[V12C43] Audience Gate

This was an event from the distant past.

――”Well then, Father, I’ll be off now. Please don’t make that face, as I am confident in our victory. After all, this was a strategy concocted by you, the wisest among us!”

The son of the sage headed to the battlefield after saying that, and never returned.

He believed in his father’s plan until the bitter end. And as a result, he did not hesitate to act as a decoy on the front lines, buying time for their people to escape.

――”You fool, you imbecile…!”

The sage cursed himself for causing the death of his own son. Even so, the king was not about to let him go unpunished.

――”You have slain our people with your halfwitted plots. Now, receive your punishment.”

＊　＊　＊

Pikeh reeled in the ice bowl containing Sophocles, and Cyril placed the ring back on his finger.

However, the jet-black ring had lost its usual luster, and the contract mark no longer appeared on Cyril’s finger.

Sophocles had been screaming when he was thrown, but now he was eerily silent.

“Sophocles?”

“……”

Despite the silence, Cyril could sense the anger radiating from the ring. Since this was wholly deserved, he knew he needed to apologize.

“I… I’m sorry…”

The ring remained silent.

When simply apologizing wasn’t enough, one must voice their points of reflection and express their intention to improve.

“Next time,” Cyril continued. “I’ll make sure to practice catching in any posture.”

“You imbecile! That’s not it at all!!”

Now, the ring started blinking in its usual rainbow-like glow.

“You are my contractor, Cyril Ashley! Why did you leave me with someone else!? You lack the awareness required of an ancient artifact’s contractor! That is the mistake you need to reflect on!”

“…S-Sorry.”

“You had better write a reflection paper! I’ll make you read it in front of Vicent and me!”

“I understand.”

Cyril nodded with a stern face, and the ring responded with a scoff.

The next instant, the contract mark had returned to Cyril’s right middle finger. It seemed that he was forgiven.

“…He left me a message. Lure Theodore as close to the sea surface as possible, then use the power of your ice spirit. Withdraw when signaled.”

Theodore maintained a low altitude, but he was clearly looking in their direction. In fact, he seemed to be ignoring Isaac, Monica, and the larger black dragon.

This proved that his target was Gluttonous Zoe, which was in Cyril’s hands. In addition, he could not ignore a white dragon, the natural enemy of the black dragon.

“White Dragon! Keep your eyes on the enemy at all times! Your breath will be useless against attacks from the rear!”

Since Theodore was after Gluttonous Zoe, he could not target them with a huge torrent of black flames. That would risk burning the artifact.

However, he could fire small bursts to knock Thule out of the skies, then recapture the artifact once Cyril lost his mobility.

Theodore suddenly began his approach. Thule intercepted with his frost breath, and Theodore countered by breathing black flames.

The glittering white collided with the all-engulfing black, and they canceled each other out.

Simultaneously, a serpentine shadow shot out of the water from under Thule.

“Fool! That trick will not work twice!”

Cyril’s ring glowed, creating a wide defensive barrier directly below Thule.

The shadows attempting to entangle Thule were repelled by the artifact’s powerful barrier, and forced back into the sea.

“I am Sophocles, the Key of Knowledge. I protect the passage of wisdom, and all those who inherit it.”

Theodore tried to circle around, but he was knocked off balance, having collided with an invisible wall midair. This was a barrier that Sophocles deployed in his path.

“This time, I will protect you to the end!”

The sage shouted from Cyril’s hand.

“Now, do it! Ice Spirit!”

Pikeh nodded and looked down at the staggered Theodore.

The air around Thule was suddenly covered in diamond dust. The legendary ice spirit Ashelpikeh was about to unleash her true power.

“With this much mana in the air, I can do something amazing.”

Dense mana was toxic to humans, but it granted power to spirits and dragons. Naturally, both Thule and Pikeh were benefiting from it.

Pikeh raised her index finger, then pointed it downward.

A pale blue light gathered on the surface of the sea, forming the shape of a giant gate.

Cyril had seen something similar before.

“That’s… the summoning gate for the Spirit King…!?”

“No, not a summoning, but an audience,” Pikeh interjected.

Shimmering particles of light could be seen in the depths of her emotionless, violet eyes.

“Ice Spirit Ashelpikeh requests an audience.”

Spirits do not employ magecraft. They do not chant spells.

In other words, this was similar to the ceremonial chant employed by mages——words dedicated to the higher existence about to appear before them.

“O Queen of Parting. She who rings the bell of stagnation. Swing wide the doors of frozen cessation, and reveal your form before us.”

The glowing gate slowly opened its doors, and the early summer was overwritten by winter. The blue sky was covered in out-of-season snowflakes.

The bitter cold from the gate was not just a physical phenomenon. It was an invisible presence with immense mana and a will of its own.

