Night Frost hadn’t expected the brain and palm that had hindered her in the Abyssal Rift to emerge at this moment, seize control of Blood’s battered body, and take the Twelfth District’s Key.

She couldn’t let them carry it away.

Night Frost recalled the heart behind that great gate. The slightest aftershock from its beating had been enough to kill Cantata Two. Even Cantata Three couldn’t last more than a few minutes before it.

Only by borrowing Crimson’s ribbon and temporarily using the power of Ultimate had Night Frost managed to stop the Key from being taken. If that heart were released from behind the gate, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Beneath the Twelfth District lay a pancreas. In Night Frost’s eyes, it wasn’t as terrifying as the heart. But once it was released, she had no confidence in defeating it in her current state.

In the Abyssal passage she had traveled through, Night Frost had already confronted the palm and brain that seemed to share the heart and pancreas’s origin. She had only used a little cleverness to temporarily deprive them of their ability to act.

Strictly speaking, Night Frost hadn’t defeated them.

A pair of palms and a brain had already forced her to reveal every trump card she possessed. Add a pancreas to that…

Just thinking about it made her whole body turn cold.

When Night Frost had still been at Cantata Two, that pancreas had created undead creatures approaching Cantata Three.

Did that mean the pancreas itself was Cantata Three—or even stronger?

At that thought, Night Frost lifted her head.

She stopped beneath the sunlight pouring through the cavern above.

She gazed up at the light spilling from the cavern’s ceiling, as if communicating with some unseen force. Her voice grew low and powerful as she recited the Magic Spell. Every word seemed to carry the scorching heat of flame.

As the incantation continued, the surrounding flames answered the summons. They began to leap and spin, eventually condensing into several fiery Spears that hovered behind Night Frost.

Under the sunlight, the Spears flashed with dazzling radiance, as if they could tear through all darkness.

“Give flame to the dragon. Give fire to my hand. Tear apart the shackles of life!”

Night Frost’s voice echoed through the empty cavern.

As her words fell, the fiery Spears seemed to receive their command. They shot forward, leaving blazing trails in their wake.

“Burn all things to ash. Every strike, a killing blow!”

The fiery Spears tore through the air like meteors, surging toward their target with the power to destroy everything. Wherever they passed, all things ignited. The flames roared as if they meant to swallow the entire world.

“Inferno burns here!”

With those final words, the Spears plunged into the mass of Blood Mist flying toward the sky above the Twelfth District.

Crimson-gold and pitch-black flames wrapped around the body housing the brain and palm.

The palm released Abyssal Aura, blocking most of the flames. But Blood’s condition was far worse than Andi’s had been. Night Frost had also grown stronger in this short time.

Night Frost believed it would fall.

The flames transformed from the Spears scorched the heavens. Crimson-gold and black fire each occupied a small portion of the sky.

Though it was high noon, the scene gave everyone the feeling that night was approaching—that sunset had arrived.

The people fighting above the ruins of the Twelfth District all turned toward the sudden burst of Mana. Crimson-gold and black reflected in their eyes.

Those with no connection to Night Frost could only feel confused.

“What in the world is that?”

But those who knew Night Frost—Qianchun and Chen Xiaoyin, for example—recognized the colors at a glance.

Those were Night Frost’s flames.

The appearance of the two fires announced her return.

“She’s back!!”

In a corner, Qianchun wiped the Blood from her cheek. Her pure-white gloves had been dyed crimson.

The moment she saw those flames, all the fatigue and fear inside her vanished. She forced herself to stand.

Seeing Qianchun’s condition, Lu Jin, Lu Shi, Zhao Qingsnow, and the Old Woman reached the same conclusion. Supporting one another, they retreated step by step.

Qianchun moved in front of them and swung a Blade of wind at the equally exhausted Hrubess.

Hrubess didn’t dodge. She relied on the Magic Layer covering her body to endure the strike.

Qianchun’s attack had impressive power. Unfortunately, Hrubess’s defense was even stronger. If Qianchun had been a little stronger, she might have cut through the Magic Layer completely.

Thunder Slash had no idea what was happening at the shelter. She only sensed the sudden eruption of a Cantata Three Mana aura.

But this Mana was scorching and powerful. Thunder Slash believed its owner wasn’t evil.

Reinforcements, perhaps?

Thunder Slash secretly formed a guess. The thunder that had been nearly exhausted suddenly grew forceful again.

Pressed so hard by the two opponents that she could barely breathe, Thunder Slash suddenly regained the upper hand.

“Our reinforcements have arrived! You’ve already lost!!”

Night Frost avoided the aftershock of the attack and flew straight upward. She landed before a pool of fresh Blood.

The brain and palm had vanished without a trace. Fortunately, the Key had fallen nearby.

The Twelfth District hadn’t lost this time.

She had just reached down to pick up the Key when more than a dozen figures appeared before her.

Every one of them wore black robes. They advanced toward Night Frost in orderly steps.

Without a doubt, they were Seekers.

However, their strength didn’t seem particularly impressive. Most were at Cantata Two, while a few were at First Symphony.

