Beneath the open sky and above the sea of trees, two vastly different magic forces collided violently.
Ye Ziji’s recent act of detonating the canopy had not angered Nightmare Moon.
Instead, it only deepened the appreciation and possessiveness burning in her eyes.
The harder a prey was to capture, the greater its value.
She hovered in midair, her wings beating slowly.
She looked down at Ye Ziji, inspecting him like a dragon admiring a rare gem.
The anger in her voice was gone, replaced by a thread of desire.
“Thou art bolder and wiser than I imagined.”
“Excellent! Thy wild, untamed soul and unique power are precisely the embellishments my Empire of Eternal Night requires! I desire thee more with every passing moment!”
(Ye Ziji: ?!!)
Her aura surged once more, black magic coalescing into an orb of shadows before her.
“Abandon thy futile resistance! Thou canst not escape!”
“Yield willingly to me—yield to thy eternal queen!”
At her command, the shadow orb plunged toward Ye Ziji.
Faced with this overbearing CEO-style declaration, Ye Ziji raised a forehoof and pressed the tip to his forehead in utter helplessness.
He felt less like he was fighting Nightmare Moon and more like he was fighting an obsessed mare who planned to “lock him in some sunless cellar in Equestria and visit every day just to drool over his body.”
“With all due respect, Your Majesty,” Ye Ziji said, “I am a wanderer by nature. I only wish to be a wild stallion untamed by any bridle. Your realm sounds grand, but to me, the air of freedom is much sweeter.”
Was she joking?
What was so great about being a corporate wage-slave pony?!
Attending meetings, filing reports, paying taxes, replying “received,” following endless rules, and maybe even performing tricks on holidays.
Did he look like a pony who enjoyed going to work?
Internal complaints aside, Ye Ziji didn’t dare slack off in his movements.
Confronted by the terrifying shadow orb, Ye Ziji took a deep breath, brought his forehooves together, and a point of blue light flared on his horn.
“Water Yields with Grace.”
Rather than clashing head-on, he channeled the abundant moisture in the air.
A massive water spout materialized out of nowhere, roaring as it met the shadow orb.
The moment they collided, the water spout transformed into a giant, pliable net of water that completely enveloped the shadow orb.
Within the water, the shadow energy was continuously dissipated, dampened, and ground down.
Finally, with a muffled thud, it dissolved into a shower of blackened water droplets falling from the sky.
“Trivial tricks!”
Nightmare Moon sneered coldly, snapping her wings open.
Countless crescent blades forged from magic swept over Ye Ziji like a tidal wave.
Ye Ziji darted through the sky at high speed, continuously summoning wind elements to adjust his evasive maneuvers while constantly switching his magic.
“Wood Grants Growth.”
He tapped his hoof against the air.
Summoned by his magic, the vines in the forest below grew wildly, weaving together into a tough, massive shield that blocked most of the crescent blades.
Immediately after, an icy blue radiance flared at the tip of his horn.
“Ice Solidifies Firm.”
The temperature plunged instantly, and countless fine ice crystals materialized in the air.
They rapidly condensed into translucent ice mirrors, hovering around Ye Ziji.
The crescent blades that slipped through the shield struck the ice mirrors and were refracted in all directions, with several precise reflections flying right back at Nightmare Moon herself.
With a contemptuous flap of her wings, Nightmare Moon shattered the reflected attacks with ease.
The pace of the battle quickened.
Ye Ziji seamlessly shifted through the elemental powers at his command.
Though Nightmare Moon’s offensive was fierce and overbearing, every attack was neutralized by Ye Ziji with a new elemental spell or form.
Her expression shifted from playful amusement and admiration to a mix of gravity and bewilderment.
This unfamiliar Eastern unicorn was clearly so young, yet his combat experience was astonishingly refined, and his spell control was so exquisite that every cast was instantaneous.
However, this also exhausted her patience.
“Warm-up is over!”
Nightmare Moon abruptly ceased her attacks.
Her voice boomed through the night sky, carrying a heart-stopping majesty.
The dark energy surrounding her no longer radiated aimlessly; instead, it began to contract and condense inward.
“I admit thy skills are indeed admirable.”
