According to Feidric's information, Extreme Cold was the Demon Lord's primary ability, while Divine Concealment remained unknown. The concentrated eruption of Extreme Cold mist from the pit beneath the Mage Tower confirmed that this was undoubtedly one of the battlegrounds where the Demon Lord and the Hero had clashed three centuries ago, hinting at potential clues within.
Castorice had barely stepped outside when she noticed a thin layer of white frost already coating the ground beneath her feet. Snowflakes drifted down from the sky, and before she knew it, Chaos City was experiencing its first snowfall!
She extended her gloved hand, palm upward, and a snowflake landed in her palm. Even through the glove, she could feel its icy coolness.
As Castorice approached the Mage Tower, the surrounding temperature plummeted. She instinctively clasped her hands to her chest and rubbed them together. Her shoulder-baring, backless dress, combined with her utterly useless Black Cloak, offered no insulation whatsoever. She was entirely reliant on her own physical resilience to withstand the biting cold.
Pretending she wasn't cold would be a lie. It felt like wearing summer clothes on an autumn day.
At that moment, Pollux jumped down from Castorice's head, flew to her chest, and burrowed into the gap between her breasts, leaving only her tiny head peeking out.
"Ah~ That tickles~" Castorice couldn't help but gently scratch her chest. Pollux was plump and surprisingly warm, though, so she abandoned the idea of pulling her out.
Besides, once inside, Pollux remained still. Apart from a slight squeezing sensation with each breath, it wasn't too bad.
Castorice continued her journey. Before long, a humanoid creature made entirely of blue, transparent crystal came into view.
The being had no facial features, only two small, sunken holes where its eyes should have been. Within these sockets floated two white, perpetually burning flames.
"Click-click~"
Each step the Crystal Man took produced a crisp, crystalline sound. Noticing Castorice, it paused briefly before quickening its pace and striding directly toward her.
Even so, the Crystal Man moved at a sluggish pace, like a typical zombie from a horror movie.
After a moment's thought, Castorice realized its identity: it was likely one of the Black Hand's henchmen from the Mage Tower, the ones who had been frozen earlier. Feidric had mentioned that the Demon Lord's ice magic could transform others into ice puppets—this must be what he was referring to.
Castorice extended her right hand, and her purple scythe materialized in her palm. She raised the scythe, aimed briefly, twisted her waist, and swung a simple horizontal slash.
Clang!
To Castorice's utter astonishment, her blade had been deflected. No, more precisely, her scythe's edge had struck the Crystal Man and sent it flying, but it hadn't severed it.
Thud... thud... thud...
The Crystal Man bounced several times across the ground before coming to a stop. A dense network of cracks radiated from the point of impact, resembling a mirror shattered by a heavy punch.
Despite the attack, the Crystal Man wasn't dead. It slowly, steadily rose to its feet.
"This thing is incredibly tough..." Castorice frowned slightly, watching the creature continue its advance. She quickly shifted her strategy.
She retracted her scythe and took a step forward. Instantly, within a ten-meter radius of her right foot, the frost and snow vanished, replaced by dark, fertile soil. A single purple flower materialized beneath her foot, slowly unfurling as if to support her weight.
Simultaneously, dozens of purple "butterflies" appeared around Castorice, swirling and dancing in the air.
As she continued walking, a trail of purple flowers bloomed in her wake. This was undoubtedly the active manifestation of her Touch-and-Die passive ability.
In essence, the area around her had been transformed into Underworld soil, draining the life force of any living creature that drew near until they perished.
When Castorice approached the Crystal Man, the swaying figure froze mid-stride and toppled face-first into the ground.
Castorice frowned, her delicate eyebrows furrowing. She could sense that the Crystal Man was lifeless, rendering it immune to her Touch-and-Die effect. The creature was merely immobilized by the oppressive aura of the Underworld, a consequence of her power.
If Castorice deactivated her ability or moved too far away, the Crystal Man would likely recover after some time.
"Why is this thing so tenacious?" she muttered.
As Castorice advanced, more Crystal Men materialized within her sight—ten, then twenty. Yet all of them collapsed face-first the moment they crossed the ten-meter threshold of her domain. Ignoring the fallen figures, Castorice began to formulate a vague hypothesis.
Finally, after some time, she reached the Mage Tower. But the landscape had been dramatically transformed. The deep pit beneath the tower had vanished, replaced by a massive, inverted blue bowl-like structure that sealed the area shut.
She took another step forward and keenly noticed that her "domain" had shrunk slightly. The ten-meter radius of her Underworld aura had contracted to approximately 9.9 meters. Though the change was minimal, it was undeniably present.
Castorice reached up to brush the bangs from her forehead, only to find a light frost already clinging to her hair.
In the legends of the Demon Lord and the Heroes, it was universally accepted that only the Seven Heroes wielded the Seven Divine Artifacts. The Demon Lord possessed no such artifact, and most believed these seven were the only Divine Artifacts in existence—until Dio revealed that there were actually twelve.
If the Demon Lord didn't wield a Divine Artifact, where did his power originate? Surely it couldn't be some System-granted gift, delivered with a single click?
This immense ice power must have a source, something far surpassing even the "Beyond Legendary" Heroes who wield Divine Artifacts—a force capable of overwhelming all seven of them simultaneously.
A Demigod?
Or perhaps... an Ancient God who had suddenly awakened, intent on ruling the world?
