The black waves slammed against each other like warring titans, sending walls of spray into the stormy sky. The wind howled—a grief-stricken wail, like a mother mourning her only child.
Trapped.
A monstrous silhouette rose from the depths ahead, while behind them, an overwhelming pressure descended from the heavens. The pseudo-Hypernova Beast blocked their path forward, and the ancient Will of the Darkness Pathway Hypernova loomed at their backs.
They were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Eric's brows furrowed deeply, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached. With Adrian on his back, his options had vanished. He could unleash his most destructive techniques if he were alone, but protecting the boy forced him to hold back. The weight of that restriction pressed down harder than the gathering storm.
A heavy silence fell over the ocean, broken only by the crashing waves. It carried a promise of violence, as if the world itself wanted to tear him apart.
Eric exhaled sharply. There was no time left for hesitation.
In a burst of pink-tinged aura, he shot downward and plunged into the black sea. The cold water swallowed them instantly, swallowing light along with sound.
High above, the Will watched with calm, abyssal eyes—patient, calculating, and utterly unhurried.
The moment Eric dove, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast let out a piercing scream and followed. Its roar warped the water itself, sending ripples of corruption through the depths. The black veins on every sea beast in the vicinity pulsed violently, their eyes turning blood-red as they descended into a frenzied rage. Hundreds of them turned at once, locking onto Eric with mindless hunger.
The hunt had entered its deadliest phase.
The black water swallowed them whole. Eric's Abyssal Eyes pierced the darkness, but even they struggled against the spreading inky veins. Behind them, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast moved like living tar, growing larger as it absorbed the sea itself.
Adrian's grip tightened around his neck. "Eric… your arms—"
"Don't talk." Eric's voice was hoarse. Every stroke sent fire through his shattered bones. He could feel the Will's gaze from above, patient and ancient, waiting for him to slip.
Then the Beast roared.
The sound wasn't sound — it was pressure, a wave of corruption that made the water itself scream.
Eric unleashed Infinite Repulsion with no regard for his Aura reserves. The sea exploded outward around him. Black water, corpses, and frenzied beasts were hurled away, carving out a sphere of empty ocean around him.
The other beasts were still fine, but the real executioner was the pseudo-Hypernova beast. Eric was wary of it the most here.
One mistake and his life may end at its hands.
ROAR!
The beast charged forward relentlessly, and the waves of the ocean seemed insignificant to him, but Eric didn't stay at one point; he kept taking sharp turns, never staying at one spot.
Adrian was just about to turn around and look back when Eric screamed, his voice filled with urgency.
"Don't look!" Adrian didn't need any explanation; he trusted Eric fully. He nuzzled his head at Eric's nape and closed his eyes, putting all of his focus into not letting go.
Every scream and roar around him made his body tremble in fear and almost made his heart pop out of his chest every time, but the warmth of Eric's body reassured him and made him feel safe in a strange way.
Adrian was just a weak Nova; he could still look at beasts at the Lysi Nova level, but if he were to see the Pseudo-Hypernova Beast, then his world of consciousness and subconsciousness would be unable to comprehend its existence, making Adrian's mind blast and ultimately killing him, or giving his Aura's subconsciousness to take over his body, turning him into a mindless monster.
Either way, he won't survive.
Eric was an expert at aerial combat. No matter how many beasts swarmed him, he refused to let them corner him. The mindless horde chased with raw power but no strategy. He weaved through them effortlessly, forcing collisions and turning their numbers against them. Even the pseudo-Hypernova Beast, for all its overwhelming strength, lacked true wisdom.
What truly kept Eric on edge was the Will.
It watched everything with cold intelligence, controlling the beasts like extensions of itself, yet it had barely acted directly. That restraint made Eric far more wary than the rampaging monsters ever could.
But the attack never came.
A sharp premonition slammed into him. Eric veered hard right just as a thick black tentacle erupted from a deep trench below, throbbing with pulsing dark veins. A colossal red-eyed predator octopus rose from the abyss. Even the Lysi Nova-level beasts instinctively gathered beside it, submitting to its presence.
The octopus bowed toward the pseudo-Hypernova Beast before launching at Eric. Its tentacles lashed out like living whips from every angle, each one coated in corrosive corruption. The surface area for counterattacks was almost nonexistent.
