The wind and snow in the northern reaches of the empire continued to whirl and drift.
Beneath the blackened sky, with the entry of another Tier 8 powerhouse on the level of a Bishop, the entire northern border fortress of Bandera City suffered devastating tremors at an accelerating pace.
The mountain ranges and towering trees outside the city, and even the lakes that normally remained frozen solid, trembled in turmoil under the fallout of this chaotic clash.
The fortress gates shattered, ancient towers collapsed, and roads warped into ruin. The sculptures and plazas of once-bustling Bandera City were reduced to nothingness, leaving only tormented souls unable to ascend to heaven, imprisoned in this broken city steeped in debts of blood and sin—now transformed into a stage for tragedy.
The upper pillar tier of Bandera City caved in and sank ring by ring. The entire suspended ground gradually gave way to a colossal crater, its jagged edges lined with sharp rocks and broken masonry, resembling the threshold to the gates of hell.
At the center of the crater, the life-and-death struggle intensified once more. In a churning storm of deep, dark magic, the interweaving of gray and black warped the surrounding air, exuding a suffocating breath of death.
Above the battlefield where three supreme powerhouses collided, heavy, dense clouds descended continuously, disturbed by a colossal surge of energy that curdled them into bizarre shapes, punctuated by the rolling rumble of thunder like the wrath of celestial gods.
Whenever Sigrid clashed with Askesan and the robed figure, the terrain on the lower level was carved into massive craters by their colliding energy. As the battle wore on, even the lower pillar tier began to show signs of collapse.
The silver radiance cloaking Sigrid possessed the power to tear through anything, while the inexhaustible, chilling magic of Askesan and the robed figure drew a stark boundary between light and darkness with every clash.
No one could tell how long the battle had raged.
Facing Sigrid in such a state, even Askesan and the robed figure dared not let down their guard while fighting together, sealing off her attacks with extreme caution.
Askesan saw the situation with absolute clarity.
Sigrid was not the only one injured. Unlike her monstrous, fathomless vitality, the robed figure whom Sigrid had singled out clearly suffered significant damage each time she caught him.
Even if Askesan and the robed figure managed to resolve this swiftly and slay Sigrid today, they would have to pay a price.
After a grueling few minutes, Sigrid managed to shift the battlefield several dozen meters away from the immobile abyssal colossus.
Her tactical thought was clearly to put distance between herself and that Abyssal Black Worm.
Yet even if it meant exposing an opening and taking a hit, the robed figure refused to let Sigrid relocate the battlefield or grant her the slightest opportunity to flee.
Askesan was the same.
He knew Sigrid's magic immunity all too well. Ordinary crowd-control magic could barely affect her; only this kind of overwhelming, forceful suppression could effectively restrict her movements!
Bitter winds howled through the smoke and dust of the titanic clash, briefly revealing three fleeting silhouettes.
The once-haughty Askesan now wore a dark gray coat torn to tatters. His eyes were no longer as sharp as before, having expended tremendous energy in this short fight, yet his expression remained stern with a trace of mockery. The faint trickle of blood seeping from the wounds on his face could not conceal his wicked grin.
The robed figure still flickered like a phantom. A portion of his mysterious black robe had shredded, though his face remained completely obscured by black mist. The blood he coughed up, however, proved that drawing Sigrid's wrath had cost him dearly. The black chains he wielded no longer radiated their domineering, black-jade luster, beginning to dim.
Yet their injuries were negligible compared to Sigrid's.
Her once silver-clad body was now covered in fatal wounds. Blood dripped from the tips of her long hair, and her once-radiant violet eyes appeared slightly dull. Her breathing was ragged, the aura emanating from her dwindling by the second; it would surprise no one if she collapsed at any moment.
Sigrid glanced toward the distant sky. In her heart, she knew that in today's battle of trapped beasts, she was almost certainly powerless to turn the tide.
Once she fell, there would be no hope for the Holy Son to escape from these two enemies either.
Perhaps she still had a chance to unleash one final, all-out strike to gravely wound one of them.
Yet with the Abyssal Black Worm drastically impeding her freedom of movement, landing a clean blow on either of them under the relentless, interlocking suppression of Askesan and the robed figure was near impossible.
