Dale had perfected the art of whack-a-mole on the Icebugs with his fireball Barrage skill. He also stunned any Icebug flyers that came near him with the Flashbang skill and kept healing himself with Holy flames as he flew around the stadium along with Travis's clones to keep the bug reinforcements coming from below at bay. The Clones traveling beside him use Sol's rays on the ruby crystals on Dale's body that converted solar energy into Mana whenever he ran low. Unfortunately, Dale didn't have the time to absorb Mana directly from the Sun at this point. After spending all their Mana to help Dale, the strategy cost Travis all his clones. Their bodies turned into dead trees and fell to the ground.

The passenger and cargo JTDs were surrounded by Icebugs as they closed their rear doors after the last Tamers got back inside. The aircraft engines spew out jet flames that thrust them vertically up into the sky above the stadium. Once Dale knew they were beyond the reach of the ground-based Icebugs, he climbed back up into the sky using his jet propulsion skill to catch up with the JTDs. Below him, a swarm of hundreds of Icebug Flyers beat their wings hard to lift off and chase after the two aircraft fleeing the area.

Dale saw a few members of his team opening up the rear door to let him come inside, but he gave a hand signal to say that he would provide escort until they left the airspace of this city. Dale then looked towards the incoming swarm, who needed a few minutes to reach him. He was about to activate the Fire barrage attack when his butler Lina's voice came through to his head.

[All five of User Dale's monster skills have achieved Master Grade]

[Evolution manipulation of the third form is now accessible]

Dale. "Who cares about that now! I have to kill that swarm before they attack the planes."

[Would their deaths not be a missed opportunity to level up your new skills?]

That caught Dale's attention.

Dale. "Tell me how this evolution manipulation works?"

[User Dale can modify the below cores for the next evolution]

[Sun Core, Mana Core, Metal Core]

Dale. "I have to pick one, right?"

[All three can be modified]

Dale is surprised by the revelation and felt it was worth waiting all this time to get his skills to Master Grade.

[Sun Core Modification Options:

[Primordial Flames or Fire Solid Flames]

Dale. "More info about them, please!"

[Primordial Flames: It grants the User's flames with wisdom, they will be capable of burning anything, even non-flammable and incorporeal matter]

[Spirit Flames: User's flames will take on the shape of the victims they incinerated]

Dale felt that the Spirit Flames skill didn't have much to offer him other than make people creeped out by the shape of his flames. Moreover, he needed to damage those who resist heat, like the Scorpionfly Chimera.

Dale. "Primordial Flames!"

[Mana Core Modification Options:

Double Mana Storage or Double Mana Conversion Speed]

No matter how much Mana he stored up, his current conversion speed was too slow for the battlefield once the tanks had been emptied. He needed a way to get back into the fight quickly and not worry about his expenditure.

Dale. "That's a bit tricky... Double Mana Conversion Speed!"

[Metal Core Modification Options:

[Solar Metal or Blood Metal]

Dale. "Woah! Can you explain what they are?"

[Both can create skills that transmute the monster's body to become capable of absorbing Mana in different ways]

Dale. "Details!"

[Blades made from Solar Metal will slowly and constantly absorb Mana from the Sun]

[Blades made from Blood Metal will quickly absorb Mana from the blood of opponents who are wounded or dead]

Dale felt both had their pros and cons, but he had learned that his skillset required rapid accumulation of Mana to be effective, and he was tired of depending on the Sun for everything.

Dale. "Blood Metal."

[Evolution Modifications have been bound to the User]

[Before evolution to the third form can begin, the User must answer the following questions.

[Question One: Mind, Sun, Mana, Bird, Metal]

[Pick two among these for your monster's third form to focus on]

Dale decided to risk getting a new skill rather than evolving his current ones. He wanted to stop relying on the Fireball Barrage skill and have a different way to fight opponents in close combat.

Dale. "Mana and Metal."

[Question Two: The User is allowed to evolve one monster skill slot, or the User can swap one current skill for a different one]

[Note that the new skills, in either case, will reflect answers chosen in question one. Which will the User choose?]

Dale. "I want to swap out flashbang."

[Flashbang has been replaced with Blood-Wing Blades]

[Blood-Wing Blades (Beginner): The feathers on the monster's wings will turn into blades that will absorb Mana from those they slash or pierce]

[Monster evolution will now begin... ERROR! Equipment Transformation combat style is active! The current combat style will be updated instead]

A sphere of white light envelops Dale, which shatters to reveal him covered in Ruby Studded Bood Red heavy armor, which was previously a Lightweight Obsidian. His wings have grown by half their previous size, but they look the same as before, except the Rubies on them are more polished and cut. Dale's helmet visor completely covers his face. It resembles those worn by F-35 pilots, except the lower face guard is a Shoebill Stork Beak.

