Luna gasped back to life, her chest heaving as her eyes snapped open. The world rushed in all at once—a cacophony of distant sounds and sensations—and yet, her body still burned, as though she were afme, even while an unnatural cold pierced her skin like needles of frost.

  With a weak groan, her trembling arms pushed her off the ground. The gritty, solid feel of earth beneath her palms confirmed it—she was no longer in the mental space. She had returned to reality.

  Her eyes were open, but the world was a blur. It felt as if a translucent film veiled her sight, allowing only the brightest colors to bleed through.

  And right now, the only color Luna could make out was the vivid azure of ice—ice that had devoured the world around her.

  “What… did he do to me?”

  The memory came flooding back. Razchar’s final words were a whisper ced with something ancient. His warning had slipped into her consciousness just before his alien energy collided with her soul.

  As expected, the aftermath was excruciating. But Luna had endured it—pushed through the torment long enough to survive. The only reason she was still breathing was the blood that surged through her veins. This unique awakening had left her body in perfect condition. There were no broken bones, wounds or scars. She had completely recovered from previous battle.

  Her breath trembled against the biting cold. Distant sounds of war echoed from every direction—above her in the sky, to her left and right, and somewhere behind.

  Artemis’s once-pristine garden had become a battlefield.

  Luna knew she couldn't stay still. Standing alone made her a glowing target, and in a pce like this, curiosity was as dangerous as any bde. She was alive, and that alone would draw attention from enemies she likely couldn’t count.

  She lifted her foot to run.

  Crack!

  The ground beneath her gave way, brittle and unstable. It shattered beneath her weight, sending a jolt of surprise through her.

  Instinctively, she reached out, grasping for a nearby tree to catch herself. But even that betrayed her. Her strength. It was too much, too uncontrolled and caused the tree to fracture and colpse like brittle stone.

  Bang!

  She hit the half-frozen earth face-first. Her body was still. Her dark, hollow eyes stared ahead, unfocused and empty, like they were searching for meaning in a world that had none left.

  Gods… she groaned louder this time, scowling as frustration raged in her thoughts.

  “A fighting chance, my ass… I can’t even see,” she hissed, dragging herself back to her feet. “And why is it so damn cold…”

  Her blood felt like it was boiling beneath her skin, yet her body was freezing—an unnatural contrast that left her trembling.

  And then, without warning, the blurred world around her began to shift.

  Silver weaves of energy shimmered into view—delicate threads of light that danced through the air like sentient strands of silk. They coiled gently around her body, as if recognizing her presence.

  ‘What the…’

  Luna stared in awe as the threads touched her skin, and instantly, something changed. Information surged into her. The silver essence wasn’t just power—it was awareness. A deep, ancient awareness.

  Her vision distorted further… and then snapped into something new.

  She gasped.

  Her eyes no longer saw as they had before. Now they perceived. Images, blurred yet vivid, flooded her mind: armies cshing across the pins, sorcerers locked in battles with grotesque, otherworldly creatures.

  And beyond them… unique, powerful presences that bent reality itself.

  At first, Luna thought the overwhelming presence she felt belonged to Storm—or perhaps one of the Pantheon. But then came a third force.

  Something new.

  The moment it brushed against her awareness, her body reacted violently, trembling from the sheer weight of it. It was foreign and terrifying in its stillness. Then, just as suddenly, the silver essence withdrew. The strange connection faded, and with it, the veil over her vision lifted.

  The world snapped into crity.

  And the cold….gods, the cold stabbed through her skin like icy needles. Even with the enchanted cloak Storm had given her, one meant to shield her from all the elements, she was still freezing. That wasn’t just odd—it was wrong.

  Her dark eyes shifted, taking in the world around her.

  “By the gods…” she whispered.

  The once-vibrant garden had become unrecognizable. The red-leaved trees were now pale and brittle, their leaves buried beneath thick yers of frost. Everything in sight—stones, flora, even several nearby creatures—was encased in shimmering ice, locked in eerie stillness.

  It was as if an ice demon had descended, turning this part of Artemis’s sacred garden into an extension of the frozen wastends.

  Luna forced herself to ignore the swirling silver weaves of essence still lingering in her vision. She turned her focus instead to the ice that had overtaken the nd.

  Her gaze narrowed. 'This ice… it has life essence in it.'

  Her heart sank. Embedded deep within the frost, golden weaves shimmered faintly—threads of ancient, undisturbed power that pulsed with life. They reflected in her dark eyes like distant stars, untouched by the Moon Goddess’s essence, unyielding and sovereign.

  This wasn't supposed to be possible for someone like Mao Feng or Lena Feng.

  Before she could guess any further, the air suddenly shifted.

  A violent gust smmed against her as a massive shadow swept overhead.

  Luna braced herself, squinting upward. A creature—a behemoth rger than a whale—soared above her, its immense body cd in gold-pted armor, green scales gleaming beneath the ruined pting. Its leather-like wings were tattered, burnt, and punctured, as if it had cwed its way out of a battle it shouldn’t have survived.

  It let out a guttural, anguished roar.

  Before Luna could move, something rose from the garden. A dark, thick, and monstrous coil shed upward and seized the dragon’s leg, dragging it down with terrifying force.

  She stumbled backward as the garden itself seemed to awaken, a colossal serpent unraveling from the snow-covered terrain. It wrapped itself around the filing dragon, constricting with slow, unstoppable pressure.

  The dragon’s shriek split the sky, a roar so powerful it bent the wind and shattered frost from the trees.

  Then, in an instant, its form twisted and vanished. And where the beast once writhed, a man remained. He was Tall, armored, and still smoldering from the struggle. He emerged from the coils of the serpent like something reborn from chaos and flew upwards, putting distance between himself and the serpent.

