Ethan's pupils snapped tight.
What Valtheron had just done wasn't a simple gesture of goodwill. He'd handed Ethan the key to his fate—placed it in Ethan's palm, willingly.
Ethan glanced down at the white crystal, then immediately ran checks with both the system and his own senses.
The result came back fast and brutally clear—there really was a portion of Valtheron's soul sealed inside. And the crystal itself was fragile to an almost ridiculous degree. This wasn't a fake. It wasn't an act.
For a moment, Ethan honestly didn't know what to say.
A being this strong… trusting him with something this absolute.
He'd barely started to open his mouth when—
A strange, rolling boom erupted in the sky not far away.
The sound came too fast, like the space itself was being forced open from the outside.
In the next instant, a dimensional rift tore across the high heavens. From it, a nearly transparent creature drifted out.
