Strax remained motionless in the sky for several seconds.
Below him, the landscape no longer looked the same.
The wave that had crossed that region had been evaporated by White Fire, leaving behind a vast stretch of soaked land covered in steam. Rivers had completely escaped their channels, small depressions in the terrain had transformed into improvised lakes, and far beyond the hills, other masses of water continued advancing inland.
But that wasn’t what truly bothered Strax.
It was the ground.
Even hundreds of meters above the surface, he could feel it.
The continent was trembling.
It wasn’t an ordinary earthquake, with a single tremor followed by smaller aftershocks.
The land vibrated constantly, sometimes almost imperceptibly, other times strongly enough to open visible cracks across the ground.
Strax narrowed his eyes.
Then he moved forward.
His wings beat once, carrying Lithara and Albedo with him while Samira followed in her draconic form.
They flew toward the coast, rapidly crossing kilometers of flooded land.
The closer they got to the sea, the worse it became.
Strax watched an entire mountain lose part of its slope.
Not because a wave had struck it.
The mountain’s foundation itself had shifted.
Enormous cracks crossed the terrain below, some stretching for kilometers, while trees leaned sideways and rocky formations collapsed.
An unpleasant possibility crossed his mind.
The tectonic plates.
If the entire ocean was being agitated like this, with absurd amounts of water moving simultaneously, then perhaps the problem wasn’t limited to the surface.
The seafloor could also be moving.
Or worse.
It could be the cause.
Strax looked toward the ocean again.
Poseidon?
The name naturally surfaced in his thoughts, but he wasn’t certain.
It was simply the most obvious conclusion based on the information he had.
Of the three great brothers, Poseidon was the only one Strax had yet to encounter.
He had already seen Zeus.
He knew his presence.
He knew at least part of his intentions and understood that the god was far from being some forgotten figure belonging only to ancient stories.
Hades...
Strax briefly lowered his eyes toward the Gauntlet of Darkness.
Hades was dead.
Strax had been to Tartarus.
He had met Persephone, Thanatos, Cerberus, and the demons of the Underworld.
He had consumed the black heart left behind by the former God of the Dead and now carried fragments of the Authority that had once belonged to him.
But Poseidon remained an unknown.
Strax knew the name.
He knew what it represented.
Seas.
Oceans.
Earthquakes.
And now, directly before him, all three were happening at the same time.
Even so, something didn’t fit.
Why?
Why now?
Why move the entire ocean?
And most importantly...
Was this an attack?
Strax had no answer.
Only that divine presence spread throughout the water.
"Strax."
Lithara’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
He looked at her.
The Queen of Succubi was staring at the ocean with an unusually serious expression.
"There is something very wrong with this sea."
Albedo immediately nodded.
"It isn’t just the waves."
She pointed downward.
The water near the coast was rotating in different directions.
Entire currents crashed into one another, creating massive whirlpools that lasted only a few seconds before being destroyed by another, even more powerful current.
Albedo narrowed her eyes.
"There’s energy mixed into it."
Strax already knew.
"I felt it."
A new wave appeared on the horizon.
It was colossal.
Strax silently watched it grow.
Then another appeared behind it.
And another.
There wasn’t enough time between them for the coastline to absorb the impact.
If this continued, entire regions would simply be torn away from the continent.
Strax took a deep breath.
"We need to contain this."
Lithara looked at him.
"How?"
Strax didn’t answer immediately.
He extended one hand.
The temperature dropped.
Samira noticed first.
Her enormous draconic head turned toward him.
"Strax..."
Black Ice appeared around his fingers.
It didn’t possess the crystalline appearance of the ice created by Krissia or Cassandra.
It was deeply dark, almost opaque, with faint blue lines running across its surface.
Strax pointed downward.
"Freeze."
The world responded.
A black line crossed the ocean.
Then it expanded.
The water closest to the coast froze instantly, but Strax didn’t stop.
The Black Ice continued advancing out to sea while also spreading laterally along the coastline.
One kilometer.
Five.
Ten.
Lithara had to turn her head to continue following its expansion.
"How much are you planning to freeze?"
"As far as I can see."
She fell silent.
Strax increased the release of energy.
The ice exploded in every direction.
The first waves struck the frozen layer and simply stopped.
The water accumulating behind them froze next, making the barrier even thicker.
Strax continued.
The dark surface expanded so far that the boundary between land and ocean began to disappear.
Albedo’s eyes widened.
From above, it became impossible to understand where the sea ended.
Everything beneath them had transformed into an enormous black expanse.
All the way to the horizon.
The waves completely disappeared from sight.
Not because they had ceased to exist.
They were now far beyond that colossal layer of ice.
The pressure remained.
Strax could feel it.
The ocean pushed against his creation.
The ice groaned.
But it held.
Samira flew closer.
"Strax."
He kept watching the horizon.
"Hmm?"
"We should return to Asgard."
Strax turned his head.
Samira was staring in the direction of the city.
"If it’s like this here..."
She didn’t need to finish.
"Imagine there."
Strax’s entire body trembled.
Asgard.
For several minutes, all of his attention had been focused on understanding the phenomenon.
