Drift Of The Multiverse: [Marvel] [Resident Evil] [DC] [Bleach] [DB]

After eliminating Christina and incidentally destroying a castle, Ethan acted as if he had done something trivial, patting nonexistent dust off his sleeves and tidying up his clothes, which had been slightly ruffled by the surging arcane energy.

"Now we can go over and check things out."

What was there to see? The entire castle had been reduced to a pile of ice shards under the powerful magical attack. Looking at the ground covered in ice and snow, the intense cold generated by the blizzard wasn't easy to dissipate. Everyone felt as if they had suddenly arrived in an extremely cold region, and many adventurers without magic stone equipment felt a biting chill.

Ethan, outwardly calm, was secretly assessing the power of his spell. The blizzard unleashed using the Casket of Ancient Winters was a bit more powerful than he had anticipated. The energy contained within the artifact was indeed potent and overwhelming.

"If Loki keeps working at it, even if he can't surpass Thor, he'll at least have comparable combat strength."

Ethan remembered that after Thor initially awakened his God of Thunder powers, he was still beaten badly by Thanos. However, after forging a new weapon, whether it was the axe itself that was powerful or the weapon made it easier for Thor to fully unleash his strength, he turned the tide and nearly killed Thanos instantly.

But even Thor at that point, the combat strength he displayed wasn't necessarily stronger than this blizzard. This meant that if Loki could successfully master the energy within the Casket of Ancient Winters and unleash such an attack using his own power, his combat strength would be at least on par with Thanos.

As for now, Loki, who had just begun to master this power, was more comparable to Thor when he still relied on Mjolnir to channel his own strength, not yet as strong as Thor after breaking free from Mjolnir and initially mastering his own power.

Thinking in these terms helped Ethan better understand his current level.

Ethan made an assessment and finally reached a conclusion: he was still some distance away from Thanos. Aside from the physical gap, his biggest issue was that the magic energy within him wasn't deep enough.

Fortunately, after experiencing so many worlds in succession, Ethan had enough methods to compensate for this shortcoming. Especially after mastering the Tesseract—once he entered the Marvel Universe, it would be equivalent to having an endless energy source at his disposal. In that case, fighting Thanos wouldn't be impossible.

"At least I wouldn't be completely helpless."

After holding back for so many years and diligently leveling up, Ethan finally saw a glimmer of hope of becoming a true powerhouse. Indeed, he no longer had to treat everything with the same cautious attitude as before.

At this moment, Loki was doing something similar to Ethan. Compared to Ethan, Loki was more interested in the power of this magic and seemed quite pleased seeing the ground covered in ice and snow.

He saw a vast and bright future in this. When Ethan first told him those words, he had been half-believing, half-doubting. Although he trained according to Ethan's guidance and tried his best to master the power, he had no clear idea in his heart of how far he could actually go.

Until today, through Ethan's magic, Loki gained greater confidence in his future.

"There are no clues left here."

Brent looked around and finally shook his head helplessly. Even if there had been any clues, they had been completely destroyed by that terrifying attack.

Looking at the ice and snow beneath his feet, he couldn't find any trace of the former castle in these tiny shards. If he hadn't personally watched Ethan create and complete such an attack from nothing, he would even suspect that this place had always been a snowy field and that the castle never existed at all.

Thinking of this, Brent finally voiced the question in his heart—who had died under Ethan's attack this time?

"You knew that person?"

"Christina." Ethan remembered clearly. That lich was called Christina. "Someone very skilled at using death energy."

Originally, Ethan wanted to say she was a lich, but he realized the lich form he had seen before was just a clone of Christina. He didn't know if Christina's main body had transformed into a lich.

Looking at the ice shards under his feet, he couldn't be sure: "She should be a subordinate of someone named Beckford."

"Beckford?"

Surprisingly, it wasn't just Brent in front of him who exclaimed in shock, but also Brad, who was lingering not far away.

Brad had also been wandering nearby, occasionally pawing at the ice and snow on the ground with his foot, seemingly trying to see what was underneath.

