Chapter 340
Chapter 340
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 340
Chapter Title: The Wave of Law (5)
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"Fire Call?"
Jocre scanned the direction the rock had flown from. Amy stood at a distance where she was almost indistinguishable from the landscape without a closer look.
"How dare she look down on us?"
While casting Teleport, Jocre cranked his Speed Gear to level 10. Amy hastily fired a Fire Call, but he, capable of controlling his own inertia, easily dodged it.
"Hahaha! Is that all you've got?"
A faint smile played on Amy's lips. The moment Jocre felt a flicker of confusion, dozens of Fire Calls rained down from the sky, striking him.
"Gah!"
A sniper shot with an 88.97-degree arc.
Not even Speed Gear could block an attack from Fire Calls that had been lurking outside his perception, suddenly plunging down from a blind spot.
Amy didn't stop, charging toward Vivian. While the Radius of Nullity provided a favorable environment for her allies, it had the fatal flaw of petrifying the user. In the end, Vivian couldn't do anything before Amy struck her in the stomach, lifting her a hand's breadth off the ground.
"Ugh! Gak!"
As Vivian hunched over and retched, Amy dusted off her hands and scoffed.
"Hmph, you should be glad that's all I did."
She wanted to teach her a proper lesson, but the situation didn't allow for it. While she was fighting Jocre's group, explosive sounds were erupting in the sky. It meant Shirone's specialty, a battle of firepower, had begun in earnest.
"Where's Shirone?"
Shirone was hovering in the western sky. The Ice Queen was nowhere to be seen; instead, a cloud of cold air was gathered on the other side.
"Huh? What is that...?"
Amy's face froze in shock. The form of the Ice Queen revealed through the mist was beyond her wildest imagination.
The Trinity (1)
Shirone swallowed hard, his face tense.
As the cloud of cold air dissipated, the Ice Queen's enormous eyes could be seen, shifting sluggishly.
She probably couldn't find him easily. Just as humans struggle to spot objects smaller than their own pupils.
Things like dust, mosquitoes, or strands of hair.
Honestly, he didn't know.
No, he didn't even want to know.
Watching pupils and irises larger than a person dart around with the same speed as human eye movements simply made his mind go blank.
If the Ice Queen's pupils were the size of a person, her face was as large as a house. Cold air seeped out from between teeth arranged neatly in rows dozens of meters long.
The fact that only her face had grown larger was the most bizarre part.
A small body was attached to a giant head. If this were a dream, it would be the worst kind of nightmare.
Why had she made such a choice?
If her intention was to stop his heart with shock, it was a decent strategy, but that surely wasn't the primal meaning behind it.
'She increased her brain capacity.'
That was the only possible explanation.
For the first time, a strong emotion was etched onto the Ice Queen's previously expressionless face.
Fear and rage.
The moment she experienced the threat of annihilation from the barrage of Photon Cannons, she had finally reached the most intense emotions a human could feel.
'Humans are strong.'
The Ice Queen realized this through Shirone.
'In that case, I will become stronger.'
Shirone's strength came from his brain. Therefore, all she had to do was become larger than Shirone. In a sense, it was a brutish method, but it was also the most intuitive and clear-cut solution.
"Oooooooooh!"
A frigid blast spread from the Ice Queen's mouth. The air contracted, making it feel as if the entire sky was closing in.
The aftershock reached the ground. The earth froze, and the air chilled to the point where it was difficult to even breathe.
Dante and Lilia shivered from the intense cold. Even the fiends with their iron-like skin were losing their mobility. Amy, twisting Vivian's arm behind her back, ran over and shouted.
"Dante! What happened to the sealing formation? If we don't hurry, we're all going to freeze to death!"
Lilia shook her head grimly. The Ice Queen's transformation was utterly bizarre. Power aside, it didn't seem possible to defeat such a monster. If that was the case, it was better to trap the Ice Queen here, even if it meant dying in the process.
"Amy! Let Vivian go!"
Jocre and Rudvan, who had come to their senses in the cold, rushed over. But even they stopped in their tracks, their faces blank, upon seeing the transformed Ice Queen in the sky.
"Wh-What is that?"
The Ice Queen Jocre knew was gone. There was only a monster with a giant face floating in the sky.
Amy pushed Vivian, her hostage, forward and shouted.
"Do you get it now? Do you see what kind of monster you've awakened? So stop fighting and help us!"
Vivian struggled and said.
"Like I care! Jocre, attack!"
Jocre didn't move. No, he couldn't move. The temperature was dropping to a critical level. Forget attacking; at this rate, they would all freeze to death.
"Agh! Stay still!"
"Aack! Hey! Be gentle!"
Unable to watch any longer, Amy threw Vivian aside and moved to the center of the group. She cast Fire Wall, surrounding the area with a barrier of flames, and a moment of warmth spread through them.
"Jocre! Do something! Are you just going to die like this?"
Jocre was also a fire mage. Snapping to his senses, he created another barrier inside Amy's Fire Wall.
But it was no use. The fire, created through Omnipotence, had a much lower ignition point than real fire, but even it couldn't withstand the cold and flickered out.
An extreme cold swept over them. Their lungs felt like they were freezing, and their vision blurred. It felt as if they were hurtling toward the end of the world. Just like that day 800 years ago when the Ice Queen had frozen herself.
For the first time, Jocre felt the fear of death. His face crumpled, and a final, desperate scream tore from his throat.
"H-Help me! I can't die like this!"
Rudvan clutched his throat and dropped to his knees.
"Gah! I can't breathe!"
The current temperature on the ground was 120 degrees below zero.
A temperature sufficient to kill everyone in three minutes.
'Shirone, please...!'
