******* [Elena Ironhart - Billion’s Mother PoV]
I was already preparing to deactivate the final formation anchors when something changed.
At first, I couldn’t identify what it was.
The four beasts were still attacking. The shield was still cracking. People were still moving toward the evacuation points. Yet a strange unease suddenly spread through the battlefield, causing me to look up from the formation controls.
Around me, others were doing the same.
The creatures had stopped.
All four of them.
For a moment I thought they were preparing some kind of coordinated attack, but the longer I watched, the stranger their behavior became. The enormous monsters that had been relentlessly battering our defenses only seconds earlier had gone completely still.
Then I felt it. Not only me, everyone felt it.
A presence.
My eyes immediately moved beyond the barrier.
Someone stood between the outpost and the four beasts.
At first I couldn’t make out any details. Brilliant white light enveloped the figure from head to toe, concealing everything beneath a layer of radiance so intense that it seemed to illuminate the surrounding sea.
The sight alone was startling.
The feeling was far worse.
I couldn’t properly sense the figure.
Every instinct I possessed told me that I should have been able to identify at least something. A soul signature, a race, the cultivation level. Anything.
Instead, all I felt was an overwhelming sense of vastness.
Beside me, Julius had gone completely silent. That alone was enough to make me nervous.
Slowly, I turned toward him.
"What is that?" someone whispered nearby.
"A Saint." Julius responded.
The figure simply stood there with his hands clasped behind his back while four Peak Transcendent beasts trembled before him.
It took me several seconds to fully process what I was seeing. But none of our Saints were expected to arrive here. Even more worrisome was if this Saint belonged to another settlement then we would lose this place.
Suddenly, one of the beasts actually began retreating.
Another lowered itself against the ocean floor as though trying to make itself smaller.
The figure didn’t move. Didn’t attack or release any technique.
He merely looked at them.
Then a single word echoed through the surrounding sea.
"Die."
The voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t shake the world. Yet the moment it reached my ears, a chill ran through my entire body.
The four beasts never had a chance to react. Their bodies collapsed instantly.
They simply came apart.
Massive forms that had survived countless battles dissolved into streams of glowing particles that scattered into the ocean currents. Flesh vanished. Soul energy vanished. Even the pressure they had been radiating disappeared.
Within moments, nothing remained. The battlefield fell silent.
The violent currents gradually settled. The shield that had been on the verge of collapse no longer had anything to defend against.
For several heartbeats, nobody moved. I simply stared at the glowing figure standing alone beyond the barrier.
Something about him felt familiar. I couldn’t explain why.
The feeling made no sense. Yet it continued growing stronger with every passing second. Beside me, Julius suddenly took a step forward.
I looked toward him in surprise. His eyes had widened.
The brilliant light surrounding the mysterious figure slowly began to fade. Layer by layer, the radiance receded until a silhouette finally emerged beneath it.
The figure turned around.
For the first time in many years, my heart forgot how to beat.
The face was older and sharper.
More mature than the boy I remembered.
Yet the resemblance was undeniable.
For a brief moment, the battlefield disappeared. The damaged shield, the outpost, the hundreds of people standing around us, all of it faded into the background as I stared at the stranger beyond the barrier.
"Julius..." I whispered.
My husband’s gaze never left the figure.
"Is that...?"
The words caught in my throat. I didn’t even understand why. The stranger’s face was still partially obscured by the fading light, and yet something deep inside me had already begun reacting. A strange warmth spread through my chest while memories I hadn’t thought about in years surfaced without warning.
For some reason, my vision blurred slightly. It took me several seconds to realize that my eyes had become moist.
Julius slowly shook his head.
"No."
The answer came immediately.
Too quickly.
Almost as though he was trying to convince himself.
"That’s impossible."
His eyes remained fixed on the young man standing beyond the barrier.
Then his voice softened.
"But..."
The rest of the sentence never came. Neither of us knew how to finish it. Because the stranger looked too familiar.
Not identical enough to erase years of growth and change.
But enough.
Enough that every instinct inside me was screaming a name my mind refused to accept. Around us, the rest of the camp remained tense and silent.
Nobody knew who had just arrived and whether the mysterious Saint standing outside the barrier was friend or foe.
Julius took a slow breath before stepping forward. Despite everything, his posture remained respectful and careful.
The way one addressed someone whose strength was beyond comprehension.
"May I ask which Lord has arrived here today?"
His voice carried clearly across the water.
The glowing figure didn’t answer. He simply stood there watching.
Seconds passed as the silence stretched.
Julius frowned slightly.
The Saint’s eyes remained fixed on him. Not the way a superior observed a stranger. There was something else in that gaze.
Something I couldn’t understand. Then the figure’s attention shifted.
Slowly his eyes moved toward me. The moment they did, the same expression appeared.
The longer he looked at me, the more unsettled I became. There was no hostility in his eyes. No arrogance either.
Instead, there was something achingly familiar about the way he stared at me, as though he had spent years searching for something and had finally found it. The feeling was absurd. We had never met. I was certain of it.
Yet my heart continued pounding harder with every passing second, and for reasons I couldn’t explain, I suddenly found myself wanting to walk toward him.
For some reason, I suddenly felt as though I was looking at someone who hadn’t seen me in a very long time.
The feeling made no sense.
Yet I couldn’t shake it.
Suddenly, Julius awkwardly cleared his throat. The sound seemed strangely loud in the silence.
"Lord," he said again, a little more cautiously this time, "is there something wrong?"
The Saint blinked. It was the first reaction he had shown since arriving.
For several seconds he simply stared at us, looking far less composed than someone capable of erasing four Peak Transcendent beasts with a single word should have looked.
Then he opened his mouth.
"Umm..."
The sound caught everyone off guard.
The terrifying pressure surrounding him remained unchanged, yet suddenly he looked oddly uncertain.
His gaze flickered between Julius and me.
"I..." he began before stopping.
It was almost as though the most powerful person present had arrived prepared to face four monsters but had absolutely no idea how to handle a simple conversation.
"I..."
He paused again. Then his eyes settled on us once more. And for some reason, my heart started beating even faster.
There was hope.