Descending with great elegance was the Mother Heron.
I paid her no mind and used another ice spell. By infusing more mana, I transformed my ice shield.
It quickly turned into over a dozen sharp ice spears, which launched toward the enemy.
There were five assassins who had used secret weapons against my shield.
Of the five, two were struck in the chest and eliminated. The other three managed to dodge, though one of them suffered a shallow cut on his leg.
Not wanting to leave loose ends, I directed my mental domination ability toward them as my left hand rotated in the air.
A yellow circle formed, and five spears of light appeared above.
Seeing this, the enemies tried to dodge or channel their inner energy, but my overwhelming domination power—amplified by immense energies—interfered with their movements, disrupted their energy control, and dulled their reaction time.
Combined with the natural speed of light magic, the spears finished them off.
In truth, one of them managed to destroy a spear with his inner energy and equipment, but the second pierced through his skull.
Naturally, when the light spears appeared in the sky, the Mother Heron tried to stop me—or so it seemed. She released waves of internal energy to destroy my light magic attacks.
But I noticed that this time, her power was weaker than her previous strike. I countered her energy with a silver sword-intent strike, which dispersed her attack into the sky.
In the end, the enemies fell like insects.
This time, my gaze turned to the lady.
"Well, given your complete lack of effort to defend them and your minimal intervention, you don't seem entirely aligned with them. Still, you aided them."
She smiled behind the heron mask that covered her face.
"You are an unknown entity, unbound to any Immortal City. Naturally, I had to restrict your actions. Who knows—you might be working with enemies or traitors."
Her smile radiated elegance, even through the mask.
Hearing her words, I understood her intent. In truth, she wanted to delay me in the hope that other cities might be weakened. She may have even hoped Iron Fist would be eliminated in the chaos.
"Then I should restrain and harm you as well, shouldn't I? You helped invaders stop me—and might be plotting against the other cities. Or perhaps... you're a traitor to your own."
At my words, her elegance vanished, and she glared at me with intense hatred, deeply offended.
Without hesitation, she vanished from her spot and reappeared beside me in a flash of true speed.
In her hands were beautiful white-and-blue fans—razor sharp, reinforced with dense Qi.
She struck from the left.
My sword, charged with silver and dark energy, met her head-on.
My energy overwhelmed hers. Then, like a hawk, my blade dove toward her center.
She leapt back, and for a moment, it seemed there were two of her.
One circled to my other side and slashed with a fan.
Two attacks from two angles.
My sword easily parried one.
Meanwhile, my left hand moved to intercept the second weapon.
The Mother Heron seemed confident her mystical weapon would strike me, but to her surprise—
It was stopped by razor-thin white threads.
"This…?"
She asked, startled. But she had no time to analyze.
In the next instant, one of my fingers—connected to the sword—twitched.
A nearly invisible, yet deadly thread shot toward her, aiming to slice her open.
She retreated in a flash.
As she did, I noticed her doppelganger becoming unstable.
Seeing this, I smirked and used Blink.
I reappeared behind her, my sword charged with dense energy.
The doppelganger tried to escape, but a wave of sharp, broad energy swept over it.
Unfortunately for it, it couldn't match the original.
And I struck to kill—after all, it wasn't her real body.
Though I wouldn't kill her true self, to avoid conflict with the Seven Cities or jeopardizing Danny, destroying this fake was fair game.
In an instant, it was eliminated.
As it faded, I noticed a few drops of blood fall from the Mother Heron.
"Oh? Seems your doppelganger is formed from your vitality. That's unfortunate," I said calmly, lifting my left hand.
With the motion, a surge of flaming threads shot toward her.
She used both fans and a good amount of Qi to defend.
She staggered back a few steps, then turned and unleashed waves of energy at me with her weapons.
I easily destroyed them with my sword.
My body surged with wind and internal energy as I used the Wind and Cloud movement technique.
We exchanged blows for several minutes.
