Uriel let out a frigid sigh as he looked at what was once Camp Erebus. After declaring that he would kill the Winter Beast, he had left Falcon Scott to head toward where the Corrupted Titan was located to kill it.
It took him one day to find its location and another day of travel to reach where it roamed, and that place turned out to be Camp Erebus.
Of course, the Titan was at least a hundred kilometers away, but the freezing storm had a massive range, capable of affecting the entire continent.
He had planned for a long time how to kill the bastard before it claimed tens of millions of lives.
Originally, he planned to use all his Transcendent Echoes and his knowledge of runic sorcery to kill it. However, he had a better option: a Great Devil.
Uriel smiled. His black eyes gleamed for a moment. Beside him, forming from a sea of darkness, Skadi emerged. She looked around at the snow-covered wasteland, observed the enormous buildings rising toward the sky, as well as the remains of destroyed weapons.
"This is certainly a peculiar sight, creature of this world," Skadi commented.
"What are those machines?" she asked.
"The humanoid-looking ones are called MWPs. They were created so that mundanes could fight against Awakened nightmare creatures," he explained.
"Nightmare creatures?"
"That's what we call the corrupted abominations," he explained.
Skadi nodded as if that explained everything.
Looking around, she observed how from the center of Camp Erebus, an enormous earthworm nearly a hundred meters wide emerged.
The worm lunged forward, but not even an instant passed before it stood motionless, bowing its enormous body. From the city and the surrounding areas, a large number of abominations approached. They seemed to be in a trance, as if controlled.
This was generated by Skadi and her Subjugation ability over creatures weaker than herself.
Within a few minutes, an enormous army of several thousand abominations had formed outside the wall, facing the direction of the snowstorm.
Without a word, the abominations began to run toward the massive blizzard, which increased its power, freezing everything faster.
The first creature fell at the five-hundred-meter mark. A thousand died frozen at the one-kilometer mark. Two thousand more died at ten kilometers, another thousand at the twenty-kilometer mark, and then Uriel knew no more.
His ability to sense presences was only limited to twenty kilometers around him, unlike Soul, whose range extended hundreds of kilometers.
Less than ten minutes passed, and Skadi frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"They all died. When they traveled two hundred kilometers, I calculate that the Winter Beast should be about four hundred kilometers from our current position."
"And now what?" he asked.
"We use Plan B," said Skadi, beginning to transform.
Uriel felt an overwhelming heat. He watched as Skadi's figure ignited with fire that spread like an enormous pillar. He had to use darkness to move away and avoid being burned alive.
Moving a few hundred meters away, he observed the complete transformation.
Unlike when she was corrupted and mutated, her form was completely different. She was no longer a fire humanoid covered in black rock plates. Now her form resembled that of a titanic dragon that dwarfed Gunlaug.
It was a Western dragon. Its physique was not bulky; in fact, it was slender, with scales placed in such a way that they blocked any trace or weakness. Their color was like the purest fire. Large horns adorned its draconic head like a crown. Its imposing wings extended, creating enormous shadows beneath them.
Its long tail was like a powerful whip that could pulverize mountains. Around it, a sea of flames evaporated and burned everything completely. Uriel could feel Skadi's crushing will—one that made him want to kneel unconsciously before something totally superior to him.
The enormous, majestic dragon looked at the snowstorm, then looked at him.
"I've changed my mind, creature," she said, making Uriel blink.
"Are you backing out now?" asked Uriel.
"No. I'm simply opting for a different approach. You will kill this Corrupted Titan. It should be easy for you. I will open a path for you."
Uriel sighed.
"Well, I don't even feel like arguing right now," he murmured.
Uriel approached Skadi, feeling that the flames didn't affect him, though he felt the heat.
Being held by Skadi's enormous draconic hand, she extended her massive wings, rising into the sky several kilometers high, unaffected in the slightest by the powerful snowstorm capable of freezing large creatures.
Skadi stopped when she was near the epicenter where the Winter Beast was.
"Good, let's begin," said Skadi, then took a breath and exhaled.
Uriel witnessed how the earth turned into hell, literally. The flames spread, completely consuming the snowstorm. When they impacted the ground, it was as if an atomic bomb had exploded.
