Chapter 792: The Peak Of Destruction
The collision was deafening.
Ice shattered against writhing, slimy flesh, crystal spears exploding into glittering shards that caught the morning light like descending asteroids on a bright day.
But the Black Eel's tentacles didn't stop.
They pressed through the crystalline storm, each impact rippling the air with brutal shock waves.
Northern's eyes narrowed.
'It crushed through my ice?'
The monster was stronger than expected—stronger than the bald Drifter had given account for.
Each tentacle moved with impossible precision, striking not just at his attacks, but at the spaces between them—
Probing. Testing. Seeking weakness.
This wasn't mindless violence.
This was calculation.
A small smile curled on Northern's face…
'Nevertheless, nothing changes.'
The air temperature plummeted.
Northern twisted mid-fall, his armor gleaming with a dark light, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Ice crystals formed in his wake, hanging in the air for a breathless moment—
Then—
They shattered.
Razor-sharp fragments spilled downward, glinting like fractured glass.
The Black Eel struck again—faster now, more desperate.
Its tentacles didn't just lash out.
They wove patterns in the air, a web of motion so complex it distorted space itself.
But—
Northern was no longer there.
He phased through the assault like smoke, his form blurring at the edges.
The monster's attacks passed through empty air.
And in that split second of overextension—
Northern struck.
His hand shot out, fingers splayed wide, and—
The world froze.
The temperature dropped so violently that the moisture in the air crystallized instantly.
A lattice of frost erupted outward, streaking along the length of the nearest tentacle like a bolt of lightning.
The Black Eel recoiled, its flesh crackling, stiffening as the ice tried to take hold.
But—
That outer shell.
That protective slime Kion had warned about.
It bubbled. Shifted. Twisted.
Fighting against the creeping frost.
"Interesting."
Northern's voice was barely a whisper, yet it carried through the battlefield like a blade drawn against stone.
The monster's response was anything but subtle.
Its entire form convulsed.
Then—
A sound like tearing metal ripped through the air as its slimy protective shell split along invisible seams.
A spray of caustic fluid burst forth, hissing and steaming as it clashed violently against Northern's ice.
From the bridge, Kion's breath caught.
He watched, wide-eyed, as the battlefield transformed before him.
Ice and toxic mist wove together, swirling into patterns that defied reality—fractals of clashing forces, geometric impossibilities that shouldn't exist.
And through it all—
Northern descended.
His armor's ragged orange veins pulsed brighter, each flicker mirroring the tempo of his breath.
He moved like water, flowing around strikes that should have been impossible to dodge.
Yet—
There was something different now.
His movements, once effortless, had become measured. Reserved.
More calculated.
The bridge groaned beneath them.
Northern's jaw tightened—almost imperceptibly.
The Black Eel sensed it too.
This limitation. This constraint.
Its attacks shifted.
No longer just violent swipes meant to kill.
Now—they were precise. Methodical.
It was trying to force Northern into a choice.
Defend himself?
Or protect the bridge?
Ice continued to form and shatter between them, each crystal catching the light at impossible angles—
A kaleidoscope of refracted chaos.
The monster's tentacles left trails in the air.
And Northern's eyes tracked it all.
Every movement.
Every ripple.
His expression remained unreadable.
But something in his stance shifted.
A subtle readjustment.
Kion felt it before he could understand it.
A chill ran down his spine.
He was done testing.
The air pressure shifted violently.
Ears popped across the bridge as the sudden change sent a sharp, invisible shockwave rippling outward.
Northern raised his hand.
And this time—
There was no gradual buildup.
No warning.
Reality simply—
Cracked.
A spiderweb of fractures bloomed in the space around the Black Eel, each line gleaming with an eerie, inner light—a cold hunger that drained the very heat from the air.
Then—
The monster's protective shell began to crystallize.
Not from the outside in.
But from within.
As though winter itself had rooted in its core, spreading outward in a slow, merciless bloom.
The Black Eel thrashed.
Its tentacles lashed out, the sheer force splitting the air with deafening sonic booms.
But—
Each desperate movement only spread the effect faster.
The crystallization raced along its flesh, moving like lightning through water.
Northern watched.
Unblinking. Unmoved.
The monster's frenzy grew.
Its attacks, once calculated, now carried the reckless force of panic and rage.
It struck harder, wilder.
But also—sloppier.
Easier to read.
Easier to counter.
Northern no longer dodged.
He didn't need to.
Each tentacle that lunged for him simply—
Stopped.
Not frozen.
Not blocked.
Just—caught.
Suspended in a moment stretched too thin, the air around the impact point warping—as if reality itself struggled to process what was happening.
The Black Eel convulsed.
Its massive form shuddered, the crystallization reaching its core.
The very defense that had protected it...
Had become its prison.
And still—
Northern wasn't finished.
Northern's fingers curled inward—a movement so small, so insignificant—
And yet—
Reality bent.
The web of fractures began to contract, its glowing lines tightening, squeezing the space around the Black Eel.
This wasn't just freezing anymore.
It was compression.
The monster's form warped, crushed into a space that shouldn't have existed.
The air trembled.
Then—
A sound like breaking glass split the battlefield.
But deeper.
Richer.
More... fundamental.
As if the very laws of physics were groaning beneath an unseen weight, stretched to their breaking point.
Roma's nose bled again… but she wasn't the only one.
Kion.
Tyr.
All of them.
The very pressure in the air had become unbearable, a suffocating force that coiled around them, warping the world like light bending near a black hole.
And through it all—
Northern stood perfectly still.
Hand raised.
Expression carved from stone.
Systematically unraveling a creature that, moments ago, had seemed unstoppable.
The Black Eel convulsed.
Its entire form trembled, and—
For the briefest fraction of time—
The ice cracked.
Northern's eyes narrowed.
Then—
He closed his fist.
Reality shattered.
The Black Eel simply collapsed.
No explosion.
No violent rupture.
No scream of breaking matter.
Just—
A compression.
An impossibly small point.
And then—
Fragments of broken ice clattered on the ground.
The pressure released all at once, unraveling into an eerie, almost surreal silence.
A silence so profound it seemed to ring in their ears, echoing in the emptiness the creature had left behind.
The toxic mist dissolved, revealing nothing but clear sky and the lingering remains of ice.
Fragments of crystals hung in the air, suspended like diamond dust in the morning light.
Northern lowered his hand, slow and deliberate.
The orange veins along his armor dimmed, their fiery glow retreating into something subdued, almost sleeping.
He turned back toward the bridge, his expression unchanged as he scanned the gathered humans.
"Well," he said, voice perfectly calm, untouched by the destruction he had just wrought.
"That's done. Now, about that baby…"