Wiping the blood from his lips and chin, Kyle let out a laugh—loud and filled with mischief. While the giant screamed and clutched its bleeding eye, he promptly pushed himself up from the ground.
If he could simply tear through this place with his strength or bypass its restrictions through instant teleportation to vanish, he wouldn’t have to endure so much trouble.
Unfortunately, a shame. His power wasn’t enough to break the restrictions set within this powerful old realm—restrictions that even the Rulers had failed to overcome.
But finally...
Kyle’s eyes glinted as they locked onto the golden crystal that lay where the giant had been lying earlier, the same crystal he had been coveting—then he simply vanished.
What happened next stunned everyone present—because it happened so quickly that no one at the scene had time to react or even comprehend what just occurred.
Even the towering giant stumbled in its steps as it tried to regain its composure.
Yet, it was no use.
A familiar, crisp laugh echoed. Instantly, Kyle reappeared, seized the golden crystal—nearly as large as himself—that the others hadn’t noticed, and vanished once more.
Kyle displayed a speed he hadn’t shown even while fighting the dangerous giant. It was as if he had been holding back before, waiting for this exact moment to strike.
His gaze met Cassian’s and Ares’s eyes, who were still inside the cavern unlike the others watching from beyond the exit they had discovered, as his reappearing figure shot through it like a quick lightning bolt.
He uttered just one word—and it was enough to make every heart stop.
"Flee!"
With that, Kyle vanished once more. Ares’s face sank with horror as he saw the giant’s arm hurl straight toward him and Cassian.
For a moment, he thought it was his end.
His body froze as he thought—just how the hell had Kyle been fighting this giant all this time when he couldn’t even move under its pressure? And that damn bastard Kyle... he wanted to kill him so damn badly that, even if he became a ghost, he would haunt him!
But just as he braced himself to sacrifice his body and save his soul, swearing in his mind to haunt Kyle before forming a body again, Cassian grabbed him by the collar.
"Idiot!"
The word was followed by a fierce tug, yanking him violently into the tunnel-like exit they had found among jagged rocks.
The two had barely managed to squeeze past when the giant’s massive arm came crashing into the exit with a thunderous impact, the shockwave knocking everyone floating on the other side off balance and sending them flying like leaves in a storm.
Silver hissed as she spat out blood.
Guardian Zami and Cassian’s three powerful companions were the same.
Only Gvette seemed to be doing relatively fine, as an invisible spiritual energy shield had formed in front of him and absorbed most of the impact. Nevertheless, no one noticed it—not even he himself—since he too was flung back with everyone else.
They crashed into the ground.
The group had barely recovered from the earlier impact when the giant’s angry roar thundered from the other side of the exit. It was so loud that their ears began to bleed.
Cassian’s furious red eyes fixed on Ares, who was still processing everything, as he rushed in the opposite direction, shouting.
"He said flee!! You fish-brain!"
Ares finally reacted and crawled to his feet, stumbling after him while shouting loudly,
"Everyone run!"
Silver, Zami, and the others followed.
Immediately behind them, the giant began pounding on the narrow exit, as if trying to break through and devour them alive. They didn’t look back, their hearts racing, as they ran into the space, enclosed by cold walls on all sides, with only a single path ahead.
Therefore, everyone failed to notice the familiar silver-haired Celestial hiding in a corner, calmly holding the golden crystal.
Kyle narrowed his eyes at the giant, which peered through the narrow exit with one of its remaining intact eyes, locking onto him.
His lips curled into a smirk. It seemed this giant was bound to that specific place and could not step beyond it. Though strong, it couldn’t tear through the wall to reach him.
He stared straight at the giant, resting the golden crystal beneath him as he sat atop it, slowly crossing one leg over the other.
"What, can’t pass through? A pity."
The giant roared in anger and pounded on the exit again, but no matter what it tried, it simply couldn’t reach this cunning human or wipe that infuriating smirk off his face!
Kyle let out a chuckle.
"Thanks a lot for the treasure. I’ll make good use of it. Don’t worry."
With that, he ignored the thrashing giant, which seemed intent on ending him, and turned his attention to the golden crystal.
It was enormous, brimming with the pure power of nature, yet containing a strange presence that was uniquely extraordinary.
"Hmm?"
He focused as he noticed something deep inside the crystal. It was an hourglass, with sand perfectly balanced on either side, as if still in time. The instant he sent his senses in to probe it, his heart skipped a beat as he felt a terrifying power contained within.
"Wow... what is this terrifying thing? It’s actually radiating a power even stronger than my bloodline, which is at the peak of the 6th stage of the Celestial rank..."
He paused mid-sentence as he suddenly recalled the engraved images of the three Celestial symbols he had seen in the Hell’s Layer and the narrative the old Celestial he had defeated in Ares’ clan had told him.
"No way... it can’t be what I think it is!"
His faint exclamation was followed by the giant’s roar. But it was no longer attempting to reach him and seemed to be directing its fury elsewhere. Kyle peered through the gap separating them, only to see that the eleven Rulers and their followers had arrived at the cavern and had begun fighting the gaint.
With so many Rulers present, they were able to hold their ground, but defeating the towering giant was far from effortless. So, everyone was striving to bring it down. It showed just how powerful the giant was.
Kyle’s smile froze the moment he spotted Nathaniel and Valance through the gap he had been using to taunt the giant. Without hesitation, he instantly seized the crystal and bolted—there was no time to relax!
"Fun’s over! Because if this crystal truly holds the power of one of the first three Celestials... I need to send it to my main body before the Rulers snatch it!"