Artemia, who had decided to take the current Maria seriously, covered her whole body with lightning; it was as if she was clad in lightning armor; the terrible heat this lightning armor was emitting melted the snow on the ground while pushing away the cold energy that was trying to invade her body since Maria came.
''Lightning bolt!"
Zizi!
A blue lightning bolt was shot at Maria; her expression didn't change. She thrust her crystal sword forward to deal with the lightning bolt. Simultaneously, Artemia, who should be standing twenty-five meters in front of her, closed the distance in an instant; she summoned her Gift in the form of a spear with a chain, the spear shortened as she executed seven thrusts overlapping on each other to form a single thrust.
Artemia combo was perfect, even Saint would have a hard time dealing with her combo and come out unscathed from them, but strangely, Maria was calm, even calmer than she was when she first appeared. Artemia soon understood why the crystal sword was reverted to its initial form; it was to say in the form of two daggers. Maria used those two daggers to deal with the two attacks calmly. Freezing the lightning bolt, she slowed it down before dodging; as for the seven spear thrusts in one, she shot dozen of ice arrows from her second dagger to block them.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye, Artemia was surprised, but she knew letting this occupy her thoughts would not help her; since the start, she was aware that it would not be easy, so Maria being able to block her attack easily should not affect too much as she still has a lot of skills that she had not used, besides unlike Maria, she had almost infinite stamina and mana, probably because she became the temporary guardian.
Swoosh!
The chain on Artemia's spear lengthened, its head cut through the air like a snake, and arrived behind Maria instantly. Maybe because she sensed something, Maria spun around and crossed her two daggers; just then, from the tip of the chain, lightning was discharged; it was like the chain had breathed lightning.
From the crossed daggers, a thin ice shield emerged to help Maria block Artemia's sudden attack. Like a beast, the lightning that came out from the chain tip pounced on Maria, trying to swallow her but was stopped by the ice shield; it became a stalemate but only lasted a second before the lightning bolt exploded into countless tiny lightning snakes that destroyed Maria shield and sent her flying.
Artemia initiated her following attack, her spear lengthened, reaching Maria in an instant, but she still managed to twist her body midair and dodged the spear tip; the spear tip cut off a strand of her hair, but she seemed not to care. Artemia, who was about launch another attack, saw her leg becoming frozen somehow the cold air found where her lightning could not protect to bind her against the ground.
It was finally Maria's turn to attack; her heterochromia (White and light blue) eyes shone dangerously; it was like she was shooting a beam from her eyes; Artemia remembered this skill. Hence, she hastily closed her eyes, believing that she would not fall under the skill influence this way, but just as she closed her eyes, she felt a chill run down her spine and knew that she had fallen for Maria's trap. She forced her to close her eyes to hide the real attack, the real attack came from her finger she pointed at Artemia, an ice beam was shot out from her finger, it was like a laser beam, in reached Artemia in the blink of an eye, it was already too late by the time she noticed this, she was forced to call back her spear, but it couldn't make it. She had an idea, the spear stopped before piercing through the ground, and the chain at the end of the spear lengthened; the tip of the chain pierced through the air like a bullet, a bullet that knocked her body backward.
''Guh!"
Artemia almost vomited blood but thank this move, she was able to dodge that dangerous beam; however, in the process, some of her hair got burned, making her lose a few strands of hair like Maria.
''Eighteen Layered Lightning Chain Seventeenth Form: Lightning Goddess!''
Rumble!
Artemia finally activated the most vital ability she could use with her current level and body, the sky darkened, black lightning bolts rained down like judgment day, Artemia gift disappeared, she was clad in lightning goddess armor, the surrounding snow melted with every second that passed, for the first time Maria who had not shown any changes on her face since the start of the fight finally showed emotion, she frowned as if annoyed with something.
Artemia, who was now in her lightning goddess mode, didn't care about anything else other than beating some sense into Maria's body to wake her up; she walked forward, but it was as if space had shrunk to make it easy for her, she increased her speed what created two clones of her, the three Artemia attacked Maria simultaneously, everything around them melted however when they came closer to Maria, even Artemia in her strongest form froze, a chilling sensation like never before assaulted her until her very soul, Maria looked at her with two white, her eyes had turned completely white. Those white eyes were not human; not even an ordinary beast shouldn't have.
Artemia became afraid; she understood that she had underestimated Maria, her current form, too much. It was not like she didn't do her best, but even her strongest ability seemed not to work. Something within the princess seemed to have broken in that instant; she refused to admit defeat.
She stared directly into those white eyes and launched an attack, the same attack that destroyed the snow land and erased Leonardo but this time something shocking, something even her who had lived twice couldn't believe.
Facing Artemia lightning around 200,000,000 volts and a temperature around 10,000 °C, Maria calmly extended her pale white hand who seemed to be shining, and declared.
''Absolute Zero.''
And it happened that lightning capable of destroying an entire island was freezing; yes, Maria froze Artemia attack.
Gulp!
''I'm screwed..'' Artemia thought.