The Ice Cocoon
Evan seized the arm of a soldier who had been paralyzed by venom and could not flee.
"Hey. Stay with me."
"Ugh…"
The poisoned soldier, still barely conscious, looked up at Evan with dazed, uncomprehending eyes.
"S-Sir Knight…?"
Evan nodded.
"Yeah. It's me. We have to get out of here, now. You're the last one."
"Th-the last one, sir? What do you mean…"
"Don't even ask. The fact that you're still breathing is a miracle. You were buried in the snow — we almost couldn't dig you out."
Evan hauled the soldier clear of the battlefield and half-carried him up a hill some distance away.
"Th-this isn't even a path…"
"No choice."
A single motion from Neveumano was enough to shake the world and trigger avalanches. There was no proper escape route left. The only way out now was for Alice to either get far enough away — or kill the thing.
Can we really get out of this alive?
Evan fretted, tension carved deep into his face. He knew she was holding her own against a Supreme-grade monster, but anything could go wrong mid-fight.
"I was down, so I don't know the situation. What happened to that monster?"
"A hunter is fighting it right now."
"…A hunter, sir?"
"Yeah. A Master Hunter showed up and is pinning it down so the royal army can withdraw safely."
Evan hitched the sagging soldier's arm higher over his shoulder and adjusted his grip.
"A lot of people died. It's definitely Supreme-grade."
"Supreme-grade…"
"You saw it yourself. You know."
The soldier nodded. He had watched a comrade get crushed flat right in front of him. Just remembering it made his stomach turn.
Krrrrrmmm—!
And the earthquakes still shaking heaven and earth were more than enough proof that this was no ordinary monster.
Once they reached the refuge, Evan carefully laid the soldier down in the snow and let out a breath.
"Rest."
"Y-yes, sir…!"
Evan looked over the limp forms of the surviving soldiers and finally exhaled in relief. He had done everything he could to save them — and still, fewer than twenty remained.
This has to count as a failure.
He turned his back. All that was left now was for Alice to get away herself…
Will she be all right?
Evan started toward the crest of the hill to look down on Alice and Neveumano. Others had already taken their places ahead of him — Pina, General Gero, and the surviving knights.
Evan fell in beside them just as a ten-captain cried out in alarm.
"She's in danger!"
Evan checked the battlefield. Only three figures remained now: Neveumano, Neveterde, and Alice.
Pina shook her head and answered the knight.
"…It's all right. I'm sure she'll be fine."
She clenched her fists tight and tugged anxiously at the hem of her clothes. Gero, who had been sitting and watching the fight, turned to her.
"…You still say she's all right."
Alice had slipped past countless killing blows, but at last she seemed unable to escape — crouching beneath the falling sole of the monster's foot.
Has she finally run out of strength?
Everyone thought there was nothing more to be done. Everyone, that is, except Pina.
"Yes. I can't be certain, but…"
Pina answered.
"She always shows us miracles."
Vague. Hopelessly vague. An expectation without a single scrap of evidence to stand on. Gero clenched his fist. And yet, just as Pina said, he found himself clinging to that tiny hope.
Alice had answered Gero's request. She had thrown her small, fragile body into the path of danger and saved the royal army. They were alive because of her — so shouldn't Alice live as well?
No matter how much he had despised hunters, he had never once cursed her. No — he could not despise them any longer. Gero realized his thinking had been wrong.
Who would dare call them butchers now?
Anyone who watched a warrior fight so bravely at the front of the line would never dare call them butchers. Even Pina, standing right beside him, had willingly stepped forward to save the soldiers.
Hunters were the people of Cartadia — its pride, and its strength.
And as if answering everyone's faith, the miracle came true.
The body of the giant that had seemed impossible to fell toppled over. She had deflected its stomp with her greatsword and returned the full force of the impact straight back into it.
"That—!!"
The knights could not believe their eyes.
Kuaaaaaah—!!
When that enormous body hit the ground, snow and dust erupted in a vast cloud. The tide of the battle was turning.
Her heart hammered wildly. Her muscles screamed.
As the rumble of the earth faded, the billowing dust settled as well. Neveumano was so heavy that the mere act of falling had dealt it enormous damage. Its head swam; it lay there, unable to fully gather its wits, and simply took Alice's assault.
When an opponent was lying helpless and exposed, you tore into the flesh with everything you had.
Full Moon Slash.
Shraaak—!
White fur and hide split open, and blood welled out. The fur was so thick, the hide and muscle so dense, that the blade did not sink deep — but the attack was landing, without question. The yeti's crimson blood stained the ground.
———♬♪!!
In that moment, Neveterde ambushed Alice as she moved in for the kill. But Alice had already heard the beat of her wings and was ready. She pressed the hilt against her side and flattened her body low. Neveterde's hand, aimed at Alice's torso, clawed through empty air.
