Antarctica, Relic Treasury.
Snow Maiden was directing soldiers to clean up the broken walls. Compared to when the girl in the painting had just finished attacking, it was much better—no longer leaking wind. After all, the Relic Treasury's true main body was underground. As long as the foundation wasn't damaged, they could abandon surface buildings and run directly.
It appeared massive but was actually a high-speed mobile castle that could move overland at 40 km/h for three days and nights after each charging period.
Indeed not fast enough, but in Antarctica's harsh environment, even a few kilometers difference couldn't be found. Movement was the guarantee of concealment, like carrier groups disappearing into the ocean.
"Witch, how long until we can start the next movement?"
"This isn't fixing a car, Commander. To run in the short term, we must abandon surface buildings." Then she changed tone. "Also, headquarters is urging complete liberation of Scarecrow, even threatening dismissal."
"Ignore those guys. I have my rhythm. We must first ensure the base's safety—activating it without full preparation is suicide."
"The Commander is too good!"
"Stop flattering, work quickly. Be prepared to abandon the surface layer and move as soon as possible."
Snow Maiden gazed toward the Pacific direction at the frozen ten-thousand-ton ship and gritted her teeth. Let the mercenaries sleep a bit longer.
Her ominous premonition lingered. Could the girl in the painting's attack be the only round? Absolutely impossible. Having gotten so close, intelligence was definitely transmitted, so they had to do everything possible to evacuate. Though the treasury's Holy Relic elites were confident of eliminating enemies, that didn't mean they had to fight head-on. Her mission was keeping the treasury safe—no news occurring was fulfilling duty.
The recent battle with the girl in the painting stung Snow Maiden's heart. She was indeed guarding dead objects and hadn't done well, being easily infiltrated with successful sabotage.
No matter what, the movement technique was delayed. What would be waiting for us?
While pondering, she looked far into the distance and discovered something like a giant python at the horizon where sea met sky, sweeping past in a glimpse that chilled the spine. When had the cloudy sea become a fearsome deep sea? An illusion?
Wrong!
"Abandon all inspection procedures and surface supplies. Transfer immediately at maximum overload speed. This is an order—"
The technique team led by Witch was slightly stunned but still carried out the Commander's instructions.
But they were a step too late. Once in view, it was too late.
The entire treasury garrison witnessed a mythological scene—a golden World Serpent descended from the cloudy sea in the firmament, covering the sky and dimming sunlight for thousands of miles.
Jin Yulu said quietly, "You should all be clear you're doing something inhumane. If those dangerous relic items are allowed to activate, no one can be a winner. If you stop here, everyone can avoid a life-or-death struggle."
"What if we refuse?"
"Doesn't matter. I just wanted to say hello. The Salvation Church acts openly and honestly—we're not sneaky types."
Snow Maiden said loudly, "Your Majesty Protea, I've heard of your deeds, but if it's just you alone, you're underestimating the Relic Treasury."
As soon as she finished speaking, she completely liberated Heart of Profound Winter. Surging magical power flowed through her entire meridian system, stirring up blizzards within several kilometers responding to this rhythm. At this moment of crisis, the treasury's guardian brought out full power.
Simultaneously, the entire institution prepared rapidly for movement from top to bottom.
Years of cooperation let everyone understand the Commander's meaning at a glance. The opponent was the renowned Magical Girl Protea, the strongest mythology magic holder. Moreover, her combat experience was rich, appearing publicly second only to Hyacinth—an ace vanguard always charging at the front lines. Absolutely not easy to deal with. Even with the Relic Treasury's heavy guard, they had to maintain 120% vigilance. So the strongest Snow Maiden would delay while they quickly moved the treasury.
The witch shouted "Throw everything, dump it all, activate the technique immediately!" Accompanied by her urgings, the black base rumbled on the ice surface, leaving traces as it prepared to leave.
The World Serpent opened its mouth to inhale. Momentarily wind and clouds gathered, heavenly light burst as if swallowing the universe into its belly.
