Under the Extreme Cold Domain, time seemed frozen, and every Mutant Creature remained locked in its final pose.
A Mutant Giant Wolf lunging at the defensive line had its fangs only inches from a soldier, yet could advance no farther. A Mutant Falcon diving from the sky had its wings spread wide and its claws gleaming coldly, yet it was frozen for eternity. A Mutant Giant Mouth-Organism bursting from underground had its maw wide open, its spraying venom turning into ice crystals in an instant.
"Crack. Crack."
Faint cracking sounds rang out like the toll of death, and every frozen Mutant Creature began collapsing from within:
The Mutant Giant Wolf's fur was the first to turn into icy dust and scatter away, exposing glistening muscle fibers before its entire body shattered like glass. The Mutant Falcon's feathers fell away one by one, breaking down into blue motes in the air as its skeleton collapsed like an ice sculpture.
The Mutant Giant Python's scales peeled away layer by layer, like an ice-crystal artwork dismantled by an invisible hand, until it finally turned into a sky full of icy mist.
In no more than a few breaths, the once-surging Beast Tide had completely vanished.
There was no blood, no wreckage—only ice-crystal dust drifting through the sky, refracting dreamlike light beneath the sun. It was as if those Mutant Creatures had never existed, with only the pure ice dust bearing witness to this miracle.
Atop the crest feathers of the Extreme Ice Phoenix stood a proud figure.
She was tall and straight, her long ice-blue hair falling like a waterfall, its tips condensed with tiny Eternal Ice Crystals. Her skin was fairer than snow, her features picturesque, and her ice-blue eyes seemed to contain glaciers that had existed for ten thousand years—cold and