"But Blanche is quite strong, Lady Narcissa. She managed to injure you yesterday," the guard said, voicing his concern. "Even though you were caught off guard, her Frostfall technique is truly formidable. The four of us—" "What are you afraid of?" Narcissa snapped impatiently. "She's badly wounded, and her strength has been seriously weakened. With the four of us working together, and my Violebolt Orb in hand, can't we handle one wounded opponent? "Besides, my husband knows I'm taking care of things here. If I'm ever in real danger, the protective charm he left me will activate. He'll be able to sense it, then come to my aid."At the mention of her husband, a flicker of pride crossed her eyes.Her husband, Alarion Jornell, held considerable status among the younger generation of the Jornells of Amethysius. His cultivation had reached the early stage of Core-Forged Arcanist, and he cherished her above all.Seeing that Narcissa had made up her mind, the three guards fell in line.

Seeing the situation turn against them, Ragnar turned to flee, but the two members from the Frost family caught up with him. With a flash of sword light, his head separated from his body.Just like that, only Narcissa remained. She was gravely injured and collapsed to the ground.Aveline approached, her sword pointed at Narcissa's throat. Four other Frost family members closed in, cutting off all escape routes.Blanche walked over as well, staring coldly at the person responsible for the massacre of the Weston family.Narcissa's hair hung loose and disheveled, her body covered in blood. The arrogance she once carried was gone, replaced by fear and bitter resentment."You… You dare kill me?" she screamed. "My husband is Alarion. The Jornells of Amethysius won't let you get away with this. Elder Sevran will arrive any moment. All of you must die."Blanche stood before her, looking down without a trace of mercy. Only cold killing intent showed in her eyes. "The Weston family had d

As Blanche dove toward Blackwind Marsh, she fought the urge to turn back and help Aveline and others. She pushed her speed to its absolute limit as she plunged into the treacherous land, shrouded year-round in a gray-black, poisonous miasma.The moment she entered the marsh, her vision and divine sense became severely restricted. The air reeked of rot and toxins, while the ground beneath her was a treacherous sprawl of soft bogs. Occasionally, strange black shadows flickered beneath the murky water's surface.She didn't dare slow down. Guided only by a hazy memory of the terrain, she flew deeper into the marsh toward the core region rumored to have the most chaotic magnetic interference. Snowy stayed close by her side, nimbly avoiding puddles and hidden dangers.Blanche could feel the violent spiritual energy from the sky far behind her, an echo of Alarion's raw killing intent. She could sense Aveline and the others' energy waves fading, their presence flickering out like dying em

Albus gestured with his sword finger, then uttered, "Go."The crystalline longsword trembled slightly. Without any visible wind-up, it transformed into a streak of azure light, surging forward to meet the three terrifying lightning spears.Alarion watched in disbelief as the streak moved with a lightness that defied physics. It was so fast his divine sense could barely track its trajectory.Instead of clashing head-on, the streak flashed through the narrow gap between the spears in the blink of an eye. What happened next left everyone stunned. The three devastating lightning spears froze mid-flight as if caught in an invisible ice storm. The crackling cyan lightning on their surface rapidly dimmed and solidified.Three sharp cracks echoed simultaneously as the spears snapped in two. The breaks were perfectly smooth before the remnants dissolved into a mist of ice-blue light and vanished without a sound. They might as well have been fragile icicles rather than powerful lightning t

Several days after Alarion fled in disgrace and Albus quietly vanished with Blanche and their clan, a cataclysmic upheaval erupted in Dragonmarsh. It struck without warning at Aylka, the inner city in Oakvale.That day began with clear skies, and Oakvale was as bustling as ever. At noon, a deep, distant rumble rolled through the earth. It was as if some primordial leviathan was waking deep within the mantle. At first, people felt only a faint tremor beneath their feet and assumed it was an earthquake. But then, in the center of the vast plaza before the Aetherium in Aylka, the seemingly indestructible golden brick pavement suddenly bulged upward and cracked.The explosion was deafening. A blinding surge of ochre light erupted from the fissures as the base of an impossibly massive mountain tore through the earth's crust. It had not flown in from afar but grew from deep within the ground, rising at an unnatural speed that defied all reason.Massive boulders tumbled as soil surged li