The White Dragon's Breath
The continent reeled in shock, and the Empire went into a panic.
Rankers well past level 80 were swept away as if they were nothing. The Frost Dragon's wings froze everything they touched, and its razor claws shredded any defense raised against them. The gap was simply overwhelming. Feeling, all over again, the true weight of a World Boss, Yena gritted her teeth and burned through every cold-resistant item and skill she possessed.
"Ah..."
Crackle!
Meaningless.
The extreme cold snuffed out every feeble flame on contact. All that remained was a biting chill so deep it ached to the bone. That absurd level of 135 was making resistance flatly impossible.
"Focus! We only need to land one hit on that monster!"
Aldri and the trembling mage corps joined hands, weaving a magic circle. Dozens of mages merged into a single formation, and a colossal spell took shape in the heart of the Snowy Mountain. Concentrated detonation. Stacked explosions punched through the blizzard and struck Sgaredo dead-on.
"Did it connect?!"
"Hey!"
"Oh, no..."
Fssssss...
Unharmed. Or to be precise, perfectly fine save for a faint scorch mark on its chest — and even that dissolved, swallowed by the blizzard.
Grrrrrrr...
KWAAAAAAAH!!
Every thread of mana on the Snowy Mountain converged on a single point. Everyone but one lost their footing and collapsed. The mages writhed under a violently amplified mana backlash, while the knights couldn't so much as lift a sword, their hands shaking helplessly.
Mana compression.
"It's a breath!"
"Dodge!"
"Dodge WHERE, you lunatic?!"
The breath of eternal winter swallowed the mountain whole.
Rustle!
A stack of gray newspapers gathered in the hands of Dria, King of Talikal. Their front pages were plastered with photographs and blisteringly sensational headlines — the work of D&A Press, a newspaper company founded by the Otherworlders. On any other day he would never have spared such rags a glance, but today was an exception.
The Finance Minister bowed his head. "There is hardly a soul left who doesn't know. Once something involves the Otherworlders, it spreading is only the natural course of things, but..."
"The problem is that the Empire knows it as well."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Even before these papers spread, the Empire would have learned of the situation. No — it certainly had. The Empire was the victor of the continent, and its eyes were everywhere. By now they would have finished their deliberations and drawn up plans for exactly how to exploit it.
The greater problem was that there was no sign of things improving.
"...Lethes."
If not for that man, none of this would have grown so tangled.
A long sigh filled the king's office. And from the shadow behind him, Sword Shadow emerged.
"Shall I deal with him?"
"...No. For now, it serves us better that he remain where he is."
Lethes was pouring out supplies without reserve to the raiders coming to slay the dragon — anything to keep his head. But it meant nothing.
"What difference does it make, handing provisions to a hundred ants, two hundred..."
Everything already delivered lay buried and sleeping in the snow.
Dria sank back into his chair and gave himself over to thought. Then he opened his eyes.
"Has anyone found Drak?"
"No, Your Majesty. Not yet."
Was this not already a crisis of the kingdom's very survival? Why, then, had Drak still not appeared? And honestly — he had to wonder.
Before us, a dragon that cannot be opposed. Behind us, the Empire.
Could one more Masterpiece truly turn the tide?
"...Tell Lily we will place every resource we possess in her hands, and beg her to lead the subjugation."
"Understood, Your Majesty."
Push... push... push...
"IT'S COLD, IT'S SO COLD!!"
Pwah!
A black ponytail burst up through a sea of snow several times deeper than it had ever been. It was Yena, who had bolted for the farthest edge of the mountain the instant the breath came. A Shadow Leap had carried her clear in a single bound, but it hadn't fully blocked the blast — hence this sorry state, half-drowned in a snowbank.
"Whoa. Everyone's dead."
Not a single living creature registered in her ki sense. Well — a few there were, but none that looked human.
"Ugh... so cold... I ate a hellfire candy, a whole one, and I'm STILL freezing. This is insane."
