Chapter 134: The Power of the Deity (Part 2)
At this moment, Sanks was frozen in place, eyes wide as saucers, when he suddenly saw the girl appear atop the icy mountain. His mind scrambled, and the question that popped into his head was: how on earth did she manage to get up there? The man, a distinguished warrior from Erin Castle, had been training under harsh conditions since he was a child. Although he was no prodigy, he was more than capable, even taking on five opponents at a time among regular folks. In his mind, there was simply no way a girl with such a frail body could have made it up there on her own…
This was something not just he couldn’t do; even among the Northern Army, including Master Skarlij, only a handful could accomplish such a feat. Yet there she was, standing atop that peak. In the blink of an eye, and with no climbing walls nearby, he was baffled at how it could even be possible. This was his biggest conundrum at that moment, leaving him so stunned he could hardly speak—there wasn’t even time for anything else.
Could it be…
Some ridiculously powerful ally had arrived on their side…
But why…
Send her up the icy mountain…
That’s so dangerous…
“Sanks…”
“d*mn it, Sanks!!!”
Suddenly, a harsh shout snapped him out of his stupor. Sanks whipped around, the howling wind crashing back into his ears, mixed with the chaotic shouts of the soldiers around him. His captain, bl**d on his teeth, was pointing at him, furious, “What are you standing there for, you fool!? Move it—”
With a loud thud, the captain’s fist slammed down on Sanks’ shoulder, almost toppling him over. “Charge ahead! Don’t let a single knight escape!”
Sanks shook his head, looking up at the soldiers gathering from all directions, instinctively pointing at the icy mountain. “But…”
He wanted to say there’s someone up there, we need to rescue her first.
However, when they looked back up, they saw the girl at the peak, her small, delicate figure moving slightly. A pale arm reached out from beneath her fluttering cloak…
What is she doing!?
Sanks’ heart suddenly tightened. He feared the girl might slip and fall from the icy top and yelled in panic, “Hey—!!”
His voice vanished into the swirling snow, utterly lost. With her back to him, she was too far away to hear. Feeling quite anxious, he helplessly watched as she took a step forward, slowly extending that hand in the opposite direction from them—toward the north side of the mountain where the Church Knights were screaming in despair.
What on earth is she doing…
The next moment, Sanks’ pupils dilated.
A splendid, dazzling light burst forth from the palm of her outstretched hand, as dazzling as the sky-blue ice itself!
Whoosh—
In an instant, the beautiful light enveloped her, and her tattered cloak fluttered wildly in the aura. A ferocious gust of wind exploded outward from the peak, not strong enough to knock anyone down, but icy cold enough to make Sanks shiver and take a step back.
This is…
His mind went blank.
Beside him, the previously furious captain glanced up toward the mountain peak alongside Sanks and saw the light too. His jaw dropped, words caught in his throat, as he stood there in shock.
Among the soldiers who happened to witness this scene, everyone halted. Their eyes were filled with disbelief as they stared at the figure at the summit, so light and agile, soaring like a butterfly, like a winter sun, gradually enveloped by the increasingly brilliant icy glow…
And then, they could no longer look directly at it.
Boom—!
An intense, roaring sound erupted, as if a fierce current was stirring and crashing. The ground shook with an earth-shattering sound, echoing through the valley, rippling out to the ends of the sky. The warriors nearly lost their footing, some getting knocked down by the wind.
Sanks, the man named Sanks, stumbled backward, tears welling up in his eyes from the brightness. He rubbed his eyes frantically, his ears ringing from the thunderous noise. He vaguely heard countless gasps of shock around him, unsure of what was happening, so he hurriedly tried to lift his head again…
Finally, through the flashes of white in his vision, clarity returned.
After blinking hard, Sanks saw the girl still standing at the mountain’s peak.
As before, she stood with her back to everyone, lithe in the frigid wind, the radiant blue light now slowly fading away with the wind finally falling still. The terrifying roar had diminished to a faint echo in the distance…
Aside from that, it seemed like nothing had happened.
“What happened…?”
“What was that noise just now…?”
“Was it from the mountain top…?”
“Look, she’s still up there…”
“What did she do…?”
Moments later, the Northern warriors were filled with confusion, stuttering in disbelief, and more and more began to focus on the figure on the mountain. They were so caught up in watching that they momentarily forgot about the Church Knights.
What just happened…
Sanks exchanged glances with his captain, whose face now wore an ominous seriousness. They could both see deep perplexity and shock in each other’s eyes, along with a suppressed flicker of dread.
What’s going on…
What did she do…
How…
It felt like nothing—
Nothing had happened.
Just as this thought bubbled up from the depths of his mind, Sanks suddenly saw a blue chunk of ice plummet from the very sky the girl was staring at.
That’s…
It looked rather small.
About the size of a person.
However, it was falling from at least a thousand meters up. When the man realized this, that chunk of hard ice was already whistling down toward the other side of the mountain—where the knights had been situated.
Boom.
A dull explosion echoed far away.
Compared to the earlier near-d*ath cacophony, this didn’t seem too remarkable.
But…
Over on the ice mountain, the cries of the knights appeared to grow even more chaotic and desperate.
Sanks’ head spun a bit.
His eyes still throbbed…
He couldn’t help but rub his eyes again, and when he opened them, the man saw a second chunk of solid ice fall from the sky, crashing down with a force many times harsher than the Holy Lance, followed by a third, a fourth… fifth, sixth, seventh… and then…
Boom.
Boom, boom, boom!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom—!!!
“Retreat! Fall back—!”
“Everyone, fall back—!!”
In the midst of everything, the captain suddenly let out a shocking scream. Sanks felt a hand grab him by the collar and yanked him backward. All around him, the frantic shouts grew louder and more chaotic, the sounds reaching his ears in a surreal manner, distant and near, skewing like a dream.
He just stared wide-eyed at the sky several hundred meters away, at the scene that looked like the end of the world.
Hail—
No, this was an ice meteor shower…
Countless, hundreds, thousands of ice chunks—massive blocks of ice, seemingly indestructible, crashing down with tremendous force, accompanied by the thunderous sounds of a storm, raining down behind the mountain, likely landing where the Church Knights had been.
A catastrophe…
No.
Even in the face of a natural disaster, he had never seen such… a moment of utter despair…
It could only be—
“Oh, Deity…”
In stunned silence, Sanks heard someone shout that.
For some reason, he stared wide-eyed at the sky, split by countless blue shooting stars, at the towering icy mountain below, and at the girl perched atop it, looking as if she might sway away in the cold wind. His ears were filled with overwhelming, horrifying blasts, yet he distinctly heard the single word “Deity” shouted, the sound ringing true in his heart.
