Air froze as the icy spear passed through, emitting a cold wind that created a path of ice along the way. Its shiny tip reflected the flickering light of the candles atop the lantern that hung onto the ceiling of the chamber. Although the freezing temperature could quickly extinguish the torches and froze the lamps, due to the deliberate design of the hall, the mysterious force was protecting them while not interfering with the fight.

The spear traversed through the swamp of stones, destroying all of the tiny darts that came towards it, charging fearlessly towards the wall of earth. Upon arriving in front of the wall, the icy spear quickly expanded and revealed its robust form, increasing in penetrating power and explosive strength.

The one-head spear broke off into three sharp tips with a hollow middle as a rotating snowflake hovered in between the three peaks. Beneath the surface of the snowflake, layers of tiny magical formation arranged itself from big to small, increasing in complexity as one descended down.

The wall of earth noticed the presence of the three-peaks spear and trembled in its arrival. It shook itself and created many cracks on its body, changing its structure and moving its place, warping around the spear as it attempted to slow the speed of the spear.

With more and more roots of dirt coiling around the spear, its speed and power gradually lessened as it reached farther into the wall. Although the wall of earth had a very high consumption rate of sorcery energy, it was also one of the best defensive spells Iracia could use.

However, as soon as it stopped in position when it nearly escaped the wall of earth, the snowflake also ceased its rotation, making those tiny spinning formations stagnated, causing them to fall on top of each other. The submersion of the arrays caused an implosion that expanded after every time another structure collapsed.

After the last formation collapsed and imploded, the pending energy moved into the snowflake and overloaded it, causing a violent energy outlet. The leaking force expanded as the snowflake began to rotate, powering the spear and making it moved again. However, due to the restraining roots of the earth, the spear had no way of using its residual energy.

The snowflake gradually accelerated faster and faster, becoming blurrier as time passed. Until it reached its threshold and crumbled under the fluctuation of the overflowing energy. Without any place to go, it leaked out from the three peaks and heated up the surrounding, burning the roots away as it touched one.

Because there was no space for the heat to dissipate, it continued to stack up and turned the inside of the wall of earth boiling, turning hot-red in colour. Suddenly, space hit its limit and combustion occurred. The violent outbreak caused a chain reaction that split the group of energy into many tiny pieces, releasing blazing power all at once.

The explosion blew apart the wall, sending parts of it flying in all direction, turning the defensive spell into an offensive weapon by letting the sharp stones soared everywhere. The handle of the icy spear broke in half, making it shorter. However, the smaller thing would take lesser energy to move.

With the help of the combustion, the three-peaks spear shot with higher velocity than before, heading towards the Eyes Shield. At the same time, the flaming snake also moved towards Iracia. Although she could dodge the two, Mabilis would not be able to, forcing her to take a hit while blocking one.

Although the spear wasted its time in the wall of earth, the cold wind that it emitted also slowed down the snake, making them arrived at the same time even though there was nothing to obstruct its path. Iracia knew this, and she already prepared her next move to deal with it.

In that instant of trapping the spear, Iracia swung her Heart Blade at the snake, letting it devoured her blood and created a phantom of itself. The silhouette of the Heart Blade rushed towards the snake and expanded to its size before it swung itself downwards at the serpent.

With the threat of the snake temporary ceased, Iracia willed and closed the eyes on the Eyes Shield, stopping its investigation ability while increasing its defensive capability.

The icy breeze touched her face as the three tips of the blue spear collided with the demonic-looking shield, creating dazzling sparks that overshadowed the flickering light of the candles. Snowflakes blew in all directions as the shockwave occurred after the impact, landing onto her hair, giving it a sparkling quality that captivated her sharp look.

The spear was getting weaker and weaker as time passed, losing its momentum with every moment it contacted the Eyes Shield. If Iracia could hold on, she would be able to exhaust the power of the spear. She would sustain no injury and had sufficient sorcery energy to deal with the flaming snake.

However, how could the cunning puppets not know about this point?

After releasing the first arrow, the female puppet made a grasping motion and pulled its bow once again, but this time, the bow trembled as it consumed even more sorcery energy than before. Along with her hand, four more illusions manifested around it, making the same gesture and movement.

Four greenish arrows shot out at the same time as they released a faint smell that permeated the air, traversing through the snowstorm without any regard for its cold temperature. Although they did not transform into a snake, their power was only a little lesser than it. With the combination of four arrows, their overall destructive ability would only go up.

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The arrows moved faster than the previous snake or the icy spear, reaching Iracia within the moment the puppet released them. However, before it could penetrate the Eyes Shield and stabbed holes onto Iracia, a large rune appeared before it and turned into a whirlpool that gushed out lightning to shock them.

Mabilis panted as he narrowly sent out a defensive rune to help Iracia, coughing out blood as dizziness numbed his body. Although there were healing runes in his formation, its power was not a one-time instant-use but a gradual one.

