Endless Evolution: Last Star Chapter 1558: Eternal Cold (Part 2)

Adam, much like in the past, retained his mix of advantages and shortcomings. Even after gaining numerous fresh skills throughout his travels, he remained without powers capable of shielding him or obliterating vast groups of foes in a single strike.

Admittedly, he had climbed to the summit of his strength, and through the Evolution Vein Orders, he managed to hit several adversaries simultaneously, yet this fell short of the blazing detonations Fromund unleashed or the descending frozen shards Alexia conjured.

Thus, when Adam confronted over a hundred foes and lacked the might to fell them with mere handfuls of blows, he faced deadly peril.

Normally, Adam steered clear of such predicaments or halted them before they arose, yet this time, no such choice existed for him.

Va arh never imagined relying on mere beasts for aid, but if deploying them edged him toward triumph, he stood prepared to employ them alongside whatever else proved essential for success.

Crackle!

Adam hurled the beast away. It proved massive and robust enough to delay him briefly. The pair of pale wolves closed in from the flank, leaving him no moment to deliberate.

But...

"Agh?"

Astonishment spread across Adam’s features as a chilling breeze rushed by his vision.

The creatures, hardened by the frigid chills and severe environment of the Frost Ridge, withdrew. Not even they could shrug off the icy aura emanating from Alexia.

Adam spun to face Alexia.

Her locks quivered in the breeze, gleaming vividly, as flows of power surged along her arms, flowing to her fingertips.

Adam recognized this technique.

She had deployed it during their clash with the spectral arachnids, encasing every one in solid ice.

’But...’ Adam squinted, fixing his stare on the icy vapor. ’Something feels off. This isn’t the power she wielded in the caverns below. Did the Ancient Frost alter it?’

Before, a dense sphere of frozen power ought to have formed between Alexia’s palms. Instead, the haze drifting amid her digits now shaped an intricate emblem distinct to Alexia and this technique.

A single look at the emblem sufficed to drive the beasts back even more. They refused to become the focus of her strike, and not even Vaarh’s command could suppress their instinct to preserve their existence.

Yet, salvation eluded every one of them. They remained unaware of the doom ahead.

"Gha..."

Alexia drew in a profound breath while gazing at the emblem hovering before her.

It stemmed from her labors and all the toil they had invested in attaining the azure tree and claiming the Ancient Frost.

At last, the moment arrived for her to wield this force in support of Adam and guide them toward conquest.

"This will be enough."

Step.

Alexia advanced a pace, clasping the emblem in her grasp.

With no delay, she dropped to one knee and drove her palm downward into the earth with full force, igniting the emblem.

A vivid azure glow enveloped the Frost Ridge as the initial surge of chill emanated from the emblem.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

A vigorous quake coursed beneath the surface. The beasts stood paralyzed, uncertain of what loomed, while even the steadfast Vaarh creased his brow. The power surges he sensed promised nothing favorable for him.

"NOW!" Alexia cried out as she channeled her lone power surge into the emblem.

In that instant, frozen spires erupted from the soil, blanketing the whole snowy field across the Frost Ridge.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Successive frozen spires shattered the terrain, unleashing billows of chill and jets of crimson from the beasts they impaled.

The beasts attempted evasion or shattering the frozen spires, but such efforts proved futile.

Events unfolded with blinding speed.

Within mere ten seconds, the snowy field lay strewn with gore-streaked frozen spires, a heavy coating of ice from the chill, and upwards of a hundred lifeless beasts.

Furthermore, those beasts that evaded outright impact with the frozen spires fared only marginally better than their kin.

The chill saturating the emblem’s power transformed them into frozen effigies, appearing eternally encased beside the frozen spires.

"Agh... Agh... Agh..." Alexia panted raggedly as she slumped onto her hands.

Besides exhaustion, a joyful grin also bloomed on her expression.

"Huh, now you’ve all seen what I’m capable of!" Alexia declared as she lifted her head to survey the outcome of her solitary assault.

Roughly a hundred beasts lay slain, with the survivors morphed into frozen effigies. Just a handful of beasts fully escaped her assault’s reach, numbering no more than several dozen.

During the emblem’s eruption, these beasts lingered at the snowy field’s border, near the mountain base. Thus, as the frozen spires surged upward, they fled into the peaks.

Still, the scant beasts that opted to remain at the mountain base came to rue their choice. The chill reduced them to shattered ice fragments.

Adam swallowed hard.

Regardless of the strength he poured into his techniques or the blends he selected, he couldn’t produce an effect like that.

It wasn’t merely the scope of Alexia’s icy eruption, but the feat she accomplished with one technique alone.

’She resolved the crisis in a single action,’ he mused, glancing aside.

The pale wolves poised to lunge at him now stood immobile, encased in a dense ice sheath over their eyes and teeth.

’Damn, I require a power like that, yet how might I acquire it at this juncture?’

Adam shifted his attention to Vaarh, who levitated above the terrain.

’I believed his blood would empower me further, but I erred. So what next, Vaarh? How will you proceed without your horde?’

Va arh scowled as his eyes fixed on the iced-over beasts.

He refused to abandon his scheme, and he held a countermeasure. The arduous path.