Next, once Mikaret got serious, I was almost beaten into the ground. The gap in power wasn’t something my Sword Domain alone could bridge. Her magic domain was the whole Mountain of Extreme Ice, a glacier of runes wrapped around me like a frozen world. My Sword Domain only covered half the summit, a pale halo against that towering white.

Dread bit first, cold as frost under the ribs. I had to guard against her Bewitching Magic Eyes. The first time I shook free was pure luck, a gust through fog. I couldn’t let carelessness crack me again.

Truth stung like winter wind—I was weak. Even at full strength, I couldn’t do more than scuff Mikaret’s armor of ice.

No wonder. Mikaret was a half-step Divine Realm powerhouse. Even without her domain, her core was steel under snow. Her ice magic had climbed to its own lonely peak; a casual flick carried the force of the Holy Peak, sharp as sleet slashing skin.

Against that kind of mountain, sword skills were pebbles in a stream, and swordsmanship was just dry leaves in a gale. I couldn’t even pierce her defense. If only I could rouse the power of the Shattered Light Sword, even one percent, a spark in a cave.

Right now, I could only shore up with Sword Intent and the Sword Domain. She’d gone all-in, a storm with no breaks. Her attacks flowed like winter rain on tiles. I blocked one wave, and the next crashed in, relentless as surf. It was maddening.

…

We fought for about an hour. My stamina drained away, like warmth bleeding through thin cloth.

“Amamiya-kun, you look about done,” Mikaret said, lazy as drifting snow. She met my Shattered Light slash with a spear of ice crystal, then flicked it aside. Compared to me—sweat soaking, breath ragged—she was a winter lake, calm and cold.

“I won’t give up!”

I hacked through her ice spear, driving her back a few steps. My voice was iron on stone.

“Is that so? A pity.” She sighed like a light snowfall. “If you’d surrendered, maybe, for Michelle’s sake, I’d let you keep your life.”

Ice flowers spiraled off her fingers. She wove weapons from crystal, a garden of spears and blades.

“Go.”

The sky bloomed with ice—like a squall, like a hurricane—and every shard flew at me, too fast for eyes to catch, like sleet blurring lanterns.

“…”

No time to hesitate. I unleashed the Sword Qi Storm at full force, a tornado of Sword Aura howling like a dragon in winter.

Clang! Clang! Clang! …

Not good. My strength was already a guttering candle. If I kept bracing against her rain of blades, I’d burn out faster. Even if I held this wave, another would crash right after, like tide against cliffs.

I needed a way to turn the board over, now. Otherwise, my ending was simple—a loss. Unless my power jumped to half-step Divine Realm in a heartbeat, or one of my Three Swords—technique, aura, intent—broke through.

Power was out. I had no secret elixir, no forbidden method to spike my core. Swordsmanship and Sword Aura, too, were stuck at the second layer—no quick gains there. The river was frozen.

That left Sword Intent. But anxiety came first, a quiver under the skin. I hadn’t even asked Xinuo about Sword Intent before she kicked me into the Extreme Cold Hell of the Northern Abyss Continent. My grasp was a half-lit lantern. What could I do?

The Sword Domain only manifests when Sword Intent turns solid, like mist becoming ice. So Sword Intent and the Domain must be linked, threads crossing under snow. My current Sword Intent can sense an enemy’s next step, can feel their exact place like heat under darkness. I can also let it seep out, muddling minds like fog over a marsh. But I’m too weak; against Mikaret, that fog thins and tears.

“…Got it.”

A spark flashed in my mind, a firefly in the storm. If Sword Intent can radiate outward, can’t it fuse into the Sword Domain too? Sword Intent amplifies—fold it into a technique, and power jumps a beat or two. If that works for the Domain, wouldn’t the Domain itself surge?

If yes, my strength could reach at least the half-step Divine Realm, a ridge above the plain.

“Hu… let’s try.”

I act the moment an idea lights up—one of my life rules, carved like grain in wood. I poured my focus into letting Sword Intent spill out, then tried to weave it into the Domain, thread by thread.

Good thing the tornado of Sword Aura hadn’t dispersed; its roar was a wall against the hail. But it wouldn’t hold long. I had to move fast, like sewing in a storm.

…

Half a minute crawled by. Finally, something budged. My first attempt almost rebounded, a whip of pain snapping back. I didn’t dare rush again. I went slow, careful, like placing stepping stones across a river. Then—surprisingly smooth. Sword Intent slipped into the Domain, a thin stream finding a lake. Just a little—but push it.

…

Another half minute. The Sword Qi Storm was about to be shattered, the tornado fraying like torn silk. The fusion was at the crux, the knife-edge. If I got interrupted now, the backlash might hit harder than when I self-detonated the Sword Domain last time.

Please—hold.

I prayed in the quiet under the roar. I couldn’t spare a hand to gather energy and extend the Sword Qi Storm’s duration. The tornado shrank, its sides riddled with holes from Mikaret’s ice, like a sieve leaking light.

“Mn… all in!”

I gritted my teeth and quickened the merge. You shouldn’t rush this—but if I didn’t now, there’d be no chance. The earlier Sword Intent I’d spread had mostly seeped into the Domain already. Speeding up didn’t kick back this time; the river took the flow.

Seconds mattered like breaths under water. Ten flickered by.

Boom!!

The tornado around me finally tore apart, pierced by the dense storm of ice weapons. It broke, then dissolved, its energy returning to heaven and earth like snow melting into a stream. I stood exposed, bare under hail.

“Close call. If the Sword Qi Storm had died one second earlier, I’d be a tragedy on ice.”

At the razor’s edge, I managed to fuse every strand of radiated Sword Intent into the Sword Domain.

Then—

Boom!!!

The entire Sword Domain blazed with a blinding gold light, like sunrise flooding a glacier. The ice weapons about to strike me were swallowed, transmuted into what we call Sword Aura—golden breath, pure and cutting. Inside the Domain, the Sword Aura turned even cleaner, like refined sunlight. My stamina surged back, warmth filling the limbs like tea in winter.

A few seconds later, the glare faded.

The Sword Domain showed a new face. The structure was the same, the bones of blades and space unchanged. But the area had more than doubled, a meadow turning into a golden plain. The old sunset-orange glow shifted to radiant gold; sky and earth were gilded, a beautiful wash like autumn fields under noon. Swords floated in the air or stood planted in earth, each breathing faint golden starlight, like fireflies trapped in crystal. From afar, it looked like a dreamscape.

The Sword Domain had… leveled up.