Chapter 65: Fierce Factional Strife

Frost laced with glowing runes spread outward from the Heart of Pure Ice, encasing Lena inch by inch... While the Heart of Pure Ice offered airtight protection to its wearer, the side effects of its backlash were severely punishing.

At this moment, the holy aura within Lena's body had spun completely out of control, continuously ravaging her physical form. Until her power could recover, the Heart of Pure Ice left her with no alternative other than complete encapsulation in ice.

Her fair neck gradually grew as translucent as crystal. Lena turned her head, her gaze hardening with resolute determination as she looked toward the direction of the Demon King's Castle.

"Mino, wait for me. Next time—next time, without fail, I will rescue you from that inhumane hell within the Demon King's Castle!"

A brilliant pillar of light soared straight into the heavens!

The powerful energy unleashed by the teleportation radiated outward, sending shockwaves through both the human and demon forces stationed along the border. Tonight's operation had been conducted under the strictest secrecy by both factions... Countless scouts from both sides were instantly dispatched, rushing at breakneck speed toward the source of the disturbance.

When they arrived at the scene, only a desolate and ravaged clearing of dead silence remained.

"What on earth... happened here?" Everyone present wore expressions of utter shock.

Across the overgrown wilderness of the borderlands, the pitch-black soil was now blanketed in a thick layer of frost, transformed into patches of unrelenting glaciers... Yet, bizarrely, amidst this barren snow and ice, countless roses were growing in vibrant vitality.

"This biting chill... could it be Lady Ice Saintess?!"

Human scouts clenched their fists in excitement, feeling as though they were witnessing a historic moment.

Lately, the Saintess had been operating in secret, repeatedly devastating the encampments of the Demon King's army. Tonight, it was undoubtedly the Saintess who had struck, suppressing these vile demons beneath the glaciers!

From the darkness came the sound of fluttering bat-demon wings: "These... roses? Did Lord Chief Secretary strike in person?!"

The bat demon's tone was brimming with wild jubilation... Following the sensational triumph of capturing the hero, had the great Shadow Demon of Roses bared her fangs at humanity once more?

The voices from both sides converged, and the clearing fell briefly quiet before the air itself began to tremble—

The Ice Saintess and the Shadow Demon of Roses had engaged in a fierce clash right here! Judging by the sheer scale of the aftermath, this battle must have been unimaginably perilous and intense?!

Who was it? Who emerged as the ultimate victor?!

Both sides anxiously scanned their surroundings, yet found not a single lingering trace...

"It must be the great Saintess, Lady Lena!"

A scout soldier puffed out his chest proudly: "Protected by the Heart of Pure Ice, no demon could ever harm her noble body! That wretched arch-demon has likely exhausted all her power and scurried back to the Demon King's Castle with her tail between her legs..."

"Heh, now that's hard to say—"

At that moment, the sinister chuckle of the bat demon echoed from the opposite side of the darkness:

"No one escapes the darkness of Lord Chief Secretary. That Saintess Lena has probably fallen completely, just like the former hero..."

The scout soldier instantly widened his eyes, cursing across the border:

"Bite me!"

"I'm a demon, you bite me instead!!!"

"Lady Saintess is the strongest!"

"Lord Shadow Demon is the strongest!"

Human scouts arriving successively fell in behind the soldiers, throwing their arms into the air and chanting in unison:

"The Ice Saintess is number one in the world!"

"The Ice Saintess is number one in the world!!!"

In the darkness, pairs of demonic heads popped up, shouting back with equal fervor:

*Swish*—

Hostile gazes collided across the divide at that exact instant, the fierce eye contact practically generating visible sparks. A suffocating tension instantly filled the air... The troops stationed on both sides of the border quickly sensed this rapidly escalating atmosphere. Separated by a wide berth, all they could hear was the fierce confrontation raging between the scouts.

"Prepare yourselves!!!"

Within the border garrison, the commanding human knight wore a grave expression.

Scouts served as the vanguard for mutual probing between the two powers, yet now neither side was willing to yield an inch. Had the conflict escalated to this extent already?!

Overwhelmed by shock, the commanding knight felt a weight heavier than ever before:

"Could it be that tonight... an all-out war is about to break out?!"

—What on earth were they even fighting about?!

...

"Lady Cletina, it appears our plan was a success!"

Inside the Demon King's Castle, after carefully sensing the fluctuations, Swir said with a hint of delight: "The energy signature of the Saintess Lena has vanished from the border. She has suffered the backlash of the Heart of Pure Ice!"

Cletina let out a slight sigh of relief:

"It seems our intelligence dealt Lena a fatal blow... At this point, Lena must harbor a profound misunderstanding regarding Mino."

"This is precisely what we wished to see." Swir nodded, but just as he was about to continue, the pages of his book twitched slightly:

"What is the meaning of this... Lady Cletina, the human camp and the Demon King's army are suddenly mobilizing troops with unprecedented speed... Are they about to launch an all-out war?!"

"What? At a time like this?"

Cletina was somewhat taken aback. Although Lena had lost her combat capability, she herself had consumed a massive amount of magic to execute tonight's plan.

If the Archmage of the Kingdom were presiding over the border right now, the demon high command would actually be at a disadvantage in elite power!

"Which side provoked this?" Cletina furrowed her brow deeply, utterly baffled.

With Lena out of commission, the human side shouldn't be feeling nearly that bold.

"I don't know..." Swir cast his perception across various sectors of the battlefield, looking thoroughly bewildered:

"For reasons unknown, they (both sides) have started ranking combat tiers."

"As a side note, Lady Cletina, you are currently ranked T0."

Cletina fell into a brief silence... pondering the potential traps hidden within this development.

The greatest threat that demanded vigilance was Chief拉克 of the Round Tower, who had yet to show his face. Even by channeling the grand array of the Demon King's Castle, Cletina could not detect a single trace of his presence—as if he did not exist at all.

Cletina's expression grew even more solemn:

"Issue the order immediately. The Demon King's army is not to make any rash moves."

"This could well be a human trap!"

...

At the border, the commanding knight waited anxiously for news, but for reasons unknown, every scout sent out vanished like clay oxen sinking into the sea, failing to return from the border for ages!

The commotion in the distance grew increasingly intense. Just as the commanding knight was struggling over whether to deploy troops to the scene, a round-collared logistics mage hurried over:

"Sir Knight, our sound-transmission magic has picked up a fragment of intelligence from the border!"

"Speak!" The commanding knight snapped to attention, urging him eagerly.

The round-collared mage's expression also turned somewhat vacant as he stammered:

"T-they are debating... whether Mino the Hero and the Demon King should be classified into a separate tier entirely!!!"

"What?!" The commanding knight's pupils dilated violently.

He had originally assumed a large-scale skirmish had simply broken out at the border, but now it had somehow dragged in the strongest hero in human history and a Demon King who had survived for nearly a millennium?!

"Sound the horns! Everyone fall back within the defensive lines! No unauthorized actions!"

The commanding knight sank back into his chair, lingering dread in his heart as he muttered under his breath:

"This is highly likely... a demon trap!"