Inside the "Boiling Ocean."
The Dark Lord Gornheim's thoughts translated into action in an instant. The darkness contracted, and countless invisible flickers of lightning seemed to flash, weaving together into a dense net of dark, freezing cold that attempted to completely conceal and shield him.
During this process, the "blizzard" that the "Lady of Ice and Snow" had transformed into fought desperately against the darkness, refusing to let it withdraw smoothly.
Flakes of snow fell, freezing the boiling magma, freezing every living being they touched. The "Lady of Ice and Snow" had already tapped into the power of her demon core. For a demon lord of her temperament — one who leaned toward chaos rather than scheming — the chance to slay her mortal enemy and absorb the power of dark cold to ascend to Demon Prince was utterly irresistible. She had been completely consumed by the desire for slaughter, destruction, and consumption!
Her desperate efforts made the Dark Lord Gornheim's attempt to retract his power far from smooth, while the ancient, arcane incantations — "Wrathful Storm," "Heaven of Stars," and others — were already reverberating above the Boiling Ocean.
"Damn it!" Cursing inwardly, Gornheim made the most rational choice. His true body within the "Frozen Fortress" suddenly became ethereal, and the vast majority of his power surged into his projection within the "Boiling Ocean" — because whether it was the legendary mages or Natasha, the epic knight wielding the "Sword of Truth," they all possessed the ability to trace the projection back and harm or even destroy his true body!
In the sky, his right hand — its nails a bruised, livid purple — turned pitch-black in an instant, like a horror reaching out from the deepest, most profound darkness. A seemingly absolute-zero cold that could freeze anything solidified even the "Lady of Ice and Snow," who was herself the embodiment of winter. The swirling blizzard, the dancing snowflakes and ice crystals — all of it was briefly turned into a sculpture of ice!
If defense weren't so critical at this moment, the Dark Lord Gornheim could easily have pressed his advantage and grievously wounded the "Lady of Ice and Snow," forcing her to choose between death and retreat!
Crack, crack, crack — that darkness, which seemed capable of freezing the entire universe, kept flashing with various hues of light, shattering again and again under the Grand Disjunction, only to regenerate and regrow ceaselessly.
Crack. The freezing darkness was thoroughly obliterated by the Grand Disjunction, but it only shattered a few layers of defense, failing to strip away all of Gornheim's other spell-like effects and extraordinary items layer by layer!
This was a rare instance where the Grand Disjunction didn't make "both friend and foe weep," because as a Demon Prince at the peak of the legendary tier, Gornheim's magic resistance was extraordinarily high — capable of negating most of the Grand Disjunction's effects. Moreover, this was the Abyss!
A howling hurricane swept up that pitch-black right hand. Within it, massive trees of crackling lightning flashed ceaselessly while stars rose all around, transforming the sky above the Boiling Ocean into a boundless, magnificent starry expanse!
One by one, the stars traced their enigmatic arcs, bearing brilliant radiance, and struck the Dark Lord's hand almost simultaneously.
Boom!
The storm erupted in a spectacular display — trees of fire and blossoms of silver. Drops of black liquid seeped from that colossal dark hand, each radiating a terrifying, bone-deep cold. Anything it touched froze into blocks of ice that seemed as though they would never thaw, not even after a thousand years.
Under the combined assault of three peak-legendaries and the interference of two demon lords, the Dark Lord Gornheim's layered defenses had finally been breached, and he had sustained injury.
Fortunately, he had managed to draw the vast majority of his true body's power back in time, and only then barely weathered this round of attacks. Otherwise, he wouldn't have merely suffered minor wounds — he would have been gravely injured, or perhaps even met his end!
In the ashen sky above the Frozen Fortress, the "Lord of Undead" Apsis swung his Reaper's Scythe, carrying with it the aura of all things fading and life being reaped. Amidst the churning and coalescence of endless death energy, the scythe cleaved down upon the Frozen Fortress.
He made no effort to restrain his form. His spectral figure, several hundred meters tall, dwarfed the Frozen Fortress itself, and the Reaper's Scythe — longer than his own body — made the fortress look like a miniature sculpture in a museum.
The ashen hues of despair, pain, struggle, and curses — all fading into cold indifference — wrapped around the Reaper's Scythe, and in one devastating strike completely shattered the Frozen Fortress's outer defenses. Since this was precisely the critical moment when Gornheim was drawing power back, the fortress defenses — which would normally have been sufficient to hold Apsis at bay for a long time — had weakened to a single remaining layer!
A left hand — its nails bruised a livid purple — was forced to reach out from within the fortress to block the massive scythe!
Ahhh!
A piercing, hatred-filled wail echoed from within the Frozen Fortress. A deep wound had appeared on Gornheim's enormous left hand, and blood — dark blue, nearly black — dripped ceaselessly, forming a layer of ice utterly devoid of life.
With the vast majority of his power drawn away to deal with Douglas, Lucian Evans, and the other legendary mages and epic knights, even in his home turf of the Frozen Fortress, the Dark Lord was grievously weakened — barely able to hold off the Lord of Death Apsis's assault, and sustaining no light injury.
Apsis's expression remained cold and indifferent, but within his hollow eyes, a point of pale, heatless flame ignited. Regardless of his usual demeanor, his demonic nature was showing through at this moment, and his attacks grew ever more ferocious.
Lucian's left eye was a pure, vivid red like a gemstone. A beam of light shot from it, striking Gornheim's right hand — which had just re-emerged from the swirling darkness — at a speed nothing could match.
A crimson radiance flashed, and the freezing darkness could not halt it. The beam pierced straight through, striking the back of the hand.