The Gamer's POV

’Fuck.’

Xavier cursed inwardly the moment his blade missed the Lord’s neck, because now, he was suddenly stuck between a rock and a hard place. He couldn’t manage any follow-up attacks, and at the same time, he knew he wouldn’t be able to escape a counter-attack from the Lord.

The passive heat the Lord emitted was still unbearable despite the blizzard swirling everywhere. But the real cause of his dilemma was the math of his own power.

You see, while making himself dense under the heat gave him at most, a three-second window, reducing his density offered significantly less than that.

At that moment, he was hit with a wave of intense thermal permeability. His internal organs felt like they were on fire, and they were cooking him from the inside out.

The sudden heatstroke caused his vision to blur and dim, the world around him tilting as his nervous system began to short-circuit.

In a way, it was right to say that he was now at the end of his rope. That desperate attack to save Alicia had been his final gamble, and now, he had nothing left to give.

His body tilted heavily to the side and began to drop toward the sand.

Upon seeing him wide open, the Lord decided to take advantage of the opening and end him once and for all.

However, just as he moved to deliver the killing blow, both of Alicia’s hands appeared right next to his neck, driving her sword into the skeletal frame with everything she had left.

The Lord halted instantly, his hand snapping up to reach for the blade that had managed to sink a few inches into the gap of his neck.

...Apparently, barely a second after Xavier had saved her, Alicia had forced herself to snap out of the shock. She had rolled to her side and scrambled to her feet, ignoring the agony radiating through her ribs. Her entire body was aching, and her burnt hand was raw and trembling, but she let out a guttural groan as she gripped her sword. From a kneeling position, she lunged her arms forward in a desperate stabbing motion.

Suddenly, her hands vanished into the air, reappearing by the Lord’s neck to drive the steel home. But even with all her strength behind the strike, the blade only managed to bite a fraction of the way in. The Grade Four density was just too much, and her sword remained wedged in his neck, unable to find the lethal depth she needed.

She bit her lip so hard it bled, groaning with effort as she tried to force the blade in, until her expression twisted into utter despair. The steel simply wouldn’t budge any further.

Fortunately for her, just as the Lord gripped the sword and began to pull it out, a jagged pillar of ice shot upwards from the ground behind him. It impaled him from behind with a violent, freezing force that made the surrounding air crackle.

...You see, all this while, Glazier had been waiting patiently for an opening. At first, he had tried sending ice pillars at the Lord, but everything shattered the moment it hit the blue barrier protecting him.

After so many failed attempts, he realized the barrier wasn’t a passive shield that was always there, but an active ability the Lord had to trigger whenever an attack came his way. So, Glazier decided to play the long game.

As the Lord fought off Alicia’s relentless strikes and dealt with Xavier stepping in to defend her, he had forgotten about Glazier for a split second.

Of course, the blinding snow and thick fog hiding Glazier’s position definitely helped, too. Either way, during this moment of distraction, Glazier saw his opening. He sent a jagged streak of ice snaking across the sand toward the Lord until it erupted into a massive pillar, impaling him right where he stood.

The ice didn’t stop there and instead, it began to bloom outward like vines from the point of impact.

Thick, jagged tendrils of frost started to curl around the Lord’s torso and limbs, sealing him in a frozen cage. Every time the Lord’s internal heat tried to flare up and melt it, the ice just bloomed faster, drawing more moisture from the blizzard to reinforce itself. It was a race between the Lord’s dying fire and Glazier’s persistence, and for the first time in the fight, the ice was actually winning the tug-of-war.

It only took a few long seconds for the Lord — who at this point was already dying from the impalement — to be turned into a grotesque, frozen statue, trapped in a bloom of translucent blue crystals that refused to let go.

***

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Meanwhile...

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As the black rain of feathers continued to fall, one of them shifted into a raven, which then immediately shifted back into Cedric. He dropped onto one knee and coughed up blood, clutching his chest as he wheezed from the crushing pressure of his injuries. His ribs were shattered, making every gasp feel like a blade in his lungs.

’I can’t breathe, Athena,’ Cedric wheezed, looking around as he desperately called for his summon.

By now, the daffodils flying in the air above were sparse. Most of the few that remained were clustered on Athena’s back, serving as her wings.

Upon hearing his call, Athena, who was still at the bridge, turned toward Cedric. She didn’t waste a second and immediately ordered the remaining daffodils in the air to swarm him. A few even detached from her own back, fluttering away from her wings to join the others as they rushed to his side far away.

The ones closest to him dissolved into an emerald mist that began to heal his crushed ribs just enough to let him breathe. He took a breath, and then another, as the daffodils flowed into his skin. But those were not enough to put him back to full health, so he had to wait for the others to arrive.

His injuries aside, the first thing he did after gaining a semblance of composure was to look around to see if they had actually succeeded in taking down the Lord, and if everyone was okay.

Leon was coughing violently on the ground not too far away, while Goldie had descended in a panic and was trying to wake Uriel, who had fallen unconscious.

Without lingering on them, Cedric swept his eyes in another direction where he could see Celeste. Her body was currently mending itself after being almost completely shredded apart by the shadow creature.

Not far from her, Aika was still locked in a heated battle against the thing.

The creature moved with terrifying speed, whipping its arm — which had now become a blade — at Aika’s chest. Before it could connect, she vanished into feathers, reappearing low behind it.

With a battle cry and all the strength she could muster, she lunged forward and slashed the creature’s leg, causing it to lose its balance momentarily.

However, she didn’t follow up. She immediately leapt and rolled out of the way, which was smart, because even as the creature stumbled, it spun like a formless shadow and brought its arm down, missing her by only inches.

At that moment, Cedric wanted to spiral into questions about whether the Lord was finished, but seeing that shadow creature still fighting told him everything. If it hadn’t vanished, the probability of their plan failing was high.

...The Lord was still alive.

Cedric instantly snapped his gaze away. He didn’t move to join Aika because he trusted her to handle herself, and Celeste looked ready to jump back in soon anyway. Instead, he looked toward the obsidian monolith that had fallen on top of the Lord.

’Where is he?’ he thought as his eyes darted around frantically, searching for the Lord.

While he was busy with his search, a series of violent notifications that threw him into even more confusion suddenly appeared in his vision in red.