Chapter 238: What The Hell Are You??

"Oh? Was there actually a human standing there the entire time?" Juliana murmured, her tone dripping with expertly feigned surprise.

?"I had no idea whatsoever. Husband, did you happen to notice him lingering about?" Kelly turned her head toward Asher, her eyes wide with innocent curiosity.

?’These two absolute troublemakers... I certainly expected this level of theatrical pettiness from Juliana, but Kelly felt the need to dive right into the mischief as well. Why on earth should I bother being the voice of reason?’

?Asher blinked a couple of times, maintaining a perfectly deadpan expression:

?"I thought I heard a rather annoying fly buzzing near my ear. Come on, let’s ignore the insect and go secure ourselves some proper ice cream." He said smoothly, sliding his arms around both of their waists to pull them close.

?"Husband, my lower back feels terribly sore from standing in the tower. I think you should slide your hand down to my backside instead—that would feel much more comforting," Juliana purred with a deliberate, seductive smile, slowly licking her lips.

?"Your backside? Oh please, Husband should cup my chest instead; it’s substantially softer and much more voluptuous." Kelly chimed in, pressing her entire body flush against Asher’s side.

?’Hey now! Aren’t the two of you pushing this farce a bit too far?’ Asher thought, a slight, troubled frown crossing his features.

?"You low-born trash dare to openly mock me?! You actually had the staggering audacity to insult this young master to his face! If I don’t flay you alive and teach you some basic manners today, I will never find peace!" Draven shrieked, his pristine aristocratic composure finally snapping as raw humiliation boiled over into murderous rage.

?"Husband, that wretched fly is buzzing right inside my head now. Please, whisk us away from this dreadful noise." Juliana complained prettily.

?"You—!!" Draven whipped his head, his eyes locking onto Juliana with venomous hatred:

?"How dare you look down on me?! I am Draven, the third legitimate son of the Genesis Ancient Family! You vile bitch! If you don’t drop to your knees in the dirt this instant and beg for your life, I swear I will make you wish—"

?Draven’s voice choked off mid-syllable. His breath hitched as a wall of suffocating, bone-chilling killing intent cascaded outward from the man standing quietly between the two women:

?"What, exactly, did you just call her?" Asher asked softly, his voice dropping into a dark, glacial register.

?"....?!"

____

?[The Battlefield.]

?"You are a formidable adversary, human. But I refuse to fall so easily!"

?Havock roared, throwing its massive arms wide as countless floating orbs of condensed light materialized around its frame like a swarm of angry fireflies:

?"Every single one of these orbs represents the life essence of my fallen clan members who sacrificed themselves! With this accumulated mass of power, I will grind you into dust!"

?It slammed its jaws wide open, inhaling the entire constellation of glowing orbs in a single, violent gulp.

?"AGGHHHHHHH!!!"

?Havock shrieked, its heavy muscle fibers violently rupturing and reknitting under the strain as its skin mutated from a sickly green to an obsidian black. Its red eyes flared with blinding fury, and its thick tail elongated, snapping like a steel whip.

?"This is my ultimate, transcendent form! I will crush— Huh?"

?Havock froze, its predatory instincts screaming in terror as a golden shockwave of pure, compressed energy tore across the wilderness from the direction of the city walls.

?Talitha felt the sudden, terrifying atmospheric shift—a dense, suffocating wave of pressure and pure, unadulterated intent hurtling toward her from behind. She spun around, her eyes widening in sheer disbelief as she caught sight of a massive golden phantom fist being propelled forward at lightspeed, carrying a pulverized streak of light in its wake.

?"What on earth is that phenomenon?"

?"Is that... a spectral fist?"

?"Good gods, look at the scale of it! It’s larger than five heavy transport trucks combined!"

?The surviving awakened soldiers stared up in awe at the golden projectile screaming across the morning sky, targeted squarely at the two combatants locked in the distance.

?"Damn it—get out of the way!!"

?Talitha watched the figure getting pushed by the fist teleported away, and without another second to waste, she threw herself sideways in a desperate, panic-fueled dive, while Havock—caught dead center in the trajectory and pinned by the crushing force of the skill—found itself entirely paralyzed, unable to even blink as the colossal fist closed the distance.

