Chapter 1 The Perpetual Snowstorm in the North

The wind and snow in the northern part of the empire continued to rage.

Beneath the dim sky, with the addition of another eighth-tier powerhouse at the bishop level, the entire northern border fortress of Bandera City was rapidly subjected to devastating tremors.

The mountains and giant trees outside the city, and even the lakes that were usually frozen solid, became turbulent under the impact of this chaotic battle.

The city gates shattered, ancient towers collapsed, and roads were distorted. The once prosperous Bandera City, with its sculptures and plazas, was reduced to nothing, leaving behind only tormented souls unable to ascend to the heavens, trapped in this ruined city filled with blood debts and sins, transformed into a stage of tragedy.

The uppermost layer of Bandera City crumbled and sank layer by layer, and the entire suspended ground gradually formed a huge crater, with sharp rocks and broken walls all around, resembling the entrance to the gates of hell.

In the center of the crater, the desperate battle intensified once more. A rolling storm of dark magic, a blend of gray and black, twisted the surrounding air, emitting a suffocating aura of death.

On the battlefield where the three powerhouses clashed, the heavy clouds continued to descend, disturbed by some immense energy, congealing into bizarre shapes, occasionally accompanied by thunderous roars as if from an enraged god.

Every time Sigrid clashed with Ascusano and the black-robed man, the terrain below would be scarred by their energy collisions, and as the battle progressed, even the lower support layer began to collapse.

The silver light on Sigrid possessed the power to tear everything apart, while the inexhaustible and unrelenting cold magic of Ascusano and the black-robed man created a dividing line between light and darkness with each collision.

It was unknown how long the battle had raged on.

Faced with Sigrid in this state, even Ascusano and the black-robed man, fighting together, dared not be careless, cautiously blocking her attacks.

Ascusano's vision was exceptionally clear.

Sigrid was not the only one injured. Unlike her monstrous and unfathomable vitality, the black-robed man, targeted by Sigrid, clearly suffered significant damage each time Sigrid managed to land a blow.

Even if Ascusano and the black-robed man could quickly resolve the battle and kill Sigrid here today, they would pay a price.

After a long few minutes, Sigrid successfully shifted the battlefield tens of meters away from the unmovable abyssal worm.

Her battle strategy was clearly to move away from that abyssal black worm.

However, even if the black-robed man left openings for her to strike, he would never allow Sigrid to shift the battlefield or give her even a sliver of a chance to escape.

Ascusano was the same.

He was well aware of Sigrid's magic immunity. Ordinary control magic was difficult to use against her. Only this kind of powerful suppression could effectively restrict her movements!

In the dust of the great battle, a fierce wind swept through, and three swift figures briefly materialized.

The formerly arrogant Ascusano now had a tattered dark gray coat, and his eyes were clearly no longer as sharp as before. He seemed to have expended a great deal of energy in this brief battle, but his expression remained cold and stern with a hint of mockery, and the wounds on his face, oozing with faint blood, could not conceal his sinister smile.

The black-robed man still flickered like a phantom, his mysterious black robe partially torn. His face was still tightly concealed by black mist, but the blood he coughed up indicated that he, who had earned Sigrid's hatred, was not faring well. The black chains he wielded no longer emitted that domineering black jade light and began to dim.

However, their injuries were nothing compared to Sigrid's.

Her body, which once radiated silver light, was now covered in mortal wounds. The tips of her long hair dripped with blood, and her once bright purple eyes appeared somewhat sluggish. Her breathing was rapid, and the aura she emitted grew weaker, making it seem as if she could collapse at any moment.

Sigrid glanced at the distant sky, and she roughly understood that she would probably be unable to reverse her fate in today's caged beast fight.

After her defeat, the Holy Child would have no hope of escaping from these two enemies.

Perhaps she still had a chance to unleash a final, all-out blow, severely injuring one of them.

However, with that abyssal black worm greatly reducing her freedom of movement, it was extremely difficult for her to hit anyone under Ascusano and the black-robed man's coordinated lockdown.

She had never respected the gods in her life, neither the Goddess of Fate nor the Goddess of Life revered by their Rebirth Church.

