"Mr. Harvey! Lady Alice!"
As the ice and snow melted into water, Chikala finally located the human and corpse buried under the heavy drifts.
The beastman hurried to dig them out, conjuring flames to thaw the ice and snow clinging to their bodies. Harvey slowly opened his eyes, looking up at Chikala. "You really did manage to dodge it..."
Because this was Harvey's first time transforming into a dracolich and he was facing the legendary undead Olewa, he hadn't dared hold anything back. He had unleashed every scrap of decaying corpse miasma he possessed, turning the surrounding hundred meters into a dead zone. Decaying corpse miasma permeated the air, something an ordinary Sanctuary could never block, which was why he had told Chikala to leave.
"Heh heh." Conjuring warm fire, the beastman grinned cheekily as he warmed them up. "Mr. Harvey, you pulled it off!"
"But I'm also heavily injured," Harvey said. "I'm surprised you didn't just run off."
A dracolich was a necromantic troop type that only Legendary Sorcerers could unlock. Harvey had previously only dared attempt partial transformations; transforming completely this time had naturally placed a crushing strain on his body. If one were to peel back his clothes, they would find several patches of skin already rotting away, and several fingers were heavily shriveled and wrinkled like those of a centenarian.
Only his dark complexion kept the rot on his face from being so conspicuous.
He couldn't even maintain his cold flowing fire state. The moment the attack finished, he had automatically separated from Alice, fallen into shock, and been buried by the blizzard.
"Why would I run when you won?" Chikala's words held both truth and pretense. "Even though this blizzard isn't fatal to you, Mr. Harvey, me staying behind meant someone was here to handle the cleanup."
*You only dug me out because you were sure the blizzard couldn't kill me?* Harvey was almost amused by the beastman.
Now that Harvey had regained consciousness, Alice naturally regained her ability to move—without Harvey's permission, an undead could not act on its own. Alice stood up and raised her hands to catch the swirling snowflakes, but a rogue piece of hail struck her forehead, causing pitch-black corpse fluid to trickle down.
Chikala didn't notice, but Harvey's face changed drastically. He struggled to his feet, grabbed the beastman's arm, and roared, "Run!"
"The blizzard hasn't stopped! He isn't at rest yet!"
As if answering Harvey's shout, a figure shot up from beneath meters of snow, hovering into midair. Only a fraction of his head remained, the rest of his body entirely composed of ice crystals. Behind him unfolded four void wings—Silver, Gold, Prismatic, and Whitefrost!
Harvey drew in a sharp, cold breath. "More than half of him is already dead, yet his primal survival instinct is keeping him tethered..."
"Aside from dragging everything into death, he likely has no other thought left."
*Clang!*
Ice suddenly began crystallizing around Olewa, spreading outward at horrifying speed and sweeping down from the sky straight toward Harvey and Chikala! Chikala hastily grabbed the man and the corpse, trying to fly, but before Harvey's feet could even leave the snow, the whitefrost caught up with them!
In virtually an instant, the entire tenth floor of the Silent Spiral was turned into a world of frozen whitefrost!
Chikala and Harvey immediately unfurled their Sanctuaries to resist the encroaching ice, but air and light themselves seemed to serve as conduits for the freeze. Their Sanctuaries were continually breached, and within moments, the frost threatened to spread onto their limbs!
Miracle: Flame Bulwark!
A blazing barrier of fire erupted at the edge of their Sanctuary. The blistering heat scorched even Harvey and Chikala's skin!
High-temperature fire was the natural bane of all frost sorceries; ice could not possibly withstand flames reaching five thousand degrees. And yet...
*Crack!*
Harvey and Chikala watched in disbelief as the whitefrost climbed onto the flaming barrier. The dancing flames froze solid within the ice, resembling an absurd painting.
Even fire itself was frozen!
"An earthly divine miracle... Frost Annihilation..." Chikala muttered, his voice trembling with sheer terror. "This is Olewa's ultimate miracle, something bordering on the realm of gods. It doesn't just freeze through temperature change—it freezes concepts themselves! Fire, air, time... all things can be frozen! But this area of effect is far too vast..."
"He's recklessly draining every last drop of his sorcery power just to die sooner." Harvey closed his eyes with a faint sigh. "Looks like this is the end of the line for us..."
"No!"
Suddenly, Harvey realized his right hand was burning.
He glanced at Chikala beside him and saw the beastman's right hand was also ablaze.
Blood-red fire burned on their arms, yet the burning flesh felt no heat at all—only the sensation of flesh, blood, and bone being steadily consumed away. Confronted with this heatless blood-fire, the encroaching ice actually began to melt, unable to draw any closer to them.
"The Killing Calamitous Fire parish is closest to the War Temple," Chikala gasped, cold sweat drenching his brow. "We studied how to counter Frost Annihilation for a very long time... I never thought the day would actually come when I had to use it."
