Bilak kicked aside Zhaoming, who was curled at his feet, and with his longsword drew a light stroke beneath the jaw of the Violet Lightning Dragon.
It was obvious he thoroughly enjoyed the effortless battle against the two divine dragons, savoring the mockery of opponents too weak to threaten him—it filled him with utter satisfaction.
A heaven-shaking roar tore across the icefield, reverberating along the frontline where the two vast armies had once more locked into a stalemate.
Belakor nimbly sidestepped another claw strike from the Violet Lightning Dragon and withdrew gracefully.
"Miaoying, I've had my fun.
The essence of Ursun's power has already been forced out by that outsider. Even if you fight me to the death, won't it simply be handed to him instead?
Don't tell me you haven't smelled the stench of Slaanesh upon him!"
With that, he paid no further heed to the dragon's reaction. Abandoning the million-strong Chaos horde still locked in savage battle against the human host, his twin wings beat once—and he soared over the battlefield, racing toward the direction of Ursun's roar.
Miaoying turned her draconic head toward the struggling Zhaoming on the ground and bellowed in fury:
"Return and hold the line! Do not let a single Chaos scum escape! If they so much as touch the blood of the Bear God, not one of our soldiers will survive!"
Her voice still echoed when she had already transformed into a bolt of violet lightning, streaking after Belakor's retreating form.
The instant Roya's divine sense moved forth, before it could pierce the fog swirling around Kaido, a violent gale surged upward from beneath him.
It was Ursun's other colossal paw, lashing out from the sunken pit below, slamming toward Roya with the weight of a mountain!
"What is this bear god doing!?"
Roya's heart blazed with fury. His distaste for this so-called Bear God only deepened—yet there was nothing he could do.
Unlike the Violet Lightning Dragon earlier, this bear had no concept of allies. The warriors of its own cult whom it had incinerated in a single breath were proof enough.
Helpless, Roya had to retract his attack on Kaido, spreading a vast shield of divine will beneath him to withstand the onrushing gale.
Kaido, however, laughed wildly:
"Lord Roya! Your mercy will bring you no reward! Even a so-called bear god is nothing more than a tool to fuel your ascension with its power. Why show mercy to a mere tool!?"
As he spoke, he leapt up, hefting his massive mace to meet Ursun's crushing paw with a mighty swing.
With that motion, the mists around him abruptly flowed, streaming into the head of the mace in an instant.
The terrifying weapon, forged of unknown metal, swiftly softened and twisted, reshaping into a slender, elegant humanoid form.
The left half was distinctly male, the right half bore unmistakably feminine features.
Every movement radiated an unnatural allure, mesmerizing to behold—one could lose themselves forever in the ecstasy of its gaze.
A daemonette phantom of Slaanesh!
Borrowing the power within the fog and the unique properties of the mace's metal, the phantom had temporarily manifested in the mortal realm.
Its two seemingly delicate arms caught Ursun's devastating strike with effortless grace—not a single gust of wind escaped.
Then, as Ursun's claws faltered in shock, those arms turned incorporeal and sank directly into his flesh.
They pulled.
The pelt of the Bear God—tougher than the armor of the greatest warships—tore like fragile cloth under the phantom's divine might.
Flesh split, and golden-specked blood burst forth in torrents, gushing like a ruptured fire hydrant.
Kaido and the Beast Host beneath him were drenched, bathed in Ursun's divine blood.
All of it happened in a flash—so swift even Roya, momentarily distracted by the Slaaneshi phantom, reacted a beat too late.
Ursun, grievously wounded, erupted in pain and fury, his wrath spilling out indiscriminately.
His uninjured paw swept toward Kaido with renewed ferocity, while his slavering jaws snapped down upon Roya.
The Bear God's full strength was unleashed.
The crushing grasp upon Roya's psychic shield felt as though someone had clenched his very brain in their fist—blinding pain, stars bursting before his eyes, vertigo threatening to shatter his consciousness outright.
And with that came Ursun's deafening roar, choked with agony and rage, spattering the battlefield with foul, reeking saliva.
In Roya's mind, a vision surged unbidden—horrific and overwhelming.
He was small, powerless, pinned beneath a fully grown polar bear. Its blood-red maw, the size of a millstone, closed over his skull, teeth already piercing his scalp.
The northern Bear God Ursun, wounded and driven berserk, finally revealed the true extent of his godlike savagery.
A bite that could not only tear flesh asunder, but crush the soul itself with overwhelming force.
Even the Silent King, if caught by that maw, would see his spirit obliterated instantly, without hope of rebirth from his psychic seed.
With no other choice, Roya rallied every ounce of divine will, layering defenses upon both body and soul, forcing himself free from Ursun's grasp and staggering back.
From the abyssal pit, Ursun's mountainous form surged upward, leaping forth like a living mountain range.
His uninjured paw swept across the battlefield like a turning earth-dragon, scything toward Kaido, while his fanged jaws continued to snap at Roya.
From each crystalline-white hair of his body, a freezing wind poured forth, solidifying the very air into ice.
The still-falling droplets of divine blood froze into jagged spears, pelting down upon the Beast Host still reveling in their unholy baptism.
The Slaaneshi phantom had already faded into the void. Kaido's mace was ruined—reduced to nothing more than a twisted sculpture of elegant lines, its divine power utterly gone.
Exposed, stripped of his armor to better bathe in Ursun's blood, Kaido's defenses were drastically weakened.
Thus, even the gale stirred by Ursun's swing shredded his flesh to ribbons, bursting apart like weathered sand.
Yet Kaido felt no pain. Instead, he howled in manic ecstasy, his voice brimming with bliss:
"More! Harder! This rapture of pain—you will never truly understand!"
As Ursun's paw was about to crush his body completely, the lingering traces of Khorne's essence within him blazed to life. Like blood-soaked thorns drinking divine ichor, his broken flesh flourished anew.
And then—a new phantom descended.
Vashorr, more solid than the Slaaneshi shade before it—this time a phantom of Khorne himself!
"Lowly servant! Your sacrifice pleases me greatly!"
"How many centuries has it been since I last tasted such divine blood? Speak your desire! I shall reward you personally!"