Chapter 102: The Goddess in Leopard Print

Unless absolutely necessary, Yin Seventeen did not want to wield that external force. Yet at this moment, Quetzalcoatl stood invincible, and Arudiba could barely hold him back. As for the other two Gold Saints, no reinforcements had arrived yet, likely detained by the other two deities whose wills had descended.

He could scarcely see any hope of victory for the Sanctuary side.

Once Arudiba fell, and the Feathered Serpent Goddess freed her hands, all of them would be doomed.

While he hesitated, Arudiba and his companion had already crashed to the ground along with the shattered tower spire.

Quetzalcoatl pinched his chin, curling his lips into a smirk. “Those two are suppressed and unable to move. Now, what will you do?”

“Ah, I must remind you—”

“The pyramid’s energy is nearly fully charged. When that moment comes, I will open the ‘Gate of Space-Time’ and let my true form descend into this world.”

“Your time is running out!”

This body could not fully unleash her power, but precisely because of that, she could savor the thrill of battle against such an opponent.

Once her true form arrived, opponents like this would be meaningless.

Arudiba spoke with solemn resolve, “I know I am no match for you, but I will not give up.”

“For Lady Athena, for the peace of the Earth, I will fight until the very last moment!”

“Hope forever dwells in my heart!”

He struck his chest fiercely, the clash of gauntlet and breastplate ringing crisp and clear.

“Excellent, a fine expression! I like that! Come, let me see if your will is truly as steadfast as you claim!” Quetzalcoatl smiled faintly and beckoned him with a curl of his finger.

“Roar—”

Arudiba let out a furious roar and charged forward like a mighty bull.

To the northeast, Aquarius Camus was also locked in a fierce struggle.

The brown-haired girl guarding the pyramid had summoned the will of a god—Tescatl Tezcatlipoca, the God of Darkness, the Invisible God—manifesting here in the mortal realm.

She was a short-haired woman clad in a leopard doll costume, wielding an adorably shaped staff topped with what appeared to be a furry toy cat’s paw.

Though she appeared whimsical and frivolous, her strength was formidable, her movements agile, much like a leopard hunting in the jungle.

For a time, Camus and his companion were utterly overwhelmed, unable to mount any counterattack.

Fortunately, they still had Daedalus, the Seventh Sense Silver Saint, aiding them, and with Camus’s icy barrier defense, the situation was not entirely dire.

“You two only defend and never attack—that’s terribly dull!” The leopard-costumed woman halted her assault and wagged a finger at them.

However, she had forgotten that it was not unwillingness on Camus’s part to attack, but that her strikes were so rapid and fierce that they left him and his ally only enough strength to parry, with no chance to counter.

“How about we play an interesting game?” she said to herself, gathering a vast amount of small cosmos energy in her hand.

“Dark Forest.”

Before Camus and his companion could react, the cosmos energy in her hand transformed into drifting black mist, spreading to envelop hundreds of meters around them in utter darkness.

Except for the faint glow emitted by their Saints’ Cloths, no light remained.

As they braced themselves tensely, the leopard-costumed goddess’s ethereal voice drifted through the darkness.

“I hide within the dark. If you can find me, you win!”

Camus’s face grew stern, silent, as he quietly released his Sixth Sense, tracking the voice.

Alas, his Root Realm perception barely extended two meters before losing direction, swallowed by the endless darkness.

“Be careful, this is no ordinary black mist—it can obscure even my Root Realm perception!” Camus whispered a warning to Daedalus behind him.

“Understood,” Daedalus nodded, gripping a chain and cautiously maintaining their defense.

At that moment, a whistling wind stirred the air.

“Death Claws.”

Sharp nails gleamed coldly in the darkness, tracing shimmering arcs that encircled the two.

Clang clang clang!

Chains wrapped around Daedalus’s wrists suddenly surged, encircling them repeatedly to form a dense, impenetrable barrier that blocked the luminous arcs from the darkness.

Yet, though the leopard-costumed goddess seemed frivolous and eccentric, she was nonetheless a deity—one of the mighty gods of Aztec mythology, second only to Quetzalcoatl.

Her charged strike from within the darkness was not so easily repelled.

Crack crack crack!

As the chains met the arcs, a pained wail echoed from the metal.

Cracks appeared where the chains collided with the arcs.

Though Daedalus had reached the Seventh Sense realm, he still wore the Silver Saint Cloth.

If even Arudiba’s Gold Cloth could not withstand a divine strike, the chains of a Silver Cloth were even more vulnerable.

The cracks rapidly widened, spreading along the entire length of the chains until, with a loud bang, they shattered into fragments scattering through the air.

However, thanks to Daedalus’s brief defense, Camus had already amassed his cosmos energy.

This was the tacit cooperation they had built up through the earlier battle.

He raised both hands, fists clenched together forming the shape of a vase.

At the instant the chains shattered, he swung his arms downward, aiming the vase’s mouth toward the direction of the incoming arcs.

“Mercy of the Dawn Goddess.”

In an instant, the ghostly image of a goddess holding a vase appeared behind Camus.

Then his cosmos energy transformed into an intense cold wind that surged forth from the mouth of the vase, meeting the arcs head-on.

It was his ultimate technique, using freezing air said to reach absolute zero to freeze all tangible and intangible things alike.

Crack crack crack!

The arcs froze instantly upon contact, then clattered down to the ground.

“Eh?”

From within the darkness, the leopard-costumed goddess was taken aback; she had not expected Camus’s freezing technique to be so effective.

Whoosh!

The cold wind continued unabated from the vase as Camus slowly turned, centering on their foothold, relentlessly releasing the freezing air deeper into the darkness.

Since they could not detect her location, they might as well freeze everything around.

In an instant, except for their immediate foothold, hundreds of meters around them were encased in ice.

“Amazing freezing power—I never imagined you could freeze even my body!” The darkness dispersed, revealing the leopard-costumed goddess trapped within the ice.

She communicated to them telepathically.

Having been found this way, maintaining the ‘Dark Forest’ was now pointless.

Yet, as the God of the Invisible, she possessed countless transformation abilities.

Still, being frozen solid by this extreme cold caused her to marvel.

“But if you think such freezing power alone can defeat me, you are sorely mistaken!”

She ignited her cosmos and began exerting force in all directions, the two instantly hearing crisp cracking sounds echoing from the ice around them.