White Storm Over Helikel
WOOOOOOSH!
It felt as if a typhoon were raging right beside them.
Two days after the strategy meeting, in the gray hour before dawn, a ferocious blizzard hammered the camp so hard the tents billowed and strained as if they might tear free and vanish into the sky.
And standing at the heart of that storm were the men who would lead the way.
"Once we're inside the canyon, it should ease a little," Lukael said, glancing at Isaac beside him. "But even then, passing orders won't be easy."
He turned to the troops assembled before him.
"Remember only this."
Every soldier fixed him with a hard, unblinking stare.
"Today, we cross this canyon and bring Aicled wholly into the Empire's embrace."
No matter how brutal or perilous the path.
"We will succeed."
Lukael's eyes flashed like drawn steel. Then he looked again at Isaac.
"I'm transferring command to you."
"Are you certain, sir?"
At Isaac's question, Lukael's gaze shifted to Arteon standing nearby.
Had this been any ordinary soldier, he would never have attempted an operation like this.
But…
The road this man had walked bore no resemblance to that of a common trooper. From the moment he crossed Helikel Canyon to everything he had done at Elbarphiel Lake—nothing about him had been ordinary. His methods were radical, the kind of thinking no conventional mind would ever reach.
And this mission, too…
By any ordinary means, it would be impossible.
So perhaps Lukael was choosing to lean on the way Arteon had always fought—while adding his own strength to raise their odds of success.
"Move out."
"Yes, sir."
At Lukael's word, Arteon fell in behind him. At the same moment, the special unit began its advance into the canyon.
Every man among them knew it instinctively: the battlefield that awaited them at Aicled began right here.
WOOOOOOSH!
A blizzard that froze the very breath in their lungs roared up like a white wall and swallowed every scrap of visibility. The air itself seemed to choke them, and a crushing cold wrapped their bodies whole.
HUMMMMM!
Every special-unit soldier poured mana outward, weaving barriers of wind around themselves. Without that shield, the cold would sink into bone and freeze a man solid in moments.
Whoosh!
Two figures punched through the howling snow and vanished first into the canyon's narrow path.
"…"
Lukael watched Arteon keeping pace behind him and swallowed a flicker of surprise. Moving without the slightest hesitation through a storm this vicious was impressive enough—
But the level of his mana control… is extraordinary.
It went far beyond "gifted for his age."
Forming a mana membrane around the body was something any trained practitioner could manage with modest effort. Maintaining that membrane while moving at speed, however, was an entirely different matter. It demanded exceptional control and near-perfect circulation.
So everything Captain Isaac said… was true.
The rumors surrounding Arteon had always struck Lukael as exaggerated—too many of them simply defied belief. Seeing the man in person had forced a certain degree of acceptance; the power he carried was greater than Lukael had expected. But moving beside him like this revealed the full depth of that strength.
Once they were inside the canyon path, Lukael and Arteon eased their pace and sharpened their senses. In a place where even the ground at their feet was half-invisible, the only way forward was to read the tremor of the earth and the flow of the air.
Easier said than done. Heightened senses alone did not guarantee a safe route.
"…"
A few paces from Lukael, Arteon stared ahead. The blizzard hid every contour of the canyon—yet something stirred at the edges of his mind.
…It's coming back, little by little.
The deeper they pressed, the more fragments of old memory rose to the surface. And more than that—
This new power is a tremendous help.
He had absorbed barely ten percent of Ether's Heart, yet even that fragment had changed him. It was not only the greater reserve of mana; every circuit in his body had widened, and the flow itself had grown smoother than before.
Arteon allowed himself a quiet moment of awe, then locked his focus on the present.
If they strike, it won't be until we're past the midpoint at least.
For now, they were still in relatively safe ground. He glanced toward the direction the rest of the unit was entering from, then turned his eyes back to Lukael.
The senses of a man who had long since surpassed the 5-Star realm were beyond ordinary imagination.
This has to be his first time here…
Yet Lukael was already climbing the canyon wall as if he could see every ledge beyond the snow. Seizing the high ground would make it far easier to respond when the Chebilk tribe finally showed themselves.
Thud!
Arteon launched after him at once. Seeing how quickly the younger man closed the gap, Lukael threw himself fully into the climb without holding back.
WHOOOOOOSH!
"Ugh…!"
Inside the canyon the blizzard seemed to ease a fraction. The towering walls on either side blocked some of the storm's force—but that same shelter created a new hazard. Snow that could no longer rise poured inward instead, swirling through the narrow path like a vortex.
"Stay sharp. We don't know when the enemy will appear."
"…Understood."
"Yes, sir!"
"Understood!"
At Isaac's command the special-unit soldiers clenched their jaws and stretched their senses to the limit. They had been inside the canyon path barely an hour, yet already their mana was beginning to waver. Perfect insulation against the cold was impossible; little by little, their bodies were starting to freeze.
