The entire domain had been consumed by blue light—a total, complete, absolute destruction of matter at its most fundamental level.
Every atom in Sillad's dimension—untold billions upon billions of them—had split simultaneously in a cascade of controlled nuclear fission that defied comprehension.
Ethan had created this spell from inspiration drawn from the anime he watched in his previous life. Specifically, from a world where a young man named Cid Kagenou—calling himself Shadow—had developed a technique that utilized nuclear fission as a weapon. When Cid used that technique, a massive explosion would occur, rivaling or even exceeding the destructive power of nuclear weapons.
But Ethan had taken that concept and evolved it into something far more terrifying.
Thanks to his Authority of Destruction—one of the three fundamental aspects of his Genesis power—he'd learned to apply that authority directly to matter at the atomic level. Not just splitting atoms through physical process, but using cosmic authority to simply unmake them from existence.
Every atom... Simultaneously. Leaving nothing behind except the souls of living beings.
The problem was that such a technique was catastrophically dangerous if left uncontrolled. Without limitations, it would spread indefinitely, destroying everything around the caster in an ever-expanding wave of annihilation.
So he'd developed the magic circuit system as a containment mechanism.
The blue lines that appeared before casting—those weren't just visual effects. They were literal range limiters, defining the exact boundaries of where the Authority of Destruction would be applied.
Everything within those circuits would be destroyed at the atomic level. Everything outside them would remain untouched.
Ethan could control the size and shape of those circuits from their central point—himself—which meant he could theoretically use the spell on a single target or expand it to consume entire galaxies if he wanted.
'It's the single most dangerous spell I've ever created,' Ethan had thought when he'd first successfully tested it in the mirror dimension. 'Even I'm afraid of using it carelessly. One miscalculation with the circuit boundaries, and I could accidentally atomize my wives, my allies, entire populations...'
The spell required absolute precision, perfect control, and complete certainty in the circuit configuration before activation.
Which was why Ethan had only used it once before today, during testing.
But thanks to Sillad and Querehsha doing such a spectacular job of irritating him—wasting his time, threatening his wives, assembling armies to intimidate him—Ethan had decided that efficiency trumped restraint.
He'd unleashed the Atomic spell across Sillad's entire dimension.
The result was nothing but complete, absolute, total destruction.
.
.
.
As the blue glow finally dissipated and the spell's energy dispersed, Ethan found himself standing in the same location from where he'd expected they would be.
They were back on Earth—specifically, in the Baekdu Mountain range where they'd originally entered Rakan's dimension hours ago.
The mountain air was crisp and cold, carrying the scent of pine and snow. The sky above was the normal blue of Earth's atmosphere, with a few clouds drifting lazily by.
Birds were singing in the distance, completely oblivious to the cosmic destruction that had just occurred in an adjacent dimension.
Anna and Jean stood on either side of Ethan, their hands still resting on his shoulders from when they'd instinctively moved closer during the spell's climax.
Both women slowly lifted their hands and let out simultaneous sighs—relief mixed with lingering awe at what they'd just witnessed.
Anna was staring at the peaceful mountain landscape with wide eyes, as if unable to fully reconcile the serene environment with the apocalyptic destruction they'd just caused. "That spell is still terrifying every time I see it," she said, her voice carrying a note of genuine unease.
Ethan smiled slightly before turning to look at her. "You've only seen it once, and that was in the Mirror Dimension where I was testing it on inanimate matter and the dimension itself. This is the first time you've seen it used in actual combat."
Anna countered immediately before shaking her head. "Once was enough to be terrified, thank you very much. Seeing every atom in about a few hundred-kilometer radius just... cease to exist? Watching matter itself break down into nothingness?" She shuddered despite herself. "That's the kind of power that makes you question the fundamental nature of existence."
"True," Ethan admitted while his smile fading to something more thoughtful. "Even I was a little afraid after testing it out the first time. The sheer scale of destruction, the absolute finality of it—it's not something to use casually."
He looked down at his hands, "Currently, only I can use this spell. It's directly connected to my Authority of Destruction, which means no one else can replicate it even if they understood the theory. And I want to keep it that way."
