The war in rage!

The night air shuddered, thick with the scent of burning ozone and something far older—the weight of a world teetering on the edge of collapse. The rift above the treetops bled darkness like an open wound, the black mist curling downward, spreading across the land like a disease.

Anna's grip on her dagger tightened.

This was not just another battle.

This was the beginning of the end.

Ethan stood beside her, his expression unreadable. His stance was relaxed, effortless—but Anna wasn't fooled.

There was a storm brewing inside him.

And when he unleashed it, the world would never be the same.

From the heart of the darkness, Victoria stepped forward, her presence warping the air around her. The night bent to her will. The ground pulsed beneath her feet. Reality itself recoiled from her touch.

"You could have been magnificent," she murmured, her voice laced with something almost mournful. "But instead, you chose this."

Ethan smiled, slow and sharp. "I chose myself."

Victoria's lips curled. "Then you've chosen death."

She raised her hand.

And the sky cracked open.

The First Strike

It happened in an instant.

One moment, the night was still—the next, shadows surged forward, a tidal wave of pure, writhing malice, stretching from the rift above like an all-consuming maw.

Anna moved on instinct, launching herself away just as the darkness swallowed the ground where she had stood.

Ethan didn't move.

He didn't need to.

The moment the shadows reached him, the air around his body rippled—and with a single breath, the darkness disintegrated.

Victoria's eyes narrowed.

She had expected resistance.

But not this.

Ethan lifted his gaze, his expression unreadable. "You're going to have to try harder than that."

Victoria's fingers twitched.

Then, she smiled.

"Very well."

The shadows rose again—stronger, sharper, smarter.

Not mindless waves this time. Creatures. Weapons. Abominations birthed from the Hollow King's oldest nightmares.

And this time, they didn't hesitate.

They lunged.

And Ethan—he laughed.

Not out of amusement.

Out of sheer exhilaration.

Then, he moved.

The Unstoppable Force

The battlefield exploded.

Ethan was a blur, a force of nature, slipping between the creatures with terrifying ease. His movements were impossibly fast, inhumanly precise—one step ahead of everything that came for him.

A clawed beast lunged.

Ethan didn't dodge.

He caught it mid-strike, twisting its grotesque form into something unnatural, something wrong—and then, with a flick of his wrist, he unraveled it from existence.

Gone.

Like it had never been there.

Anna watched, breath caught in her throat.

This was not the Ethan she had once known.

This was something far beyond that.

Victoria saw it too.

And for the first time, a flicker of unease passed through her expression.

She clenched her fist. "Enough."

And the entire battlefield froze.

The Power That Should Not Exist

Ethan stood in the center of the war-torn space, his black eyes reflecting the light of the burning sky.

Anna could feel it.

Something inside him—something wrong.

It wasn't darkness.

It wasn't light.

It was something else.

Something that shouldn't exist.

Victoria took a slow step forward, her expression shifting into something cold, calculating.

"You are not a Hollow King's pawn," she murmured. "You are not a man. You are not even a god."

Ethan exhaled, his breath curling in the cold night air. "And?"

Victoria tilted her head.

"You're a mistake."

The words should have been an insult.

But Ethan only smiled.

"Maybe." His fingers flexed at his side. "Or maybe I'm exactly what this world needed."

Victoria's jaw tightened.

"Then let's see what happens when I erase you."

She lifted her hand.

And the world shattered.

The Last Stand Begins

A force unlike anything Anna had ever felt before erupted from Victoria's outstretched palm. The ground beneath them split apart, cracks of pure void surging outward, swallowing everything in its path.

Ethan's body remained motionless as the wave of destruction crashed toward him—

Then, at the last second, he raised his hand.

The void stopped.

The entire battlefield froze in time.

And then Ethan spoke.

"Not today."

And with those two words—reality bent.

The Impossible Choice

Victoria stumbled backward, genuine shock flashing across her face for the first time.

Anna felt it too.

Ethan had done something that should not have been possible.

He had stopped Victoria's attack.

Not blocked it.

Not countered it.

Stopped it.

Like it had never happened.

Victoria's hands curled into fists. "You're an anomaly."

Ethan exhaled. "Yeah," he said, tilting his head slightly. "I'm starting to like that about myself."

Victoria's gaze darkened. "Then I have no choice."

She raised her hand again.

And this time—

She didn't attack him.

She attacked Anna.

The darkness surged forward, faster than thought. Faster than even Ethan could move.

Anna barely had time to react—a heartbeat, a second, a fraction of a breath—

And then—

It hit.