Chapter 327: Chapter 327

* * *

He couldn’t tell how many hours had passed since then. He blinked groggily, trying to regain his senses. He must have passed out after all. Given that his body hadn’t exploded, it didn’t look like he’d passed out and gone on a rampage.

He pushed himself off the ground with his heavy body. Then, as if waiting for it, a chill spread across his palm. A cloudy breath escaped with an irritated sigh.

“Cold.”

Despite being fairly immune to the cold, the chill gave him goosebumps. It brought him back to his senses quickly. He pushed himself to his feet and slowly looked around.

The place he had thrown himself into to avoid falling. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was the clock tower. The place where he and Cadel had once spent time together. The place of his memories, now covered in clear ice.

“Is it because of me?”

Controlling the rampage was not without its aftermath. The mana that leaked out while he was unconscious seemed to freeze the clock tower. His impassive eyes quickly scanned for an exit. No matter how nostalgic the place, it would be meaningless without Cadel.

Finding the hole he’d first entered through, Lydon slipped out without hesitation. If he hadn’t been down long enough, the humans would be breaking the frozen demons under Cadel’s protection by now. He couldn’t leave Cadel to his own devices, so he must help him, and he must also demand praise. With that thought, Lydon flapped his wings vigorously, but his momentum was short-lived.

“Huh……?”

It was very quiet. All that could be heard was the sound of the sharp wind. There was no battle cry, no screams of pain, no urgent orders. He didn’t have to look hard to find out why.

It wasn’t just the clock tower that was frozen. The surrounding mansions, stalls, taverns, smithies, and buildings were all covered in ice. Lydon blinked to clear his mind, then lowered his flight altitude.

There was no sign of human life in the white, frozen streets. Everyone must have evacuated. After muttering the obvious a few times, he gained altitude again and flew rapidly toward something. The barrier, where knights would surely be engaged in battle.

“……What the heck?”

What Lydon found at the barrier, however, was not the scene of a spirited battle. Numerous knights were frozen in pieces, their faces contorted in confusion as if they had encountered some sudden catastrophe.

Why are these humans frozen, never mind the masses of demons frozen like icebergs beneath the barrier? The magic was deployed to freeze them in the first place, but these humans shouldn’t be frozen.

Lydon’s pace quickened slightly as he walked along the barrier, his despairing eyes widening. He flew straight ahead, almost lunging, and stopped in front of an ice sculpture.

“Lumen? Why are you doing this?”

Lumen was looking up at the sky. What he might have been looking at was unknown. Only that his expression was uneasy.

“……Ahaha! Could it be that you were abandoned by Cadel? Too bad, Lumen! You should’ve been good.”

He waved his hand playfully in front of Lumen’s eyes. He nudged the hard ice with his fingers. He tried to break the ice with a quick burst of mana, but there was no change.

The corners of his mouth that had been smiling slowly twitched, and his mouth that had been muttering nonsense closed. Swallowing hard, Lydon ripped the frozen Lumen off the ground and took flight once more.

“I’ll ask Cadel for a special favor. It’s no fun if you keep freezing like that.”

He flew to where his comrades were. Even as he flew fast, he looked down obsessively. Everything was the same, like a giant sculpture made of ice. Not a hair’s breadth of life. That scared Lydon more than anything.

“……It’s okay, it’s just a little, very little, wrong, and I’ll fix it in a second.”

He was sure Cadel had a plan for this. Cadel would probably scold him on sight, asking why he’d gone overboard. He was sure Cadel would be a little upset, but it didn’t matter. He’d just listen. He’d even apologize.

“…….”

He reached the top of the building where his comrades were gathered. Lydon set the Lumen he’d laboriously carried to the ground, his breathing slightly ragged. He took one cautious step at a time. He slipped a few times on the slippery ground but managed to keep his footing.

All the while, his gaze remained fixed on one place. He wondered if he was still passed out and dreaming, but it seemed so unreal that he hoped it wasn’t real.

“Cadel.”

Among his frozen comrades, there was Cadel. He, too, was looking up at the sky, and when he stopped in front of Cadel and bowed his head, their eyes met. He didn’t get the reaction he’d hoped for: no hugs, no smacks, no concern that he’d done something huge.