An enormous roar left his ears ringing as the sea of flames spread. The snowstorm turned into a storm of furious flames that consumed the snow and the cold.
The area spread hungrily for hundreds of kilometers.
Stopping the exhalation of the sea of flames, Uriel opened his eyes as wide as possible.
'This power could destroy the world,' he thought, seeing how everything within a radius of hundreds of kilometers was completely carbonized. The snow melted, revealing the rock, and the rock, along with the mountains, melted, turning into an enormous sea of molten lava. The cloud of smoke rose into the sky, replacing the gray clouds with completely black ones.
Narrowing his eyes, Uriel observed a colossal figure that let out a roar full of fury as, once again, a more intense and powerful freezing storm began to replace the infernal environment.
"Now it's your turn," said Skadi, throwing Uriel unceremoniously.
Uriel felt his body break the sound barrier, reaching terrifying speeds like a black comet. Quickly, he took advantage of the darkness, manifested it, and then molded it into the form of the Stone Saint. However, this one was gigantic, reaching about two hundred meters. Two pairs of wings, twice as large, manifested.
From inside, Uriel felt his essence being consumed at a terrifying rate to maintain that manifestation.
As he approached the epicenter, his manifestation began to freeze rapidly, cracking, only for more darkness to replace it, reforming the manifestation.
Upon reaching the epicenter, he smiled from within the manifestation, having a complete view of the Winter Beast.
The Winter Beast was floating in the eye of the newly formed snowstorm. However, far from having a terrifying appearance, it had a pitiful one.
Its titanic body made of ice resembled a living creature. With blue lotus flowers around it, abominations and human faces deformed in expressions of pure agony were fused into its body in a macabre disorder.
But that must have been its original appearance. Instead, its body was half-melted. Enormous torrents of blue blood spilled from the missing parts of its body, its blood freezing everything in an enormous radius.
It had only received Skadi's blast and ended up in such a deplorable state. Uriel felt fear at such power.
He wondered if this was how normal Masters felt when they heard of his feats and saw him fight and massacre things they could only dream of.
'I don't have time for these thoughts,' Uriel thought, pushing those thoughts aside.
Either way, his main mission was only one: kill the Winter Beast.
Giving a second flap, his Dark Manifestation impacted the Corrupted Titan. Instantly, countless spikes pierced its dark body, which he ignored. He could feel that his manifestation was beginning to freeze completely. He would only have at most a few seconds before being frozen.
'Well, bastard, let's take our fight to a warmer place,' he said with a voice full of madness.
In one instant, the Dark Manifestation was about to be frozen; the next instant, both the manifestation and the Corrupted Titan disappeared completely without a trace.
In the distance, Skadi, who had seen everything, raised an eyebrow, then felt the presence of the creature from the void and the Corrupted Titan hundreds of kilometers from her position, inside the enormous mountain that the creature had occupied.
A second later, an unprecedented explosion shook much of central Antarctica like a mega-earthquake.
...
When Uriel emerged from the darkness with the Winter Beast, he smiled. The first part of his plan had succeeded.
First, he had started with an assumption. His darkness displacement originally could not take more than just himself from one place to another. However, after much experimentation, he managed to bring another being with him, whether alive or dead, having to use a certain amount of essence depending on the mass and power of the creature.
His plan was twofold. First, Skadi would kill the Corrupted Titan, but he also formed another plan where he would have to kill it, whether Skadi changed her mind and didn't help him or was simply unable to do so.
So with that in mind, he had entered the largest active mountain, where he excavated and began weaving enchantments that he fed with essence, containing all the pressure that accumulated inside. With a significant change in temperature, it would generate a devastating explosion, comparable to detonating hundreds of nuclear bombs at the same time.
So he wasn't surprised; instead, he was excited when the explosion occurred after his elaborate plan and seeing it result in a resounding success.
...
In Falcon Scott, the last bastion of defense in central Antarctica, panic set in when everything shook violently. In the distance, a brilliant golden sphere appeared, momentarily illuminating the sky, replacing the darkness, and then the night returned.
