If Lyla and Myrga had tried to rely on Stealth, they would have been detected and shot down long before reaching the five hundred meter mark. Fortress defenses were designed to counter that kind of concealment. Color shifting, however, was something else entirely. It functioned like a chameleon's skin, bending light around the body and letting it slip past the eye. At its core, it was a trick of refraction rather than invisibility.

Only then did Ethan realize that Lyla, seated calmly on the dragon's head, was benefiting from the exact same effect.

The camouflage was not flawless. Someone with sharp eyes, actively scanning the sky, might notice faint ripples where the air bent unnaturally. But without a reason to look, it was almost impossible to detect. More importantly, it did not trigger any anti stealth detection systems built into the fortress.

Originally, Ethan had planned to handle everything alone. Bringing Lyla along had been a last minute decision, nothing more than a way to speed things up with an extra set of hands. Yet that casual choice had solved his biggest problem without him even realizing it. Now, instead of being the main actor, he was reduced to hauling ammunition through the sky. He had thought his plan was clever, even a little cheesy. It turned out that it was also incomplete.

That so called cheese tactic depended on one simple truth. At this moment, he was the only player in Ethereal who had surpassed level sixty. The system assumed that players at this stage could not fly, so fortress garrisons were not equipped with aerial mounts or airborne patrols. The moment even five percent of the total player base reached level sixty, the system would automatically unlock flying mounts for everyone. When that happened, his advantage would disappear overnight. He was racing against time, against the inevitable rise of the leveling curve.

From above, Ethan could track Lyla's movement clearly thanks to their party link. Her marker descended at a steady pace until it halted precisely at five hundred meters.

Below, Victor's team had already assembled on a sloped hillside some distance from the fortress. They faced one of its towering walls, far enough away to avoid immediate retaliation, yet close enough to observe everything clearly.

"Does anyone know why the boss told us to gather here?" one player asked quietly. "We don't have anywhere near enough people to crack an Advanced Fortress."

"No idea," another replied with a shrug. "He wouldn't call us here without a reason. Just follow orders."

The atmosphere among the Renegade Alliance was relaxed, almost casual. Laughter and idle chatter drifted through the group, a sharp contrast to the tense, hopeless mood surrounding the Blade Syndicate forces stationed far to the north.

Then a Marksman with unusually sharp vision tilted his head, staring upward. "Hey… does anyone see that?"

As Ethereal evolved, the Gunslinger class had slowly faded into rarity. It demanded even more resources than the Archer, and many players abandoned it altogether, choosing instead to become non combat crafters. Their situation mirrored the early struggles of Druids. Still, in the hands of someone skilled and fully equipped, a Gunslinger could unleash terrifying damage, far surpassing that of traditional bow users.

The one who spoke was one of the Alliance's best Gunslingers. When he raised his arm and pointed, several players followed his gaze, squinting into the sky. By the time they focused, the cluster of black specks he had noticed was already hovering directly above the fortress walls. A heartbeat later, the shapes vanished from sight. No one could tell what they had been.

Only the Gunslinger, who had been watching through the scope of his sniper rifle, stood frozen in disbelief. He knew exactly what had fallen. He simply could not accept what his eyes were telling him.

The next instant, the world exploded.

BOOM… BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Fire erupted from within the fortress as if its heart had been ripped open. Deafening blasts rolled across the land, shockwaves slamming into the hills and making the ground beneath their feet shudder.

"What the hell was that?" "Did someone rush the walls?"

"No one even moved!"

"Then why is the siege prompt activating?"

"Did the other three groups start attacking?"

"That's impossible, they're miles away. We wouldn't get the prompt if they did!"

"Look, it's happening again!"

This time, everyone saw it.

It was as if the sky itself had split apart, vomiting a rain of black shapes straight down onto the fortress. Another wave of explosions followed, fire and thunder swallowing whole sections of the massive structure as chaos spread through its walls.

High above the battlefield, Ethan saw it too, a tiny, brilliant spark flaring at Lyla's position. From this height, it was completely invisible to anyone on the ground. The brief flash marked a fuse being lit.

Following Ethan's coordinates, Lyla selected her first targets with precision. The fortress's internal teleportation arrays had to go. Once destroyed, the garrison would lose its ability to rapidly reinforce threatened areas. The repair costs would be staggering, enough to make any guild howl in pain, but there was no alternative. An Advanced Fortress was worth that price, and more.

Besides, Ethan's priorities had already changed.

Before, taking a fortress had been about profit and momentum. Now it was about laying the groundwork for something far larger. The Northern Frontier Region would become his foothold, his staging ground for the coming Nation Wars, for future Faction conflicts, and for the apocalyptic crisis Morzan had hinted at. It was also the key to unraveling darker truths that were only beginning to surface.

Once the teleportation arrays were reduced to molten wreckage, Lyla shifted to her next objective under Ethan's guidance. The anti air defenses.

On the distant hillside, Victor and his ten thousand troops watched in stunned silence. They could not see what was happening inside the fortress, only the explosions blooming above its walls and the rolling shockwaves that followed. Whatever was happening in there, it was deliberate and relentless.

"Wait…" a sharp minded player said slowly, piecing things together. "Did the boss bring us all the way out here just to clean up what's left?"

The idea spread through the group. A few seconds later, heads nodded in agreement. The more they thought about it, the more it sounded exactly like something their boss would do.

The instant the final anti air turret was silenced under Lyla's bombardment, Ethan finally moved. From a kilometer up, he had been little more than a dot in the sky. As he descended past the five hundred meter mark, the Renegade Alliance finally spotted him.

"It's the boss!"

"That's Eagle Form!"

"He's here, the boss is here!"

The hillside erupted in cheers as if a switch had been flipped.

"Look, the boss is… laying eggs now too!" someone yelled as Ethan, now safely below the former anti air ceiling, began dropping his own payloads in rapid succession.

"Laying eggs? You idiot!"

"Then what do you call it?"

"It's an airstrike, you moron! Try calling it laying eggs to his face and see how fast he knocks you out!"

Despite the shouting, everyone understood now. This destruction was no accident. It was all part of Ethan's plan. The only mystery left was the second bomber.

"The boss lady?" someone ventured.

"How do you know?"

"Think about it. Besides the boss, who else can fly right now?"

"Oh… right."

While they argued and speculated, Ethan and Lyla continued their work with ruthless efficiency. With Ethan joining the assault, the tempo of explosions inside the fortress nearly doubled. Lyla maintained wide coverage while Ethan focused on priority targets. Siege engines lining the walls vanished in fire. Barracks collapsed inward. Defensive strongpoints were erased one by one.

The interior of the fortress became a sea of flame and smoke. If the NPC defenders had been capable of screaming, the sound would have been unbearable. By the time the bombardment slowed, nearly two thirds of the ten thousand strong garrison had been wiped out.

Gradually, the thunder of explosions faded.

At the front of the Renegade Alliance formation, Victor straightened as a message flashed before his eyes. His expression sharpened instantly.

"One minute!" he roared, his voice carrying across the hillside. "Grappling hooks and ladders to the front. Get ready to charge!"

The real work was about to begin.

The cleanup crew was clocking in.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.