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Gusts of wind, laden with ice shards and goose-feather snowflakes, slapped Aaron's face and body, causing him to involuntarily tense up and shiver slightly, hunching over, as he surveyed his surroundings.
The robust physique brought by his advancement to Sequence 5 Disciplinary Knight allowed him to quickly adapt to the severe cold, confirming that he was in a world of ice and snow with extremely low visibility.
The dark golden talisman he carried close to his chest quietly shattered, transforming into complex mystical symbols that integrated into Aaron's body.
His consciousness blurred for a moment, and a dark golden mist rose from his Mind Island, as if breaking some kind of restraint. Aaron's consciousness instantly cleared, and certain things he had deliberately ignored resurfaced in his mind.
The harsh environment prevented him from delaying. After a preliminary observation of his surroundings, he took out the item stained with Bayer Baile's blood and used the Divination Pendulum method to determine his location.
Then, based on the result, he trudged through the thick snow, under the gloomy sky, quickly moving through the raging winds, occasionally divining again to adjust his direction.
About ten minutes later, Aaron discovered a burly figure covered in silver armor.
He exhaled, taking a few steps forward, and clearly saw that it was indeed Bayer Baile. This half-giant stood silently in the wind and snow, his Dawn Armor emanating steam, dispelling the cold.
Ignoring the complex expression on his loyal subordinate's face, Aaron put away his Divination Pendulum and asked directly:
"Did you burn it?"
"I did!" Bayer Baile nodded, seemingly wanting to say something.
Aaron gazed at him for a few seconds, confirmed he wasn't lying, and then his expression turned serious:
"Remember."
"To recite His honorific name is to be His believer."
"Believe in Him, serve Him, and perhaps one day you will receive unimaginable boons."
"At that time, your reputation will spread throughout the Five Seas, no less than that of the Pirate Kings."
As he spoke, he had intended to make a gesture of a "Lord of Order" believer, but he sadly realized there was no such thing, so he comforted himself with a few words in his mind:
A secret organization must remain secret; these superficial matters are meaningless…
Bayer Baile listened silently, his burly body slightly bent, responding solemnly:
"According to your will, I will fulfill my loyalty with my life."
Without explaining to this loyal believer, Aaron nodded with satisfaction, withdrew his gaze, took out Joseph Weil's blood, and performed divination once more.
Although he could sense the general direction, the position was constantly changing.
What kind of accident happened?
Aaron frowned slightly, leading Bayer Baile to trudge through the blizzard in the direction of his senses.
In the vast expanse of white, the two figures, like black dots, crunched through the snow, moving forward little by little. After nearly twenty minutes, Aaron suddenly stopped, and he and Bayer Baile simultaneously looked towards a mountain peak to the west.
Beside a massive rock covered in a thick layer of ice, there was a dark, secluded cave, guarded at its entrance by a woman holding an ancient, rustic bow.
This woman had lustrous, shining black hair, tied into a simple ponytail. Her facial features were very soft, unlike anyone from any country in the Northern Continent.
She wore a brown, ancient-style Hunter jacket and trousers, and her keen spiritual perception caused her to direct her gaze towards them.
Seeing her slightly pointed ears, and combining it with the content of Groselle's Travels, Aaron immediately knew her identity: the Elven Singer Siatas.
"An Elf?" Bayer Baile, standing beside him, looked at the ancient bow in her hand and stepped forward proactively, shielding Aaron.
As he approached, Siatas unhesitatingly raised her longbow, the arrow nocked upon it shimmering with flowing silver-white electric light.
"As expected of Elves, most of whom belong to the 'Storm' Pathway; they are indeed prone to irritability and recklessness…"
Aaron looked at the tense standoff between the two sides, muttering inwardly, while signaling Bayer Baile not to be nervous.
Although the plan had deviated, and the demigod helper he invited seemed to have some issues, finding the protagonist's team was still a good outcome.
Just then, Aaron's vision blurred, and he saw two thick, sturdy gray-blue giant legs, and a terrifying greatsword plunged into the snow!
"Uh…" Aaron looked at the giant leg, which was a little taller than his entire body, and followed the patterns on the greatsword upwards, finally seeing clearly that before him stood a giant nearly four meters tall!
Even the half-giant Bayer Baile looked like a midget in front of him.
