Chapter 351: The Golden Beam
Third Person's POV
He caught it smoothly and wrapped his palm around its now-glossy shell.
His eyebrows raised slightly in surprise when he noticed that its previously damaged and blackened armor had completely healed.
"I have already tended to its injuries," Nyx said with a small, knowing smile.
"You can give it to your little cat girl now. Have her form a contract. It will make for a suitable pet."
Ethan nodded, but his gaze lingered on her longer than necessary.
For the first time in a long while, she didn't look like the fearsome legend clad in her fearsome black armor that perpetually radiated a pressure that bent even the strongest warriors to their knees.
Today, she looked… so much younger and... soft, almost like a refined noble dragoness from a long-lost court.
The steel in her stance remained, but her aura was lighter and more open. The contrast made her look strikingly beautiful and exotic, such that any man would want her for himself.
Now that he had grown into his full height in the past two years, he noticed how she appeared a little shorter in comparison, and that only added a beautiful and romantic charm for them in that moment.
Ethan couldn't help but feel that this was the first time they looked like a real couple rather than him being her pet and her being his sugar mommy.
Noticing his lingering gaze, Nyx's smile deepened with a glint of satisfaction in her eyes as she didn't bother hiding the pleasure his attention gave her.
There was pride in her beautiful eyes, too, and it was not just about her appearance, but in the visible growth of her disciple.
She could clearly see that his strength had matured in the past month, and she had felt it every second of the recent battle.
Then, her gaze drifted downward, and her eyes narrowed slightly when they landed on the black, curved saber in his hand.
It was his Black Dragon Saber.
A glint passed through her golden eyes—dull at first, but then became sharp with recognition.
With the grace of one used to judging ancient relics, she scanned it with a subtle flicker of energy in her gaze as her pupils became focused slits.
Hind tooth of an Abyssal Dark Dragon, and at least a million years old.
The information was registered immediately in her mind.
She could tell that the weapon had once been pure bone and had been buried so deep it had slowly transformed into part metal, and part ancient matter.
It was not rare enough to be priceless anymore from her standards, but it was still very fearsome in the right hands and was certainly good enough to wield until he stepped into the Sky Realm.
As she inspected it, Ethan watched her intently.
The soft flutter of her lashes as her golden eyes pulsed faintly… the slight tilt of her head… the elegant way she held her posture.
She looked beautiful beyond words and almost too much so in the filtered afternoon light.
He found his gaze trailing down to the curve of her waist and, without thinking, moved forward.
He moved to wrap his arm gently around her waist, hoping to feel her warmth and her realness, but time, almost cruelly, seemed to slow in that exact instant.
Nyx's expression shifted in the blink of an eye.
Her gaze sharpened, and her dark golden irises ignited into sharp slits.
With barely a motion, her head snapped to the side, toward an area in the sky above the trees, around fifty feet away in the distance.
Then it happened.
Twin beams of concentrated golden light erupted from her eyes like divine judgment and lanced through the air while tearing straight toward that unseen spot with a force so immense the very wind howled in their wake.
Ethan flinched and his body froze, with his eyes wide and jaw slack as he witnessed the terrifying speed and violence of her attack.
The hairs along his arms and neck rose as if lightning had just grazed past him.
He had never seen this move from his Master, not even in all their battles, and now that he had, the sheer magnitude of her power left him stunned.
His eyes traced the path of the golden rays and widened further as the sky itself burned. He could clearly feel that she had been too casual with him during their mock fights over the past five years.
Black flames erupted where the beams struck and started devouring the surrounding air with violent hunger.
The trees caught in the blast zone, about twenty, maybe thirty feet across, were instantly reduced to ash in mere seconds as her abyssal flames didn't just consume matter, but it seemed to erase existence itself.
But instead of an enemy appearing, there was nothing there, no body, and no trace of any spy.
Seeing the result of her attack, Nyx's brow furrowed.
She was certain that someone had been watching.
She had felt it, yes, it had been faint, but present indeed. And yet her sudden, decisive strike had yielded nothing but scorched emptiness.
Frustration danced across her features, and a heavy anger began to churn behind her eyes.
In her mind, this was the second time something had interfered since she reunited with her disciple.
First, that damned scorpion, a mere test she had let live only to assess Ethan's progress, though she could've easily crushed it from the beginning.
And now, this new mysterious presence, who had dared to observe her secretly from the shadows.
As if the moment itself responded to her fury, the air behind them trembled.
Suddenly, Ethan saw a narrow, blood-colored beam of light tearing across the distant sky and moving with alarming speed towards them from its origin, that is, the towering black castle on the horizon.
Ethan's eyes snapped toward it, and as he looked on, in just a second or two, the beam reached them.