Cassius watched the frost giant soaring toward him in fury, yet his heart was filled with delight.
This was an exceptional opportunity to come into contact with power on the level of the divine. Deities were strictly constrained in the Material Plane, but powerful gods could always exert influence upon the mortal world through various means.
—A racial deity like Thrym, however, who had slumbered for tens of thousands of years, was a different story. The only retaliation Cassius needed to worry about came from the dwindling giant pantheon, which did not even include the good-aligned cloud giants and storm giants.
In his past life, he had heard that a frost giant had risen abruptly in Anzeta, displaying unimaginable frost power that seemed linked to a deity. Back then, however, most players had already left Anzeta and paid little attention to subsequent events. Only now could he confirm that the frost giant in question was Kasa right in front of him.
Thus, Cassius had been waiting for an opening—an opportunity to make Kasa reveal his trump card.
The red dragon let out a roar, snapping his wings back to open up the distance.
"Nothing more than a sliver of power left behind by someone buried in a grave. Is that the source of your courage?"
Under the influence of Draconic Agility, magical power coated his wing membranes, warping space the moment they flapped and leaving Kasa dozens of meters behind in an instant.
As the battle progressed, the spell's effect grew steadily stronger. The red dragon's Dexterity had already reached a terrifying 24 points, rivaling legendary rogues who moved like phantoms—yet what was truly frightening was that such speed belonged to a dragon!
The frost giant rode the blizzard, which hardly counted as true flight—it was merely levitation and propulsion. At such speed, he would struggle to catch even a clumsy, ordinary red dragon, let alone Cassius.
Realizing this, Kasa could only roar at the sky, hoping to provoke the red dragon's wrath.
"Face me head-on!"
"Is a red dragon a coward who relies on spells?"
"Where is the close-quarters melee your kind prides itself on?"
Cassius was fast enough to fly several circles around the frost giant without Kasa ever grazing him. Out of caution, however, he maintained a proper distance from the frost giant, attacking only when appropriate.
"Son of Winter! You are nothing short of a joke in the sky. This is no domain for you lumbering giants."
"Since you want a head-on clash—"
Cassius taunted him.
The red dragon rolled midair and flew backward, directly facing the frost giant, truly honoring Kasa's call for a "head-on clash."
Yet what awaited Kasa was not the melee combat he had hoped would allow him to slay the dragon.
Light flared across Cassius's chest as his internal fundus vessels operated at full capacity, ceaselessly pumping fire elemental energy from throughout his body into his throat.
He grinned, baring a savage smile as searing energy built deep within his throat. As his strength had grown, it had been a long time since he had unleashed a breath weapon with all his might.
"Then I shall grant your wish!"
With the red dragon's words, boundless energy poured forth.
*Boom—!*
A pillar of blazing white fire erupted from his maw, instantly vaporizing the surrounding air and tearing a scorching rift across the sky.
The terrifying pillar of flame ripped through the blizzard, surging straight for the frost giant's head.
Kasa brought Winter's Roar across his body, blocking before him.
The double-bitted axe of ice crystal, which appeared so fragile it might shatter at a touch, now acted like a black hole swallowing flame. It absorbed every shred of the immense energy of the Maximized Fire Breath, shedding only a few imperceptible drops of water.
"Red dragon, your fire is impressive."
"But it cannot melt the Father God's ice!"
Kasa swung the battleaxe, sending three ice blades several meters long flying forth.
Infused with a trace of the Cold God's power, those ice blades would slow any creature struck by them, ultimately dragging them into the eternal slumber of a frozen night.
Yet with his Dexterity boosted even further, Cassius merely tilted his wings, maneuvering his massive body through a narrow gap of less than ten meters to evade the attack.
"Frost giant, you are too slow!" Cassius mocked.
And it was truly what he thought. As the temporal and spatial forces coiled ever tighter around him, Kasa's movements appeared as if in slow motion.
During this time, he had been deliberately leading the frost giant along, maintaining distance without shaking him off entirely.
The red dragon's Dexterity was about to reach 30 points, which also meant the spell's duration was drawing to a close.
*Everything is going smoothly.*
*Time to end this.*
Cassius thought to himself.
Oblivious to this, Kasa was still roaring with fervor:
"Red dragon, a spell of this magnitude cannot last long!"
"Trying to toy with me? You will pay for your arrogance!"
The frost giant swung Winter's Roar. The howling gale expanded violently, engulfing the red dragon. The Cold God's power silenced all things, and slowing a foe's movements was the least of its effects.
Clutching his battleaxe, his expression wild with excitement, he waited only for the red dragon's spell to expire so he could surge forward and hack him to death with Thrym's divine power.
Yet Kasa failed to notice that a gleam of excitement also flickered across his opponent's face.
Cassius abruptly slowed his movements. Instead of pulling away from the frost giant, he turned around unhurriedly to gaze upon him.
A bad feeling suddenly seized Kasa's heart. In such a perilous situation, this cunning red dragon had to have something up his sleeve.
He had fallen into a trap!
And indeed, he had.
"It is time for winter to fall."
Cassius spoke. This was the area he had long since designated—the burial ground of the frost giant.
Kingdom Domain: Interdiction.
An invisible aura expanded. The surrounding elements fell under his command, all magical energy bowing like subjects, and even the Weave was brought under his control.
At once, the surging magical energy around them fell dead silent.
Divine power, after all, shared the essence of magic.
Cassius had long realized that the power of Kingdom Domain exerted a strange repulsive force against divine power; it was through this very ability that he had erased the mental imprint left upon him by Tiamat through her phantom. If it worked even against the Mother of Evil Dragons, it would easily subdue a lingering trace of divine power left tens of thousands of years ago by the slumbering Thrym.
"Th-this..."
Before Kasa's incredulous eyes, the ice-crystal battleaxe actually began to melt like an ordinary block of ice.
The freezing gale swirling around the frost giant vanished without a trace.
He plunged clumsily from nearly a hundred meters in the air, rolling repeatedly to break his fall and enduring the impact solely through his formidable constitution.
The frost giant dazedly raised his head, looking up at the red dragon who seemed like a god.
He reached out to grasp the battleaxe, only to discover with horror that the ice crystal symbolizing divine power had already appeared in the red dragon's claw, firmly under his control.
"It's over... all over..."
Kasa let his head drop, muttering in despair, his face as pale as death.
Chapter 181