Chapter 154: The end is approaching

Ethan turned his gaze toward Lord Vance and the remaining two hundred soldiers who stood in defensive formations across multiple platforms. Despite their military bearing and professional equipment, fear was written clearly across their faces. They had witnessed systematic elimination of elite forces that should have been invincible.

The air hung thick with the scent of blood and cooling corpses. Volcanic glass created abstract patterns where molten rock had reshaped the battlefield, while crystalline spears jutted from platform surfaces like geometric monuments to superior power.

Lord Vance’s expression was grim as he surveyed the devastation. Several Gold-rank captains dead. One hundred Bronze and Silver-rank subjects eliminated. The cost wasn’t cheap by any measurement, and worse—the enemy showed no signs of fatigue or diminished capability.

“Your losses are mounting,” Ethan observed. “How many more subjects are you willing to sacrifice for territorial pride?”

Vance’s jaw clenched with stubborn determination. “This is my domain. Months of building, expanding, conquering. I won’t surrender it to anyone.”

“Surrender preserves what remains of your organization. Continued resistance only increases casualties.”

“Never.” Vance’s voice carried absolute finality. “We fight until victory or death.”

The Lord turned toward his remaining forces, his Peak-Gold aura blazing with desperate authority. “Second wave! One hundred volunteers! Show this intruder what power means!”

A Silver-rank captain named Stevens stepped forward immediately. “For Lord Vance! For the territory!”

“For our home!” shouted another warrior, her Bronze-rank equipment gleaming with determination.

“Our families live here!” called out a veteran soldier. “We protect what matters!”

One hundred subjects moved with coordinated precision despite obvious fear. Their loyalty transcended rational self-preservation—these people genuinely believed in what they were fighting for.

Ethan studied their approach with analytical interest. Professional military training guided their formation while emotional commitment provided motivation that magical compulsion couldn’t match.

“Your courage is admirable,” he said to the advancing force. “But courage doesn’t overcome death.”

Captain Stevens led the charge, his sword blazing with Silver-rank enhancement. “Spread formation! Avoid clustering! Make him work for every kill!”

“Ranged attacks first!” commanded Sergeant Torres. “Wear him down before close engagement!”

“Watch for those wind blades!” warned Corporal Martinez. “Stay mobile! Don’t give him static targets!”

The assault began with professional coordination that spoke of extensive combat experience. Magical projectiles filled the air from multiple directions while warriors positioned themselves to avoid the area-effect techniques that had eliminated their predecessors.

Volcanic Mastery responded to their tactics with controlled precision. Instead of overwhelming thermal assault, Ethan applied graduated force that created environmental hazards without wasting energy on excessive destruction.

Molten geysers erupted at calculated intervals, forcing the attacking formation to adjust their positioning while creating killzones where other techniques could eliminate them efficiently.

“Move! Move! Don’t get pinned down!” Stevens shouted as lava fountains blocked their advance routes.

“He’s controlling the battlefield!” Torres observed grimly. “We need to get close before he traps us all!”

But close engagement meant death against capabilities that operated beyond their power scales entirely.

Water Manipulation created pressurized streams that struck with hydraulic force capable of crushing enhanced armor. The attacks came from impossible angles.

CRASH! SPLAT! CRUNCH!

“Rodri is down!” One screamed as his squadmate disappeared in a spray of crimson mist. “That water hit like a mountain!”

“Maintain formation!” Stevens commanded despite watching his forces systematically eliminated. “We die together if we die at all!”

Crystal spears erupted through platform surfaces with mathematical precision, their emergence timed to catch warriors during movement transitions when evasion became impossible.

PIERCE! CRACK! THUD!

“No!” A captain watched two more soldiers he was close to fall to geological violence that emerged from supposedly solid footing. “He’s turning the ground against us!”

“Nowhere is safe!” A soldier realized with growing horror. “The entire battlefield is his weapon!”

Wind blades carved through their formation with surgical accuracy, invisible cutting edges that moved faster than their reflexes could track or counter effectively.

WHISH! SLICE! SPLAT!

“I can’t see them coming!” screamed a bronze rank warrior as the warrior beside him simply ceased existing above the waist. “How do you fight invisible death?”

“You don’t!” Stevens replied with bitter honesty. “You die with honor and hope someone remembers!”

The Bronze-rank soldiers showed remarkable courage despite witnessing systematic destruction of their tactical capabilities. Many had families within the stronghold—children who depended on their protection and spouses who shared their dreams.

“For my daughter!” shouted a young female warrior as she charged into certain death. “For her future!”

“My son will inherit better than this! He will take revenge!” declared Soldier Yamamoto, his final words carrying parental determination.

But determination meant nothing against power that could change terrains.

Fire magic reached surgical precision levels, controlled flames that eliminated specific targets without affecting nearby combatants. The technique demonstrated casual mastery over forces that could reshape landscapes.

SIZZLE! BURN! COLLAPSE!

“He’s playing with us,” a warrior realized with horror evident in his expression. “Could have killed everyone instantly. He’s making it educational.”

