The frost spread at astonishing speed, reaching Fenrir's legs and freezing them to the ground. For a moment, even the giant wolf was unable to break free.
Everyone turned toward the source.
Not far away, Lavinia hovered in midair. Beside her floated a four-armed ice maiden whose entire body was formed from solid ice.
A bitterly cold wind continued to blow, causing more and more of Fenrir's body to freeze over.
Everyone was stunned by the sight.
They had already experienced Fenrir's strength firsthand, yet they hadn't expected Lavinia to be this powerful either.
Even when all of them fought together, they had been unable to restrain Fenrir.
Yet she had frozen it in place so easily.
Fenrir, however, was no easy prey.
Although its entire body had been encased in ice, it continued struggling to stand. Cracked chunks of ice constantly fell from its body as its eyes glowed scarlet.
At the same time, violent crimson heat rapidly gathered inside its mouth and nostrils.
Even when Lavinia increased her magical output, all she could do was slow down the rate at which Fenrir shattered the ice.
BOOM!
The next instant,
"Rider Kick!"
A purple figure streaked across the sky like a meteor and slammed into Fenrir's head!
The enormous force drove Fenrir viciously into the ground. The ice beneath the point of impact shattered instantly, while the power it had been gathering was disrupted.
Scorching streams of heat sprayed uncontrollably from its mouth and nostrils.
However, when the flames dispersed, Fenrir climbed back to its feet.
It didn't appear to have suffered any significant damage. The only visible injury was a large bruise where Rod's kick had struck.
And for Fenrir, an injury like that was clearly nothing serious.
Instead, the pain only made its expression more savage.
Its blood-red eyes locked firmly onto Rod, clearly marking him as its next target.
Rod immediately felt the warning sensation of being hunted.
Still, he showed no fear. He only wondered at how ridiculously tough Fenrir's hide was.
That Rider Kick had been charging ever since Lavinia made her move.
Even Creuserey after consuming Ophis's snake, or Maou-class Devils like Shalba, would have been killed by that kick.
Yet after taking the full force of it, Fenrir had only suffered some bruising and perhaps a slight fracture.
That level of defense was completely absurd.
But if Fenrir weren't that powerful, it would never have been ranked among the world's Top Ten strongest beings, leaving even its father Loki so far behind that he couldn't see its shadow.
Fenrir was a genuine Transcender, after all.
If it could be defeated that easily, Loki wouldn't have sent it here alone.
Meanwhile,
Loki was observing the battle through the divine technique he had placed on Fenrir.
The moment he saw Rod interfering with his plans yet again, fury surged through him.
He would never forget the humiliation that mortal had inflicted upon him.
Throughout his entire life, neither Odin nor Thor had ever beaten him.
Yet this human was the first person to brutalize him so thoroughly.
Although the one Rod had beaten was only an avatar, it had still contained a portion of Loki's divine power and senses.
After returning that day, Loki had secretly sworn that he would make that damned human experience the punishment he deserved.
"Kill him!"
Loki issued the command to Fenrir.
The next moment, Fenrir's four limbs slammed against the ground.
Its colossal body charged toward Rod at terrifying speed, moving so quickly that it vanished from the sight of Rias, Sona, and the others.
They couldn't track the giant beast's movements at all.
Rod, however, was even faster.
He leaped away and instantly entered a state of extreme acceleration.
Fenrir, which had disappeared from his vision, appeared once again.
From Rod's perspective, the giant wolf was swinging one of its claws directly at him.
Rod was confident in his physical condition. Ten times a night would be nothing to him.
Even so, he had no intention of taking Fenrir's attack head-on.
It wasn't because Fenrir's raw strength was overwhelmingly greater than his.
If it came down to pure physical power, Rod could still wrestle with it for a while.
The problem was that Fenrir's claws and fangs were unbelievably sharp. They could easily tear through divine armor and even the bodies of gods.
If one of those claws struck him directly, even the armor of Incinerate Anthem wouldn't be enough to protect him completely.
The flower-petal shields were supposedly capable of blocking every attack in existence.
But Fenrir's fangs could pierce even the genuine article, let alone Rod's imitations.
Rod dodged instead of blocking, but deliberately pushed the evasion to the absolute limit.
Fenrir believed it was about to catch him, only to miss by the smallest possible margin.
The violent wind from its claw swept across Rod's face, while his armor endured tremendous pressure.
At the exact moment Fenrir passed him, the cross-shaped ornament on Rod's chest erupted with scorching light.
Three enormous purple-flame monsters emerged from the void.
They were the three great yokai from Uji's treasure, which Rod had seized from the Inner Sanctuary.
After developing them, Incinerate Anthem had naturally gained the ability to summon the three monsters into battle.
The three yokai immediately charged toward Fenrir without the slightest fear of death.
The Nine-Tailed Fox wrapped its tails tightly around Fenrir's body.
One of the other two monsters punched Fenrir in the head, while the final creature opened its enormous jaws and bit down.
At the same time, the effects of the purple flames caused fire to spread along Fenrir's fur.
ROAR!
Fenrir's head was knocked sideways by the heavy punch.
The flames erupting from its mouth immediately lost their aim and blasted straight into the earth, melting open an enormous crater.
Fenrir quickly recovered.
It twisted its head around and bit viciously into one of the great yokai. Its fangs instantly tore apart the creature's body of purple fire, eliminating it from the battle.
Its front paw then struck the second monster with deadly precision, destroying it as well.
The purple Nine-Tailed Fox tightened its grip even further, while the intense heat of the purple flames left countless blackened burns across Fenrir's body.
At the same time, Rod pulled a Holy Sword from his storage space.
Radiant energy surged across the blade.
He aimed it at Fenrir and unleashed a violent torrent of power.
BOOM!
The Holy Sword's inherent ability struck Fenrir directly, slamming the giant wolf into the ground.
Before this, everyone had only been able to make out the intersecting trails left behind by Fenrir and Rod as they moved at extreme speed.
But once Fenrir was struck, it was forced out of its high-speed movement, allowing everyone to finally see its current condition.
Most of its fur had been burned away, and numerous charred wounds covered its body.
Yet even after being injured, Fenrir remained completely undeterred.
Its fighting spirit was as fierce as ever.
"It's still fine?"
Rod knew they couldn't continue like this.
At the very least, they needed some kind of tool capable of restraining Fenrir.
He remembered that in the original story, a chain forged by the dwarven craftsmen of Norse mythology had been transported to the battlefield and used to bind Fenrir.
Only after Loki was defeated and his control over Fenrir disappeared had they finally managed to win.
But everything had happened too suddenly this time.
There was no chain available.
Then Rod suddenly remembered that he possessed something that might prove useful.
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