"Elder Nur, what in the world are we supposed to do?"
"Lord Thrym... why would Lord Thrym send such a trial upon us?"
Seeing that the frost giant warriors had no way to harm the red dragon, Koch looked frantic as he sought guidance from Nur, who sheltered behind the giants' ranks.
"Do not panic. Keep him occupied."
The aged frost giant priest gritted his teeth, his voice trembling as though he had made a grim resolve.
"I will make him witness the might of the Bitter Winter—"
"Even if it costs me my life!"
At this moment, he seemed not like an elder over three hundred years old and nearing the end of his life, but like the ambitious priest in his prime centuries ago, yearning to lead his people to resurgence.
Words tumbled from his lips like a prayer.
"O supreme Father of the Frost Giants, Thrym..."
"I shall unleash Your boundless might to bring the Bitter Winter upon the enemies of our clan. And this... this shall be the finest blood sacrifice offered unto You."
"A red dragon."
The freezing wind howled, as though cheering for him.
Without hesitation, the old frost giant crushed the ice crystal in his hand.
Closing his eyes, the runes spread across his skin flared with light. White frost crystals sprouted rapidly from his wooden staff, and a power of bone-chilling cold suddenly surged outward from him in all directions.
High in the sky, Cassius sensed the familiar fluctuation and looked toward its source.
"Everfrost power?"
"So the Winter Battleaxe wasn't the only portion. The rest... has been waiting for me right here."
Cassius snapped his wings, wheeling around, and dived straight for the old priest preparing the spell.
Draconic Agility and Aerial Maneuverability instantly took hold across his body.
They granted the red dragon a terrifying surge of speed—so fast his form blurred, appearing in the eyes of the frost giants like a monstrous crimson phantom.
Koch roared frantically, "Stop him! At all costs!"
A frost giant warrior leaped high from an ice cliff, hurtling toward the charging dragon, clearly having cast away all regard for his life.
Yet he could not halt the dragon for even a fraction of an instant. The massive, fully accelerated body of the red dragon slammed into him without hesitation, bearing tremendous kinetic energy. The frost giant's near eight-meter-tall frame was hurled backward through the air, blood spraying everywhere as he dissolved into a mangled rag of flesh and bone.
Frost giant hunters desperately threw tough capture nets meant for colossal beasts, only for them to be shredded by Scratch; as three glowing claw marks slashed through the air, the nets never even had a chance to touch the red dragon's scales.
Several more frost giant warriors perished in rapid succession.
Finally, Koch took the field himself. Raising an armored shield before him, he struck its face with his bone club, letting out an imposing, furious roar:
"Red dragon! You may kill me, but you will never destroy the Everfrost Tribe!"
"Lord Thrym is watching over me!"
Searing flames instantly pierced through the armored shield, effortlessly slaying Koch behind it.
*Is this... faith?*
*None of these frost giants can be spared. Not a single one.*
Watching the frost giant warriors throw themselves forward to die one after another, Cassius furrowed his horned brow and mused inwardly.
Yet their deaths were not in vain.
The aged frost giant priest finally opened his eyes, startling rays of frigid light shooting from his cloudy, pale-blue pupils.
A white domain enveloped the frost giant, imparting a peculiar sluggishness upon Cassius.
—The zenith of cold was absolute stasis. It could do more than put living things into eternal slumber; it could freeze spacetime itself. With this explosion of Everfrost power, even time was grinding toward a standstill!
He slowly raised his crystal-encrusted staff.
"Thrym's Iceblade Domain!"
Blade-like ice crystals filled the air, each radiating a chill that could freeze all creation. Expanding violently outward from Nur, they swiftly filled the surrounding space within meters, while the spreading cold slowed the movements of every living creature within hundreds of meters to a crawl.
Nur trembled all over, intent on freezing both himself and the red dragon together!
Yet there was one thing he had overlooked: this red dragon was a sorcerer.
While the protective spells covering Cassius could never withstand iceblades capable of freezing spacetime, they could temporarily ward off the permeating chill—granting him just enough time to cast a Quickened Spell.
*So this is the true application of Everfrost power...*
*Brute-forcing my way through definitely wouldn't work, but evading its brunt is well within reach. Dragon spells never fail.*
Egg of Refuge.
An egg-shaped magical force field instantly enveloped the red dragon.
Straining to tear through the stiffened, near-frozen space, he teleported himself into the temporary extradimensional space created by the Egg of Refuge.
"No—"
Nur tried to swing his staff to stop him, but trapped within this domain of extreme cold, he could not budge in the slightest. He could only watch helplessly as the red dragon vanished without a trace.
The thoughts in his mind grew increasingly sluggish.
*It is over...*
*Our clan... truly is... doomed...*
This was the final fading thought in Nur's mind.
The ice crystals in his hand continued to spread, rapidly conducting the biting frost until it completely filled the entire area, transforming it into a world of pure crystal ice.
As time passed, the aged frost giant priest became sealed within an enormous block of ice. His face preserved the despair and regret he felt in his final moments, his body still poised to swing the staff—looking as though he might come alive the next second, yet frozen motionless as if paused in time.
Only then did the frost giants affected by the chill slowly regain their mobility. Falling into chaos, they looked at the old priest with panic in their eyes.
"Thrym above, what in the world happened?"
"Priest Nur is dead!"
"Damn it, where did the red dragon go?"
"Not good, he... he seems to be coming back!"
Following ripples in space, a portal manifested in the void, and the red dragon's head poked out once more.
"This Egg of Refuge truly lives up to its name—the extradimensional space inside really is like a dragon egg, cramped as hell."
"Still, that spell was terrifying. It nearly locked down space entirely. Even though the spell has ended, the surrounding space is still difficult to break through, like it's frozen solid."
Cassius harbored a lingering dread, his gaze turning solemn as he looked toward the old priest frozen in the ice.
*Devotees of Thrym...*
*None of the frost giants here can be left alive. Not a single one.*
He thought to himself once again.
Those left behind to guard the sacred grounds were almost all devout worshippers of Thrym, the very targets Cassius intended to cleanse entirely. Yes, he would bestow total annihilation upon these giants—not a single one would be spared.
The red dragon beat his wings, ascending into the sky before the horrified eyes of the frost giants.
Hovering aloft, he looked down upon the surviving giants, a ferocious grin spreading across his face.
"It's been so long, yet I haven't used this spell once... You should feel honored to be my first test subjects."
"Now then..."
"Storm of Vengeance!"
A tempestuous surge of magical energy arose, and the Eye of the Storm Sovereign upon the red dragon's chest instantly flashed with blinding brilliance.
Chapter 185