[V6C9] Kiss of the Ice Spirit

Earth attribute magic is generally said to be unsuitable for combat.

Assuming you can create magical arrows with various attributes, earth arrows cost much more mana than the other elements.

Moreover, between arrows of flame and arrows of earth, the latter are inevitably heavier, resulting in a decrease in projectile speed.

Hence, earth spells are often ridiculed as “difficult to handle”, and “not practical for real combat”.

Melissa usually preferred not to use earth attribute magic. It was much easier and required less mana to manipulate plants rather than launching rocks and such.

However, holding back was not an option in this situation. Melissa wouldn’t spare effort or mana to crush an opponent who belittled her.

“House Roseberg is beloved by the spirits of the earth. You will rue the day you picked a fight with us.”

As Melissa raised her hand to the sky, orange particles of light spilled from the gate, permeating the earth and causing the ground to quake. Her magic was shaking the entire mountain.

With the power of the Spirit King, it would be a simple matter to shatter a mountain into pieces or split the earth apart… However, doing so would result in Melissa burying herself alive.

Therefore, Melissa limited it to shaking the mountain.

Mount Kalug was a snowy mountain. It goes without saying what would happen if such an act were performed.

“…! Avalanche!?”

Veronica clicked her tongue and turned around, but it was too late.

The avalanche had crashed down on Veronica and buried her and her alone, as if it had a will of its own. The soil beneath the accumulated snow was all moving according to Melissa’s will.

As a spirit, Veronica didn’t need to breathe, and she wouldn’t suffer broken bones.

However, once buried in the snow, she was rendered unable to move.

“Grh…!”

Veronica tried to hold back the avalanche with her magic, but Melissa scoffed at the attempt.

“You think a third-rate spirit like you can compete against the power of the Spirit King?”

Once the half-buried Veronica somehow managed to crawl out, Melissa swung her hand.

The snow from the avalanche dispersed like a bursting bubble, and in the next moment, it transformed into countless spears.

Veronica had the power to manipulate snow. Therefore, Melissa took the initiative and mixed soil into all of that snow.

Her spears, mottled with the brown of soil and the white of snow, rained down on Veronica.

Veronica tried to slide across the snow in an attempt to escape, but there were too many spears. She couldn’t avoid them all.

The unrelenting spears rained down heavier than any landslide, piercing Veronica all over her body.

Veronica was a spirit, so there was no splattering of blood. Instead, the flow of mana that comprised her body was distorted, turning her form blurry.

At this rate, Veronica wouldn’t be able to maintain her body. She would eventually vanish away into nothingness.

“Now, time to beg for your life. Get on your knees and plead, ‘Great Witch Melissa, please forgive me,’ and maybe you’ll be spared.”

“That gate…”

Still pinned to the ground by the soil spears, Veronica gestured with her eyes towards the glowing gate above Melissa’s head.

“How long can you keep it open?”

The question made Melissa’s cheek twitch slightly.

This spirit was aware. The gate of the Spirit King could only be maintained for so long.

“I guess I’ll bury you after all.”

Melissa scowled at Veronica and waved her hand. The snow-soil mixture undulated like waves, swelling up before showering down on the spirit.

Veronica violently tore off her own limbs, which were impaled by the earthen spears, in order to escape this assault. Despite losing the majority of her human form, she could apparently still move freely atop snow.

Almost simultaneously, the gate above Melissa disappeared.

Having lost the power of the Spirit King, the spears returned to being mere clumps of dirt, which scattered down upon the snowy field.

“Raul!”

“On it!”

Raul deployed the man-eating roses around Melissa and himself.

Yet for some reason, Veronica performed what seemed like a desperate——or rather, suicidal charge. She came rushing right toward them.

Snow-like particles were leaking from her torn limbs; her mana was spilling out at a dangerous rate. Meanwhile, Raul’s rose thorns pierced Veronica all over, further draining her mana.

Veronica was already on the verge of vanishing. Even so, she forced her way through the Rose Fortress… and reached out to Thule, the silver-haired youth lazily standing there.

“Thule!”

Unnoticed by anyone, Thule had moved a few steps away from Melissa and Raul. Veronica jumped onto him, scattering the mana particles everywhere.

(It’s already over! What can you do even if you get your hands on that amnesiac!)

Regardless of what Veronica did, it would only take a few seconds for Raul’s roses to devour her whole.

