The battlefield had frozen on a single image, Adrian, blood-soaked, white-grey mist condensing around his raised hand. For a heartbeat, even the monsters recoiled from him, their instincts shrieking in primal fear.

Then the mist erupted.

He hurled it forward in a single, desperate motion. The aura tore into the horde like a tide of annihilation. Hundreds of monsters were consumed in an instant, bodies collapsing into ash.

Even several D-Rank beasts were caught in the surge, their roars cut short as the half-born Source energy reduced them to nothing. The ground where they stood became barren earth, not even bones remaining.

But Adrian staggered. The white-grey aura around his body flickered like dying flame, dissolving into wisps.

His chest heaved, his veins burned empty, his mana reserves nearly gone. His healing spells flickered, their light faint against the damage ripping through his body.

Blood dripped from his fingertips. Each breath sent fire through his lungs.

The monsters sensed weakness. They surged again, emboldened by his faltering power.

A D-Rank broke through the lines, faster than the rest. Its blade-like claw cut a path through desperate defenders, racing toward Adrian.

“Get back!” Martinez roared, lunging forward with his sword raised.

His aura faltered, his limbs refused him. He was too slow, his body betraying him when he needed it most.

Every eye turned toward him. Defenders shouted warnings, their voices cracking with panic.

“Adrian, move!” Helena’s fire spell crackled, but the distance was too great.

The B-Rank commanders hurled themselves forward, lightning and water trailing in their wake, but they were too far. Too late.

The claw descended. Adrian watched it fall, time stretching like molten glass.

And then stopped.

A figure had appeared before Adrian. thin, sharp, yet radiating an aura that crushed the battlefield under its weight. The air itself seemed to bend around her presence.

Rage blazed from her, incandescent and unstoppable. The D-Rank’s body disintegrated before it could even scream, obliterated by the pressure of her will alone.

The remaining monsters froze. Even the C-Rank beasts turned their attention toward this new threat, their primitive minds recognizing true apex predation.

Adrian blinked through blood and haze. Through the remnants of his failing aura, he saw her silhouette, familiar even in the chaos.

Auburn hair caught the light of distant fires. Golden eyes burned with protective fury that made his own power seem like a candle beside the sun.

His lips curved faintly, and with the last of his strength, he whispered: “Mother…”

And collapsed into her arms.

Elara caught him as he fell, her composure cracking for just an instant. Her arms encircled his broken body, and she felt the tremor in her hands as she lifted him. Blood soaked through her uniform, his blood, warm and far too much of it.

“Healers!” Her voice cut through the battlefield’s din like a blade.

She moved with inhuman speed toward the tower, Adrian’s weight nothing in her arms. Behind her, the remaining monsters seemed to sense the shift in the air, their primitive minds recognizing something far more dangerous than anything they’d faced.

The medical bay erupted into motion as she entered. Healers scattered, clearing space, their hands already glowing with restorative light. She placed him on the central table with infinite care, her fingers brushing his blood-matted hair.

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“Keep him alive.” The words emerged as steel wrapped in ice.

One healer, an older man with steady hands, nodded without looking up from Adrian’s wounds. “We’ll do everything we can, Lady Blackwood.”

She stood there for three heartbeats, watching the golden light flow over her son’s ruined form. His breathing was shallow, irregular, but present. That was enough.

Then she turned back toward the door, and something fundamental shifted in the air around her.

The battlefield stretched before her as she emerged from the tower. Thousands of monsters still swarmed the walls, their roars shaking the very stones. Defenders fought desperately, their formations cracking under relentless pressure.

Her aura ignited.

Light erupted from her body, not the warm glow of healing magic, but something pure and terrible. It washed over the battlefield like a tide, forcing every eye to turn toward her. Even the C-Rank beasts paused their assault, their heads swiveling toward this new threat.

“You hurt my son.”

The words carried across the battlefield, somehow audible over the chaos. Her voice held no anger, no emotion at all. It was a statement of fact, delivered with the weight of absolute certainty.

