Boooom!!!
A flash filled the entire area, followed by an ear-splitting roar and a massive explosion.
Ice spikes covered the Icy Lake, and the ice masses violently erupted from its surface.
Concealing myself within the radiant glow, I darted toward Veronica, swinging my Frostscythe in a sweeping arc.
Whoosh!
Ssshhk!
Sensing my presence, Veronica leaped back.
I saw the Frostscythe in her grasp. No, to be exact, it was a scythe similar to mine but slightly different in shape.
It was most likely a replica based on mories of the past.
Swoosh!
Silvery trails followed my every move as I charged at Veronica.
Veronica defended against or dodged my attacks, using ice magic or unfolding the wings of [Ice Sovereign] to retreat swiftly.
Is the scythe too heavy for her to swing?
Given her body, which looked as frail as if only bones were left, it made sense.
As if we had agreed beforehand, we both deployed ice magic circles simultaneously.
Her magic circle unleashed a vast [Frostfire]. I countered with a [Frostfire] of my own.
Fwoooosh!!
Our destructive ice magic competed for hegemony, relentlessly crashing into each other.
In the midst of it, I used magic to speak into Veronica’s mind.
[Why were you positioned here as a gatekeeper?]
[…]
[You said you would follow the stars. What did that an?]
[…]
[And what was the falsehood you wanted to cast aside?]
Boooom!!
[If I go beyond this door, will I know everything? The stars, the falsehoods!]
[…]
Booom!!
The only answer I received from Veronica was silence.
Her mind was already broken. She rely unleashed a series of graceful and dazzling ice magic attacks, aiming for my life.
Still, I wanted to help Veronica regain even a shred of her reason.
“Answer !”
I shouted outright.
“The one who first sealed the Evil God was the monster within , right?! That wasn’t recorded in history! But how did you know that?!”
The final boss, the Evil god Nephid, in ❰Magic Knight of Märchen❱, was sealed in the abyss and later “resurrected”.
Why is such an expression used?
Even the Primordial Kings from the dawn of ti only foretold the resurrection of the Evil God; they took no part in sealing it.
Who sealed the Evil God had remained unknown.
However, in Düpfendorf, Veronica left a note when I ca seeking the Cloak of the Radiant Wolf, allowing to guess who sealed the Evil God.
The one who sealed the Evil God and the being I must not trust if I wish to survive.
“Ozma!!”
That being must be the first kin of the Star Fairy Stella, Ozma.
Booom!!
A series of ice magic colliding, erupting into a fierce cold blast.
Swoosh!
I broke through the swirling extre cold, reaching Veronica.
As Veronica swung her Frostscythe with her ice magic, I swung mine, wrapped in absolute zero.
My target was not Veronica, but the scythe she held.
Clang!
Veronica’s Frostscythe was knocked away. The advantage of power leaned towards .
Grasping her head, I forcefully headbutted her forehead.
Thud!!!
The dull sound of skulls cracking echoed.
Veronica staggered, and ignoring the blood dripping from my head, I grabbed her by the collar. No matter how much ice magic she poured out, I retaliated with my own.
I glared into Veronica’s lifeless eyes from up close and spoke, “You were waiting for here, weren’t you? Why did you do it…?”
[…]
Veronica’s bloodless lips moved as if she had just realized sothing.
Her eyes finally focused on .
[Star…]
At last, Veronica uttered a word.
Her voice cracked as if she hadn’t spoken for countless years.
[…Bey… ond… the… star…]
Beyond the star.
Is she answering my question? Or is this rely the last remnants of her obsession escaping her lips?
Whatever the case, it was clear that going beyond the gate would reveal the truth.
I blinked slowly.
Why?
Why did Veronica co here to beco the gatekeeper?
She had told to destroy her with peace in my heart, so she must have already known her fate.
“Veronica. Why are you… serving as the gatekeeper here?”
As I asked, Veronica’s eyes widened gradually.
Soon, I couldn’t help but be shocked.
Her mummified face, devoid of any vitality, cracked and splintered apart like an ice sculpture…
…From a barely ford smile.
Whoosh!
A sharp flash swept by, and an imnse wave of mana spread outward.
One after another, the strange whistling of the wind could be heard from the sky.
I couldn’t afford to take my eyes off Veronica or let down my guard, so I activated [Clairvoyance] to check what had appeared in the sky.
What is that…?
A pale blue crescent, filled with countless magic circles, cast a dazzling light below the blood-colored clouds.
An ice crescent connected to Veronica by mana.
It was an ice magic I had never seen before, but it wasn’t difficult to realize that the mana consud to create it surpassed that of [Cocytus].
Plop.
Plop.
Gradually, sothing rose above the surface of the icy lake.