His expression grew serious. "It's too dangerous for others to use carelessly. One mistake in setting the circuit boundaries, one moment of anger or panic, and the caster could accidentally destroy everything and everyone they care about. This spell should never become common knowledge."
"Effective though," Jean said after a pause, though her tone carried a note of dry exasperation. She looked at Ethan with a mixture of love, admiration, and the particular brand of frustration that came from being married to someone who regularly redefined the concept of "overkill."
"Did you really need to atomize the entire dimension?" she asked. "Wasn't that a bit much? We were planning to fight them, get some combat experience, test our limits. Instead, you just... erased everything."
Ethan shrugged, completely unrepentant. "They wasted my time with their elaborate trap and their arrogant speeches. All that posturing about armies and dragons and inescapable barriers—I decided efficiency was more important than restraint." He smiled slightly, a hint of mischief in his eyes. "Besides, they really did piss me off. That's not easy to do."
"'Efficiency,'" Jean repeated slowly, her deadpan delivery making the word sound almost accusatory. "You turned them and everything within an entire dimension into nothing. Absolute zero matter remaining. That's not efficiency—that's overkill on a cosmic, possibly universal scale."
"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to," Ethan replied cheerfully, using the age-old expression with a grin.
Jean's expression went completely flat. She stared at him for a long moment, then asked the most important question, "What about the Monarch cores? That's why we went after them in the first place. We need those cores to power up everyone. This isn't like with Rakan, he is still alive when you used your Chronokinesis. Did you just accidentally atomize our primary objective?"
Before Ethan could respond, Anna jumped in with sudden realization. "He can just resurrect them before the atomic destruction and extract the cores then!"
Jean's eyes widened slightly as she turned to Ethan. "Is that true? Can your time manipulation affect Monarch-level beings? They're entities tied to fundamental aspects of reality. When you used your chronokinesis on Rakan, he was still alive, so I assumed that was the reason. But I wasn't sure if temporal powers would still work on them after death."
Ethan's smile widened, taking on a slightly smug quality. "You give them too much credit, Jean. Monarchs aren't immune to time manipulation—they're powerful, yes, but they're not transcendent beings beyond causality. I can definitely use Chronokinesis to bring them back."
He tapped his temple meaningfully. "If I wasn't absolutely sure I could reverse the process, I wouldn't have used that spell in the first place. I'm not in the habit of destroying valuable resources permanently."
Then his expression softened, becoming warmer and more affectionate as he looked at Jean. "Besides, you two wanted to fight Sillad and Querehsha. I wouldn't spoil your fun like that. After all..." He stepped closer to Jean, his voice dropping to something more intimate. "...I love you, my beautiful redhead. Your happiness matters more to me than the efficient Monarch elimination."
He winked at her, his blue eyes glowing with both Genesis power and genuine affection.
Jean felt her exasperation melt away despite herself, replaced by a warm flush that had nothing to do with the Phoenix Force.
A genuine smile crossed her face—the kind of smile that was reserved only for him. "You're impossible," she murmured, but there was no heat in the words. "Destroying dimensions and then flirting with me like we're on a date."
"Multitasking is one of my many talents," Ethan replied with mock seriousness.
Anna made a theatrical gagging sound from the side. "Oh my god, you two. We literally just atomized two Monarchs and you're making heart-eyes at each other?" But her grin betrayed her amusement. "Save it for later, or at least include me in the flirting!"
Ethan turned to Anna with an exaggerated look of surprise. "Are you feeling left out, Mrs. Carter? That simply won't do."
He moved to Anna's side and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, his touch gentle and deliberate. "You know you're just as important to me as Jean is. My fierce, beautiful warrior who tortured a Monarch to death for threatening me. How could I not be completely devoted to you?"
Anna's cheeks flushed pink, her earlier confidence melting into flustered happiness. "Well... when you put it like that..." She leaned into his touch, smiling. "I guess I can forgive you for atomizing everything before I got to punch more stuff."
"That's my girl," Ethan said warmly while kissing her forehead.
Jean shook her head with fond exasperation. "Alright, Romeo, enough flirting. You said you can bring them back. So do it already. I want to have my fight with Sillad, and the longer we wait, the more time I have to overthink my strategy."
