The overwhelming presence of the three Deathless Sovereigns surged like a tidal wave, their terrifying aura blanketing the battlefield in an instant.
Every zombie on the field felt a jolt of dread, as if a razor-sharp spike hovered just inches from their foreheads—one wrong move, and annihilation would strike without warning.
"Is our Deathless Sovereign, Endless, finally making his move?"
"Looks like it's time to strike back!"
"Yeah! He's gonna turn the tide and take down that Zombie King for sure!"
"..."
The morale in Heartland, which had been dragging in the dirt, suddenly surged back to life. Many of the zombies had followed Endless for a long time. They knew his legend—since the day he emerged, he'd carved a path through every battlefield, undefeated and unstoppable.
They believed this time would be no different. He would pull them back from the brink.
"Raaaargh!"
Heartland's elite zombies roared in unison, their battle cries shaking the heavens.
They would fight at the side of their Deathless Sovereign—no matter what.
On the other side, Meteorfall, Bloodveil, and the other Zombie Kings, along with their underlings, wore grim expressions. The battle had raged for a while now, but everyone knew—the real fight was just beginning.
The pressure from the three Deathless Sovereigns was like a mountain pressing down on their chests.
It was suffocating.
Endless stood at the peak, his black robes billowing in the wind, radiating pure killing intent. He took a single step forward—and then leapt from the mountaintop.
"He's coming!"
"He's really coming!"
"..."
Tension gripped the battlefield. The strongest Deathless Sovereign on the entire Necroterra continent was about to enter the fray.
Claire's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. To humans, Endless was a nightmare made flesh—an unstoppable force, like a mountain crashing down on them. Just standing in his presence made it hard to breathe.
She wasn't weak by any means, but facing Endless… she couldn't even summon the courage to resist.
He was despair incarnate.
"You finally couldn't sit still, huh…"
Suddenly, a calm, magnetic voice cut through the chaos—not loud, but it silenced everything around it, striking straight into the soul.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
There stood Ethan, poised atop a massive boulder. His white shirt was crisp and spotless, his face as handsome and composed as ever, eyes cool and unreadable.
"You're in such a rush to jump in… guess you're rattled," Ethan said, his voice low and steady. "If that's the case, how do you expect to beat me?"
Endless didn't even flinch. A faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "At this point, trying to mess with my head is pointless. That's kid stuff."
"If you want to stand at the top, you'd better bring real power. We've got three Deathless Sovereigns now. Let's see how you plan to win."
As he spoke, two figures appeared behind him—Lilith and Nightwraith—one on each side.
Three Deathless Sovereigns stood together, their combined presence surging like a storm.
"Alright then…"
A flicker of seriousness passed through Ethan's usually indifferent gaze.
His voice dropped, taking on a weight it hadn't carried before.
He slowly raised his hands to the buttons of his white shirt, unfastening them one by one, from top to bottom. His movements were calm, deliberate.
"He's doing it again!!!" Bloodveil's eyes bulged, his voice tinged with excitement. He'd seen Ethan fight before.
Beside him, Claire narrowed her eyes. She'd seen this moment once, in the footage from the Battle of the Skywall.
But seeing it in person—it was something else entirely.
That white shirt—it was like a seal on Ethan's power. With each button undone, his aura surged higher and higher. The force of the Domain of the Dead pulsed outward, rolling across the battlefield like a tidal wave.
Endless let out a cold snort. The power of his own Temporal Domain flared in response.
BOOM—
The two Absolute Domains collided in midair, shaking the sky itself. The surrounding mountains trembled, and entire cliff faces began to crumble. Massive landslides thundered down, turning the landscape into a scene straight out of the apocalypse.
And that was just the warm-up.
Ethan shrugged off the white shirt completely, revealing a body carved like a statue—muscles lean and powerful, every line honed to perfection, like he'd been sculpted by the gods themselves.
"RRAAAHHH—!"
