Ice Vapor Goddess

Chapter 24 Thunder and Fire

Xilun gripped the city wall, the biting wind making his robes flutter.

He had to admit that Ryan Hoffman was a man of great spirit, and if he were an ordinary soldier, he might have liked such a superior officer. After confirming that guns and artillery could not cause any damage, he charged at the ice man like an eagle swooping down to hunt.

His intact left hand held a military knife, like an eagle's claw.

How fast can you fall at high speed from a 20-meter-high city wall?

In just a moment, people saw the black figure land directly on the ice man.

A streak of azure light flashed, accompanied by a flurry of falling snow, and white mist rose like mushrooms, enveloping the two of them.

How's it going?

The soldiers waited anxiously.

A few seconds later, the white mist gradually dissipated, leaving only half of the military knife. The half held in his hand flickered with blue lightning. Rein stood behind the ice man, who had been cut in half at the waist.

The saber did not touch the metal projectile inside the weapon. At the moment of high-speed contact, Rein used an uncanny technique to dodge the metal inside the weapon, and then cut it in two with a twisted wound.

However, the extreme cold inside the Iceman's body caused the military knife to become brittle and break, and Rein's left arm was covered with a thick layer of frost.

"Ha..." He exhaled a breath of deep blue gas, and then his body suddenly burst out with a fine burst of lightning, his joints made a cracking sound, and a large amount of cold air was dispelled.

The soldiers on the city wall erupted in thunderous cheers, especially those who had been locked outside the gates, who were so eager to hug the governor and thank him for saving their lives.

He closed the city gates only to ensure the safety of Speyside, but he never cared about his own safety. He kept his soldiers outside while charging into the front lines with knives.

Xiren smiled. "An interesting fellow."

But at that moment, the ice man's half-body suddenly twitched, and a large amount of snowflakes were drawn in, as if this place was a funnel for wind and snow, from which ice and snow and storms poured into another world!
Raine was caught off guard. The white snow obscured everything, and the light from the mage tower dimmed, clearly unable to maintain the windless and snowless barrier.

The two halves of the ice man's body gradually merged in the wind and snow, coming back together, and his facial expression became vivid, with his mouth appearing.

He slightly opened his mouth and said in a language incomprehensible to mortals: "∴……∞…………"

The words were like the resounding tolling of a great bell, like a primordial ritual from ancient times, as if bronze chimes were ringing, and gods and flames rose into the sky together. The world was overturned by disaster, and madmen and prophets danced wildly.

"Boom!!!" The newly formed body was violently shattered. Rein clenched his left fist, and terrifying lightning directly shattered the ice man's body.

Even the bullets and shells inside his body flew out, some of them hitting Rein's muscles, but only making a "clanging" sound, as if they had hit another steel plate.

The ice man shattered into countless ice crystals, but it didn't seem to be dead yet, still gathering in the wind and snow!

At that moment, prayers rang out on the city walls, and golden mist unfolded into a painting. On top of that, a third painting was almost taking shape, with only the campfire faintly visible at the moment.

“I have come to throw fire on the ground, and if it has already caught fire, will I not want it to be so?”

The golden-red sacred flame suddenly ignited! Standing firm in the wind and snow, Rein paused for a moment as he was about to throw a punch, looking towards Xilun on the city wall.

The sacred flame disrupted the gathering of wind and snow, and crackling lightning spread along the convergence point of the wind and snow. Under the intertwining of thunder and fire, the wind and snow in the sky were shattered with a bang!

The enormous white funnel began to crumble from the bottom, with red fire and blue lightning flashing intermittently, before it collapsed violently, turning into endless snow mist.

Raine emitted white steam from his body, resembling a human-shaped steam engine; snow that came near his scorching body would instantly vaporize. Finally, the snow stopped condensing, and the eerie ice man seemed to have truly died.

After looking around and making sure there were no problems, Ryan squatted down, exerted his strength, and jumped onto the twenty-meter-high city wall!

The soldiers greeted their governor with enthusiastic applause, and the knights behind Siron also clapped, but they were cheering for him.

Ryan pulled a cigar from his trouser pocket, which was hard to believe was still intact after such a fierce battle—and then lit it with a flash of electricity.

"The cleanup team is going down to clean up the battlefield, and the fourth combat squad is also going down to ensure that all hidden dangers are eliminated and ammunition and metal are recovered. I need to see reports from the Mage Tower and the General Staff within three days."

He said this, and a guard came over to drape the black military uniform over him. Then, with a cigar in his mouth, he walked down the wooden stairs of the city wall.

He ignored Xilun as if the one who had just attacked him was a stranger.

Xilun pursed his lips and saw a soldier not far away whose left hand had been injured by a barrel explosion. So he cast a Holy Light on him, and the filth and bacteria on the wound fell off like snowflakes, and granulation tissue grew at a visible speed, and the wound quickly scabbed over.

With the third sacred relic half-formed, his [Holy Healing] even possessed a certain effect of cleansing and sterilizing.

After the treatment was completed, he didn't care whether the soldiers responded or expressed their gratitude, and led his knights down the city wall.

------

On the way, he kept thinking about the strange ice man. It seemed to have some kind of connection with this snowstorm. When it arrived, the snowstorm was even more intense, and when it was injured, the snowstorm would repair its body.

Perhaps... it has something to do with the moon in the sky.

He looked up at the ice-blue "moon" that always hung in the same position in the sky.

The wind and snow raged again, obscuring the sky. Siron wrapped himself in a long robe, strode across the street, and pushed open the door to enter the cathedral.

The church was much emptier by now, with only a few people left to clean up, sweeping away excrement and ashes.

In the morning, after learning that he owned part of the residential area, he asked Mathilde to help settle the civilians, most of whom left with their livestock.

Upon seeing Xilun return, several women who had stayed behind to clean bowed their heads and made the sign of the cross, looking ashamed, as if their unauthorized work here was a trouble for others.

"Why are you cleaning here? Aren't you going home?" Xiren asked.

A woman dressed in a coarse cloth skirt quickly explained, "Your Excellency, we stayed here voluntarily! Madam Mathilde arranged homes for us, but we're so sorry the church is so dirty..."

They were carrying rags and brushes, and the bucket contained melted snow water mixed with soap; they were clearly very skilled.

But Xilun felt a pang of pity; they might have gotten used to working for free, but he couldn't accept it with a clear conscience.

He pulled Joseph, who had somehow followed him, aside and said to the women, “After cleaning the church, each of you will receive one shilling. After that, I will hire female cleaners, and if you are willing, I will give you priority.”

They all expressed their surprise: "Your Excellency! We are only doing this out of piety and gratitude, we really don't need any payment..."

But Siren slammed his fist on the table and said, "Labor should be rewarded! Remember that! If I were to write a holy book, this would be the first rule!"

The women readily agreed, but as Siron stroked the silver shilling in his hand, more thoughts began to surface in his mind.

(End of this chapter)