New Avatar Unlocked! Esdeath, the Sadistic Queen, Arrives

[Massive surge of shock detected. New god-tier Avatar unlocked!]

The system's electronic voice exploded in Su Chen's mind.

Hearing that crisp alert, Su Chen pressed his tongue against his back teeth.

A faint sweetness spread through his mouth.

He'd hit the jackpot.

He grinned, showing two rows of small white teeth.

In the hall of Fort Qlipoth, the tension was as taut as a drawn bowstring.

Dozens of armored boots struck the marble floor with a dull thunder.

The Silvermane Guards closed in from every direction, Fine Steel spears in hand.

The glint off their spearpoints dazzled the eye.

The Iron Guards' palms were slick with sweat, their fingers clamped tight around the shafts.

No one dared take the white-haired little girl lightly after she had erased half the starry sky with a single move.

Bronya raised her rifle.

Its muzzle pointed at Su Chen.

She bit her lower lip, breathing fast.

Cocolia stood high on the steps, her fingers clenched around the scepter that symbolized her authority.

Her knuckles stood out, deathly pale and bloodless.

Su Chen had no intention of tearing this place apart.

If Little Satoru Gojo unleashed a big move now, one blast of "Blue" could suck the Supreme Guardian and the whole castle into a heap of scrap.

Then the story on Jarilo-VI would come to a disastrous end.

He raised his chubby right hand.

His thumb and middle finger came together.

Little Satoru Gojo snapped his fingers.

Snap.

It wasn't loud. The sound was almost delicate.

But the air at the center of the hall suddenly contracted.

It was as if an enormous invisible syringe had sucked all the air from that spot in an instant.

Dazzling azure light burst out of nowhere.

It overwhelmed every crystal lamp on the walls.

The glare stabbed into everyone's eyes like knives.

Several Iron Guards at the front screamed, their spears clattering to the floor.

Metal struck marble, sending sparks flying.

They clapped their hands over their eyes as tears streamed down their faces from the searing pain.

Cocolia squeezed her eyes shut and slammed her scepter against the floor.

Its base shattered a floor tile, spraying chips of stone. She used the impact to steady herself as she stumbled back.

In that instant of blindness,

space was forcibly twisted like a rope.

Himeko had just drawn her Mechanical Saw. White smoke had yet to vent from its exhaust ports

when she felt the stone floor vanish beneath her feet.

The tiles hadn't cracked. The spatial coordinates of that entire section had simply been erased.

Gravity seized everyone at once.

"Aah—!"

March 7th's scream twisted in midair and broke apart in the wind.

She kicked wildly and clawed at empty air.

The camera strap at her waist snapped taut in the wind.

The heavy metal camera struck her chin, sending stars flashing across her vision.

A broad red mark immediately bloomed across her chin.

The sensation of falling gripped everyone's stomach like an icy hand.

Bile surged up their throats.

Their hearts seemed to leap into their mouths, suspended with nothing to hold on to.

Dan Heng reacted first.

He twisted at the waist the instant he began to fall.

His right hand shot out and seized March 7th by the collar.

The thick fabric of her winter coat tightened around March 7th's neck until her eyes rolled back.

Dan Heng summoned Cloud-Piercer, the spear, in his left hand.

The spear whistled through the air as he drove its tip into the stone wall beside them, trying to slow their fall.

Its metal point dragged a bright trail of sparks across the rock.

The shriek of friction echoed through the dark vertical shaft.

But they were falling too fast. The wall split like tofu under the spearpoint, and rubble pattered down beside them.

Xingbao dropped straight down like a lump of iron.

Her mouth hung open as cold wind rushed into her stomach, leaving her unable to make a sound.

She clasped both hands over her head.

The hem of her coat flipped up and covered her face.

Welt braced his cane with one hand and grabbed Xingbao's ankle with the other.

His black suit snapped in the gale.

Welt gritted his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums.

He forced the gravity of Pseudo Black Hole into play to counter the immense force of their fall.

The wind distorted the muscles of his face.

Sweat had barely formed on his forehead before the cold air froze it into crystals.

The world spun.

The group tumbled like dumplings, caught in a violent spatial current.

They plunged through a long black passage toward the Underworld, sealed off beneath heavy iron plates.

The wind howled fiercely past their ears.

