The impenetrable dome of absolute-zero ice completely isolated them from the rest of the laboratory.

Dante hit the freezing stone floor hard, the breath knocked out of him. His armor lay in shattered, glowing golden fragments near his boots.

The [Skyfire Pants] he had looted from the Magma Boar were similarly ripped away, the durable Dark Demon fabric easily torn by the sheer, terrifying physical strength of a delirious Celestial Guardian.

He was essentially back in his beginner tunic and trousers, pinned to the ground by a woman who could casually shatter glaciers.

"Alysia," Dante gasped, struggling to push her off. "You need to stop. The toxin is completely overriding your logic parameters."

Alysia didn’t hear him.

The Frost Sovereign was burning. The unnatural heat radiating from her pale skin was intense enough to actively melt the solid ice dome surrounding them, creating a thick, suffocating cloud of white steam within the confined space.

Her icy blue eyes were completely unfocused, clouded over by the heavy, suffocating fever of the Fey-Bane. Her breathing was frantic, ragged, and desperate.

She pinned his wrists to the floor with an iron grip. Her strength was absolute. Dante’s 3,265 Strength stat felt like nothing against the raw cosmic weight of a Level ??? Guardian. He literally couldn’t move his arms.

"Cold," Alysia whimpered, her voice cracking, completely stripped of its usual majestic authority. "I need the cold."

She wasn’t making sense. She was the absolute embodiment of frost, yet she was burning alive from the inside out.

The toxin was actively weaponizing her own divine core against her, turning her celestial purity into a suffocating inferno.

She pressed herself desperately against his chest, seeking whatever meager relief his physical avatar could provide against the raging fever.

Dante stopped struggling.

He realized fighting her was entirely pointless. He couldn’t overpower her, and he couldn’t use his Zenith-tier skills to escape without risking the collapse of the dome and exposing Lila, Mei, and Casanova to the lingering Fey-Bane mist outside.

More importantly, he couldn’t use [Aura’s] healing. If he summoned the Doom Harbinger, the percentage-based heal might accidentally trigger a fatal reaction with the highly volatile, anti-celestial poison currently ravaging Alysia’s system.

He was trapped in an ice box with a dying god.

Alysia’s hands released his wrists, moving frantically to grip his shoulders. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, her entire body trembling violently.

The intense heat of her skin was agonizing, feeling like he was being pressed against a live forge.

"Burn it out," Alysia gasped, her voice barely a harsh whisper. Her lips brushed against his skin. "Break the seal."

Dante didn’t ask what seal she was talking about. He understood the mechanics of the poison. Vane had engineered the Fey-Bane to specifically target and shatter the divine purity that fueled a Celestial Guardian’s power.

It was a biological weapon designed to force a fatal overload.

The only way to break the fever was to let the toxin run its course, to allow the purity to be completely, physically compromised so the poison had nothing left to consume.

The system interface in the corner of his vision was completely silent. The Zenith Protocol offered no warnings, no prompts, and no guidance for this interaction.

Dante let out a long, heavy breath, his breath pluming in the steam-filled dome.

He wrapped his arms around the trembling Frost Sovereign, pulling her tight against him.

He didn’t fight the overwhelming heat. He let the fever wash over him, accepting the agonizing, burning intensity of the divine toxin.

The thick, white steam inside the ice dome grew denser, completely obscuring the shattered gold armor and the cold stone floor.

Outside the dome, the laboratory was dead silent.

Lila, Mei, Casanova, and Erebus stood in a tight group, staring at the massive, impenetrable block of solid blue ice sitting in the center of the room.

"So," Casanova broke the silence, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Do we knock?"

"Do not touch that ice," Lila warned, gripping her wooden staff. "Dante said she’s a God-tier NPC. If we interrupt whatever spell she just cast, she might instantly delete us."

Mei leaned on her massive frying pan, frowning at the dome. "Why did she lock him in there with her? The boss is dead. There’s nothing left to fight."

Pip the dragon flew over to the ice block, hovering a few inches away. He sniffed the frozen surface, his tiny red eyes narrowing.

"I don’t know what’s going on in there," Pip squeaked, flying quickly back to Mei’s shoulder. "But the ambient cosmic energy radiating off that ice is absolutely terrifying. It feels like a dying star trying to explode inside a freezer."

Erebus, sitting on a broken glass vat, simply chewed on a piece of dried meat. She didn’t seem bothered by the ice dome or the lingering poison gas.

"The shiny man is busy," Erebus stated flatly.

Lila sighed, sitting down on a piece of rubble. "Well, I guess we wait."

***

Inside the dome, the intense, suffocating heat eventually began to break.

The violent trembling in Alysia’s body slowly subsided. The burning fever radiating from her pale skin cooled, returning to the absolute, crisp chill of standard permafrost.

Her breathing, which had been frantic and ragged, finally slowed to a steady, exhausted rhythm.

Dante lay on the stone floor, staring up at the curved, translucent ceiling of the ice dome.

He felt physically drained. The encounter hadn’t drained his stamina bar or his health pool, but the sheer, overwhelming sensory overload of the interaction left his real-world brain feeling entirely sluggish.

Alysia stirred against his chest.

