Facing the massive blade about to cleave down, Lixue’s calm cracked for a heartbeat, like ripples on a frozen lake—and then it smoothed to ice again.

“Icemoon: Pierce.”

An ice-blue sigil bloomed before her, cold spilling like winter wind. Countless ice pikes gathered, then fused into a colossal spike, its tip glinting with heart-stilling frostlight.

The colossal icicle met the colossal blade. The impact erupted like thunder under a winter sky, and the Palace of Ice Crystal shuddered on the brink of collapse.

Before the palace could fall, a gentle ice-blue radiance rose from within, like moonlight over snowfields, steadying the pillars and knitting the cracks. FrostyLily Dream had moved.

“Blocked…?”

That Destruction Invisible Sword was the strongest cut I can make, a sunflare of steel. It still wasn’t enough. Yet Lixue’s face was paler than before, like frost on porcelain. Her price was heavy too.

“I didn’t expect anyone of our era to push me this far. Worthy of the Mizumi Clan’s genius.” Her eyes burned like cold stars. “I won’t hold back anymore. From here on—it’s all out. Let’s settle this, fair and true.”

“Ice Illusion Moon, Second Form— Icemoon Bow, unseal!”

Her twin blades trembled like reeds in a gale. The tremor swelled. The swords slipped from her hands and rose above her head, shedding knife-cold light like sleet.

Sword tip met sword tip and fused into a bow’s body, while the slender ice-blue chain between them tightened into the bowstring, taut as winter’s edge.

From afar, an ice-blue half-moon floated above her, cold enough to bite bone. A Sword Wielder using a bow? I wanted to quip, but the moment didn’t spare me, because—

When the Icemoon Bow dropped back into Lixue’s grip, a vast magic circle flared under her feet, turning like a frostwheel. Its sigils and figures were the most intricate I’d seen, like lace carved in ice.

Around its rim, petal-pretty, transparent ice crystals bloomed—ice Sword Aura shaped into flowers. The sight alone stole breath, a garden under a polar night.

The array didn’t just dazzle; it roared with power. Her presence swelled like a rising blizzard, stronger than before by a mountain’s weight.

“Yumigawa Sumeragi, the Icemoon Bow is my final trump. If you don’t want to lose, bring out more than you’ve shown.”

She drew the string in a swift pull. Ice Sword Aura condensed into three longswords in her hands, bright as winter comets.

“Icemoon: Triple Annihilation.”

!!!

The instant the three blades left the circle, the world dimmed like a clouded sun. Wherever they passed, air and element froze solid, a river turned to glass.

I wanted to know how deep Lixue’s strength ran. I thought awakening Shattered Light meant sure victory, a dawn already risen. I was wrong—her moon had another face.

If luck hadn’t sparked Shattered Light today, I probably wouldn’t have even qualified to make her fight seriously.

I drew a steady breath, cold in my chest like iron. I pulled every ember of Shattered Light over my blade, then sent a massive golden Sword Aura howling up to meet the falling swords.

BOOM!!!

Barely blocked. I staggered back several steps, heels carving tracks in frost. My hands shook around Shattered Light’s hilt, tremors like twigs in wind. I was near the edge.

My body had forty-some seconds left, a candle guttering. If we didn’t end it by then, my chance would blow out.

I didn’t have the fuel for a storm of techniques. Better to pour everything into one last tide and ride it or drown. One strike. Winner takes the night.

Lixue must have felt the same pull. She didn’t chain another attack. She closed her eyes and whispered like snow falling, then slowly drew the string. The circle at her feet spun faster, a turning moon.

As the bow drew deeper, the blade in her grasp clarified from mist to steel. Still a longsword—yet more exquisite, more dazzling, like a star honed to an edge.

The power coiled within it was terrifying, a seaquake under a calm surface. It felt like it could unmake sky and earth.

On my side, the preparation tightened to its last heartbeat. Sword Aura and Shattered Light reached the fault line—the limit of my limits.

“Icemoon: Eternal Sword.”

“Heavenly Sword: Radiance!”

We loosed almost as one. Ice-blue luminance and golden brilliance met and crashed, like moon and sun colliding on a winter sea. The world shook in rolling waves.

The Palace of Ice Crystal stood untouched beneath FrostyLily Dream’s protection, as steady as a mountain under falling snow.

The clash didn’t last long. After buckling a swath of space like shattered glass, the energies spent themselves and blew away like spindrift.

Five minutes struck. Feeling my body about to crack like thin ice, I dispelled Shattered Light without hesitation. My legs went light, hollowed out, and strength fled like breath in cold air.

Without Shattered Light propping me up, I’d have face-planted on the ice.

“…”

Lixue floated down soon after. The special kind of Sword Domain around her fell away, and her clothes returned to their usual flow, like thaw under morning sun.

Her complexion wasn’t much better than mine. I guessed her last technique had cost more than my own, a deeper bite of winter.

Strangely, once she landed, she didn’t move. She just stood there, looking at me, breath rising pale. Did that mean—

“Looks like the outcome’s decided.”

Perfectly timed, FrostyLily Dream stepped out from the palace with Lingxiao and Lingsaki at her sides, three figures like frost sprites under moonlight.

“Big Brother!”

“Big Brother!”

Lingxiao and Lingsaki sprinted over, then pounced like twin foxes on fresh snow.

“Oof!”

I was already a reed in the wind. Their tackle almost squeezed blood from my ribs.

“Eh? Big Brother, your face is so pale! What happened?!”

“Your eyes are going white, too! What did you go through?!”

Their worry stung warm in the cold, and I felt awkward. Still, I forced words out. “Could you… maybe get off me first? I’m really in a bad way…”

“Ah—sorry! We got excited. We’ll heal you right now, Big Brother!”

“Mm-hmm! We’ll do our best to bring you back!”

Under their healing spells, warmth trickled back like spring melt. I recovered a little. Far from whole, but standing and walking were no longer mountains.

“Mmm, so that’s how it was~”

Lixue, too, had clearly received FrostyLily Dream’s aid. Color returned to her cheeks like dawn over ice.

“Then, Lady FrostyLily Dream, what’s the result of this battle?”

I swallowed hard. Nerves fluttered like sparrows. Neither of us had fallen outright. The winner was a hard call—wait.

I’d been half-kneeling—no strength to stand—while Lixue was still on her feet. Would that tilt the verdict like a scale touched by a feather?

…