Various creatures, naked and carrying heavy burdens.
All were shivering, frostbitten across their bodies from dwelling in the fierce cold.
Sounds of coughing, pleas for help, and sobbing rang out.
They all knelt, weeping uncontrollably as they gazed at the ice crescent.
It was a bizarre sight.
Only then did I understand the condition to be subrged in the Icy Lake.
Death… Only the dead can fall into the Icy Lake.
Because I was alive, I couldn’t fall into the Icy Lake.
Because I was alive, the Icy Lake expelled countless creatures to reject .
The rock rod I had created in the elevator must have also been rejected by the Icy Lake because it was made with the mana of the living.
It was at that mont I realized that.
Thud!!
A trendous force crashed just next to my face, and my body went flying like a ball.
What…?
I tumbled rcilessly across the icy lake.
I nearly lost consciousness. Fortunately, I was able to use [Ice Generation] to raise an ice block and stop my body from rolling further.
[Please… die!]
[Die…!]
[I want to live…!]
[Let get out of here!]
[Give that body…!]
The dead rushed at in a frenzy. They were all weak. I could even sense the fear they held.
I imdiately looked up. A barrage of ice magic was raining down on .
[Gah!]
[Mom, mom…!]
[Save… …!]
I extended the wings of [Ice Sovereign] and flew upwards, evading all of Veronica’s attacks, but dozens of the dead who were charging toward were caught in the ice magic and turned to ashen dust.
I assessed the battle situation.
“Cough…!”
Blood gushed out of my mouth. Bruises covered my entire body.
My cheek stung the most. It felt as if soone had struck hard.
[Ah, no…!]
[The blood, the blood of the living…!]
They wailed in despair as my blood seeped into the icy lake.
anwhile, Veronica stood still in front of the massive gate, picking up her Frostscythe.
Just before I took the heavy blow, Veronica had vanished from my sight.
She was undoubtedly in the stance of throwing a punch at .
And it was so fast that even describing it as an unbelievable speed felt inadequate.
It felt as if I was watching a video being fast-forwarded…
Why did I get that feeling? And why only now?
Earlier, when our Frostscythes clashed, I had already gauged how weak she was.
It was hard to believe that soone as feeble as her could deliver such a powerful blow to .
Could it be related to the ice crescent hovering above her head?
The Cloak of the Radiant Wolf failed to activate.
The Cloak of the Radiant Wolf usually deployed an ice barrier when it sensed danger.
But it failed to respond to Veronica’s mysterious attack.
A speed that even this cloak couldn’t react to…
Whooooosh!
As the distance between us increased, Veronica raised her arm again and conjured a cold sun. It was the 9-star ice spell [Cocytusl].
When the dead were struck with fear, they sank back beneath the Icy Lake.
You told to destroy you to earn the right to pass through this gate, didn’t you? So the next words must be, “Prove it,” right?
I recalled the aning that Veronica had barely conveyed to .
I gathered my wits. There was sothing I needed to confirm.
I, too, constructed [Cocytus]. Once again, we hurled cold suns at each other.
Boooooom!!!!!
I enveloped my entire body with an ice barrier and tried to cut through the massive freezing explosion, swinging my Frostscythe toward Veronica.
The mont I reached her.
—Thud!!
“Ugh!!”
I slid across the Icy Lake once again. The dead crawled back to the surface, screaming as they lunged at like a horde of zombies.
Crash!!
Veronica’s ice magic rained down relentlessly.
I barely held onto my consciousness and soared into the air, dodging all the attacks. Only the dead were caught in Veronica’s magic and disintegrated one by one.
Suddenly, I recalled when I fought the Floating Island. Back then, the creatures of the Nether attacked, believing they could revive if they devoured my body.
These ones were no different. They must be desperately trying to grab hold of , hoping to escape this hell, even if it ant clinging to straws.
As the distance grew, Veronica once again constructed [Cocytus].
The dead returned to the Icy Lake. Or rather… it felt as if they were forcibly sucked back in.
“Haah, haah…”
I wiped the blood streaming from my mouth and observed Veronica.
The size of [Cocytus] has beco slightly smaller…
When I first sensed Veronica’s mana, I deduced that she could handle using [Cocytus] up to three tis without issue.
This ant she had expended a significant amount of mana on that ice crescent to the point of straining herself.
However, that crescent hadn’t hard at all.
Why is she maintaining sothing like that?
I understand it now…
Force was the product of mass and acceleration, with acceleration being the change in velocity over a given ti.
As the target’s ti slowed, the impact force from the attacker increased due to ti, the denominator in calculating acceleration, shortening compared to the “attacker’s ti” during the strike.
Even if Veronica was weak, she was able to deliver a trendous blow to because my ti had slowed.
