The snowflakes across the sky seemed to be drawn toward the blue light, gathering and condensing around it.
Extending outward, it looked like the blazing arc of a trident, but this blade of light carried a cold breath that felt almost humble. Anyone who stood before that trident in this moment would become an ice sculpture in less than three seconds—even before the blade itself ever touched them.
The meteorite directly in front of the trident was still within striking range.
Its friction-born heat, which had been steadily dissipating, cooled rapidly. Even its speed slowed, as if it had entered a world of ice and snow. Everything brushed by the drifting snowflakes froze solid.
Ssst—
The sword-light flashed. At the first touch against the meteorite's surface, a surge of cold froze it instantly. The trident's arc carved into the meteorite.
Crack—
The entire meteorite shattered into fragments. A closer look revealed even its core had frozen into solid spheres of ice. It had been frozen from the inside out.
"The Frozen Sky Burial Flower really seems on par with the Frozen Thousand Miles magic array," Blaine murmured.
"It might even be stronger."
On the surface, Blaine couldn't see any major difference between them—both were freezing attacks. Their only distinction lay in power. But the Frozen Sky Burial Flower was a subsidiary skill of the Flood Dragon Trident and couldn't be released freely the way Frozen Thousand Miles could.
"Same as Dormammu Ray—just treat it as a sneak-attack skill."
As for how the two differed in application, or how they should be used, that would have to be developed slowly in the future.
The meteorite fragments broke apart with a crash; some pieces drifted off-course, and a few chunks of icy debris even hurtled toward the moon at an even faster speed.
"What a hassle."
Fortunately, the Frozen Sky Burial Flower lasted a long time. As Blaine approached, the ice-and-snow domain followed the Flood Dragon Trident and pushed forward.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Out of caution, two smaller fragments struck the moon.
Krrr—
Suddenly, Blaine heard a strained mechanical groan, as if something enormous were being pushed past its limit. Even gravel only a few meters wide held tremendous force. To Blaine, a gesture could decide their trajectory; to Earth, they might just create a large crater. But the moon was different. Its volume was far smaller than Earth's. While the impact wouldn't destroy the moon, it could certainly carve a crater into it—or worse, nudge it out of orbit.
Watching the moon shift, even slightly, Blaine's expression tightened.
"This won't do. If this continues, Earth will be affected."
As the moon slowly drifted, Earth grew tense.
One nation after another held emergency press conferences. Countries that had been unaware moments ago were suddenly in an uproar—either because news spread or because the moon's displacement was immediately detected.
The consequences of the moon shifting orbit worsened by the minute. River tides rose. Sea levels climbed. The horizons of several island nations were creeping beneath the waves. At this rate, they wouldn't survive until dawn—they would be swallowed entirely.
As the moon crept closer to Earth, panic spread. Was this not the sign of an apocalypse?
Indeed, unless a crisis directly touches their own interests, most people remain indifferent. But the end of the world has a way of waking everyone up.
"It's up to me."
Seeing the moon's center nearing the point of complete deviation, Blaine finally acted.
As he approached, the lingering snowflakes fell across the lunar surface again, freezing the entire moon in moments. It became a complete "Frozen Palace." And with that, the Frozen Sky Burial Flower skill finally ended. Like Blaine himself, it was astonishingly long-lasting.
"Get back."
"Seriously, I just wanted a few star cores—why is this so hard for me?"
In a flash, he appeared beside the displaced portion of the moon and slammed into it.
When Blaine struck, it felt like hitting a solid iron block. But the moon shifted back into its orbit.
"Damn it—who was the astronaut who said Moon is full of craters? This thing is harder than a medicine ball."
Fortunately, the moon's volume and mass were small enough that Blaine's collision was about equivalent to the impact of the meteorite fragments earlier.
Landing on the moon, Blaine steadied himself. He felt almost weightless, as if he might float away.
"I heard there's something shady on the far side of the moon."
Since it was Earth's closest neighbor, Blaine wanted to explore it. If Earth had secrets, its neighbor likely hid something too.
The moon was small, and Blaine bounced across its surface like juggling balls, making his way toward the region untouched by sunlight. Soon, the dividing line between light and shadow appeared.
He stepped in without hesitation. With Hawkeye's night-vision ability, Blaine wasn't worried about stumbling around in the dark.
In the darkness, the far side of the moon was also dotted with craters—no different from the near side. After traveling roughly ten miles, he could even faintly see the sunlight beyond the shadows. Still nothing. Blaine was about to turn back when a gleam of reflected metal caught his eye.
Drawing closer, he found only a corner of a metal plate exposed. Carefully peeling back the surrounding dust, he uncovered a much larger connected structure.
It was like a building buried in yellow sand, with only a single brick peeking out. As he dug deeper, more of the wall emerged. If he continued, the entire structure would eventually be exposed.
But Blaine wasn't interested in "archaeology." Since there was obviously more below, he stopped digging. Instead, he activated Hawkeye's x-ray vision to see the larger shape beneath the surface.
Compared to the planetary meteorites Blaine had destroyed today, the moon's size was still enormous. His vision couldn't penetrate the entire lunar interior, nor could he confirm whether the moon had a star core. That was why he came to the far side himself instead of relying solely on x-ray sight.
Under his gaze, the buried metal structure slowly revealed itself.
Two meters…
Ten meters…
Two hundred meters…
…
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