“Give up on her. I can let you live.”
The voice rang out again, its tone still freezing cold.
Little Frost’s body stiffened.
It was a completely unfamiliar female voice, icy and piercing, as if it were embedded directly into her mind, echoing repeatedly in the depths of her consciousness.
“Give up on her, and you can live.”
The voice repeated incessantly.
Little Frost’s lips pressed into a tight, straight line.
She didn’t answer; she simply gritted her teeth.
Propping herself up from the sand with her scraped left arm, she pushed herself off the ground. Grains of sand embedded themselves in her flesh, and blood seeped from the wound again. The pain caused her brows to knit tightly, but she didn’t make a sound.
She leaned down and straightened White Night, who had fallen to the side.
“Fool.”
The voice suddenly changed its tone, shifting from coldness to undisguised mockery.
“You will die here — you’ll die here along with her.”
Little Frost gripped the Alloy Javelin in her hand, the veins on the back of her hand bulging one by one.
She still didn’t respond with a single word.
“Auntie Frost?”
White Night noticed her tense profile and called out softly.
“It’s nothing.”
Little Frost’s voice regained its calm, revealing no sign of abnormality.
Gripping the Alloy Javelin, she climbed onto the back seat of the Rusty Bicycle again.
“Go.”
The battle continued, and the Weirdness’s circle of encirclement was shrinking.
Little Frost pierced the core blister of a Shingles Ghost with her javelin, causing a mist of blood to explode.
On the other side, Mu Yingying swung her blade and cut down a Calculus Ghost. The blade struck the largest stone in its abdomen with a crisp crack, and a mist of blood rose.
But their movements were much slower than before.
The weakness brought by the medicine’s effects, combined with the fading power of the Black Bowknot, felt like two invisible sets of shackles tightly binding them.
Every time Little Frost thrust her javelin and withdrew it, her arm trembled uncontrollably.
Every time Mu Yingying swung her blade, her steps faltered, and she had to struggle to stabilize her balance.
The wounds on their bodies were also accumulating.
Little Frost’s right shoulder was sliced open by the fingernail of a Migraine Anomaly. Blood flowed down her sleeve, dripping in a dark red trail on the ground.
Mu Yingying’s calf was grazed harshly by a Gout Anomaly. Even though it wasn’t corroded, the brute force left a large bruise on her leg. She had already begun to limp as she ran.
White Night saw everything, and her heart tightened.
‘System!’
She shouted in her mind.
‘Besides the Mall, is there any other way to help us escape?!’
The System remained silent for 2 seconds.
A mechanical notification tone sounded simultaneously in the consciousness of her and her two aunts.
[Alert: Host is currently in a high-risk predicament. Configuring Emergency Escape Plan —]
[Plan configuration in progress… Estimated configuration time: 120 minutes.]
[Cost: All currently remaining Points.]
[Note: Killing high-threat targets can significantly shorten the configuration time. The Host or authorized Driver can check progress in real-time.]
Two hours.
White Night’s heart sank.
Forget two hours; given their current state, whether they could last for 2 minutes was a question.
Little Frost also heard the System broadcast.
White Night had long ago granted System permissions to her two aunts, so they could receive these notifications at the same time.
She shattered a lunging Weirdness Disease Focus with her javelin. In the gap between blood mists, she asked in a heavy voice within her mind,
‘System, if I slay that corpse ball, how much time can be saved?’
The System’s reply was nearly instantaneous.
[The Corpse Aggregation Anomaly is the Regional Core Threat Unit. Killing it will shorten the configuration time to 2 minutes.]
[Supplementary Note: This target possesses area control capabilities and can manipulate surrounding low-tier Weirdness to conduct coordinated hunts. Simultaneously, the corrosive bodily fluid it sprays is the primary means of blocking escape routes. After killing this target, low-tier Weirdness will lose coordinated command, and their containment efficiency will significantly decrease.]
2 minutes.
Little Frost’s gaze swept over the layers upon layers of Weirdness, landing on the Giant Corpse Ball rolling slowly in the distance.
2 minutes — they could hold on for that long.
The problem was how to kill it.
That thing was covered in Disease Focuses. Any random attack would only break through a small patch of flesh. Thrusting the Alloy Javelin into it was like sticking a chopstick into a swamp; it couldn’t cause any fundamental damage.
Unless she could scatter it with a single blow.
It didn’t need to be completely eliminated; as long as its aggregated form was broken, it wouldn’t be able to spray venom or control other Weirdness.
Little Frost looked down at the Alloy Javelin in her hand, then glanced at the now dim and lusterless Black Bowknot in White Night’s bicycle basket.
“White Night.”
Her voice was soft but exceptionally steady.
“Can the bowknot be used one more time?”
White Night’s Soul Body immediately reached out and touched the Black Bowknot in the basket.
The inky luster had mostly faded, but it hadn’t extinguished completely. She could clearly feel a remnant of power lingering inside. It wasn’t much, but if it were all poured into one person, it should be enough to support a single burst of energy.
“It can.”
White Night’s voice was filled with urgency.
“But Auntie Frost, you were completely exhausted after using it last time. With so many injuries on you now, I’m afraid —”
“Little White Night, Auntie is fine.”
Little Frost interrupted her directly.
The corner of her mouth twitched slightly. Although the arc was small, White Night still saw the faint smile.
“Auntie can handle it. Don’t worry.”
The smile was strained; White Night could tell at a glance that she was forcing herself.
But right now, they didn’t have a second choice.
White Night no longer hesitated.
‘Bowknot, give all the remaining power to Auntie Frost.’
Hum —
The last bit of light from the Black Bowknot suddenly dissolved, merging into a stream of inky light that wrapped around Little Frost’s right arm.
That cold, heavy power poured into her body once again.
Little Frost let out a muffled groan.
The moment the power surged in, a violent aching sensation exploded from her bones. Every muscle in her body felt as if it had been electrified, tensing to the absolute limit.
But this power was clearly inferior to the one in the tunnel.
It wasn’t enough.
She knew this power wasn’t nearly enough to scatter that Giant Corpse Ball.
Little Frost gritted her teeth.
While clutching the Alloy Javelin to fend off the Weirdness’s attacks, she forcibly mobilized the strength within her body in the brief intervals. From the day her Awakened Ability first manifested, she had vaguely felt a sleeping beast hidden deep inside her, locked away in the furthest depths.
She had never dared to try and wake it. Because every time she touched the edge of that power, a piercing pain would strike her mind, as if warning her not to attempt to use it.
But now, she couldn’t care less about that.
Little Frost closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them again, a faint blood-red tint surfaced in the depths of her gaze.
Something inside her body had been stirred by her.
The blood in her veins began to flow at a frantic pace, her body temperature surged, and her heartbeat grew heavy and powerful, roaring in her chest like a war drum being struck violently.
A faint blood-red glow seeped out from the surface of her skin.