Chu Qing understood. A vast pressure crashed toward Night Frost, like a cliff collapsing. She turned in terror and stared at “Chu Qing’s” face, almost pressed against her own.
In that instant, Night Frost ignited all her Mana, wildfire racing through her veins. Array Patterns surged along her arms to her cheeks, and Blood welled from her skin with tearing pain.
“Chu Qing” had meant to keep Night Frost’s captured hand suspended. Night Frost’s sudden surge felt like a stormfront, a real threat. Even with a Key in her heart, an Earth Dragon Heart was still just that—nothing like a Black Dragon Heart.
It was dominance from a higher bloodline, suppression from lineage. Night Frost might not harm her, but the Black Flame that could pour from Night Frost’s heart at any moment would be hard to handle.
The Array Patterns faded from Night Frost’s cheeks, leaving crimson lines like scorched vines. If her Magic Layer were stronger, burns like these should have been negated.
Hope flickered first. In that flash, she felt the seals on her body loosen. If she could repeat that just now… maybe she could crack the bracelet’s seal in that same instant.
A knot of flame bloomed in her palm. She couldn’t solidify it yet, but her fingertips teased the ember cluster. Fire fell like rain, then splashed across the ground like scattered petals.
To “Chu Qing,” it was nothing worth seeing. If she wished, she could push through Night Frost’s fire and crush her like an ant in the palm.
Night Frost moved with feline grace. The Array Pattern at her ankle burned red to black. Blood soaked her shoes, yet her speed never faltered.
She couldn’t evade “Chu Qing’s” attacks or block them. Each strike carried a dense Abyssal Aura, hammering enough to unravel her flame-woven Array Patterns. Night Frost knew “Chu Qing” wasn’t going all out. That confidence said Night Frost would end up in her hand.
Driven near a house, Night Frost felt the cage closing. For her, stepping inside meant death—three against one, a fight she couldn’t win.
The white-robed man beside them had lost all human shape, crawled low, scales glittering like a pangolin. An Earth Dragon, a Monster born from a man.
Night Frost no longer counted them as people. She wasn’t soft. Surrounded by “Chu Qing” and two Earth Dragons, she needed the rotten plank in the fence—the weaker flank. The two Earth Dragons were targets she could beat.
Every time fire clung to her wrist, with each punch and slip, the burden there eased. The burn and pain thinned, then began to vanish.
Array Patterns crawled over her body. Blood splashed them into Black Flame. That flame licked at the bracelet’s Array Pattern, at the corner she had pried open with a carving knife.
Only one breath more, and the cracked bracelet wouldn’t hold her—if only…
“Chu Qing” struck. Metal around them crushed inward, forming a massive iron block. Flame from the Earth Dragon Heart was sealed inside with Night Frost. Within, the metal became thorns, stabbing into her bit by bit.
Several hits shattered Night Frost’s condensed Magic Layer. Pain so pure it turned her world black. Black Flame poured from her wounds, melting incoming spikes and keeping her barely alive.
A slit opened on one side of the metal block. Blood flooded out, then was drawn into “Chu Qing.” The Key inside her heart dispersed the flame and accepted that Blood into her body.
Just as she savored it, a figure slammed into the stitched iron, cracking it wide. Night Frost, wrapped in Black Flame, tumbled out. Not that the figure refused to catch her—the fire burned allies too.
The newcomer was Lin. After a fruitless search, his keen ears picked up battle. He sprinted over, and saw Night Frost fighting a woman who looked like Chu Qing.
He knew she wasn’t Chu Qing. He’d worked with Chu Qing for years and knew exactly what she was like.
This was trouble. Flame, metal, mind control—skills no Cantata Two should wield so cleanly. Yet she handled them like a seasoned hand.
Lin had been stronger than Chu Qing back when she only bent metal, and poorly at that. But to beat this one, he’d have to wager his life.
Battle-worn instinct spoke first. The one before him was lethal. Alone against her meant death or ruin.
Lin slipped past the lunging metal spikes. As he reached for Night Frost, “Chu Qing” touched the ground with a light palm. The earth split. A stone pillar speared upward, carrying Night Frost to the underground city’s crown.
She wouldn’t let easy prey slip to others. Rock at the pillar’s tip wrapped Night Frost tight, shaping into a stone sphere.
