Chapter 147: Ice Sculpture, Offering
The silver-white flame from Ice Lily’s hand flared, a brilliant light enveloping all of Vikarn.
And from within the light, a figure emerged, its face indistinct, a being of pure, silver light.
In that instant, all of Vikarn fell silent.
Everyone looked up, their gazes fixed on the figure. They had never seen it before, yet they all knew, in their hearts, what it was.
“The Abyssal Lord…”
It was the same silver figure Bai had seen in her soul vision. But now, with Ice Lily having ignited all the power of destruction within her, it had truly descended upon the world.
A mere phantom, yet its presence was enough to halt Vikarn’s collapse, to freeze everything in a state of suspended animation. No one dared to move, to speak.
Even Ara looked up, her expression grim, sensing a mortal threat.
Except for Bai.
Lying on the ground, gravely injured, her eyes snapped open, her dark-gold pupils brighter than ever before.
“Abyssal… Lord…?”
Her gaze was fixed on the figure in the sky.
The figure seemed to look back at her, its featureless face revealing nothing.
Bai’s consciousness, which had been fading, was now fully awake, drawn by the power of the Abyssal Lord.
But the figure’s gaze didn’t linger on Bai. It turned to Ara.
Ice Lily, having coexisted with this destructive power for centuries, had, in her final moments, managed to influence the phantom, to turn it against Ara.
But that was all she could do.
And…
Ice Lily’s face turned pale, and she fell to her knees.
Having released the power of destruction, her own body was now crumbling, her strength draining away, her rank dropping from peak Calamity Class to Destruction Class.
“Ice Lily! What’s wrong?!” Nisha cried out, rushing to her side.
But Ice Lily simply raised a hand, a faint smile on her pale face. “I’m sorry… Nisha. I don’t think I can be with you anymore.”
“I wish… we could start over…”
She pushed herself to her feet, and then, starting from her legs, her body began to turn to ice.
In a few moments, she was a beautiful ice sculpture, her eyes closed, a contented smile on her lips.
This was the fate of all Ice Demons, to turn to ice at the end of their lives. But for Ice Lily, it was a premature end, brought on by the loss of the destructive power she had held for so long.
Nisha looked at the ice sculpture, a strange emptiness in her heart.
She had sacrificed so much… and for what?
But she suppressed her emotions, her gaze turning to Ara.
The Abyssal Lord phantom began to move, and Vikarn’s collapse resumed, more violently than before.
Buildings crumbled, debris falling into the void, a maelstrom of destructive energy.
The Abyssal Lord’s power was immense. Even a mere phantom, with only a fraction of her true power, was a devastating force.
The power of destruction coalesced into a single point, a beam of energy that pierced through space, aimed at Ara.
The very fabric of space around it seemed to shatter, a glimpse of the endless void beyond.
Ara, looking at the attack, felt a sense of inevitability, as if she had already been struck.
At the same time, Nisha acted, pushing Vikarn’s systems to their limits, the damage rising to over 50%, unleashing an unprecedented barrage of attacks, sealing off any escape for Ara.
Faced with the overwhelming assault, Ara remained calm, seven defensive Authorities flaring around her. But it wasn’t enough.
For the first time, a trickle of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.
“It’s working!” Nisha cried out, pressing her attack, the Abyssal Lord phantom also a part of the onslaught.
If she could weaken Ara enough… she could reactivate her containment, seal her in the Dawn Laboratory again.
“That’s where you belong, Pandora…”
…
Meanwhile, in the heart of the Abyss.
A deafening roar echoed through the gray hall, the crystal at its center trembling violently, as if something within was about to awaken.
“An unprecedented reaction,” Atwood, the current head of the Abyss Council, said, his voice low.
It was even stronger than the reaction during the Saint Noyes incident, and it wasn’t fading.
“This means… the Abyssal Lord has sent a projection, or an avatar. But she hasn’t truly returned,” a wraith-like demon, his form a swirling mass of ethereal fire, said.
The gray hall was now filled with demon commanders, most of them ancient, their power ranging from Calamity Class to World Ender Class.
But the strongest among them was only a low-level World Ender, no match for the “younger” demons of their rank.
“A bunch of old fossils, clinging to life…” Elthorp sneered, leaning against his usual pillar.
“Even old fossils have their uses,” Atwood said, glancing at him, then at the other commanders. “You’ve all seen the situation.”
A low murmur spread through the hall.
“It’s only been a few centuries. How could our seal have weakened so much…?”
“It’s not the seal… it must be something else. The ancient empire, though fallen, fought her. Who knows what they left behind…”
Atwood looked around at the grim faces of his old friends, and sighed.
“There is only one option. We must perform the sealing ritual again.”
“But this time… we are the offering.”
