——That was an endless, vast expanse of white snowfield.
Forgetting everything, walking without end, aim, or purpose, completely blurring one’s sense of ti—enough to freeze all hope and despair, reducing consciousness to nothing, the "Spell of Disabling."
But this could only halt Vladimir for less than two seconds.
Suddenly, three or four fresh wounds burst open on his body... and he violently awoke from the illusion.
Yet, in the slightly more than a second that passed,
Victor had already completed the incantation in "Frost Speech":
"Winter is the season of Suffering—"
A ferocious blizzard exploded from his center, spreading out in all directions.
This storm caused no damage to the walls or Selicia.
However, it caused ice flowers to bloom from the wounds on Vladimir’s body. His body crystallized and shattered in the blink of an eye.
——If described in the language of a ga,
This would be a group annihilation spell dealing percentage-based real damage based on "already lost life."
For Vladimir, who possessed the elent of "Suffering" and could spread his wounds across the world, this was the most effective spell.
However, in the very next mont,
The intense winter storm surrounding him ca to an abrupt stop.
The ice flowers that had appeared on Vladimir’s body disappeared as if they were re illusions.
An invisible domain expanded around Vladimir as its center.
The next mont, a dark grey breath covered Victor’s entire body.
Bright red cracks erged on the surface of his body—
But they only managed to scrape off a portion of the curse, not even breaching his defenses.
Victor’s body vanished suddenly, reappearing not far behind.
He vigilantly attempted to summon the Winter winds, the cold winds shattered, tried to raise an ice shield, the ice shield broke.
Victor reached out to touch the wall, and the tallic wall suddenly spread out into a dense lattice that protected him.
And this lattice remained unscathed.
"An amulet capable of banning the elent of [Frost]... you really ca prepared."
For the first ti, Victor furrowed his brow, "It’s impossible for this world to have such a thing."
"So it’s not an amulet. Nor is it a creation of this world."
But Vladimir simply stood still, not moving an inch.
He did not pursue, speaking evenly, "No harm in telling you, it cos from the depths of the Dream Realm, an Otherworld without concepts such as ’freezing’ or ’frost.’ I destroyed that world and obtained its [Essence of Dreams], refining this very concept."
"...Destroy the Dream Realm? Since when did you have such capability?"
"Of course, I don’t have it, but The Worm does. It’s just about going deep into the Dream Realm, setting a coordinate... Feeding a world to The Worm yields the remnants of the world, the Essence of Dreams, cursed energy, Philosopher’s Stone... or whatever else, anything is possible. It’s rely a profitable and fair deal, not a submission of loyalty."
Vladimir watched Victor. "Will you join us, old friend? Don’t all of you elves believe in this ’Non-Snake’? Not those ignorant fools of the Worm Cult, who seek the door but do not enter... If you wish, I can let you witness the true Worm."
Upon hearing this, Victor’s expression turned ugly.
He was silent for a long while before frowning and asking, "You released The Worm? How did you do it?"
"It’s not that I ’released’ The Worm... It was never sealed. The Worm is a beast of change; it is a concept. It can’t be imprisoned, nor can it be destroyed.
"As long as this world continues to change, it is destined to move towards chaos and towards destruction. Everything is like this, an unstoppable event, the ultimate fate."
The old man covered in scars glanced at Selicia. "I originally intended to stop her from speaking out about this matter, but in the end, I was the one who brought it up.
"Looking back, I shouldn’t have been so sentintal. If I had cleanly killed her before leaving, resolving the matter before you showed up..."
"—Wait a mont."
Victor interrupted him.
He counter-questioned, "Vladimir—don’t you know The Worm feeds on worlds?"
"What does that have to do with ?"
Vladimir answered indifferently, "That’s soone else’s world, not mine."
He stared straight at his forr old friend and colleague... and the teacher who had been there when he joined the Hand of Winter, replying word by word, "War is but murder, yet the Red Knight can still beco a True God; trade is nothing more than a euphemism for plundering resources from others, yet the Silver Baron is adored.
"Your elves once invaded Aesirland, no matter how nicely it’s dressed up, no matter what suffering you faced, for the Aesirland people, it was a war of colonial invasion. And you—you were there at the ti.
"You’ve long been unclean, what else is there to say?"
Vladimir questioned in return.
"The demons of old launched the Heaven Seizing Expedition, so why can’t I? They destroyed the world with force to take its core... I lack such strength, so I fed the world to The Worm. What I ended up with is more than what those demons had, isn’t that the sensible thing to do?
"You also know, ’The Non-Snake is born from the carcass of the Charioteer, swallowing the world to give rise to change.’ The Charioteer moves along the paths of Ascendancy and Change, and The Worm is the beast of change. It can also be considered a part of the Charioteer. You serve the Charioteer’s path of ’Ascendancy’, and I serve the Non-Snake’s path of ’Change,’ shouldn’t we be considered as being on the sa side?"
Talking about his own actions, there was no sha on Vladimir’s face.
Victor was silent for a long ti.
He looked up and said word by word, "Indeed, we once served the Non-Snake, and we indeed invaded the continent of Aesirland. The decline of the elves is our fate. It is precisely because I have committed countless sins that I am here to redeem myself.
"The Worm as Ouroboros, the more worlds it devours, the more greedy it becos. Since The Worm was born in our world, born of our greed... it is our responsibility to control and suppress The Worm..."
"—Don’t get it wrong, Victor."
Vladimir interrupted him.
"No matter how greedy The Worm is, it consus others’ worlds. If you don’t want invaders from another world, just make sure they’re devoured cleanly. How is this different from your invasion of Aesirland to avoid being swallowed by the living desert?"
"Fighting for survival is fundantally different from fighting for greed. Besides... I have never denied that war was wrong."
"But I don’t think it was wrong. What makes man noble is his desires. That’s why I could reach the Gold rank... Is there a fault in following my desires?"
Vladimir answered, "The Worm cannot be sealed. It will eventually break free; just as the world will inevitably decay as long as there is change. So why not accelerate this process to exchange for imdiate benefit?"
"—So, since people will eventually die, why don’t you go ahead and die now?"
Annan’s equally calm voice ca from the entrance of the passageway.
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