Faced with such a massive area-of-effect attack, the Cat-Eared Ranger gritted her teeth, resolving to stop dodging and instead launch a direct counterattack.
Technically, with her speed, she could still escape the Blue Mist's range. But doing so would drain her Strength significantly, and she'd have to return afterward. What about her teammates in the meantime?
It's like in a team battle when the ranged attacker runs all the way back to the fountain to avoid an AoE attack, she thought.
The Cat-Eared Ranger swiftly drew her bow, only to realize the Blue Mist before her was accelerating rapidly, engulfing her in the blink of an eye.
How could this be...?!It's over, there's no time left! In a final, instinctive act, the Catgirl Ranger attempted to Teleport with her Toe Ring, but the attempt failed.
The Blue Mist hadn't actually sped up; rather, her own speed had slowed. Half's Ice Authority could, to some extent, even freeze time itself!
Around the Catgirl Ranger, time gradually froze, mimicking the effects of a ninth-level Time Stop spell. In this frozen moment, the Blue Mist descended from the sky, washing over the ground. Moments later, only a blue, humanoid ice sculpture remained.
On the other side, the Priest, Bard, and Druid were naturally within the Blue Mist's attack range. However, since Half hadn't focused his attention on them, their timeline hadn't been frozen.
The Priest discarded his shield, which had already cracked from the cold, and swiftly cast a Seventh-Level Divine Art, Divine Flame Breath. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth wide, and unleashed a torrent of flames that surged skyward to meet the descending mist.
This divine art was unique to Forging Priests. Just as a god's authority manifests in the style of divine magic granted to their believers, the God of Forging—a deity associated with fire—would normally be a natural counter to Half, the Ice Attribute Ancient God.
However, that would only be true if the God of Forging intervened directly. A mere Seventh-Level Divine Art couldn't bridge the vast power gap between them.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
The collision of mist and flames erupted in a dense, firecracker-like cacophony of crackling explosions.
"I'll help too!" the Bard declared, opening her Travel Book. "Divine Flame Breath!" she chanted softly.
"A live reproduction of the scene, classic move," Ben muttered. As for the Druid, she wore a flustered expression. "Eek! Eek! What am I supposed to do?!"
After all, she had never been particularly adept at combat. In the party, she typically served as a mascot-like figure or, when needed, transformed into a Flying Dragon to carry the group. Before this, perhaps because her teammates were too strong or the enemies too weak, she had hardly ever participated in direct combat.
After a moment's hesitation, the Druid dropped to the ground and swiftly transformed into a massive red dragon. Opening her jaws, she began spewing flames skyward.
With their combined efforts, the trio managed to block the Blue Mist overhead, at least in their immediate vicinity. The two forces locked in a stalemate mid-air.
But in the very next moment, a white figure flickered through the flames—Olivia. She was enveloped in a thin layer of frost, having forcefully broken through the triple layers of fire. Plummeting from the sky, she delivered a devastating kick to the largest target: the colossal red dragon.
The dragon let out a mournful cry as bones shattered and the earth fractured beneath it. The ground beneath the trio crumbled under the force of the impact, sending them plummeting downward.
Beneath the crumbling terrain lay a cavernous space, seemingly a subterranean river. But before they could plunge into the water, the river froze solid, transforming into a sheet of white ice.
Thud! The Priest landed heavily on the ice, using himself as a cushion. He cradled the Bard in one arm and the Druid, now returned to her original form, in the other, taking the full impact of the fall.
Even so, the violent collision still inflicted considerable injuries on both the Bard and the Druid. Before they could recover, "Olivia" landed gracefully on the ice, her eyes gleaming with cold malice. The Priest's expression tightened as he reached into his tangled beard, pulling out the blue heart-shaped pendant hanging around his neck—the Priest Divine Artifact.
He immediately knelt and began praying fervently, "O God, please aid your most loyal Believer..."
This Divine Artifact not only strengthened the wearer's connection to the god, simplifying the use of Divine Magic, but also possessed another extraordinary ability: a cost-free, side-effect-free Divine Descent!
Whether for the god or the wearer, this Divine Descent left no adverse effects. The god suffered no loss, and all energy expenditure was absorbed by the Divine Artifact pendant.
Naturally, even with this artifact, such a Divine Descent could only be used once a year, making it an extremely precious trump card.
Normally, when a Forging Priest began to pray, the god would immediately receive his message due to their close connection, and the Divine Descent would occur within two or three seconds.
But this time, the Forging Priest knelt on the ground for a full five seconds without anything happening. It wasn't until Olivia walked over and punched him in the face, directly knocking him out of his prayer state.
"How could this be? It failed?!" The Priest's face twisted in horror. During those brief moments of prayer, he had clearly sensed that his connection to the God of Forging had been severed, as if by some invisible barrier. Moreover, the failed invocation had rendered him unable to use any other Divine Magic!
A Priest unable to use Divine Magic was nothing more than a slightly beefy, oversized punching bag.
At that moment, weren't Tribios, Artemis, and the God of Forging supposed to be in Artemis's Domain, amidst that sea of flowers?
When the Priest's prayer reached the God of Forging, he indeed received the message and intended to assist. But then... Tribios severed the connection.
Faith serves as a 'channel' between gods and Believers. While priests using ordinary Divine Magic generate minimal disturbance, invoking a Divine Descent creates a massive surge of energy. This immense disturbance allowed Tribios to clearly perceive the 'channel' between the Priest and the God of Forging.
