Logan streaked onward in a trail of flowing light, flying over forests, crossing oceans, and arriving at that land of ice and snow.
The precipitous drop in air temperature could not penetrate Logan's Terastal membrane, and the Hoarfrost Reach—so completely different in nature from the New World—failed to draw even the slightest bit of his attention.
Viewed from the sky, the Hoarfrost Reach was vast—vast indeed. Although it could not compare to the New World as a whole, it was still far larger than any single region within the New World.
However, the areas in which life could survive across the Hoarfrost Reach were few. Deep within the icefields, even many ice-element monsters were unable to endure, and resources were extremely scarce.
In such a harsh environment, any creature that managed to survive was naturally something extraordinary.
For example—the Frostfang Barioth capable of grappling head-on with Velkhana!
As a special individual among Barioth, it was not a subspecies. Rather, it was a powerful survivor—one that had endured the brutal depths of the Hoarfrost Reach, forged through merciless environmental pressure and a series of life-or-death trials where stagnation meant extinction.
Monsters of the New World do not deliberately train themselves. Aside from the need to conserve stamina to handle battles that may arise during foraging, and the risk of being attacked while weakened after exertion, there is also the simple reality that food-acquisition pressure in the New World is far lower.
Monsters like the Frostfang Barioth have to survive in the Hoarfrost Reach's depths under limited food conditions, squeezing every last bit of their stamina just to stay alive. Under that kind of high-pressure environment, it is entirely normal for creatures to be born that can break past individual limits and wrestle with Elder Dragons.
However, with urgent business at hand, Logan had no intention of venturing deep into the Hoarfrost Reach to see just how extraordinary the lifeforms capable of surviving there truly were.
Hovering above the Hoarfrost Reach's skies, Logan once again expanded his perception, carefully locating the correct passage within the interwoven, low-mobility bioenergy flows. In the end, following the direction of the bioenergy's movement, he found the Origin Isle hanging over the open sea.
Logan's intelligence might not have increased by much, but his ability to analyze and process information had strengthened along with the changes in his physique.
Very soon, amid the Everstream's branch streams that resembled a chaotic spiderweb, Logan accurately analyzed the Everstream's main channel.
Following that main channel, Logan flew at high speed.
...
Above a barren islet shaped like a Buddhist lotus pedestal, two Velkhana of different sizes were circling high in the sky, continuously sensing the movement below the center of the island.
And on the desolate ground, the Nergigante—its body covered in vajra-like thorns with a silvery-gray metallic sheen—was knocking here and striking there, trying to find an opening that would allow it to enter below.
Different from the past, at this moment all three Elder Dragons were releasing their auras at full force, openly provoking the master of this small island.
However, Shara Ishvalda had long been buried deep underground, slumbering at the terminus of the Everstream. It had not emerged for tens of thousands of years. Even if such a cave had once existed on this island, after such an immense span of time, it would likely have long since sealed shut—so how could Nergigante possibly find it?
Still, even if they could not go down, they could make the other party come up!
If it were the Shara Ishvalda of the past, still deep in sleep, there would naturally have been no reaction at all.
But now, it had already awakened. Its mindset had completely changed. Viewing itself as a creator, wholly devoured by divinity, it was utterly incapable of tolerating provocation from these "mortal things."
Amid violent tremors, at the lotus platform at the center of the isolated island, vast stretches of land began to collapse rapidly.
As the earth shook and the mountains quaked, the entire lotus platform sank completely. One shattered rock after another, crushed by the tremors, turned into quicksand vortices, beginning to swallow everything standing upon them.
With a body length of a full thirty meters, a pair of degenerated wings reduced to skeletal frames were wrapped in massive amounts of compressed rock, resembling two gigantic arms tearing through the bedrock, forcibly dragging a body whose true form could not be clearly seen—like a small mountain piled of stone—out from beneath the earth.
A great existence!
Shara Ishvalda!
Awakening once more after tens of thousands of years, standing upon this land!
And with Shara Ishvalda's movements, the Everstream resonated in response, producing violent tremors.
Across the Hoarfrost Reach, vast glaciers collapsed, burying countless penguins beneath the ice. In Seliana's Gathering Hub, Darren—who had been soaking in the hot springs to wash away the fatigue of many days spent on external investigations—slipped underfoot and nearly fell straight into the bath.
In the New World, magma flooded back through underground lava caverns beneath the Wildspire Waste. The Ancient Forest split open with one deep chasm after another. Large swathes of fragile platforms collapsed across the Coral Highlands, and volcanoes in the Elder's Recess erupted high into the air.
All these exaggerated upheavals seemed to be proclaiming to every living being in the New World the reemergence of this "god"!
Within the Rotten Vale, Kulve Taroth let out roar after roar!
It had only just finished sorting out the Everstream's branch flows!
And now they had been wrecked again by that damn demolition expert!!
Unfortunately, because the Rotten Vale was far too important—other regions could be destroyed, but this place could not—and because Kulve Taroth had to remain here to regulate the Everstream and could not leave, otherwise it would have followed the Everstream all the way drifting to Origin Isle and given Shara Ishvalda a solid slap!
The Arch-Tempered Velkhana was the first to react. The supercooled fluid within its body rapidly activated, and under the effect of absolute extreme cold, flakes of snow began to drift down from the sky.
This was the prelude to an attack launched by the Arch-Tempered Velkhana—the manifestation of its power!
Any creature that dared to offend it would fall into slumber amid the swirling snowflakes!
Although it was unclear why Shara Ishvalda's appearance differed from what it had glimpsed from afar in the distant past, that overwhelming aura could not be faked.
A blast of extreme-cold breath surged forth. Wherever it passed, massive amounts of ice crystals fell, smashing into the ground and carving out one crater after another.
Facing the attack of the Arch-Tempered Velkhana, Shara Ishvalda neither knew whether it was still groggy from having slept for too long, nor whether this form of its made movement inconvenient.
It neither dodged nor evaded, allowing the breath to strike directly upon its body.
One wall of ice after another condensed across Shara Ishvalda's wings and back, while large stretches of rock shattered under the absolute low temperatures.
This single strike—even the Nergigante, who had successfully transformed into Ruiner Nergigante, would have had to evade it immediately. Otherwise, merely being affected by the residual shockwaves would have been enough to force it to pay a price just to shake off the negative effects brought by the extreme cold.
Perhaps Arch-Tempered beings were the ultimate manifestation of the New World's bioenergy.
Aside from the failure to truly break through the ecological niche, the Arch-Tempered Velkhana's attack was actually not inferior to that of an ordinary Disaster-level Elder Dragon. And this performance—far surpassing the Tempered state—was merely a byproduct of having broken past the limits of lifespan.
But!
Despite how sharp and ferocious the attack was, Shara Ishvalda—its back largely frozen solid by ice—merely clumsily shook its wings once.
Accompanied by high-frequency, exaggerated shockwaves, the ice frozen across the rock instantly shattered. As if nothing had happened, it then moved its steps with difficulty and slowness, ramming straight toward the Nergigante on the other side.
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