The moment Seraphis stepped forward, the air cracked.
Not from heat, not from force—but from a cold so absolute, so overwhelming, that the very concept of warmth ceased to exist.
Luciel felt it first. His storm, once raging, stuttered. The wind, the lightning, the fury—it all hesitated, as if the very atmosphere itself feared what was coming.
Seraphis lifted a hand.
A single snowflake formed at her fingertip. Delicate. Elegant. Deceptively fragile.
The battlefield froze.
A wave of frost erupted outward, sweeping across the shattered earth, swallowing fire, wind, and blood alike. Ethan's collapsing body was untouched, the ice curving around him with unnatural precision, but everything else—everything—was sealed beneath an ocean of crystalline white.
Luciel leapt back, his instincts roaring at him to move, but even he felt it—the terrifying, unnatural weight of something that should not exist.
This wasn't normal ice.
It wasn't even Saint Realm magic.
This was Primordial Frost.
Luciel narrowed his eyes. "So… you finally decided to act."
Seraphis stepped forward, her white hair flowing like cascading snowfall, her wings unfurling, each feather glowing with the frost of creation itself.
"I told you before, Luciel," she said, her voice eerily calm. "You don't get to decide what he's worth."
Luciel exhaled sharply, gripping Zephyros tightly. "You're making a mistake."
Seraphis simply lifted her hand.
The temperature plummeted.
The storm that had once been in Luciel's favor vanished.
The battlefield was no longer his.
Luciel's eyes darkened. "So be it."
A blur of motion—lightning coiling around his form, his bow already drawn. Zephyros hummed with raw storm essence, an arrow forming faster than thought, faster than sight.
A spear of pure annihilation tore through the air, aimed straight for Seraphis's heart.
She raised a hand, her frosted fingers gliding through the air with unnatural precision. The moment the arrow neared—
A single snap of her fingers, and the arrow shattered into a million glacial shards, falling like diamond dust to the frozen battlefield.
Luciel's expression didn't change, but his grip on Zephyros tightened.
Seraphis didn't wait.
She swept forward, her body gliding effortlessly across the ice, her wings barely moving as her hand curved in an elegant arc. From that simple motion, an entire wall of ice lances erupted from the ground, twisting and spiraling toward Luciel in a deadly, unrelenting assault.
And fired another arrow, this time infused with pure force, the winds bending to his command. The arrow streaked downward like a comet, cutting through Seraphis's glacial defenses—
Only for her to catch it.
The sheer force of the arrow cracked the earth beneath her, but she didn't so much as flinch.
Then, with an icy breath, she crushed the arrow in her grasp, the wind screaming as it dissipated into nothingness.
Luciel's eyes flickered.
Seraphis was stronger than expected.
In the next moment, he twisted his fingers in the air—three more arrows appeared instantly, surrounding Seraphis from all angles.
The arrows didn't strike. Instead, they detonated, unleashing a massive storm vortex at point-blank range, swallowing Seraphis in a maelstrom of lightning and wind.
For a brief second, Luciel thought he had her.
The storm froze solid.
Luciel barely had time to react before Seraphis burst through the frozen vortex, her entire body now wreathed in Primordial Frost.
A single palm strike.
Luciel barely dodged—but even then, the sheer presence of her attack froze the very space beside him, ice creeping unnaturally through the air itself.
Before he could retaliate—
A thunderous impact shattered the battlefield.
Luciel was forced back, his boots skidding across the ice, his storm momentarily disrupted by the overwhelming force that had suddenly entered the battle.
And there Ethan stood.
His body was trembling, his breath ragged, his aura flickering with unstable energy. The fusions had pushed him to his very limit. His veins pulsed with too many affinities at once, his muscles screaming from the sheer overload.
His golden, burning eyes—
In his hands, his weapon had changed once more.
The warhammer, once solid, had become something more. It shifted and pulsed, its form constantly evolving, infused with every affinity, every bond he had formed.
The head of the hammer glowed with Blood Magic, its core pulsing like a living heart.
The shaft was infused with earth and metal, reinforced beyond mortal limits.
Chains of darkness and necrosis coiled around it, writhing like living things.
The edges shimmered with alchemy's ever-changing energy, constantly adapting.
And now—the runes of sound had begun to carve themselves into the weapon's core, the power of Sage, his Sound Drake, fusing into it.
Ethan exhaled. His body screamed in agony.
"You two having fun without me?"
Seraphis shot him a sharp glance, her concern evident even through the cold elegance of her expression. "You shouldn't be moving."
Ethan cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders. "Yeah, well. I don't really have the luxury of resting right now, do I?"
Luciel watched him carefully.
"This is the difference between Saint Realm and Emperor Realm, Ethan," he said, his tone not mocking, but final. "You're dying, and yet you still stand. Admirable. But pointless."
Ethan grinned, spinning his warhammer once before shifting it into a spear.
"Then why don't you make me sit down?"
Luciel narrowed his eyes.
The final clash began.
The battlefield had become a frozen wasteland, ice and storm clashing violently as Seraphis stood before Luciel, her ethereal blue skin glowing with an unearthly radiance. Frost and wind howled in a chaotic symphony, the very sky fracturing under the pressure of their overwhelming forces.
Luciel narrowed his eyes, his grip on Zephyros tightening. "So you choose to stand against me, Seraphis? A foolish decision."
"You have no idea what you're dealing with," she replied, raising her hand as the air around them plummeted into a deathly freeze. "I am Seraphis, the Frost Primogenitor, and I will not stand idle while you take everything away."
Luciel merely smirked. "Very well. Then you will fall with him."
They clashed again, Seraphis's glacial blades forming mid-air, slashing forward in rapid succession. Each strike released bursts of absolute zero, freezing the very wind itself. But Luciel was faster—his storm arrows slicing through her ice, breaking through like a relentless tide.
Seraphis danced across the battlefield, teleporting between frozen pillars, sending waves of frost spikes in every direction. Luciel twisted, his body spinning effortlessly in mid-air, loosing arrow after arrow that pierced through space itself.
One arrow grazed her shoulder. A thin line of blood splattered into the air, only to freeze instantly.
A deep, guttural roar echoed through the frozen land.
Luciel barely had time to react as the sky above ripped open, a massive dark-blue-scaled drake descending with a deafening shriek, soundwaves warping reality itself.
Luciel's expression darkened.
Seraphis turned, eyes widening as Ethan rose once more, his body battered, his breath ragged—but his eyes burning brighter than ever.
"I told you," Ethan rasped, stepping forward. "I don't fall."
Sage let out another piercing roar, its soundwaves tearing apart the frozen battlefield, sending tremors through reality itself. As its glowing blue eyes locked onto Ethan, the final Sync began.
Ethan's body was consumed by a shockwave of sound, his entire form vibrating at frequencies beyond mortal comprehension. His warhammer, already infused with the power of his other Beasts, shifted once more—now thrumming with raw sonic energy, its every movement distorting the air itself.
Luciel stepped back, his smirk faltering. "Impossible…"
Ethan lifted his newly enhanced weapon, a force beyond logic coursing through him.
Seraphis took her place beside him, a silent understanding passing between them.
The battle wasn't over.
It was just reaching its peak.