Garrick reacted first, throwing up his
Protective Dome
and sealing everyone inside it.
The next second, the squad unloaded.
Skills detonated across the Infernal pack in rapid burstsâlayered, overlapping, nonstop.
Big Mike cycled
Toxic Rain
and
Rain of Flames
back to back. Henryâs
Rain of Light
lanced down in curtains. Skinny Pete ripped the air apart with a tornado. Miaâs
Ice Blade Storm
turned the battlefield into a grinder.
Under that kind of wide-area pressure, the Infernal numbers started dropping fast.
The Infernals flared their
Immolation Aura
almost immediately, trying to burn away anything that got closeâbut the squad was Stage B now. Tier 16 and Tier 17 Infernals couldnât hold up, aura or not.
Tier 17s could hang on for a bit.
Tier 16s were basically instant deletes.
And the Stage B Infernals?
Those were Ethanâs.
His daggers danced through the air like angry black fish, snapping from target to target. One moment theyâd be fine, the next a blade would punch through an eye socket or into the back of a skull.
Stage B (Tier 18) or not, the Infernals couldnât handle Ethanâs bladesâespecially when the knives came from impossible angles, switching targets mid-flight, never giving them a clean read.
They fought back, of course.
But every fire-type blast, every flaming meteor, every ability they hurledâ
âgot erased by Garrickâs dome before it could touch anyone inside.
In the end, the three-thousand-plus Infernals were simply... butchered.
A full-on stomp.
Ethan exhaled once, then nodded at Skinny Pete. "Tell the Flamebirds to carry out the crystal cores. They can keep the bodies."
"On it!"
Skinny Pete relayed it to Ember. The leaderâs eyes practically lit up. It screeched a command, and the flock surged down like a wave.
Flamebirds pounced on the corpses with enthusiastic violence.
A moment later, one after another dropped crystal cores at the squadâs feetâthen immediately went back to eating, tearing into meat like they hadnât seen food in weeks.
Which, honestly, they probably hadnât.
In this world, food was scarce to the point of insanity. Whether Flamebirds or Infernals, going ten days or half a month without a real meal sounded normal here.
No wonder everything fought constantly.
No wonder so many species had gone extinct.
These Flamebirds had been starving. Now they were finally eating until full, and Ethan could almost feel the thought behind their frenzy:
Following these humans isnât so bad. At least thereâs food.
For them, hate was optional.
Survival wasnât.
Ethan happily scooped the cores into his storage ring.
Having the Flamebirds harvest was ridiculously efficient. Way faster than doing it by hand.
He hadnât let them join the fight earlier for a reason. Their overall tier was still a step below the Infernals, and if they got dragged into the brawl, losses were likely.
And he hadnât gone through all that trouble to win premium mounts just to watch them die.
Ethan pulled out the Tier 18 cores and handed them around. "Here. Everyone top offâpush to peak Tier 18."
Chris and the others didnât need to be told twice.
One day inside the Void Realm, and theyâd rocketed from Tier 14 all the way to peak Tier 18.
It felt illegal.
But once you hit Tier 18, the free ride ended.
This Void Realm didnât have anything beyond Stage B (Tier 18). There were no higher crystal cores to leapfrog with. From here on out, theyâd have to level the hard wayâabsorbing mysterious energy slowly, or finding another Void Realm with higher-tier enemies.
By the time everyone finished absorbing, the Flamebirds had mostly eaten their fill too.
Ethan waved them up. "Weâre moving."
They launched again, heading for the next isolated group.
This one was biggerâover four thousand Infernals, with more than two hundred Stage Bs mixed in.
Still manageable.
They repeated the same method. And now that everyone had hit peak Stage B, the fight was even easier. The Infernal group got erased.
Again, they let the Flamebirds harvest the cores, and the bait team that had "lured" the Infernals got to eat the bodies as payment.
Ethan collected the cores and didnât even wait for them to finish chewing. He immediately pushed the team onward, taking the same Flamebird unit toward the next direction.
But this time, something had changed.
When they arrived, the next Infernal groupâstill four thousand strongâwas already turning back, retreating toward their tribe.
Theyâd sensed something was wrong.
Ethan didnât give them time to regroup.
"No hesitation," he said, eyes cold. "Hit them."