She was, in truth, not remotely okay. Yena drew a deep breath and looked up at the sky. Night had already fallen thick and dark. The barrier was still standing, though, so Lily was clearly fine...
Creeeak...
'No choice, then.'
Yena abandoned any thought of her outfit and draped a wolf-fur robe of the Snow Folk over her shoulders. Plenty of skin still showed, but the robe at least kept her a little warmer.
"The summit?"
She'd taken that breath head-on, and she was still up there? Yena stared up at the peak. The colossal presence still felt as vivid as ever — and from almost exactly the same spot, another one...
"Don't tell me she's planning to solo it."
"Guess I'll head up, then."
The blizzard was dying down, and Lily was clearly safe, so the situation couldn't be that bad. Even if it were — what worse fate was there than dying?
"We're going back down."
"Huh?"
But we climbed all the way up here?
"You've been through a lot."
"And how exactly did you make it back up..."
At the mouth of the Snowy Mountain, Yena — thawing herself in front of a warm fire — crouched sullenly with her arms wrapped around both knees. From what she heard, she'd clawed her way back up with monstrous determination. The expense alone was one thing, but her stamina had hit rock bottom, leaving her utterly drained...
The Initial Damage had subsided somewhat, but the sudden plunge in temperature hadn't. Even a ranker assassin whose toolkit had nothing to do with heat was vulnerable to that kind of chill.
Tap... tap...
"Uuuurrr..."
"There, there."
I stroked the head of the hatchling, who was muttering away in its sleep like a terrible dream-talked. Would the rest of it take much longer?
"So. You didn't catch it, then?"
"I have to maintain the seal, you see. So I can't. What a shame, really."
"...You don't look even the slightest bit disappointed."
Don't I? Well — it was true that I wanted to catch it.
"So what happens from here? The vanguard completely failed."
"Hmm... World Bosses are, by nature, a string of failures. Except for a rare few, every raid clears them by dying over and over. It's practically a war of attrition, honestly."
The users and the kingdom would keep throwing themselves at the World Boss, and in the process countless lives and resources would be burned away. The boss was strong enough to beat them all, but the ceaseless fighting wore it down beyond recovery. It looked like a fair fight on the surface — but for users, attrition was not attrition. For us Immortals, lives were something to spare.
"The fast ones take about a month. The slow ones drag on for four or five. That's why everyone panicked when Lily said to wait three weeks — when you don't know when it'll end, even a delayed start is a genuine disaster."
"The time pressure is because of the Empire, right?"
"Yes."
The victor of the continent — an Empire already itching to launch yet another war of conquest. An empire that could survive even its own destruction wouldn't care about subjugating a World Boss. It would rather devour the ones doing the subjugating.
"Anyone who'd fight on the Empire's side would actually be praying the boss isn't caught quickly. The longer it holds out, the more desperate the kingdom's side becomes."
"And what about you, Yena?"
"Huh?"
"Which side will you stand on? Have you decided?"
Me, I was helping Talikal and had business with the Empire, so siding against them outright was unlikely. Conversely, Leo — who held a title from the Empire — would inevitably take its side if war broke out. But Yena was different. She bore no love for the kingdom, yet she wasn't pro-Empire either. And knowing the Yena I'd watched all this time...
Yena went hmmm... tilting her head up in thought, then answered without even lifting it.
"Wherever the NewTubgak comes out good?"
"What on earth is that supposed to be?"
"NewTubgak is serious business, okay."
I snorted a laugh.
"Good. Whichever side you choose, if we meet as enemies, I'll take you seriously."
"Uh, that part's a little—"
"Don't worry."
I would face her properly, with nothing held back.
"...Speaking of which, there's something I've been wanting to ask for a while now."
"Yes?"
"That thing — am I seeing it wrong, or...?"
At the end of Yena's gaze, the hatchling had woken at some point and was happily tucking into a cut of lamb. Eating it with truly remarkable relish, in fact. What was different from before was...
"Its name is Sga... redo?"
[The Frozen ?, Sgaredo is hungry.]
[LV.30(+?)]