Eric pushed westward through the black waters, relying on Infinite Repulsion to deflect the relentless strikes. His aura reserves dropped at a terrifying rate. The technique was beginning to falter — if it broke, the backlash would leave him critically exposed.
A stray wave, thrown loose by one of the octopus's missed strikes, crashed straight into Adrian's back.
Water forced its way into his mouth before he could clamp it shut. He choked, his small body seizing against Eric's back as his throat convulsed, trying to expel water that had no business being inside him.
"E-Eric—" The word came out broken, half-swallowed by another mouthful of black seawater.
Eric felt it immediately — the way Adrian's grip faltered, the way his weight shifted against his back, wrong and limp for half a second too long.
"Hold on. Just hold on." He couldn't stop flying. He couldn't turn around. He couldn't even slow down enough to help properly, not with the ocean trying to tear them both apart from every direction.
Adrian coughed again, a wet, ragged sound that scraped Eric's nerves worse than any of the beast's roars had. His hands shook against Eric's shoulders, fingers digging in like he was afraid his own body might simply let go without his permission.
Eric forced a thin layer of his Aura around Adrian's head and shoulders, just enough to push back the worst of the spray, buying him room to breathe between waves. It cost him focus he didn't have to spare. He spared it anyway.
Slowly, Adrian's coughing eased into ragged, uneven breaths. He didn't speak again. He simply pressed his face harder into the back of Eric's neck and held on.
Then, a small smile tugged at his lips.
He had found it: the den of a purple-horned Leviathan pair.
Eric charged straight toward the clutch of eggs. The mother, resting nearby, woke with a furious roar. The father — already part of the corrupted horde — saw the threat to his offspring and barreled forward in primal rage.
The octopus struck. At the last moment, Eric dropped Infinite Repulsion and slipped behind the eggs. Water rushed in violently. Adrian nearly choked as the ocean pressed down on them.
The tentacles were inches from smashing the eggs when both Leviathan parents attacked, biting down hard and sparking a chaotic brawl between the massive beasts.
"So the corruption doesn't completely override their instincts." Eric realized. He had seen the same with the Falling Star Eagles getting feral at him, killing one of their kin, and the Steel-Winged Owl waiting for others to swarm Eric in a group. Their core instincts ran deeper than the Will's control.
Two reasons stood out: the corruption was spread thin across the entire layer, weakening its hold, and the Will had slumbered for who knows how long. Many of its original charms were destroyed. It was operating on remnants.
This small insight lifted some of the crushing pressure on Eric's mind.
But the relief was short-lived.
A torrent of black liquid surged behind him. The pseudo-Hypernova Beast emerged like living tar. Eric twisted left at the last second. The beast's punch cleared kilometers of water in a devastating shockwave, giving Adrian one desperate gasp of air before Eric used Meditation Aura to teleport them away, leaving the sea monsters to fight among themselves.
They reappeared right at the edge of the layer.
Eric immediately coated his arms and unleashed Gravity Press, amplifying the force of his strike. His fist slammed into the invisible boundary wall. Ripples spread across the surface, followed by thin cracks.
The borders between layers were nearly impenetrable without Dimension Pathway methods or overwhelming power. Eric had neither, but he had no choice but to try.
Before he could strike again, the octopus's tentacles exploded from the water and wrapped around him like iron cables. Black veins crawled across his skin, burning with corruption. Eric gritted his teeth in agony.
"Adrian — get off!" he roared.
He shoved the boy free and sent him flying upward with a burst of controlled gravity. The tentacles dragged Eric back into the depths.
Infinite Repulsion!
Infinite Repulsion!
Infinite Repulsion!
He activated the technique three times in rapid succession. The explosive force finally tore him free. Eric charged straight into the chaotic swarm of sea beasts behind the octopus, using them as living shields. The octopus's tentacles smashed through its own allies in pursuit, crushing and shredding them.
Eric endured the chaos while desperately channeling Meditation Aura to fight off the spreading corruption. The process was agonizingly slow and painful.
Eric turned the octopus's own tentacles against the horde. He danced through the swarm with ruthless precision, using the lashing appendages as weapons to smash Lysi Nova beasts first. One by one, the strongest creatures fell — killed outright or left heavily wounded, twitching in agony along the ocean's turbulent edge. He then moved on to the Auri-Nova level threats, carving through them with cold efficiency.