Poseidon.
Divine power.
Ocean.
Earthquakes.
He had forgotten the most important detail.
His city was on the coast.
"Shit."
Lithara immediately noticed.
"Strax?"
He tightened his arms around her and Albedo.
"Hold on."
Lithara’s eyes widened.
"Wait—"
Strax looked toward Samira.
"Follow me."
His wings spread completely.
Albedo understood first.
"Strax, maybe it would be better if—"
He disappeared.
BOOM!
The sound barrier shattered.
The air exploded behind him.
Lithara screamed as the absurd acceleration pressed her body against Strax.
"STRAX!"
He didn’t answer.
He flew.
Mountains became blurs.
Rivers vanished below them before Lithara could even properly see them.
Strax accelerated again.
Another explosion tore through the sky.
Samira flew behind him, using the full strength of her wings to keep up.
Asgard.
That was Strax’s only thought.
Then, finally...
He saw it.
First, the mountains.
Then the walls.
Then the city.
Intact.
Some of the tension immediately left Strax’s body.
But only some.
Because beyond Asgard stood a wall.
A gigantic wall of ice surrounded vast areas of the city, connecting natural elevations and creating an artificial defense against the ocean.
Some sections were already more than one hundred meters high.
And above it was Cassandra.
The enormous ice dragoness kept her wings spread as she continuously poured magic into the structure.
Strax reduced his speed.
Samira arrived shortly afterward.
"It’s intact."
Lithara finally managed to breathe properly.
"I’m going to kill you."
"Later."
"You almost ripped my wings off!"
"You still have both."
"That’s not the point!"
Strax ignored her.
His eyes were on Cassandra.
She was struggling.
Even from a distance, he could tell.
The wall was working.
But the amount of water striking Asgard was absurd.
Every impact made kilometers of ice tremble simultaneously.
Cassandra had to constantly reinforce damaged sections while continuing to expand other parts of the barrier.
Strax flew toward her.
"Cassandra!"
The colossal head turned.
For an instant, relief appeared in her eyes.
"Finally!"
Strax approached.
"What’s the situation?"
"Bad."
"I noticed."
Cassandra continued flying while she spoke.
"Krissia detected it first. She held back the first wave until I arrived. Monica ordered me to create a barrier around Asgard."
"How much?"
"Twenty kilometers in every direction. One hundred meters high wherever necessary."
Strax studied the wall.
"It’s working."
"For now."
Cassandra pointed toward the ocean with her snout.
"But the waves won’t stop. I freeze one, another crashes into it from behind. The pressure keeps accumulating water against the barrier."
Strax understood.
She didn’t merely need to create ice.
She needed to constantly repair what the ocean destroyed.
"And Monica?"
"Coordinating the evacuation and internal defenses. Scathach is reinforcing several points. Beatrice is checking whether any water can enter from underneath."
Strax nodded.
Then he looked at Cassandra.
"Go down."
She blinked.
"What?"
"Go down. I’ll take over from here."
"Strax, this is much bigger than it looks."
"I know."
He had already frozen part of the ocean.
He knew exactly how much power it required.
Strax looked at Lithara and Albedo.
"You two."
Lithara understood.
"Oh, thank the gods."
"Poor choice of words right now."
"I don’t care."
Cassandra moved one of her wings closer.
Lithara jumped first.
Albedo followed immediately afterward.
Both landed on the dragoness’s back.
Cassandra looked at Strax again.
"Are you sure?"
He smiled.
"Go."
She hesitated for only a moment.
Then she began descending.
Strax remained alone.
Samira hovered several dozen meters behind him.
The next wave appeared.
Gigantic.
Far larger than the previous ones.
Strax watched in silence.
Then extended both hands.
Black Ice appeared.
The temperature plummeted violently.
The clouds began forming crystals.
Moisture froze in the air.
Strax took a deep breath.
"Enough."
He released his energy.
The ocean darkened.
It didn’t happen gradually.
A colossal layer of Black Ice exploded outward from Asgard’s coastline.
The water froze.
The first wave stopped.
The second froze against it.
The third became a motionless mountain.
But Strax continued.
Kilometers.
Dozens of kilometers.
Cassandra’s wall was incorporated into the ice, becoming nothing more than the first layer of a much larger structure.
The entire sea in front of Asgard disappeared.
In its place rose a black, crystalline expanse stretching all the way to the horizon.
The waves were still coming.
But each one froze before reaching the previous one.
More ice.
More thickness.
More distance between Asgard and the free ocean.
Below, Cassandra landed and immediately looked back toward the sky.
Lithara remained silent.
So did Albedo.
Samira watched Strax alone above them.
And little by little, the roar that had dominated Asgard throughout the entire crisis began to disappear.
The ocean was still trying to advance.
But now there were kilometers of Black Ice between it and the city.
Strax remained suspended before that immense frozen expanse.
For several seconds, everything seemed under control.
Then the Gauntlet of Darkness vibrated again.
Once.
Twice.
Strax slowly lowered his eyes toward it.
The divine energy was still there.
Beneath the ice.
Beneath the waves.
In the depths of the ocean.
And now...
it was stronger.