?"No!! I am an apex predator! I refuse to die in a wasteland like this!"

?BOOOOM!!!!!

?The golden fist impacted the lizard with the concussive fury of a falling star. The shockwave didn’t just crush bone—it instantly atomized the creature, turning the ten-foot beast into a swirling cloud of fine grey ash in less than a second. Even its ultimate mutated form and its prized Heaven-Tier Bone-Burn Armor vanished as if they had never existed.

?Meanwhile, Draven teleported some distance away, on his knees, his body wracked with a violent tremor before he heaved forward, vomiting a thick mouthful of dark blood onto the scorched earth:

?"What in the heavens was that?! If I hadn’t used my hand fan to defend myself, that single punch would have permanently shattered every spirit pathway in my body—it might even have snuffed out my soul instantly, I didn’t know there is an Ex-Rank here." He thought frantically, staring down with trembling hands at the heirloom he was clutching.

?"Thank the heavens the hand fan is a genuine Mythic-Tier artifact gifted to me by my father... Surely it can withstand—"

?CRACK!!

?"....?!!"

?Draven watched in absolute horror as a microscopic hairline fracture spiderwebbed across the surface of the hand fan, before the entire Mythic-Tier artifact shattered into a million useless fragments, raining down around his knees.

?"This... This is impossible! A true Mythic-Tier treasure couldn’t even absorb the blow of a single stray punch?! Is that attack on a higher tier than the Divine-Tier?!" He gasped aloud, his face draining of all remaining color until he looked like a corpse.

?"My Lord!!"

?Talitha materialized at his side in a frantic blur, pulling a radiant golden elixir from her spatial storage and forcing it between his lips.

?"Who on earth possessed the power to push you to this state?" She demanded, her gaze snapping toward the distant city ramparts in pure, protective fury:

?’That lizard’s second transformation pushed its strength close to my own; subduing it would have demanded a grueling, prolonged exchange... Yet that singular, stray punch obliterated it down to its subatomic molecules. Is she here already? No, the spiritual signature lingering in the air is far too pure and unfamiliar—I would have recognized her aura anywhere. Then who possesses such terrifyingly strength?’

?"Why must you insist on provoking our husband? A common pest should understand how to buzz quietly in the background, rather than opening its mouth to insult its betters." Kelly’s calm, melodic voice drifted across the clearing as she strolled casually down from the air toward them.

?’Only an A-Rank?! How in the blazes did an ordinary A-Rank Awakened manage to injure my Lord?! Did she beguile him with her beauty, waiting for an opening to launch a cowardly sneak attack while his guard was down?! You treacherous little bitch!’

?Talitha surged to her feet, her expression twisting into a mask of pure malice: "You wretched creature will pay in blood for what you did to my Lord!" she screamed, her figure dissolving into a heat haze.

?"Wait, Talitha, stop—!" Draven tried to shout the moment the restorative pill cleared his throat, but Talitha was already gone, blinded by her fierce loyalty.

?"How dare you lift a finger against my Lord?!"

?Talitha materialized directly in front of Kelly, her fist cocked back and wreathed in a swirling storm of dense, superheated blue flames as she threw a lethal punch aimed at the younger woman’s throat.

?"Are all members of these ancient families this annoying?"

?Kelly sighed softly. The very next microsecond, countless threads of abyssal, dark-gold Primordial Chains erupted violently from every pore of her body, whipping forward to meet Talitha’s flaming fist head-on.

?"You think a few glowing ropes can stop my attack?!"

?BOOOOM!!!!

?Talitha’s blazing fist smashed squarely into the leading edge of the primordial chains—and the instant contact was made, a staggering fifty percent of her accumulated spirit energy instantly evaporated, drastically reducing the destructive force of her attack.

?"What... What is this?"

?Talitha froze, her eyes widening in sudden, unadulterated panic as hundreds of thousands of independent Primordial Chains unspooled from Kelly’s form, weaving a suffocating, inescapable cage around her while radiating an aura of pure killing intent.

?"What on earth are you, you monster?!" She whispered, her voice finally trembling with genuine fear.

{Name: Kelly Asher Aetheldawn}

{Rank: A-Rank}

{Equipped Gear: None.}

{Combat Power: 500 Million}