Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

The Frost Forest transformed into a massive battlefield in just a few hours. This was not a premeditated plan by anyone, but rather the inevitable result of the situation spiraling out of control.

The announcements from the Void Tree exploded overhead like signal flares, each one refreshing the contestants' assessment of the situation and forcing them to make more radical choices.

Before the news of Aphne's elimination could be fully digested, news of the World Core being acquired by the Paradise of Reincarnation followed one after another, followed by the announcement that the Abyss Hole had been sealed. Each announcement was more explosive than the last, making it impossible to travel in peace.

Those participants who originally planned to head towards the summit mountain range began to hesitate.

For those involved in the Paradise faction, the Core of the World is of paramount importance.

If they can obtain the World Core, then even if they fail in this battle for world supremacy, they will still have enough resources to improve themselves.

If it's the later stages of the poison circle, they definitely won't consider it much, because Lin Yi will also be within the poison circle at that time.

But this is just the beginning. The poison circle has not shrunk to the point where we must abandon everything and hurry on our way, so every participant is making a decision.

The nameless saint chose Lin Yi. His goal from the beginning was the core of the world, which is why he rushed into the temple as soon as he found Lin Yi's location.

He made the wrong bet. The Frost Guards around Lin Yi were far more powerful than he expected. He didn't even have a chance to get close to Lin Yi before being chased out of the temple.

The feeling of being marked clung to him like an inescapable plaster. No matter how fast he ran or how many props he used to conceal his presence, the Frost Guardians could always pinpoint his location and follow him at a leisurely pace, like a group of experienced hunters exhausting their prey.

He dared not stop, for the consequences of the guards catching up were beyond his ability to bear. But he could not run fast either. Several hours of high-speed movement and frequent use of teleportation scrolls had pushed his physical strength to the limit, and the supplies in his storage space were also being consumed rapidly. If this continued, he could exhaust himself to death without the guards having to lift a finger.

Mond was lying on a charred patch of ground, panting heavily.

He was in terrible condition, not just ordinary terrible, but the kind of terrible condition where someone crawled back from the brink of death and didn't even have the strength to curse.

The entire left arm was severed cleanly below the elbow. The muscles and blood vessels at the cut were burned and sealed by the high temperature, forming a charred, bowl-shaped scar. The skin at the edges was wrinkled, revealing the white bone underneath.

His left eye was completely blind, with a thin gray-white film covering the eyeball. The pupil was so dilated that it almost filled the entire eye socket, without focus, only a lifeless emptiness.

There was a burn on his cheek that stretched from his eyebrow to his jawbone. His skin was dark red with tiny blisters around the edges, and it trembled slightly in the cold wind.

His body was covered in sores that not a single inch of flesh was intact. The black flames from Hugh's attacks burned his soul, nearly causing him to lose consciousness during the battle. The pain wasn't from his skin; he had fought countless battles and suffered countless injuries, but he had never been so close to death as he had been this time.

If it weren't for the sudden intrusion of the Gemini Stars, which forced him and Hugh to temporarily stop fighting, he might have already been burned to a soulless shell by Hugh.

Hugh wasn't much better off. He leaned against a burnt tree trunk, his chest heaving violently, each breath sounding like a bellows, a hoarse grinding sound coming from his throat.

His hands were trembling slightly, and a layer of fine ice crystals was condensing on his fingertips, a sign that the elemental power in his body had become extremely activated and lost control.

He looked down at his palm, where an icy blue light flowed beneath his skin. It was the power of elements eroding his body, transforming his flesh and blood towards elementalization.

If left unchecked, his body will become completely elemental within a few hours, at which point he will no longer be a living person, but a mass of elemental aggregates with a vague consciousness.

Hugh closed his eyes and gradually suppressed the rampaging elemental power within his body.

Half an hour ago, the appearance of the twin stars broke the deadlock between Mond and Hugh.

The older brother stood at the edge of the snow, while the younger brother knelt behind him, his right hand supporting him on the ground and his left hand covering the newly healed wound on his abdomen.

Neither of them looked well, the younger brother even worse. His face was deathly pale, his lips were purple, and his eyes were sunken. He looked like he had just recovered from a serious illness.

The power of the abyss was still surging within him. Although he had suppressed most of it, the remaining part was still eroding his life force wave after wave. Every now and then, he needed to mobilize energy to suppress it. This continuous consumption made him weaken rapidly even when he wasn't fighting.

The older brother glanced at the battlefield before him; Mond was lying charred black in the pile of rubble.

Hugh stood at a distance, his dark robe now bearing several rips, one of which ran diagonally down from his shoulder to his waist, revealing a white shirt underneath and a thin, long bloodstain on it.

Both of them were already badly injured.

In a fraction of a second, the older brother made a judgment: if he attacked Mond and Hugh at the same time, he was 70% confident that he could eliminate both of them.

The remaining 30% is risk. Although Mond looks miserable, the regenerative ability of the demon race is notoriously outrageous. No one knows how much combat power is still hidden in his broken body.

