Chapter 1331: The Puppeteer Walked Out

Ethan had no choice but to keep pouring energy out.

Wave after wave of lightning swept through the octagonal cage, erasing each new clone the moment it appeared.

Not until his energy sphere stopped doing real damage did the spreading white glow finally start to fade.

Ethan looked up.

White Cindaras filled everything.

Along the walls, in the air, on the ground—packed so tightly they were shoulder to shoulder, the same face repeated until it made his eyes go unfocused. Each one held the same longsword. He couldn’t even see the end of the crowd.

He stared for a few seconds, blank.

Then raised his other hand and smacked the palm that had launched the blast.

"Why am I like this?" he muttered. "Why do I always have to get handsy?"

Individually, these white Cindaras didn’t hit that hard.

The problem was the number of them—and the way they kept learning. Growing. Adjusting. Evolving.

The first batch of swords had only left shallow cuts.

The second batch could force him back.

After that, they started changing angles, hunting the gaps between his defenses like they’d been training for it.

Ethan raised a white shield in front of himself.

A forest of blades slammed down from all directions at once.

Clangclangclang—

In only a few seconds, cracks spiderwebbed across the shield’s surface, and then it shattered under the countless strikes.

Ethan finally understood.

When they attacked his body, they were annoying.

When they attacked shields?

They were monsters.

Outside the mental world, the real Cindara was having her own headache.

The sheer difference in numbers was already enough to make her grit her teeth, and that was before you factored in Kaelira—who loved her "clever little ideas" way too much.

Once Ethan got pulled into Cindara’s mental world, the others gathered their strength and forcibly blasted open her outer barrier.

The moment they dropped down into the layer beneath, a wave of heat rolled over them like a physical blow. Queen Elowen had to keep laying down ice again and again, pressing the temperature down by brute force.

Their original plan was simple: make a gigantic energy sphere and blow Cindara—and the whole area around her—into nothing.

But Ethan was gone.

And with what Cindara had just done, it didn’t take long to guess: Ethan might be inside her.

That bought Cindara a brief pause.

Not because they’d changed their minds.

Just because they didn’t detonate immediately.

They weren’t idle for a second.

Kaelira pulled several of them together again.

First Seraphina and Catheryn.

Then, deciding that still wasn’t enough, she dragged in Elira, Andona, and Namyanna too. Even Seraphina quietly exhaled a breath of dragonfire, mixing it into the forming mass.

More and more different energies gathered in the air.

Purple-red power, Light Force, Primordial Death Energy, ice, water, pink runic glow, Divine Power, and dragonfire pressed closer and closer, compressed into a massive sphere with a complicated, swirling color.

Everything was ready.

Now all they needed was Ethan to show his face.

Then they’d blow Cindara off the map.

And if Cindara died early?

Fine. Toss the sphere back into the underground abyss.

No reason to waste it.

So the unlucky Cindara had barely emerged from beneath the flame platform when she looked up and saw a gigantic energy sphere flying straight at her.

It was a riot of colors.

Spinning, it was almost... pretty.

Her first instinct was to absorb it.

Then she sensed what was inside, and that thought died instantly.

Swallowing that thing would be suicide with extra steps.

Cindara spread her wings.

Flames blasted outward from her body, and a purple-red sphere condensed rapidly in her palm before she fired it head-on into the incoming attack.

The two spheres closed the distance.

If they truly collided, the resulting force would—

No.

Not might.

It would erase this entire rainforest from their memories like it had never existed.

Catheryn had predicted that outcome from the start.

Even though a portion of that doomsday weapon was her power too, she’d at least had the foresight to prepare.

While they were forming the sphere, an Umbral Servitor had already left the battlefield, sprinting through the rainforest without stopping, putting as much distance as possible between it and the coming blast.

All it would take was a single thought from Catheryn, and the Umbral Servitor could guide everyone to a safe zone.

The only problem was Ethan.

At that moment, Ethan was still trapped in the army of white Cindaras.

And those things had started using suicide tactics.

Some clones deliberately threw themselves into Ethan’s attacks. Once they broke apart, their white particles were absorbed by other Cindaras, making the new clones stronger.

Self-produced. Self-consumed.

Ethan could only keep generating shields, blocking longswords coming from every direction. He didn’t have the time—couldn’t afford the time—to pay attention to what was happening outside.

Just as another shield layer split apart, a strange sensation stabbed into his mind.

These Cindaras—

He could control them.

The instant the thought appeared, Ethan didn’t hesitate.

If it worked, it worked.

White lightning swept out from his hand, wiping out a cluster of Cindaras directly ahead.

The clones behind and to his sides seized the opening, breaking through his shield. Dozens of white longswords dropped toward his body at once—

But before the blades could sink in, every Cindara froze.

Motionless.

The swords that had struck Ethan began to disintegrate, turning into white particles that drifted off his clothes and skin like dust in sunlight.

The entire octagonal cage went silent.

Outside, the doomsday weapon the group was building kept growing.

One sphere not enough?

Two.

Two not enough?

Three.

Eventually, it would be enough.

Watching them casually pour out power from their palms, Cindara felt genuine confusion for the first time.

Did these people not need setup time?

Why did their energy feel endless?

The answer stood behind the team.

Feylora hadn’t stopped supporting them for even a moment.

A green magic array spread under her allies’ feet, feeding pure energy into their bodies without pause. The instant someone spent a portion, the next wave replenished it.

With Feylora working herself ragged in the backline, building super-weapons really was that easy.

Cindara was about to gather flames again—when her body suddenly locked up.

She tried to raise her hand.

Nothing.

Tried to move her arm.

No response.

Tried to pull her power—

Even the fire inside her went out of control.

What...?

Under everyone’s stunned gaze, Cindara’s arm slowly lifted.

But it obviously wasn’t a movement she’d chosen.

A voice came from behind the group.

Ethan.

A white gate of light opened in midair.

Ethan stepped out of it, white particles still clinging to his clothes. He lifted a hand and waved at his teammates.

Except the way his hand moved...

It didn’t feel like a greeting.

It felt like he was puppeteering Cindara.

Cindara was stunned too.

She’d only just started to figure out the basics inside her mental world—

And Ethan had walked in and ripped the door off its hinges.

Ethan knew this method was, frankly, kind of unfair.

But what could he do?

Cindara talked too much, and she’d basically demonstrated the control mechanism right in front of him.

Even if he’d taken a shortcut, it was still part of his power.

Any objections?

None.

Catheryn walked up beside Ethan and murmured a few quick words.

Ethan listened, nodded once, then looked back at the immobilized Cindara.

"Bye-bye."

He smiled and waved.

"Hope you’re stronger next time we meet."

He paused half a beat.

"Though... thinking about it, you probably don’t get a next time."

Catheryn lifted her hand.

Darkness rose from beneath everyone’s feet, forming a complete shield that wrapped around them all.

Through the black barrier, Ethan watched the unwilling fury in Cindara’s eyes.

He didn’t bother responding. He turned and walked into the shelter.

In the next instant, the black shield vanished from in front of Cindara.

No one was there anymore.

Only several ridiculously huge energy spheres hovered ahead, grinding and squeezing against each other, their surfaces constantly snapping with multicolored arcs and flares.

Every single one of them was balanced right on the edge of detonation.