— Deity's Descent —
BOOM!
The barrier shattered. The ancient runes etched into the stone walls flared and died, turning to dust. The mountain groaned in agony, a web of fissures spreading across its face as colossal boulders rained down. The entire peak was collapsing.
"Move!"
Eren didn't hesitate. His form blurred into an afterimage, streaking toward the cave entrance.
In that fleeting instant, he saw the nine sealing chains—three of them were already broken.
The moment he burst out of the cavern, the entire Frostveil Sect was being consumed by the thunderous collapse. Palaces and pavilions crumbled into ruin. The few surviving disciples scrambled down the slopes, their cries of terror swallowed by the cataclysm.
Eren leaped down the mountainside in great bounds. Selene, her face pale, rushed to meet him at the base.
"Eren! What in the world—"
"Now!"
He grabbed her arm, pulling her with him as he fled at full speed. Just as they moved, an earth-shattering roar erupted behind them—the majestic central peak of the snow-capped mountain imploded, vanishing in a cloud of snow, rock, and pulverized ice.
A shockwave of force, carrying a blizzard of debris, swept across the landscape, devouring everything and everyone too slow to escape.
Suddenly, a battered figure clawed his way out of the rubble. It was the Ancestor of the Frostveil Sect. He stared at the ruins of his millennia-old legacy, his face ashen.
"All... gone..." he whispered, voice hollow.
"Is this the outcome you desired?" Eren's voice was low as he approached. He felt no triumph, only a profound heaviness. A mountain could fall, men could die, but the entity they had sealed away would not be so easily destroyed.
And then—
BOOM!
A pillar of brilliant azure light erupted from the heart of the ruins, piercing the heavens. Within its radiance, the withered form of an ancient woman levitated.
The very essence of the world for a hundred miles convulsed, swirling into a maelstrom of energy that converged upon her. Her desiccated body filled out before their eyes, flesh becoming smooth and vibrant. Her white hair transformed in an instant, flowing into lustrous, liquid gold.
Within moments, a woman of breathtaking beauty hovered in the air, her form wreathed in a gentle, freezing blue luminescence. She was a vision of sacred majesty and terrifying authority, impossible to look upon directly.
"Is she... a goddess?" Selene breathed, her voice barely a whisper as she stared upward.
A sound escaped the woman's lips—a low chuckle that grew into a wild, pealing laugh filled with millennia of pent-up hatred. It grated against their eardrums, a sound of pure, unbridled malice.
"Seven thousand years! You trapped me for seven thousand years! And yet, you could not hold me forever!"
Seven millennia. Eren's eyes narrowed. Just as he suspected. She was from the same ancient era as the silver-haired deity he had encountered on the Tibetan Plateau. And this one... felt even more powerful.
— Herald of the Frozen Apocalypse —
"Congratulations on your freedom, Great One! We pledge ourselves to you! Aid us, and we shall help you rule this world!" The Sect Ancestor prostrated himself, a flicker of insane hope for his sect's revival in his eyes.
The surviving disciples quickly followed, kowtowing in worship.
"Rule?" The golden-haired woman's voice was colder than the deepest glacial ice, her eyes empty and mechanical. "This sinful, forsaken world has only one fate: annihilation."
"What? But you promised—" the Ancestor began, his head snapping up.
"An insect... dares to question me?"
Her gaze fell upon him, and the very air around him crystallized into frost.
In the next second, the Sect Ancestor was a perfect, lifelike statue of ice. It toppled and shattered on the ground, scattering into a million glittering shards. In his final moment, he understood why his ancestors had forbidden ever releasing this demon.
The remaining disciples trembled, pressing their faces into the snow, not daring to breathe.
A chill that had nothing to do with temperature ran down Eren's spine. What kind of power is this? To flash-freeze flesh and bone so completely?
"Insects. Why do you not kneel before your god? — Wait..." Her gaze snapped to Eren, and he felt his very soul quail under its pressure. "You... you dare to compete with me for the ambient energy?"
"Die."
Her eyes narrowed. An invisible wave of killing intent shot toward him.
"Go!"
Eren, already on high alert, threw Selene over his shoulder and blasted away with every ounce of speed he possessed. Against such an entity, fighting was not an option.
"Flee? This world is destined for silence. Where will you run?" She made no move to chase him. Instead, she spread her arms.
A domain of ice-blue energy exploded outwards from her. Everything it touched—stone, vegetation, fleeing beasts, flowing water—instantly froze solid, all life extinguished. The remaining disciples of the Frostveil Sect, including the crippled Kaelen, were snuffed out in an instant.
Their vital essence, their very life force, was ripped from their frozen forms and drawn into the golden-haired woman.
