The Sinful Young Master

Chapter 374: Battle against the Frost Maiden - 3

Tamnarasi realized with cold clarity that she was going to lose again. Even with her ultimate technique, even with her bloodline power activated, she couldn’t overcome him. The realization was devastating—not physically, but to her entire sense of self.

Desperation made her reckless. She gathered every ounce of power she had left, channeling it into one final attack.

"Absolute Zero Phoenix - Extinction Descent!"

Her entire form blazed with freezing light. All six wings merged into a single massive construct behind her, and she launched herself upward into the sky. At the apex of her climb, perhaps three hundred feet up, she inverted and came screaming back down like a meteor made of ice and desperation.

Everything in her path was flash-freezing—the air, particles of dust, and even light itself seemed to slow and crystallize. She was bringing down the full force of her bloodline power, all her training, and all her power, concentrated into a single descending strike.

It was glorious and terrible, a technique designed to kill gods.

Jolthar watched her ascent, her reversal, and her descent. He had perhaps three seconds to respond.

His grip on Knashii shifted. He took a stance that looked almost relaxed, the sword held in one hand, pointed downward and to the side. His void energy began gathering, not around the blade but within it, compressed to a density that made the weapon appear to gain mass.

"Void Consumption - Eventide Severance."

This was not a technique meant to wound.

This was erasure.

Final and absolute.

As Tamnarasi descended, Jolthar moved. His blade came up in a rising diagonal slash that met her descending strike at the perfect angle to redirect rather than oppose. But where the blades connected, void energy exploded outward in a cone-shaped wave that consumed everything in its path.

The two attacks collided, and the world went silent.

No sound.

No light.

No sensation of any kind for a moment that stretched impossibly long.

Then reality snapped back with a thunderous crack.

The explosion of force carved a trench a quarter-mile long into the earth, perfectly straight, with walls smooth as glass where matter had been perfectly excised from existence. The shockwave rolled outward, flattening everything for hundreds of feet.

When the dust settled, Jolthar stood at one end of the trench, Knashii still in hand, breathing hard but standing firm.

Tamnarasi was at the other end, on her knees, her ice phoenix form cracking and fragmenting. Her broad sword had shattered, and she was bleeding from dozens of wounds where the void energy had penetrated her defense.

Jolthar started walking toward her, his expression grim.

This needed to end now, permanently, before she tried again. His blade was raised, void energy gathering for a killing strike.

He was perhaps ten feet away when Tamnarasi looked up at him with eyes that showed acceptance of her death.

Then a barrier of pure magical force slammed down between them.

"STOP!"

Wymar appeared in a burst of displaced air, teleporting directly into the space between the two combatants. His hands were raised, maintaining the barrier, his face showing the strain of containing the residual energies from their battle.

"Both of you—STOP!" he shouted again.

"Jolthar, if you kill her, you declare war on the entire imperial family. Tamnarasi, if you attack again, you’ll die, and I cannot explain to the Emperor why I let his daughter perish."

Behind Wymar, others were arriving, the Dreadmarchen knights, moving at full speed to reach their fallen commander.

Milan, Cleora, and Raayani were coming from another direction, their carriage having raced across the plains.

Jolthar held his position for a long moment, his raised blade not lowering. The void energy around Knashii pulsed with barely contained lethality.

"Jolthar," Wymar said more quietly, making eye contact with his old friend.

"Please. This has gone far enough. You’ve proven your point. You’ve shown your strength. But if you cross this line, there’s no going back.

The empire will hunt you forever."

"She attacked first," Jolthar said, his voice cold.

"Twice now."

"I know," Wymar acknowledged.

"And I will testify to that. But killing an imperial princess is a different level of crime. One that even I cannot help you escape."

The Dreadmarchen knights had reached Tamnarasi, forming a protective circle around her collapsed form. They looked at Jolthar with a mixture of fear and hatred. Their commander had been defeated.

That was unprecedented.

Slowly, deliberately, Jolthar lowered his blade.

The void energy dissipated, though the sword remained drawn.

"She needs to understand," he said clearly, his voice carrying to everyone present, "that I won’t be threatened, arrested, or executed for doing what was right. I saved people in Tekkora. If the empire has a problem with that, then the empire needs to examine its priorities."

Tamnarasi coughed, blood flecking her lips, but managed to speak.

"You... you’re stronger than me. I acknowledge that."

Each word seemed to cost her tremendous effort.

"But this isn’t over. I... won’t forget this."

"Neither will I," Jolthar replied.

Wymar kept the barrier up until he was certain both combatants had truly stood down. Then he let it fall, though he remained positioned between them.

Milan arrived with the women, taking in the devastation with wide eyes.

The battlefield looked like a natural disaster had occurred: trenches, craters, areas of unnatural smoothness where void energy had erased matter, and patches of permafrost that would probably last for years.

"By the gods!" Milan breathed.

"You two nearly destroyed everything for miles."

Cleora rushed to Jolthar’s side, her hands checking him for injuries.

"Are you hurt?"

"I’m fine," he assured her, though his body ached from the tremendous exertion.

"She was stronger than I expected."

Raayani moved to stand beside them, her eyes on Tamnarasi.

"That transformation... I’ve heard legends of the Ice Phoenix bloodline, but I never thought I’d see it activated."

She knew about the princess possessing the ice talent, as she was interested in taking her into Blue Rose, but it wasn’t possible.

The Dreadmarchen were tending to their commander, using healing salves and magic to stabilize her injuries. She was alive and conscious but clearly in no condition to continue fighting.

"What happens now?" Jolthar asked Wymar.

The mage looked exhausted, as if maintaining that barrier had drained years from his life.

"Now? Now I try to explain to Great General Remin why I intervened in a fight between a baron and an imperial princess. And you—" he pointed at Jolthar "—you need to leave Cahns’ar. Today. Right now. Before someone else decides to test themselves against you."