Instead of delivering a fatal blow, Vrax swung his blade with surgical precision, plunging the tip of the Dragon Blessing straight into Helar's core. The legendary sword's unique authority flared into a brilliant, purifying light. It did not tear her soul apart; instead, it cleanly severed the abyssal essence rooted within her, stripping away her dark powers while leaving her mortal life intact.
Helar collapsed onto the frozen earth, gasping for breath. She was alive, but her mana pool had completely evaporated—she had been reduced to a fragile, ordinary human.
By the time Caser tracked her location and emerged from a shadow portal onto the desolate ridge, he was already too late. Vrax didn't even bother to turn around. With a unhurried step, the golden-haired warrior dissolved into thin air, leaving no trace behind.
Caser stood over the powerless Helar, his cold expression darkening as he calculated their catastrophic losses. Relay was gravely wounded and crippled; Helar was stripped of her abyssal power; and as for Leo, the 4th Officer—his presence had vanished from the continental mana grid entirely, with no sign of whether he was dead, trapped, or lost in the void.
Knowing he couldn't linger, Caser grabbed the weakened Helar and stepped through the spatial fissure, retreating far away from the Western Kingdom's borders.
The true stronghold of the Western Cult was hidden far beneath the frozen tundra of Kara—an expanse located in the northern region of the Eurasia continent, spanning vast swathes of Eastern and Northern Europe. Inspired by the harsh, icy wilderness of ancient Russia, Kara was a realm of perpetual winter, dominated by sweeping snowstorms and rugged terrain.
While Kara maintained trade routes with neighboring territories and possessed slightly more advanced infrastructure, its societal structure remained deeply traditional. At the heart of the nation stood the grand frost-stone castle of the reigning Empress, surrounded by classic Western-style architecture and early-stage industrial developments.
Deep beneath this freezing northern nation lay the Cult's subterranean headquarters. The heresy's rapid, unpredictable incursions across the continent were made possible by an ancient network of long-range teleportation gates. One primary gate directly linked their underground citadel to the Western Kingdom, allowing them to mobilize shock troops and high officers instantly.
Returning to the dim, frozen halls of the subterranean fortress, Caser deposited the defeated officers into the care of the cult's medics. The assault on the kingdom had failed, leaving their rank-and-file decimated and their High Officers broken—a devastating blow that shattered the cult's untouchable aura across the continent.