacceptable.

"I... absolutely... will not..."

Brent could no longer speak a complete sentence, but his mental will was so resilient that even Beckford was startled. Since he had mastered death energy, this was the first time he had encountered such a situation. He did not know whether he should just kill Brent directly. The death energy absorbed by Brent was far more than any captain here, and if he could be successfully converted, he would definitely become a very powerful undead warrior.

"What a pity..."

Beckford quickly made a decision. Although it was a bit regrettable, there was no need to keep a warrior who would not obey and could even cause trouble at any time, no matter how powerful he was.

Just as Beckford was about to personally end Brent's life, the originally gloomy sky suddenly brightened. A thick golden-yellow beam of light shot straight down from the sky, piercing the gray energy shield and striking Brent, who was kneeling on the ground.

Almost simultaneously, a voice with a hint of mockery came from above Beckford.

"Rise... my champion!"

Although the light beam disappeared, Brent, who had been struck by it, turned into a giant ball of light. The powerful energy fluctuations caused Beckford to involuntarily retreat several steps.

The aura emanating from this golden-yellow energy made him feel very uneasy. He sensed that the death energy within Brent was dissolving at a terrifying speed, and his unease grew even stronger.

The golden ball of light slowly became less dazzling, and at the same time, the light ball was slowly converging and shrinking.

Not long after, everyone finally saw the situation clearly. Brent, who had been kneeling on the ground, was now in a posture of kneeling on one knee with his head slightly bowed, his hands resting on a longsword plunged into the ground.

His combat suit had also undergone tremendous changes, transforming into a full set of silver-white armor with golden patterns.

As the light completely converged, and only the armor on Brent still carried a faint glow, Brent reopened his eyes and stood up.

At this moment, Brent showed no signs of abnormality, and the determined will revealed in his eyes was even stronger than before.

Beckford looked at this Brent, feeling a sense of unease in his heart. What concerned him even more was that he could no longer sense even a trace of death energy in Brent's body. Instead, his entire body was emitting an energy fluctuation that made him feel uncomfortable.

This was not all. Beckford looked up slightly and saw a familiar person slowly descending from the sky.

The gray shield, which had been pierced by the golden-yellow light beam, was slowly repairing itself. However, the golden rain of light falling from the spherical object emitting dazzling light in the sky caused the gray energy shield to slowly collapse and even dissolve.

Falling with these raindrops was none other than Ethan, whom they had seen before and even exchanged blows with from a distance.

After landing on the ground, Ethan did not pay attention to Beckford. Instead, he looked at Brent beside him with a surprised expression. To be honest, he had not expected using the Holy Light Infusion on Brent to have such a good effect. This guy's compatibility with the Holy Light was quite high. Of course, such powerful Holy Light energy was not the kind Ethan had conjured himself. He had deliberately opened a spatial rift, drawn out the Holy Light energy, pierced the energy shield formed by death energy, and simultaneously guided the energy into Brent's body.

What he initially wanted to do was simply help Brent clear the death energy from his body. If he could gain the Holy Light's recognition as a result, that would also be a good thing.

Unexpectedly, not only did Brent receive the Holy Light's recognition, but most of the Holy Light remained within Brent's body. A small portion also affected Brent's armor and originally damaged weapon, not only completely repairing the armor and weapon but also fundamentally changing the nature of these two pieces of equipment.

"The Holy Light has this effect too?"

He quickly realized that the Holy Light did not have this effect. Brent's magic stone equipment itself possessed some special properties, with extremely high energy receptivity, which was why these changes occurred under the extreme energy of the Holy Light.

"How do you feel?"

Brent had received some information about the Holy Light in his mind, so he roughly knew what had happened to him and what the Holy Light was.

"To be honest, I've never felt this good in years."

He felt his body had become stronger than ever before, and the surging Holy Light energy allowed him to exert even more powerful combat strength during battle.

After confirming that Brent was fine, Ethan looked around again. Countless adventurers who had been invaded by death energy gradually returned to normal under the shower of golden light rain.

They were not as lucky as Brent. Apart from the fact that this level of Holy Light shower was not enough to cause earth-shattering changes for them, it was also related to the fact that most of them did not have such high compatibility with the Holy Light.

Regardless, the adventurers' crisis had been resolved by Ethan. Furthermore, the swarms of undead were also affected by the light rain. Undead creatures touched by the Holy Light raindrops would be purified little by little. That feeling was definitely not comfortable. For the undead, it was painful torment on a soul level, even if their bodies were gradually returning to their original normal appearance during the shower.

Of course, Beckford would not just watch this happen. The moment he realized something was wrong, he began mobilizing his own death energy and the surrounding death energy. As a gray energy mass gathered in his hand, Beckford wanted to destroy the giant glowing object in the sky.

Looking at Beckford's actions, Ethan merely curled his lip in disdain and finally spoke the first words between him and Beckford today.

"Power that surpasses human limits, is it?"

Beckford still had powerful death energy gathered in his hand and had not had time to do anything when he suddenly felt an even stronger energy fluctuation from Ethan.

He withdrew his upward gaze and looked down. Ethan had somehow taken out a long staff in his hand. Besides the powerful fluctuations emanating from Ethan himself, this seemingly ordinary long staff gave him a very dangerous feeling.

The Arcane Spring, rarely used since it was made, finally had a chance to appear again today, and Ethan was ready to completely drain all the energy from the staff in his hand.

As his own magic power and the staff's magic power surged, the sky above the island seemed to lower significantly. Within the darker, constantly swirling black clouds, the terrifying pressure emanating from the surging lightning made all creatures on the island tremble with fear.

Everyone looked up at the clouds above, constantly flashing with lightning. Almost everyone remembered the terrifying lightning storms in the Sea of Storms.

(To be continued.)