Inside the Ice Crystal Palace, silence reigned.
Tiga Lingyu and Song Ling seemed to have become outlets for an immense force.
The Ice Origin power left by the Fallen Deity battered their Divinity Foundations.
Tiga Lingyu's Frost Domain was torn apart and rebuilt again and again.
Each time it re-formed, her Law Comprehension was forcibly raised to a new level.
Through sheer force of will, she guarded her Divine Soul Core, letting the power rage through her domain before using her Divinity Fire to tame it and imprint it bit by bit.
Song Ling's situation was even more perilous.
The Ice Purgatory Origin within her violently rejected the incoming power.
The two forces shared a source but differed in nature, and they waged a silent war inside her.
Dark blue Purgatory patterns surfaced on her skin, only to be covered by pure, crystalline white frost.
The pain was inevitable.
But both women showed endurance far beyond that of ordinary people.
Rather than be overwhelmed, they began the arduous task of guiding the power, turning it into a foundation for their Ladder to Godhood.
Qin Chuan's barrier held firm against the cold inside the palace, cold enough to freeze gods, allowing them to focus on the torrent within their bodies.
Dies Martin watched idly, growing bored.
Alesha's Night Domain spread out quietly, sensing every movement of energy.
Then, without warning, something changed.
The enormous ice crystal floating at the center of the palace had been releasing energy steadily, but a blinding blue light suddenly flared in its core.
Hum—
A low hum sounded directly in everyone's Divine Soul.
It was not a sound, but the awakening of a will.
Ancient and chaotic, it sought to reject and devour everything beyond itself.
It had no intelligence, only the most primitive instinct.
"Watch