Thus, as expected, she was now losing to luck.

"Sigrid, you're really hard to kill."

Ascusano's gaze was unsure whether he was bidding farewell to this old enemy or enjoying the unimaginable pleasure of finally being able to kill her.

Taking advantage of Sigrid's close proximity to the black-robed man, the dust in the air was pulled into a miniature vortex by his dark gray magic, and the stones around her were directly transformed into countless fragments.

"!"

Sigrid sensed the intense magical fluctuations and knew that even though Ascusano made it seem effortless, he had been fully searching for an opportunity to obliterate her from beginning to end.

Even though she tried her best to dodge Ascusano's killing move, Sigrid was still smashed into the ground by the black chains that the black-robed man had added.

"Hahahaha."

Ascusano laughed, mocking Sigrid's desperate resistance. In their eyes, she was destined to be nothing more than a pitiful toy.

Beneath the black chains, the smoke dissipated.

Sigrid's figure had disappeared.

She had used one of her few Shunshin (Instant Transmission) spells at some point, swooping down towards the black-robed man.

Even though she knew that her desperate gamble would likely fail, she didn't have many options left.

At this moment, only by venturing into a land of death could she survive, and only by placing herself in a desperate situation could she be reborn!

"..."

The black-robed man had anticipated this and prepared for it. With a wave of his sleeve, the enormous black chains flew towards Sigrid as if predicting her movements.

She tried to dodge, but the chains followed her like a shadow, instantly wrapping around her arms and waist. Her body jolted violently as she tried to break free, but the more she struggled, the tighter they became.

At this moment, Ascusano had completed his new round of magical preparations.

He extended his finger and pointed in the direction of Sigrid, conjuring hundreds of magic circles all over the ground, nearly covering the entire ruins of Bandera City. The cold light emanating from within the circles was meant to freeze everything.

Sigrid felt an unprecedented sense of crisis, tightly bound by the chains, unable to move.

"Haa..."

She took a deep breath, as if it were her last sigh, and the silver light on her body lit up again, even more brilliantly than before. No matter what, this was her last gamble. The life force in her body was instantly ignited, transforming into blazing silver flames.

The flames frantically scorched the chains, trying to melt them. A hint of surprise flashed in the black-robed man's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a sense of certainty—

Sigrid had finally been forced to use her desperate, life-risking move.

No matter how powerful Sigrid's outburst was, she was already at her limit. With them prepared, there was almost no chance that she could hit either him or Ascusano!

However.

Just as both sides were about to erupt.

In the distance, a ray of silver light seized this gap in space and time and fell like a shooting star on the edge of the abyssal black worm.

After Sigrid had done her best to shift the battlefield, the abyssal black worm was already a certain distance away from both Ascusano and the black-robed man!

The intruder, who had been observing the situation for a long time, finally seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and arrived at this place.

After the silver light puppet put down Lan Qi, he stood alone by the abyssal black worm. Under such immense pressure, Cat Boss was so frightened that he had difficulty breathing and his heart ached.

Lan Qi's gaze was firm and his goal clear. The earth-shattering energy fluctuations and deafening roars in the center of the battlefield, and everything around him, seemed to have nothing to do with him.

His eyes were only fixed on this eighth-tier epic summoned creature that had caused Sigrid so much trouble.

"Squeak—"

The disc-shaped abyssal black worm in mid-air was a constantly expanding twisted rift on this battlefield. The air was filled with a cold, ethereal aura because of it, which not only made people feel uncomfortable but also caused a bone-chilling coldness, as if behind it lay a land of annihilation that humans had never seen and could not imagine.

Lan Qi's footsteps were as if he was treading on a swamp, and as he approached to such a distance, the countless eyes on the abyssal black worm all stared at Lan Qi.

In its perception, Lan Qi was just an insignificant worm, not even an intruder.

But Lan Qi didn't care about the strange aura and fierce malice emanating from the abyssal black worm, and only felt fondness in his eyes.

On the other side of the battlefield.

A hint of relief also appeared on the corners of Sigrid's lips.

