Ethan could never mistake that psychic fluctuation. Back then, this lich had even tried to self-destruct in an attempt to take him down with her.
At the time, he had felt something was off. Their fight hadn’t reached the point where self-destruction was necessary, and Christina’s reaction had seemed too extreme.
Now, he finally understood. The one he had encountered before hadn’t been Christina’s true body at all. The woman who appeared now was the lich’s real form.
"Loki, the Casket of Ancient Winters!"
He had originally hesitated to destroy the castle out of concern for harming innocents, but upon seeing Christina emerge from it, that concern vanished. It was clearly a trap set by the enemy.
Holding the Arcane Spring, Ethan didn’t stop what he was doing. In fact, he moved faster. With his mental power operating at full capacity, the arcane energy stored in the Arcane Spring was fully mobilized.
This time, he was "borrowing" energy from the Casket of Ancient Winters, which was relatively difficult to control. To ensure that the spell wouldn’t fail or even backfire, Ethan used all the energy stored in the Arcane Spring without reservation.
The massive energy, enough to destroy Manhattan when fully unleashed, laid a solid foundation for his spellcasting.
Unlike before, when he used a meticulous approach to conserve mana through precise control, this time he chose a more wasteful method to ensure the spell’s successful execution.
A massive blue-purple magic circle appeared at Ethan’s feet. The pattern grew more complex as it rotated, and the energy it released generated a powerful shockwave, pushing the already retreating Brent back several more steps.
"This energy intensity..."
Brent had been wondering how Ethan planned to blow up the castle. But when Ethan began casting, the overwhelming surge of energy made it clear—he wasn’t bluffing. He truly had a way to do it.
After seeing Christina appear, Ethan was even more determined to level the castle. He had a strong feeling that whoever was walking out of it wasn’t someone they could welcome as a friend.
Just then, the one named Loki summoned a square casket out of thin air. The moment it appeared, Brent felt the temperature plummet. Looking around, he saw everyone involuntarily shivering. It wasn’t his imagination.
"Back! Quick, back off!"
Brent realized this was an extremely powerful artifact. It was already releasing such terrifying cold before being activated. If fully unleashed, who knew what kind of damage it could do.
His judgment was spot on. Even Loki could be affected when the Casket of Ancient Winters was fully opened. He could endure it due to his Frost Giant bloodline, but ordinary people would be turned into ice statues in an instant.
"I’m going to open the Casket of Ancient Winters."
The magic circle at Ethan’s feet grew more intricate. At the same time, he raised the Arcane Spring in his right hand and slammed it heavily to the ground.
The stone at the top of the Arcane Spring emitted an even brighter light. A rotating magic circle appeared in front of Loki. The center of this circle was a void, while the surrounding patterns seemed to protect and stabilize it.
Loki immediately understood what to do, channel the cold from the Casket of Ancient Winters into the center of that circle.
At Ethan’s signal, Loki opened the Casket of Ancient Winters. Stimulated by the immense cold, his body turned icy blue, and his blood-red eyes glowed eerily. But no one paid attention to those changes, because the moment the Casket released its cold, it unleashed a terrifying freezing current.
Ordinary people couldn’t withstand that cold at all. Brent had to call forward people equipped with magic stone gear to act as a human shield, protecting others from the blast of chilling air.
As Loki continued to pour the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters into the circle, Ethan’s enhanced version of Blizzard began to take shape.
The magic circle at Ethan’s feet became more complex and expanded, no longer confined to the ground but forming three-dimensional structures in the air around him.
As Ethan pointed his staff toward the distant castle, the enhanced Blizzard spell was finally released.
Though it all seemed elaborate, with Ethan’s full effort, it took only seconds. Although Christina noticed Ethan’s actions, she didn’t even have time to react or speak before a massive magic circle materialized above the castle.
Just as she realized something was wrong and tried to respond, a giant frost meteor, formed from the cold of the Casket of Ancient Winters, shot down from the magic circle and landed directly in front of Christina.
The frost meteor exploded on impact. White mist-like cold spread in every direction, turning everything within range into the finest ice particles.
These massive, freezing frost meteors didn’t just freeze what they hit. Their overwhelming force shattered everything into particles the moment they were frozen.
Christina had no time to respond before she was completely erased. The lich who once, even with just a clone, had fought Ethan to a standstill and nearly caused him trouble, was now instantly obliterated before she could utter a single word.
More importantly, this was only the beginning.
As the first frost meteor fell, more followed, crashing onto the massive castle one after another.
Blizzard is a spell that inflicts both physical and elemental damage. When mages like Jaina Proudmoore from Azeroth cast it, the frost meteors not only contain intense cold but also countless sharp ice shards. These shards deal terrifying physical damage, and upon impact, they explode like shrapnel, causing area damage.
Ethan’s version, however, consisted purely of cold-condensed frost meteors. Fortunately, there were no living targets to worry about. These powerful frost meteors struck the giant castle one after another, first freezing the structure and making it brittle, then the next meteor shattered the weakened area. The released cold would then freeze the newly exposed parts.
On and on it went. Everyone watched in silence as the massive castle was destroyed by Ethan’s magic.
Even Brent, who prided himself on having seen many grand sights, couldn’t help but swallow as he watched. What he was now thinking was how long he could survive if caught in such an attack.
"No, I should be thinking whether I could escape before the attack landed on my head."
He didn’t believe he could survive it. Looking at Ethan, now floating in the air, completely wrapped in blue-purple arcane energy, Brent realized he didn’t understand this young man at all.
"Is this the path you’ve always pursued?"
An attack like that... not even the monstrous entity he once saw could probably survive it. Was this the path an adventurer should take?
He knew he couldn’t keep thinking . It would shatter the beliefs he had held for years. He could only tell himself over and over—Ethan was a one-of-a-kind existence. He’d only seen one Ethan in all these years. Most adventurers could never reach such terrifying heights. So continuing on his original path wasn’t wrong.
Ethan, in the midst of spellcasting, was unaware of Brent’s internal struggle. He kept his gaze locked on the distant castle while carefully monitoring every change in the arcane energy.
Like Loki, he had a goal. He wanted to take this opportunity to understand the energy within the Casket of Ancient Winters. If he could analyze or even fully comprehend it, it would further strengthen his water-element magic.
Of course, this observation couldn’t go on forever. The rate of energy consumption was alarming. If they pushed too far, both he and Loki would be at risk of backlash.
Seeing that the spell had done its job, Ethan nodded to Loki and began slowly dispelling the Blizzard.
It was as if the whole scene rewound: the frost meteors gradually ceased, and the massive magic circle in the sky dissolved.
The floating three-dimensional circles surrounding Ethan gradually shrank, became simpler, and eventually disappeared, returning to a single flat circle on the ground. The surging arcane energy around him had long since vanished, and as Ethan waved the Arcane Spring, even the circle beneath his feet faded away.
As for Loki, he had already returned to normal. At some point, he had quietly put the Casket of Ancient Winters away and even straightened out his slightly rumpled clothes.
"Very well done. That was a successful and satisfying collaboration."
In response to Ethan’s compliment, Loki offered a calm but clearly smug smile. While he had only been responsible for supplying energy, he had to precisely regulate that power to match Ethan’s spell perfectly in order to execute the Blizzard.
Recalling the destructive force of that spell, Loki silently hoped that one day, he could cast it himself.
As if reading his thoughts, Ethan suddenly said, "That day will come."
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