Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Frostbound Reckoning
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The Ice Snow Forest, thick with towering ice trees.
Havel stepped into its depths.
Along the path he took, he saw the frozen members of the Meteor Knights.
Their final sword swings revealed their desperate will to live.
Yet Havel felt not a shred of pity for them.
He had long since discarded such emotions.
He had survived the Demonic Palace, trampling even over the deaths of his comrades.
Not just pity.
He had lost many human parts of himself long ago.
He had spent a century in the Demonic Palace.
A place defined solely by slaughter.
His emotions had worn away ages before.
The only feelings he had clung to were two: guilt and regret.
How he regretted entering the Demonic Palace.
And how guilt had tormented him for surviving alone.
Passing the last of the Meteor Knights, Havel looked up.
There stood the back of an ice skull.
A skull with serpents carved from ice protruding from its head.
This was the culprit who had frozen the Meteor Knights solid.
He had heard it directly from a member of the Graiza family.
This ice skull had never been found anywhere in the 4th hierarchy.
That meant it was a trial sent by the Tower itself.
One of the trials of the 4th hierarchy.
The Ice Jade Sea Lord.
That was its true nature.
Clack-clack.
The sound of icy teeth clattering echoed through the air.
Hiss! Hiss!
At the same moment, the ice serpents on the Ice Jade Sea Lord's head flicked their tongues.
As its neck slowly turned the other way...
Havel's eyes met the Ice Jade Sea Lord's.
Its eye sockets were hollow voids.
But the chill emanating from them was anything but empty.
The Freezing Gaze, capable of freezing anyone who met it.
The entire Meteor Knights had fallen to that Freezing Gaze.
Crack!
In that instant, a freezing sound rang out from Havel's fingers.
Even for Havel, the Freezing Gaze took effect.
He glanced down at his freezing arm.
"I had a friend I was close with even before the Demonic Palace."
Havel spoke casually.
He gazed at his frozen arm as if reminiscing about the past.
"He was something else. The Banpellyons at least had a foundation, but he rebuilt his crumbling family all on his own."
Old memories flickered in his eyes.
From the days of the Unification War.
The friend who had always stood by his side.
And the one who, in the Demonic Palace, had begged him to survive while saving him.
Those memories lingered in Havel's mind.
"But even his face has grown faint now."
Havel's friend had died in the Demonic Palace.
Without even leaving a corpse behind.
So even after regressing, Havel could no longer see his face.
His regression point was after the friend's death.
"Still, there's one thing that sticks out clear as day."
Crack!
In that moment, a sound rang out over Havel's freezing arm.
It was a chill.
A chill stronger than the Ice Jade Sea Lord's.
The serpents on the Ice Jade Sea Lord froze in place.
They sensed something ominous from Havel.
Hiss... hiss!
They hissed instinctively.
The reaction of a creature sensing a threat.
"Whenever he fought, there was always this piercing cold chill."
Crunch!
In that instant, the ice on Havel's arm shattered.
Witnessing it, the Ice Jade Sea Lord clasped its bony ice hands together.
Dozens of ice swords materialized in a circle behind its back.
The Ice Jade Sea Lord thrust one hand forward.
The moment it pointed at Havel...
All the ice swords flew toward him.
"Think your chill can bring his face to mind?"
With that question, Havel's form blurred.
Boom!
The snow-sand-covered ground erupted violently.
Shatter! Shatter! Shatter!
In that instant, the ice swords exploded in midair.
Havel's figure was nowhere to be seen.
Yet the shattering swords drew closer and closer to the Ice Jade Sea Lord.
Clack!
Sensing the threat, the Ice Jade Sea Lord reached out with its other hand.
Scores of ice swords burst up through the snow-sand.
Crash!
But they all shattered into ice fragments at once.
The flying shards reflected the light, sparkling beautifully.
As the Ice Jade Sea Lord clasped its hands again...
All the shattered fragments gained will.
They aligned toward a single direction.
And then, they all returned toward Havel.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The ice shards embedded into Havel.
Clack-clack!
The Ice Jade Sea Lord clacked its teeth, certain of victory.
"You're still laughably short."
But the result was different.
Ice shards had indeed pierced Havel's body.
His torn clothes proved it.
Yet Havel stood there unscathed.
He shook himself off once.
Sharp ice shards rained down harmlessly.
They hadn't pierced his skin.
"At least it has to be this much to drive me mad."
As Havel spoke, the Ice Jade Sea Lord's serpents screamed in unison.
"Hiiiiss!"
Their throats had all frozen solid.
And the Ice Jade Sea Lord was no different.
Its legs were already encased in ice.
The Ice Jade Sea Lord tried to clasp its hands again.
But its arms were frozen stiff, unmoving.
Clack... clack.
Finally, its teeth clacked slowly one last time.
The frozen Ice Jade Sea Lord's body turned pure white.
Like snow itself.
Crack!
