"You... how did you know!?" Giant stammered, his massive, rocky voice trembling with a sudden, deep-seated terror.
"I have always known," Lancey sneered, her azure eyes flashing. "Do you think you are the only one to ever uncover the secrets of the Three Spirits In A Body?"
It was a grotesque, forbidden truth. Caesar, the Little Boy, and Giant were not distinct entities at all, they were one and the same Magus. By utilizing the Three Spirits In A Body, an exceptionally dangerous ancient secret technique, he had forcefully separated his soul into three distinct portions.
Even during the twilight of the Ancient Era, such practices were considered absolute lunacy. Only desperate madmen would choose to train in them, intentionally fracturing their consciousness into three bodies, each developing its own independent will, yet maintaining the ability to operate miles apart or merge together during crucial turning points.
In essence, a single person existed as three independent individuals. As long as a single body remained breathing, the other two could be completely resurrected, provided they had access to a vast mountain of magical resources. It was a terrifying technique that actively defied the heavens.
"It doesn't matter," Giant bellowed, his panic hardening into homicidal rage. "I just need to kill you right here!"
Whoosh!
Innumerable tendrils of toxic green mist erupted from his pores, rushing toward Lancey like a swirling swarm of ravenous moths and stinging bees.
The sky darkened as the corrosive cloud expanded, threatening to completely envelop her in an acidic shroud. Giant could not wait a single second longer to rip her apart.
"You think you can kill me so easily!?" Lancey countered.
White mist billowed furiously from her body, rising and dispersing into the air to contest the green fog. The drop in temperature was instantaneous. Traces of the freezing gas condensed, rapidly twisting into existence as numerous, magnificent Ice Dragons.
The bodies of these serpentine beasts were coated in fine, razor-sharp white scales, and their heads featured pairs of bean-sized eyes that exuded an unnatural, devilish red light.
The dragons let out synchronized, glass-shattering roars, charging forward head-first to meet the incoming green swarm.
Peng!
The two massive magical forces collided. The wisps of green gas and the white dragons immediately mingled in a violent struggle. The bone-chilling sounds of tearing flesh, hissing acid, and bestial biting echoed continuously from within the roiling cloud.
"Ah! I will kill you, I swear!" Giant howled in agony as his mist was systematically frozen. "I shall break every single bone in your body! I will make you regret ever being born into this world!"
Slamming his heels down, Giant crouched and leaped into the air.
Boom!
A massive pit exploded into existence where he had stood, soil and shattered rocks flying outward in all directions like high-velocity bullets, creating friction sparks in the dry air.
Driven by this terrifying kinetic momentum, Giant's massive body cut through the air like a fiery arrow, heading straight for Lancey's position.
Seeing the threat, Kaelen and Vane immediately stepped forward, their bloodline runes flaring as they prepared to shield their commander.
"Step down!" Lancey commanded sharply, her voice cutting through their battle fervor. "You are not his match."
Lancey immediately triggered her core artifact. A terrifying, absolute-zero surge of cold energy erupted from her star pendant, instantly enveloping her slender frame in a suit of shimmering, translucent ice armor that pulsed with intricate runic light.
Rumble!
The green and black figures fiercely slammed into each other. Ear-splitting explosions continuously sounded out across the clearing as the two powerhouses flickered across the battlefield.
Anything the residual shockwaves of their battle brushed past, whether it was ancient boulders or thick swamp timber was instantly vaporized into flying pieces.
They traded brutal, high-speed blows until their fists slammed directly into one another in a final, dead-locked strike. Giant grimaced, the freezing force of her armor biting into his knuckles, while a section of Lancey's icy gauntlet fractured under his raw physical power.
However, before the dust could even settle, the jagged cracks were instantly mended by the ambient flow of her spell.
Lancey pointed her mended gauntlet directly at Giant's chest, her lips moving in a rapid, complex chant.
From her fingertips, a brilliant, crystalline lion equipped with roaring wings of thunder materialized. The beast rapidly expanded, growing into a towering phantasm whose majestic mane blazed with pure, white icy flames.