The squad dropped in and opened fire.
And once again, that Infernal group was wiped out to the last.
Ethan didnât even have time to collect the crystal cores. He pushed the Flamebirds hard, racing for the next target.
Stillâhe was a step too late.
By the time they arrived, the scattered Infernal teams had already regrouped into one larger force. Ethan took one look at the numbers and clicked his tongue.
No opening.
He had to give it up.
They doubled back to the previous battlefield and finally gathered the cores theyâd left behind.
When Ethan saw the pileâthen felt the weight of it in his storage ringâhis pulse jumped.
Over ten thousand high-tier crystal cores.
And the lowest among them were Tier 16.
If he could bring home enough of these, Fallen Star Cityâs overall strength wouldnât just riseâit would explode.
And with more and more entrances to different Void Realms being discovered, the pressure in Ethanâs chest kept tightening.
It felt like something was coming.
Something worse than anything theyâd dealt with so far.
When that day hit, a handful of elites wouldnât be enough. Theyâd get drowned.
He needed Fallen Star City as a whole to level upâfastâso theyâd have a real chance of surviving whatever was on the horizon.
"Ten thousandâs nice," Ethan murmured, licking his lips. "But itâs not enough."
"We need another run."
Sean frowned. "After getting tricked once, theyâre not going to fall for it again."
"Sure," Ethan said, eyes sharp. "That tribe wonât."
He smiled. "But this world isnât just one tribe. We switch locations and run the same play on someone else."
Big Mikeâs eyes lit up. "Heh. Yeah. Hit each tribe once and weâll be swimming in cores."
"That actually works," Mia said, grin spreading.
Ethan swung back onto his mount. "Then letâs move. Next one."
Everyone mounted up, each choosing their own Flamebird. The flock rose and followed without needing their leader to herd them.
This time, the Flamebirds were practically eager.
Theyâd learned the deal: follow these humans, and you get meat.
In a world this starved, food erased grudges fast.
While Ethan and the squad pushed deeper into the Void Realm...
Back on Earth.
Yamato Empire â Highest Command Center.
Ryuji Takahashi was practically dancing in place. "Hahaha! Those Atlas Federation people went into the volcano crater and never came back. There have to be stronger Infernals down there. They got cocky and killed themselves!"
Around him, Yamatoâs senior brass looked like it was a holiday. Faces bright. Voices rising. The kind of giddy that only came from imagining your enemy finally eating dirt.
Theyâd called Atlas Federation leadership again that morning... and gotten absolutely shredded.
The people on the other end hadnât even let them speakâjust took turns ripping into them like theyâd been holding it in for weeks, unloading every ounce of anger straight down the line.
In the end, Yamato hadnât managed to say a single useful sentence. Theyâd just eaten a full serving of abuse before the call cut off.
It felt like swallowing a bucket of shit.
So when they saw Ethanâs group disappear into the volcano and never come back out?
They could barely believe it.
They waited.
Hours passed.
The sky darkened.
Still nothing.
By the time night was creeping in, they finally accepted the obvious.
Those bastards were dead.
The unexpected good news had them practically leaping out of their chairs.
Ryuji slammed a fist onto the table, laughing. "Hah! Atlas only dared act that arrogant because they had those few monsters on their side. Now those monsters are goneâletâs see them act tough now."
He leaned forward, eyes burning. "We send troops. Hit them again while theyâre shaken. I want to humiliate them."
Takeoâs face twitched. He spoke quietly. "Um... maybe we... donât. Maybe we should stop."
He sounded like a man with a fresh bruise on his prideâand a real fear of getting it hit again.
Ryujiâs laughter faltered for half a second. He didnât like admitting it, but that earlier phone call had left a mark.
"...Fine," he said, forcing bravado back into his voice. "Then we wonât attack. Weâll send them the videoâof their people going into the crater and never coming out. Let it rot in their group chat. I want them furious."
He straightened, eyes narrowing with thick, hungry ambition.
"Just wait. When weâre stronger, the first thing we do is wipe out the Atlas Federation. Make those Atlas people our slaves."
His voice rose, filling the command center.
"We leave this island. We take the whole world. We plant Yamatoâs flag everywhere."
His gaze glittered, like he could already see it.
"Our ancestors didnât finish their conquest... so weâll finish it for them."