The Ice Empress looked at the creatures of the Far North lying bloodied across the ground. Amid the wind and snow were nothing but the mangled remains of Soul Beasts and bloodstains reddening the ice.
She turned to look at the Snow Empress beside her, whose origin was being steadily depleted.
A tenderness beyond measure flickered in her eyes, along with... a trace of resolve.
"Xue'er, let us... merge our origins one last time."
The Snow Empress turned her head to look at her.
The Ice Empress gazed into her eyes and whispered, "They must be kept here.
"But, Xue'er, to die here in the Far North with you... would not be such a bad thing.
"Actually, there is something I have kept in my heart for many years. I never dared tell you.
"Xue'er, I... I love you."
The Ice Empress had kept those words buried in her heart for countless years.
Had this calamity not struck today, she would likely have taken those feelings to her grave during her four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation.
Warmth stirred in the Snow Empress's heart, tinged with a faint ache.
She knew she had always regarded the Ice Empress only as a sister, as her dearest family, without the slightest romantic affection.
But now they had reached the end of their lives. Whatever they tried, death was inevitable.
Since we are going to die anyway, let me grant her this final wish.
The Snow Empress nodded gently and said tenderly, "Bing'er, I... love you too."
As her words fell, the two women reached out and embraced.
Their hands clasped tightly together, their fingertips unconsciously clutching each other's sleeves and squeezing the backs of each other's hands.
At that moment, there were no sovereigns of the Far North, only two women about to meet their