Dense fog surged over the lake like a tidal wave, reducing visibility to less than five meters in an instant.
Vivian Arlene gripped the Holy Sword Ophelia tightly in her hand; its radiant light became as conspicuous as a firefly in the night within the mist, yet even its brilliance could not pierce beyond ten meters of the thick haze.
Her breathing was a little hurried, and stabbing pain throbbed from the frostbite on her shoulder.
But she dared not relax even a bit. Her olive-green eyes stared unblinking at the swirling white fog around her, the Holy Light of the Holy Sword radiating outward, struggling to dispel the all-penetrating mist.
“Faithful of the Evil God! If you’ve got any guts, come out and fight me head-on! What’s the point of hiding in the fog!” she shouted angrily, her voice spreading through the mist, yet receiving no reply.
Charlotte’s figure was hidden in the deepest shroud of the fog, like a formless shadow.
He twisted his fingertips lightly, manipulating the mist to form swirling currents around Vivian Arlene, the eddies laced with shards of ice, endlessly scraping against her Shield, trying to find a breach.
“Your Highness, the Holy Maiden, the battlefield has never been a place for the weak to set the rules.” His voice remained blurred and indistinct.
Even before his words faded, the lake surface beneath Vivian Arlene’s feet suddenly exploded!
Three thick ice pillars burst from the lake like fangs, carrying a biting chill as they stabbed toward her abdomen, chest, and throat.
“Clang! Clang! Clang!”
Vivian Arlene reacted in a flash, the Holy Sword sweeping three golden arcs before her. The sword light struck the ice pillars, scattering blinding fragments of light.
The ice pillars snapped with a crisp sound. Amidst flying shards, Ice Element and Holy Light collided violently, turning into crystalline frost that dissipated into the fog.
But as soon as she averted this danger, several Mist Blades condensed from the fog behind her, slashing madly at her Shield.
Vivian Arlene spun around hastily, the tip of her Holy Sword striking the ground.
In an instant, the Divine Light Halo blazed out, and her Shield shone brilliantly.
The Mist Blades struck the Shield with muffled booms, causing it to tremble violently and its radiance to dim by more than half.
The immense impact sent Vivian Arlene staggering backward, her steps splashing water from the lake below.
The cold water soaked the hem of her skirt, intensifying the chill on her shoulders.
“What is it you want?” she panted, her voice tinged with a barely perceptible weariness.
Sustained high-intensity defense and taut nerves had depleted her magic at an alarming rate, while Charlotte’s attacks came like an endless tide, seemingly inexhaustible.
“What do I want?” Charlotte was nearly amused to laughter. Wasn’t it she who had come looking for trouble? “Wasn’t it Your Highness, the Holy Maiden, who came to me first?”
Charlotte had merely come out to practice some magic when this woman suddenly charged at him like a mad dog, bombarding him with spells. Clearly, it was Vivian Arlene who struck first.
Now it was just as well—Charlotte could use her to test his magic. Even if he couldn’t kill her, he would crush her arrogance.
He’d had nowhere to unleash his strength—now a perfect sandbag had come along.
“Is it your intention to go to the Kalishi Empire’s capital, slaughter the innocent civilians, and sacrifice them to the Evil God you serve?!” Vivian Arlene roared. “I advise you to give up now! There are far stronger people in the capital than me—even I can’t defeat them, so don’t even dream of it.”
“？？？？？？？”
Charlotte was completely dumbfounded, a string of question marks exploding in his mind.
What had he done? And already accused of sacrificing civilians?
The Faithful of the Aetherlan Divine Church were truly mad—this Holy Maiden was particularly absurd!
For generations, his family had been hunted by the Divine Church; wasn’t it the church that once slaughtered innocents?
He wished he could grind those sanctimonious priests into dust, and now he was the one being accused of “slaughtering innocents.”
A killing intent as frigid as ice utterly froze his hesitation.
Now, he was entirely certain—he would make sure the Holy Maiden of Aetherlan died here.
The ones he wanted dead weren’t people, but those beasts of the church.
And now, that opportunity was right in front of Charlotte.
Seeing Charlotte silent, Vivian Arlene took it as acquiescence, a look of resolve flashing in her eyes. “In the name of Aetherlan! Ophelia, lend me your strength!”
As her words fell, she raised the Holy Sword high.
A brilliant Holy Light erupted like the sun, instantly piercing the dense fog and spreading a Saint Domain with a radius of several dozen meters across the lake surface.
The mist evaporated into white vapor, the battlefield instantly laid bare.
Charlotte’s figure was forced into view—standing atop a floating ice sheet at the center of the lake, his tall form still wreathed in lingering mist, features obscured, the fog around him sizzling as it was scorched by the Holy Light, yet stubbornly refusing to dissipate.
“Ice Blade.”
Charlotte suddenly raised his hand. A massive crystal-blue magic circle rose from the lake, and the surface instantly boiled.
Countless Ice Blades shot out from the water, dense as a rainstorm, bombarding Vivian Arlene’s Saint Domain.
So numerous were the Ice Blades that they blanketed the entire Holy Light field.
Vivian Arlene’s face grew grim. The Holy Sword spun in her hands, drawing a golden sword flower.
A fiery red magic circle shone at the sword’s tip. “Firestorm!”
A torrent of flame burst from the blade, sweeping through the incoming Ice Blades.
Many were vaporized in an instant, but some slipped through and smashed into Vivian Arlene’s Shield.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The repeated impacts left her arms numb, fine beads of sweat appearing on her forehead and trickling down her cheeks.