Cadel just stood there, frozen, staring off into the distance where nothing existed anymore.

“Cadel…….”

Why? You’re more than capable of countering my magic, and you’ve always been able to clean up my messy behavior while nagging me, so this time…….

“Cadel……?”

Lydon’s hardened eyes slowly cracked open, and a sob escaped his voice. He called Cadel’s name desperately. He tried to shake the cold shoulder, tried to pull him into a gentle embrace. But in the end, there was no answer.

In the white, frozen city, Lydon was the only one breathing.

* * *

「Weakened bonds between body and soul. Recovery mode is activated.」

「Recovery progress: 28%」

「Time remaining to completion: 38 hours and 11 minutes」

The barren space, lit only by the glow of the system window, was a calming place to gather his thoughts. Cadel sat upright in the floorless void, calmly assessing the situation outside.

‘Since I’m not dead, other people’s lives aren’t in immediate danger either. It’s a good thing I used Kunra’s power.’

He didn’t know what magic Lydon had chosen to stop the rampage, but he knew it wasn’t ordinary magic.

He could still remember the freezing cold, the blizzard that made it impossible to see, and the ridiculous concentration of mana in the air.

The moment he found the ground turned to ice and his own legs eaten by it. Cadel drew on all of Kunra’s power and released it.

It succeeded in creating a shield that blocked Lydon’s attack range, but it failed to provide complete protection. He knew that immediately when he had entered the nothingness. The shield, weakened by the overextended range, was barely keeping him alive.

But how long could it last? This new concern came from the constantly fluctuating numbers in the system window.

「Recovery progress: 21%」

「Time remaining to completion: 56 hours and 54 minutes」

The recovery progress and time remaining to completion would decrease and increase. What this meant was clear. Lydon was still not in control of his mana. That he couldn’t yet dismiss the spell at will. If he could, his fairy would have undone it before anyone else.

‘……He’s probably shocked.’

He was confused that he had frozen the Knight Order, not to mention everyone else. Cadel was, too.

Cadel didn’t underestimate Lydon’s power. He just didn’t expect his amplified mana to be strong enough to freeze the entire Empire. If Cadel had known, he would have eaten the [Frozen Core] himself. He didn’t want to injure his precious subordinate by injecting him with too much power.

‘Lydon needs to use up the power of the [Frozen Core] quickly, I hope he’s noticed.’

[Frozen Core] would naturally wear off after a certain amount of time, or after consuming a certain amount of mana. Usually, characters who were given the [Frozen Core] would use their skills until the item buff disappeared. As long as you utilize the skill without wasting it, you shouldn’t need to worry about the duration.

The buff would last for the entire duration of the stage, but if you use it in a row, it would only last until you beat the boss. Cadel’s rough estimate of that time in real life was ten hours.

‘Since the mana will continue to accumulate, he’ll be forced to use magic to control the rampage. If he keeps releasing mana, even a little bit, it won’t get too bad.’

The catch would be that Lydon’s mana was greater than expected, and he might not be able to make rational decisions in a situation where everyone was frozen.

‘……Hopefully, it’ll work out.’

When bored, this guy would do anything. He was more likely to hunt down and fight demons, no matter how far away, than to stand around with nothing to do until his unresponsive comrades roused.

Cadel quickly regained his composure as he recalled Lydon’s many antics.

‘But even if he were to go on his usual rampage, it would take hours.’

Cadel, still staring at the numbers in the turbulent system window, muttered softly.

“Lydon’s past……. It was time to take a look.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Recovery mode was also a kind of unconscious state. Having worked nonstop throughout the training period, Cadel didn’t have time to look at the past stories. It was strange to see the past that had been postponed like this in the middle of a war, but he felt the timing was right. It was a chance to get to the bottom of the guy who could still ramble on and on.

As a test, he said ‘view story’ out loud, and a new system window popped up.

「You have entered a state of unconsciousness.」

「There are stories you can watch.」

「Lydon’s Memories – Past Story (favorability rating over 70)」

「Garuel Monzasi’s Memories – Past Story (favorability rating over 70)」

Yozen’s favorability rating was not yet above 70, so the only stories he could see were those of Lydon and Garuel. After a brief pause, Cadel chose Lydon’s story. His vision flickered as he felt his body give out.