The freezing cold was bone-piercing, instantly sealing the ferocious desert worm into a massive ice sculpture.
Under the silver moonlight, it reflected a sharp, crystalline sheen, clear and dazzling.
Killing intent surged in Big Chill's eyes.
It exhaled frigid air, shaping an enormous ice lion in front of itself.
First the head, then the mane, followed by the limbs… the torso and finally the tail.
"Go!" Big Chill waved its hand.
"Roar!"
The violent ice lion charged forward, trampling over frozen ground with overwhelming momentum as it rushed straight at the desert worm.
Boom!
The terrifying force shattered the worm's head in an instant, then its body, and finally its tail. Everything exploded into chunks of ice of all sizes.
Mixed with filthy flesh and blood, the fragments scattered through the air before slowly falling back to the ground.
Under such immense power, even the ice lion reached its limit. It collapsed into a pile of broken ice, lying silently across the desert.
"So strong…" The fox girl's eyes lit up. Just as expected of her chosen man.
"Hmph, he's my cousin," Gwen shot the fox girl a sideways glance.
Big Chill descended calmly to the ground.
At that moment, Blood Shadow Tiger rushed over.
"Oh man… this bug was that strong?" Blood Shadow Tiger scratched his head, staring wide-eyed at the devastation. "Looks like… the fight's already over."
"Damn it! This great hero didn't even get serious yet!"
"Hahaha, idiot," Gwen laughed loudly, clearly enjoying herself. "I saw you get smacked flying by that desert worm earlier. Who knows where you rolled off to!"
There was no helping it. Ben usually loved bullying her and watching her get mad.
Now that Ben had taken a hit, Gwen wasn't about to miss the chance to get even.
"Hey, nerd cousin! Got the guts to come down and fight me one-on-one?" Blood Shadow Tiger cracked his knuckles. "I'll beat your butt flat, heh!"
Grandpa Max walked to the edge of the castle and looked down below.
"Alright, Ben, stop messing around. Come back up with your cousin. Let's keep chatting."
Big Chill turned, ready to fly back up.
Suddenly, violent tremors shook the ground beneath the castle once again.
Big Chill's heart jolted, and it shot forward at once.
Crash!
Another desert worm burst out of the ground.
Its speed was astonishing, and its attack brutally direct.
Its sharp mouthparts tore a hole straight through the castle wall in an instant. It then burrowed inside, charging straight toward the steel nest.
Big Chill phased into an intangible form and slammed into the worm's body, trying to freeze it from within.
Frost rapidly spread across the desert worm's surface.
But its strength was immense, and the inertia it generated couldn't be stopped so easily.
The vicious desert worm was about to smash through the silver spire and harm the frost hatchlings.
Big Chill didn't hesitate. It accelerated with everything it had, streaking along the worm's body.
In the next moment, it positioned itself in front of the steel nest, raised both hands, and condensed a wall of ice.
But the desert worm was sixty to seventy meters long. Its sheer size was overwhelming.
Combined with its razor-sharp mouthparts, it smashed straight through the ice wall and surged toward the silver spire at terrifying speed.
Just as the nest was about to be destroyed—
At the critical moment, a blood-red afterimage charged in and delivered a brutal elbow strike, smashing hard into the desert worm.
Bang!
A thunderous explosion echoed in all directions.
The massive body of the desert worm was hurled violently to the side. Even so, it still shattered a corner of the silver spire before rolling out of the huge pit, kicking up a dense cloud of dust.
Blood Shadow Tiger puffed out his chest. "Hmph! You think you can hurt Cuz's kids?"
"Not a chance!"
"Roar!"
The Desert Worm's body was covered in wounds of all sizes.
Some were frostbite, some were blunt impacts, jagged and uneven.
It howled madly, trying to swallow that hateful tiger whole!
Blood Shadow Tiger didn't back down. Like a monster hunter, he shot out of the sand pit and threw himself back into the fight with the worm.
At the center of the crater, Big Chill stood beside the nest, hands trembling as it reached toward the shattered "eggshell."
Beneath the crack was thick, viscous green liquid.
It was Big Chill's bodily fluid, and also the nourishment used to incubate the hatchlings.
One after another, blue spheres with faint shimmering light floated up out of the liquid, slowly rising into the air.
More than a dozen blue spheres, smooth as luminous pearls, circled around Big Chill.
As time passed, the spheres gradually unfolded from their curled-up state, transforming into tiny blue moths.
"They're okay… thank goodness!" Big Chill's expression brightened with relief.
The lively, adorable Big Chill hatchlings had big round eyes. They fluttered their wings, chirping nonstop as they circled Big Chill.
It was like they were greeting their mommy.
