Vecna’s scattered body knit itself back together, contempt curling on its face like frost on a blade.

Vecna drawled, “So—?”, his voice drifting like lazy smoke.

Light and shadow wheeled like a turning tide; the advantage slid back to Vecna.

Rain Moon Willow raged, but her strength burned dimmer, like a candle in wind.

Vecna’s mocking voice echoed around them like a cold bell.

Disgust spiked in Rain Moon Willow; silver-white teeth clenched, deep-blue eyes burning like lamp oil.

Hesitation pricked Qianya. She opened her mouth, then saw Yueyu, and swallowed her words like a pebble into still water.

Suspicion cooled in her chest like morning mist. Are both sides feinting? I thought Yueyu had truly snapped.

Thunder in her heart first, Qianya shouted, “How long can you keep swaggering, Vecna?”

Qianya’s eyes flashed like flint; she lunged at Vecna.

Yueyu followed like a shadow.

Vecna laughed, and the scene twisted like a spinning mirror.

Two divine powers braided, then erupted. In a blink, everything around was shredded to dust.

They were evenly matched, like locked antlers. For a time, no one held the high ground.

“Heh—your mask is slipping, Vecna.”

Vecna chuckled, interest glinting like cold stars. “Oh? Got a plan, do you?”

“We both know the board; we could play chess out loud under your gaze, and so what?”

Qianya glanced at a white light in the distance, like a lantern in fog.

Vecna’s voice hooked at them. “You don’t think that child, once awakened, will actually help you, right? Heh…”

“Drop the mind games, Vecna. Remember, it’s you driven to the cliff.”

Vecna clicked his tongue; his tone sank like dusk over water.

“The coin’s still spinning—who’s cornered, who’s free!”

Meanwhile, in the far north, after the seal broke, countless monsters surged back like a black tide.

They had one goal—rush the seal and smash it, or rot in this hell.

Vecna laughed like broken bells. “Have you forgotten what the outside looks like now? Watch and see—are you stalling me, or am I stalling you?”

This bluff washed over Qianya and Yueyu like rain on stone.

Alarm stabbed Qianya like ice. He’s talking to Tangxue…!

She clenched her jaw; her eyes cut toward Tangxue like knives.

“Tangxue, Qianya! Fall back!”

“Too late—they’re already here! Hahahaha!”

Pride flared in Vecna like a bonfire. He pulled divine sorcery into a giant spectral claw.

It clenched the single point of light in this realm like a firefly in a fist.

“It’s over…!”

Unlucky for him, he hadn’t caught Qingsheng Tangxue; the light slipped like a shadow.

Xuewei’s voice flowed like cool water. “Tell me, what’s over?”

Her right hand gripped Frostwhisper’s hilt; that light came from Frostwhisper, newly awakened.

“Xuewei! Careful! This thing is far stronger than I thought!”

Calm settled over Xuewei like snowfall. She leveled Frostwhisper’s tip at Vecna’s gaze.

Vecna stared, disbelief flickering like a faulty torch. “You’re absorbing my power?”

He had never spared that ant a glance; now the ant dared to devour him?

Xuewei’s indifference was a winter lake. She met Vecna’s eyes. “Yes. I was born to counter you.”

Within her, a necrotic core drank everything nearby like a starving void.

Vecna laughed, amused like a cat with a new toy. “Interesting. It’s been ages since I felt someone trying to eat me. Since my birth, you’re the first to dare and act.”

Panic snagged Qianya like thorns. She shouted, “Xuewei! Stop! It’s going to—”

“Since you want it so badly, take it all!”

At Qianya’s warning, Xuewei severed her link to Vecna like a cut wire.

But she couldn’t stop him from forcing deathly power into her.

Her brow tightened; under that surging torrent, she raised Frostwhisper without flinching, like a mast in storm.

“Now! Brother!”

Resolve blazed in Tangxue like a golden lamp. She blinked into place before Xuewei, right hand clutching the Sea God’s trident.

She tipped the heavy trident forward; a two-toned vortex bloomed, ice-blue at its heart like winter sea.

It slammed head-on into Vecna’s erupting gray-white energy, the two forces colliding like storm and cliff.

Joy went feral on Vecna’s face, moon-mad and bright. “You finally showed. Ha—haha. I’ve waited so long!”

The next heartbeat, massive pressure smashed the space to shards.

Darkness swallowed everything like a deep tide.

In the unseen void, a terrible energy gathered, a bomb about to detonate.

Vecna meant to settle it in one strike.

Resolve settled in Tangxue like stone. She spoke to Xuewei and Qianya, “Let me take this one alone.”

“Tangxue…?”

“Trust me.”

“Mm.”

Words fell away like leaves. Qianya and the others drew back their power and braced defense.

Tangxue leveled the trident’s tip at the dark ahead.

“Vecna.”

“You want to take my body, don’t you?”

“Then come. Use everything. Try me.”

Tangxue’s eyes snapped open, golden irises shining like twin stars in the dark.

“In the Sea God’s name—Unmaking!”

A silent shockwave erased everything around, like dust wiped from glass.

Tangxue’s gaze stayed steadfast, hard as hammered gold.

Qianya had said that with firm will, none could beat her in her own mind-space.

Tangxue believed her.

Pragmatism cooled her fire. Even if she couldn’t erase it, she’d bleed its strength and buy the others a chance, like drawing poison from a wound.

With her will’s tide turning, the blackness peeled away; light returned like dawn.

Qianya and Xuewei’s figures reformed before her, like silhouettes in rising mist.

“Everyone! Are you okay?!”

Yueyu’s calm was an anchored boat. She said, “Not yet… I won’t fall before Vecna’s completely dealt with.”

“Where’s Vecna?”

“It ran…!”

“After it!”

Yueyu shook her head, calm as willow in wind. “No need; it can’t escape.”

She looked to Tangxue. “This is your mindscape. Here, your faith beat it. It won’t slip your hand.”

Understanding broke over Tangxue like sun through cloud. “I understand.”

She nodded, closed her eyes, and searched for the thorn within.

Soon, a gray-white shape drifted into the air like ash smoke.

“Ugh—damn…!”

Yueyu’s voice was flat as slate. “You talk too much, don’t you…?”

Yueyu stared, face blank as snow, her right hand tightening like iron.

Qianya’s will stirred to match her.

Vecna’s power was half-spent; under their chase, it looked ragged, like torn shadow.

“This time, you won’t escape!” Tangxue pressed the advantage.

She hurled the Sea God Trident; it hung in the air.

Pale blue light pinned Vecna’s phantasmal form like frost sealing a moth.

Xuewei gripped Frostwhisper’s hilt and cast the blade; it speared Vecna’s body.

The brutal impact tore a howl from him, raw as winter wind.

“Aaaaaah!!”

“You damned wretches! Don’t think you can—can pin me—like this…!”

“A god never disappears!”

Yueyu’s voice cut clean. “Take your hate and go to hell, Vecna!”

She drew Frostwhisper and swung the final stroke at his head, like moonlight cleaving night.

Gods can’t be killed, but they can be bound again, like storms chained by ice.

In the hellish abyss, even three top gods wouldn’t gain a sliver of advantage against Vecna.

But this is Tangxue’s spirit world.

If her will stays firm, Vecna can’t reach half his peak strength.

After this defeat, Qianya will seal him in the abyssal core, a place no lock can open.

At absolute zero, an ice coffin will hold him forever, never to rise again.