A tremendously complex ice rune was slowly solidifying between the Ice Snow Queen's brows, layer upon layer in a nested pattern.
The rune seemed to be formed from countless ice crystals interlocking at different angles. With every layer, its outline became clearer; with every solidification, the aura it emitted grew purer.
The instant the rune finally took shape, a pure and lofty divine radiance spread from between her brows, sweeping across the entire Far North like ripples.
Both the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress felt the power contained within that radiance. It was a level belonging to gods, something they had never truly touched despite living in the Far North for who knew how many years.
As the Ice Snow Queen's process of becoming a god steadily stabilized, the blue pillar of light shooting into the heavens began to slowly contract.
Its radiance no longer spread into the sky. Instead, it started shrinking inward, as though something were gathering all its power back into the pillar's core.
The snowflakes, frost blossoms, and ice crystals dancing within the pillar began to merge and take shape.
They were no longer scattered, disorderly fragments of ice. They began converging, winding around one another, and interweaving along some mysterious trajectory, condensing into a slowly rotating ring behind the Ice Snow Queen.
It was an Ice Divine Ring formed from countless minute snowflakes, frost blossoms, and ice crystals gathered along a profound trajectory.
The ring was not particularly thick, yet it carried an ancient charm, as though it had existed since the creation of heaven and earth.
Fine patterns of laws flowed along the ring's edge, every one of them containing the principles of ice.
The moment the Ice Divine Ring completely solidified, the phenomenon of ascension came to an end.
The pillar of