From the moment I was chosen by the holy relic

Eric was panting heavily, but his mind remained as calm as ice.

His mind raced, recalling Abu's words: "When facing a massive monster, never engage in direct combat. Use the environment, the terrain, and its own weight to defeat it."

Eric gritted his teeth and suddenly charged toward a undulating area covered with ice cracks.

The Yeti did not stop at all, its huge body rampaging through the snowstorm, each step shaking the ice surface.

Eileen immediately sensed his intention, raised her hand to trigger fireballs, which exploded one after another on the side of the Yeti, forcing it to chase in a straight line and unable to turn.

Leah gritted her teeth and continued to cast speed spells on Eric. Each spell made her hands and feet go numb and her strength drain away rapidly, but she dared not stop for a moment.

"We're almost there!"

Eric roared inwardly, his heartbeat drowning out all the sounds of wind and snow.

Finally, when the Yeti was less than three zhang away from him, he suddenly turned his feet and his body slid to the side!

The Yeti's immense momentum and rage made it impossible for it to stop.

boom--

The ice shattered instantly, and a piercing cracking sound echoed across the ice field.

Its massive weight crushed the fragile ice surface, and half of the yeti's body sank into it instantly, its legs trapped by the icy water and ice shards. It roared and struggled frantically, but couldn't break free.

Eric didn't give it any chance.

He leaped forward, raising his longsword high, gathering all his strength at that moment.

"Drink it—!"

The roar shattered the wind and snow, and the sword tip, like a raging flame, plunged straight down, piercing the yeti's exposed eye sockets and penetrating its brain.

The Yeti let out a roar so piercingly mournful that its massive body convulsed violently. The roar echoed across the sky, filled with resentment and despair.

The next second, the behemoth lost all support and sank with a crash. Large sections of ice collapsed, and shards of ice and icy water splashed into a white mist.

Eric was also swept away.

My feet suddenly lost their footing, and my body felt weightless. The biting cold felt like a thousand icy needles, instantly piercing my bones.

Glacier.

This was his last thought before he fell into a deep sleep.

The raging torrents of water, carrying shards of ice, relentlessly battered him. Eric struggled desperately underwater, trying to surface, but was repeatedly pinned down by the yeti's corpse.

My hands and feet felt heavier and heavier, and my consciousness began to fade.

……

"Eric!"

Two heart-wrenching cries echoed through the wind and snow.

Eileen and Lia ran frantically toward the ice cave, their figures faint yet resolute in the snowy night.

The two knelt on the broken ice bank, their eyes anxiously searching the water.

Suddenly—with a whoosh!

Two figures emerged from the ice cave one after the other.

Two identical Erics.

They were all soaking wet, barely breathing, lying on the icy shore, gasping for breath, each of them fighting for their last bit of life.

Leah froze, then her expression changed drastically. She pointed at one of them in terror, "Watch out! One of them is a Phantom Demon!"

She instinctively shrank to Eileen's side, gripping Eileen's sleeves tightly with both hands, trembling uncontrollably.

Eileen's face darkened, a cold glint flashing in her eyes. She gave a low shout, and with a light flick of her staff, two invisible streams of magical energy lifted the two people on the shore, separating them by a distance.

On the snow, the two Erics simultaneously rolled over and coughed, their appearance, voice, and pained expressions exactly the same.

Leah was on the verge of tears, stamping her foot angrily: "That despicable Phantom Demon! We mages can see right through his disguise, yet he dared to impersonate Eric! How cunning!"

Her voice trembled, a mixture of fear and anger.

Eileen pressed her shoulder, her tone calm but firm: "Calm down, Leah. Panic will only let it succeed."

Eileen squinted, carefully examining the two identical people.

The Phantom only mimics appearances; it has no real memories, habits, or personality. The real Eric, however, has his own unique reactions.

A cold wind swept across the icy river, carrying the smell of blood and a bone-chilling cold.

Eric on the left struggled to sit up, clutching his chest, his voice hoarse: "Leah, Eileen, it's me, it's really me!"

Eric on the right shouted almost simultaneously, "Don't believe him! I'm the real Eric! He's a fake!"

The two voices were identical in tone, emotion, and pain.

Leah was completely at a loss, tears welling up in her eyes, clutching Eileen's sleeve and trembling uncontrollably: "What should we do... what if we save the wrong person..."

Eileen's fingers gripping the staff turned slightly white, and her expression grew increasingly cold. Her usual gentle demeanor vanished, leaving only an icy sharpness.

"Between the two of you, there's no need to argue about who's the real one for now."

She suddenly turned her head and looked at Leah, her gaze sharp as a knife.

"I'd like to ask you something first—"

His tone suddenly turned fierce, filled with suppressed anger.

"Why didn't you kill the Phantom Demon on the spot when you first encountered it? Otherwise, we wouldn't have so much trouble now, and we wouldn't have dragged everyone into danger."

Leah was stunned as if struck by a blow to the head, her face turning deathly pale instantly.