However, I only noticed Veronica’s movent after I had already been hit.
At first, she stopped ti and moved alone… And then ti gradually returned to its normal state…
The mont when Veronica teleported and struck , appearing as if she were in a fast-forwarded video.
The fact that Cloak of the Radiant Wolf failed to respond.
It all explained how she managed to inflict significant damage with her frail strength.
Is it a ti-stopping ability?
Stopping ti in an absolute, all-encompassing manner was implausible.
However, if the power of that mighty ice crescent was confined to this place, it made sense.
It was difficult to say that only my ti stopped. The background remained unchanged, and only Veronica had disappeared.
But assuming ti stopped initially raised many issues.
Air would fail to produce convection currents, creating an environnt of absolute defense. Even if one managed to force their body to move, it would disintegrate at the particle level.
Even without the air issue, gravity and various physical forces would still pose problems.
However, if Veronica hadn’t moved imdiately after stopping ti, my reflexes would have definitely caught sight of her.
Then.
It’s not simply a ti-freezing ability.
Although the exact nature of the effect was hard to determine, one thing was clear, there was no way to defeat Veronica in close combat.
Could what I’m suffering through right now be the limit of the power possessed by that crescent?
No, I was convinced it was more than that.
Perhaps, that power… is the ultimate ice magic I need to master.
It seems Veronica’s patterns are settling into a predictable form.
After experiencing it twice, I realized she seed to be testing .
When I approached, she unleashed attacks I couldn’t counter.
When I was thrown far away, she cast ice magic and used [Cocytus].
It felt as though she was challenging to surpass her, wielding the mysterious ice crescent, to prove I had the right to pass through the door.
How do I break through?
I had already expended a significant portion of my mana fighting the Nether King.
If I kept repeating this with Veronica, I would ultimately lose the battle of attrition.
Close combat had to be avoided at all costs, and even if I dragged it out with long-range attacks, I would run out of mana first.
It felt like an inescapable checkmate.
“Guh! Cough! Haa…”
Blood splattered as I let out a weak cough, saliva dripping uncontrollably.
My body was in shambles.
No… I’m going to die before my mana runs out.
What should I do?
How can I defeat Veronica?
“…Huh?”
Suddenly, I looked around and realized sothing.
The rain of blood had transford into crimson snow.
I looked up at the vast expanse of reddish clouds.
It seed that my battle with Veronica had greatly influenced the blood clouds.
What hadn’t frozen even with the chill emanating from the Icy Lake…
Had now frozen.
The snow was the proof.
“…”
Suddenly, mories of my life flashed through my mind like a panorama.
Looking ahead, the simple, ignorant, and relentless life I had lived, always running forward, seed to be reflected in my ice magic.
Swoosh.
I extended my Frostscythe upward.
A surge of extre cold swept the sky as a white radiance poured down.
[Divine Authority-White Night]
I claid the sky as my own.
[Master?]
I didn’t answer Hilde’s call echoing in my mind. I wanted to maintain focus.
Clatter!!!
The ultimate elental efficiency. The range in which I could channel my mana transcended imagination itself.
I flooded the sky with ice mana, rapidly freezing the blood clouds with ease through [Divine Authority-White Night].
An intense cold filled the clouds. The combined effect of the chill of the [Ice Sovereign], [Frost Wave], and [Ice Generation] multiplied together.
The spells overlapped, again and again, compounding to exponentially increase the difficulty of the calculation.
Ignorant, yet upright. This was the profound truth my life had attained.
The blood clouds, unable to withstand my mana, froze.
[Elental Synergy]. The interaction where elental magics combined to amplify their effects.
In the gaps between the components of the clouds, I expanded the area of ice, linking and continuing it.
The cloud made of the blood of others sublimated into a trendously large mass of ice.
A shadow that filled the entire Icy Lake.
There is nowhere to escape.
I lowered my Frostscythe, ceasing to channel mana.
[The sky…]
The sky falls.
Kuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!
A deep, thunderous crash echoed throughout the heavens and earth.
The ice spell I had created on my own. It oppressed and consud everything in the vicinity.
If I had to na it, this technique would be called [Heaven’s Collaspe].
Veronica looked up at the sky.
Realizing that unleashing [Cocytus] on would be futile, she hurled the cold sun at the descending mass of ice.
Boooom!!
A massive explosion erupted, but the area only transford into a new, hellish scene filled with fierce cold.
The falling ice sky remained unscathed.
An imasurable weight and its consequent gravitational acceleration.
The intense cold mana building in concentration, and the towering mana density that ford the ice mass.
This… is sothing that even Veronica would find difficult to withstand.
Crack!
Boooom!!!
The imnse, falling chunk of ice shattered the mysterious power, the ice crescent.
A scene of overwhelming power.
