Raphael sat on her knees, her golden-white robes stained with dust and the faint glow of dying light.
The spirit realm behind her, once a vibrant tapestry of ethereal energy and shimring life, lay completely obliterated.
The air was thick with the acrid scent of burnt magic and the chilling stillness of death.
One could see countless dead spirits, their forms flickering and fading, lying across the once-lush garden, their vibrant colors now muted to dull grey.
The golden roses, previously radiant, were scorched and withered.
Her mother, the Spirit Queen, the benevolent ruler of the realm and the beloved wife of Zeus, lay battered and broken on the ground.
Her ethereal form, usually shimring with power, was now dim, her light fading. Her breath ca in shallow gasps, each one a struggle.
She looked at the crying Raphael with loving, maternal eyes, filled with an unspeakable sorrow, yet also a fierce determination.
"Don’t cry, dear" the Spirit Queen whispered, her voice weak, barely audible over the distant sounds of a huge scale battle happening in the background.
"I have sent the ten elder spirits away already.
They carry the last vestiges of our realm’s essence.
It’s ti you escaped too." As she spoke, she managed to lift a trembling hand, transferring a shimring, intricate crown, woven from pure light and spirit essence, towards Raphael.
The crown pulsed with a soft, warm glow.
"No, Mom, I’ll do sothing! Mom, please don’t go!" Raphael cried, her golden tears, luminous and precious, threatening to drop from her eyes, each one a tiny star falling from her face.
Her voice was filled with desperation and imnse grief.
"It’s okay, my child. We’ll et soon if fate allows" the Spirit Queen said,
her voice growing even weaker, her eyes shimring as if they could lose life and fade into oblivion at any mont.
"Here, bind with this crown. From now on, you will be the Spirit Queen. You must carry on our legacy."
Raphael hesitated, her body trembling, unwilling to accept the finality of the mont.
Seeing her beloved daughter’s reluctance, the Spirit Queen, with a last surge of her fading strength, bit Raphael’s finger, drawing a single drop of her luminous, golden blood.
With a swift, deliberate motion, she poured her blood onto the shimring crown in her hands.
The mont the blood touched it, the crown pulsed violently, then disappeared into Raphael’s chest, becoming a part of her very being, dissolving into her essence.
Raphael gasped, feeling a surge of ancient power, but it was overshadowed by her mother’s fading life.
Boom!
A colossal explosion suddenly ripped through the already devastated garden, closer this ti, shaking the very foundations of the Spirit Realm.
It was a deafening roar of energy, signalling the arrival of soone dangerous.
"Quick! You have to go!" the Spirit Queen commanded,
her voice regaining a montary burst of strength, her eyes fixed on the approaching devastation.
With a final, desperate push, she shoved Raphael towards a shimring portal that had just opened beside them, a swirling vortex of iridescent light.
"Go live your life, my daughter," the Spirit Queen cried out, her voice filled with a mother’s eternal love and sacrifice.
"Do what you want to do and live your life to the fullest. Do not be bound by my fate, or your father’s decrees."
The portal that had been opened by the Spirit Queen was called the Gate of Destiny.
It was an ancient, powerful spell, a last resort of the spirit world, capable of taking the traveller to random locations across the vast, unpredictable expanse of the universe.
It was usually used for escaping in perilous tis by the residents of the spirit world, a desperate asure when all other hope was lost.
And it had served its purpose well, whisking Raphael away from the impending doom.
Ironically the imnse explosion heard just now was not the adversary that the Spirit Queen had expected.
Instead, it marked the dramatic arrival of Zeus, the King of the Heavens, leading his vast army of divine gods, ready to face the invading dragons.
He had arrived too late to prevent the destruction of the spirit realm, but not too late for battle.
Zeus had just landed in front of the Spirit Queen, his form radiating incandescent fury.
His powerful physique was coiled with barely contained rage, his blue eyes, usually crackling with lightning,
were now filled with profound sorrow and an unspeakable, burning wrath as he surveyed the devastation of the Spirit Realm and the battered form of his beloved wife.
"I will kill that bastard!" Zeus roared, his voice shaking the very air, his gaze fixed on the distant, chaotic battle where the dragons, led by Behemothos, were clashing with his vanguard.
"Aah, you scoundrel! At least let go into slumber now"
Raphael’s mother, the Spirit Queen, retorted, her voice weak but surprisingly sharp, like a tired-out wife scolding her perpetually dramatic husband.