"Miracle: Flesh Conflagration. It's a bizarre miracle created by another Calamitous Fire Sanctuary sorcerer who obtained the legacy of a Blood Saint sorcerer in the Void Realm. It burns through flesh and blood to kindle true flames carrying the 'concept of fire.' It's terribly cost-inefficient and has a tiny blast radius, but it can effectively counter Frost Annihilation.
"The original plan was that if Olewa ever unleashed Frost Annihilation on our parish, we would drag out several hundred prisoners and burn them to form a fire line...
"It was never meant to burn ourselves."
Because of the Damage Chain, Chikala burning himself meant Harvey suffered the burning as well, though at this point it hardly mattered—they needed the blood flames to keep the ice at bay regardless.
Inside the completely frozen tenth floor, a solitary flicker of blood-fire pulsed amidst the ice.
A beastman and a necromancer, continuously burning themselves for warmth.
Soon, their left forearms were burned away, followed by their upper arms. Next came their right calves, then their right thighs.
They felt no physical pain, but merely watching their own limbs, flesh, and bone burn to ash placed an enormous psychological strain on their nerves.
Yet they were not entirely without hope. As long as Olewa's sorcery power ran dry, this ice would lose the support of the miracle and become nothing more than ordinary frozen water, easily melted by one of Chikala's fire miracles.
However, even after they burned away their left thighs, leaving them with only a single right hand each, the ordeal did not end. Olewa's sorcery power seemed inexhaustible. The ice pressed in with undisguised malice, endlessly probing against the blood flames in an effort to freeze them.
The only flesh they had left to burn was their right hands. But without their right hands, casting sorceries would become nearly impossible...
"Flesh Conflagration," Harvey asked suddenly. "It just requires flesh and blood, right?"
"Yes."
"Can we burn Alice, then?"
Chikala seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, nodding vigorously. "Yes!"
Alice squatted quietly beside them. Unlike their blood flames, the fire burning on Alice bore a faint tint of dark green, yet it held back the encroaching ice just the same.
First her limbs, then her lower torso, then her upper body. The blood flames crept across Alice's form. Bizarre and sinister as the fire appeared, it was the sole source of life keeping two living men breathing.
Soon, the blood flames reached her neck, but the ice showed no sign of thawing.
Chikala looked at Harvey. The necromancer extended his only remaining right hand and gently closed Alice's eyes.
"Burn her," he said.
"Are you sure?" Chikala probed tentatively. "If we burn her..."
"Without Alice, your slave Contract will be voided. I know."
Harvey said, "The dead exist to serve the living, not the other way around."
Chikala fell silent for a moment. Just as the blood flames at her throat were about to flicker out, he violently stoked the fire, consuming Alice's head in a blaze of ash.
Perhaps fate finally smiled upon them. Just as Chikala braced himself to burn his own right hand, the ice suddenly ceased spreading. The beastman immediately unleashed a wide-area fire miracle; the surrounding ice swiftly melted, sending up billowing clouds of white steam!
Chikala hurled fireballs almost hysterically until the entire surrounding area had melted into water. Only then did he drag the necromancer along with his remaining hand, shouting in ecstatic relief, "Mr. Harvey, we made it! We survived Frost Annihilation! Olewa is dead!"
Harvey looked up and murmured, "Why... hasn't the blizzard stopped?"
The beastman's pupils shrank. Snow was still whirling through the sky—Olewa's Frost Sanctuary was still active!
Three void wings instantly unfurled from Chikala's back. Pulling Harvey along, he nearly roared, "We have to fly out, now—"
Too late.
The whitefrost surged once more. The brief pause had merely been an intermission; Olewa was unleashing Frost Annihilation again. The area Chikala's flames had just melted froze over in an instant.
Yet this time, they were each missing an arm and both legs, and Alice was completely gone. What remained was only their torsos and vital organs, which wouldn't last long at all.
Death was an absolute certainty.
"Do you regret it?"
"I do," the beastman muttered grimly. "I should've just run."
"That is the charm of death. Faced with death, everyone casts aside their pretenses and reveals who they truly are." Harvey sighed wistfully. "Death is the ultimate equalizer."
"So, live on well. I'll wait for you in Hell."
The beastman froze, asking as the whitefrost battered their Sanctuary, "What do you mean?"
"Oh, Yaxiu says that a lot. I was just borrow—"
"You have a way out?!"
"Yes, I do," Harvey said languidly. "I have an undead form stronger than the dracolich. It should turn the tide."
"Then why the hell didn't you use it earlier?!" Chikala laughed and cursed at once, driven nearly mad. "You waited until we lost an arm and both legs—and Alice! Wait, without Alice, how can you transform into an undead form?!"
Harvey raised his last remaining right hand. His lip twitched as he violently gouged out his own bloodshot right eye, tossed it aside without care, and shoved an eyeball into the empty socket. His voice trembled slightly. "Alice is with me."
Chikala peered closely and realized it was Alice's cloudy, grape-like eye—Harvey must have plucked it out when he closed her eyes moments ago.