The way to avoid that imnse pressure that suppressed everything without discrimination was simple.
Crackle.
I cast [Ice Barrier] around myself and Hilde, the Frost Dragon.
We were immune to the effects of my magic, but that massive ice chunk was created by freezing the blood clouds. We weren’t immune to its physical force.
Thus, if I cast [Ice Barrier], it would devour and nullify only the part of the ice it ca into contact with. Even if the blood cloud splashed on , it wouldn’t cause any harm.
Whoosh!!
Veronica transford herself into an elental form. A storm of icy wind hurtled toward at great speed.
With no place to evade, I could feel her determination to take down first.
If she gets too close, I’ll lose. I won’t let her approach.
I stretched my arm toward her.
Crash!!
I pushed Veronica back with an intense cold. It was the 6-star ice spell [Frost Wave].
That much was manageable. I, too, used ice magic to block the attack or counterattack.
“It’s over. You can’t reach .”
Whoosh!
Veronica stopped advancing toward . She seed to realize it was already too late.
In the shadow cast by the falling sky, we extended our wings of [Ice Sovereign] and silently gazed at each other, both glowing with a dignified brilliance.
For so reason, her face seed to reveal a myriad of emotions.
“…Be at peace.”
At last, the massive ice chunk bypassed Hilde and , protected by the [Ice Barrier], and swept over Veronica.
And soon, it engulfed the entire area.
Boooooom!!!!!
The overwhelming impact descended, and a deafening roar echoed as if to tear my eardrums apart.
The massive ice chunk crumbled, and the Icy Lake spouted upward through the cracks like a geyser.
Ssshhh.
I defrosted the ice mass.
The massive ice chunk turned into a pale blue powder and scattered beautifully.
There was no trace of Veronica Aslius’ form.
Only a singularly beautiful, ashen powder was drifting away from one spot.
[Veronica…]
Hilde’s sorrowful emotions resonated with .
I descended to the spot where Veronica had perished and retracted my three pairs of cold wings.
I calmly reflected in silence and made my way toward the massive gate.
I still didn’t know the exact reason why Veronica had been there.
The truth would be revealed beyond the gate.
“Hilde, take a rest for now.”
[Master?]
“I’m nearly out of mana.”
[…Understood.]
I finished the brief conversation with Hilde and reverse-summoned her.
My remaining mana was nearly depleted. I was in poor condition due to the significant damage I had sustained in my battle against Veronica.
My vision wavered. I felt dizzy. The relief of the battle being over made feel as if I might pass out at any mont.
I had to endure. Soon, I would be able to see Dorothy.
“…Huh?”
I sensed nurous presences behind .
I turned my head back. The many monsters and the dead of the Icy Lake were staring at silently.
When I read their emotions, I sensed reverence. It seed they had been watching the battle between Veronica and from beneath the lake.
And they felt envy toward for being able to cross beyond the gate.
“…”
There was nothing I could say.
I simply moved forward.
Hoooom!
The massive gate began to swing open to either side, and light poured through the gap.
I turned my head forward to face the light.
Creak.
The doors opened wide.
I squinted my eyes and stepped into the radiance without hesitation.
As I passed through the light, I felt a warm sensation in my chest despite the intense cold. For a mont, it almost felt like I had arrived in heaven.
As I quickened my pace, the light gradually dimd, and I heard the sound of the door closing.
Soon, a new landscape appeared in my blurred vision.
This place was still hell.
“This is beyond the gate…”
A scene as if day and night were split dramatically in half.
The place where I stood was bright, and in the distance lied the scenery of a starry sky and a lake reflecting said beautiful sky.
In the distance, I saw a black sphere floating in the sky. It held many stars and galaxies within, as if reflecting the universe like a mirror.
I felt a familiar mana. It was Dorothy’s.
“Haah, haah…”
I trudged forward, dragging my exhausted body as I caught my breath.
In the silence, even with my blurry vision, the distant, subli Icy Lake overwheld .
I advanced.
With each step, the chilling air of the Icy Lake gnawed at my resolve.
Ignoring the pain of broken bones and the wailing of twisted muscles, I kept moving forward.
No matter how much I staggered, I kept steady.
…I’m here.
I stopped at the boundary between light and darkness.
The sphere floating in the sky noticed and opened its many eyes.
Soon, the sphere cracked like clay, revealing a woman who had been curled up asleep inside.
A being that embodied the beautiful starry sky.
I see you.
Upon noticing , she slowly opened her eyes and raised her body.
A cosmic halo adorned with countless eyes settled behind her. All those eyes gazed at .
My heart felt as if it would collapse. My eyes moistened with overwhelming emotion.
But I managed to smile and said.
“It’s been a while, Dorothy.”
I’m here.
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