Hugh's condition is even more difficult to assess. A spellcaster's trump card is never revealed. A spellcaster who seems to be on the verge of collapse may pull out a one-time item that can turn the tide of battle in the next second.

The older brother turned his head and glanced at his younger brother. The younger brother understood him perfectly and, without needing to say anything, simply nodded slightly.

They decided to deal with either Mond or Hugh first, and then deal with the other.

Even if the opponent has a trump card, the odds of winning are still on their side in a two-on-one situation.

Gemini underestimated two things.

First, although Hugh and Mond fought to the death, their judgment of the situation did not decline in the slightest due to their injuries. The moment the Twins appeared, the two realized one thing at the same time—if they did not join forces to deal with the newly emerged enemy, they would be taken advantage of by the Twins.

Secondly, neither Hugh nor Mond were the type to hesitate in a critical moment. It took them less than a second to stop fighting and join forces. There was no verbal communication or eye contact; it was purely a joint assessment of the situation by two experienced warriors.

Hugh made the first move. Instead of attacking the Twins, he moved towards Mondstadt, pulling out a deep red potion from his pocket, uncorking it, and throwing it at Mondstadt.

The vial arced through the air, and Mond caught it with his still-functioning right arm. Without hesitation, he tilted his head back and gulped it down.

The moment the medicine entered his throat, he felt a scalding heat spreading from his stomach to his limbs and bones. The pain from the wounds burned by the black flames was greatly reduced by this heat.

What Hugh gave him was not a healing potion, but a berserk potion that unleashed his life potential.

This thing won't heal wounds or replenish energy, but it can squeeze out all the user's remaining potential in a short period of time, allowing a dying person to unleash near-peak fighting power.

The price is that after the drug wears off, the user will be completely paralyzed and unable to move even a finger.

At this point, Hugh wouldn't waste precious time healing an enemy. The biggest concession he could make was to give Mondstadt a berserk potion, so that this demon idiot would have enough strength to die in the upcoming battle, or to take someone down with him.

The moment Mondstadt stood up from the rubble, the demonic flames on his body suddenly changed from a dim, dark red to a dazzling bright orange. The temperature of the flames was so high that the surrounding air was distorted, and the snow on the ground was evaporated into white steam, forming a thick white fog in the air.

He stared in the direction of the Gemini stars, his pupils burning with a frenzied fighting spirit, a ferocious smile spreading across his face, which was covered in burns, and his desire for battle was palpable.

The younger brother was the first to react. He pressed his right hand in front of him, and a semi-transparent energy barrier instantly condensed, enveloping him and his brother.

This is a tactic that the twins have used countless times: the older brother is responsible for frontal suppression, while the younger brother is responsible for control and support.

But Hughes didn't give them a chance to execute their tactics.

The flames did not fly towards the Gemini stars, but instead spread outwards from Hugh in all directions, turning the entire battlefield into a black sea of ​​fire.

The snow beneath the twin stars didn't melt under the scorching black flames because they weren't burning water or ice, but the faint energy clinging to the snow particles. Anything with energy would become fuel for their spread. The older brother sensed something was wrong the moment the black flames touched his body; the pain wasn't from his skin, but surged from the depths of his soul.

His body became sluggish at that moment, his reaction speed decreased by 30%, his perception range shrank by half, and he felt as if he were covered by an invisible net, requiring twice the effort of usual for every movement.

The younger brother was unaffected; the barrier successfully prevented the black flames from corroding his body. However, he needed to maintain the barrier, which prevented him from focusing on casting spells, thus weakening the twins' offensive capabilities.

All he could do was maintain the barrier while occasionally unleashing one or two spiral swords to disrupt Mondstadt's attack route, but that disruption was negligible in the face of Mondstadt's current mad dog-like fighting style.

Mond rushed out as the black flames spread.

He moved so fast that he left a deep groove in the snow, sending pebbles and ice shards flying to both sides. Demonic flames burned wildly on his body, intertwining with Hugh's black flames to create an eerie scene.

He rushed to his younger brother and punched the energy barrier in front of him.

With a crack, cracks appeared on the surface of the barrier, spreading outwards from the point where the fist landed, like a giant spider web.

The younger brother gritted his teeth and poured more energy into the barrier, stopping the cracks from spreading but not healing them.

The older brother rushed in from the side, his palm pressing against Mond's side waist. That palm was imbued with an energy shock, enough to shatter the spine of an adult sea monster in two.

Mond didn't flinch or dodge; he didn't even glance at his brother, his one eye fixed on his younger brother, the smile on his lips growing even more sinister.

He pulled his right fist back from the barrier, spun around, and slammed his left shoulder into his brother's chest.

A loud bang.

The older brother was thrown backward by the impact, and a bowl-sized hole exploded in Mond's left shoulder, with charred flesh and broken bones flying out from the wound, emitting a burnt smell.

He didn't even flinch, as if the bloody hole wasn't on his own body, and raised his right fist again to smash into his brother's barrier.

This time the barrier shattered.

He knelt on the snow, his right hand supporting him on the ground, his left hand covering the wound in his abdomen that Lin Yi had pierced.

