Chapter 332

— GRAAAAAAH!!! Get off, get off!!!!

A giant made of sharp, transparent ice thrashed its body wildly and screamed in a desperate voice.

The giant — Juno — lifted a half-shattered fist and slammed it down into the ground with everything it had.

— Don't… come close… to me. Don't… come near… meeeee!!!!

As if to give voice to its will, the pristine snowfield split open and icicles burst upward from below.

Like the maw of some beast yawning open, they came at the opponent in front of them with terrifying force.

But that opponent paid them no mind and instead hurled himself at the icicles like a cannonball.

The confidence came from wearing King of Thorns.

Watching it, Juno burst out laughing.

The opponent had walked right into its scheme — and in fact, Yu Ji-hyeok's body had begun to freeze over in an instant.

— Idi… ot…!

It swung both arms wide.

The intent was to drive the blizzard harder.

The harder the blizzard raged, the more the advantage shifted to its side.

Even Minerva, in fact, kept failing to pin down its main body as it shifted from one to another, hidden in the blizzard.

The red-haired girl was only human, so all she could manage in this blizzard was keeping herself in one piece.

And the human who was the actual target — Juno had frozen the gaps and seams of his armor solid, just like last time, so his movements were sure to be severely restricted.

— Danger… ous. This is…

The chase, going on for nearly half a day now, was driving him into a corner, surely and steadily.

Juno looked at the implement lodged dead-center in its own body with hate-filled eyes.

Where, and how, had he gotten hold of this.

Spitting out the question no one would answer, it heaved up a thick, unidentifiable fluid.

— I have to run….

There was no strength left to draw on.

The drawn-out chase and the back-and-forth fighting had wrung every last bit of power and energy it still had, and every trap, every barrier, every clone it had prepared was already spent.

If this kept up, it might really end up the way Venus had.

— Krrhh…!

It had fled here precisely because this was a land no one had set foot in for decades — no, for centuries at least — but now it understood, all over again, just how grave a mistake that had been.

On this land that boasted such extreme cold, what even it could do was severely limited.

There was no way it could pull magma up from deep in the earth, and what it could draw from its surroundings was nothing but ice and glaciers.

Which was as much as saying it was wide open to neutralization by an opponent that breathed fire.

And Minerva and Yu Ji-hyeok, and even the red-haired human stuck to their side — the one Ahriman had warned in no uncertain terms never to touch — could all produce flame so intense it went past red, into blue, white-hot.

— Have to… run. Run away… and recover. My strength…!

It was then.

A grinding crack of an ill-omened sound rang out.

The implement lodged in its body had driven a little deeper in.

— Wh…

A heartbeat later, the giant's scream rang out, loud even through the blizzard.

[Where do you think you're going?]

The voice it hated.

Yu Ji-hyeok.

It was him.

— H. ow…?

Juno muttered the question, dazed.

There was another piece of metal lodged in its body.

Belatedly, it realized that this piece of metal wasn't an ordinary one.

Don't tell me, Minerva's…?

No. No, it wasn't.

This wasn't Minerva's energy.

A signature similar to hers, but unmistakably different.

A blade carrying the energy of a Seven Calamity.

But a sword carrying clearly different energy from last time.

— This — is….

Juno muttered it absently and grabbed at the blade.

The motion came out of pure instinct, even knowing it was meaningless.

[After getting hit once, no way I'd be stupid enough to fall for it twice, you stupid bastard.]

Yu Ji-hyeok said it as he poured his mana into the sword.

As his mana spread through Juno's body, eating into it, swallowing it up, Juno realized there was no longer any escape.

[And like I'd come down to this… south pole knowing you ran here and not have anything ready for you.]

The instant he finished saying it, Juno's body was run through again.

A woman it had never seen before.

No — it had seen her.

It was Minerva.

Minerva, now in human form, had drawn her hand up like a spear and run him clean through.

"You've made yourself quite the nuisance."

Minerva muttered the words and broke into a savage grin.

That she would actually take on the form of a weak, fragile human — just because fighting in her true shape was a pain — was not something Juno could ever understand.