"That's just an eye!"
"An eye is enough," the necromancer said. "Enough for me to activate cold flowing fire."
"B-but..." The normally articulate beastman stumbled over his words. "Don't you have to fuse with Alice to resist the negative energy of transforming into an undead creature? Just like my Purgatory form, which burns away a massive amount of my muscle every time—"
Wait.
A sudden realization struck Chikala: if this form was stronger than the dracolich, why hadn't he used it from the start? When Harvey had transformed into a dracolich for less than a minute, his body had already begun to rot...
"There's no longer any need to resist the negative energy." Harvey lifted his right hand, rattling the Ghost King Shackles coiled around it. "Once I unleash this, I will inevitably be corroded into an undead creature. Whether Alice is here makes no difference.
"Don't worry, though. I'm a professional necromancer. Even after I become an undead creature, I will naturally self-destruct within a day—unless another necromancer comes along and claims me. A pity none of you cultivate the necromancy school."
Harvey's tone brimmed with genuine regret. "What a dreadful waste."
"Why?" Chikala felt like he was losing his mind, his voice shaking. "Why are you sacrificing yourself to save me?!"
"I'm not saving you. Both of us were going to die, so I might as well sacrifice myself to bury Olewa and let you survive in the process." The necromancer countered, "If only one person needs to die, why should two? I don't hold any grudge against you."
Chikala stammered, "Is there anything you need me to do? Go help Mr. Yaxiu and the others? Or go to your homeland to fulfill your unfinished wishes?"
"The dead have no business meddling in the affairs of the living," Harvey said. "I'm not like Igola; I never use words to shackle another's actions. It's not like I can oversee you anyway.
"If I must say something, then just live well," the necromancer said. "Don't sit around slowly waiting to die. Run with all your might. Survive as long as you can. Run far away to see a wider world, until you run yourself completely ragged.
"I actually admired the way you flattered and surrendered in the Dead City just to survive, and how you voluntarily burned your own flesh to hold back the whitefrost earlier." A faint smile touched Harvey's lips. "When it is time to die, die with dignity; but whenever survival is possible, cling to life by any means necessary.
"I am the same. I have long wished to embrace death, yet while I am still alive, I must live earnestly until unavoidable death descends.
"That way, my corpse is bound to be exquisite."
Harvey sighed. "A pity there are no necromancers in Senluo..."
He raised his only remaining right hand and covered his eyes. By now, the whitefrost was already creeping onto his flesh. The necromancer said, "Chikala, I am crossing through the curtain of death."
Flames ignited across Chikala's frame, reducing him to a burning skeleton.
"Though this body burns with cold flowing fire, it still longs for the day it is consumed."
In a flash, the snowy-white ice was drenched in blood-red radiance. The ice cracked inch by inch, the all-freezing whitefrost forced into retreat. Wherever the crimson glow reached, all things bent the knee.
A blood moon rose rumbling through the storm.
Beneath the blood moon stood a fair-skinned, dark-haired man clad in black trousers. A wolf's tail trailed from the base of his spine, his eyes gleamed like rubies, and his ten fingernails grew long and sharp. Blood-red luminescence pulsed ceaselessly from his body, converging into the blood moon suspended overhead.
Ghost King Shackles: Blood Moon Corpse King.
*What immense power...* Harvey thought.
Unlike before, whenever Harvey had fused with Alice in the past, the one who truly transformed into the undead troop type was Alice; he had merely piloted the form through her, never able to draw out the creature's full, authentic power.
Now, only his right eye belonged to Alice, while every other part of his body had truly and genuinely transformed into the Blood Moon Corpse King.
Because of this, he possessed absolute mastery over the Blood Moon Corpse King's power. Yet his body could never change back; before long, his soul would be completely corroded by negative energy, turning him into a wild, feral undead creature.
His cold flowing fire miracle was not an entirely original creation; a primitive version had existed in the Blood Moon Country long ago. Many necromancers who studied that primitive version had succumbed to the intoxicating power of the undead, failing to suppress the negative energy corrosion until they eventually turned into undead creatures themselves.
Harvey's teacher had died that way, eventually becoming part of Harvey's personal collection of undead. When Harvey was imprisoned, however, those prized collections were naturally confiscated by the Bloodmad Hunters.
Having witnessed the tragic fates of his predecessors, Harvey had always explored the Ghost King Shackles with utmost caution. Even so, he had nearly crossed the boundary between life and death on several occasions.
Yet now, Harvey's mind was not intoxicated by the Blood Moon Corpse King's power. He gazed at the four-winged Olewa in the distance, then looked past the thick sheets of ice toward the fog door leading to the next floor.
"Still," pointing his left hand toward the ground and raising his right index finger toward the blood moon, an easy, serene smile graced the corners of his lips:
"I kind of don't want to die."
In the next instant, the blood moon blazed, overpowering the whitefrost.
Chapter 707