Ethan stepped back from his wives and raised his right hand toward the empty air in front of them. His expression shifted from playful to focused, his eyes glowing with the blue-green light of temporal manipulation.
A green magic circle materialized in the air—intricate and beautiful, covered in clockwork patterns that seemed to tick backward. The circle rotated counter-clockwise, accelerating as it accumulated power.
Ethan made a twisting motion with his hand, as if physically turning back the hands of an invisible clock.
Reality shimmered. Time reversed in a localized area.
Two figures materialized out of nothingness, appearing several feet in front of the trio. They stood perfectly still for a moment, as if frozen in place, then suddenly gasped simultaneously—the sound of life returning to bodies that had briefly ceased to exist.
Sillad and Querehsha stood before them, completely uninjured. No wounds, no burns, no signs of the atomic destruction they'd just experienced. Their bodies had been perfectly restored to the state they'd been in minutes before the spell hit them.
But their expressions... their expressions told a different story.
Ethan lowered his hand and smiled cheerfully. "Yo! Welcome back to the land of the living. How was being atomized? Educational, I hope?"
Sillad and Querehsha stood frozen, their minds struggling to process what had just happened.
They remembered everything. The blue circuits spreading across the domain. The overwhelming pressure of Ethan's presence. The moment when every atom in their bodies had simultaneously split apart, breaking them down into component particles and then into nothing at all.
Death—absolute, total, complete death. Not the death of injury, but fundamental erasure from existence.
And then... life again. Restoration. As if the destruction had never happened, except for the memories that burned in their minds like trauma made tangible.
Sillad's mind was racing, trying to understand the implications. 'What in the seven hells is happening here? We died. I KNOW we died. I felt my consciousness dissolve, felt my very essence break apart. And now...'
Querehsha didn't bother with internal analysis. She simply asked the question out loud, her voice shaking, "How... how are we alive? What did you DO?"
Ethan's smile widened, though his eyes remained cold and calculating. "Oh, that? Simple time manipulation. I used Chronokinesis to reverse your personal timelines back to a point before the Atomic spell atomized you. Think of it like hitting 'undo' on a cosmic word processor."
He took a step forward, and both Monarchs instinctively took a step back—fear overriding centuries of pride and dignity.
"Here's the situation," Ethan continued, his tone becoming conversational, almost friendly. "I lost my cool earlier because of your little stunt with the trap and the armies and all that posturing. So I used a spell that probably should have been saved for genuine apocalyptic threats."
He gestured toward Jean. "But my wife Jean here was really looking forward to having a proper one-on-one match with you, Sillad. And Anna wanted to see how Jean handles Monarch-level opponents. So..."
His smile took on an angelic quality—which somehow made it more terrifying. "I decided to resurrect you so Jean can have her fun. After she's done, after she's tested her limits and gained the experience she wanted, I'll free you from this prison called life. Permanently, this time."
He tilted his head slightly. "It's not a bad offer, right? You get a chance to fight a worthy opponent, go out with honor instead of instant annihilation, and maybe even injure one of us if you're really lucky. Much better than just ceasing to exist without any chance to respond."
Jean and Anna both deadpanned simultaneously. Jean actually slapped her own face with one hand, the sound echoing across the mountainside. Anna sighed deeply while shaking her head.
"Ethan," Jean said slowly, her voice carefully controlled. "That is possibly the most terrifying way you could have phrased 'I'm giving you a chance to fight before you die.'"
"Was it?" Ethan looked genuinely confused. "I thought I was being nice. Polite, even."
"You literally called life a 'prison' and said you'd 'free them' by killing them," Anna pointed out. "That's horror movie villain dialogue, sugar."
"Oh." Ethan considered that. "Fair point. But in my defense, I'm offering them a much more dignified death than atomic dissolution, so—"
Sillad and Querehsha's eyes widened in pure, primal fear.
After witnessing Ethan's power firsthand, after experiencing death at the atomic level, after being casually resurrected like they were nothing more than broken toys being repaired—they understood one fundamental truth, 'We never stood a chance.'
