Enhanced Blizzard

"Christina!"

Yinsen would never mistake that mental ripple. Back then, that lich had even tried to blow herself up and take him with her.

He had felt that something was off at the time. His battle with Christina had been nowhere near the point where self-destruction was necessary, yet Christina’s reaction had seemed far too extreme.

Now, he finally had the answer. The Christina he had encountered before had not been her true body at all. The woman who had appeared this time was the lich’s actual body.

"Loki, the Casket of Ancient Winters!"

He had originally worried that destroying the castle might harm innocent people, but once he saw Christina walk out of it, that concern vanished. Clearly, this was a trap arranged by the enemy.

Holding the Arcane Spring, Yinsen did not stop what he had been doing. Instead, he sped up. With his Mental Power operating at full capacity, he mobilized every bit of Arcane Energy stored within the Arcane Spring.

This time, he intended to "borrow" the energy within the Casket of Ancient Winters. That energy was difficult to control, so to ensure that his spell would not fail or even backlash against him, Yinsen used every bit of energy stored in the Arcane Spring without holding anything back.

The immense power unleashed at full force was enough to destroy an entire Manhattan, providing a solid foundation for Yinsen’s spellcasting.

Unlike before, when he had carefully calculated every detail and emphasized delicate control to conserve mana, this time he used a far more wasteful method to ensure that the spell would succeed.

A massive blue-purple pattern appeared beneath Yinsen’s feet. As it rotated, it became increasingly complex. The energy released simply by its operation created a powerful shockwave, blowing Brent, who had already retreated, back several more steps.

"This level of energy…"

Brent had still been wondering how Yinsen planned to blow up that castle. Only when Yinsen began casting and that surging power erupted did he realize that Yinsen had not been boasting. He truly had a way to do it.

After seeing that person appear, Yinsen became even more eager to level the place across from them. He guessed that whoever had walked out of the castle was not a friend who intended to welcome them warmly.

At that moment, the man named Loki pulled a square casket out of thin air. The instant it appeared, Brent felt the surroundings grow much colder. Looking around, he saw that everyone was shivering uncontrollably, confirming that it was not his imagination.

"Fall back! Move!"

Brent realized that it was an incredibly powerful item. It was already releasing such terrifying cold before even being activated. Once it was unleashed, who knew whether those standing too close would be caught in it?

His judgment was entirely correct. Even Loki himself might be affected when fully opening the Casket of Ancient Winters. He could endure it with the bloodline of a Frost Giant, but ordinary people would be frozen into statues in an instant.

"I’m going to open the Casket of Ancient Winters."

"Wait!"

The Magic Array beneath Yinsen’s feet grew increasingly complex. At the same time, he held the Arcane Spring in his right hand and slammed it heavily into the ground.

The gem atop the Arcane Spring released an even more dazzling radiance. At the same time, a rotating Magic Array appeared before Loki. The center of that complex-patterned array was a patch of nothingness, while the surrounding patterns seemed to be guarding that area.

Loki understood at once what he needed to do: pour the cold air from the Casket of Ancient Winters into the center of the Magic Array.

"Now!"

At Yinsen’s prompt, Loki opened the Casket of Ancient Winters. Stimulated by the powerful cold, his body turned ice-blue, and his blood-red pupils looked exceptionally eerie. Yet everyone ignored those changes, because when the Casket of Ancient Winters released its cold air, it also unleashed a terrifying glacial torrent.

Ordinary people simply could not withstand that cold. Brent even had to gather people carrying Magic Stone Items and have them stand at the front as human shields to block the terrifying blasts of frost.

As Loki continuously poured the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters into the Magic Array, Yinsen’s enhanced Blizzard began to take shape.

The Magic Array beneath his feet became even more complex and massive. It was no longer confined to the ground, instead becoming a more three-dimensional pattern that appeared in the air around Yinsen.

As Yinsen pointed the Magic Staff in his hand toward the distant castle, the enhanced Blizzard was finally unleashed.

It all seemed complicated, but with Yinsen casting at full force, it took only a few seconds. Christina noticed Yinsen’s movements, but she had no time to react. She did not even manage to say a word before an enormous Magic Array appeared in the air diagonally above the castle.

