Chapter 189: Untitled

Woosh.

Woosh.

Bang!

The three summons laid siege to Eren from all sides while Ethen steadily opened fire from the back.

Adam took the brunt of the kinetic shockwaves head-on, standing like an iron wall between Eren and the others while Arthur and Gilgamesh poured all of their focus into pure offense.

The dueling ring devolved into a brutal, chaotic exchange of high-tier strikes.

Gilgamesh’s heavy golden hammer came crashing down again and again, every falling blow detonating against the stone and shaking the entire dueling platform. Arthur moved with far sharper precision, the silver arcs of his greatsword slicing through the air as he constantly probed for structural gaps in Eren’s guard.

Adam fought with an entirely different philosophy.

He offered no complex footwork.

He simply endured.

Every time the Ascendant prodigy lashed out with a lethal counter, Adam threw his unarmored frame directly into the line of fire.

Every piston-like punch.

Every pressurized shockwave.

Every violent detonation of fractured air.

Adam absorbed them all into his bare flesh like an endless, bottomless void.

The First Man had grown substantially more resilient after ingesting the core of the shadow creature and consuming the dark tentacles harvested from the Akasha painting. The ancient essence locked within those two divine anomalies had raised his total energy reservoir to absurd heights.

However, a glaring tactical limitation remained.

All of that accumulated energy was locked entirely into defense.

Adam could soak up punishment that would easily pulverize ordinary Tier 5 experts into paste, but even his enhanced *Perfect Body* could not tank divine output indefinitely.

Boom!

Eren threw a vicious cross, detonating the dense air directly against Adam’s sternum.

The resulting kinetic cone slammed hard into Adam’s torso, kicking up a rooster-tail of crushed rock beneath his heels as he skidded backward.

Adam dug his bare toes deep into the flagstones, grinding his teeth against the sheer force of the blow.

Yet he did not fall.

Arthur exploited the opening instantly, flashing into the pocket from Eren’s blind flank.

His greatsword whistled through the smoke.

Eren spun on his heel, throwing his linen-wrapped forearm upward to parry the steel.

Clang!

The jarring metallic collision forced the prodigy’s boots sideways across the fractured pavers.

Gilgamesh was already positioned to capitalize.

"Take this!"

The titan bellowed, swinging the massive warhammer in a wide, horizontal sweep aimed to shatter Eren’s ribs.

Eren contorted his torso with unnatural flexibility, letting the heavy golden head graze his leather tunic before driving a counter-jab straight into Gilgamesh’s breastplate.

Boom!

The concussive force exploded against the armor, launching the giant summon sliding backward across the stone ring.

Arthur stepped in to fill the gap without losing a single beat.

Then Adam threw his weight back into the choke point.

Then another tight volley of enchanted, explosive bolts rained down from Ethen’s crossbow.

The relentless pressure surged from every possible vector.

"His defensive instincts are absurd," Ethen muttered, keeping his sights pinned to the white-haired fighter.

Even while completely enclosed by three legendary summons, Eren adapted to the storm with chilling efficiency.

Arthur’s blade glanced off his tight parries.

Gilgamesh’s crushing hammer blows were deflected into the floor.

Ethen’s explosive rounds detonated harmlessly against his kinetic boundary.

Adam stepped into every gap, constantly shutting down his cleanest retreat paths.

Yet Eren continued to push back with violent, unyielding grace.

He weathered every punishing collision, reading the attack rhythms of the three summons and steadily angling his fists toward a decisive opening.

It was blindingly obvious why the entire Bastion considered him the crowning prodigy of the Ascendant faction.

Ethen tracked every minute shift of the duel with cold realism.

He knew that under standard conditions, he never stood a chance of winning this bout.

Even with three apex S-Rank summons executing a synchronized assault, the fundamental rift between a mortal Tier 5 and a high-tier Demi-god was simply too vast to close with numbers alone.

If Eren could hold his ground against this coordinated onslaught without yielding, defeating him in an isolated duel was pure fantasy.

"Ahhh!!!"

Suddenly, Eren let out a deafening, guttural roar that shattered the ambient noise of the courtyard.

Every corded muscle along his back snapped tight as he dropped his center of gravity.

Planting his boots firmly into the bedrock, he drove his wrapped fist straight into the empty air before him with everything he had.

Boom!

The atmospheric pressure gave way with an ear-splitting crack.

This time, the devastation was not limited to displaced air or shockwaves.

Physical space itself began to fracture.

A pitch-black, jagged tear opened in the fabric of reality directly before Eren’s extended knuckles.

The instant the spatial boundary ruptured, an overwhelming, transcendent pressure erupted from the depths of his soul.

Boom!

An immense, radiant shockwave of absolute force expanded in a clean sphere across the platform.

The three summons were thrown backward simultaneously by the ungodly release of kinetic energy.

Gilgamesh was blown across the stone ring, his boots carving deep trenches as he struggled to stop his momentum.

Arthur was flung through the air, twisting gracefully to plant his blade into the floor to arrest his slide.

Even Adam was knocked off his feet, skidding ten meters back before locking his knees.

