Chapter 165: Absolute Zero (2)

Encouraging myself with my own words, I immediately began pouring every last bit of mana I possessed into my staff.

I allowed it to devour everything without restraint.

Then I fed it even more, drawing in the mana permeating the air around us.

My body began glowing with a brilliant azure aura.

And gradually...

That aura continued to swell.

The crystal at the tip of my staff blazed like a frozen star as I began constructing the image of ice within my mind.

A vast amount of it.

An ice spell powerful enough to strike all those knights and their commander at once...

And penetrate through their armor.

"Hurry! They’re almost here!"

My companions kept shouting beside me as the knights drew closer.

They were honestly getting on my nerves, but I couldn’t blame them.

Only a few meters separated us now.

And with every passing second...

That distance grew smaller.

Five meters.

Four.

Three.

Two...

One.

The instant they reached us, I burned through everything I had and unleashed what was probably the most powerful spell I had ever cast in my life.

"ABSOLUTE ZERO!"

The moment I screamed the name of my spell, the temperature plummeted.

Ice and frost erupted from the tip of my staff before surging forward at a terrifying speed.

The knights directly in front of me froze instantly.

One of their swords stopped mere inches from my face, its pitch-black surface turning a brilliant shade of icy blue.

The wave of frost swept across the entire battlefield, burying everything beneath thick layers of ice.

The raging knights became frozen statues, incapable of taking another step.

All they could do was stare at us in silence.

There had been seventy knights standing against us.

Now...

There were seventy frozen statues before me, unable to move a single muscle.

There was only one exception.

That damned Knight Commander.

From the beginning, he had been my primary target.

And I had successfully hit him.

More importantly...

My spell worked.

His massive armor froze beneath a heavy layer of frost. He could still move, but his movements had become drastically slower.

His sword erupted with even more black flame, freeing itself from the ice.

But he couldn’t cover his own body in those flames.

They would hurt him far too much.

This was our chance.

"ETHAN, NOW!! HIT HIM WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!"

This time, I actually screamed the words aloud, gathering every shred of strength I had left just to make my voice reach him.

I was so exhausted that I had completely forgotten about telepathy.

"Everyone, shatter them! Quickly!"

I urged the other Hunters to attack and exploit the opening, snapping them out of their astonishment.

They immediately responded.

The Hunters descended upon the frozen knights and attacked with everything they had.

Ethan finally moved as well after standing there stunned for a brief moment.

And honestly...

I couldn’t blame him.

Even I hadn’t expected myself to succeed.

Despite standing directly within the range of Absolute Zero, I had somehow managed to spare him from the spell.

The ground beneath Ethan’s feet was the only place on the entire battlefield that hadn’t frozen.

Taking a deep breath, I began restoring my mana while fighting against the crushing exhaustion brought on by Absolute Zero.

I still had more to give.

But for now...

I had done my part.

Everything that came next depended entirely on my fellow Hunters.

...

...

...

— Ethan Heart’s POV —

I was in serious trouble.

My ability to hold out against Aldebaran hadn’t lasted nearly as long as I’d hoped.

The Knight Commander had destroyed the weapons I kept throwing at him, leaving me with barely ten additional swords inside the Legendary Weapons Master’s arsenal.

And without enough weapons to continuously strike him, I could no longer build up enough consecutive hits to unleash Overcharge at maximum power.

Since the battle began, I had struck him with it eight or nine times. That had cost me nearly ninety weapons, every single one of which I had stockpiled since becoming trapped inside Old Ashvarn.

In return, the Knight Commander simply restored his armor by sacrificing his knights.

Overcharge was the only ability that had allowed me to hold my ground against Aldebaran.

Without it...

He would kill me in less than a minute.

Fortunately, I had bought enough time for our talented mage.

Luna had finally finished preparing her spell, and I could only hope it was ice magic, just as I had told her.

There was one small problem.

I was standing directly within the range of her attack, which meant I would be caught in it as well. But I didn’t care. I placed my faith in my demonic body, confident it could survive her spell.

But I had to admit...

I had severely underestimated Luna.

"Absolute Zero..."

That was the name of the spell she unleashed.

It was an incredibly powerful Saint-rank spell, and one of the most dangerous spells within that category.

Staring at the battlefield around me, now transformed into a vast frozen wasteland, I felt a chill crawl down my spine.

Because I realized...

I would have died if that spell had actually hit me.

Absolute Zero didn’t merely freeze whatever it struck on the surface.

The cold penetrated deep into the body, freezing the organs, the blood, even the bones.

That explained Aldebaran’s condition after taking the spell head-on.

The frost had penetrated his armor and frozen him from within. It hadn’t turned him into a statue like the others, but it had slowed him considerably.

"Release Arsenal."

I released the final ten swords remaining in my arsenal alongside the Executioner’s Sword.

Then I decided to seize the opportunity.

"Kill every last knight, now!"

I shouted the command aloud and directly into everyone’s minds at the same time.

This was our chance to strip that bastard of his greatest trump card.

Once every one of his knights was dead, he would no longer be able to restore his armor.

Raiden and the other close-range fighters quickly tore through the battalion of knights in front of them.

As for the second group that had remained behind Aldebaran, Chai and Schierke took care of them, exploiting the fact that they were completely frozen in place.