The Will had remained silent and watchful throughout the battle. Now, it has finally moved.
In a blur of abyssal light, it shot across the sky and vanished in less than a second.
Massive waves continued to crash against each other, swallowing entire islands whole, while lightning tore through the clouds. Yet a heavy, domineering silence began to spread across the black ocean.
Eric ignored it all. Teeth clenched, blood dripping from his mouth, he hammered relentlessly at the cracked barrier. His heart stuttered and stopped for several terrifying beats before restarting. The black corruption spreading through his arms burned like acid, sending constant sparks of dark energy across his skin.
He had stopped using Meditation Aura to heal himself. Every drop was being saved for the final escape. In a fight like this, Meditation Aura was too precious — its capacity in his body was far lower than his primary Gravitation Aura.
From below, the battered octopus suddenly regained consciousness and attacked again. Its thick tentacles surged upward like black spears.
Repulsion Charge!
Eric dove sharply, using the momentum to redirect the tentacles straight into the Silver-Winged Owls still harassing him. The collision was brutal. One owl was smashed aside, while another was slammed violently into the cracked barrier by a massive tentacle.
Fragments of the invisible wall broke away, revealing a faint light-green dimensional space behind it.
Eric's eyes flashed with hope. He was about to deliver the finishing blow when everything changed.
The roaring sky fell deathly silent. The raging waves calmed instantly, as if terrified into submission. A suffocating pressure blanketed the entire ocean.
The Will had returned.
It hovered high above, its small form brimming with dense, pitch-black energy. Slowly, it raised its arms. Waves of darkness poured down like rain, sinking into the countless corpses floating in the bloody water.
Rank 3 Darkness Pathway Resurrection Aura Technique — Abyssal Resurrection.
Black liquid oozed from every dead beast — the Leviathans, Falling Star Eagles, the giant octopus, and countless others. The liquid condensed rapidly into swirling orbs of pure shadow.
The balls of shadow rapidly expanded and took form, reshaping into twisted versions of the beasts they once were. Their eyes burned with a sinister crimson glow.
ROAR!! ROAR!! ROAR!!
HOWL!! HOWL!! HOWL!!
The entire layer shook with deafening cries as the shadow beasts surged toward Eric like a tidal wave of darkness.
Eric was forced to abandon the barrier. He shot backward and weaved desperately through the oncoming horde, using their own numbers against them.
Abyssal black stars began raining from the sky like a relentless machine gun. Eric pushed Repulsion Charge to its limit, spitting blood with every sharp dodge. Each star that missed him slammed into the ocean, triggering massive explosions and turning even more sea beasts into fresh shadow soldiers.
He darted through narrow gaps in the horde, forcing collisions and guiding them toward the barrier so they could do the destructive work for him. He activated Gravity Press repeatedly, smashing them into one another, but the shadow beasts regenerated almost instantly.
Eric knew the longer this dragged on, the larger the army would grow.
Just as he tried to break free and return to the barrier, several black strings shot down from the sky and pierced his shoulders, forearms, and the back of his neck. He was instantly suspended in mid-air like a marionette.
Eric felt his body slowly slipping out of his control.
He gritted his teeth and looked up, eyes blazing with fury. "The Hollow Puppeteer!"
Infinite Repulsion!
The explosive force tore the strings away. Eric shot to the left, but the situation had grown even worse. The shadow beasts had gained the ability to fly. Even the land-based creatures were now joining the aerial assault.
Frost energy surged as the ocean surface froze into pitch-black ice. A massive horde of Frostbite Hounds charged across it. At the same time, blazing flames lit up the sky like a second sun as Vermillion Heart beasts descended, their heat so intense it evaporated entire layers of the black ocean.
The noose was tightening. Eric's expression turned grim. His options were vanishing. His aura reserves were critically low, his Meditation Aura was nearly depleted, and he had only eleven Aura stones left. Many of the charms in his Domain of Emotions had already been destroyed from overuse.
The will had used just one technique and caused such a drastic change to the entire battlefield.
This was the might of a Hypernova; despite it being only a will, it was still terrifying.
The pressure had reached its peak, but Eric's eyes were still filled with vigor; he had not lost any hope or become distraught.
He charged forward no matter how bad the situation became.
...
Far away, roughly a hundred million square kilometers to the west, the Will reappeared. It activated its technique once more.
Rank 3 Darkness Pathway Investigative Aura Technique — Devil's Eyes.
