"Move!"
"One minute!"
Yuan Wu's voice cut through the battlefield like a blade.
The restraint wouldn't last.
It couldn't.
Not against something like that.
The boss's body wasn't just strong—it was wrong. Its regeneration pulsed beneath the surface, already trying to overwrite the damage, trying to reject the foreign intrusion of the kagune threads.
Time wasn't slipping away.
It was bleeding out.
The Iceborne Queen moved.
The hesitation in her eyes vanished completely, replaced by something cold. Absolute. Focused.
Everything else—shock, doubt, disbelief—was gone.
All that remained was killing intent.
She raised her sword.
Cold erupted.
Not gradually.
Not naturally.
But violently—as if the temperature itself had been forced downward.
Frost spread across the blade in thick, layered patterns, condensing again and again until the weapon itself began to distort under the pressure.
It grew.
Expanded.
Length doubling. Then tripling.
Until what she held was no longer a sword—
—but a monument of ice.
A weapon carved from absolute zero itself.
The air screamed.
Han Yue's spirit power surged violently through the link, pouring into her without restraint.
Everything.
Every last drop.
No reservation.
No retreat.
This was the end.
The Queen leaned back slightly, stabilizing her stance, both hands gripping the massive blade.
Then—
She swung.
"Ice Silence—!"
Her voice cracked like a commandment.
"ABSOLUTE ZERO JUDGMENT!!!"
The world froze.
A single line of pale blue light cut through the battlefield—
straight toward the boss's heart.
At the same moment—
Yuan Wu moved.
Fang Yuqing's body lay collapsed in the distance, her hands still trembling faintly from the forced injection of spirit energy.
Every pill she swallowed.
Every drop she had left.
It was all burning inside him now.
Barely enough.
But enough.
His wings trembled.
Then—
Exploded outward.
Six pairs.
Each one lined with blade-like structures that vibrated at a frequency too high for the eye to track.
They didn't flap.
They released.
"Feather Barrage."
The wings discharged.
Thousands—
No—
Tens of thousands of compressed kagune fragments burst outward, each one a hardened shard of condensed RC structure.
They didn't scatter randomly.
They locked on.
The boss couldn't move.
The threads embedded in her joints tightened with every micro-movement, digging deeper, anchoring her limbs into place.
No evasion.
No defense.
Only impact.
The first strike landed.
A soundless puncture.
Then—
A delayed eruption.
The Absolute Zero blade pierced through her chest.
Clean.
Precise.
Brutal.
The black scales shattered under the pressure of temperature collapse, cracking outward like glass under stress.
At the same time—
The Feather Barrage arrived.
From every direction.
Each shard tearing into her body, cutting, drilling, shredding.
Her HP—
Dropped.
Visibly.
Rapidly.
Chunks of it vanished.
"ROAAAAAA—!!!"
The scream that came out of her was no longer controlled.
It wasn't calculated.
It wasn't intelligent.
It was instinct.
Pain.
Raw.
Primitive.
Her body spasmed violently.
The restraint trembled.
Yuan Wu's wings flickered.
His arm—
Shook.
Blood dripped faster now.
Not from the original wound.
From everywhere.
His muscles were tearing under the strain of maintaining the binding structure.
His kagune wasn't just restraining her.
It was fighting her.
Every second—
Was a collision of will.
"Don't… move…"
His voice dropped lower.
His eye burned brighter.
The threads tightened again—
forcing her limbs back into position.
But—
Something snapped.
Fang Yuqing's connection collapsed.
Her spirit energy cut off abruptly.
Her body went limp.
The restraint weakened.
Not broken—
But no longer absolute.
Cracks appeared.
Tiny.
But fatal.
"Thirty seconds," Yuan Wu said.
His voice was hoarse now.
Flat.
Controlled.
He didn't look back.
Didn't check on her.
He already knew.
He had taken too much.
The remaining support Spirits surged forward.
No hesitation.
No retreat.
Their abilities flared one after another, stacking on top of each other, reinforcing the collapsing control.
Not to replace it.
Just to delay the failure.
The Iceborne Queen didn't speak.
Didn't respond.
She simply pushed forward.
Her sword—
Still inside the boss.
Froze deeper.
Colder.
Harder.
"Die."
The word wasn't shouted.
It was pressed out.
Forced through clenched teeth.
Her entire body shook as she poured everything into that single strike.
The battlefield erupted.
Explosions of frost and impact slammed the boss downward.
Her body was driven into the desert.
The ground collapsed.
Caved inward.
A crater formed.
"Ten seconds."
Yuan Wu's wings flickered again.
More violently this time.
Some of the feather structures began to fracture, disintegrating at the edges.
His control—
Was slipping.
The Queen descended.
Like a falling star.
Her blade raised above her head.
No hesitation.
No defense.
Only execution.
CRASH—!!!
The sword came down.
Straight through the skull.
Cracks spread instantly.
Across her armor.
Her bones.
Her entire structure.
Like a shattered vessel barely holding its shape.
"One second."
Yuan Wu exhaled.
The restraint—
Broke.
The boss moved.
Just slightly.
Her eyes rolled.
Then—
Focused.
Everyone froze.
But she didn't attack.
Didn't rise.
Didn't resist.
She spoke.
"…They…"
Her voice trembled.
Distorted.
"…are coming…"
A pause.
Her eyes locked onto them.
"…You humans…"
"…will all die."
Then—
She shattered.
Not exploded.
Not torn apart.
But collapsed.
Her body disintegrated into fragments of light, scattering into the air like dying stars.
Silence.
Then—
Everything ended.
Outside the dungeon—
The invading dragons froze mid-motion.
Then—
Crumpled.
Collapsed.
Disintegrated.
One by one.
Until nothing remained.
[Abyss Dungeon Cleared]
[Spirit: Yuan Wu — Level 28 → Level 48]
Yuan Wu landed slowly.
His wings had already vanished.
His body—
Barely holding together.
He shoved his hands into his pockets.
Smiled faintly.
"Not bad," he said. "Valkyrie."
The Iceborne Queen dropped to one knee.
Her sword embedded in the ground.
Her breathing ragged.
Unstable.
Her transformation had already faded.
The frost was gone.
Leaving only exhaustion.
She glanced at him.
"…Don't get used to it."
A pause.
"…But yeah."
"You did your part."
Yuan Wu stretched lazily, ignoring the blood still dripping from his sleeve.
"Work's done."
Then he glanced toward Fang Yuqing.
"…Idiot."
But his voice—
Was quieter.
Much quieter.
And for a brief moment—
His fingers twitched.
As if trying to grasp something invisible.
Something—
That hadn't fully left yet.