Chapter 1334: The Vision Changed Owners

Catheryn’s hastily-raised shield of darkness was punched through by the very first laser.

The attack was insanely fast.

Even Ethan only had time to throw up a hand—he couldn’t shift everyone out in time.

Seraphina had been guarding the side the whole time.

She instantly reverted to her true dragon form. Her massive body slammed down from above, covering the entire team beneath her like a living barricade.

Blood-red lasers raked across her back and wings in a relentless stream.

Scales cracked.

Flesh split open under the heat.

In just a single volley, Seraphina was torn up in multiple places. Great sheets of blood slid along the edges of her scales and splattered onto the platform below.

Catheryn’s black whip didn’t make it any farther, either.

It did slam into the enemy’s blue-white shield—but several lasers had already locked onto the whip’s body at the same time. The moment Catheryn’s defense was pierced, the pitch-black lash was shredded under the crisscrossing fire and completely obliterated.

Right before it dispersed, the whip released one last surge of power.

The blue-white shield shuddered faintly.

That was all.

The Cyclops inside didn’t suffer any real damage.

Strangely, after the first round of shots, the Level One Cyclops didn’t keep firing.

Everyone had assumed a new commander was arriving.

But when Seraphina endured the pain and rose into the air, hauling everyone onto her back, the Cyclops inside the blue-white barrier abruptly dropped their weapons. They clutched their heads with both hands, staring up at the giant dragon in open terror.

Ethan stood on Seraphina’s back, completely baffled.

These Cyclops clearly had solid attack and defense systems.

Their fire coordination wasn’t a mess, either.

But the way they were reacting now—

Were they seriously just scared of Seraphina being... bigger?

Ethan lowered his gaze at the enemies cowering inside their own shield, looking equal parts tired and confused.

A white sphere of energy formed in his palm.

He tossed it down like it was nothing.

White lightning snapped straight down in a vertical line toward the blue-white barrier. A moment ago it had held up against Catheryn’s black whip, but now it was like the thing had lost its purpose—no resistance even visibly formed.

The energy ball slipped through effortlessly.

Boom!

It detonated right in the middle of the Cyclops formation.

Blinding white lightning flooded the inside of the shield, ricocheting across weapons, armor, and aircraft—jumping back and forth like a living storm.

Screams rang out in quick succession.

The blue-white shield was soon dyed red from within, transforming into a blood-colored sphere hanging in the air.

Ethan patted Seraphina’s back.

Then he pointed toward a glowing spot at the bottom of the mine pit.

Seraphina adjusted her wings and carried everyone down.

Not long after they left, another squad arrived at the platform.

At the center of that Cyclops group stood a giant with an enormous single eye—so huge it nearly filled his entire head.

He raised his head, staring at the shield stained blood-red in the sky. There was no grief in his gaze—only restrained fury.

"Those people again."

Slowly, he clenched his fist.

"Gather the army."

In the reflection of that massive eye was the direction the group had fled.

"I want to see for myself who it is that’s controlling me."

Back when they’d fought, Ethan had deliberately studied the Cyclops’ genetic forms.

The conclusion had been clear.

Their body structures were identical.

There were no chromosomal differences, either.

These Cyclops were clones.

The only strange thing was their uncontrollable fear of anything enormous.

The bigger the size difference, the more violently they reacted.

Seraphina soon brought everyone down to the deepest part of the mine.

As they drew near the light source, she shifted back into human form.

The team dropped to the ground and gathered around the area that had been glowing the whole time.

Up close, they realized it wasn’t any kind of complex device.

It was just a bright, golden stone.

Andona drew her blade.

She drove the sword tip into the stone and met almost no resistance.

The holy edge slid along the surface, carving out a standard cube.

When she finished, Andona reached out and lifted the cut piece free.

But the moment the golden cube separated from the main body, it broke apart into scattered motes of light in her palm—and vanished completely.

Andona stared down at her empty hand.

Ethan crouched, thoughtful.

He extended a finger and lightly tapped the golden surface twice.

A sharp tearing sound split the air behind them.

A laser lanced in from the distance.

Ethan instantly shifted aside—his figure leaving its spot and reappearing on the other side of the golden stone.

The beam grazed through where he’d just been.

Everyone looked up.

The far sky was already blanketed by a dense mass of Cyclops troops.

The vast majority were Level One Cyclops.

At the very front of the formation, the giant whose single eye nearly took up his entire head slowly rose into the air.

A thicker, more brutal blood-red laser blasted from his eye, charging straight for the group in the mine pit.

Andona unfurled her golden wings and shot upward to meet it.

She gripped her blade with both hands. Divine Power gathered along the sword, then she struck from the side, slicing into the blood-red beam.

Gold met crimson.

Andona couldn’t sever the attack completely—she only forced the laser off course by the tiniest angle.

But that tiny deflection was enough.

The beam missed the group, slanting down into the ground—smashing directly into the glaring golden boulder beneath their feet.

Boom!

Golden light and blood-red laser erupted together.

Seeing that, the leader’s huge eye flooded with even more bloodshot veins.

"You—"

His voice boomed through the mine pit.

"Unforgivable!"

He thrust an arm toward them.

"Attack!"

A flood of Cyclops surged forward from behind him.

The one-eyed army formed up, descending in slow, ordered ranks from the sky.

Andona didn’t hesitate.

She hurled her blade downward.

The golden weapon spun as it fell into the heart of the enemy ranks. A violent wave of Divine Power exploded outward from the impact point. At the same time, a massive angelic phantom coalesced behind Andona—its wings spreading to cover a huge stretch of the mine’s upper air.

But the leader didn’t even look at Andona.

That enormous eye never left Ethan.

From the moment he appeared, he hadn’t blinked once.

Ethan, being stared at that hard, could only feel speechless.

The next instant, the leader vanished from where he was.

He crossed the distance between them in a single step and appeared right in front of Ethan.

The golden boulder beneath their feet flared with a strange light. Fine lines spread across its surface like growing veins, finally converging into a pattern that connected the giant and Ethan.

Ethan immediately tried to throw his energy sphere forward.

Before it even truly left his hand, a bizarre force pushed into his mind.

He didn’t lose consciousness.

But his legs started to turn sluggish.

Even the motion of lifting his arm was affected.

The leader watched him with satisfaction.

That huge eye still didn’t close.

"The waters behind this power run deep."

He lowered his head, confidence dripping from every word.

"Let me show you with your own eyes how the great Veyrion uses it!"

Twenty-four fox tails whipped in from the side.

A few of them wrapped Ethan first, dragging him out of Veyrion’s control range.

The remaining tails lashed around Veyrion’s limbs and waist at the same time, yanking down with brutal force.

Bang!

Veyrion was slammed onto the golden stone.

Ataneya didn’t stop.

The tails lifted him again—then smashed him down again.

Again and again, Veyrion was forced into violent, intimate contact with the stone beneath him.

Protected at the center of the tails, Ethan gradually regained movement.

He slowly stood.

But in his mind, that palace appeared again—

Only this time, he wasn’t sitting on the throne.

The viewpoint belonged to Veyrion.