This giant's skin was gray-blue, his chest, abdomen, and waist were wrapped in thick beast fur, while the rest of his body was exposed, even his feet lacked protection.
He leaned on a greatsword wider than a human door, and with his distinctive vertical single eye, he looked down at Aaron and Bayer Baile, asking in a rumbling voice:
"Who are you?"
"Why have you come to Groselle's camp?"
As his words fell, a strangely dressed man in his thirties, who made one feel uncomfortable, also walked out of the cave and saw the two confronting parties.
This man had a rather handsome face, flaxen hair, deep brown eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin lips. Even when sitting, he exuded an air of arrogance.
"Let's all be peaceful, don't be so tense. I'm talking to you, Siatas, don't always point your bow at others."
He skillfully walked to the Elven Singer Siatas's side, placed his hand on her shoulder, and chuckled, not at all as arrogant as his demeanor suggested.
"Morbet, if you dare touch me again, I'll let you feel the wrath of an Elf!"
Her voice was clear and melodious, but her tone was full of anger and irritability, as if she might raise her hands at any moment and shoot Morbet Zoroast an arrow.
"Alright, I'll reflect." Morbet coughed dryly, withdrew his hand, and casually smoothed his pointed, stiff black hat, hiding his embarrassment.
The atmosphere softened with Morbet's arrival. Aaron looked at Morbet, who still seemed to enjoy being threatened by Siatas, and couldn't help but inwardly grumble.
"You two are being sickeningly sweet, I suspect you're showing off your affection, but I have no proof."
Then he lightly coughed, drawing the attention of the man, Elf, and giant opposite him:
"Groselle, we are also here to deal with Ulyssan, the 'King of the North.' I think we are not enemies, right?"
Groselle looked down at Aaron and the other person, his vertical single eye no longer filled with wariness, and he laughed heartily:
"Yes, since you are also here to deal with Ulyssan, then we are friends!"
Siatas glared at Morbet, slapped his hand away, and reluctantly put away her bow, seemingly muttering something under her breath.
Morbet smacked his lips, looked at Aaron and his companion, then enthusiastically invited them into the cave, chattering incessantly:
"You might find it hard to imagine, but when I first entered here, I was an arrogant, introverted, cultured nobleman, but the long passage of time changed all that."
"Heh, especially when your companion is a giant who only knows how to grin foolishly and shout slogans…"
As he said this, Groselle, who was following behind with a hunched back, chuckled good-naturedly, raised a hand to scratch the back of his head. His vertical single eye showed none of the ferocity and cruelty often depicted in various giant legends.
Morbet sighed, then remembered something and lightly slapped his head:
"I've been with them for too long, it's making my brain a bit abnormal; I actually forgot to introduce myself."
"I am a Sequence 5 Dream Stealer of the Marauder Pathway. You can call me…"
Aaron glanced at the overly enthusiastic Morbet, interrupting him in a flat tone:
"I know, Viscount Morbet Zoroast of the Solomon Empire, and now the only surviving direct descendant of the Zoroast family."
Morbet's expression instantly became incredibly colorful, from initial enthusiasm to surprise, and finally to disbelief, causing him to involuntarily stand still and murmur softly:
"This, how is this possible? The old man was an Angel…"
Aaron paused in his steps, a little surprised by the man's reaction, then somewhat understood:
The only person Morbet encountered afterward was the former Loen soldier Frunziar. As an ordinary person, Frunziar naturally had limited knowledge. Morbet could at most have learned from him that the Solomon Empire no longer existed, but he had no way of knowing other specific details.
Understanding this, Aaron lightly coughed, still offering a word of comfort:
"Pallez Zoroast is not dead; he was merely severely wounded by Amon and is now in a very poor state, hiding everywhere."
Morbet's eyes lit up, just about to speak, when he suddenly felt a crazy, tyrannical aura approaching from afar. The pressure from a high-level being was almost palpable.
Two more figures suddenly appeared in the cave: Snowman, an ascetic monk dressed in an extremely simple white robe, and Frunziar, clad in full black armor.
Without any pleasantries, everyone tacitly rushed out of the cave. Unlike the grave expressions of the others, Aaron's expression was more peculiar, because he also sensed Joseph Weil's aura at the same time.
As everyone rushed out of the cave entrance, they saw a massive figure descend from the sky, landing on a nearby giant rock covered in thick ice. Its membrane-covered wings did not retract, but remained spread, almost obscuring the surrounding light.