The Zombie Horde roared behind them, their cries echoing through the crumbling mountains like a tidal wave crashing down. The sheer force of it shook the earth, their momentum unstoppable.
"Is Ethan really gonna take on all three of them by himself?"
Bloodveil looked up, eyes wide with disbelief.
Claire, however, never took her eyes off Ethan.
"…He's kinda hot, actually."
"Uh…"
Bloodveil blinked, caught off guard, then quickly shook it off. "Let's just finish off Nerissa and get over there to help."
...
All eyes were locked on the battlefield as the clash of the Deathless Sovereigns finally erupted in full force.
The two Absolute Domains collided, their energies intertwining in the air. Endless moved like a meteor, his body a blur of motion, crashing toward Ethan with overwhelming pressure.
Wherever he passed, the mountains shattered, stone exploding into dust.
But Ethan didn't flinch. He clenched his fist, raised his arm, and met the attack head-on.
A surge of crimson energy burst from his body, laced with the power of the Domain of the Dead—raw, destructive force that could tear the world apart.
BOOM—
The two Deathless Sovereigns collided in a brutal, direct strike.
Time and space twisted and unraveled around them, the impact sending shockwaves across the battlefield.
The Origin Mountain trembled violently. Massive boulders broke loose and thundered down the slopes.
Their power was evenly matched. It was just a test of strength, but neither gained the upper hand. The balance between them was razor-thin.
"They're… they're both monsters!"
The surrounding zombies gasped in awe. Just one punch had looked like the end of the world. The sheer scale of destruction was beyond anything they'd imagined.
Endless didn't let up. He launched another flurry of punches, each one heavier than the last, his momentum building like a storm.
Ethan dodged and blocked with fluid precision. He looked like he was under pressure, but there was no panic in his movements—he was in control.
Every clash between them sent out shockwaves that rippled through the sky.
Their Absolute Domains twisted together, splitting the world in two.
Endless's expression remained calm, his battle instincts razor-sharp. "You're strong. I'll give you that. A worthy opponent. But you're too impatient. Give it another two years, and maybe—just maybe—you could've beaten me."
"Oh? That so…"
Ethan's voice dripped with disdain. This guy was way too full of himself.
Then, suddenly, a massive wave of psychic energy surged into the battlefield, wrapping around Ethan's space. Even the Domain of the Dead was compressed under the pressure.
It was Nightwraith—ranked third among the Deathless Sovereigns—finally making his move.
He didn't hold back. His psychic force poured out like a dam breaking, flooding the area. Even though he'd already burned through a ton of energy trying to take down the Dreadnought-class Starcruiser earlier, his power was still terrifying.
This was the might of a true Deathless Sovereign.
"Wraithbind!"
Lilith's voice rang out from the side, laced with eerie energy.
Behind Ethan, two wraiths silently materialized, cloaked in black smoke. They slithered toward his arms, wrapping around them like ghostly chains.
It was the same move she'd used to bind the Leviathan of the North. That deep-sea behemoth had a body tougher than anything, but even it had been paralyzed by this technique.
Ethan felt his arms tighten, a cold numbness creeping in. It was like being grabbed by the hands of the dead.
He wasn't fully bound, but his movements were sluggish, stiff.
The raging power of the Domain of the Dead was being held back by Nightwraith's psychic assault, and Ethan's physical strength was being suppressed by Lilith's curse.
"Now you see… the gap between us," Endless said, the only one left unrestrained—his role clear: the finisher.
He didn't waste a second.
With Ethan pinned down, this was the perfect chance. If he couldn't land a hit now, he didn't deserve the title of strongest Deathless Sovereign.
He poured everything into his next strike—his full strength, his Temporal Domain, all of it.
Ethan's stiffened body was instantly swallowed by the Temporal Domain.
Time accelerated a thousandfold. Everything within it was meant to be reduced to dust.
Endless's eyes burned with intensity as he closed in at blinding speed.
"Nothing… escapes time."
...