In the midst of this, Veronica managed to jump onto Thule’s chest… extending her hands to his cheeks and kissing him.

A final kiss to her beloved in the face of death… Perhaps that would make for a well-crafted romance.

However, this was no ordinary kiss.

From their point of contact on the lips, mana began flowing from Veronica to Thule.

Eventually, Veronica lost almost all her strength and collapsed on the spot. More than half of her body was transparent; she was already fading away.

As for Thule…

“Ah… Aaah…”

His hazy, seemingly drowsy eyelids lifted, revealing wide golden eyes. His pupils became vertically elongated, closer to reptiles than humans.

The snowlights gathered around Thule like a vortex, illuminating the young man with a bluish-white glow.

“Ah… Aaah…”

Meaningless sounds spilled from his lips as a white mist leaked out.

This wasn’t the cloudy breath of a man in the cold——evident by the fact that his breath contained glittering particles of ice.

“AAAHHHHHHH…!!”

A piercing scream overflowed from the young man’s mouth, as his entire body was enveloped in white light.

Melissa instinctively raised her arm, shielding her eyes.

“Hey, what the heck is this!?”

Beside the cursing Melissa, Raul sent his rose tendrils forward.

The serpentine tendrils tried to capture Thule… but the moment they touched him, they instantly froze and fell to the ground.

“Sis, I’m… I’m getting really bad vibes!”

“Anyone can see that. Run, run!”

As she shouted, Melissa quickly distanced herself from Thule. Raul quickly followed suit. Behind them, the white light enveloping Thule continued to swell significantly.

Eventually, that light grew taller than the surrounding trees, and its silhouette began to transform.

A pair of wings spread wide. The graceful silhouette of a torso. Limbs with sharp claws.

When the white light finally scattered, beneath it emerged scales as beautiful and white as jewels… and golden eyes.

He was the legendary white dragon said to dwell on this mountain. The dragon roared up at the heavens, and in response, the snowlights danced through the sky in harmony.

Snowlights had a tendency to flock to things rich in mana. Melissa had been wondering why they gathered around the young man with abysmal mana, and this answered her doubts.

(The ice spirits were flocking to the lord of the mountain…!)

The white dragon dashed through the night sky, accompanied by snowlights. His eyes were on the Temple of the White Dragon——the direction Monica had headed.

＊　＊　＊

Squeezing out every last bit of her remaining strength, Monica ascended the snowy mountain.

The mountain, now fully immersed in darkness, would ordinarily have poor visibility, rendering any attempt at progress impossible. However, thanks to the support of the snowlights illuminating her surroundings, even the single lantern in her hands was enough.

Amid the gently swaying blue-tinted particles of white light, she spotted the figure of a building ahead. Presumably, that was the temple dedicated to the white dragon.

Despite being called a temple, it was a simple, hut-like structure made of stacked stones. The building was even smaller than the mountain hut where Monica used to live.

Arriving at the entrance of the temple, Monica noticed something lying at her feet.

It was a brooch adorned with a blue gem——the magical device Cyril always wore.

“…!”

Monica picked up the brooch and pushed open the heavy door of the temple.

Snowlights swiftly entered through the slightly ajar door, illuminating the interior of the temple with a bluish-white glow.

There was a simple altar at the back of the modest stone temple. Someone was lying on it.

He had silver hair and a slender body. Even if the eyelids were closed on his beautiful blue eyes, there was no mistaking him.

“Cyril-sama!”

Monica rushed to the altar, touching Cyril’s hand with a feeling akin to a prayer.

His hand was terribly cold and devoid of vitality. However, once Monica timidly pressed her fingers to his wrist, she felt a faint pulse.

(…Cyril-sama is alive.)

Filled with relief, Monica shook Cyril’s body while shedding tears.

“Cyril-sama, please wake up. Cyril-sama…”

Despite calling his name multiple times, there was no response. Cyril’s pale eyelids did not so much as twitch.

Sensing an ominous premonition, Monica activated her detection magic and observed Cyril. It was then that she realized it.

(…Cyril-sama’s entire body is covered in ice magic?)

Monica had read about this in a book a long time ago.

There was a technique for cloaking a human’s body with cold mana, inducing a long sleep while keeping them alive.

That said, this technique hadn’t been fully established, and the magic for applying it would be considered forbidden either way.

Cold sweat ran down Monica’s cheek as she increased the precision of her detection magic.

