Away from Frey, another battle of equal intensity raged on.
From the very start, Carmen had been forced into a purely defensive stance—something that completely contradicted her aggressive nature.
She burned through her seven stars to their very limits, desperately trying to melt Eleanor's ice.
"You cannot win… Carmen."
Thousands of ice spears materialized around Eleanor, cascading toward Carmen like an unstoppable storm.
Her gauntlets—formidable weapons in their own right—were beginning to falter under the relentless onslaught.
The gap between their ranks was simply insurmountable. Without a special means to bridge it, victory was impossible.
Eleanor had no intention of dragging this out. She wanted to end it swiftly and put an end to this farce—especially after seeing her son struggle against Frey Starlight, an enigma she had yet to fully comprehend.
A level of power that defied reason… She was facing one of the greatest mysteries of her life.
She had already started losing interest in Carmen.
But then—
Carmen chuckled to herself as her stars flared ever brighter, waging a desperate battle against the encroaching ice.
"I can't afford to fall behind the kids… can I?"
Slowly but surely, the seven stars began to spin faster.
A faint glow emerged alongside them, growing stronger by the second…
And then—
A violent storm erupted, obliterating Eleanor's spears and forcing her to refocus on the woman before her.
Eight stars now danced around Carmen's heart—the pinnacle technique of the Starlight Family.
Stardust.
A new star had been born.
The sheer magnitude of that power made Eleanor instinctively furrow her brows.
"This pressure…"
Right before her eyes, Carmen had broken through.
"How?!"
It should have been impossible.
And yet, it had happened.
From S+ rank, she had suddenly surged into SS- rank.
Elation surged through Carmen. This was the strength she had always dreamed of.
With a burst of newfound power, she exploded forward, launching herself at Eleanor.
"Now the real fight begins."
The Starlight Family had a way of making the impossible seem all too easy.
...
...
...
SS- Rank.
And in the midst of battle…
For the longest time, Carmen Starlight had been trapped at S+ rank, unable to break through due to the missing conditions required for ascension.
Many believed she was destined to die at that rank, especially given her age and the fact that she had already reached her prime.
But now—Eleanor Moonlight was witnessing the impossible.
"This can't be… Carmen, how?!"
The matriarch of the Moonlight Family quickly regained her composure. She couldn't afford to hesitate—not now. She struck first, determined to maintain the overwhelming advantage she had held since the start.
Unlike her husband Baylor, and much like Carmen, Eleanor was one of the rare warriors who could dominate in close-quarters combat.
Dozens of enormous ice spears materialized, attacking from all angles, while Eleanor herself lunged forward, tightening her hold on the battle.
Carmen saw it coming.
The eight stars of Stardust spun faster and faster, and by unleashing the power of the strongest star, she burned through the incoming ice spears, shattering them into pieces.
Then—she caught Eleanor's spear with both hands.
Under normal circumstances, her arms would have frozen solid the moment they came into contact with Eleanor's superior ice.
But now?
She barely felt the cold.
"The world is far greater than we ever imagined, Eleanor Moonlight."
With a powerful motion, Carmen shoved Eleanor backward before launching a devastating barrage of massive, earth-shaking punches.
Eleanor, however, deflected each attack with her spear, expertly countering the relentless storm of strikes.
"Even after all the centuries we've endured—even with all the knowledge we've accumulated—
—we truly believed we had seen everything.
But in the end, we are nothing more than fish swimming in an endless ocean…
And sometimes, the greatest threats emerge from the places we least expect."
For the first time in this battle, Eleanor's thoughts were elsewhere.
A terrifying realization crept into her mind.
What if the Starlight Family had someone backing them from the shadows?
Someone strong enough to force Carmen into a breakthrough?
If that were true—everything would change.
They might even lose their dominance entirely.
Of course, Eleanor had no way of knowing the truth.
The one responsible for Carmen's ascension wasn't some hidden powerhouse.
It was Frey Starlight himself.
To Carmen, Frey was like a whale among fish—a force of nature who, one day, would devour them all.
That was why she bet everything on him.
Sensing Eleanor's distraction, Carmen seized the moment.
A surge of exhilaration coursed through her veins—her newfound strength igniting a flame she hadn't felt in years.
She was faster. Stronger.
Every strike was precise—perfect—the kind of overwhelming power she had only dreamed of wielding before.
"Don't push your luck too far, Carmen."
Behind Eleanor Moonlight, a massive ice circle materialized—intricately engraved with cryptic symbols, each one pulsing with arcane power.
Her spear vanished.
She clasped her hands together.
At that moment, the mysterious circle spun violently, unleashing a surge of absolute cold, forcing Carmen to halt involuntarily.
She looked down.
Frost had begun creeping up her arms.
"Yes, you've grown stronger. You've finally gained the strength to fight me on equal footing.
But so what?"
The ice circle behind Eleanor spun even faster, radiating an intense blue aura that expanded across the battlefield—transforming it into an endless frozen wasteland.
The chilling energy condensed, forming hundreds of ethereal weapons—swords, spears, and enormous arrows—each one pulsing with terrifying amounts of aura.
And all of them were aimed at a single target.
Carmen Starlight.
"All you've accomplished with this newfound power… is delaying the inevitable."
The attack came from every direction.
One strike at this level—just one—would be enough to reduce any warrior below S-rank to a lifeless, shredded corpse.
But instead of fear—
Carmen smiled.
A wild, reckless, defiant grin.
"We'll see about that!"
She didn't unleash any grand technique.
She didn't invoke any divine ability.
She simply fought.
Raw. Brutal. Primal.
She focused all of her burning blue aura into her fists, her battle instincts sharper than ever.
Her feet sank deep into the frozen battlefield as she dropped into a wide, devastating striking stance.
And then—
Her arms blurred.
In less than a second, they moved at such blinding speed that they looked like twin cannons unloading endless destruction.
Each punch shattered one of the gigantic ice weapons, obliterating them on impact.
The relentless destruction sent burning ice shards raining down across the battlefield—
Yet Carmen's onslaught never ceased.
Punch after punch. Strike after strike.
A relentless storm of devastation.
Each side pushed with everything they had.
Without a doubt, a battle of this magnitude was like a natural disaster, shaking the entire battlefield and drastically affecting every other fight happening around them.
Eleanor saw it clearly—her attack had been completely blocked.
So, she decided to escalate.
Instead of attacking from a distance, she charged at Carmen herself.
As she closed the distance, the circle behind her spun once more, and in an instant, her entire body became encased in ice—forming an armored shell that radiated an aura of frost, rising like steam into the air.
The armor enveloped Eleanor completely, covering even her mouth and nose, leaving only her eyes and hair exposed.
The pressure she emitted was no joke.
Carmen watched as it all unfolded before her.
She grew serious.