As the God of Passage, forcibly severing this connection was trivial. Want to call for backup? Dream on! I'll cut the phone line right here and now!
But that wasn't all. Although the sea of flowers where the Three Gods resided was Artemis's Domain, Tribios had sealed it off. In other words, while Artemis had brought Tribios here to keep an eye on her, Tribios could freely leave, while Artemis and the God of Forging were truly trapped.
Tribios crossed her arms and smirked at the God of Forging. "No one should help each other," she said with a hint of provocation. "That's only fair, isn't it?"
She expected the God of Forging to bristle at her challenge. Instead, after a moment of hesitation and contemplation, he nodded. "You're right."
Tribios: "?!"
Meanwhile, the Forging Priest, stripped of his Divine Magic, was being relentlessly beaten by 'Olivia'. She had conjured a longsword of shimmering blue ice, but since Half was controlling this body, he lacked any swordsmanship skills. However, the Priest was now nothing more than a punching bag, so it hardly mattered.
The Forging Priest raised his arms to shield himself. With a resounding crack, he staggered several steps backward, his armguards visibly shattered, fragments flying off into the distance.
Gritting his teeth, the Forging Priest shouted, "Get out of here! We can't beat this thing!"
"But..." The Bard hesitated visibly, but the Forging Priest cut her off: "No buts! Just go!!!"
The Bard clenched her jaw, swiftly scooped up the groaning Druid from the ground, and sprinted deeper into the Ice River, leaving behind the shrill, piercing clang of ice against metal.
Carrying the Druid, the Bard fled through the icy tunnels until she reached a vast underground cavern. Then... there was no way out. They had reached a dead end!
No, there used to be a path here. Beneath their feet flowed a river, and if they could enter the water, they might have been able to swim out. But that was clearly impossible now. The Bard couldn't help but reveal a look of despair. "It's over..."
At the same moment, the distant clanging of battle abruptly ceased. After a moment of silence, the Druid spoke, her voice barely a whisper: "Sister Lorie, put me down here."
Any injuries the Druid sustained while transformed into another animal would be faithfully transferred back to her true form. Thus, when she had transformed into a red dragon and been struck by Olivia, her spine had been shattered, leaving her lower body completely paralyzed.
Her voice trembled slightly as she continued, "Everyone has always protected me... This time, just once—at least for the last time—let me stand in front for once."
With that, the Druid's figure gradually expanded, transforming into a massive white dragon sprawled on the ground—the Demigod-level White Dragon Sovereign, Zacharyas!
The Druid took a deep breath, facing the direction she had come from, and exhaled a frigid mist of ice. But a wave of blue mist surged toward her, quickly engulfing the ice mist.
The Druid immediately turned and curled herself protectively around the Bard, her entire dragon form coiled into a tight ball.
'Olivia' slowly emerged from the frozen Ice River, approaching the coiled Ice Dragon. An even more intense chill radiated from her body, but the Druid, transformed into a dragon-related demigod with extreme ice resistance, could withstand this extreme cold to some extent.
'Olivia' circled halfway around the Druid, still unable to find any openings. Even as the Druid shivered violently from the cold, she maintained her unwavering protection of the Bard.
'Olivia' raised her bloodstained longsword and hurled it into the air. As it left her hand, the blade rapidly expanded, ultimately lodging itself in the White Dragon's wing joint.
Then, repeating the tactic, 'Olivia' hurled several more ice swords. Even as the Druid's body became riddled with the blades and ice pillars littered the ground around her, she remained motionless, despite the continuous agonized cries.
Seeing this, "Olivia" couldn't help but sigh. A protracted battle of attrition was precisely what she was least suited for. This Ice Dragon was simply too resilient, while the power Half had gained by burning his Priesthood was extremely limited—each use depleted it further. She couldn't afford to engage in a deathmatch with this Ice Dragon here.
"Fine, let it be," Half sighed, abandoning his focus on the Ice Dragon. Instead, he cupped his hands together, revealing a multicolored rhomboid ice crystal floating in his palms. Within it resided Olivia's true Soul.
"At least with my remaining strength, I'll guide you into the proper cycle of reincarnation," Half murmured. "If fate allows, we'll meet again in another life... though even if such a chance exists, I'm sure I won't remember a thing."
As the ice crystal in Half's hands slowly dissolved, Olivia's physical form began to fade as well. In the end, only an utterly exhausted "Little Husky" collapsed to the ground. He curled up, his body gradually turning to ice until he became an unremarkable oval block of ice.
Having had his power severed earlier, and now having burned his Priesthood, the Ancient God's immense vitality prevented his complete annihilation. Instead, he entered a state of "re-hatching," as if time had reversed tens of thousands of years to when the Material Plane of this world had just emerged and he was newly born.
If given enough time, Half might have grown back to full strength. However, during this vulnerable period, if anyone discovered the Ice Egg's secret and destroyed it, he would truly perish.
After what felt like an eternity, the Druid, trembling, finally dared to lift her head and look around. Olivia had vanished. "The Demon Lord... she's gone?"
Only then did she release the Bard from her embrace, saying, "Sister Lorie... you should go now."
But the Bard stared blankly and asked, "Eve... what do you mean by this?!"
The Druid replied, her voice strained with pain and exhaustion, "I don't know why, but I can't revert from my transformed state, and I can't move at all. I'm so tired... Just let me rest for a while. So please, Sister Lorie, go ahead."