Then, just as Christina sensed that something was wrong and tried to act, a huge Frost Meteor formed from the cold air of the Casket of Ancient Winters shot out from the massive Magic Array in the sky and struck the ground before her almost in the blink of an eye.

Bang!

The enormous Frost Meteor exploded the instant it hit the ground. White mist-like cold air spread across the surrounding area with the blast, turning everything within its range into the tiniest particles of ice.

These massive, frigid Frost Meteors could not only freeze everything they struck; their powerful impact would also shatter it into the finest fragments at the instant it froze.

Christina had almost no time to react before she completely bid farewell to the world. The lich who had once fought Yinsen for so long using only an avatar and nearly made him suffer a loss was now Instant Killed by Yinsen’s magic before she could even deliver an opening line.

More importantly, this was only the beginning.

After the first Frost Meteor fell, more Frost Meteors descended from the enormous Magic Array, smashing into the massive castle one after another.

Blizzard was a spell that combined physical and elemental damage. When Azeroth mages such as Jaina Proudmoore cast it, the Frost Meteors they summoned contained not only powerful cold but also countless ice shards. Those hard shards dealt terrifying physical damage when they struck a target, and after exploding on impact, they inflicted area damage like flying shrapnel.

The Frost Meteors cast by Yinsen were formed entirely from condensed cold air. Fortunately, he had no living targets in his sights. Those powerful Frost Meteors smashed into the massive castle one after another, first freezing it and making it exceptionally brittle. Then the next meteor, carrying immense impact force, struck the same spot and blasted the entire area into fragments, while the cold air released by the explosion froze the newly exposed section.

Over and over again, everyone watched helplessly as a massive castle was destroyed by Yinsen’s magic.

Even Brent, who prided himself on having seen many grand scenes, could not help swallowing at the sight. What he was thinking now was how long he could last if he found himself within such an attack.

"No, what I should be considering is whether I could escape before the attack hit me."

He did not think he could withstand such an attack. Looking at Yinsen, who had been lifted into the air by powerful Arcane Energy and was wrapped from head to toe in blue-purple energy, he suddenly realized that he did not understand this young man at all.

"Is this the path you’ve always insisted on?"

Even the kind of monster he had seen before probably could not withstand an attack like that, right? Could this be the path adventurers were supposed to choose?

He knew he could not keep thinking about it. It would destroy beliefs he had held for many years. He could only repeatedly tell himself that someone like Yinsen was exceptionally rare. In all these years, he had only encountered one such person. Most adventurers could never possess such terrifying strength, so there was nothing wrong with continuing down his previous path.

Yinsen, in the midst of casting, did not know what Brent was thinking. He kept his eyes on the distant castle while carefully observing every subtle change in the Arcane Energy.

He had the same sort of plan as Loki. He wanted to use this opportunity to understand the nature of the energy within the Casket of Ancient Winters. If he could comprehend or even completely analyze that energy, his Water Magic could be improved once again.

This observation could not continue forever. Arcane Energy was being consumed at an astonishing rate, and if it went on, both Yinsen and Loki could easily suffer backlash injuries.

So once he had seen enough, Yinsen directly signaled Loki and began slowly dispelling Blizzard.

It was as if everything that had happened before was playing in reverse. The Frost Meteors gradually stopped, and the enormous Magic Array in the sky dispersed.

The cluster of three-dimensional Magic Arrays around Yinsen slowly diminished, becoming simpler bit by bit before disappearing. In the end, they all reverted to the flat Magic Array pattern on the ground. The surging Arcane Energy around him had long since vanished completely, and with a wave of the Arcane Spring in his hand, even the Magic Array beneath his feet disappeared.

As for Loki? He had already returned to normal. At some point, he had put away the Casket of Ancient Winters and had even deliberately straightened his slightly crooked clothes.

"That was exceptionally well done. It was a successful and pleasant collaboration."

Faced with Yinsen’s praise, Loki merely responded with a reserved yet proud smile. Although he had only been responsible for supplying energy, he had needed to control and regulate the output perfectly so that it matched Yinsen’s magic, allowing them to successfully unleash that powerful Blizzard.

Thinking of the spell’s power, Loki hoped that one day he would be able to cast it with his own strength.

As if seeing through his thoughts, Yinsen suddenly said to him, "That day will come."