Chapter 1427: Explosions as Art

Another wormhole opened beneath Adrian’s feet.

Ataneya’s tails shattered the outer defenses first. The thick tails tore through the surrounding machines from multiple directions and were about to coil around Adrian when he dropped straight into the wormhole below him.

The portal closed.

The small War Machines stayed behind.

With their original target gone, Ataneya’s tails swept through the swarm and smashed scores of War Machines in half.

But the shattered machines didn’t shut down.

Red lights came on inside the wreckage.

One self-destructing War Machine was dangerous enough. Now an entire swarm surrounded Ataneya’s tails.

She had started pulling them back the moment Adrian disappeared, but the damaged War Machines dragged themselves after them, clinging to the ends of her tails before detonating in rapid succession.

The first wave of explosions triggered the second.

The second engulfed even more wreckage.

The violent chain reaction unleashed its full force inside the enclosed space. The mechanical floor couldn’t withstand the impact, and the entire area sank ten feet.

By the time Ataneya retracted her tails, several of the tips had been burned black.

Adrian peeked out from another spatial exit and decided it still wasn’t enough.

He grabbed a small War Machine beside him and forced a massive amount of energy into it. Its metal shell began glowing red, the joints bulged outward, and its overloaded energy core emitted a piercing whine.

Only when the War Machine was about to explode in his hand did Adrian release it and toss it down.

"Bombs away!"

The mechanical bomb tumbled through the air.

Adrian genuinely loved explosions.

If explosions were an art form, what he’d just thrown was clearly meant to be a masterpiece on a grand scale.

Fire engulfed the space below.

Smoke rolled outward as wave after wave of force slammed into Seraphine’s shield. When the smoke finally thinned, the gray barrier was trembling, and a clear crack had appeared across its surface.

"Ataneya, didn’t you say Silas was obsessed with explosions?"

Someone glared at the still-shaking shield, anger in her voice.

"Why does he like blowing things up so much?"

Ataneya didn’t answer.

She raised one tail and pointed higher overhead.

"Forget that for now."

"Does anyone know what that black speck is?"

Everyone narrowed their eyes and followed the direction of her tail.

A tiny black speck was slowly descending from the top of the space.

As it came closer, a dangerous red light began flashing around it.

Catheryn was the first to sense the energy building inside. Her expression shifted, and she slammed the dark energy in her palm into the ground.

A pitch-black shield rose over the group.

"That’s another bomb."

Catheryn stared overhead.

"And it’s a big one."

Big?

Bigger than the last explosion?

They looked from the descending speck to the already cracked shield and finally decided that "Silas" had truly lost his mind.

Everyone began releasing energy.

Seraphine repaired the gray barrier while white lightning raced across the outer shield, forming a final layer of defense. Andona and the others poured their power into it as well, causing several colors to flicker across its surface.

In the distance, Adrian laughed at the sight.

He even discarded his umbrella.

All he wanted now was to witness the moment the bomb hit. Even if the explosion swallowed him too, seeing that final instant would make his life worthwhile.

The people inside the shield had no intention of joining him in appreciating his "art."

Kaelira raised both hands and drove a highly compressed violet-red energy sphere into the ground. The mechanical plates caved in, and the impact forced both metal and earth aside, creating a massive hemispherical pit.

White lightning spread across the bottom, forming a stable base.

Kaelira, Catheryn, Andona, and the others poured their power into it. Energies of different attributes gathered within the hemispherical space, compressing against one another until they gradually formed an enormous sphere.

If their enemy intended to blow them up, then they would take this entire space and the whole base with them.

Catheryn also began preparing an escape route.

An Umbral Servitor silently emerged from the shadows, passed through the distorted space, and ran into the distance. The others took hold of Catheryn’s arms one after another, maintaining physical contact with her.

They never stopped feeding power into the giant energy sphere.

Not until the outer shields were destroyed.

Meanwhile, the battle in Ethan’s white space had reached its fiercest point.

"You’re not so impressive yourself!"

Ethan’s eyes were bloodshot, but he still grinned at Silas. A sphere of white energy formed in his palm as he charged straight at him.

Silas didn’t answer.

He held the black umbrella at his side and deflected Ethan’s first attack. Its shaft extended as the canopy folded into a blade, slashing diagonally toward Ethan’s chest.

Ethan twisted aside.

The energy sphere in his palm skimmed past Silas’s shoulder and exploded behind him. A blast of white energy spread outward, engulfing them both.

Silas used the explosion to obscure Ethan’s vision.

Space folded beneath his feet. When it opened again, he was already behind Ethan. The sword in his hand shortened into a dagger, its point stabbing toward the back of Ethan’s head.

Ethan caught the movement in his peripheral vision.

His white wings stopped supporting his flight and split apart into dozens of energy arrows, all of them shooting at Silas. Ethan abandoned his position in the air and let gravity pull him rapidly downward.

Silas swung the dagger, cutting through the incoming arrows one after another.

The arrows burst into points of light on either side of the blade.

As he severed the final arrow, the dagger transformed again. The blade lengthened into a spear, and Silas gripped the end before hurling it at the falling Ethan.

The spear ripped through the air, chasing Ethan down from directly above.

Ethan glanced back and nearly laughed.

The energy sphere in his palm spread outward and formed a white shield. The spear struck its surface, forcing the point off to one side.

Just as Silas thought Ethan was still below him, a spatial fluctuation came from behind.

Ethan was already standing there.

"You know Noxhart, don’t you?"

Ethan’s gaze settled on Silas’s back.

"You can use too many different kinds of power, and we’re not far from the Forest of Vigil."

Silas didn’t answer directly.

The energy in his hand continued to take shape, forming a golden shield behind him. He leaned backward as well, trying to evade Ethan’s next attack.

Seeing this, Ethan reshaped the energy sphere in his own palm.

White light extended forward and curved into a sharp scimitar.

If Silas wanted to play with weapons, Ethan would take the game a little more seriously.

The curved blade slipped around the edge of the shield and stabbed into Silas’s waist.

Ethan gave him no chance to pull away. He immediately followed, tossing another energy sphere high into the air as his free hand clenched into a fist and slammed into the center of the golden shield.

The shield caved in.

Silas and the shield were both sent flying.

A spatial gate opened behind him, swallowing his body as he hurtled backward. The weapon in his hand shortened into a dagger once more.

An exit appeared above Ethan.

Silas dropped through it, driving the dagger toward Ethan’s skull.