However, when Selardi’s severed leg was destroyed, fragments of it fell onto the ice chest where Tania was frozen. Those fragments began to infect the entire structure, generating red stains that bubbled and simultaneously melted the ice mass.

  Tania was freed from the ice shortly afterward. Selardi watched in shock and terror as the goddess recovered her composure.

  “I almost died,” Tania said as she rose from the now nearly melted block of ice.

  “But the poisonous fire I use under my manticore transformation is far more powerful than your ice. And just like bacteria, ice cannot stop it.”

  “But I can freeze everything—entire planets even. How is it possible that such a small flame could harm me so badly?” Selardi asked.

  “Even if you stop atomic motion, any element whose atoms are still moving will cause a small reaction that sets the motionless atoms in motion. It’s a basic principle of physics, and my poisonous fire is extremely, extremely active,” Tania replied as she once again assumed her manticore form.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t take long with you, Selardi. The more power I use, the faster time advances, so I’ll have to defeat you in a single attack,” Tania said as she raised her hands together, gathering her strongest technique.

  “Don’t be so confident,” Selardi said irritably as she opened her palms and created a sphere of ice.

  “I have frozen suns with this technique! Sarrts’akalman sarruyts (Freezing Ice)!”

  The Armenian goddess shouted as she hurled the enormous sphere of ice toward Tania.

  The Punic goddess raised her power to its limit. “This is my maximum power! Galad esh qoph (Sphere of Fire number 200)!”

  A gigantic fireball erupted from Tania’s fists, which she held horizontally, aiming directly at Selardi and her ice sphere.

  But when the ice sphere collided with Tania’s attack, it instantly froze it, creating a freezing orb that completely enveloped Tania.

  “This time you won’t be able to use your poisonous fire,” Selardi said as she continued pouring energy into intensifying the freeze.

  Yet Tania’s expression inside the ice remained unchanged—pure determination.

  “I don’t like that look!” Selardi shouted as she continued applying her freezing power.

  “No matter how much heat you can produce, my energy will freeze you completely, right down to your heart!”

  But Tania’s gaze did not waver. Selardi even felt as if her eyes glowed for a brief moment.

  Then, inside the ice sphere, a red glow began to shine, and bubbles of fire started to emerge from within.

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  Without giving Selardi time to retreat, a gigantic atomic explosion erupted from the core of the massive ice sphere, hurling the Armenian goddess far away.

  The explosion subsided, leaving behind a towering column of smoke. Within it stood Tania, breathing heavily—she had used almost all of her manná, and her transformation faded away.

  To her surprise, Selardi was also standing on the other side. Tania had carved a massive crater into the ground, but Selardi was right at its edge. Her skin and part of her clothing were burned and torn from the blast.

  “So you’ve run out of manná?” Selardi asked, swaying as she struggled to stay upright. Her ice leg had melted, leaving her standing on only one leg.

  “I don’t need my manná to defeat you,” Tania said, breathing hard, a smile on her lips.

  Selardi then raised a finger to the sky and shouted, “Varderi dasht (Field of roses)!”

  Thousands of blue roses sprouted across the field as Tania extended her fiery claws and hurled herself toward the Armenian goddess, shouting, “Tsemp Dalaq (Burning nails)!”

  The roses began shooting toward the Punic goddess. With her claws, Tania destroyed them as she advanced toward Selardi, but their numbers were overwhelming.

  “If even one of those roses pierces you, your blood will freeze and you’ll die without remedy!” Selardi shouted with a victorious expression.

  Tania destroyed as many roses as she could, but there were too many. Forced to stop, she focused solely on avoiding the barrage. Still, she couldn’t avoid them all—the goddess fell onto the roses, which pierced her legs.

  “You’re finished, Tannit!” Selardi cried triumphantly.

  But to her shock, Tania tore off her own legs and lunged at the Armenian goddess with her claws bared, impaling her and slashing her hundreds of times.

  The Punic goddess collapsed face-down on the ground. Without legs, she could not stand, and since they had frozen, she could not regenerate them.

  Selardi also fell backward, her body riddled with wounds from Tania’s fiery claws.

  The roses then rose like a wave, about to crash down on Tania as she lay unable to move.

  Selardi laughed as she struggled back to her feet.

  “This is my victory, Tannit,” she said.

  But just before the roses could fall upon the goddess, Tania transformed once more into a manticore and hurled herself like a blade of fire toward Selardi. Unable to react in time, the Armenian goddess was sliced in half horizontally by the Punic deity.

  The moment she struck, Tania lost her transformation and collapsed face-down again.

  “I never told you how much manná I had left, Selardi,” Tania said, gasping as she tried to push herself up with her hands.

  Selardi’s body regenerated, but she was gravely wounded. She staggered to her feet, breathing heavily as if starved for air.

  Raising her right hand, she summoned an intensely cold wind that lifted the roses and sent them flying wildly through the air. Tania could no longer move to avoid the attack.

  Selardi turned toward Tania and shouted, “Varderi alik (Wave of Roses)!”

  The roses, driven by the wind, flew toward Tania to impale her—but by sheer luck, not a single rose struck her.

  “That’s impossible! The odds were less than one in a million!” Selardi screamed in fury.

  The Armenian goddess resorted again to forming ice spikes in the air and hurling them at Tania. They struck mercilessly, piercing her hands, shoulders, and the base of her spine. Even if she wanted to move, Tania no longer could.

  Selardi conjured a massive iceberg, floating above the Punic goddess, poised to crush her. Its pointed tip would impale her with overwhelming force.

  “Goodbye, Tannit,” Selardi said.

  She sent the enormous block of ice crashing down—but at that very moment, the iceberg exploded and was completely destroyed.

  “Who did this?” Selardi demanded furiously.

  Then, in the distance, she saw a man with light brown hair wearing a Phrygian cap, a dagger in his right hand.

  It was Mitras, who had also arrived at the palace.

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