Chapter 427: Preparation for the great battle

Chapter 427: Preparation for the great battle Ethan was looking at Zara.


Her body was no longer just flesh and bone. She looked like a vessel made of pure, swirling dark energy. A heavy, destructive pressure pulsed from her heart every few seconds. It was like a drumbeat of the end of the world.


This was the passive aura of her bloodline. Even though she was unconscious, the power was so thick it distorted the air around her.


Zara was no longer just a girl; she was a young hatchling of the Apocalypse Race.


"Mr. Ethan, how is she doing?" Rose asked. Her voice trembled. She was standing a few feet away, her hands clenched tightly.


"Don’t worry, she is doing fine," Ethan answered. His voice was calm, but his eyes were sharp. "Her body is simply rewriting itself. It will take some time to stabilize such a massive amount of power."


Ethan knew he needed to focus. He sat down on the floor, crossing his legs.


He needed to look into the future. He needed to know what that black shadow in his vision meant.


But before he did that, he looked at Melida and Mr. Harrow.


"Lady Zara and Lady Rose will stay here with me," Ethan ordered. His tone left no room for argument. "The rest of you should leave now."


Melida and Harrow looked at each other. They were hesitant to leave the safety of the tower, but one look at Ethan’s serious face told them they had no choice.


They bowed deeply.


"As you wish, sir," Harrow said.


"And one more thing," Ethan added, his eyes still closed. "Bring all of Rose’s family members here. I will not trust anyone else with their safety. They will be protected under my roof."


Rose felt a wave of relief. She didn’t ask why. She could sense that Ethan was preparing for something terrible.


Melida and Harrow quickly left the tower to follow his orders.


Once the room was quiet, Ethan dived into the Laws of Fate and Karma.


In his mind, the world turned into millions of glowing threads. These were the paths of the future. Usually, these threads were gold or silver, representing different possibilities.


But now, almost every single thread was being choked by a thick, oily black miasma.


The shadow was moving slowly, but it was coming for him.


Ethan searched desperately for a path where the shadow disappeared.


Finally, he found one single, thin line.


In that version of the future, he saw himself picking up Zara and throwing her out of the tower, casting her far away into the wilderness.


Ethan opened his eyes. His forehead was covered in sweat.


"So, it is about her bloodline," he whispered to himself. "The vision says I have a 99% chance of dying if I keep her here. That means someone far stronger than me is approaching. An Absolute Continuum being."


He clenched his fists.


He assumed it must be "The Presence" or the "One Above All." Those were the only beings he knew who had that kind of power.


"That bastard sure likes to show off," Ethan muttered, his eyes turning cold. "If the One Above All thinks he can just walk in here and take what’s mine, he’s wrong. I’ll dispatch that son of a bitch if he dares to harm my family."


He began to gather his energy, preparing his soul for a battle that could end his life.


But Ethan was wrong.


The enemy coming toward him was not the One Above All.


It was someone whose strength made the "One Above All" look like a child.


A perfect pinnacle being from the neutral zone was on his way.


Ethan turned his gaze back to Zara again.


He noticed a strange change in her internal structure.


He used his divine vision to look inside her body, and what he saw made his heart skip a beat.


Deep inside Zara’s soul, a second ocean of energy was forming.


It was the Ocean of Entropy.


Her very cells were drinking this gray energy and evolving into something that shouldn’t exist in this world.


"What is going on?" Ethan wondered. "Is the Apocalypse Race a race of perfect beings? Beings who naturally hold both positive and negative energy?"


A cold realization hit him.


If Zara was a "perfect being," then the entity coming for her must also be one.


"If they have Absolute Continuum beings who are also perfect beings... how can I even fight that?"


He thought about the other 99 mysterious races.


If they were all like this, the power balance of the world was a lie.


He looked at his Sword of Infinity.


With it, he could match an Absolute being.


But a "perfect" Absolute being? That was a different story.


No wonder Fate said his chance of death was 99%.


Ethan let out a long, heavy sigh.


He felt a weight on his shoulders that he had never felt before.


For the first time, he looked truly tired.


Rose noticed it immediately.


She walked closer, her eyes full of concern.


"Mr. Ethan, is everything alright? You look... pale."


Ethan forced a small, tired smile.


"Don’t worry, Lady Rose. I am just a little drained from the forging and the transformation. Why don’t you go and rest in one of the guest rooms? My maids will be there to look after you soon."


She nodded sadly and walked toward the living quarters.


....


At the very edge of the Positive Plane, where the vacuum of space meets the border of reality, a crack appeared.


It didn’t look like a hole; it looked like a wound in the sky.


From that crack, a single leg stepped out.


It was made of pure darkness and shifting destruction.


The moment its foot touched the fabric of the Positive Plane, the entire plane shook.


Every powerful being in existence felt a sudden, sharp pain in their chest.


Slowly, the rest of the entity emerged.


It was a tall, shadowy figure that seemed to swallow the light around it.


"What is a supreme entity from the Apocalypse Race doing here?" a voice boomed through the void.


The shadowy being didn’t even flinch.


He turned his head slightly toward a fold in space.


His eyes, two infinite voids, landed directly on the One Above All, who was watching from a distance.


"Mind your own business," the entity said.


His voice didn’t use sound; it used the vibration of atoms.


"If you dare put your nose in the business of my race, I will erase your existence and the plane you stand on."


The One Above All, the supposed guardian of the world, went silent.


He was shaking with a fear he had never known.


He knew he was not a match for this creature.


He wasn’t even a match for the elders of that race, let alone this Absolute messenger.


The entity closed his eyes, as if searching something.


A moment later, a cruel smile touched his face.


"Ah. Found you."


The entity began to change.


His massive, terrifying form shrunk.


The dark energy pulled inward.


Within seconds, he looked like a handsome human male.


The destructive aura vanished completely, hidden deep inside his skin.


"I have come to this boring, mundane plane after a very long time," the man said, smoothing out his black robe. "I think I will enjoy some mortal food first. Then, I will take the bloodline holder and go home."


With a single step, he vanished.


He didn’t fly; he simply ceased to be in one place and appeared in another, moving toward the Dragon World.


Back in the tower, Ethan was still meditating.


He suddenly noticed that the black miasma in his vision had stopped moving.


It hadn’t disappeared, but it was no longer rushing toward him.


It was lingering nearby, like a predator playing with its food.


Ethan’s mind started to race.


He was a man who always looked for an advantage, even in the face of death.


"If I can survive this..." Ethan thought, a dark glint appearing in his eyes. "If I can get the bloodline from this being, I could use it to evolve. I wouldn’t need to go to the Negative Plane anymore. I could become a perfect being right here."


Even though his life was on the line, Ethan was already dreaming about stripping an Absolute being of its power.


He knew it was insane.


He knew it was a gamble with his soul.


But as he looked at the sleeping Zara and the dark energy swirling around her, he knew that his fate was interconnected with her.


He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the starlit sky.


The air felt still, too still.


It was the calm before a storm that would either make him a god or turn him into dust.


"Come then," Ethan whispered to the empty air. "Let’s see if this ’perfect being’ can handle the Infinity."


He gripped the hilt of his sword, waiting for the knock on the door that would change everything.