Dragon Breath!
Jin Yulu unleashed all her origin power, transforming into torrents of light that rushed forth, parting seas and collapsing glaciers. The opponent didn't yield either—gray-black ice spikes wove into shields to forcibly resist, along with Knowledge Poison interference in direct confrontation.
A tremendous crash served as this battle's charge horn. Two attacks canceled each other, forming a mushroom cloud ascending to the ninth heaven.
Heat waves slapped their faces and illuminated those unwavering gazes.
Snow Maiden's heart pounded. That strike using one portion of her second relic's power had no effect. This was higher-grade treatment than the girl in the painting, yet could only serve as probing—worthy of the magic type best at frontal combat. But she couldn't think more—she had to buy time for the treasury's full-speed movement.
"Full-area freeze."
She blew out a breath and instantly froze the massive World Serpent. That vast, magnificent form became a motionless sculpture—for ordinary creatures, this state was equivalent to death.
The unprecedented powerful relic output performance surprised even the garrison. So the Commander still reserved strength.
"Hurry to overload speed. Don't celebrate too early—that kind of strong person can't be frozen."
As soon as she finished speaking, cracks appeared on the surface of the World Serpent sculpture stretching several thousand meters. Ice fragments peeled off, revealing shining golden scales, completely undamaged. Minor frostbite was nothing to her—the freezing collapsed at visible speed.
"Everyone hold tight!"
Witch shouted, the technique runes in her hand suddenly brightening. The entire base's surface layer collapsed as the main body embedded in glaciers and even geological layers shot out, directly accelerating to 80 km/h. Actually, the treasury's underground main body continuously drew free magical power from geological layers—as long as it remained rooted here, it could maintain movement. Time was on the military's side.
Simultaneously continuing to reduce weight, increase speed, and supplement magical power bursts. If they could enter Antarctica's interior blizzard circle in time, there were relics to erase traces in cooperation.
Everyone looked back to see the World Serpent growing countless wings, pursuing in a terrifying posture with howling sounds.
"Hey, treasury keepers, be careful not to die later."
Before finishing, World Serpent suddenly dove, smashing through ten-thousand-ton glaciers and drilling in. The following body actually transformed to earth-gray, seemingly changing to some elemental state, while ice layers exposed bare rock.
They looked at each other—how long since they'd seen land in Antarctica? But the next moment Snow Maiden's face paled. "She's going to destroy the foundation."
"—That should be impossible, right?"
Before finishing, rock-formed giant pythons extended ahead, blocking the path—not just one position. Pythons swam throughout the crust, rumbling sounds turning heaven and earth upside down. Everything in view shook, tinnitus causing unbearable headaches.
Finally, amid earth-shattering sounds, the Relic Treasury was pulled from rock and soil layers like pulling up a radish with mud.
"Earth Dragon Turnover!"
What scene was it when giant python bodies thousands of meters long and dozens of meters in diameter coiled and surrounded? At this moment, the Relic Treasury garrison faced scenes indescribable in mythological epic poetry.
Equivalent to a vertical skyscraper building with foundation pulled from rock and soil layers—you think this is children playing with twigs? But it was fact. The endless World Serpent lifted it up, bodies rubbing and rolling, overturning earth and stone as glaciers melted into mud washing everything away.
Splash splash!
The land ice sheet actually melted, making the Relic Treasury float up in World Serpent's embrace.
They were just refugees on a small boat, looking up at that sky-covering divine body with gleaming scales and pressing killing intent. Ancient fear without oppressive aura made people lose every trace of morale.
Snow Maiden couldn't spare time to counterattack but inquired about the situation, only getting responses like "power system failure," "technique root destroyed," "all gas leaked..."
Magical Girl Protea's single strike reached such extent.
The Holy Relics that should have guarded each direction all assembled on the rooftop terrace, clearly seeing a muddy sea and the giant structure coiling between heaven and earth.