She stared wide-eyed at Eileen, her lips trembling, completely unable to believe those words were coming from her mouth.

"Eileen, how could you say that..." she whispered, her voice trembling with grievance, "It's not that we didn't want to kill, it's just that at the time..."

"Just what?" Eileen interrupted coldly, her voice suddenly rising like a gust of wind sweeping through snow. "Just afraid? Or unable to do it? If you weren't incapable of fighting, would it have escaped?"

Leah was jolted, as if she had been slapped hard across the face.

She stood frozen in place, her lips opening and closing, unable to utter a single word. Tears finally welled up uncontrollably, her hands clenched into fists, but she couldn't suppress the powerless feeling of being publicly humiliated.

"Aren't you right, Eric?" Eileen turned to the person on her left and asked coldly.

Eric, on the left, slowly sat up straight, his face pale but his eyes resolute. He paused, his voice hoarse but clear: "Lia is a healing mage; her duty is to protect, not to kill. If anyone is to blame, it's not her."

He frowned slightly, his tone a mixture of gentleness and reproach: "We all knew that day that Phantom Escape was too fast; she couldn't catch up by herself. She did her best."

Eileen's expression changed slightly, but she didn't breathe a sigh of relief.

She then looked at Eric on her right.

The man on the right sighed, his voice low and filled with self-reproach and exhaustion: "In the end, it was my carelessness."

He looked down at his calloused palms, the wounds still bleeding.

"I misjudged the situation, thinking it was already seriously injured, which is why it escaped. Otherwise, things wouldn't be like this today."

Eileen's gaze sharpened, a cold smile playing on her lips. The Phantom Demon had indeed spoken flawlessly.

She looked at Leah again. The girl had her head down, her eyes red-rimmed, like a small animal frightened by the wind and snow.

"Are you still crying?" Eileen's voice suddenly turned sharp. "Do you think crying will absolve you of responsibility? Will it cover up your weakness and incompetence?"

Leah looked up abruptly, her eyes blurred with tears: "I didn't..."

"You shouldn't have come in the first place!"

Eileen's voice suddenly rose, as cold as a collapsing snow mountain.

Leah could no longer hold back. Like a little animal that had had enough of being wronged, she screamed, "And what about you! Eileen, didn't you do anything wrong? Didn't you make any mistakes? All you do is yell at me!"

The air fell silent instantly.

Even the wind and snow seemed to pause for a moment.

Eileen's eyes narrowed, her chest heaving violently. She had never been so out of control before; her anger erupted like a volcano, and her fingertips instantly glowed with a scorching light.

"Shut up!" she hissed. "I told you to shut up!"

She suddenly raised her hand, and a burning fireball condensed at the tip of her staff, hurtling straight toward Leah's face!

The firelight illuminated Leah's terrified eyes; her legs went weak, and she had no time to dodge. Death suddenly opened its jaws wide before her eyes.

"Be careful!"

Bang—boom!

The fireball traced a fiery trajectory in mid-air, about to hit its target.

A figure suddenly rushed over, like an eagle spreading its wings in a gale, and pounced on Leah, knocking her to the ground.

"Eric!"

Leah screamed.

The world spun in her eyes. She was shielded by a solid force, the figure using its back to block the fireball.

The flames exploded with a deafening roar.

Heatwaves rolled, flames soared into the sky. The figure was completely engulfed by the flames, his arms crossed in front of him, desperately protecting her in his arms. His shoulders were scorched, his robes were charred, and his skin was cracked and peeling, but he did not budge an inch, only letting out a muffled groan from between his clenched teeth.

As the flames died down, the smell of burnt food and blood lingered across the snow-covered plain.

The man slowly turned around, his face deathly pale, cold sweat pouring down his back, his left arm hanging limply at his sides. Yet he remained standing, like a mountain that refused to fall.

"Eileen!" his voice was hoarse. "Are you insane? You almost killed Leah!"

On the other side of the snowfield, "Eric," who was completely unharmed from beginning to end, still stood in the same spot, motionless.

He watched this side quietly, his expression too calm, too indifferent, as if he were watching a play that had nothing to do with him.

Leah finally came to her senses.

She looked at Eric, who was covered in scorch marks, and then at the indifferent fake.

Something clicked in my mind, and it clicked.

"You..." She turned to look at Eileen, her eyes filled with confusion, shock, and a belated understanding, "What exactly are you...?"

Eileen's hands were still trembling slightly, but there was no trace of panic on her face.

Her gaze was sharp as a knife, fixed on the unharmed "Eric".

A strangely eerie smile slowly crept onto the man's lips.

The disguise, like a mask burned through by fire, began to twist and tremble, with wisps of black smoke seeping from its pores. The handsome face gradually contorted and dissolved, becoming strange and hideous.

"Even if you know I'm a fake, so what?" He sneered in a low, hoarse voice. "You attacked them with your own hands, didn't you?"