— Krhh…

Right after, chains of mana wound tight around its body.

These, too, weren't ordinary chains of mana.

There it was again — the signature of a Seven Calamity.

"Hahh… hahh…."

When it turned its head to look, the red-haired woman was glaring at it, catching her breath.

From the small buckler she held, countless chains were spilling out.

[Got any last words?]

With those words, Yu Ji-hyeok pulled something out and raised it.

— G. aah. Aaaah!!!

Despite what Yu Ji-hyeok was hoping for, Juno wasn't yet ready to accept its end.

— Don't… think this is how it ends. For me…!

A small ornament dropped from its hand.

Right after, spears of ice and iron chains erupted up out of the ground and began running through and binding Juno's body without mercy.

— If nothing else, you three too…!!!

Even as the ice steadily covered it over, Juno glared at the three who had driven it this far with bright, glittering eyes.

Its head was already filled with one thought alone — that no matter what price it cost, it would not let the ones who had reduced it to this walk away unharmed.

A moment later, cracks split across its mask and an ill-omened mana began to swell out from inside, and the three of them, sensing the danger by instinct, fell back almost in unison.

But just a beat ahead of them, the mask had shattered.

The light that spilled through the cracks swallowed them up in an instant….

The emergency quest — 'Call of the Depths' — has been completed.

A small notification window had appeared in front of Yu Ji-hyeok.

…A spell uttered by someone in the moment of dying, or in a situation that amounted to the same thing, is the most powerful kind of working there is.

Even I — who didn't know much about magic or spellcraft in this world — knew that one well enough.

It was something they taught practically the first week at the academy. The most basic of basics.

On top of which, the original work had had a few incidents along those same lines.

But Su-yeong and me were one thing — even Minerva, a Seven Calamity, getting hit at the very end with a curse strong enough to land on her too? I wouldn't have dreamed of it.

"Y- you, there…."

Minerva, trembling all over, asked me through teeth that wouldn't stop clattering.

Su-yeong didn't seem to even have the strength for that — she just let out a cold, dragging breath, hahh.

"A- are you all right…?"

"Better off than you two are, so don't worry about me."

I said it and circulated dragon blood once more for the sake of the two of them, who I had wrapped against me.

Both Minerva and Su-yeong let out small sighs, the way someone does when they're slipping into a doze.

That fucker.

I muttered it inside my head as I looked over the notification window scrolling down in front of me.

You have been exposed to a powerful curse!

Your resistance to cold is greatly reduced for a set period of time.

[Time remaining – 03:23]

You have been exposed to a powerful curse!

All your stats are reduced for a set period of time.

[Time remaining — 03:12]

You have been exposed to an unknown current of mana!

All movement of mana is frozen for a set period of time!

[Time remaining – 02:54]

You have been exposed to an unknown and savage energy!

For a set period of time, you cannot use any skills, techniques, or talents.

[Time remaining – 04:02]

It was a blessing the time limits were there — for a second, my vision had nearly gone black.

Of all of it, no skills, no techniques, no talents was the worst.

And on top of that, I wasn't the only one stuck in this mess.

Minerva couldn't return to her true form, and Su-yeong had been cut off from her mana and every one of her abilities, leaving her no different from an ordinary person.

A little time would put us right, sure — the problem was that we were in a place where a little time was more than we could survive.

Thank god the authorities themselves still work.

If they hadn't, the three of us would have frozen to death without a way out.

The artifacts we'd brought along thinking we were prepared for anything had been rendered useless, and the potions and other gear had all spoiled or broken too.

For now, on instinct, I'd dug a hollow in the snow, pulled us inside, and plugged the entrance.

And by circulating dragon blood to raise my body temperature and share the warmth with the other two, we were just barely hanging on.

"……"

Even Rauné had apparently frozen stiff — it was shivering inside my pocket.

For an instant, the image of a frozen rose shattering to pieces crossed my mind, and I cranked up the circulation of dragon blood another notch.

"Just hang on a little longer, you'll be fine. I checked — three hours at the most and all the curses should be gone. So just a little more, both of you — wait. Hey. Su-yeong! You falling asleep? Hey!!!"