Ethen’s pupils contracted to sharp needle points.

High above the settling dust, a glowing translucent notification flared directly within Eren’s vision:

[Evolution Requirement Met: Shatter local space at least once using pure unarmed physical force.]

Eren stared silently at the glowing runes floating before his eyes.

For several frozen heartbeats, he remained completely still, his fist still suspended in the air.

Then, the detached mask on his face melted away into pure, unfiltered awe.

He had finally unlocked the final bottleneck.

He had lingered at the peak of the Demi-god realm for years, denied advancement because his class lineage demanded an impossible feat of raw kinetic mastery.

Now, that ancient constraint was thoroughly obliterated.

Eren slowly lowered his arm, shaking the loose dust from his knuckles.

His pale, dreamy eyes drifted across the ruined dueling platform, locking straight onto Ethen.

Ethen stood with his crossbow lowered, his eyes wide with unmasked shock.

He knew the terrifying weight of what had just unfolded before him.

The ambient energy rolling off the white-haired warrior was no longer the heavy, condensed aura of a Demi-god.

Something far more profound, ancient, and terrifying was radiating from his soul conduits.

Eren had broken through his biological ceiling.

He had stepped across the divine threshold to become a living Angel.

Yet instead of turning his overwhelming new power against Ethen to wipe away the earlier insult, Eren smiled warmly.

He turned fully toward the young summoner, bringing his hands together in a formal, respectful bow of gratitude.

"Thank you, Warden. I am forever in your debt."

There was genuine, incandescent joy burning within Eren’s eyes.

He had shattered an evolutionary wall that countless legendary cultivators spent centuries pursuing only to die in failure.

Ethen’s jaw twitched, a dry, self-deprecating smirk touching his lips.

"Don’t mention it," Ethen replied, forcing his voice to sound steady. "Your own fortune and strength brought you across the line."

He shook his head internally at the sheer absurdity of the outcome.

He hadn’t been able to overcome Eren when the man was merely an apex Demi-god.

And now?

The man standing across from him was an authentic Angel of the Bastion.

The impossible chasm between their respective realms had just widened into an endless ocean.

"No, honor demands repayment," Eren insisted, straightening his tall frame with absolute sincerity.

"Name any single favor, Warden. I will fulfill it without hesitation."

He gave a light, relaxed chuckle before turning to retrieve a clean shirt from his waiting attendants at the edge of the ring.

Ethen’s eyes narrowed into calculating slits as he weighed the offer.

A blank-check favor from a newly minted Angel was a resource worth more than entire gold mines.

He could leverage this debt in dozens of game-changing ways.

He could demand Eren accompany him on a targeted hunt for Angel-tier abyssal horrors, feeding the divine cores directly into Adam’s insatiable *Perfect Body* trial.

Or he could hold the promise in reserve as ultimate political leverage, forcing an Angel-tier titan to stand in his corner during high council disputes within the Bastion.

The strategic value was staggering.

"If that’s the case, then—"

Ethen opened his mouth to seal the agreement.

Before the first condition could leave his lips, a deafening, concussive roar tore through the upper atmosphere.

Boom!

A blazing, spear-like beam of destructive energy punched straight through the cloud cover from beyond the distant mountain horizon.

The projectile slammed directly into the citadel’s outer defensive wards, sending violent kinetic tremors rolling through the foundation stones.

Immediately, the fortress’s emergency runic arrays ignited in a blinding red glare.

WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO!

The piercing shriek of the siege sirens echoed across every stone parapet and battlement.

The relaxed, celebratory atmosphere of the duel vanished in a single heartbeat.

The entire garrison responded like an iron spring releasing its tension.

Troops scrambled up the spiral stairways to man the heavy siege ballistas.

Summoners unsealed their spiritual conduits, unleashing packs of snarling beasts along the battlements.

Every defensive array across the Thousand Beast Citadel roared to maximum output.

Far across the northern horizon, the gray mist parted to reveal an armada tearing across the sky.

Dozens of heavy war carriages barreled along the lower ridges, kicking up massive rooster-tails of ash and dirt.

Cruising high above them were several colossal, iron-clad battleships, their massive keels pulled through the clouds by teams of chained, roaring dragons.

The sheer scale of the approaching fleet brought the bustling courtyard to a frozen standstill.

Ethen’s expression hardened into cold, lethal focus as he stepped up to the edge of the terrace.

This was no routine border skirmish or roaming pack of feral beasts.

An invading force had arrived at his doorstep with a full siege fleet.

Standing proudly upon the prow of the lead battleship was a massive, imposing warrior with two curved dragon horns curling from his brow.

He was clad in reinforced, dark-scaled combat leathers that left his muscular forearms bare.

His amber, slit-pupil eyes locked onto the Thousand Beast Citadel below with unbridled, aristocratic disgust.

"You filthy human vermin actually dared to chain a Royal Dragon like a common pack beast?"

His draconic voice boomed across the sky like thunder, carrying the crushing weight of an ancient sovereign.

"Today, I will teach you lower life forms the true price of your arrogance!"