SSS Frost Sovereign: Rewinding The Apocalypse!-Chapter 47: Desperation!

"Ghh."

Wester grunted as the attack landed. It was a concentrated strike, one that slipped through his defenses and froze everything it touched, dead and unresponsive.

Wester clenched his jaws. He had taken enough.

"Arghh!!"

A pulse of dark, purplish energy exploded outward from his body, violently shattering and dispersing all of Icard’s attacks.

’What is all this?’ Wester thought, chest heaving.

’How is he capable of using this many different skills? Seban told me incarnations gain skills as they progress, but how does he already have so many?’

He clenched his fists again and forced a strained grin while panting heavily.

Frostbite scars traced across his chest where the earlier slash had passed, the skin pale and rigid with faint cracks spreading like dead veins beneath the surface.

"As I thought, you’re quite different. You already have so much power. Perhaps... you might be like me."

"I’m very much different from you, Wester," Icard replied.

Wester still did not know how Icard knew his name. Not a lot of people knew that. Albert...but then Icard wasn’t close to him.

In fact, Icard spoke as though he knew far too much about him. That unsettling feeling had clouded Wester ever since they met.

’Just who is this kid?’

They stood still for a brief moment. Then, without warning, Icard lunged forward.

Wester gathered his energy and fired a blast at him, but it brushed past Icard’s side.

[Dual Skill Activation]

[Frost Pike] [Ice Shard]

Icard took a single long stride forward, wielding the ice shard like a dagger as he closed in to stab.

At the same time, a sharp frost pike erupted upward from the ground before Wester, where Icard’s forward foot was, frost spread out that small area.

Wester’s eyes widened.

He had already moved to counter the stab, but the attack from below came at the same instant.

Icard drove the shard forward as the pike shot into Wester’s abdomen.

Wester barely managed to react. Having committed to stopping the stab, he barely reached the ice shard aimed at the left side of his abdomen.

But the pike was already there.

He crossed his arms in desperation, gripping the shard with his right hand and catching the pike with his left.

"Ghh!"

Even so, the pike had already wounded him.

Wester released another pulse of energy, stronger than before. It shattered both attacks and cracked through Icard’s Ice Film, sending him flying backward.

Icard rolled across the ground before springing back to his feet. The blast had forced distance between them.

By now, he was panting as well.

But not as heavily as Wester, who had been at his limit for some time now.

Icard could tell. A normal incarnation would have run out of mana long ago. Wester had not, and there was a reason.

But even at that, Wester’s breathing was now ragged and uneven.

’Wasn’t I just beating him not too long ago?!’

He clutched his stomach where the pike had pierced him. Blood streamed freely through his fingers, dark against the frost-bitten skin.

The wound was deep.

’This bastard... I really underestimated him!’

Icard watched Wester’s stance carefully. His movements were slower now, unstable.

"Heh."

Icard chuckled softly.

[Mana Status] [Level: Kindle]

As the panel appeared before him, Icard let out a short, humorless chortle.

’Damn it. I’ve used my mana carelessly again.’

Kindle was only one level above Low. That meant only weak skills were usable now.

Powerful third floor skills were out of the question. At best, he could still manage second floor abilities.

’I was hoping to end this with Frost Tree after weakening him this much, but this bastard is too persistent.’

Icard exhaled slowly.

’Damn it. I have to be careful now.’

Wester’s free arm hung limply at his side, fingers twitching faintly, as if the limb no longer fully belonged to him.

His posture was crooked and eerie, like something being held upright by sheer will alone.

Then he glared at Icard.

Wester clenched his jaws and suddenly fired another attack.

He could tell now. Icard was weakened too, judging from the skills he had used earlier. The blast was wide and unfocused, unstable, born from exhaustion rather than control.

The attack rushed toward Icard.

Icard clenched his jaws and braced himself.

But before it could touch him, the blast detonated midair and dispersed, just like before.

Icard looked up. And there Eric was, again.

He too still panted heavily.

"Eric!" Icard called. "You shouldn’t push yourself more..."

"I’m alright, Icard," Eric said. "We should get this done as soon as possible and join up with the others."

The others were still battling. But even so, Wester’s goons were being pushed back more and more, the spawn included, as it faced Albert and Redd.

Both Albert and Redd were clearly roughed up, their movements heavier now, clothes torn and their bodies bearing fresh wounds from prolonged combat.

"I’m sure all this will end once this guy is down." Eric continued.

Icard exhaled deeply and pursed his lips.

"Alright," he said. "Let’s do it."

Across from them, Wester watched as Eric joined Icard.

"That brat is still moving," he muttered.

All three of them were exhausted. But with two standing against him now, he knew he did not have the strength to win this as things were.

"Tch."

Away from them, his followers were still fighting. The skill controlling most of them remained active, but at this point, they could not help him.

’I need more power. I need more power!’

The desperation crept into his thoughts, subtle at first, then suffocating.

He grit his teeth and clenched his fists.

"You will all pay for daring me. You really don’t know who you’re dealing with. I’ll kill you all," he hissed, with an eerie forced grin.

Wester stood hunched forward, shoulders tense, veins bulging beneath darkened skin. His fists tightened further as he inhaled deeply, chest rising unnaturally.

Then, his energy shifted.

The dark purplish essence flowing through the incarnations he controlled began to fluctuate violently, no longer steady.

Then, suddenly, it tore from within them.

Their bodies stiffened as the energy constricted around them.

They froze mid motion, as the purplish veins thickened and crawled up their bodies while they groaned. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The energy surged toward their chests, gathering into dense points before swelling outward.

Then, it puffed.

The battle was abruptly interrupted as the goons collapsed limply to the ground, the dark essence evaporating into nothingness.

"Huh?"

Confused murmurs rippled through the fighters.

"What just happened?" Reya murmured.

Draik had fallen as well, his black charred-like body lying motionless among the others.

They were all the same. Like they had been passed through fire and burnt, having summoned powers well beyond their bodies which had prolonged the fight greatly.

They had become several times stronger than regular incarnations and Draik had been particularly strong.

The fight had left everyone battered and bruised, but now, the controlled incarnations were unmistakably dead.

They were all dead, allies until Wester showed up.

After that happened, even Seban had disappeared too, freeing Gremit and Luna, who had been kept back from going to assist Albert.

At the moment, neither Icard nor Albert were in sight now.

"Did they finally do it?"

That was the hope that passed through them.

But then, what Icard and Eric were seeing was something entirely different.

"What the hell?" Eric muttered.

Before them, Wester’s body had grown larger, bulkier, his frame swelling with unnatural mass. Power radiated from him in oppressive waves.

His skin darkened as dark purplish energy seeped out from his pores, crawling across his body like living smoke.

His hair lifted and flared upward, as though caught in an unseen storm. Muscles swelled grotesquely, stretching his form until he no longer looked entirely human.

The presence he radiated made Eric shudder, his instincts screaming danger. Even Icard tensed, his breath catching.

’I know this power,’ Icard thought. ’This was his last resort back then.’

Memories surfaced unbidden.

’Back then, when he used this, it took both Albert and Yumin, who were stronger then than they are now, to finally put him down.’

At the moment, Wester was not as strong as he had been back then.

But Icard could tell.

His grade had risen significantly.

He had killed over fifty of his goons spread across the raid groups and absorbed their mana essence.

Right now, the beast standing before them had reached C grade.

Just as the panel before Icard confirmed.