The situation flowed in an unpredictable direction.
Erina was surrounded by the Snow Maiden and monsters.
I was caught in a standoff between dragonkin and monsters.
Four wolves were growling at me.
With their howls, they scattered in all directions, forming a siege.
Even on the rough snowfield, the wolf pack was quite swift.
If things continued like this, I would be surrounded with my back to a cliff.
“Stop running away!”
A shout came with a gust of wind.
With a menacing sound, cracks appeared on the ground.
At the same time, the wolf pack bared their fangs and charged.
“Ugh…!”
I shoved my sword into the open mouth.
The blade pierced from the roof of the mouth to between the eyes, and the wolf perished instantly.
There was no time to relax.
The remaining three charged from both sides. They aimed for my flanks.
‘The one on the left first.’
I stomped down and kicked the jaw.
With a mournful scream, it was thrown far away.
The one charging from the right got its head smashed with my shield.
The skull shattered and the body collapsed.
The last one bravely charged straight at me.
I calmly blocked its body slam and split its head open.
“Haah…”
I took a moment to catch my breath.
In the meantime, the dragon had flown into the sky and merely watched.
At most, she only stirred up a breeze that wouldn’t even reach me.
If she had coordinated with the wolves, I surely wouldn’t have made it out unscathed.
But once again, she did nothing.
It felt like she was moving according to a script.
She no longer seemed to have the will to fight.
Then the opponent spoke up first.
“By the way, what’s your relationship with Bianca?”
“Bianca?”
“Yeah. The girl who’s with you.”
Is she referring to Kayla?
I guess Bianca must be her old name.
“Well, she’s just a comrade.”
She flew closer to me, her sharp claws grazing my face.
If she had been just a bit deeper, I would have had a wound on my chest.
But this time too, she merely feigned an attack.
“Hey~ Not like that! That girl wouldn’t just follow you around without a reason!”
“What?”
“Anyway, it’s pathetic. Doesn’t she just complain and screech without doing anything?”
I struck at her head with my sword, but it missed and cut through the air.
In the meantime, the dragonkin circled around me once.
“What’s that supposed to mean…?”
Our words didn’t match.
I felt the difference in our perceptions.
To me, Kayla was an endlessly kind and warm comrade.
But the dragonkin in front of me had a completely different perspective.
“Anyway, it must be tough. I don’t understand why you hang out with that girl.”
I struggled to grasp her meaning.
And what was the relationship between this dragon and Kayla?
Suddenly, I recalled a memory from when Kayla had opened up about her past.
‘I once fought against the Demon King alongside the dragons.’
She gathered comrades and became the leader of the dragons.
But I had heard that the ending was not good.
Was that the bond formed back then?
However, Kayla was betrayed and chased away with her wings torn.
‘So, this dragon…’
The dragons who betrayed Kayla. In other words, a sworn enemy.
The mountain climb had been surprisingly easy.
The summit was eerily quiet.
The collapsed cave and the awakened Snow Maiden.
All of this was clearly planned by that dragon.
And the bad blood with Kayla was the cause.
I had finally pieced together the causal relationship of the situation.
“You…”
“Hmm?”
“Are you planning to kill Kayla?”
The dragon tilted her head in confusion.
“Kayla? Who’s Kayla? Are you talking about Bianca?”
“Yes. Although she no longer goes by that name.”
The dragon then laughed with a snicker.
Her tone was clearly mocking as she continued to speak ill of Kayla.
“Seriously? Hiding your past like that?”
She complained with a look of disbelief.
Her nonchalant, rambling attitude was akin to a mischievous girl.
“You don’t seem to know much, so listen carefully. You’d be shocked if you knew how vile she truly is.”
Then the dragon began recounting tales about Kayla.
How she had done nothing but shout and complain even on the battlefield.
How she had passed all important or troublesome tasks onto her subordinates and remained a bystander.
How she argued and used violence with other dragonkin every day.
She recounted every detail without missing a single point.
“And do you know what she said? It’s your fault. You lost because you’re useless and weak. What a damnable girl. What makes her so great!”
Her voice, full of scorn and mockery, grew increasingly filled with anger and resentment.