Alice would not allow even a single wound. She could not. This was already ground soaked in the blood of countless dead. What this place needed was not Alice's own blood, but a requiem — a dirge for those who had fallen.
It was time to return death upon the monster that had trampled everything in the world those two had shared alone.
Alice knocked aside Neveterde's follow-up strike with her greatsword, then poured the power of an essence into her arm. A crimson current of energy coiled around it. Holding her breath, she swung with everything she had.
Kaaang—!
The greatsword slammed into Neveterde's side. A breathless groan escaped the snow woman. The balance between the two symbiotic monsters was collapsing. With Neveumano briefly unconscious, Neveterde was nothing more than a fast monster.
Krrrrrmmm—!
But Neveumano was already rising. It would not stay down forever.
———KRRrrr….
Alice sprang clear of its body at once. Neveterde clutched her side and retreated; the flesh where the Hunger-Root Sword had struck was completely torn open, a ruin of raw meat.
I never imagined she would be this strong.
Neveterde felt the crisis. In all the time she had spent with Neveumano, nothing like this had ever happened. No one she had ever faced had managed to break their symbiotic bond.
She looked at Neveumano. That body, which had never shed so much as a single drop of blood, was now painted red with it.
Neveterde had always pursued her own survival, her own safety. It was because of that unwanted voice of temptation she carried — and not only her voice. Her appearance, too. That fragile-looking exterior made her an easy target for other monsters.
So she had always run. Neveterde hated the idea of bleeding and fighting, and so she fled. And on one of those flights, she had come across Neveumano, collapsed and clutching a starving belly.
Hey. Why are you starving to death?
The prone Neveumano had looked at Neveterde and rumbled.
I'm too slow. I can't catch any prey. I couldn't even catch you, right in front of me.
That look of utter surrender had stirred pity in Neveterde. She was doing everything she could to stay alive — and yet this enormous, powerful-looking monster was simply giving up. The irony of it struck her. At the same time, she felt as though she had found a way out of her own predicament.
There are monsters that follow me.
The monsters trailing Neveterde had charged fearlessly at Neveumano in their eagerness to catch her — and so their long symbiotic partnership had begun.
But after they arrived in this unknown place, everything had twisted. Neveterde found herself hunted by monsters once more, fleeing and fleeing again, feeling the threat of death close in. And while she was struggling to find Neveumano, the one who would protect her, she had come face-to-face with a small white thing.
That small white thing had felled every other monster with the weapon in its hands. It had protected Neveterde's body — though even so, it could not compare to Neveumano.
Still, along the path they shared… Neveumano had grown fond of those little ones who walked on two feet like itself and made strange sounds when they spoke.
But Neveterde had to stay at Neveumano's side. Even if she felt safe for the moment, Neveumano was a slow creature that might starve to death without her. She could not leave it behind.
So the moment she found its trail, she left.
When she finally reunited with Neveumano, she found herself thinking of the little ones she had left behind. Amid a world of creatures that grew frenzied and threatening at the sound of her voice, those small ones had approached her with the same indifference as Neveumano — without any interest in her song at all.
That was why, at first, Neveterde had not tried to kill the small ones who appeared here. Because she had remembered those two. They had been kind to her — so perhaps other small ones would be the same.
But then Neveumano had looked at the small ones — at the humans — and said:
Those are the things I ate.
Their hostility had come next. They were not kind. They had come for revenge on behalf of their own kind.
Even so, no matter how small they were, they should have been no match for Neveumano. Or so she had believed — if not for that small white human. Alice.
So this is revenge for your own kind.
Neveterde froze the wound in her side with her own hand. A hand that breathed pure white cold could manage that much. She looked at Alice with weary eyes.
Neveterde remembered the days they had played together, matching hands. Days when those eyes had looked at her not with the hostility filling them now, but with calm indifference.
Neveterde took flight again — and settled onto the nape of the risen Neveumano's neck. No matter how much she wanted to live, Neveterde had to stand with Neveumano.
Whoooosh—.
Around the two of them, the world's blizzards began to gather. Neveterde carefully buried herself in the white fur growing along Neveumano's nape. The pure white snow wrapped around Neveumano and Neveterde until they became a complete cocoon.
Then the blizzard vanished, and the sky cleared into something beautiful.
"…So it begins."
Alice looked at the two of them, briefly letting her greatsword hang, and tossed her goggles aside. At last, the ordeal of fighting both of them through a blizzard was over. Now she only had to face one.
Except it was not a simple one — it was a far stronger one.
Crack—crack—.
The snow covering Neveumano began to fracture. As the cocoon crumbled, a yeti clad in ice armor revealed itself within.
———AaaaAAAA!!
To protect the snow woman sleeping inside its armor, the giant soldier roared.