“Those who resist their Master can only die in agony.”
Gabriella merely flicked a finger, and a silver-white holy sword materialized in her hand.
The blade was pure silver-white, translucent like white ice crystal, a lingering afterimage of past glory.
At the hilt sat a crimson demon eye; from that eye, several scarlet vines now extended, coiling around the silver sword, proof of its corrupted transformation.
The weapon radiated a deep violet aura and demonic power, resembling a cursed blade cursed by a devil himself.
From the black wedding ring on Gabriella’s left hand, 【Shadow】 slithered out like a ribbon of darkness, wrapping around her arm.
It was exactly the same as that bizarre enemy she had once faced.
Even the hair color, the pupil color, the aura, everything was identical.
“Lady Silver-White Sword Empress, please wake up!”
Tina cried out in desperation.
She had no desire to fight Lady Gabriella.
As her teacher, her friend, the big-sister figure she absolutely had to save, this was far too cruel.
Once the dark halo above Gabriella’s head fully manifested, any chance of salvation would be lost forever.
She would become nothing more than a slave.
And Tina firmly believed that the Goddess foretold by the Heavenly Hammer Sage was none other than Gabriella.
If the Evil God revived ahead of schedule and turned even the Goddess into an apostle of evil, humanity would be plunged into eternal darkness and face utter annihilation.
She could not bear to imagine the savior of mankind, Lady Silver-White Sword Empress, standing alongside the Evil God, coldly gazing down upon terrified humans from the opposite side.
She could not accept such a future…
“【Adjudicator】 is my power.”
Gabriella’s cold voice yanked Tina back to reality.
Yet a faint trace of emotion remained as she continued, “Tina, you were once my disciple, weren’t you? Then why have you become my enemy and oppose my Master?”
“This… isn’t the real you, Lady Silver-White Sword Empress…”
“Nn~”
Alas, Tina’s pleas could no longer reach Gabriella’s heart.
Now Tina understood: if she simply surrendered, both she and Lady Gabriella would fall before the Evil God.
Whether it ended in death, having their power absorbed, or the even crueler fate of being forced to turn their blades on former comrades, as the Ice Saint, she could never accept such an outcome.
Darkness spread further.
The dining hall, the residential palace, even the entire Demon King’s castle vanished.
The sky turned ashen; day and night became indistinguishable.
A black sun hung directly overhead.
The three of them now stood upon an endless black sea, its surface unnaturally calm, without a single wave.
The Evil God’s power had warped space itself, as though she had anticipated the coming battle.
Bathed in the black sunlight, the Silver-White Sword Empress slowly advanced.
A primal, unknown terror clawed at Tina’s heart, a scene not even her worst nightmares could conjure.
But Tina quickly regained her senses.
“I’m sorry, Lady Gabriella. Just for these few minutes… please allow me to surpass you, even if only briefly.”
A tremendous shockwave erupted from Tina’s body.
Though 【Adjudicator】 dwelling within her was a mighty weapon, it also supplied her with an endless torrent of mana.
Years ago, her own power had fused completely with Lady Gabriella’s weapon.
Frost coalesced into crystalline armor and a flowing dress of ice.
Behind her, icy wings, strengthened by Adjudicator, shone pure and radiant like gemstone.
The temperature in the entire hall plummeted, as though a winter valkyrie had descended upon the mortal realm.
“I’m truly sorry, Lady Gabriella.”
Tina gave her no chance to breathe.
She knew that, with her own strength alone, harming the Silver-White Sword Empress was impossible. She had to seal her.
The only thing left to rely on was the ice-attribute mana amplified by 【Adjudicator】.
If even she failed…
Then she would calmly face destiny together with Lady Gabriella.
She had already decided that years ago.
Before Gabriella could launch an attack, Tina soared dozens of meters into the air.
Her icy wings expanded until they blotted out the sky.
Countless ice crystals condensed and shot toward Gabriella like bullets, an apocalyptic blizzard of frozen death.
TSSSSSS—!
The razor-sharp icicles blanketed the heavens, only to be instantly swallowed by a single silver-white flash that pierced the dark world.
A single slash from Gabriella shattered every icicle, scattering them into countless snowflakes.
That was the power of the Silver-White Sword Empress: swift, overwhelming. Striking first was meaningless against her teacher.
Yet the shattered ice crystals did not fall. Instead, they drifted toward Gabriella and froze in place around her.
“【Winter Prison Cage】,” Tina whispered.
The snowflakes gathered.
Seizing the moment, Tina released a freezing white mist that instantly fused with the thousands of snowflakes, forming an icy barrier around Gabriella, an ever-thickening seal.
Within the frigid haze, Gabriella was encased like a massive ice block from the glacial era.
At that moment, two silver inverted triangles appeared in the depths of Tina’s eyes, proof that she had unleashed every last drop of power within her body.
CRACK—!
The ice was once again pierced by a silver-white streak that tore through the sky.
Yet the instant a breach appeared, countless microscopic snowflakes rushed in to fill it, keeping Gabriella firmly sealed inside a perfect spherical prison.
This spell had been created specifically to counter Gabriella’s slashing strikes, born from Tina’s deep understanding of her teacher.
Mere cutting could not destroy this cage of eternal winter… though maintaining it consumed an astronomical amount of power and could not be sustained for long.
At that moment, Tina glanced toward the Evil God.
Where did she go?
…
Meanwhile, inside the frozen prison, Gabriella tilted her head slightly.
Tina actually dares to interfere with my Master. How foolish.
Just as she prepared a third slash to break the icy seal, she suddenly felt arms wrap around her from behind.
Master had appeared behind her without her noticing.
Master was hugging her.
Why would Master do this in the middle of battle?
Yet it felt so blissful~ She wanted to fight together with Master.
“Silver-White Sword Empress, that silver-white power of yours… is rather displeasing.”
“Master…”
“Let me bestow upon you the power befitting a kin of the Evil God… Now, where is it… ah, found it~”
The Evil God Isabella’s hand brushed the pattern on Gabriella’s lower abdomen.
“Gu…”
【Shadow】 crawled up Isabella’s slender fingers and, following them, poured into Gabriella’s body.
It felt fifty percent similar to when she had accepted dark mana earlier.
So blissful.
So good.
But unlike before, this time her body did not reject the power in the slightest.
On the contrary, it greedily drank in the 【Shadow】, as though her very flesh and soul had long since been shaped into a perfect vessel, waiting only to be filled and pierced through.
“Aah… ah♡… AAAAAAH…”
Gabriella’s pupils trembled violently.
The black cross-star in her eyes grew ever more vivid.
The dark halo above her head now needed only one-quarter more to be complete.
The silver-white aura that once cloaked her vanished entirely, replaced by black flames and suffocating, perilous black mist.
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