Ethan frowned, his expression tightening.

Now he got it.

This entire floor was designed to wear down his army—to bleed them dry before they could go any further.

But at the same time, he noticed something else.

Every time they took one of those bastards down, not only did they gain experience and level up, but they also absorbed a strange, powerful energy—something aligned with death itself. A Death-Aligned Power, unlike anything he'd seen before.

At this point, Ethan wasn't about to hold back.

He gave the order without hesitation—full assault.

And just like that, the thirteenth floor of the Sky Citadel turned into a blood-soaked battlefield.

A living hell.

Bodies dropped left and right.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The ground shook with every clash, every explosion of power.

The soldiers of Emerald Castle fought like they'd lost their minds—driven by pure, unrelenting bloodlust. Their battle aura burned like wildfire, and they poured every ounce of strength into cutting down the enemy.

Time blurred.

No one knew how long the slaughter lasted.

Eventually, the waves of enemies stopped coming. Nothing crawled up from the depths anymore.

But the cost was brutal—more than half of Ethan's army had fallen.

On the surface, it looked like his forces had been cut in half. But the ones who survived? Every single one of them had leveled up.

Especially Elira.

She'd broken through—straight into early Tier 20.

And that was no coincidence.

Her power had always been closely tied to death. This Death-Aligned energy? It was like a supercharged elixir for her. She drank it in like it was made for her.

Ethan took a few deep breaths, his eyes locked on the floating platform above—the fourteenth floor of the Sky Citadel.

"We've taken the thirteenth floor," he said, his voice low and steady. "So… what do you say? Do we keep going?"

The answer came in a roar.

"Keep going!"

"Let them see what Emerald Castle is made of!"

"Master, we're not done killing yet!"

The fire of battle surged through the ranks, spreading like a storm. The air reeked of blood and steel.

Ethan looked up, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Then let's keep going."

At his command, the army surged forward like a tidal wave, iron boots pounding against the ground, shaking the very sky.

They stormed into the fourteenth floor of the Sky Citadel.

And everything changed.

The moment they stepped in, the atmosphere shifted.

There was no light here.

The ground beneath their feet was warped metal, twisted and scorched. The air was thick with heat and floating ash, like the aftermath of a forge explosion.

All around them, suits of armor stood motionless in the center of the battlefield—silent sentinels, like guardians of some ancient altar.

Each suit radiated a different elemental energy—fire, ice, lightning, corrosion…

It was dead quiet.

But the danger was palpable.

Ethan's brow furrowed, and he instinctively stepped back.

"BZZZZZT—"

The eye slits of the armored suits suddenly lit up with an eerie red glow.

A split second later, the entire space trembled as a deafening metallic roar erupted.

"Get ready for battle!"

At his command, the Emerald Castle forces snapped into formation with practiced precision.

Waves of raw energy surged and collided, the explosions echoing like thunder across the sky.

After surviving thirteen brutal levels of bloodshed, they no longer feared death.

Ethan was the first to charge forward, slamming his fist straight into the largest suit of armor.

"BOOM!"

The impact of metal and energy sent a jolt up his arm, numbing it.

The armor was nearly flawless—no weak points. Its counterattack came in the form of a massive axe swing, slicing through the air with a devastating force.

After exchanging a few blows, Ethan's expression shifted.

Something was off.

This thing… wasn't a puppet.

It was thinking. It was reading his moves.

He quickly leapt back and pulled up his system interface to scan it—

[Dragon God's Descendant]

Tier: 20 (Early Phase)

"Dragon God's Descendant?" Ethan's pupils contracted sharply.

"No way… What the hell are they doing here?"

Before he could process it, the armored figure's axe came crashing down again.

Ethan rolled to the side, dodging it, then spun around and gathered energy into his palm, forming a blazing orb.

"HRAAAH!"

The energy sphere slammed into the armor's chest.

The explosion tore through the metal, sending shards flying—and revealing something inside.

Flesh?

No, it was a writhing mass of silver tissue, like some kind of liquid lifeform trying to slither away.

Ethan grabbed it by what looked like a neck and growled under his breath, "You're a Dragon God's Descendant? You've got serious power—so why the hell are you hiding inside armor?"

The creature trembled violently but didn't respond.

Seconds later, the silver mass suddenly collapsed, melting into a puddle on the ground, lifeless.

Ethan's breath caught in his throat.

He stared at the liquid, a chill creeping down his spine.

Without hesitation, he turned and blasted apart another suit of armor nearby—

Same thing. Another silver liquid lifeform inside.

At the same time—

The Emerald Castle troops seemed to have caught on to the enemy's weakness.

They focused their attacks on the core of the armor suits, and soon, they were cutting down the armored soldiers in droves.

But Ethan felt something wasn't right.

Once the armor was destroyed, the creatures inside didn't fight back. In fact, it was like they didn't even want to fight in the first place. It was as if the armor was forcing them to.

That thought hit him hard.

He didn't bother with comms—just grabbed one of the armored suits and dragged it aside.

"I know you don't want to fight. Tell me—how can I get you out of that armor safely?"

The armor trembled in his grip.

After a moment, a faint voice emerged from within.

"There's a core magic array on the fifteenth floor of Sky Citadel… Destroy it. Kill the Infernal Dragon Lord. Only then can we break free from the armor's control…"

Ethan didn't waste a second.

He leapt onto a nearby platform and shouted, "New orders! No one is to harm the armored ones! Just hold them off—do whatever it takes to buy me time! I'll handle the rest when I get back!"

With that, he launched himself toward the fifteenth floor of Sky Citadel.

Compared to the fourteenth, this place was on a whole other level.

It looked like a damn palace—gleaming treasures and priceless artifacts glittered everywhere.

But it was eerily empty.

Except for the center of the room.

There, an old man sat hunched over, gnawing savagely on a slab of raw meat.

The system identified him immediately:

[The Infernal Dragon Lord]

...