Her gaze locked firmly onto Ye Ziji.
The amusement and admiration in her eyes vanished completely, replaced by absolute gravity and battle lust.
“Yet that is merely ‘skill.’ Now, I shall show thee what true ‘power’ is! Behold the true strength of thy future queen!”
The instant her words fell, the surrounding space dimmed.
A vast surge of dark magic gathered at the tip of her horn, shaping into a massive spear of shadows.
Lightning crackled and sizzled around the spear’s length!
Ye Ziji’s eyes turned entirely grim.
He could clearly feel that this attack was completely different from her previous ones—it possessed power that threatened his very life.
“Seriously?
You’re going all out?
Did I come to Equestria or what?” Ye Ziji was speechless inside, but he slowly said aloud, “In that case, I have no choice but to go all out!”
No longer holding back, a dazzling light exploded from the tip of his horn, and the radiance of seven elements began to intertwine and fuse.
Facing the shadow spear screeching toward him, Ye Ziji charged straight ahead.
“Ice and Fire Shared Source: Arrow of Annihilation!”
Deep-blue glacial frost and fiery-red flame—two completely opposing elements—fused together under his precise control into a spiraling braid.
Half freezing, half scorching, the beam launched directly into the path of the shadow spear!
“BOOM—!!!”
A mushroom cloud erupted in midair!
The shockwave of energy tore the cloud layer below into shreds instantly.
The clash of extreme cold and extreme heat, combined with the shockwaves of darkness colliding with elemental magic, sent tremors through parts of the forest below.
To everyone’s shock, this first genuine collision resulted in an even match.
Nightmare Moon’s eyes flickered slightly.
She had not expected that he could actually match her power head-on.
Yet Ye Ziji’s offensive was far from over.
Now that they were fighting in earnest, he pressed his advantage without pause!
“Guided by Wind and Metal: Spear of Heavenly Wrath!”
He combined the swiftness of wind with the sharpness of metal.
Hundreds upon thousands of gold-gleaming spears condensed in the sky.
With a wave of his hoof, the rain of spears sprang to life, tracing intricate arcs as they rained down on Nightmare Moon from every direction.
“Earth, Wood, and Water Arise: Forest Bulwark!”
Simultaneously, he summoned the elements of earth, wood, and water.
From the ground rose countless rock-entwined vines and water serpents, soaring skyward to form a tightening cage that pincered Nightmare Moon along with the raining spears above.
The application of dual and triple composite elements amplified one another, constructing a three-dimensional attack network with zero dead angles.
“Eternal… Night!”
Nightmare Moon let out a long howl as dark energy formed a perfect spherical barrier, enveloping her completely.
Countless golden spears slammed into the barrier, stirring ripples across its surface, but were unable to pierce through.
Meanwhile, the cage below was shattered into dust by an even more powerful shockwave of shadow.
The battle descended into complete white-hot intensity.
Ye Ziji wielded elemental magic with astounding versatility, melding water and fire one moment, and combining metal and earth the next.
Nightmare Moon demonstrated the terrifying power of an Alicorn.
Her dark magic was pure and overwhelming, crushing subtlety with sheer force—no matter how exquisite Ye Ziji’s attacks were, she shattered them with brute power.
The two figures darted and clashed continuously above the pockmarked forest.
Before long, following one final violent explosion, the two ponies finally separated and faced each other from a distance, with Ye Ziji breathing heavily.
The Everfree Forest below was unrecognizably devastated.
Cratering pits, scorched earth, and giant trees snapped in half littered the landscape.
All of this was merely the collateral damage from their clash.
Nightmare Moon gazed upon the scene, then looked at the dark-furred unicorn opposite her, who was visibly drained yet whose eyes remained bright.
The battle lust and rage in her eyes gradually subsided.
In its place came a genuine acknowledgment and respect reserved for the strong.
“Very good, unfamiliar Eastern pony,” she spoke slowly, her voice still bearing lofty majesty, but with a new note of equality.
“I acknowledge thy strength.”
As the aftershocks faded, Nightmare Moon pulled back her oppressive pressure and hovered quietly in the air.
The look she gave Ye Ziji had evolved into a far more complex and determined intensity.