  With a sharp motion of his hand, he conjured a barrage of wind-based attacks. Bdes of compressed air—some shaped like sickles wrapped in near-invisible force, others like gleaming green javelins—materialized in a fsh and hurtled toward the serpent.

  They struck with brutal precision.

  The serpent shrieked, reeling as the projectiles shredded into its pale, icy flesh. Its snowy-white scales cracked under the onsught, some breaking entirely, revealing raw, pulsing muscle beneath.

  It coiled in on itself, attempting to shield its core from the storm of wind attacks, but the man was relentless.

  High above, he let out a battle cry that shook the air. His body shimmered, blurred, and then surged outward—expanding in a fsh of emerald and gold.

  The Dragon had returned. It dived, fangs bared, cws extended, and crashed into the wounded serpent with devastating force.

  The impact rocked the frozen ground.

  But the serpent responded in kind. It uncoiled with startling speed and lunged—its jaws opening unnaturally wide to reveal twin bck fangs.

  They sank into the dragon’s neck. And corruption spread instantly, bckening the once-vibrant green scales once its venom made contact with the flesh.

  But the Dragon didn't falter. Roaring in fury, it cmped its own jaws around the serpent’s throat, tearing through flesh while its cws raked deep, gouging long, savage wounds.

  It was a csh of monsters. Of titans. And Luna could only watch from a distance.

  After enough carnage had been dealt, the dragon’s colossal form finally cracked, splintered, and shattered.

  In its pce, the man appeared once more, panting and bloodied, but still standing on the ground with a focused gaze.

  Luna stared at the two figures locked in a silent standoff.

  One was an injured man, cloaked in the remnants of emerald and gold, his breath shallow but unwavering. The other—an eighteen-meter serpent—coiled in blood-soaked agony, its obsidian fangs dripping with a mixture of bck venom and crimson rage.

  They had reached the climax of their battle. And both were near their limits.

  “The serpent’s life force is fading…” Luna could see it—the silver essence within the beast flickering, unraveling thread by thread.

  Then, without warning, the serpent lunged forward one final time. Its presence crashed down like a tidal wave of terror, so immense that any ordinary man might’ve given up hope at the sheer weight of it.

  But this man was Kaigen, a powerful sorcerer. And he only smirked as the vicious, desperate serpent came for him.

  His dao sword shimmered into existence with a whisper of wind and light.

  “Release. Third Form.”

  He pivoted with effortless grace, grounding his stance. Then swung. The motion was simple, but the force behind it was monumental. It carried the weight of storms.

  He didn’t move an inch. But the wind did. It heard his will and carried it, amplified it.

  The air surged, dancing like a sentient bde through the frozen battlefield.

  The serpent halted mid-lunge. Its massive form slowed, then froze entirely… suspended in time.

  A heartbeat ter, it split in half.

  Blood rained across the ice and bleached trees, painting the world in streaks of crimson and bck.

  Luna’s eyes widened in silent awe. She had witnessed a god-syer’s strike.

  Kaigen didn’t hesitate. He dismissed his bde and vanished into the sky toward the next battle, moving as though he hadn’t just been wounded at all.

  As she was taking in the damage he had done and thinking about Kaigen’s final attack, Luna’s senses suddenly fred when a new presence twisted through the battlefield like a whisper.

  Without a thought, the Sun’s Ember appeared in her hand, responding to her unease.

  She turned, and her eyes narrowed instantly.

  Standing before her was a man she knew all too well. His long, dark hair fell over pale skin spttered with blood. His armor was heavily damaged to the point of breaking apart, and emotionless eyes were locked onto hers. They were unreadable and cold.

  In one hand, he held a severed human head, fresh and still dripping.

  “Lunaris?” he asked, surprised.

  Luna’s eyes fell on the head and recognized it instantly. She was taken aback by this, but her expression didn’t waver. She stayed still and in control of her feelings.

  The head belonged to none other than her cousin and Captain Snow. His eyes were wide, forever frozen in disbelief after being taken out by this person.

  “What is going on?” she asked with a compressed rage in her voice.

  How dare!

  The man let Snow's head fall to the ground with a dull thud, and it rolled against the frozen floor. Silver weaves of energy began to pour into his body as he prepared for the unavoidable fight.

  “A forced negotiation,” he answered.

  “You’ve already lost. That tree is already dead.”

  His eyes traveled away from the rge crimson tree. It was now covered half in ice. He let out a disappointed sigh. “I can tell. I can feel it sucking all the essence in the air. As expected, he chose to tell you everything.”

  “Where is my sister?” Luna asked, voice low, steady, and dangerous.

  Her newly formed Soul Gate stirred, pulsing with a deep rhythm.

  ‘I’ve been so focused on my environment…I didn’t notice my own power.’

  Luna exhaled.

  .

  She let the energy within her rise, rushing through her limbs like wildfire, then directed it into the Sun Ember. The Jian’s silver bde shimmered as a crimson gold light bled along its edge. The essence—her essence—responded as if it had a voice, as if it could hear her thoughts.

  This was the power of the First Gate of the True Path. The Gate of Insight.

  Valentine stared for a moment. Then he clicked his tongue, “Probably dead. I don’t know.” He said it so casually. Then, “Anyway, by the order of House Artemis, Lunaris Feng is ordered to stand down.”

  Luna’s face darkened. “Valentine….”

  His calmness disappeared once he heard that name. He growled and gritted his teeth as his face lost all composure.

  A longsword appeared in his right hand. And then, he roared out in a rage:

  “Its Victor you damn brat!”

  Without giving her a hint, Victor lunged at Luna.