Hundreds of thousands of black eyes bloomed across the western side of the ocean, searching relentlessly.
The sky rumbled as fierce winds howled. The Will's countless Devil's Eyes continued scanning the vast area.
"So normal Devil's Eyes are useless… No matter." The Will chuckled lightly. It raised its left arm, and an ancient pot materialized in its hand. When it opened the lid, a thick, ominous black liquid swirled inside — the blood of its original main body.
Even after death, the body of a Hypernova walker was an invaluable resource. The Will had lost most of the flesh, but it still possessed the skeleton and this precious blood. While the skeleton held the true inheritance, the blood remained a potent weapon.
It tilted the pot. Several drops of the inky blood fell into the ocean.
The moment the blood touched the water, the entire black sea calmed unnaturally. Devil's Eyes began appearing at an alarming rate across the waves. Suddenly, black tears streamed from every eye as they blinked rapidly.
The Will's vision shifted. In the far distance, it caught a glimpse of golden-white light fleeing westward.
"Got you," it whispered.
It shot forward like a streak of darkness.
The Concealment Angel Spirit flew swiftly, keeping Adrian wrapped in a protective layer of golden light. It had used its full concealment power on both of them, confident they could escape the Will's reach.
It was wrong.
Even though it was a Hypernova-level Angel Spirit, it specialized purely in concealment and support. It held little confidence in a confrontation, especially against a Will that still possessed vast reserves of its original aura and ancient wisdom.
Adrian gulped for air, his heart pounding violently. Being near the Angel Spirit brought a strange maternal warmth, yet fear still gripped him tightly.
I hope Eric is fine…
He glanced back. The moment he did, the sky roared. A massive wave of black liquid erupted as the pseudo-Hypernova Beast pounced toward them.
Rank 3 Support Aura Technique — Myriad Darkness.
The Will layered the beast with thick corruption, greatly boosting its power.
The Angel Spirit came to an abrupt stop. It had no choice but to fight. First, it cast a protective technique on Adrian, concealing the full presence of the Angel Spirit, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast, and the Will from his mind. Now, Adrian could only see vague silhouettes. His mind would no longer be in danger of collapsing.
But that only solved the most immediate threat.
Sensing Eric's gravity aura, still trying to protect him and urging him to return, the Angel Spirit made a decisive move. It waved its wings, and one pair detached from its body, attaching itself to Adrian's back.
Rank 3 Goodness Pathway Support Aura Technique — Partial Angel Augmentation.
Adrian's speed and control over flight increased dramatically. He could now feel the air currents and move more freely.
"Go back to Eric!" the Angel Spirit commanded.
It shot upward with a sonic boom, colliding directly with the pseudo-Hypernova Beast. Massive shockwaves rippled across the ocean, slamming the beast toward the edge.
The beast roared in fury. The Will joined the clash, and the two began coordinating perfectly. The Angel Spirit gave chase, but its physical strength was far inferior. Every clash left traces of corruption on its form, though its natural resistance quickly burned them away.
The Will soon took a sharp turn and dove into the ocean. The Angel Spirit followed — only to be ambushed by three enormous trapping piranhas that spat out white webs, forming a triple-layered prison around it.
It activated its concealment ability and slipped free, but the pseudo-Hypernova Beast struck from behind. The Angel Spirit specialized in support, not combat. Without its concealment, it would have already been overwhelmed or died.
...
Adrian didn't hesitate. He turned east and flew as fast as the newly attached wings allowed, refusing to become a burden on the Angel Spirit. He didn't look back even once.
The Will glanced at him for a brief moment. Adrian's entire body trembled violently under that gaze, as if an invisible hand had squeezed his soul. But the ancient entity simply looked away and let him flee.
Perhaps killing a mere ant wasn't worth the effort.
Whatever the reason, Adrian focused only on survival. The wind slammed into him like a solid wall, forcing his eyes shut again and again. The farther he flew from the Will, the more chaotic the ocean became — waves rising like angry mountains around him.
He flapped the golden wings harder, accelerating until he felt like a rocket tearing through the sky. The speed was exhilarating, but also sickening. Violent nausea rolled through him. He puked multiple times mid-flight, his head throbbing with every sharp turn. His body staggered in the air, threatening to drop.
A Nova-level piranha suddenly burst from the black water beneath him.
Adrian's heart nearly exploded. Instinct took over — he copied Eric's sharp maneuver and veered upward at the last second. The piranha's jaws snapped shut on empty air.
Too close.
