The red-haired wizard of Flame Oath's eyes flickered rapidly, the syllables spilling from his mouth obscure and shrill, as though red-hot iron skewers were scraping across vocal cords.
Mental force surged like a breached flood, crashing through the air wave after wave.
Within the lava pool, that colossal creature finally revealed its full form.
Smashing through layers of solid ice, crimson bull horns pierced the steam, while viscous tears of lava streamed from its pitch-black, hollow eye sockets.
"Alida! Zan!"
The red-haired wizard howled the final syllable, raising his crystal staff high as if demanding authority from the gods.
The brilliant red light did not spread outward. Instead, it collapsed inward to a single point, then detonated the fire elements in the air.
"Boom!"
The solid ice exploded, and cracks appeared in that white world that sought to freeze everything.
A giant bear capable of shaking mountains tore through the pale yellow mist. Carrying the heavy pulse of the earth, it threw back its head and roared.
The sound waves visibly swept aside the air, shattering the falling snowflakes.
Faced with this world-destroying pincer attack, Dago's expression remained as still as a dead pond.
"Freeze!"
Dago issued the command.
In an instant, the boiling lava, the roaring troll, the charging giant bear, and even the sparks scattering through the air all froze in place.
Space was forcibly "flattened" by some higher-dimensional power, becoming a motionless, fragile, kaleidoscopic mirror.
This was his desecration and reconstruction of the laws of space.
The next second, Dago shattered that mirror with his own hand.
"[Shattered Winter Mirror]!"
Dago curled his five fingers in the air. A crisp cracking sound rang through the heavens, as if the world itself had snapped.
"Crack—"
There was no earthshaking explosion, only the mournful wail of collapsing laws.
The