Jared finally saw all of it.
It was a... dragon.
No. Not a dragon.
It was older than any dragon. More ancient. More primal.
Its body was shaped like a serpent, but it had no scales. Instead, it was covered in a layer of smooth dark sapphire hide, and under that hide, a dark red glow moved and streamed like molten fire under the earth.
Its head carried seven eyes. Two of them were those huge golden eyes, and besides those, five smaller eyes were spread along both sides of its head, each one giving off a different color of light.
How long was its body?
Jared had no way to tell.
All he could see was that it kept rising from the darkness below, inch after inch, as if there were no end to it at all.
All seven of Return to the Void's eyes fixed on the two of them inside the great mass of ice.
Then a voice sounded inside Jared's mind.
It wasn't language. It came as something more direct than words, a wave of thought that drove straight into his head.
It had no sound and no tone, but Jared still caught its meaning with perfect clarity.
"Hand over... the spoils... from the Ancient Battlefield."
Gwendolyn's face changed on the spot.
"It wants the Heart of the Northern Abyss."
"Return to the Void guards this lake and the entrance to the Ancient Battlefield," she said under her breath to Jared. "It doesn't allow anything to be taken out. It sensed the Heart of the Northern Abyss inside your body."
Jared frowned.
"The Heart of the Northern Abyss belongs to the Frost Deity Branch. Why should I hand it over to that thing?"
Before Gwendolyn could answer, Return to the Void's voice came again.
This time, it pressed down harder than before, lower and heavier.
"Hand it over... or... die."
The voice exploded inside Jared's head and knocked his vision black for a moment.
The chaotic force inside him started moving on its own.
Violet radiance burst across his skin and canceled out most of the mental shock.
All seven of Return to the Void's eyes flickered at the same time.
It seemed caught off guard by the chaotic force on Jared.
"Chaos... you are... that person's... heir?"
Jared had no idea who it meant by that person, and he didn't care to find out.
"The Heart of the Northern Abyss has already fused with me. I can't hand it over."
Jared's voice stayed level, but it didn't bend. "If you want it, come take it."
Gwendolyn snapped her head toward him, staring at him like she couldn't believe what she'd just heard. "Have you lost your mind? Return to the Void's strength is impossible to measure."
"I know," Jared cut in. "But we don't have a way out."
He was right.
Return to the Void had already blocked the path to the lake's surface.
Even if they handed over the Heart of the Northern Abyss, there was no guarantee it would let them go.
If the only choices were to sit still and die or stake everything on one desperate move, then there wasn't really a choice at all.
All seven of Return to the Void's eyes narrowed at the same time.
That was how it showed its fury.
"Arrogant... human..."
The lakebed shook violently.
Return to the Void's massive body drew inward, coiling tight, and then it snapped open.
Like a spring compressed to its limit, it shot straight at them with a speed that didn't even seem possible.
It moved so fast that even Jared's enhanced vision couldn't track it.
He only caught a flash of dark blue across his sight, and then a horrifying force slammed into the great mass of ice in front of him.
Boom!
The great mass of ice shattered in an instant.
Jared and Gwendolyn were blasted backward, tumbling through the lake for dozens of miles before they barely forced themselves steady again.
A thin line of blood slipped from the corner of Jared's mouth.
That single strike from Return to the Void had hit harder than the skeletons in the Ancient Battlefield by a margin he couldn't even compare.
"Split up!"
"Don't give it the chance to catch us both at once!" Gwendolyn shouted.
The two of them shot off at the same time, each swimming in a different direction.
Return to the Void's seven eyes shifted.
For a brief moment, it seemed to weigh which one to chase first.
Boom!
Her icy divine radiance turned into countless ice needles as thin as hair.
Every single one carried the power of the law of the Ice Seal, and they shot at Return to the Void's seven eyes without a sound.
Return to the Void caught the danger and tried to turn its head to defend itself.
But Jared's light net was still hanging in front of it, not yet gone, blocking its sight.
The ice needles slipped through the gaps in the light net and drove cleanly, exactly, into Return to the Void's seven eyes!
Roar!
For the first time, Return to the Void made a sound.
It wasn't a mental pulse this time. It was a real roar, deafening enough to shake the whole lake.
That roar carried so much pain and fury it shattered the rocks on the lakebed, drove the water into violent surges, and made blood seep from both Jared's and Gwendolyn's ears.
All seven eyes slammed shut at once.
Return to the Void's body started twisting like mad.
Its tail, its torso, its headβevery inch of it shook violently.
The dark red glow beneath its dark sapphire hide flared brighter, like it was about to rip straight out through the flesh.
"Its eyes are the weak point!"
Gwendolyn shouted, "Now! While we still can!"
Jared gritted his teeth and drove the chaotic force again.
This time, he held nothing back.
Violet radiance condensed on the Dragonslayer Sword until it reached the limit.
The dragon sigils along the blade flashed wildly, and the whole sword gave off a harsh, piercing hum.
He drew in a deep breath and poured everything into that strike.
All his power. All his will. All his life.
Then he let go.
The Dragonslayer Sword turned into a streak of violet light.
Like a falling star trailing a long tail of fire, it shot straight toward the two largest golden eyes on Return to the Void's head.
Return to the Void caught the deadly threat and whipped its head around wildly, trying to dodge.
But all seven of its eyes had already been pierced by the ice needles. Its vision was blurred, and it had no way to track the Dragonslayer Sword's path with any accuracy.
The purple streak punched through its eyelid and drove straight into its left eye!

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