This was a high-tier Rank 1 spell: [Glacial Thunder-Mane Lion].
The construct's eyes brimmed with an unnatural, calculated intelligence as it nimbly floated through the air, systematically spitting out torrents of absolute-zero breath to completely block Giant's paths of retreat.
Giant's eyes locked onto the majestic beast, the color draining from his face as genuine fear finally took hold.
To manipulate a materialized spell of this caliber requiring such immense, microscopic precision demonstrated that Lancey's true strength was close to the boundaries of a Rank 2 Magus.
"ROAR!"
The spiritual lion let out a deafening, localized sonic boom, colliding heavily with Giant's torso.
Ka-cha!
The white flames, carrying a paradoxical, blazing icy power, crashed into his flesh.
Rumble!
The raging, frozen inferno ascended into the sky, turning the clearing into a domain of absolute zero. At the heart of the white flames, Giant's massive figure stood entirely silent, his skin turning a translucent, pale blue as his internal fluids froze solid.
The surrounding air began to distort under the pressure, shrinking inward rapidly like a miniature, collapsing black hole, violently sucking in all nearby matter.
Rumble!
Then came the detonation. A magnificent, white mushroom cloud gradually rose from the fractured ground. The immense energy waves dispersed in all directions with such a terrifying, heaven-destroying force that even the Magi of both factions currently battling miles away at the Four Seasons Garden headquarters stopped in their tracks, feeling the distant vibrations.
As the smoke from the mushroom cloud slowly dispersed, the true extent of the devastation was revealed. The explosion had left behind a massive, glass-like crater of solid ice measuring more than ten meters wide.
At the dead center of the pit was a seemingly bottomless, jagged fissure that vented a pale white luster, looking like a direct pathway to the freezing core of the earth.
Boom!
A broken, charred human figure surrounded by wisps of dying green mist fell out of the sky, accompanied by the clatter of shattered bone fragments.
Pak!
Giant struck the frozen earth heavily, carving out long, jagged troughs through the dirt as his momentum ploughed his body through the floor.
He was an absolute ruin: more than half the bones in his body were shattered, his entire right arm was missing, and a large portion of his lower jaw had been completely torn away.
Xiu!
In a blur of speed, Lancey appeared directly in front of his mangled form, her hands weaving a familiar pattern as twin, phantom-like wind blades materialized in her palms.
"Tempest Waves!"
Lancey's face was entirely expressionless, her protective ice armor completely disabling as she calmly prepared to deal the final execution blow.
Giant struggled, trying to crawl away through the mud, but the merciless phantom blades whistled through the air, cleanly slicing through both of his legs.
Ka-cha!
Giant's severed legs rolled into the dirt.
Xiu!
At that exact microsecond, a shadowy figure suddenly separated from Giant's bleeding torso. The volatile, crushing energy waves emitting from its form indicated that it, too, was a Peak Rank 1 Magus specializing in lethal kinetic strikes.
The figure pounced toward Lancey's exposed, unarmored body at an impossible velocity.
The apparition let out a dusky, multicolored light that flashed wildly across the clearing. Anyone who chanced a glance at the aura would instantly find their vision dazzled and their mind plunged into deep dizziness.
Two black, high-grade magic daggers materialized in the figure's hands, moving like a striking viper as they aimed directly for Lancey's unprotected vital areas.
It was a flawless, lethal sneak attack executed by a master assassin. Yet, strangely enough, there was no sign of shock or panic on Lancey's face. Instead, her lips curled into a cold, triumphant grin.
"You're finally here, bastard," she whispered.
Lancey didn't even bother to raise a barrier against the incoming blades. Suddenly, directly from her shadow, a towering, terrifying silhouette erupted into existence—the Vanguard of the Requiem.
Seeing the spectral knight materialize out of nowhere, the assailant found himself moving too fast to abort his momentum.
His daggers scraped against the Vanguard's dark armor just as the spectral warrior's massive, shadow-coated fist hammered straight into his sternum.
Rumble!
The impact was catastrophic. The black figure's chest instantly caved inward, accompanied by the ear-piercing, crunching sound of his entire ribcage shattering into splinters.
