Chapter 15.1

They were caught off guard, but not in despair.

High-ranking knights undergo training to prepare for battles against magicians.

Their real-world experiences of being trapped in magical barriers were as numerous as their drills.

Thus, they all had a basic understanding of how to break such barriers.

And so, what felt like days turned into weeks, and weeks into a month.

“……”

“……”

Yet, the barrier remained unbroken.

“What kind of barrier is this?”

“It’s a barrier that twists and distorts space-time.”

“Maintaining such an expansive barrier for this long… This isn’t the work of an ordinary magician.”

Breaking a barrier is simple in theory.

You wander around within the barrier, searching for the subtle gap between reality and the barrier itself.

Once you find it, you infuse mana into that gap, forcing the barrier and reality apart.

Then, you strike the opening with a sword wrapped in aura to destroy it.

But no matter how much they searched, they couldn’t find that gap.

The reason was simple: the barrier was far too vast.

“We’re in trouble. Our food supply…”

Though they didn’t know how much time had passed in the outside world, time within the barrier flowed relentlessly for Arina and the knights.

Despite rationing their supplies as much as possible, their food reserves were depleted.

But their hardships weren’t over yet.

There’s always something worse waiting below rock bottom.

—

Hiiiiinnngg… thud!

One day, without warning, the elite horses pulling their carriage collapsed simultaneously.

“A curse! It’s a curse!”

“What? How?”

This was a world devoid of monsters, people, or even something as simple as berries on trees.

The horses had survived thus far by grazing on the sparse weeds that grew in the snowy fields and consuming snow.

Yet, despite being in better condition than the humans, they collapsed.

“Looks like those dark magicians have been meddling with us.”

“Could we be in danger too?”

“We’re highly trained superhumans who’ve mastered mana and the sword. If it were a curse potent enough to affect us, those bastards would’ve already revealed themselves.”

“Hmm… What kind of curse is it?”

“It appears to be a plague curse. They must’ve suffered greatly, yet didn’t show it… Brave and loyal creatures.”

Knight Doyle inspected the carcasses of the horses and reported with a grief-stricken expression.

“Bury the horses.”

Upon hearing Doyle’s report, Arina and the knights closed their eyes tightly in sorrow.

“And just in case… From now on, don’t eat snow directly. Always boil it first.”

Yet another obstacle loomed over Arina and the knights.

“Can we… eat the fallen horses?”

The knights, weakened by hunger, mourned the sudden death of their companions while glancing at the carcasses with conflicted eyes.

“They were cursed with a plague. Eating them would kill us too.”

“You’d lose more nutrients by vomiting and defecating than you’d gain from the meat.”

“Damn it…”

In the end, no one dared eat the horse meat.

All they could do was dig graves and bury their loyal companions.

After losing their horses, Arina and the knights had no choice but to continue their search for the barrier’s gap on foot.

“Damn it! I’d rather die fighting than endure this humiliation!”

Their patience had reached its limit.

For knights who valued dying in battle as the ultimate honor, their current situation was an unbearable disgrace.

“Show yourself, you wretched dark magician! Face us honorably!”

Rooooaaaarrr!

Did someone hear their cries of frustration?

Exhausted by hunger and now without their horses, they finally faced monsters. It was as if they had been waiting for this moment.

“Undead monsters!”

“Everyone, draw your swords!”

“Find the necromancer controlling them! We must take them down to escape this barrier!”

As Doyle had predicted, the monsters that appeared were of the undead variety.

Unlike ordinary monsters, these creatures had to be dismembered—limbs, tails, wings, tentacles, heads—all had to be completely destroyed to render them harmless.

They were the most exhausting type to fight.

And Arina and her knights, already on the verge of collapse, had to confront them.

Slash! Flash! Pow!

But there was a reason they were known as the strongest warriors of the North.

The relentless assaults by the undead monsters always ended in the knights’ victory.

“How dare they come after us with these foul-smelling zombie beasts!”

Arina and the high-ranking knights of the Fortress of Heights were each like monsters in their own right.

Even with their stamina nearly depleted, they defeated over 500 monsters.

These were no ordinary monsters but creatures found only in the abyss of the Demonic Realm.

Though they had lost their agility in undeath, their bodies were far more durable.

“Come at us, you damn bastards!”

“Renslet! Rune Renslet!”

They annihilated the undead horde.

It became clear why Arina and her knights had been so confident when leaving Haven.

“The end… It doesn’t seem to be in sight…”

Yet such determination couldn’t last forever.

The battles continued, the barrier remained intact, and their food had run out long ago.

The knights’ stamina and vitality were steadily waning.

“Will we… be able to survive?”

“Arad… I wish I could have Haven’s Arad Stew just one last time before I die.”

Their initial confidence had faded like the ash-gray snowfields around them.

Prolonged starvation and endless wandering within the barrier had driven them to the brink of panic.

“I just want to sleep… properly, even for a while.”

“If we die here, will it be peaceful? Or will we become undead, unable to rest even in death?”

Now they couldn’t even sleep properly.

Whenever they tried to rest, monsters would appear as if on cue.

Even Northerners, known for their resilience and survival instincts, had their limits.

“We’re in serious trouble. Our weapons and armor…”

“Even sharpening them isn’t slowing the rate of corrosion!”

Worst of all, their armor and weapons, the last bastion of their defense, were deteriorating.

Fighting undead monsters had gradually corroded their gear, further diminishing their already negligible combat effectiveness.

* * *

In front of the campfire.

Haggard and exhausted, Arina sat in a daze, staring at her sword.

Though it was a masterpiece forged from Northern cold steel, it now looked like scrap metal, worn from countless battles.

Gurgle

Her stomach growled, a painful reminder of her hunger.

Four days without food had pushed her beyond hunger into sheer agony.

To distract herself, she scooped some water from the pot boiling over the fire.

“This Arad salt… it’s almost gone too.”

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