Lin Ya: The Annihilation of the Breath of Life
"The lament of the forest... Please heed the call of the Oathkeeper! All things revive · Starlit Fungal Sea!" Lin Ya's emerald body erupted with unprecedented radiance! It sensed an unprecedented crisis and pushed its power to communicate with the earth's and stars' origins to the extreme! Countless shimmering emerald fungal filaments, sparkling with starlight, spread wildly from beneath its feet, like a surging green tide, instantly covering a vast expanse of ice! The fungal network frantically drew upon the faint geothermal flows that might exist deep beneath the ice layer, as well as the thin cosmic radiation energy penetrating the ice palace's dome!
Visible to the naked eye, on the deep blue ice surface covered by the filaments, tiny tender green mosses and faintly glowing fluorescent mushrooms stubbornly sprouted! Though minuscule, they were miracles of life blooming in this realm of absolute deathly silence! A warm, vibrant wave of healing energy, filled with boundless vitality, spread out like a green halo, attempting to dispel the chill that froze souls and awaken the last spark of life in the frozen companions' bodies!
"Life... the feeble flame... in this place... can only be extinguished." Enuval showed a slightly more noticeable reaction for the first time. That pale, ice-mirror-like "face" turned toward Lin Ya, the flowing starlight seeming to carry a hint of "interest," but more so a denial of the "heresy."
It lightly tapped the Void Chill Marrow Staff in its hand on the ground beside the throne.
Thud!
An invisible ripple of cold, containing the concepts of "termination" and "oblivion," spread silently from the staff as its center!
Where the ripple passed, the warm life halo released by Lin Ya was like being doused with liquid nitrogen, instantly dimming and extinguishing! The freshly sprouted emerald mosses and fluorescent mushrooms on the ground, upon contact with the ripple, had their vitality forcibly stripped away, instantly withering, blackening, and turning to ash! The surging starlit fungal network was like being plunged into sulfuric acid, its emerald luster rapidly fading, becoming ashen, shriveled, and shattered!
Lin Ya's own erupting emerald radiance flickered violently and shrank dramatically under the impact of the oblivion ripple! The emerald branches forming its body emitted agonized groans, developing fine cracks, as the flowing life energy was forcibly frozen and extracted!
"The seventh..." The Void Chill Ray pierced through the dim radiance that Lin Ya struggled to maintain. The forest's Oathkeeper turned into a serene and sorrowful emerald ice sculpture, with specks of starlight frozen within the crystals.
Kayla: Ice Thunder Roar, the Awakening and Silence of the Fourth Form
"Roar... Aaaahhh——!!!" Kayla, witnessing everyone being frozen, had her last thread of sanity snap completely! She let out a heaven-shaking roar that sounded nothing like a human, as if from a primordial beast! Extreme grief, rage, and an endless craving for power erupted like a volcano within her! Lakas's teachings about ancestral power and listening to the bloodline's roar exploded in her soul's depths at this moment!
Her body began to undergo unprecedented drastic changes! The three-stage transformation's leopard form was instantly shattered by the berserk power! Beneath her bronze skin, muscles bulged and tensed like mountains, her size rapidly expanding! Blue-white lightning no longer wrapped around her arms but surged from every pore on her body like raging thunder dragons, weaving into a net of destruction! At the same time, the bone-chilling extreme cold frost from her ice plain bloodline no longer covered her surface but erupted from deep within her bones, intertwining and fusing with the berserk thunder! Ice-blue adamant armor condensed amid the lightning, covering her entire body with jagged, ferocious edges like a giant beast's bone armor!
Her head deformed amid the lightning and ice mist, turning into a ferocious giant beast skull covered in ice crystals and lightning patterns, with fangs like swords! Her sturdy limbs transformed into massive claws covered in thick ice scales and wrapped in lightning, each step causing violent tremors in the ice layer! A massive tail made of pure thunder, with ice crystal spikes flickering at the end, whipped violently behind her!
