Chapter 25: The Duties of the Commander of the Imperial Guard
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Snap.
The ice spears filling the sky suddenly shattered beneath the sunlight, transforming into billions of tiny crystals that drifted and refracted through the air, glittering with a piercing, frigid radiance.
Momoko Ito stood upon the marble floor and surveyed her surroundings. The empty courtyard lay entirely exposed to view.
To the east, rows of archery targets stood in neat formation.
At the far end of the grounds was a low white-stone wall. Beyond it, towering ancient trees more than twenty meters high flourished in dense greenery. Their branches and leaves cast heavy shadows beneath the sun, dividing the worlds inside and outside the wall into light and darkness.
“Tsk. The Saint’s archery ground, is it...”
She muttered under her breath, unconsciously winding a lock of waterfall-black hair around her fingertip.
“Oh dear, I really shouldn’t have acted so impulsively. I should have gotten a little closer.”
She had never expected that an anomalous superhuman proficient in spatial abilities would be concealed at her opponent’s side.
“We have no way to get close.”
A flat voice suddenly came from the empty space behind her.
“Even I was transferred here. That means the enemy noticed us long ago.”
“That’s right.”
A clear female voice rang out from ahead.
“And you actually imagine that the likes of you can lay hands on the Saint? What wishful thinking. Confess who is behind this, and you may yet be spared some pain.”
Lucia’s wine-red hair seemed almost to blaze beneath the sunlight.
Momoko Ito casually raised her right hand, spreading her five fingers slightly.
The ice crystals still suspended in the air appeared to answer an invisible summons. In an instant, they converged with a howl like a startled flock of crows.
Crack!
The crystals collided, compressed, and fused together in a frenzy, condensing within her palm into a long, narrow blade of perfectly clear ice.
With a graceful turn of her wrist, she swept the blade through the air. It traced a frigid arc and gave off a faint whistle as it cut through the wind.
“What a pity.”
She pointed the ice blade forward, battle intent rising in her eyes.
“I’m not a woman who likes to give up halfway. Once I kill you, the Saint will naturally appear.”
“Tyrant Dragon Heavy Armor.”
Seeing that Momoko remained obstinate, Lucia wasted no more words.
The marble floor behind her was instantly swallowed by a deep, circular darkness.
From within it, a huge, savage vermilion dragon’s head suddenly thrust forth with a roar that tore through the air. Its enormous maw, lined with sharp teeth, engulfed Lucia in a single bite.
Crack!
As the dragon’s jaws closed, the stone slabs beneath it were effortlessly shattered by its fangs.
Then, dazzling red light erupted from within the dragon’s head.
When the radiance faded, Lucia’s entire body was covered in vermilion armor with hard, angular lines.
A ferocious dragon-headed helmet concealed her face completely, leaving only two blood-red lenses over her eyes, gleaming with a dangerous light.
A pitch-black cape hung from her pauldrons, stirring without wind and snapping sharply in the air.
Lucia raised a hand and seized the enormous crescent-bladed halberd slanted across the armor on her back. The weapon rang as she gripped it. Sunlight flashed across its icy edge.
“To deal with an arrogant fanatic who puts her faith in power, one must use absolute strength—crush your confidence and make you kneel for mercy.”
Her voice emerged through the faceplate, carrying a chilling intent to kill.
As commander of the Imperial Guard, there were matters she could afford to neglect, and matters in which she had to fight to the death without retreat.
Any enemy who wished to harm the Saint had to step over her corpse.
“Hahaha! Then let’s see you try.”
Momoko Ito threw back her head and laughed, then stamped down hard.
Crack!
Icicles exploded from the place where her foot landed.
Her figure had already become an ice-blue meteor skimming close to the ground, carrying a bone-deep chill as it charged fearlessly toward that vermilion steel bulwark.
Lucia showed no fear. She stepped forward, and the heavy halberd in her hands seemed weightless. It transformed into a cold arc that tore through the air, meeting that lethal flash of ice with perfect precision.
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Clang!
A deafening clash of metal erupted.
Visible shock waves burst from the two combatants, transforming into fierce gales that swept violently to either side.
The solid marble beneath their feet cracked and shattered inch by inch like brittle biscuits.
The immense force transmitted through the ice blade only made Momoko’s smile grow more excited.
Her left hand shot forward like lightning, pointing ahead.
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
Sharp icicles instantly condensed out of thin air, becoming freezing swords that tore through the air and stabbed straight toward Lucia’s abdomen.
Lucia reacted with astonishing speed. Her right leg, encased in heavy armor, lashed upward like a whip.
Smack!
The foremost icicle broke apart.
The metal toe of her battle boot landed precisely upon the fractured pillar of ice.
At the same time, Momoko’s power continued to operate. The broken ice pillar rapidly extended forward.
Lucia used the momentum to propel herself backward, sliding at high speed as though pushed along an icy track.
As she slid, the muscles in both her arms bulged. She tightened her grip on the halberd and brought it crashing down toward Momoko with enough force to split mountains and shatter stone.
Before the blade arrived, a concentrated pressure of wind, nearly solid in its intensity, had already torn through the air with a shrill scream.