The power of the abyss was detonated by the energy fluctuations of the demonic flames. The abyssal power that he had suppressed for most of the day was now rampaging through his body, like countless mad snakes tearing at his internal organs.

The older brother got up from the snow and his expression changed when he saw his younger brother's condition.

He took out a silver-white vial from his pocket, unscrewed the stopper, and splashed the vial onto his brother's body.

The medicine wasn't for drinking; it was for external use. The silvery-white liquid dispersed in the air, like a fine mist covering the younger brother's body, seeping into his skin, muscles, and blood vessels.

The younger brother's complexion improved slightly after the medicine took effect, but he had very little energy left. He had used up all his trump cards in the previous battles, and he was only able to hold on until now thanks to the special resonance between the twins that was replenishing each other.

The older brother drew a short sword from his waist; the blade was entirely dark silver.

The short knife was a one-time use prop. He gripped the handle and plunged the knife into his left arm. The blade sank into the muscle, and blood gushed from the wound, flowing down the blade and dripping onto the snow, spreading a large patch of dark red on the white snow.

He is using a blood sacrifice to activate the power within the dagger. This process is irreversible; the dagger will shatter after the power is activated, and he will gain enough power to turn the tide of battle in the next few minutes.

Hughes saw this from a distance, and his pupils contracted slightly.

He recognized the method of sacrifice; it was a bloodline sacrifice that had almost been lost.

The purer the bloodline of the sacrificer, the stronger the activated ability.

Hugh could not allow his brother to complete the sacrifice. Black flames surged from his body and condensed into a giant fiery hand in front of him.

He used all his strength in this attack, not to kill his brother, but to interrupt the sacrificial process.

If the sacrifice is interrupted and the dagger shatters, the older brother will not only fail to receive the power boost, but will also be severely injured due to the backlash from the sacrifice.

The younger brother stood in front of his older brother, using his own body to take the brunt of Hugh's attack, even if it would completely break his body; he had to buy time for his brother.

The fiery palm collided with the younger brother's body, unleashing a blinding light that illuminated the dark battlefield as bright as day.

The younger brother's body trembled violently in the light, and the lines on his skin began to crack, like cracks on porcelain, spreading from the center outwards.

The dagger shattered, and the fragments slipped from the brother's hand, falling onto the snow with a soft, crackling sound, like shattering ice crystals. The brother pulled the dagger fragments from his left arm.

His body changed after the sacrifice; his skin turned from bronze to grayish-white, his pupils turned dark gold, and his breathing became extremely slow, only two or three times per minute.

Mond rushed in front of his brother in the few seconds it took his brother to stop Hugh.

His right fist, wreathed in bright orange demonic flames, slammed into his brother's chest. He used all his strength in this punch; the demonic flames on his fist were as thick as magma, and the temperature was so high that the surrounding flesh was sizzling as it was roasted.

The older brother clenched his left hand, gripping Mond's fist and fixing Mond's right arm at an angle where he couldn't exert any force. At the same time, a short knife made of grayish-white energy appeared in his right hand. The blade was about thirty centimeters long, and it was pure energy condensation without any physical form. The blade was so thin that it was almost transparent and emitted a faint light.

The energy dagger pierced Mond's chest, entering directly below his sternum, then traversing diagonally upwards to precisely strike his heart, exiting below his collarbone.

The blade, though intangible, left a long, thin wound on Mond's chest. The edges of the wound shimmered with a grayish-white light. This was not residual energy, but rather the power Mond gained after his brother's sacrifice, which was eroding Mond's body and converting his life force into grayish-white energy to feed back into his brother.

Mond began to retreat the instant the dagger pierced his skin, pushing off the ground with both feet and leaning back, his severed left shoulder slamming into his brother's cheek in an attempt to force him back with a final attack.

The older brother dodged to the side, released Mond's fist with his left hand, and pulled the energy dagger from Mond's chest with his right hand, drawing out a string of dark red blood beads.

Taking advantage of the opening, Mond leaped back several steps, each step leaving a deep, bloody footprint in the snow. Blood gushed from the wound in his chest, dripping down his clothes and onto the snow, leaving a winding, dark red trail on the white surface.

After forcing Mondstadt to retreat, the older brother turned around, squatted down next to his younger brother, reached out and helped him up from the snow, letting him lean against him.

The younger brother's lips moved, and a very faint sound came from his throat.

go.

Mond was leaning against a thick tree trunk in the distance. The effects of the berserk potion were wearing off, and the exhaustion that surged from his bones made his body fall uncontrollably.

The charred flesh at the cut of his left arm had stopped regenerating, and the fine granulation tissue had begun to shrink after losing the support of the berserk potion. The skin at the cut was wrinkled and looked even more gruesome than before.

Even though his body was in such a terrible state, Mondl's will did not break down.

Hugh leaned against another tree trunk not far away. His face was pale, his lips were purple, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat. The cold sweat dripped down his nose and onto his clothes, leaving a small wet patch on the dark fabric.

His chest heaved more than usual, but he tried hard to control his breathing so he wouldn't look too disheveled. (End of Chapter)