“Ye Ziji.”
“Thy strength has earned my respect.” A slow smile touched her lips—no longer menacing, but infused with a thread of genuine sincerity.
“Join me. Become the first and only prince of my Empire of Eternal Night. Beneath one pony, above all others!”
Her voice was laced with temptation, and the promise she offered was enough to drive any pony wild: “Wealth, status, power, strength, and even—eternal life!”
“So long as thou swearest allegiance, I shall grant thy every desire.”
It was an offer impossible to refuse—a supreme promise personally delivered by the future ruler of Equestria.
Yet when Ye Ziji heard this, he merely let out a playful smile.
A spark flashed in his deep black eyes, as though he had just heard something amusing.
He tilted his head, speaking lazily in a tone that was half-joking and half-serious.
“Oh? Everything?” He dragged out the words, his gaze sweeping over Nightmare Moon’s ornate armor and nebula-like mane.
“Then what if… I want *you* yourself, Your Highness?”
The air froze instantly.
These words were like a boulder tossed into a tranquil lake, shattering Nightmare Moon’s fragile composure into pieces.
The smile froze on Nightmare Moon’s face.
Her slit, teal pupils contracted violently, and the cold hatred that had just subsided flared back with ten—no, a hundred times the intensity!
She understood.
She understood the unmasked banter in Ye Ziji’s words, and beneath it, the deeper message—rejection.
She had been imprisoned for a thousand years.
Upon her return, she had stepped down from her high horse for the very first time and offered her most generous terms, only to be met with flippant provocation and rejection!
It struck the deepest, most vulnerable nerve in her heart—a string stretched taut by a thousand years of painful imprisonment, of being misunderstood, unaccepted, uncompanioned, and unloved.
“…Is that so?”
She stared silently at Ye Ziji, her voice terrifyingly flat and void of all emotion.
“If none of thee will accept me, if none will keep me company, if none wish to stand by my side, or even… love me…”
Her figure began to turn ethereal as Nightmare power seeped from her body like ink, cloaking her entirely.
Her form expanded in the dark, and sharp bone spurs jutted through the gaps in her armor.
“Then—perish!!!”
With a soul-shredding shriek, she transformed into a true Nightmare—an amalgamation formed purely of madness, loneliness, and destructive desire!
Furthermore, a force of Nightmare energy vastly exceeding anything before coalesced into a pitch-black beam that pierced heaven and earth, blasting straight toward Ye Ziji!
Seeing this, the smile vanished instantly from Ye Ziji’s face.
He stared jaw-dropped at the apocalyptic attack plunging toward him, a wave of regret surging through his heart like never before.
*Smack!
Smack!
Smack!*
Instinctively, he raised a forehoof and slapped himself hard across the face several times.
“Stupid mouth! Stupid mouth! Look at what you’ve done now! Teased her too far and now the grand auntie’s pulling out her ultimate moves!” he wailed frantically inside.
“We’re done for! I’m actually gonna blow it completely, ahhh!”
He swallowed hard, knowing he had nowhere left to run.
This attack had locked onto his very existence.
His only chance of survival was to meet it head-on and fight for a sliver of life!
“I’m going all in!”
A look of grim determination burst from Ye Ziji’s eyes.
The septagram array at the tip of his horn spun frantically.
The light of the seven elements was no longer merely fused, but arranged according to natural law to construct an endlessly cycling energy formation!
Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Metal, Ice!
“Seven Luminaries as One!”
Channeling the power of all seven elements to their absolute peak, he unleashed a rainbow beam of light.
This beam possessed no earth-shaking fanfare nor world-ending pressure; it looked remarkably gentle and natural.
High in the sky, ten thousand meters up, the black Nightmare beam and the seven-colored elemental rainbow met silently.
There was no violent explosion as expected.
There was no energy shockwave.
Not even a whisper of sound was uttered.
The instant the two opposing ultimate forces touched, they began a strangely quiet process of mutual annihilation.
Black and color eroded and neutralized each other, as if an artist were erasing paint from a canvas.
In the space where they collided, all matter, light, and sound dissolved into nothingness.
The sky looked as though a chunk had been gouged out of it.