Chapter 268
One was the strongest warrior of the Previous Era, and the other was the strongest being of the current civilization era. Even the deepest ocean trench in the world could not withstand their fierce battle.
The battlefield, dozens of kilometers away from Sea Abyss City, had long since turned into an icy valley.
Countless deep-sea creatures that tried to escape this place were frozen, turning into a unique battlefield landscape.
However, Freya, who continued her attacks, began to have doubts.
In the pitch-black darkness, Freya continued her attack on Kevin, only to be effortlessly thrown against a cliff face by him.
Freya first smashed through the ice layer that Kevin had created, then became embedded in the cliff, and Kevin gave chase.
Kevin hurled an ice spear, tens of meters long, at Freya.
But before it could get close to Freya, it was crushed by a pitch-black gravity ball.
The two fought completely disregarded the water pressure and darkness of the deep sea.
Although there was no light at the deepest part of the trench, it did not prevent Freya and Kevin from sensing each other's location.
However, Freya, who had not been troubled by oxygen at all during the battle, sensed a strong sense of unease.
That is, Kevin Kaslana is not as strong as she had expected.
No, it should be said that having fought Kevin in the mental realm before, she felt that the Kevin before her was far too weak.
Although the area within a radius of several kilometers from the center of their battle had turned into frozen ground, the intensity of the battle was lower than Freya had anticipated.
Freya, dressed in the Twilight Knight armor, smiled slightly.
This is good news.
She originally thought she would have to fight desperately, even at the cost of injury, to severely damage her ancestor, so that she could reach a peace agreement with the World Serpent.
The appearance of the ancestor at this time did disrupt her plans, but Freya couldn't possibly risk both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy just to spite her ancestor...
Therefore, the alliance between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy must have a strongest member who can restrain the ancestor.
Trading injury for injury was the best solution Freya could think of.
If the two sides are not of equal strength, they simply cannot sit down at the table to negotiate.
The same principle applies to weak organizations: weak nations have no diplomatic relations.
Just like when Anti-Entropy was first established, if it weren't for creating the illusion that Welt Joyce was still alive to keep him in check, Otto probably would have already taken action against Anti-Entropy's headquarters in North America.
This is the deterrent power of the First Herrscher.
Freya is now stronger than Welt simply by virtue of her Herrscher abilities, Herrscher to mention that she has mastered multiple Herrscher abilities and can fuse them together.
However, Freya anticipated that she alone would not be able to restrain Kevin.
In the battle in the mental space, Freya was somewhat demoralized by her own ancestor.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have chosen the unfinished attack method of forcibly fusing the abilities of multiple Herrscher.
However, their ancestors are now much weaker than expected.
Freya's words, which were originally just meant to bluff, seem to have a slight possibility of being true.
Although Freya would prefer to reach a consensus with her ancestor, it seems that the other party has the same idea as her.
Only when the two have determined a winner or loser, or one of them dies, can they sit down and have a proper conversation.
With that thought, Freya pushed off with all her might and jumped off the cliff.
She sensed the location of her ancestor.
Just as Freya had said before, "Great Ancestor, please die here." Although she didn't know why the ancestor was weaker than expected, she didn't intend to let this opportunity pass.
Since our ancestor chose to appear at this time, we should be prepared to be killed by her.
[Severing Steel Sword of the Subspace]
Freya raised her right hand, creating a huge phantom behind her that was tens of meters tall and very similar to herself. The phantom moved in sync with Freya, raising its right hand as well, but holding a giant sword made of Imaginary Power.
The giant phantom held a massive sword tens of meters long in its right hand. As Freya swung her right hand, the giant phantom behind her also swung its right hand.
The Severing Steel Sword of the Subspace, composed of black, orange, and white, slammed down on Kevin.
"..."
Kevin held the Herrscher Core in his left hand, and could only raise his right hand to construct an ice shield that was tens of meters thick.