Castorice closed her eyes, carefully focusing her senses. She detected a faint aura of divine power emanating from the ice. This might explain certain mysteries.
Consider the Death Priests' headquarters—that place resembling a church but devoid of any divine statues. Perhaps its inhabitants worshipped not the Twelve Main Gods, but the Demon Lord himself, and by extension, this Ancient God.
Castorice summoned her scythe once more and tapped the massive ice block before her. It was unbelievably hard, showing no signs of cracking. Reluctantly, she poked the Little Round Sparrow nestled on her chest. "I have to ask you for one last favor, Pollux," she murmured.
"Chirp-chirp!" Pollux chirped softly in response.
This time, with no one around to witness, there was no need for a flashy summoning ritual. Castorice casually swung her scythe to her side. Instead of tearing through space with her claws, Pollux simply poked her head out, nuzzled Castorice briefly, and only opened her mouth after Castorice had taken a step back.
Against such impossibly hard ice, fire was the obvious solution. Pollux was perfectly suited for the task.
BOOM!!!
A deafening roar shook the air as torrents of flame rained down from the sky. Unlike before, when Pollux had blasted the dark clouds with her breath, creating only a visual spectacle, this time the fiery assault struck the ground directly. Castorice felt the earth beneath her feet tremble violently, as if an earthquake had erupted.
The clash of fire and ice sent shockwaves tearing through the air, whipping Castorice's cloak behind her. Her long hair streamed backward in the gale, and she instinctively raised her right arm to shield her face, squinting against the heat.
The result was undeniably effective. The indestructible azure ice began to melt slowly under Pollux's breath. Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds... Normally, a dragon's breath would have a limited duration, just as a person can't exhale indefinitely without needing to inhale.
But Pollux was different. She didn't need to breathe at all, allowing her to exhale continuously. Moreover, as the temperature rose, the flames from her breath grew increasingly crimson, deepening to a vibrant, purplish-red.
The ice melted faster and faster. Around forty seconds, the inverted hemispherical ice block had completely vanished, revealing the deep pit beneath.
Without Castorice needing to say a word, Pollux instinctively stopped. After her prolonged breath attack, her entire body had flushed slightly red, like a person who had been sitting still for hours suddenly sprinting several kilometers and gradually warming up.
Castorice suddenly remembered that in the game, Pollux would charge at enemies and explode after a few breaths. If this Pollux breathed too much, would she explode too?
The thought struck her, and she turned to Pollux beside her, blinked her beautiful purple eyes, and softly asked, "Will you explode?"
Pollux simply tilted her head, looking genuinely puzzled. It was clear she hadn't understood a word Castorice had said.
A moment later, realization dawned on Castorice. She covered her flushed cheeks with her hands, her pointed ears quickly turning crimson. "What on earth was I thinking..."
It was as absurd as asking your pet dog if it might suddenly explode.
After taking a deep breath and shivering from the frigid air, Castorice finally turned her gaze to the crater Pollux had blasted open. "Thank you, Pollux," she said. "I can handle the rest myself."
Pollux withdrew her head, and the spatial rift sealed behind her.
Perhaps because most of the accumulated blue mist had been expelled, only wisps now drifted from the crater's edge. Tentatively, Castorice extended her right hand. The instant her gloved fingers brushed against a tendril of mist, a bone-chilling coldness pierced her heart.
She immediately recoiled, but even in that fleeting moment, a thin layer of ice had already formed on her glove.
Even though the fog had thinned, leaping straight into the pit remained a reckless choice. After a moment's contemplation, Castorice summoned a large quantity of Styx Water. If she could encase herself in it, like the Elastic Sphere she'd used earlier, might she be able to withstand the blue mist during her descent?
Under Castorice's control, the Styx Water first formed a bowl shape. She stepped inside, and the moment her foot touched the bottom, a few droplets splashed onto her white stockings and slowly trickled downward.
Come to think of it, she had always described Styx Water as being like modeling clay, but now it inexplicably reminded her of melted hot chocolate—thick and viscous.
"Oh no, my stockings..."
After a brief test, however, Castorice discovered she could perfectly detach the Styx Water from her stockings without leaving a single trace. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Once she was completely inside, Castorice steered the Styx Water bowl toward the pit where the Mage Tower had been. As it floated, she sealed the top.
Then came the descent. Enclosed within the opaque sphere, Castorice couldn't see her surroundings. The Styx Sphere frequently bumped into unseen obstacles, causing splashes of Styx Water to splatter onto her body.
The landing was particularly jarring. Castorice, completely unprepared, had assumed the pit was hundreds of meters deep, a vast underground secret chamber. Instead, she reached the bottom in less than a hundred meters. The sudden impact caused her to stumble, and a torrent of Styx Water drenched her from head to toe.
"Ugh..."
Castorice glanced down to see her chest completely soaked. Her once-pristine collarbones and shoulders were now coated in thick, viscous "hot chocolate" slowly trickling downward, leaving her with an inexplicable, awkward sensation.
This feels like something straight out of a certain kind of manga, she thought, where the protagonist is naked, pours hot chocolate all over herself, and waits for someone to lick it off... Except this isn't chocolate, it's Styx Water. Anyone foolish enough to taste this would probably die instantly.
Shaking her head to banish these strange thoughts, Castorice manipulated the Styx Water clinging to her body, slowly peeling it away until she was once again completely dry and clean.
Only then did she carefully widen a small slit in the Styx Sphere, revealing a blue cavern entirely sculpted from ice.