Dale takes a few seconds to adjust to the new armor and wings before dropping from the sky towards the approaching Icebug swarm like a missile. He activates the Fireball Barrage skill and spams it until he summons fifty fireballs. Apparently, the Primordial flame modification made the Mana requirement for each of them to become double what it used to be. There was something different about them now, though. The flames are now purple, and they took on Agni's Shoebill Stork form. There seemed to be an intelligence that Dale could not refer to them as simple fireballs. He decided to call them 'Kamakazi Phoenixs' as their sole duty is to take down as many targets before perishing.

The new helmet visor provided him a 360-degree view around him and a target highlighting feature for the fireballs to lock. There is even a Mana Bar to monitor his expenditure and reserves, so he did not have to rely on Agni's senses to figure that out anymore. In addition, the visor color-coded the Icebugs based on how much Mana they possessed, which was pretty valuable information to absorb Mana from with his new skill.

Dale willed the new 'Kamakazi Phoenixs' to launch towards the targets he marked out for them, along with instructions on the attack formation they should use. They increased their speed and assembled themselves into a spiral drill formation that penetrated the swarm before exploding at the center. Fifty of them burst together, wiped out most of the Icebugs in the sky. The ones who survived the attack regrouped together and focused their attention on Dale as he had flown down low enough to enter their attack range.

Dale activates the skill Blood-Wing Blades that turns the feathers on his wings into Katana-like blades. He then uses jet propulsion to fly through the remnants of the swarm that launches Ice projectiles at him. Before they completed the first volley, Dale's Blade Wings bisected over two dozen of their number and came out at the other end in one piece. The heavy armor prevented the projectiles from going in too deep. Dale looks at his Mana bar and is surprised to see that it has already recovered over half of its capacity.

Half of the Mana that Dale acquired from the Icebug's green blood was enough to use Holy flames to heal his body of all its wounds. In addition, he could see the Mana bar was converting Solar Energy at twice the usual speed, which meant he didn't have to stall for time to refill his Mana banks anymore.

Dale then turned around to perform another run on the last members of the swarm whose numbers still pose a threat to the planes. Dale repeated the same attack once more, and this time, he made sure to eliminate everyone that remained. Once he was done healing himself, he heard an unholy screech that grabbed his attention. The Icebug Queen emerged from the stadium grounds, and thousands of earth-based Icebugs spread out to search for something important. They found the remains of the Human Chimera and brought them over to their Queen to inspect.

Icebug Queen. "USELESS! Where did the humans take her?"

The Queen's antennae whipped the air as if trying to follow a scent and lifted her head towards the direction where the JTDs were flying away. Her focus rested on Dale, who was paralyzed with indecision on what to do in this situation. Hundreds of new Icebug flyers took to the sky and swarmed towards him. To Dale's surprise, he could hear the Queen yelling at him in English from up in the sky.

Icebug Queen. "The Empress has heard my cries! She is bringing an army to get my daughter back-"

She stopped yelling as a pillar fell from the sky at speed eight times faster than a bullet which crushed her massive body in less than a second. The explosion from the impact wiped out the stadium and soon spread out to all corners of the city of Dallas, shattering the earth in its wake. Shrapnel flew to the sky and perforated the Icebug bodies approaching Dale. He immediately turned around, activated his jet propulsion skill, and flew back towards the JTDs while observing the destruction unfolding below him with 360-degree view thanks to the new visor.

This was one of the 'Rod of God' that the UGP leadership and Texas Ranger battalion had planned to use when the EVAC was completed. It had fallen from a satellite that carried over fifty Tungsten rods meant to be dropped on cities during the last cold war with China decades ago. These weapons were considered better than Nukes because they didn't leave any radiation that poisoned the land. However, the impact of these rods transformed cities into landscapes of ruins. Nothing was capable of blocking them unless the satellites themselves were destroyed. They were supposed to have been decommissioned a decade ago, but the US kept a few around with the pretext of using them as deterrence to protect their nation from future aggressors.

Dale wondered why the US didn't use them in the war so far until Commander Ethan told him that they were being reserved for the Icebug Hives and their Queens. Most of the cities where the Pink Pillars appeared were covered by a persistent storm that made it impossible for satellites to see what was happening beneath them. This made the US military hesitate to indiscriminately drop rods and hope to get lucky with a high-value kill. Instead, it was better to make sure they used it to halt or disrupt the expansion of the Icebug across North America that was visible to the satellites.

It took Dale several minutes before catching up with the passenger JTD that had slowed down to let him in through the rear. Lang chi and Sevire Blase help Dale get in the craft before closing the door behind him.

Lang chi. "What took you so long, Sun God?"

Sevire. "Travis... Major General Fjord was about to head back to look for you."

Dale. "There were some complications..."

Lang chi studied Dale and realized he was wearing a new type of armor.

Lang chi. "You evolved?"

Dale. "Ya, but I saw the Icebug Queen... she said the Empress is coming to find her daughter or something."