Cronus' system: Against the gods

Chapter 169: The Silver Savior

Jax watched in frozen horror as the ice blade descended toward his throat, its razor-sharp edge glinting under the dim, flickering lights. The air was thick with frost, each breath like needles in his lungs. His body was numb, unresponsive, a prisoner of the cold.

"No. Not now. Not like this."

His mind screamed, but his limbs refused to obey.

"I... I still have so much left to do..." His thoughts raced, frantic and desperate. "I haven’t perfected my latest design. I haven’t uncovered the full potential of my cybernetics. I haven’t... I haven’t even lived yet."

His breath hitched, a sudden wave of sorrow crashing over him.

"I still have an apprentice to mentor. A legacy to leave behind. A wife, perhaps, to marry..."

His fingers twitched weakly, the strain sending bolts of agony through his frozen nerves. He clenched his teeth, forcing the pain aside.

"Move, dammit!"

A guttural cry left his throat as he willed every fiber of his being to respond. But his body remained stiff, his strength buried beneath layers of relentless ice.

The blade was inches away now.

This was it.

Death was not a theory to be studied or a probability to be calculated. It was here, now, in the hands of an enemy who saw him as nothing more than an inconvenience to be erased.

Then....

Clink!

A sudden metallic clash rang out, slicing through the frozen tension.

Jax’s unfocused vision caught the sight of steel meeting ice, two weapons locking in a violent embrace. A powerful force followed—a sharp, brutal impact that sent the old man stumbling backward, his ice blade barely holding form in his grip.

"Arghh—!" The old man growled, staggering as his balance faltered. His weathered face twisted in a mix of shock and rage.

Jax’s breath came in shallow gasps as his sluggish brain caught up to reality.

Someone had intervened.

His mind spun, desperately grasping for clarity, but before he could fully process the situation....he could feel it

The Aura.

Powerful. Overwhelming. Undeniable.

A raw force pressed against his senses, flooding the battlefield with a pressure so immense it made his skin prickle with unease. His eyelids fluttered, muscles twitching as he fought to lift his head. His vision was still hazy, but he forced himself to look at his savior.

Silver hair, long and flowing, cascading like a river of moonlight.

Pale skin, almost luminescent in the dim light.

His breath hitched. A woman? No...a girl. Young, yet radiating a power that sent the air itself shuddering.

His gaze drifted to her hands, and his heart stuttered.

They burned.

Blazing with an unearthly blue energy, shifting and pulsating like a living thing. The raw power swirled around her fists, sculpting itself into gauntlets of pure, crackling force. And then, as if the very air bent to her will, the energy stretched and forged itself into a blade—a sleek, glowing sword that hummed with restrained fury in her grip.

Who...?

Jax barely had time to process before a strangled gasp escaped the old man’s lips.

The Valenbrook Agent stood frozen, his lined face paling as his weathered hands trembled against his ice blade. Shock. No...disbelief.

As if the very foundations of his reality had cracked beneath his feet.

"N-No..." the old man breathed, his pupils shrinking. His mind refused to accept what his eyes were witnessing. A hallucination? A cruel trick of the light? No. She was real. She was here.

And she was against him.

Without wasting another second, he lunged—his blade a streak of deadly silver, aimed straight at Jax’s exposed chest.

A clean kill. Quick. Efficient.

And then—

"ARGH!"

A searing, electrifying pain exploded in his ribs.

His body catapulted backward, slamming through a table, wood and steel shattering on impact. Chairs tumbled, dust rising in the air like an aftershock of the sheer force that had struck him.

He gasped, clutching his ribs, eyes wide with disbelief. What... what just happened?!

Through blurred vision, he looked up...

Seraphina hadn’t moved an inch.

But her sword was still raised. Its glow now seething.

And her eyes...

No longer indifferent. No longer cold.

But fierce. Unforgiving. A storm raging beneath silver irises.

She had chosen a side.

A shudder ran through the old man’s spine. Pain pulsed from his ribs where the invisible force had struck him, a deep, throbbing agony that made his breath come out ragged. His body screamed at him to stay down, but years of conditioning forced him to push through the pain. He stumbled to his feet, his grip tightening around his ice blade.

This was wrong. This was all wrong.

Seraphina wasn’t supposed to be this powerful. She was a rebellious noble, a wild card at best, but never had she been an actual threat. He had watched her grow up, seen the cold indifference in her eyes whenever the Valenbrook elders dictated her future. She had always been stubborn but never dangerous.

Yet now...

Now, the air around her pulsed with a presence that made his blood run cold.

This wasn’t just raw talent.

This was overwhelming.

Dominating.

Godlike.

His instincts screamed at him to retreat, but he grit his teeth, steeling himself. No. He was a Valenbrook agent, an elite of the family. He couldn’t afford to be shaken—not even by her.

He exhaled sharply and surged forward, his ice blade flashing in the dim light. Frost trailed in his wake, the very air hissing as the temperature plummeted around him. His blade moved like a viper, twisting and snapping toward Seraphina with precision honed over decades of combat.

But she was faster.

Much faster.

With a flick of her wrist, Seraphina deflected his strike with almost contemptuous ease, her energy-forged sword leaving behind a sharp, crackling afterimage.

The old man’s breath caught in his throat. Impossible!

He adjusted, twisting his blade mid-strike to redirect the attack, but before he could gain an inch, Seraphina was already a step ahead. She closed the distance in a blink, her glowing gauntlet slamming into his chest like a cannonball.

The force behind it was monstrous.

"GAH—!"

His body crumpled under the impact, ribs creaking under the sheer power of the blow. He was sent flying backward once again, slamming into a nearby wall with a sickening crack. The stone trembled from the impact, debris raining down as dust filled the air.

His mind reeled, his vision swimming.

How...?

How was she this strong? I’m an expert level ability user! Of a much higher realm! Just how!