"Humans... such excellent nourishment," she stated with cold indifference, as if commenting on a harvest.
Eren understood instantly. This woman was of the same kind as the silver-haired deity—beings who saw mortal life as fodder, as crops to be consumed.
If left unchecked, all of humanity would become her fuel.
He skidded to a halt, setting Selene down.
"Eren! Are you insane?!" she cried, grabbing his arm in panic.
"Run! Don't look back!" He tore his arm from her grasp. Flames and lightning erupted around his body, and without a backward glance, he charged directly into the expanding blue zone of death.
— A Seal to Bind a God —
In this moment, Eren was a gambler staking everything on a single, desperate roll of the dice.
He was betting everything—betting that the mysterious Obsidian Sigil slumbering in his mind was the bane of these ancient deities.
If he won, he would claim immense power. If he lost... utter damnation.
"Pathetic insect. You escaped. Why return to die?" The goddess's gaze was dismissive, then flickered with a hint of surprise. "Oh? The power of storm and flame?"
A trace of astonishment crossed her face, quickly replaced by icy scorn.
"What does it matter? An ant with a spark is still an ant."
She raised a hand and pointed.
A wave of absolute cold, the essence of primordial frost, shot toward him. Even wreathed in thunder and fire, Eren could not stop the chill that seeped into his bones, that threatened to freeze his very soul.
His heart sank. Death is here.
Just as his consciousness was about to be extinguished in ice—
A brilliant light erupted from his brow. An aura, ancient and desolate, filled the world.
The Obsidian Sigil had awakened!
"Hah!... I won the bet." A wild, relieved laugh burst from Eren's lips.
The moment the Sigil appeared, the crushing pressure of imminent death vanished. It expanded, becoming a mountain-sized monument in the sky, effortlessly grinding the terrifying Yin-Cold energy into nothingness.
"What is that? A divine artifact? How can it possess such might?!" The golden-haired woman's composure finally broke. Her eyes widened in sheer terror, as if beholding her ultimate doom.
"That aura... it carries the scent of the Celestial Tome... no, the Terrestrial Tome as well! How can such a artifact of creation exist in this accursed land?!" she shrieked, her regal demeanor shattered. She became a blur, shooting toward the highest heavens—she had to escape, immediately!
But her speed was nothing before the Obsidian Sigil.
The colossal seal blotted out the sky, making her seem smaller than a speck of dust. In an instant, she was enveloped by its shadow. An irresistible, mysterious force swallowed her whole.
"NO! This cannot be! Trapped for seven thousand years, only to fall moments after my freedom! Heaven's Dao, you are unjust to I, the Ice-Blue Immortal!!" Her despairing roar echoed across the sky, then faded into silence.
Upon the surface of the Obsidian Sigil, another rune quietly ignited.
Marking the fall of another ancient deity.
Whoosh!
The Sigil shrank back to its original size and vanished into Eren's brow in a streak of light.
Eren didn't immediately examine the changes within the Sigil. Instead, he began rapidly absorbing the lingering Ice-Blue energy in the air. It was far purer and more potent than ordinary world essence.
"Eren! Eren! Are you alright? Where... where did that witch go?" Selene gasped, running up to him, her face etched with fear that only began to fade when she saw he was unharmed.
"It's over," Eren said calmly, his expression unreadable. "She was suppressed by a... force. She won't be a threat anymore."
"Thank the heavens!" Selene exclaimed, nearly jumping with relief.
— The Frozen Vigil —
Novalis Maximum Security Prison.
Eren's first act upon returning was to carefully bring Seraphine's body out from the Nurturing Gourd.
He knelt, his movements reverent, as if handling the most sacred of relics. Gently, he placed the piece of Frostjade Marrow between her slightly parted, cold lips.
In that moment—
A delicate tracery of ice crystals bloomed from within her skin, cold and clear as moonlight. They swirled around her, weaving together, encasing her in a coffin of flawless, transparent ice.
Seraphine slept within the crystal ice, an ethereal spirit fallen to earth, preserved in perfect, heartbreaking stillness.
As long as the marrow's power endured, her body would not fade.
She was waiting. Simply waiting.
"Seraphine... wait for me."
He reached out, his fingertips brushing the cold surface over her cheek, a gesture as gentle as a whisper, afraid to disturb her dreams.
"I swear, I will find a way to bring you back."
The frozen light glinted off his face, illuminating the deepest darkness in his heart.
The name of the one who had led to her fall burned in his mind like a brand—
Damien Vale.
After returning Seraphine to the safety of the gourd, Eren retrieved the vial of Damien's blood. The ritual of the Grand Curse was about to begin again.
Eren's voice was a low, cold promise of vengeance.
"Damien Vale... your time is up."