Return of the Frozen Player

“Hm.” Christin Lewis was casually standing next to Specter.

He heard a loud explosion and turned to look toward it.

“A blue flare... did it come from an ally?”

“Blue means success.”

“Oh, so they managed to lure Isaac Dvor away from here?”

“No.” Specter was well aware of Gilberto’s personality and knew that he would only use a blue flare if he had completed everything. “It means Isaac Dvor is dead.”

“What? Who killed him?” Christin Lewis turned to look at Specter in surprise.

Isaac Dvor was a Heaven and the right arm of the Heavenly Demon. He seemed like he had an outgoing personality because he was always all smiles, but he was an infamous fiend who had killed an innumerable number of Players.

“He died at the hands of the world’s best wingman,” said Specter.

Rumble!

The castle made out of thorny bushes, rumbled.

“Here we go again. There’s a fight going on down there, but it seems that it’s impossible for us to make our way there,” said Christin Lewis. He was right. They hadn’t been able to find a way down.

And it was all because…

“The owner doesn’t want us to go down.”

The thorny bushes were holding them back.

In other words, Valencia was dealing with all of them by herself.

Specter gestured with his chin. “Look.”

“Huh? If you’re talking about the flare, it’s already—” Christin Lewis’s eyes narrowed. “Ah. I see.”

The flare was now below them, which meant…

“She’s raising our altitude.”

“It seems that the saying about how one’s senses would be distorted while they’re around Valencia is true.” Valencia had been pushing the two higher and higher to prevent them from getting close to her.

“Sigh. She’s more annoying than I thought,” Christin Lewis said.

He crushed an encroaching thorny bush with his divine power before asking, “It will be difficult for us to go down because these bushes regenerate too fast. Can’t you just freeze and cut them all like what you did to enter this castle?”

“These bushes are nothing in front of my power to disregard.” However, going down the castle was a completely different story. Valencia’s thorny bushes regenerated at the same speed at which it was cut down.

“Wait, how did you come in here, then?” asked Christin Lewis.

“That was a different story...” Specter froze the bushes and cut them down at once to enter the castle. “However, I only managed to do that because Valencia and I reached a compromise.”

Valencia didn’t want Specter to attack her from the outside, while Specter wanted to go inside the castle. In the end, Valencia compromised and allowed Specter to enter her castle.

‘But…’

Things were different now…

Valencia was desperately keeping Specter at bay.

‘Mio’s holding out better than I expected.’

Specter figured that Valencia was probably thinking that she would lose if Specter managed to group up with Mio. ‘Otherwise, there’s no reason for her to be so desperate to stop me from joining Mio. Isaac’s death probably made her more desperate.’

“Hm.” However, it also meant that Mio wasn’t exactly in a great situation.

‘She's stalling for time because she’s confident of beating Mio as long as Mio does not receive any reinforcement.’

If Mio were overwhelming her, Valencia wouldn’t have the luxury to keep Specter at bay.

Specter opened his Inventory and asked, “The Sun God is omniscient, right?”

“Of course, wait, are you interested in the Sun God?”

“Not exactly, but…”

‘I’m interested in those who can handle the Sun God’s divine power.’

Christin Lewis blinked blankly at Specter. He had no idea what Specter had in mind.

***

“Huff, puff...” Mio tried to catch her breath. ‘I can’t approach her...’

Valencia’s attacks were innumerable, incessant, and unpredictable.

Her combat style was reminiscent of Specter, which didn’t allow his opponent even a moment to breathe.

“Cough!” Mr. Shoot’s condition was getting worse and worse as time went on. He was covered in cold sweat because of his wounds.

“Ibuki! Are you okay?”

“I-I’m okay…” Mr. Shoot didn’t sound okay at all.

Mr. Shoot very much wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t allow himself to collapse.

‘I can’t be a burden…’

However, Mr. Shoot’s lethargic body was betraying his burning determination.

Eventually, he collapsed to his knees.

“Ibuki!” Mio screamed.

Valencia saw that and took advantage of the opening. “You let your guard down.”

Spears made out of thorny bushes flew toward Mio.

“Heup!”

Mio raised both her swords and cut the thorns down.

Slice, slice, slice!

“Huff, puff!”

Slice, slice, slice!

Unfortunately, there were simply too many thorns for Mio to handle.

The thorny bushes carved bloody lines on Mio’s pristine figure.

“You still want to keep going?”

Valencia sighed lightly. She wanted to end this pointless fight as soon as possible.

‘The weather is on my side, too.’

The weather was gloomy, and rain had been incessantly falling, bolstering her thorny bushes’ regeneration rate to its limit.

‘She’s more durable than I thought. I can’t waste any more time on her. I have to end this soon.’

