Night Frost’s soul power surged outward, casting itself back onto her body. A hem of pure white, woven of flame and pure-white Mana, unfurled; crimson-gold filigree stitched the edge. Wide sleeves and robes drifted like wind-borne clouds.

Twin hatchling horns budded on her brow. A long tail of fire coiled behind her. Gold, blue, and rosefire braided like floating ribbons streaming from her dragon horns.

The gloom in her dark-golden eyes blew away like storm-scattered ash. Eyes of Crimson Gold Flame opened, pure and imperious, noble beyond doubt.

Night Frost raised her palm. Crimson Gold Flame swept out, scouring the alien spirit from within her and driving it away.

“Night Frost’s” soul had to clutch the Key, hurling a swell of vast Abyssal Aura at Night Frost. In that opening, she fled back to her own body. With the Key’s strength, she stood again.

She lifted her head to the dragon-maiden reigning in the sky. She weighed the gap—and bolted north.

There lay her final trump, the only card that could beat Night Frost and let her live. It was her last hope. If she could, she wouldn’t touch that power.

Night Frost burned the Abyssal Aura to cinders. She saw “Night Frost” already dozens of meters away and moved to give chase—until Ms Feng’s voice caught her.

“This!”

A silver cube spun free. Night Frost caught it steady, glanced to Ms Feng. She already knew this spatial cube could store things and break them too.

Ms Feng held Yin Chen Yue close. The sickness was pressed down for now. Pain still threaded that small face, yet her eyes shone resolute, like twin lamps cheering Night Frost overhead.

“I can’t hold you back anymore.”

A wry smile grazed Ms Feng’s lips, then faded to calm. One look at Night Frost’s stance in the air told her a monster had awakened. This form was clearly Chapter Three, though Night Frost wasn’t complete.

She’d once said ten years to reach Chapter Three. Yet here it was. Three months, and Night Frost could stand alone.

Of course. If she weren’t a prodigy, the male her would never have touched a Magic Stone and earned the Calamity Dragon’s nod. Miracles exist to be met.

Night Frost now was strong enough. More talk of keeping her safe would be Ms Feng’s failing.

Long ago, Ms Feng had been changed by Night Frost. Night Frost’s presence hardened her will to restore. She could say Night Frost carried much of her path to this point.

Ms Feng watched Night Frost shed youth for steel. Watched her crawl through danger time and again. Fear crept in—fear the next one would take Night Frost.

The burden had been Ms Feng’s. Somehow, it slid onto Night Frost’s shoulders. It was Ms Feng who led an eighteen-year-old into underground currents.

She wanted to take it all back, let Night Frost return to an ordinary life. But the wave had broken past her.

Night Frost now was a crowned king descending. The aura rolling off her matched any of the twenty-three wardens. Touching Chapter Three, she no longer needed Ms Feng’s protection.

If anything, Ms Feng had been under Night Frost’s care, standing in Night Frost’s shade.

This time, she was the one wrong.

“Go.”

Ms Feng nodded and sent her off with a smile. Night Frost returned a clear one. She turned. CrimsonGoldFlame knitted broad dragon wings. A soft beat—and she flashed a hundred meters away.

“Night Frost,” running hard on the ground, glanced back in horror. She’d thought Night Frost not chasing was her chance. The gate lay only kilometers off; at Night Frost’s pace, miles were minutes.

But Night Frost closed the gap in a single blink. Being caught was a nailed certainty. And her eyes said mercy wasn’t on offer.

“Crimson!”

Crimson Mana condensed into the shape of a Wand. “Night Frost” shot a look and sprinted harder. Night Frost meant to blast her down.

“You robber—”

Her words shattered under Night Frost’s thunderclap of a voice. A sweep of Magic Cannon in Crimson Gold Flame tore the ground and hurled “Night Frost” away.

“But you lost. So what if I’m a robber? What you did—what’s the difference? Yes, I’m a robber. And aren’t you?”

“Night Frost” grit her teeth, pushed herself up. She flung the Key, lading it with Mana and Abyssal Aura.

“Go where you belong! Then kill the one behind me!”

The earth boomed with another heavy heartbeat. The Abyss tore a fresh seam. The Key, carrying “Night Frost’s” power, flew into the void—aiming for the deepest heart.