As the elite among elites even within the entire military, the Holy Relics felt shock for the first time. This figure could almost impersonate Catastrophic Disaster Beasts—just the power projected by its posture could cause sleepless nights. Intelligence from camera footage was too erroneous—only direct experience revealed the terror of the strongest mythology magic. Open and honest, breaking ten thousand techniques with one force—absolutely impossible to escape from her.
Several people looked at each other and made up their minds. They couldn't be arrogant—even if victory was inglorious, they had to gang up.
Snow Maiden said seriously, "Protea's body is quite sturdy. This battle will be very taxing. Coordinate all conventional firepower. Next, I'll create opportunities for everyone."
Full effort!
She exchanged glances with Trident and nodded. The latter's relic suited for naval warfare meshed perfectly with the current muddy sea situation.
Both simultaneously increased relic output power. Instantly, the melted ice sheet became furious torrents reaching the clouds—water columns flying forth with frozen tips, powerful enough to pierce warships.
Jin Yulu dodged nimbly in the air. At this moment she was as slippery as a loach, impossible to catch.
However, the next moment a hundred-meter-tall bronze statue suddenly appeared before her—fierce face, glaring eyes, roaring continuously at the massive World Serpent. She recognized this Holy Relic as a complete fusion user, best at fighting large targets—one of the enemy's counter cards.
"Invader, go down!"
The bronze statue swung a palm hitting the World Serpent's flank, but the next moment she coiled and entangled, firmly wrapping the giant and throwing it down with tremendous echoes.
"Damn!" At this moment Jin Yulu felt sluggish and difficult to move, discovering the enemy's body surface covered with mucus—another toxin-type relic. Compared to Gallup's mask, it focused more on negative status effects like slowness.
The Relic Treasury's guardians weren't each individually powerful—the importance lay in seamless cooperation.
Next, tsunamis actually rose from the muddy sea—giant waves capable of overturning buildings slapped the World Serpent while freezing arrived on schedule.
Domain of Water and Ice.
First, pervasive water penetrated scale gaps—every flaw, every wound point. Then Snow Maiden's high-intensity liberated relic completely froze it, frost accompanying water vapor penetrating deeply. The massive World Serpent instantly became a sculpture, along with a 10-kilometer radius returning to ice sheet as if the previous melting never existed.
This time her force differed from before—even air froze into blocks without reserve.
Simultaneously, Holy Relics floated into the air watching the enemy closely, with massive weapons and supplies ready for fire coverage against the super-giant target anytime.
"Can the movement technique restart?"
The Witch regretfully shook her head. "Definitely won't work. Even repairs would take who knows how long."
"Can't worry about that much. Mission priority—release Scarecrow. Perhaps it'll play some role later."
Snow Maiden's few words were interrupted by cracking sounds behind her. Unexpectedly, World Serpent easily unfroze again, this time with ice-blue scales gleaming colorfully, her body temperature melting ice and snow seemingly weaving rainbows. No, it could no longer be called freezing because the target could freely switch states—no wonder the heavily anticipated move was useless.
"The same trick doesn't work on me. You might as well all come together."
"Fire coverage, activate the contamination barrier!"
Before finishing, rockets, missiles, and heavy artillery whistled, hitting World Serpent's massive body—including but not limited to armor-piercing, high-explosive, thermobaric rounds—all covering Jin Yulu but unable to shake the mythological posture at all.
At this moment, various resistances like high-temperature resistance, low-temperature resistance, impact resistance, toxin immunity armed her. Better than defense was simply adapting to survive.
Taking hits wasn't Jin Yulu's style. The next moment, garrison troops witnessed a flying dragon in the sky—thin clouds, thunderous force. The world embraced such a favored one, her anger echoing to the four poles, coiling and gathering power like a meteor falling straight down.
The move once prepared for Hibiscus in training battle was brought out to directly strike the Relic Treasury, while 6 Holy Relics' magical barriers rose before her.
