Chapter 190: Defying the Inevitable (2)

Before that golden catastrophe, Ethan extended his right hand toward the blade, placing the last of his trust and faith in Legendary Weapons Master.

More than anything, he placed his faith in the Golden Dawn Knight's own words.

The knight had urged him to use his Blessing and warned him not to underestimate its power.

The blue rune on Ethan's hand erupted with light.

Brighter than ever before.

Its radiance continued intensifying until his entire arm was enveloped in a brilliant blue aura.

Under normal circumstances, touching a weapon that an opponent had relinquished would allow Ethan to claim it as his own.

If he could accomplish that here, the entire situation would be overturned in an instant, and victory would belong to them.

But reality and fantasy were not the same thing.

The moment Ethan extended his hand toward the enormous sword, his Night Armor began to buckle beneath the overwhelming pressure of the aura surrounding it.

The force was so tremendous that the dark armor gradually shattered, disappearing completely from the right arm he had stretched toward the blade.

And only moments later…

His entire body began to bleed.

Blood suddenly poured from Ethan's nose and eyes, while every organ inside his body trembled violently, warning him that they were on the verge of rupturing and ending his life.

As blood obscured his vision, Ethan finally understood the horrifying truth.

'I'm… going to die…'

Only then did he realize just how foolish his actions had been.

No matter how powerful a Blessing might be, it could never completely compensate for such an overwhelming difference in strength.

He had made a terrible mistake.

A mistake that was about to cost him his life.

Before Asterion's eyes, and those of every other hunter scattered throughout the cathedral…

Ethan Heart was about to become the first hunter to be erased from existence.

In what he believed would be his final moments, Ethan found himself staring at the other hunters, his eyes reflecting no fear whatsoever. There was only regret, and anger at himself for making such a terrible mistake.

'What do I do now?' His thoughts raced desperately through his mind. 'Even if that sword tears me apart, I won't die. Or rather, I won't stay dead… but what about everyone else?'

Ethan wasn't afraid of death, because he possessed the Blessing of Ancient God Blood, which granted him another chance at life. It was similar to Moon's Phoenix Blessing, although his own came at a price.

Asterion and the others, however, only had one life to lose. Even Moon was in danger now, having already used her Phoenix Rebirth against Morgus.

'If I get back up and find nothing but corpses around me, with the Golden Dawn Knight still standing in front of me, then this Blessing won't do me any good…'

If they wanted even the slightest chance of victory, they had to stop that colossal sword somehow.

Legendary Weapons Master was certainly powerful enough to accomplish something extraordinary, but Ethan himself wasn't nearly strong enough to wield that power to its full potential.

No matter how desperately he searched for a solution, every possibility led him straight into another dead end. He could think of nothing that would save them, until the turning point came from somewhere no one had expected.

Without warning, a brilliant orange light erupted into existence around the colossal golden sword.

Dozens of glowing chains emerged from the void a moment later, shooting toward the descending blade from every direction at astonishing speed. They wrapped themselves around its enormous length, binding the blade, hilt, and edges before intertwining into a vast network of orange restraints.

The instant the final chain pulled taut, a deafening impact shook the entirety of Old Ashvarn.

The colossal sword stopped.

It hung motionless in the middle of its descent, only a short distance above Ethan, who could scarcely believe what he was witnessing.

"Those chains… the Golden Dawn Knight?!"

Ethan immediately searched for the golden knight, assuming he had been the one to summon them. But the knight was still standing where he had been, fighting Asterion, and both of them looked equally astonished by what had just happened.

'It wasn't him…'

The Golden Dawn Knight hadn't stopped the colossal sword.

And upon looking more closely, Ethan realized that the chains restraining it weren't golden like the ones the knight had previously summoned. They were a deep, dark shade of orange, and rather than being created through Golden Arsenal, they resembled some kind of magical spell.

But Ethan couldn't afford to waste time wondering who had summoned them.

All he needed to know was that the chains had stopped the sword, even if only temporarily.

Unfortunately, the power contained within that enormous blade was far too great for it to remain restrained for long. The chains shook violently beneath the pressure, sparks bursting from their links as cracks began spreading through them one after another.

The sword struggled to resume its descent, but the restraints continued pulling against it, refusing to let it advance even an inch.

They wouldn't be able to hold it forever.

But the few precious seconds bought by that intervention were enough to change the course of the battle.

Ethan seized the opportunity immediately.

He stretched his right hand toward the colossal sword's sharp edge, and the instant his fingers made contact with it, a violent burst of blue electricity erupted between them.

Legendary Weapons Master began invading the weapon with overwhelming force.

The golden aura contained within the sword resisted fiercely, unleashing powerful waves of backlash that struck Ethan's body directly and inflicted horrifying damage.

Every bone in his right hand shattered, reduced to fragments beneath the pressure. Yet the power of his Blessing somehow kept the arm intact despite the destruction taking place within it.

Blood poured from his body.

There were no external wounds, but his internal organs were suffering terribly, until blood began flowing from every opening in Ethan's body.

The pain was unbearable.

Several times, he came dangerously close to losing consciousness, and only his Demonic Body managed to keep him awake by force.

At moments like these, Ethan's extraordinary endurance worked in his favor, allowing him to withstand punishment that would have overwhelmed most others long before.

The golden and blue lights grew increasingly intense as the struggle between the two Blessings reached its peak, bathing everyone within the cathedral in a radiance so brilliant that it threatened to blind them.

Meanwhile, the orange chains continued breaking one after another.

The little time they had left was rapidly running out.

Realizing this, Ethan unleashed a savage howl and resisted with every fiber of his being, desperately forcing his Blessing to continue its struggle against the colossal weapon.

In the end, he failed to make the sword his own.

Its power was simply far greater than anything he could endure.

The last of the chains shattered, leaving nothing to prevent the enormous blade from resuming its descent.

But the blue light of Legendary Weapons Master had managed to gain the upper hand, if only for a brief moment.

And Ethan refused to waste it.

He suddenly swept his right hand aside, almost as though he were trying to throw a stone.

The movement was clumsy.

But the colossal sword responded.

Before the disbelieving eyes of everyone watching, the enormous blade that had been descending vertically toward the cathedral suddenly changed direction.

It flew toward the place Ethan had indicated.

And struck Old Ashvarn.

The ancient city, still crawling with monsters, was swallowed by a horrifying explosion that overturned the earth and everything upon it.

The resulting shockwave was so tremendous that the earthquake didn't remain confined to Old Ashvarn.

It reached the outside world.

Every member of the Heart Clan felt the tremors beneath their feet, giving them the faintest glimpse of the terrifying scale of the battle raging far below them.