Fourth-stage transformation · Thunder Frost Annihilation Behemoth! A colossal beast nearly ten meters tall, enveloped in destructive ice-thunder elements and exuding an ancient barbaric aura, stood tall in the Hall of Chill Silence! This was the preliminary awakening of the ultimate form sleeping deep in Kayla's bloodline, belonging to the ice plain overlord and thunder sovereign! Her crimson beast pupils locked dead on Enuval, filled with endless fury and destructive desire!
"Roar——!!!" The Thunder Frost Behemoth's roar formed a tangible sonic shockwave, mixed with an ice-thunder storm, sweeping toward Enuval! Her massive body moved, each step shaking the ice palace, her enormous ice-thunder claws carrying space-rending might, slamming viciously toward that diminutive Chill Lord! Before the claw even arrived, the terrifying frost and thunder had already distorted and shattered the space ahead!
On Enuval's ice-mirror-like face, Kayla's colossal and berserk figure was clearly reflected for the first time. The flowing starlight seemed to flicker slightly.
"Interesting... the savage struggle... but that's all it is."
Facing the giant claw capable of shattering mountains, Enuval merely lightly pointed the Void Chill Marrow Staff upward. The staff tip precisely struck the most violent energy convergence point in the claw's palm.
There was no earth-shattering collision.
Time seemed to freeze once more.
Kayla's world-destroying ice-thunder giant claw, upon touching the staff tip, had its wildly surging thunder extinguished like a snuffed candle; the extreme cold frost capable of freezing souls, as if meeting an absolute monarch, instantly submitted and reversed! The freezing began from the contact point, spreading madly along the giant claw's ice scales, muscle textures, bones...! That ice-blue turned not to deep blue, but to a purer, more deathly pale white!
Kayla's colossal behemoth body trembled violently, emitting roars of pain and unwillingness, attempting to struggle. But the freezing speed was too fast! The pale adamant ice spread like a plague, instantly covering her giant claw, arm, shoulder, torso, head... Finally, that newly awakened behemoth exuding destructive aura was completely sealed within an immense, pale iceberg flickering with frozen thunder patterns inside! Her final moment of rage and defiance was eternally frozen.
"The eighth." Enuval's consciousness remained utterly impassive, as if merely brushing away an insignificant speck of dust.
Lirian: Nature's Elegy
"Spirit of Nature... Please grant me... the final guidance..." Lirian's face was as pale as paper, tears sliding down her cheeks and freezing into ice beads.
She poured all her mental strength and devout faith in nature into the longbow in her hand. The life runes flowing on the bow body shone to the extreme, and an arrow entirely composed of emerald-green, condensed to substantial life energy formed on the bowstring, its tip aimed at the pale vortex at the top of Enuval's staff.
"Hymn of Life · Arrow of Purification!"
The arrow left the string, silent and traceless, yet carrying a vast life will to purify all filth and dispel all chill, shooting toward the source of that terminal cold.
"Nature's... whispers... shall ultimately... return to silence." Enuval didn't even glance at the arrow. Pale frost automatically gathered before the vortex.
Puff!
The life arrow plunged into the frost, like a hot coal into ice water, its emerald light rapidly dimming and shrinking, the life energy composing the arrow swiftly frozen, decomposed, and turned into ethereal green ice dust scattering away. The purifying will silently dissipated before the absolute cold.
"The ninth." Lirian, maintaining her elegant archery pose, was gently yet cruelly encased in deep blue ice crystals along with her longbow.
Salsa: The Wail of the Shadow Demon Dragon
"Salsa!" Arya cried out with tears streaming down her face, her voice carrying final resolve.
"Leave it to me!" Salsa's mechanical cat shell's eyes flashed with data streams. She instantly detached from the shell, her soul form turning into a streak of shadow phantom light exceeding physical limits, shooting straight toward Enuval's ice throne! At the same time, a shadow falcon circling high above, as if receiving a command, dove toward the snarling ice dragon head on the throne's armrest in a suicidal plunge!
Just as the shadow falcon was about to touch the ice dragon head—
"Swap Positions!" Salsa's soul form and the shadow falcon's positions instantly switched! She successfully touched the ice dragon head beside the ice throne! Endless chill capable of freezing souls madly eroded her soul body, but her eyes held only determination!