Tsunamis collided violently above as new waves rose endlessly. Adrian flew desperately toward the layer's edge, pushing every ounce of strength he possessed. His focus was razor-sharp, though fear made him commit small mistakes, which he quickly corrected mid-flight.
Then his premonition screamed.
Adrian's heart thundered like war drums. Blazing red flames filled the corner of his vision as a Flame-Winged Phoenix dove from above with its peak open and swallowed him whole.
It immediately turned back, clearly trying to take Adrian away.
"ADRIAN!!!" Eric roared from the depths, his voice carrying through the water like thunder.
In that instant, a brilliant golden aura erupted from Eric's back. A majestic beam of light shot toward the phoenix, piercing straight into its body. The phoenix's flames flickered and died. Its eyes lost all luster as it plummeted silently into the ocean, creating a massive splash that sent towering waves into the air.
High above, the Will watched everything with calm, abyssal eyes. The winds around it remained eerily still.
"So I was right," it murmured, a hint of satisfaction in its ancient voice. "This junior carries many secrets."
The golden light burst from the ocean, carrying Adrian safely beside it. A breathtaking Angel Spirit now hovered in the open — Hypernova-level power rippling outward in waves. The beasts fled in terror at its mere presence. Only the pseudo-Hypernova Beast stood its ground.
The Angel Spirit was magnificent: three golden eyes, flawless white-golden skin, and a radiant halo floating above its head. Three pairs of wings bore countless golden-white eyes that opened and closed in sequence, their colors shifting with every blink. A virtuous, holy aura emanated from it, forcing the surrounding darkness to retreat.
This was the Hypernova-level Concealment Angel Spirit residing within the Imperator's Cross. Eric had lost contact with the Church of Serenity long ago, yet he still possessed this trump card. He had hoped to use it for a surprise attack on the Will itself, but the ancient entity had never come close enough.
Its deep wisdom was evident.
The Will and the Angel Spirit stared at each other for a long, tense moment. Then a pure white light shot from the Spirit's body, forming a protective liquid that enveloped both itself and Adrian. In the next instant, they vanished into the darkness.
With Adrian safe and gone, the heavy restriction on Eric finally lifted.
He turned back toward the remaining beasts, eyes cold and murderous. The octopus slammed its massive tentacles down with apocalyptic force. The seabed shattered instantly, sending cracks spreading in every direction.
But Eric was no longer beneath them.
With a sharp snap of his fingers, he poured twenty percent of his remaining aura into a single devastating technique. The pressure around him multiplied horrifically. The ocean floor rippled and exploded. Water was blasted away in a violent sphere. Countless beasts were crushed into unrecognizable meat paste. The giant octopus was slammed violently into the seabed, black blood pouring from its wounds.
The pseudo-Hypernova Beast had already vanished once more.
As the attack ended, seawater rushed back in to fill the void.
Cough! Cough!
Eric doubled over, vomiting mouthful after mouthful of blood. His heart stuttered to a complete stop for five terrifying seconds before restarting. He dropped to one knee, gasping desperately for air as the lingering corruption burned through his veins like molten poison.
Gritting his teeth through the agony, Eric forced himself up and shot toward the cracked edge of the layer, his vision stained red with blood.
Eric pushed through the pain and reached the cracked section of the barrier he had weakened earlier. Before he could strike again, five Silver-Winged Owls dove from the sky like silver blades, their steel wings slicing through the water with lethal speed.
His premonition flared. Eric twisted sharply at the last moment. Two of the owls collided violently with the barrier instead, adding fresh cracks to the invisible wall.
He teleported behind a third owl and delivered a devastating punch to its spine, launching it downward. The wounded creature was immediately torn apart by a frenzy of corrupted piranhas below.
Infinite Repulsion!
A powerful pulse erupted as Eric lured the remaining two owls into another suicidal charge. They slammed hard into the barrier, widening the fractures even further.
"Is there really no formation?" Eric thought in the brief window of clarity. These layer edges were usually protected by powerful defensive arrays, yet he sensed nothing. If one existed, it should have activated long ago.
Whether it was there or not, it no longer mattered.
He pressed himself against the barrier and unleashed punch after punch, each one amplified by layers of Gravitation Aura. The more damage he dealt, the closer he came to breaking through — and the stronger his hope of escaping this nightmare layer grew.
But right at that moment, the Will finally made its move.