Lin couldn’t see Night Frost’s state from below. The ring of enemies shifted, wrapping him instead. He grabbed an Earth Dragon by one limb, tossed them into a nearby house, then fell back, eyes on “Chu Qing.”
“Chu Qing” moved at leisure. She pressed her palms together. Metal pipes around them writhed like snakes, hissing as they lunged at Lin.
Lin didn’t hold back anymore. Spikes burst from his muscles, a bramble of blades. From those thorns, a corrosive purple mist sprayed, melting the pipes to slag.
According to Yin Tiancheng, Lin was a hybrid of demon and human. Demons, like the Blood Clan, were classed among Monsters.
Purple mist wrapped them both, gnawing at her golden scales, her skin, even her eyes. “Chu Qing” didn’t blink, a post in the fog, unmoved.
Only when Lin burst from the haze, muscles reformed, skin dark as iron, did “Chu Qing” raise her hand. Golden fire flared from her center, pushing the mist back like a sunburst.
It licked Lin’s shoulder without harm. The kill came after—
Her golden scales bristled. Flame, metal, and earth braided with Abyssal Aura, gathering on a dragon claw. She lifted it slowly, fine-scaled and rabid with power, enough to erase everything ahead.
“Target is out!”
A clipped mechanical voice carried from above. Lin didn’t know who, but if the person was rescued, he had no reason to stand off against “Chu Qing.”
He couldn’t eat that skill, not at all. Why bash head-on? Destroy the heart, and it ends—the fake Chu Qing, and this Abyss. That was his belief.
The dragon claw slapped for his skull. Its massive pressure pressed him breathless even at range. That blow could rival Cantata Three.
Lin wrenched free of the pressure and darted toward the houses. His powerful arms braced, vaulting his body into the air.
Talons ground the world flat. A razor wind shredded everything it touched. Dust cleared to a vast crater. The ground beneath “Chu Qing” sank. When the haze peeled back, only “Chu Qing” stood at the center, unscathed.
The last strike left him cold with dread. He hooked his claws into a metal wall and hung in midair. Using the dust as a screen, he reverted and slipped into a quake-torn fissure nearby.
Night Frost lay quietly inside. Potions and bandages sat around her, signs of another presence. Lin looked around and saw no one.
“I’m here…”
An unremarkable Eye Orb lay on Night Frost’s lower abdomen, its many nerve endings dressing her wounds. Blue light glimmered in its gaze, tinged with guilt.
Lin swept the understructure and finally saw the Eye Orb on Night Frost. In that posture, it could only be the Doctor.
“Why are you like this again?”
“That one is stronger than we imagined. You felt it, didn’t you? I survived by a gap in intel.”
Ten minutes earlier, the Eye Orb had rolled from a corner, measuring “Chu Qing’s” power and ways to beat her. After turning it over, it judged only multiple Cantata Two or Cantata Three, all-out, might have a chance.
Her core was an Earth Dragon Heart. The Eye Orb planned to return to the lab, searching for something that could suppress it.
In the lab, bottles lay shattered to snow. The shock of Abyssal Aura and a secret realm’s opening had ruined every reagent.
At a loss, a distant boom rolled. The Eye Orb peered through a crack and saw black and red-gold flames floating farther out—almost certainly Night Frost.
He didn’t know how she broke her seals. In this underground, only Night Frost wielded flame, and hers was singular.
Her foe was likely “Chu Qing.” In Night Frost’s state... the Eye Orb went all the same. Though as he was, he could barely face anyone.
He could protect himself, but thinking of Night Frost made his heart restless—though he had no heart. For an Eye Orb, it was simply guilt.
He had dragged her into danger again, against his plan. She could have lived quietly. Aklatia meant nothing to her.
Night Frost’s test results came back. Inside, she was in ruin. Black Dragon Blood had claimed a third of her body. The Black Dragon’s return would not take long.
Inside her was not only a Black Dragon Heart. There was something implanted and unknown, laying a brutal burden on her system.
Because it co-existed, the Black Dragon Heart and the Black Dragon’s will couldn’t resist well. A blessing in misfortune. But as time stretched, the two burdens’ tug-of-war would grind Night Frost down from within.
Surgery could wait no longer.