She raised her hand toward the sky.

The air above Aranthor began to burn. Not with fire, but with light itself, as if she had torn a hole in reality and pulled down a fragment of the sun. The radiance grew, expanding, until it hung above the battlefield like a second star.

Defenders on the walls shielded their eyes, their faces turned upward in awe. Some dropped to their knees, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of power gathering above them.

“Celestial Judgment.”

From the burning sphere, spears of light descended. Not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands upon thousands of radiant lances that fell like divine rain. Each one struck with precision, weaving between defenders to find their targets. Monsters screamed as they were pierced, their bodies dissolving into ash before they hit the ground.

The Razor Wolves’ lightning crackled uselessly against the light. The Stonehide Behemoths’ rocky armor cracked and crumbled. Even the D-Rank beasts, creatures that had terrorized veteran defenders, were reduced to nothing in seconds.

Commander Drake, hovering in the air with lightning wreathed around his form, stared in stunned silence. He had fought alongside A-Ranks before, but this was beyond anything he’d witnessed. This was power that rewrote the rules of battle.

The light show lasted perhaps thirty seconds. When it finally faded, the battlefield had been transformed. Where thousands of monsters had swarmed moments before, only scorched earth remained. The acrid smell of ozone filled the air, and wisps of smoke rose from countless impact points.

Only two figures still moved among the devastation, the C-Rank monsters, their chitinous and crystalline forms cracked and smoking but somehow still alive. They swayed on their feet, their eyes wide with primal terror.

“Finish them.” Elara’s voice carried no satisfaction, only cold efficiency.

Drake and Lysara moved instantly, their own considerable power seeming almost quaint after what they’d just witnessed. Lightning and water crashed down on the wounded beasts, ending them with brutal finality.

Silence settled over the battlefield like a shroud. The defenders stood motionless, their weapons forgotten in their hands. Some were weeping, others laughing with relief, but most simply stared at the woman who had single-handedly ended a war.

Elara descended from her position above the walls, her feet touching the scorched ground with barely a sound. Her expression remained carved from stone, but those closest could see the slight tremor in her hands, the way her eyes kept flicking back toward the tower.

Commander Drake approached first, his lightning aura dimmed to respectful levels. “Lady Blackwood.” He saluted with the crisp precision due to a superior officer. “The city is secure.”

“Casualties?” Her tone was clipped, professional.

“Forty-three dead, over a hundred wounded. Without your intervention…” He shook his head. “We would have lost everything.”

Lysara joined them, water still dripping from her. “The academy students performed admirably. Several showed exceptional courage under fire.”

Elara nodded, but her attention was already shifting. The business of war could wait. She had more pressing concerns.

“What happened to my son?”

The commanders exchanged glances. Drake cleared his throat, choosing his words carefully.

“He stood at the center of our formation when the D-Ranks broke through. Fought alone for nearly ten minutes, buying time for our wounded to retreat.”

“His spells…” Lysara added, wonder creeping into her voice. “I’ve never seen anything like them. White-grey fire that seemed to burn reality itself. And at the end, there was this mist…”

“Mist?” Elara’s eyes sharpened.

“It surrounded him like living smoke. When he touched the monsters, they simply… dissolved. Not killed, not burned. Erased.”

Drake nodded grimly. “He saved dozens of lives before his body gave out. Whatever power he was drawing on, it was tearing him apart from the inside.”

Elara listened in silence, her face betraying nothing. But inside, her heart clenched with a mixture of pride and terror. She knew what they were describing, even if they didn’t understand it themselves.

“Drake, assume field command. Lysara, coordinate with the medical teams.” Elara’s voice cut through the stunned silence.

Both commanders straightened, recognizing the absolute authority in her tone. “Yes, ma’am,” they replied in unison.

She didn’t wait for further acknowledgment. Her boots struck the tower steps.

Behind, the defenders began the grim work of tending their wounded. But their eyes kept returning to the scorched battlefield, where the ash of ten thousand monsters bore testament to a mother’s wrath.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep