The terrifying energy had already gathered in her head, and it looked like the moment she collided with Zane, it would pour out and utterly obliterate him.
Zane remained calm, a faint smile in his eyes.
"From our last encounter, you should have at least a bit of instinctive awareness, yet you're still charging straight at me…"
So instead of fleeing, you're coming right for me...
"Bold move. I guess you didn't recognize me?"
"But that's understandable. I'm in human form now—it's no surprise you didn't."
Ether energy rapidly gathered around Zane's raised arm, and soon, it was fully encased in a shell of ether crystals.
His obsidian fist clenched as he pulled his arm back.
Zane waited silently for Nineveh to close in. Threads of ether energy continued spiraling around his arm.
Crystals reinforcing Ether: first layer, second layer, third layer...
"If you don't recognize me like this, then let me reintroduce myself."
Nineveh was less than a meter away now—close enough that Zane could clearly see the glowing core on her head and the intense ether surrounding it.
Without hesitation, Zane thrust out his arm and punched.
His fist landed squarely on Nineveh's core, colliding head-on with the swirling ether energy.
Boom—!!!
A massive shockwave erupted from the impact, clearing a clean trench in the rubble-strewn ground.
Nineveh's body lost all momentum, crashing down hard. The core on her head dimmed; the move she had been charging vanished before it could be fired.
All that stored-up energy—gone in an instant.
Nineveh struggled back into the air. Her head's core flickered, trying to gather strength for a long-range attack.
She was aiming to leverage her aerial advantage.
But the core sputtered like a broken lightbulb—flicker, flicker, fade.
The cannon was silenced with a single punch.
Nineveh roared furiously, flaring her two pairs of crimson wings. Ether energy surged and burst outward, sending a dense swarm of small Ethereals flying toward Zane.
"One punch didn't do much, huh? Looks like her body's way tougher than before..."
Zane shook off the last shards of crystal from his arm. Just as he was reflecting on his punch's power, Nineveh's "children" all charged.
He shook his head and launched himself into the sky. Ice crystals formed beneath him, serving as temporary footholds.
He kicked off one, sending an Ethereal flying. The force launched it—and several of its "siblings"—into the wreckage below, all dissolving into light.
More than a dozen Ethereals came at him next. Without hesitation, Zane summoned an Ether longsword in a backhanded grip. A single flash, and several were gone.
Zane looked up—Nineveh was summoning Ethereals faster and faster, the ether fluctuations intense.
Even after dispersing, she had grown far more powerful in every aspect.
"She's trying to swarm me..."
Watching the ever-growing horde, Zane raised his sword, planting both feet on the hovering ice crystal beneath him.
Ether energy surged along the blade. His eyes gleamed cold and bright, short hair whipping in the storm of power.
He stared at the Ethereal swarm—then past them, to Nineveh hovering high above—and suddenly recalled something.
When someone unleashes a big move, they've got to say its name.
Because... it just looks cool!
The move he was about to use didn't have a name. It was something he'd improvised on the spot.
But he didn't mind improvising a name too.
"I've already seen how powerful this move can be...
Let's call it... Victory's Sign."
As the final word left his mouth, an enormous surge of ether erupted. His eyes flared with radiant light.
A blue-violet beam shot skyward, hundreds of meters tall, like a giant sword magnified beyond reason.
Then, with short hair flaring wildly, Zane raised both hands high—and brought them crashing down.
The warped, volatile energy blade followed, slamming into the ground with brutal force.
The blue-violet glow obliterated everything in its path, unleashing a radiant shockwave on impact.
Then came the deafening explosion!
...
Moments later, as the ether's radiance faded, Zane could finally see Nineveh's condition.
Though the attack wasn't quite as strong as the Defense Force's earlier bombardment, this time Nineveh had taken the full hit.
She was in tatters—her entire body wrecked, half of her massive flower bud tail gone.
The ground was devastated. A long, deep trench carved by the strike was alive with crackling lightning, ice, and fire elements.
But even now, Nineveh wasn't done.
Hovering in the air, her ether was already healing her rapidly.
And she didn't just heal. As she dodged potential follow-ups, she continued summoning small Ethereals to harass Zane.
Zane tossed aside the shattered remains of his Ether sword—reduced to a hilt, it couldn't handle the last wave of energy.
He looked up at Nineveh and muttered with a sigh,
"Tch... her vitality's insane. Is this the benefit of fusing with that weird thing?"
"But... is it messing with her brain? She can fly, yet instead of escaping, she's staying to fight…"
Isn't that just asking to die?
...
Elsewhere, four still-battle-ready Jian 20 had just finished dealing with the rebels and were returning. They quickly noticed the commotion.
"That thing... it's one of the two core Ethereals from this op, right?"
"Yeah, that's Nineveh. No idea how she got over here, but someone's fighting her. She looks pretty beat up..."
"Should we assist?"
"Of course! Whoever's fighting Ethereals, we're backing them up!"
With their decision made, the four Jian 20 accelerated toward Zane, leaving white streaks across the sky.
We've got your back!