Unlike their impression, this "King of the North" was covered in wounds, and opposite him stood a man with dark golden eyes, whose terrifying pressure fully demonstrated his strength.
As the ice-crystal-like dream-like scales and the extremely violent, dark-blue dragon eyes reflected in everyone's eyes, Ulyssan, the "King of the North," an Ice Dragon, opened its mouth and spat out a distorted, unstable, and flamboyant ice-blue flame towards the cave entrance. Wherever it passed, the void became transparent, completely frozen!
The giant Groselle proactively stood at the very front, kneeling on his left knee, bending his back forward, and plunging his broad, straight greatsword into the ground before him.
A dawn-like light then shone, forming illusory walls to Groselle's left and right, protecting everyone behind him.
The ice-blue "tide" surged forward, first split by the vertical greatsword, then crashing against the dawn light on both sides!
Accompanying the blossoming of dawn-like radiance from the greatsword, a Hurricane of Light swept outwards, piercing through the newly formed ice layer.
Groselle's gray-blue figure vanished from the spot. The Elven Singer Siatas, her hair not yet tied up, held her bow and, embraced by swirling gales, rushed out of the cave without any pause.
Morbet Zoroast, the Viscount of the Solomon Empire, wearing an asymmetrical black jacket, muttered, "Don't rush," and "Finally here," as he ran with large strides, closely following behind Siatas.
However, they almost simultaneously stopped, their gazes solemn as they looked at Joseph Weil, who had suddenly appeared before them.
Looking at this mysterious powerhouse who was fighting the "King of the North" back and forth, Morbet was about to say something when he heard Aaron's voice from behind:
"No need to be nervous. This Demigod is the helper I invited. The upcoming battle will be left to Bayer. This is his final step to becoming a Demigod."
Ignoring the expressions of Morbet and the others, Joseph Weil nodded. After blocking the "King of the North's" subsequent attacks, he looked at Bayer, who had already taken out the potion, and reminded him:
"This fellow is not a Demigod from a normal Pathway. It is an out-of-control Monster that has gathered many ice-type Beyonder characteristics. It can rival a Demigod in specific domains, but is inferior in other aspects."
"Although it was injured by me, it has become even more insane as a result. Directly assisting you would affect the effectiveness of your ritual, so I only used a Command to prohibit its flight ability."
Bayer Baile nodded, without the slightest hesitation, and drank the bottle of silver potion in his hand. To everyone's surprise, he let out a painful roar.
As waves of terrifying fluctuations emanated, his body rapidly expanded. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a four-meter-tall "Giant," his skin turning dark green and gnarled, containing an unimaginable sense of impact.
Morbet and the others felt a stinging in their eyes, and as they gaped, they turned to look at Groselle, who was beside them, touching his head with a bewildered expression.
Aaron, feeling the chaotic aura emanating from Bayer Baile, was not surprised. This was precisely a requirement of the ritual: after consuming the potion, one could temporarily possess power comparable to a Demigod, and by hunting a Demigod-level Monster before losing control, one could successfully advance.
Although it was inconvenient to directly intervene in the battle, Aaron could use the sub-consciousness within the Sefirah, through Bayer Baile's previous prayer light points, to extend his period of losing control.
Dark golden mystical symbols appeared in Aaron's pupils. Bayer's eyes, which had been consumed by madness and a desire to tear everything apart, flashed with a hint of clarity, and then met the gaze of a pair of extremely violent, dark-blue dragon eyes.
Rip!
The snow parted, and a deep, wide gully was ploughed into the ground. This gully extended all the way to where Bayer Baile had just been standing. He did not dodge at all, directly blocking the "King of the North's" dive path!
Bayer Baile, in his giant form, knelt on one knee and pulled out a translucent, light-formed greatsword from a crack in the earth.
Dawn-like light then appeared, erecting an unbreakable, invisible wall.
Boom!
The collision between the Ice Dragon and the "Giant" Bayer Baile was like a terrifying explosion, shattering all the surrounding snow and ice and pushing it outwards.
A huge crater appeared at the center of the collision. Bayer Baile did not retreat; instead, he lunged forward, raising his "Sword of Dawn" and striking at Ulyssan, the "King of the North," who remained stationary.
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