Chapter 26: Saints Do Not Need Protection
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Crack... crack...
Within the azure “amber,” which should have been frozen and utterly silent, Momoko Ito keenly caught a faint, abnormal sound.
The composed ease on her face instantly froze, transforming first into astonishment, then into palpable excitement.
Ahead, the figure clad in vermilion armor was moving. The right arm gripping the halberd was shifting with excruciating slowness.
It was as though she were adapting to the weight of this frozen domain.
“Wonderful!”
Momoko Ito cried out in intoxicated delight. She drove off the ground, her entire body shooting forward like an arrow loosed from its bow. Her skate blade carved a frigid gleam through the air, aimed straight at Lucia’s vital points.
A lethal threat acted like a powerful catalyst.
The armor’s rate of adaptation to its surroundings surged.
Deep within the crimson visor, it seemed that searing energy had suddenly been kindled.
The frozen halberd instantly broke free of its sluggishness and came crashing downward.
Bang!
The blade collided viciously with the ice skate, sending ice shards spraying in every direction.
Lucia twisted at the waist. Borrowing the force of the rebound, she shoved the halberd shaft forward with her right hand. The heavy butt of the weapon swept upward like a battering ram, driving straight toward Momoko Ito’s cheek.
In the blink of an eye, Momoko Ito’s thoughts turned sharply.
The absolute chill enveloping the courtyard vanished in an instant, condensing beside her into a thick, solid shield of ice.
Boom!
The halberd’s butt smashed heavily into the shield, and a muffled shock wave traveled through it.
Momoko Ito used the impact to roll sideways and dissipate the force. While still airborne, she twisted her waist like a drawn bowstring, gathering power. Her right leg became a keen executioner’s blade and slammed into the side of Lucia’s helmet.
Thud.
A deep, muffled impact rang out.
Lucia shot sideways like a cannonball struck by a giant hammer.
The turbulent air split apart the drifting smoke and ice mist. Along her path, massive chunks of ice shattered one after another beneath the impact.
At last, she was hurled into a huge mass of ice beside the outer wall.
Crack... crack...
Spiderweb fractures instantly spread across the icy surface. The next moment, the entire mass exploded apart.
Crash!
A denser rain of ice fragments came pouring down, rattling against Lucia’s armor.
Amid the barrage of impacts, the vermilion armor covering her upper body let out a groan of unbearable strain. Cracks spread across it, and then it suddenly burst apart and fell away.
Under Momoko Ito’s slightly astonished gaze, the shattered armor revealed a large black bra.
Broad expanses of snow-white skin were exposed to the freezing air, while her wine-red shoulder-length hair had become slightly disheveled.
“Heh.”
Momoko Ito raised an eyebrow and teased, “Looks like that kick of mine had some force behind it.
“Or is it that your imposing armor isn’t quite as reliable defensively as it appears?”
Lucia raised a hand and wiped away a trace of blood from the corner of her lips. Not the slightest hint of discomposure showed on her face.
“Isn’t that how it always happens in the movies?
“When heavy armor shatters, it usually means an even greater power is about to be unleashed.
“You are indeed very strong. In my first form alone, I cannot defeat you.”
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“I see.”
Momoko Ito nodded in understanding and casually tossed aside the broken ice skate in her hand.
“Then the killing move I had originally intended to save for the Saint will have to be sampled by you first.”
Their tones were calm.
Yet the killing intent permeating the courtyard had already climbed to its peak, so dense it was suffocating.
Beyond the walls, birds exploded from the forest in alarm, while beasts fled in panic, as though they could sense destruction drawing near.
At that instant, when the tension had reached its absolute limit—
Squish.
The faint sound of a blade entering flesh was exceptionally sharp.
A bloodstained dagger suddenly protruded from Lucia’s lower left abdomen.
Warm blood gushed forth at once, splattering across the frozen ground.
Her pupils contracted sharply. Her left hand lashed backward with lightning speed.
Thud!
A muffled impact was accompanied by the sound of bones shattering. Lals’s astonished head burst apart like an overripe watermelon. His headless body sprayed warm blood and collapsed limply to the ground.
“Lals... that fool.”
A trace of anger and shock flashed across Momoko Ito’s face.
Since her debut, she had always been the one others surrounded and attacked. When had she ever needed to join forces with anyone?