The thought crystallized in both of their minds simultaneously.
They'd assembled an army of four million. Two million from Antares's dragon legions, plus their own combined forces. Four million soldiers, each one capable of devastating human cities, all coordinated and prepared for battle.
And this... this creature had destroyed them all—along with the entire dimension they'd occupied—with a single attack.
'Human?' Sillad's thoughts were fragmenting, rationality breaking under the weight of terror. 'No, that's not a human anymore. Monster? No... this is beyond the category of a monster. This is something that shouldn't exist. Something that breaks the fundamental rules of reality.'
Querehsha's thoughts were even simpler, driven by pure survival instinct: 'RUN. RUN NOW. GET AWAY FROM THIS THING.'
It was common sense for any living creature—when faced with an predator so far above you that resistance is meaningless, you run.
Both Monarchs spun simultaneously, preparing to flee in opposite directions, hoping to confuse their pursuer, willing to abandon all dignity if it meant even a slim chance of survival—
They made it exactly half a rotation before freezing in place.
An invisible force had wrapped around both of them—Ethan's Genesis Telekinesis, far more powerful than what he'd used before. It didn't just hold them; it crushed them, compressing their bodies and preventing even the smallest movement.
They were lifted several feet off the ground, suspended in the air like insects pinned to a board.
Ethan's expression hadn't changed. He still wore that slight, pleasant smile. But his eyes—his blue eyes that now glowed with Genesis power—had gone absolutely cold.
"I wasn't asking you," he said softly, his voice carrying clearly despite its quiet volume. "I was commanding you. There's a difference."
His eyes blazed brighter. "You will fight for my wife's entertainment. You will provide her with a proper challenge. And when she's finished learning what she needs to learn, you will die with whatever dignity you can muster. These are not requests. These are facts about your immediate future."
Sillad, despite the crushing pressure around his body, managed to force words out through clenched teeth. His voice was strained but defiant, "Kill us... instead... you abomination. This isn't—"
Snap.
Ethan snapped his fingers directly in front of Sillad's face.
The Frost Monarch simply ceased to exist. Not an explosion. Not a dramatic death scene. Just instantaneous cessation—his body, his essence, his very concept of existence deleted in the space between one heartbeat and the next.
It was Ethan's Authority of Destruction applied with surgical precision to a single target. That's how vast the power difference between them truly was. A casual snap of his fingers was enough to unmake a being that had existed for millennia.
Querehsha, suspended in the air beside where Sillad had been, stared at the empty space with eyes so wide they seemed ready to pop from her skull.
She tried desperately to escape from Ethan's telekinetic grip, her Monarch authority over Plague surging uselessly against the iron hold.
Then Ethan's face turned toward her. His expression was serious now—no smile, no playfulness. Just absolute, terrifying focus.
Querehsha froze completely. The look in his eyes made her earlier fear seem quaint by comparison. She felt like a small animal staring into the eyes of something that hunted gods for sport.
Ethan raised his hand again, and the green magic circle reappeared. Time reversed. Sillad materialized beside Querehsha once more, gasping and disoriented.
"Just like you treated humans as ants," Ethan said, his voice carrying a weight that made the very air feel heavy, "you are like ants to me. Actually, that's unfair to ants—they serve a purpose in their ecosystem. You're more like... intrusive thoughts made flesh. Annoying. Ultimately meaningless. Easy to dismiss."
Jean and Anna's expressions turned serious as they heard the shift in Ethan's tone. They looked at each other and silently communicated through the bond they'd developed over years of being together.
Something had shifted in Ethan. He wasn't just irritated anymore.
They moved forward simultaneously, placing hands on Ethan's shoulders. "Ethan," Jean said gently but firmly. "That's enough. They understand."
"You've made your point, darling," Anna added, her voice carrying warmth and concern. "Come back to us. Don't lose yourself in the anger."
Ethan took a breath, then let it out slowly. His expression softened fractionally as he felt his wives' touch grounding him. But he didn't release the Monarchs from his telekinetic grip.
Instead, he looked at Sillad, who was still panting and disoriented from being destroyed and resurrected. "Are you ready to fight Jean before meeting your final end?"