Chapter 1478: Hateful Flames

The ship began tilting to the side. Once that reality sank in, the engineers attacked. None of them could even dream of touching Diana, who turned them to ice with a wave of her hand.

Malrik followed after her. He realized her goal after she rushed through the other room, and froze another engine. The ship began tilting dangerously to the side, almost crashing into the other ships.

"Are you going to freeze all of them?" he asked as they jumped down another corridor that ran to the other side of the ship. This one was used by engineers.

"I want to bring this place down," she said before kicking another door open.

As the two of them jumped into the engine rooms on the other side, a figure flew from the other side of the room and slammed into the wall next to them. Malrik thought it was one of the engineers, but as the knife dropped from the hurled figure, he froze.

It was one of their knives.

Malrik rushed to the figure’s side and pulled him.

"Malrik," the elf said with a smile. There was blood trickling down his forehead. "You found Princess Diana."

Malrik wanted to ask, but he heard a scream from behind him. One of the other elves, disguised as engineers, was pierced through the chest by a Surneth warrior’s weapon.

"What happened here?" Diana asked as she looked at the three warriors and the bodies on the ground.

"One of the engineers managed to escape and alert them," the elf said weakly as he looked at the masked warriors. "Be careful. Their abilities are endless."

Just as the elf finished his words, one of the warriors became a blur as he ran up the walls and jumped at them. He waved his weapon, aiming to kill Diana.

Malrik grabbed the knife on the ground and jumped. He struck the blade away, letting it slam into the ceiling. Before he could steady himself, the Surneth grabbed him by the throat and began choking him.

Malrik stabbed with his knife, but it seemed like he was stabbing into a pond of water. There was no blood and no reaction from the masked monster.

The elf was losing consciousness, but he couldn’t release himself because of the ice casts on his arms. They limited his mobility and made him flail like a fish out of the water.

Boom!

A giant ice spear slammed into the Surneth in the chest and sent him flying. It struck the walls and tore through them, impaling the monster to the metal plates.

Despite being pierced by such an attack, the Surneth appeared unfazed as he tried to free himself. Again, no blood came out. Diana waved her hand again, and the ice extended to the rest of the monster.

The other two warriors moved at the same time their comrade was impaled. They rushed toward Diana and ignored the others, recognizing her as the biggest threat among them.

One of them waved his sword, sending blades of wind at her.

The other pushed his hands against each other and a swarm of leeches emerged from his sleeves.

Diana was surrounded from both sides, but she prioritized protecting Malrik and the elf. She created a wall of ice, but it cracked as the blades of wind struck it.

"These warriors... use mana," Malrik said.

"That’ll make it more difficult to throw them off," Diana muttered with a frown. "But I don’t have time for this."

Diana took a step back and her wings unfurled. They burned brighter than any flames that Malrik had seen before. Once the ice shattered, Diana rushed forward. She didn’t run, but flew across the room.

Her wings were longer than the room could take, and the tongues of flames burned through the walls and engines. Everything melted once the flames touched them, then froze, and then disintegrated into nothing.

The ship tilted further, this time forward.

Diana collided with the two monsters who weren’t prepared for her outburst or the ship’s sudden movements. Her wings flashed, and the two monsters turned to ashes.

Malrik stood dazed as he stared at the princess landing on the far end, and then kicking the door open. Before he could even react, she was already out of the door.

"Go with her!" the elf shouted. "I’ll heal the rest!"

Malrik nodded and gave chase. He followed after Diana to the last engine room, and saw her standing at the door. Standing next to the engine was none other than Invidia and his warriors.

There were fifty of them.

"I expected no less from you," Invidia said as he stared at the woman.

"You think a few masked monsters can stop me?" Diana asked with a laugh, and her wings unfurled. The heat rose inside the engine room, making Malrik’s sweat vaporize.

"I can tell that you’re desperate. I did my research, Princess of Ice and Fire. Your relationship with your father can only be described as rotten. You hate him more than anything, well, except for the flames he has given you."

Malrik didn’t know that, and stared at Diana’s expressionless face. He had indeed never seen her use the flames before now. He couldn’t understand why, as a warrior, since the flames were stronger than anything he had seen.

"The fact that you used them here is because you’re desperate. If you ask me, then I’d say you’re a hypocrite," he said. "You use the same flames that killed your mother."

The temperature rose, but for some strange reason, the ground was being covered with ice. Malrik stared with confusion at the princess, whose expression had always remained a mystery to him.

But this time, he could tell.

She was enraged.

Diana didn’t answer Invidia, who commanded his guards to attack. The fifty warriors rushed forward, and Malrik expected an all-out battle. However, the guards turned to ashes or frozen statues the moment they approached Diana.

"I think," Diana said as she raised her hand. "You’ve dwindled for far too long in this story."

Malrik saw a sphere form in front of her palm. The sphere was a mix of blue and red. It seemed to be in harmony, but as it grew, Malrik knew that something bad was about to happen.

"Have you lost your goddamn mind?" Invidia shouted. "You’re going to kill everyone, including yourself!"

"I’ll live," Diana said with a smirk. "But let’s see if you do."

The sphere exploded, unleashing a torrent of ice and fire. The two of them clashed against each other and then exploded outward in every direction. Invidia screamed something, but he simply jumped out of the window.

Fire and ice engulfed the entire ship. Malrik thought he was going to die, but for some reason, the ice reached him first and turned him into a statue.

He could still hear the world outside, feel the walls melt, and the floor turning to ice. Malrik felt he was trapped inside the ice for eternity, but somehow, he didn’t need to breathe. His wounds healed, and his mind calmed.

A few minutes later, or quite possibly a millennium of waiting, the ice cracked and Malrik snapped his eyes open. He was on the ground, staring at the sky.

Flames rose around him, blue and calming. They worked to melt down the ice that encased him. He moved his arms, and the broken bones had healed themselves.

Malrik looked around, and saw the wreckage of the ship. They had crashed the ship, and the explosion tore it inside out. Hunks of metal littered the ground, as the sound of battle still rang in his ears.

"What happened?" he asked as he rose. As he looked around, he found more people. The elves somehow survived too, but everyone else was either shattered or burned alive.

Malrik began looking for Diana, and only found her after climbing the wreckage. She was flung aside, also encased in ice. Since she was the closest to the explosion, the ice had yet to melt.

"Bring any flaming part here!" shouted Malrik.

The elves rushed to work. Any burning parts of the ship were carried to where Diana was. They erected a bonfire around her, and it was enough to make the ice start melting away.

Then, she was released from the ice with a crack.

Diana fell to the ground, and then opened her eyes.

She looked around, studying the wreckage, and then Malrik and the elves.

"I’m glad you’re not dead," she said with a rare smile. "What happened to Invidia?"

"I don’t know," Malrik said. "How... did you save us from the explosion?"

"Fire destroys, but ice protects," Diana said as she rose from the ground. "I simply froze you before the blast reached you. It was enough to protect you from the impact."

"I see," Malrik said with a nod. "We need to flee for now."

"Not yet," she said. "Invidia... isn’t dead."

Malrik was confused as he then heard a distant scream. He turned his head back, and found something rising from the wreckage. It wasn’t human, but an unknown creature of black tar.

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