The Labyrinth
I could only stare, dumbfounded, as Iris flew off into the distance.
You're mine, Leon.
My whole body was trembling.
"What do you mean, mine?"
I ground my teeth as I spoke.
"What the hell was that? I was just saying I was worried about you! Why did you suddenly start throwing punches!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs to absolutely no one.
"Hah... hah..."
After catching my breath, I turned my gaze to the tree behind me.
The spot where Iris had hit me was still coated in frost.
"No doubt about it. The things she said earlier, and this—everything points the same way."
I remembered the frost that had been on my window that morning.
"She was watching me sleep through my window. But there's no way she'd know when I wake up. How did she figure it out?"
I turned the question over and over in my head before finally giving up.
"Ugh. Whatever. Might as well head home."
I made it back to the house at a sluggish pace. Just before stepping inside, I looked up at the sky.
Please, Iris. Don't do anything stupid.
Meanwhile, at that very moment, deep within a certain forest...
A small dragon was cutting through the sky. Her long silver hair streamed behind her as she crossed the heavens, until at last she descended near a certain place.
Before her eyes stood an enormous stone gate, its surface densely covered in characters no one could read.
"So this is..."
Iris the White Dragon glanced around the stone gate.
"No one's here."
She walked slowly up to it.
"Just like the old book said. Once I get my hands on the pendant hidden here..."
From within her cloak she produced a doll that looked just like Leon and pressed it against her cheek.
"Just wait a little longer, Leon. I'll be back soon."
Iris laid her hand on the stone gate.
Guuuuguung!
With a deep rumble, the gate began to move. Beyond it lay nothing but a thick, pitch-black darkness.
Without a moment's hesitation, Iris stepped inside. The instant she was fully through, the stone gate closed behind her.
"Lose your way once in here, and you'll wander the labyrinth for all eternity."
Iris reviewed what she'd read in the old book.
"It said the labyrinth is riddled with all kinds of traps and monsters. And at the very end, a guardian awaits, protecting the relic."
And the relic spoken of there was, without question, the pendant.
Iris strode forward without hesitation.
Click.
A floor plate depressed, and arrows came flying at her from up ahead. But they never touched her—they froze solid long before they could get close.
"They really thought this would stop me?"
She picked up one of the arrows that had been aimed at her and snapped it in half.
"...Pathetic."
She pressed on.
How long had she been walking? Her footsteps came to a halt.
Because something was approaching from up ahead.
Clatter—clatter—
"Skeletons, huh."
Skeletons were, in a word, walking bones. Individually weak, but in numbers, they were nothing to scoff at.
To her, though, they were nothing but a waste of time.
"I don't have time to play with you things. Leon's waiting for me."
Iris gathered the cold in her hand. In the next instant, the frost took shape, forming into ice flowers.
"{Crystal Fleur}."
The ice flowers hanging in the air shot toward the skeletons. One by one, the skeletons they touched began to freeze over.
"Hmph."
Iris didn't spare the frozen skeletons so much as a glance as she walked on past them.
"Too slow. At this rate, I'll never get back in time."
Judging her pace too sluggish, she began to unfurl the wings she'd kept hidden.
"{Ice Age}."
As she finished the incantation, cold gathered along Iris's wings.
"Freeze. All of you."
With a single beat of her wings, everything before her froze solid.
Skeletons. Zombies. Golems. Nothing escaped the merciless grip of her frost.
Seeing that everything had frozen over, Iris folded her wings and kept walking. Traps that should have sprung now failed to trigger, frozen stiff as they were.
"Should've done this from the start."
She said it flatly, her expression unchanging. The only thing that truly interested her was Leon.
After casting Ice Age several more times, Iris at last stood before a massive stone door.
"Beyond this..."
She noticed a warning carved into the stone beside the entrance.
Adventurer who has reached this place—if you value your life, turn back now.
"Ha..."
She let out a sigh, then began to chant.
"{Ice Claw}."
In that instant, her right hand transformed into razor-sharp talons of frost.
Shiiik—!
A single sweep of her claws shattered the warning to pieces.
"I didn't come all this way to gawk at something like that. I have to get back as fast as I can."
Iris returned her right hand to normal, then took out the doll and gazed at it.
"We're almost there, Leon. Just a little longer."
Steeling her resolve, she slowly pushed open the stone door.
The scene beyond it was entirely different from anything she'd passed through so far. It belonged to a different world entirely from the corridors she'd traveled until now.
Every inch of the floor was plated in gold, and all around it towered heaps of treasure and gold coins. The coins alone were enough to live on comfortably for an entire lifetime.