"One against many? Fine."
World Serpent's head grew antlers, almost identical to a true dragon, fiercely ramming the opponents. But simultaneously, Knowledge Poison contamination power penetrated her body—even her resistance caused splitting headaches.
A glimpse revealed Snow Maiden's surrounding magical ice turning black, her whole body wreathed in Knowledge Poison responding to the treasury barrier—the world's deadliest contamination arrived.
Crack! The moment 6 barriers shattered, World Serpent could no longer continue and crashed down.
Each of them broke out in cold sweat, heart pounding—unexpectedly someone could fight single-handedly to such an extent.
But relief didn't last a minute before sudden changes. A Magical Girl in academic Regalia suddenly flew from the clouds—it was Beatrice holding the summoning magic encyclopedia, hidden until now observing the battle. She intervened timely as book pages fluttered, emanating light that dispelled Knowledge Poison's continuous contamination.
This scene wasn't unfamiliar—during last year's catastrophe battle, Beatrice had cooperated with Hibiscus before the whole world to neutralize a top-tier relic's contamination. History repeated.
Returned!
In boiling magical power, Jin Yulu released World Serpent form and flexed, saying thanks: "Thanks to you, or this would've been bad."
"Knowledge Poison continues. The situation's not good—you might have to fight with me as dead weight."
"What are you talking about? Pressure creates motivation."
Finishing, she straightened up to 2 meters height, her whole body covered in thin scale armor, a dragon tail pounding the ground, clawed hands, and twin horns on her head. Golden pupils gazed at the Holy Relics, making their hearts sink—how was there still a second phase?
Though the military's magical information wasn't extensive, they knew at least one common fact: mythology magic's strongest form was half-beast shape. Like Protea at this moment.
They thought after completely beast form and bitter battle exhausting her strength, logically there shouldn't be a second phase.
Wrong.
Jin Yulu only now realized how hard she'd trained magic, especially developing mythology magic's long endurance and high stamina characteristics. Mere wheel battles, outnumbered fighting, even sneak attacks only served as stepping stones. Even the Holy Relics themselves felt inglorious victory was shameful behavior she didn't care about—battle should face all situations.
She lifted Beatrice with one hand, placing her on her back shoulder, then wings wrapped around the girl, neither hindering the encyclopedia nor affecting movement.
Magical Girl Protea in battle stance projected over the entire Relic Treasury. Now they actually thought World Serpent form was better—half-human half-mythology completely unleashed power, ice layers cracking, soldiers fainting, heaven and earth responding with blowing blizzards.
"Senior, don't worry. Recovery potions are all on me—go all out."
"Mm."
"Also, I remember you have a saying about charging through enemy ranks seven times? Do your best."
Jin Yulu laughed, declaring loudly, "Right! Today you're Liu Adou, I'm Zhao Zilong—even a million troops aren't worth mentioning."
The next moment she disappeared, speed unbelievable, striking Trident with lightning speed. Combat experience told her to first eliminate this pervasive ability user who was relatively fragile. But it wouldn't go smoothly—Snow Maiden reacted first, thrusting an ice sword at her face, but unexpectedly she opened her mouth to catch and crunch it, simultaneously breathing dragon breath.
Too strange—even Snow Maiden had to retreat. This momentary relaxation let Jin Yulu pursue victory, beating Trident until he coughed blood, showing her suppressive power.
She tried to knock out the target but it was too late.
Five Holy Relics' power enveloped—just one contact made movement difficult, then various attacks followed including artillery techniques, poison, and frost, but none worked.
"Stop tickling." Low growls accompanied shockwaves pushing several people back.
The bronze statue with both mass and size stepped forward, but Jin Yulu single-handedly grabbed a massive glacier and slapped it over.
Clang!
Like morning bells echoing, tremendous force sent the giant flying with one slap. If you think growing big makes you mighty, you need proper teaching about knowing your limits.