Her only demand of Lals had been that he help her infiltrate the Holy Palace.
She had never imagined that this temporary companion would choose to launch a sneak attack at such a moment.
Lucia felt the burning pain radiating from the wound in her abdomen. When she looked down, she saw that the blood flowing from it carried a faint ghostly green hue.
Clearly, the dagger was poisoned.
Lucia did not even furrow her brow much more. With a swift motion, she reached behind herself and pulled out the dagger.
“We are running short on time.”
She turned to face Momoko Ito again, her gaze as sharp as ever.
“One move to decide the victor.”
Momoko Ito studied her upright figure, curiosity flickering through her eyes.
“Is the Saint worth staking your life to protect?”
“Protect?”
Lucia was momentarily stunned. Then the corner of her mouth curved into a mocking smile.
“You seem to have misunderstood something.
“The Saint needs no one’s protection.
“He is the only Imperial-level superpowered individual in the world today. That title is not empty boasting. It is fact.”
Momoko Ito’s lips curled upward.
“If he truly is as powerful as you claim, why stake your life on stopping me?”
In her eyes, that so-called Imperial-level superpowered individual was nothing more than a lie the Saint used to embellish himself and consolidate his power.
Lucia gave a cold laugh. Her wine-red hair fluttered in the frigid wind, and her eyes held a lofty, disdainful light.
“The Saint is the emperor of the Great Han Empire, the supreme commander of its army, navy, and air force, and the ruler of the eight-point-one billion people of Blue Star.
“Not every stray cat or dog has the right to stand before him and draw a sword.
“As commander of the Imperial Guard, my duty is to keep fools like you, who have no idea how high the heavens are, from ever reaching him.”
The instant her words ended, she stepped forward and leveled the halberd at Momoko Ito.
“Come.”
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Vast quantities of source power surged through her body, madly converging along her intricate source-matter circuits.
Momoko Ito said nothing more.
She knew that the next strike would be her opponent’s final song, fueled by the burning of everything she possessed.
A layer of crystalline frost instantly spread across Momoko Ito’s body. Her entire form seemed to lose its substance.
In the next moment, she twisted sharply at the waist and transformed into a colossal ice dragon, its entire body a deep azure, its scales and claws savage. With a roar, it lunged forward to devour her foe.
“Instantaneous Ice Domain!”
Wherever she passed, airborne dust, cracks in the ground—everything was frozen solid in an instant.
“Starfall Severing Strike!”
Lucia shouted.
Having abandoned the heavy protection of her armor, her speed increased tremendously. She became a streak of light that seemed to tear through space, rapidly circling around the front of the ice dragon.
Then she slashed horizontally from the right.
Boom!
An indescribably tremendous roar shook the entire space.
Even though Lucia used her incredible speed to avoid the dragon’s frontal assault, the bone-piercing cold still invaded her body through the halberd’s blade like billions of icy needles, attempting to freeze her blood and solidify her source power.
Yet the source power surging through her source-matter circuits did not slow in the slightest. Instead, under the extreme pressure, it erupted with even more savage force.
The Starfall Severing Strike was the ultimate killing move formed from the absolute concentration of her will and strength.
The halberd was like a divine weapon cleaving apart chaos. Bearing an irrevocable resolve to advance without retreat, it forcibly broke through layer upon layer of ice and continued forward.
Spurt.
The halberd tore into the enormous ice dragon from the right side.
Time seemed to freeze for an instant.
A thick layer of frost covered Lucia’s brow. Maintaining her charging posture, she had become a lifelike ice statue.
The halberd in her hands remained thrust forward.
The colossal ice dragon, meanwhile, could no longer reassemble itself into human form. With a thunderous collapse, it disintegrated.
Blood mixed with human organs spread across the ground in a glaring red stain.
Almost simultaneously, the extreme-cold domain enveloping the courtyard vanished.
The frost covering Lucia’s body melted rapidly as well.
Clang!
The heavy halberd slipped from her hands first and crashed onto the ground.
The bone-deep cold ravaged Lucia’s body. She trembled violently, no longer able to hold herself upright, and crumpled forward.
But the expected icy ground never touched her. A steady, powerful hand caught her unsteady shoulder in time.
“Well done, Lucia.”
Bai Yujing’s gentle voice sounded beside her ear.
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