CHAPTER 188: ATTACHMENTS [1]

After watching for long enough, Ethan decided it was time to intervene. With one word, he said, "Stop."

As if the world only heard his voice, everyone in the vicinity had stopped moving except the ones that Ethan willed for them to move.

The golden gorilla froze mid-swing, its massive fists suspended in the air like sculptures carved from living metal. The smaller primates scattered throughout the city became motionless statues, their snarls frozen on their faces. Even the flames consuming the buildings ceased their dance, hanging in the air like orange crystals.

Time itself had bent to Ethan’s will.

Hong Wei looked around in confusion as his enemies suddenly stopped moving. His chest heaved with exhaustion, sweat and blood mixing on his brow as he tried to comprehend what had just occurred. The sword fragment in his hand trembled—not from fear, but from the overwhelming pressure that had suddenly filled the air.

"What... what’s happening?" he whispered, his voice barely audible in the supernatural silence.

Ezekiel and the general, still conscious despite their injuries, struggled to understand the phenomenon. Their enhanced senses screamed warnings about an immense presence nearby, but they couldn’t locate its source.

Without hesitation and not caring why this miracle had occurred, Hong Wei’s survival instincts kicked in. He wouldn’t waste this opportunity, whatever its cause.

"Everyone! Kill them all!" he shouted to the surviving defenders scattered throughout the area. "Whatever’s happening, we need to act now!"

The city’s remaining fighters emerged from their hiding spots and defensive positions. Archers appeared on rooftops, their arrows finding their marks in the motionless beasts below. Warriors charged forward with desperate fury, their weapons finding gaps in golden fur that had been impossible to exploit moments before.

The massacre was swift and efficient. Creatures that had terrorised the city for days fell without resistance, their lives ending before they could even register the attacks. Golden blood pooled in the streets as Hong Wei himself drove his broken sword deep into the massive gorilla’s chest, piercing its heart with surgical precision.

As the last of the invaders fell, the unnatural stillness began to fade. The flames resumed their crackling, debris settled with delayed crashes, and the oppressive silence gave way to the sounds of a wounded city beginning to breathe again.

"What happened?" Ezekiel gasped, leaning heavily on his spear as he surveyed the carnage. "Some kind of magic? But who could—"

His words died in his throat as a figure began to descend from the clouds above.

The man floating down moved with impossible grace, his feet not quite touching the air as he descended. His presence radiated power so absolute that it made the earlier golden gorilla seem like a house cat. Dark hair framed a face that was both familiar and alien—handsome features, eyes that held depths no mortal should] possess.

Hong Wei’s eyes widened as he suddenly saw a person that he knew too well, yet felt like he didn’t know at all.

"Big... big brother?" The words escaped his lips in a whisper.

It was Ethan’s face. Ethan’s build. Ethan’s voice when he had spoken that single word. But everything else was wrong. The Ethan that Hong Wei remembered had been warm, protective, someone who smiled when he saw his little brother from the orphanage. This figure radiated cold detachment, power so vast it made the air itself heavy to breathe.

The Ethan he remembered had been human.

This being... this was something else entirely.

Ethan touched down silently in the centre of the battlefield, his boots making no sound against the blood-soaked stone. His gaze swept across the scene with clinical interest, taking in the dead creatures, the wounded defenders, the destruction that painted the city in shades of red and ash.

"Hong Wei," he said, his voice carrying the same tone as before—calm, measured, devoid of the warmth that once characterized their interactions. "You’ve grown."

Hong Wei staggered backward, his broken sword clattering to the ground. The young man who had just faced down a creature many times his strength now trembled before someone he had once called family.

"You’re... you’re really here," Hong Wei breathed. "But...what..." He gestured helplessly at the frozen carnage around them. "What did you just do?"

Ethan studied him for a moment, as if examining a specimen under a microscope. "I’ve been in the first sanctuary, Ethan. Learning. Growing. Becoming what I needed to become."

Ezekiel stepped forward, his city lord instincts overriding his fear. Despite the overwhelming aura pressing down on him, he managed to speak. "Lord Ethan. You’ve returned. The city... we’ve tried to rebuild, to honour what you established, but—"

"I can see that," Ethan interrupted, his gaze shifting to encompass the damaged buildings, the defensive positions, the evidence of a community that had fought to survive in his absence. "You’ve done adequately."

The word stung more than any criticism could have. Adequately. As if their struggles, their losses, their desperate fight for survival was merely satisfactory.

Hong Wei found his voice again, though it cracked with emotion. "Ethan, what happened to you? You feel... different. Cold. Like you’re not really here."

"I am here," he said simply. "But I am no longer the person you remember. That Ethan died somewhere between the towers and the void. What returned is something... more."

He raised his hand, and reality rippled around his fingers. Space bent, time hiccupped, and for a moment the very concept of existence seemed negotiable.

"I have transcended the limitations that once bound me. The power I wield now could reshape worlds, rewrite the fundamental laws of this world itself."

Hong Wei’s face crumpled with grief and confusion. "But you’re still my brother, right? You still care about us? About this place?"

Ethan was silent for a long moment, his expression unreadable as he gazed at the young man who had once followed him around the orphanage like a lost puppy.

"I do. I care about you, as for this place...not so much."