However, the thick ice shield couldn't withstand even one hit, and Kevin had to mobilize the Honkai Energy in the Herrscher Core to form a barrier.
Yet he was still smashed away by the giant sword. Just as Freya was thrown into the icy cliff, Kevin himself suffered the same fate.
Although the attack did not cause him any damage, Kevin felt somewhat helpless.
The opponent no longer uses sophisticated attack techniques.
The two had been fighting for about ten minutes, and Freya's skill-based attacks, such as the Spear of the Subspace Void Ribbons, were completely ineffective against Kevin.
No, it should be said that Freya's skillful attacks had too many weaknesses in Kevin's eyes.
He broke through those attacks without using much effort.
It was precisely because of this that Freya gradually abandoned attack methods such as the Spear of the Subspace and the Void Ribbons.
Most importantly, Freya was wary of him, positioning herself as the weaker party, fearing retaliation for her overly crude attacks.
Kevin had fought his opponent in the mental space, so he knew that his opponent would be wary of his fighting techniques.
Although the battle between the two sides looked very intense, they were both holding back some of their strength to be wary of each other.
In Kevin's eyes, this so-called Severing Steel Sword of the Subspace had more flaws and weaknesses, and the way to break it was not so easy.
For example, the Void Ribbons is Spear of the Subspace made of Imaginary Power, which transforms into an extremely thin and flexible strip with extremely strong cutting ability, but such an attack is extremely easy to deflect.
Kevin can easily deflect attacks simply by creating a tilted ice shield.
But now... Freya is using Honkai Energy in a very brutal way.
When the attack methods became devoid of skill and purely a contest of brute force, Kevin found himself in a difficult situation.
"Looks like she found out..."
Although Kevin didn't think he could hide it from the other party, the other party's reaction was too decisive after his weakness was exposed.
Before Kevin could even marvel, Freya manipulated the enormous phantom behind her to bring down the giant sword in her hand.
The giant sword churned the deep sea, creating a violent current, and the powerful blow directly smashed a huge crater with a radius of several kilometers into the cliff.
The ice covering the cliffs shattered and formed countless underwater whirlpools in the sea.
However, Freya's offensive did not stop.
She kept waving her right hand, and the huge phantom behind her kept slamming her giant sword down on Kevin.
The barrier made of Honkai Energy shattered, the giant ice shield created by Honkai Energy crumbled, and in the next instant, a slender ice spear pierced through Kevin's location.
The ice spear continued to extend and embed itself in the barrier formed by the Imaginary Power on Freya's surface.
"It's useless..."
Just as Freya was about to say that such an attack could not possibly penetrate the Imaginary Barrier, the chill emanating from the ice spear froze the Imaginary Barrier and then continued to extend into the distance...
Freya's body was instantly carried several kilometers away by the ice spear, and the huge phantom she controlled also automatically dissipated after a hundred meters.
"Snort!"
Freya trembled slightly, shattering the ice layer that had frozen the Imaginary Barrier.
She hadn't expected Kevin to break her new move with just a long, thin ice spear that could extend indefinitely.
"For the Herrscher of the Void, distance is never a problem."
Even with a distance of several kilometers, Freya still had the upper hand.
The enormous phantom wielding the Severing Steel Sword of the Subspace was an extension of the Imaginary Giant Claws, not a Susanoo.
Freya just didn't expect that such an attack would be so effective.
Such brutal attacks are usually the easiest to counter by skilled opponents, just like Siegfried was always beaten by Ryoma.
However, Siegfried always managed to bring his skill level down to the same level as Ryoma when he was thoroughly defeated.
Just like Ryoma's crushing defeat this time, this kind of situation will arise when strength reaches a point where technique cannot make up for the gap.
"Since pure power can achieve this result, there's no need to hold back..."
The [Severing Steel Sword of the Subspace] that just now was merely Freya's first taste of her abilities.
Keep in mind that the Imaginary Giant Claws she can currently construct isn't just a few dozen meters long, but hundreds of meters...