Jin Yulu's movements didn't end—the glacier swept all around, then thrown to smash the Relic Treasury's top signal tower. Earth and stone flew, broken bricks and tiles leaving only ruins.
She was in the heat of battle, technique and body reaching extremes—even advancing to Growth Stage didn't give this feeling.
Right, just like that time with Hibiscus in unreserved frontal confrontation—only pressure could drive World Serpent magic, growing in adversity. Recently Nan Zhiyi fought one against five—excellent, now she'd fucking fight one against seven.
Surging origin within responded to the master's expectations, becoming more vigorous, flowing joyfully, blessing her body and pushing even higher.
The Relic Treasury began subsiding.
Before materialized magical, all beings were equal. Countless people fainted, wind and clouds roared with thunder, even heavily protected fortifications cracked inch by inch.
Antarctica's fierce winds had always responded to these Holy Relics—today the Magical Girl would make a declaration.
"You've been complacent too long, forgetting how big the world has become."
Jin Yulu raised her arms, condensing a dazzling super light sphere. Her whole body's origin flowed into it continuously, the contained power making everyone tremble. If this move landed, probably the entire ice field would be finished.
The Holy Relics didn't dare be careless, rushing forward at maximum speed, but discovered the golden-eyed girl actively extinguished the light sphere—it was bait.
"Not dodging?"
A direct punch to the face collapsed Trident's features with spurting blood, another tail wrap caught the ambushing Witch and flung her into a hundred-meter ice cave, but old strength was exhausted.
Slowness poison invaded again, while another Holy Relic's blade flickering with spatial fluctuations severed her right arm, then light sword strikes left Jin Yulu covered in wounds, temporarily unable to recover. Their seamless cooperation dealt the strongest damage yet, but unexpectedly her smile grew brighter. The girl's whole body sprouted spikes, actively piercing wounds to dig out more flesh—what couldn't heal naturally wouldn't exist.
The next moment, as she shrugged, hissing steam rose as flesh mended, good as new, undiminished aura.
"Compared to Time Slice, you're all small tricks." Before finishing, Jin Yulu's arm scales flew as muscles swelled like battering rams, both fists striking to blast them away.
In short time suppressing 4 liberated Holy Relics, she fought more courageously, repeated regeneration and adaptation making World Serpent run at high load with great satisfaction.
Monster.
They understood why the Church sent Magical Girl Protea.
Craziest in singles, hardest in groups. If this were paired duels, the Holy Relics would definitely perform excellently, but meeting an enemy who collected various resistances for her own use caused frequent errors. In terms of victory, they were far from it—everyone held trump cards—but the frustration of being fought one-against-seven was truly disgusting.
"It's two against seven—our Knowledge Poison is banned." The Witch climbing from the ice cave complained.
Snow Maiden, silent for a while, suddenly emanated aura attracting many gazes—clearly a pale humanoid floating in air, just knowledge made one feel dizzy.
Days after the last treasury invasion incident, the ancient Holy Relic again liberated dual relic posture. Understanding the meaning behind this, companions put away special abilities and began coordinating techniques to envelop Jin Yulu together.
She didn't care anyway—eventually they'd have to fight, but next she saw Snow Maiden holding up a miniature scarecrow pointing at her.
"Death Curse."
Beatrice cried out in pain, bleeding all over. Though Jin Yulu quickly held the girl close and administered potions, they had little effect, unable to stop life force draining.
"What the hell did you bastards do?"
Snow Maiden didn't answer, clasping hands to gather surging magical power across the ice field, even light pillars rising from the Relic Treasury direction, then cold commands like death sentences: "All guards completely liberate relics—what follows is war—"
Suddenly the combatants felt something and looked toward the building complex. A girl wearing a white beret held up a ceramic jar then smashed it.
"Empty—used up long ago. You didn't even know? I really wasted my effort."
"Let's talk about what's happening now." Erina looked down at the Holy Relics from her high position. "You're all bullying too much. I have to help even the odds."