Above the shattered Sky Dome, turbid waves towered.
Tens of thousands of tons of seawater were stirred by the shadow in the Abyss, their violent collisions creating a deafening roar akin to steel grinding against steel.
Accompanied by high-pitched screams from the deep sea, one sharp and heavy iceberg after another surfaced, exuding a terrible frigidity. Frost white spread.
The piercing cold storm swept through, instantaneously freezing a thick shell between the surging tides.
It was as if a gigantic ice island had risen from the depths of the sea, slowly controlled, shaped, and ultimately transformed by some violent force, until finally, it became layer upon layer of cold walls, heavily sealed, withstanding those malicious rays from beyond the sky.
It was as if all the malice in the world had converged here. Amidst the wildly fluctuating depth index, the Abyss sediment had already dyed the dark green ocean pitch black.
Above the high-hanging Sky Dome, behind what looked like a fractured crevice, endless brutal rays of light burst forth, tearing apart countless icebergs. Effortlessly. Like a blade of Punishment falling from the Sky Dome.
Heaven's wrath!
A slight quiver stirred the entire ice sea, causing countless frozen icebergs to disintegrate, shatter, and even reboil into terrifying steam, which quickly froze again in the icy hurricane, turning into unyielding mists that lingered between the sea and sky.
Then, the mist was torn apart once more.
Violent gusts swept in all directions. A stream of intense light from Gai descended, ripping apart everything in its path under vicious torment. It was indistinguishable whether it was flame or lightning.
Merely a thumb-sized piece of gorgeous crystal, yet it was the condensed essence of destruction. As horrifying crystals fell from the sky one after another, the entire ice sea wailed. Shaken, torn apart, shattered, and even vaporized.
Compared to such heavenly might, this vast and violent ocean was insignificant.
The vicious torment continued for an unknown duration, until layer by layer, the deep sea was peeled away, like peeling an onion.
The colossal creature hidden within the deep sea revealed its ferocious visage.
Even though it had already been severely damaged under this heavenly torment, the bloodlust in its nine pairs of eyes remained fierce. Enveloped by countless currents and Ice Crystals, the black Giant Snake coiled on the dried seabed.
The undersea volcano had erupted under such terrifying shock, yet the spewing lava seemed illusory, leaving not a single scorch mark on its scales.
It was as if the mythical Hydra had been reborn.
The mountain-like Nine-headed Snake roared, stirring up furious waves. Facing the Sky Dome, it pulled on the endless expanse of the Seven Seas, initiating its counterattack.
Its control over seawater, almost instinctual, did not stir up the monstrous waves of the past. Instead, as frosty wind spewed from its nine giant mouths, the water froze into ice as indomitable as any steel.
The ice grew, branching and leafing like trees.
From this instantaneously formed ice plain, wildly growing ice formed a base even more solid than steel. It was continuously adjusted to meet the standards of the most rigorous wartime fortifications until, at last, with the surging floodwaters, countless ice cannons aimed straight at the Sky Dome emerged from the water!
In an instant, the ice plain was occupied by a forest of cannon emplacements.
If one were to gaze from afar, they would surely be overwhelmed by this unbelievable spectacle. But now, no onlooker dared to approach within millions of miles. All who harbored any hope of surviving by luck had already been torn apart by the intense light.
The next moment, with Hydra's roar, the ice plain suddenly trembled, bursting with an unprecedented roar. Accompanied by countless violent gusts sweeping through, the spectacular forest of ice and iron disintegrated in an instant. It collapsed under the force of its own unleashing.
And as the ice plain cracked, an almost infinite number of shells had already risen into the sky, tearing through the turbulent hurricane, swiftly ascending to an extremely distant place.
The projectiles, once as tall as a person, now looked like tiny grass seeds, no longer distinguishable.
Those grass seeds floated into the cracks of the Sky Dome, and then, the Power hidden within them exploded.
Layers of complex Mystic Rituals spread out from within. After this fleeting display of Alchemy, terrifying clouds of ice that had reached absolute zero had already sealed the shattered sky, covering it, blocking it, and even forcibly closing it.
Behind the frozen canopy, roaring sounds continued to erupt, with intense light flaring and fading.
In the end, the weakened heavenly might could no longer tear through Hydra's defenses.
With endless snow falling from the Sky Dome, that gap, which seemed to originate from Hell, slowly closed.
It finally survived the Heaven Punishment of the Witch's Night.
On the frozen sea surface, only Hydra was left, breathing wearily.
The breath from its nine giant mouths was like a hurricane, stirring up chaotic currents.
If speaking purely from an Alchemical standpoint, this Giant Beast's body is indeed quite convenient...
Hydra muttered to itself, "If it were my original body, not to mention Alchemy of such scale, even one ten-thousandth of this would be enough to drain all of my Source Substance..."
It paused for a moment, and its leftmost head tilted slightly.
It saw a shadow projected in the void.
"What brings you here, Lord Shah?"
It wasn't particularly warm toward its own partner.
Even towards the supposed lofty Creator, its tone was not one of reverence.
For an Alchemist, such an attitude was not unusual.
No, if it were Alchemists from more traditional backgrounds, such an attitude might even be considered intimate. For Alchemists, even a revered Creator is, at best, someone to be respected from a distance.
Despite both originating from the same scholarly line, the two parties had long since split over ideological differences.
Even before the first Creator appeared in history, the conflict between them had already become increasingly sharp.
Under the oppression of The Church, Scholars banded together to create the Guide Association, yet deliberately excluded Alchemists—partly due to entanglements of monetary interests and the struggle for sovereignty.
More so, it was because the directions the two pursued were diametrically opposed.
If Scholars construct laws to build the Current Circumstances, then Alchemy is about seeking knowledge from the Abyss.
Alchemists crave the prototypes of miracles, the true essence that flows from the deepest layers of Hell and the profoundest depths of the Abyss—the eternal secrets.