Chapter 1414: Couldn’t He Wait One Second?

Vesperhart clearly saw the energy sphere fly out of that patch of darkness, confirming that Ethan had been hiding there. But it didn’t let its guard down. The hands in its eyes kept turning as time energy quietly laid a web of traps across the area.

"Die, Ethan!"

The giant clock’s laser struck the ground.

The area it hit aged at a terrifying rate. Rocks crumbled into debris, and the soil dried and split. Then time reversed, forcing the shattered ground back into place before destroying it all over again.

Time ground the same patch of land down in both directions until nothing intact remained.

If Ethan was still in there, even if he survived, there was no way he had escaped unscathed.

Yet Vesperhart received no response.

Something felt wrong.

Ethan wasn’t the type to stand still and take an attack head-on, much less throw a single energy sphere and disappear for good. Vesperhart’s eyes swept the battlefield as energy gathered between its antlers. The instant Ethan appeared, it would attack.

Time passed.

There was still no trace of him.

Had he really vanished?

It couldn’t be that simple.

Vesperhart hesitated. The giant clock overhead slowly descended and returned to its place behind it. It glanced toward the distant battlefield. Noxhart was still keeping the others occupied, so Vesperhart set off to help.

The time shield still covered its body.

Maintaining both the shield and its own power required an enormous amount of energy, and the dense field of slowed time made every step painfully sluggish. After walking a short distance, Vesperhart looked down at its plodding hooves.

Dropping the shield for a moment should be fine.

It only needed to rush into the crowd, then raise it again.

With that thought, the layers of time surrounding its body faded away.

Ethan appeared immediately.

Black particles gathered directly above Vesperhart, forming his body. He gave it no time to look up. Gravity pulled him into a rapid descent as white lightning wrapped around both fists.

They slammed into Vesperhart’s back at the same time.

Boom!

The ground collapsed beneath its hooves.

Its legs buckled under the impact, nearly flattening its entire body against the dirt. White lightning spread from the two points of contact, sinking deeper through skin and bone.

Vesperhart froze in shock.

It had barely lowered its shield before Ethan attacked.

Couldn’t he at least give it time to put its defenses back up?

It tried to summon its power, but Ethan’s next punch had already landed. His fist struck its spine, sending another surge of white lightning into its body. A third punch followed, then a fourth. Blows rained down from different angles, never giving Vesperhart enough time to fully restore its shield.

Ethan was also using the assault to test something.

White lightning traveled deeper through Vesperhart’s nerves, first taking control of its limbs before advancing toward the core in its back. But whenever the lightning was about to reach the deepest point, an automatic surge of time energy intervened.

Vesperhart’s movements would stop, and its consciousness would briefly go dark.

Then its body forcibly restarted.

Ethan couldn’t take control.

He quickly changed plans.

If he couldn’t control it, he would borrow its power instead.

He poured his newly acquired time and spatial energies into both arms. Space folded ahead of his fists, causing every swing to strike multiple overlapping points. Time shortened the gap between punches, bringing the next blow down before the force of the last one had faded.

Fists filled the space around Vesperhart.

Its back, the sides of its neck, its abdomen, and its limbs all took one heavy blow after another. White lightning poured into its body from every point of contact. Finally, Ethan drew back his right fist and compressed all his spatial and time energy into it.

He charged the blow.

Then punched.

His fist struck Vesperhart in the side, lifting it straight off the ground. Its body crashed through the surrounding rubble and plunged diagonally downward, blasting a deep crater into the ground.

Ethan formed another energy sphere and hurled it into the crater. Then his wings spread, and air burst from behind them, propelling him into a dive after it.

At the bottom of the crater, Vesperhart completed another restart.

It no longer remembered what had just happened, but the swollen red marks covering its body—and the massive bumps on its head—didn’t lie.

Someone had just beaten the hell out of it.

Vesperhart looked up just in time to see an energy sphere falling toward it.

The circular clock behind it lit up. Dense time energy flowed down its three hands and entered its body. The power it had just expended reverted to its unused state, and its exhaustion vanished with it.

Vesperhart braced its hooves and rose from the bottom of the crater.

A time shield unfolded around it.

Ethan’s energy sphere struck first.

The explosion spread across the barrier’s outer layer. White lightning tore open one corner of the shield, and energy poured through the breach. Vesperhart turned the hands in its eyes toward the damaged section.

The breach began to reverse.

The shattered barrier reconnected, returning to perfect condition within moments. Not even a scratch remained.

Ethan was already descending from above.

The real problem with the time shield wasn’t the strength of the barrier itself, but the stasis field covering its outermost layer. Any attack that approached would slow there until it lost most of its original power.

But Ethan had time energy now too.

Spatial energy wrapped around him, folding the stretched distance ahead back in on itself, while his own time power canceled the slowing effect. He crossed the field that would have trapped an ordinary person without losing any noticeable speed.

His fist struck the inner barrier.

Compared to the outer stasis field, the shield beneath it was much weaker. White lightning exploded outward from Ethan’s fist, and cracks rapidly spread across the entire barrier.

His next punch landed.

The time shield shattered.

But the giant clock behind Vesperhart had finished charging.

Vesperhart lowered its head, exposing its entire back to Ethan. A white laser erupted from the center of the clock face, passing over Vesperhart’s body and shooting toward Ethan at point-blank range.

Ethan’s fist was already less than a few inches away.

Then red points of light appeared all around him.

They came from the traps Vesperhart had planted earlier, and every one of them locked onto Ethan. Time energy lingered within each marker. After a brief charge, the red lights grew blindingly bright.

Ethan immediately realized he had walked into another trap.

But he didn’t pull his fist back.

The energy sphere in his palm changed shape first. Its concentrated white light dispersed, becoming a small wisp of soft cloud. The cloud passed through Vesperhart’s body without a sound.

Then Ethan’s wings beat with all their strength.

The blast of air drove him backward as a spatial doorway opened in front of him. The giant clock’s laser tore through the spot where he had been and passed into the doorway before it could fully close.

The red points fired at the same time.

One laser grazed Ethan’s side, ripping open his clothes and leaving a wound marked by both aging and new growth. The remaining attacks missed their target and vanished into the darkness beyond the spatial doorway.

Ethan twisted through the exit and escaped the encirclement.

Vesperhart remained where it stood, staring helplessly in the direction he had gone.

It had known Ethan would escape, but actually watching him get away was still disappointing.

Still...

Where had those four little girls gone?

Vesperhart searched the battlefield, but Auri and the others were nowhere to be found.

In the distance, another spatial doorway opened. Ethan stepped through and landed on a broken slab of rock. He looked back at Vesperhart, his brow slowly furrowing.

Why hadn’t the cloud he sent inside it done anything yet?

Was there something wrong with that power?

Vesperhart was about to speak when its steps suddenly stopped.

Several familiar figures had appeared around it.

They approached slowly from a distance, wearing the expressions Vesperhart remembered. Some raised their hands in greeting. Others opened their mouths and spoke, but Vesperhart couldn’t hear a sound.

It shifted its antlers, and the clocks in its eyes accelerated, but the figures refused to disappear.