Read Novel Full Chapter 1468: Goddess of Winter
Chapter 1468: Goddess of Winter
Lumi and Gustalon.
Given their unique nature as elemental lifeforms, would they trigger a reaction from the Divine Kingdom?
The thought took root instantly. Orion didn’t hesitate; he departed the realm at once.
He headed North, to the Endless Tundra.
The Great Snowy Mountain was a place of profound silence. It was a boundless expanse of white, where peaks stood shoulder to shoulder like the frozen guardians of the North—eternal, majestic, and severe.
The moment Orion materialized halfway up the central peak, the heavy gates of the Ice Phoenix Palace groaned open.
Snow began to fall across the world. It didn’t just drift; it danced. The flakes swirled with a palpable joy, a silent cheer echoing through the wind.
It was a reflection of Lumi’s heart.
"You came."
Her voice was cool, but the emotion behind it was vibrant. Lumi remained as aloof as the glaciers she commanded, but she walked straight to Orion, reached out, and gently traced the line of his jaw.
Then, she melted into his embrace.
"I missed you. I had to see you."
Orion laughed, lifting her effortlessly. He spun her around in the snow, a whirlwind of warmth in the freezing air. The wind howled, the snow settled, and two souls found their anchor in one another.
Time lost its meaning.
Orion awoke in the massive bed within the Ice Phoenix Palace, Lumi curled against his side.
"Come back to Stoneheart with me. Stay for a while."
Lumi hesitated, her lashes fluttering against his chest, but she nodded.
The truth was, Lumi despised the heat of the South. She had no love for bustling cities or the noise of civilization. She craved silence. She loved the company of glaciers and the song of the wind. To her, a blizzard was the most beautiful landscape in the world.
Orion knew this. He never forced her. Unless absolutely necessary—unless war demanded it—he left her to her peace.
"Don’t you want to know why I came?"
Orion’s hand wandered, cupping her breast. The sensation was unique—ice-cold to the touch, yet radiating a deep, living warmth from within.
"This is your home," she whispered.
The meaning was clear: You are my home. You come and go as you please. I will always be here for you.
It was a simple, devastating declaration of loyalty.
Moved by a surge of affection, Orion rolled over, pressing her into the mattress.
"Lumi, you’re freezing. Let me warm you up."
"..."
Lumi turned her head, shyly avoiding his gaze, though she did not push him away.
Her clothes didn’t tear or fall away; they simply dissolved like melting snow, leaving her bare before him. Outside, the blizzard raged harder, echoing the rising heat within the palace.
...
"Dirtclaw received a Divine Calling. He has become the God of the Grave."
Orion ran a hand through Lumi’s hair, his voice turning serious. "His future is now irrevocably tied to mine and the Divine Kingdom. The stronger I become, the higher his ceiling rises."
"I want you to try entering the Divine Kingdom. If it works, you could instantly ascend to Archlord using the realm’s power. You would be able to channel my Divine Power directly."
He paused, looking into her eyes. "But there is a cost. It will bind you to me completely. Your fate will be fused with mine. I will respect whatever choice you make."
Orion knew that for elemental spirits, time was usually the only path to power. As long as Lumi survived, she would eventually become strong. She didn’t need this shortcut.
"I’ll go with you."
She didn’t hesitate. She didn’t speak of power or rank. Her answer was an act of pure trust. Where you go, I go.
Orion fell silent. She had agreed, but now he wavered.
Lumi was his lover, not his subordinate. In his heart, she always held the right to leave, to choose her own path. Binding her felt... final.
"If I do this, we can be together forever, can’t we?"
Lumi’s voice was soft, cool as water, but laced with a quiet hope.
Orion’s hesitation vanished. He pulled her close.
"Yes. Together forever."
***
The Divine Kingdom. The Abyssal World.
Orion stood atop a high ridge, holding the hand of Lumi, who was once again clad in white. Below them, the wild, unshaped plains stretched into infinity.
"It’s vast," she murmured. "And... alive."
"This is your Divine Kingdom?"
"The rules here are complete. It is full of vitality."
The difference in perception was stark. Dirtclaw had sensed nothing but the dirt. Lumi, tuned to the primal elements, saw the intricate weave of the world.
"There is snow here."
Lumi extended her hand. A perfectly symmetrical, crystalline snowflake manifested above her palm, hovering and rotating slowly.
"They do not reject me." She turned to look at Orion, eyes wide with curiosity.
"This is my world," Orion grinned, showing white teeth. "Why would it reject you?"
"Don’t fight it. Don’t shield yourself. Just... feel it."
Orion stepped back, letting Lumi attempt to verify his theory.
Lumi nodded and closed her eyes.
Time seemed to suspend. As Orion monitored the fluctuations of the realm, a gentle flake landed on his cheek.
Then another.
It was Lumi.
With her eyes closed, she had dissolved. She was no longer standing on the ridge; she had become the wind and the snow itself.
The flurries swirled around Orion—playful, curious, gentle... and teasing. He could feel her emotions in the touch of the ice. It brushed against his face like a lover’s caress, and then, like a farewell, it drifted outward.
The snow spread. It blew toward the horizon, covering the entire world.
That day, the Abyssal World experienced its first winter.
It wasn’t a heavy storm, just a thin, pristine layer of white dusting the land. But its appearance marked a monumental leap in the world’s evolution.
Orion had assumed that complex rules like the Cycle of Seasons would take eons to develop naturally. Until now, the Divine Kingdom had only known day and night.
Whoosh!
As Orion marveled at the change, a biting North Wind began to howl.
Suddenly, all the drifting snow changed direction. It surged toward the northernmost reaches of the realm.
Simultaneously, Orion felt a shift in the Authority of the world. A specific law was separating itself from the chaos, coalescing in the North.
Orion’s eyes lit up. He teleported instantly to the polar region.
The ground was trembling. The earth groaned as it was shoved upward. The snow fell harder here, burying the land in seconds, piling into drifts feet deep.
He watched mountains rise from the plains. He watched the glaciers form.
Within moments, a mountain range of ice spanning thousands of miles dominated the North.
At the pinnacle of the highest peak, ice crystals wove together, restructuring themselves into a towering structure: a new Ice Phoenix Palace.
Outside the palace gates, the blizzard swirled into a vortex. Lumi’s form coalesced from the whiteout.
She stood silent in the storm, a Goddess of Winter, elegant and solemn.
Her attire had changed. She now wore a long gown woven from new snow, pure and flawless. The hem of the dress was encrusted with fine ice crystals that chimed softly as she moved. Snowflakes orbited her, each one radiating a chilling, gentle power.
She was breathtaking.
But the most striking change was above her brow.
A crown, translucent and carved from the hardest glacial ice, was materializing, solidifying inch by inch.
It was the physical manifestation of Authority. It was the symbol that the Divine Kingdom had not only accepted her but crowned her as one of its rulers.
Orion watched in awe. He wasn’t truly at the Fourth Stage of Demigod ascension yet; he hadn’t unlocked the ability to manually assign these powers. Normally, he would need to be at that level to strip a secondary Authority and grant a Divine Calling.
But here, the Divine Kingdom had chosen for him.
As the ice crown finished forming, Lumi’s aura erupted. Her power climbed vertically, shattering through barriers, rushing past the lower tiers until she stabilized firmly as a High Archlord.