Chapter 150: Primordial Frost

"...Nio, do you think it’ll take us long to get out of the fifth floor?" Prana asks Nio curiously. The three of them are near the gate to the fifth floor, but while Prana is already thinking about how to get through the fifth floor to reach her family on the sixth floor, Nio is thinking about using one of the 10 Chants to finish Prana off and abandon her on the fourth floor.

"I don’t think so, Prana-chan!" Nio says with a warm smile. She has decided to actually abandon her on this floor because she is certain Typhon will find her on the fifth floor, and she can’t be with someone as dangerous as Prana.

"Hmmm, that’s right, Nio!! We should stay positive... Nioh, you’ve seemed uncertain since yesterday. Is something wrong?" Prana avoids talking to Nioh because she has noticed that Nioh doesn’t like her, but she can’t help noticing how strangely Nioh is acting.

"..." Nioh looks at Nio, who gives her a warning look telling her to "act" better than she is doing now. Unlike Nio, who can do this kind of thing without any trouble, Nioh is more reserved, and such cold and "perfect" manipulation is difficult.

"No... I’m just feeling a little strange. Maybe it’s the remnants of the poison that was in my body. Don’t worry about it, I should get better soon." Nioh runs a hand over her forehead as if physically showing that she has a slight headache.

"Nioh, if you need to, we can always take a break!" Prana says with a smile at her, while Nioh merely stays silent, following the path with this uncomfortable sense of strangeness.

"...Nio, is something wrong?" Prana notices how tense the atmosphere seems, especially because of Nioh.

"...Nothing. It’s just that I expected us to be companions for longer, Prana-chan, and Nioh is obviously still feeling strange because of the poison. It was a very strong poison."

"Oh! But there’s still a long way to go until the sixth floor, Nio! Even when we reach the sixth floor and separate, it’ll still be at least a few weeks, right?! And maybe a few years!! So we can still be companions for a long time."

"...Heh, you’re so positive, Prana-chan, but I plan to reach the sixth floor very quickly. Anyway, let’s change the subject. Prana-chan, there’s something I’ve been wondering about."

"Nioh and I are great at offensive magic, and since we’ll possibly have fights on the next floor, I wanted to know if you’re good at defensive magic, or if you have any instant defensive magic or something that can instantly cure negative effects! That would be perfect for helping us!"

"Oh no, I’m not good at defensive magic, unfortunately! If I were, I wouldn’t have died! I even tried learning it, but it’s difficult. I only know a few barrier spells, but nothing specialized." Prana mutters a little sadly as the three of them arrive at a large clearing, where there is an enormous black rectangle like a door.

"Looks like we made it!! Thank you, you two!! I’ve been looking for this for a long time!!" Prana says with a smile as Nio looks at the door. This time, the portal doesn’t even look like a portal. It has no three-dimensionality; it’s like a thin sheet of paper. Nio approaches it and looks at it from the side, and the portal seems to disappear when viewed from the side.

"I’m the one who should thank you, Prana-chan. The information you gave me was very encouraging. You’re a nice girl. Now, could you wait a little before entering the portal?" Nio is serious about feeling that Prana could be a companion. It was what she wanted, for the two of them to travel through the floors together and spend time having pleasant conversations.

But even she was surprised by how ironic fate could be. The girl who seemed like an ally is just another potential enemy. Nio isn’t completely heartless; she genuinely feels sorry for Prana, who will be betrayed, but she prefers her own safety.

"I want to perform a spell before we reach the fifth floor. It’ll help, and I also want to destroy this portal here," Nio says in a calm tone.

"Oh... really? Why destroy it?"

"I’ll explain it to you on the fifth floor. I’ll start, okay? So be ready to enter the portal as soon as I tell you!"

"Okay, Nio!!" Prana foolishly agrees, genuinely trusting two strangers, which seems counterintuitive since this is Hell, but there is a reason for it. Most people in Hell don’t handle sudden betrayal well.

Most are different from Nio and won’t suddenly betray the other person, for three reasons. First, Hell is dangerous, and an ally is always useful. Second, you can’t die in Hell, so why would anyone create an enemy? And third, betrayal in Hell is meaningless, because both of them can run into each other again at some point. The need for help and the need to avoid creating enemies make betrayal rarer than it seems.

"[Amid the absolute cold, the ice titan that rises walks through the dawn, the darkness and the light that do not permeate the cold spread beneath its surface]" Nio begins reciting the spell.

"...Prana, while Nio is reciting her spell, is there anything you want from the fifth floor? Considering that you seem to know what it’s like," Nioh asks, still distracting Prana despite not entirely agreeing with Nio.

"Actually, there’s nothing I want, Nioh! We can quickly move on to the next floor!"

"[To the absolute cold and the ice crystal that emerges at the emptiest point in the universe, the blade of ice takes form]"

"[Born from flesh, it spreads eternal cold through everything it touches]"

"[Special Magic: Fifth Chant, Chrysalis of Eternity]"

[Special Magic: Fifth Chant, Chrysalis of Eternity] Anything struck by the fifth chant receives the [Primordial Frost] debuff.

"..." Nio finishes her spell, and while Prana explains to Nioh that her main goal is to find her family and then decide what to do from there, Nio approaches her from behind and drives her fist through her back, her arm emerging from the other side with Prana’s heart in her hand, which she crushes, spreading blood across the ground.

"...N-Nio?" Prana looks back in confusion. She can’t understand what Nio is doing.

"H-Hahaha, this prank isn’t funny, y-you know... i-it really hurts." Prana thinks it’s a prank since death doesn’t exist in Hell, but immediately, Prana’s arms, legs, and the top of her head begin turning to ice.

The fifth chant has two requirements. The first is that the caster must remain still and not attract the enemy’s attention; in other words, it doesn’t work if the enemy considers you an enemy. The second is that it must land a physical strike without being noticed and tear out the enemy’s heart.

These are two extremely difficult and contradictory conditions that make the fifth chant useless in combat, with an immense chance of failure. If Prana had seen the attack, it would have been canceled, and Nio would only have lost a large amount of magic.

However, if the attack lands, it applies [Primordial Frost], which is a Unique Debuff. Several of the Chants apply Unique Debuffs.

[Primordial Frost] Primordial Frost is the state of the cold that emerged at the beginning of existence. Everything affected by Primordial Frost will literally transform into ice instead of merely being frozen.

"..." Prana seems to realize that the ice covering her body is much more than mere freezing when nothing happens even after she uses magic. She turns her head completely toward Nio, realizing that she has been betrayed, but before she can say anything or express the hatred rising in her heart, her entire body turns into an ice statue as if she had always been made of ice.

"Let’s go, Nioh. The ice is going to spread for hundreds of meters, freezing the portal, the plants, space, and even time. If we stay here, we’ll get trapped too." Literally everything turns completely into ice as if it had always been ice.

"...You really can be cruel, Nio... whatever... let’s go." Seeing how Nio can truly be this cold-blooded only makes Nioh more suspicious of what Nio really thinks about her.

"..." Nio doesn’t notice this. She simply takes Nioh’s hand and pulls her into the portal as the ground begins turning to ice, thus ensuring that the portal will be destroyed and that Typhon won’t use the same portal they did.