Isaac’s presence had disappeared, so she had to finish this fight to find out whether he was still alive or not.

“I’m busy, so hurry up and die.” Valencia flicked her sleeve, and a tsunami of thorny bushes loomed over Mio.

“Huff… puff…” Mio gestured and retrieved her flying swords. She gripped them tightly in her hands, but her swords trembled ever so slightly due to the influence of fatigue.

‘This skill consumes too much magic, stamina, and mental strength. It eats more than a pig.’

Mio had been using Sword Kinesis to move her swords without touching them, and it allowed Mio access to an endless variation of attacks from just about any angle.

It was a ridiculously powerful technique, but its magic, stamina, and mental strength consumption were enormous.

‘Just once and for a moment… my sword will pierce her heart as long as her bushes are stopped just once and for a moment. Unfortunately, I do not think that a miracle will happen here…’

Mio had been swinging her sword all her life with the mindset that if she sweated one more drop of sweat during her training, she and her friends would shed one less drop of blood on the battlefield.

‘I trust myself.’

Mio decided to believe in the time and effort she had spent while walking on her path.

She gripped her two swords tightly, and a purple flame engulfed her swords.

Mio turned toward the tsunami of thorns and shouted, “Come!”

“Hey, you don’t have to rush me,” Valencia said coldly. “I’m still going to kill you, anyway.”

Valencia flicked her sleeve, creating hundreds of monsters made out of bushes.

‘You have nowhere to hide.’

Valencia gave Mio two options.

The latter could only cut all her thorny bushes down or die.

‘Even if she cuts them all down, she will still lose. I can just make more thorns.’

Valencia could theoretically create an endless amount of thorns during a downpour.

“...!” Valencia abruptly turned her head.

Shwik!

She heard a faint noise coming from the other side of her walls.

Something was trying to enter the battlefield…

‘Specter? No, it can’t be…’

Valencia could clearly tell that the intruder wasn’t Specter.

‘Christin Lewis and Specter are still above me. Who is it, then?’

Valencia frowned.

Boom!

However, the intruder finally broke through her thorny bushes and entered the battlefield.

‘A sword?’

Valencia saw a flying sword similar to Tenmei Mio’s flying swords earlier.

‘Wait, there are four of them…’ Valencia’s eyes quivered. ‘It’s Specter...’

Valencia could clearly recognize the four swords, and they were none other than the parts of Specter’s Freedom Blade.

Valencia flicked her sleeve to restrain the swords.

‘He probably sent these swords in a hurry to support Tenmei Mio because he’s still trapped.’ Valencia was relieved. ‘Thank goodness. I don’t think he will be able to do anything here when he can’t see us from up there.’’

The distance between her and Specter was more than a kilometer, and she was still raising the altitude of the castle, so the distance between them would only increase as time went on.

‘This is an opportunity.’

Valencia smiled, thinking that Specter had made a big mistake. Specter’s Freedom Blade was tricky to handle because Specter was manipulating them through Sword Kinesis, just like Mio.

“I’ll throw them into the sea.” Valencia’s thorny bushes engulfed Specter’s flying swords.

Slice!

However, the flying swords sliced them all.

“...!” Valencia’s expression turned ugly. ‘What was that? A coincidence? It must be a coincidence because he can’t see what’s going on down here.’

Specter was strong, but there was no way he could see what was going on here unless he were a god.

‘But…’

Slice! Slice! Slice!

The flying swords moved nonstop and incessantly sliced the surrounding thorny bushes and monsters.

‘How? How can he see what’s going on here?’

Valencia was baffled.

***

“What do you think? This is the power of the omnipotent Sun God. Isn’t it amazing?”

“Shut up,” Specter said, annoyed.

However, he had to admit that the Sun God’s divine power was indeed useful.

“The Sun God’s eyes are sunlight itself. Anyway, what about it? Do you want to become a follower?” asked Christin Lewis.

“No, and can you shut up, please? You’re making it hard for me to focus.”

“...” A golden hologram was reflected in Specter’s eyes, and it showed him a three-dimensional space a few kilometers away from them.

Specter was currently using Christin Lewis’ God’s Eye to intervene in the battle between Mio and Valencia.

“...”

His flying swords protected Mio and Mr. Shoot, and they cut down every single thorny bush that dared to encroach on them. However, Specter was well aware that what he was doing was just a band-aid solution.

He wasn’t hoping that this would be enough to kill Valencia.

‘It has to be you, Mio.’

He couldn’t do anything else aside from helping Mio from afar with his flying swords.

Mio was the only one who could kill Valencia.

‘And she only has one chance.’

Specter closed his eyes and focused.