Sunny, who was weaving a Memory, lost concentration, looking with utter bewilderment at the massive earthquake followed by night turning into day for a brief instant.
"What the hell was that?" he asked no one in particular. His five shadows looked at each other with equal bewilderment.
...
At the center of the explosion, more specifically its epicenter, Uriel formed an orb of darkness around him that resisted the violent shockwaves as well as all the devastation generated by his trap. His sphere of darkness began to crack, so he added more essence, strengthening his protective barrier.
He felt the lack of air, or of any sensation, really. It was as if he were floating between existence and total non-existence.
He didn't know if it lasted a second, a year, or an eternity, or if it was less than an instant. Everything had lost meaning.
All Uriel knew was that he reformed his Stone Saint form and grabbed the Winter Beast, which was still alive despite taking a point-blank explosion capable of erasing half a continent in an instant, had it not been concentrated in an area of several kilometers.
Uriel felt how, upon grabbing the Corrupted Titan, the arms of his manifestation froze, but he didn't care. He used his legs to shatter the chest of the titanic abomination.
His arms broke, but the manifestation lunged forward, showing a row of false teeth made of darkness. Its white eyes shone, full of madness and unbridled fury, and a hatred capable of consuming the world itself.
The Winter Beast created hundreds of ice tentacles to stop the dark colossus, but these were destroyed by a second kick that continued to push the Corrupted Titan back.
Due to the intensity of his actions, his Holy Mantle was in bad condition. His Dark Manifestation was shattered and in an unstable form. The wings at this point were non-existent, and he had stopped trying to recreate them to save essence.
Uriel himself, inside his manifestation, had burned and frostbitten skin from the cold and heat, sending his body into a sea of constant pain.
The enormous colossus crashed into the sea of lava, which froze, turning into a purple surface that would trap him for precious seconds—time he would use to end its existence once and for all.
Summoning White Flower, it materialized instantly at a titanic size. He activated the Sharp Edge, Light Devourer, and Soul Break enchantments, combined with his Marble Shell attribute, making it as heavy as possible.
The sword crashed against the Titan's head, causing the entire mountain, or what remained of it, to shake, generating a second collapse.
The Corrupted Titan, still alive and furious, used its powers to quickly freeze the manifestation. In less than a second, the enormous, shattered manifestation stood like a terrifying ice statue.
Uriel smiled. His third second-phase plan was a success, and now only the finale remained.
Pushing through the ice with what little essence remained, he launched himself toward the vague form of the Corrupted Titan's heart with Wyvern's Fang, which he fed with essence.
The black sword, resembling a fang, turned completely dark—a darkness that absorbed everything around it.
Uriel felt his body slowly freezing.
Seeing the shape of the Titan's heart, he let out a roar with all his rage and courage and cut it in half.
The ice armor opened precisely and cleanly. The enormous chest of the Corrupted Titan known as the Winter Beast was cut, and not satisfied with that, the cut continued, separating the head from the enormous neck of the Winter Beast, decapitating it.
Uriel smiled as he saw the bastard exhale its last freezing breath, remaining motionless.
He had done it. The Winter Beast was dead.
Uriel landed on his back on the cold surface, without the strength to move at all.
The Spell's voice whispered in his mind shortly after.
[You have killed a Corrupted Titan, Winter Beast]
One or two seconds passed until he heard the Spell's voice again. This time it wasn't so indifferent and had a tone he couldn't explain.
[You have obtained an Echo]
Uriel opened his eyes in shock, then smiled. He smiled so widely that his cheeks hurt, but it didn't matter in the slightest.
Hearing footsteps, he looked at Skadi, who had returned to her human form, wearing a calm expression on her face.
"Congratulations on your victory..." she paused, as if considering something, and then spoke, "Uriel."
"Oh... cough... cough... that's the first time you've called me by my name."
"Don't get full of yourself. I only recognize you a little," said Skadi, sending a torrent of flames at Uriel. He felt his wounds being healed and the weakness leaving. After almost a minute, he was as good as new, even recovering much of his essence.
"Consider it a gift from me."
"Thank you," said Uriel.
After a few moments, he sighed, smiling cheerfully.
"Well, now where the hell do I get a silver platter about two hundred meters wide?"