“Educational for who?” A warrior demanded desperately. “We’re all going to die anyway!”

“For Lord Vance,” Stevens answered grimly. “Showing him the cost of resistance.”

Crystal Manipulation created maze-like structures that channeled the surviving warriors into predetermined killzones where overlapping techniques could eliminate them with maximum efficiency.

CRACK! PIERCE! THUD!

Crystal walls appeared around a large group of warriors. No matter how much they tried to break out, it was impossible.

“Trapped like animals, this isn’t combat, it’s slaughter.”

“Then we make our deaths count! Rush this walls! All at once! Maybe someone gets through!”

Twenty survivors launched themselves in final coordinated assault, their weapons gleaming with enhancement magic while battle cries echoed through devastated architecture.

Ethan’s response demonstrated why Platinum-rank transcendence rendered conventional tactics obsolete regardless of emotional motivation.

With his speed talent still in effect, the charging warriors became frozen sculptures as reality shifted into crystallized time, their desperate courage preserved in amber-like stillness.

Volcanic Mastery, Crystal Manipulation, Water control, and Wind techniques coordinated in perfect harmony. Environmental hazards, geological violence, hydraulic pressure, and invisible cutting edges working simultaneously.

BOOM! CRASH! SIZZLE! WHISH!

The final twenty warriors died within heartbeats of each other, their coordinated assault meeting systematic elimination that honored their courage while demonstrating its futility.

Captain Stevens fell last, his sword still raised in defiant challenge as wind blades ended his resistance with merciful swiftness.

Silence returned to the battlefield as one hundred more subjects joined the growing collection of corpses that littered multiple platforms throughout the stronghold.

Lord Vance stared at the destruction with expressions beyond horror. Two hundred of his most loyal subjects—eliminated through individual power that made the number advantange meaningless.

“Satisfied?” Ethan asked conversationally. “Or shall we continue this educational demonstration with your remaining forces?”

The stronghold held its breath as survivors processed the mathematics of impossible individual capability that redefined everything they’d believed about power and resistance.

The old order was ending, one corpse at a time.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

With two hundred subjects dead around him, and his territory a mess, Vance gritted his teeth at the sight.

His hard work had been almost fully destroyed. All of his careful expansion, conquest, and territorial development—reduced to cooling corpses and volcanic glass through individual power that operated beyond his comprehension.

He glanced at the last remaining captains beside him and the final hundred subjects who stood ready for what everyone understood would be their final assault. Fear mixed with determination in their eyes, loyalty burning despite witnessed impossibility.

“Let’s go. Either we win or die,” Vance declared with grim finality before joining the charge with his remaining forces.

But his positioning revealed tactical cowardice masked as strategic thinking. Instead of leading from the front as the strongest combatant, he hung back in the rear formations while Bronze and Silver-rank subjects absorbed the brunt of Ethan’s attention.

The three surviving Gold-rank captains adopted similar positioning—elite fighters using their subordinates as expendable shields while waiting for optimal striking opportunities that might never come.

“For the territory!” shouted the charging warriors as they launched themselves toward certain death.

“Protect Lord Vance!” screamed others, their misplaced loyalty driving them to sacrifice themselves for leaders who cowered behind their sacrifice.

The final hundred subjects poured across multiple platforms with desperate courage, their weapons gleaming with enhancement magic while battle cries echoed through devastated architecture.

But Ethan’s attention remained fixed on the cowards directing the assault from safe distances. Peak-Gold rank hiding behind Bronze-rank fodder revealed everything about their character and tactics.

“Predictable,” he observed aloud while casually eliminating the charging formation.

Volcanic Mastery erupted in controlled patterns that created environmental hazards throughout the approach routes. Molten rock consumed brave soldiers while their leaders maintained safe positions.

SIZZLE! BURN! COLLAPSE!

“He’s watching us,” whispered Captain Morgan, one of the surviving Gold-rank officers. “Not focusing on the fodder.”

“Then we wait,” Vance replied coldly. “Let them exhaust his mana.”

CRASH! PIERCE! THUD!

Crystal spears eliminated clusters of advancing warriors while Water Manipulation created hydraulic pressure waves that crushed enhanced armor like paper.

“Twenty down!” reported Captain Walsh. “Eighty remaining!”

“Good,” Vance muttered. “Keep them coming.”

Wind blades carved through the formation with surgical precision, invisible cutting edges that eliminated resistance while demonstrating the futility of conventional assault against transcendent capability.

WHISH! SLICE! SPLAT!

“Fifty down!” Walsh updated. “He’s not even breathing hard!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Vance insisted with desperate conviction. “He has to have limits.”

But Ethan’s casual elimination of loyal subjects while tracking Gold-rank cowards suggested otherwise. His techniques flowed with effortless precision that made systematic slaughter appear routine rather than challenging.

Fire magic reached surgical intensity levels, controlled flames that eliminated specific targets without affecting the battlefield architecture. Educational demonstration of power that exceeded their theoretical understanding.

BURN! SIZZLE! COLLAPSE!

“Seventy-five down!” Morgan reported with growing horror. “He’s toying with them!”

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