In all her life, she had never revered the gods—neither the Goddess of Fate nor the Goddess of Life worshiped by their Resurrection Church.
And so, today, she had truly lost to luck.
"Sigrid, you truly are hard to kill."
Askesan's gaze conveyed something between bidding farewell to an old rival and savoring the unimaginable thrill of finally bringing down his nemesis.
Taking advantage of Sigrid closing in on the robed figure, Askesan's dark gray magic drew the dust hanging in the air into a miniature vortex, instantly reducing the stones around her to countless grains of powder.
"!"
Sigrid felt the intense surge of magic power. She knew that no matter how casually Askesan acted, he had been seeking every chance from start to finish to erase her from existence.
Even as she dodged Askesan's lethal move with everything she had, Sigrid was still smashed into the ground by the robed figure's follow-up black chains.
"Hahahaha!"
Askesan laughed, mocking Sigrid's stubborn resistance. Before them, she was doomed to be nothing more than a pitiful plaything.
Beneath the black chains, the smoke cleared.
Yet Sigrid was gone.
Unbeknownst to them, she had cast one of her few movement blinks and was already swooping toward the robed figure.
Though she knew her desperate gambit would most likely fail, she had few choices left.
At this moment, one could only plunge into peril to survive, court death to find life!
"..."
The robed figure had anticipated this all along. With a wave of his sleeve, the colossal black chains shot toward Sigrid as if foreseeing her every movement.
She tried to evade, but the chains shadowed her every shift, coiling around her arms and waist in an instant. Her body jerked violently as she strained to break free, yet the more she struggled, the tighter they bound.
By then, Askesan had already completed preparations for his next spell.
Pointing a finger in Sigrid's direction, hundreds of magic circles formed across the ground, nearly blanketing the entire ruins of Bandera City. The frigid light radiating from those circles threatened to freeze everything in place.
Sigrid felt an unprecedented sense of mortal peril. Bound tightly by the chains, she could barely budge.
"Phew..."
She drew a deep breath—or perhaps let out a final sigh. The silver light around her reignited, brighter than ever before. Come what may, this was her final stand. The vitality within her body ignited all at once, transforming into blazing silver flames.
The flames scorched furiously along the chains, threatening to melt them. A flicker of surprise crossed the robed figure's eyes, only to be replaced by certainty—
Sigrid had finally been forced into her desperate, dying gambit.
No matter how powerful Sigrid's outburst might be, she was a spent arrow. With their preparations in place, it was virtually impossible for either him or Askesan to be struck by her!
And yet.
Just as both sides were on the verge of erupting—
In the distance, seizing a fleeting gap in space and time, a streak of silver light plunged like a meteor beside the Abyssal Black Worm.
After Sigrid had done everything she could to shift the battlefield, the Abyssal Black Worm was already a substantial distance away from Askesan and the robed figure!
The intruder, who had observed the battle from afar, had finally seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to arrive here.
After the silver golem set Lanqi down, he stood alone beside the Abyssal Black Worm. Under such crushing pressure, Boss Cat was terrified to the point of labored breathing, his heart aching with fright.
Lanqi's gaze was firm and his objective clear. The earth-shattering energy ripples at the center of the battlefield, the deafening roars, everything around him seemed to have nothing to do with him.
His eyes held only this Tier 8 Epic summon that had forced Sigrid into such a bitter struggle.
"Screeech—"
Suspended in midair, the disk-shaped Abyssal Black Worm was an expanding, twisted fissure across this battlefield. Because of it, the air was suffused with a chilly void aura that brought not only nausea, but a bone-chilling cold—as if behind it lay a realm of annihilation never seen nor imagined by humankind.
Lanqi's steps felt as though he were walking across a swamp. Having drawn this close, the densely clustered eyes across the Abyssal Black Worm all fixed upon Lanqi.
In its perception, Lanqi was merely a negligible little insect, not even qualifying as an intruder.
Yet Lanqi paid no mind to the bizarre aura and cutting malice radiating from the Abyssal Black Worm; his eyes held only fond affection.
