Ethan touched down slowly, the Scepter of the Fey Sovereign still pulsing with a fading green glow in his hand.

He stared at the charred corpse before him, voice calm—so calm it chilled the air.

"You were the lord of the twentieth floor of Sky Citadel."

"In other words—everything below that is empty now."

The Scorpion Lord's eyes flew open, wide with disbelief.

His voice trembled. "You… you're insane! That's Sky Citadel you're talking about! The higher you go, the things up there… they'll—"

"Tear me limb from limb?"

Ethan's lips curled into a faint smile, a cold gleam flickering in his eyes.

"Let them try."

He raised the scepter.

A blade of emerald light shimmered into being.

—Boom.

The scepter came down, piercing straight through the scorpion's heart-core.

In an instant, a strange current of light surged through the air.

It was the Scorpion Lord's remaining power, being absorbed by the system.

Ethan's fatigue from the battle vanished in a blink, his strength fully restored.

And with it—his level rose.

The wind finally died.

Dust drifted down through the sunlight, the scorched scent of battle thick in the air.

Ethan looked out across the desert, silent for a long moment.

Behind him, the others stood still, drained by the brutal fight they'd just survived.

"This desert doesn't have anything left worth staying for," Ethan said quietly.

"Get yourselves together. We rest for a day—then we keep climbing Sky Citadel."

The cheer that erupted was instant.

Not just excitement—it was the wild relief of people who'd stared death in the face and lived to laugh about it.

Sky Citadel—that towering spire of mystery and power—was more than just a dungeon to them. It was hope. Every floor held new chances, new energy, new strength.

For a moment, the air itself seemed to hum with anticipation.

But the joy didn't last long.

—Vmmm.

The ground let out a low, resonant hum, like someone had plucked a massive string deep beneath the earth.

The sound rose, sharper, louder, until it scraped at the ears.

Ethan's smile vanished.

He stepped back instinctively, eyes locked on the distant dunes.

"What is that sound…"

"Defensive formation!" he barked.

A heartbeat later, a sand dune in the distance collapsed.

Dust exploded upward, swirling, twisting—

And in the blink of an eye, it became a massive vortex, a tornado that punched into the sky, connecting earth and clouds in a single roaring column.

"A sandstorm?" Feylora frowned.

"No…" Her voice dropped. "There's someone inside it."

The energy was wrong. It looked natural, but it wasn't. It tore at the air, bent the light.

Ethan could feel it—an intelligence inside the storm. Smiling. Arrogant.

The whirlwind stopped.

And there, standing above the sea of sand, was a figure.

A girl.

Or at least, she looked like one—slender, petite, with snow-white hair and pale blue eyes that glowed faintly.

She walked at the eye of the storm, untouched by the dust, her dress pristine.

"Venomwing Scorpion's dead, isn't he?"

The voice that came from her lips was low and gravelly—a grown man's voice.

Everyone froze.

Several warriors went pale. One clapped a hand over his mouth.

That wrongness—that jarring mismatch between body and voice—sent a shiver straight down the spine.

"This one…"

Ethan muttered, eyes narrowing as a chill settled over his face.

The system interface flickered open before him, lines of data scrolling fast.

Name: Caelith

Tier: 21 (Mid-stage)

"Higher than the Venomwing Scorpion Lord…" he murmured, a weight sinking in his gut.

The "girl" tilted her head slightly, watching them with a smile far too sweet for the moment.

"He was too hasty. If he'd waited for me, the two of us together might've wiped you all out."

Still smiling, she raised her hand.

The wind—stopped.

Just for a heartbeat.

Then—

BOOM.

The air detonated.

A storm of razor-sharp wind blades exploded from around her, spiraling outward and weaving into a massive disc of slicing gales, slowly rotating above the battlefield.

"It's been so long since I stretched my limbs," she said, voice laced with cruel delight.

"Since we've met, why don't I turn you all… into shreds?"

BOOM—!

The disc shattered.

A thousand wind blades tore loose like wild beasts, screaming toward the ground.

Ethan barely had time to register the sky going dark.

The blades moved too fast to track—each one a shrieking arc of air sharp enough to rip through steel.

"Defensive formation!" he roared.

The warriors of Emerald Castle moved as one.

Their powers surged into the air, interlocking into a curved barrier of light.

A pale golden glow shimmered into place just as the first wave hit.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The wind blades slammed into the shield like a hailstorm of knives.

The ground trembled. Cracks spiderwebbed outward beneath their feet.

The barrier flickered violently, its surface webbed with fine fractures.

"We can't hold it!" someone shouted.

Ethan clenched his jaw, the Scepter of the Fey Sovereign flaring in his grip.

The rune on his forehead pulsed. A bead of sweat slid down his cheek.

Then the sky tore open.

With a piercing shriek, the very air seemed to rupture, scattering dust and sand in all directions.

Elira rose into the air, her black hair whipping wildly in the updraft.

Behind her, wings unfurled—those infamous wings of the Skytear Demon Moth—swelling with power as light and shadow danced across their surface.

The edges of her wings crackled with violet-black lightning, each beat sending out a suffocating shockwave.

Her Tier—

The system flashed the update:

Tier 21, Mid-stage.

Ethan's pupils contracted.

She'd broken through the barrier—in mere seconds.

Across the battlefield, Caelith let out a sharp laugh.

Her eye twitched, just slightly. Shock? Or interest?

Elira's voice cracked through the air like a blade:

"You genderless freak—so you've mastered wind. Big deal. Today, I'll show you what real power looks like—what the Skytear Demon Moth is truly capable of!"

RUMBLE—

Dark energy surged around her, thick and churning.

A massive black disc formed in her palm, runes spinning like molten fire, as if it could swallow the sky itself.

She raised her hand—and hurled it.

Whoosh!

The black disc tore through the air, a vortex of annihilation humming low and deep as it hurtled toward Caelith.

Caelith's expression shifted.

The wind inside him surged in panic. His wings beat hard, drawing in air as he summoned a counterattack—

A pale wind-blade disc formed in his hands, swirling with countless slicing currents.

He launched it forward.

The two discs collided midair.

Zzzzz—CRACK—

It was like watching two planets crash.

Sparks flew. Light warped. Space itself began to tear.

The sky shattered.

At the epicenter of their clash, a long, jagged rift split open.

And at the end of that rift—was a vortex.

Black-violet energy churned within it, roiling like the mouth of another world.

...