"Screeeee—"
The instant Alwin was seized, a piercing sonic wave erupted from within the entire Glacial Castle. The void trembled and the ground heaved ceaselessly.
A vast number of Frost Guards collapsed to their knees, shivering violently as they prayed for the Ice Snow Empress to quell her wrath.
But clearly, their prayers went unanswered this time.
Blazing blue energy spread outward in every direction, instantly enveloping the entire castle.
Every ice-born creature within its walls—guards, maids, servants, even prisoners—all of them were transformed into frozen sculptures.
Faint wisps of blue luminescence rose from their bodies, then burrowed into the ground like earthworms.
Crack, crack, crack!
Once the blue glow had fully drained from each ice sculpture, countless fractures appeared across their surfaces. The sculptures shattered, collapsing into heaps of snow-white powder.
The entire castle plunged into deathly silence.
"That Ice Snow Empress didn't even come to save you?"
Meanwhile, deep beneath the earth, ice as hard as steel split open on its own, forming a cellar-like chamber bathed in the perpetual glow of an Everlasting Light spell.
On a semi-transparent tabletop, beakers and vessels were arranged in a pattern that appeared haphazard yet followed some hidden order. Some were filled with vividly colored liquids that gave off a faintly putrid stench.
Leilin stood beside the makeshift laboratory bench, gazing at the stone effigy of Alwin in the center of the magical array, a trace of amusement on his face.
This five-star Morning Star Wizard—the true ruler of the entire Glacial World—had now been reduced to a stone statue. Even his soul was completely frozen, leaving behind only a shell sustained by the barest spark of life.
Based on Leilin's earlier experience, the Ice Jade Scorpion's breath needed to be administered under conditions of glacial radiation to guarantee optimal results.
And to preserve the freshness of the material, poor Alwin had little choice but to serve as Leilin's captive. His fate would certainly not be a pleasant one.
"However, during my earlier scan of the Glacial Castle, besides Alwin the Morning Star, I detected another presence whose aura was far more obscure. Could that be the Ice Snow Empress?"
Leilin furrowed his brow. With a thought, thread after thread of blood-red luminescence bloomed from the magical array, seeping into the stone effigy.
"Surrender your memories! Lost lamb!"
Leilin's eyes turned dark and deep as he suddenly chanted an ancient incantation. Strange, eerily modulated runes streamed continuously into the magical array.
Wooo-wooo… Sounds like a woman's wailing filled the air as three long-haired female phantoms materialized within the array.
The three phantom women wore blood-red dresses. Each had a strikingly youthful face—none appearing older than thirty—and they were beautiful, though their expressions were vastly different.
One wore a bright smile, her eyes curved into crescents. Another was overcome with sorrow. The woman in the center bore no expression at all, as cold and still as a block of ice.
"Go!" Leilin pointed at the effigy. The three phantoms floated upward, circling the stone statue ceaselessly, periodically inserting their translucent hands into its head.
In the end, all three red phantoms plunged entirely into Alwin's skull. The entire statue began to tremble violently, forcing the surrounding magical array to intensify its containment.
"Wooo-wooo!" The ghostly wailing amplified tenfold, and an eerie crimson glow rose from Alwin's surface.
"Critical threshold reached. Subject is on the verge of collapse!" Chip issued a timely warning.
"Return, my darlings!" Leilin's eyes were filled with an uncanny light as he spoke in a voice brimming with irresistible allure.
Then, as though some invisible field had materialized, the three phantoms were drawn out from within the statue.
The three apparitions now wore different expressions from before, their faces far more animated. Shrunken dozens of times over, they came to rest in the palm of Leilin's hand. A torrent of intense and complex emotions surged into his mind.
"Chaotic emotions—and memory fragments! Chip!" Leilin issued the command at once.
BOOM! The flood of tangled emotions crashed against an impassable wall. Though the Morning Star Wizard's feelings ran extraordinarily deep, to a chip utterly devoid of human sentiment, they were nothing more than a set of complicated hormonal secretion records.
Once the emotional turbulence had been intercepted, Chip began sorting through the scattered memory fragments it had obtained.
Fragment after fragmented image surfaced before Leilin's eyes. The damage was severe—even after Chip's processing, Leilin could not discern anything of meaningful content.
After the bulk of data had been transmitted, the three spirits in Leilin's hand burst apart and dissipated into mist. Leilin's expression remained unchanged as he let out a quiet sigh.
"Extracting the memories of a Morning Star Wizard is truly far too troublesome…"