Night Frost looked at the monster before her. It was slightly taller than she was. Vines wrapped all over its body, so densely that it barely looked humanoid. It had broad palms, and part of its brain was exposed to the air. When her gaze shifted to the center of its chest, she saw a pulsing tumor embedded there. The moment she sensed that trace of Ultimate rhythm, Night Frost turned and fled.

From the gaps between the vines, it squeezed out several eerie notes. The notes echoed through the narrow corridor and slammed heavily into the minds of the fleeing group.

Aside from Night Frost, every Sorceress dropped on the spot. They all clutched their heads and rolled on the ground. The weaker ones were killed outright by that single note.

Night Frost didn't fare well either. The note hadn't done much damage to her mind, but it felt like she'd taken a punch straight on. Warm liquid ran from the tip of her nose. She wiped it lightly and found blood.

But there was no time to care. After wiping away the blood, Night Frost quickly helped the collapsed Fertini to her feet.

"Do you still have the strength? (Dragon Tongue)"

Fertini shook her head to stay conscious. She raised her trembling hands and looked into the darkness behind them. Then she nodded, saying she could still move.

But the others weren't as lucky as Fertini. Because Fertini was Cantata Two, her injuries weren't too severe. The remaining young Sorceresses were all First Symphony, and most of them could barely move.

Night Frost cremated the dead young Sorceresses. If they were going to escape, someone had to hold back that stitched-together monster.

Night Frost wanted to leave. And if she did, no one could stop her. But she'd promised Andi. She had to bring this group of young Sorceresses to the surface realm.

"You take them and go first. I'll stop It. (Dragon Tongue)"

Fertini looked at Night Frost with hesitation. But in the next second, her gaze turned firm. She knew time was running out, so she scooped up a young Sorceress with one arm and ran deeper inside.

Night Frost went back the way she came. Then she found a corner and recovered her stamina and Mana. The Eye Orb and Li Dogegg sat quietly beside her, waiting for the arrival of the Ultimate.

"This is basically the same as throwing your life away."

The Eye Orb was full of worry. That wasn't some Cantata Two or Cantata Three. It was a realm above Chapter Three.

"Back then, you barely stopped the unsealing of that Heart, another Ultimate, by borrowing Crimson's power. This time it's got a pair of hands and a brain, and both are already free. What do you have that can fight an Ultimate?"

The Eye Orb's question hit the mark. Right now, Night Frost had nothing. No strength. No god-slaying weapon. Fighting the Ultimate was basically impossible.

"I promised Andi. So I have to fulfill my duty. If I can't, it'll weigh on my conscience. Besides, I've faced down an Ultimate before. How could I die that easily?"

Night Frost narrowed her eyes. The Eye Orb knew there was no talking her out of it, so it fell silent and swept the darkness with curtain after curtain of blue light.

"No need to scan. I already see it."

Night Frost's eyes pierced through the dark and landed on the figure slowly moving forward. She could feel the Ultimate flavor from it. Without the Eye Orb and Li Dogegg scouting for her, she already knew.

The monster had come.

"You two should run too. If you don't want to leave, then go watch over those young Sorceresses."

Night Frost stood up. Before the Eye Orb and Li Dogegg could react, she grabbed them both and hurled them hard into the darkness behind her. One orb, one dragon. They landed right beside the young Sorceresses.

Now, only Night Frost remained in the area. She drew a Spear from the flames, took a deep breath, and looked at the figure slowly stepping out of the darkness and into the edge of the firelight.

"Insect. You want to challenge me? How laughable."

The monster actually spoke. It used vines to imitate lips, a tongue, and part of a vocal tract. It spoke the language of the surface realm. The voice also sounded strangely familiar, but Night Frost couldn't remember whose it was.

Before the monster had even finished speaking, Night Frost charged with her flaming Spear. She knew it would be hard to beat the creature with her current strength, so she planned to seize the moment and catch it off guard.

Night Frost beat her wings and shot forward at extreme speed. The flaming Spear carved a line of fire through the air, like a meteor tearing across the night sky. But it was as if the monster had predicted her move. The moment she acted, the vines wrapped around the headless corpse lashed out.

The vines shot straight at Night Frost, trying to knock her down. She twisted sideways and barely dodged them. It was a good opening. Night Frost thrust with all her strength, driving the Spear straight at the monster's chest.

Bang!

The flaming Spear struck the monster's chest with a heavy thud. But Night Frost felt a huge force surge back from the other end of the Spear, numbing her arms.

The Spear had clearly hit the monster's chest, yet there wasn't the slightest sign of injury. The monster's two palms slowly rose. Its palms were clearly empty, so why was the motion so slow?

Night Frost smelled danger.