Cyril stuttered out its name.

“S-Spirit King of Ice… Fraulicel…”

The snow and frost began piling up on Theodore, and the black dragon’s speed dulled considerably.

All dragons except white dragons were weak to the cold. Theodore’s wings grew stiff, and he barely managed to stay in the air by frantically beating his shadow wings.

Theodore tried to nullify the cold with black flames, but he failed to melt the frost already clinging onto him.

“I thought of this after watching you earlier,” Pikeh said with a strange sense of pride.

She was referring to when Cyril employed a doubly-reinforced ice spell against Theodore in human form.

While Pikeh’s possessed immense power, firing ice blades was pointless against the black flames. Thus, she decided to enclose Theodore in a wave of frost that was impossible to burn completely.

In other words, she replicated Cyril’s spell on a larger scale.

Theodore had gotten noticeably slower, proving the effectiveness of this approach. This was the immense power of Fraulicel, the Spirit King of Ice… the manifestation of winter herself.

(But… if she could do this, why didn’t she do it earlier?)

Perhaps she needed time to gather the mana required for the Audience Gate?

“Offerings for spirits vary,” Pikeh muttered. “Fire spirits prefer alcohol, and wind spirits prefer songs.”

Why did she bring up this topic out of the blue? This left Cyril a strong sense of unease.

“…And ice spirits?” Cyril asked.

“Time and life. We stop the time of living creatures by freezing them, then take their life as the offering.”

Quite ominous… but such was the norm for offerings.

What’s more, something similar had once happened to Cyril.

His feeling of unease only grew stronger.

“…Pikeh, what is considered the offering in this case?”

“The human closest to the ice spirit who requested an audience.”

Cyril flinched back in astonishment.

“Isn’t that me!?”

If Pikeh was speaking the truth, then Cyril would be the one targeted, not Theodore.

“She’ll probably come to collect the offering soon,” Pikeh replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

Cyril wanted to shout “Don’t call something so dangerous!” but he ended up swallowing those words.

Spirit King Summoning allows the caster to summon a portion of the Spirit King’s power, which is manipulated via magical formula.

On the other hand, Pikeh had performed a “Spirit King Audience”. This calls forth a portion of the Spirit King’s power and will, and that is all. The caster has no way to manipulate it.

In other words, Pikeh had essentially summoned the will of winter, which was hostile to all life. Currently, it was preoccupied with Theodore, who was closer to the gate, but it was only a matter of time before it noticed the offering.

(…So that’s why she hasn’t used it before!)

Cyril clenched his teeth in frustration. He would have died instantly if he wasn’t riding Thule, as he had no way to escape on his own.

“Don’t worry,” Pikeh said with confidence. “The third wife will handle the rest.”

“Well done, Ice Spirit! Exert your power to the fullest! I’ll block everything except the black flames!”

Sophocles usually went on a rant when Pikeh called him the third wife, but it seems he was too excited to notice.

Cyril suppressed his anger and did his best to assess the situation.

Currently, Theodore was chasing him to steal back Gluttonous Zoe. At the same time, he was being targeted as an offering by the Spirit King of Ice, Fraulicel.

This was an unprecedented disaster. What was a normal person like him supposed to do about it?

(Good grief! Why did this have to happen to me?)

That said, perhaps he should be happy to simply have a role, considering how he was the weakest among their allies.

Cyril was someone who grew more spirited when he was angry. And right now, he wore a confident smile.

“In that case, for the sake of our victory… I shall take on the role of decoy! Let’s go, Thule! Pikeh!”

Protected by Sophocles’s barrier, Cyril rode Thule into the world of winter. The snowstorm raging in Sazandol’s harbor engulfed him and Theodore alike.

This storm was the hand of Fraulicel. The Spirit King of Ice was commanding him to offer his life.

Cyril raised his right fist with Sophocles on it.

“Lend me your power, Sophocles!”

“A decoy, you say… What a grand role it is! Very well! We shall fulfill our duty splendidly!”

Since Pikeh called for an Audience Gate rather than a Summoning Gate, the ceremonial incantation is a bit different.

The chant for actually summoning the Spirit King of Ice would be this:

“O Queen of Parting. She who rings the bell of stagnation. Heed my call, and reveal a glimpse of your power. In the name of [insert name]… Open the gate. Swing wide the doors of frozen cessation and appear before us, Spirit King of Ice Fraulicel.”

Fraulicel was a bit of a troublesome Spirit King, said to have loved the Spirit King of Water Luluchera so much that she refused to assist Ralph the Hero. As such, she doesn’t appear often in the founding legends.

The Spirit Kings of Water and Ice are often referred to as a set, “Luluchera the Transient” and “Fraulicel the Stagnant”.

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