But it was all in vain. Beneath the snow he dug through was an even harder layer of ice, and digging further wasn't so easy.

When Ethan mentioned Beckford's name, Brad was just considering whether to try digging with his weapon. Upon hearing that name, he almost instinctively let out a gasp of surprise, then stood frozen in place.

Meanwhile, Brent, after recovering from his surprise, pressed further, repeatedly confirming Ethan's words.

"You said Beckford? Are you sure?"

"I'm very sure it's Beckford. Do you know him?"

"Beckford is a very powerful adventurer." Brent's expression turned grim. He hadn't expected to hear that name. "Not just in this sea region."

"What do you mean?" What did he mean by "not just in this sea region"?

"Beckford is extremely famous. Any adventurer who's been around a bit longer knows that name."

Brent felt that what happened this time wasn't so strange anymore, since it involved Beckford. "It's just that no one's actually seen Beckford in recent years, but every so often, there are rumors about him."

"What kind of rumors?"

"That Beckford turned into a monster."

As Brent recounted, Ethan finally gained a general impression of this Beckford.

Beckford had been a very powerful adventurer, so strong that almost no one dared to oppose him, until he broke through the Sea of Storms and headed for the next sea region.

"Many people believed that if anyone could discover the Endless Land, it would be Beckford. Just when everyone thought he had set foot on the Endless Land, he returned to this sea region again."

Brent found this puzzling. He couldn't understand why an adventurer with such a promising future would suddenly come back and even turn into a monster, according to the rumors.

He had always thought the rumors were just gossip. After all, there was no real evidence proving Beckford had actually returned.

Moreover, these rumors only appeared occasionally. Aside from the part about Beckford turning into a monster, there were no specific details. It might've just been a story made up by adventurers.

"I really didn't expect to hear that name from you."

Brent rubbed his temples. Things were worse than he had imagined. If it really was Beckford, and if Beckford had truly turned into a monster, then the danger they were about to face would be far greater than they had anticipated.

The only consolation was that Ethan's strength was also extremely formidable. Though he didn't know whether Ethan could rival the invincible Beckford of the past, at the very least, he should be able to put up a fight, right?

"I don't get it. If it really is Beckford, what reason would make him return to this sea region and become a monster?"

Ethan, who had been silent for a while, suddenly looked to the side and said something that made everyone shiver: "Maybe he can explain it to us himself."

Both Brent and the silent Blade's expressions changed drastically. They looked in the direction Ethan was gazing and simultaneously tightened their grip on their weapons.

Under everyone's gaze, a shadow slowly emerged from the ground and then stood there silently.

This translucent figure had a very ordinary appearance, like a regular middle-aged man. If one ignored its strange, transparent form, it looked no different from the common sailors nearby. If it blended into a crowd, it would be hard to spot again.

"Beckford?"

Ethan was first puzzled—Beckford looked like an ordinary middle-aged sailor? Then he realized this wasn't Beckford's main body at all, just a projection or clone he had sent out.

Similar to the clones Christina used, Beckford was manipulating a clone with his mind for reconnaissance. The difference was that Beckford had chosen an "undead" as his clone.

"Since you've come out, you must have something you want to say to us, right?"

The ghostly figure in the form of a middle-aged man scrutinized Ethan with eyes filled with evil energy for a while before turning to Brent and answering his earlier question.

"Because I discovered the truth of this world."

The undead's words had a peculiar effect—everyone felt a bit disoriented. However, this small trick had no effect on Ethan. With his increasingly powerful mental strength, he was long immune to such mental attacks.

Not only that, Ethan could completely shatter the interference Beckford released with just a slight vibration of his magic power. As a result, the undead figure in front of him trembled slightly, as if it might collapse and dissipate at any moment.

Beckford glanced at Ethan again, as if nothing had happened, and continued speaking. This time, however, there were no more additional effects.

"Not long after I reached the Sea of Miracles, I finally discovered the true secret of this world." Beckford continued in an emotionless tone. "This world is far worse than you think. I came back to save everyone in this sea region."

(To be continued.)

***

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