Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power Chapter 450: Listen

[You have created your domain.]

These words resounded throughout the entire dungeon. However, the voice seemed suspended, as though it propagated through a realm devoid of any movement—pure, utter silence.

The dungeon transformed into a frozen vista, featuring sharp spirals protruding from the floor and extending skyward. Four such spirals existed. Each one differed, composed of either ice, water, snow, or fog. They surrounded one another in a vast ring.

In the center among the four stood a fifth, crafted from black frost.

Nothing stirred within.

Nothing but the domain's master, who perched relaxed atop the Spiral of Black Frost, her gaze descending upon Third Ancestor akin to a deity overlooking an insect.

Even amid the immobility, Meris’s locks continued shifting between elements, while her silver gaze now bore a hint of darkness within.

Third Ancestor, in that instant, pressed her forehead fully against the floor, unwilling to raise it even slightly to glimpse her Lady.

She couldn’t avoid envisioning in Meris the likeness of her father, whose chill could both soothe and solidify until one became mere ice.

‘The offspring of a Prime... oh, my Lady. Such a splendid inheritance!’

Meris, on the other hand, paid little true attention to Third Ancestor. Her impassive silver eyes fixed upon the messages materializing before her:

[You have obtained the Seed of Frost.]

[Your affinity with Frost has reached the highest level possible.]

[You have obtained a new unique ability: Permafrost Fire.]

[Grow the Seed into a Tree, and obtain the full rewards.]

The Will paused—Meris perusing it like a motionless statue—before proceeding, this time with heightened zeal despite its icy, mechanical timbre.

[You have awakened a domain without the use of an Evolution Stone and without the help of an Evolution Quest.]

[Phenomenal! You have achieved something few have ever done in the whole history of Fokay and Darklore.]

[Hidden Conditions have been met.]

[You have received a new Title: Self Evolver.]

The following panel appeared in blue, themed with ice.

[With the title in application, Meris Elamin Frost has gained the right to step into the next rank.]

Another brief halt, and at last:

[Brace yourself, Princess of Frost, you are ascending to the next rank!]

All this unfolded in under a minute, as Meris observed with remote eyes, sensing nothing within her but complete tranquility.

Even her emotions appeared to have ceased, allowing her to scrutinize her ascension process intently, the discomfort merely a dull throb at the rear of her mind.

In that moment, Meris Elamin grasped a frigid reality.

She understood her form responded not to any emotions, her pulse remained still, her expression locked, incapable of displaying more.

And that insight pointed to a lone deduction:

And the most dire among these...

‘I... don’t care?’

With that notion, Meris Elamin promptly blacked out. Her domain dissolved into a blaze of liquid light as she collapsed into Third Ancestor’s grasp.

Her ascension persisted. And the City of Cats prepared to greet their sovereign.

…

At precisely that juncture when Meris attained enlightenment and acquired the Seed of Frost, a man unveiled his silver eyes within a realm of ebony frost storm.

He raised his gaze to the heavens. His features entirely veiled by frost save for his eyes, yet that sufficed to instill a profound terror in any beholder.

“So the time has come.” The Primordial of Frost murmured, his utterance oddly soothing and serene despite the frigidity of his origin.

“Nothing like I hoped. Nothing like I predicted. Nothing like I wanted to.”

Now, he rued the choice of selecting Frost rather than Lightning. All he desired was for his sole child to inherit his might.

He had been thrilled then, accomplishing what none of his siblings had—siring a progeny.

Arrogance and rashness overtook him, driving him to seize her.

Now Frost recognized he might have pursued an alternative path. Yet, the era for remorse had ended.

Only deeds and resolve lingered.

‘If I have sensed her awakening, then the others will.’

He scowled more intensely, pondering especially one of his sisters.

‘I don’t know about others. But Stella... Stella will definitely act on her.’

He tsked in annoyance, considering the Primordial of Fire.

After a while, he shut his eyes once more, reverting to his perpetual calm. His decision had formed the instant his daughter entered the world.

‘If they act against my daughter...’

The frost realm roiled.

‘...then I will act against them.’

And in that very instant, it was time to address ancient resentments among siblings.

…

‘Where am I?’

Inara found no answer to that query, just as she couldn’t say how long had elapsed.

Her thoughts were foggy, moving so sluggishly and heavily that she strained greatly just to ponder the most basic ideas.

Her lids remained firmly closed, and for reasons unclear, Inara sensed she must not open them.

Though her vision was denied, her tactile and auditory perceptions functioned fully. And the information they conveyed justified the terror clawing at her essence like a famished wolf’s maw.

Her form seemed immersed in a writhing mass of worms, slithering across her entirely, enveloping every part until she vanished beneath them.

That’s what Inara believed, yet it wasn’t worms—it was tentacles.

Tentacles invading her nostrils, mouth, ears, and further openings. They spared no aspect of her, rendering her wholly infested and decayed by tentacles both outside and in.

And these tentacles brought something against which Inara battled fiercely. They bore relentless murmurs that rent her cranium, forcing her jaws apart in silent screams stifled by the invaders.

The agony was soul-rattling.

‘The child—!’

‘Hohohho, a Warren, the Warren of Madness is now—!’

‘How many of them? Ah, cursed Vaelgrim, how many—!’

Inara started sobbing and curling inward, the torment too horrific to articulate. Her head felt as if it cracked wider with each assault.

‘Curse—! Desdomona! Desdom—!’

‘Light of Mercy! Queen of Dreams! His children are—!’

“Sublimation!”

Inara abruptly inhaled sharply, catching amid the cacophony of murmurs the beastly yet comforting tone of Echidna.

Her command yanked back the recollections of her predicament. Thus, she comprehended what she should have done from the outset.

‘S-Sublimation...’ the monster heiress thought in fragments, ‘I need to find sublimation in the darkness.’

To achieve that, Echidna had instructed her to listen in a figurative sense, not a literal one. She hadn’t comprehended it before. And even now, she struggled.

Inara remained adrift. And with the added murmurs, matters worsened.

Nevertheless, she also understood no alternatives existed; nor did she possess the clarity to devise elaborate plans. Her psyche was splintering.

She had to prevail, or she’d perish wretchedly, failing to accomplish anything meaningful in her existence.

She’d die, causing her mother and Kaden to fret over her fate. That was unacceptable now, as her former self had inflicted enough such pain.

That was why,

‘Listen.’ Inara thought, gripping her tentacle-choked jaws, ‘I just need to listen.’

With that, Inara deliberately dropped all defenses, allowing herself to perceive in the most unfiltered manner, while blocking her other faculties.

In so doing, she opened a direct channel for the murmurs to reach her innermost depths.

And even into her heart’s core. For the ears linked straight to the heart.

The feeling that engulfed her was unearthly, and the murmurs that cradled her heart...

‘Threnovar, shame on you! OmbreNuit, curse you!’

‘Voice has spoken! The King of Kings has spoken! The Throne has spoken! The Master of All Masters has SPOKEN!’

Inara sensed her frame fracturing beneath the fervent murmurs. But then silence fell, until at last...

‘And now, Lass, can you listen? Did you listen? Are you listening? Will you listen?’

‘Oh listen well, lass. Listen to the rhythm of the world.’

‘Yes,’

The murmurs chuckled.

‘Listen to the heartbeat of the King of Kings, and tell us—’

Inara entered a daze.

‘—what do you hear?’

—End of Chapter 450—