She was exhausted, her life force critically low.
"Don’t worry, darling, here, take this" Zeus said, his voice softening, filled with imnse concern.
He quickly produced a small vial containing a shimring, golden liquid, radiating pure life energy.
Without hesitation, he fed it to her. The divine liquid directly began healing her grievous injuries.
Her pale, translucent face regained its color, and her ethereal form solidified.
With a gasp, she sat up with the support of a nearby shattered pillar. Zeus quickly scooped her into his embrace, carrying her in a princess carry, and with a burst of light, flew away from the imdiate battlefield.
He needed to get her to safety, to his divine realm, where she could fully recover.
"Let’s talk at ho, shall we?" Zeus said, his voice now gentle, as he planted a tender kiss on her forehead.
"I hope your anger has subsided by now, and you have forgiven for the last ti"
"TSK..." The Spirit Queen did not even reply, but just looked away,
her expression still one of annoyance, even while Zeus was carrying her through the cosmos. Her pride did not give in, but at least her life was returning.
"Aah, where is our daughter, darling?" Zeus suddenly asked, a new wave of concern washing over him as he realised Raphael was not among the spirits who were being evacuated.
"I have already sent her through the Gate of Destiny" the Spirit Queen replied, her voice now stronger, a hint of defiance in her tone.
"You did what???" Zeus exclaid,
his voice booming with shock, montarily forgetting his celestial duties. The Gate of Destiny was a last resort, a random journey into the unknown universe.
"Hehe, good for you, scoundrel," the Spirit Queen chuckled,
a rare, genuine laugh escaping her lips.
"You always kept her bound, always under your watchful eye. Now, let her enjoy her freedom. Let her truly live her life."
"I just want to keep you two safe, darling!" Zeus protested, his voice filled with genuine affection and concern,
As he travelled across the cosmos with the Spirit Queen cradled in his arms, heading towards the safety of his divine realm.
The war against Behemothos and the dragons would rage, but his family was his ultimate priority.
---------------------------------
Back to the present...
Klaus looked at the approaching Yeti army, a vast, white-furred tide of three thousand monsters.
He made an imdiate, calculated decision,
he would use only his Ice Affinity and ice-related skills to counter this massive force.
It could be said that he was deliberately handicapping himself.
By not using his other powerful skills like Stellar Sword Descent, apex velocity or phantom veil he wanted to see to what extent he could fight using solely the ice elent.
He had self-imposed this challenge for three reasons:
First, he wanted to save his mana so that the strain would only go on his stamina which would help him train himself for a prolonged fight,
Second, he wanted to get hold of multiple styles of battle to make himself adaptive to different conditions and circumstances and also to get hold of his ice affinity and make the best use of it.
Third, he wanted to be the best and the strongest there is,
"And to be extraordinary you have to work more than the ordinary" Klaus said as he giggled to himself for saying such a cheeky dialogue.
But for that, he needed so ti to prepare and to strategise his ice-only combat.
So, he activated his Phantom Veil and Apex Velocity simultaneously, which rendered him utterly undetectable and impossibly fast.
He disappeared from the mountain range where he had last been seen, a re blur, and reappeared in another one, miles away.
"Good. I have a few hours till I play with those toys " Klaus muttered,
his voice flat but satisfied, as he sat down inside a natural ice cave,
Sowhere a few miles away from his previous location.
The cave was cold, but his increased Ice Resistance made it feel comfortable.
A significant advantage of the ice elent was that it rapidly mitigated the target’s scent.
The extre cold and the nature of ice mana itself quickly dampened olfactory signatures, making tracking a target by sll incredibly difficult,
even for creatures with keen senses.
Klaus leveraged this fact to buy himself a few precious hours, mainly to plan precisely how he would fight using only the ice elent.
He needed to devise new tactics, new ice skills, and understand the nuances of his increased affinity.
"System, how do I create a skill related to ice?" Klaus asked, his voice calm and focused.
He knew his Ice Affinity was now at 1.8%, which ant he could synthesise new ice-related skills up to S-rank.
This was the perfect opportunity to create a skill tailored to his specific needs for this self-imposed challenge.
He required sothing that would complent his existing ice skills and allow him to fight efficiently without relying on his other, non-ice abilities.
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