Boom!
The figure was flung violently across the clearing, tumbling through the dirt before coming to a halt, revealing a bloody, gasping Magus Lancey knew all too well.
"Caesar, you three-eyed bastard," Lancey laughed coldly, her eyes fixed on him as the Vanguard silently dissolved back into thin air. She had fully anticipated his final, desperate gambit.
"Cough... cough..."
The dark figure was indeed Caesar. He was in a catastrophic state, his face completely ashen as he continuously coughed up thick clumps of dark visceral blood.
Lancey's eyes filled with a pure, unadulterated murderous aura. She raised her hand, prepared to erase him from existence right then and there. She knew that even if Giant and the Little Boy were dead, as long as Caesar's primary spirit remained breathing, he could eventually revive his other two bodies given enough time and resources.
Both Caesar and Giant were now heavily mutilated and completely incapable of mounting a defense.
"Young girl, can you stop now?"
Just as she stepped forward to deal the final blow to Giant's head, an ancient, raspy voice echoed directly into her ears.
A massive, shimmering silver ring of concentrated spiritual force descended upon the frozen battlefield. The pressure behind this spiritual force was incredibly malicious and heavy, causing the ambient air to visibly distort.
The silver mist quickly condensed into a massive hand, reaching down to scoop Giant's broken body out of the dirt.
Lancey instantly halted her footsteps, her muscles tensing.
The silver hand delivered the heavily wounded Giant directly into the grasp of a tall, slender Magus donning sweeping black robes who stepped out from the treeline.
He was surrounded by a suffocating, terrifying spiritual field that made even Lancey's blood run cold.
His eyes were a piercing, sparkling neon green; anyone who locked eyes with him would be struck with an instinctual, paralyzing horror born from the sheer, unadulterated evil radiating from his soul.
This was the Rank 2 Dark Magus, Cabourn.
"Father! Father!" Giant wailed, curling up against the dark Magus's robes like a terrified, broken child. "After killing my 'Little Boy' spirit, she actually tried to execute me, the only remaining member of your direct bloodline! She must pay the price in blood!"
On the other side of the clearing, Caesar dragged his ruined body into a kneel, his face pale as he rasped out, "Father..."
Lancey's gaze, however, didn't linger on the wounded brothers. It was locked onto what Cabourn was casually holding in his left hand. It was the freshly severed head of a Magus. Its skin was completely bloodless and pale.
Lancey recognized that wrinkled face instantly—it was Chairman Reynold of the Four Seasons Garden.
"What a lively crowd..."
Just then a lazy, smooth voice suddenly interrupted the suffocating silence of the clearing.
From the shadows directly before Lancey, a cloud of pitch-black, ink-like gas manifested out of thin air.
The smoke expanded rapidly before twisting and solidifying into the dark, elegant robes of Leylin Farlier.
He materialized instantly, his sudden appearance and unsuppressed aura causing even Cabourn's green eyes to narrow in sharp shock.
Leylin had arrived the exact moment he felt the dispersion of his Vanguard.
Leylin and Cabourn locked eyes across the ruined, frozen clearing. Leylin's laid-back, ruby-red eyes stared deep into Cabourn's sparkling green gaze, completely unbothered by the severed head thrown into the snow.
Weng!
The air between the two powerhouses suddenly screeched. Solidified spiritual force began to rapidly condense into visible waves in the space between them.
Leylin's crimson spiritual pressure clashed head-on with Cabourn's silver mist, the two forces grinding against one another with the sound of tearing iron.
Leylin's spiritual force, however, was overwhelmingly pure, tempered by the ancient, high-grade bloodline of the Giant Kemoyin Serpent and perfected by his recent breakthrough.
The crimson waves surged forward like a tidal wave, systematically crushing and swallowing Cabourn's silver aura.
Step.
Cabourn's face darkened, a grunt escaping his throat as the sheer weight of Leylin's mind forced him to take a sudden, involuntary step backward into the dirt, thoroughly defeated in their very first spiritual exchange.