Were You Ready to Fall?

Leviathan drove its four claws into the frozen ground.

The ice shrieked like tearing metal.

Its enormous body bore down.

With every step, the ice groaned and cracked like a spiderweb.

Rows of jagged bone fins rose along its back. Dark-gold light raced from their roots to their tips like charged conduits of death, swallowing every trace of light around them.

Darkness churned across its body.

Thick, corrosive black mist seeped between its scales and spread across the ice.

Wherever it passed, the ice hissed and dissolved.

The air grew thick. Breathing felt like swallowing broken glass.

Imu's voice boomed from the massive jaws.

"Then—"

The sound wave struck like a shockwave.

A distant wall of ice exploded, sending chunks crashing into the retreating crowd. Several surviving Knights of God failed to dodge and were crushed to their knees, their armor dented and blood spilling from their mouths and noses. Warhorses screamed and collapsed, legs broken.

"Then you can all die!"

It was not speech.

It was divine punishment.

Every Blackwater Monster on the ice flattened itself to the ground and whimpered in submission. Even Saint Galin was pinned inside an icy crater, unable to move, his manic grin frozen into a grimace. The retreating marine survivors fell into chaos. Some dropped their weapons, covered their ears, and crouched down. Others vomited on the spot.

Fear was contagious.

Gaps opened in the retreating ranks.

Then a second voice rang across the ice.

Chen Ye stood in the air.

He had not retreated a single step.

His vast body of gold and black held steady as bedrock above the battlefield. Crimson-Gold Divine Flame flowed along his outline, weaving with Erebus darkness into a barrier that cut off the spreading pressure. The storm struck him and split in two, flowing around him