Monica could understand and decipher almost all magical formulas in existence. However…

(This is not magecraft…)

Humans constructed magical formulas and exercised magic in the form of magecraft.

And for any magecraft, Monica could decipher the magical formulas that composed it, and undo the spell.

However, what had been cast on Cyril wasn’t any magical formula. It was a spirit’s magic.

Since spirits are skilled in handling magic, they do not use magical formulas. Because there are no formulas, Monica cannot decipher or dispel them.

Despite finally finding Cyril, Monica was faced with the harsh reality of a dead end.

Her slender throat trembled, and sobs interrupted her unsteady breathing.

“…Urgh…!”

Monica bit down on her lip and slapped her own cheeks with both hands.

(At times like this, Cyril-sama wouldn’t cry. He would think about what he can do.)

Think, think, don’t stop thinking. Monica thought to herself, mobilizing all the knowledge she possessed to search for a way to save Cyril.

(The most certain way is to have the spirit who cast this magic on Cyril-sama undo it. But what if that’s impossible…? What kind of magical formula do I need to safely remove the ice magic covering him? If Cyril-sama were simply frozen in ice, all of the moisture in his body would freeze, causing the cells to die. Since that’s not the case, the magic must be protecting his body as well…)

In her mind, Monica constructed and calculated the magical formulas necessary to save Cyril, repeatedly rebuilding and reevaluating.

This was a kind of magic that no one had ever tried before, and she must cast it on Cyril. Failure was not an option.

At the moment when Monica completed the thirty-eighth calculation in her mind, the temple shook greatly. No, not just the temple. The ground itself was trembling.

Unable to stand due to the intense shaking, Monica fell on her bottom.

(What is happening outside…?)

Though perturbed, Monica placed her hands back on the altar and stood back up. She returned to her calculations.

Selecting the necessary formulas and discarding the unnecessary, Monica aimed to complete the magical formula to remove the ice magic covering Cyril.

Just as Monica was about to finish the last calculation, a tremendous roar echoed from outside.

Monica had heard a similar sound before.

(Is that… the roar of a dragon?)

Right as Monica directed her gaze outside the temple, the roof of the temple disappeared with a crash.

Debris from the roof wreckage fell dangerously close, and Monica instinctively dived down.

“Hyuh…!?”

Cold air flowed into the now well-ventilated temple, brushing against Monica’s cheeks.

Adorned with snowlights and towering in the night sky, a dragon with white scales was staring her down.

The beast’s colossal body was incomparable to those of lesser dragons. He rivaled the Black Dragon of Worgan, the largest dragon Monica knew.

White dragons were delicate creatures, potentially vulnerable everywhere, not just the forehead. However, they were by no means weak. A single swipe of the claws was all it took to destroy the roof of the temple.

The dragon turned his gaze to Cyril, who slept on the altar. His golden eyes sparkled as if locking onto prey.

“No, stop!”

Monica conjured a spear of flames without an incantation, aiming for the white dragon’s forehead.

Crafted with precise calculations, the magic was supposed to pierce the dragon’s forehead with certainty.

However, just before her spell reached the dragon, an ice blade flew in from the side and neutralized the flaming spear.

Turning her gaze toward the direction from which the ice blade came, she saw the translucent and weakened form of Veronica, whose left arm was missing.

Although Veronica seemed on the verge of disappearing, her amethyst-colored eyes glared back at Monica with a powerful determination.

“I won’t let you interfere with Thule.”

Monica unleashed another flame spear in silence. However, Veronica immediately nullified it.

In that opening, the sharp claws of the white dragon hooked onto Cyril’s body, lifting him up.

“Cyril-sama, wake up! Cyril-sama!”

“No. If he wakes up, Thule won’t be able to assimilate him.”

While shouting, Monica repeatedly aimed for the white dragon’s forehead. However, Veronica’s ice manipulation prevented all her attempts. Her attacks couldn’t get through.

Meanwhile, the white dragon lifted his arm, carrying Cyril’s body toward his mouth.

“Stop! Stop! Nooooo!”

The dragon’s long red tongue dragged Cyril’s body into his maw.

Then, the creature’s sharp fangs clamped down with a resounding snap. At that moment, everything before Monica’s eyes turned pure white.

The Silent Witch was the legendary mage who annihilated a flock of wyverns without uttering a single word.

Now, that same witch fell to her knees before the white dragon, shedding tears and letting out a pitiful scream.

“No, noooooo! Cyril-sama, Cyril-sama…!”

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