On the fifth floor, different from where Sakuya and Artemia appeared on their first times entering the tower, a group led by Maria was surrounded by another group of players and NPCs under someone's control.
Maria had been fighting for five days nonstop, and even if she possessed endless stamina, her mind would not possess the same amount of stamina. Unfortunately, she did not possess endless stamina; she fought for some time and fell back to recuperate while her subordinates were trying to buy her some time. Like many others, she was separated from Sera upon their arrival. If she were here, things would not have turned so bad, with Maria losing more than half of the twenty men she brought with her.
Boom! Kaboom!
Fireballs, Water balls crashed on Maria's group, currently composed of five members, Maria included. A strong man that looked like Dodolus stepped forward with his shield; his armor was wretched, his whole body reeked blood, he could pass out at any moment, but he still walked forward to protect their leader at the last moment.
This time, the players mixed fireball with water ball into something dreadful. The shield man took a horse stance and placed the shield forward, and held it firmly; he smiled when he felt the other three supporting from the back; Maria was sitting on the ground doing her best to recover rapidly.
Just as the combined attacks from the enemy reached them and touched the silver shield, the four instantly understood that they wouldn't make it, they turned their heads one last time in Maria's direction, she happened to be opening her eyes at that moment, she tried to stop them but fell weakly on the ground, then that attack swallowed them, they were instantly killed.
Despite having been together with them recently, there was no deep attachment between them; Maria was angry, so angry that something snapped inside her.
''Die!"
She only said those words, but for players, it was like a death sentence because a cold aura escaped from Maria's body after she mumbled those words, her black hair turned white before the surroundings began to transform, to freeze at a visible rate and soon before the hundred of players and NPCs knew it their feet became frozen, followed by the rest of their bodies. The process was slow but extremely agonizing; it was like thousands of bugs chewing them from inside before a cooling sensation followed.
In less than a second, a hundred individuals were frozen. Amidst this ice hell stood a girl, there was no emotion inside her icy blue eyes, the current Maria had turned into a complete emotionless beast, the surrounding temperature continued to decrease each passing second making one wonder if it was the creator of Ice who was standing here.
Those emotionless eyes stared at a certain particular spot, and Maria opened her mouth and said.
''Come out!"
Her voice was so cold that the air began to freeze as her voice traversed toward the thing hiding; he was forced to come out; that thing looked like a minotaur but with a lion head.
''You are sure-" the minotaur with a lion head could not finish his words because Maria appeared before him and thrust her dagger forward, it was a casual swing with no actual skill behind it, but the minotaur couldn't dodge.
Pu! Pu !!
The single thrust became two as they pierced through the monster's thick fur and began to freeze him from the inside; the monster sensed the danger; what would happen if he were to let this continue? His muscles contracted before crimson flame exploded from his body, instantly melting the ice inside his chest.
The monster red eyes glared at the emotionless Maria before he opened his mouth to breathe fire; just as the fire escaped the monster's mouth, Maria stretched her hand and blocked it barehanded.
The monster's eyes almost fell from their socket; he was beyond shocked; Maria crushed his flame like she was crushing a bug. For the first time, the monster became afraid; he was not a strong monster; his strongest ability was to enter people minds and control them; it was what makes this monster the most dreadful monster in this area, to ascend, you must kill him, not only you will ascend, but your level would increase by one. So greedy people and even NPCs ventured into this region seeking wealth and an increase in level. They fought the nearby monsters, killing them. Still, when they became exhausted after those battles, this monster infiltrated their minds and took over their body; only Maria group who arrived freshly didn't suffer the monster attack; however, as a consequence, the others began to hunt them down until the current situation happened.
Finally, the monster began to regret having come out; the moment he witnessed this girl change, he should have fled; however, his damned curiosity and his instinct to control strong and unusual things got him into this mess which he was not sure if he could survive from, however, he refused to die like this at least he must go down with this girl.
Resolved to die, the minotaur with a lion head roared, his body was turned into a flame, and he was about to self destruct when suddenly Maria jumped back escaping from his attack's range, this made the monster believe that he could win, but in the next instant this foolish thought vanished completely from his mind.
A small ice bullet pierced through his left chest and entered his heart which was instantly turned into an ice heart before it began to act like a magnet drawing the surrounding cold; in a minute or maybe two, the minotaur flame body was turned into ice sculpture which broke apart under Maria command. In his last moment, the monster saw a girl whose eyelids didn't even bat at what she had just done as if what she accomplished, the monster she just killed was nothing, not worth her time. Ironically the monster thought at that moment if this girl shouldn't be called monster instead of him. He prayed that after his reset, he would never encounter someone like that.
Just after Maria killed the monster, a portal appeared behind her, and she was dragged into this portal and disappeared.
Back in the snow land, Artemia stood quietly in the air with a boring look on her face no other challenger came up after Leonardo.
''Ahhhh!" Artemia covered her mouth and yawned; she rubbed her sleepy eyes. She was starting to lose her patience; standing in this desolate white world, even someone with a strong mental strength would get bored soon, especially when there's nothing to do. Just as Artemia's boredom was about to reach another level, a portal suddenly opened in the middle of the white world.
''Wow! Finally.'' Artemia pumped her fist into the air like a child whose parents finally agreed to bring her to a park.
''Let me see who we have this time,'' Artemia said before stepping across space and reappearing closer at the closing portal.
''I wonder how strong this person is. It would be-"
Artemia had not finished when she was forced to stop because finally the identity of the new challenger was revealed, it was none other than Maria who came from the lower floor.
However, if it were this reason alone, Artemia wouldn't be surprised, the reason for her surprise was the current Maria was different from anything she remembered, if the previous Maria had a cold exterior, the current Maria was truly cold, a real Ice Empress. The latter had discarded her emotions and turned into an emotionless beast.
''No good!'' Artemia mumbled and jumped back, but it was already too late; Maria had led her eyes upon her, she immediately attacked; her attack was swift and deadly.
For a moment, Artemia thought she had seen her head flying, but it was an illusion that may happen if she was not vigilant; the illusion was about to turn into reality, Maria was about to remove Artemia's head, but at the last moment, she tilted her head to an impossible angle dodging Maria attack, she ended up receiving a shallow cut on her neck which began freezing. However, Artemia was still Artemia; she was not the one to obediently receive but not give; just as Maria was passing her, she swung her sword at lightning speed, slicing off Maria's left arm.
Artemia, who distanced herself from Maria after cutting off one of her arms, was shocked to see the latter expression not changing in the slightest; with emotionless eyes, she watched her arm flying in the air before she used glaciate on it, turning it into ice sculpture which broke into upon touching the snow.
Artemia had not gotten over her shock when she heard Maria's following words, her heart skipped, and an alarm bell rang inside her head.
''Ice Empress Mode.'' Maria had declared.
The white world turned quiet instantly; everything became quiet after Maria said those words. Her white hair turned even more white; her blue eyes began to lose their luster, one of them turned completely white.
Seeing this scene, Artemia knew she must go all out, not only for her survival but because of Maria survival; her current power was not something she could control; she seemed to have lost control for a long time, if nobody stopped her, she would continue until she died, not Exodus death but a real death.. So to bring a friend, a rival, a rival in love back to sanity, Artemia would seriously fight her to save her.