Chapter 145: Enemy’s Ambush

The bottom of the floating continent was completely flat, carved with heavy, industrial-grade runic emplacements. I could see dozens of massive, retracted elemental defense cannons built directly into the bedrock-clearly designed to decimate any unauthorized fleet approaching from below.

However, as my eyes scanned the lower perimeter near the outer rock formations, I spotted something wrong.

Hiding in the deep shadows beneath the continent’s edge were eight sleek, unidentified black combat jets. They were using specialized, high-grade stealth cloaking fields that erased their mana signatures, hovering silently beneath the island’s defense grid.

My eyes narrowed. "Yoona, Val... we’ve got company. Eight hostile combat jets hiding right beneath the lower rim at two o’clock."

Yoona and Val didn’t doubt my word for a single second.

Yoona’s hands flew across the console, instantly cutting our forward acceleration and pulling the jet into a sharp, defensive bank. Her brow furrowed into a deep frown. "That makes no sense... slipping inside the outer illusion array is physically impossible unless access is granted directly by the Academy’s internal grid. How did they sneak in here?"

"They were targeting us," Val stated, her voice dropping into a chilling, emotionless register.

Val stood up from the pilot chair, her dark suit jacket shifting as a dense, lethal wave of Soulshade dark mana began to radiate from her body.

"I had an entire elite security squadron trailing our jet from a distance during the flight from the estate," Val explained calmly, her violet eyes flashing with dark intent. "The enemy knew they couldn’t attack us in open airspace while my escort team was present. They waited until my team turned back at the outer array boundary, since external guards aren’t permitted inside Avalon airspace, to launch their ambush. It was an elaborate, calculated trap."

She stepped up behind Yoona’s chair, her expression colder than the frozen ocean below.

"We have only one tactical option," Val declared firmly. "Yoona, I will drop out of the spatial hatch and engage the enemy jets directly to draw their fire. While I distract them, take the transport back to the primary academy docks at maximum speed and request immediate heavy reinforcements."

She glanced down at me, her tone unshakable. "Our jet’s civilian armor cannot survive a concentrated barrage from eight specialized combat vessels. Your safety is my absolute priority, Seth. I will slaughter every single one of them who dares to target you."

I frowned, stepping into her path and gripping her wrist. "No way, Val. I’m not letting you jump into an aerial dogfight against eight armored jets by yourself."

I mentally called out to my system. ’Paige... what are Val’s actual survival odds if she takes them head-on in mid-air?’

[If it were a ground battle, Valerie would decimate all eight of them in two minutes flat,] Paige answered honestly. [But in mid-air, without flight support, she’ll be forced to expend massive amounts of Soulshade mana just to maintain spatial levitation while dodging high-yield kinetic missiles. It’s a high-risk situation, Host. Do you want me to activate your Origin authority to disintegrate their spatial vectors? Or I can just snap them out of existence. Bunch of pathetic fools, anyways.]

’Do it,’ I commanded mentally. ’Nuke them all before they get a chance to lock onto us.’

Just as I was about to unleash my primordial mana to obliterate the incoming ambushers-

[Fufufu... my, my. Look at how worked up you all are.]

A smooth, seductive, lazy feminine voice echoed directly inside all of our heads.

I froze instantly, recognizing the voice in a split second. ’Lucifer?!’

CRACK... SWOOSH!

Before anyone in the cockpit could even react, the sky directly in front of our jet violently fractured!

A massive, jagged spatial rift tore open in mid-air, bleeding dense clouds of pitch-black Nether energy and roaring crimson lightning. The temperature outside plummeted to absolute zero as the fabric of reality itself groaned under immense pressure.

From the dark depths of the spatial rift, a colossal pale hand, easily the size of a mountain peak, reached out into the open sky.

Clutched tightly within the giant hand’s grip was an enormous, pitch-black scythe that gleamed with destructive, world-ending ruin.

SWISH-!!

With casual, effortless elegance, the gigantic hand swept the black scythe through the air in a single, sweeping horizontal arc.

The eight cloaked combat jets hiding beneath the floating continent didn’t even get a chance to fire a single missile or attempt an emergency retreat. The massive scythe blade cut straight through space itself, bisecting all eight enemy vessels in a fraction of a second.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A series of violent, localized explosions erupted across the sky, turning the ambush fleet into eight brilliant balls of fiery debris that rained down harmlessly into the frozen ocean below.

The giant pale hand slowly retreated into the spatial rift, bringing the terrifying scythe with it.

The rift snapped shut with a quiet pop, leaving the open sky completely clear, quiet, and peaceful once again.

All of that happened in matter of seconds, leaving none of them able to even react.

Inside our cockpit, absolute silence fell.

Yerin sat on the sofa with her jaw hanging open, Yoona stared out the front windshield in total shock, and even Val stood frozen, her Soulshade mana completely fizzling out in sheer bewilderment.

I stood in the center of the cockpit, rubbing the back of my neck as a small, helpless laugh escaped me.

"Well..." I murmured, pulling out my phone as a new text message popped up on my screen, "...looks like my Underworld friend just finished her side quest."

[Hehe~ why do you think I didn’t destroy them before you even reacted, Boss?]

’Because you don’t do stuff uselessly unless I tell you to. Well, normally.’

[That’s part of it. But it was also because I already knew Lucifer is here and she’s been keeping an eye on our vessel.]

’Oh!’ I blinked, then asked. ’Why the hell did you ask me then?’

[Hehe~ i just wanted to see your manly side as you order deaths of so many people just because they threatened your family. It’s so ho. I’m wet enough to drown whole planet~]

’This woman.’