"Breath of Oblivion · Gate of the Underworld—Open!" Salsa's soul body erupted with unprecedented dark radiance, her hands forming ancient and eerie seals! Dense negative energy and soul power converged and compressed before her! Space was forcibly torn open into an expanding illusory gate flowing with lava and wailing ghosts! From the gate's depths, a dragon roar filled with endless brutality and death aura reverberated!
"Descend! Shadow Demon Dragon!"
A massive dragon claw covered in black bone spikes and wrapped in substantial shadow energy fiercely emerged from the Gate of the Underworld! Following it was an enormous, mountain-like dragon head entirely composed of condensed shadow and negative energy! Crimson dragon pupils like abyssal blood moons locked onto Enuval at point-blank range! The Shadow Demon Dragon opened its maw, unleashing an annihilation beam-like breath of pure negative energy, carrying soul-destroying power, spraying at Enuval from zero distance!
This was the strongest undead Salsa could summon by squeezing her soul origin! It was also her final swan song!
Enuval seemed finally drawn by this aura from the underworld, turning fully for the first time to face the demon dragon head emerging from the gate. The ice-mirror-like face clearly reflected the Shadow Demon Dragon's form.
The pale vortex at the top of the Void Chill Marrow Staff aimed at the incoming negative energy breath and the massive dragon head.
The vortex suddenly expanded, its rotation accelerating to the extreme!
There was no collision, only silent devouring and freezing.
The negative energy breath capable of annihilating souls was like a stream merging into the ocean, completely devoured and frozen by the pale vortex! The pale freeze flowed upstream along the breath, instantly spreading to the Shadow Demon Dragon's emerging head and giant claw! The colossal Shadow Demon Dragon let out agonized and furious soul roars, but its struggles seemed so powerless before the absolute chill silence. Pale adamant ice rapidly covered its head, neck... Finally, along with the Gate of the Underworld, it was frozen, sealed, and shattered! Turning into pale ice crystal dust scattering across the sky.
The backlash from the forcibly interrupted summoning made Salsa's soul body instantly transparent and dim, like a candle in the wind. She weakly looked at Enuval's cold "gaze" turning toward her.
"The tenth." The chill that froze souls descended. Salsa's final consciousness was a silent apology to Fa. Her soul body, like exquisite black glass, rapidly solidified and stilled in the pale chill, turning into a ethereal and poignant soul ice sculpture, floating beside the throne.
In the vast Hall of Chill Silence, the once fierce battlefield now held only boundless deathly silence and scattered ice sculptures in various forms. Enuval stood quietly before the throne, its ice-mirror-like face slowly turning toward the last two—Fa and Arya.
Arya: The Swan Song of the Five Elements
"Fa!" Arya let out a heart-wrenching cry, watching helplessly as all her companions turned into ice sculptures before her eyes, immense grief nearly drowning her. But seeing the blood tears flowing from Fa's right eye, a purer, more fervent power erupted from her heart's depths! It was the absolute will to protect her beloved!
The Star Resonance Stone at her neck burst with unprecedented brilliant light! The Storm Bow in her hand seemed to come alive, emitting a clear hum!
"With stars as guide! Five Luminaries unite! Light and dark from the same source · Elemental Apocalypse Arrow!"
She poured all her love, all her grief, all her power without reservation into this arrow! On the bowstring, an unprecedented arrow condensed into form! The arrow shaft flowed with a chaotic halo of harmonious light and dark coexistence, while the tip compressed wind's swiftness, fire's explosiveness, wood's vitality! Under the coordination of the Star Resonance Stone, the five elements achieved unprecedented harmonious resonance and extreme compression in the balance of light and dark! This arrow contained Arya's ultimate understanding of elemental essence, the burning of her life and soul!
The arrow left the string, silent and traceless, yet as if traversing space, instantly appearing before Enuval! Where the arrow tip pointed, space showed signs of distortion from being melted by the extreme five-colored elemental energy!
"Light... dark... elements... a fleeting... symphony." Enuval's consciousness finally carried a minuscule ripple akin to "appreciation," but it vanished in an instant. Facing this stunning, peerless arrow capable of severely wounding the strong, it raised that arm composed of pure Void Chill Marrow for the first time, fingers spread, meeting the arrow tip!