This cold is vicious.
Isaac felt it too—the chill seeping into him by degrees, an irritation he could not quite shake. But something else weighed heavier on his mind.
…Where are you?
Somewhere out there, the Chebilk tribe was watching them. The scouts who had gone ahead had already paid the price. Those men had been skilled enough to earn places in the special unit—yet they had fallen without landing a single blow.
Which means these enemies stand far above ordinary soldiers.
And in a blizzard this thick, the ones who knew the terrain held every advantage. The unit's constant, straining vigilance only deepened their exhaustion.
WHOOOOOOSH!
Another savage gust spun up around them like a cyclone and rocketed skyward. Isaac and his men poured everything into reinforcing their mana membranes, sealing out the invading cold.
In that instant—
SSSSHHHHRRRK!
Something tore through the blizzard at tremendous speed.
"…!"
Isaac, who registered it a heartbeat too late through the snow, threw himself sideways.
THUD!
"Gah!"
A scream ripped out behind him.
"Enemy!"
"Battle stations!"
"We're under attack!"
The special-unit soldiers tore free their weapons and shouted into the storm. But—
WHOOOOOOSH!
Only the merciless howl of the blizzard answered them. No second strike came.
Isaac's pupils trembled.
This bastard…
Their attacker was using the white-out itself as a weapon.
On the far side of that same blizzard, clinging to the canyon wall, Iryakle fixed his gaze on a single point—the place where the Empire's dogs stood.
He had known the moment they entered the canyon. The storm was fierce, but he had kept every nerve trained on that approach; spotting them had cost him nothing. And in weather this brutal, no one held a greater advantage than a man who knew every inch of the ground.
Still—
"…"
His opening attack had been meant to kill the man at the very front.
He reacted to it…?
The razor edges of ice torn from the cliff face were weapons in their own right. The blinding snow turned even a simple throw into a lethal strike. Landing those throws accurately through the storm was no easy feat—but—
HUMMMMM!
For Iryakle, whose raw strength far exceeded any ordinary man's and who handled mana with practiced ease, it was nothing at all.
His stare locked tight.
If I kill only these ones…
The bargain ends here. And if the other side broke its word again this time—
A thick killing intent flooded Iryakle's eyes. Ready to throw even his life away, he drove power into the hand spiked into the ice wall.
CRACK!
He tore free a fresh slab of frozen rock and sharpened his senses once more. Against skin as black as coal, the whites of his eyes stood out starkly; within them, brown irises flared a deep, burning red.
One of the Chebilk tribe's gifts: mana reinforcement. When he channeled power, it rose an entire tier higher—enough to keep his senses sharper than most 3-Star users even in this killing cold, and enough to pinpoint an enemy's exact position.
"Hup!"
Iryakle drew a short breath and hurled another jagged mass of ice toward the Imperial lines.
If he kept striking from behind the blizzard, they would eventually collapse. They could not advance while dreading an attack from nowhere—and this canyon, steeped in freezing cold, would finish them on its own. Mana barriers had limits; the cold would win in the end.
Iryakle held his senses taut, tracking every shift among the Imperials.
Then—
"…?"
A sudden, alien presence brushed him from above. He snapped his head up. Above meant the canyon wall—what could possibly be moving toward him from there?
He understood almost at once.
"Found you."
WHOOSH!
"…!"
A black shape dropped through the blizzard straight at him. Iryakle flung himself aside on pure instinct.
SSHRK!
A white line carved through the space he had just vacated. Had he stayed even a fraction longer, it would have split him in two.
He hit the ground below and jerked his head upward. Who in the hell—?!
But—
"Looking the wrong way."
"…!"
The voice came from directly behind him. Iryakle wrenched mana into his limbs and slashed backward with his claws.
CLANG!
Metal rang against claw. Iryakle's face twisted as he staggered back.
His body, harder than steel when reinforced with mana—
Drip.
—and yet crimson blood ran from his fingertips and spattered the ice.
Facing him, a blond man held a sword and radiated a crushing pressure.
I know this one…
He had heard the name before. Lukael Hargeil. One of the Imperial soldiers the North feared most—a man said to have already transcended the limits of humanity.
Even so…
To pinpoint Iryakle's exact position through a storm this thick should have been impossible unless the man already knew every contour of the canyon by heart.
Unless—
Is there someone else with him?
Iryakle's eyes flickered.
Lukael, watching him, spoke.
"You look relaxed."
"…?"
"Enough to let your mind wander right in front of me."
Blue aura began to ripple along the length of Lukael's blade. The pressure rolled out so fierce it seemed ready to devour the blizzard itself. Before he quite realized it, Iryakle had taken a step back.
"I'll kill you quickly."
And then Lukael's figure vanished from before his eyes.