He looked down at Eric, who was lying on the ground injured, his eyes filled with twisted pleasure.

Eileen exhaled softly, as if releasing all her pent-up emotions and anger. Her tone was frighteningly calm:

You're completely wrong.

"I've figured out what you just said. The real Eric, even if he's injured, will take responsibility for it himself."

"But I didn't dare to gamble based on just one sentence. So, I used this tactic."

She slowly turned to Leah, her eyes softening for the first time.

"That fireball of mine was my most proficient control spell. I kept the temperature and impact to a minimum, so it would only cause minor injuries, not fatal ones."

Leah froze, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word. She turned sharply to look at Eric lying in the snow, and tears instantly streamed down her face.

She finally understood.

Eileen wasn't blaming her; she was setting a trap to uncover the truth.

Lia immediately knelt down, her hands trembling as she placed them on Eric's chest, and hurriedly began chanting a restoration spell.

A pale green light flowed from her fingertips, like a stream flowing through the forest in the early morning, gentle and full of life. The light enveloped Eric's charred arm, the cracks slowly healed, the bloodstains faded, and his furrowed brows gradually relaxed.

Eileen did not turn around.

Her eyes were as cold as a blade on an icy plain.

"Phantom Demon." She spoke slowly, her voice calm yet carrying an undeniable pressure, "Your disguise was perfect, but you made a fatal mistake."

She slightly raised her hand, and the flames danced again in her palm, like a small, crimson sun.

"You underestimated Eric, and you underestimated me even more."

The Phantom Demon roared, "You deserve to die!"

"These words," Eileen's palm flames surged, "should have been given to you first."

The Phantom Demon's smile froze instantly.

Its face began to collapse and contort, its skin bulging and cracking in the firelight, its bones making a teeth-grinding cracking sound. Its body writhed violently, and its cloak shattered inch by inch in the black mist.

In the blink of an eye, Eric's appearance vanished completely.

Standing there was a Shadow Demon that had crawled out of the abyss.

His body was tall, thin, and crooked, with a twisted skeleton, bizarrely shaped arms, protruding knuckles like sharp blades, and a high ridge on his back with bone spurs pointing towards the sky like withered branches.

"You think you've won?" the Phantom Demon sneered, its voice filled with the fury of being deceived. "You think you've got everything under control? Your spells take time to cast! You need to incantate!"

It suddenly looked at Eric, who was still receiving treatment.

"He hasn't recovered yet! That's your biggest weakness!"

Before the words were even finished, the Phantom Demon flashed into a black shadow and pounced straight at Eileen!

"You need time! But I don't!"

The dark figure glided across the snow, its claws outstretched, bringing with them a chilling wind, aiming straight for Eileen's throat.

"It's too late!" it roared in its heart.

It's wrong.

It underestimated humans, and even more so, it underestimated mages.

"Eileen!" Leah exclaimed instinctively.

But a hand gently pressed down on her shoulder.

She turned around in surprise. Eric remained kneeling, his eyes showing no sign of panic, only a calm composure as deep as the night.

He gently patted Leah's shoulder, his voice hoarse but firm: "Don't worry. She knows what she's doing."

Lia paused, then looked at Eileen again.

Eileen moved.

She didn't dodge or retreat; she simply raised her right hand, fingers spread. A silver ray traced an ancient arc-shaped rune from her fingertips—not a chant, but a pre-prepared, pre-programmed incantation.

"Phantom Demon." Her tone was icy. "You really think I'd cast a spell in front of you?"

The phantom's pupils suddenly contracted.

It finally realized that this was a trap from beginning to end.

A counter-attack trap specifically designed for this kind of high-speed predator.

It tried to retract its claws, but it was too late.

click -

A sharp crack was heard, and the earth shook.

A silver-white beam of light shot into the sky from beneath Eileen's feet, carrying sharp runes and blazing flames, instantly engulfing the Phantom Demon.

This is a delayed fire pattern array buried under the snow in advance, designed specifically for high-speed targets. No chanting is required; it can be activated simply by willpower.

The flames suddenly appeared, like the fires of hell.

The phantom struggled and screamed wildly in the fire, its disguise completely burned away, revealing its grotesque true form. Bone spurs melted, black skin peeled off, and even its soul was scorched by the light.

Eileen watched expressionlessly, then raised her hand and fired another fireball, which struck it precisely in the chest.

"You've killed too many people, worn too many masks," she whispered, "but you'll never understand how a true mage controls order."

The Phantom Demon desperately tried to break free of the magic circle, but its ankles were bound by runic chains. The flames were merely a facade; the truly deadly element was the seal.

"How is this possible..." it growled one last time, "You actually... laid a trap beforehand..."

Its voice grew weaker and weaker.

His body was gradually burned and shattered in the fire, eventually turning into a cloud of black mist that was blown away by the wind and snow, leaving no trace.

The snow-covered plains returned to silence.

The wind and snow continued, but the roars and killing intent were gone.

Only three people remained, along with a vast, cold, white earth.