In the palm, that miniature pale vortex spun wildly and expanded!
The arrow tip touched the vortex!
Time seemed infinitely stretched in this moment. The five-colored elemental radiance shone and struggled violently within the vortex, attempting to erupt! The powers of light and dark tried to tear through the freeze! However, that vortex was like the universe's endpoint, devouring everything, freezing everything. Every bit of elemental energy composing the arrow, every strand of light-dark power, every thread of mental will, upon touching the vortex core, had all "activity" and "motion" forcibly stripped away, returning to absolute stillness and deathly silence. The brilliant splendor was like extinguished sparks, rapidly dimming, solidifying, and finally turning into a colorless, energy-devoid, ashen stone arrowhead suspended before Enuval's palm, then crumbling to dust and scattering invisibly.
Arya's body swayed, her face pale as snow, blood spilling from her lips—that was the manifestation of dual exhaustion of soul and power. The light in her eyes dimmed, carrying endless longing as she looked at Fa.
"The eleventh." The Void Chill mercilessly sealed her along with the Storm Bow into glistening deep blue ice crystals. That final gaze toward Fa was forever frozen.
Fa: The End of the Star Eye
In the hall, deathly silence reigned. The chill remained bone-piercing. Fa stood alone amid countless deep blue ice sculptures—her companions, her guides, all turned into cold statues, maintaining their poses from the final moments of battle. Tears mixed with blood slid from her right eye, freezing into red ice beads before they could fall.
Chill Silence Lord · Enuval, that pale ice-mirror-like "face" quietly "gazed" at her, the flowing starlight carrying ancient indifference. Beneath the throne, Doomsday Rebirth Masked Person's ice sculpture still knelt.
Soul-tearing agony came from her right eye, the backlash of the Star Eye's overload surging at this moment. Her vision was filled with shattered spatial cracks and void noise, as if the entire world was collapsing. She could feel her faint connection to the star fragments, like a candle in the wind in this realm of absolute chill silence, ready to extinguish at any time.
Power? Time Stasis? Meaningless before this chill silence origin that froze space, froze souls, froze power itself. Earth magic? Water magic? Even Lin Ya's life origin was easily frozen and annihilated.
She slowly raised her head, the stars in her Star Eye flowing slower and slower, the light growing dimmer, like a candle about to burn out. She finally looked at her companions' poses before freezing: Yuyuer's bewilderment, Zhamisi's rage and sorrow, TISK's defiance, Rex's resolve, Jack's roar, Gorg's bravery, Lin Ya's guardianship, Lirian's compassion, Kayla's berserk, Salsa's sacrifice... and Arya, who had always protected her—these scenes, like the sharpest ice spikes, pierced through all her strength.
Powerlessness flooded like icy tides, drowning the starlight.
She slowly raised her hand, seemingly wanting to touch Arya's cheek one last time. Her fingertips trembled from the cold.
Enuval's Void Chill Marrow Staff silently pointed at her.
Fa's hand ultimately dropped powerlessly. She turned her head, looking at that ice mirror flowing with starlight, looking at that existence symbolizing absolute termination. The light in her Star Eye, as if exhausting its final fuel, dimmed bit by bit. Endless fatigue, bone-deep despair, accompanied by boundless guilt toward her departed companions, turned into a barely audible yet exhaustive sigh echoing in her soul's depths:
"It seems we... ultimately... failed to illuminate the eternal night... I'm sorry... everyone... and... Arya... It seems... this is the end for us too..."
Accompanying this sigh of despair, Enuval's consciousness descended like final judgment:
"The twelfth."
Absolute pale frost, gentle yet irresistible, engulfed the embracing Fa and Arya, along with their final sighs and teardrops. Two embracing humanoid ice sculptures, filled with endless sorrow, love, and unwillingness, stood quietly before the Chill Silence Throne.
In the hall interwoven with deep blue and pale, ancient deathly silence fully returned. Only Enuval's figure, like a monument freezing time, stood quietly amid countless ice sculptures, guarding that terminal chill silence origin. The starlight, before the absolute chill abyss, dimmed and extinguished.