Chapter 1415: Do You All Like Me?

Ethan watched from a distance, still unable to make sense of what was happening. He formed another small wisp of cloud and gently brushed it over his eyes.

The battlefield changed.

The shattered ground disappeared.

An endless plain stretched out before him beneath a brilliant blue sky, white clouds drifting slowly overhead. Vast fields of grass rippled in the wind. Small animals gathered around Vesperhart, including several deer like itself.

Vesperhart stood in the middle of the field and made no attempt to attack.

Only then did Ethan understand what the cloud did.

It had trapped Vesperhart inside the world it was seeing.

As long as Vesperhart couldn’t break free, there was no need to continue the fight. The power holding it there would gradually fall under Ethan’s control until it managed to escape.

Elsewhere, Emerald Castle’s army had already crushed the shadow soldiers summoned by Noxhart.

The last shadow had barely been torn apart when the surrounding clouds began to churn again. A second army emerged, even more grotesque than the first. Some had unnaturally long limbs, while others had twisted bodies, but all of them carried weapons formed from darkness.

Emerald Castle’s soldiers met them without hesitation.

High above, the others had put some distance between themselves and Noxhart again.

Seraphina roared. Her dragon wings unleashed powerful gusts as her massive body charged Noxhart head-on. Ataneya’s twenty-four fox tails spread out from both sides, cutting off every possible escape route.

The moment her tails wrapped around it, everyone else would attack.

That was the plan, at least.

Reality had other ideas.

Surrounded on all sides, Noxhart remained perfectly calm. It glanced at the fox tails closing in from the left and right, then looked up at Seraphina charging straight toward it.

Time energy gathered between its forehooves.

Invisible ripples spread outward. Seraphina’s wingbeats immediately slowed, while Ataneya’s tails stalled halfway to their target, advancing more slowly with every passing moment.

But it was only a feint.

The time energy between Noxhart’s hooves suddenly dispersed, replaced by a dense mass of darkness. Black energy enveloped its body, and it melted into the surrounding shadows, disappearing from view.

A muffled chuckle came from the darkness.

Noxhart thought it had fooled everyone again.

Catheryn stood within another patch of shadow, watching the idiot snicker to itself from its hiding place.

Trying to hide in darkness from Goddess Catheryn wasn’t exactly smart.

She raised one hand.

The surrounding darkness tightened at once, quietly winding around Noxhart’s limbs. A black spear formed in Catheryn’s palm, and she hurled it into the distance.

The spear pierced through the shadows.

The darkness covering Noxhart was dragged along with it, tearing open like a curtain. The vanished deer reappeared before everyone, completely unaware that its cover was gone.

It was even standing directly beneath Seraphina’s descending claw with one forehoof raised in a victory sign.

Seraphina heard something below and looked down.

A deer.

Noxhart.

Her raised claw slammed down.

"Ataneya!"

Seraphina’s voice rang across the battlefield.

Ataneya turned and locked onto the falling Noxhart. All twenty-four tails snapped upward along different paths. Infernal energy compressed in her palm, forming a sphere wreathed in dark red flames.

Noxhart finally realized something was wrong.

How could they see it?

There was no time to find the answer. It could only call upon its spatial power. A pitch-black spatial doorway opened below. If Noxhart continued falling straight down, it could pass through and escape the encirclement.

Ataneya wasn’t giving it another chance.

Her outermost tails swept past Noxhart first and surrounded the doorway. The others followed close behind, wrapping around its limbs and torso. Two thick tails bound its antlers, while the last one covered its mouth.

Noxhart was only a short distance from the doorway.

But it couldn’t close that final gap.

The infernal energy sphere arrived, striking the small orb floating between Noxhart’s antlers with perfect accuracy.

Dark red flames erupted outward.

The impact burst through the gaps between Ataneya’s tails, distorting the nearby air with intense heat. The two forces consumed each other and gradually faded after several seconds.

Ataneya’s tails didn’t loosen.

Noxhart remained suspended in midair.

Golden light descended from above.

Andona slowly came down while chanting a strange incantation. Mysterious runes appeared beneath Noxhart one after another, linking together to form a rotating golden magic circle.

A golden spear took shape in her hand. She thrust her arm forward and sent it streaking toward Noxhart.

Just before the spearhead could touch it, the entire weapon vanished from sight. The golden runes below flared at once, completing the Judgment Array.

An enormous Angel appeared behind Andona.

Its radiance continued rising, taking the form of an even greater Archangel. Gripping a golden spear in both hands, it aimed the tip at Noxhart in the center of the array and thrust downward.

The spear forced the air aside as it fell.

A golden pillar of light connected the sky and ground, while divine pressure sealed the space around Noxhart. Before the attack landed, Ataneya withdrew her tails. She and Kaelira began gathering energy in their palms at the same time.

Two energy spheres flew in from different directions.

One was wreathed in infernal flames. The other churned with purplish-red energy. Both were aimed at Noxhart in the center of the array.

Freed from its restraints, Noxhart moved its limbs and lightly turned its antlers. It looked up at the descending golden spear without a trace of despair, only mild resignation.

So they wouldn’t let it use darkness?

Then it would use something else.

"Do you all like me that much?"

Noxhart planted all four hooves in the center of the golden array and raised its head toward the Archangel.

"And you even brought me such a huge gift."

The energy between its antlers began changing color. The pitch-black glow gradually faded, replaced by a gentle yet concentrated pale green.

A pale green energy sphere appeared before them.

Everyone faltered.

That color, the way the energy flowed, and the constant life force radiating from it—it was exactly like the green clouds they had seen in the sky when they first arrived.

How could Noxhart control those clouds?

No one had time to find out.

Noxhart looked up at the green sphere above its antlers with satisfaction, then raised its head higher and sent it toward the golden spear.

The pale green sphere rose against the divine pressure.

Life energy dyed the air green in its wake, while the surrounding golden light relentlessly scorched its surface. The two forces had yet to make contact, but a ring of violent ripples was already spreading from the boundary between them.