She immediately dispersed the Spear into pure red-gold flame and Black Flame. The fire devoured the vines on the monster's chest. It spread along the vines and lit up everything nearby, even the space behind Night Frost.

"Damn. If I'd backed off directly, those vines would've swarmed me all at once. This thing's smart..."

Night Frost still felt lingering fear. Those hands put enormous pressure on her. She'd rather trade at range with the vines than fight this thing up close. So she rose into the air, gathered Black Flame in both hands, and hurled it at the monster.

Under the Black Flame, the vines wrapped around Andi's corpse quickly burned to ash. But just as the fire was about to touch Andi's body, a massive Abyssal Aura blocked the Black Flame outside. The fire still burned, but for the moment, it couldn't harm Andi at all.

"Is it over, insect? Your journey ends here..."

The monster's voice echoed in Night Frost's ears like a death sentence.

Those seemingly empty palms rapidly enlarged in her pupils, as if they were about to swallow her whole. In an instant, the monster was right in front of her. Those palms held Abyssal Aura compressed to the extreme. If they hit her, even a full-body shattering fracture would count as a light injury.

A fierce sense of danger surged through Night Frost. She knew she had to go all out if she wanted to block this fatal strike.

Black Flame spread rapidly across her whole body. With her skill in inscribing arrays, she quickly carved two defensive Formations. Then she planted her foot on the ground. Flames shot skyward. Using the impact of the wall of fire, Night Frost launched herself into the air.

The giant hand missed...

Yeah right.

The Abyssal Aura compressed to the extreme broke free from those two hands. It struck straight into Night Frost's blind spot at the exact moment she leaped upward.

Night Frost felt the pressure closing in, but she was charging straight up and could hardly change direction. Gritting her teeth, she rapidly gathered all nearby flames onto her Magic Layer and pulled both arms inward to guard her sides.

The massive Abyssal Aura slammed into Night Frost's Magic Layer. On contact, it shattered the Magic Layer on her forearms. But the force didn't stop there. It blasted her into the deeper darkness on the sides.

Pain swept through every part of Night Frost's body. She hadn't expected that even after putting all her power into defense, this force could still so easily crush her Magic Layer. Her arms were about to give out. If she kept resisting, both arms would be ruined...

Night Frost decided to let her body take the final impact of the force. She spread her arms and let it crash into her directly.

Boom—

Night Frost was blasted backward and slammed into an unknown barrier. The strike from that giant hand shattered the Magic Layer over her whole body. Thankfully, she had blocked it. After breaking the Magic Layer, the force lost momentum and didn't do too much damage to her actual body. But the impact shattered the Magic Armor over her chest, exposing a hint of skin.

Night Frost braced herself against the barrier and slowly stood up.

"This place... is this the end of the side path?"

There was no time to think. Night Frost crushed the Magic Stone left behind by the Eye Orb and quickly restored her Mana and Abyssal Aura.

But before she'd recovered for long, that figure appeared before her again. Night Frost clenched flames in her hand, drew out a Spear, and aimed its tip at the monster in front of her.

"So you survived. But what of it?"

Night Frost took two steps back, but there was nowhere left to retreat. The monster stretched out its hand again. This time, two Array Patterns appeared in its palm. Night Frost's eyes widened slightly. This thing could use Array Patterns too? And from how intricate they looked, they were no ordinary ones.

"Running around like a fly..."

It waved its hand, and the Array Patterns enclosed both it and Night Frost. It felt as if Night Frost had been dragged into another space. This space was only about the size of a living room.

"You want those people to escape, and you're stalling for time, right?"

It exposed Night Frost's goal in one sentence.

"But they were never my real target. You were... I didn't expect you'd deliver yourself to me. That saves me quite a bit of effort."

Night Frost had already known this thing was after her. Back when Andi called her a variable and tried to kill her, she'd guessed as much. That was why she stayed behind, planning to buy them time to escape.

"As long as the Calamity Dragon dies, no one over there will be able to interfere with my revival..."

Before the words had even finished, the monster was already in front of Night Frost. Earlier, Night Frost had tried to catch the monster off guard, but failed. Now the monster returned the favor and caught Night Frost off guard instead.

Night Frost stepped on the light screen behind her and shot forward. She didn't dare hold back anymore. She barely brushed past those giant hands.

But this place was too small. Night Frost pressed a hand against the light screen and forced herself to stop.

Staring at the monster before her, Night Frost took a deep breath. Right now, if those palms hit her, then even if she didn't die, it wouldn't be much different.

It possessed overwhelmingly strong Abyssal Aura. Even Black Flame couldn't burn through it.

Those vines had been its ranged ability before, but Night Frost had burned them all away in one go. That should've been her advantage. But with a casual motion, it formed a Formation and sealed the battlefield.

The advantage Night Frost had created was gone without a trace.

Did this patchwork thing really have no weakness at all?!