In that moment, cracks began spiderwebbing across its body.
Rumble!
Soon, its head tumbled across the ground.
❄ Blizzard
A secret art that freezes foes in pure white snow ice.
This was the secret art of Havel's friend, one of the old Three Great Families.
The Ice Saint's technique.
'Got lost in memories for a moment and recited it on impulse.'
The Ice Jade Sea Lord's Freezing Gaze had resembled Isia's secret art, drawing out his words unbidden.
Memories he could no longer share with anyone.
But there was a problem.
No message had appeared saying the trial was cleared.
Rumble!
In that instant, the entire forest began to shake.
"Right, you were still around."
Havel already knew this vibration.
He gathered aura into his legs and assumed a stance.
The moment he kicked off into the sky...
Boom!
A massive white whale burst upward amid the crumbling ground.
The Ice Snow White Whale swallowed the Ice Jade Sea Lord and the forest whole.
Then it swung its enormous tail at Havel.
Bang!
But instead, its tail ricocheted the other way.
Havel had met it head-on with a punch right in front of it.
Roooar!
The Ice Snow White Whale bellowed in pain.
It immediately twisted away, diving into the snow-sand.
Havel saw through its intent.
"Planning to run?"
He had no intention of letting it.
Havel spun in midair.
Then aimed his sword at the ground.
"You live in the cold—let's see how long you can last."
Havel plummeted straight down.
A chill unlike any before gathered on his sword.
The moment his sword touched the ground...
The snow-sand churned violently.
A brief silence followed.
Crack.
A faint freezing sound echoed from the sword tip.
Soon, it spread across the entire snow-sand expanse.
Beneath the snow-sand.
The Ice Snow White Whale, having swallowed the Ice Jade Sea Lord and fleeing, sensed the chill.
The moment it glanced back...
The snow-sand was freezing solid.
This was its own domain.
Yet Havel's chill invaded even that.
The panicked Ice Snow White Whale accelerated.
But the chill was faster.
Crack!
Its tail froze first.
Then its body, and soon its head.
The Ice Snow White Whale finally halted.
"Got you."
Havel, realizing it, raised his clenched fist.
"Running's no use."
Then he slammed his powered fist into the ground.
Boom!
The frozen snow-sand shattered and erupted.
The shock launched the Ice Snow White Whale into the air.
Roooaaar!
A scream burst from the Ice Snow White Whale's maw.
In that gap, Havel gripped his sword reverse-handed and prepared to throw.
Sparks danced along the blade.
"This is from your downstairs neighbor. They said you're too noisy—pass it on."
He hurled the sword.
Crackle!
A beam of light trailed crackling sparks.
The sword pierced the Ice Snow White Whale's underbelly.
It tore through its guts and exited the other side.
Thud!
The fatal strike sent the Ice Snow White Whale rolling across the snow-sand.
As Havel watched, text appeared before him.
More text scrolled down.
Havel clenched and unclenched his fist, then took a step forward.
He was used to this by now.
As Calamity rose, its power stirred within him once more.
Havel suppressed it forcibly.
He judged it unnecessary for the moment.
'Even a test run of Thunder Qi had this much power.'
Climbing higher in the Tower would yield even more.
He wondered just how strong he'd become.
The moment he casually pulled his thrown sword free...
A large group of people came rushing from afar.
It was the Meteor Knights.
No—a higher order than the 4th Knights.
'They're finally here.'
Havel slowly smiled.
"Crawling right into the tiger's mouth on your own."
Time to enjoy the feast, then.
Havel turned.
The first step toward smashing the Glasis.
"Mr. Havel!"
As he turned, Dante approached him.
In Havel's view, he spotted a Graiza family member and Dratein.
The Graiza member was rigid.
They were at a considerable distance.
Yet he felt Havel's prowess viscerally.
Blood surged to his head.
'Is this the same kind of human?'
No words came to describe Havel.
Dangerous.
This wasn't the time for talk of helping the Banpellyons topple Glasis.
A real monster had appeared in the Tower.
This was an emergency.
Only the Graiza patriarch, the Dark Saint, came to mind as someone who could stop him.
'I need to inform the patriarch immediately.'
Alarms blared in his head.
"Graiza."
Havel called to him then.
As he swallowed reflexively, Havel spoke.
"There's only one thing you can report."
Havel stared at him as he said it.
That alone left him powerless.
"The Banpellyons have returned. That's all you need to say."
Or die here.
The intent was crystal clear.
"......Understood."
He had no choice.
He couldn't report back if he didn't survive.
"Dratein."
"Eek!?"
Dratein flinched and yelped at the call.
He had seen Havel single-handedly demolish the Ice Jade Sea Lord and Ice Snow White Whale.
To him, Havel was a monster beyond even Calamity Spawn.
"Your family's here."
Havel glanced toward the forest's edge as he spoke.
"Give them a proper welcome."
That way, sparing him would be worth it.