"…Yeah, ah. I'm not asleep. Ji-hyeok, mm. Really…"

At my shout, Su-yeong — who'd been nodding off — snapped her eyes open and started blinking.

Without even thinking about it, I hugged the two of them hard against me.

"Both of you, from now on, just say anything. Sing a song, talk about what you want to eat, whatever — both of you, just keep saying something."

"Uh… a song?"

"Yeah, a song."

Su-yeong nodded a few times at my words, then started humming a song, as told.

Minerva, who was in slightly better shape, just stared blankly at her at first, but when she caught my eye, she sheepishly started reciting the times tables.

"F- four, three times one is three. Three times two, six….."

In that state, I began to circulate dragon blood through me again.

From using authorities again and again, my mana and every other reserve of power in my body had bottomed out long ago.

My heart, trying to force out strength it didn't have, felt like it was literally tearing itself apart — but there was no question of stopping.

While the song and the times tables, neither remotely coherent, rang out on either side of me, that was when —

"…Hey, Ji-hyeok."

Su-yeong sniffled, her voice slightly nasal from the cold.

"My feet hurt."

"What?"

"I don't know, they sting. They itch, too…."

I went pale at that and pulled her shoes off right away.

The moment I saw her feet, awkwardly wriggling, my breath caught.

Frostbite.

I'd had it once when I was little, back when I was living with Ji-na, so I could say it for certain.

"Minerva, take your shoes off too. Now!"

"Seven, eight times eight is sixty-two… hm?"

I got Minerva's shoes off in her confusion and checked, and my breath caught again.

She wasn't as bad as Su-yeong, but the signs of frostbite were there on her too.

Normally you'd want to thaw the feet out in warm water — but there was no way to come by anything like that right now.

My body moved before I'd even finished thinking.

— Krgh, hngh…!

Forcing the use of my authority, I'd turned half into a dragon-man, and I dragged wings up out of my back with great effort.

With my mana sealed off, the only way was to wring the now-mine heart of Minerva for everything it had, and I swear, it was beyond anything more painful than any wound I'd taken fighting Venus or Juno.

"Wait, you. What are you—"

— Put your feet here, yeah. Both of you….

Wrapping the two of them in my wings, I used my now relatively free hands to grip their feet, one in each hand.

"Ah…!"

Minerva flinched and tried to pull back for a moment, but when our eyes met, she quietly held her feet out.

Luckily, with the partial dragonification, my hands had grown large enough that I could close one around each of their feet without trouble.

"…Warm."

"Yes, it is…."

Mercifully, the two of their voices already sounded better than they had a moment ago.

It was still too early to relax, though, so I asked the two of them to keep talking nonstop and clamped my mouth shut.

I felt like a pained groan would slip out the second I let it.

[You.]

In the middle of it, a familiar voice — cool and gentle, as always — came through to my ear.

The Minerva I knew. The original one.

[You're going through a great deal.]

I gave a small nod to her words.

Then I focused my mind right away, because if she was going to the trouble of speaking to me in a moment like this, it had to be something important.

[…There's been a change in this Minerva's feelings and in her memories.]

She quietly began.

[For a while I've been preoccupied with sharpening the memories that surfaced, with no time for anything else. The memories I had to begin with were unreliable, so I wanted to make them as clear as possible….]

That was how she opened it, before slowly getting into the story.

[First, it seems there was some sort of conflict between Su-yeong and me. Originally, I regarded her simply as one of the humans I'd given my recognition to, and privately I'd come to think of her as a friend. But now….]

Minerva muttered, sounding as if she herself couldn't quite work it out.

[An adversary… or perhaps a rival? I don't know why I'm feeling this way myself, but at least where Su-yeong is concerned, the feeling that I don't want to lose to her runs strong. A strange thing, truly. I'd never have dreamed I would feel something like this toward a human other than you.]

……

What in the world had happened.

Something had clearly happened during the three days I'd been out, but for that, neither of them had given off any sign of it at all, and so it had completely caught me off guard.

[Next… well, I'm not sure if I should be saying this. Sowing the seeds of disputes like this is something I genuinely despise, but….]