She slowly pushed herself up, her long, stark white hair falling in a tangled mess over her shoulders.

The fever was completely gone.

Her piercing, icy blue eyes snapped open.

They were sharp, clear, and immediately filled with absolute, horrifying realization.

Alysia looked down at Dante. She looked at his bare chest. She looked at her own state.

The Frost Sovereign froze completely.

The serene, untouchable majesty of the Celestial Guardian completely shattered. Her pale face flushed a brilliant, immediate shade of bright red.

"You..." Alysia breathed, her voice trembling, completely stripped of its usual booming authority.

Dante didn’t move. He kept his hands entirely visible, resting on the cold stone floor. He knew better than to make sudden movements around an embarrassed god.

"I didn’t start it," Dante pointed out calmly. "You locked the door and ripped my armor off. I was just trying to survive the encounter."

Alysia didn’t argue. She scrambled backward, putting as much distance between them as the tiny ice dome allowed.

She raised her hand. Her massive, double-edged frost greatsword materialized instantly in her grip.

She didn’t hesitate. She lunged forward, pressing the razor-sharp, absolute-zero edge of the blade directly against Dante’s throat.

The cold was intense, biting into his digital skin.

"I should execute you right now," Alysia hissed, her icy eyes burning with a mixture of intense fury and profound, agonizing shame.

"If the Grand Sovereign learns of this... if the Celestial Court discovers that my divine seal has been broken by a mortal Outworlder..."

Dante didn’t flinch. The blade was resting against his throat, but he didn’t trigger his [Undying Spirit] passive. He didn’t summon [Voidsever].

He just looked at her.

"You were dying," Dante said softly. "The Fey-Bane was weaponizing your purity against you. The only way to break the fever was to break the seal. Vane designed the trap specifically for you."

Alysia’s grip on the greatsword trembled.

She knew he was right. Her internal combat logs confirmed the presence of the highly restricted toxin. She remembered the agonizing, burning fever.

She couldn’t execute him for saving her life, even if the method completely destroyed her standing within the celestial hierarchy.

Alysia slowly lowered the greatsword. The blade dissolved into a cloud of freezing mist.

She turned her back to him, her posture rigid, desperately trying to reassemble her shattered composure. She summoned her flawless white armor, the glacial plates materializing instantly to cover her.

"This did not happen," Alysia stated. Her voice was cold, flat, and entirely uncompromising.

"Nothing happened," Dante agreed readily, sitting up.

Alysia didn’t look at him. She stared at the curved wall of the ice dome.

"We are strangers," Alysia commanded, her tone brokering no argument. "You assisted me in executing the Apex of Winter. I provided you with the location of the Crimson Spire. Our transaction is complete. We will never speak of this again. If you breathe a word of this to any entity on this server, I will personally come for your head."

"Understood," Dante nodded. He wasn’t going to argue with a Guardian having a mental breakdown.

Alysia raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

The massive, impenetrable dome of absolute-zero ice instantly shattered.

It completely atomized, turning into a harmless cloud of glittering diamond dust that drifted slowly down to the floor of the laboratory.

Dante and Alysia were fully exposed to the room.

Lila, Mei, Casanova, Pip, and Erebus were standing exactly where they had been an hour ago. They all stared at the two figures sitting in the center of the shattered ice dome.

They saw Dante, sitting on the floor, wearing his beginner tunic and trousers, his Gold-tier armor completely missing.

They saw the Frost Sovereign, fully armored, her face flushed bright red, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

The silence in the laboratory was deafening.

Casanova slowly raised his hand, pointing a trembling finger at Dante.

"Boss," Casanova whispered, his eyes wide with absolute, unfiltered awe. "Did you... did you just..."

"Not a word, Casanova," Dante interrupted, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly cold, flat register. "If you finish that sentence, I will feed you to the dragon."

Pip slapped both of his tiny claws over his mouth, completely terrified. Mei nodded rapidly, zipping her lips with an imaginary key.

Lila just stared at Dante, completely unable to process the sheer, absurd reality of the situation.

Alysia didn’t wait for the squad to ask questions. She couldn’t handle the sheer humiliation of the moment.

The Frost Sovereign didn’t cast a portal. She simply vanished. She triggered a high-tier celestial transit, completely overwriting her physical coordinates, fleeing the laboratory and returning directly to the safety of the Grand Sovereign’s inner sanctum.

Dante was left sitting on the cold stone floor, completely stripped of his defensive gear.

He let out a long, heavy sigh. He opened his infinite inventory, retrieved a spare set of basic Silver-tier armor he had looted from the Frostfire Steppes, and quickly equipped it. It wasn’t the [Sun-Forged Cuirass], but it covered his chest.

"Alright," Dante said, standing up and dusting off his knees. "The boss is dead. The laboratory is clear. We’re done here."

He turned toward the shattered iron doors of the Crimson Spire, entirely eager to leave the frozen wasteland behind.

Before he could take a step, the system interface violently exploded in front of his vision.

It wasn’t a standard red warning or a gold milestone announcement.

The text was a brilliant, blinding, unadulterated white.

[System Override: Divine Essence Assimilated.]

[Physiological Rewrite Initiated.]