Sometimes I used my sword, other times the white or multicolored threads from my other hand.
Eventually, I sensed members of her Immortal City entering the area.
And I lost interest in continuing the fight.
I leapt back and unleashed a wave of dense sword intent, slicing a large part of the arena and the trees behind it.
As I withdrew, my sword floated into the air.
I channeled my energy.
With both hands, I made a gesture.
"Ice Make: Twin Sabretooth Tigers."
Two massive magic circles appeared, summoning twin ice tigers with fierce auras, each three meters tall and freezing the ground beneath them.
I followed with another move, channeling even more energy. I pointed to the sky.
"Ice Make: Ice Eagles."
Another circle formed. Over ten medium and small ice eagles emerged.
Not only had I poured massive amounts of internal magic into them to make them tougher, colder, and stronger in combat, but I also infused them with soul energy and the phantom lineage of the Black Lotus.
That ghostly soul energy made them more intelligent and lifelike—almost as if each had a temporary soul.
This was something I developed while exploring the powers of my ghost clan lineage.
"Attack her and her allies. Do not kill them—injuries are fine."
I commanded, and the golems moved.
Each step from the sabretooth tiger froze the ground slightly.
The eagles soared with grace.
"Madam and allies. I must take my leave. May you enjoy your fight."
Upon hearing this, the Mother Heron tried to stop me. But a massive paw struck toward her at high speed.
She used her weapons and Qi to defend but was still pushed back.
I smiled at the sight.
Some of the eagles and the other tiger attacked the new arrivals.
My body folded into itself with sorcery, soul energy, and spatial magic.
With a simple apparate, I vanished from the scene.
The enemy, frustrated and furious, couldn't do anything more.
She now had to defend herself and her city's members.
These golems, made of bluish-green ice with faint hints of hidden purple-black in their eyes, were fast, durable, and carried invasive cold energy. Their intelligence was nothing to scoff at.
With so many, and of such size, defending everyone was truly difficult.
…
I reappeared in a tree within that space.
I was quite satisfied leaving my magic behind.
For annoying people, that was a great trick—and the golems surely irritated her.
Satisfied with the outcome, the wind wrapped around me.
I leapt into the air, using the ancient power of Wind Sound, combined with thread acceleration, to move at high speed.
I eliminated enemies with my threads and sword and made my way toward Iron Fist.
It didn't take long to find him and Colleen.
From a distance, I saw Colleen fighting alongside S-1 against multiple assassins.
She moved with mastery, wielding her sword with precision and inner energy waves.
S-1 used empowered strength to punch, suffocate, or shoot the enemies down.
They tried to bring him down, but his durability was impressive, though I could still see damage to his outer form.
'He'll probably need time in the space to repair…' I thought, but I wasn't worried.
As a system summon or pet, he was immortal in the sense that even if destroyed, he would regenerate after a cooldown period.
Elsewhere, I saw Davos fighting Iron Fist.
Their battle was evenly matched. I didn't intervene.
But then I noticed more enemies approaching them—one of whom was no weaker than Davos.
Sensing danger, I chose to step in.
Dark purple energy erupted from my body.
Soul energy imbued with the ghostly power of my lineage wrapped around my left hand.
White threads formed a shape in front of me, enhanced by the energy I summoned.
A clone of threads, powered by my soul energy, appeared.
I controlled it easily and directed it toward the enemies.
My clone acted aggressively.
Without hesitation, it used its threads and physique to quickly eliminate the enemies.
The strongest one held out for a while, but my clone—reinforced by the soul energy of the Black Lotus—was far too powerful.
That energy weakened his internal force and vitality, while the white and multicolored threads attacked him from all sides.
The battle raged on for a bit as the soul-thread clone continued its carnage.
At that moment, I sensed someone approaching.
I raised my sword in their direction.
The blade extended several meters—thanks to the Kusanagi property (once belonging to Orochimaru)—and clashed directly with someone.
My eyes turned toward that area, while my other hand continued to control the clone.