Chapter 1185: The Red Frost
Ethan finally let out the breath he’d been holding.
When Sylvarion first appeared, the violet gemstones on his body had nearly lit up half the sky. Even the spatial corridor he casually formed was enough to pour in an entire fleet of warships. For a moment, Ethan had thought he’d run into something nightmarish—an existence that would take everything they had just to survive.
Now, though?
He’d overestimated him.
Sylvarion. That was the name the system displayed.
His strength wasn’t weak by any stretch, but his core attribute was Sylvan Magic—and the flames Ataneya wielded now happened to suppress that kind of energy perfectly. As long as Ataneya was the one facing him, Sylvarion’s seemingly domineering violet power and wood-aspected aura would struggle to show their real bite.
Sylvarion no longer looked like the lofty figure who’d descended moments ago.
He kept retreating in midair, violet gemstones flaring one after another as he tried to rebuild his defenses. But Ataneya stayed glued to him. Her twenty tails fanned behind her, and every time they swept through the air, they dragged a storm of crimson energy with them—sealing off every route he might’ve used to escape.
It didn’t take long before Sylvarion was forced into a narrow mountain valley.
Sheer rock walls rose on both sides. There wasn’t much room to retreat, and the sky overhead was already coated in Ataneya’s flames. Fire-red light pressed down like a tide, warping the air with heat. Sylvarion tried to tear open space from the side—
And Ataneya flicked her finger.
A tiny fireball shot out and landed on the edge of the cliff.
BOOM!
The entire rock face exploded on the spot. Shattered stone and magma-like flames blasted outward, scorching the newly formed spatial slit until it collapsed and burned shut.
This was what a Mythic-grade Shadow Fox could do now.
Even an unimpressive little fireball could turn the surrounding mountains into rubble.
Sylvarion’s breathing grew ragged.
He backed up again and again, deep green Sylvan Magic gathering between his palms. But the instant it formed at his fingertips, the flames saturating the valley crushed it down. Branches didn’t even have time to stretch before they were burned to ash. Vines that pierced up from the ground turned into black powder almost instantly.
He couldn’t cast his Sylvan Magic cleanly at all.
Every scrap he exposed was scorched into nothing by Ataneya’s fire.
After being driven back repeatedly, Sylvarion finally forced himself to stop. His back hit the cliff wall. His chest heaved, and the violet gemstones on his body flickered in a growing, erratic rhythm.
He raised a hand. His voice wasn’t smug anymore.
"Wait!"
Ataneya didn’t slow. She only narrowed her eyes, her tails lifting—unhurried, like she was deciding where to strike first.
Sylvarion’s words came faster.
"Your flames come from The Infernal Abyss—and they’re the purest celestial fire. If you’re willing to come with me, I can provide you with the densest Infernal Primordial Power to replenish you!"
He stared at her, urgency flashing in his eyes.
"I can even push your racial talent to evolve further."
Ataneya’s expression didn’t budge.
She couldn’t even be bothered to answer.
Crimson energy erupted from her again, rolling out through the valley in every direction. The sky was dyed in firelight. Burning lines speared up from cracks in the ground. In just a few breaths, the entire valley was swallowed by a sea of flame.
Sylvarion’s face drained.
He hadn’t expected Ataneya to refuse him so completely—not even leaving room for negotiation.
He could only keep retreating.
But the world around him was already locked down by endless fire. Ataneya in front. Cliff wall behind. Flames choking both sides. Even the space above was twisted violently by the heat, warped until it looked half-melted.
There was nowhere to go.
At that point, Sylvarion stopped caring about saving his trump cards.
He pulled out a blood-red gemstone and whipped his arm forward, hurling it straight at Ataneya.
The moment it left his hand, the temperature around it dropped sharply.
Blood-red light rippled across the gem’s surface, but sealed inside was an extreme, biting cold. As it cut through the firestorm, the flames were briefly frozen into a layer of red-tinted ice crystals—only for that ice to crack a heartbeat later under the heat, bursting apart with a crisp pop.
But Ataneya reacted even faster.
A huge mass of flame surged out in front of her and wrapped the blood-red gemstone completely. The fire didn’t explode right away. It compressed in layers instead, a tyrannical high temperature crushing inward again and again.
The gemstone’s outer shell began to melt.
The blood-red crystal surface softened, sagged, and flowed—until the core was exposed at last...
Revealing the pure, sealed power of absolute frost within.
When Ethan saw that energy, his gaze shifted.
It was the first time he’d ever seen blood-red ice power.
That cold was unnatural—nothing like ordinary frost. It carried the same crushing pressure unique to The Infernal Abyss. The chill seeped out from within Ataneya’s flames, and even from a distance Ethan felt his skin tighten, his blood flow slowing inside his veins.
This wasn’t the kind of cold that only froze flesh.
It felt like it wanted to freeze your body and soul together.
Ataneya didn’t hesitate.
She lifted her hand, flames coating her palm, and reached straight for the red ice power. The moment her fingers touched it, her fire let out a sharp, grating detonation. Red ice crystals crawled along the flame’s edge—actually freezing part of the fire she’d condensed.
Sylvarion’s eyes bulged.
He knew exactly how terrifying that gem’s frost was. What he hadn’t expected was Ataneya having the nerve to grab it with her bare hand—then force it under control in her palm anyway.
That was when Ethan moved in.
He raised his hand. Translucent lightning and Infernal Primordial Power rippled out together, joining with Ataneya’s flames to wrap the blood-red frost. Only with all three powers interlaced did they barely manage to pin the ice aura down.
Ethan stared at the red glow trapped in their hands, his eyes growing brighter by the second.
"Should be pure Infernal Primordial Power," he said.
As he spoke, translucent lightning slid slowly around the frost’s outer layer, probing the structure of the power inside.
"I didn’t think the ice power from that kingdom would be this vicious."
Ethan looked up at Ataneya.
"Seems like we need to pick up the pace. We need to reach The Infernal Abyss—as soon as possible."
Not far away, Sylvarion was already terrified to the bone.
But when he saw Ethan and Ataneya calmly studying that blood-red frost right in front of him, raw fury surged up and twisted his face.
It was humiliating.
In their eyes, he wasn’t even an enemy anymore—he was meat on a cutting board, waiting for them to have the time to chop him up.
Sylvarion’s breathing turned heavy.
He looked up at the fire sea sealing the valley, then at the cliff wall behind him—his last dead end. His expression warped, inch by inch, into something ugly.
The next moment, every violet gemstone on his body lit up.
His Sylvan Magic stopped leaking out in careful strands and detonated in full. Deep green energy blasted into the sky, forcibly prying open part of the crimson curtain. The entire valley was washed in green light. Across the barren ground, countless branches and vines erupted like a plague.
Vines latched onto the rock walls. Branches tore into cracks. Thick roots heaved up from below, like twisted arms reaching for the sky.
Sylvarion lifted both hands. All of his Sylvan Magic converged into his palms, condensing rapidly into a massive energy sphere.
The sphere swelled larger and larger, filled with churning green currents and the gleam of violet gemstone light. Whenever flame pushed in, the sphere’s violent life force canceled a portion of it by brute force.
Watching that, Ethan’s eyes went cold.
With this kind of posture—
Sylvarion was about to gamble everything on a fight to the death.