Moreover, there is never a distance limit between the phantom giant claw and its manipulator.
Having just escaped the underwater vortex, Kevin quickly crossed his arms in front of him, and the Herrscher Core floating beside him constructed layer upon layer of barriers and ice shields on his body.
It's worth noting that even with the barrier protecting him, Kevin still suffered some internal injuries from that attack.
Just as Kevin was preparing his defenses, a giant phantom, a thousand meters tall, stood in the trench and thrust out a two-thousand-meter-long Spear of the Subspace.
Kevin had previously repelled Freya with an ice spear, but the ice spear did not cause any damage to Freya. To be precise, it was the cold air emitted by the ice spear that froze the Imaginary Barrier covering Freya's body, and then pushed Freya away.
But Freya's counterattack was unusually brutal.
A giant a thousand meters tall, and a giant spear two thousand meters long that flies in the air.
It brought about a devastating impact.
Even the ice covering the cliffs of the trench was shattered by this impact.
The massive impact seemed to tear the trench apart, and the violent tremors reached Sea Abyss City, causing the underwater volcanoes to erupt one by one.
Kevin, struck directly, was sent flying backwards like a kite with a broken string.
He couldn't block that attack at all.
Even after Honkai Energy within the Herrscher Core, it still couldn't withstand Freya's full power.
If it were during his prime, and on the ground, Kevin wouldn't be afraid of such attacks.
In the deep sea, movement is already slower, not to mention the opponent's attack was so strong and fierce that it caught Kevin completely off guard.
His left hand suffered a comminuted fracture, and seven or eight ribs were broken in an instant.
The ice shield and barrier created by the Honkai Energy within the Herrscher Core only weakened the power by 70%.
However, the imaginary giant leaped up, its enormous size stirring up the deepest currents, as if hundreds of white Sea Dragon were coiled around its body as it chased after Kevin.
Kevin, who had been thrown dozens of kilometers away from the trench, was unable to move at all.
It can only be said that he was too weak after just leaving the Sea of Quantum, and Freya's actions were too decisive, giving him no chance at all.
Even in his prime, he would be in danger from being struck by such a powerful force, let alone now that he is so weak.
"What an unlovable... descendant, but... not very lucky."
Even after leaving the Mariana Trench, Kevin was still far from the surface of the ocean, and all he could see was darkness.
But in this darkness, a shadowy figure eight kilometers long approached.
The enormous maw, capable of swallowing the heavens and earth, engulfed the immobile Kevin, along with other deep-sea creatures such as the giant squid swimming nearby.
Freya passed through the portal and arrived at the scene, while the Imaginary Giant under her control leaped out of the trench in the next moment.
"... What kind of monster is this?"
Compared to this eight-thousand-meter-long monster, the imaginary giant controlled by Freya suddenly seemed not so large, even like the difference between a toddler and an adult.
Freya never expected that she would have to fight a monster far stronger than Judgment-class Honkai Beast after coming to send her ancestor off on his final journey.
The enormous Honkai Beast also radiated hostility towards Freya.
But when Freya fully unleashed her power, the Honkai Beast couldn't help but feel a sense of fear rising from the bottom of its heart.
That was the oppressive aura of a superior being at the top of the Honkai creature hierarchy.
The relationship between Herrscher and Honkai Beast is actually more like that of a queen bee and a worker bee.
The birth of Herrscher will stimulate the growth of Honkai Beast in the region. Just as a queen bee breeds more worker bees to guard her hive, these Honkai Beasts are as loyal to their ruler as soldiers are to their Herrscher.
Therefore, even if two Herrscher appear in the same region, they cannot control each other's Honkai Beast.
This deep-sea Honkai Beast was not created by the Herrscher born in the current civilization era. Although there is no direct relationship, the Herrscher are superior to Honkai Beast in the hierarchy of Honkai creature.
After being suppressed by Freya's aura, the Honkai Beast was pierced by the Void Spear.