Minerva hesitated a moment.

[Be careful of her, you.]

She came out with that.

…What's that supposed to mean?

[Don't take it the wrong way. It isn't that I'm trying to slander or cast suspicion on a human I've acknowledged as a friend of mine.]

She wasn't thrown by the sharp answer that had slipped out of me.

If anything, she carried on with the story naturally, as if she'd expected it.

[I'm not saying Su-yeong is going to betray you, or that she harbors ill will. But… how should I put it… ah, yes.]

[If a human approaches a burning flame, the flame's intent — whether it means harm or not — has nothing to do with whether they get burned, does it? That's the sense in which I'm telling you to be careful.]

[…I don't know why. This Minerva — to be precise, the me in this altered past — was very much on guard against Su-yeong.]

I took a moment before asking.

It was a question that didn't need any thought.

…Was it Ahriman?

[I think it's reasonable to assume so. Whether the creature pulled some scheme or not, it's at least clear that it's connected somehow. But my memories went hazy during my time in the seal….]

Minerva let out a quiet sigh.

[One thing is certain — the conversation I had with Su-yeong wasn't about something as simple as a love quarrel or a personal grudge. It was about something more important than that.]

That means….

[The kind of important thing this Minerva, a Seven Calamity, would be conscious of — there's only one.]

[The rules laid on us, and the natural order they produce. And the balance.]

[At any rate, you, there's nothing to be lost by being wary, you.]

Minerva let out another quiet sigh.

[…I think this is about as much as I can manage in conversation with you. Even maintaining a connection like this costs me a minimum of mana.]

[Let's talk in more detail another time.]

With that, her presence faded out in a blink.

Trying to take whatever load she could off me, no doubt.

Come to think of it, I belatedly realized Sbeungali — the one who normally couldn't resist stepping in — had grown so faint I could barely sense him either.

— …Hm?

In the middle of it, I noticed Minerva's eyes fixed on me.

— What is it?

"You, there. May I ask one thing of you?"

She pressed her head softly against my chest.

"Even a single mouthful would do. Even a single mouthful…."

Her voice, breath quickened, carefully brushed across my skin.

"Let me have your blood."

…The words themselves weren't careful in the slightest.

Whatever she said or didn't say, Minerva knew perfectly well he would simply hand her his throat.

For an instant it crossed her mind that she'd just played on someone else's feelings, the same as those creatures she despised most — but she quickly forced herself to half-believe that grasping an opponent's emotions and thoughts mattered in battle, too, and that this was an extension of that.

— Here.

See for yourself.

Sure enough, he'd settled her onto his lap, wrapped his body around her with his wings, was working her frozen feet warm with his hands, and was quietly offering up his throat.

How could anyone be such a fool.

"Then…."

Minerva carefully raised her teeth and brought them to his throat.

It wouldn't happen, of course — but if she did bite down, he'd take a fatal wound, and yet without an instant of hesitation he was offering his throat to her.

It was something she would absolutely never have done herself.

No, perhaps now.

For him alone….

"Mm."

Minerva bit into his neck deliberately, audibly.

And exactly as she'd intended, Han Su-yeong — half drifting, half present — turned her gaze toward her.

The light came back into her eyes.

Seeing that, Minerva slowly set her teeth and began to open a wound on Yu Ji-hyeok's body.

Warm blood ran down in a streak, and at the sudden, fierce thirst that rose in her, Minerva began to drink him down hungrily.

"……"

Han Su-yeong was still watching her without a word.

Her thirst eased enough, Minerva met her eyes and set her teeth.

Then, as if playing, working her teeth at his neck, mouthing it, she quietly began to say what she'd been holding ready.

"You, there — the timing isn't right, but… I think it might be best to say this now."

— Mm… say what?

"Let us leave this freezing place and go back to where we first met. Where it's warm, where the wind blows gentle, where the air carries just the right damp."

And….

"There, let us finish the half-month between us. The one we never finished, mine and yours."

She whispered it quietly, so very quietly.

"This Minerva asks you to take her as your equal in battle."