Ice and Fire

Am I still half-asleep, or have I simply not woken from my dream?

Li Yue rose slowly, sensing two powerful forces colliding outside. The screams of people in agony echoed through the cabin; the ship seemed to have already begun to sink.

Li Yue looked out the window. People clinging to driftwood were struggling desperately in the sea, their skin marked by burns and their hair and eyebrows singed.

Li Yue glanced at herself. The room had already caught fire. Some of the clothes she had bought on a whim not long ago were starting to burn. Aside from her usual attire stored in her ring, the clothes in the wardrobe were mostly ruined.

Li Yue got out of bed. Her white pajamas were scorched in several places, but such flames could not harm her.

She tapped her toe on the floor, and the Death Abyss instantly covered a vast area of the sea like a tide.

Two Great Mages and quite a few other Mages were blasting each other with magic, completely disregarding the lives of ordinary people...

My own identity isn't exactly normal either. After all, magic like mine would probably be labeled as a dark mage, a demon king, or some mastermind behind the scenes in any other magical story.

Whatever. I'm tired of pretending.

She rose, her snow-white hair flowing like a waterfall. Two lines of blood-tears streamed from her blood-red eyes, while her white pupils appeared void, as if something was missing.

She stood up, and the black tide receded from her body, revealing the same divine raiment she had worn when she left Yakutsk.

She exhaled, feeling the restlessness of her heart and the stillness of her body. She looked around, trying to think of an interesting joke to ground herself.

She looked at her feet. Pitch-black nails, sharp and possessing scale-like patterns upon closer inspection, formed a stark contrast with her fair skin. Such contrasts were present everywhere on the divine raiment and her body.

............

Did those ancient and noble beings never think of something like shoes when they created clothing? Perhaps those self-important creatures never imagined they would ever get dirty.

Then again, how could they possibly imagine themselves covered in blood and battered?

She smiled, then quickly covered her face. After taking two long breaths, she felt much better.

Her body sank into the deathly black tide. Seconds later, she appeared outside the cabin. The sky here was as dazzling as if it had been set ablaze; the figure in the sky, wielding fire, looked like a god.

Countless magical light waves illuminated the dark firmament, and the Great Mage set the sky on fire once more. Li Yue stood to the side with her arms open, seemingly prepared to be a mere bystander.

The aura of life permeated her surroundings. The bodies of fish in the sea swelled into deformities, and surviving humans were hideously twisted together, their flesh and blood fused into one giant monster after another, along with the fish from the sea.

A virus?

Li Yue casually pulled one of the monsters toward her. After crushing it to death, she inspected it closely. It seemed to be a virus that could rapidly assimilate human bodies upon entry.

It was very similar to a blood demon, but not quite the same. These creatures possessed an unnaturally exuberant vitality, whereas a blood demon was a creature caught between death and life after being affected.

The air was filled with purple mist, while the sky burned with flames accompanied by falling meteors.

They seemed to notice Li Yue's appearance simultaneously, accompanied by an intense sensation of death. Unlike their magic, this was a pure, unadulterated sensation of death.

“Is this your magic, Mr. Fen'ao?” The purple flesh in Li Yue's hand turned to ash. Under the influence of the Death Abyss, the life around her died off, their bodies withering away.

She looked at the swollen Fen'ao. His body seemed much younger, having transformed into a burly man. However, the hair at his temples remained stark white, and he had dark green pupils and purplish-red skin. He did not look like a normal human.

“Lacks aesthetic.” Li Yue found a spot to sit down, pondering her future itinerary. She searched for the captain and the first mate, only to find their flesh fused together, forming the head of a massive flesh monster.

“You two keep fighting. I'm just passing through.” Li Yue flew to the side, showing her ring to the person in the sky—who appeared to be the Director of the Inspectorate.

“Vassal of Death, you should not be here.”

Li Yue frowned. This big shot from the Academy didn't seem to recognize her ring. Perhaps it was too far away to sense, or maybe her aura was being suppressed.

Although Li Yue no longer had much of a concept of death, she still didn't want to kill the Director of the Inspectorate, nor the Vice Director who was hiding beneath the sea and had yet to make a move.

A brilliant light flared in the sky as a flaming hoof stomped down fiercely. The seawater it touched evaporated instantly; this strike was clearly aimed at her.

She raised her hand, and a blood-red light seeped from the Death Abyss beneath her feet. Red crystalline substances surrounded her like a cloak and a wall, blocking the heavy blow.

The blood crystals sent shards flying from the impact. Li Yue had no intention of counterattacking. Vaguely, she felt the seawater beneath her feet become abnormally cold. From the firmament, it was as if a snow-capped mountain had smashed down directly onto the area where Fen'ao had been, kicking up waves dozens of meters high.

Li Yue raised an eyebrow and pulled her feet from the ice. The Death Abyss began to slowly spread downward. In terms of extreme cold, the Death Abyss, which could wipe out an entire city, was clearly more terrifying. The black tide, carrying the souls of the dead, began to spread its extreme cold downward.

Fen'ao took this opportunity to flee at high speed. Li Yue drew a blood blade, imbued it with the power of the Death Abyss, and swung it with force. The blood-red blade cleaved through the sea tides, severing half of Fen'ao's body. He cried out in agony as the severed portion of his body rapidly necrotized, and a metal box slipped from his grasp.

A mutated fish, as large as a dozen whales, swallowed his body, seemingly trying to protect him. Scorching flames fell from the sky, evaporating a massive amount of seawater and striking the whale, emitting a strange smell of roasted meat.

The seawater that hadn't evaporated froze rapidly. Before being trapped, the giant whale opened its mouth and spat out a massive, deformed flesh sea bird. Li Yue struck from the gap between the fire and the ice. A blood moon occupied the higher heavens, and moonlight as solid as a physical object pierced through the clouds, severing the bird's body.

A metal box fell. The remaining flesh in the sky changed rapidly, but it was not as fast as Li Yue's Death Abyss. A black tide, like a tsunami, was the first to claim the trophy.

What is this? Why do I feel a desire to possess it? Does it point to something related to me?

She began her analysis. Simultaneously, a massive amount of fire and an ice storm swallowed the area where she stood.