Momoko’s figure blurred, and she lightly shifted several feet to the side.
The terrifying pressure of wind grazed her clothes and thundered into the ground.
Boom!
The earth answered with a muffled explosion. A long, narrow fissure of unfathomable depth appeared between them, sending shards of stone flying.
“Not bad.”
A trace of approval flashed through Momoko’s eyes. She suddenly swept her left hand toward the sky.
A low, hair-raising sonic boom detonated high above.
The sunlight over the courtyard was abruptly swallowed by a vast shadow.
A colossal sphere of ice, its diameter spanning the entire courtyard, came crashing down like a falling star, carrying enough force to annihilate everything below.
Momoko had no concern about being caught in the attack herself.
As a consummate Legendary of the Transmutation type, she could become an element at any moment, rendering herself immune to such a purely physical impact.
“Hmph.”
Lucia snorted. She neither dodged nor retreated. Instead, the halberd in her hands suddenly swept upward, its tip pointing straight toward the heavens.
Boom!
The instant the enormous ice sphere met that single point of cold light, it seemed to have been struck by an invisible giant hammer. It instantly shattered into countless pieces.
Ice fragments of every size poured down like a violent hailstorm.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
Impacts as dense as drumbeats resounded throughout the courtyard.
The solid chunks of ice fell like cannon shells, pounding the already ruined marble floor into powder. Dust and ice shards billowed together through the air.
Under cover of the chaos, Lucia’s crimson lenses abruptly swept toward her rear flank.
A blurred figure appeared amid the shifting light refracted through the ice crystals.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lucia thrust forward with her halberd like a venomous dragon emerging from its cavern.
Thud!
The figure shattered on impact, transforming into a skyful of ice crystals.
It had merely been an afterimage reflected across the suspended shards.
The real Momoko Ito had already appeared to Lucia’s right like a ghost.
The ice blade in her hand traced a lethal streak of cold light, silently slashing toward Lucia’s waist and abdomen.
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Lucia’s heart jolted. Her wealth of combat experience allowed her to react almost instinctively.
The heavy halberd in her hands reversed with incredible speed. Its shaft, carrying the force of a thousand weights, came crashing down from above at an angle like a giant axe cleaving a mountain.
Clang!
Another deafening boom rang out.
The shaft struck the attacking ice blade with perfect accuracy.
The immense force made the blade tremble violently, and cracks began to appear across it.
Lucia seized that fleeting opening. Her right foot shot forward like a battering ram, kicking viciously toward Momoko’s chest.
Momoko crossed both arms and blocked the blow head-on.
Thud!
A dull impact rang out.
Momoko felt an irresistible force slam into her. Her entire body flew backward like a kite with its string severed.
Ice blocks shattered along her path with a rapid succession of cracks and pops. She was hurled nearly a hundred meters before her figure finally managed to halt.
Lucia gave her no chance to catch her breath. She drove her foot into the ground.
Boom!
The earth exploded into a shallow crater. The vermilion figure had already transformed into a scarlet bolt of lightning that tore through space, surging forward once more.
“Freeze Time and Space.”
A frigid gleam blazed in Momoko’s eyes as she raised her left hand toward the rapidly approaching Lucia.
A terrifying chill, far surpassing anything before it and powerful enough to freeze the soul, erupted without warning.
It seemed even the light itself had been brought to a standstill.
The entire archery-ground courtyard, along with the dust swirling through the air, the drifting ice mist, and the shattered stones...
Everything was stained in an instant with a deep azure hue, as though it had sunk into amber made from ten thousand years of ice.
Time and space alike fell into absolute stillness beneath that single gesture.
...
Before the viewing screen.
“This chill capable of freezing time and space—is it an ability of the Anomalous type?”
Nangong Lin stood beside White Jade Capital. A trace of fascinated interest passed through her deep eyes.
To her, the Way of Time was a supreme law in Shenzhou, something far beyond the reach of a mere late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
Yet on Blue Star, that iron law had been casually broken.
White Jade Capital slowly shook his head.
“Judging from the way she manipulated the changing forms of ice earlier, she is unquestionably of the Transmutation type.
“This kind of superhuman ability is a simple classification, easy to learn at the entry level. Distinguishing oneself from other users of the same type depends entirely on personal talent.
“This woman has clearly developed her ice to an astonishing level. No wonder she had the confidence to attempt an assassination.”
“Shall I intervene and save Lucia?”
Nangong Lin’s voice remained soft and pleasing, like a clear mountain stream.
White Jade Capital smiled.
“No.”
“That truly surprises me.”
Although Nangong Lin said this, her breathtaking face showed not the slightest hint of surprise.
“Are you the sort who considers subordinates worthless once they fail?”
At her words, White Jade Capital shrugged.
“Nangong, don’t underestimate her.
“She fought her way through two hundred thousand Imperial Guards and rose to the position of commander. She didn’t get there through luck, but through strength.”
Nangong Lin’s indifferent eyes refocused on the viewing screen.
As though to prove White Jade Capital’s words, the absolute, deathly silent azure “amber” within the screen began to change.
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