The giant, Rytsaried and five obsidian golems began to move, surrounding the four warriors and a bear in the middle of the long, massive chamber.

Bangor the dwarf shouted, “Maven, Declan, Sophia, y’all get Rytsaried! Let me and Tobar settle our old scores with those rockheads.”

“Got it!” In one swoop, Maven dashed towards the giant Ice Knight.

Rytsaried roared loudly, swinging its giant sword aside towardd Maven. Yet it only hit empty air. The giant then looked around for its target. A moment later, Maven treaded on the giant blade toward its upper body.

The next moment Maven quickly jumped towards her target, the opponent’s throat. Maven thrusted her dagger straight yet she narrowly missed. Rytsaried instinctively turned towards Declan who was stabbing repeatedly with an ultra quick move, Diligent-Spirited Assault towards his lower body.

The ice giant retaliated instantly. Its fist made a clean hit on Declan and sent him bouncing.

Rytsaried's statue-esque handsome face turned towards Sophia. The said witch casted a spell, “Pyroagnios!” A beam of flaming wave was fired from her staff, making a clean hit right on Rytsaried’s chest. He was knocked four steps back.

“This is for your punch to Declan. I sure got a pretty strong Fireblast.”

Sophia didn’t get to make a next move when Rytsaried quickly thrusted its sword towards her. The next moment, a kick right on the sharp edge of the sword bounced it aside. While bouncing her body away from Rytsaried’s sword, Maven winked towards Declan. The cleric replied with a nod.

It was Rytsaried’s turn to move around like dancing. Meanwhile, Maven and Declan flashed around here and there to strike the giant knight from different angles. Until finally one of Maven’s thrusts reached Rytsaried’s nape. The demigod roared in pain for the first time.

The Ice Knight declared loudly. “Curses! I must end this right now!”

Rytsaried puffed his chest. Then a giant blue crystal with a shape that resembles Cyrillium in the middle of its blueish armor started to glow. The light blue glow made a shape of a giant ball. Then from the said giant ball of light a blue beam was shot straight at the enemies.

The targets, Declan and Maven immediately evaded by throwing themselves aside. Rytsaried turned around and its blue light was re-aimed towards Maven. Unfortunately she failed to dodge it. She was instantly encased inside a frozen shell and the beam ceased.

“Maven! Sophia, please help her! Let me hold back this monster!” Declan immediately dashed towardd the monster from the side, then stroke again with his technique, Diligent-Spirited Assault, stabbing on its left hips.

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“Yeah, monster! I’m here, try catching me!”

Declan’s taunting was answered with a sword swinging faster then expected. A shallow but long incision was carved on his chest. Even while in pain, Declan exploited Rytsaried’s crouching position. He quickly ran to circumvent the giant who reacted slowly, climbing up to his back, then jumped.

“Singular… Voice… of Truth!”

One thrust with a massive holy energy concentrate focused on the tip of Declan's trident. That was all he needed to conquer this demigod. His victory was confirmed when the blade of his trident pierced through Rytsaried's nape.

“Noooo! Not again!” Rytsaried suffered in agony. His hands fell limp, dropping his sword. Seeing his fall, Declan tighten his grip upon his trident. He shouted, “You’re not dead, yet, monster? It’s your own fault that I could easily find your weak point.”

“It's a curse,” Rytsaried answered weakly. “The curse from my current host's body. Half a century haven’t even passed since our union, and I have to part with my body again? To become a haunting guardian spirit, an esper again? I won't accept this! I absolutely refuse this fate!”

The demigod didn’t show any expression towards the mortal human who had vanquished him. An idea then came to Declan’s mind.

“You still want to live in that body, Rytsaried? Serve me. With my protective and healing magic, I can handle even the most deadly wound. Sounds good? The decision is yours,” Declan loudly declared. One single strange move from Rytsaried, he would pull his trident and end his foe's life.

Silence dawned.

Slowly Rytsaried turned towards its current master, the Ice Goddess' heiress. But what he received from her was only a snarl. “Useless monster! You couldn’t even win against a mere human. You want me to help you, heh? Hey, even if I want to, I can’t! If I let go of this energy flow connection, my transformation towards divinity will fail utterly! Fight on to the end, Rytsaried, then you’ll be worthy to become my right hand man!”

Nepathya Lei's attitude made Rytsaried bow down in silence. Then he said, “You… are not Fei Val’shka. The Ice Goddess will never leave me. She died frozen in that ice in order to protect me. Even though I died with her anyway, but I will never forget her sincere love and loyalty forever. I truly regret to have supported you, Nepathya Lei as the goddess' heiress. Now, I shall see to it that your ambition fail. You are not worthy to become a goddess!”

In one pounding Rytsaried swept Declan far away. Then, with his last life force, he swelled his mouth and spit out a pale blue pearl. The pearl flew to merge with the magical orb that adorned Sophia’s hooked staff. Said magic staff began to glow blue very brightly.

Maven who had just woken up after Sophia melted the ice encasing her was surprised to see Rytsaried’s action. She was even more baffled to see Sophia floating to the air and emanating bright blue light.

On the other hand, Rytsaried's body was already lifeless. Yet his corpse still stood straight, propped by his sword that embedded vertically on the ground.

Immediately Maven turned her attention towards the silver-haired woman, shouting, “Madame Lei, look! Rytsaried still had some pride left in him as a true knight, why did you cast away yours? Please look into the depths of your heart. Is that worth it to throw away happiness for vain power? There’s still a chance! You can still turn back from all this, then go home with Sophia, Reyl, all of us, together spend our lives in happiness..”

“And be forgotten like a peasant?” yelled Nepathya Lei back while keeping on with her pursuit. “No! I want to be remembered forever, as the goddess who created peace and united the world. For that end, I have sacrificed a lot. My resolve is is firm, it’s no use to persuade me! Now is my turn to give you the last chance. Join me and you will triumph, oppose me and you will die!”