Amy looked at Shirone with desperate eyes.
The only one who could withstand the extreme cold was Shirone, protected by the power of the Adamant Aegis.
"Shirone! We're all going to die at this rate!"
Armande's auditory organs collected Amy's voice and transmitted it to Shirone's brain.
But even without hearing her, Shirone already knew.
It was a cold that even Armande, strengthening all of his body's heat-generating organs, could not endure.
His caloric expenditure reached a staggering one kilocalorie per second.
Even his organic robe, designed to maximize insulation, was stiffening, so the people on the ground must have already lost the strength to move.
'Is a direct confrontation my only choice?'
Shirone swept his wings of light back and surged toward the Queen.
The headwind made the wind chill even colder.
It was a suicidal attempt, but Armande, without any complaint, used every available means to maintain his body temperature.
But eventually, even that reached its limit.
-Biotic tissue necrosis. Organic matter generation impossible. Time remaining for maintaining vital functions: 4 seconds. 3 seconds. 2 seconds.
"Grrrrrrr!"
Shirone gritted his teeth and charged forward. His entire body felt like it was turning into a cold block of stone.
And just as he was about to face the final moment of his life, he plunged into the source of the cold—the Ice Queen's mouth.
Amy cried out, her face a mask of shock.
"You're insane! Shirone!"
Entering the Ice Queen's body was even crazier than facing the extreme cold head-on. It wouldn't just end with death. How could a human possibly know what lay inside?
Dante said, his breath fogging in the air.
"Amy. The temperature is rising. Cast Fire Wall."
The Ice Queen, having swallowed Shirone, didn't even blink. The reason was unknown, but she seemed to be in a temporary state of suspended activity.
In the end, Shirone's decision had been an excellent one. That is, if he intended to save everyone by sacrificing his own life.
Amy's expression was grim as she cast Fire Wall. It already felt as if Shirone had departed from the world.
"He'll come back. Shirone will definitely come back."
Dante didn't offer a hopeful reply. The probability of Shirone returning after throwing himself into an unknown world was incalculable.
"We've bought some time for now. I don't know how much we have, but we need to do something in the meantime. Gather 'round, let's make a plan."
While Dante's group discussed their strategy, Jocre stared blankly up at the sky.
'So that's the Ice Queen's true form.'
The Ice Queen's giant face was horrifying. It was as if someone from outside this world was focusing on her face with a magnifying glass.
And Shirone had dived right into it.
Perhaps he could have lasted a little longer. No, with his incredible flight ability, he could have just taken his friends and escaped in the worst-case scenario.
But instead, he threw himself into the jaws of death.
To save the world? To become a hero? Or was this, too, an expression of his arrogance?
"Why?"
Jocre asked with genuine curiosity, but Shirone, the one who should have answered, had already vanished into the Ice Queen's law.
***
Shirone floated through the world of law.
Countless stars at immeasurable distances flickered ceaselessly, exchanging signals.
Light and dark were 1s and 0s. A binary signal system was executing the Ice Queen's law.
But that information wasn't important right now.
What was truly important was that there was no air here.
-Remaining oxygen consumption time: 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
A jolt of fear ran through Shirone. The time Armande had relayed was, quite literally, his remaining lifespan.
'Calm down. Getting excited uses up more oxygen.'
He forced himself to regain his composure, but that didn't change anything.
There was nothing here but signals of 1s and 0s. Therefore, he couldn't create any variables to overcome the situation.
Was he going to die like this, once his oxygen ran out? Would his corpse drift through this cold world for eternity?
Just then, the speed at which the stars flickered increased dramatically.
It felt as if ants that had been slacking off were suddenly moving at a frantic pace after food had fallen to the ground.
Shirone felt his mind growing hazy. The faster the stars flickered, the more distant his senses became.
'Ah, I see.'
This place was the digestive system of the law.
If he weren't protected by Armande's law, he would have already been broken down and absorbed into the Ice Queen's law.
In fact, every time his consciousness wavered, Armande would recalibrate his focus to maintain it.
He felt like bait thrown into the sea.
'Please, hold on.'
Shirone prayed desperately to Armande. He knew it was just a tool, but right now, it was his only lifeline.
Armande held on well.
The reason it didn't tell him how much oxygen was left was because it had determined that fear would worsen the situation.
He had probably thought so himself, but Shirone found that even more terrifying.
'Oxygen consumption. I'd rather just know.'
-Remaining oxygen consumption time: 2 minutes and 1 second. 2 minutes. 1 minute and 59 seconds.
'Two minutes left of my life.'
He deliberately tried to think casually. Otherwise, his oxygen consumption rate would likely double.
Of course, he could hold his breath to last a little longer, but that would truly be the beginning of the end.
He had to find a way out while he still had some time.
"Hah!"
Shirone exhaled precious oxygen.
Suddenly, he heard a tremendous sound. No, to be precise, it was a signal that constituted a tremendous sound.
*Waver.*
Like bait soaked in water dissolving in a storm, Shirone's consciousness began to rapidly dismantle.
*Disintegrate.*
'Ughhhhhh!'
Everything that had once formed a whole was now waving flags of independence and drifting away.
His consciousness faded. Armande was trying desperately, but in the end, the Ice Queen's law began to encroach upon his mind.
"Grrrrrrr!"
Shirone scowled. The nerves around his eyes tensed, and his pupils began to darken.
A tremendous explosion erupted from the first layer of his subconscious, pushing back the Ice Queen's law.
In response to the intruder in his mind, Guffin's Sealing Formation opened, once again drawing out the demon god.
-Multiple mental entities detected. Activating Overdrive.
Armande, having found the only hope of saving its master, immediately connected with Behemoth.