Its pulse tugged at Night Frost’s Mana. She wove a shield of fire, shouldering off the heart’s voice as best she could, and drove for the Key.

On the way, she snapped a cage around “Night Frost,” to stop any disobedient sprint.

She’d seen a pancreas under the Abyss before. Now she saw a heart. Night Frost didn’t know what the Key was, or that door. But she knew the Magic Maidens’ chase was dangerous.

A heart. A pancreas. She had reason to suspect someone lay buried under the Abyss—a being too strong to kill—torn apart and sunk in fathomless dark.

Yin Chen Yue’s illness likely came from this heart. At such distance, it swayed both ordinary folk and Magic Maidens.

Sealed in the Abyss, wrapped in ill-omen—so why do so many flock to it? Is power worth that much? And in the end, is it power they’ll gain?

That Key had to be stopped. Even before fully unsealing, Night Frost felt pressure. And that with a door still in the way. If the Key opened it, ruin would follow.

Night Frost raised her Wand. One more step might hit the limit of sound she could bear. The pulse already shattered her defenses with ease. Go closer, and even if the Crimson ribbon held, her flame would snap first.

A Magic Cannon lanced from the Wand. The Key dodged like it had a mind, pulling farther away. Night Frost’s aim had never been great; her cannon’s accuracy now was on par with her gunplay.

“Do I have to chase?”

She beat dragon wings of woven fire. The next step—the roaring heartbeat splintered both wings apart. She slipped, hurriedly reforging flame to catch herself before she fell into the Abyss.

“Still not enough…”

As she weighed options, the Wand born of that oily Crimson ribbon rang with Crimson voice.

“I saw you dive into the Abyss. I don’t dare go that deep… But you’re in Chapter Three now. I’ve got a way.”

“What way?”

Night Frost asked, wings beating to steady herself, easing back from the worst range.

“Does your Magic Stone have an unsealing chant? There’s risk. But you should be able to unseal now. Maybe you could—”

Before it finished, Night Frost agreed, and told Crimson her bracelet had no unsealing words. Crimson let out a breath. Night Frost had only reached Chapter Three by leaning on Abyssal Aura, the Black Dragon’s heart, and Crimson’s unsealed ribbon of Mana.

It wasn’t true Chapter Three, with no matching chant.

“Use my unsealing words. You’re running on my Mana now. You should be able to unseal.”

“I can’t recite the whole thing. But for you right now, it’s enough.”

Night Frost nodded. Together, she and Crimson spoke the fresh Magic Spell etched on Crimson’s Magic Stone.

“Restrictions lifted. Magic Armor, bloom!”

“Restrictions lifted. Magic Armor, bloom!”

Night Frost closed her eyes. Flame unrolled behind her.

At the same time, the bracelet bearing the Black Dragon’s Magic Stone flared. Abyssal Aura and Mana poured in. A silver pen, drifting from nowhere, wrote the spell she spoke.

“The past journey runs to silver rivers. At life’s end, true grace appears.”

“The past journey runs to silver rivers. At life’s end, true grace appears.”

The pen sped faster, its tip seeding stars and mountains. Vast Mana surged out of Night Frost, then flooded back in.

The Black Dragon’s Magic Stone mirrored Night Frost’s imperfect past, trying to swap her body with it, forcing her upward toward a terrifying height.

This was her edge. Any further, her body would self-destruct here—along with that Black Dragon heart. That was its limit too.

Crimson-gold, blue, and pitch-black tangled together, filling the space. Night Frost lifted the Wand with effort, gathered the mixed, raging energy, and hurled it outward.

The storm shattered this Abyss, spilled into the outer Abyss “Night Frost” had opened. The aftershock broke that unsupported chasm to dust.

The Key slowed; the Mana “Night Frost” fed it was spent. But its tip already fixed on the rune-woven door. At this distance, catching up was tight.

Even like this—can’t I catch it?

Night Frost clenched her teeth and drove the destructive surge forward with all she had.

“Then shout with all you are. Words are power too.”

An airy figure wrapped Night Frost’s back, palm soft on her cheek.

Night Frost nodded without meaning to, and pushed her voice from the depths of her chest, every note she had.

“Stop, now!!”