At least her words didn’t seem like lies.
Kayla had once confessed her own arrogance and mistakes.
But hearing such a naked account of her misdeeds was shocking.
“Now you understand, right? I don’t know why you’re with her, but it’s the worst mistake you could make.”
“…”
“Anyway, you should thank me. You’ll never see Bianca again.”
She probably thought I would be disillusioned with Kayla.
I didn’t bother to respond. It wasn’t worth refuting.
Perhaps it was a meaningless argument.
I had no intention of abandoning Kayla.
“Kayla will be fine.”
The dragon frowned in disbelief.
She placed her hands on her hips and grumbled in frustration.
“Have you not been listening to anything I’ve said?”
“It doesn’t really matter.”
“You really don’t understand anything, do you?”
She sighed deeply, as if she thought she wouldn’t be able to break my stubbornness.
It was understandable that she would be disappointed, given how her advice had gone unheeded.
Another wind cutter flew toward me.
I blocked it lightly with my shield and leaped into the air.
Perhaps surprised, the dragon’s eyebrows twitched.
I aimed to cut off her legs.
But she hesitated for a moment before widening the distance between us.
“Tsk…!”
An enemy flying in the sky was quite a hassle.
I had no choice but to wait until she became exhausted and descended.
But my expectations were completely off the mark.
“Well, it doesn’t matter.”
A strange intuition struck me.
Her form began to blur more and more.
Realizing this too late, I swung my sword.
At the same time, the Snow Maiden’s scream echoed across the snowy mountain.
“Where are you going, you damn brat!”
“Well, no matter how I think about it, it seems difficult to win.”
With that, the dragon vanished from the air, waving her hand as her final gesture.
“Damn it…!”
From the beginning, it was just a ploy to buy time and escape.
I quickly looked around.
By now, Erina had defeated most of the monsters.
Only an injured Ent and a golem whose life or death was uncertain remained.
“Erina, the dragon has disappeared!”
“I know.”
Her response was calm as she scanned the situation, her gaze sharp and focused.
The summit was stained with blood. The only ones left were Erina, the Snow Maiden, and me.
“Ugh…!”
The Snow Maiden clutched her right arm in pain.
Cold blood was flowing down her forearm.
Left alone at the summit, her face twisted with rage.
She probably never expected to be cornered like this.
“What exactly are you…!”
“…”
“I’ve craved power my entire life! I’ve lived for hundreds of years! Unlike you fresh-faced brats…!”
Before she could finish her tirade, Erina struck the Snow Maiden with her sword.
The speed was so blinding that I couldn’t even follow it with my eyes.
To block the attack, an ice wall shot up.
But with a thunderous crash, it crumbled uselessly.
I couldn’t just stand by. I charged forward with my shield.
I continued attacking without pause.
Although the blows didn’t land, they were enough to restrict her movements.
But the Snow Maiden’s resistance was formidable.
“Don’t bother me! Little brat!”
“Ugh…!”
I felt a heavy impact on my abdomen.
I barely managed to hold back the urge to retch.
A cold chill was seeping through my punch.
She was trying to freeze my body.
I struck her head with my shield.
With a dull thud, the Snow Maiden’s body staggered.
I quickly struck her wrist with the shield, freeing my hand.
“Seo-Hyun!”
“Stay calm. I’m fine…!”
It was just a single punch.
I could handle this much.
But Erina’s eyes blazed with flames.
Her usually calm and collected gaze was now clouded with rage.
The atmosphere changed drastically. It felt like the space was warping.
A dark, sticky emotion stained the surroundings.
A tremendous fear even made me forget the chill of the summit.
“What is this…!”
Even the Snow Maiden was cowering.
It was too heavy to be called spirit or aura.
It wasn’t mere pride or fighting spirit.
It was a madness to kill the opponent at any cost.
“How dare you, a mere monster…”
“Ugh…?!”
Backing away, the Snow Maiden couldn’t take her eyes off Erina.
Suddenly, Erina turned her gaze toward me.
Her dark eyes were filled with resignation.
“…?”
Her longsword was lowered, resting on the ground.