On the other side of the battlefield.
A faint trace of gratification touched the corner of Sigrid's mouth.
She knew her Holy Son was no coward; even at such a juncture, he maintained his usual calm composure to fight this final battle alongside her.
"..."
Seeing that it was Sigrid's [Telekinetic Golem] returning, Askesan and the robed figure reached an instant tacit consensus: they only needed to keep their eyes on the nearly defeated Sigrid, refusing to let any feint distract them or give Sigrid an opening!
No one would ever worry that a Tier 8 Epic summon like the Abyssal Black Worm could be affected by spells or items from a mere Holy Son of Domination and a [Telekinetic Golem].
To neutralize the Abyssal Black Worm without paying a horrific price was something only a top-tier Sealer like Askesan could achieve!
Even the Tier 6 Holy Son of Extinction wouldn't have the slightest hope of sealing a Tier 8 Epic summon. Mortals below Tier 7 were simply too insignificant before the Abyssal Black Worm.
Beneath the Abyssal Black Worm.
A faint light shone from Lanqi's raised hand, revealing a small magical object radiating an exotic glow.
It was an orange, translucent card, but not of the usual solid texture. The entire card appeared ethereal and gossamer, hovering between substance and non-substance. The magical patterns coursing across it pulsed like a beating heart, shimmering with an unstable luster, trembling faintly as if oscillating at a different frequency from this world.
Then, Lanqi let go of it.
The magic card grew increasingly bright. Unlike ordinary magic cards, it resembled several intertwining spirals, giving off an ancient, enigmatic majesty.
The unsealed magic card broke apart as its spirals separated, forming a colossal vortex. The surrounding light was bent, drawn in, and torn asunder until the vortex stabilized and settled into form. A rift was carved open within the vortex, and its true body was finally revealed—a giant wolf.
Crimson runes, drifting and cycling like faults in spacetime, moved across its deep black body.
Amid the dim abyss of this ruined city-state, it bloomed with world-cleaving red striations, every line flickering and breathing like fissures into another dimension.
Toward the disturbance beside the Abyssal Black Worm, the robed figure and Askesan had only contempt in their eyes.
Although they couldn't identify the attributes of this Orange Epic card in the moment nor spare the attention to try, an ant-like Holy Son of Domination was of no consequence.
In the next second.
When the wolf's paws slammed heavily onto the Abyssal Black Worm's body, the previously motionless worm let out an ear-piercing shriek that echoed to the heavens and shook the earth.
"!"
Askesan and the robed figure turned their heads almost simultaneously, a trace of shock tainting their eyes.
Never had they sensed the Abyssal Black Worm feeling such agony and dread!
Only Lanqi knew the capabilities of this Nuclear Fusion Wolf.
[Nuclear Fusion Wolf]
[Category: Summon Card]
[Rarity: Orange Epic]
[Tier: 4]
[Effect: When an attack hits a summon or piece of equipment, seals it back into its magic card state and devours it for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes. Can trigger a violent self-destruction. During self-destruction, it is unaffected by any magic cards and triggers a chain detonation of all devoured magic cards. Detonation power is influenced by the quantity, tier, and rarity of all involved magic cards. Detonated magic cards cannot be used again for 30 days.]
[Remarks: Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.]
The Abyssal Black Worm struggled, trying to flee, but once successfully hunted by the Nuclear Fusion Wolf, their roles were utterly reversed like an ant turning into an elephant. The Nuclear Fusion Wolf opened its jaws, and the black worm was forcibly warped and sealed until it turned back into a magic card flickering with an electric cocoon!
The instant the Nuclear Fusion Wolf swallowed it down, the Abyssal Black Worm's shrieks and clamorous noise vanished entirely from the battlefield.
The oppressive weight on Sigrid vanished instantly. Even she seemed stunned that Lanqi could directly, if temporarily, erase the [Abyssal Black Worm] from the battlefield.
In that instant, the tides of battle abruptly turned!
And Lanqi, who currently held up both hands like a puppeteer, smugly showcasing his grand sealing art toward the other side of the battlefield, seemed to be telling Askesan and the robed figure: I am an absolute menace.
Chapter 333