At the same time,

Little Satoru Gojo's body dissolved into a stream of blue light amid the glare.

Like a bubble in sunlight, he evaporated into thin air.

Su Chen's consciousness was pulled from his body.

His vision went black as the system dragged him into an utterly empty dark space.

There was no gravity or temperature here. Even time stood still.

Endless darkness stretched beneath his feet.

A card glowing icy blue floated before Su Chen.

Real frost coated its edges.

On its face, a woman in a white military uniform looked down at what lay before her.

Her gaze held the arrogance of someone who considered all living things beneath her.

"Fuse."

Su Chen gave the command in his mind.

The ice-blue card shattered instantly.

With a crack, it broke into countless razor-sharp ice crystals.

These ice crystals swept over him like a blizzard, completely enveloping Su Chen's soul.

Cold.

An extreme, indescribable cold.

It didn't blow in from outside. It erupted from deep within his marrow.

Su Chen shuddered violently.

His teeth chattered uncontrollably, clicking together in a rapid rattle.

He felt his blood freeze inch by inch.

What flowed through his veins was no longer warm liquid, but shards of ice with jagged edges.

Every beat of his heart brought pain like muscle tearing apart.

His viewpoint rose.

The little girl's short limbs were forcibly stretched longer amid the snow and ice.

His bones creaked with a teeth-grating series of cracks.

His shoulders broadened, and his waist drew sharply inward.

A heavy, swelling weight settled across his chest.

His short white hair grew rapidly and changed color.

It became a waterfall of ice-blue hair that fell to his waist.

Countless tiny ice crystals formed on his newly pale skin.

It looked like some kind of advanced 3D printing.

The crystals became a fitted white military uniform.

A black belt cinched tightly around his waist, outlining an exaggerated contrast between waist and hips.

His legs were encased in tight, knee-high white military boots.

Black metal trim lined their edges.

A weight settled on his head.

A white military cap fitted itself firmly in place, its brim pinning down a lock of ice-blue hair.

Su Chen kept his eyes closed.

He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue.

The taste of iron filled his mouth.

Clinging to that pain, he forced down the savage urge surging through his mind.

It was the instinct of Demon’s Extract.

A bloodthirsty impulse to hear his enemies scream and trample every living thing beneath his feet.

The impulse burned like cold fire, making his heart pound.

His fingers curled into claws of their own accord, aching to tear something apart.

He drew a deep breath of the air in the void.

When he exhaled, it emerged as a puff of white frost.

Su Chen opened his eyes.

The empty space before him seemed to freeze beneath his ice-blue gaze, a ring of white mist spreading through it.

The power to command ice and snow surged through every part of his body.

With a single thought, he could turn a planet into a silent coffin of ice.

Belobog, at the edge of the Underworld.

Daylight never reached this place.

Enormous metal supports held up the ceiling like the lid of a steel coffin pressed down over everyone's heads.

A maze of rusted pipes occasionally belched foul, murky steam.

The air reeked of engine oil and rust.

Barren wasteland and frozen ice surrounded the area.

The cold wind swept gray-black snow across abandoned minecart tracks in swirling eddies.

It moaned through the iron framework like wailing ghosts.

The cold was extraordinary.

Even the few Fragmentum Monsters wandering in the shadows huddled in corners, unwilling to move.

The icy spikes on the Ice Out of Space's back had grown much dimmer.

Suddenly,

the wind and snow overhead stopped dead.

Black snowflakes that had been spinning in the air hung motionless.

As though someone had pressed pause.

Then came a sharp crack.

The space overhead split like a mirror struck hard by a hammer.

A fissure two meters high tore open.

Fine black cracks spread outward like a spiderweb.

White frost poured from the fissure.

It instantly turned the dirty black snow on the ground a blinding pure white.

The temperature plunged twenty degrees in just three seconds.

Before the Fragmentum Monsters could even roar, the ice coating their bodies burst apart.

A slender leg stepped through.

She wore tall white military boots with sharp metal spurs at the heels.

Her boots came down hard on the frozen ground.

A dull thud rang out.

Ice spread wildly from where her foot landed.

Wearing white military boots and a military cap, with a devilish figure and an intensely sadistic air, the Ice Queen—Esdeath—slowly descended upon the wasteland, bringing a cold so absolute it could freeze even the air.