The Ice Temple stood in eerie silence, its once serene and sacred halls now filled with the aftermath of cataclysmic forces clashing against one another. The omniverse had barely survived one catastrophe, yet now, another was brewing—one that even Zenian, for all his arrogance and cunning, never expected.
Arfrotian was on his knees, his body trembling, his chest rising and falling with labored breaths. His right hand clutched his chest tightly, as if trying to hold himself together from the sheer torment raging within him. The barrier of destruction and ice surrounding him remained unyielding, its very nature an unfathomable mix of Pandora's Red Ice and the Eternal Frostheart's backlash—two forces that should never have coexisted within a single being. The sheer scale of devastation these energies could unleash, if not properly contained, would erase the entire omniverse in an instant. Yet, he had absorbed them, shackling them within himself as a desperate measure to fulfill a promise.
He had promised Ice Phoenix that he would protect the icy omniverse—no matter the cost.
And now, he was paying the price.
Ice Phoenix's Breaking Point
Ice Phoenix stared at Arfrotian, her glowing icy-blue eyes widening in sheer panic.
Her body shuddered as realization set in. Not only had he saved her homeland from total annihilation, but now, he was on the verge of losing his life for it. The emotions that she had suppressed for eons, the cold detachment that defined her existence, began to crack. She couldn't allow this. She wouldn't.
For the first time in countless millennia, she had finally found someone who stirred something inside her—something beyond duty, beyond guardianship. She had found someone she could trust, someone she could stand beside, someone she could… love. And now, fate was trying to rip him away from her?
No.
Absolutely not.
A sharp gust of icy wind roared as Ice Phoenix shifted from her human form into her phoenix form.
A dazzling explosion of pale blue flames erupted around her, so bright and overwhelming that the very fabric of space trembled. With a single mighty flap of her wings, an Icicle Storm Burstripped through the temple, sending dimensional-shattering winds surging toward Arfrotian's barrier.
The storm, composed of razor-sharp icicles and an unrelenting blizzard, was strong enough to tear apart an entire omniversal plane.
Yet—
It didn't even scratch the barrier.
The shield around Arfrotian remained untouched, an immutable force holding him within, barring anyone from reaching him.
Zenian, who had been watching from a distance, found himself half-frozen along with his remaining minions. His body convulsed at the sheer apocalyptic nature of the Ice Phoenix's unleashed wrath. He had seen terrifying power before, but this?
This was something else.
"This is insane…" Zenian muttered, his breath hitching as frost coated his lips. He struggled to maintain composure, but the deathly chill in the air threatened to shatter his very soul.
He clenched his fists, his gaze locked onto Ice Phoenix's glowing form. The woman he had desired, the power he had wanted to claim for himself—this terrifying force of nature—had been completely out of his league all along.
If Arfrotian hadn't interfered and convinced her to let him try wielding the Eternal Frostheart…
Zenian swallowed hard. He would have been obliterated in an instant.
He had underestimated her. Severely.
But Ice Phoenix wasn't in the mood to care about his realization.
Her eyes blazed with pure determination. She wasn't going to lose Arfrotian.
The first attack had failed, but she wouldn't stop. She couldn't stop.
The Phoenix's Unyielding Wrath
"DAMN THIS BARRIER!" she roared, her voice filled with anguish and desperation.
She lifted herself high into the air, her wings glowing brighter than a dying star. Ice-laced flames crackled around her, growing in intensity, as if she was willing to burn away everything just to get to Arfrotian.
Zenian, still struggling to process the madness unfolding before him, could barely believe his eyes. He had always known Ice Phoenix to be a fearsome guardian, a being of absolute cold and discipline.
But this?
This was love-fueled destruction incarnate.
"She's going to wipe out everything in her way," Zenian gasped, staggering backward. His minions, too frozen to even speak, could only watch in horror as Ice Phoenix prepared for another attack.
She flapped her wings once—
And then, she struck.
A blinding, devastating Phoenix Ice Flare—a mass of frozen hellfire and razor-sharp ice storms, spiraled toward the barrier with the force of a collapsing omniverse.
BOOOOOM!
The shockwave that followed was so intense that it rippled across the icy omniverse itself.
Planets shook. Stars flickered. Even time itself seemed to freeze momentarily as the sheer magnitude of Ice Phoenix's desperation made itself known.
And yet—
The barrier still remained.
An Unstoppable Storm
Zenian could hardly comprehend what he was witnessing.
Ice Phoenix wasn't just powerful—she was relentless.
Even after launching an omniversal-level attack, she didn't stop.
She prepared another strike.
And another.
And another.
Her Phoenix form shone like a burning blue quasar, her attacks crashing against the barrier over and over in an endless, furious assault.
Zenian could only mutter under his breath:
"…What the hell did you do to her, Arfrotian?"
But even his jealousy was drowned out by what happened next.
The Breaking Point
Ice Phoenix prepared for her next move—her most powerful technique yet.
She condensed her ice flames into a terrifying Ice Gamma Burst Beam.
This attack was no joke.
An Ice Gamma Burst Beam could annihilate entire dimensions, erasing existence itself in its wake. And now, Ice Phoenix was about to unleash one straight at Arfrotian's barrier.
She gathered the energy, her eyes burning red with frozen tears.
She didn't care anymore.
She was going to get to him.
Even if she had to shatter the icy omniverse itself.
And then—
Just as she was about to fire—
The barrier vanished.
Ice Phoenix's eyes widened.
"W-what?"
And then—
Arfrotian collapsed.
His body, finally giving in to the unfathomable burden, fell forward.
But before he could hit the ground—
Ice Phoenix moved.
She rushed to him in an instant, catching him mid-fall and gently laying him onto her lap.
Her wings folded around him instinctively, shielding him from everything. Her heart raced, her mind a mess of emotions she never knew she could feel.
She held him close, her voice barely above a whisper.
"…Arfrotian," she murmured, her hands trembling as they caressed his face.
"You can't leave me alone… You can't…"
Her voice cracked as tears fell freely down her cheeks.
But then—
She felt it.
A slow, weak rhythm.
A heartbeat.
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"…The heart is beating…?"
Arfrotian was alive.
Barely.
But he was alive.
Ice Phoenix let out a shaky breath—half-sobbing, half-laughing—as she held onto him even tighter, refusing to let go.
And for the first time in her eternal existence, she finally understood what it meant to fear losing someone she loved.