The Claymore carved an arc through the air, striking the Valkyrie swiftly and sending her flying once more.
Around Nolan, however, thousands of butterflies began to gather. They beat their delicate wings, drifting and circling him in a beautiful, spectacular display.
Their wings were a vivid red, standing in stark contrast to the ice and snow around them.
There were so many of them they could not be counted, as if they had taken over the entire sky.
Nolan stood where he was, his gaze drawn to the beautiful sight.
He noticed that the Ionian Butterflies were growing more and more numerous, gradually filling the sky. Even the ice field ahead had become crowded with them.
That mountain of butterflies completely hid the Valkyrie from view, making it impossible to see her clearly.
Nolan's brows furrowed slightly. He realized this might be the prelude to the Valkyrie's bloom.
But that rare expression was not fear of her power. It was exasperation, because this woman really did have something wrong with her head.
He was the very fire that had been suppressing the Goddess all along. Those fluttering butterflies should have wanted nothing more than to stay as far away from him as possible. Yet what happened next was somewhat different from what he had expected.
Nolan raised the Claymore, preparing to burn those swarming Ionian Butterflies clean with flame, only to see the butterflies in front of him gather in greater and greater numbers.
The expected scarlet flower did not bloom as he had imagined. Malenia stood quietly upon the ice field like a defiled angel.
Drawn together by some mysterious force, the Ionian Butterflies clustered densely, eventually tracing the shape of a pair of wings behind her back.
"You didn't bloom, yet you still turned into this. Don't tell me you and that Goddess made some shady deal."
A sigh rang out as countless Ionian Butterflies scattered.
Across the ice field, flames ignited out of thin air. The burning fire swallowed the butterflies, reducing them to ash in an instant.
The Valkyrie became stronger, taller, more majestic, and more sacred, yet the Crimson Flower did not appear.
Without warning, Malenia had taken on a more divine form. But it was still obvious that her body remained under her own control, not the Scarlet Goddess's.
Nolan very much wanted to rub his brow. The power of the Demigod and the deity had reached an unprecedented unity, yet the Scarlet Goddess dwelling within Malenia seemed to be hiding, afraid to show herself.
This should have been an excellent opportunity. Now, without any ancient and complicated ritual, the Scarlet Goddess could have easily occupied the Valkyrie's body and returned to the Lands Between she had long yearned for.
But at this moment, she seemed shrouded in some unknown fear, curled up inside that body as though she did not dare break through that boundary.
Nolan stood in place, the blade in his hand still not fully raised. Instead of rushing toward the enemy, he quietly stared at everything before him.
His eyes were wide, his expression focused to the extreme.
The purpose of this battle was to decide victory or defeat, not life or death. To be honest, he did not like meaningless conflict, but whether a conflict had meaning was never something one person could decide alone.
At that moment, the Scarlet Goddess descended as expected. This should have been the moment a god had dreamed of. She should have openly occupied that Demigod's body and claimed it as her own.
But she did not. In other words, she was practically handing her power over for Malenia to use for free.
"She doesn't want to vanish at this moment, and I happen to need power right now."
Malenia should not have been able to bloom so easily. Her bloom at Leyndell had been her first.
But while millions of lives could not threaten the Scarlet Goddess, Nolan could. In essence, he had already surpassed the existence of Demigods and deities.
Malenia's wings slowly opened like a blooming flower, radiating a divine and terrifying power.
Yet she skillfully contained that power within her body, not allowing even the slightest trace to leak out.
One could imagine what kind of disaster would befall all of Elphael if that power fully erupted. Likely, countless people would be infected by it and transformed into terrifying monsters.
Trina stood atop the treetop canopy, her body trembling slightly, sweat sliding down her forehead in thin streams.
Even with her mind, she could not make herself completely calm.
Before this, Trina had firmly believed that the Scarlet Goddess's return required at least three blooms of the Crimson Flower.
But now, this was only the second time, and the flower had not even bloomed, yet Malenia had already assumed the Goddess's form.
She bit her lip so hard it split, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.
Her once-beautiful eyes were now wide open, filled with terror and unease.
"The Scarlet Rot has already lost to Nolan several times. This time won't be any different!" Trina silently told herself. "Then Malenia will sleep as she always does and come back to me again..."
Just as that thought flashed through Trina's mind, her gaze fell on Nolan. She saw him lift his foot without hesitation, preparing to step forward.
"But seriously. Hey, I'm really going to get angry. Doing something this worrying on your own."
Without the slightest hesitation, Nolan raised the Promised Claymore. The blade radiated pure white light, and the same divine power poured out from the sword.
It was like someone had suddenly lit the lamp of a watchtower over a dark sea, illuminating the entire ocean until it was bright as day.
But the light was not dazzling. On the contrary, Malenia even felt a trace of warmth from it, like an exceedingly rare sun.
Even so, the threat carried by that beam of light was unmistakably real. The fleeting pillar of light instantly reduced everything along its path to nothingness.
Although Malenia had reached a brief cooperation with the Goddess of Rot, Nolan was not fighting alone either. Even though the Gentle Goddess was not by his side, her light had never left Nolan.
Trina's light!
Under the radiance of that pure light, the charging Scarlet Goddess suddenly came to a stop.
It was as if a boss had just completed its transformation and revealed its strongest form, only to be slapped hard across the face before it could even throw out a few threatening lines.
"Ahhh!"
Nolan heard a roar erupt from within the Valkyrie. The voice was filled with extreme humiliation and resentment.
One could imagine what a disgrace it was for the power of a mighty god to be suppressed again and again by the same nameless nobody.
Because the Demigod and the deity had already completed their fusion, even though the light contained the power to expel an Outer God, it could not change Malenia's current form.
Malenia was the one in control of this body, and the Scarlet Goddess did not want to go back. She was very satisfied with this Demigod's body. The reason she did not fully occupy it was the man standing before her.
If she could borrow this Demigod's hands to kill that man, then she would be completely liberated.
But if she gave up now, it would mean having to perform that long and complicated ritual all over again.
"Still, getting this far isn't a bad thing." Nolan's lips lifted, revealing a row of white teeth, a smile still hanging on his face. "Since that's the case, let me help you eliminate this threat."