"Keep steady, don’t falter!"
Atop the backs of several winged summons, a strike team of three Demi-gods tore through the subterranean air, their expressions growing increasingly grim as they deflected the relentless hail of explosive bolts whistling from the golden streak of light ahead.
*Boom!*
*Boom!*
*Boom!*
Cascading detonations tore through the dark cavern behind them.
Meng’s ruthless aerial suppression had systematically crippled the trailing pack of aspirants—obliterating their flying mounts or shattering their limbs until they were forced to abandon the ascent.
The trial had devolved into pure, unbridled butchery.
At this stage, the only candidates maintaining the chase were the high-tier scions riding in the direct slipstream of the Demi-god vanguards. Everyone else had either been blasted off the precipice or crushed under falling stalactites.
"Hold formation," one of the Demi-gods growled, his eyes locked onto the golden raptor ahead. "That Demi-human Angel can’t shield them forever. The moment he breaks off, we take their heads."
A cold, venomous confidence laced his voice. They had just endured the profound humiliation of being pinned down and bombarded by a pair of Tier 5 juniors. They were simply biding their time to return the insult tenfold.
Up ahead, Ethan’s party plunged deeper into the Under Mountain.
The outer threshold lay adjacent to the surface world, subjected to routine purges by the Bastion’s garrison legions to keep the pestilence at bay. That made the first stratum manageable.
The instant they crossed the threshold into the second stratum, however, the ecosystem turned rabid.
Primordial demon spawn swarmed across every surface. Deformed horrors scuttled across the cavern floor, scaled abominations scaled the jagged subterranean pillars, and winged chimeras burst from festering fissures in the rock.
Some were feral beasts barely scraping Tier 6; others possessed the raw, corrosive vitality to shred seasoned Tier 5 masters. Deeper in the gloom, ancient horrors capable of threatening sovereign Demi-gods stirred in their nests.
This was where the true crucible began.
"I’ll drag us as close to the ascension lift as the rules allow," the Son of Nezha called out, matching their flight speed as a swirling vortex of celestial flame. "From that perimeter inward, you’ll have to carve your own bloody path!"
His expression carried a rare edge of focus.
Unlike the mortal candidates, the Angel operated under strict temporal mandates imposed by the high proctors. To prevent a divine entity from acting as a permanent escort, he was required to clear the lower stratums within a rigid timeframe. Lingering too long to shield juniors was categorized as illicit interference.
Ethan surveyed the airspace ahead.
The golden raptor surged forward on heavy downbeats, cutting through violent crosswinds under Hela’s focused guidance. Ella maintained an active defensive ward around the saddle, while Meng constantly surveyed the blind spots, his fingers never leaving the crossbow’s trigger.
For several minutes, the formation held.
Then, reality fractured.
*BOOM!*
A blinding, cataclysmic projectile cleaved through the cavern ceiling, tearing through the gloom with deafening kinetic shrieks.
It slammed directly into the Son of Nezha.
The Angel took the full brunt of the strike, his flaming trajectory violently redirected as he cratered into the cavern floor thousands of feet below, blasting open a massive basin of pulverized stone and molten magma.
Ethan and his group didn’t even tap the brakes.
The golden raptor maintained full cruising speed, shooting straight through the smoking shockwave.
"What in the hell was—" Meng blurted out.
"He’s a divine Angel," Ethan cut him off sharply, his eyes glued to the dark horizon. "Whoever possessed the power to knock him out of the sky is completely beyond our realm of engagement."
His voice was dead level—no panic, no hesitation, and no useless sentimentality.
He didn’t halt their advance because he knew the harsh calculus of survival: getting tangled in a clash that could swat an Angel was suicide.
Besides, their real objective was dead ahead.
The grand ascension lift. They had to secure the platform before the trailing pack closed the distance—and behind them, the three Demi-gods had already accelerated into full pursuit.
Ethan locked fresh explosive magazines into his crossbow. "Full speed ahead!"
The golden raptor plunged into the subterranean tunnels, the terrain blurring into streaks of jagged stone as they punched through the second stratum.
Demon spawn lunged from every crevice. Hela unleashed sweeping waves of golden energy to vaporize aerial stalkers, Ethan picked off flanking ambushers with pinpoint explosive rounds, and Meng warped atmospheric air pockets to deflect incoming acidic volleys.
