"Time we end this."
Ice Queen shot down at Kiba.
Her speed and power caused hundreds of phantoms to appear alongside her. It was impossible to tell which one was real, for all they emitted the same dark frost and chilling might that froze everything.
Till now, the Alphas barely managed to see her in the icy darkness. Now with the appearance of so many phantoms, even that became difficult, and they were glad they weren’t in Kiba’s shoes. After all, the phantoms were virtually no different from doppelgangers, and there was no way he could handle them all.
His fate was sealed with death!
"I agree."
Kiba drew the bolt of lightning around him in a circular arc and started spinning.
Whoosh~!
He turned into a spinning, golden thunderstorm.
BANG
Hundreds of dark ice swords bombarded on the thunderstorm. Streams of icy darkness spilled out with golden lightning, clashing like fire and water, and gave rise to apocalyptic fumes.
From afar, it seemed like a collision of day and night. Beautiful yet dangerous.
The deadly pressure pouring from Evolution Field began to vanish while the crystallized ice wrapping fabric of reality started cracking.
The collision was raging to peak, and this caused the apocalyptic fumes to spread out. The flipped earth pulverized, the stormy sky crumbled, and the ripped space teetered.
The beautiful scenery has now turned into the grinding of earth, sky, and space.
Naturally, the mausoleum became the unintended target of this turbulent scene. The tombs in the starting area were swallowed by the mighty collision.
"Damn you, humans!" The Black Fog cursed.
On Earth, the net covering the planet would suppress the might of everyone. It primarily targeted those extremely powerful and could pose a threat to the planet’s very existence. But this suppression wasn’t present in Infinity Maze. Naturally, Ice Queen and Kiba used it to their advantage by channeling their full powers, almost hitting Level IX.
Such power shook the godly Alphas to the core.
"Almost Level IX? More like Level XI!" Crimson Wolf exclaimed.
"They are as strong as Extermination when he used the Cosmic Spark to summon meteorites around the globe!" Mountain Lord observed.
"F.u.c.k! This is unfair! They should be classified as Omegas and not Alphas!" Flame King complained.
The other Alphas seemed to agree.
They expected Ice Queen to be strong, but not to such an extent. Naturally, Kiba’s powers came even more shocking as they haven’t heard of his strength before Infinity Maze.
The Alphas were either shocked, awestruck or stupefied. But one among them was nonchalant like nothing here was unexpected.
It was Margaret Parcae.
"They wield such epic powers, but they are no different from puppets!"
Margaret whispered to herself as she found the tomb she was seeking.
The tomb was enormous - spanning for fifty kilometers - and engraved with drawings of demonic hands pulling strings.
"The who controls the strings holds the true power!"
Margaret kneeled down and banged her head on the tomb.
"And that’s Fate!"
...
Meanwhile, Ice Queen gently waved her free hand.
Mountain-long ice cubes blurred into existence and surrounded the spinning thunderstorm.
She motioned the sword, and the cubes began to slam through the thundering swirls and pressed into Kiba, who was spinning with the bolt of lightning.
A trail of blood escaped his lips, but he laughed. His pupils flashed with the silhouettes of celestial stars.
BOOOOM
These stars seemed to come to life, and they burst out of his eyes. They slammed into the cubes and caused a devastating explosion.
As the explosive shockwaves started to ripple out, the perimeter of the mausoleum sprang up with a black wall. The shockwaves hit the wall, but instead of doing damage, their might was absorbed. Simutelously, the wall distorted, and countless black spikes shot out.
Kiba and Ice Queen separated and turned towards the incoming spikes. They sensed their powers in the spikes and a foreign power that was no weaker than theirs.
Ice Queen motioned the cracking cubes towards the spikes, and they blasted into them. Kiba did the same, making the broken celestial stars hit the remaining spikes.
"Don’t you dare believe you two are omnipotent!" The Black Fog warned. "Because in front of Lord Xeced’s plan, you two are not even kids worthy of mentioning!"
Simultaneously, the spikes flickered, and they passed through the cubes and stars. They appeared right before their targets.
Ice Queen didn’t seem to notice them. She lifted her head and smiled.
"Plan. Everything is a part of someone’s plan, isn’t it?"
Her soul-stirring voice ringed through the maze, and she vanished—the spikes targeting her penetrated nothing but thin air.
The Black Fog was shocked.
Ice Queen has materialized within the mausoleum!
"H-how?! The laws here should make teleportation impossible!"
Till now, it has blocked her entry into the mausoleum through the traps and laws. Now with the appearance of the wall, her access should have been practically impossible. So how could it appear here?!
The fog expanded its senses and noticed a thin icy mist that has spread through the mausoleum.
"You created an ice teleportation formation during the battle!"
The Black Fog couldn’t believe this.
How could she focus on both fighting Kiba and creating the teleportation formation? After all, it required great strength and focus on fooling the traps and sneaking her powers inside.
Ice Queen ignored the fog and looked outside. Kiba was there, separated from her by countless miles, but such distance hardly mattered for beings of their levels.
"I guess we are stopping for now," Kiba said.
Ice Queen nodded.
Kiba grinned. His body disintegrated into a golden mist, and he disappeared.
"Don’t tell me you also are...!"
The Black Fog didn’t even get time to complete as Kiba appeared within the mausoleum.
"Even you!" The fog was furious.
Kiba almost laughed.
He was serious during the battle with Ice Queen, and they were doing their best to defeat the other.
But that didn’t mean either of them forgot the presence of the waiting Black Fog.
"The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind," Kiba said with a smile. "We two might be either mantis or cicada, but you sure aren’t oriole."
"I don’t want to be any oriole!" The Black Fog shouted. "You two are uninvited troublemakers! There’s no way I would let you two live!"
Between the tombs, there was a gigantic circle. It was an offensive formation to shot down any intruder, and with the fog’s command, it flashed with a blinding glow.
As the glow got ready to burst out, Ice Queen spread her hands and closed her eyes. Her icy wings curved out and took her in their cold embrace.
"It would serve you no good!" The Black Fog announced.
It felt she was doing this to block the offensive power of the formation.
Kiba was preparing to handle the formation. But just then, his body jerked, and he turned towards Ice Queen in shock.
Her wings opened up, just like a caterpillar breaking out of the cocoon and spreading its wings as it turns into a butterfly.
The scene was beautiful and represented evolution, but Kiba felt this was the calm before the storm.
And he was right.
Ice Queen was going to unleash a storm that none would be able to handle.