She knew that her Holy Child was not a timid person. At this moment, he could still maintain his usual composure and fight alongside her in a final battle against the enemy.

"..."

Seeing that it was Sigrid's [Nian Qi (Psychic Energy) Magic Puppet] who had returned, Ascusano and the black-robed man reached a battle consensus in an instant. They only needed to focus on the nearly defeated Sigrid and not allow any feinting strategies to distract them, lest they leave an opening for Sigrid!

No one would worry that an eighth-tier epic summoned creature like the abyssal black worm would be affected by spells or items from a mere Batian (Overlord) Holy Child and [Nian Qi Magic Puppet].

Only a top-level sealing master like Ascusano could remove the abyssal black worm without paying a heavy price!

Even a sixth-tier Silent Extinction Holy Child would not have the slightest chance of sealing an eighth-tier epic summoned creature. Mortals below the seventh tier appeared too insignificant in front of the abyssal black worm.

Beneath the abyssal black worm.

Lan Qi held up his hand, revealing a few rays of light. It was a small magical item, radiating a strange glow.

It was an orange, semi-transparent card, but it was not of a common, solid texture. The entire card looked illusory and ethereal, between tangible and intangible. The magical patterns on it flowed like the beating of a heart, flashing with an unstable luster. It trembled slightly, as if its frequency was different from that of this world.

Until Lan Qi released it.

The magic card became brighter and brighter. Unlike ordinary magic cards, it was more like several intertwined spirals, emitting an ancient and mysterious radiance.

The released magic card shattered into spirals that separated from each other, forming a huge vortex. The surrounding light was bent, attracted, and torn apart, until it accelerated and stabilized, and a crack was cut open in the vortex, finally revealing its true form, a giant wolf.

Scarlet runes that floated and circulated like temporal faults roamed over its pitch-black, deep body.

In this dim, broken city-state's subterranean abyss, it bloomed with world-splitting red patterns, each pattern flashing and breathing, a rift to another dimension.

The black-robed man and Ascusano only had contempt in their eyes for the change near the abyssal black worm.

Although they couldn't identify the attributes of this orange epic card for a moment, and didn't have the spare time or energy to try, a mere ant-like Batian Holy Child was no cause for concern.

The next second.

When the wolf's paw slammed heavily onto the body of the abyssal black worm, the abyssal black worm, which had never made a sound before, let out a piercingly shrill scream that shook the heavens and the earth.

"!"

Ascusano and the black-robed man turned their heads almost at the same time, a hint of shock appearing in their eyes.

They had never felt the abyssal black worm experience such pain and fear!

Only Lan Qi knew the abilities of this Nuclear Fusion Wolf.

[Nuclear Fusion Wolf]

[Category: Summoning Card]

[Rarity: Orange Epic]

[Tier: 4]

[Effect: When attacking summons and equipment, it can seal them back into a magic card state and devour them for 10 seconds, cooldown 10 minutes. Can cause a violent self-destruction, unaffected by any magic cards during self-destruction, chain-detonates all magic cards in the devouring state, the explosive power is affected by the number, tier, and rarity of all magic cards, and magic cards cannot be used again for 30 days after the explosion.]

[Note: Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.]

The abyssal black worm struggled to escape, but after being successfully hunted by the Nuclear Fusion Wolf, it was as if an ant and an elephant had switched roles. With a single bite from the Nuclear Fusion Wolf, the black worm was forcibly twisted and sealed, until it turned back into a magic card flickering with electric cocoons!

The moment the Nuclear Fusion Wolf devoured it, the abyssal black worm's screams and chaotic noises completely disappeared from this battlefield.

The oppressive feeling on Sigrid's body instantly vanished, and she seemed astonished that Lan Qi could directly and briefly erase the [Abyssal Black Worm] from the battlefield.

At this moment, the situation on the battlefield changed instantly!

And at this moment, Lan Qi, raising his hands like a puppeteer and showing off the Great Sealing Technique to the other side of the battlefield with satisfaction, was as if telling Ascusano and the black-robed man: I am the Super Saint Remover.

(End of this chapter)