SSHHHHH!

The gas continued to enter the cavern and occupied every corner of it within seconds, and the Anomalies who were in a unconscious state died within minutes as a result of inhaling the toxic gas.

Hearing the planer consciousness's statement, Fionn grins and says, while passively activating the sniper's thermal sensor through his eyes, "I told you, you can't kill me in this lifetime."

[A.N - From now on, whenever he uses the scope ability without summoning the sniper, I'll call it passively.]

Scanning the cavern's ceiling briefly. Fionn noticed a heat signature in one corner of the ceiling; it was as obvious as the moon in the night sky.

BZZZZZT!

Then, with lightning coursing through his body, Fionn vanishes from his position.

A few moments later...

BOOOOM!

A loud noise resembling a jackhammer striking the ground echoed throughout the cavern, along with Fionn's voice saying, "Got you."

Tracing the source of the noise, Fionn could be seen standing on his skysurf board, his body bathed in lightning, pulling his hands out of a hole he had just punched in the ceiling. As he drew his hand out of the hole, he was holding a spherical crystal that was emitting a multicoloured light, obviously, it is the Chaos crystal.

" Let go of me this instance, human; you don't know who you're missing with; if I so desire, I can destroy this entire plane along with myself." The enraged voice of the planer consciousness rang out as the Chaos crystal struggled in Fionn's hands.

BZZZT!

"Keep dreaming," Fionn said as he rolled his eyes, exasperated, and summoned a cluster of lightning bolts in his hands, shocking the planer consciousness.

"Aaaaarrrggghh! , stop! , stop! , What are you doing? Stop this instance. "The planer consciousness exclaimed in agony as it felt lightning coursing through its body.

"Stop overreacting, it's not even that painful for an existence like you," Fionn said, looking contemptuously at the Chaos crystal, but just as he was about to move towards the ground, he felt his lower body not responding, as if paralysed.

"What's going on?" Fionn wondered, unsettled; unable to move his lower body.

Son the sensation started spreading from his lower to upper body, feeling more like petrification than paralysis.

"What did you do to me?" Fionn inquired of the planer consciousness, who is still screaming in agony.

"Aargh!, what can I do in this state, there is something within your body that is causing this," said the planer consciousness, who is in excruciating pain for unknown reasons.

Fionn calmed down after hearing the planer consciousness' response and focused within his body to find the source of the problem.

Soon after, he noticed an unfamiliar energy entering his body via the Chaos crystal, which was being absorbed by his skysurf board avatar, on which he is currently standing; the energy is so subtle in nature that it would be untraceable if one did not actively seek it out.

"Should I stop this, but what if it's beneficial to me, but if I don't stop it, I'll be completely petrified soon and become completely vulnerable to anyone's attacks." Fionn thought, feeling conflicted, as he observed his avatar ravenously devouring the energy.

Time passed as he remained hesitant, feeling the sensation of petrification almost reaching his head, Fionn gritted his teeth and made the decision, saying through his psychic link, "buddy, come to my location ASAP, I am in a little bit of trouble."

On the other side.

Ether, who was enjoying his spoils of war alongside Lucius, stiffened when he heard Fionn's message, digesting the message, without a second of hesitation he jumped off the piles of bones he was sitting on, he dashed towards Fionn's location at full speed.

Glacing at Ether's disappearing figure, Lucius shrugged and continued to devour the souls he had just captured, ignoring his strange behaviour.

Running through the cave and down the stairway, Ether arrived in front of the cavern's blocked entrance. Unable to see another way in, Ether began clawing at the boulder blocking the entrance, digging out a passage within minutes.

Just as the passage opened, a large amount of black gas rushed out towards Ether, like water from a broken dam; sniffing the gas, he scrunched his nose in disgust but still continued into the cave.

Ether, being a summoned creature, is basically immortal; the only way to kill him is to kill his summoner, Fionn; at best, one can capture him or make him immobile.

When Ether first entered the cavern, visibility was poor due to the stagnation of the black gas, but as the gas cleared away through the newly opened passage, Ether finally caught sight of Fionn, who was levitating in one of the cavern's corners on his skysurf board, unmoving like a statue, holding the Chaos crystal in his hand.