Ti passed silently within the Interdiate Area of the Great Volcano.
Without Kyrian having any notion of how many hours or days had passed. His consciousness had plunged into a dark and endless abyss, where there were no thoughts, no dreams, and not even awareness of himself.
Only darkness.
His body remained motionless upon the frozen ground, partially covered by volcanic ash that slowly fell from the sky like dark snow. The fine particles accumulated in his hair, on his torn clothes, and on the exposed skin of his arms. White vapor still rose from his body in small scattered currents, mixing with the suffocating heat of the environnt.
The region around him looked like the aftermath of a natural catastrophe.
The ground was destroyed.
Gigantic craters cut through the black earth in every direction, so so deep that it was possible to see the glow of lava in the lowest layers. Rivers of magma had abruptly hardened into twisted and brittle forms after being frozen by the energy released in the final clash, their surfaces now a mixture of black volcanic glass and blue ice crystals.
Nearby mountains bore enormous cuts and completely destroyed sections. So had lost entire peaks, others carried deep claw marks.
And at the center of it all, the colossal body of the Five-Horned Lava Lizard remained frozen like a translucent blue statue.
Even dead, even motionless, its presence was still terrifying. The pressure of the draconic blood emanating from its body, though weakened by death, still made the surrounding air feel heavier.
The smaller beasts inhabiting the region had fled far away, instinctively recognizing that this was the territory of sothing that should not be challenged.
Ti continued to pass.
Slowly. Relentlessly.
The volcano’s heat, the heat that ca from the heart of the mountain, fueled by rivers of magma flowing in its depths, slowly began overcoming the cold left behind by the final explosion of Kyrian’s power.
The ice lted little by little.
First, small cracks appeared across the frozen ground, thin as strands of hair upon its shining surface.
Then, streams of water began flowing through the fissures, forming small creeks that slithered toward the lower areas.
The vapor increased, creating a dense mist that covered the battlefield like a white blanket.
Ash once again slowly fell from the red sky, carried by the hot wind blowing from the volcano’s slopes.
The ice around the lizard’s corpse began lting faster. Drops of water slid over the beast’s frozen scales, glimring beneath the volcano’s diffuse light.
If soone arrived in that region at that mont, they would instantly realize that a monstrous battle had taken place there.
A battle far beyond the ordinary level of the Interdiate Area.
The signs were everywhere, in the opened craters, in the cut mountains, and in the frozen ground that refused to thaw completely. And upon looking at the gigantic frozen corpse of the draconic beast...
It would be impossible not to understand who had won in the end.
...
Ti passed once more, and night arrived.
The volcanic sky beca even darker, illuminated only by the distant glow of lava flowing along the slopes of the surrounding mountains.
The stars were not visible, the smoke and ash concealed them. But the orange reflection of magma upon the clouds created a sinister glow that bathed everything in shades of blood and fire.
Kyrian remained motionless.
His chest rose and fell slowly, a sign that he was still alive despite being unconscious. His breathing was weak but steady. His body, little by little, was beginning to recover.
The burns on his right arm had stopped bleeding. The cracks in his skin, caused by the impact of the lizard’s tail, were slowly healing.
Then, a new day was born.
The reddish light of the sun, filtered through the ash clouds, began illuminating the battlefield. The contrast between the red sky and the blue ice was stunning and beautiful.
Only then did Kyrian’s fingers move slightly.
A small movent.
Almost imperceptible.
One finger twitched. Then another. Then his entire hand closed into a weak fist, as though trying to grasp sothing solid to anchor himself to the world of the living.
His consciousness slowly began to return.
Heavy and foggy.
As though erging from the depths of a frozen ocean.
...
The first thing Kyrian felt was pain. An absurd pain.
His entire body felt shattered from within. Every muscle, every tendon, every fiber, everything scread in protest.
Even breathing caused discomfort. The volcano’s hot air entered his lungs mixed with particles of ash, making his chest burn.
The strangest part was the cold.
Even possessing the Ice Eyes, which theoretically should make him immune to low temperatures, Kyrian felt his own body frozen internally.
It was not a comfortable cold.
It was not the familiar cold that obeyed his will, that spread under his command.
It was sothing much deeper. Much more powerful.
A cold energy that his body clearly could not completely withstand, as though a fragnt of eternal ice had been planted within his blood.
’What happened to ?’
The question echoed through his mind, but no answer ca.
Slowly, Kyrian opened his eyes.
His vision remained blurred for a few seconds, a haze of red, black, and blue colors, before gradually beginning to clear.
Ash fell from the sky.
Vapor still covered part of the region, rising from the slowly lting ice.
The area remained frozen, although the volcano’s heat was slowly regaining control, undoing what Kyrian had created.
Kyrian took a deep breath.
Pain imdiately spread through his chest, as though a sharp blade were tearing through his lungs.
He frowned slightly before attempting to sense his cores.
Approximately half, he estimated. Half of his Qi had recovered during the ti he remained unconscious. It was not much, but it was enough.
Enough to protect himself. Enough to survive, at least for now.
Kyrian let out a small sigh of relief, which imdiately turned into a dry cough.
The frozen area around him had probably driven away the nearby beasts. No ordinary creature would dare approach that region while the remnants of that absurd energy still lingered within the environnt.
The ice he had created was not ordinary ice. It contained sothing more, that mysterious power that had erged from his eyes in the final mont of the battle.
Otherwise...
He probably would have been killed while unconscious. Defenseless, collapsed upon the ground like easy prey.
Slowly, Kyrian placed a hand upon the frozen ground and lifted his own body.
Every movent caused pain to spread through his muscles like fire. Parts of his skin were still burned by the draconic fire, not severely, but enough to make every touch a form of torture.
So areas of his right arm remained reddish, with small blisters that had ford during his unconsciousness.
Small cracks covered in dried blood could still be seen across his arms and back, marks left by the impact of the lizard’s tail. His ice armor had absorbed most of the damage, but not all of it.
Even so, he managed to sit up.
The effort was enormous. His breathing beca heavy. Drops of cold sweat, different from the heat around him, slid down his forehead.
His eyes slowly moved toward the gigantic frozen body of the Five-Horned Lava Lizard.
The beast still remained there. Motionless.
Now, however, parts of the ice around its body had already lted, once again revealing so dark-red scales.
But there was no movent. No breathing. No flow of Qi.
It was truly dead.
Kyrian examined the corpse with his snowflake eyes. The ice covering the beast was a coffin. The life energy that had once pulsed through those scales had been completely extinguished.
A small satisfied smile appeared on Kyrian’s lips.
It was a tired smile, almost fragile, but genuine.
He had won.
Against all odds, against an opponent who stood at the peak of the Core Formation Realm and who possessed the blood of a divine beast, Kyrian had won.
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