Chapter 1436: Friendly Fire by Design

The fervor in Malverin’s eyes burned hotter.

"Let’s see you dodge this!"

Ethan studied the four enormous pillars overhead.

A layer of white energy rose around him, keeping the tendrils and blue clay at bay.

That line sounded familiar.

He just couldn’t remember where he’d heard it.

As the four pillars prepared to attack, the dark mark finally stirred.

Four small figures appeared beside Ethan in quick succession.

His cheat had arrived.

"Idra."

Ethan looked at the four little girls.

"Do you know why they were laughing earlier?"

Idra didn’t answer.

She turned away, but her reddened eyes and the corners of her mouth gave her away. The other three girls stayed silent too, their trembling shoulders making it obvious that they were also struggling not to laugh.

"You..."

Before Ethan could question them further, the four girls dissolved into energy of different colors and entered his body.

Power gathered throughout his limbs, and the white barrier around him thickened.

Cheat fully activated.

"Forget it."

Ethan flexed his fists.

"I’ll get a straight answer after I deal with this guy."

His words reached the people below as well.

Catheryn and the others immediately stopped laughing and focused on clearing away the dark blue mud around them.

"You’ve got this, Ethan!" Catheryn called up to him. "We’ll clean up the blue mud down here, then come help you!"

Ethan glanced at the dark mark on his body, suddenly hit by a bad feeling.

Why did they sound like they were planning more than a routine cleanup?

They weren’t about to wipe out this entire continent too, were they?

This was hardly the time to worry about that.

Ethan tossed the energy sphere in his palm into the air as the wings behind him swept downward. The violent blast of wind slammed into the blue clay below, blowing a wide patch of it apart.

"You puny birdman!"

Ethan looked up at Malverin.

"Prepare to die!"

Malverin finally lost his patience.

It was bad enough that this young man had been casually chatting in the middle of their battle. Did he have to keep calling him a birdman too?

"Ethan!"

Malverin gripped his scepter with both hands and raised it above his head.

"Feel the power granted to me by the Pale Moon God!"

The blue beam pouring into the scepter deepened in color, and a dense sphere of energy formed at its tip.

Dark blue tendrils wrapped around the four pillars and swung them at Ethan from different directions.

The crimson pillar reached him first.

The scorching air around it made the nearby tendrils shrivel. Ethan stepped forward and met the pillar with a punch.

The heat seared the skin across his knuckles.

Before he could fully stop the crimson pillar, the dark blue one shot up from below and slammed toward his legs.

"Does this ever end?"

Energy erupted from Ethan’s body.

Ignoring the burning pain, he drove a second punch into the crimson pillar. Cracks spread rapidly from the point of impact, and white energy shattered the entire pillar down the middle.

Ethan dropped with it and planted both feet on the dark blue pillar rising from below.

Cold seeped through the soles of his shoes.

Using the pillar as a foothold, he sprang backward and cleared his original position.

The pink pillar followed close behind and smashed through the spot where he had just been.

As soon as it missed, the dark blue pillar vanished. The tendrils wrapped around the pink pillar immediately changed direction and drove it after Ethan.

With the power of the four girls reinforcing him, one pillar wasn’t enough to corner him.

An energy sphere shot from his palm.

Just before it collided with the pink pillar, Ethan twitched his fingers and changed its course. The sphere curved through the air, slipped around the pillar, and flew toward the blue tendrils controlling it.

But the golden pillar descended from above, cutting in between the sphere and the pink pillar.

It pressed downward.

Crushed by both space and force, the energy sphere disappeared.

The golden pillar then began expanding, sealing every gap in front of Ethan as it barreled straight toward him.

The other pillars hadn’t stopped either.

The dark blue pillar withdrew to the edge of the tendril cage and gradually merged into its viscous walls. Freezing power spread outward as long blades, spears, and other melee weapons grew from the surface, every edge aimed at Ethan.

The shattered crimson pillar was swallowed by the blue clay as well.

Rows of Gatling guns wreathed in blue flames soon emerged from the tendril walls. Their barrels fused with the spears, forcibly splicing ancient weapons and modern firearms together.

Then every weapon opened fire at once.

Bullets, spears, and blades flew at Ethan from all directions.

He crossed his arms in front of him.

The descending golden pillar crashed into his forearms. The force of the impact sent cracks across its surface, but it kept pushing. Even the golden fragments that broke loose changed direction in midair and continued flying toward Ethan.

The pink pillar circled behind him and thrust its pointed end forward.

More and more golden fragments linked together around Ethan, forming a sealed barrier.

The golden pillar was in front of him.

The pink pillar was behind him.

And the tendril walls surrounding him bristled with blades and firearms.

Ethan glanced down and casually bounced the energy sphere in his hand.

"Bye-bye."

He looked up and smiled at Malverin.

"See you in a bit."

He pressed the energy sphere into his body.

Ethan immediately broke apart into countless black particles, which scattered through the gaps in the golden barrier.

With their target gone, the pink and golden pillars slammed into each other head-on.

The weapons along the walls failed to stop in time, and every attack struck the two pillars instead. Bullets shattered the pink outer layer while spears drove into the cracks in the golden pillar, subjecting both to their own side’s firepower.

When you hurt, I hurt.

Traveling through the black particle space, Ethan glanced back at the four pillars tearing each other apart and finally burst out laughing.

Now he "understood" why everyone had been laughing earlier.

Watching those stupid pillars attack one another really was hilarious.

Of course, Ethan had completely misunderstood.

They had been laughing at him the whole time.

Catheryn looked down at the cloud of black particles appearing in the middle of the group. Ethan’s laughter reached her mind through the dark energy.

"What is Ethan doing now?"

Her expression turned strange.

"What’s he laughing about?"

The others gathered around when they heard her.

They had been clearing the mud for a long time now, but the dark blue sludge reeked, clung to everything, and constantly regenerated. If they kept removing it bit by bit, there was no telling how long it would take.

Kaelira looked at Seraphine beside her and lightly nudged her arm.

A violet-red energy sphere floated over to Seraphine.

"Want to do that again?"

Kaelira looked out over the dark blue mud covering the forest.

"A full purge would be a lot faster than cleaning it up piece by piece."