“You cannot take Dolores with you.”
“So those tasteless handcuffs were the ones you put on her?” Xuefei flashed a charming smile, but then suddenly felt her demeanor was too feminine and reined it in. Her crimson pupils bored fiercely into him.
Orman gave no reply.
With a single sidestep, he flickered instantly behind Xuefei. She swung her sword to block him, but the immense power of Formless Radiance sent her flying all the same. Had she not caught herself with her hands just before smashing into the stone-wall-hard ice, victory might have slipped through her fingers.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Xuefei’s speed surpassed Orman’s.
Years of relentless campaigning had honed her agile footwork to perfection, and with her newly acquired wings and powerful dragon tail, she wielded it masterfully.
“Hah—!”
Orman gripped the Holy Sword with both hands and unleashed a full-powered strike against the wall etched with its four square mazes. In that instant, even the underground Ice-Sealed Castle suffered heavy damage, laying bare the path to the deeper prison cells.
But in the end, Xuefei beat him to it.
Her slash tore through the dark, damp passage, dimming the beautiful starry patterns that filled the air. Dolores’s faint divine power, now exposed by the broken seal, hung palpably in the atmosphere. In her weakened state, she could no longer conceal her magic.
Xuefei didn’t hesitate. Her speed was like a bolt of lightning, leaving Orman far in her dust.
Then she came to a halt deep in the passage.
“Xue…”
“Dolores, it’s time to go.”
The gravity on Xuefei’s face put the anxiously seated Dolores on alert. Her expressionless features—scarred by countless coercions, compromises, torments, and abuses—betrayed no emotion, but she rose to her feet anyway. Cooperating with Xuefei’s magic, she shoved open the cell door and stepped out, her bare white feet pressing against the ice.
In the gloom, only their eyes gleamed, along with the golden handcuffs.
“We…”
“Wait…!”
Before she could finish her thought, a sudden blaze of light forced them to squint. Xuefei swiftly touched Dolores’s shoulder. The latter whipped her head around in surprise, only to find herself already encased in a protective barrier of Dragon Scales.
Boom—!
An explosion roared as thousands of boulders rained down from above. Countless treasures were buried here forever, doomed to an eternal slumber a thousand meters beneath the earth, swallowed by searing magma.
Several minutes later, the architect of this destruction finally emerged from the rubble.
The narrow passage and cages now lay a hopeless distance behind them. Looking up, they could peer through the smoke and dust to glimpse the sky—and the blood-red full moon.
Xuefei was relieved Orman hadn’t noticed the moon’s color.
“Miss Evil Dragon, it seems you care deeply for your companions. What a hypocritical title…” Orman shook his head. “You, stained by Dark Filth—do you really intend to rescue that elf mother and child? Even save this pathetic god? What force drives you to such lengths?”
“…”
Dolores bowed her head.
“Cat got your tongue? Everyone can achieve ‘transformation.’ They simply refuse to discard those meaningless burdens.”
“Miss Evil Dragon, surely you understand.”
“…”
Xuefei’s expression lurked in the shadows; no one could tell what she was pondering—not even Orman.
Rather than press the attack, he extended his hand toward where they stood, fingers curled in a choking gesture.
“I never imagined you’d break the seal. But those handcuffs on Dolores? I forged them myself. What I create, I can control. And what I control, I can destroy.”
“Ugh…”
In that moment, Dolores’s handcuffs blazed with blinding light. She dropped to her knees with a thud, her gaze fixed blankly and trembling on the ground as convulsions wracked her body. Her frailty left her powerless to resist.
Orman’s voice rang out, booming yet chillingly calm.
“Let’s make a deal, swordsman—or should I say, mysterious Miss Evil Dragon.”
“Hand over the key… and the Winter Queen. Or watch her die before your eyes.”
“Cough…”
Dolores hacked out a few coughs, her shackled hands propping her up against the ground as if she might topple over at any second.
Seeing no immediate response from Xuefei, Orman added with keen interest:
“If you doubt me, you’ll have to lend her your power to ease her suffering from weakness. But can you truly afford that? Do you think you can keep fighting me after giving up your strength?”
“It’s impossible to save them all. Face reality, Miss Evil Dragon. You must abandon her, embrace ‘despair,’ and fully ‘transform.’ If you don’t in five seconds…”
“You’re truly pathetic, Orman.”
Before the other could finish speaking, Xuefei raised her voice, cutting off the calm swordsman.
She crouched down and stroked Dolores’s head as the girl trembled in agony. A glow flowed from her arm into the shivering mountain maiden. Dolores lifted her head slightly, her eyes brimming with gratitude, confusion, and concern.
Orman was stunned too, but he was far more focused on Xuefei’s words than her actions.
“What?”
“I said you’re quite pitiful. As expected of the Hero. I thought you were just a puppet manipulated by the Gods, but now I see you’re even more wretched than they are.”
“…”
For a moment, Orman failed to grasp her meaning. He couldn’t fathom why this Evil Dragon would call him pitiful.
“You’re trying to make a dragon understand your words—that alone is pathetic. And now you’re telling me you’re a worthless, lonely wretch.”
“Orman, you’ve never beaten me.”
“!!!”
The crimson Moon’s light illuminated the cavern floor, allowing Orman to finally make out Xuefei’s mocking grin.
Then, as if glass had shattered right before his eyes, Orman realized the two girls were standing behind him. In that instant, he understood they had deployed a barrier at this very moment.
“‘Alres Mirror’! You can even absorb divine power!”
“But destroy the mirror, and your attack won’t take effect. The ‘fact’ that Dolores will die remains untouched by your mirror!”
Orman swung his sword. A wave of destruction instantly cleaved the entire space in two, sending tremors through the earth.
“But what if the mirror had already activated before you destroyed it?”
“What?!”
Alres Mirror was the first divine power Xuefei had mastered, drawn from that very source.
Both setting up the mirror and meeting its activation conditions required the presence of all “targets.” In other words, if Xuefei had laid the mirror during a time when Dolores, she herself, and Orman were together, then all subsequent “causality” could trigger at their next gathering—allowing “erasure” and “reversal.”
Put simply, it could nullify everything Orman had done to the other two, consigning it all to annihilation and Nihility, a mere phantom in the mirror.
And Xuefei’s counterattack was only just getting started.
