The golden torrent dispersed.
A faint smell of ozone from mana overload permeated the air, along with the salty tang of instantly evaporated seawater.
Only the howling of wind and rain and the sound of waves crashing against the reefs remained between heaven and earth.
The massive iceberg that had imprisoned the monster, along with the monster itself, had vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed.
Only a gargantuan hole remained on the sea surface, with the surrounding water frantically pouring in, creating a colossal whirlpool that roared like a giant beast.
Is it dead?
Klein's mana consumption was immense, and his mind was weary, yet he pushed through, maintaining the highest level of vigilance.
Wind elements swirled around him, ready to respond to any sudden situation at a moment's notice.
The monster's final words before its death swirled in his mind like a curse.
Kin...
Why...
Every word carried a spine-chilling eeriness that intensified the growing unease in his heart.
The blood-red moonlight still shrouded this stretch of sea like coagulated blood, showing no signs of dissipating.
This in itself was the greatest omen of misfortune.
Ophelia slowly returned her longsword to its scabbard, her movements half a beat slower than usual, appearing slightly sluggish.
She instinctively raised her right hand and tightly gripped her left arm.
Under the pale moonlight, her knuckles could even be seen turning white from the force.
That strike was clearly a tremendous burden for her.
The golden battle qi faded from her body, leaving her slightly pale complexion with nowhere to hide.
Klein was about to ask about her condition when, without warning, Ophelia suddenly looked up toward the sky!
Her movement was incredibly fast, her golden pupils constricting as if she had seen something unbelievable.
Clang!
A clear sword cry pierced through the wind and rain once more, even drowning out the thunder.
The longsword that had just been sheathed was drawn again at an even faster speed!
Klein's heart sank, and he followed her gaze.
High in the sky, the thick crimson moonlight was twisting and gathering violently, like a writhing, living blood-colored mass.
Some form of ultimate evil was gestating within it!
Something was about to come out!
The next second, a massive black shadow was squeezed out of that blood-colored vortex, falling rapidly with a scream that tore through the air, crashing straight toward the sea.
Boom!
Giant waves soared, as if the entire ocean had been flipped over by this impact.
The black shadow steadied itself in the seawater.
It was still that gargantuan body composed of billions of illusory faces, but this time, it felt completely different.
It was no longer an illusory phantom; it had a true, physical entity!
That viscous, nauseating malice transformed into a tangible, icy mire that washed over them, nearly dragging their very souls into it!
The monster had returned from the dead once again! And it had descended from the sky!
Ophelia did not give it any chance to breathe.
The reef beneath her feet instantly shattered, and she turned into a golden streak of light, her sword light howling as it arrived.
The monster did not seem to have expected Ophelia's attack to be so fast, or perhaps, having just gained a physical body, it simply had no time to dodge.
Puch!
The sound of a blade entering flesh reached Klein's ears, muffled yet clear.
A spray of liquid erupted.
However, the splashing liquid was not crimson, but a deep blue with a strange fluorescence!
It was sea monster blood!
Klein's pupils constricted as a chill exploded from his heart.
Almost instinctively, the incantation he had long prepared escaped his lips.
An invisible wind wall instantly appeared in front of Ophelia, precisely sweeping away all the splashing blue blood, like a most loyal guardian, casting those impurities far into the depths of the sea.
He absolutely could not let Ophelia come into contact with such polluted things again!
The power of that strike was immense, directly knocking the monster's massive body back dozens of meters, plowing a deep trench across the sea surface.
Ophelia also used the recoil to flicker several times, retreating to Klein's side.
She stood firm, her golden pupils locked onto the distant monster, murmuring to herself with a voice that carried a trace of imperceptible trembling—part excitement, part confirmation.
"I felt it..."
What came from the blade was the resistance of cutting through tough flesh, not the emptiness from before.
A cold fire ignited in her golden pupils.
Klein immediately understood what she meant.
He did not hesitate to activate his basic mana vision.
Sure enough, the world before him changed instantly.
The gargantuan monster was no longer a void of aggregated energy in his vision, but was constructed of countless noisy, chaotic, and twisted lines.
These lines were entangled together, as if the laws of the physical world themselves were emitting a painful shriek.
Though it was still filled with misfortune and chaos, making its essence difficult to analyze, it at least proved one thing.
It truly existed!
If it could be harmed, it could be killed!
Klein and Ophelia looked at each other, seeing solemnity on each other's faces, along with a spark of... ignited battle intent.
The situation had become more dangerous, but a glimmer of hope had also appeared!
They had to do it now! Before it completely adapted to this body!
No words were needed.
The moment Klein raised his palm, Ophelia's body had already reacted.
She took a half-step forward, lowering her center of gravity, gripping the hilt with both hands, the sword tip pointing diagonally at the massive black shadow on the sea.
At the same time, Klein's chanting grew faster, and the surrounding wind and rain seemed to be choked by an invisible hand, coming to a sudden halt.
The violent waves and the pouring rain—all chaotic sounds were stripped away at this moment, leaving only a heart-palpitating hum between heaven and earth.
That was the tremor emitted by the mana itself when highly condensed.
Brilliant elemental light particles precipitated from the void like a reversed river of stars.
Ophelia stared at the convergence of that destructive power, and the battle qi around her rose to its peak.
The golden flames were no longer ethereal but had transformed into a viscous, weighted molten gold, dripping from the blade only to be swept back into the edge by even more surging energy.
The longsword seemed to come alive, emitting a clang that was both overburdened and hungry for blood.
Their intention was already self-evident in the intersection of mana and battle qi.
However, at the very moment their momentum reached its peak.
A sudden change occurred.
On the sea between them and the monster, space abruptly rippled like water.
Following that, several layers of semi-transparent magic shields, shimmering with arcane radiance, bloomed like crystal petals, precisely blocking the path of the sword strike Ophelia was about to unleash.
That was not all.
Behind the magic shields, a pitch-black spatial rift tore through the air without warning.
It was not a simple crack, but an absolute void that seemed capable of swallowing all light and sound—a silent wound leading to the unknown.
Ophelia's sword qi had already left the blade.
The golden torrent of destruction surged out once more, only to slam head-on into those crystal-like magic shields.
The shields shattered layer by layer, making a crisp sound like breaking glass, but the power of the golden torrent was also rapidly weakened, its light dimming.
Ultimately, the aftershocks of the sword qi were completely swallowed by that pitch-black spatial rift, vanishing without a trace.
The sound of wind and rain seemed to be devoured by that eerie silence at this moment.
The pitch-black rift that had swallowed the sword qi and sound slowly closed like a healing wound.
A figure stood suspended above the waves as if the surging sea beneath her feet were solid ground.
A wide black robe enveloped her entire body, and the shadow of her hood was bottomless, allowing only a small, petite silhouette to be identified.
She stood there quietly, appearing out of place with the violent surroundings, as if she were the only real existence in this storm.
Then, a slight sigh, almost inaudible, pierced through the howling storm and clearly reached the ears of Klein and Ophelia.
It was the voice of a young girl, carrying the exhaustion of a long journey, yet with a sense of relief and celebration.
"Good... I finally caught up."
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