With her other hand, she drew a dagger from her belt.
Her posture was unusual.
She lowered her body and shifted her center of gravity.
It was a unique movement I hadn’t seen before.
Electricity surged along the longsword.
But it didn’t have the same dazzling effect as before.
Instead, a thin current flowed along the blade.
Yet the electricity flowing along the blade was glowing more intensely than ever.
I had a premonition that even a mere brush against it could incinerate a corpse instantly.
“You…!”
“Shut up.”
She released a massive blade aura into the air.
A flash of light and a thunderbolt followed.
A great beam of light scattered in all directions.
The purpose of the split currents of electricity was clear.
They were aimed at the Snow Maiden’s position.
“Ugh…!”
The corpses of many monsters were swept away by the wind and current, creating chaos.
A massive ice spear materialized.
The weapon, over two meters long, was swung by the Snow Maiden with both hands.
The clash between the icy wind and the electricity created a bizarre, deafening noise.
Electricity and ice merely clashed in their forms, but fundamentally, it was the flow of magical energy that was in conflict.
The space warped, and light radiated.
The lost magical energy scattered aimlessly in every direction.
“Not a big deal.”
“Shut up! If I were a bit younger, you would be nothing!”
“Yeah, it’s tough being old.”
We exchanged trivial banter as we continued to fight.
Every clash between the spear and the longsword echoed with a ferocious sound.
Meanwhile, I calmly aimed for the Snow Maiden’s back.
In the tense standoff between the two, I quickly dashed to the opponent’s rear.
Naturally, the Snow Maiden noticed and shot an arrow at me.
I dodged calmly and struck with my sword.
While she was distracted by my presence, a massive flash of light erupted.
A colossal bolt of lightning swung towards the Snow Maiden.
“Ugh…?!”
The blade struck her at the base of her neck. At the same time, immense electrical energy spread everywhere.
I quickly deflected the sword with an ice spear. But I stumbled, having taken some damage.
Seizing the opportunity, I struck her left leg with my blade.
Once she allowed the attack, a series of strikes followed.
Caught between Erina and me, the Snow Maiden couldn’t withstand our coordinated assault.
“Ugh…?!”
Eventually, my blade pierced her leg, causing her to collapse.
Without missing a beat, Erina kicked her head.
The Snow Maiden fell onto the snowy ground.
Finally, we had subdued the Snow Maiden.
“Hah… hah…”
Erina’s eyes were bloodshot.
With a fierce aura, she approached the fallen Snow Maiden.
The Snow Maiden looked up at us in despair.
Her face showed a grim expression, her teeth clenched in frustration.
I twisted the sword embedded in her leg, causing her to moan in pain.
“Damn it…! Damn it…!!”
She tried to wriggle and rise, but it was useless.
Erina’s longsword approached her neck.
“I’m sorry. It took so long.”
“No. Just surviving was amazing.”
At first, I wasn’t sure we could win.
But Erina proved to be stronger than I expected.
Although I anticipated the extermination of the monsters, I didn’t think we could defeat the Snow Maiden.
“You did well. It’s all thanks to you.”
Finally, we had conquered Mount Norstel.
The Snow Maiden quietly closed her eyes.
She seemed to sense her end and offered no resistance.
“Do you have any last words?”
The Snow Maiden smiled with a resigned expression.
“To think I’d fall to such lowly beings. It’s nothing but disgrace.”
There would be no more mercy. I aimed my sword at her neck.
I raised the sword to deliver the final blow.
But I couldn’t bring myself to kill the Snow Maiden.
“Ugh…?!”
“Uh…?”
A massive earthquake struck. The very ground beneath us trembled.
At the same time, a blizzard began pouring down from the sky.
“Erina! It’s dangerous!”
A tremendous backdraft accompanied the snowstorm.
Snowdrifts of unknown origin poured endlessly.
Now I understood the Snow Maiden’s intention.
She aimed to collapse the summit and die with us.
Erina tried to swing her sword quickly.
But it was already too late. We were swept away by the massive wave of snow.
There was no way to escape. No place to run. No one to help.
All I could do was pray for our safety.