Fear clawed at his chest, raw and suffocating. Yet instead of breaking him, the terror pushed him further. He began squeezing out every ounce of potential he never knew he had. His body learned rapidly — how to balance against the wind, when to accelerate, when to glide, how to make tight turns without losing control.
In the face of death, Adrian's talent was finally awakening, unfolding itself.
Adrian flew desperately toward Eric, his newly attached angelic wings cutting through the air with surprising speed. He faced many beasts on the way, but they were mostly low-ranked stragglers — nothing like the nightmare horde Eric was facing.
His premonition flared constantly, guiding him through the chaos and saving him from several fatal mistakes. Yet even with its help, death came close more than once.
At one point, a group of corrupted sea serpents burst from the waves directly below him, their jaws wide open. Adrian's heart nearly stopped — he had no time to dodge. Just as the lead serpent was about to clamp down on his legs, a massive piece of debris from a destroyed Falling Star Eagle — a huge golden feather — suddenly spiraled through the air and smashed into the serpent's head, knocking it off course and creating a small opening.
Adrian didn't hesitate. He twisted sharply through the gap, the feather's lingering golden aura brushing against his wings and giving him an extra burst of speed.
That was too close…
He didn't stop to question his luck. He simply clenched his jaw and kept flying forward, eyes locked on the distant chaos where Eric was fighting.
...
A black beam tore through the air toward Eric's chest. He twisted at the last moment, using Repulsion Charge, only to be immediately ambushed by the shadow octopus's tentacles from below. He didn't bother defending — he knew they would simply regenerate. The corruption had spread from his arms to his shoulders and was crawling toward his neck. It felt like molten poison burning through his veins, sending constant waves of agony through his body.
Ice and fire rained down from above and below. Eric unleashed Infinite Repulsion once more, but after so many uses, many of his charms had already shattered. The technique's power was greatly weakened. He barely dodged the combined assault and redirected it into the horde of shadow wolves and hounds behind him.
He had no time to breathe. Black strings shot toward him from above while meteors of darkness rose from the ocean floor. Silver-Winged Owls seized the opening, their steel wings slashing across his body and adding fresh wounds to his torn form.
Then, from the right, a golden light cut through the chaos, flying straight toward him.
Eric's Abyssal Eyes locked onto it. Adrian.
His Meditation Aura had slowly recovered during the endless fighting. He burned every bit of it in one go and teleported directly to Adrian, scooped him up, and instantly teleported back to the cracked edge — just one final push away from breaking through.
Using the shadow beasts' own attacks, he had been steadily weakening the barrier the entire time.
Infinite Repulsion!
He activated it one last time to shield both of them from the incoming barrage. Several critical charms in his Domain of Emotions shattered completely. Eric coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, but he no longer cared.
With a guttural roar that carried all his rage, pain, and defiance, he poured everything he had left into one final punch.
The accumulated cracks finally gave way. Pieces of the invisible wall shattered and fell, revealing a silent, light-green free-dimensional space beyond.
Eric tucked Adrian securely under his left arm and leaped forward, ready for whatever dangers awaited in the unstable dimensional gap.
But just as they were about to cross the threshold, a thick, solid violet aura laced with swirling black particles materialized. The sudden force slowed his momentum to a crawl and violently blasted both of them backward.
Eric's world spun. For a moment, everything felt like it was shattering around him. Yet a stubborn, burning defiance still raged in his chest.
He refused to stop.
He charged in again, colliding with the wall again with all his might.
Nothing.
Not even a dent. The invisible wall repelled him violently, sending him tumbling backward through the air like a broken kite.
This was just simple cruelty, hitting him as cold water poured on him.
Before he could steady himself or even consider redirecting the surrounding shadow beasts to hammer the barrier, an overwhelming, suffocating aura erupted from behind him — thick, ancient, and dripping with pure malice.
A heart-wrenching scream tore across the entire layer, a sound so filled with agony and hunger that the black ocean itself rose in terrified waves.
Eric's eyes widened in pure horror. His premonition exploded into a deafening siren inside his mind, screaming one single word:
RUN.
His body froze mid-air, every muscle locked in primal terror as an unnatural pressure crushed down on him. Time itself seemed to slow.
From the depths behind him, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast emerged once more — no longer hiding, no longer playing. Its colossal form rose like a living nightmare made of liquid darkness and corrupted flesh, eyes glowing with abyssal hunger. The very air around it warped and decayed.
This time, it wasn't chasing.
It was here to end him.