"Wow… they're so cute!" the fox girl said as she walked over.
Gwen reached out and gently stroked the plump little hatchlings. "So these are Big Chill's children… that's incredible."
Big Chill watched them with deep satisfaction. "Go on. Return to your homeland."
The hatchlings nodded eagerly and started to fly toward the sky.
Then, all at once, their faces twisted with pain. Their wings beat slower and slower until they stopped entirely, and they began to fall toward the ground.
Big Chill quickly breathed out frigid air, forming a winding curtain of ice and snow in the night sky that guided the hatchlings safely back down, like a playground slide.
The hatchlings, who had been full of energy just moments ago, now looked listless, their breathing faint.
"What's going on?" Big Chill asked anxiously.
Grandpa Max ran over, panting. "It… it was probably the Desert Worm's attack. It disrupted the incubation and forced them to hatch early, weakening their vitality by a lot."
"Then what do we do, Grandpa?" Gwen asked, worried.
"I'm sorry," Grandpa Max said with a bitter smile. "I don't know Necrofriggians that well either."
"I have a way," the fox girl suddenly said.
"What way?" everyone asked in unison.
The fox girl pointed toward the nearby silver spire. "I can sense that green liquid has very pure life energy. It should help them. If they soak in it, it might restore their vitality."
After a brief pause, Big Chill picked up one hatchling and gently placed it back into the nest, letting it soak in the green liquid.
Sure enough, after a few minutes, the hatchling's eyes regained a bit of sparkle.
It was still weak, but clearly better than before.
"In that case… we'll leave them here until they recover," Big Chill said hoarsely.
"But this nest is already damaged. We can't move it easily," Grandpa Max frowned.
The fox girl nodded. "And at this rate, without a year or two, there's no way the little ones will recover."
"Then… does that mean our summer vacation is going to be ruined?" Gwen said sadly.
"Roar! No way! I'm not done having fun yet!"
After dealing with the Desert Worm, Blood Shadow Tiger rushed back, his fur a total mess.
"But Ben… Big Chill's kids are…" Grandpa Max trailed off, not sure how to say it.
Big Chill tapped the Omnitrix on its chest and reverted to Lucian.
Lucian frowned deeply, caught between two impossible choices.
He couldn't abandon the hatchlings, but he also couldn't abandon Ben and the others. What was he supposed to do?
"I'll take care of the babies!" Yenji giggled, sidling up to Lucian. "Lucian, go with Grandpa and the others. Don't worry. I can handle things here."
"You? Why?"
"Because I like kids," Yenji said, glancing around before leaning in and whispering by his ear. "And those little Big Chill hatchlings are way cuter than little foxes… and besides… they're our love's little miracle…"
Lucian's forehead twitched.
Still, since the fox girl was willing, he wasn't about to refuse out of pride.
Her combat strength wasn't weak. Protecting the hatchlings would be more than manageable for her.
Lucian had originally planned to stay behind and watch over the nest himself.
But the road ahead was long.
There were still plenty of dangers waiting for Ben and the others, and Lucian couldn't fully relax.
He took a deep breath, walked up to Yenji, and for the first time, hugged her on his own initiative.
"Thanks. You've worked hard. Be careful."
Yenji froze, then nodded in a daze.
He… he hugged me first.
What kind of day is today?!
I'm so happy!
In the end, after careful discussion, everyone decided to set off again.
Still, Lucian wasn't comfortable leaving the fox girl alone here.
So he had Grandpa contact the Plumber Headquarters and reach out to Aranhascimmia.
That's right—the planet of the Spidermonkey.
After defeating the Great One—the giant stinking bug—Lucian had met Spidermonkey Erik, an Aranhascimmia native.
Back then, there had been four guards inside the Great One.
They were Tygon.
Spidermonkey Erik.
Red Spikesnake.
Chamalien.
Since only Erik's planet survived and the others had been destroyed by the Great One, all four guards now stayed on Aranhascimmia.
After Lucian defeated the Great One, Tygon and the others revered him as the "New Great One."
With the New Great One giving the order, they naturally wouldn't refuse.
And since Lucian had helped Erik get revenge by personally killing the Great One, Erik came to help as well.
The four powerful guards arrived together and stationed themselves near the nest.
They protected the fox girl while also guarding the Big Chill hatchlings.
Ordinary aliens wouldn't stand a chance against them.
Only after settling everything at the nest did Lucian finally feel at ease. He walked back to the Rustbucket with Ben and the others, continuing toward their next destination.
"Long live the Great One!"
"Long live the Great One!"
...Tygon and the others shouted from behind.
The fox girl stood in the desert, her skirt fluttering in the wind. Grinning wide, she raised her voice and shouted, "Long live Ice Mama!"