Unleashing His Power

Jing Yan instantly recognized the owner of that purple light.

It was Seele!

"Dance with the butterflies and fade away! Phantom of the past!"

Beneath an arched space built from boulders and metal lay a cramped passageway.

Standing before Seele was an Everwinter Shadewalker, one of the Fragmentum Monsters.

This twisted creature looked a lot like a Silvermane Guard. It brandished a long-handled axe blade made of ice.

It was about to bring the weapon down on Seele's head when a lightning-fast figure swept past. A few flashes of purple light flickered beside it.

As the butterfly-like figure fluttered through the air, then...

A sharp crack rang out.

The ice armor covering the Everwinter Shadewalker shattered, and its entire body broke apart.

On the ground in the distance lay a yellow-haired little girl in an oversized felt hat. She was none other than Hook.

"Lady Hook!"

When Julian saw Hook, he grew so excited that he immediately started running toward her on his short legs to check on her. But Jing Yan stopped him.

"Why the rush? There's still danger here. Stay put. I'll check that the area is safe first, then you can come over, okay?"

Jing Yan gripped Julian by the shoulders and spoke earnestly.

"Okay, Big Brother Jing Yan."

Jing Yan had repeatedly bribed the young Moles member with Snowy Pop-Rocks to get information about the Underworld, so Julian trusted him completely.

"Good luck, Big Brother Jing Yan! Good luck, Big Sister Seele!"

After settling Julian down, Jing Yan strode forward.

Seele had just finished using her ultimate move and landed in a cool pose. But at that moment, Jing Yan sensed something. His brows suddenly furrowed, and he called out a warning. "Seele, watch out!"

In the next instant, something lunged at Seele's head from the shadows nearby.

Seele dodged as soon as she heard him, but she was a moment too slow and got grazed. She staggered against the nearby rocks, one hand clutching her other arm, her expression grim.

Blood seeped from the spot Seele was clutching with her left hand.

She had clearly been wounded.

And the injured person was Seele.

Only then did the creature that had just attacked her reveal itself.

It was another dangerous Fragmentum Monster, a Frigid Prowler. It resembled a mechanical construct made by humans, but icy growths protruded from its body, and most of its torso gleamed like stars in the night sky.

Though it was also a Fragmentum Monster, the Frigid Prowler looked much more dangerous than the Everwinter Shadewalker they had just fought—and much harder to deal with.

Jing Yan furrowed his brows as well.

Part of the reason he had come to help was to try using his divine power to interfere with, or even control, these Fragmentum Monsters.

Most Fragmentum Monsters had counterparts in reality, since they were real objects twisted by the Fragmentum.

But Jing Yan knew one thing: these monsters also retained some of the memories they had possessed before they were transformed.

That meant his power of Eros might affect them too.

But this Fragmentum Monster was a mechanical construct.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't even a living being. Could his power of Eros affect it?

Seele seemed to be building up energy for her ultimate move.

But the Frigid Prowler had no intention of letting up. It pressed forward relentlessly, wearing her down.

Jing Yan could see that Seele's Quantum attacks could exploit its weakness. But the monster had such a huge amount of health that even her ordinary attacks struggled to penetrate its defenses.

After a few exchanges, Seele was already struggling to keep up. She seemed to be losing ground, forced into a passive position.

"Big Sister Seele..."

Julian cried out worriedly from nearby.

Jing Yan charged forward too.

He held a scalpel he had taken from the clinic and tried imbuing it with the power of Eros.

At a thought, a strange sheen appeared on the blade in his hand. It was unlike the white of Physical, the icy blue of Ice, the red of Fire, the dark red of Imaginary, or the black-purple of Quantum. Instead, a faint rainbow shimmered across it.

Just as he had expected, a Pathstrider could imbue their body and weapons with power, making them stronger than ordinary mortal weapons.

His own power worked the same way, coating his weapon with a special attribute. Jing Yan thought of it as an all-attribute force that could give enemies of any element an effect similar to having a weakness.

Jing Yan hurled the scalpel, and it struck the sensor on the Fragmentum Monster's upper body with pinpoint accuracy. The blade pierced through it as easily as tofu. The monster let out a strange sound.

"Graaak—"

At the same time, it suddenly stopped moving. Without its sensor, it seemed to have trouble locating its enemies.

But the Frigid Prowler soon started moving again, firing ice spikes in every direction. It seemed to be trying to wipe out Jing Yan, Seele, and the others with a wide-area attack.

Seele immediately swung her scythe, knocking the ice spikes away one by one. But with her arm injured, her movements were much slower and more labored than before. She managed to protect Hook on the ground from the ice spikes, but several still grazed and frostbit her.

Meanwhile, the Frigid Prowler continued forward, tracking them by sound. It advanced like a tank, its size dwarfing Jing Yan and the others.

Seele held Hook close, intending to take the machine's attack on her back. Jing Yan appeared beside them.

He thrust out his hand and gathered his power of Eros into it.

In theory, the power of Eros within him far exceeded what he had used so far. It was simply still dormant, because he had never drawn on it before.

Now, to protect Seele, Hook, and the others, Jing Yan tried to force more of his power out.

"Boom—"

At the very last moment,

just as the Frigid Prowler was about to charge into them, it suddenly stopped, ending up a mere inch from Jing Yan.

At the same time, the Frigid Prowler's vocal apparatus emitted a strange mechanical voice.

"Identification... error! ███ cannot ███ be designated an enemy!"

Then the Frigid Prowler came to a complete stop.