But Iris spared the gold not a single glance. She looked only ahead, and walked.
Before long, a colossal pedestal rose up before her eyes. And atop it sat the very pendant she had sought for so long.
"Finally!"
Iris darted forward and snatched up the pendant.
"Finally, finally, finally! It's mine at last. Now I never have to be apart from Leon."
That was when it happened.
"!"
Iris flinched and spun around, scanning her surroundings.
"Who's there!"
The voice rang out again.
"You thought you could take my relic and walk away unharmed? Death is all that awaits you now."
Guuuuguuguung—
A tremendous tremor shook the chamber. Iris quickly dropped into a fighting stance.
Moments later, a gigantic stone statue revealed itself before her.
"What... is that."
"Intruder! Here you shall die, remembered by no one!"
The colossal statue swung a massive fist at her.
"{Frost Wall}!"
An ice barrier surged up in front of Iris as she completed the spell.
But the statue shattered it with a single blow.
"Foolish girl! Did you truly believe something that flimsy could block my attack?"
"Tch!"
Iris dodged backward and began chanting again.
"{Ice Arma}."
A magic circle inscribed itself into existence at her hand, and dozens of ice spears hurtled toward the statue.
"Trivial!"
But the spears couldn't inflict even the slightest damage on the statue's body.
"You thought this would be enough to bring me down!"
This time the statue swung its left arm. Iris never saw it coming.
"Gahk!"
Fwooom—CRASH!
The blow sent her flying, and she slammed into a pillar before crashing to the floor.
"Hah—hah—"
She could feel blood running from her mouth.
Then—
"Oh? And what is this?"
Held in the giant statue's hand was none other than the Leon doll.
The moment Iris saw it, she dragged her broken body forward in a desperate scramble.
"A doll, is it."
"Give it back. NOW!"
Iris's voice tore across the chamber.
"And why should I listen to you?"
"Touch that doll, and I swear I won't let you live!"
At her furious glare, the giant statue grinned wide—
Kriiik—
—and tore the doll in half with both hands.
Iris watched it happen with her own two eyes.
"...Ah."
She clutched her head.
"Ahhh..."
And then, the very next moment.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
An unfathomable rage swallowed her whole.
Azure mana flared up from her body like rising smoke.
"...What is that mana?"
The statue's earlier arrogance had vanished, replaced by visible tension.
"You dare... you DARE!"
Her burning aura only grew larger.
"What IS that mana! It surpasses even mine?"
"Die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, DIE! I'll beat you to death, you cursed piece of trash!"
"Wh-what did you say?"
Iris converted every last drop of her mana into frost. Then she began compressing that cold into her own body.
"This is dangerous!"
Only now grasping the situation, the statue began swinging its fists at her desperately.
But it was too late.
She released all the compressed cold in a single eruption.
"{Ethereal Judgment}!!!!"
The compressed frost burst out of her body in every direction at once. Everything around her froze in an instant.
And the statue was no exception.
"I-impossible!"
The cold froze even the core that drove the giant statue's movements.
Time passed.
Having vented every last trace of her frost, Iris collapsed to the ground.
"Khh—khh—!"
Far more blood than before was spilling from her mouth. She looked around.
Everything was frozen solid. Even the giant statue itself.
"I won."
At that single word, her entire body seemed to give out beneath her. It was the price of burning through her mana to its very limit. A little more, and she would have lost her life.
And yet she rose to her feet again.
Because there was still something she had to do.
Because there was someone waiting for her.
Iris could not stop. No—she would not collapse.
"I can't... fall here... not yet."
She took one step forward.
"Leon... is waiting."
Again.
"I have... to keep going."
At last, she reached the pedestal where the pendant lay, and clutched it to her chest.
"It's done... From now on... my frost will never... take Leon's life... ever again."
What filled her body wasn't the joy of victory. It was the joy of knowing that the one she loved would never die because of her.
"Ah... that's right."
She slowly took another step. She had barely made it—and there lay the torn pieces of Leon's doll.
"If it's torn... I can just mend it."
All that remained was to get out. With that thought, Iris dragged her exhausted body toward the exit.
How much time had passed? She finally emerged into the outside world.
Darkness had already fallen thick upon the land. Even so, she couldn't stop. If she lingered here in her current state and ran into a beast or a monster, she'd be helpless.
Please, just hold on a little longer.
She unfurled her wings and rose into the sky.
Flying home is out of the question right now. Which means...
With her mind made up, Iris flew not toward the manor, but toward somewhere else entirely—
the torn doll and the pendant clutched in both hands...