The battlefield froze.
A hollow, cold wind howled across the upper reaches of Lithia. The entire place felt like a colossal frost giant stirring from ancient slumber.
The howling burrowed into the fabric of night itself, piercing and raw. More than just announcing the arrival of a frost nightmare, it heralded something primal.
The entire world seem to pause. No. It did pause.
The white blizzard intensified, veiling the sky in absolute white.
The night didn't break into day, yet the city gained momentary respite from the oppressive darkness that had blanketed the sky at a point of the rift's appearance.
Everything beyond vanished into whiteness.
Not quite frozen—rather sheathed in vicious wind painted white. Everything within its grasp became invisible.
Everyone, including Ascendant Zion and every other Drifter working to evacuate the merchants, stared skyward in a daze. Their faces drained of color, eyes wide with terror at the strange blizzard engulfing the sky above.
They couldn't comprehend what it was or what it did, beyond recognizing it as the source of the sudden chill that made their bodies tremble.
However, in that white expanse...
Time itself ceased to exist.
It shattered like thin spring ice.
Space crumbled under the stillness of frost.
Everything caught in its embrace felt their souls hitch with cold. This hitch, too, had shattered along with broken time, fracturing like ice beneath a heavy step.
In a single moment...
With the terrifying power of a Sage, manifested through an essence of primordial darkness, an impossible concept etched itself into reality.
The effect of this ability would linger in this area of the Central Plains for years to come.
The white cloak in the sky slowly dissipated, scattering like crystal mist, flowing away to find its rest.
Northern looked around before sighing and finally descending. The Behemoth beneath him dissolved into ice crystals.
His feet touched the ground softly. Lithia had fallen eerily quiet.
People stared at him with myriad expressions. Terrified. Awed. Amazed. Ensnared. Hopeful. Scared. Joyful. A kaleidoscope of gazes.
He nearly wilted beneath their collective scrutiny.
Fortunately, a thunderous crash shattered the silence, causing the ground to vibrate so violently that Northern felt it reverberate through his heart.
He frowned and launched himself skyward, swiftly piercing through remnant cold winds to land atop a building overlooking the area where Night Terror, Burning Storm, and the Devilish Belial remained locked in their heart-stopping battle.
His summons dropped behind him, Black Mamba's eyes glowing with white light.
Light of Featherstone landed gently beside him, white cloak flowing like a river through the cold wind. Others began to arrive, each landing with a soft quake upon the building's roof.
Jeci and Lynus were the last to join him.
All focused on the frightening battle below, its devastating impact reshaping the environment with each thunderous clash.
Northern was about to move. Together, they could bring the Belial faster to its end. Stop it from relating with the environment and growing stronger. However, he did not get to take that step.
Instead, his eyes widened beneath his armor, causing the four blue flames of his helm to flare fiercely as he whipped his head back toward the sky.
Jeci looked at him strangely and asked with a slight tilt of her head.
"Is something wrong, sir?"
Lynus also frowned, studying Northern's sudden alertness.
Northern paused, his helm unfolding to the neck, leaving two glossy sinister horns protruding from his head.
He examined all of them with a subtle frown etched across his face.
...none... none of them were feeling it.
There was a pressure in the air—subtle but perilously dangerous—something equally sinister to what the Belial had emanated when it clawed to tear through the rift.
But the disturbing thing was, that earlier pressure had been one everyone instantly reacted to.
This one, however, was not registering with them at all.
There were only two cases where one could not detect such a terrifying pressure.
Either the pressure was not powerful enough—mundane and casual—able to slip past the keen senses of these formidable creatures behind him.
Or the pressure was too powerful—overwhelmingly so—and far beyond the capability of their perception. They couldn't see it coming. They could never see it coming.
The fact that he alone could feel this dangerous shift in the air pointed to the latter.
Which also meant the approaching monster was definitely stronger than the one Night Terror and Paragon Raizel were currently fighting.
Northern looked at all of them, his azure eyes burning with authority.
"All of you, find ways to support Paragon Raizel. I will take care of this alone."
Jeci fell to her knees.
"Master! Please let me—"
Northern interrupted her.
"If this was something any of you could handle, I wouldn't hesitate to send you right into it. I almost lost you all in the dungeon because of my decision. I won't repeat that mistake. This time, watch me and learn, understand the reason why you've chosen to serve me... and reinforce it in your mind."
His gaze drifted to Lynus at the latter end of his statement.
Then he exhaled steadily and turned away from them, walking forward.
Northern's mind entered overdrive the moment he turned away. Something was terribly wrong with this pressure. He could feel it with every fiber of his being but couldn't quite grasp its nature.
He almost questioned his own perception. After all, despite being amazingly powerful because of the influence of void and chaos, he was still only a Sage.
There existed monsters that could diminish his heightened awareness—he simply hadn't encountered them before.
Now, noting how none of the others had detected the monster's presence, he grew extremely wary.
Northern was walking forward when his eyes suddenly widened.
...but it was too late.
He knew it was too late.
Curved, sharp black claws materialized before his eyes, aiming to gouge out one of his eyeballs. The sequence happened so fast that even if he threw himself backward, the clawed hand would have seized his eye before he could escape.
However, to Northern's shock, the hand froze mid-movement.
His heart hammered in his chest. Beads of sweat formed on his face as his shoulders trembled with relief at his deliverance from the crude fangs of death—this time more real and visceral than any other brush with mortality he'd experienced.
In that frozen instant, he vanished from sight, reappearing three meters back.
His eyes widened again at what he saw.
"...Black Mamba...?"
He couldn't believe his eyes.
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[A/N]
Alright, listen up! Everyone! There's something I stumbled on recently—Ko-fi. It's like Patreon but... not Patreon. A way for you guys to support me directly, but let me make one thing crystal clear first:
The legit place to read my books and follow my journey is on . If you respect me as an author and want to keep me grinding out more chapters, that's where you go. Not just because it gets me exposure, but because that's how the story lives and breathes in the real world.
Now, what's the deal with Ko-fi? Simple. Instead of chasing some unrealistic ranking goals on just to unlock a mass release, we're flipping the script.
Ko-fi's gonna be our bonus chapter factory. Here's how it works: we hit a goal, I drop a bonus chapter. Boom. Shakalakala. The grind doesn't stop there—one goal gets smashed, another rises from the ashes.
So, if you're thirsty for more chapters, keep pushing those goals. I'm tying myself to this—whether it breaks my fingers or burns out my brain, I'm on the hook to deliver. You get more chapters, I get more motivation, and the story just keeps going.
So if you want to see how far this madness can go, hit up Ko-fi, keep the goals coming, and let's see just how deep this rabbit hole goes.