She could feel it—Charlotte’s magic was not inexhaustible, but his control over the elements was so precise that he maximized the use of water and fog in the environment, minimizing his own expenditure.
Meanwhile, she had to constantly pour magic into maintaining the Saint Domain and her defenses.
The gap widened with each moment, tilting the situation ever more against her.
But how was his control over magic so meticulous…
“This can’t go on…” Vivian Arlene thought to herself. “I must end this in a single strike!”
Charlotte understood as well—he couldn’t keep toying with the Holy Maiden. Today, the Holy Maiden of Aetherlan had to die here.
If he wasted too much time, stronger foes would arrive, and he would have no way to escape.
“If you have any guts, stop hiding! Face me openly in battle!”
Charlotte only found it laughable. Calling for a “fair fight” when at a disadvantage, silent when holding the advantage—so this was the Holy Maiden of the Aetherland Theocracy? The very picture of hypocrisy.
“Heh, very well.” He clenched his fingers sharply, and the lake instantly froze. A massive ice sheet locked the Saint Domain at its center.
The floating ice underfoot shattered, and Charlotte’s figure shot into the air like an arrow released from the string.
At the same time, the ice fractured into countless fissures. Ice spikes surged upward, converging into a massive ice cage.
Standing atop the ice cage, looking down coldly, his gaze as frosty as winter, he spoke: “Let me show you what a real duel is.”
“Song of Desolation: Icefire!”
This was the magic he had created himself at Kalishi Academy, the culmination of all he had learned—though it was but two third-tier spells, under his exquisite control, they could unleash peerless destructive power.
Even the Grand Duke Protector—Duke Ryan—would tremble before this spell.
Charlotte used wind magic to propel himself into the air, his robes flapping fiercely in the tempest of elemental power.
He spread his hands as if a god overlooking the world.
Behind him, two gigantic and resplendent magic circles suddenly blazed, occupying half the night sky:
The edges of the ice and fire formations, crimson and indigo energies twisted and clashed in a frenzy—sometimes colliding and annihilating one another, scattering fine specks of gray-black light, sometimes entwining and being reborn together, turning into even fiercer vortices of power.
Two elements, usually opposed, were woven into an uncanny balance by Charlotte’s spellwork, like a pair of symbiotic twins of destruction, radiating a suffocating pressure.
“What…what is that magic circle?” Vivian Arlene’s olive eyes were full of disbelief, her throat tight.
She had been steeped in the magic tomes of the Aetherlan Divine Church since childhood, and had seen countless high-grade spells, yet never anything so contrary to the principles of elements—there was no forced suppression, no energy loss, instead ice and fire catalyzed each other, every annihilation accumulating power for the next eruption.
Charlotte swung his right hand downward—a huge fire-enshrouded ice orb plummeted toward the ice cage.
For the first time, death’s chill clutched Vivian Arlene’s heart so tangibly. The man before her was undoubtedly a transcendent, but she could not lose—let alone die—her shoulders bore the safety of the capital’s common folk.
Just then, the Holy Sword Ophelia in her hand grew scorching hot.
Dazzling golden light burst through the fog, many times brighter than the previous Saint Domain.
Warm radiance spread from her palm through her whole body, driving out the cold and quaking in her limbs.
“Holy Sword…” Vivian Arlene murmured, fingers tracing the sword’s engravings.
It was the sword responding to her resolve.
“Please, help this useless Vivian one more time!” She looked up at the night sky, her eyes now free of all fear.
Aifel’s voice suddenly sounded, “Charlotte! Danger!”
Vivian Arlene straightened her back abruptly, her grip on the sword steady as a rock.
The Holy Sword’s light surged forth, an unparalleled divine power erupting from the blade.
Behind her, a vast silhouette of light slowly appeared—it was the Divine Shadow of Aisilan, with golden hair and eyes, wrapped in gentle yet inviolable Holy Light.
Vivian Arlene stood in the open hands of that phantasm, like a devout protected by their deity.
A massive golden tide of magic power surged from Vivian Arlene.
And the silhouette of Aisilan had locked onto Charlotte…
Charlotte stared unblinkingly at the shadow of Aisilan. “Aifel, don’t be nervous…”
A surge of fighting spirit erupted within him, fiercer than ever before. “So what if you’re a god? If you dare to stand before me, even a god will bleed!”
“Draw your sword, Aifel!”
“At your command, my master!”
Charlotte truly wanted to see where his own limits lay—this time, he could unleash his full strength.
Aifel clasped Charlotte’s hand. A silver-white misty magic circle spread out above Charlotte’s head.
A tiny globe of light slowly descended from the formation, landing into the hands joined by Charlotte and Aifel.
Then, it became a long sword wreathed in mist.
“Originary Tune of Creation, once again I must trouble you…”
Charlotte spoke softly.
A giant golden magic circle appeared on the blade of the Holy Sword, runes swirling as divine power reached its peak.
Vivian Arlene looked up and cried out, swinging her sword to release a golden sword light that spanned heaven and earth.
Charlotte and Aifel struck at the same time, their enormous silver-white magic circle enveloping the entire radiant blade of golden light.
Where Vivian Arlene’s sword light swept, even space trembled faintly.
The icefire orb Charlotte hurled was instantly torn apart—ice shattered, flame extinguished, destruction and divine light collided fiercely, erupting in a blinding brilliance capable of swallowing all, consuming both their figures entirely.
……