They didn’t need to explain their purpose. Night Frost could guess it immediately.

Blood was a Seeker. So were they. Most likely, they belonged to Blood.

Blood’s goal was to seize the Key. Their purpose required no further explanation.

Night Frost grabbed the Key.

But the leading Seeker was no slower than her. She placed her hand on the Key first!

The instant Night Frost turned around, she raised her hand and sliced through the girl’s neck with a prism of light.

Unexpectedly, the girl’s body didn’t stop. She shoved the Key into the palms of several other Seekers.

The next moment, those Seekers vanished one after another and fled in every direction.

They moved incredibly fast, nothing like Cantata Two practitioners. Their auras were also extremely difficult for Night Frost to sense.

She could only roughly detect the direction taken by the girl who had stolen the Key.

Night Frost picked up the girl’s head and discovered one of their secrets.

There were traces of a Formation inside their bodies.

What kind of method could embed Mana along the blood vessels? With the Mana so close at hand, the Array Pattern’s effects could naturally be pushed to their limit.

But carving a Formation inside the body…

How cruel was that?

“These damned Seekers aren’t even human!!”

After these girls had been implanted with Formations, they had naturally been placed under control.

But by what method?

Feeling the mottled imprints remaining in the girl’s fading consciousness, Night Frost already knew the answer.

Mental manipulation!

That didn’t mean Night Frost would spare the girls, however.

No matter how pitiful they were, she wouldn’t let them take the Key.

Night Frost threw a Spear. It pierced straight through the girl’s body, splashing Blood across the ruins.

She searched the entire body but found no trace of the Key.

Three girls had fled in this direction just now. This one was only the first.

Night Frost rushed toward the remaining two girls. She found nothing on either of them, either.

“Boom!”

Lightning flashed across the battlefield in the distance.

That was the last of Thunder Slash’s Mana.

On one side was a companion who had reached her limit. On the other was the lost Key…

Night Frost turned without hesitation and charged toward the thunderclouds.

Aphrodite and the Zone Fifteen Guardian joined forces in an attack that became the final straw crushing Thunder Slash.

Before the thunderclouds could even gather, they dispersed across the sky.

The Zone Fifteen Guardian prepared to deliver the finishing blow to Thunder Slash.

But a fiery Spear suddenly descended from the heavens and shattered the black Blade she had condensed.

Night Frost didn’t land before the two of them. Instead, she appeared before Hrubess.

She swept her eyes over the battlefield.

The Zone Fifteen Guardian and Aphrodite still looked fairly energetic. Night Frost decided to deal with Hrubess first and free the Twelfth District’s Cantata Two fighters to search for the Seekers.

“Wait!”

Just as Night Frost’s Spear reached Hrubess’s brow, Hrubess suddenly raised both hands.

“I surrender. Look, I didn’t kill them. I only wanted to witness the truth.”

Night Frost froze.

Aphrodite and the Zone Fifteen Guardian froze as well. Even Thunder Slash, who lay on the ground, was stunned.

Their gazes focused on Hrubess.

Hrubess reached up, removed the Eye Orb from her brow, and tossed it into Night Frost’s hands.

Night Frost thought for a moment, then directly drafted a contract.

“Sign it, and you can leave!”

Night Frost didn’t actually want a conflict, either.

She hadn’t killed Hrubess immediately. If Hrubess suddenly fought back, wouldn’t Night Frost suffer more than she gained?

Since Hrubess wanted to leave, Night Frost would let her.

That way, she would only need to deal with the two Cantata Three opponents.

The contract was simple.

Hrubess could not harm anyone in the Twelfth District. She could not harm anything in the Twelfth District.

Night Frost and Hrubess each dripped Blood onto the contract.

The contract was established.

Then Hrubess fled without another word.

Far away, Hrubess panted heavily. She looked back in Night Frost’s direction, and a trace of madness and longing was hidden in her eyes.

“That flame… Even the gods wouldn’t dare touch it so easily! And that unknown stone…”

“Is the truth spoken by the god really the truth? Clearly… gods can be killed!!!”

In the past, a saying had been widespread among the Seekers:

The words of the gods were truth. The gods knew everything and could do anything.

That saying had drawn Hrubess in. She wanted to know the truth, so she joined those people and sought the so-called “god.”

But the instant Hrubess saw Night Frost, she sensed a trace of fear from the god’s Eye Orb.

She had seen the boundless black flames, as well as the pure-white Magic Stone floating at their center.

Together, those two powers could kill both her and the Eye Orb.

Hrubess began to doubt the gods.

Could the gods’ words really be trusted?

Of course, the most important reason was that Hrubess couldn’t defeat Night Frost.

If she hadn’t done this, her head would already be lying on the ground.

“It’s Night Frost. She really came back.”

Qianchun was delighted. She reached Night Frost in two or three steps.

But Night Frost stopped her and moved her behind herself.

“Qianchun, it’s been a long time. Your Magic Armor looks great.”

“But this clearly isn’t the time for reminiscing.”