Forty minutes into the trial.
The dynamic of the Under Mountain had fragmented entirely.
The surviving Tier 6 warriors and summoners were already scrambling up the lower scaffolding of the Bastion’s outer wall, while the Tier 5 candidates had finally reached the threshold of the final ascension zone.
Behind Ethan’s group, the murderous pressure radiating from the pursuing Demi-gods had reached a boiling point.
"Once we breach the red-line perimeter, the spatial arrays will reject anyone above Tier 5," Ethan called out, lying flat along the raptor’s spine beside Meng with his crossbow mounted over the vanguard wing. "Keep them pinned! Don’t let them close the gap before the boundary!"
*Boom!*
An explosive bolt caught a pursuing drake square in the chest, blowing the beast out of the sky.
*Boom!*
Another round detonated directly beneath a flying Demi-god’s boots, forcing the warrior to raise a barrier and stall his forward momentum.
The moment the Son of Nezha had been removed from the board, the pursuers had dropped all pretense of caution. They knew this narrow window was their only chance to wipe out Ethan’s party before the trial’s structural rules locked them out.
For the past ten miles, Ethan’s group had danced on the razor’s edge. Every incoming spell forced hard evasive maneuvers, and a single blown ward meant instant death.
Fortunately, the ascension lift operated under an absolute territorial mandate: only Tier 5 candidates could enter the final lift circle. If they crossed that glowing perimeter, the Demi-gods would be violently repelled by the Bastion’s ancient suppression formations.
"He’s losing his mind!" Meng shouted, his eyes widening as the atmospheric currents warped erratically.
Fifty yards back, one of the Demi-gods had ceased firing long-range spells. Instead, a terrifying sphere of condensed divine radiance was churning across his open palms.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed into slits. "Push the mount!"
The casting Demi-god suddenly lunged forward—not under his own power, but hoisted and violently hurled like a human javelin by his companion.
"What the—" Meng gasped.
Ethan reacted on raw instinct. His crossbow snapped up, releasing a rapid-fire burst.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
The explosive rounds detonated across the airborne Demi-god’s torso, shredding his outer robes and drawing blood, but the kinetic momentum didn’t stop.
The Demi-god was already overhead, his eyes burning with frantic malice as he unleashed the primed technique.
"Get down!" Ethan bellowed.
The Demi-god slammed his palms downward.
A catastrophic nova of radiant beams erupted in all directions, blanketing a five-hundred-meter radius in pure, annihilating light. There were no blind spots, no cover, and nowhere to maneuver. The searing beams sheared through stalactites and disintegrated the ambient mana, threatening to vaporize the golden raptor and everyone on its back.
Dodging was mathematically impossible.
Wards would shatter in milliseconds.
So Ethan stopped fleeing.
With a cold, decisive flick of his soul link, he opened his spiritual gate.
A figure stepped casually out of empty space, taking position at the very tail of the golden mount.
Long blonde hair flowing loosely in the gale. Simple linen cloth draped across his shoulders. Bare feet planted firmly on the feathers. No sword, no shield, no armor.
*Adam.*
The divine bombardment slammed home instantly.
*BOOM!*
The blinding light swallowed Adam’s silhouette whole, the concussive force rattling the cavern’s foundations.
Ethan didn’t spare a backward glance. The golden raptor rode the shockwave forward, its wings cutting through the boundary runes of the red-line perimeter.
*Hummmm!*
The ancient suppression barrier flared into brilliant azure light, slamming shut behind them and violently deflecting the pursuing Demi-gods backward into the cavern gloom.
Ethan let out a long, slow breath. They had crossed the threshold.
Behind them, the blinding radiance of the explosion finally receded.
Adam was still standing casually on the tail feathers. His bare skin was lightly smoldering, faint wisps of white smoke rising from his shoulders, yet his expression remained as serene as a calm morning.
"Ouch," Adam said with a soft, cheerful smile.
He casually patted out a tiny ember on his forearm as if brushing away a stray speck of dust.
He had just absorbed the unmitigated, concentrated ultimate technique of an authentic Demi-god with his bare body—and walked away looking like he had merely stepped out of a warm bath.
Ethan stared at him for several quiet seconds before the corner of his mouth hooked into a dry, satisfied smirk.
*’Story of Humanity. Perfect Body.’*
The First Man truly was an absolute monster.
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