As the female puppet expanded a third of her sorcery energy with the four phantom arrows, she could not do a follow-up and needed to recover her stamina first. She gestured and let the weakest puppet did its work, using a simple array that healed her and boosted her recovery speed. Although it could not fight, it excelled in supporting spells.

The master puppet knocked its golden cane once more, depleting his sorcery energy to send one a beam of energy towards the spear, aiming to ignite its destructive power and made it self-destructed to damage Iracia. With the gradual dissipation of the snowstorm, its path was clear, making it took a lesser amount of time to reach the icy spear.

As soon as the golden cane knocked onto the floor, the heart on Heart Blade resonated with Iracia's heart and caused a tremendous pulse to disrupt her train of thoughts. With the sudden pain in her heart, Iracia decisively used her demonic tail to strike onto the spear, letting it froze her tail into ice.

The spear broke into pieces as Iracia suffered a minor injury on her tail, causing her facial expression to frown. However, without the spear to self-destruct, she avoided having to endure an explosion from the spear. Although the fragmented spear could still explode, its damage would be much lower than the whole.

With a flap of her wings, she sent the fragmented spear away from her and towards the opposite direction, flying into the puppets. After sensing that the spear broke into pieces, the beam of energy separated itself and shot towards all of the fragments, moving back to the puppets' side.

Although the ice shield could defend against the strike of Heart Blade, it also depleted some sorcery energy from the master puppet. After the unfortunate bombardment of the sharp stones from the wall of earth, he already used most of his sorcery energy.

The constant sound of explosion repeated itself, depleting a part of his remaining sorcery energy every time it echoed the chamber. With the last loud blast, it blew the master puppet away and caused him to land onto the floor tens of steps from the impact. However, the golden cane shone and created a weak sheath to absorb the force when he fell, not letting him break his bones.

Although Iracia must deal with the flaming snake first, Mabilis did not have anything obstructing him from finishing off the master puppet. Grasping the opportunity, he used his finger to touch his forehead, sending a part of his sorcery energy into the third eye and channelling its power.

A bright light pierced the eyes of the puppets as the third eye slowly opened, causing different visions to overlap in Mabilis's mind. Although the relaxing sensation and visual illusion were beautiful to behold, Mabilis must supply the eye with a constant flow of sorcery energy, making him only use it when it was necessary.

Without his command, the runes on the formation merged with each other, forming an ever-changing geometrical shape orb. The orb moved faster and faster towards the master puppet who was groaning in pain and trying to get up.

The shape of the orb changed every instant depending on both time and the angle where one viewed its form. From a circle to a square, from a triangle to a hexagon. With six bright orbs revolving around it, it travelled unrestrained towards the puppet.

The female puppet tried to help the male one, using its bow to shoot out the same flaming snake at the orb. However, the moment the snake moved close to it, the ever-changing shape shivered as it shifted out of existence, bending space around it to move towards another location, avoiding the snake altogether.

Although she just wasted a part of her sorcery energy, the puppet had no time to regret as it shot four phantom arrows at the orb, moving fast enough to hit it before it could use the same trick to bypass them. However, before they could reach the geometrical sphere, four out of six stars moved in front of them as they detonated themselves, destroying both the stars and the arrows.

Before the puppet could release another string, a star left the orb and shot towards her, giving her no alternative but to defend against its explosion.

The orb reached the master puppet and sent its last star towards him, glowing brighter as it got closer. However, instead of exploding into a blast, it disintegrated into black smoke that engulfed both the ever-changing shape and the puppet, not letting any outsider peered into the inner world.

After the puppet chanted under its mutter, it threw its golden cane at the orb and watched as it expanded into the web that surrounded it. However, before it could seal the orb, a bloody phantom of a giant blade swung onto it, shattering the net into pieces.

Without anything to obstruct its path, the orb expanded and trapped the puppet inside, draining its sorcery energy and lifeforce as it used them to form the new stars. The incomprehensible screams echoed the hall as the puppet struggled to break free from the hellish prison. Everyone could only watch as it slowly became older and older, depleting of its strength.

In the end, the shivered corpse produced two new stars.

Without any support, the female puppet quickly got overwhelmed. However, as soon as the orb moved closer to her, she chose to self-destruct and killed herself instead of letting the abominable prison tortured her.

As soon as the female puppet died, Mabilis collapsed on the floor as he bled all over his body, having exhausted all of his mental concentration and sorcery energy.

...

Avidas watched as Glacies and Abicel died before him, screaming in fear and desperation as he slowly retreated until his back touched the wall of the chamber.

The female puppet moved towards him, banishing its devilish blade as the pulsating heart shivered in her hand. The sight instilled dread into his mind as he clutched the ring tightly, mentally asking for help.

"Young man, you are dying." A voice of an old man entered his mind, tempting him with the prospection of life.

"Just let go of the control, and let me help you. You are tired, aren't you? Don't worry, rest well and I shall take over." Little did he know, the devil inside his mind was far more powerful and threatening than the devil with the Heart Blade.