Chapter 123: You Touched My Chameleon Lord: Freeze!
The air in the Slime Goddess’s castle hitched as she whipped the hems of her blue robe hard across the stone. "Next time!"
Blue sparkling embers danced around her while she lowered her body, touching the fractured floor with the base of her high heels.
Steamy air puffed out of Lucy as she remained collapsed on the stone with her face buried.
Blood trails snaked continuously from Lucy, draining the color from her skin.
Gray-white hair flapped at her back while Isha, the Slime Goddess, stepped toward her. "You chose this over a poor slave."
A long sigh escaped her lips. She turned a wild gaze toward the broken center of the hall, where faint splashes rose continuously from the boiling, slimy abyss beneath her castle.
Bubbles swirled up to the viscous surface while Levi’s body sank deep into the water, surrounded by massive ocean beasts. ’So this is life.’
His heart pounded calmly in his chest as he turned himself, riding the current of the waving depths. ’The one that blocks you can be the same person to free you.’
Air bubbles flashed out of his nose and mouth after inhaling the slimy sea. ’It is funny how the wicked turn out to help their victims.’
Tiny particles lingered around him until a divine sphere swallowed him whole.
Three giant, one-eyed ocean beasts rushed toward the bubble with their jaws open wide. But the closer they got, the more their force propelled the sphere with Levi inside upward.
A loud blast tore through the water when another sea monster lunged from above and crashed into the bubble, sending Levi rising at high speed.
The main hall’s unbroken ground trembled as boiling bubbles from the depths surged.
Isha shifted her weight, throwing her hair and the hems of her long blue gown sideways. "What is going on?"
She leaped into the air right as the floor beneath her shattered. As the fissure widened, Lucy’s body sank into the boiling abyss and became a meal for the beasts.
Her limbs came apart while the monsters tore their sharp teeth into her arms, legs, and torso, pulling her to pieces.
The blue, slimy sea turned bloody as Isha tilted her gaze toward the chasm. "Now I have to call Lysara to bring me..."
Shock froze her expression. A thick breath caught in her throat upon seeing Levi’s body pushed to the surface, encased in a divine dragon’s breath bubble. ’Did he just awaken the holy dragon that has been dead for millions of centuries?’
Isha’s heart raced as the bubble detonated, sending tiny shards of crystal metal flying and crashing into the castle walls.
Her gown rustled while she dashed through the fragments, dodging them one after another. But her luck ran out.
Stopping right in front of her throne, three sharp, pencil-length shards flew past her forehead and cheeks, drawing sweet-scented blood from her skin.
The Sovereign Sigil on Levi’s chest pulsed while his body heaved on the single intact section of floor where the bubble deposited him.
A harsh cough tore through his throat as he opened his eyes, spitting out a mixture of water and slime. ’Where is Lucy?’
Vision hazed, he pushed himself to his knees, scanning the empty hall. ’Where could she possibly be?’
Chills ran down his spine while wiping his left palm across his face twice, clearing the slime from his cheeks and eyes.
Faint bone-crackling sounds lingered in his joints upon pushing himself onto his feet. ’Did she run off, or...’
His heart skipped a beat after spotting a few gray-white hairs floating above a crimson-soaked, wide-open crack. ’No, no, no.’
Heat radiated through his frame. He leaped off the floating stones and landed directly in front of the scarred slab. "Lucy..."
The hair on Levi’s body stood on end as he crouched down, pressing his palms onto the blood-stained floor with his head bowed. "I am truly grateful."
Sharp blue glows rushed forward and wrapped around Levi’s neck the instant Isha moved, but he remained completely still.
"I will always remember how you treated me." Memories flashed of the time Lucy threw him onto the carriage like a sack of grain.
Thick veins surfaced on his skin while Isha tightened the grip of her long, elastic robe around his neck and hurled him backward.
Lucy’s smiling face flashed in Levi’s mind as Isha sent him flying through the air, slamming him hard onto the floor and forcing blood out of his lungs. ’Lucy, my Demon Chameleon Lord.’
Levi’s spinal bones cracked as she slammed him again, yet a cold smile touched his face as he remembered waking up to her sucking hard on his skin to draw out poison. ’You were good to me in every way you knew how.’
The Slime Goddess’s fingernails sharpened as she pinned Levi’s body against her throne, shattering part of the frame. "I will end you with my own hands for forcing me to kill my personal rider who served me for centuries."
Hot aura flared out of Levi’s body while he lay flat under the fractured throne, coughing heavily. ’Whatever you did will be remembered, Lucy.’
With a single inhale, the trails of blood leaking from his wounds reversed direction and flowed back in. A translucent panel manifested before his eyes as the Slime Goddess loomed over him with a wild gaze and sharp, long fingernails outstretched.
[Regenerating Host’s system: 50%... 70%... 90%... 100% Complete]
The broken bones in Levi’s body mended on their own right as the progress bar reached its peak.
A bright mixture of gold, blue, red, gray, and white light erupted from his eyes as he roared, "Freeze!"
Shadows trembled in the Slime Goddess’s castle while the blue lantern flames snuffed out in seconds.
The falling blue leaves froze mid-air, and the guards standing at the far corners locked into stone statues.
’What has he done to me?’ Isha’s body trembled violently as an alien force surged into her frame, driving her toward her knees.
Veins bulged along her neck as she strained against the temporal weight, her knuckles turning white as she fought to force her fists closed.
The time-freezing spell around Levi detonated outward as Isha broke through the suppression with a violent burst of mana. Strands of her long blue hair fluttered behind her as she leaped into the air and laughed wildly. "So you dare challenge me?"
Soft skin claps echoed from behind her while her cheeks bounced with the impact. Fiery glows flashed out of her eyes as she spread her arms wide and glared down at Levi. "Bring it on!"